Abraham and Sarah. They are a team. They are God's team. It it to them that God's promise of an heir will be fulfilled. You can understand why they were a little unsure of this promise. They were two very old people. Sarah had never borne a child. They wanted to believe, but the years were still slipping away and no baby.
So they tried to 'help' God along; Sarah gave Hagar to Abraham as a wife and a son Ishmael was born. But the promise was for Abraham and Sarah, not Abraham and just anybody.
So the covenant, the promise, is reiterated and marked with a divine name change. Abram would now be Abraham (father of many nations) and Sarai would now be Sarah and they would have a son.
For people of faith, life is a series of discernments. Do I hold onto the promise I understood God to make? Did I get the details wrong? Have I substituted my own voice for God's voice? Do I 'help' the process along or just sit back and wait?
There is neither one answer nor an easy answer. There are only questions, and prayers ascending in the night. Abraham and Sarah believed, but it wasn't an easy road to walk, and I expect there were many days when they thought they were crazy. Yet, in due time, Isaac (laughter) was born and Abraham became the father of many nations.
What concerns do our prayers carry to God? Are we able to wait upon the Lord, to trust in the darkness, and to accept that God continues to act even when we see no movement, no change? Who said it was easy to be a person of faith in the first place? Certainly not I.
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Temptation your name is ......
Switching from Noah in the Old Testament to the gospel rendering of Jesus' baptism and temptation in the wilderness, moves us from water to desert. Since we are in the year of Mark, we have already heard the baptism story at least once if not twice and this is the sparsest rendition of the temptation scene among the gospel writers. (John has no early temptation/wilderness scene at all).
Temptation is such a good topic to start Lent with. We all know it, intimately. We all can name it (I would name it 'chocolate'). We all wonder about its pull on us. Why can't we just walk away?
Mark's wilderness story has no dialogue between Jesus and the tempter (devil??). But note that it is the Spirit, which Jesus received at his baptism, that drives....yes, drives.....him out into the wilderness for 40 days among the wild beasts. Angels are mentioned as well. Apparently there is some important work that Jesus needs to accomplish.
Without all the details that Matthew and Luke give, we are left with this simple fact: after baptism comes temptation. Coming to terms with temptation is an important - maybe even essential - part of Jesus' preparation for ministry.
Perhaps that is all we need to know. Following baptism, we will come face to face with temptation. What we do, how we respond, where we take our failure to be 'strong' when we succomb to temptation....perhaps those are the more important questions. For as Luther teaches us, we are all both saint and sinner. The water of baptism makes us saints, beloved children of God. But we will have one foot in this world until we lay down for the last time, and so we continue to experience and practice sin each day. Temptation is our constant companion.
And we don't get to face these temptations out in the wilderness when perhaps we are able to give it our full attention. Oh no. The temptations comes when the laundry needs to be done, groceries bought, year end reports completed, taxes filed, a baby's diaper changed (you get the idea).
So maybe it isn't the wilderness that makes the temptation, but the temptations that make the wilderness. Perhaps if we give in to every whim and desire that comes alone, without thought, without calling on the name of the Lord, then we will surely end up in our own wilderness - where we will thirst after God's presence and the Spirit's power.
Now that would be a wilderness I would want to avoid. Peace.
Temptation is such a good topic to start Lent with. We all know it, intimately. We all can name it (I would name it 'chocolate'). We all wonder about its pull on us. Why can't we just walk away?
Mark's wilderness story has no dialogue between Jesus and the tempter (devil??). But note that it is the Spirit, which Jesus received at his baptism, that drives....yes, drives.....him out into the wilderness for 40 days among the wild beasts. Angels are mentioned as well. Apparently there is some important work that Jesus needs to accomplish.
Without all the details that Matthew and Luke give, we are left with this simple fact: after baptism comes temptation. Coming to terms with temptation is an important - maybe even essential - part of Jesus' preparation for ministry.
Perhaps that is all we need to know. Following baptism, we will come face to face with temptation. What we do, how we respond, where we take our failure to be 'strong' when we succomb to temptation....perhaps those are the more important questions. For as Luther teaches us, we are all both saint and sinner. The water of baptism makes us saints, beloved children of God. But we will have one foot in this world until we lay down for the last time, and so we continue to experience and practice sin each day. Temptation is our constant companion.
