Women by the Nile - Moses' Mothers

Exodus 2:5-10 (NRSV)

The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her attendants walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid to bring it. When she opened it, she saw the child. He was crying, and she took pity on him. “This must be one of the Hebrews’ children,” she said. Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?” Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Yes.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother. Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed it. When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and she took him as her son. She named him Moses, “because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.”

In a sense, Jochebed doesn't hand Moses over once.  She does it twice.  First when she puts him in the water, and second when, after he's weaned, she gives him back to Pharaoh's daughter a final time for her to raise.

And the princess herself makes a decision not once, but twice, to defy her own father's law.  She knows that the child is a Hebrew child and takes him out of the river to save him, but then after time has passed, she has no second thoughts and takes him into her home as her son.

And she names him.

Both women disappear from the story at this point, and the story of Moses will go on without them.  And yet, without their story, Moses' life would have taken a very different turn.  Two women, defying one tyrant not once, but twice.  Loving one child.

I'm not sure I could have been a courageous.  Handing my child over again after getting precious time with him?

But knowing that the alternative was...well, what?

I have to admit that I am a huge second guesser of decisions I make.  Self-doubt is where I seem to be more comfortable.  So this story has always been amazing to me.

Yet I also have never lived under the life-crushing kind of law that Moses' mothers did: a law that literally meant life or death for a child.

But I have felt that same kind of protective love.

I will probably continue to dither about some decisions for the rest of my life.  But I can rest assured that the love and faithfulness of God is more like that of these two mothers.  No second guessing.  Love of perfect understanding.  

A mother's love.  

When I read this story I am reminded that the love of God is not boxed in in terms of gender.  God's love encompasses the kind of fierce, protective love that two women shared for a baby on the Nile.

Without second guessing.

God of love, your fierce love for us is like the love of a mother who is swept away by devotion to her child.  While we realize that not everyone has been fortunate enough to have that strength of love from a mother, we know that we have that from you.  Thank you!  Amen

Women by the Nile - Miriam

Exodus 2:4-8 (NRSV)

His sister stood at a distance, to see what would happen to him.

The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her attendants walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid to bring it. When she opened it, she saw the child. He was crying, and she took pity on him. “This must be one of the Hebrews’ children,” she said. Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?”

Miriam has always been one of the characters met in Scripture who has always piqued my interest the most.  When I think of her, the first image that comes to mind is Miriam as prophetess, dancing with her timbrel to celebrate the successful crossing of the Red Sea in freedom from slavery.

So, in a sense, I have long associated with Miriam, freedom.  From her early days, the girl Miriam takes it up herself to suggest to Pharaoh's daughter a solution that will benefit both her mother and brother, as well as the Egyptian princess.  Perhaps her mother asked her to do this, but we aren't told that.  Instead, it seems Miriam is already a girl of initiative. 

However, as with freedom anywhere else, with Miriam we also learn its limits.  Later, after Moses returns as leader of his people, Miriam, who is known by then as a prophetess, will stretch her freedom too far.  She, along with Aaron, will publicly criticize Moses' choice of a wife.  It can be speculated she was jealous of Moses, since as a prophetess herself, she sought to assert some authority.  Hebrew tradition also implies she is guilty of gossip.

Either way, God punishes Miriam for this stretching out her freedom too far by making her leprous. (Not Aaron though...)

Yet both Aaron and Moses intercede for her and her punishment lasts only seven days.  For seven days she is put outside of the camp - freedom taken to the limits of isolation.

Freedom has its limits.  Freedom pushed beyond boundaries can isolate.  Can make us too sure of ourselves, rather than our God.  Freedom pushed beyond limits can be more than initiative and instead become self-glorification.  

God's gift to us is ultimate freedom.  Freedom to live into the life we are given.  To uncover and discover who our true selves are and enjoy the salvation we find through God's grace and the gift of loving our neighbor.

Freedom is not taking God's authority for ourselves.  To think that it means we can do whatever we want.  As humans (and perhaps particularly as Westerners or Americans), we tend to stretch our freedom to limits beyond God's intent.  We become Miriam and Aaron, stretching our authority beyond its bounds to make ourselves and our wills central in our lives.

Yet God continually calls us back.

Miriam had initiative.  She was given the gift of prophecy and know how to glorify God through song.  The girl grew into a woman who had authority we don't always see for women in scripture.

But like others before and after her, she pushed the limits of that authority and freedom.

We will push the limits as well.  Yet our God continually calls us back to right relationship with love.

Merciful God, forgive us when we put ourselves and our freedom above your will for us. Forgive us when we make idols of our own desires and forget your love and generosity.  Continue to call us back to your side and help us to hear your will for us always.  Amen.

Women by the Nile - Jochebed

Exodus 2:1-4

Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a Levite woman. The woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw that he was a fine baby, she hid him three months. When she could hide him no longer she got a papyrus basket for him, and plastered it with bitumen and pitch; she put the child in it and placed it among the reeds on the bank of the river.  His sister stood at a distance, to see what would happen to him.

