1 Sam 1, 2:1-11,18-21

Hannah

Hannah is married to Elkanah who is listed as a son of a son of a son. From such an introduction it is clear that sonship is really important in this story. But Hannah has no children while Elkanah’s other wife does. Elkanah seems content with this situation while Hannah is not. When she expresses her unhappiness he answered her in a manner similar to Jacob‘s response in an earlier story to his wife, Rachel. “Why would you be unhappy, am I not more to you than ten sons?” Patriarchal men just don’t get it.In the time before patriarchy both women and men had the option to have more than one mate. That all changed with the institution of marriage, when women were restricted to one spouse while men continued to have many wives and mates. Perhaps in the old days there was a lot less barrenness because women were free to mate with other men until successful at bearing a child. Back in those days women could ritualize their divine role with their supportive fertility rites together. Hannah may have been feeling the loss of those old ways, and the constraints and emptiness of patriarchal living. Ridicule from Elkanah's other wife was especially hurtful because it was so contrary to the support women gave one another in the old ways. It shows how pervasive and internalized patriarchy had become for some of the women. Hannah's husband could in no way ever understand? In such a culture what else was there that could fulfill a woman’s life without children?Hannah took her dissatisfaction to the one place where she knew she would be understood. In the temple she cries her heart and soul out to God without caring who sees or hears her. At a time when religious ritual was public, communal and sacrificial Hannah invents inward prayer. The temple priest, Eli, observes her behavior and chides her. He mistakenly believed that she was intoxicated. Hannah defends her self image and manifests a deep dependency upon God. She leaves the temple with the priest’s blessing, renewed peace, and a deep trust that her prayers would be answered.When she later celebrated her renewed faith with her husband she conceived a son. She named him Samuel. In keeping with her promise, when he was solidly weaned she took him to the temple, presented him to Eli, and dedicated him back to God. Hannah had other children afterwards but she always treasured her precious first child, Samuel. Each year she returned to visit her son and to bring him a fine new linen robe that she herself had made for him.Her recorded psalm is very similar to the magnificat that was recited many years later by another young mother, Mary, as she announced her pregnancy to Elizabeth. When God granted Hannah's prayer with the gift of motherhood it seemed to her that life’s original order was restored. Later God asked Mary to accept motherhood so that her son could restore life’s original order for all. A mysterious interplay between woman and the divine, the divine and woman goes on and on. It was in the beginning before patriarchy, since patriarchy, and in spite of patriarchy.

Her heart's desire: When Elkanah could not give Hannah a child she turned to God's partnership for creating new life.

Points to Ponder:
1. In Hannah's time bearing children gave status and fulfillment to a woman, the more children the more richly blessed. A husband was admired for the number of his offspring. Today women with many children are generally poor and often neglected, abandoned or abused by her male partners and society. What factors account for this shift in regard to children?

2. The bible is full of strange incidents and conversations between God and male figures that are recorded as marks of favor and faith. When Hannah prayed with her whole body and soul she exhibited her spiritual intensity with trance like behaviors. Eli interpreted this as drunkenness or seemingly drugged. In the freer lives of her foremothers women danced, sang, screamed and howled their spiritual yearnings. Later mystic women had often exhibited strange behaviors when conversing with God. Woman mystics were often labeled as mentally imbalanced. But like many other women mystics, Hannah would not back down or doubt her sanity. She defends her faith and her right to have direct conversation with God. She would not be restricted by the sterile prayer forms permitted to women in the temple. Are women today seeking to free themselves of sterile forms of prayer within our traditional religions? Or must women yet come to terms with being relegated to their silent passive role as only observers of religious rituals?
In her desperation Hannah finds her woman voice and stands up for her rights to be heard and for her own spiritual authority. How different could our religious tradition have been if Hannah’s spirit been fostered within us? Imagine the differences in liturgical development….if like Eli, priests, rabbis and ministers could allow the voices of women and indeed all the laity to be heard and blessed.

3. Hannah's dedication of Samuel to God and to the temple indicates that she considered her son more God's child than Elkanah's. He was her child to give, dedicating him was her decision to make, he was the result of her bargaining with God. At some deeper level she intuited that this child was special? She kept Samuel until she had weaned him, nourished him until he was fully ready to be entrusted to the temple priests. By her yearly visits she continued to oversee his continued well being and education by the temple priests. When women sense a special gift or talent in a child and nurture it, the world is changed. Did your mother see your specialness and nurture it? Do you see it in your child? How do you foster it? Do you diligently oversee the child's education, making sure that the temples of our time are nuturing and supporting that specialness? Parents in our time have entrusted their children to church leaders who betrayed them with sexual abuse. Could Hannah be a model of parental vigilence within the church and other formative institutions?

4. Hannah's later psalm reflects her understanding of her woman relationship with God and her vision of a world order that is broadened and reversed when God hears our prayers. Could believing in the infinite possibilities of this woman's prayer bring about the justice and peace we all yearn for? Her psalm parallels the Magnificat prayed when Mary admits to her pregnancy with Jesus. Would that all mothers prayed her psalm or the magnificat over their child each night before bed. Later the Beatitudes of Jesus parallel the prayers of both women. Spend some time to meditate on the similarities of the three prayers. One can see the influence of the two women's spirituality in the treasured uplifting words of Jesus. The beatitudes form the framework of our modern beliefs about social justice and peace. Certainly Jesus must have been aware of the origins of His beliefs. Why is it that Christian churches rarely make this connection? In what ways are Hannah's psalm, Mary's Magnificat, and Jesus' Beatitudes a rebuke to all patriarchal institutions? In what ways do they foster the work of liberation?

5. Jesus was a product of a long geneology of sons. His history was told and retold in these stories of fathers having sons. Yet we have no proof that Jesus believed in the primacy of sons, or had sons for that matter. His life begins with a question of whose son He was. How could that have impacted Him? In salvation history at least the importance of having a son seems to have ended with Jesus. Geneologies no longer seemed to be so important to New Testament and later spiritual writers. Instead of having His own son, Jesus became the son His people had been waiting for. For Jesus waiting was not where it was at. Today we read slogans that remind us that we are the change that we are hoping for. Like Jesus whatever we are waiting for, we must just be it. And how will that make all the difference in the world?

