The Story: Chapter Two Bless You Genesis Rev. Debra Bowman, Ryerson United Church Sept. 28, 2014

Transcription

1 The Story: Chapter Two Bless You Genesis Rev. Debra Bowman, Ryerson United Church Sept. 28, 2014 Church people often shrink from disagreements amongst ourselves because, the reasoning goes, we should be like a family. Well, Chapter Two of our faith narrative offers some insights into family dynamics that make anything we ve ever disagreed about pale in comparison. Last week s episode started with the story of creation, and ended with a cosmic do-over as God pretty much wiped the slate clean with a flood, and started creation over again with only Noah and a boatload of family and animals. In this week s chapter our faith story has taken another bad turn. Once again God is displeased with the violence and injustice of the people, and once again God decides to make a fresh start with one particular couple: the aged Abram and barren Sarai. Not exactly the best material for fashioning new generations of people. And yet God calls them to be the foundation of an alternative community; to embody in human history the power of God s blessing. They respond to God s call throwing all roots and security up in the air and setting out. None of the uncertainty matters to them, it seems, because God has made a promise: Go to the land that I will show you I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. So there they are, elderly and infertile Abram and Sarai, being promised what we all crave: well-being, land and security, even prosperity and prominence, a continuation of their family. And what are they called to do to receive this promise? Relinquish all they have. Give up everything. Abram and Sarai are to find 1

2 that only in a startling departure from security is the way of life to be found. To stay in safety is to remain barren; to leave in risk, trusting in God s promise, is to have hope. The fulfillment of the promise begins with their new names: Abraham, meaning father of nations, and Sarah, mother of many. Notice that God s promise is not limited to the couple: I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. We use the word "blessing" to mean something positive in our lives, or even lucky. But in scripture, a blessing is really an act by gesture or speech where one party transmits power for life to another. The act of blessing someone is an intentional, deliberate act to enhance the receiver s life. Far more than just a polite wish or a good idea, a blessing in the Bible is a mysterious act through which God s power for life is somehow given to the one being blessed. And while God is clearly the first speaker (in calling the world into being) and the primary giver of blessing, human beings can also mediate a blessing, can also be bearers of God s power for life. The way to God s blessing, for Abraham and Sarah and for us, is the way of relinquishment, of risk, and of trust in the One who makes the promise. Which is not a bad definition of faith, come to think of it. Faith is a decision to trust, to have confidence that God s promises are reliable. Faith is our decision to stake our future on that promise, even though it flies in the face of all common sense and even the facts. So the intrepid couple set off. But, as they drew near to Egypt, Abraham said to his wife Sarah, Look. We both know that you re a beautiful woman. When the Egyptians see you they re going to say, Aha! That s his wife! and kill me. But they ll let you live. Do me a favor: tell them you re my sister. Because of you, 2

3 they ll welcome me and let me live. And so it happened. When they arrived in Egypt, the Egyptians took one look and saw that Sarah was stunningly beautiful. Pharaoh s princes raved over her, and she was taken to live with Pharaoh. Because of Sarah, Abraham got along very well: he accumulated sheep and cattle, donkeys and camels, many servants. Somehow though (we re not told how), Pharaoh figured it out the plot and sent both of them packing with all that they ve gained. Although we hear nothing about how Sarah might have paid the cost. For decades Sarah was unable to bear children so she takes the initiative to make God s assurance of descendants come true. Her plan is simple: Abraham will sleep with Hagar, who is one of Sarah s maidservants. Since Hagar belongs to Sarah, any child Hagar has really belongs to her, especially if Abraham is the father. And Abraham decides to go along with the idea. And her plan works. Hagar is soon pregnant, and, the story tells us, she rubs her easy success in her mistress face. So Sarah takes the power due to her, and mistreats Hagar. Soon it becomes unbearable for her slave, and Hagar runs away into the desert, pregnant and alone, a stranger in a strange place. And here God enters the story again. Alone in the desert, by a spring of water, the angel of God finds Hagar. Hagar is not of the people of Israel. She is not a part of the promise. She is not a follower of the God of Israel. But God appears to her. God has not forgotten her. God knows her name, knows her status as a slave, knows her mistress s name. God sees her as a woman who also deserves a promise of her own. Through the messenger, God says: I'm going to give you a big family, children past counting. From this pregnancy, you'll get a son: Name him Ishmael [which means God hears ]; for God heard you, God answered you. He'll be a bucking 3

