1030am Sunday 5-10-20

Thank you for everyone who is embarking with us to help save lives mitigate the spread of the disease through a making a Fast and for all those who are lending their hands their talents in their hearts to creating these beautiful works of art to bring joy and color and light and warmth into the homes of so many bones in our community and around the world through Lutheran World relief for grateful for all of our women and here at Saint Stephen in for women around the world who are using their hands their hearts there, and their fierceness of Spirit by to change and transform this world. I invite you wherever you are you to please stand as you are able again, we're trying to get back into the rhythm of things. Are you busy sitting in your your couch or your lazy boy? I know. Oh my gosh. I don't want to get up we can we can stand just for a moment as we read the good news of God in Christ Jesus. This is going From the Gospel of John. This is the good news of the Gospel of John the 14th chapter. Jesus says to his disciples.

Do not let your hearts be troubled believe in God believe also in Me In My Father's House. There are many Dwelling Places if it were not so what I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and we'll take you to myself so that where I am there you may be also And you know the way to the place where I am going Thomas said to Jesus Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way? And Jesus said Thomas I am the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me. If you know me, you will know my father also from now on you do not you do know him and have seen him but still upset that Jesus Lord show us the father and we will be satisfied. Jesus said to Philip. Have I been with you all this time Phillip? And you still do not know me. Whoever has seen me has seen the father. How can you say show us the father? Do you not believe that I am in the father and the father is in me the words that I sing to you. I do not speak on my own but the father who dwells in me does his works? Believe me that I am in the father and the father is in me. But if you do not then believe me because of the works themselves. Very truly I tell you the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and in fact will do Greater Works than these because I am going to the father. I will do whatever you ask in my name so that the father may be glorified in the son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it. This is the gospel of Our Lord. Praise to you o Christ.

Please pray with me.

Change be broken lives be healed In This Moment Christ be revealed in the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit. Amen. one of my favorite series Pleasures viewing experience is perhaps is the movie The Star Wars movies a Star Wars series. I just I love it. I love everything about it. I'm a huge Star Wars nerd. I have Star Wars Lego sets in my upstairs living area. I have you all of the movies. I've got everything and I love it. I'm not as as as big a fan is some there are some of you Star Wars attics and you know who you are who would blow me out of the water with your love of the of the series of a story about one of the one of the great series that have come out recently from the Disney unit read from the Star Wars universe is the Mandalorian and one of the things that I always think of whenever I hear G. Saying now, you know, I am the way the truth and the life is icy. And I can hear of the scenes in the the Mandalorian series of man of Mando. Who's the main character in the series. This is the way and so anytime I hear Jesus say I am the way all I hear is this disembodied helmeted, you know stoic characters and that's just that's where my mind goes. Maybe maybe that's not where your mind goes that certainly won't mind mind goes. But Jesus is indeed the way this is the way of Christ and it is the church's call to live into that way to embody that way to Proclaim that way of life and freedom of equity and Justice. It is our way. It's who we are the first Christians weren't called Christians at all. We didn't have that title till much later in the church is life. We were originally called people of the way that was the the the term that the title The identifiers of the person who followed a discipled with Christ as their teacher of the rabbi their Savior and Lord and you know today is Mother's Day and and today is going to be a very hard Mother's Day for many. Mothers won't be able to be spending it with their children. Most of them, you know, it's a lot of them are in nursing homes or more elderly. Some of them, you know, what live with her children and and that's wonderful, but I know that for many of us a note me especially at least not maybe especially but but me and cluded is you know, II traditionally would take my grandmother who raised me from the time I was for her to brunch we spend time together. I give her gifts in a week under the gift, but we sent them to her by mail. The same thing, you know, we are in a phone call is brunch. It's definitely not what we wanted. I would love to visit my grandmother who raised me with my grandfather would really love to visit with her today and not only $11 but to also ask my grandmother who owned a beauty school when she was younger, you know, just selfishly Could you cut my hair Dorothy commented my hair? You got a haircut? No, I gel this thing down. It feels like a helmet now, but I have done my best to contain. What is kind of quickly becoming a catastrophe of a hair. Look it's it's bad. It's when it's ungelled and I get out of the shower. I look like Mad Max is terrible. So, you know, I would visit my grandma today and I would I would I would ask you for a haircut cuz I need one so bad and I'm sure many of us do with those little things that that mothers that at least. My mother makes my life so much better and I'm just thankful for her not only for the haircuts, but for the astronomically more things that she does and the more important things that she gives like her love and her joy and her happiness and her a guidance and wisdom. So I'm grateful for that. But brunch and gifts are nice on Mother's Day. I love to give those things but the form of our celebrations for Mother's Day today in this time are really are there. Hollow shells of what they originally were. Let me explain Mother's Day originally was intended as a fight to create Justice equality and peace for women. That's kind of where it came out of it was a it was a movement. It was almost a rebellion of sorts and then you know as with all good things Hallmark gets a hold of it. And here we are today with brunch and gifts. Mother's Day if you don't know this is really interesting history Mother's Day started in the wake of the American Civil War and then turn also into the franco-prussian war little history for you there and that took place during the mid-to-late 1800s in the wake of mass Graves and the catastrophe of warfare women decided to find a way to save the lives of their children their husbands men people other human beings in general and to create peace since clearly in that age and still today man. Haven't done a great job of that old piece thing during the Civil War with the vast majority of men away fighting at the homestead of daily life was left to women in the United States to manage and Lead had to do this for the very first time they were very much was a run while learning the process and this was a challenge but it also created this kind of Weak and powering experience for many women for the very first time they got their first taste of kind of freedom and equity and kind of empowerment and the ability to do what men did usually but they were doing it on themselves women. War bonds. They paid taxes. They raise money, they managed farms and businesses. They harvested Fields. They work in industry is a nurse soldiers backlight and in the middle of all that yes, they still raise children.

