One time Mae West quipped that it is “better to be looked over than overlooked.” I think this is true, just maybe not in the same context she meant it (smiling). So, I have decided we are going to spend the next few weeks looking deeply at some powerful stories of overlooked women in the scriptures. You have likely never heard of the women we will meet. Many are known not by name, but by their afflictions, their activity, their ethnicity, or by where they live or hang out. Some, whose names you may have heard of, are just weird for one reason or another. This Sunday is our fall "Regathering Sunday" where we begin to huddle up from our summer trips and activities and it is also our first installment in our new fall worship and UCH podcast podcast series “Overlooked: Fleshing Out the Stories of Unnamed and Underrated Women in Scripture” and today we will be meeting the “Woman Who is Bound and Bent Over” in Luke 13.
I also look forward to introducing you to “The Woman Taken in Adultery (Who is not Mary Magdalene, and who finds herself used as a pawn in a religious debate, That should sound familiar in our post Roe world), The Widow of Zarephath (who hangs out at the town threshold gate trying to makes ends meet and shows more hospitality than most of us), Jael (the woman with a male name who “acts like a man”), Esther (who has to decide whether to stay in her integrity at potential great cost to herself or be quiet and let it slide at the cost of many. That should feel familiar...), Ruth and Naomi (who have lost their families so chose and create a family of their own), Rahab (whose Israelite spy visitors come to her “inn” to “lay down” Note: It’s not an “inn,” and “laying down” has nothing to do with sleeping.) and The “Witch of Endor” (who should, according to Rev. Dr. Wil Gafney, more rightly be called “The Ghost Master of Endor” who single handedly drags Samuel’s spirit up from the underworld for Saul at tremendous risk to herself, and whose abilities even defy the prohibitions of the Deuteronomist who has an axe to grind with all Canaanite religious practices in the Hebrew Bible). That conversation will, of course, take place on Halloween/Celebration of Our Ancestors Sunday. I look forward to being with you for this incredible fall adventure at our Regathering. If you ever find yourself feeling unseen, or overlooked, I think you are going to enjoy hearing these powerful stories, and meeting some new friends in coming days. -Rev. Jeanne
Join us on Zoom, or by phone (audio only): (669) 900-6833. or join us here for the sermon live stream.
