Day 25 No voice. No more. November

A PRAYER OF LAMENT FOR OUR SISTERS

by Daryl L. Smith

[from EMBRACE ALL, A Free Methodist event, Indianapolis, IN]

September 27, 2018

Eternal God...
Some of us prefer to identify you as “Father”
Others of us warm to calling you “Mother”
Because we need some human, some gender identity with you.
Yet we know that you are all that a mother or father could encompass
And infinitely more.
Yet our gender issues are not somehow foreign to you.
Our gender is at the heart of who you created us to be.
You created us in your image as women and men...
Yet from those early days when the first man stole the name “adam” for himself,
the name you meant for both man and woman together…
objectifying his partner to her function of nursing and birthing…
...we humans have attempted to lord it over one another ever since.
And across the centuries that abuse of power, has most frequently been imposed on women
by men.
So when you wanted us to understand you best, you came to earth as a human...a gendered
person, as Jesus. Teaching us how to live together in deep respect for one another—and
declared the end to the functional use of women.
But as we gather here this weekend, we must grieve that all these centuries later, most times
we are still doing badly.
Whether in the White House, in the Congress, or the Supreme Court;
in our locker rooms, in our churches, or in our homes, we nearly daily excuse sexual violence
against women as “boys will be boys”…
The truth is, no excuse works to make right the sin that we men have done against our sisters
—and against YOU—against your creation plan for how we are to live in partnership with one
another.
So TODAY we join together to repent, to confess our sin…
We confess that we too long have allowed, and even endorsed leaders who use and abuse
women.
We confess that we have allowed degrading language to be spoken, yes, in our locker rooms,
but also at our water coolers, in our churches, and in our homes.
For this we confess our sin.
We confess that we have used our male (usually white) privilege to build social systems that
disadvantage women—to our status gain, to higher wages, and we have not aggressively
made way for women to work at equal pay.
We confess, as men and women—we have too long allowed slave holders of all sorts to use
women for profit.
We confess that we have not mentored and modeled healthy ways for our daughters, to
become all that YOU have called them to be.
We confess, as men and women—that we and our denominational leaders have refused to
open doors for women into ministry leadership.
We confess that in our homes we men have attempted to be king of the castle, often using
perverted scriptural interpretation to beat our spouses into submission.
We confess, we have turned our eyes away when abuse is happening, right in front of us.
As men, we confess that we have refused to listen—to acknowledge, and even mocked our
sisters’ cries for help…when they took the chance to speak up.
So God...For all of this…and so much more…we repent for our sin!
We ask your forgiveness…
We ask you to break our hardened male hearts,…
then through your Spirit, remake our hearts and minds,
into the image of Jesus in whose name we pray.
Amen.
#novoicenomorenovember