6. The Bible has many stories of women and men awaiting anxiously for the birth of a son. Where in this book of sacred writings is a story of waiting eagerly for a daughter's birth? Where can women find inspiring stories of being wanted into being? born into destiny? Whenever the women characters are introduced in scriptures they are already fully grown and waiting to be useful to God and men. What does it say to women if there are no infancy narratives of daughters? Though there is no evidence to believe that Jesus had a son, there is a long and mysterious tradition, and suppression of belief, (though always denied as "unfounded " ) that Jesus may possibly have had a daughter. (DiVinci code, the gnostic writings and a history of religious sects honoring Mary Magdalen in a special way, hint strongly to such beliefs.) If it had been true, this alleged daughter would have been the granddaughter of God. How favored can one get?

7. This woman story cannot be used as a model for feminism because Hannah desires are strictly conventional. She wants to do exactly what patriarchal society expects her to do, that is, bear children. Outside her mother role Hannah cannot see value for living. Oddly it is Elkanah who asserts that from his perspective an individual’s personhood has value even without the achievement of motherhood. One wonders if Elkanah himself could ever have realized how profound his proclamation of self-esteem was. It would take many generations before women could declare this first principle of feminism for themselves. When a man loves a woman for more than her biological purposes, then he too becomes a feminist. What so called women issues will disappear or be treated as simply human issues once men and women both can view human worth beyond biological criteria?

Women view scriptures

Good introduction for re - viewing the search for the feminine divine.
National Cathedral - Washington, DC www.cathedral.org/cathedral/video/kidd050413.shtmlSue Monk Kidd speaks before an audience of more than 800 at the National Cathedral in Washington D.C. on the Black Madonna in The Secret Life of Bees.Windows Media PlayerTime: 1:09:04


Scriptures through women’s eyes.

For more than three thousand years there has been a movement ( intended, and at times, unintended) that produced a culture that almost completely excluded the role of women from recorded history. A collective belief was held that women's primary role in the human community was one of reproduction. While the male species regarded the female as evil and feared losing his control to the powers of women, nevertheless they had to acknowledge that women, as mothers of the species, played a vital role in human survival.

The earliest writings including the Hebrew and Christian scriptures depicted women as manipulative, deceitful, seductive, needy, ignored and unworthy of belief. Often they were glaringly missing from the stories altogether. With so little known about our foremothers, it causes one to wonder, what impact has this not knowing caused?

The stories used for centuries as references for the origins of our religious beliefs contain only one side or half of reality. We may validly ask, how then can the scriptures be regarded as a vehicle of God speaking to us? If the absence or diminishment of women is not corrected will we only have half of religious truth? Theological errors or omissions about women must be corrected so that women can be free and full human beings. New ways of understanding women's roles in the Old and New Testaments are needed, if the sacred writings are to continue to be regarded as a source of truth about human life.

Reading skills for a woman’s perspective

1.----New ways of interpreting the writings can be developed by asking
· Why are the texts taken for granted? Can they be read against the grain.
· How can the stories be read from a woman's mindset.
· Are the authors of scriptures predominately males, writing only from the male perspective, wishful thinking, prejudices, and fears?
· Are there biblical sexual politics of the recorded time being exposed?

2.--- Previously held beliefs interfere with hearing God’s voice and cloud the messages that would have been intended by a loving creator. Some steps for restoring the true and original message include….
· declaring texts of terror, wars, and abuse, as causes of scars in the human community and contrary to the will of a loving God.
· rejecting dualisms, and viewing man's domination as a humanly chosen perversion of the way it was supposed to be.
· asking what women authors would have reported in biblical situations.

3.---Scriptures must be liberated from the original male biases of the authors by asking....
· What cultural and religious issues in the writing /rewritings were used to distort the truth?
What biased overlays of past rewritings were used to defend biases toward men or against women?

Developing discernment skills.

Today women must read in the lines, between the lines, and beyond the lines. In so doing this they must....
1.---challenge any assumptions that have been presented as facts
2.--- define themselves and what is sacred.
3.---read the scriptures from the bottom up, not from the top down.
4.---recognize the deeper truths deep within the hearts of compliant biblical women characters.
5.---view the suppression of women’s (pagan) rites as the suppression of women’s rights
6---refuse to accept the blame for the loss of paradise or the cause of pain and evil.
7.---recognize that the matriarchal religions (some 25,000 years ago) were persecuted, adapted or exploited by patriarchal religions for their own purposes.
8.---show that sex was equated with sin by male dominated religions to justify the demonizing of women, and to control women through the institution of marriage.
9.---revise the creation stories. “In the beginning stories barely mention the billions of years of divine artistic interplay with the cosmic elements to bring about this closely interdependent and magnificent planet. (Women were not an after-thought in the great scheme of things.)
10.--- creatively rewrite the texts to express the new consciousness of this age
11.---use language that depicts a genderless God.
12.---create new images of God that expand beyond a parent-child relationship.
13…focus attention on the feminist beliefs and actions of Jesus.
14…reread the gospels of Jesus to discover the earliest understandings of His followers regarding the equality in christian community.
15…study the active participation of women as disciples of Jesus.
16…share and reflect deeply on interactions of Jesus with the women in His ministry.
17…meditate on the dependence of the Holy Spirit upon Mary for bringing Jesus into the human story.
18…compare the presence and outspokenness of the women in scriptures with the absence and timidity of the men….eg. the garden of Eden and the Easter story.
19---read as the adults of God.

Using a Theology of Suspicion

A woman’s birthright is her mystic nature. Her mystic self asks….
1.---what was the woman’s reality in each story?
2.---why is the woman’s role omitted or her role marginalized?
3.---what do these gaps and omissions reveal about the culture and practices of the times in which the writings were created?
4.---what stereotypes were applied to women characters as though they were inborn and unchanging?
5.---why was it often important for male writers to silence the women of biblical stories ?
6.---why do certain writings cause discomfort to the woman reader?
7.---is the story derogatory to my soul?
8.---does the story depict a credible intentional Creator?
9.---what must be resisted and opposed in order that the story support the woman’s soul?
10.-- does the story tell more about flaws in the male’s spiritual nature (limitations, threats, biases)?
11.---what political events at the time of the story prompted the marginal or reduced characterization of the women in the story?
12.---why did it become necessary to develop laws that controlled women?
13.---what women powers already in existence were the males trying to usurp?
14.---when the face value of a story stirs up mistrust and disbelief women need to further explore the reasons.

