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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Last week we started a new series following the faith journeys of women in Scripture. We took a peek at one of the nameless women in Scripture, a Canaanite woman – an outsider. This week we will take a closer look at a woman who was even more suspect: an outsider and one who was involved in an act of sexual impropriety. Her name was Tamar. If you have never heard of her before, I would not be surprised – pastors have a tendency to avoid her story when choosing a text to preach on. It’s a shame – her story is both radical and profound.

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We start a new series today taking a closer look at faith journeys of the female kind in Scripture. What can I say, most of the stories in Scripture are about men (no surprise there – it came to be in a patriarchal culture). But here and there you find stories about women, and they are gems. Particularly interesting are the stories about the NAMELESS ones. You know – the anonymous women in Scripture, women whose stories we know so well, yet they are never identified by name: the woman Jesus meets at the well, the woman about to be stoned, the woman who anoints Jesus feet, and so on, and so on. They may be nameless, but they are full of spunk, and they do not allow themselves to be boxed in.

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Last week I posted a video clip called A Loving Contempt. In it Bart Campolo shares with us his experience of doing ministry in an urban neighborhood. A few years back Bart and his family moved to an impoverished urban neighborhood in Cincinnati, Ohio to love and support the community. But as is evident from the video clip, it’s not that simple. Life is complicated and messy. The video clip makes you squirm uncomfortably in you seat – it’s disturbing and challenging.

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In the past few weeks we have looked at the Command to “love our neighbor” from different angles, but what about those people in our lives who are hard to love? Or what about those people we feel contempt towards? In one sense it is easier to love an anonymous enemy than it is to love those people we know who fill us with disgust.

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Any reference to 1 Corinthians 13 conjures up visions of wedding dresses, rented tuxedos, bouquets, and confetti. Although 1 Corinthians has nothing to do with romantic love or even for that matter “feelings,” it is understandable why this particular Scripture text is so popular with couples tying the knot. It talks about enduring love, the kind a love a couple would need if they want their relationship to survive and flourish for the long haul.

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