4 bronco of a man, a real fighter, fighting and being fought; always stirring up trouble, always at odds with his family. And in her joy she becomes the only character in the Bible to actually name God! Just as God calls her by name, she answers God by name, calling the holy one, the God who sees, reflecting her experience that God sees those who are most in need. Hagar returns to Abraham and Sarah and indeed names her son Ishmael. And then, finally, Sarah herself gives birth to a son Isaac. Over the years Sarah becomes, maybe jealous, maybe concerned for other reasons about the relationship between Ishmael and Isaac and she forces to Abraham to send Hagar and Ishmael packing. Once again, in the desert, mother and son are visited and saved by God s messenger. Over the centuries God s promise is fulfilled Ishmael will indeed be the start of a new people, a new culture. With the birth of Isaac we might think that the family line of Abraham and Sarah could continue and the promised prolific progeny could begin. But no: Isaac was a late bloomer, at 40 still living in the basement of Abraham s tent. Concerned about the future of the family line Abraham sends his servant back to his homeland to woo a wife for Isaac, and he finds Rebekah. Beautiful, generous, energetic and determined, Rebekah is given a choice, to leave her land and her people, to leave her home and all that is familiar, to leave and join with the family and life of a stranger. Will you go with this man? her family asks her. I will, she responds, opening her heart and her life to the possibilities that a life with God will bring. Once again, there is difficulty in conceiving, but finally, once again, God s power for life is known and Rebekah is granted twins, a double blessing at least at first. The first baby came out red and hairy, so they named him Esau, which 4

5 means rough. Afterward his brother came out, with his hand gripping Esau s heel; so he was named Jacob, which means, the grasper, the grabber, the supplanter. In every way the boys are different. Esau is red, hairy, loves the outdoors and hunting, a man of the field and close to his father Isaac. Jacob, smooth skinned and smooth talking, stays inside the tent, close to his mother Rebekah. Scripture tells us, Isaac loved Esau but Rebekah, loved Jacob. From the beginning, the parents have their favourites. Time passes and one day Esau comes in from the fields, and finds Jacob preparing a stew. Give me some of that, he demands, I m starving. Sure, you can have some stew, says Jacob, but only after you give me your birthright. The birthright naturally belonged to the older son. The one who possessed it became leader of the clan when the father died, and would inherit twice as much as any of his brothers. No small matter, to try to obtain the birthright. No small dishonour to give it up. Impatient, stomach rumbling, and frankly not too bright, Esau agrees he gives his birthright to his brother Jacob the grasper. More time passes and Isaac is old and blind and knows it s time to put his affairs in order. He asks his favourite Esau to prepare him a meal. Go do this, he says, and bring it to me to eat so that I can bless you before I die. As I said earlier, a blessing in those times was more than passing on good wishes. It was more than an indication of favouritism. A blessing was more like the mystic passing of divine favour, a transfer of God s mysterious power for life and wellbeing. As God had blessed Abraham, and Abraham had blessed Isaac, now Isaac seeks to hand that inheritance of divine favour onto Esau. But Rebekah is ready to intervene, in favour of her favourite son, Jacob. She takes charge, ordering Jacob to beat his brother to the punch. She dresses Jacob 5

6 up to look and feel and smell like his brother. She puts the meal into Jacob s hands and pushes him through the door of Isaac s tent. Isaac, although he s blind, can sense something seems off. Yet when he feels Jacob s hands, they are indeed hairy and rough. When he embraces his neck, it is indeed in need of a shave. Even his clothes smell of his beloved Esau. And so Isaac is tricked into blessing to the youngest son. Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers, and may your mothers s sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be everyone who blesses you! It is done. The reversal is complete. When he finds out what has happened Esau is devastated, eaten up with pain, sorrow and rage and Jacob must run for his life. What are we to make of all this? Are any of these characters examples for us to follow? Impatient, grasping, plotting, easily deceived? Remember though, Scripture isn t to be read as if it s all about us instead it s to be read as our ancestors testimonies about God about their experience of God s nature and character and purpose. This morning our ancestors reveal a God who works in and through ordinary and flawed human beings. They show us that nothing we do or don t do can finally and permanently prevent God s power for life and blessing to unfold. They show us that this murky world of human reality is the arena where God s word is brought to fulfilment. From our breathless, I will, through our lives that include times of faitfulness, and falling short; best intentions and failed efforts; God is working God s promises still. God receives our commitment, I will, along with our I forgot, I won t, I can t, I don t care, I m too afraid, too selfish, too weak, and does not let those responses become the last word. As we see in the rest of Jacob s story. Jacob is running for his life from his brother s murderous rage. Running from the consequences of his actions; running 6

7 from God; running from himself. When night falls, he finds a place to sleep, and he is given a dream. First the vision of a stairway from earth to heaven, with God s messengers going up and down it. And then, more than that, he is given the vision of God standing beside him. And God doesn t condemn Jacob for what he has done. No punishment is threatened; no consequences are mentioned. God doesn t even say that phrase that every child dreads to hear: Jacob, I am so disappointed in you. No. It turns out, the God of promises does not wait around for people of sufficient moral integrity to work through, for someone squeaky clean to bless. Rather, the biblical God reaches down into the soul of this swindler, and gives him a promise: Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. The blessing that God originally gave to Abraham, and passed on to Isaac, the promise of the land and of many descendants and God s protection is now extended to Jacob, in all his unworthiness, all his flawed humanity. This is the point where Jacob finally stops running from the consequences of his actions, and makes a decision on his own. And that decision is the simplest, and the only decision, that he has to make: The Holy One will be my God. Each one of us is invited to make that decision not just once but over and over again throughout our lives. The Holy One will be my God. And with that decision we will receive an awareness of the blessing we have received and we will pray that the blessing of that holy one will work through us as a blessing for all creation. May we allow it to be so. Amen 7