"Unlikely" Happens

“They’re a loose federation, there’s an external threat, and there’s an internal crisis. Enter Unlikely Character #1: Hannah.”

Wednesday morning, September 10, Associate Professor of Theology and Christian Ministries Sharon Ketcham addressed the Gordon community in Chapel. Teaching from 1 Samuel 3, she told the stories of three highly unlikely heroes during a tense and unstable time in Israel's history: Hannah the rejected, Eli the guilty, and Samuel the ill-equipped.

Hannah, a Jewish woman in a time and place in which her status depended on having male offspring, is barren. Eli, the priest at Shiloh, has fulfilled his responsibilities poorly, to say the least. Samuel is young and unprepared. And yet God uses all three of these unlikely characters to provide needed leadership for Israel. “The hope of the gospel,” Dr. Ketcham said, “is that unlikely will happen.” In fact, she noted, "It is in the packages of the unlikely that God comes.”

Dr. Ketcham made an impassioned plea for seeking unity even—or perhaps even especially—during times of division and disagreement. Unity, she noted, is not uniformity or sameness. "Unity is taking multiplicity and using it to join with the redemptive activity of God."

In a time of many struggles for the Gordon community, her message struck a chord: “My dear friends, let us be the voice of hope in our place.”

Dr. Ketcham, who recently received Gordon's annual Distinguished Junior Faculty award, is fond of saying that "Theology happens where life and faith intersect." She is active in organizations that promote the study of Christian ministries, including the Association of Youth Ministry Educators, of which she is president. 

Current research interests include the social environment of learning, communal ecclesiology, and the relational nature of adolescent development. She served at a church in Knoxville, Tennessee, for nearly 10 years before joining the Gordon faculty in 2004. She earned her bachelor's degree at Gordon College, her Th.M. at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary, and her Ph.D. at Boston College. 

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