Lindsay Hardin Freeman |

Crossing Boundaries: Awkward all Around

Lindsay Freeman

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...

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......

Crossing Boundaries: Awkward all Around

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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