Acts 8:26-40
John 15:1-8
NUCC
May 14, 2006
Easter 5/Mothers Day/Festival of the
Queen mothers. They exist. In the
Just before Easter the Circle of Friends gathered for their monthly meeting. Each was instructed to wear an “Easter Bonnet” ----- and they did. Can those of you ladies who are “mature” remember back to the years when all women wore hats to church? When Karen and I were married in 1967 each of our mothers wore a hat. But they were rather modest in size. Somehow that tradition has died out, hasn’t it?
But the tradition is still alive and well in the black church. A few years ago our family was in
Little did we know that wearing a hat to church is important in the African American community. When the Apostle Paul wrote an open letter to the Corinthians decreeing that a woman cover her head when at worship to symbolize her obedience to God and the church hierarchy, he could not have imagined the flamboyance with which African American women would comply. This flamboyance has been documented in a book by Michael Cunningham and Craig Marberry: Crowns: Portraits of Black Women in Church Hats.
The women featured in this book are considered “Hat Queens” and for them their hats are like a crown. Some of them own as many as 100 hats ---- platter hats, lampshade hats, why’d-you-have-to-sit-in-front-of-me-hats, and many other varieties. When they wear a hat to church they know they are special, royalty created by God.
Remembrances of these hats and the queens who wear them came back to me as I looked over the lesson from Acts this morning. You may remember that we read the story about the Ethiopian Eunuch last November when we baptized little James Jarzynski, the curly-headed adopted grandson of our late friend Barb Hubing who just happens to have been born in Ethiopia.
What struck me when I read the scripture through this spring was its mention of “the Candace, queen of the Ethiopians.” Hmm. A queen in the Bible. Might Queen Candace and other queens in the Bible have something to say to all the queen mothers gathered here in this church on Mother’s Day?
There were a number of queens mentioned in the Bible ---- some good and some bad. Some Jewish and some Gentile. Just like the kings:
- Nicauli, Queen of
Sheba
This queen came to Solomon to ask hard questions about God. She undertook a long journey in a quest for wisdom. She sought the widening of her mental and spiritual hoirizon.
- Vashti, Queen of
Persia
She had the moral courage to refuse her husband’s demand that she show off in front of his drunken companions. In the process she preserved her queenliness of character, “the rarest cornoet and the most royal diadem any woman can wear.” (Herbert Lockyer)
- Candace, Queen of Ethipia
Perhaps the eunuch in our scripture lesson had undertaken a jspecial secret commission from the queen, who wished her officer to discover more about worship in
There are other “Gentile” queens, but I shall go on to some Jewish queens.
- Michal, King David’s first Queen
Michal first loved the shepherd king, but when he didn’t act kingly enough to suit her tastes he love turned to scorn. She wanted prestige, but instead she saw David prancing in his underwear when he rejoiced over the return of the ark to
- Abigal, King David’s second Queen
Abigal was first married to a drunken lout named Nabal, who abused her and insulted King David. Even though she persuaded David not to take vengeance, Nabal still died of shock. When David took her as his wife she provided him with wise, practical counsel.
- Rizpah, King Saul’s brave widow
When her loved ones were killed in war, she maintained a vigil over their bodies. As she cared for her sons in life, in death she would not forsake them. We see a parallel between Rizpah’s grief and that of a woman named Mary, who stood at the cross under her son Jesus. Each has showed us how love is stronger than hate.
- Jezebel, the Queen who was a She-Devil
Some of you mothers have named your daughter Mary. Others have named your daughter Abigal. And others Esther. I suspect none have named your daughter Jezebel. And with good reason. Jezebel wanted to get rid of God worship. She concoted a scheme to cheat a man out of his property and killed him in the process. Her great opponent was the Prophet Elijah. Even after the death of her husband Ahab, she exercized an evil influence over her sons Ahaziah and Joram.
I end my listing of queens and queen mothers on a negative note. There were others, both good and bad. But this is enough. What can we say? Perhaps this:
Herbert Lockyer notes that: “a woman may be the consort of a king, the sovereign of a kingdom, or even queen-mother, without possessing that sweet and beautiful trait of queenliness. Is it not also true that a woman may be queenly, even if she is not the wife of a king? There is ‘royalty’ in every woman, and the woman, whatever her environment or station in life, who is ‘loyal’ to this inborn quality, sits upon one of the thrones of the world’s life as queen, beloved, honored, and reverenced by all around.
My very best wishes to each “queen” seated here today. Amen.