Strategies for discerning God's will, versus the authors’ intent.

1.---find hints that there were women like us in the past. When we find them, use them as role models and mentors.
2.--- use scriptures to answer the questions of contemporary women.
3.---retell the stories in the first person feminine to...
· show how it would be different from the originally recorded version.
· depict man's humorously exaggerated efforts to control God and nature, in a format that it deserves.
· reveal how women in some of the stories demonstrated their independence, when they engaged in deceit or manipulation of events.
· demonstrate that weaknesses of women characters were actually examples of women’s intuitive and deeper sense of the divine.
· deconstruct mandates of patriarchy so that men and women can work side by side (Adam's rib) as originally intended.
4.--- allow women’s voices to rise out of their silenced centuries and empty spaces and finally speak their truth.

We are the unintended and unimagined audience of authors, who were writing and editing religious beliefs from thousands of years ago. Those writers could never have imagined our times or the circumstances of women today. By critically reflecting on the past, the scriptures could become viable vehicles for communicating ideas that would inspire us to improve both the present and the future. However, it will require women to read with cautious and open minds and hearts, sometimes outside and against the writings of scripture.

Feminist Theology requires…
1.---a holy discontent,
2.---divine imagination
3.--- new visions for humanity
4.---daring to change the status quo
5.---voicing truth to power
6.---demanding equal time for proclaiming women’s stories in liturgical celebrations. (revision of liturgical calendar)
7.---correcting sexist language in religious rituals.

Agenda for Reflecting Women

We must become counter-scriptural readers. Women must no longer merely accept the role of obedient readers. We must challenge the politics of the past and question the present function of each story. We must resist the hold of scriptures over western culture, when it is used politically. Women must explore the archeological findings and other ancient sources for their parallel and contrasting stories. We must assume a subversive stance toward any of the texts that are clearly patriarchal and/or destructive in nature. Women must reimagine different scenarios that could have led to different futures, histories, and even to a different understanding of God.

Once women allow the Bible to reflect women’s reality (past or present) it will add to the truth rather than detract from it. By making the scriptures relevant, meaningful, and contemporary the Bible stories can be used to explore our urgent questions, enrich our values, explain the shortcomings of our times, and help to create a culture where all are equal sharers of God’s creations. Perhaps we can even save the planet threatened by addictions to power and wealth.
We must boldly use the scripures to convey the good news of the coming age, in much the same way that the early Christians used the Old Testament writers did. By bringing new images of a genderless divine creator to this age, we will open the way for a realistic equality that respects the capabilities of both sexes, and honors the intrinsic value and purpose of all creatures. This is necessary if we are to identify ourselves as civilized species. Until then, one might rightly question the human claim of being images of God at all.

Biblical stories, when they can resonate with a woman’s inner realities, will inspire her to be faithful to herself. A God, who is identified as “I am”, manifests a being with intuitive and imminent natures that a woman can embrace. Such a synonymous relationship with our source being invites us to enter a place of great Unknowing. In that place, without answers, but only with deep and mysterious questions we can dream of a new way of life. A future with inclusiveness and infinite possibilities.

Women's theological tools will function in our spiritual development like the telescope and the microscope does in our scientific world. With these tools we will delve deeper and farther into the scriptures, When women internalize their newer “in sights” from the texts, they will outgrow years of imposed interpretations. With the new light shed upon scriptures their scope and meaning within our lives will be enlarged.

Grown up women know that they have every right/rite, to search for and claim, life giving truths about themselves, and about all of creation. Burning with new enthusiasm they will use their voices to bring about a new Pentecost. They have already been encouraged by Jesus' assurance that, “the truth will set you free". But first women must dare to ask, “What is truth?” just as Jesus did.
posted by Her Heart's Desire @ 5:27 PM 0 comments links to this post

Tamar Genesis 38

I had intended to skip Tamar. It seemed she had no apparent mystical experience of God in her story. Then I read the geneology of Jesus and there she is---the first of only four women recorded in His lineage. Why was she mentioned (remembered)? Was it because her disputed pregnancy paralleled that of Mary’s? Or was there some other significance that God would have us not forget? So I looked at her again.

Hers was a story about preserving the male line. This was often the theme when women were written into the scriptures. Her husband, Er, had died and left her childless. Onan, her brother-in-law, was obliged to have relations with her to give her a child who would become Er’s descendent. Onan resorted to birth control because Tamar’s child would be Er’s child and could diminish his own children’s rights. Eventually Onan died of illness which was seen as punishment from God, of course. His father, Judah, promised his youngest son to fulfill the obligations of Tamar’s marriage contract. Judah had no intention of giving his last son over to Tamar, but he told her to return to her family to wait until his son came of age for marriage. In time it became clear that Judah was avoiding the laws of marriage, and that Tamar would not be able to fulfill her right to bear a child. Motherhood was the only source of security for women of that time, so to restore her woman rights Tamar devised a plan to take the law into her own hands.

Since the law was on her side, Tamar could have chosen to publicly disgrace Judah for his neglect, and expose Onan’s sin. Instead she engaged in a more “honorable” plot. She disguised as a temple prostitute, symbolic of the still widely held Canannite belief that sexuality and fertility were divine forces and of women’s sacred role. Tamar would use this divine force to extract and demand her right of motherhood.

Judah fell for the disguise and propositioned her. But she would not risk her life or integrity without a price. Judah promised her a newborn kid from his flock, but Tamar demanded his seal, his cord and his staff as a security for his promise. What she had actually demanded were the symbols of the identity of her future child’s father. In time her pregnancy was discovered and she was accused of being a whore. It was Judah’s right to sentence her to death as an adultererwithin his family. Tamar sent the seal, cord and staff back to Judah and it became clear that he should be condemned as well, or admit the truth of his fatherhood. He acknowledged his paternity but agreed to forego any sexual rights with Tamar. The woman had won her rights.

