April 3, 2022 | Inés Velásquez-McBryde | Genesis 38:1-30 Tucked in between the pages of Joseph as he is sold into slavery and heads to Egypt, is the one-page story of a mother of our faith. Tamar has often been misunderstood and misinterpreted under a patriarchal lens that depicts her as a whore. However, hers […]

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Wisdom Walks With A Limp

March 20, 2022 | Inés Velásquez-McBryde | Genesis 32:24-31 Jacob, one of the fathers of our faith, has a history of wrestling. From the moment he was in his mother’s womb he wrestled with his twin brother Esau. Later in life he lied and deceived his father to steal Esau’s birthright blessing. 20 years after […]

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The God of Her-Story

March 6, 2022 | Inés Velásquez-McBryde | Genesis 16:6b-17 In the story of Hagar, we find the faithfulness of God to an enslaved, marginalized woman whom God sees in her affliction. Hagar becomes the first and only human, and the only woman to name God. God is the God who sees, the God who hears, […]

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Receding Waters

February 6, 2022 | Inés Velásquez-McBryde | Genesis 8:1-14 The receding of the waters after the flood story serves as a kind of metaphor for the global pandemic from which we continue to emerge from. Like Noah, we have been in survival mode for a long time. The receding waters invite us into a time […]

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The Curse Is Not A Blessing

January 23, 2022 | Inés Velásquez-McBryde | Genesis 3:8-19 The curse in the garden has been seen as prescriptive for humanity and has distorted our view of God and each other, which has dehumanized women, men, and the marginalized. However, the curse is descriptive of the fall and not a blessing. The serpent came to […]

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Good News, Great Joy, All People

December 19, 2021 | Inés Velásquez-McBryde | Luke 2:8-20 The angels announce to the shepherds that Messiah Jesus was born. The shepherds are the least likely to get an invitation to see a King. Seen as dishonest people working a despised occupation. Yet the sign was that the king would be covered in straw in […]

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Wilderness Calling

December 12, 2021 | Inés Velásquez-McBryde | Luke 1:80 & 1:39-45 The story of Elizabeth and Mary is of a friendship that calls out the calling of God in you. Elizabeth sees with spiritual eyes the invisible hope and calls out the unseen. She is filled with the Holy Spirit and affirms and confirms that […]

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On the last day of creation, God did not only rest, but God created the space and filled it with rest. Rest wasn’t an aftermath of creation, but part of the math of creation. God doesn’t necessarily prescribe how to rest, but he invites us to rest for the purposes of intimacy and sanctification, as […]

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Genesis 1:1-2 — In the beginning we find that before the spoken word of God is the wind of God, the Spirit-wind that hovers over the darkness and over the deep. This Spirit from God hovers to heal and to create in a sacred pause as Creator-God begins to imagine and be curious about God’s […]

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