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

Easter 3

It seems like the resurrection generated more questions than it answers. Now what? The old questions are still on the table, will Jesus use his power to restore Israel to a self-governing monarchy? The good news exists in the crucible of Roman occupation. The resurrection has not dispensed with the Romans and their brutality and there are still crosses on the hills of Jerusalem. There are murmurs of an ascension, that Jesus will ascend to heaven like Elijah. Will the chariot of fire return? Will Jesus return with legions oh celestial warriors to set everything aright? How soon? Even with all the uncertainty, there is joy. Christ has triumphed over the grave and so many women and men and children have seen and touched him — even though their stories haven’t been told. They are forming themselves into a community, one that for a while will look like Jesus but all too soon succumb to the temptations of power, hierarchy and patriarchy. It will be a very long time before they begin to see that enslavement is inconsistent with the gospel even though Jesus did not condemn it. They are imperfect people forming an imperfect church. 

Easter 2

During the 50 days of Easter, the story would’ve spread like wildfire. And not everyone would’ve told it the same way. Someone would have told a story of one formerly outcast woman going to the tomb by herself, determined to complete the burial rites and then if necessary, to carry his body away all by herself and re-bury him someplace safe. Another story would have had a group of the women who were his disciples coming together to do right by the one they love for his sake and for the sake of his mother. And then there would be the men who say that they were there first and nobody saw them because they ran to tell their brothers. There would be so many stories but they would all agree on this point: He lives!

Thomas was not alone and being afraid to trust the hope that the stories might be true. He was there, for a while anyway. No one who has seen it can forget the sights, sounds and smells of crucifixion: the blood, the tears, the sweat, hammering and cursing, the sound of flesh tearing, the feces and urine released by dying bodies. Thomas was not alone struggling with these incredible stories, hoping they were credible yet fearing they could not possibly be. After all, Jesus spends 40 days visiting his disciples and showing himself, presenting himself, to them. Struggling to believe a miracle is no sin. And Thomas does not deserve the ridicule heaped upon him or all the bad preaching at his expense. 

In the report of Jesus visiting his disciples during this period there is so much room for the sanctified imagination of black church preaching. I can see him walking through walls and closed doors as he has in other reports. Stopping by for a meal as he has elsewhere. Maybe some lamb this time. In these visits with anonymous disciples I see Jesus visiting the women whose names are missing or muddled. There would be teaching; Jesus would tell them of the glories to come, ascension and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and her power, soon come. There would be love and laughter. And it would be over all too soon. And then he would be off to another home, heart and, heart. And they too would proclaim with certainty, “Christ has risen from the dead just as he said.”