Women’s Space

I didn’t see Rev. Lowery’s benediction live and I wish I had! To me, it is wonderful, maybe my favorite of all three prayers. It is old school, passionate, poetic, eloquent, soul-stirring Liberation Theology at its finest, the kind of sermon that has always moved and mobilized oppressed and disenfranchised people. I don’t think too many in this particular crowd were moved or mobilized in the old school way, of course; this was a victory celebration. But Lowery’s prayer brought back so many memories for me and I’m sure many in the crowd, brought me back to the ’60s when as a girl I was thrilled, moved and inspired watching Martin Luther King on black and white television, all the many times over the years that words like Lowery’s, delivered as he delivered them, strengthened and inspired all of us to believe together we really could change the world.

Clearly an old master of this style of preaching, Lowery weaves bits and pieces of stanzes of old, dearly beloved hymns of liberation throughout, his benediction becoming almost, but not quite, poetry, almost but not quiet, gospel singing, almost, but not quite, praying, spoken word before there was the genre, and so the benediction becomes a conversation, a dance, a shared prayer and petition of the preacher and the people together.

Following are my favorite portions:

And while we have sown the seeds of greed — the wind of greed and corruption, and even as we reap the whirlwind of social and economic disruption, we seek forgiveness and we come in a spirit of unity and solidarity to commit our support to our president by our willingness to make sacrifices, to respect your creation, to turn to each other and not on each other.

And now, Lord, in the complex arena of human relations, help us to make choices on the side of love, not hate; on the side of inclusion, not exclusion; tolerance, not intolerance.

And this:

With your hands of power and your heart of love, help us then, now, Lord, to work for that day when nations shall not lift up sword against nation, when tanks will be beaten into tractors, when every man and every woman shall sit under his or her own vine and fig tree and none shall be afraid, when justice will roll down like waters and righteousness as a mighty stream.

This is also historic liberation theology, but with a twist (in addition to the twist of making swords tanks and plowshares tractors); in asking that men and women have each his and her own vine and fig tree, Lowery is including women where they are not included in the literal scripture text and in an interesting way. Vines and fig trees are metaphors for peace and prosperity in scripture, but they are also metaphors for wives and children, i.e., “Your wife shall be as a fruitful vine and your sons as olive shoots around your table”.  Lowery prays for a time that as women, we will have our own vines and fig trees under which to sit, neutralizing the text’s male supremacist, patriarchal implications and history. I like this.

Lowery finishes with rhymes some of us have heard for many years, reimagining “If you’re white, you’re right; if you’re brown, stick around; if you’re black, get back,” to include us all, kind of group hug style.  Eh.  Like I say, I liked it.  It made me smile.

Transcript of Lowery’s Benediction

Heart