Now As For You . . .

Now when Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him,
“I am God Almighty;
Walk before Me, and be blameless.
I will establish My covenant between Me and you;
And I will multiply you exceedingly.”

Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him saying,
“As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you
And you will be the father of a multitude of nations.
No longer shall your name be called Abram,
But your name shall be Abraham;
For I will make you the father of a multitude of nations . . .” Genesis 17:1-6

INTRO: I wonder if, at ninety-nine, Abram was ready for this

I imagine him responding,
“Walk before You, Lord? Could I just sit in a chair and rock before You?”

Last week Dad was in the hospital for a surgical procedure
– I spent three sleepless nights with him
• the most difficult part was watching him cough
• the most encouraging part was watching him work at his recovery
– at eighty-six, nothing is easy for him
• in early June, when I spent a week with my folks, both of them at different times said to me,
“Chuck, don’t get old”
– Yesterday morning, I sat by the window waiting for Dad to wake up
• I was in Psalm 150 and the words, “Let everything that has breath . . .” hit hard
• the purpose of Dad’s surgery was to help increase the volume of air he inhales with each breath
○ I wrote in my notebook:
“I have to say, regarding Dad’s attitude and fight, he is an excellent example for me. ‘More like Dad . . .’”

So Abram was old, but his journey wasn’t over
– and I think that’s all I want to say today Continue reading →

Desperate Decisions

Now Sarai, Abram’s wife had borne him no children, and she had an Egyptian maid whose name was Hagar. So Sarai said to Abram, “Now behold, the LORD has prevented me from bearing children. Please go in to my maid; perhaps I will obtain children through her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.

So Hagar bore Abram a son; and Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar had bore, Ishmael. Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to him. Genesis 16:1-2, 15-16

INTRO: Reading the first and last sentences of chapter 16 could give us the wrong idea about this story

It begins, “problem stated” and ends, “problem solved”
– but the brilliance of the story is what goes on in between
• brewing within is the tension that drives plot — otherwise, there is no story, only details
• the tension erupts between the two women who are associated with Abram

Vv. 1-3, The storyteller provides no moral commentary regarding their actions

Whether what they did was right or wrong, sinful or righteous, there’s no clue

“Pious” commentators can’t stand this
– so they provide titles for this type of story like, “Abram and Sarai’s Sin” or “Abram’s Lapse of Faith”
• they feel it’s necessary for them to tell Bible readers, “This is not how we solve our problems”
○ as if anyone reading this story would draw that conclusion
○ it’s obvious, this was a different time and culture, and these were unusual circumstances
• the storyteller has no problem adding moral commentary when it is called for
○ Adam and Eve, Cain, Tower of Babel, etc.
○ but there’s none given in this instance and we don’t need to insert any

Here we simply have normal people trying to understand God’s will Continue reading →

Reducing the Stress of Strife

Now Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents. And the land could not sustain them while dwelling together, for their possessions were so great that they were not able to remain together. And there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock. Genesis 13:5-7

INTRO: Why is the term “spiritual journey” a good metaphor for the Christian life?

. . . .

There’s an important lesson in Genesis 13 about how spiritual growth occurs
– the word translated “journey” in verse 2 means “starting point” or “stage” (of journey)
• Abram’s journey took him “from the Negev . . . to the place where his tent had been”
The lesson: we grow by leaving one place and arriving at another
– or leaving one thing to take up another

When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things (1 Cor. 13:11)

Notice that Abram returned to “place [he] had been at the beginning”
-it’s as if he made a wrong move and had to start over
• so he returned to the “place of the altar” – that’s where we go to start over
• we return to that vital connection with God
– so sometimes our progress is backward, before resuming our forward movement

Vv. 5-7, God’s blessings put a strain on their relationship

Literally, “the land could not bear them to dwell together”
– they became a drain on the land’s limited resources
– so the unpleasant interaction between their hired hands began to erupt Continue reading →

Abram Journeyed On

Now the LORD said to Abram,
“Go forth from your country,
And from your relatives,
And from your father’s house,
To the land which I will show you . . . Genesis 12:1-2

INTRO: When and where do you exercise your creativity?