There was a sense that after their performance of essentially keeping of the world going in the middle of the catastrophe of the Civil War that their right to vote and their equality would be extended very quickly. After everything was done in the war was over sadly that was not the case when the war did the abolition of slavery came in the Fourteenth Amendment and while that was a tremendous overdue step in the right direction for the nation there would be a long way to go before women ever received the right to vote. even after the abolition of slavery black and brown Americans who were once property and now citizens still had a long fight ahead of them one that we are still fighting today with recent events and videos and occurrences that happened far too often in our nation women women would still need to prove as though they had improved already themselves worthy of being treated as equals, but they too would need to battle for their freedom for their Justice and for their equality though, not necessarily on a battlefield with a musket but a battle nonetheless. Enter Julia word ward how she was a very talented writer at the time and in this era of the mid-1800s following the Civil War. She was a writer and she actually wrote The Battle Hymn of the Republic during the Civil War and she watched with horror the death toll of Americans Skyrocket during the Civil War or how the Civil War have been traumatic. And then with the outbreak following of the franco-prussian war she had had enough of watching Men kill each other and treating War like a game. The fight back she wrote on a peel to Womanhood throughout the world. Men and always decided to disagreements with what she called Mutual murder. That is an image. Wow. However, women did not have to accept this reality as men apparently had at the time and still do and they could as women Anna's mother's Stop the madness Stop, The Killing create Justice and peace. That was her vision and the vision of many. She started the appeal with the phrase arrive women. Otherwise they did the women's suffrage movement was in bolded and expanded in the United States and eventually around the world. She had her document to the appeal to Womanhood a translated into dozens of languages in Europe and across the world to basically create a unified front of women standing together in a unified voice calling for peace and Justice and Equity took more active roles in their Destiny refusing to accept or to be seen as second-class Citizens. Relegated to the kitchen or home making work simple tasks in the workplace as they once were. Women wanted equality the right to choose their Destiny and future and they were willing to fight for it. And if you know anything about the women's suffrage movement in America and England or around the world, if you do some basic search, you'll find that they fought they battled they died for their right to be at the table there battles with patriarchy misogyny more fruit in the form of eventually the 19th Amendment of the US Constitution in August of 1920. Not even a hundred years ago. Thanks be to God. their fight however was ultimately not about them personally not even so much about them as women necessarily, but it was about society as a whole creating a society and a world of justice and peace with with the Clear Vision and a very simple, you know statements that better decisions are made fewer lives are lost when women half of the population are at the table. That was the entire premise. And I'm thankful to say that you're at Steven. We believe. As well, that's why we say only means all that's why we believe that women have a voice as equal and his fears and a strong and as wise as any man's and n on this Mother's Day We Gather in the name of the father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and today Jesus tells us that he is the way

