wgafney's blog

Hell On Earth, And Then Some

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An excerpt from and link to my post for the Diocese of PA: In the synoptic Gospels, Hell is usually described as a realm of fire, a place that seemingly judges and punishes at the same time, (Matthew 5:22, 29-30; 10:28; 18:9; 23:15, 33; Mark 9:43, 45, 47; Luke 12:5). The most commonly used word for “hell” in the scriptures is the Aramaic word “Gehenna” that passed directly into Greek. Gehenna literally means “Valley of Hinnom” (In Hebrew, “Geh Hinnom”). The Valley of Hinnom was originally a piece of the Promised Land, a lowland

A South African Athlete and Intersexuality: What Does Biblical Studies Have to Do With It?

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My guest blog for the Fund for Theological Education is linked following the excerpt: My first response is curiosity. Why do the scriptures ignore the complexities and varieties of human bodies? (If they do.) But perhaps they do not. The creation narratives in Genesis are written largely to counter other Ancient Near Eastern theologies, particularly those of the Babylonian Empire that had destroyed the remnants of the Israelite monarchy and the physical manifestation of their theology – the Temple in Jerusalem. The emphasis on biological sexual bifurcation and concomitant heterosexual reproduction is the point of those stories: Israel cannot

Let's Talk About Sex!

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Do I even need to issue the invitation? In light of recent actions taken and not taken by the Episcopal Church and Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, I'm posting the Human Sexuality Study Guide developed for which I wrote on biblical materials: The context(s) and content(s) of the scriptures of Judaism and Christianity do not lend themselves easily to contemporary studies on sexuality and sexual orientation. There are no Biblical Hebrew or Koine Greek words that correspond exactly to "sexuality" "sexual orientation" or even "gender" (as defined above.) And, it is particularly important to note that the ideas and very words, "sexuality and

Shabbat B’har/B’chukkkotai

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This D'var Torah was delivered at the Dorshei Derekh minyan of the Germantown Jewish Centre in Philadelphia on 16 May 2009. The full text is attached following the excerpt... What strikes me about the difference between the two texts sets – Q’doshim, looking at the neighbor or community (including the day-laborer) and B’har/B’chukkkotai, focusing on family, is that when things get really tight, there are some people who will defraud, cheat and scam their own families, relatives and kinfolk.

Shabbat Pinchas

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This D'var Torah was delivered on 11 July 2009 at the Dorshei Derekh minyan of the Germantown Jewish Centre in Philadelphia. The complete text is attached after the following excerpt... Jewish and Christian feminists love the story of the daughters of Tzelophehad and how they and God re-write Torah to give them an inheritance in the Promised Land. But I think that their story is properly understood over and against the execution - or is it murder? Or martyrdom? - of Cozbi bat Tzur and Zimri ben Salu.

A Lament for Bullied Children

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This sermon was delivered at the Second Baptist Church of Germantown in Philadelphia on 20 April 2009. The full text and lessons are attached after the excerpt... In our world, this month, this week, this very day, children are dying. Children are being bullied to death. Children are killing themselves. Children are bullying other children into killing themselves. These children are not aliens. They are us. Not our future, but our living, dying present.

End of Semester Sermon 13 May 2009

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The full text is attached... There are many who view lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and those in the process of having their gender surgically altered as outsiders from the fold of God and society at large. Those who are born with an indeterminate gender or who have been injured - burn patients often loose all of their extremities including their genitalia - quadriplegics, paraplegics and infertile women and couples can also feel like sexual and social outsiders.

Jesus and Bathsheba

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(For those who have asked, the text of my sermon from 26 July is attached as a .pdf.) Here's an introduction:It’s good to be king. But Jesus didn’t want to be king. He knew that there was nothing romantic about being king; the monarchy in the Ancient Near East was not a Disney fairy tale. Many monarchs, kings, some queens and pharaohs – male and female – were bloodthirsty, power-hungry, egomaniacal and rapacious. There was no concept of a

Welcome to Seminary: What Now?

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Breathe. Again. Repeat as necessary.

Each of you has a journey and a story to go with it. Your journies and stories have merged with ours and are writing new stories of our journey together. 

Seminary is a rewarding, challenging, deeply fulfilling place, space and experience. The faculty, students, staff and administration of LTSP bid you welcome in peace. We pray your time with us will be a blessing.