During this season of Advent, we are hearing stories in many ways, testimonies of those transformed by hope.  

Following our next hymn, we will see and hear the testimony of Barb Wenger, a member of Epworth.  Barb and Jen and their sons Elijah and Ben are living in San Cristobal de las casas, Mexico.  

On the first Sunday of Advent, Eun-Joo Myung told her story of transformation through choosing healing; last Sunday, we chose wonder through the life and words of Abraham Heschel.  Today, we choose community through the witness of women on the coast of West Africa. Let us pray, ...

TRANSFORMED BY HOPE:  CHOOSING COMMUNITY
Isaiah 61: 1-4, 8-11
John 1: 6-8, 19-23
A Communion Meditation by the Reverend Odette Lockwood-Stewart
 

“Pray the Devil Back To Hell” is the name of a new documentary film about women in Liberia who chose community every day against unthinkable odds. They chose community and transformed their homeland by hope.

In 1847, freed American slaves founded Liberia.  In 1989 Liberia was a war torn land of tyrants and warlords battling for power, wealth, ethnic superiority and control of natural resources.  Charles Taylor gained power and the presidency by giving men and very young boys guns, machetes, and drugs.  For years, the violence increased. Rebel warlords battled Taylor for power and control. The people suffered --hunger, violence, rape – 250,000 killed and millions displaced into camps.

In 2003, women--in a church-- met to pray—for peace--together.  They prayed for a new future for the children of Liberia.  Out of their stories of the horrors of war, and out of the depth of their prayers for peace, the Women’s Christian Peace Initiative was born.  A Muslim woman was present at one of their gatherings. She was so inspired that she began organizing Muslim women to pray and testify.  The very first community of Muslim and Christian women in Liberia was formed.  Praying together moved them to act together.  Dozens, then hundreds, then thousands of women, wore white head wraps for peace, white T Shirts, and carried signs saying, “We want Peace Now.” They sang one song:  “we want peace/ no more war” and Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace was born.

Women from all walks of life spoke the truth about war and prayed for peace but both Taylor and the Rebels of LURAD refused to come to the negotiating table.  So every day women sat at the fish market singing, “We want peace, No more war.”  They had a sex strike. No sex until peace was achieved.  They showed up on the president’s route to work.  They wrote a position paper on a single issue: we want peace now.  Finally, they forced a meeting with Taylor, and he agreed to peace talks organized by African and international leaders.  Then the women traveled to Sierra Leone to demonstrate and negotiate with the warlords who were camped there, saying, “Your mothers, your sisters, have come this far.  We want peace now. No more war.”

Leymah Gbowee, a leader from the beginning of this movement, said she drew strength from Jesus to rebuke evil, to strategize, to organize, to hope in the face of hopeless situations. As Christians and as Muslims they prayed for peace.  They “Prayed the Devil Back to Hell.”

All sides finally agreed to participate in peace talks in Ghana. And the women followed them to Ghana, raising funds, organizing women in camps along the way, fasting and praying, keeping the pressure on delegates for peace.  But violence at home increased and the talks stalled.  So, hundreds of women held a sit-in, singing, praying, surrounding the room where the talks were going on, arms locked, refusing to allow anyone out until there was progress towards peace.  At least, they thought, these leaders would have to experience some of the hunger, thirst and the sense of displacement of their people.

Peace was negotiated. Charles Taylor was exiled to Nigeria, and a transition government was established.  The women did not stop there.  They monitored the transition government.  They challenged and strengthened a UN process for the surrender of arms. Women surrounded the boy-soldiers with signs,  “We love you. Drop your gun.” Then the women worked to restore these boys to the very communities they had terrorized.  And finally, they mobilized for free elections.  In 2006, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was elected President of Liberia, the first woman elected head of state on the continent of Africa. (I have shared the powerful moment at General Conference, when President Johnson Sirleaf, a United Methodist, educated at women’s division girls schools, addressed the conference.)

These women of Liberia continue their courage and commitment today because, “We have to be involved.  Peace is not an event. Peace is a process to be built.”  Prayer sustained them.

This year the Women of the Liberian Mass Action for Peace have disbanded, but women are giving leadership at every level of their nation, and, they are ready to re-organize as needed. Praying the truth of their lives, they have been changed.  They have come to know one another and the power and promise of community.

The Words of the prophet Isaiah: “The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because God has anointed me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of Lord; ...to comfort all who mourn; ...  to give them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning.  The mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit....they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations.”

The Gospel of John begins...
The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood.
The Word became one of us and pitched a tent in the midst of us.
And we saw glory with our own eyes,....

There once was a man, John, sent by God to point out the Light.  He came to show everyone where to look... John was not himself the Light; he was there to show the way to the Light...

They asked John who he was, “What do you say about yourself?”  
At first he would only say who he was not.  He was not Elijah. He was not the Messiah.  Then John quoted the prophet Isaiah, saying, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord.’”

As we come forward to celebrate communion, the blessing, breaking, choosing, sharing of community, let us be transformed by the Light of God  reflected in Liberian women who gathered to pray.