The Unorthodox Gatherings

The Bible was written in deeply patriarchal times, in which women had property value and they had little agency in the world they occupied. Yet, in the stories of the Matriarchs, we not only see women transcend these boundaries, but as their stories are told by later generations, this transcendence is not erased or edited. At least until the Church, much later on. Here are a few of these powerful Matriarchs' stories.

We're starting a new series on women in the Biblical stories. This series will not simply be focusing on naming women in the Bible and the stories written there, but looking in particular how women in the Bible show leadership and power despite the patriarchal world they were in. Additionally, we'll be talking about how editors of the Bible tried to stifle the strength and authority with which these women had. Today's episode will be looking at one of the most provocative of these women, Asherah, the wife of God. There's a reason you've either never heard of her, or have only heard about her in a negative way. Let's dig in.

We have all grown up in a time of separation. We believe we are separated, as individuals, from everything around us. We produce and we consume, we purchase and we consume, and life continues on. However, whether we see it or not, we are connected to everything around us and our actions have consequences. The ancients used to have a theology and cosmology that looked at the world this way, and indigenous people have never let go of that way of seeing. We need this new way again, and realize it's been an ancient way all along.

We face a world full of uncertainty, large trends going into scary directions, the ground shifting under our feet day to day. We can bury the pain we feel and distract. We fear facing that pain, because we're so used to doing it alone. But facing our pain with community is release, it is connection, it is the world's immune system responding, and it is a reminder that we are love. Join us as Marcelino Sepulveda helps us with written word, music, and poetry to face our pain together.

Marcelino begins with the first part of this ongoing spiral of reconnecting work: Gratitude. Indigenous cultures going back thousands of years have been rooting themselves in gratitude as part of our connection to the world around us. Jesus, before he began his ministry, was rooted in gratitude when the divine voice announced: this is my beloved. Gratitude is not simply giving thanks, it's resistance to a world that tells us we're not enough.

We are starting a 6-week series on The Work that Reconnects, presented by Unorthodox's Marcelino Sepulveda. Today's episode is a bit of an introduction and the series will be more pragmatic than lecture based. The Work that Reconnects is to help guide us through a spiral of centering in gratitude, connecting our bodies with the pain we're encountering in the world, and moving through that pain into action, connection, and recentering back into gratitude. This series will ask us to take some risks with our thoughts and feelings, but risks that payoff with discovering how supported we are with our community and our ability be compassionate with the pain we encounter.

For a long time, Christianity has had an identity crisis and we need a shift. When we take the expanse of the Bible, we have these amazing stories of our beginnings that teach us God wants us to co-create with the divine. It is one of our greatest gifts, to help bring about the kingdom of heaven. This series has been about falling in love with our identity as co-creators, in particular, here in our little corner of the world.

Neighborhoods are sacred places when we treat them as such. They are the spaces where we'll both experience and bring about the kingdom of heaven most prominently. Neighborhood are sacred and the Commons are the glue that hold neighborhoods together. The commons are all the spaces where local community come together. They can be rooting together at a local football game, or coming to the park for local music, or showing up in common areas to hold a vigil, protest something unjust, etc. The commons are where we are our most human selves, and yet, they are more and more neglected. Today's episode is about reclaiming the Commons of our neighborhoods, to remember the spaces where the kingdom shows up.

The world is only feeling more chaotic and divisive, and with that comes an even greater sense that there's nothing any of us can do but watch. And yet, Jesus spent his time empowering normal people in small communities. We may not know it, but our neighborhoods are the area where we have the greatest effect, and it's where we'll experience the Kingdom of Heaven the most. Yet we ignore it, glued to what's happening in parts of the world we can do nothing about. In this episode we talk about the sacredness of neighborhood and the ability to transcend the polarization within the country and create something sacred in our communities.

The home, like so much else has shifted in the last 300 years. We've gone from people who grow up among generations of family on ancestral lands, to moving away and developing the nuclear family, to having the most diversified homes imaginable. Yet, linking them all is a sense of belonging and connection. Home isn't just a physical place, but a space where vulnerability and safety are granted and accountability is worked towards when conflict arises. More than anything home is a space where values are instilled and shaped and people are equipped to be part of the world, not just as individuals, but as a beloved community