And we don't get to face these temptations out in the wilderness when perhaps we are able to give it our full attention. Oh no. The temptations comes when the laundry needs to be done, groceries bought, year end reports completed, taxes filed, a baby's diaper changed (you get the idea).
So maybe it isn't the wilderness that makes the temptation, but the temptations that make the wilderness. Perhaps if we give in to every whim and desire that comes alone, without thought, without calling on the name of the Lord, then we will surely end up in our own wilderness - where we will thirst after God's presence and the Spirit's power.
Now that would be a wilderness I would want to avoid. Peace.
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Water, water everywhere
We are going to stop by and visit Noah this week in the Sunday readings. Within the Noah story are two stories and several important themes.
First we have the story of the large boat and animals marching two by two into the ark. Thousands of chldren's books have illustrated this story with giraffes necks sticking through the roof and water everywhere. It ends with a dove finding a roosting place and a rainbow in the sky.
Before that story, however, is the story of the spiraling demise of humanity (here a word about 'going to hell in handbasket' is appropriate). Humanity is corrupt; its corruption has led to violence throughout all creation....and....God regrets that God had created humankind. Gen. 6.5-7
Pretty powerful stuff here. In that same verse, God's heart is grieved. There is something very, very sad about this story of the ark. Humankind, which was the crowning accomplishment of God's creation in Genesis 1, is now one of God's great regrets. Only Noah finds favor in the sight of God.
What does God decide to do about it? God takes creation apart. The water which God had pressed back into boundaries in the sky and in the seas is allowed to come free, and the world is flooded. Animals, birds, plants....and people....are drowned as the water consumes the dry land. (Drowning people are a stark contrast to the happy rainbow).
A new creation is possible because God's breath goes out over the water and dries the land so Noah and the animals can disembark. Can you hear the echoes of the creation story where God's spirit hovers over the water? Only a few continue to live so to populate the new land, the new creation.
Yes, the story ends with the great covenant of the rainbow. But where we see a pretty picture suitable for children to color, the rainbow is a symbol of the warrior's bow. God is promising to 'hang up his bow,' to bring to an end that part of himself that brought about the flood. God asks nothing from the people: no promises, no changes of behavior. God simply acts out of the depth of who God is. This is a God who regrets, grieves, and corrects but who never walks away from God's people and who commits to eternally seeking life for them.
So, this story can be happy giraffes and elephants and a rainbow in the sky. Or, (maybe it should be 'and') this is a story about a powerful, creating God who commits himself to seek life for the people God created.
Now it is easy to see the connection to the gospel lesson about Jesus, the ultimate gift from God for the sake of God's people.
**You might want to take 15 minutes and read through the entire story Genesis 6-9. You will notice that God gives conflicting commands. Once God says to bring 2 of every animal; in the next section God says to bring 7 of each clean animal. Biblical scholars believe that there were two versions of the Noah story circulating when the Bible was codified, and instead of choosing between them, they wove them together. Sometimes it makes for confusing reading.
First we have the story of the large boat and animals marching two by two into the ark. Thousands of chldren's books have illustrated this story with giraffes necks sticking through the roof and water everywhere. It ends with a dove finding a roosting place and a rainbow in the sky.
Before that story, however, is the story of the spiraling demise of humanity (here a word about 'going to hell in handbasket' is appropriate). Humanity is corrupt; its corruption has led to violence throughout all creation....and....God regrets that God had created humankind. Gen. 6.5-7
Pretty powerful stuff here. In that same verse, God's heart is grieved. There is something very, very sad about this story of the ark. Humankind, which was the crowning accomplishment of God's creation in Genesis 1, is now one of God's great regrets. Only Noah finds favor in the sight of God.
What does God decide to do about it? God takes creation apart. The water which God had pressed back into boundaries in the sky and in the seas is allowed to come free, and the world is flooded. Animals, birds, plants....and people....are drowned as the water consumes the dry land. (Drowning people are a stark contrast to the happy rainbow).
A new creation is possible because God's breath goes out over the water and dries the land so Noah and the animals can disembark. Can you hear the echoes of the creation story where God's spirit hovers over the water? Only a few continue to live so to populate the new land, the new creation.
