Political divisions. Strife. Grief. Unfortunately, all seem common these days. On this election day, I hope our country begins to heal. Sadly, it will take time. But there’s much to be said for the theme, “United we stand, divided we fall.” Thousands of years ago, five girls faced similar grief and division that would have taken down most of their peers....
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Cut-out witches are everywhere this time of year. You see them carved into pumpkins, stuck into trees. But deep in the pages of the Hebrew Bible, about the year 1007 BC, is the story of a real witch—a woman who could have been killed for responding to the ragged, scared man at her door. Turns out that man was the...
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One of my great-grandmothers was named Achsah Jane Curry. I don’t know much more about her than this: she was Scotch-Irish, blind, and smoked a corn cob pipe (or so it says on the back of an old family picture). I like her already just hearing that, even though smoking is a terrible habit. (Yikes...
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Last in the series: “Women and War” Sometimes there are stories in your mind and heart that will not go away—and this is one. The biblical narrative of the woman who ate her son turned the stomachs of our research group when we came upon it, deep in 2 Kings. Here, amidst the horrors of war (8th century BCE), in a terrible bargain,...
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I come to this week with a heavy heart. My lifelong friend Michelle died two weeks ago, unexpectedly and without warning. In the Great Litany (1549), Thomas Cranmer prays that we might be saved from dying "suddenly and unprepared." Michelle was an international judo champion, a strong and independent soul. I suspect that forensic tests will show that she experienced significant...
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Women and War 4 War: it can happen anywhere, sneaking across what seem like safe borders, often on a moment’s notice. Whether domestic or international, its effects shock us. We are never the same, for women often bear terrible side effects of war, bruises that last a lifetime. Some 2000 years ago, such pain and suffering came to ten women in Jerusalem....
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"Jesus died and rose from the dead." While not exactly a ho-hum expression, we often take it for granted. Think then, of the resurrection from another angle: What if no one had been there when Jesus walked out of that tomb? Would he have slogged through the streets of Jerusalem, perhaps winding up at Peter’s house? Would he have made his way to...
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Women and War 3 Although rarely discussed, the story of Jael in the Book of Judges presents an extraordinary moment: A solitary woman commits murder in her own tent —and puts an exclamation point on a battle full of intrigue and daring. Jael is inexorably linked with Deborah, Israel’s infamous judge, prophet, and warrior who lived about 1250 BCE. On that fateful day...
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Women and War, 2 Like a warm breeze on a perfect summer morning, a voice of grace and compassion rings across 3000+ years in this Sunday’s reading from the Old Testament (RSV, Year C, track 1). The voice doesn’t belong to a grown man, or to a woman full of years. It is the voice of a child—a girl who was kidnapped...
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