Sermon

The Eye of Providence: Divine Vision (Or, Can We See in a Storm?)

by the Rev. Darcy Roake, originally offered September 23, 2018 at Community Church Unitarian Universalist, New Orleans, LA; shared with permission.

            When we think of being watched, we don’t have the best associations. Paranoia around surveillance, online and in the news, is at an all-time high. And being watched without one’s knowledge is an age-old terror. From Big Brother to, as Halloween approaches, the killer p.o.v complete with ominous music and peeping through windows.  Even our money is staring at us. No really, it is. Turn it around. Atop that random pyramid - you’ll see the Eye of Providence.

            But the Eye of Providence isn’t meant to be so bad. Based in Christian iconography (not, according to conspiracy theorists, freemasonry nor the Illuminati with alleged members Beyoncé and Jay Z). This disembodied eye was suggested by the design team of the Great Seal of the United States. We’re not so different than the 1700’s - there were design teams back then too. It symbolizes the eye of God watching over humanity - atop a pyramid of 13 steps representing the original 13 States. The unfinished pyramid represents the hope for our Country’s continued growth. And above the eye you see the phrase Annuit Cœptis, meaning "He (God) approves [our] undertakings"

            We have grown and are growing as a Country. And we’re feeling those growing pains – some of us in rage, some of us in hope, some of us in a desperate attempt to keep the status quo. I wonder, amidst growth if He, or the Divine who has all genders, would approve of all our undertakings. Or if the Divine ever fully approved. This seal was created at a time when bondage of other human beings was the law of the land. Highest aspirations do not always make lived realities. Perhaps that watchful eye is less individual surveillance and more a symbolic reminder. We will never achieve all that the divine represents. And this divine watchfulness can prompt us to do and be better. Not out of judgment or shame but out of humility and accountability. This Divine eye sees each and every one of us. And it asks us to do the same – seeing all people as fully human. Seems simple right?

            Today I read the story of Hagar from the Book of Genesis. Until recently not many people considered that story to be centered on Hagar. The text was about Abraham and his “hard choices” to ensure his legacy was properly fulfilled. Or about Sara who, in between those stories, had a miraculous birth at 90 that led to Isaac, the “true” inheritor of the Abrahamic lineage. Or about half-brothers Isaac and Ishmael – one who inherits, the other who does not. Or even about God, who, as the story might have us see it, was Hagar’s protector in the wilderness. But 25 years ago the brilliant womanist theologian Delores Williams, in her seminal work, Sisters in the Wilderness turned her eyes and insight to Hagar -  connecting the Genesis stories to “black women’s experience of Christ in the face of race, class, and gender oppression during antebellum and post-bellum America.” With gratitude to Dr. Williams, I’d like to talk about Hagar because she exemplifies what we’re talking about today - the ways in which our human eyes can so easily make someone invisible, or highly visible, when convenient. Yet somehow always deny seeing their humanity. First invisible. When Sara “offers” Hagar to Abraham, Sara does not use Hagar’s name. Hagar is slave-girl. Hagar’s bodily autonomy – not being raped by Abraham, not bearing a child, once bearing said child getting to keep one’s child as one’s own - is never considered. Because those feelings and rights for Hagar are invisible in that society, not worthy of consideration when patriarchal lineage must be maintained. Only when Hagar asserts herself as human – demanding the rights and respect given to a human, a wife, a mother of a child -  does Hagar become highly visible. Hagar and Ishmael are now problems. On two occasions, they are left to die as they run away from abuse and expulsion. Only then, out in the wilderness, are they seen as God’s creations. First by an angel of the Lord, asking Hagar to return to submission. Then from God himself - calling on Hagar to survive with Ishmael so that Ishmael might build a nation.

            But God’s protective eye in this story is not good enough. Sometimes institutions, the powerful, God as written in the pages of the Bible, fails all of us. And so we find new ways to build up these institutions, new ways to use power, new ways to describe God. Not do away with the concepts but, as we discussed in our recent Unitarian Universalist water ceremony - make our theology alive to our current realities, not set in stone precepts of the past. The God of the Hebrew Bible was a patriarch who demanded obedience and, in turn, fiercely protected his flock. God was often an embodiment of patriarchal power, and, for the time in which the Bible was written could also show radical compassion. Humans were looking for ways to describe this Divine force and that was the frame they knew. And the Divine is far too vast to be contained in the pages of one book or one religious system.

            When I describe the Divine that is all around us, whose eyes watch us, less in judgement but more in love, curiosity and some disappointment, I recognize that’s one small version of the divine. And I’ve got years and years, hopefully, to explore your understandings of the Divine (or lack thereof). The Divine is ever-seeing and ever-evolving because humans have a divine spark too which allows us to be ever-evolving.

            But evolution can be a slow process. Today, I am filled with dread and sadness and rage when I survey our Country’s halls of power. The highest leader in our Country and possibly in the future, two out of nine Supreme Court Justices have been very publicly accused of sexual assault and harassment with seemingly little consequence (we shall see). There is something deeply unsettling about that statistic. And those who are quick to defend the accused I ask you take a moment to think why. And also think - why was Abraham seen as hapless bystander in his own Biblical narrative - against a conniving Sara and an invisible Hagar? Abraham committed rape. Then God told Hagar return to her abuser. We need all of us, all gender and racial identities, all backgrounds, all of us to start to see. To make the people who are made invisible for the convenience of the powerful visible to all as humans with inalienable rights. Each individual and their inherent worth and dignity.

            Because when more people become visible – seen, heard and believed - not only do we move closer to our Unitarian Universalist vision of a world with justice, equity and compassion. We reclaim our humanity. And that may save our life. I know because it saved mine.

