People's Prayers: Prayers of the People: In the Naming ~ 2nd Sunday of Advent, WCLWC*, '23 Yr B

For Sunday, December 10, 2023, Readings: Genesis 16:7-13, Psalm 48:1-3, 9-14; Romans 10:9-13, Mark 1:14-28

And the messenger said, “Hagar, slave-girl of Sarai, from where have you come and where are you going?” And she said, “From my mistress Sarai am I fleeing.” The messenger of the Inscrutable God said to her, “Return to your mistress and subject yourself to her.” The messenger of the Wellspring of Life said to Hagar, “Greatly will I multiply your seed so they cannot be counted for multitude.” [Genesis 16:8-10]

Great is the Ageless God and greatly praised…Like your Name, God, your praise reaches to the ends of the earth. [Psalm 48:1a, 10]

For, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Sovereign shall be saved.” [Romans 10:13]

…there was in their synagogue [at Capernaum] a person with an unclean spirit, who cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.” But Jesus rebuked the spirit, saying, “Be silent, and come out!” Then the unclean spirit, convulsing the person and crying with a loud voice, came out. [Mark 1:23-26]

Welcome to Advent, a season of hopeful waiting, anticipation, and the beginning of a new Liturgical Year, Year B, in the three year cycle of Sunday readings. Think of it as a time to see and hear the same readings differently; or, in this space this Season, to different readings in new translations, newly. As with the immediately prior 7 weeks of The Season of Creation in my parish, in this new Season of Advent, I’ll use the usual Revised Common Lectionary on one blog space offering my sense of the readings and form of the prayers of the people, and, in this blog space each week, I am using The Women’s Common Lectionary for the Whole Church aka, WCL, by The Rev. Dr. Wilda [Wil] Gafney’s translations. I will post her translations for the current week below with a very brief bio and her website link.* Dr. Gafney’s text notes are informing me of new ways to understand an historical/cultural aspect of her translations, as well as theological. Dr. Gafney’s opening questions of the WCL Yr B ask, in part, What does it look like to tell the Good News through the stories of women who are often on the margins of Scripture and often set up to represent bad news…when women’s brutalization and marginalization are moved from the margins of canon…held in tension with the stories of biblical heroines and heroes…I do believe that my questions and perceptions invite women, men, and nonbinary readers to engage the scriptures in new ways [to] find themselves and their questions represented. Dr. Gafney uses gender-expansive translations and explicit feminine God language.

The Advent season, as does every Liturgical season of the Christian Church, brings a variety of symbols and rituals that aid our intentional prayer and reflection. The use of the Advent wreath was begun in the time of Martin Luther, the prime initiator of the Protestant Reformation in the 16^th century. How it is used differs among the many traditions that employ it. For most, now, there are at least four candles on a wreath of evergreen that is shaped in a perfect circle to symbolize the eternity of God. The lighting of the candles represents the coming of Christ with a different theme each week highlighting the four virtues Jesus brings to us: Hope, Love, Joy, and Peace. The Christ candle, in the center of the wreath, is lighted on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day to remind Christians that Jesus is the light of the world.

Last week Hope was the focus and this week it is Love and both candles will be lighted. Keeping Hope in and Love of Christ is a way to prepare ourselves and keep our own paths uncluttered in these unsettled, uncertain times.

A sense of love, is at first difficult to discern in the passage from Genesis when God’s own messenger is telling the fearful fleeing Hagar, slave-girl of Sarai, to return and subject yourself to her. In other words, go back to be further abused. Surely this is hard to hear by those in domestic violence situations in any translation. And, I’ve checked a few and some say submit, one says be thou meeked under her hands, and one paraphrase says Put up with her abuse. But finally we come to the heart of the matter. Dr. Gafney refers to the next message from The Fount of Life as an Annunciation, in fact, says Dr. Gafney, Hagar is the first woman in scripture granted an annunciation. Further, Hagar and Rebekah [Genesis 24:60] are the only women in the canon credited with their own seed/offspring as the language is usually reserved for men. Hagar is told her seed will produce offspring in numbers uncountable.

The Psalm’s translation, as all these readings, continues to showcase new and gender-less translations of God as in the opening verse Great is the Ageless God…and later the pronouns of herself, her, and she throughout.

In Romans and in other texts using “a woman or man” is such a simple yet notable change in the way we have heard these passages in most readings our whole lives. It’s hard to imagine that it was so hard to imagine doing this! But then, understanding oppression, however indirect let alone absolutely direct, usually escapes those who are oppressive, even those with better intentions.

And then we come to Mark’s Gospel after the arrest of John. Jesus is in Galilee gathering disciples who instantly drop everything and follow him ~ how hard is that to imagine?! Then after teaching in the Synagogue, Jesus rebukes an unclean spirit, and that opens up an awareness of him throughout the whole of the area around the Galilee who suddenly hear of this man of power as unclean spirits…obey him.

