BibleWorm

Episode 454 ECONOMIC JUSTICE What Does the Lord Require of You? (Micah 6:6-15 and 7:1-7) REPLAY

This week BibleWorm continues our series on the Bible and Economic Justice with Micah 6:6-15 and 7:1-7. Here God brings a lawsuit against the people for treating each other unjustly. They cheat each other with false measures. They bribe judges and officials to render false judgments. They pervert justice to favor the wealthy and the powerful. So what can they do to set things right? Nothing but this: do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God. It sounded so simple when we sang it in youth group, but in fact Micah calls us to radical obedience to the Torah, creating a just world for the widow, the orphan and the stranger—for the most vulnerable among us. That is what the Lord require of us.

Episode 453 ECONOMIC JUSTICE Economics and Holiness (Leviticus 19:9-18 and 33-37) REPLAY

This week we continue our summer series on economic justice in the Bible with Leviticus 19:9-18 and 33:37– a text that asks us to reflect and embody and channel God’s holiness through the economy we create in the everyday world. What if our means of production – our land, our time – isn’t absolutely “ours” in the way we owners imagine? We all know the commandment thou shalt not steal, but what is fairly ours to begin with, and what constitutes stealing? And furthermore, what if this command is not just incumbent upon each individual – How do we create communities where theft doesn’t happen, thereby enacting God’s vision of a holy people? Spoiler alert - it’s not an alarm system.

Episode 452 ECONOMIC JUSTICE Biblical Faith and Debt Forgiveness (Deuteronomy 15:1-11 and 24:10-15) REPLAY

This week BibleWorm begins our summer series on biblical views of economic justice with Deuteronomy 15:1-11 and 24:10-15.  We begin with the radical command of Deuteronomy 15:1 to forgive the debts of the entire community every seventh year, resetting the debt economy and ensuring that no one either falls into generational poverty or accrues generational wealth at the expense of others. We highlight the tension between a worldly economics of scarcity, which views others as competitors for limited resources, and Deuteronomy’s theology of God’s blessing, which insists that there is enough for everyone, if only we would learn to distribute it properly, looking out for the community’s well-being before our own. And we talk about just economic practices that respect the dignity of the poor and insist that poverty should never confine a person to a life of shame or suffering.

Episode 451 SUMMER SERIES Bathsheba (1Kings 1:1--40) REPLAY

BibleWorm concludes our summer series on women of the Hebrew Bible with the story of Bathsheba as told in 1 Kings 1:1-40. We met Bathsheba first in 2 Samuel 11, but she was more acted upon than an actor herself in that story. This week we meet her again in I Kings 1, when David has gone from a model of virility, power, and traditional (sometimes toxic) masculinity to a fairly pitiable state in his old age. At this awkward moment when David is still King but is losing control of both the kingdom and his own facilities, it is Bathsheba alone who knows how to take the wheel. Trust, intimacy, loyalty and power all look a little different in this story. Can you find them? 

Episode 450 SUMMER SERIES Rahab (Joshua 2:1-24 and 6:2-4) REPLAY

 

BibleWorm continues our summer series on women in the Hebrew Bible with the story of Rahav in Joshua 2 -- she is a harlot living in the walls of the city of Jericho who is at the very core of Israel's success as they move into the promised land. How are we to understand this character who has so little power in any official sense, but who seems to know more than anyone else among the people of Jericho or the people of Israel? How do we understand the faith, the moral compass, and the courage of this lifelong sex worker? Does she change over the course of this story - is this a paradigmatic conversion story, as most ancient interpreters read it? It will surprise you not at all to know that we think it's far more complicated than that.

