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
Epiphany 3 corrected
The proclamation that God is in the midst of Daughter Zion invites a double hearing: God is present with her people and for Christians reading with and through the New Testament, that one daughter of Zion could say that God was incarnate in her, in the midst of the flesh and blood of her body. For the Psalmist, God is in the midst of her dreams, granting her comfort and assurance when she wakes to a hostile world. The elder writing to Timothy finds God made manifest in the goodness of every creative thing. Jesus reveals that he is God may manifest when he heals Simon’s mother-in-law. And though society forced and regulated women into service roles, it is possible for two things to be true at once meaning that Peter’s mother-in-law also revealed God in her ministry to Jesus and the disciples.
Epiphany 4
Update: This is the reflection for Epiphany 4 mistakenly published as Epiphany 3.
In the first lesson God is made known through her fathomless love, the essence of who she is. Surprisingly for some hearers and readers, God insists that her love enfolds even ancient enemies. Further, God insists that she will not do the work of restoring the world until we have done our part, gathering in and providing shelter for the outcast and the immigrant. There is also the notion that this will lead to the end of violence. In the psalm God watches over all the peoples of earth; no one nation is singled out as her particular treasure. The author of the epistle invokes Paul’s name to proclaim that God’s love extends to gentiles and Jews, his paradigm for the whole world. Jesus the child of Mary and the child of God, who has the blood of Moabites and Canaanites running in his veins along with his celebrated Israelite heritage, is made known as the Beloved, the love of God incarnate.