Blessing

I think that it is important for us to take a moment and recap where we have been…sort of like television shows that recap what happened during the last season. In Episode One, "Creation", we discovered that God is the creator who declared that all of creation (including human beings) is good. In Episode Two, "The Fall", we witnessed part of that creation, humanity, deciding that they knew better than God how to run their lives; thus leading to death dealing and not life affirming ways of being human. God responded to that act of defiance in Episode Three, "Discipline and Grace" not through annihilating humanity but by responding with a complex combination of forgiveness and consequences. Finally we watched as God reestablished the relationship with humanity through covenants in Episode Four "Covenants"; agreements in which each side promised to live up to certain commitments. Where this part of the Biblical narrative leaves us is with a present reality in which God and humanity coexist in a rather loose relationship but do not seem to have a plan for restoring the full goodness of God's creation.

This lack of a plan is addressed almost immediately in our current episode, "Blessing."

This episode begins very abruptly in Chapter 12 of Genesis where we hear God speak to a man named Abram from Haran (Iraq) telling him to move to Canaan (Israel). Abram's journey was not an isolated one. Sometime around 2000 BCE large numbers of people moved from Upper Mesopotamia (Iraq) to the area we call Palestine (Israel). Chances are Abram and family were part of this great migration. Additionally within the Abram stories we see names, customs and places which can be historically rooted in that period of time.

The opening words of Chapter 12 also offer us a look at some of the promises God makes to Abram. We hear God make three promises (most of which are fleshed out later in the story) of land, offspring and blessing. Each of these promises will play a critical role in the unfolding story, but for the moment let's focus on the promise of blessing.

The blessing comes in two forms. First God will bless Abram and those who bless Abram. Second, and for our purpose more importantly, through Abram and Abram's family all of the families of the earth will be blessed. Though we are not told the specifics of what it means to bless all the families of the world what this promise implies is that Abram's family will play a decisive role in God's plan to restore creation. The work of this wandering Aramean and his family matters because they are the vehicle through which hope for humanity comes.

In this episode Abram, his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot and their retinue engage in a series of amazing adventures (and misadventures for that matter) as they journey to Canaan, Egypt and back to Canaan. They fight battles, tell lies to protect themselves and meet a wide variety of interesting people. Eventually God speaks once again (Chapter 17) and makes a covenant with Abram. As part of the covenant Abram's name is changed to Abraham and God instructs that all of Abraham's males will be circumcised as a sign of the covenant. Sarai is also given a new name, Sarah, and a promise that she will have a child in order that the promise of the blessing to the world is real.

We close this episode with hope; hope birthed because God has initiated a plan for restoring the blessings for creation that God originally intended in God's good creative work.

Next week: the Blessing at Risk

Visions From Our Story: Covenants

Last week we looked at the manner in which God dealt with the brokenness of the world; through grace and discipline. This week we take a deeper look at how grace and discipline become a more structured part of the relationship between God and humanity through Covenants.

Covenant is a term we don't use much anymore. Instead we use words like agreement or contract to describe arrangements between two parties in which each side agrees to undertake certain actions on behalf of the other. While these more modern terms are appropriate for most of what we do today (buy a house, sign with the Pistons, etc.) they miss the relational aspect which the word Covenant implies.

We see this relational aspect in marriage. In once sense marriage could be seen as no more than a legal contract in which both parties agree to live together, share assets and jointly file their taxes. Most of us however think of marriage as something more profound than that. We see it as the creation of an intimate and hopefully, long lasting relationship. There is an emotional content to the arrangement built upon love and support, rather than simply contractual agreements. This is why in church marriage ceremonies we speak of the marriage Covenant and not the marriage contract.

Biblical Covenants carry that same kind of relational content. God's Covenants with humanity are created out of God's love for the people God has created. God makes Covenants in order to help God's people realize their full human potential (as those God created in God's image). At the same time however, Covenants in the Old Testament also carry with them sanctions which are in place in case the Covenant is broken (think of divorce as a sanction for breaking the marriage Covenant).

We see this clearly in the Hebrew words used to describe the making of a Covenant. A literal translation would be to "cut a Covenant." This comes from the ancient practice of cutting a bull into two halves (yes I know this has an ick factor) and then having the two parties to the Covenant walk together, between the two halves saying, "May what happened to this animal happen to me if I violate the Covenant." The language is a reminder of the serious nature of Covenant making.