This is the way. I keep hearing and oh my back high every time I say that I hear I hear Mandalorian Jesus tells us that he is the way and sometimes that way is one that is filled with Challenge and resistance and and battles but they that way can never become a way of war. No Jesus makes it very clear throughout the scriptures and his teachings that the resistance cannot be one of aggression. They cannot be one of battle. I cannot be one of overt combat. It must be one of kind of a gentle passive Porsche just a continuous drumbeat of of compassion and generosity and determination and perseverance and Clarity of purpose. A fight for justice and the refusal to accept anything less than that for the littlest the least the Lost in the last. the church has not always succeeded in fighting for justice for all people. And there are times when the church has failed and it's called to bring about that that outcome that Kingdom Vision that Jesus had and that mrs. Howe had for equality of of treating women and mothers with equity and Justice and respect. Not not putting them away. But taking them out and and and experiencing the full wisdom that they have to bear and treating them as co-creators with our future together. the church

is in a unique position and the church is often been referred to as the mother of us all. Because just as a mother gives birth to a child God willing. That the church gives birth to us. to our wives to our hopes to our future 2 to a world that is not marred by Warfare and scheming and pessimism and and all of the the elements that that misses HealthEast. Yeah, this Mother's Day is a wonderful wonderful time. Is it to take a pause and to reflect on on the battles that were waged a hundred years ago, but by women who maybe you know some who did not have that right to voice their their dreams their desires their hopes. And it is the church's responsibility. To find ways to empower to engage to support those efforts of justice and equity and peace in this world. Her call of arise women is still a call for all of us today. And so wherever you are, I'm grateful for you. If you are a woman we are grateful for you. If you are a mother we are grateful for you. If you are a woman who perceive yourself as broken or incomplete we are grateful for you. We are the church where all are welcome. We are the church where all can be found in Grace and hope and kindness and compassion for we follow a way that is not the way of the world. It is the way of Christ we welcome you into our midst and today wherever you are. I hope that you will celebrate your mother. We hope you will celebrate women or they have fought for the right to have their voices heard and their voices are heard today and in the voices in the cries of all those who call for justice and peace still and all of those who are still seeking ways. To create a better and more perfect union in this world in this country in our state and in our church, we are grateful for each and everyone Christ is the way forward for all of us and it is Christ who leads us in this time and is who won who is led a rebellion and movement throughout history and we are grateful for that Spirit of rebellious tenacity and determination. So today as we celebrate Mother's Day with us not lose the history of what that is and where it comes from and let us live into that way of Christ that refuses to accept Injustice that refuses to accept pain and hurt as just the inevitable day-to-day reality of Life. What a Sikh that way truth and life of Christ and let's follow the women who led the way for that. Thanks be to God. I'd invite you to pray with me. Gracious. We are grateful today for all those who have led the fight for all those who have led the fight of compassion. All those who have led the fight of to resist a massage in all those who have led the fight to have a place at the table at your table at the the tape that that the leadership table at the table of politics at the table of Science of the table of education and learning at the table of life. We are grateful for all of the women in Our Lives who in their strength have made us stronger and what their voices have made us wiser. We are grateful for them and ask for you to help us lean in to this this wonderful Kingdom Vision that you were casting in creating Among Us where all people are created with equality and all people are treated with Justice help us God to be people of your way who persist in pushing this story. Kingdom Ford in your name we pray amen.