What do you think was going through Jochabed's mind (again, noting as yesterday that we don't get Moses' mother's name here)?

For three months she cared for her child.  Hiding him when he cried.  Hiding him when he cried even louder.  Nursing him.  Caring for him.  Loving him.

And then...

What do you think was going through her mind?

It's hard I think to grasp the level of courage and faith displayed here.  Everything in her actions speaks to both believing her child will be safe and yet also knowing that his safety isn't with her in her home. 

I think it is also telling that we are given the supplies she used to make her basket.  Bitumen (according to a quick internet search!) is heavy, thick and viscous.  Pitch is thick and sticky.  By putting these on the papyrus basket, Moses' mother wanted to make sure he was safe.  She placed him by the reeds to make sure he was found.

She banked on her child finding a new home that could keep her safer than she could.

It is understandable perhaps that she doesn't seem to stay and watch what happens next.  It will be up to Moses' sister to move the story to the next phase.

Letting go of something that we've clung to for years is not exactly the same as setting your child loose on the mighty Nile.  Yet it may take the same courage and faith.  What are the things you hold onto that it might be time to let go of?  Things that in the letting go, will begin the process of setting you free and unencumbered for the journey God has in store for you?  A grudge against someone perhaps?  A addiction that needs to be admitted and faced?  A job that is wounding your spirit?  A relationship that is unhealthy? Pride?  Anger?  Jealousy?  Denial?

A lot goes through the mind before such a letting go, and courage and faith required before the first step can be taken may feel monumental.  

But not impossible.

God of possibility and promise, set me free.  Free from the bondage of sin and from the bonds I put on myself.  Help me to let go of the things that are keeping me from the wideness of the life you offer.  Amen.

Women by the Nile - Shiphrah & Puah

Exodus 1:15-2:10 (NRSV)

The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, “When you act as midwives to the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstool, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, she shall live.” But the midwives feared God; they did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but they let the boys live. So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this, and allowed the boys to live?” The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.” So God dealt well with the midwives; and the people multiplied and became very strong. And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families. Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every boy that is born to the Hebrews you shall throw into the Nile, but you shall let every girl live.”

Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a Levite woman. The woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw that he was a fine baby, she hid him three months. When she could hide him no longer she got a papyrus basket for him, and plastered it with bitumen and pitch; she put the child in it and placed it among the reeds on the bank of the river. His sister stood at a distance, to see what would happen to him.

The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her attendants walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid to bring it. When she opened it, she saw the child. He was crying, and she took pity on him. “This must be one of the Hebrews’ children,” she said. Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?” Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Yes.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother. Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed it. When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and she took him as her son. She named him Moses, “because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.”

Two Hebrew midwives, a Levite woman, and her daughter wouldn't seem to have much in common with a Princess of Egypt.  

Yet, as the book of Exodus begins it is the courageous and faithful act of women in the first two chapters of Exodus that will propel the future of God's chosen people.

The first new characters named in the story of the Exodus are two women - midwives from among the enslaved Hebrews - Shiphrah and Puah.  Did you know their names?  I didn't.  In all the years of reading and hearing the Moses story, it always seems to begin with the bravery of Jochebed and her daughter, Miriam (who interestingly aren't named here), as they put the baby, Moses, among the reeds to save him from Pharoah's wrath.

But it is these two women who make the first act of defiance against the tyrannical king of Egypt.  Long before Moses will set his people free, Shiphrah and Puah take the first step to make sure Moses will be around for his grand story.

Why do they take this step?  Why do they decide not to follow Pharaoh's orders to kill all the boy Hebrew babies at their birth?  It isn't, as one might imagine, because of a blood loyalty to their people.  Or even if that element is there, it is not the reason we are given.

The reason is that these two midwives fear God, not Pharaoh.

Fear of God.

It's a phrase that's become rather out of fashion among mainline Protestants.  Among evangelicals we hear it sometimes after a disaster, natural or otherwise, has happened in this country.  We hear that we don't adequately fear the Lord and so God's wrath has come upon us.

Admittedly that's an argument that I've dismissed.  Growing up in the Lutheran church as I have, God's faithfulness and love have always been the primary characteristics of God that I've held onto.  Fearing God has never been something I've considered all that often.  In fact, I've commented here on the importance of God's telling us not to be afraid.

But am I shortchanging God by doing that?  Is there more to fearing God than meets the eye?  Did Shiphrah and Puah know something that I don't?

Is God worthy of fear and not simply love?  And can we both fear God, and yet, not be afraid?

Consider the moment of baptism.  That moment is the moment we are told that God's claim on us comes to fruition.  It is the moment that the old self - our old Adam or old Eve or whatever term you wish to use - begins its death throes.  It is the moment that new creation blossoms.

It is the moment that the reality hits us - whether we are aware of it or not.  God is changing us.  God's claim on us is stronger than our selfishness, our will, and our sin.  God's claim on us IS who we are.

