The God who hovers beneath the story

Click here to read the story of Isaac giving his blessing to the wrong son

Much of the Old Testament is just good literature that far predates the stuff that we consider to be good literature. The story of Jacob and Esau in general, and this story, the story of Isaac’s blessing  in particular, is almost the stuff of Shakespeare. Here we find a father who is tricked in an almost mythological way. He seems to know something is going wrong but doesn’t fully get it…when it should be obvious. I like to think that if my younger brother tried to dress up like me in order to trick my dad into giving away something that’s mine that my father would notice!

It’s hard to know where to find meaning in stories like this. I would guess I’ve said this already in this series. Imagine trying to find a moral in this story for children. “Trick your brother and you’ll find yourself blessed!” When we teach this story to children, it’s often to condemn Rebekah and Jacob for their trickery and to condemn Esau for his anger, and so on and so forth. But what stance does the story take on its characters? Are they good? Are they bad? What does God seem to think?

We don’t get easy answers to these questions. Even so, I’ll make a couple of loose observations:

• There’s something strange about a God who is willing to work through, or work with, or perhaps even use human deception for his own purposes. God doesn’t take the blessing away or punish Jacob or Rebekah for what happens. He seems to just…how should we say this…play along?

• God’s blessing, coming to Jacob through Isaac, is so strong that it seems to just fall on whoever it’s given to. It’s not like the sword of King Arthur- which has to be drawn out by the exact right person. Whichever person receives the blessing is the right person. So, we might say that God’s blessing is the significant factor, not the person who carries it.

• For Esau, we know what eventually happens. His story does not end in Shakespearean Tragedy, thank God. He eventually does release the harness from his neck, as his father predicts. To release the harness is to embrace his brother and to embrace forgiveness. Esau’s life wasn’t fair- but he recognizes that what’s done is done. This is his lot in life.

  Now, I’m still not sure how to synthesize this into a message as those of you who were at NSC on Sunday probably already know. Here’s what I’ve got.

  God entrusted Abraham to make his name known. Abraham passes on the responsibility of leading God’s people to Isaac who, almost by accident, passes it on to Jacob. God, in this story, is remarkably silent given how vocal he has been in earlier stories. He does not admonish Rebekah, does not warn Isaac or Esau. He hovers beneath the surface of the story. Allowing it to play out as it will in spite of the jealousy, deception, anger, and so on and so forth.

  What does this mean? Well, I’m not sure- but we see in this story, again, God’s ability to share responsibility with people and to allow history to unfold. I’m not suggesting he doesn’t care- I’m merely suggesting that he can work with…well…whatever. He can work with whatever. Or whoever.

  For many who come through this community there is the fear and worry that we can never be good enough for God to love us. That we haven’t done enough in life, or that we haven’t properly atoned for the harm we’ve caused, and so on and so forth. And here we have yet another story of humans not living up to God’s values, and God hovers along, a subtle reminder that God is slow to anger, quick to mercy, and full of steadfast love. A God desiring to remain connected to his people, not a God looking for excuses to punish. If he wanted to punish, he had reason enough to do it, I would think.

  And then, at the same time, we see the human ability to overcome what we do to each other. Not in this specific piece of the story, but in the story of Esau as a whole. Perhaps, for God, there is some benefit to just allowing things to play out, see where they go, see what changes might be made.

  As we think about our own lives, then, perhaps there’s nothing wrong with being a work in progress. Perhaps God is simply excited to see what happens next.

Harmful Family Patterns are Biblical

"And they lived in hostility toward all their brothers."

~ Genesis 25:18 (b) NIV

What's it like to be you in your family? What roles do you play? Is there hostility? Can it be tracked back through the generations?

