movie clip from today’s sermon…

what will you choose?

With the Word online Bible study–familiar-unknown

Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’

So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.

~~~~~

What pops out at you in this story? Is there anything that makes you go “hmm….” or “huh?” or “hey!!!!” Are you reminded of any other stories–whether in the Bible, in literature/movies/music/TV, or in your own life? As you read, do you hear any music in your head?

Can you imagine (or have you ever) leaving everything you know and heading out into the unknown? What might that be like (or what was it like, for those who’ve done it)?

Why was Abram chosen for this journey?

What choices did Abram have to make? Could he have heard this call and chosen to stay where he was? To go back to where his father had come from? To go somewhere else? What might have been the consequences of those choices, compared to the consequences of choosing to follow this call?

How do we make choices when we hear the call? How can we be certain it’s God calling, and what do we do when we think God might be asking us to go into the unknown? Does God ever call us to stay in the familiar?

What do you hear as the good news in this text? What do you hear as a challenge? What might this passage have to say to our community today?

Saturday spirit space–entrance-exit

Psalm 32

Happy are those whose transgression is forgiven,
whose sin is covered.
Happy are those to whom the Lord imputes no iniquity,
and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

While I kept silence, my body wasted away
through my groaning all day long.
For day and night your hand was heavy upon me;
my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.
Selah

Then I acknowledged my sin to you,
and I did not hide my iniquity;
I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord’,
and you forgave the guilt of my sin.
Selah

Therefore let all who are faithful
offer prayer to you;
at a time of distress, the rush of mighty waters
shall not reach them.
You are a hiding-place for me;
you preserve me from trouble;
you surround me with glad cries of deliverance.
Selah

I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go;
I will counsel you with my eye upon you.
Do not be like a horse or a mule, without understanding,
whose temper must be curbed with bit and bridle,
else it will not stay near you.

Many are the torments of the wicked,
but steadfast love surrounds those who trust in the Lord.
Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, O righteous,
and shout for joy, all you upright in heart.

genesis 2.15-17, 3.1-7

The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, ‘You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.’

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God say, “You shall not eat from any tree in the garden”?’ The woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; but God said, “You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.” ’ But the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not die; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’ So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.

~~~~~~~~~

You speak, Lord, but we are not always listening.
Sometimes other voices are louder or more persuasive.
You show us your way, Lord, but we are not always looking.
Sometimes other ways seduce us with their ease or power.
You give us choices, now help us to learn your will.
Lead us, Lord, to walk your way on any road we travel.