Her Heart’s Desire: Tamar valued truth and wanted her rights as a woman.

Points to Ponder:

1. Judah was one of Jacob’s 12 sons, the one who had saved Joseph’s life by suggesting that the brothers sell him as a slave rather than kill him. He had insisted that Onan fulfill his duties to his dead brother’s memory. When he couldn’t keep his promise of the newborn kid, he worried about how that would look publicly. He was capable of acting morally but not for the purest of reasons. Was Tamar God’s instrument for making Judah face his own lack of integrity? Was she the one who could teach Judah to accept responsibility for his actions. Later when Judah’s brother, Benjamin, is falsely accused of stealing, Judah courageously offered to become a slave in exchange for Benjamin’s freedom. ( a role reversal with Joseph)

2. Tamar fought fearlessly over her reproductive rights. Marriage and its laws were a source of security for woman at that time. But single women, and especially the single women with child, were most vulnerable, even subject to the death penalty. Today we have some parallels. Do women have reproductive rights or are they entirely in the hands of the male lawmakers? Do single mothers suffer the greatest risks also today? Is the right to choose a closed religious issue, not to even be discussed, in some of our religious institutions?

3. Judah realizes that Tamar went out of her way to spare his reputation. He praises herfor her discretion. He admits that her sins were out of desperation, while his were out of negligence and deceit. He willingly assumed the responsibility for both her and her children. Judah becomes a model of responsibility for all the children of this world. Women should not have to be the sole providers of children because laws are not enforced regarding child support.

4. Tamar was independent, smart, courageous, decisive and fearless. She stood up for her rights and demanded responsibility and accountability from her male partners. Public scandal was not her way, but honor could not be upheld without truth and justice. . Perhaps if we had more women in leadership we would see more of these qualities in our institutions today. When our priorities deprive women and children of health care, nourishment and a safe home do we use every conceiveable plan to get those inalienable rights restored?

5. Tamar responded to a higher deeper truth regarding justice and her dignity as a person. Such levels of truth become more important than life and can prompt one to take the law into our own hands. Persons of a high moral development believe in a higher power that overides all human power. Mystics have been know to function that way morally. What other women mystics confronted the established order for the sake of justice?

I Sing of Eve

I Sing of Eve I sing of Eve, rising from Mother Earth, shiny with splendid newness. I sing of Eve, as she gazed on Adam's face and form, shy but curious, entranced by his likeness to her, intrigued by their differences. I sing of Eve, joining Adam to play among the creatures of the Garden, endlessly enchanted with each new discovery. I sing of Eve, perplexed by the mysteries around her, hungering for truth as she questioned God in the cool of the day. I sing of Eve, as she bit into the fruit of the tree, tasted its bittersweetness, savored and shared it with Adam. I sing of Eve, chosen, with Adam, to collaborate with God in creating, to labor and bring forth new life. I sing of Eve, who nurtured the lives she brought forth, learned to live with sorrow, and welcome joy. I sing of Eve, who did not fall from grace, but rose instead to godliness. Jane M. Nirella Eve is such a primal figure in the creation story. She has suffered as the 'original' sinner, and women in general have suffered from this interpretation of Eve as temptress, leading Adam into sin. But I see Eve as a prototype of those women at humanity's beginnings. Women who discovered a great many things, who took time to ponder life and the mysteries that swirled all around them. We are indebted to these women, these Eves, for their curiosity, their sense of wonder, their persistence in the face of many trials.

Rahab the bargaining woman. Joshua 2 and 6

Rahab literally lived in a hole in the wall of a city called Jericho. She was a known harlot, a profession dictated by her family's dependence on her for survival. She dreamed of a time when she could live outside the walls of the city. When the spies from the Isrealites came to her door she viewed their arrival as an opportunity for the change that she so desperately desired. She did what she had to do, and willingly welcomed the spies into her home. She conspired with them, exchanging information about the city and its people. She described the inhabitants as overcome by terror. Rahab confessed that she had been questioning the validity of the city's gods and had been seeking a higher power, a God above the gods. Stories she had heard about Yehweh described Him as a God who saw the the peoples' struggle for freedom and supported them in it. The spies were amazed at her faith.
She created a plan of escape with them. Risking her life, she told the king's men, who had been spying on her, that the strangers had already left the city. Meanwhile she hid them in her rooftop until she could safely assist them to leave without notice. Skilled in the art of bargaining with men, she charged them a pledge of "life for life". Since their lives had been spared through her actions she demanded that she and her family would not be harmed when the city was attacked. The men gave her a crimson cord to display in her window to signal the Isrealites to "pass over her house". She and her family were to remain inside until the city had been overtaken. The spies promised to defend her and her family with their own lives, just as she had done for them. When it was determined that the way was all clear, the strangers left the city and returned safely to the camp of the Isrealites. Everything went as planned. Rahab and her family were spared as promised. Her story got written into the context of the bigger story of God's people on their journey into the promised land.

Her heart's desire: Rahab had been experiencing a holy discontent. It is the deep feeling that God is more than you've been taught about. It brings with it a strong desire to make change happen. One enters into a mode of watching and listening. I makes one ready to risk when God's messengers come into one's life. Rahab wanted to live in a community without walls and fear. She knew instinctively that a true God would support the human struggle for freedom and dignity.

Points to ponder:
1. Do you experience a holy discontent in your spiritual life? Are there ideas and images about God that no longer fit your experiences or desires? What changes are you hoping for in the future?

2. Like Rahab,what personal risks are you will to take even now for your spiritual integrity?

3. Myths are stories that are still happening. Are there parallels in Rahab's story with life as we know it today?

4. When you imagine the people of Jericho paralyzed in fear, and intent on defending and securing their city does it resemble the reactions of the institutions of our time when they are threatened?

5. Repeatedly God uses marginalized women as well as men to bring about profound change. How can we get this concept into the psyche of men and women today so that women's roles are also honored and recognized instead of minimized and suppressed?

6. In this story of shock and awe with numerous civilian casualties, the authors did not include Rahab's reaction to the total annililation of the city and its people. How do you think she might have responded? What new questions of faith would the experiences have given her?

