Women of the Word: Rev. Moya Harris
Rev. Moya Harris is an itinerant elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, currently serving at Metropolitan AME Church in Washington, D.C., as the executive minister and minister to women. She is also Sojourners’ fellowship program director.
This sermon was edited from a message delivered Aug. 26, 2018 at Metropolitan AME Church.
“When the woman saw that she could not remain hidden, she came trembling and falling down before him, she declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him, and how she had been immediately healed.” — Luke 8:47
Have you, in your own life, willfully been invisible? … As a person of color, as a minority, as a woman, as a Black man, as a Black woman, decided to stay under the radar? Have you as a woman toned down, a woman of color, toned down so that you could avoid unwanted attention? Hidden in plain sight.
Imagine 12 years ... 12 years being declared legally and spiritually unclean, therefore you had to remain separate, untouched, unloved. Twelve years seeing the world go on without you acting as if you weren't there.
The very act of her getting up and pressing and pushing to her rightful healing is an act of resistance.
The healing that she received was much bigger than a termination of her hemorrhagic state. … The healing that she received was that she realized that she truly mattered. And now that she realized that she was no longer hidden she was able to tell her story … so that the crowd could hear her. Somebody needs to hear that — that God cares about you, that you matter, that even in your hidden state, you are a part of God's plan. And that since you matter, it's time to take a chance and resist the comfortability of being hidden. Resist being silent. Resist not participating in life to the fullest. Resist by daring to tell your story.