Yr. C, Proper 12
July 24, 2016
Preached by the Rev. Furman Buchanan
St. Peter's Episcopal Church
1570 Words
Lessons:
Hosea 1:2-10
Psalm 85
Colossians 2:6-19
Luke 11:1-13
Today, I feel called to talk about someone who gave an amazing speech at a certain convention in Ohio. Now,
one of the tricky things about being a preacher is that while we are called to talk about political matters of
power and money, justice and peace in the ways in which Jesus most definitely did; we are not called to
promote any particular candidate for any particular office.
The thoughtful preacher—and for that matter, the thoughtful person in the pew—will remember the words of
Psalm 146: “Put not your trust in rulers…for there is no help in them!” (Oh, it gets better!) “When they breathe
their last, they return to earth and in that day their thoughts perish.”
There is great wisdom found in the psalms. They point us—over and over—toward our compassionate God,
whether we are joyful or in despair. The psalms pour out our deepest regrets and laments, right alongside our
hope and desire for God’s blessing. As we said this morning from Psalm 85, “Show us your mercy, O Lord, and
grant us your salvation.” (That last part is your line.) “Show us your mercy, O Lord, and grant us your
salvation.”
I think the woman who gave that amazing speech in Ohio understood that line from today’s Psalm. “Show us
your mercy, O Lord, and grant us your salvation.” A follower of Jesus, she had courage to speak out about the
problems facing our country. Like a preacher, she talked frankly about right and wrong in ways like Jesus. She
was not afraid to stand up and speak out, just like Jesus did.
In today’s Gospel lesson, Jesus is asked by his disciples to teach them how to pray like he does. They knew
John the Baptist had already taught his disciples about prayer. Why do you think Jesus had not gotten around to
that yet? I have one idea.
Jesus had been so busy working with his disciples to heal the sick, feed the hungry, and restore sight to the
blind. He was showing all his disciples—including you and me—how to pray with our hands. The first ten
chapters of Luke’s Gospel show us a lot about how to glorify our Father in heaven—not only with our lips, but
in our lives.
Still, there are times we need words of prayer to go along with our deeds of prayer. If you don’t remember
anything else today, I want you to remember just how simple it is to pray like Jesus—in thought, word, and
deed. We begin with these simple words: “Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each
day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not
bring us to the time of trial.” In summary, the Lord’s Prayer is the Psalmist’s prayer: “Show us your mercy, O
Lord, and grant us your salvation.”
That woman who gave the speech in Ohio, her first name was Isabella. She was a mother. I remember for sure
the name of her oldest daughter—Sophia was her name. You know, Sophia is the Greek word for wisdom. And
what a great gift that is from God. What’s more, the gift of wisdom is available to all of us. Wisdom is not about
being clever or having a high IQ or being good at multiple choice tests and trivia.
Wisdom begins with the humble awareness that we are not God. And that is why we pray, “Father, hallowed be
your name. Your kingdom come.
1 Wisdom is the humility of recognizing our needs as well as the needs of others. And that is why we pray, “Give
us each day our daily bread,” (not my daily bread).
Wisdom is the humility of recognizing that we make mistakes and that we also need to forgive other people for
their mistakes and shortcomings. And that is why we pray, “Forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive
everyone indebted to us.”
Wisdom is the humility of knowing that the trials of life are sometimes too great for us to face alone. And so we
pray, “Do not bring us to the time of trial.”
Wisdom is the humility of seeing the truth in today’s opening prayer that without God, nothing is strong,
nothing is holy. Wisdom means praying, “Show us your mercy, O Lord, and grant us your salvation.”
The woman who gave that amazing speech had wisdom alright, and I’m not just talking about her daughter
named Sophia. Isabella had the wisdom that comes from humility, despite being 6 feet tall and being an
accomplished person in so many ways, including being bilingual with Dutch as well as English, composing
songs, and memorizing large chunks of the bible. I wish I had more wisdom like her—the kind that comes from
humility…the kind that produces strength and courage.
Maybe you don’t recognize the speaker I’m talking about, because she chose not to go by her given name—
Isabella Baumfree. In fact, she was known by various aliases in her early, tumultuous years, and when she was
on the run, dodging the authorities, and hiding out.
Like Jesus and the disciples, she learned how to pray with her hands—feeding the hungry and healing the sick.
But what she is best known for is restoring sight to the blind—specifically all the blind, white people at church
gatherings and in the streets of Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, and other places.
You see, the amazing speaker I’m talking about is Sojourner Truth, a wise woman who never even learned to
read and write.1 When she fled slavery, and all the abuses she endured for years as a black and as a woman
Isabella decided to change her name. She was on a journey searching for God’s mercy and salvation when she
stopped at a Quaker farm for a drink of water. “What is your name,” the Quaker woman asked.
“My name is sojourner,” Isabella replied. Truer words were never spoken.
“What is your last name?” the white woman asked. The slave thought of all her different masters’ names that
she had carried (like a burden) through life—being sold with a flock of sheep once for $100 and another time
for $105, and again and again.2 Then—in her wisdom—it occurred to this Sojourner that she was free at last.
The only master in her life now was God, and his name is Truth. “Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.”
She depended upon generosity from that Quaker family for her basic needs, and when she got established in
New York City she—in turn—provided basic needs for homeless women. In other words she prayed, “Give us
each day our daily bread.”
She was one of the first black women to take on a white man in the courts in order to get her son back. Even
more significantly, she became a devout Christian which means—whether you are black or white—praying,
“Forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.”
1
This detail, and the other details which follow are recorded in Holy Women, Holy Men: Celebrating the Saints (NY:Church
Publishing, 2010), p. 475-476.
2
The reference to Isabella’s value as a slave is cited from Wikipedia. 2 By the same token, forgiveness does not mean forgetting or ignoring injustice and oppression. Sojourner Truth
overcame childhood abuse and unimaginable odds to become a widely esteemed leader who fought for liberty
and justice for all.
With her charismatic presence and wit and wisdom, she was regularly given the chance to speak at church
campground meetings. She confronted the clergy of her day who twisted the bible to fit their assumptions about
women being weak and blacks being a subservient race. In both word and deed, she showed her nation during
its darkest hour that Jesus never met, nor treated anyone as 3/5 of a person.
Her most famous speech was given at a certain convention in Ohio…at the Women’s (Rights) Convention in
Akron, Ohio on May 29, 1851. Her speech was entitled “Ain’t I a Woman.” You see, for Sojourner Truth
freedom and justice were both racial and gender issues.
This past Wednesday was the feast day when the Episcopal Church commemorates Sojourner Truth, Harriet
Tubman, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Amelia Bloomer as liberators and prophets of the 19th century. More than
one hundred and fifty years later, we still have a long way to go in confronting injustice and oppression. We still
have a long way to go in feeding the hungry, healing the sick, and restoring sight to the blind.
The good news is that Jesus has shown us how to pray—with our hands and with our words. And Jesus has
shown us how to pray with persistence—asking, searching and knocking—for the grace, mercy, and salvation
that come from God. Jesus has shown us how to meet and treat and even love our neighbors as ourselves.
Finally, Jesus has shown us the humility that produces wisdom, and how that wisdom that produces the strength
and courage to do the right things and say the right things that honor our “Father in heaven…
Hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven. Give us today our daily
bread. And forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us. Save us from the time of trial, and
deliver us from evil.”3
In other words, we are praying, “Show us your mercy, O Lord, and grant us your salvation.”
Amen.
3
This is the contemporary version of the Lord’s Prayer found in The Book of Common Prayer.
3