"Sharing Your Story - BC/AD" I

The readings for this week are the faith stories of a variety of people from both testaments. We will explore them much in the way that we did the "woman at the well" story in John 4 during class. While the stories are interesting in themselves, they can be powerful as we bring those stories into conversation with our own.

Genesis 18:1-15 - "A Laughing Matter"

The experience of Abraham and Sarah is interesting in part because it is so human. In Genesis 17, it is Abraham who laughs at the prospect of having a child in old age and in Genesis 18 Sarah joins in. She then lies to God and denies that she laughed. We understand why she laughted and would have done the same thing. We also know that following the call of God means venturing to the edge of absurdity and also believing after we have been hurt. Eventually, the child will be called "Isaac" which means "he laughs." Abraham and Sarah find themself face to face with doubt. Any commonality with your story or mine?

Genesis 20:1-17 - "She's my sister"

One of the things you find in the book of Genesis is that trickery and deceit abounds (Abraham with Sarah, Rebekah with Isaac, Jacob with Esau, Jacob's sons with Jacob, Joseph with Jacob's sons, etc). Here to protect himself and his wife he tells a half-truth, for she is his half-sister.
I had a moral theology professor who said that at the heart of sin is self-deception. We deceive others but in the end we also deceive ourselves, building our lives on half-truths. Partly, we do that because we are afraid, in the words of the great theologian Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men, the people around us "can't handle the truth." Jesus, in John 3:19-21, talks about how when we choose to walk in the light, then our deeds become obvious and they show the work of God. But most people choose to stay in the darkness of deceit. Ever lived a lie? To one degree or another, most of us have. Our story is not that far from Abraham and Sarah.

Genesis 21

This chapter begins in jubilation and ends in tragedy that reigns to this day in the Middle East. Sarah invites everyone to come laugh with her for indeed the Lord has turned her "mourning into dancing." We see God move and we are amazed. God has this way of confounding us (leaving us confused and exasperated in our waiting on him) and then astounding us (doing more than we could ask or think).

But soon the teenage Ishmael starts picking with the toddler Isaac and Sarah, repeating history, sends Hagar away with her son, never to return.
Again, the scriptures here remind us that rivalry and competitiveness (as natural as it is) must be put in its proper place. As Christians we don't coompete with each other except to hone our skills so that we can enter the real competition against evil, hate, faithlessness and selfishness. The devil's best work is to get you and me (and church denominations and local churches) in to rivalry with each other, so we will be distracted from fully participating in the game that really matters.

How does the story of Abraham and Sarah resonate with your story? Their "clay feet" did not disqualify them from being called of God and used by Him. You'll see more of this "clay" throughout the week. Maybe it will help you and me to come to terms with our own clay feet and lay fresh claim to the grace of God. Have a great evening and sorry about the lateness of this post.