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the theme for this semester of faculty preaching is hotelier or gods today in this moment, in this time , on this day, where is God at work ? I have to say this was an especially challenging

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week in which to prepare a sermon when I personally would rather crawl into a hole, find the best gluten free dairy free treats I can find and eat all of my feelings or sleep through the pain because

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I've been in pain some physical but mostly emotional, an emotional pain after all, is registered in our brains, often in the very same ways as physical pain. And my pain comes from seeing the trauma

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relived for so many of their own experiences of sexual assault, a trauma that lives on in bodies, in memories. And so even if Brett Kavanaugh does not remember the night that dr Christine Blazy ford recounted

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for all on national television, the Doctor Ford's of all the world who have experienced similar nights. All I remember, it may have been a blip on the screen for those who perpetrated such trauma, it

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may not have been a memorable event for him or her. For women also have been perpetrators, but for those left with the sense of shame in their bodies and the anxiety left in their minds. They

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remember. And while I have not experienced sexual assault in the same way as Dr Ford, I have sisters and friends who have been raped, molested or assaulted. I have had my own body grabbed and

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touched without my consent. I have experienced the shame of wondering was it something I did or said that brought this on myself. I have had pastor nominating committee chairs, call me sweetheart and have felt the

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discomfort of men finding me attractive. I was brought up to be pretty but not too pretty. Put together, but not sexy. Some days I intentionally wear clothes that do not flatter my figure, so

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I do not feel the gaze of others eyes on my body. My body is beautiful but is not made for others enjoyment are objectification and it is not up to me to control others sexual feelings. I

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say all of this not just as a public announcement , but because I've needed to remind myself so as you can hear this week, I have been a little bit angry, actually, really angry angry at

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a culture that says women's voices don't count that women can't be trusted, that women may just be confused , that women are somehow to blame for the sexual assaults. They experience that they are the source of

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their own downfall. It's got to be honest that I've also been angry at God and at the bible . You see one of the text I could have preached on this morning was the second story of creation

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, The one where God creates Adam 1st and it looks around for a helper for him and finding that the animals wouldn't do God created woman out of Adam's rib. The story makes women an afterthought, not

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the main character in the story, just a helper . And later in this story, she becomes the cause of all suffering by succumbing to the snakes trickery . It's a perfect recipe for patriarchy, an origin

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story that suggests women were always only meant to serve as a subordinate helper to men and that they can't be trusted. The sounds a bit harsh. Let's see how this christian nation has historically responded to women

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. Women of color continue to be disproportionately poor and stuck in the lowest wage jobs. Women continue to be blamed for men's sexual urges, asked, what were they wearing if they come forward with their experiences

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of assault when you grow up in that kind of culture and you grow up in a church that continues to shame women, to question their authority in the pulpit to say they're not fit to serve as pastors

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. To suggest women's ultimate contribution is to support the men in their lives. It becomes hard not to believe it. The self doubt that plagues women comes from so many years of this kind of conditioning of

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constantly questioning ourselves because everyone else does. So this morning, I've been mad at God and I'm mad that God has allowed a tradition that is supposedly about the redemption of the world to be co opted into

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a way of permanently keeping half of the world subordinate second class less than and then I read this psalm how we heard this morning and I read that God made humans just a little lower than the angels and

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crown them with glory. And I read the N . R. S. V. Of the Hebrews passage that we just heard. And I hear that christ was not ashamed to call humans his brothers and

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sisters. That's right sisters too. And I think maybe there's still room for me here. Maybe there's still room for me in this tradition because God spoke through the prophets Hagar and hold a Deborah and Miriam

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Anna and mary the mother of jesus mary and Martha Lydia and Priscilla. If even from of old God has used women then maybe even despite all the messages I hear God can use me. Well I need

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to remember for myself and my own ability to let go of my mistrust of God. And this tradition is to remember that God created us male and female , both in God's image and that we are both

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all of us crowned with glory. Men, I need you to hear me. I need you women need you. We are angry. But this does not mean we want to destroy you as much as

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you may feel at at times or for you to disappear. We need you to listen and we need you also to help remind us that we too have been crowned with glory. Now there may be some

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of you thinking men are always on the hook, always in trouble. Always to blame. We have our own insecurities and hardships too. But hear me out, look at the positions of power and institutions

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across this country, across our church who are the leaders who holds the most power when you go for a job interview. How likely is it that you will be in a room with mostly men? What

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kind of mentorships or opportunities have you been invited to be part of in life because you are a man ? And I say this not to make you feel bad, but to highlight that you have been given

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much. I also say this to affirm that you have power that you can use for good. How can you use the power that this culture has given you to support women? How can you use your

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power to notice when women's accomplishments are minimized or overlooked while men's accomplishments are loudly celebrated, How can you work to hire women for positions of leadership? How can you use your power among other men to show

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that women too have been crowned with glory and that we bring our own gifts and women, I need you to women. I need you to support other women to not resent the accomplishments of one another,

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to not believe the lie that another woman's success is a threat to your own. To reject the lie that women cannot be trusted because you have been taught not to trust yourself. I need you women to

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stand up for one another and not just for women who look like you, but notice the places where you hold power and where women from a different race or class or sexual orientation or ability or immigration status

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are being excluded and use your power to remind us all that they too are crowned with glory. And for all of those who do not fit neatly into our gender stereotypes of men or women, they too

