Wilda C. Gafney - A Womens Lectionary for the Whole Church: Year A

Advance praise for A Womens Lectionary for the Whole Church

A Womens Lectionary for the Whole Church challenges the androcentric landscape of our most common readings, upending customary theological constructs to uncover the presence of the feminine Divine. Such upending reveals space in our sacred text not only to see the stories of these women but also to see more deeply our own.

Rev. Traci D. Blackmon, Associate General Minister, Justice & Local Church Ministries, The United Church of Christ

Reading Wil Gafneys work is not unlike listening to a gifted jazz musician. She knows the tradition yet has the ability to weave multiple genres together to create a powerful and beautiful new song.

Rev. Otis Moss III, Senior Pastor, Trinity United Church of Christ, Chicago, Illinois

I did not know how much my soul needed A Womens Lectionary for the Whole Church until I began reading it, but now I suspect that I will never prepare another sermon or devotional without consulting it. Every pastor, indeed every Christian, needs this among their collection.

Chanequa Walker-Barnes, PhD, author of I Bring the Voices of My People: A Womanist Vision for Racial Reconciliation and Too Heavy a Yoke: Black Women and the Burden of Strength

As someone who has learned so much from the Rev. Dr. Wil Gafney, I commend it to every congregation and classroom. It is a prime example of revolutionary scholarship.

Brian D. McLaren, author of Faith After Doubt

I could sit at the feet of Wil Gafney for days and soak up her wisdom and knowledge. She has offered the church a treasure in this Womens Lectionary, and we would do well to make use of it quickly and thoroughly.

Rev. Nadia Bolz-Weber, author

A Womens Lectionary for the Whole Church is not only a resource for liturgy and preaching. I believe it is also a tool for contemplation on the mighty works of God on behalf of all people.

The Rt. Rev. C. Andrew Doyle, Episcopal Bishop of Texas and author of Embodied Liturgy

Gafneys resource will transform how the Bible gets read and preached in our churches, bringing us closer to the totality of Gods love.

Rev. Karoline M. Lewis, PhD, The Marbury E. Anderson Chair of Biblical Preaching, Luther Seminary, and Program Director, Festival of Homiletics

This lectionary is so powerful we will finish each reading saying out loud, The word of God! Thanks be to God!

Cludio Carvalhaes, Associate Professor of Worship, Union Theological Seminary, New York

For anyone wanting to read and meditate on scripture and be nurtured by the word without being harmed, this text is indispensable.

Willie James Jennings, Associate Professor of Systematic Theology and Africana Studies, Yale Divinity School

In a predominantly patriarchal world that still diminishes the lives, gifts, contributions, and voices of women, Professor Wil Gafney offers a distinct, bold, womens lectionary for the whole church and academy.

The Rev. Dr. Luke A. Powery, Dean, Duke University Chapel, and Associate Professor of Homiletics, Duke Divinity School

This resource will be a great blessing and useful to all who seek to loose the shackles and set free the voices of the religiously oppressed and suppressed.

Rev. Dr. Yvette A Flunder, Presiding Bishop, The Fellowship of Affirming Ministries, and Senior Pastor, City of Refuge UCC in Oakland, California

A WOMENS
LECTIONARY
FOR THE
WHOLE CHURCH

A WOMENS
LECTIONARY
FOR THE
WHOLE CHURCH

WILDA C. GAFNEY

Copyright 2021 by Wilda C. Gafney

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher.

Church Publishing
19 East 34th Street
New York, NY 10016

Cover art by Pauline Williamson
Cover design by Tiny Little Hammers
Typeset by Rose Design

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Gafney, Wilda, 1966- author.

Title: A womens lectionary for the whole church : year A / Wilda C. Gafney.

Description: New York, NY : Church Publishing, [2021-] | Contents: Year A

Identifiers: LCCN 2021007720 (print) | LCCN 2021007721 (ebook) | ISBN 9781640651623 (paperback) | ISBN 9781640651630 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: Common lectionary (1992) | Lectionaries. | Bible--Feminist criticism.

Classification: LCC BV199.L42 G34 2021 (print) | LCC BV199.L42 (ebook) | DDC 264/.03034--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021007720
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021007721

For those who have searched for themselves in the scriptures
and did not find themselves in the masculine pronouns.

I would like to thank the Louisville Institute for the 2019 Sabbatical Grant for Researchers; the trustees, administration, faculty, and staff of Brite Divinity School for a twelve-month sabbatical in 2019; and the rector, Mike Kinman, vestry, and members of the All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena for ongoing material, spiritual, and temporal support during this project and for committing to a year-long trial use of the lectionary in 20202021.

Special thanks to the RevGalBlogPal community and Martha Spong for an early hearing of the work and a collaborative digital space in which to try out lesson and translations choices. For valuable feedback, support, and inspiration, many thanks to the women, nonbinary persons, and men who attended collaborative consultation sessions across the country, including Martha Simmons of the African American Lectionary Project. Thanks to Alicia Hager for administrative support in the first year and to NaShieka Knight, my research assistant at Brite.

I remain grateful for translations and translators that have inspired me to take up the text: Marcia Falk, Everett Fox, Hugh Page, and Joel Rosenberg. I am appreciative for the Wisdom Psalter by Laura Grimes; it was an early resource and she an early collaborator. The psalms in these volumes are shaped by that interaction.

I am deeply grateful for all who have expressed support and encouragement and impatience for delivery in person, through correspondence, and on social media.

Lastly, I mourn those who will not see this project, especially those who died due to Covid 19 and its complications. They are legion.

I first saw Wil Gafney in chapel at Candler School of Theology in October of 2016, during a service where Leea Allen read an amazing poem Heart Matters and Dr. Gafney preached a sermon entitled Love God Herself, drawn from Beyoncs song Dont Hurt Yourself. I was inspired. I didnt have anything that day other than a regular piece of paper and my colored pensthis was before I unapologetically carted my markers into services, because I do most of my work in situbut I drew the image of a woman standing proud, brown face crowned with locks of dark hair, clothed in green, and holding up the world. She speaks to me of triumph.

This was not the last time that Dr. Gafneys words would inspire my art.

In a Queer and Feminist Theology course I took, we read Dr. Gafneys article Dont Hate the Playa, Hate the Game. In it, she refocused our attention on the fullness of Delilahs story, teasing out details and possibilities of connection that reframed both Delilahs motivations and power. If you havent read it, I suggest you do. It spoke to me of honey, and fire, and memory, and love, and retribution, and these things all shaped the piece I created in response: Remembering the Fire.