7. Rahab and her family, as refugees of terror and war, were assimilated into the chosen people. What can we learn about our responsibility for the victims of war torn countries.

8. The story has much to say to us today about fighting for promised land. Rahab had values that she placed above defending her homeland. Where is God in patriotism? In God's eyes what is the land of promise that we should be seeking?

Miriam asks, "who speaks for God?" Numbers 12

Miriam was fearless even as a little girl. Her vigilence and outspokenness delivered the life of her brother from a watery grave in the Nile. It was Miriam's intervention that convinced the pharoah's daugthter to provide an "up" bringing for Moses. This would later put him in a position to bargain with the pharoah for the Hebrew people.

Years later she guided the women in making preparations for their escape from Egypt. After God spared the Hebrews from drowning in the waters of the Red Sea, she led the women in celebration of God's safe delivery. She had been a midwife, a woman practiced in safe delivery.

While they wandered in the desert Miriam brought the fears, concerns and dissatisfactions of the people to her brother's attention. She spoke for them when they were afraid to speak for themselves. The people recognized her as a prophetess--one through whom God speaks. When the community thought they would die of thirst, it was the wisdom of Miriam that led them to saving waters

When Moses became the mediator with God, Miriam became a mediator with Moses. While Moses was busy codifying the laws, Miriam was busy keeping the people's spirits alive.

This arrangement worked until Moses showed a double standard for these laws. The first law of God warned against false gods. Moses himself punished those who worshiped pagan idols, yet he took to himself a pagan wife. Miriam wondered why a Hewbrew woman was not his choice? Aaron knew that if he had chosen to do the same, Moses would not have approved. Clerical hypocracy was undermining the faith of the community. Though it could be interpreted as jealousy the issue had to be raised. It was a valid concern needing to be discussed. Miriam and Aaron voiced their questions in public. "Did God speak only through Moses? Does He not speak through us?" (The people had a long tradition of God speaking to prophets and prophetesses.) Visions and dreams had gotten them through til now. The whole idea of God speaking face to face with one member of the community seemed to be setting them apart from God.
Then God stepped in. Perhaps God wanted to show Miriam and Aaron that talking about such matters behind Moses back would not solve anything. They had to learn to deal with such matters face to face just as He did with Moses.
The meeting did not go well. Miriam was struck by a dis"ease". Things were not peaceful in her soul and her body reacted. Rather than infect the community she was banished with her dis"ease" and her doubts.

Away from the community and alone with God as Moses often was, she realized that the Cushite woman was her sister too. Since there was only One God, there could be no other gods. Division melted away. She returned healed. Her view of God had expanded and her community had widened to include Moses' wife. As soon as Miriam returned the community was ready to move on toward a more inclusive promised land.

Her heart's desire: Miriam felt called to leadership among the people. She was sensitive toward their needs, both physical and spiritual. She wanted to be sure that the new religious practices did not exclude the participation of the community. She fought to maintain an openness to the prophetic voices among them. She feared that new written laws and the many ways around them, would become more important than the spirit.

Points to ponder:

In Miriam's story we have the first picture of a woman leading a community in celebration of God's salvific action. In other words, concelebrating with Moses, she was performing a priestly role. One wonders how this role for women became so suppressed that today, in some religious institutions, the topic of women's priesthood is not even allowed to be discussed.

In the singing and dancing ritual the Hebrew people proclaimed that God was on their side. How do we know when God is on our side? When did you feel this way in your life? When God is for us, is God then against those who are not with us? In the great scheme of things how does the idea of sides fit with the belief that God creates and loves all that is created? Today we are engaged in a "holy" war. Both sides feel supported by God/Allah to bring freedom to the middle east. Religions can really confuse us about God if we are not discerning.


It is often said that behind every great man there is a great woman. In the story of Moses his very existence was dependent on the interplay of a whole group of women who willingly risked their lives for his survival. History has preserved the memory of his life and his relationship with God in great detail. Yet the women were merely mentioned, and often in the retelling, not even a mentioned. This blog is a small attempt to recover some of the vital missing pieces that women played in the develpment of the human community. What else must/can be done to restore the integrity of the story of humankind?

"Is it through Moses alone that the Lord speaks? Does He not speak through us also?" No matter what the context, this is still a powerful question for every religious institution. How much more important if each individual were to ponder it.. Mysticism invites us to know God directly, not just through doctrine and teachings. We were all born mystics, what happened that made us lose our childlike heart? "Unless you become as little children...,"Jesus said

But before anyone can be used as the voice of God one must be able to hear God's truth. Moses climbed great heights to commune with God, while Miriam sought God's voice alone in the depths of her soul and collegially in the community. Moses sees from above, while Miriam sees deeply. Both perpectives, the masculine and feminine, are needed. When the woman's view is missing or muffled do we demand correction/inclusion?

Contemplation means "time with" God. Burnout demands time out, so that we can adjust our perspective, our way of seeing our "self" in the context of community. Our culture does little to foster reflection upon one's inner realities. Do you allow quality time to commune with God and your true self? Time, and how we used it, is the only true measure of a life. Ironically with all our time saving technology, we can no longer afford a Sabboth/ Lord's day. How have we used all that time that we've saved? Oddly before the invention of the earliest machines humans had the leisure to view the natural world with such awe that worship evolved and became an important part of the life the community. They saw God in everything but were regarded as pagans. What then are we who compartmentalize God and keep God separate from our secular lives and institutions?

Leah and Rachel Genesis; 28 through 34

A young girl pulls daisy petals saying, “he loves me, he loves me not”, and I am reminded of the biblical Leah. She lived out that girlhood game.

Leah saw the horror clearly on Jacob’s face when he discovered that she was not Rachel, the beautiful sister he thought he had bought and married. That morning after the wedding Leah mirrored to Jacob his own experience of being the unfavored one. He also had once been disguised to gain his brother’s status. He probably viewed Laban’s offer to work another seven years in payment for Rachel as one of life's paybacks.

After the bridal week Leah became the displaced wife. From then on the devoted sisters had to vie for Jacob’s love. God saw that Leah was unloved and made her fertile. She named her first son Reuben meaning "the Lord saw my misery". Each of her subsequent sons was an attempt to win Jacob’s love but she never lost sight of God’s favor and she regarded each child as a gift.