The first Covenant occurs in Genesis following the flood story (Genesis 6-9). God, having become angry with humanity for living in death dealing rather than life affirming ways, decided to make a fresh start. God choose Noah and his family to be the seeds from which a new humanity would grow. Everyone else is drowned. Needless to say this is a very disturbing story (even if not an actual event in history). It implies that God can lose God's temper and destroy all that God has made…including you and me.

Fortunately the story finds its conclusion in a unilateral Covenant (Genesis 9:8-17). God promises that God will never again destroy the world through flood (and by implication that God will not destroy it by any other means). God even gives a sign (the rainbow) that God will keep God's promise. This Covenant then establishes a "floor" under the rest of the story assuring us that God will work for the good and not for the destruction of humanity in times to come.

Next week: the Covenant of the Promise

John

Visions From Our Story: Grace and Discipline

So what is a good creating God to do when part of what God has created has gone rogue? That is the question which the readers of God's story are faced with at the end of Genesis chapter three. To recap the last episode of the story we find Adam and Eve living in fear, not of God, but of their own finiteness. By choosing to go their own way, rather than follow God's way, they have discovered that the world is a very frightening place in which to live when God is not your partner. So again the question is, how is God going to deal with these renegades?

This being the Old Testament, what most people would expect would be some fire and brimstone raining down from heaven to teach Adam and Eve a lesson. What we find is something very different. God first expels them from the garden (God following through in a way that they suffer the consequences of their actions) but then makes them clothes and gives them children. In other words God shows them grace.

Many of us have grown up with an image of an angry Old Testament God and a loving New Testament God. A more thorough examination of God's story however reveals that from the beginning to the end of the story, grace is part of God's character. This does not mean that God is a pushover who ignores the pain giving side of humanity…sort of like some parents who appear on Super Nanny. Instead it means that God loves God's creation, including God's often disobedient people, enough to both discipline them so they learn better ways, and to show them grace that they might remember they are always loved.

We see this discipline vs. grace theme in the next several stories. Cain slays Able. God disciplines Cain by sending him away from his family, but shows grace by protecting him from those who would try and take his life. Humanity has become completely evil. God disciplines by bringing the flood and wiping out most of the human race, but God shows grace by saving some (Noah and his family) in order that humanity continue its task as stewards of God's good creation. Finally we have the story of the Tower of Babel in which humanity ineptly tries to invade heaven (a careful reading of the story reveals that the tower they are building was bound to collapse long before they got very high). God disciplines them by confusing their language but shows grace by spreading them out across the earth…thus insuring they will fulfill their destiny. Discipline and grace are woven together in God's story.

The combination of discipline and grace becomes one of the key lenses through which the story of God and God's people needs to be read if we are to come to grips with what God is up to in the world and in our lives. Remember that God created this world, and the people in it, in such a way that we can live together in right relationship with God, with one another and with our creation. That was God's purpose and God's goal. These Genesis stories remind us that God will accomplish God's purpose and goals with the discipline and grace of a loving parent.

My hope is that rather than spending time looking for Noah's Ark or the Garden of Eden (favorites of the Discovery Channel) we will instead see the God we worship Sunday after Sunday as one whose desire for our lives is wholeness, and as one who is willing to help us find that wholeness through the grace and discipline that comes from love. (Next week…making promises)

John

Visions From Our Story: The Fall

So what went wrong? That is the question that should be asked by everyone who reads the first two chapters of Genesis. As we left the story last week we were offered two very different, yet very convergent pictures of creation. God created all that is, including humanity, and declared it to be good. Humanity had all that it needed: provision (food to eat), purpose (to care for creation) and companionship (Adam, Even and God). God was still interested in and connected with humanity and God's creation. Yet as most of us will admit, much of what we see around us is not "good" in the fullest sense of that word. So what went wrong?

The third chapter of Genesis attempts to give us an answer to our query. The story centers on a tree (of the knowledge of good and evil), a talking snake (a very clever one at that) and our two humans (Adam and Eve). Adam and Eve had been commanded not to eat of the tree. This is often a bone of contention for 21^st Century people. We ask, "Why shouldn't they know the difference between good and evil?" The answer is relatively straightforward…we ought to depend on God and not creation for our moral guidance. The tree symbolizes out desire to ignore God's life giving guidance and follow instead our own life limiting choices. Our choices are life limiting because we cannot clearly see either the motives for or consequences of our choices. God on the other hand knows us and our needs perfectly.

