Belinda G. Praisy - Worship and Sermon October 15, 2008

The theme of Belinda's sermon was "Breaking Free: Participation in God's Liberative Mission,"  based on the text, Luke 8: 42b -48, the story of the woman with discharge of blood. The worship started with an enactment  of the theme by Sweety Helen, Wilson, Ravi Topo and Remalia, which gave a shocking experience to many and alerted people of the gravity of women's oppression in India.  The invocation in Hindi, written and composed by Sandeep Paramarth,  was sung by Alice Jose. The opening Tamil song was written by Jane Anitha and music was comped by Jacob Jabaraj.  These songs reflected the pain of women on account of social, racial, gender and economic oppression. Opening prayer  went like this: O God, as we come to your presence this morning we realize that you are a God who resists injustice. We ask that you might strengthen us with this spirit of retaliation to break free from oppressive forces and participate in your liberative mission. There was a discussion during the evaluation session whether it is right to use "retaliation", which was used several times in the order of worship and sermon,  as a Christian method of resistance to oppression. Belinda defended the usage as it reflected active resistance. The theme of worship was also reflected  in her confessional prayer: God, we confess that we have failed to be like Puah and Shiprah who had the courage to oppose authority to save life. We have failed to be like Jael who had the strength to nail forces that inflict violence; we failed to be like Vashti who had the powers to resist powers of patriarchy,  to be like Mary and  Elizabeth who nourished their children to stand against injustices, to be like Mary Magdalene, Joanna and Suzanna, who were co-workers in establishing God's reign.  We  failed to be like the woman suffering with hemorrhage who took the initiatives to overstep traditions to liberate herself. We have failed to follow the examples of the many women in our society who have recognized their strength and ability to succeed in life. She also used a "modified prayer of Jesus" written by Miriam Therese Winter of  Hartford Seminary, USA:

Our Mother and father who is within us

 we celebrate your many names.

 Your wisdom come, Your will be done

Unfolding from the depths within us.

Each day you give us all that we need

You remind us of our limits 

and we let go.

You support  us in our power and we act with courage.

For you are the dwelling place within us

the empowerment around us

and the celebration among us

now and for ever. Amen

In her sermon Belinda  described the  oppressive Jewish context which demanded women to remain  as household properties. The women who followed Jesus took a courageous stand to be part of the Jesus movement by overstepping the social barriers and their traditional roles. The woman with the hemorrhage for twelve years was not just suffering from a physical ailment. She was ritually unclean and impure  according to the rules in Leveticus 15: 19-27.  The Levetical  rules made her life miserable.   Whoever touches ritually impure woman also shall become unclean, whoever uses the things she uses also become unclean. She was completely cut away from society -- an untouchable, socially ostracized,  and stigmatized person. No body would marry her. Finally she comes to the  point of realizing that she has to take the initiative to claim her rightful place in society. She decides to overstep the purity-pollution laws that has imprisoned her. She breaks the laws that oppressed her.She might have thought Jesus being a Jewish man would hesitate to to touch her. Knowing that Jesus had healing powers she was determined to take the initiative: to touch Jesus.

This woman represents today's women whose mobility is controlled by patriarchal structures . She represents women who are prohibited to enter church altars, mosques and temples. She represents women suffering with illness like HIV/AIDS. She represents the Dalit and Adivasi women who are made politically voiceless. She also represents the agony, the cry, the pain, humiliation  and stigmatization of women who are forced into flesh trade because of their poverty.There is  a need to recognize the power dynamics behind the oppressive forces that keep women under bondage and  "wake up to resist and retaliate against them." She retaliated against the society by breaking the social taboos. Jesus also decides to bring her to the public view.  Her touch has shaken Jesus too. Her touch made Jesus to recognize the evil that his society had been inflicting on people in the name of religion, law and God. It was touch that could not be left unnoticed but one that should be given credit so that it will be a model for the God's community he was striving to create. Jesus recognized that resisting the oppressive forces is to do the will of God (Luke 8:21). By saying that her faith has made her well Jesus affirms that not only the woman's physical ailment was cured but that  by the woman's courageous act of faith she has sought to heal herself of the social constrictions that were imposed on her. Jesus has given full credit to her for taking a bold step to disregard the laws that bound her in the name of traditions and customs. He assures that both she and the society which she has woken up to recognize their  folly can reconcile to carry on the spread of the reign of God.

Belinda has brought out three significant ways from Jesus' attitude to the woman  by which  the community of believers can   break itself free from being oppressors: Firstly, Jesus chose to take a stand opposite to that of the patriarchal structures by acknowledging women to be co-workers in God's liberative mission which has been  the overall significance of  Luke chapter 8.  Secondly, by recognizing and acknowledging the act of the woman before the society Jesus teaches us that we should provide space for the oppressed to rise up by themselves and also must be ready to accept the change they bring. Thirdly, we should  be ready to identify ourselves with the oppressed people and stand in solidarity  with them in their struggles. This story of the woman with hemorrhage is  a radical call for the dominant oppressive society towards a "metanoia" to reverse all the structures to form the community of God.

Ms. Belinda Gracelyn Praisy is a member of the Church of South India, Madras Diocese.  Last summer she went to Fiji on an exposure programme. We hope and pray that she would be able to meaningful change in church and society through her interventions as a committed Christian.