The following is a lightly edited transcript and a video of Rev Dr. Valerie Bridgeman’s talk from our 2022 Enfleshing Witness gathering.

Rev. Dr. Valerie Bridgman is the founder and president of Women Preach, and she serves as Dean and Vice President for Academic Affairs at the Methodist Theological School in Ohio. Dr. Bridgman is a graduate of Trinity University, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, and Baylor University. Dr. Bridgman has written several published works and has edited and contributed to the Africana Bible: Reading Israel's Scriptures From Africa and the African Diaspora.

Hello, everyone. I'm glad to be able to speak to you. Hear these words from the Common English Bible Translation from 2 Kings 4:8-37. It's a long reading, but it's worth it:  

One day, Elisha went to Shunem. A rich woman lived there. She urged him to eat something. So whenever he passed by, he would stop in to eat some food.

She said to her husband, “Look, I know that  he is a holy man of God and he passes by regularly. Let's make a small room on the roof. Let's set up a bed or table, a chair and a lamp for him there. Then when he comes to us, he can stay there.” 

So one day Elisha came there, headed to the room on the roof and lay down.

He said to his servant Gehazi, “Call the Shunammite woman.” Gehazi called her and she stood before him. Elisha then said to Gehazi, “Say to her,’ Look, you've done all, gone to all this trouble for us. What can I do for you? Is there anything I can say to you on behalf to the king or to the commander of the army?’”

And she said, “I am content to live at home with my own people.” Elisha asked, “So what can be done for her?” Gehazi said, “Well, she doesn't have a son and her husband is old.” Elisha said, “Call her.” So Gehazi called her and she stood at the door. Elisha said, “About this time next year you will be holding a son in your arms.” And she said, “No, man of God, sir, don't lie to your servant.”  But the woman conceived and gave birth to a son at about that time the next year, this was what Elisha had promised her.

The child grew up. One day he ran to his father who was with the harvest workers.
He said to his father, “Oh, my head, my head.” The father said to a young man, “Carry him to his mother.” So he picked up the boy and brought him to his mother. The boy sat on her lap until noon. Then he died.  

She went up and laid him down on the bed for the man of God. Then she went out and closed the door. She called her husband and said, “Send me one of the young men and one of the donkeys, so that I can hurry to the man of God and come back.” Her husband said, “Why are you going to him today? It's not a new moon or Sabbath.”

She said, “Don't worry about it.” She saddled the donkey, said to the young servant, “Drive the donkey hard, don't let me slow down unless I tell you.” So she went off and came to the man of God at Mount Carmel.  As soon as the man of God saw her from a distance, he said to Gehazi, his servant, “Look, it's the Shunammite woman. Run out to meet her and ask her, are things okay with you, your husband and your child?”

She said, “Things are okay.”  When she got to the man of God at the mountain, she grabbed his feet. Gehazi came to push her away. But the man of God said, “Leave her alone. She's distraught. But the Lord has hidden the reason from me and hasn't told me why.”

She said, “Did I ask you for a son, sir? Didn't I say, don't raise my hopes.”  Elisha said to Gehazi, “Get ready, take my staff, and go. If you encounter anyone, don't stop to greet them. If anyone greets you don't reply, put my staff on the boy's face.” But the boy's mother said, “I swear by my life and by the Lord's life, I won't leave you.”

So Elisha got up and followed her.  Gehazi went on ahead of them. He set the staff on the young boy's face, but there was no sound or response. So he went back to meet Elisha and said, “The boy didn't wake up.”  Elisha came to the house and saw the boy laying dead on his bed. He went in and closed the door behind the two of them.

Then he prayed to the Lord. He got up on the bed and he lay on top of the child putting his mouth on the boy's mouth, his eyes on the boy's eyes, his hands on the boy's hand and as he bent over him the boy’s skin grew warm. Then Elisha got up and paced back and forth in the house. Once again, he got up on the bed and bent over the boy, at which point the boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes.

Elisha called Gehazi and said, “Call the Shunammite woman.”  Gehazi called her, and she came to Elisha. He said, “Pick up your son.” She came and fell at his feet, face down on the ground. She picked up her son and left. 

So ends this reading. 

I don't know if you've ever listened to that entire story, but let me say this: As a black woman from the deep south of the USA, I know what it's like to grieve and to want for something that doesn't seem like you can have it. She was vulnerable in the patriarchal society of her time. If her husband who was older than her were to die, and she did not have a son, particularly a son, to take care of her she would be a widow in the midst of this country and vulnerable, for who would take care of her?

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