The Feast of the Visitation, Stormy Daniels, and other things...

Yesterday my Beloved and I were enroute to the Installation as Pastor of a fine servant of the Church at a congregation where we believe I was only the second woman in its 100+ year history to preach from the pulpit. I didn't take that lightly. These occasions are cause for celebration and anticipation and the joy from my own Installation in January still feels fresh. There were some complicated emotions on this night for those gathered, as the Church can too often wound those who love it the most.

Ah, but the enroute part....we stopped on our drive to eat a Seattle area classic - a Dick's Drive In burger with fries and a diet Coke (extra ice, please). My usual. We used to live just down the street from one of their locations, which meant I came to appreciate this not-so-healthy-but-oh-so-delicious food as a quick meal when I didn't have time for anything else, and, let's face it, as comfort food on hard days. So, there we sat, in the car in the Dick's parking lot between Olympia and Seattle when the news came in, in spurts....guilty on counts 1-9; guilty on counts 11-20, guilty on all counts. We were surprised and relieved and, I must add, saddened by the fact that we had witnessed this in our country; that a person entrusted with upholding democracy and respecting all people had in fact, made a mockery of those very things.

Today the Church remembers the Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth, and at last evening's Worship service, the day was the Eve of the Visition, and the Gospel text was this story from Luke 1: 39-56. It's a cherished story in my own faith formation; every time I hear it I learn something new. It invites us to read within the reading. And then there are the pieces of this narrative that are always filled with meaning: Mary's lullaby of revolution; the greeting between the two women. I love imagining how they spent those months together - going for long walks or taking tea together, perhaps served by the silenced Zechariah. Did they compare pregnancy stories and wonder at how they came to be? Did they talk about how their bodies, one very young and one very old, were changing?

This year, on this day, I'm thinking about how cultures judge the stories of women differently. And in an odd way, about how this hush money trial intersects with the story of the Visitation. Many have imagined that Mary must have endured the critical speculation of her community. Her family and friends must have rolled their eyes when she said she was pregnant but, no, Joseph wasn't the father, instead it was God's doing. It's likely that she was spoken of in whispers and in gatherings of women at the well each morning. I imagine that her culture told her story in the way that they needed to hear it.

In the hours after the guilty verdicts (all 34 of them), memes began to litter social media: America had been saved by a porn star. Hyperbole for certain. America has a ways to go in the salvation department, still, this is a step in the right direction. But was there a certain amount of whispered or broadcast judgment of Stormy Daniels? Of course there was. There was a whole lot of pearl clutching about her "lifestyle choices" and her acceptance of the money she was offered in return for her silence. Because women's stories have power. And hers had the power to upend a presidential bid. Instead of calling her a Porn Star first, why not first acknowledge that she was a person who, unlike others in this maga saga, came around to doing the right thing when it mattered. And her life has been forever changed. Safety will be a concern for her length of days. Whatever else she might do, she will be remembered first as a porn star, we've already proven that. And she is collateral damage to many - just ask Monica Lewinsky.

I'm taking a rare day off today and heading to the coast with my Beloved. But this morning, in the sunshine streaming into my study, I'm thinking about the women whose powerful stories have been re-framed by the culture into whatever the culture needs in that moment. How we fill their stories with what we need: judgment, recrimination, mockery. I'm thinking about how I am complicit in this.

For this Feast of the Visitation, I am remembering the women's stories that have been discounted in one way or another for the comfort of society and the preservation of the patriarchy. In recent history: Anita Hill, Christine Blasey Ford, E Jean Carroll, Hillary Clinton, Monica Lewinsky, and so many others. And on this day, I am remembering that this, too, has been the story of Mary and Elizabeth. Their unwavering faithfulness to the God they'd been taught was somehow more interested in their fathers and brothers and husbands literally gave birth to the Gospel. I have said this before and I hold it as true: I do not believe that Mary went to Elizabeth in shame or fear. I believe that in her kinswoman she found a kindred spirit and that together they sang their songs of revolution into the world.

Thanks be to God for them and for every brave woman who has done the same.