Meanwhile Rachel, though deeply loved by Jacob, remained barren. Her desperate words to Jacob, “Give me children or I shall die” are evidence that Jacob’s love was not enough for Rachel. Being barren she was feeling less favored by God.

Leah's heart's desire; Finding peace in God’s love when the love of her husband was unrequited.
Rachel’s heart’s desire; Rachel found Jacob’s love insufficient to her true happiness. She felt the absence of God in her childless state.
In a time when women were the property of their father and then their husband, having children added status and value to their lives. It was also in childbearing that women experienced God’s presence and favor.

Points to ponder;

From a woman’s view this is a story about two devoted sisters maintaining a peaceful coexistence in a situation where neither had the love they would have chosen. This is shown in their words to Jacob about their father, “He not only sold us; he has even used up the money that he got for us.” Arranged marriages have impacted women throughout the ages and even today in many parts of the world. What happens when a person must exchange freedom for security as women did throughout history? Can this be happening in less drastic ways in peoples’ lives today? Are there areas in your life where security is limiting your freedom?

Many medieval women mystics chose hidden lives in convents/beguines to avoid the marriages arranged for them. Safe behind the walls of these confines they found freedom with the divine and discovered their voices. Their feminine theologies and images of God are being resurrected by scholars to foster our spiritual quest in our own times. (Read Enduring Grace by Carol Lee Flinders or Why Not Become Fire By Evelyn Mattern)

Sibling rivalry is normal but is intensified when one sibling is favored over another. Parents are the child’s first encounter with God. Parent love mirrors the degree of God’s love for them. What steps can parents take to assure love and value to each child in a family?

Leah never experienced being loved for whom she was. She sought to be loved by pleasing her husband by providing sons. Even today some women put pleasing their partners ahead of their own needs and happiness. What can this do to their relationships? to their sense of self worth? to their family?

God saw Leah's misery. In the co-creating role of childbearing, Leah experienced the presence of the divine in her life. On the other hand Rachel in her barrenness experienced God's absence. Matthew Fox says that God is experienced in the via negativa as well as the via positiva ( absence as well as presence). Julian of Norwich lived in the time of the Black Plagues when the abesence of God was experienced by most people but she was able to experience God's presence vividly. She developed a positive theology about original sin during this time in contrast to the prevailing theology of the church of her time. One must have a strong sense of self to be able to maintain such deep convictions alone. At those times when God seems absent, what can you do to maintain that "all will be well", and convey that message to those around you as Julian did?

Motherhood can lead a woman to experience the feminine aspects of God? But the feminine nature of God has been absent in traditional religions. How has that absence affected our cultures, women's spriritualities, our churches and our world? Women mystics among them Julian of Norwich and Hildegard referred often to the motherhood of Christ/God. How might the world be different if the feminine qualities of God and feminine language or pronouns had been used in the teachings of religion. For a further exploration of the image of God concept see
http://www.spiritualitytoday.org/spir2day/884044osiek.html

Leah regarded each child as a precious gift of God. Imagine a society where each child was regarded that way.

Rebekah Genesis 27

Battles in Rebekah's womb heightened her awareness.
Sons will be born torn by conflictling beliefs
Virile hunters and land possessing practices
were replacing the gentle nature loving ways.
Now one blessing only – one child to rule while the others serve.
Barreness was bitter, but bearing divided hostile children seemed useless.
Rebekah takes counsel with the divine.
God confirms her premonition but speaks of an altered course.
She has no choice but follow what she knows in her heart.
Blind Isaac, who inherited his brother’s birth rights,
bestows his final blessing on Jacob in error..
and family conflict ignites again.

Her Heart’s Desire: Rebekah paid attention to what was happening within herself, both when she was carrying her twin sons and throughout her life. This 6th sense is referred to as intuition. She strongly desired to end domination within the family—to restore reverence for the earth and for all life upon it. Rebekah schemes, and does what she has to do. She violates man made laws to follow a higher power and the great scheme of things.

Points to Ponder:

The will of God and obedience to God is very difficult to know with certainty. Man made laws are often presented as if God had ordained them. Persons of sixth stage morality have been known to break the law in order to meet a higher law. Which of Kohlberg's 6 stages of morality are most evident in our national justice system?

How does one know when one is operating with a mature and well formed conscience in situations contrary to the law of the land or that of religion? Rebecca seemed to know. What do you know about other women who followed their conscience in actions contrary to prevailing authorities? Catherine of Genoa was quoted as saying "My me is God". How can one arrive at such certainty about being in unity with God? Many of the mystics felt this kind of knowing. Though it often marginalized them, some had the conviction to speak and write about it.
Today we are being encouraged to pay more attention to what is happening within. All kinds of retreats and practices have been developed to heighten our natural abilities for awareness. Does this indicate that our lives have far too many distractions? Some claim that we are evolving to a higher level of consciousness. How do you see it?

Historically a critical view of religious authorities has been daring and risky. Even today one's physical and/or spiritual life can be threatened if one opposes religious authorities. Is religious freedom a contradiction in terms, an impossible theory or a deeply held value of democratic people? How would you define religious freedom? What are its boundaries? What problems does it create in our own country, our own church, globally, in your own life?

When should we in conscience act/speak out against unjust matters condoned by the church, the state or the administration in our work world?

If you’ve heard the story of Rebekah in church or school what explanation was given for Rebakah’s deceit?
God had told Rebekah that a reversal would occur but did not give any blueprints as to how it would come about. Does God want us to wait upon divine promises or to cooperate in bringing about the promise?

At Jesus' birth the scriptures announced that God's plan is Peace on Earth. Does that mean we just wait for peace or are we to be peacemakers as Jesus was even in opposition to one's national policy?

Code Pink is an organization of mothers and grandmothers for restoring peace in our world. Their call to matriotism vs patriotism might seem subversive as was Rebekah's behavior on behalf of Jacob. Shouldn't women have a stronger role in promoting world peace? What measures can women take to subvert the current destructive course of wars and plundering of earth's natural resources? http://www.womensaynotowar.org/article.php?list=type&type=100

Hagar, the rest of the story.

