Welcome to Wading in the Waters of the Word™ with A Women’s Lectionary
Gentle Readers, Followers, Preachers, Pray-ers, Thinkers and Visitors, Welcome!
Welcome to this space where you can share your worship – liturgy and preaching – preparations – using A Women’s Lectionary for the Whole Church. We begin in Advent 2021 with Year W, a single, standalone Lectionary volume that includes readings from all four Gospels. (We will continue with Year A in Advent 2022 to align with the broader Church.) In advance of each week, I will start the conversation and set the space for you all. I will come through time to time, but this is your space. Welcome!
Media Resources
A Women’s Lectionary For The Whole Church
Session 1, October 16, 2021
Rev. Wil Gafney, PhD at Myers Park Baptist Church
Plenary 1 | Translating Women Back Into Scripture for A #WomensLectionary
This session introduces participants to frequently unexamined aspects of biblical translation in commonly available bibles and the intentional choices made in “A Women’s Lectionary for the Whole Church.”
A Women’s Lectionary For The Whole Church
Session 2, October 16, 2021
Rev. Wil Gafney, PhD at Myers Park Baptist Church
Plenary 2 | Reading Women in Scripture for Preaching, Study, and Devotion
This session provides an overview of “A Women’s Lectionary for the Whole Church,” its genesis, production, and content. There is also an in-depth exploration of specific passages appointed for specific days including time for public and private reading and discussion.
Lectionary Lectio
Click the Comment links to add to the conversation
Pentecost 6
It wasn’t always like this… It was better when… The previous generation… In those days… Once upon a time…
Much of the impetus for the production of scripture was looking back like the Sankofa bird. Looking back to songs and stories that have been passed down. But, not staying in the past. Looking to the past for promises for the present and, hope for the future.
Sometimes the stories to which we turn contain great pain as a reminder that people have endured, if not exactly what we are enduring then, pain, loss, grief and defeat that shares a common vocabulary. In the first lesson, that loss is the Ark of the Covenant. Later in Israel’s history it will be the destruction of the temple, time and time again. In our time, pandemic induced isolation cut people off from their sacraments and sacred spaces. Yet in each circumstance, faithful people found a way to continue, even if it was not exactly the same, it was holy. And God was present.
The psalmist laments such losses, pouring out her heart. She also remembers the faith works of the faithful God and nurtures a kernel of hope. Lament is holy work and does not need to conclude with words of hope. It is valid in and of itself. When there is a moment of hope that is simply grace.
The epistle calls for stitching together the fabric of hope from the tatters of suffering. When possible, it can lead to a beautiful tapestry of faith. But it is not possible in all situations. Suffering itself is not to be glorified. But it is a space in which some folk find grace and that is to be honored and celebrated.
The gospel is set in the midst of devastation, not long after the execution of Jesus. Though that trauma has been transformed by the resurrection, the trauma remains. The crucifying empire remains. The promise of Jesus is that come what may – and there will be difficult days ahead – he is not leaving us orphaned or comfortless. The Holy Spirit will be with us and teach us as he taught us, keep us and, comfort us.
Pentecost 5
The First Lesson reveals the unchanging consequences of war, women and children left to pick up the pieces after the slaughter ceases. We see that in stark fashion during the ongoing hostilities in Ukraine where those women and children who can, flee, while all men of war-fighting age are required to stay behind and join the war effort.
The selections from Psalm 77 are a lament in the face of the kind of devastation that cannot be repaired in a lifetime or perhaps even in a generation. Sometimes the only honest prayers are the pleas of an abandoned child. Even knowing God’s faithfulness, mentioned in the closing lines, our lived reality can be such that miracles and promises of old are virtually meaningless when our kin lay slaughtered in the streets, when a nation’s legal apparatus is used to be errode and degrade human and civil liberties and when it is not safe to live and love as your true self. It should not be misunderstood that the pleas of the lamenting soul are faithless. Indeed it is an act of faith to call God to remembrance.
While the epistle celebrates the endurance that suffering produces it should not be misunderstood to celebrate suffering. God does not bring evil into our lives to make us better. God can and does transform us in our suffering and out of the wreck that suffering leaves behind.
Similarly, the peace Jesus promises in the gospel will not prevent us from suffering but it like he and the Holy Spirit will accompany us in our suffering.