May God who is Majesty, Mercy, and Mystery speak words of life, love, and liberation through these words. Amen. Today’s readings press the claim that God saves. God saved Joseph from certain death in the first lesson through his older brother Ruben. The psalm celebrates the God who saves and dramatically retells a bit...... Read More

On Sunday (13 August 2023) I will preach from these readings at Trinity Episcopal Church. I offer my translations for those of you also preparing sermons. You may cite them with attribution to me, published under my trademark: Womanists Wading in the Word™.    Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28 Genesis 37:1 Now Jacob settled in the land...... Read More

  Jesus said, “My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death; you all stay here, and stay awake… Mark 14:34 Let us pray: Holy One of Old, open our eyes. Amen. Could you not stay awake one hour?” Mark 14:37   Could you not stay woke? Billie Holiday was designated the most dangerous...... Read More

Epiphany V: 2 Kings 5:1–4, 9–14; Psalm 30; Acts 16:16–24; Matthew 9:18–26 Year A, A Women’s Lectionary for the Whole Church     God of miracles, hear your people’s cry. Amen. Harriet needed a miracle. There was a woman named Harriett Jacobs who liberated herself from enslavement – not Harriett Tubman, another woman. And as she...... Read More

May the Faithful God grant that the woman who is coming into your house be like Rachel and Leah; the two of them built up the house of Israel. May you prosper in Ephrathah and establish a lineage in Bethlehem…A Lineage in Bethlehem… Let us pray: May God who is Majesty, Mercy, and Mystery speak...... Read More

One of the Principal Feasts of the Church, the Majesty of Christ, as the feast is known in this Lectionary, is a celebration of the triumphant and transcendent Jesus who has transcended mortality and its limitations, including monarchy, a failed governance experiment. In the first lesson the remnant of Israel, the Judean monarchy, suffers a blow...... Read More

It Was A Set Up: So Show Them Who You Are Year W Proper 28: 1 Kings 11:26–39; Psalm 89:1–8, 14; 2 Timothy 2:8–13; John 2:1–11   On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Let us pray: My prayer is Miriam’s prayer, Mother...... Read More

These lessons move from the founding and foundations of monarchies to the foundations of worship and the founding of places of worship. In the first lesson the machinations of monarchy are in the background and the focus is on constructing an edifice in which and with which to worship God. Solomon is a better candidate...... Read More

The transitions of power in these readings are particularly well-timed, with elections in the United States and, an impending coronation in the United Kingdom, not to mention a shuffle of UK prime ministers. Yet an ever present danger in biblical interpretation is the temptation to map the ancient sacred stories onto the contemporary world and...... Read More

Let us pray: In the name of the One who waded in the waters of Miryam’s womb, walked the way of suffering as one of the woman-born, and woke from the grasp of death in the deep darkness of the morning. Amen. It’s good to be king. Power, wealth, control, fear, obedience, and wine, women...... Read More