The rest of the story of Hagar and Ishmael is a bit confusing in its details. But the core is clear enough. When Sarah finally gives birth to her own child, Isaac, she does not want Hagar’s son , Ishmeal, to have the inheritance as Abraham’s first born son. Hagar and her child are thrown out of the house. They are left to die in the desert but God hears the cries of Hagar’s child and intervenes. Ishmael lives to father a great nation as was promised.

Her heart’s desire: Hagar can not bear to see her child die of hunger and thirst. God hears the cries of Hagar’s child and intervenes. God leads Hagar to life giving waters. She and her child are saved and free. God’s plan to make Ishmael’s children into a great nation is reaffirmed.

Points to ponder:
God promised again that both of Abraham’s sons were to father great nations. God did not allow either son to die at the hands of their father. What does it say about the senseless killing of Abraham’s children today in the Middle East?

Cindy Sheehan whose son was killed in Iraq is calling us to matriotism. We know what patriotism expects of us. What would matriotism expect?

Abraham’s life issue with God was fatherhood. Therefore it is natural that the children of Abraham see God as Father and male. Hagar experienced a God who hears a child’s cry and is moved by seeing a woman’s plight and sorrows. Her’s is a birth giving God. She experiences the feminine aspects of God. Today women are reclaiming the aspects of a Mother God. When did you experience/discover the feminine qualities of God in your own life?
Julian of Norwich in her Long Text 59 says, "as truly as God is our Father, so truly is God our Mother"
Many Catholics who have no problem with seeing Mary as the Mother of God would be very uncomfortable referring to God our Mother. Theology can be very confusing and restrictive while spirituality tends to be freeing. Reflect on how you think and feel about these two terms.

Fatherhood is the theme of Abraham's story. Through his sons he was to father a great nation. Yet he was a father willing to sacrifice the lives of both of his sons. Down through the ages nationhood has remained a concept for which men have been willing to sacrifice the lives of their children. Some are sacrificed through neglect of their basic human needs while others are sacrificed in bloody military offerings. In the story God intervenes to save the lives of both sons. Could God have been trying to tell Abraham that building a great nation is not brought about by the willingness to die for it but by the willingness to live into it? Becoming a great nation should have been linked forever with the survival of children. How do we measure our national greatness?

Motherhood is the theme of Hagar's and Sarah's stories We are their daughters.
Sarah, was a mother of means whose life was secure, and whose children share in the riches of this land. What responsibilties do her daughters have?
Hagar, represents the mother of the abused, the destitute, the homeless, the immigrant, the prostitute, the sex slaves, the have-nots of this land? What must her daughters' responsibilities be?

Getting back to Hagar

Getting back to our story about Sarai and Hagar. Yes, Hagar was without a doubt showing contempt for Sarai. Since Abram would not intervene Sarai began to abuse her servant to such an extent that Hagar indeed ran away. Hagar's new found sense of power enabled her to act on her own, to become her own person.

In her desperate situation, she found God and felt that God understood her plight. She named God the “one who sees.” It is through Hagar that God is shown as a God who cares about the oppressed. But God did not take her out of the situation. God told her instead that what she endured would be seen by God, and that she would become the mother of a great nation. Thus God gave to Hagar the same promise that God gave to Abram. Her faith in that promise enabled her to return to the home of Abram and Sarai. Her son was named Ishmael, meaning "God has heard." God also promised that Ishmael's life would not be submissive as hers had been.

Her heart’s desire: Hagar wanted her child to have a better life than her own. Hagar had an annunciation that strengthened her to do what was necessary. She believed that God saw her situaltion and this direct experience with God became the basis of a lifelong personal relationship with the divine. Out of that experience Hagar began a mystic journey.

Points to ponder:

Hagar was the first in Scripture to give God a name. She also claimed to have seen God and lived to tell about it. (Until this time it was believed that anyone who saw God would die.) No wonder Hagar felt strong enough to return. Hagar must have shared this vision when she returned for it was recorded in Abram’s story. During those times women’s visions were still considered credible. But not long after men's visions became the foundation for the religions we have today. Later women visionaries (mystics) were suppressed and ignored. Medieval women mystics dared to write their visions of God (often at personal risk) but their writings were mainly kept hidden until recent times. How are women viewed who want to share their beliefs or spiritual leadership in today's religious institutions?

Many women today are no longer comfortable with the “masculine only” names for God. At the same time many are uncomfortable with the feminine or symbolic names that inclusive liturgies are introducing. Does Hagar’s story justify our right to name God in terms that match women’s experiences of God? Mystics like Julian of Norwich, Hildegard of Bingen and Mechtild of Magdeburg freely used feminine names and images for God centuries ago. What particular name/metaphor associated with your personal experience of the divine might be a way to address God?

When was the last time you heard Hagar's story in a parish liturgy? God's promise to Hagar about Ishmeal's future role in the divine plan is still impacting the world today especially in the middle east conflicts. Can exploring the story also contain a solution? If God wants the same status for each of Abraham's sons then each has the same rights to the earth's resources. If it became clear that God supports peaceful equal distribution among nations rather than war how would we begin to equalize the share of poorer nations to richer nations with regard to natural resources?

Hagar Genesis: 16, 17 and 21

Time went by and memories of living in those harmonious garden days were beginning to fade. Human creatures had increased and multiplied just as they had been told to do. It was not without pain, struggle and division.

Now two women arrive on the scene. At the center of this story is a man named Abram. He had visions and believed that he was to be the father of a great nation. Of course his wife Sarai would have to give him many children especially sons to accomplish this. This was not happening and it was putting a great strain on both he and his wife. In desperation to provide an heir to Abram, Sarai asked her devoted maid servant to lie with him. Sarai herself remembered having been given over to other men several times for Abram’s sake. She understood how her servant would feel from forced sexual relations. Surrogate motherhood had become common practice for the sake of providing an heir. Abram followed his wife’s wishes and her servant, Hagar, became pregnant with his child. However carrying Abram's heir provided the lowly slave woman a new sense of worth. Perhaps the girl was reacting to a loss of respect for Sarai for treating her as a sex object and using her for Sarai's own purposes. Whatever the reasons, Abram’s household became dysfunctional and the slave girl began to regard her situation as intolerable. She considered running away knowing full well the consequences to herself and the child she carried.

