Preaching from the Book of Ruth, Ruth 1:1-18: Orpah simply vanished into the mountains. Who was Orpah, and what does her absence from the Book of Ruth—the quintessential story of inclusion in the Hebrew Bible—mean to you and me? This is a sermon that will explore the outcast, forgotten, and silenced people who were once taken for granted among us, but now are gone from our midst—or are they? How do we speak up for the silenced? For those broken on the wheel of life? How do we resist the erasure of people on the fringes? True community must not leave out Orpah’s mysterious story, if we are to be the fellowship of welcome and inclusion we claim to be!

Reverend Doctor Stephen Sprinkle, Emeritus Professor of Practical Theology at Brite Divinity School, and current Theologian-in-Residence at The Episcopal Church of St. Thomas the Apostle in Dallas. Steve has served tirelessly on behalf of the LGBTQIA+ community as a human rights advocate and an internationally recognized authority on anti-LGBTQ hate crimes.

Topics: Building Community, Community, Inspiring, Social Justice