Crossing Boundaries: Awkward all Around

Ethnic boundaries: apparently even Jesus had trouble with them. Case in point: Sunday’s Gospel reading from Matthew 15:21-28. A woman from "the outside," known as the Canaanite woman, spars with Jesus and convinces him to heal her daughter. And Jesus is oddly cranky about the whole thing, at least in the beginning. (Note: The Canaanite woman to which Matthew refers is...

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Women of Holy Week: Mary Magdalene

Over sixteen years ago, I had cancer (and have been blessedly cancer-free since then). Walking within sight of the valley of death is a pretty scary place. But I believe in angels. So I looked for an angel during each chemo treatment, each medical procedure, each visit to the hospital. I expected to find one, and most of the time I did. Twice I was...

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Women of Holy Week: Martha of Bethany

Bottom line:  One thing, Martha. One thing. We’ve all got a lot on our minds this week. For clergy, a zillion services. For travelers, fatigue and worry about making it home. For those hosting Easter dinners: house cleaning, cooking, and trying to keep family from killing each other over politics.  And into this week of frenzy come the women of Holy Week and Easter....

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The Woman Who Ate Her Son

Last in the series: “Women and War” Sometimes there are stories in your mind and heart that will not go away—and this is one. The biblical narrative of the woman who ate her son turned the stomachs of our research group when we came upon it, deep in 2 Kings. Here, amidst the horrors of war (8th century BCE), in a terrible bargain,...

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Mary Magdalene: True, bold and loyal

"Jesus died and rose from the dead." While not exactly a ho-hum expression, we often take it for granted. Think then, of the resurrection from another angle: What if no one had been there when Jesus walked out of that tomb? Would he have slogged through the streets of Jerusalem, perhaps winding up at Peter’s house? Would he have made his way to...

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Pontius Pilate’s Wife: “Listen to Me!”

My goodness. Dreams in scripture are a big deal. They’re all over the place in the Old and New Testaments…twenty-one of them to be exact,* not including various visions…and only one is reported by a woman. The woman is, of course, Pontius Pilate’s wife. Remembered as a saint in the Greek Orthodox Church, she is also seen as a possible secret...

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Sons on Death’s Doorstep

Let’s be real. Everyone knows the story of Abraham, but how about the comparable story of the widow of Zarephath? Both were about sacrifice and beloved sons. Abraham delivered his son Isaac to the funeral pyre—and would have killed the boy, had not God’s angel intervened. The widow of Zarephath also saw her son on death’s doorstop, although—unlike Abraham—such a condition...

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Freckles and Short-Shorts

She had freckles on her face. She kept standing up to tug her short-shorts down; they pinched her, she said. She told me her name was “Josi,” without an “e.” And that she was eleven, in middle school, and that her school was “really safe — “that nothing ever happens there.” Her long legs would make her a good tree-climber. I hope she...

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