The narrative opens with a very bright, yet canny talking snake approaching Eve and asking a question. The question is, "Did God say, 'you shall not eat of any tree of the garden? " (Which introduces an element of confusion.) Eve's response, while partially accurate, "…but God said you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge"…" is also partially inaccurate, "…neither shall you touch it lest you die." (more confusion) The talking snake then offers a 180 degree different take on what God had told Adam and Eve. "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." What is introduced here is an element of doubt about what God said as well as God's motive for saying it (God isn't all that smart and is jealous of humanity). This sets us up the eternal struggle for humanity: shall we trust God or ourselves (or a talking snake) for deciding what is good or evil?

The consequences of the choice Eve and Adam make, to trust in their own ability to be moral guides has disastrous consequences. Not only are they removed from Eden, a place of perfect connection with God, one another and creation, but they usher in physical pain and struggle, murder (Cain slaying Able), wickedness (you name it humans did it), and ultimately an attempt to storm heaven and overthrow God (the Tower of Babel). In other words, trusting in self rather than God leads to death dealing and not life affirming ways of being human.

My guess is that as we look at the world around us (hatred, war, AIDS, poverty, drugs, etc.) we would agree that the choices that humans often make are indeed death dealing and not life affirming. While the story of the Fall is not an historic depiction it paints a clear picture for us of what happens to creation when human beings fail to listen to God. Humanity becomes enmeshed in continuing cycle of self-destructive behavior (sin) which threatens the good world God has created. Fortunately as we will discover, our death dealing choices are not the last word in the matter. God has something else in mind.

Next week: God's response to our misguided choices

Visions From Our Story: Creation

It all begins at creation. The story we have come to know as the Bible begins its long journey in a two chapter account of creation. Chapter one is a marvelous poetic description of God powerfully "speaking" creation into being. The culmination of this creating is the making of human beings in the image of God. "So God created human beings in God's own image; male and female God created them." Along the way God had declared each part of the creation "good". The closing words of this act have God declaring that the entire creation, taken together, is better than good; it is "very good."

The second chapter offers us a very different look at creation. In this story we find ourselves in an earth that looks more like the moon. There are no plants or animals…just a rocky landscape. God then causes the rains to come (bringing plants forth) and creates a perfect environment for humanity, Eden (delight). From the dust of the earth (the name Adam is closely related to the Hebrew word for dirt) God creates the first man. The man, Adam, then works alongside God to name all of the creatures God forms to help Adam in his job of watching over the creation. None of these animals are adequate co-workers so God takes a rib from Adam and makes the primordial woman (the Hebrew for woman is "ishshah" meaning the one who came from man "ish").

Though there are Christians around the world who take these stories at face value (those who believe the earth was created in six 24 hour days; that the earth is only 10,000 years old; and that Adam and Eve were the two original instantaneously created humans) the Bible makes no internal claim that these stories are historically and geologically accurate. They are instead presented as theological explanations of who God is, who we are, and what our task is to be as God's creatures.

We discover who God is. God is the one who creates. God is not a created being, but the one who has the power and inclination to create all that is. God is the one who chooses to create and personally interact with human beings. God is not "the force" from Star Wars. God is not a feeling. God is powerfully and personally connected to all that God has created; humanity and the physical universe in which we live.

We discover who we are. We are part of creation. We are loved by God and have been declared to be "good". We are not God or gods. We are creatures who are different from other creatures only because we are made in the image of God. Being made in the image of God does not give us special privileges; instead it gives us special work to do.

We discover what our task is. We were created for a purpose. Our purpose is to steward (care for) God's creation. This means caring for both one another as well as caring for the world in which we live. We are able to carry out this task only by being in relationship with and God, with one another and with creation itself. Our relationship with God is the primary relationship because God as creator show us how to care for one another and our world.

As we close these chapters we are presented with an idyllic vision of how the world could be. The next chapter in the Bible story shows us that humanity is responsible for derailing this idyllic state through its failure to listen to God's loving directions. Next – The Fall.

John