Author Archive

As we journey through this week with the woman of Judges 19, her ancient story seems all too contemporary. Even as the church across centuries has overlooked or hidden or forgotten her tale, we often ignore or fail to see those in our own day who bear the wounds that come in being treated as […]

In this second week of Lent, we are traveling with the woman of Judges 19, whom the text identifies only as a concubine. For the beginning of our journey with her, scroll down to yesterday’s reading or click Monday. Tuesday “My life at home with my father certainly wasn’t great, but it will be better […]

Into the Wound © Jan L. Richardson During this season we are revisiting the women who appear in the Lenten portion of my first book, Sacred Journeys. The title of the Lenten section is “Remembering Our Wounds.” The readings for Lent explore stories that can take us to difficult or painful places; these are stories […]

We come to the end of this telling of the story of the daughter of Jephthah, and to a beginning. For now comes the invitation to remember, and to choose how we will carry her story from here. In one of her final diary entries, about a year before she was murdered at Auschwitz, Etty […]

I went to lunch today with my friend Karen. We ordered at the counter, and when the woman who took our order asked for a name, I said, “Karen,” then added, “the Magnificent.”  We didn’t think she heard the last bit, but as we walked to our table with the name holder the woman had […]

As part of my Lenten journey this year, I am revisiting Etty Hillesum. A young Dutch Jewish woman who began to keep a diary nine months after Hitler’s troops invaded the Netherlands, Etty went on to fill eleven exercise books with her reflections (one of which remains lost). She wrote not only about what was […]

Here at the outset of Lent, we continue with the story of the daughter of Jephthah. If you are joining us for the first time, welcome; you can find the beginning of the thread at A Season of Spiraling. Thursday I immediately started sputtering plans for flight, for escape, but Miriam quickly silenced me and […]

Ash Wednesday © Jan L. Richardson Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the season of Lent. The story of the daughter of Jephthah, which we began on Monday, never appears in the lectionary, in Lent or any other season. In the three-year rhythm of the readings that take us through much of the Bible, […]

The story of the daughter of Jephthah continues… Tuesday Occasionally I was jealous of Miriam, it’s true. My parents’ eyes became a bit brighter when she was around, and they always went on and on about her music, about her dancing, about her sense of humor, about her beauty, about how if they had such […]

In Sacred Journeys, the season of Lent begins with a week of reflections titled “An Inhuman Sacrifice: The Unnamed Daughter of Jephthah.” This tale from the book of Judges is a wrenching story with which to start the season. For much of my life, I wasn’t familiar with this text—they certainly didn’t teach it to […]