Sunday Toolkit — 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time, 8th November 2026

A note before you start: this week’s Old Testament reading is the rape of Tamar. This toolkit names that plainly rather than talking around it, because the people who used to talk around it are part of the problem the story is about. If you’re not up to sitting with this one this week, that’s a completely reasonable thing to know about yourself — see the note in section 4 about an alternative set of readings.

1. Encouragement

This is one of the harder weeks to be the person standing up the front, and it’s worth saying so out loud. You don’t have to have this story fully resolved in yourself before you can help the room sit with it faithfully. Reading a hard text aloud, steadily, is itself a gift to the people listening — most of them have never heard it read in church at all.

Whatever you do with this week’s reading, you’re doing something worthwhile just by being willing to stand there and not look away. That’s enough. Be gentle with yourself in the lead-up, and know that a wobble in your voice on the day won’t undo any of the care you’ve put in.

2. This Week’s Reading

Old Testament — 2 Samuel 13:1-21 — Tamar and Amnon. Read on Bible Gateway (NRSVue).

“Tamar put ashes on her head, and tore the long robe that she was wearing; she put her hand on her head, and went away, crying aloud as she went.” (2 Samuel 13:19, abridged)

New Testament — Revelation 12:1-6, 13-17 — the woman and the earth. Read on Bible Gateway (NRSVue).

“But the earth came to the help of the woman.” (Revelation 12:16, abridged)

The two readings don’t resolve each other, and it’s worth knowing that going in. Tamar is left grieving in her brother’s house, silenced by the people around her, and the text doesn’t give her a rescue. Revelation’s woman does get help — the earth itself opens up for her — but she’s a very different kind of figure, caught up in a vision rather than a flesh-and-blood household. It’s fine, and probably more honest, to let the two sit side by side without forcing one to fix the other.

3. What Richard’s Explored Before

This is genuinely new territory for Richard — neither passage has turned up in any of his past sermons, at least not in the records that are searchable. That’s worth knowing: nobody in this household has preached this exact story before, so there’s no “last time” to fall back on.

That said, Richard has stood close to this ground more than once. On 4 October this year he preached on Jephthah’s daughter, another story of a daughter paying for a decision that was never hers to make. Back in August 2023 a guest preacher, Robyn, preached on the rape of Dinah — the only other sermon in the records that names sexual violence this directly, and worth knowing about if people in the room were there for it. And in August this year, Richard preached on Joseph wearing the ornate robe his father gave him — which turns out to be the same unusual Hebrew word for “robe” that shows up in Tamar’s story. It’s a small thread, but a real one, if you want to draw it.

On the liturgy side, there’s no record of a Words for Worship or L3 service built around either of these readings, so there’s nothing to borrow there this time.

As for where the congregation’s just been: the last two Sundays sat with Michal and then Abigail, two women managing dangerous men with wit and composure. This week is different in a way worth naming before you begin — there’s no clever way through what happens to Tamar. Nothing she does changes the outcome. That shift from “managed” to “unmanageable” is itself part of the story.

4. Resources

The best find for this week is a Spill the Beans resource built for exactly this pairing — check the shared folder for Issue 48, in the section on Tamar’s story. It’s unusually direct about what it’s doing: the writing team talk about debating at length whether to run a service on this story at all, and they suggest telling people beforehand what the reading involves, to soften the surprise. Two of their ideas are worth borrowing even if you don’t use the rest: leaving an unlit candle while the story is read, then inviting people to write a single word on it afterwards; and quietly tying scraps of wool together as a wordless prayer. If the room genuinely can’t take this story this particular week, the same resource points to the All Saints readings (Proverbs 31 and James 2) as a gentler alternative — a completely legitimate call to make.

No matching entry turned up in Words for Worship or L3 for either reading, so there’s nothing else to point to there this week.

There’s no service bibliography yet for 8 November — the folder for that week hasn’t been set up on Drive at the time of writing — so there’s no record yet of what songs or prayers the service will actually use. Worth checking back closer to the date.