            Many of you know that I had an emergency surgery a few months ago. What I didn’t tell you then but am sharing now (with continuing therapy) is that I had an ectopic pregnancy. A fetus grew in my fallopian tube and would have never been viable. So there are some things about the situation that were unavoidable. However, there has been an enormous amount of additional and avoidable emotional pain for me because of invisibility. Namely the invisibility of physical pain in a female body by the medical profession. According to several studies from the New England Journal of Medicine, “women in pain are much more likely than men to receive prescriptions for sedatives, rather than pain medication... women who received coronary bypass surgery were only half as likely to be prescribed painkillers...women are seven times more likely than men to be misdiagnosed and discharged in the middle of having a heart attack.” Why? “Because 80% of pain studies are conducted on male mice or human men.” Women become invisible in the medical system because their physiology, different from men, is not considered the norm. Thus they become not fully human.

            I called the doctor on a Saturday, in immense pain. When I finally got through I was told by the on-call doctor - bleeding and pain is normal. Call back on Monday. Monday came. I could not get my Doctor on the phone. Too busy. Come in a couple of weeks.

            For the last 18 months I had been part of a Fellowship of Reproductive Justice leaders. The group was composed of primarily black women – from doulas to sex education advocates to maternal mortality specialists. In those months I built relationships. I listened to stories. I heard facts. Black women have the highest maternal mortality rate in our Country. Often because their pain is not taken seriously. No matter how privileged you are, you can become invisible. Serena Williams, the GOAT – greatest of all time in tennis and one of the most recognizable sports figures in the world - almost died of blood clots after childbirth. She was not listened to about her pain. My eyes had been opened.      

            I have been taught to trust medicine and institutions. Sometimes there is a good reason for that... But the black women in the room told me of the times when their pain was ignored. When no one is there to advocate for you but yourself. You must be your own Hagar – make yourself visible, no matter the consequences. After being told for the 10th time that my pain was normal. I took courage.  I KNEW in my bones, or I suppose my fallopian tubes, that something was wrong. First thing Tuesday morning, I demanded to see the Doctor. And right after first thing Tuesday morning I was in the emergency room for internal bleeding – at high risk for death. There is more to this story but another day. I simply want to bring us back to that watchful eye. I was invisible until I made myself visible – against polite conventions. And I was seen only after I leveraged much of my privilege - white, with insurance and a physician I knew. Louisiana, with some of the worst health care in the Country, has made it a policy priority to make as many people as possible, invisible – the poor, women, women of color.

            We have a role as people of faith. To listen, to advocate. To make invisible visible. And there are times when the larger culture will make us all feel invisible. Whether it be because of gender or race or age or experience. Each of us holds a pain, a sadness, a trauma - visible only to us - something we may not share with others. I shared my pain with this loving Community. I know many of you are holding sorrow, often invisible to the larger world. Know that we see and love you. And can hear your story when you are ready. We are all worthy of being seen.

            To see with that Divine Eye is to know that the Genesis story in the Judeo-Christian Bible is as much Hagar’s as it is Abraham’s or Sara’s or God’s. Hagar demands to be seen, again and again. And she is punished for it. The “happy ending” for Hagar is her son Ishmael is given favor. Who knows what becomes of her? And in a patriarchal, racist culture, all people’s humanity, all too easily becomes invisible. We are all stripped of our humanity – particularly those in power who refuse to see others as fully human – Abraham and Sara for example. The Divine eye of Providence saw Hagar when no one else did. And the Divine spark in us calls us to see each other. To tell our stories when we’re ready. And to listen to others’ stories, to see others, without judgement. With compassion.

            As UU’s we look to lived theology & morality currently playing out in our own structures of government. Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, at this moment, is preparing to testify as part of Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination process. She will testify near the man she purports sexually assaulted her, in the face of a hostile tribunal of all men, and in defiance of a President who has tweeted his disbelief of her story. What she is bravely doing is in the tradition of Hagar. She has refused to be invisible by making herself hyper-visible, at great cost to her and her family. She will gain nothing from it. Except to demand her humanity from a patriarchal culture determined to take it from her. And in that perhaps other survivors of sexual assault can feel less invisible

            I too demanded visibility in a Louisiana medical system determined to make invisible and inaccessible women’s healthcare – from birth control to abortion to mammograms. I still demand visibility as I am asked to relive my trauma again and again as health insurers attempt to file my Emergency Room trip as a planned surgery. But I’m still here, I’m still whole, less one fallopian tube. I am seen. By this Community Church, by my family, my community. And the Divine. I wish the same for you. When you feel invisible – know that you are seen and loved. And may you then be blessed with a bit more insight and empathy for those who are made invisible on a daily basis. In this, we all can find wholeness, we all can reclaim our humanity.

            I believe that it was the spirit of all-seeing Divine democracy that Pierre Eugene du Simitiere, the Swiss American painter and patriot who conceived of the Eye of Providence aspired. Because not only did Pierre conceive of the Eye, but he recommended the phrase “E Pluribus Unum”– right there on the back of your money. Out of one, Many. Meaning that out of this one great Country should come many voices, many perspectives. All should be visible. In seeing the many, in seeing us all as fully human – worthy of attention and equity -  we move closer to that audacious vision of life, liberty and justice for all. It will not be easy. It has never been easy- from Hagar to Anita Hill to former football player and sexual assault survivor Terry Crews to Christine Blasey Ford. But the Divine is watching us ALL. And through the Divine’s aspirational eyes, may we all be visible. May we all be blessed with clearer vision. Amen.