Lindsay Hardin Freeman |

Women of Holy Week: Martha of Bethany

Bible Women, Martha of Bethany, Uncategorized, Words of Bible Women

Lindsay Freeman

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....

Mary and Martha: Warrior Women of Heart and Soul

Martha of Bethany, Mary of Bethany, New Testament Women

Lindsay Freeman

Biblical warriors are usually seen as armed with swords or bows or spears. But Martha and Mary of Bethany were warriors of the heart and soul, using tools of exhaustive hospitality and fierce love to engage Jesus as brother, friend and soulmate. Standout figures in the New Testament, the women provided Jesus with a place of healing and respite, one to...

Recent Meditations

The Witch of Endor: Deep caring, deep fear
Imagine an old woman, in about the year 1007 BCE, living alone in the Jezreel Valley, with only a hillside burrow for a home. Some call her a witch. Others use the world medium; others a necromancer. King Saul has said mediums should be killed, but townspeople still sneak away to see her under the cloak of night. Most jobs are closed to......
She showed up. Like women do.
“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......
Hagar: Precious in God’s Sight
Read Hagar’s story: Genesis 16 and 21:9-20 Hagar comes up in this Sunday’s lectionary, and her story could not be more timely, especially as our faith communities consider the sins of racism and oppression. She was many things: a slave and nemesis to Sarah; the first person in the Bible to name God (she called him El-Roi, “O God of......
Give me that living water!
3 Lent, Year C Lindsay Hardin Freeman Give me that living water! From the Gospel of John, chapter 4: “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water?” And so says the Samaritan woman — a skeptical, assertive, and bright woman — who argues with Jesus as does no one else in......
Elizabeth: About time we gave her some credit
Today, June 24, is the day that we celebrate John the Baptist on our church calendar. But what about his mother, Elizabeth? A woman of joy and deep faith, she was instrumental in helping Mary through her fears — and she raised a great son. Time to give Elizabeth her due! Who was Elizabeth? A descendent of Aaron; daughter of......

Women of Holy Week: Martha of Bethany

Mary and Martha: Warrior Women of Heart and Soul

The Witch of Endor: Deep caring, deep fear

She showed up. Like women do.

Hagar: Precious in God’s Sight

Give me that living water!

Elizabeth: About time we gave her some credit

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Recent Meditations

Zipporah: Saving Moses from a murderous God

Women of Lent I: Martha of Bethany

Women of Lent 6: Mary, Jesus’ mother

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