We are fast-forwarding a bit in our Bible story series to an intriguing chapter in Genesis, Chapter 25. The above quote is embedded in a seemingly dull passage that gives an account of Abraham's son Ishmael - you'll remember that this is the son born of Hagar and Abraham, after Sarah, doubting that she would get pregnant, jumps in to control their lives by offering up Hagar as a surrogate. I don't think this needs to be said, but here goes: "Men, if your wife tells you that it is ok to have sex with someone other than them - they are lying and eventually all that hostility will rise to the top."

And it did. Sarah turned on Hagar, which in turn affected Ishmael, who in turn, also received God's promise that he would begat many descendants - all of whom fought with Abraham's other children. But things were hard on Ishmael. He was the oldest, but because Ishmael was the child of a servant not a wife, Isaac received all of the inheritance; Abraham "gave gifts" to his other children. Talk about sibling rivalry - it does not take the power of God to figure out where this story is headed!

Of course, all of this was known to God. Here is what God told Hagar about her unborn son: "You are now with child and you will have a son. You shall name him Ishmael, for the Lord has hard of your misery. He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone's hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers." (Genesis 16:11-12 NIV). I do not even think this was hard for God to figure out; people are remarkably predictable if we pay attention. People's behavior makes sense if we know their entire story, even behavior that is self-destructive!

Did you know that in the field of addiction there are folks who studied such things and talk about the rigid roles family members begin to take on when addiction enters the family? All stereo-types BUT there is a reason stereo-types become stereo-types - there is a ring of truth to them. If you are like me, we have "roles" in our family that can be traced back generations. And even though I set out, like Sarah, to control the outcomes for my own brothers and I, there is still a remnant of these old patterns of jealousy, resentment, judgment and criticism. I hate it but I cannot control it.

This does not mean that I have no responsibility. And, I have freedom too! Our family patterns are not our destiny, they are simply familiar patterns. Once we see them, we can choose to go against the grain and try something different. Every person will not make that choice; but we can stop fretting about their choices and instead, focus on our own. This is freedom; this is accepting responsibility.

This can be in small matters; it doesn't have to be BIG changes. In fact, more impact is made by a few small changes over a long period of time than a giant commitment to a major change in our whole personality all at once - that just results in discouragement. We humans as a general rule are not particularly capable of making major and immediate life changes. We do better over the course of time with small, consistent changes that build up and gain momentum over the long haul.

Here is a tiny example. Pete and I watch a lot of sports, my favorite to watch awake is tennis. I have a habit of commentating on the wardrobe choices of those who play. I have questions: Why are their sponsors dressing them all alike - this isn't twins day in preschool!? How much choice do the players have in their wardrobe? Why do some players consistently give the appearance of rolling out of bed and hitting the court while others look like they will leave this match and model their attire on a fashion runway? Why do the styles compliment some, and not others? Who ever thinks black tennis shoes should be a thing? My list goes on and on.

Recently, it occurred to me that this commentary sounded old and familiar - in a bad way, like stinky cheese left in an unattended lunchbox. Jeez, I thought, I sound like my ancestors. My grandmother, in the midst of my own eating disorder of anorexia said, "Teresa, don't get too stout; styles change and some clothes will never look good on a stout girl." I was trying at that point to break the 3-figure weight barrier and weight under 100. I was 5'7" - I was more likely to die of starvation than stoutness. I remember when she told my mother, "It is bad enough you have ruined your body having four children - two is the maximum necessary for you when you get old - but now, if your husband dies, no man is going to want a used up body AND four children." Or my other grandmother, who was constantly dieting and buying things like a "fat off" machine, that I loved to use as a child.

I'm going to stop commentating on tennis sportswear. And that is a small thing. But it honors my own integrity more since I have grown up and realize that all this commentating on my own body and my mother's body and my grandmother's body has had a limiting effect on how each of us thought about the human form.

The world loves a good gossip; people love comparing opinions - especially if they agree. But these choices and many, many more decisions like this one, have implications down through the generations. I can see it more clearly now, in my dotage. I can see the perils and the promise of living in the world in a certain way - a way that eschews control for acceptance, seeks harmony over hostility, and fights for relationships that support, encourage and enrich one another. This is, after all, God's way of seeing.

