08-11-24

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
August 11, 2024
In today’s sermon, I am focusing on Tamar, the one mentioned in Genesis, but there is another woman named Tamar who is part of a horrific story in 2 Samuel 13. This Tamar was raped by her brother, Amnon, one of the sons of King David. Sadly, this story becomes a story of the anger between two brothers and their father David’s grief when one of the brothers (one of the sons of King David) is killed. It almost feels as if Tamar is more of a prop in the story. Please understand how deeply troubling I find that to be, yet so often the women of scripture are a means to an end, and in this case, rape has more to do with the injury caused to the family, not to Tamar. That is an example that may hit really close to home for some of you who are reading this, and for that experience in your life, I am so deeply sorry. We have not made much progress over the last three or four thousand years. Yet so often, the suffering of one person (physical, spiritual, or emotional) becomes the prop in someone else’s story. When this happens, we take away the humanity of the injured person a second time. 

Holy God, we often claim our need to do better as both individuals and as a society, yet those words rarely find their way to specific actions that will bring needed change to our world. As we struggle in this work to do better, let us never dismiss the story of the one who has been injured. Instead, let us provide space where the story can be told and heard, and the one telling the story can feel heard and respected. Amen.