This is today’s sermon inspired by the Unitarian Universalist Christian Fellowship Revival weekend. So much fun to do, and I hope you enjoy!
Peace,
Rev. Laura
***
This year’s UU Christian Fellowship Revival, held here on our campus,
took as its theme “Revealing the Feminine in Christianity.”
All weekend long, participants heard stories
of prominent women leaders in early Christianity,
stories suppressed for centuries by revisionist church historians
but now being rediscovered and reclaimed.
Mary herself is the one who speaks to me personally most strongly,
mother of Jesus and a spiritual leader in her own right.
Today I want to share with you two stories about Mary especially,
not so much Mary the human being,
but she who became for Jesus’s followers
such a powerful image of the feminine divine.
One comes from Japan, at a time when Mary had to be hidden,
disguised beneath a beloved Buddhist heroine,
because it wasn’t safe to be Christian.
The other comes from the Caribbean and South America,
when Mary gave cover to African goddesses
brought over by enslaved people
for whom it was no longer safe to be anything but Christian. Continue reading