Yes, the story ends with the great covenant of the rainbow. But where we see a pretty picture suitable for children to color, the rainbow is a symbol of the warrior's bow. God is promising to 'hang up his bow,' to bring to an end that part of himself that brought about the flood. God asks nothing from the people: no promises, no changes of behavior. God simply acts out of the depth of who God is. This is a God who regrets, grieves, and corrects but who never walks away from God's people and who commits to eternally seeking life for them.
So, this story can be happy giraffes and elephants and a rainbow in the sky. Or, (maybe it should be 'and') this is a story about a powerful, creating God who commits himself to seek life for the people God created.
Now it is easy to see the connection to the gospel lesson about Jesus, the ultimate gift from God for the sake of God's people.
**You might want to take 15 minutes and read through the entire story Genesis 6-9. You will notice that God gives conflicting commands. Once God says to bring 2 of every animal; in the next section God says to bring 7 of each clean animal. Biblical scholars believe that there were two versions of the Noah story circulating when the Bible was codified, and instead of choosing between them, they wove them together. Sometimes it makes for confusing reading.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Saying good-bye
Saying 'good-bye' is but a formality most of the time. Until it is not.
Sometimes, the quick 'good-bye' to a friend becomes a final good-bye when the unexpected grasps them away from us.
Sometimes, we know that the end is near, too near, and that this will be the last good-bye, the last parting until God's time reveals itself.
Sitting alongside a loved one who is about to pass from this world to the next is to receive the gift of an intentional, thought out good-bye. Even as you are concerned for the comfort of the one who is ill, you are aware of the 'shifting of sands of time' (so to speak). Who you were before this moment is not who you will be when the time comes and the parting is finished. Sometimes that is good news; sometimes it is simply the way things are. The wife becomes the widow; the son becomes the patriarch.
Elijah is about to return to his creator God. Elisha knows it, and so he will not leave his side. They travel from location to location, each time met by a school of prophets who tell Elisha that the time is near. "I know," he says. "Be silent."
Elisha stays close to his good friend, a great prophet of God and in many ways, his father in the faith, until they have arrived at the final stop, and Elisha asks for a special gift: a double measure of the Spirit that has rested on Elijah's shoulders. We might say, "Help me be twice the man you were." or "Make me worthy to walk in your footsteps." It is a cry for affirmation while at the same time, a cry of acknowledgement of the breadth and depth of Elijah's ministry.
Of course, it was not Elijah's gift to give. These gifts come only from God. But as Elijah ascended, God gave the gift - a truly amazing inheritance.
May our faith likewise be an inheritance to our children, to help them grow straight and strong, to show them where to turn when in trouble, and to whom to give thanks when appropriate.
Sometimes, the quick 'good-bye' to a friend becomes a final good-bye when the unexpected grasps them away from us.
Sometimes, we know that the end is near, too near, and that this will be the last good-bye, the last parting until God's time reveals itself.
Sitting alongside a loved one who is about to pass from this world to the next is to receive the gift of an intentional, thought out good-bye. Even as you are concerned for the comfort of the one who is ill, you are aware of the 'shifting of sands of time' (so to speak). Who you were before this moment is not who you will be when the time comes and the parting is finished. Sometimes that is good news; sometimes it is simply the way things are. The wife becomes the widow; the son becomes the patriarch.
Elijah is about to return to his creator God. Elisha knows it, and so he will not leave his side. They travel from location to location, each time met by a school of prophets who tell Elisha that the time is near. "I know," he says. "Be silent."
Elisha stays close to his good friend, a great prophet of God and in many ways, his father in the faith, until they have arrived at the final stop, and Elisha asks for a special gift: a double measure of the Spirit that has rested on Elijah's shoulders. We might say, "Help me be twice the man you were." or "Make me worthy to walk in your footsteps." It is a cry for affirmation while at the same time, a cry of acknowledgement of the breadth and depth of Elijah's ministry.
Of course, it was not Elijah's gift to give. These gifts come only from God. But as Elijah ascended, God gave the gift - a truly amazing inheritance.
May our faith likewise be an inheritance to our children, to help them grow straight and strong, to show them where to turn when in trouble, and to whom to give thanks when appropriate.
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