With the Word online Bible Study: entrance-exit

Genesis 2.15-17, 3.1-7

The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, ‘You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.’
Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God say, “You shall not eat from any tree in the garden”?’ The woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; but God said, “You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.” ’ But the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not die; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’ So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.

~~~~

What pops out at you in this story? Is there anything that makes you go “hmm….” or “huh?” or “hey!!!!” Are you reminded of any other stories–whether in the Bible, in literature/movies/music/TV, or in your own life? As you read, do you hear any music in your head?

Is it possible for you to put away the ways you’ve heard this story interpreted and read it with fresh eyes? Try reading it out loud, doing sound effects, or visualizing it as a play or movie. How does that change how you hear the story?

What does it mean to know the difference between good and evil? Why would that be something God doesn’t want?

Is it possible that humanity NEEDS to eat from the tree in order to be fully human? Or was it a bad idea that was destructive of our humanity? (again–put away all the interpretations you’ve learned before and use your imagination!)

We know what happens after this–the first humans are ejected from the Garden of Eden and sent out into the world. Is that an entrance or an exit, or both? How? Why?

What do you hear as the good news in this text? What do you hear as a challenge? What might this passage have to say to our community today?

Bible in 90 Days: Day 4

BiND:  Day 4

 

The end of the book of Genesis shows us how the Israelites got down into Egypt and became powerful.  Pharaoh’s dreams, which Joseph interprets, turn out to be about how the land will experience seven years of abundance followed by seven years of famine.  Joseph is appointed Pharaoh’s steward, not just of the house but the whole land.  He stores up grain during the first seven years, and then doles it out during the next seven.  In this we can see some aspects of tribalism, perhaps even the first biblical record of nepotism, and also a pretty good revealing of the way government can both serve and exploit the people.  Joseph sells grain to the people of Egypt, but when his brothers show up he gives them grain AND returns their money.  Eventually the people of Egypt run out of money, so Joseph takes their livestock as payment and adds them to Pharaoh’s herds.  The next year they have no money or livestock, so he takes their land as payment, and voila! Pharaoh owns all the land of Egypt.  I hope I’m not the only one disturbed by this situation—that people have to feed themselves and their families, the government has stockpiles of food and helpfully takes everything the people have in exchange for those stockpiles.  Luckily, Joseph is not truly corrupt, for he gives out seed and instructions to plant and harvest but to pay 20% of the harvest as taxes.  Hopefully the remaining 80% will be enough.

 

Once Joseph’s brothers know who he is, Joseph instructs them to bring Jacob (now called Israel) down to Egypt as well.  The 70 people of Israel’s family settle in the land of Goshen, which is in the Nile delta and is the most fertile part of the land.  This is still where the vast majority of Egypt’s crops are grown and where many animals are raised.  It’s also home to a number of temples, both Pharaonic and Hebrew.  In Goshen the Israelites raise their flocks and herds, as well as Pharaoh’s, and they grow and become numerous and healthy.  Indeed it seems that though Joseph’s brothers were malicious, God could use even that malice for good. 

 

 

My favorite part of this happy ending (except it’s not the end!) is where Joseph’s brothers, realizing that their father is dead and now Joseph could potentially get some revenge for what they did to him (because that seems to be what Joseph is all about, wouldn’t you say?), tell him that Jacob desperately wanted Joseph to forgive his brothers.  Nevermind that there’s no record of Jacob finding out what happened to Joseph.  While I’m not saying that the brothers made it up to save their own skins, since there’s precedent for reference to unrecorded events (just a few verses earlier in chapter 50 Joseph says his father made him swear to bury him back with in Canaan, which conversation is not recorded)….I am saying that I can see why they would make that up and try to convince Joseph to forgive them.  The best part is that Joseph, not caring whether the story is made up or not, does forgive.  He models God’s forgiveness and, over and again, returns good for the evil his brothers did to him.  

 photo is Tel Basta, a ruined city in the Nile Delta.  taken by TCP

Bible in 90 Days: Day 3

BiND:  Day 3

Oh, Jacob—Rachel and Leah are both lovely, I’m sure.  I think this situation must be why the Qu’ran is so clear that if a man is going to have more than one wife, he has to be able to love and support them equally.  That is so difficult to do, and poor Leah is on the non-receiving end of this relationship.  She displays all the classic signs of an abused woman, too.  Every time she bears a son, she says to herself, “he has to love me now!” but still Jacob prefers Rachel.  Leah thinks she can earn love, that she can be found worthy of her husband’s affection, that at some point she’ll be good enough.  But she never is, because deception almost never leads to true love.  Even Rachel’s sons are preferred over hers.

 

