Each year I love to return to the first chapters of Luke and ponder the nativity scene. This year, I found myself reflecting about Elizabeth. I see her fulfilling two unnamed roles: that of prophet, and that of mentor. First to Speak of the Messiah Zechariah, Elizabeth’s priestly husband, may have sung his now famous …
Elizabeth: Prophet and Mentor Read More »
A couple of years ago I began reading The Priests for Biblical Equality translation of the Bible. Not only does it forge an egalitarian lens for the Old and New Testaments, it also weaves the apocryphal writings into my devotion time. I grew up low church evangelical (Assemblies of God), assuming the apocrypha could not …
Susanna Resisted the Elders: A Re-Reading of Daniel 13 Read More »
This week I have been thinking a lot about well-loved progressive Christian writer, Rachel Held Evans, who passed away after a brief illness on Saturday, May 4. In honor of her mission of truth-telling in the church, I am returning to my own calling to help others see the feminine images of God in the …
Power differences are the backdrop for accurate judgement of men and women that we hear about in church news. It’s also important to bring power differences to light when we read Scripture. New readings of stories like Samson and Delilah can help us have Biblical sources of wisdom to draw on (Judges 13-16) as we …
Rethinking Samson, Seeing Delilah Read More »
“Her very name evokes images of beauty and sensuality, yet when we look for this creature in the New Testament, we look for her in vain.” –Susan Haskins, Mary Magdalene: Myth and Metaphor Who is Mary Magdalene to you? Apostle or icon of penitence? The Feast Day of Mary Magdalene is on July 22. In …
Who Was Mary Magdalene? Read More »
If we see Jesus as the “perfect reflection of God” (Col. 1:15; Heb. 1:3) we have to come face to face with God’s view of children, through Jesus Himself. This is harder than it seems. Most of us know that it’s not right to take children away from parents and jail them. However, do we …
Jesus and Children Read More »
In my 20s, a friend gave me Julian of Norwich’s 14th century book in which she writes of God as mother. I told my friend I wasn’t ready for it. What I knew was that Jesus called God Father. And I was at least 95% devoted to Jesus and what He did. Though I knew it …
Why Did Jesus Call God Father? Read More »
Sometimes God is the invisible Mother in the Bible, like the moms at the park holding the kids’ jackets. God-as-mother appears in the pages of Scripture, but often in a way that modern readers don’t notice. This Mother’s Day, let’s take time to see and appreciate God’s motherhood in the Bible. We can start with …
The Born Again Have a Mother Read More »
God requires that we assist the animals, when they need our help. Each being (human or creature) has the same right of protection. –St. Francis of Assisi “One piece of advice: get a breast pump,” said my graduate school professor. That’s one of those things only a woman can say to another. We were side-by-side …
Earth Day Blues: Cows and Sows are Mamas, Too Read More »
Luke called me a “sinner in the city” when he told the story about Simon the Pharisee and me. So through the ages people have assumed I was a prostitute. Every woman in the gospels with even a bit of a past is now known as sinning sexually. But back in the day, it didn’t …
Sinner, Yes, Prostitute, No: the Luke 7 Woman Speaks Read More »