Some of us sketch or write poems, others are creative in the kitchen or garden

Dorothy Sayers, famous author of mystery novels, asked, What is the image of God in humans?
– she said arguments could be made to support “rationality . . . self-consciousness . . . free choice”
– but Genesis had not given us detailed information about God before it says we were made in His image

Sayers, “ . . . we find the only single assertion, ‘God created.’ The characteristic common to God and [humans] is apparently that: the desire and the ability to make things.”

Our bodies have certain basic needs, that if not met, they die
– the same is true of our souls – “soul” — that is to say, our essential self
– one of its basic needs is to creatively express itself
• if it doesn’t do this, or if it isn’t allowed to, it atrophies

To know our truest form of creative self-expression, we have to know who we are
– you and I must each know our own soul
• that’s what we’ll consider here – how Abram discovered himself
• to be clear on where this will take us, always in scripture to know God is to discover one’s self

I will highlight key words that indicate the process of Abram’s self-discovery Continue reading →

Of Covenants and Autonomy

Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying, “Now behold, I Myself do establish My covenant with you, and with your descendants after you; and with every living creature that is with you . . . Genesis 9:8-10

INTRO: We’re ready to move on in the Genesis story, but we need to tie up a few loose ends

God is re-starting creation with Noah and his family
– so he repeats his original blessing and instructions (cf. Ge. 1:28 & 9:1)
• only, at this point God adds something to their diet (9:3)
• eating meat raises an issue regarding blood and its sacredness (9:4-7)
○ we discern a flashback to Abel’s innocent blood
• they are to propagate human life, not take it
○ God’s stamp on the human person–his own image
○ this means that in all the universe nothing is of greater value than a human person

God then made a universal covenant (9:-17)
– “covenant” is one of the Bible’s central themes
• in fact, our whole Bible is divided according to the “Old” covenant (“testament”) and the “New”
• the purpose of a covenant is to strengthen trust and give assurance – it is a guarantee
○ it is tangible evidence of a promise
• a covenant creates a bond between the parties involved
– some sort of physical evidence is agreed on as “a sign” (like the wedding ring)
• bread and wine representing the body and blood of Jesus are the signs of the new covenant (Lk. 22:20)
• to form a rainbow, there must be a cloud, rain, and sunlight
○ this would a great place for Noah’s story to end, underneath the shimmering bow

Epilogue: Noah’s farming experiment (9:20-27)
– this lapse of character  occurred after the flood (previously he was “blameless”)
• the temptations most difficult to resist do not always come to us during the crisis
– but why does Noah’s story have to end on this unpleasant note? Continue reading →

For A Healthier Spirit, Walk

This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day when God created man, He made him in the likeness of God. He created them male and female, and He blessed them and named them Man in the day when they were created. Genesis 5:1-2

INTRO: Sprinkled throughout the Bible are these little teasers (or appetizers)

A short passage or verse that jolts our spiritual imagination
– these are usually hidden in unexpected places
• and they appear without elaboration or explanation
○ which means, it really is left to our imaginations to figure out the meaning and implications of the thought
– we’ll come to one of those “thought-bombs” today

Vv. 1-3, The “starting gun” for the human race

Genealogies do not make for the most interesting reading
– in the previous chapter, we found the brief genealogy of Cain
• there, a different form was used to create the genealogy
○ that helps us to see how genealogies are selective, not exhaustive
• the point: authors used genealogies to serve a purpose
– in Genesis, genealogies usually mark a transition between stories
• the distance from Adam to Noah spans approximately a thousand years
○ this is a big jump in story time–how will we get from one to the other?
○ with a genealogy Continue reading →

What Crouches Behind Door #2?

Now the man had relations with his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain, and she said, “I have gotten a manchild with the help of the LORD.” Again, she gave birth to his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of flocks, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. Genesis 4:1-2

INTRO: I’m sure most of us are familiar with Highlights

The children’s magazine began a cartoon feature in 1948, “Goofus and Gallant”
– two boys who illustrate right and wrong behavior
• this is how Cain and Abel are usually presented,
○ as a Sunday school object lesson
– when moral decisions are illustrated in this way, it’s really easy to get the answer right
• but we’re looking at caricatures, exaggerations – the deck is stacked

Even though the example of Cain and Abel is extreme,
– if we look closely and honestly, we have to confess it is not so easy to live the right answer

Verses 1-2 set the stage

Eve’s birth announcement is brief, but we hear her excitement
– the Hebrew is more succinct than our translation
“I’ve produced a man [person] with Yahweh”
– she wasn’t naive about Adam’s role in her pregnancy, but this goes way beyond sex
• she grasps the idea of procreation – of bringing forth a life, a creation
– his name reflects her sense of wonder and also her hope
• this is the “seed” God promised to crush the serpent’s head (3:15) Continue reading →

 From Intimacy to Alienation

They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. Genesis 3:8

INTRO: Remember, we are in the garden with the man and the woman, but there’s trouble in paradise

They’ve crossed a threshold – what will be the nature of their new situation?

