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diff --git a/Hannah-More-Prace-article.rst b/Hannah-More-Prace-article.rst index cc4d9db..ffba608 100644 --- a/Hannah-More-Prace-article.rst +++ b/Hannah-More-Prace-article.rst @@ -28,78 +28,254 @@ wives., or Idelette de Bure, a poor wife of the Swiss reformer, Jean Calvin, forgotten in life and mostly forgotten afterwards as well. -In the end, I have not chosen either of them. While thinking -about them and all other women throughout the ages, it occurred -to me how different is the male and female style of service, -and how these famous women were different from most other women -in their time. Most (not all) of them were quite extraordinary -themselves: daughters of kings, highest nobility, or otherwise -women in very special positions in life, not sharing their fate -with their less fortunate sisters. However, I believe, that those -other women, who were completely forgotten, have a huge lesson to -teach everyone of us these days, both men and women. - -I was thinking how for a man, it is typical when seeing a problem -to be resolved, our first instinct is to get power so we can -control things and change them. And it really doesn’t matter -whether these are man we now mostly hate like Adolf Hitler or -Vladimir Lenin, and their ends were terrible, or people who -we adore, like Martin Luther King or perhaps in some weird -sense Gándhí. Even when they didn’t even fight for power for -themselves, and even if that power was not the formal one (like -in the case of Mr King), their first instinct was the same: -acquire the power and then use it for good. And too often it -ended up with that acquisition of power, and good ends were -forgotten. - -There is even a strange phenomenon of what people seem to do -when feeling powerless facing significant challenge. It seems -that for many people this feeling of being powerless is one of -the strongest motivators, much stronger than the interest in -the thing itself. I read a couple of articles by psychologists -warning in the beginning of the current war in Ukraine, that this -feeling of powerlessness may lead to widespread support of weird -extremist solutions. +Yes, there were all awesome ladies, but they were just not +representative of any woman of their time. Saint Agnes of Bohemia +when confronting a crisis in the Czech state, just pulled her +brother king Wenceslaus I. with one hand by his ear, and her +nephew, future king Ottokar I, by his ear with her other hand, +and she made peace between them. I don’t think considering to be +our examples and heroes to follow is much useful for anybody, but +then we are in the dreamland of “What would I do with the endless +amount of money if I was, say, Bill Gates?” + +I was listening carefully to the last week’s message and I was +thinking how right it was for anybody who is in the position to +think about the direction of their life. I know we have many +students or young adults here who are exactly in this situation, +and I am proud that this community was helpful to many to start +their life towards better service to Jesus. Stories of Jim +Elliot, Bruce Olson, or for example Lydia Christensen (later to +be Lydia Prince) are certainly inspiring and they may help people +to decide to orient their life in the right direction, completely +dedicated to Jesus, whatever it means for each one of us. + +I wonder, how really useful are these examples and heroes for us +who are not standing in the beginning of the road, and who don’t +feel God’s calling to completely uproot ourselves and go to the +jungle of Venezuela to reach still unreached tribes. And I don’t +want to say that sermon was just for young ones, students. Could +it mean that we all, who are living here in Prague, are wasting +our lives and are we in rebellion against the Lord? I guess, +there is a possibility of that, and we should examine our hearts +about the basic direction of our life, but I don’t think it +is necessarily true about all of us. Not mentioning, that the +preacher himself is not in Venezuela right now. + +And here, I believe, all those other women throughout the +centuries, can give us some really good advice as well. How to +change the world when we cannot change the world? + +Let’s try another thought. I am persuaded that one of the +strongest motivators in our lives is our resistance to pain. We +all have some kind of pain in our life, and our effort to get rid +of that pain may be one of the strongest decisive factors for +us. When the pain reaches sufficient threshold we are willing to +do almost anything to get rid of it, without regards whether what +we are doing is right, Christian, or even legal in many times. We +know how many alcoholics, drug abusers, and even adulterers +claimed that they what they were doing fully knowing it is wrong, +but the pain they were trying to drown out was so strong, they +give in. As Richard Rohr, a famous Franciscan spiritual leader, +once said, “if we don’t transform [our pain], we will transmit +it.” + +There are many different types of pain we can encounter in our +lives, but I would like today only about one of them. Feeling of +powerlessness. That feeling when we are facing ours or even more +somebody else pain, and we cannot do anything about it, can lead +many to serious depression, which we could try to oppose by going +into some completely irrational and ungodly places. + + | Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, “Rabbi, eat + | something.” But he said to them, “I have food to eat that + | you know nothing about.” So the disciples began to say to + | one another, “No one brought him anything to eat, did + | they?” Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of + | the one who sent me and to complete his work. …” + | + | (John 4:31-34) + +There is only one antidote against this feeling of hopelessness, +because of course it is always about the lack of hope in the +end, and that is to do something. Think for example about the +current war in Ukraine. For anybody who spent at least a little +bit of time following the current news in the past two years, the +impression is so strong, that it can completely crush our +life. If we know somebody who has some significant links to +the war, and we have some people like this in this church, the +feeling is even stronger. + +For somebody the pressure is so high, they gave up their life +and went to volunteer to Ukrainian army. I know about many Czech +volunteers who are participating in some kind of charitable +organizations which are helping people affected by the war in +various ways. And of course, there are also many funds collecting +many for supporting good work to those who suffer. Anybody has an +opportunity to do something, and for your sanity, if this touches +you, I would strongly suggest to do it. For centuries, for millennia, women never had even an opportunity -to behave in such way, and they had to develop their own strategy +to behave to do much, and they had to develop their own strategy how to deal with the pain of the world as they see it (and many men, often the most successful ones, learned that lesson as well). ---- -I was thinking a lot about +Which finally leads to one obscure woman I would like to talk +about. Her name was Hannah More and she was living in the end of +the eighteenth and the beginning of nineteenth century in England +(specifically in Clapham). Move your mind to those times, think +about novels by Jane Austen, and that for most women there was no +chance how to achieve independently almost anything. Hannah More +has one advantage above her sisters. She was engaged as was +expected, but her betrothed was postponing the wedding for so +long time (in the end more than five years) that in the end he +decided to break the engagement and he got married to somebody +else. I am not sure whether it was a legal requirement or just +him being a decent man, given that after five years of waiting +Miss More was almost ineligible to get another husband, he +promised to her and paid an annual rent for the rest of her life, +which allowed her to life a decent independent life. She never +married, but used her life for changing her life. + +She became one of the founding members of what is now called +The Clapham Sect, group of faithful Christians, members of the +Church of England, who were guided by their faith to change the +society according to their faith. Some of her opinions and goals +are now hard to accept, times changed a lot, but she certainly +achieved a lot. Her biggest personal achievement was founding +of the first systematic school system for girls, she produced +hundreds of pamphlets for education of literate poor, and one of +her less direct achievements that she organized a group of people +supporting William Wilberforce and persuaded him to pick up the +cause of the abolition of slavery. + +When looking at her life there are couple of differences which I +think can illustrate what I think is the main lesson we can learn +for our life of everyday heroes. + +Get power v. love and help +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +This is the basic difference in the life situations of man and +woman in history. Well, actually, it is not only about women, +because of course most of men in the past and mostly everybody +today are not in the situation where they could leave everything +and start changing the world. + +Still the primary of our society, even when we are not +considering violent solutions, is to achieve some amount of +power, and then use it for changing the world. One of two +video-clips I hoped to run during this sermon, but then I decided +to cut them because they were too long, was from the first part +of the Lord of the Rings, where Boromir asks to take the evil +ring of the Dark Lord Sauron to defend his country against the +same evil. I am not saying that all politics is always evil, we +need more Christians and other people of good will in politics to +get out of the marasm we currently find ourselves, but it worries +me how much we rely on this one way how to change things, and how +complicated and dangerous it is. -.. Problem ... inability to fix them ... depression ... how to deal - with it? +I am thinking about a Christian non-profit organization which +used to work among young girls who were pregnant. They were +organizing adoptions and care for pregnant girls trying to +persuade them not to go with abortion. They used to have +thos posters “Are you in a bad situation? We will help!” +everywhere. Even though they were expressly Christian and +opposing the mainstream attitude towards pregnancy and sexuality, +they were quite respected and I believe they actually helped many +girls in difficult situation. + +I don’t know what happened, perhaps they considered their +previous work too small, or something, but they changed their +complete strategy, turned towards politics, and the results +are in my opinion complete disaster. Head of the organization +made couple of some rather unfortunate statements, some of them +sound quite homophobic, they started publish position papers, +which were including some unverifiable statements and some really +bad statistics and bad science. Once respectable organization is +now a joke, and many people I asked about them told me that it is +just another proove that “those Christians” are only after power +and money. Jews have term “Chillul hashem” (desecrating the name +of the God), which I am afraid applies here. + +Take over v. Link, encourage +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Masculine tendency is to conquer, take over, defeat enemies. +Another video I wanted to show was from a good Christian film +“Amazing Grace” from 2006 about William Wilberforce, and how +exactly Hannah More helped liberating slaves of the British +Empire. Instead of fighting to get herself to the front, she +linked together people who might be interested, and introduced +them to William Wilberforce, who as MP then struggled with the +future direction of his life after his conversion to Jesus. Given +her previous experience with publishing books for the wide +population, she helped to publish the autobiography by freed +black slave, “The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah +Equiano” (1789), which was the first testimony about the horrible +life of slaves on the British plantations in Caribbean and which +helped to turn the public opinion about the slavery in Britain. +Till this day she is known for her other endeavours and her role +in the abolition of slavery is usually mostly ignored. + +Is it more important to help or to be famous? + + +Radical change and destruction v. Improving / do what’s possible +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +I didn’t want to get much into details about Miss More’s efforts, +because some of them are now rather controversial. For example, +education of girls was in her time so controversial idea, that +for some time she was teaching just reading, not writing. We are +in time of the French Revolution, and under the influence of +Edmund Burke’s “Reflections on the Revolution in France”, she +decided to oppose the influence of the revolutionary propaganda +by publishing hundreds of short stories for poor literate +Englishmen (and Englishwomen, if she already managed to teach +them reading) how they should be content with their life. Most of +these books are now mostly ridiculous, but they illustrate her +deep distrust to anything radical and revolutionary, even though +many considered her to be revolutionary. + +It relates to me with another tendency which I could see on many +people who actually changed for better, and that is relentless +focus on their goal and willing to let go everything else. One of +the reasons why Martin Luther in changing the world was exactly +this keeping focus on changing the Church and letting everything +else to go. Many people then and later were angry with him for +not opposing and perhaps even encouraging bloody suppression +of the German Peasants’ War by the German nobility. Looking +from the other side, it was the only possible way how to keep +establishment supporting changes in the Church, and that was the +one thing he felt to be called to. ----- -.. https://youtu.be/-k3ABfmCr2I?t=56 Boromir TOO LONG - -Moreover, most of them, given the ever-present misogyny of the -time, are hidden behind the much more famous men - -And even those who famous on their own, like Hildegard of Bingen, -Catherine of Sienna, or our own Saint Agnes of Bohemia, were -daughters of kings or local nobleman, who are hard to follow by -us mere mortals. - -If the only thing possible is the great thing, we are hopeless -if we cannot achieve that. What can I do? What can I do against -the genocide in Ukraine? - -"Do something" allows everybody to participate and nobody has an -excuse. It is not your call to save the world, Jesus already did -that. Our task is to press on. - -================ ======================= - Male way Female way -================ ======================= - conquer submit - take over link, encourage - radical change improving/do possible - start again focused on the goal - glory invisible -================ ======================= +To summarize, what are the lessons we can bring from observing +life of our today’s heroine, Miss Hannah Moore? + +1. One thing I don’t know about Miss Moore is her prayer life, + but of course, when talking about looking at the needs in the + current society, a prayer is the first thing which should be + on our minds. If our food is to do the will of the one who + sent us, we should better be certain that he actually send us + to resolve the issue we see, and that it is not only our + attempt to glorify ourselves or to sooth our conscience. + +2. Do you want to help or do you want to change the world? The + latter quite often end in some kind of disaster. + +3. Is your central focus you helping or are you willing remain + unknown and link together and encourage other people who may + in the end be famous for something you started? + +4. Are you focused on your thing and you are willing to let other + things go if they jeopardise your thing? + +5. Are you persuaded that “small work” (“práce drobná”, the + phrase of the first Czechoslovak president Tomáš Garrigue + Masaryk) is more fruitful and blessed than revolution and + destruction? |