If we live out our generational curses, this does not seem to make God mad at us - he gets it. But he also invites us to a different path. He tells Cain how to be accepted and avoid the crouching of sin at his door. He continues throughout the Old Testament to assure his children that he will never leave nor forsake them or his abandon his covenant with them. He sees it all - the good, the petty, the downright ugly - and he keeps beating this same consistent drumbeat - I have chosen you. I have chosen you for a purpose. Now - you, today, choose for yourself - are you going to go with the flow of my vision, or will you continue to numbly follow the path of your ancestors? Choose. You have freedom.

What choices are open to you that fly in the face of your multi-generational patterns?

The God who keeps promises

The Lord’s messenger called out to Abraham from heaven a second time and said, “I give my word as the Lord that because you did this and didn’t hold back your son, your only son, I will bless you richly and I will give you countless descendants, as many as the stars in the sky and as the grains of sand on the seashore. They will conquer their enemies’ cities. All the nations of the earth will be blessed because of your descendants, because you obeyed me.”

~ Genesis 22:1-18, CEB

Today we're going to talk about the story of the Binding of Isaac- but first, here's a few details on the life of Abraham. 

Abraham’s story is one of seeking “the land.” This is a difficult concept for us to wrap our heads around today- but the land represented comfort, security, and stability. It was the move away from being a people who didn’t know where their next meal was coming from to being people who had roots. A stable source of food, the ability to plan for the future, and so on and so forth. This becomes a theme for God’s people throughout the Bible- the idea that they are a people without a home, exiles in a foreign land. Outsiders. The land represented a potential move away from this status as outsiders and towards life as an established and reputable group of people. This is the backdrop of the story we're looking at today. 

It's significant to realize that, in order to have the land, there's got to be a group of people to fill it with. God chose to start with Abraham- to promise that he was going to be a "father" to many nations- he was going to be the one responsible for populating this land. So he had to have a bunch of children. And, at the tender age of 75, he had none. God promised to provide- and that was a difficult promise to believe. This becomes a theme in the story- God promises things that are hard to believe...and God keeps His promises.

The story of Abraham is also the story of God tenderly reaffirming his promises to someone who struggles to believe them. Throughout Abraham’s story, he kind of does what is asked but he does so in fairly neurotic ways. For instance, God asks him to travel through certain lands and Abraham fears that he will be killed so that the rulers of these lands can marry his beautiful wife. So he tells these rulers that she is his sister. God then sends plagues upon the rulers who are then mad at Abraham for lying. Abraham goes where he’s told, but then kind of hedges his bets. All the while God merely reaffirms his promises to Abraham and continues on with the plan.

God promises to make him the father of many nations, as I said. Abraham loses confidence in this promise and tries to have a child with a servant- and does so successfully. This leads to conflict with his wife and the servant and so on, as you might image. Not as you'd imagine, though, God doesn’t seem to be mad, and there is no discipline. In fact, God responds to the servant, Hagar, with nothing but tenderness, promising to also give her many descendants. 

And that brings us to the story of Isaac. Abraham has finally been given a son after many years of trying and after many years of God making promises but not exactly following through. So, on the one hand, it seems crazy that Abraham wouldn’t believe the voice of God or angels. On the other hand, when God fails to deliver…well…wouldn’t anyone have some doubts?

Click here to read the story of the Binding of Isaac

There are many things we could say in response to this story. I'm going to give you a bunch of thoughts on this story in rapid fire fashion and I'm not going to try to wrap them up in a neat and tidy bow. This isn't a neat and tidy story, after all. 

At the outset, I want to point out something because, let's be honest, this story is uncomfortable. 

We know because of the intro that Abraham was going to have his son either way…Isaac lives if Abraham follows through, and Isaac lives if Abraham refuses to follow through (the intro to the story makes it clear that this is a test- and so we know God is not going to allow a child to be harmed). 