Episode 449 SUMMER SERIES The Daughters of Zelophehad (Numbers 27:1-11 and 36:1-12)

This week BibleWorm continues our special summer series on the Women of the Hebrew Bible with the story of the daughters of Zelophehad as told in Numbers 27:1-11 and 36:1-12. We marvel at these five young women who stand before Moses and the whole people of Israel to advocate for their right to inherit property after their father died without any sons. When Moses takes their claim to God, God responds simply by saying, “The daughters of Zelophehad are right” and then modifying the Torah for all time so that women can inherit property if they have no brothers. We talk about the courage of these women to work within the system to advocate for themselves and for all women within the patriarchal society of ancient Israel. We discuss God’s unquestioning acceptance of their perspective and full acknowledgment of their interpretation of the Torah, even as they point out that God had overlooked some issues in the original giving of the Law. We also recognize that this text does not go as far as we might wish, as the system of inheritance in ancient Israel remains fully patriarchal, with this one minor modification in favor of women. But then, change is slow and never happens as quickly as we might like. In that sense, the daughters of Zelophehad give us encouragement to continue in the struggle for women’s equality even still today.

Episode 448 SUMMER SERIES Miriam (Exodus 2:1-10 and Numbers 12:1-16)

This week BibleWorm continues our special summer series on the Women of the Hebrew Bible with a look at the story of Moses’ sister Miriam as told in Exodus 2:1-10 and Numbers 12:1-16. First we talk about the story of Miriam as a young girl, saving her baby brother Moses by convincing the Pharaoh’s daughter to hire their own mother as her wet nurse. We talk about Miriam’s prophetic foresight and her ability to know what needs to happen to continue the story of God’s people, even at such a young age. We discuss the solidarity among women—Miriam, her mother, and the Pharaoh’s daughter—that works even across ethnic and political lines to protect life even when the men have commanded otherwise. Then we discuss a troubling story in Numbers 12:1-16 in which Miriam is punished for complaining against Moses while her brother Aaron gets off scot-free. We discuss the way Miriam’s forthrightness gets her into trouble here when she seems to step out of her proper place in a world controlled by men.

Episode 447 SUMMER SERIES Tamar (Genesis 38:1-26) REPLAY

BibleWorm continues our summer series on women in the Hebrew Bible with the story of Tamar in Genesis 38. We bristle immediately at the hypocrisy of the men in the story who only pretend to hold to the societal norms they impose on her, and in doing so leave Tamar stuck in a holding pattern after the death of her husband. We draw out the profoundly different experiences of the man and the woman who lose a spouse in this story, and think about the risk and lack of privacy that seems built into walking through the world with a body that can get pregnant. It is a story for our time indeed. But we would be remiss if we did not also raise up Tamar’s strategic thinking, profound loyalty, and courage.  

Episode 446 SUMMER SERIES Sarah and Hagar (Genesis 16:1-16 and 21:8-21)

Happy summer, y’all, and welcome to our summer series! We’ll spend the next six weeks looking at stories of women in the Hebrew Bible.And we start with doozy – the stories of Sarah and Hagar, which we find in Genesis chapters 16 and 21. It’s so tempting to read these as stories of two individuals – or 3 if you add Abraham in there - but what are the social forces at work here? How much agency do these women really have? As the power dynamics become increasingly twisted and the possibility of a peaceable ending for this family becomes ever smaller, we wonder - why doesn’t God just subvert the whole social structure and tell a different story? Well, that’s not what happens. BUT - through the pain and plain awfulness of these stories, we see clearly that blessing can be intermingled with injustice – and that it is a powerful thing and empowering thing to have a witness to our sufferings.

Episode 445 Longing for Redemption (Acts 2:1-4 and Romans 8:14-39)

This week BibleWorm concludes the regular Narrative Lectionary season with the Pentecost texts: Acts 2:1-4 and Romans 8:14-39. We talk about God’s desire for the redemption of all creation, which has suffered under human neglect since the time of Adam. Paul envisions the day we humans wake up and realize that we were created not to serve sin but to tend creation in order to restore the world around us. Until then creation, and we ourselves, groan with labor pains, Paul says, as we await redemption the redemption of our bodies. We can see the new life that is possible, but the pain and danger we are experiencing in the meantime is all too real. And so we live with hope for a world that we know is possible but one that we cannot yet see.