Sermons on the Gospel Readings
There is a book on my shelf titled Texts of Terror. Phyllis Trible, the author, has a lot of courage. In this book, she has examined the most awful texts in the Old Testament. These are the pages from the Bible we wish we could accidentally drop between our desk and the wall, lost forever. For example, there is the heart-wrenching story of Jephthah's daughter in the book of Judges. The little girl loses her life because of her father's foolish promise. There is another horrific story in Judges about a woman who is taken by a group of men and tortured, beaten, and raped.
