Preaching 'the Small Voice'
by Jonathan Beasley
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Elizabeth Siwo-Okundi in Divinity |
It is the calling of her life: to bring forward what she describes as "the small voice." This is the shared voice of the abused and raped, the orphaned and marginalized. This is the voice that Elizabeth Siwo-Okundi recognizes, and that is the subject of her sermon "Violence Against Women and Girls: Where Is God in 'This'?" which in late January won first place in a contest held by the FaithTrust Institute, an international, multifaith organization working to end sexual and domestic violence.
Siwo-Okundi, who is from Kendu Bay, Kenya, is a master of theology (ThM) student at Harvard Divinity School. She first delivered a version of this sermon in 2005 at Boston University, where she was studying for a master of divinity degree.
"When I preached it at that time, afterward, people came up to me, and the different reactions that they had were so powerful," Siwo-Okundi recalled recently. "One woman came to me, and she was overwhelmed with tears; she was saying that she wished her daughter had been there to hear."
The sermon will be published in the Journal of Religion and Abuse, and she will receive a $1,000 prize to donate to a charity of her choice.
Drawn from 2 Samuel, chapter 13, the voice Siwo-Okundi brings to our attention—or reminds us of—belongs to Tamar, the princess daughter of King David. Tamar refuses the advances of her brother Amnon, who pretends to be ill in order to be alone with her. When Tamar does not consent to Amnon, he rapes her. Tamar, broken, asks him to marry her under the laws of Israel. Amnon refuses, and tells his servant to "put this woman out of my presence."
This is the kind of difficult text that some ministers shy away from preaching about. But people need to hear about experiences more like their own, said Siwo Okundi, who has a careful but direct way of explaining herself. "If women have been violated or children abused, why are we not preaching about that?" she said. "All of these different types of things we don't preach about, and we need to bring them to the pulpit."
In addition to having finished an MDiv degree and a graduate certificate in African studies from Boston University, Siwo-Okundi has academic credentials that include a BA from Denison University in Ohio. While enrolled in the ThM program at HDS, she is also taking courses at BU toward a master's degree in social work. She has spent quite some time in the United States but, playfully fearing it might give away her age, she won't say exactly how much time.
Siwo-Okundi's concern for "the small voice" is also evident in her work with orphans in her native Kenya. She is the founder and president of Orphan Wisdom, a nonprofit organization devoted to working within communities to assist orphaned children by providing financial, educational, and medical support. A website (www.orphanwisdominc.org) is forthcoming.
Over the last few years, in working with various mentors, Siwo-Okundi worked on and re-evaluated the sermon that eventually won her a prize, figuring which points she wanted to emphasize and what parts should be deleted. She knew she'd have an opportunity to preach it again—and she was right.
Last November, during the last few minutes of a preaching class taught by Charles Adams, the professor announced that he needed a last-minute replacement to preach the Wednesday noon service at HDS. This was her chance. "I'll do it," Siwo-Okundi said.
When Siwo-Okundi described the feeling of standing in Andover Chapel and paying attention to the faces in the audience, she called it a new experience; she doesn't typically observe the audience from the pulpit. "Because I'm so much in the preaching moment," she says. But that November afternoon was different.
She saw some people fighting tears, while others sat on their hands, wanting to react. It was a kind of affirming body language from the congregation: a slow nod of the head, unflinching eye contact conveying a silent prayer—yes, I understand what you are saying, and I'm glad you have the courage to say it.
Read an excerpt from Violence Against Women and Girls: Where Is God in 'This'?
