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Trinity Parish Church
8th Sunday after Pentecost – July 22, 2007
Luke 10:38-42 & Genesis 18:1-10a
The Rev. Rachel Endicott
Most women I know have strong feelings about this morning’s Bible readings. We have women in the staring roles in a way that rarely else happens. We have Sarah bustling about with the unknown visitors. And we have Mary and Martha with Jesus’ visit to their home, a visit only mentioned in the Gospel of Luke. For many women, there’s wonder about the women playing their part in the “inner circle” of the salvation history of the Old Testament and of the ministry of Jesus. But for a good number of women, the way these lessons have been incorporated in their understanding is with the message that domestic duties are both the thing for which they’re overly valued and conversely criticized for. I’d like to reframe this understanding in a way that more broadly reflects scripture and the understanding of God’s people, men, women, young and old, friends and strangers. Backtracking to the beginning of the story of our relationship with God, we find the creator not only creating the cosmos, but humankind. We’re told that God created men and women in God’s image. We are created with all attention and wonder and that we continued to be loved. Now I wonder what the reaction of folks would be if the story were written with two men, followers of Jesus named Cephas and Caleb for example. Cephas is busy getting arrangements made for the dinner that is needed for Jesus, a room arranged, money paid for food, not to mention some overnight arrangements. Caleb is sitting with the other disciples listening. I’m not sure that the feel would be quite the same… But the message of hospitality is one that balances the doing and being, the action and the listening. In our frantic world (and in Jesus’ world apparently), we need to be sure to balance the times when the listening and the being are the way we show hospitality. That said, having the Old Testament passage on the same Sunday reminds us that the usual way of showing hospitality is to provide a place to sit, food and drink, and sojourn for a moment. But as men or women, let’s remember to find balance in the listening, in the attentiveness, in the sitting. Following with the lectionary this morning, I’d like to think about women’s roles as they live out that sense of balance: the doing and the being, the hospitality and the listening and perhaps even the tension that stirs up. For the final hymn today, (at the 10:30 service we will sing) we will sing hymn #490 (Hymnal 1982), “I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light”, the text and tune which was written and composed by Kathleen Thomerson. Born in 1934, she still serves as a Organist and Choir Director at Mt. Olive Lutheran Church in Austin, Texas. She has a wonderful story about composing this hymn, which I think illustrates the way women (and I’d venture to say men) are torn between different parts of our doing and listening. Thomerson notes that her mother came for a brief visit when she was living in St. Louis with her husband and 2-year old son in 1966. While her mother was visiting there was a terrible heat wave, 105 degrees, no air conditioning and an airline strike so that her mother couldn’t fly home. Eventually her mother suggested that they could go to an air-conditioned home in Houston, not the usual place people think of going to get away from heat. Thomerson writes that “I was very happy to think about going back to the Church of the Redeemer, and I started hearing the words and melody of “Child of the Light”. I remember walking around the house with a paper and pencil in hand, humming, writing down words, while my mother said, “Kathleen, if you are leaving soon, shouldn’t you be packing?” When we left I had the melody and first stanza of text down on paper, and finished the rest in Houston.” If Thomerson hadn’t taken the time to listen, we’d be bereft of this beautiful hymn. Thomerson – steeped in Bible verses from Genesis, Isaiah, Revelation and more – needed to do the quiet task of listening…though her mother probably ended up stuffing things in suitcases for her daughter and her grandson. Our earlier hymn today, #673 (Hymnal 1982) is also written by a woman, Linda Wilberger Egan, born in 1946. She has a degree from Yale, is active in various music circles, and is well-known for her previously having served at Trinity Episcopal Church…not this one, but Trinity in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. In the hymn, The First One Ever, (at 8:00 have people look at the text), Egan pairs a syncopated tune with hymnody that remind us of ways in which women were indeed central in the unveiling story of the Messiah, of Christ. The text relates the story of Mary, the bearer of Christ, of the Samaritan woman who first perceived of the Messiah, and of Mary, Joanna, and Mary Magdalene who were the first to see the risen Lord. For me, this hymn is a reminder that women are God’s created people too and also hold important roles in the salvation history of God’s people. And even here, we get the juggling of doing and listening. Most of these “aha” moments of enlightenment happen while the women were doing other things, going about their tasks of the day, tasks brought about while needing to keep house or take care of others. The Samaritan woman is at the well to draw water, but it is in the listening that she is brought to awareness of Jesus being the Messiah. Whether you are a man or woman, whether an artistic or not, I would encourage you to take time out of your life to do the work of listening, contemplation. Who knows what you will hear or what will come to you. It could be something calm and quiet. It could be something amazing. It might even make you laugh. Remember Sarah and her laughter at the preposterous suggestion the visitors made that she might have a child! As this is prime summer vacation time, I would specifically say that summer is a great time for listening. Reading the statistics makes me realize how little vacation time most Americans get. But I would encourage you, even if you can’t take a chunk of time away, to think about time for listening. What about sitting at one of the bay-side or lakeside beaches and simply being? What about intentionally inviting the Spirit to join you on a walk through the arboretum and then take even a little more time to sit on a bench and simply be. Be well my friends. Be listeners. Laugh if you’re called to. And relish in the wonder of God.
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