Her heart's desire: Sarai wanted to please her husband and to help make his dreams come true.

Points to ponder:
This is one of many stories in the Bible where the worth of a woman was contingent upon childbearing and giving birth to a son. God’s plans are seen as dependent on a woman giving birth. Yet patriarchal religions deny that women should share important roles in bringing God to the community. Are there still signs in society that a woman's role and value are linked primarily to childbearing?

The servant girl symbolizes the many women whose pregnancy was not freely chosen. Unwanted pregnancy and inability to concieve are unresolved ethical issues that still divide the family of man. Using women as sex objects and interfering with women's sexuality is a global problem that we cannot ignore. What can we do about changing these situations for the female populations of the world?

Abram was already a very successful man but his sense of self worth, and being chosen by God to claim and change the world, makes him determined to do anything to make it happen. Much of what he had already aquired were the passive results of Sarai's actions. He realizes she is beautiful and powerful but instead of giving her credit she is made to feel guilty and responsible for his vision not being fulfilled. Many women sense they are living in a man's world? How can we change that? What do women know about a time, the matriachal period, when women were revered for their gifts, powers and spiritual roles and not only for their fertility abilities? What can they learn from medieval women's movements like the Beguines and other women's communities established in the middle ages?

In the Beginning Genesis: 2 and 3

Welcome to Her Heart's Desire, my first attempt at blogging.

For some time now I have been interested in the spirituality of medieval women mystics. In exploring the writings of these women I came across a conversation between Mechtilde of Magdeberg and God.

Mechtilde, born around 1210?, seemed to engage in "Godalogues",---written dialogues with God. In one of those conversations Mechtilde says, "Lord, I bring Thee my treasure." God responds, "What is thy treasure called?" She replies, "Lord! it is called my heart's desire."

Desire is quite a popular topic in today's world, in advertising, in therapy and in religious studies. Whenever women express some dissatisfaction with the status quo, you will hear the question, "what do women want"?

That question, of course, has no single answer. But the question invites one to explore the heart and core of each woman, impossible, yes, but worthy of some curiosity and imagination. Where to begin?

Sometime after the very beginning, before recorded time , humans experienced the divine directly and all of creation was one and good. Mysticism had its roots there, well before religions, rules, judgements, and the priestly castes appeared to separate the divine and the human.

Then in the beginning of recorded time in the biblical story of the Garden of Eden we find the first descriptions of what women want. It tells the story of a woman who wants not to be bound by rules. Rather she wants to know life from God's perspective. Though she lived what should have been a most satisfying life she desired something more. She had everything she needed. What could a person desire when all that is needed is already provided?

Scripture tells us that Eve's interest was captured by the very questions that had been in her heart for some time. Wouldn't she want to know the unknown? Why wouldn't she want to be like God, since she was made in God's image ? And since God had declared that all created beings were good, how could there be be a tree of good and evil? The tree's fruit was , pleasing to the eyes, surely good to eat ,and a desirable source of energy? The directive not to eat of the tree had been a conversation between God and Adam. Had she been included she would have asked questions, gotten clarifications regarding the prohibition that seemed to limit or retract the concept of free will.

It was around that time that her partner, Adam, had become more prone toward making distinctions like good/evil. Feelings of judgement, punishment, and shame were emerging. And that idea of dominion over other creatures was getting out of hand.

With such ideas Eden was no longer all that it promised to be. There were times when Eve had felt she would just like to get away from the confines of it all. There must be more to life, she thought. The realization of death was causing her to want to live ever more fully. She wondered what someone would be willing to die for. Of course she was tempted to bite, wouldn't you be?

Her heart's desire--Eve is the woman who wanted to know God more fully, to understand the mysteries of her world, to know herself fully and ultimately to be true to herself. Eve becomes the first of a species to realize that her life would end and that she would die. Awareness of death teaches the sacredness of life. The death experience often results in developing beliefs about the supernatural realm. Eve represents the first of God's creatures to experience and act on strong mystical thoughts and desires. Perhaps Eve should be credited as the originator of theology.

Points to ponder:
1. Where is the sin in wanting to know God?

2. Sin was a problem addressed by Julian of Norwich, a medieval mystic. The church said one thing while God revealed another to her. Even though she was surrounded by suffering and death, she sees in her "showings" (visions) that God has no wrath, that sin is necessary ("behovely"), and that in the final analysis "all will be well". Does your view of sin match or differ from the teachings of your church?
http://www.gloriana.nu/sin.html http://www.umilta.net/julian.html)

3. Is Genesis a story about the beginnings of life or could it be describing the end of the agricultural age when women were close to the natural world and revered the Earth Mother as the source of life? What do you know about those pre-patriarchal times?

4. The first story of creation in Genesis does not end with a fall but with a blessing. It is believed that the second story of creation was added much later. Why add a second version? Who would have benefitted from including a second creation story in the Bible that includes a fall and a blame?
In his book, Original Blessing, Matthew Fox discusses how the second story impacted man's relationship with all of creation.

5. Hildegard of Bingen wrote passionately about God's love for us and for all of creation. In loving the beauties of creation we are loving the Creator. Hildegard wrote, " Like the billowing clouds, like the incessant gurgle of the brook, the longing of the soul can never be stilled. This longing prompts holy persons to seek their work from God". If the story of Eve describes this longing of woman then why have the curses been put upon Eve and her daughters throughout history?

6. Do the Biblical creation stories enable us to address the critical issues of today's world? Which issues? How?

7. Thomas Berry says the earth's survival requires a new creation story, a new myth/vision. This vision must call humanity to a right relationship again with every creature and with the entire universe. In your own imagination what would that story be?

8. Some feminist theologians believe that the second creation story has been used to make the longest strongest negative impact on women in the Hebrew, Islamic and Christian cultures than any other religious doctrine. Can the story be redeemed? How?
( Joan Chittister has developed a new Theology of Eve. See Benetvision.com)

9. The Eve story deserves to be resurrected and redeemed. Women need to explore how and why she became the source of evil to the human family, rather than the mother of wisdom and a heroine, who confirmed by her choices the gift of free will.