We also know, lest we judge Abraham too harshly, that Abraham believes God will provide a ram. Abraham perhaps recognizes that this is a test. At the very least, he trusts that this is a part of God’s plan to make a nation, not a way for God to take away his promises. He believes God will provide a way out, even though he also believes he has to commit to the test. In other words- Abraham presents his child to God not just because he’s some kind of religious robot who follows instructions with reckless abandon(see Gen. 18:22-33 for proof that this is NOT the kind of person Abraham is), but because he deeply trusts that God has something good and purposeful in mind.

Let's also consider something from God's perspective. God is making decisions about how the entire history of His people will unfold.  This should not be taken lightly.  When we become preoccupied with the details, we forget that this story is merely one piece of a much larger story:  God’s plan is to bless Abraham and his descendants so that this people can display God to the entire world, so the entire world may know God and benefit from God. Before we can begin this story, God needs to know if Abraham can tolerate the challenges of the job. And so it's important that we not over-personalize this story. Our stories are not analogous to Abraham's story. God would not need to see such extremes from you or I because, let's face it, God already has a group of people. A very large group. We simply don't have the responsibility Abraham had and, in my opinion, that's a good thing.

Let's also consider the context of the story itself. God has consistently reaffirmed His promises to Abraham in spite ofAbraham, not because of Abraham. And so, one wonders what would happen if Abraham simply weren’t able to travel upwards with Isaac. My hunch is that God would simply reaffirm His promise again. After all, that's the only precedent we've been given for how God interacts with Abraham. 

That brings me to the ultimate purpose of every story of the Bible- to try to provide an answer to the question: What do we know about God? 

People talk about the God of the Old Testament as if God somehow changed and forgot to tell us. God did not change and God is not angry or wrathful even in the Old Testament except in the rarest of circumstances. There are, of course, examples of God being angry and violent in the Old Testament and that's uncomfortable and we don't know what to do with that. However, it's not the norm. These are not the defining attributes of God- they are the exceptions, and they should be treated as exceptions. None of us wants to be defined by our outlier behaviors- and we shouldn't be. It would be an exercise in ignoring all of the "data." 

So let me make something clear: the Old Testament is far more explicit about the attributes of God (they have nothing to do with being all knowing and all powerful) than the New Testament. The Old Testament tells us in about a dozen places: God is slow to anger, quick to mercy, and full of steadfast love. These are His core attributes. And if you say you believe in scripture, then surely you believe the Old Testament when it tells us this. And you surely believe that the God of the Old Testament is slow to anger, quick to mercy, and full of love.

That is the God that we see in this story. God displays neither anger nor wrath in this story, but things like patience and perseverance. Even in stories like Sodom and Gomorrah, which happen earlier in Abraham's life, God is very quick to relent His position, willing to negotiate, and willing to offer chances at redemption. The same is true for Ninevah in the story of Jonah. The same is true for Israel at a great many points. 

And so here's what I want us to take away from this story. God stands by His promises. Abraham, as we said in our series on heroes last year, was not really a hero in the conventional sense. He was a person with fear and worry and insecurities. God made a promise through Abraham- not because he was special or good or righteous. Perhaps just because he was available. And Abraham responds to the call and kind of does what he's asked but with a great deal of flaws and errors in judgment. 

And this provides an opportunity to see what kind of God we worship. Not the kind of God who is angered and weighed down by the burden of Abraham's failures. There is hardly a word about how God feels about Abraham's mistakes, in fact. No- it's a good who is slow to anger, quick to mercy, and full of steadfast love. The kind of God who persists in his plans even when humans don't play their part exactly right. 

All I have to say to that is- as I consider my own life, my own failures, my oversights, the ways I let people down, the things I worry over, and so on and so forth. And I assure you that list is as long as it needs to be. These things are not a problem for God, and they won't hold him back. And if he does get angry, it will take quite a while to get there...and then He'll turn right around and offer mercy once again. Just as He's promised.

