Wil
Biblical scholar in Hebrew and Hebrew Bible: special interest in translation textual plurality, (Septuagint, Dead Seas Scrolls, Samaritan Pentateuch, Aleppo Codex, Leningrad Codex); feminist, womanist and post-colonial biblical interpretation; prophets and prophecy in the Ancient Near East and ancient Israel Episcopal priest, product of the Black Church, author, blogger, preacher, teacher, lecturer, public speakerEaster Sunday
Mary Magdalene came to the tomb alone, knowing that she was likely to be alone once she got there. No one publicly grieves a failed messiah. Except perhaps, for a woman who is called a sinner in public and a whore in private and sometimes the other way around. Mary saw that the tomb was...... Read More
Holy Week
I will use this single post and update it daily. Monday: Aftermath Wasn’t that something? Everyone was there. Well, everyone who was anyone. We were all there. We who follow Jesus. There were a whole lot of folk around us looking at us like we had lost our minds. But some of them joined in...... Read More
Palm Sunday
Walking the Way: What is this strange thing that we do, walking around our churches and neighborhoods, waving palms from trees that are not native to where we are waiving them (for most of us), accompanied by choirs, the rare few with young acolytes on the backs of donkeys? Is it a living gospel? Is...... Read More
Love in the Wilderness
Let us pray: May the written word through the spoken word draw us to the living Word. Amen. Lent is a wilderness carved out in space and time with prayer, self-sacrifice, fasting, meditation, self-examination and, the study of the scriptures. All of these are wilderness ways. Yet, there is more than one kind of wilderness....... Read More
Feast of the Annunciation
Gentle Followers, I am behind and off-track. My calendar is a wilderness of commitments. I wanted to leave you a world for the next nine months: Marytide. In the midst of the Lenten season as we prepare to walk the way of Calvary, a way of suffering and death, we are also walking the way...... Read More
Lent 4
The theme of the fourth Sunday of Lent is often lighter than the other Sundays, traditionally focusing on joy and rejoicing while the other Sundays may focus heavily on repentance. Here the theme is the joy of love. The first lesson focuses on the love of a woman for her beloved, the psalm, the faithful...... Read More
Lent 5
The first lesson contains the words of a prophet speaking to Israel’s restoration after their decimation, deportations and exile. We read it affirming God’s fidelity past and present, without erasing or negating the original cultural context. The psalm is a riot of praise for all of God’s works. (Year W was not initially conceived of...... Read More
Hermeneutics of Reversal: Widow of Zarephath
Let us pray: Wisdom of the Ages, whisper to us words of life from your words and mine. Amen. Self-examination and repentance. Prayer, fasting and self-denial. Study of the scriptures and meditation upon them. These are the pillars of a holy Lent. Lent can be a hungry time. Hunger for things missed never...... Read More
Lent 3
The world is a hostile place. The garden stories in Genesis give voice to an ancestral memory that it was not always thus. These stories also articulate the Iron Age theology the permeates much of the scriptures, that the difficulties humanity faces must be their own fault. Yet the world is also a glorious creation...... Read More
Translating for Thirsty Ears and Hungry Eyes
A lecture given at First Unitarian Universalist Church in Houston, 13 March 2022. ... Read More