Speaking of sons…Joseph and Benjamin are the favorites and the other 10 know it.  So you have to wonder:  what would induce Joseph to share his dreams of domination with his brothers?  If I had a dream that was so clearly about how I was better than others, I don’t think I’d share it with those people.  It sounds arrogant and is likely to lead to trouble.  Humility is obviously not one of Joseph’s gifts.  Nonetheless, Joseph shares and ends up in trouble.  He’s sold into slavery in Egypt, but this is not the kind of slavery we are accustomed to learning about.  He essentially becomes steward of Potiphar’s house.  Potiphar was Pharaoh’s captain of the guard—which literally translated actually is “captain of the slaughterer’s” which could make him the chief cook, the chief executioner or, in a more general sense, captain of Pharaoh’s bodyguards.  To be steward in his house was a big job.  Unfortunately for Joseph, Potiphar’s wife was also a big job, and the woman in that office knew how to use her power.  When Joseph refuses her advances, she claims attempted rape and gets Joseph sent to Potiphar’s dungeon.  This theme is a common one in literature.  There is an Egyptian story about two brothers, where the wife of the older brother tries to seduce the younger brother but accuses him of rape when he refuses her.  It seems that this story is usually about two main things:  power and integrity.  In this case, the woman has the power (she has the status, the wealth, and the powerful husband), but Joseph has the integrity, refusing to do something wicked in the eyes of God or to malign a man who has given him a good position for a slave.

 

While in prison, Joseph has the opportunity to interpret more dreams—this time not his own.  The chief cupbearer has a dream that Joseph rightly interprets as about his imminent reinstatement to his position, and the chief baker has a dream that Joseph rightly interprets as being about his imminent execution.  Unfortunately for Joseph, the cupbearer forgets all about him until tomorrow’s reading…

 

There are a lot of dreams in the book of Genesis—in fact, it can almost be seen as an evolution in the way 

God appears to people.  In the beginning, God walks in the garden and is seen face-to-face.  Farther into the story, God speaks but is not seen.  Then we move into dreams and visions—Abram has several visions of God giving instructions and a dream of darkness but with God’s presence; Hagar sees and speaks to angels from God in the desert; Jacob has several dreams (the angels on the stairway to heaven at the place he proclaim to be Beth-El, the house of God, which later will be the site of the first temple, and later the dream in which he wrestles with the angel); Joseph dreams; Joseph interprets the dreams of others.  It almost seems like sleeping might be a spiritual practice, a way to open communication between us and God.  Perhaps when sleeping, the defenses of people (both biblical people and us?) are down and God can finally get through.  I wonder what God might be saying to us through our dreams?

 photos is the Jabok river, where Jacob wrestled with the angel.  taken by TCP

Bible in 90 Days: Day 2

BiND:  Day 2

 

Today we find Abram receiving a covenant sign from God—a little different than the rainbow, this sign!  We also find yet another iteration of the promise that Abraham will have a son.  Apparently the son he has (Ishmael) isn’t the one to carry on the covenant—so it seems that Abraham isn’t the only covenant partner God has in mind.  It appears that the covenant partner needs a partner to carry out the covenant, and in Abraham’s case the partner is Sarah.  Abraham can’t hold his end of the covenant on his own—Abraham and Sarah together will be the conduit for God’s action among the creation.

This section of reading has another set of “familiar” stories—Sodom and Gomorrah, the near-sacrifice of Isaac, Isaac marrying Rebekah, Esau and Jacob.  I suspect we each know the basic outline of these stories, and that we also carry a lot of interpretive baggage with them as well.  Many of us have been taught to think of Sodom and Gomorrah as an indictment of homosexuality.  The near-sacrifice of Isaac often reads like a two-strand story of faithfulness and child abuse.  The way Rebekah is bought from her family and taken hundreds of miles to be the wife of a man she’s never met can be disturbing to our 21^st century sensibilities.  “Jacob have I loved…”

 

Yet reading these stories again, in their context and thinking about their historical-socio-cultural situation, and paying more attention to some of the detail, I notice several things.  In Sodom and Gomorrah, first we have Abraham pleading for its people, bargaining with God.  Ultimately, though, it seems the people there are immersed in a culture of violence and xenophobia and these run so deep that mutual love or forgiveness seem as impossible as true hospitality.  When the servant comes to Rebekah’s family and gives all the gifts and money he can muster but the family tries to delay their leaving, Rebekah is asked if she would like to go with this man to be a wife in a far-away land.  She says she will go and willingly heads out to the camels for the long journey.  It doesn’t sound like her family would have taken the price for her if she’d said no.  And Jacob and Esau are a sort of classic sibling rivalry story—I am reminded of the way my brother and I were growing up, competing for our parents’ affection, each with our own gifts and our own demands.  

