“Sarah is old, old and very tired. Her mind wanders, sometimes she laughs and sometimes she weeps and those who love her do not know why. Her mind wanders across all her long life and she struggles to make it into a story, the story of her life, the story of Sarah.”
This is not a description of the state of an ailing Hampstead curate but an extract from a book by Sara Maitland. In it she retells some of the Patriarchal narratives’ of the book of Genesis from the perspective of one of the Matriarchs – Sarah.
In these stories Sarah is doing something we all do at various points in our lives – be it due to a crisis, change or just over the passage of time: We find ourselves struggling to make sense, or make a coherent story, of our lives.
In the Christian faith we make sense of our personal stories in the context of the overarching story – the salvation history of the Christian faith. Through bible reading and study we are invited to identify with the characters of the biblical narrative – to observe their reactions to God’s call and so to understand more deeply our own.
Do you believe your gender makes any difference to the way in which you experience and read the bible? I imagine most people would say that in so far as our gender informs the way we experience the world around us (and the way the world perceives us) then yes, of course our gender has a bearing on our faith and spirituality and perhaps how we read the bible as well.
Part of our task when reading the bible is to consider the context in which it was written and the cultural assumptions and understanding of the time. A lot of the bible was written within, and interpreted from the perspective of, a male-dominated culture. This can make us blind to the hints and shadows of women in the bible who embody a responsiveness to God’s call which is far from passive.
With this in mind there will be a women’s bible study group meeting fortnightly in the autumn. This will be for women and will aim to explore more deeply the role women in the bible have played in the history of the Christian faith. We will read about some of the colourful matriarchs of the Old Testament: Sarah, Hagar, Rebekah, Rachel and if I am brave enough even Eve. We will consider how their stories might fruitfully inform our own stories and our own sense of gender today.
There will be a sign-up sheet at the back of church offering two possible times: Monday evenings or Tuesday evenings
If you are interested please sign up stating which time is most convenient for you. The classes will begin in the week commencing October 2nd.
“She had been of course too old; too old to have the child. Not too old just in the sense that she had made other arrangements, although she had. Living with Abraham she learned that although their God was faithful he was not all straightforward. Things were not always how they seemed to be. She did not have a problem with that; she, sophisticated, witty, complex herself, liked to know that they were in the hands of a complex, crafty, subtle God, who kept faith but not always as you anticipated it.” (From Angel & Me’ by Sara Maitland)
Mother Sarah