From her Text Notes for this week’s readings, Dr. Gafney points out several details of which we aren’t generally aware and rarely, if ever, taught. The Annunciation piece and the crediting of seed is one; and she speaks further and more explicitly about the abuse of Hagar. Further, in her Preaching Prompts, she discusses the importance of names in the ancient world in that to know a true name was to potentially have power over a person, a deity, or other supernatural entity. So Hagar naming God and having it accepted is extraordinary. Remember that “YHWH” was and still is in Orthodox Judaism and similarly in Orthodox Christianity is not permitted to be spoken as in what less orthodox denominations would express as “Yahweh.” And, Paul tells us specifically that what is given to all who call upon the name of Jesus is salvation. And, Dr. Gafney says, continuing the thread of power in a name, that in Mark, …the unclean spirit knows that Jesus has a name, an identity, beyond the one everyone knows so Jesus silences and expels it before it has a chance to tell what it knows.

What really is in a name? We inherit names, we choose others for ourselves, and often they are within a societal or cultural expectation. There may be legal ramifications of names and name-changing and outright rejection of those whose names and gender identification aren’t within the bounds of societal, religious, ethnic, or cultural demands. Children can be particularly, but far from exclusively, cruel in excluding others just by mocking their names.

We are taught early and continually that God knows us each by our name. What is now in the naming of God and others for you?

*Readings for Advent this year are from The Rev. Dr. Wilda [Wil] Gafney, Womanist biblical scholar, and is the Right Rev. Sam B. Hulsey Professor of Hebrew Bible at Brite Divinity School in Fort Worth, Texas. She is the author of A Women’s Lectionary for the Whole Church and translator of its biblical selections. Learn more about her and her work at her website: https://www.wilgafney.com/

For Advent II, December 10, 2023:

Genesis 16:7-13: Now the messenger of the All-Seeing God found Hagar by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur. 8. And the messenger said, “Hagar, slave-girl of Sarai, from where have you come and where are you going?” And she said, “From my mistress Sarai am I fleeing.” 9. The messenger of the Inscrutable God said to her, “Return to your mistress and subject yourself to her.” 10. The messenger of the Wellspring of Life said to Hagar, “Greatly will I multiply your seed so they cannot be counted for multitude.” 11. Then the messenger of the Fount of Life said to her, “Look! You are pregnant and shall give birth to a son, and you shall call him Ishmael (meaning God hears), for the Faithful One has heard of your abuse. 12. He shall be a wild ass of a man, with his hand against everyone, and everyone’s hand against him; and he shall live in the sight of all his kin.” 13. So Hagar named the Living God who spoke to her: “You are El-ro’I”; for she said, “Have I really seen God and remained alive after seeing God?”

Psalm 48:1-3, 9-14: 1. Great is the Ageless God and greatly praised, in the city of our God is God’s holy mountain. 2. Beautiful in elevation, the joy of all the earth, Mount Zion, in the far north, is the city of the great Sovereign. 3. Within her citadels God has made herself known as a bulwark. 9. We contemplate your faithful love God, in the midst of your temple. 10. Like your Name, God, your praise, reaches to the ends of the earth. Your right hand is filled with Righteousness. 11. Let Mount Zion be glad, let the towns of Judah rejoice because of your judgments. 12. Go about Zion, go all around her; count her towers. 13. Set your hearts upon her ramparts; go through her citadels, that you may recount to the next generation: 14. For this God is our God, our God forever and ever. She will be our guide until we die.

Romans 10:9-13: If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Sovereign and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10. For with the heart a woman or man believes and is made righteous, and with the mouth a person confesses and so is saved. 11 Indeed, the scripture says, “one who believes in him will not be put to shame.” 12. For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek because the same Sovereign is sovereign over all and is generous to all who call on him. 13. For, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Sovereign shall be saved.”

Mark 1:14-28: Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, 15. And saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the reign of God has come near; repent, and believe in the Gospel.” 16. And as Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew throwing a net into the sea, for they were fisherfolk. 17. And Jesus said to them, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” 18. Then immediately they left their nets and followed him. 19. As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending their nets. 20. Then immediately Jesus called them and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the laborers and followed him. 21. And they went to Capernaum and when the sabbath came Jesus entered the synagogue and taught. 22. The women and men [in the synagogue] were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having power, and not as the scholars. 23. Immediately after [Jesus finished teaching] there was in their synagogue [at Capernaum] a person with an unclean spirit, 24. who cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.” 25. But Jesus rebuked the spirit, saying, “Be silent, and come out!” 26. Then the unclean spirit, convulsing the person and crying with a loud voice, came out. 27. And the women and the men in the synagogue were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, “What is this? A new teaching – with power! He commands even the unclean spirit, and they obey him.” 28. And his fame immediately spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee.

LET US, GOD’S PEOPLE, PRAY

Leader: ~ All-Seeing God, so call our hearts that we contemplate Your faithful love each and every day in our waking, in our rising, and in our resting. May all that all we do be in service for and praise to Your name.

O Living and Ageless God
RESPONSE: Our Guide and our God forever and ever

~ All-Seeing God, our tumultuous world is rife with conflict through the dismantling of compassion and empathy by unbridled abuse of power and unrelenting greed. In this sacred waiting time, make Your Truth spring up from this Earth and fill all who govern across this Planet, with a fierce urge to comfort Your people by a renewal of mercy, righteousness, and peace. We pray especially for: add your own petitions