This morning I awoke and started my ritual of looking through e-mail and the news of the day. (Something akin to yesteryear's "sort-of" looking at the morning paper. But that's a topic for another day...the perplexity to transfer our sole communication toward on-line information, almost exclusively.) Anyway, I digress...I found a sermon on a blog I like about the juxtaposition of the celebration of women's achievements and women still in the throes of treated with any degree of human dignity. The sermon's scriptural focus was Judges 19, the story of the concubine/the complete denigration of any trace of Israel's former dignity during the time period attributed to the book of Judges. I remember spending a whole 90 minute class period in Old Testament last semester on this passage, and trying to see through the horror of the story to understand what God might be saying. The professor gave us a stern charge to not be afraid to talk about stories like this one in the bible and use it to bring awareness and light for God's healing. This sermon script does just that. Take the few minutes to read it. It will be well worth your time. Here's the link: http://www.achurchforstarvingartists.com/2009/03/international-womens-day.html
And lastly, this same morning, I was reading in the New York Times about the raping of women refugees, who are fleeing political chaos and economic collapse from Zimbabwe, on the border of Zimbabwe by men posing as guides to help them cross the crocodile invested Limpopo River. Here's the link to that video story, http://video.nytimes.com/video/2009/03/07/world/1194838313781/confronting-rape-on-zimbabwes-border.html?th&emc=th
Heaviness for a Monday morning but all the more reason to reach out and believe that God is still a God of restoration and healing...finding hope in that eternal promise.
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