May God who is Majesty, Mercy, and Mystery speak words of life, love, and liberation through these words. Amen. Today’s readings press the claim that God saves. God saved Joseph from certain death in the first lesson through his older brother Ruben. The psalm celebrates the God who saves and dramatically retells a bit...... Read More

On Sunday (13 August 2023) I will preach from these readings at Trinity Episcopal Church. I offer my translations for those of you also preparing sermons. You may cite them with attribution to me, published under my trademark: Womanists Wading in the Word™.    Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28 Genesis 37:1 Now Jacob settled in the land...... Read More

Epiphany V: 2 Kings 5:1–4, 9–14; Psalm 30; Acts 16:16–24; Matthew 9:18–26 Year A, A Women’s Lectionary for the Whole Church     God of miracles, hear your people’s cry. Amen. Harriet needed a miracle. There was a woman named Harriett Jacobs who liberated herself from enslavement – not Harriett Tubman, another woman. And as she...... Read More

2 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14; Psalm 77:1-2, 11-20; Galatians 5:1,13-25; Luke 9:51-62   I read the Gospel and preach at 23 minutes in. In the Name of God who is Majesty, Mercy and Mystery + For freedom Christ has set us free. But we are not all free. We live in a world that does not...... Read More

Enslaved to sin. That we might no longer be enslaved to sin. This we know, that our old self was crucified with Christ so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. The catechism of enslavement includes rape, forced procreation and forced impregnation and also, forced...... Read More

Let us pray: All-Seeing God, All-Knowing God, All-Loving God, we await your coming, your presence and, your return. Amen. Hagar named the Living God who spoke to her: “You are El-ro’i”; for she said, “Have I really seen God and remained alive after seeing God?” (Genesis 16:13) [The sermon can be viewed here at the...... Read More

You will conceive—in your womb—and you will give birth to a son…  Did the Blessed Virgin say, “me too”? There is a moment in the Annunciation story when an ordinary girl on the cusp of womanhood is approached by a powerful male figure who tells her what is going to happen to her body, in its...... Read More

  I love the Hebrew Scriptures and their stories but I understand why some folk have a hard time with them, particularly as scripture. Many of these epic stories include epic episodes of violence, sometimes at the bequest of God, sometimes enacted by God. It is easy to treat these stories like novels, movies, or...... Read More

The sheer scope of the evil manifested in the holocaust is nearly unimaginable. Today’s visit to Yad VaShem, the Holocaust museum in Jerusalem held the inhumanity of those who planned in meticulous detail to annihilate the Jews of Europe and began carrying out their unfathomable horror in the sharpest contrast with the fragile yet resilient...... Read More

Let us pray: God of love, teach us to love as you love. Amen. The Bee Gees, Dru Hill, Calvin Harris, and a few folk I’ve never heard of have all asked, “How deep is your love.” If they were to ask the biblical characters, more often than not the answer might seem be, “not...... Read More