But I have to admit that even on this re-read, I still have trouble with the story of Abraham almost sacrificing Isaac.  I can’t understand why God would command such a thing, or why Abraham would agree to do it (faithful or not—if this is the God I know, then he clearly mis-heard!).  I can’t imagine what such an experience must have been like for Isaac or how he would ever trust his father (or his father’s god) ever again.  Child sacrifice is clearly forbidden to the Israelites later in the Torah (the first five books of the Bible…and the stories in Genesis were clearly written down during that later period of Israelite history).  Is this a story condemning human sacrifice?  Praising Abraham’s faithfulness even when God counters God’s own commands?  It makes no sense.  If you all have thoughts, please share them!

 photos are:  the dead sea surrounded by “pillars of salt” created when the shore recedes; the Dome of the Rock, the Temple Mount/Mount Moriah, where Abraham nearly sacrificed Isaac…taken by TCP

Bible in 90 Days: Day 1

 

On my calendar I have noted this as “BiND”—it seems a fitting acronym.  In Deuteronomy 6, God’s people are commanded to hear the word of the Lord and bind it on our hands, foreheads, doorposts, and gates.  But it’s awfully hard to bind the word to these symbols of our lives, to these edges of ourselves, to our whole beings, if we don’t know what it says!  These 90 days are going to be intense—we will move through a lot of material and the hope is that we will be able to read through scripture without getting stuck in the details.  Instead we hope to see the greater story arcs, to get a sense of the big picture, and to see our part in God’s greater story of the world.

 

On this first day we begin with familiar stories: the 7 days of creation, then the second story of creation where the first man, Adam (from the Hebrew ‘adamah, earth), names the animals but doesn’t find an equal partner and so God creates Eve, then the story of Adam and Eve and the serpent in the garden.  We have the story of the first violence (Cain and Abel) and then violence multiplied throughout all the people—enough wickedness that God is induced to use violence as well, bringing a flood on all the earth but saving Noah and his family and lots and lots of animals (why mosquitoes, again?).  

And then the first covenant.  We might think that Adam and Eve somehow received God’s covenant first, but no—God makes the first covenant with Noah and all his offspring.  This is an interesting covenant because God initiates it, sets the terms, and requires nothing.  It is entirely unconditional.  And the symbol of the covenant, the “bow in the clouds,” is a symbol of war and death turned into a symbol of peace, life, and promise.  God first repented of making people because they were so wicked and caused so much misery, but once God wiped them all out, then God repented of the violence and destruction and re-purposed a symbol for a new use.  Unfortunately, humankind was (and is) still prone to violence and destruction, whether the bow is set aside to the clouds or not.  But still we stand on this first covenant, made by God and kept by God.

 

In this first day of reading we have two of the infamous sets of “begats”—long lists of names, a verbal family tree.  Why do we need these lists of dead (or mostly dead) people?  What do they have to do with our story?  Well, I don’t entirely know the answer to that, but I do know that the Bible is a story of people’s encounters with God, and I know that God works through people and chooses to be known to and through people.  As people of the book, these lists are also our family tree—they are our faith ancestors.  Just as it’s important to know our own family histories, it’s important to know the histories of our faith family.  And sometimes that includes people with really unpronounceable names or people who lived “969 years” or people who walked with God and then were taken up to God rather than dying.  And sometimes that includes people who do really horrible things, who laugh at God, or who are deceptive or who have 4 (or more!) wives and dozens of children.  Every family is a mixed bag, and God’s family is no exception.

 

We end today’s reading by beginning the story of Abram and Sarai.  For some unknown reason, God has chosen Abram to be a covenant partner.  God has plans for creation and needs a partner (or two or more!) to get the plans underway, and so Abram and Sarai are chosen.   They don’t appear to be special, just chosen.  But they believe what God tells them, and they act on God’s word, leaving their home and their family to strike out to a new and strange land.  They have all kinds of adventures, from Abram pretending Sarai is his sister to a fight with their nephew Lot to Sarai’s despair over ever having a child to Hagar conceiving for Abraham a son, then being mistreated and running away and becoming the first person ever to name God (El-Roi, one who sees) after God sees her in her desert distress.  It’s a busy several years out there in Canaan.

photo is by ausiegall, from Flickr