We launched our new Children’s Ministry program at church yesterday. It was the culmination of months of hard work, planning, and training. It all started about six months ago when we realized that we had an increase of families with children attending our small urban church. It dawned on us that the program we were using was not adequate anymore for the needs of the diverse ages of the kids suddenly attending our Sunday School program. What impressed me the most in this whole process was how enthusiastically both the Session and Sunday School teachers supported the idea of revitalizing the Children’s Ministry. Anyone who has worked in the church can tell you that to bring about change in the church can be an uphill battle – people just instinctively tend to resist change. But from the very start everyone was on board. Unusual as that is, what impressed me the most in working with both the Sunday School teachers and the Session was their genuine desire to develop a Children and Youth Ministry program that would nurture our kids’ spiritual development and help them experience the presence of the Divine in their lives.

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This week I thought it appropriate to end our series on women in Scripture with a look at the feminine mystique of God, called Sophia (Wisdom):
Doesn’t Wisdom call? Doesn’t Understanding raise her voice? On the hills along the road, at the crossroads, she takes her stand; beside the city gates of the town, in the gates themselves, she cries out, “Women and men, people everywhere, I’m calling out to you! I cry out to all humankind! You who are simple, learn how to make sound judgments! To the foolish among you, use your common sense! Listen closely, for what I say is worth hearing, and I will tell you what is right; for my mouth will speak the truth, and my lips hate to lie.

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Spirituality is kind of a strange “thing.” A couple Sundays ago we focused on a parable in which Jesus says the spiritual life is like a woman who adds a tiny bit of yeast to 3 cups of flour and with that, the whole ball of dough comes to life. During that service I asked people to share in small conversation groups “How are we like the yeast that gives life to Jesus?” “How do we bring Jesus to life today?” One of the conversation groups shared about how difficult it is to be honest and ethical in today’s work environment. As they were sharing, I thought of the new ad campaign that AIDS Healthcare Foundation has on billboards all over L.A. for their pharmacies. Their slogan is “People before profit.”

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Bravery. There is plenty of bravery in Scripture, especially among the women of the Bible. In those days women didn’t have the rights, protections and advantages that women (in some countries), have today, yet they found strength to take great risks and step out in faith. One of the brave women of the Bible is Rahab. We find her story in the book of Joshua. Moses had died and the leadership of the Hebrew people passed to Joshua. His mission was to take the people across the Jordan and under his leadership God’s promise to Moses to fulfill the covenant of the land would become a reality.

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Our Bible Study group at church is studying a book written by Phillip Yancey called “Prayer: Does it make any difference?” In the book Yancey asks poignant questions such as: Is God even listening to all the billions of prayers? Why would God even care about me and my life? Why do answers to prayer seem so inconsistent? Can God change, or is everything set in stone? How can prayer be nourishment to my soul and yet be so confusing and frustrating at times?

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Often the world of the Bible seems so far removed from our reality and daily experiences. Every now and then I’ll catch myself glancing over whole paragraphs when I’m reading a Scripture text – not paying much attention as the story unfolds. Yet, when I take the time, slow down, and take it all in, I realize that many of the stories in Scriptures are not that unfamiliar. Sometimes one will grab my imagination and transcend the thousands of years that separate us. Sometimes I’ll even discover myself in one of the stories. Someone once said the stories in Scriptures are more than just stories about people who lived a long time ago – they are also our stories.

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One time, Jesus was invited to eat at the house of a Pharisee, named Simon. While there, a woman from the city, who used to be a sinner, dropped by, uninvited, bringing with her a jar of costly ointment to anoint Jesus. But as she stood behind Jesus, she was overwhelmed with emotion and started to weep. So deeply was she moved; so many her tears, that it wet Jesus’ feet. This was not planned, she had no towel with her, and so she did the next best thing: she loosened her hair, and dried Jesus’ feet with her hair. Flabbergasted, I suspect, she then remembered the costly ointment she brought. Trying to regain her composure, she broke open the alabaster jar and anointed Jesus’ feet instead of his head as she had planned.

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This week we will look at the story of Esther. The Book of Esther is a WEIRD Bible book. Why? Well, God is not mentioned in the book. Not even once. No one calls on God for help; no one prays to God, there is no praising or worshipping of God. And God’s self is absent in the whole story: God doesn’t appear or speak to anyone, not even through dreams or miracles – nothing. Nada. The book is like no other book in the Bible. Imagine that, a book in Scripture that doesn’t mention God! What is that all about?

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Last week I shared with you from the Book of Judges, chapter 11, the horrifying story of Jephthah’s unnamed daughter. This week we will look at the book of Judges once again, but this time the story is dramatically different. It is the story of a woman extraordinaire; it is the story of Deborah and Jael who delivered the Israelites from oppression. The story is told in narrative form in chapter 4 of the Book of Judges and retold in poetic form known as “The Song of Deborah” in chapter 5.

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Not all the stories in Scripture about women are uplifting or empowering. Many are sad, some even horrifying. One such case is the story of Jephthah’s unnamed daughter. A story of blaming the victim, a story of a vulnerable person being sacrificed for so-called pious reasons, a story about a complacent community failing to act in the face of injustice. We find this unnamed girl’s story in Judges 11.

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