Lindsay Hardin Freeman |

Real Mothers of the Bible: To Hell and Back for Their Children

Lindsay Freeman

According to a recent poll,* Mother’s Day is second only to Christmas and Easter for church attendance. So when Johnny and Jimmy and Debbie take their mothers to church this Sunday, chances are they will hear a pleasant sermon, see pretty flowers, hear upbeat music. And perhaps enjoy a nice lunch afterward. Yet that sense of “nice,” so prevalent in the...

Recent Meditations

Anna: A Prophet and Woman of Prayer
Prayer as vocation Some people find it hard to pray. Others see it as a tiring task, a mandatory and muscular endeavor, to gain God’s blessings. For Anna, however prayer is a joy, and continually deepens her relationship with the One whom she loves above all others. She also knows what many don’t — that prayer involves all the senses......
The Witch of Endor: Deep caring, deep fear
Imagine an old woman, in about the year 1007 BCE, living alone in the Jezreel Valley, with only a hillside burrow for a home. Some call her a witch. Others use the world medium; others a necromancer. King Saul has said mediums should be killed, but townspeople still sneak away to see her under the cloak of night. Most jobs are closed to......
She showed up. Like women do.
“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......
Hagar: Precious in God’s Sight
Read Hagar’s story: Genesis 16 and 21:9-20 Hagar comes up in this Sunday’s lectionary, and her story could not be more timely, especially as our faith communities consider the sins of racism and oppression. She was many things: a slave and nemesis to Sarah; the first person in the Bible to name God (she called him El-Roi, “O God of......
Give me that living water!
3 Lent, Year C Lindsay Hardin Freeman Give me that living water! From the Gospel of John, chapter 4: “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water?” And so says the Samaritan woman — a skeptical, assertive, and bright woman — who argues with Jesus as does no one else in......

Real Mothers of the Bible: To Hell and Back for Their Children

Anna: A Prophet and Woman of Prayer

The Witch of Endor: Deep caring, deep fear

She showed up. Like women do.

Hagar: Precious in God’s Sight

Give me that living water!

Books

Recent Meditations

Zipporah: Saving Moses from a murderous God

Women of Lent I: Martha of Bethany

Women of Lent 6: Mary, Jesus’ mother

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