One practical thing worth having ready: 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732) is Australia’s national sexual assault and domestic/family violence line. It’s worth having the number on the screen or in the order of service this week, just in case someone in the room needs it.

5. Songs

There’s no confirmed record of either of these readings being sung for before — the usual song list is an inventory rather than a usage log, so honestly, there’s nothing to check against. These are fresh suggestions rather than tried-and-tested ones.

Touch the Earth Lightly (TiS 668) — a gentle fit for Revelation’s image of the earth itself stepping in to help; could sit nicely in the Centring Meditation slot.
How Long (ATFG 563) — a lament, which this week needs room for. Couldn’t find a confident link for this edition, so it’s worth checking your own books rather than searching online.
There is a Line of Women (Iona) — names a long line of women who’ve carried exactly this kind of pain, and the women who have stood with them.

6. Weblinks

A few of Richard’s regular stops that are worth a look for this week’s readings:

Fair warning: because neither reading sits in the standard Sunday lectionary cycle, most lectionary sites have nothing written specifically for these verses. Worth checking anyway, in case something close turns up.

7. Pop Culture

Five songs for the lead-up to the service:

Sinéad O’Connor, “Thank You for Hearing Me” — a quiet song about finally being heard, which is the one thing Tamar’s story never gives her.
Jason Isbell, “Cover Me Up” — about being made safe after being exposed; an odd, gentle echo of a torn robe and what covering, or its absence, can mean.
Phosphorescent, “Song for Zula” — a defiant refusal to be caged by someone else’s idea of you.
Phosphorescent, “Wolves” — a song about being pursued, which sits close to the dragon chasing Revelation’s woman into the wilderness.
Nat Bartsch, “Over the River” (solo piano) — wordless and gentle, something to just breathe to either side of a heavy service.

From the library: Bessel van der Kolk, The Body Keeps the Score. It’s a serious, substantial book about how the body carries and heals from trauma — more something to sit with over several weeks than a quick pick-up, and probably more useful for your own processing of this week than something to hand straight to the congregation. Still, it’s a genuinely well-regarded book, and worth knowing is on the shelf.

On screen: Women Talking (2022, directed by Sarah Polley) — based on a novel inspired by real events in a Bolivian Mennonite community, it follows a group of women deciding how to respond after learning the men in their community have been assaulting them for years. It connects directly to this week’s themes of silence, complicity and the pressure to forgive. A clear flag, though: it deals with sexual violence and its aftermath throughout (nothing shown on screen, but discussed and felt), along with some domestic abuse and three references to suicide, none shown in detail. It’s a strong film, but not a casual Tuesday-night watch, and probably not one to take on in the same week you’re also preparing this service — you might want to save it for afterwards.

8. Notable Dates

A fuller week than most, with a few things worth a mention in the notices or the prayers:

6 November — International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict (United Nations). An odd but genuine echo of this week’s other reading: the earth itself, and what it costs when it’s used as a weapon rather than protected.
9 November — Karl Barth. A Swiss theologian who helped write the Barmen Declaration, a formal church statement standing against the Nazi-aligned “German Christian” movement of the 1930s. A good quiet example of a church choosing not to go along with power that expects to get away with things.
10 November — Thomas Merton. A monk and writer who held prayer and the hard, political realities of his day together rather than treating them as separate. A gentle companion for a week that asks the same of us.
11 November — Remembrance Day. Worth a mention in the prayers, as always.
9–20 November — COP31, the UN climate conference, opens this week in Antalya, Türkiye, with a Pacific Pre-COP in Fiji. The Uniting Church has joined other faith leaders calling on Australia to back a fair, planned transition away from fossil fuels — a fitting companion to the earth that comes to the woman’s defence in Revelation 12.

9. Final Word

If you only do one thing differently this week, try this: read the content note out loud to yourself, alone, before you ever say it to the room. Notice how it feels in your own mouth and body first. Giving yourself that same gentleness you’re about to offer everyone else isn’t a shortcut — it’s part of doing this well.

Whatever this week asks of you, may you be steadied by more than your own effort, and may the room you lead be a little more honest for your having stood in it.