{"id":4762,"date":"2012-06-15T11:11:46","date_gmt":"2012-06-15T18:11:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/breyeschow\/?p=4762"},"modified":"2012-06-15T11:51:37","modified_gmt":"2012-06-15T18:51:37","slug":"my-sunday-sermon-would-jesus-have-said-vagina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/breyeschow\/2012\/06\/15\/my-sunday-sermon-would-jesus-have-said-vagina\/","title":{"rendered":"My Sunday Sermon, “Would Jesus Have Said Vagina?”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Photo by joethedork - San Francisco Bay to Breakers, 2005<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

[Photo By\u00a0joethedork<\/a>]<\/p>\n

Okay, I am not preaching anywhere this Sunday, but feel free to \u201cliberate\u201d the idea, should you need a sermon starter. That said, I do hope that more than a few preachers out there are going to somehow use the recent Michigan State Legislature vagina kerfuffle as fodder for some good conversations on power, community and discernment.<\/p>\n

For those of you who have no idea what I am talking about but have noticed an increased\u00a0use of the word \u201cvagina,\u201d you are not imagining things. The increased volume of verbal vagina usage can be\u00a0attributed\u00a0to Thursday\u2019s rebuke of\u00a0Michigan\u00a0State\u00a0Representative, Lisa Brown, after her use of the word \u201cvagina\u201d during a debate on abortion the day before.\u00a0According\u00a0to the Detroit News<\/a>, at the close of her argument about an abortion bill she said these words,<\/p>\n

\u201cFinally, Mr. Speaker, I\u2019m flattered that you\u2019re all so interested in my vagina, but \u2018no\u2019 means \u2018no,'\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The result was that she was barred from speaking the next day.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat she said was offensive,\u201d said Rep. Mike Callton, R-Nashville. \u201cIt was so offensive, I don\u2019t even want to say it in front of women. I would not say that in mixed company.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This was apparently not out of character for this\u00a0particular\u00a0legislative\u00a0body as Rep. Barb Byrum was also barred from speaking because of what she said during her failed\u00a0amendment to the abortion bill banning men from getting a vasectomy unless the procedure was necessary to save a man\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we truly want to make sure children are born, we would regulate vasectomies,\u201d Byrum told reporters Thursday.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Wow. Just wow.<\/p>\n

While there are many directions one could go with this, I think this situation raises some good questions for bodies of people who strive to engage in debate,\u00a0discernment\u00a0and decision-making. There have always been people who seem to cross the lines of\u00a0appropriateness, decorum and social norms, but in this case we are again reminded that part of the discussion always has to be about who gets to determine those rules and to what end.<\/p>\n

I am all for appropriateness in large groups and helping people to avoid\u00a0unnecessarily over-sharing about their lives and the lives of their loved ones. I still remember during one meeting that I was leading when, during a debate on sexuality, a father shared with the body \u2013 and webcasted community<\/em> \u2013 about his daughter\u2019s sexual activity. He was trying to make a point, but I am not sure that it was very effective NOR did it get to the heart of his position. Instead, attention was drawn away from the point he was trying to make and the energy of the whole body was deflected away from debate.<\/p>\n

Now some might say that Brown\u2019s and Byurms\u2019s comments did the same thing, but I would disagree. I do not think that their use of \u201cshocking\u201d\u00a0language\u00a0drew attention away from the debate, instead, their comments got the heart of the actual debate on abortion AND challenged the\u00a0enforcement\u00a0of random rules like \u201cdecorum\u201d and \u201ccivility\u201d that are meant to stifle voices and preserve power. There are few things about which I agree with the Tea Party, but one thing that I have appreciated is that they have used their place of\u00a0authority\u00a0to speak into systems that have lost touch and\/or have used sets of unspoken rules to control and\u00a0maintain\u00a0power. I rarely agree with the content or tone, but they get it. Sometimes, you just have to call horse manure when you perceive it being\u00a0unnecessarily\u00a0spread. There may be\u00a0repercussions for those actions, but speaking truth to power, by it\u2019s very nature, will illicit\u00a0reaction and rebuke.<\/p>\n

So the burning question for me and I hope for preachers the world world over this Sunday is,\u00a0\u201cWould Jesus have said, \u2018Vagina\u2019?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jesus healed in the Sabbath and said to those in power\u2026\u00a0Mark 3:1-6<\/a><\/p>\n

4 <\/sup>Then Jesus asked them,\u00a0\u201cWhich is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?\u201d But they remained silent.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Jesus was a tad bit bold, shocking even, and said to those in power\u2026\u00a0John 6:25-59<\/a><\/p>\n

48 <\/sup>I am the bread of life.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Jesus sometimes had enough, got pissed and said to those in power\u2026\u00a0Matthew 11:20-24<\/a><\/p>\n

20 <\/sup>Then Jesus began to denounce the towns in which most of his miracles had been performed, because they did not repent.\u00a021 <\/sup>\u201cWoe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida!\u00a0If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon,\u00a0they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.\u00a022 <\/sup>But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you.\u00a023 <\/sup>And you, Capernaum,\u00a0will you be lifted up to the skies? No, you will go down to the depths. <\/span>If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day.\u00a024 <\/sup>But I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

All of this goes to say that there are times when shocking words that defy decorum and civility are needed in order to hold accountable the very people who have the power to define the rules of decorum and\u00a0civility. These acts help bodies to reflect on whether the rules and expectations of behavior help move a body forward with a sense of integrity or if they are a means to maintain power, silence the minority and lessen the positive influence of the body.<\/p>\n

Jesus was not always about speaking shocking words to power, just as I am sure that not all of the\u00a0representatives\u00a0involved in this case are always the inappropriate or uptight\u00a0caricatures\u00a0that they are made out to be. But at the same time, just as Jesus called us to prayer, compassion, service and love . . . in order to make a point about an issue and to speak truth to power when needed, he did so with a prophetic and often shocking word.<\/p>\n

So yes, Jesus would have said, \u201cVagina.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Photo By\u00a0joethedork] Okay, I am not preaching anywhere this Sunday, but feel free to \u201cliberate\u201d the idea, should you need a sermon starter. That said, I do hope that more than a few preachers out there are going to somehow use the recent Michigan State Legislature vagina kerfuffle as fodder for some good conversations on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":4769,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[244,17],"tags":[17052,17059,17064,17062,17058,16656,16524,17054,17055,16552,17050,17057,17051,17065,486,17061,17063,17066,17067,17060,17053,17056],"class_list":["post-4762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture-politics","category-faith-religion","tag-barb-byrum","tag-bethsaida","tag-bread-of-life","tag-capernaum","tag-chorazin","tag-civil-discourse","tag-civility","tag-decorum","tag-discernment","tag-jesus","tag-lisa-brown","tag-michigan","tag-mike-callton","tag-power","tag-sabbath","tag-sidon","tag-sodom","tag-speak-truth-to-power","tag-tea-party","tag-tyre","tag-vagina","tag-wwjd"],"yoast_head":"\nMy Sunday Sermon, "Would Jesus Have Said Vagina?"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Okay, I am not preaching anywhere this Sunday, but feel free to "liberate" the idea, should you need a sermon starter. 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