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are crowned with glory, showing us all how God continues to challenge are neat categories and call us to a broader understanding of God's image in the world. All of us need one another to remind those of

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us who may have forgotten or have been told the opposite so many times we believed it, that we too are crowned with glory. This past friday, you may have heard that the Nobel committee announced the

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recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize awarding to recipients Doctor Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad. Nadia Murad is a survivor who experienced sexual assault as an ISIS prisoner of war after the Islamic state invaded her town in northern

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Iraq, targeting her family, a christian Yazidi minority , killing mother, killing many in keeping others as slaves. While many of the women who escaped from such conditions decided to remain anonymous, Nadia Murad chose

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to face the cameras and identify herself to give strength to other women and to announce to the world this is happening to my people. You cannot look away . We too are crowned with glory. The other

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recipient, Dr Denis Mukwege, the gynecologist working in the Democratic Republic of Congo, has worked for years saving women's lives who have been raped as a weapon of war. With additional injuries inflicted specifically on their

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genitals, destroying their urinary and digestive tracts. In the process, Dr Mukwege has performed surgery after surgery after surgery to help save the lives of these women repairing what he can of their bodies while also trying

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to help them restore their spirits. On friday. The radio program called The World, hosted by MArco Wittmann, highlighted the Me Too movement on the one year anniversary of the Harvey Weinstein allegations, and Marco

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was speaking to Eve Ensler, the activist and playwright made famous for her play called The vagina Monologues, in which she calls attention to the abuse women face , as well as celebrating women's bodies and reclaiming the

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beauty of parts of their bodies. They had previously been ashamed to even name Eve Ensler had interviewed Dr . Mukwege A in 2008 and on the radio, she was speaking of the amazing man that he is

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, the radio host asked her, have you ever met a man like Dr Denis Mukwege a prior to your trip to the Congo? And Endler responded, I haven't met when Prior And I haven't met one

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since. He's a man of enormous grace. He's a radiant man. He comes from love, he's a pastor and he's also fierce and he's also relentless . He once talked to me about how he can't

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sleep at night, imagining what would happen if they came to take his daughters and how the stories of woman after woman after woman, the desecration of their bodies just lives embedded in their beings. And this

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has rallied him to understand that if women are destroyed , if their bodies are destroyed, if they're beings and futures are destroyed, we have no future as humanity. Marco woman then asked her, is there

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one story you could share about Dr Mukwege and how he intervened and was able to change A woman's belief that she was ruined forever, that her life was over and ends. Lower replied, I remember at

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the beginning of the City of Joy, the Sanctuary and Revolutionary center in Bukavu where women transform their pain into power, there was a young woman standing, explaining what she had been through and he said to

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her, when you're inside your mother's womb, you don't know what your future will be. The Sanctuary will be like that for you. When you enter here, you will be able to go through a

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process where you transform what is going on inside you and will come out of it, birthed a new woman and the woman just began to weep and she could almost taste that future insular, continued. I

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have witnessed Dr Mukwege for example, he gives classes at City of Joy. He does sex ed classes , where he teaches women not only to know their vaginas and to know how their vaginas work, but

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to protect their vaginas. He actually asked them to draw their vaginas so that they are not afraid of them and so they know their bodies and so they aren't embarrassed by their bodies, so they're not in

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shame. So that terrible things are not allowed to happen to them in the dark. He is so brave and he has faced so much criticism for really breaking with tradition and breaking with patriarchy and breaking with

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those values that suppress women. Hopefully there will be many men who take their lead from Dr Mukwege and rise with us and devote their lives as whole heartedly to ending sexual violence as women do. Now,

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I want to pause and just point out that I used a word in this sermon that some may be uncomfortable with vagina. And I want you to think about how hearing that word made you feel embarrassed,

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shocked, offended. And I want to ask you to think about how it felt to hear what was happening to those women in the congo. What made you feel more shocked that I said the word vagina

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in a sermon or that these women's bodies are being destroyed as a weapon of war, highlight this dichotomy and return to our scriptural text where jesus is not ashamed to call women. His sister's jesus is not

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embarrassed or ashamed of women. God made us and crowned us with glory. We are filled with glory . We are filled with glory. Even those parts of us we feel ashamed to name, or the

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parts that have been grabbed or objectified or judged according to whether or not they are pleasing to men. Every part of us is crowned with glory infused with glory made in the very image of God and christ

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has suffered with us. Christ has sanctified us and suffered alongside us facing humiliation and shame and staring them down. Men and women here there's good news. All of us have been crowned with glory and all

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of us have been invited to participate in God's redemption of the world. All of us are called to stand together to fight for the recognition that each and every person is crowned with glory, not just those

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given the most power by society and it is our responsibility wherever we hold, even an ounce of power To point out the crowns of glory on our brothers and sisters left along the margins turn your own anger

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into power bi like dr Denis Mukwege, who as a pastor, helps women of the Congo regain a sense of their dignity. Be like Nadia Murad, who as a christian, Iraqi was not ashamed to

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tell her story and to reject the stigma surrounding sexual abuse, Be like Eve Ensler pushing the boundaries of our comfort zones to increase our compassion for those whose vulnerability is intensified by our silence and be like christ

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, Who is the reflection of christ's glory and who is not ashamed to call us his brothers and sisters , who suffers alongside those who suffer at the hands of injustice, who attacked the religious institutions for their

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hypocrisy. Be like christ and remember you too have