Monday, August 30, 2021

We are Beautiful, We are Strong, We are Complete; Judith 15:12-14

 

Rev. George Miller

August 29, 2021

Judith 15:12-14

 

For a while now, we’ve started worship with the celebration of certain days- Gunkle Day, Teachers Day, Golf Day.

 

Though there was concern that it could get to be too much, it’s been a joy.

 

We’ve acknowledged Filipino Day, Canda Day. In October, in solidarity with Ari, we’ll honor Cuban Independence Day.

 

We can do this because celebrating other countries doesn’t mean we’re any less Americans or don’t adore the USA.

 

Just as we can celebrate Iowa and Ohio, Day without it meaning we don’t love Florida or our home state any less.

 

A highlight was when we celebrated Haitian Flag Day and ya’ll showed up in your red and blue.

 

For me, celebrating Haiti was a gift, empowering me to learn more about my own heritage.

 

I looked at men from Scottland, seeing how many had the same legs and hair as I do.  Hungarians who have the same shaped eyes. Romanians with similar skin tone. Germans with their stoutness and stubbornness. 

 

Celebrating Haitan Flag Day made something wonderful happen- the ability to celebrate my own ancestors.

 

Now, when Carnide and I text, I’ll send her memes of the Haitian Flag, she’ll send memes of German and Scottish flags.

 

Doing so is a way of saying “I see you, you see me, we are beautiful, strong, and complete.”

 

Friends- repeat these words- “I am beautiful, strong, and complete.”

 

Let that set in for a moment…

 

We hope that you have enjoyed this month’s dive through the book of Judith.  We hope that everyone has felt empowered, enlightened, entertained.

 

We’ve spent 5 weeks sharing sermons about Judith and the woman who served beside her.

 

When’s the last time you spent even 2 or 3 weeks hearing about women in the Bible?  Usually, its

 

Jesus, Moses

Jesus, Paul

Jesus, Abraham

Jesus

And then Mary, Esther, Mary

And then right back to

Jesus, Joshua

Jesus, Joseph,

Jesus, John

 

How refreshing that for 5 weeks it’s been the maid and Judith.  They may have been surrounded by 132,000 soldiers, but they were the stars.

 

For all us men who’ve been present the past 5 weeks, now you have a sliver of an idea of what it’s like for women to come to church and only hear stories in which a guy is the lead action figure.

 

For all the guys, we hope that you embraced Judith and realized that her story also applies to you.

 

We hope that you discovered a wonderful thing- that as a person of faith, there is a part of Judith that also lives within you.

 

No matter who we are, male or female, everyone of us here can look upon Judith and realize that just like her, as Citizens of God’s Kingdom, we’re all

 

-Beautiful

-Warriors

-Leaning Upon the Lord.

 

Judith is not only a hero for all the kick-butt women here, Judith is a hero for everyone one of us. 

 

Judith is a hero is the truest sense who gives us an example of how to choose life when the world around you tries to surround, dehydrate, and hurt you.

 

Judith, like Moses, like David, is a deliverer of her people.  She is a person who trust God, knows how to lean upon the Lord, and  what it means to have the blood of her ancestors running through her veins.

 

Judith lives inside each one of us when we find a way to confront to injustice, unkindness, and non-humility.

 

That’s why today’s closing reading is so…beautiful.

 

It is such a holistic, healthy scene in which we see an entire nation come together to act as ONE and to show respect to the greater good.

 

Judith has faced the great monster. 

 

Like any hero, Judith has worn her armor.  Used her weapon of choice.  She has destroyed the Big Bad Wolf, the Kraken, the Darth Vader.

 

The city comes together to celebrate- “Ding Dong Holofernes dead!”

 

In this moment, we see all the women of Israel come together.  Sisters, mothers, aunts, neighbors. 

 

They bless Judith.  They dance, twirl, hop, leap, sway, sashay in her honor.

 

Judith passes out wreaths and flowers.  The women crown themselves with olive branches.

 

Judith walks before them as all the female citizens dance with joy.

 

For me, what emotionally resonates is this image of all the men of Israel.

 

The men march behind the women, dressed in full armor, carrying their weapons…and wearing flower necklaces.

 

Think about it.  These men are mighty, strong, these men have steel.  Yet…

 

…these men are man enough to also wear flowers around their neck, they are man enough to have the women lead the way, and they are men enough to honor a woman who rescued them.

 

What a testimony to self-security, a demonstration of what it’s like to celebrate someone without jealousy.

 

What an image of how Heaven and the Kingdom of God must look like.  Here we have a powerful image of equality. 

 

Women feeling safe enough to dance freely in a crowd.   Men who can walk behind, wear pink pansies, not worrying how they look, nor feeling any less a man.

 

Is this what Jesus talked about when he said, “Blessed are you?”  Is this what Paul meant when he said, “In Christ there is no male or female?”

 

How different would our entire world be if Judith was included in the Bible and taught in Sunday School. 

 

How different politics, employment, education, the church would be if we had this story and other female-based ones that were taught and known just as we teach and know Moses and Elijah.

 

In closing, a gift of Judith is that no matter if we are female or male, we are shown what it means to embrace our inner beauty, our inner warrior, and we lean upon the Lord.

 

Judith teaches us that we can celebrate one another without it meaning that we are any less, or they are any more.

 

We can celebrate Canada and Cuba and it does not make us any less Americans.

 

We can celebrate Judaism and Hinduism and it doesn’t make us any less Christians.

 

We can cheer on Judith, we can chuckle at Holofernes, we can admire the maid.

 

We can feel bad for the Assyrians when they are destroyed- it does not mean we are any less than who we already are.

 

Because in God, we are healthy warriors; we are 3 dimensional beings.

 

In other words, when we lean upon the Lord, regardless if we are in the wilderness or in the Promised Land,

 

-we are beautiful, we are strong, and we are complete.

 

And we are Emmanuel.

  

Amen and amen.

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