Genesis 12:1-25:18

The Thursday reading gives us the story of Abram (later named Abraham). The connection to the Tower of Babel story would be that he comes from Ur of the Chaldees and was likely from that religious background . The narrative is a form of history, but with a very clear agenda - the establishment of the identity of Israel. From the beginning the initiative is with God and it will take the ongoing intervention of God to bring his promise to pass. The elements of sacred story are also here: the naming and renaming of people (symbolic for that time and for Israel's future), humorous telling of events along with deception and trickery, etc. A helpful way to picture the telling of the Abram/Abraham story is to imagine a child asking, "How did we get to become God's people?" Then a patriarch of the family tells the story that many in the room or around the fire already know. As he tells it, the imagination of the children are engaged and the adults gain a deeper sense of who and whose they are. That's exactly what happens in the celebration of the Passover, but even to this day, the telling of the stories between generations is a key way of communicating faith, values and identity in the Middle East. As our sons prepare to become young adults, I find they are very interested in the stories their grandparents tell them. They laugh and ask questions, but they also experience a deepening of their roots and some clearer self-definition. One teaching technique would be to have class members bring a story that their parents or grandparents have told them that helped them understand who and whose they are. My guess is that some of the same elements of sacred story will be in what they share.

This reading includes a call story which is a part of the general flow of scripture (Abraham/Sarah, Moses, Samuel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Esther, Mary, and Saul who became Paul, just to name some). The calls come in great variety, but always the initiative is with God. The person doesn't seek to be called by God and at times argues with God. The call generally is complicated by an impossible situation (e.g. Sarah's inability to have children) and often the call will have to be updated during the person's life (e.g. the dividing of the land between Abraham and his nephew lot and the tragedy of Sodom and Gomorrah).

As you read this passage, what are some of the values and life lessons that are being communicated in this set of stories: Abraham's claim that Sarah was his sister (liar, liar), the bargaining with God over Sodom and Gomorrah (the God who can be dickered with?) and the turning back of Lot's wife (a little extreme don't you think?), the Ishmael conundrum, the birth of the child of promise (what was that name?), and finally, the specter of child sacrifice?