The God who persists

The scripture for this week is lengthy. Click here to read Genesis 6-9, or read it from a proper book.

Genesis 6-9 contains a lot of bizarre stuff in it. Mostly, it's about The Flood. You all know the story. Noah builds a boat big enough to house his family and all of every kind of animal ("We're gonna need a bigger boat"). It's wild stuff. But the actual Flood isn't the most interesting part. At least, in my opinion.

Genesis 6 starts with a recap of events that are almost never talked about when it comes to scripture. It talks about the fact that great heroes once roamed the earth- these heroes were the spawn of divine beings and humans (sounds very Greek mythology, yes?). It doesn't say much about this- and I wish it said more. But I draw attention to it just because people rarely do. It's okay for the Bible to be fascinating and confusing. It is whether we like it or not...why run from it?

All this transitions into one of the most openly emotional sections of all of scripture: God experiences sadness and regret. Why? Because creation did not go as planned. Humans have minds of their own and their behavior is often out of alignment with God's initial hopes. And so God decides He wants to start over, kind of. He doesn't want to start all the way over, though. He wants to start over by using what's already here: the best of humanity and the best of the animal kingdom. God wants the future to include the present. He wants to start fresh with what is already here. He does not want to start from scratch. And so they pile onto the boat.

God, during the course of this story, experiences acceptance. He recognizes, perhaps, that humanity is going to struggle to model God's vision and values for human life. And, rather than fighting this, He chooses to embrace it. So, once the boat is safe from the flood, God makes a promise: He will never do this again. He then offers the remaining people some instructions, the same instructions Adam and Eve were given. To be fruitful and multiply, to fill the earth, to care for the animals. And so on and so forth.

After He makes this promise and offers these instructions, God also offers a warning: Don't harm people. This seems a bit ironic- I suppose- given that God himself just allowed a flood to wipe out most people. Yet, in giving this warning, God re-emphasizes that the divine image exists in all human beings, in spite of his surprise, disappointment, and/or regret. God adapts to the reality of all that humanity is- but He doesn't change His mind about humanity. Humanity represents the divine image...and there's something holy and sacred about us.

In spite of all the reasons God could completely reject His creation, He finds a way to sustain it, and He continues to rely on it, and put His trust in it. And He continues to see the good in it. Not merely the good- but the divine image itself.

I can't help but wonder if you doubt whether or not God loves you, cares for you, or wants to provide for you. I'd imagine some of you think God deals with you begrudgingly. Almost as if, if he didn't have to, He probably wouldn't.

These are the messages our shame sends us as we think about the various ways in which we haven't lived the lives we wish we had. I imagine many of us have the same shame looking at these stories- why did we do this? Why did humans get so off track God felt the need to take such drastic action?

But- these stories aren't really about what humans get right and what humans get wrong. This is part of the story- but it's not what they're really about. These stories show us a God who is creative, and a God who is willing to allow His creation freedom and independence in order to pick a path. He is, at times, surprised by that path, even saddened by it. By His pursuit of His creation continues.

Now- of course- there is the uncomfortable part of this story. What kind of God wipes out a huge part of His creation? There's no good answer to this- but it may help to know that in many of the other flood stories from this time period in other religions- God has no interest in starting over, He just wants to destroy. So even though there's something uncomfortable to us about this God- we also know there's something deeply unique about how He interacts with His creation.

What's so unique is that He persists. Let's once again fill the earth. Be fruitful and multiply. God's learned something about how creation works- and He's decided that He can roll with it. I won't send another flood like that, God promises. And why?

Because no matter what else humans are- they represent the divine image. It's part of our nature, and that makes us sacred. You are sacred. Perhaps you've done things you wish you could take back- but you were still created in the divine image. That makes you sacred. It makes you valuable. It makes you worthy. Worthy of love, protection, and acceptance.

