Naming the Nameless: Centering the Closest to Pain

A congregation gathers with light, ordinary morning moments—daylight savings confusion, a child’s offertory, announcements about recycling, and an invitation to community action. Four biblical episodes converge: Laban’s covenant with Jacob, a nameless woman healed after twelve years of bleeding, Jairus’s dying daughter, and Jesus’ interruptions that reorder priorities. The Genesis scene exposes how patriarchal systems treat daughters as property even while invoking God as witness; the covenant appears protective only within a framework that still owns and bargains over lives. The Gospel episode reframes value: a woman pushed to the margins by ritual impurity pushes back through the crowd and touches the fringe of a cloak, and the resulting healing forces a public reckoning. Power shifts when attention lands on the person closest to pain.

Naming becomes a sacramental act. Women who arrive unnamed in scriptural accounts receive names—Janice, Dorothy, Annabelle, Mary—reclaiming identity and dignity and insisting on being seen. That renaming models a wider ethic: remember names, center people, and refuse ritual or social labels that make people invisible. Historical memory deepens the argument: early Jesus movement evidence and extra-biblical traditions suggest women once held leadership and financial stewardship roles; the later church’s retrenchment silenced many of those voices. The United Church of Christ’s earlier ordination of women and LGBTQ clergy stands as an attempt to reclaim that earlier practice.

The political edge sharpens the pastoral claim: systems of taxation, fines, and criminal justice disproportionately harm the poor, and recruitment patterns in the military raise questions about whose lives are risked. Public acts that place victims at the center—whistling at violent detentions, filming abuses, visiting prisoners, mutual aid—protect and empower. Concrete invitations follow: support mutual aid, donate to rent assistance, remember victims by name, and push for leadership that reflects those closest to suffering. The final benediction sends the community out charged to center the marginalized, to remember names, and to translate compassion into structural change so dignity and power align more closely than they have.

---

Key Takeaways

• 1. Give names; restore human dignity Naming someone affirms personhood against systems that anonymize and marginalize. Calling the unnamed women by name resists ritual exclusion and reclaims agency for those treated as objects. Naming becomes a small but subversive act that recalibrates power in community life. [19:40]
• 2. Center those closest to pain Prioritize the experiences of those who suffer instead of letting elites set agendas. When attention shifts to the wounded, power follows and protection can emerge through public witness and accompaniment. Centering reshapes moral priorities and policy responses. [35:10]
• 3. Disrupt patriarchal structures Patriarchal bargains may disguise control as protection; covenant language can still objectify persons. Critically reading Genesis reveals how social systems trade human lives and deny consent. Disruption requires exposing those bargains and demanding agency for women and others. [41:51]
• 4. Recover women’s leadership legacy Early Christian communities show women in roles of stewardship and authority, later obscured by institutional retrenchment. Recovering that legacy offers a blueprint for inclusive leadership now: electing diverse voices and removing barriers to power. Institutional memory matters for present reform. [48:35]

Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [03:38] - Opening remarks and daylight savings
• [04:08] - Visitor info and announcements
• [05:54] - Recycling and volunteer needs
• [06:30] - OutFront guest invitation
• [14:25] - Opening hymn and readings
• [15:22] - Genesis reading: Laban and Jacob
• [16:30] - Gospel setup: unnamed woman
• [19:40] - Naming the unnamed women
• [33:25] - Luke reading: Janice and Jairus
• [35:10] - "Closest to the pain" principle
• [41:51] - Patriarchy in the Genesis covenant
• [45:54] - Jesus centers the marginalized
• [48:35] - Early church women leaders remembered
• [52:08] - Call to diverse leadership and action
• [77:20] - Benediction and sending forth

Bible reading
Genesis 31:43-50 (ESV)
Then Laban answered and said to Jacob, “The daughters are my daughters, the children are my children, the flocks are my flocks, and all that you see is mine. But what can I do this day for these my daughters or for their children whom they have borne? Come now, let us make a covenant, you and I, and let it be a witness between you and me.” So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar. And Jacob said to his kinsmen, “Gather stones.” And they took stones and made a heap, and they ate there by the heap. Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha, but Jacob called it Galeed. Laban said, “This heap is a witness between you and me today.” Therefore he named it Galeed, and the pillar Mizpah, for he said, “The Lord watch between you and me, when we are out of one another's sight. If you oppress my daughters, or if you take wives besides my daughters, although no one is with us, see, God is witness between you and me.”

Luke 8:40-48 (ESV)
Now when Jesus returned, the crowd welcomed him, for they were all waiting for him. And there came a man named Jairus, who was a ruler of the synagogue. And falling at Jesus' feet, he implored him to come to his house, for he had an only daughter, about twelve years of age, and she was dying. As Jesus went, the people pressed around him. And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and though she had spent all her living on physicians, she could not be healed by anyone. She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, and immediately her discharge of blood ceased. And Jesus said, “Who was it that touched me?” When all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the crowds surround you and are pressing in on you!” But Jesus said, “Someone touched me, for I perceive that power has gone out from me.” And when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling, and falling down before him declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him, and how she had been immediately healed. And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.”

Observation questions

1. In the Genesis passage, what does Laban claim as his own before proposing a covenant with Jacob?
2. What specific action does the woman take in the Luke passage to seek healing, and what is the immediate result?
3. How does Jesus respond when he feels power leave him, and what does this reveal about his priorities in the moment?
4. What names were given to the unnamed women in the biblical stories during the sermon, and what was the significance of this act? [19:40]

Interpretation questions

1. Laban's covenant sounds protective on the surface, but how does the surrounding story of Jacob, Rachel, and Leah reveal it to be part of a system that treats women as property? [41:51]
2. The woman with the hemorrhage was considered ritually unclean. How did her act of touching Jesus' garment defy social and religious norms of the time, and why was her faith considered so powerful? [42:29]
3. The principle "the people closest to the pain should be the closest to the power" was applied to several modern situations. How does Jesus' interaction with the hemorrhaging woman model this principle in a first-century context? [35:10]
4. What does the historical evidence about women like Phoebe and Mary Magdalene in the early Jesus movement suggest about how the church's practice changed over time? [48:35]

Application questions

1. Naming someone is a subversive act that affirms personhood against systems that anonymize. Who is one person in your community or workplace who often goes unseen or unnamed? What is one practical way you can learn and use their name this week to affirm their dignity?
2. Centering those closest to pain reshapes moral priorities. Is there a current event or local issue where the voices of those most affected are being ignored? What is one way you can help amplify those voices or shift your attention to listen to them?
3. Patriarchal structures often disguise control as protection. Can you identify a tradition, policy, or even a joke in your family, workplace, or church that seems protective on the surface but might actually limit someone's agency or consent? How could you gently question or disrupt that pattern?
4. Recovering a legacy of women's leadership offers a blueprint for inclusion. In your own circles of influence, how can you actively identify and remove barriers for women and other marginalized groups to step into leadership and stewardship roles?
5. Public acts of witness, like filming an injustice or visiting a prisoner, keep victims centered. What is one form of public accompaniment or mutual aid you feel drawn to participate in, whether it's donating to a rent assistance fund, volunteering, or simply showing up to bear witness? [47:24]
6. The act of remembering names like Harper, Renee, and Alex is a way to continue life for those who have been taken. Is there a victim of tragedy or injustice whose name and story you could commit to remembering and sharing with others? [58:41]
7. Faith compels us to visit the prisoner. What are the "prisons" in our society—literal or metaphorical—that people are often encouraged to ignore? How can we, as a community, respond to this call to visit and center those inside them? [01:09:30]