Something I appreciate about Alcoholics Anonymous and Al-Anon:
– everyone knows they’re broken – and that we’re all broken
– a lot of people are unaware of that broken place inside
• some of them run around, looking for a magic formula to make their lives work
• others claim they have the magic formula
○ and they’re always trying to shove it down everyone else’s throat
○ it is, in fact, their brokenness that drives them
– Bob Dylan got it right, “Everything Is Broken”
• that was the new situation for the man and the woman

V. 8, There are a few very sad moments in the Bible

This is one of the saddest

The emphasis of the previous scene was on sight – “eyes” “saw” and were “opened”
– in this scene the emphasis shifts to sound – “they heard,” but they didn’t want to see or be seen
– so they went into hiding – “hid themselves from face of God”
• there are comic elements in this story, but it is not a comedy, but a tragedy
• God was not the problem, but the solution
○ only they don’t trust God
○ no matter what we’ve done, God is always the solution — turning to him is always our salvation

Vv 9-13, The interrogation Continue reading →

Dangerous Conversations

Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden?” Genesis 3:1

INTRO: For a couple of years, friends have been telling me about the Los Angeles Book Fair

This year, they let me tag along and it was overwhelming
– a long line of display booths as far as the eye could see, filled with books begging, “Read me”
– I wondered, “Am I in heaven?”
• I didn’t want to miss anything, like a kid who wants to go on every ride at an amusement park in one day
• but decisions must be made – “Is this booth worth it to stop and browse? What if there’s something more interesting in the next booth?”

The sign over one booth read, “Atheists United” — walking past that one was easy
• I thought to myself, “Don’t want to talk with them!”

Some temptations are easy to resist
– but do we always escape them as well as we think?
• as I walked by, curiosity got the best of me and I looked inside
○ what books are they selling? – what does an atheist look like?
(they looked as fervent as any fundamentalist)
– but what about the other authors, the ones I was willing to chat with?
• were they any safer?
• am I safer when I let my guard down, because the person I’m talking with is not an atheist?
○ “Better the devil that you know than the devil you don’t”

This is exactly where we find ourselves in today’s scripture

★ YOU ARE HERE ——–> Genesis 3:1-7

– if there’s anything you get from the passage – it’s that this is our story!
– the man and woman are representatives of humankind
• we are all in the garden – we have all tasted the fruit Continue reading →

God, Humans, and I – Thou Relationships

This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created in the day that the LORD God made earth and heaven. . . . Then the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. Genesis 2:4, 7

INTRO: Where we begin reading today is so different from last week, it’s like we’re in a different book

First, there is clear break between verses 3 and 4
– then, a new theme is introduced in verse 4
• “This is the account” – Hebrew: “generations” and usually precedes a genealogy
• this word is used to separate themes in Genesis
– but the most significant difference between chapters 1 and 2 is hidden in the text

To appreciate what happens here, we will get help from a Jewish philosopher
– Martin Buber pointed out a distinction in human relationships
• he described the way a person interacts with an object or thing as an I – It relation
• the way a person interacts with another person is an I – Thou
– the ultimate I – Thou relationship is between a person and God
• I – It is how people relate to God who talk about God, but have not encountered him
• to them he is an “It,” because he is a doctrine, an idea

Looking back at chapter 1, the context is I – It
– Elohim, “God,” is the “I” and creation is the “it”
• even when he speaks to the humans, they’re not yet persons
– but immediately in today’s reading, we meet Yahweh Elohim
• it is still “God,” but now this God has a name, Yahweh
○ he is not “a” god, but “this” particular God
○ he is suddenly personal

Martin Buber, “The It-world hangs together in space and time.
The You-world does not hang together in space and time.”

– Genesis chapter 1 is the creation of the It – world located in space and time
• chapter 2 introduces the person of Yahweh
• what transpires between him and the humans moves beyond space and time Continue reading →