God put humans in charge of a reason. When a boss leaves an employee in charge, they pick someone who can do the job. They pick someone they believe in. And so my question to you, in closing, is this:

Can you see it? Can you see in yourself what God sees in you?

The God who accommodates us

I am not a big fan of Santa being weaponized to manipulate children into behaving beyond their developmental capacities. This coal in the stocking thing? The naughty and nice list? It's beneath us. We as adults can do better than that for our children. I often heard this same tone from my grandparents' pastor - I even have childish scribbles in my children's bible that says this, "Adam and Eve got kicked out of the garden by God and now they have to fight by themselves."

Was I a bad scribe? Or is this what I was taught? Because it matters. It matters what we think about God's perspective on naughtiness. Another example. I know a young woman who is a decade sober from a meth addiction. We were talking last week about her perspective on recovery and she said to me, "I really try not to think about that time in my life - It is so shameful to me." And she's sad about this, in fact, she's sad most of the time - all the while, she is living an awesome life. She's successful and smart and funny and beautiful inside and out. But she believes that she has been kicked out of God's garden because of her "poor choices" in her twenties.

She may be living well, but it is a constant act of penance because in her way of seeing God, she will always be on the naughty list. So let's unpack this theological perspective and see where it might land us. And her.

Genesis 3:23-24 NIV "SO the Lord banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After that he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life."

Did God abandon Adam and Eve? Or are they merely receiving consequences for their actions and got themselves kicked out? Or is there more going on here...

The problem with Santa and his list, in my opinion, is alot like using the story of Adam and Eve to manipulate people to behave better. It's not helpful. And it is not in keeping with the story of God - who for whatever crazy reason - decided to make mankind a collaborator on his vision to build his kingdom. His story is not about getting people to comply, it is about inspiring people to follow him because of who HE is. He does not need to control through fear because His story is about relating in love. it is unfortunate that so many times we humans pervert God's story as a shortcut to God's ultimate goal - healing, restoration and reconstruction.

If we could take off the filters that have been placed over our eyes by folks who do not understand this - including each one of us - because let's face it, this is hard to comprehend - a God who could rule with an iron fist instead choosing to lead with love - if we could take off those filters of blame and shame and manipulation - what would we see? It's all there, in plain sight.

Adam and Eve feel shame and realize they are naked... and what does God do? lecture them? No, he makes clothing for them to cover themselves. he meets them where they are and with what they need in that moment. He doesn't say - "You SHOULD feel ashamed! You naughty children!' He says instead, "Here, wear this. Are you more comfortable now?" Genesis 3:21 reads, ”The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them." Does this sound like a God who kicks out his kids?

Now, right after that, we return to that verse I started off with Genesis 3:23-24. But does God abandon them? No - he goes with them. When Eve gives birth, God is right there, "With the help of the Lord..." and when Adam and Eve have those typical parenting problems with sibling rivalry - God is right there. And when mankind runs amok, God is right there. in Genesis 8, "But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with im in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded." And when mankind had a universal language - God scattered them. But he scattered too.

When I hear the story of my friend who believes that she will spend her whole life paying the price for her addiction, my heart weeps with her. Because the God I read about in the bible is way wiser and better resourced than Santa. He does not need to manipulate people by fear to comply - scriptures do not support that interpretation.

I ask her to imagine what it was like to be God, who neither leaves us nor forsakes us. I ask her to consider what it was like for God to see her neglected, abused, raped by her own father at the age of 8, living in poverty, hungry and afraid every day of her life and I ask her: do you think this God, who knows the whole of your life story, judges you for using whatever means where available to you as a young person to numb your pain? Would you judge your own children for that? Or would you work to provide resources for healing, like you also ultimately received, and used with all your might to heal?

I think it is time to put our childish views of God aside, and take up the mantle of responsibility for doing our part to offer others second, third and fourth chances. To see the big picture. To understand that people's choices make sense if we have the big picture. That no one needs to live with the weight of their badness for forever. Including you.