And we have a lifetime to live into that reality.

THAT should scare you.

Not Freddy-Kruger-Walking-Dead-Frankenstein's-monster-Friday-night-horror- movie-scare you, but dig-into-your-bones-and-reach-in-and-make-you-face-the- truth-about-yourself scare you.

We've done our best to tame God.  We've tamed church.  We've tamed the sacraments.  What happens to us by God through church, through the sacraments and through our formation should make us shake in our boots.

Shiphrah and Puah, as well as many other Biblical folks knew something we often forget.  God won't be tamed.  God reaches down and grabs us and molds us and uses us and creates new creatures out of us even when we forget to fear.

And yet at the same time, God tells us not to be afraid.  It is one of the paradoxes that keeps the dance of faith moving.

Because in the end, these women, by their fear of God, were not afraid.  They made a bold and courageous act that defied a tyrant and set God's blessing of the world outward even more.

God of power and might, remind us not to take for granted your work in our lives.  Move us to not stay still and satisfied or to be afraid of this world, but always looking outward to where you would have us go next.  Amen.

Taking a short break

I slept in this morning - something I rarely if ever do.  Mostly I did today because I haven't really been sleeping well and today the choice between staying in bed and blogging was won out by staying in bed.

As part of that, I've been feeling a bit nudged to take a bit of a break.  Life has been hectic lately and not in a happy way.  I've got two people who are near and dear to me that are very ill and in the hospital.  One is my aunt - who for all intents and purposes was a mother figure to me for my first years of life.  She's very important to me, and I always think of her on Mother's Day.  Yesterday on Mother's Day, I couldn't even talk to her as she is in isolation.

In addition, the dad of one of my very best friends is in the hospital in Texas.  He's got congenital heart disease and the prognosis is not sounding good.  

It is hard to be so far away from both my aunt and my friend and her family at a time like this, so I've been praying from afar and hoping that I am able to be with both my family and my friend and her family as soon as I am able.

Work is also busy right now with lots of other writing I'm doing, and I am getting ready to leave for vacation next week.  I'll get to see my dad who I haven't seen in a year, which is a bright spot on my horizon!

So, while I try to wrap up things and wait to hear news of beloved family and friends, I am going to take a break from the blog.  I will plan on returning the day after Memorial Day, if all things go as hoped.

And when I do, now that we've wrapped up our characters in Genesis, I'll being looking at some characters in Exodus.

Peace!!!

Joseph

Genesis 45:1-15

New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

Then Joseph could no longer control himself before all those who stood by him, and he cried out, “Send everyone away from me.” So no one stayed with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers. And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard it. Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph. Is my father still alive?” But his brothers could not answer him, so dismayed were they at his presence.

Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come closer to me.” And they came closer. He said, “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. And now do not be distressed, or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years; and there are five more years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God; he has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt. Hurry and go up to my father and say to him, ‘Thus says your son Joseph, God has made me lord of all Egypt; come down to me, do not delay. You shall settle in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near me, you and your children and your children’s children, as well as your flocks, your herds, and all that you have. I will provide for you there—since there are five more years of famine to come—so that you and your household, and all that you have, will not come to poverty.’ And now your eyes and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see that it is my own mouth that speaks to you. You must tell my father how greatly I am honored in Egypt, and all that you have seen. Hurry and bring my father down here.” Then he fell upon his brother Benjamin’s neck and wept, while Benjamin wept upon his neck. And he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them; and after that his brothers talked with him.

Is there anything better than a reunion story?

Is there anything better than a forgiveness story?

We don't get much of Joseph's brothers reaction here, but I can guess at the total amazement.  What did they feel?

Surprise?  Shame?  Sorrow?  Joy?

All of those things at once most likely.

And Joseph...what did he feel?

Not all stories of reunion and forgiveness end with such a grand "aha" moment: with seeing so clearly God's hand playing its part in working all things out for a reason.  With taking such a cruel act - selling a brother into slavery - and turning it into a blessing: a family being pulled out of poverty as a result.

Most stories of broken relationships seem to take twisted paths that lead into dark turns and alleys.  Sometimes even forgiveness doesn't seem to heal all, and often, questions of where God is in the brokenness, stay on lips for years.

Sometimes forgiveness doesn't mean reunion. 

Sometimes it simply means letting go.

Sometimes a relationship can only be healed by being separate.  

It's a cliche to say forgiveness is hard, but then most cliches are cliches for a reason - the truth is there so obviously.  Forgiveness IS hard.

And forgiveness takes many forms.  But in all of its forms, at the center of it is healing. It may mean healing the relationship and bringing people back together.

But it may also mean healing wounds in self that mean keeping a relationship at arms length: an alcoholic who has wounded you but still drinks or an abuser who is still violent, you may find yourself able to forgive, but that forgiveness may mean letting go rather than reuniting.

Whatever the case, forgiveness is a process.  And it is one that benefits from the strength of community.  In all the times in my life where I've had to forgive something hard or serious or seemingly impossible, it came with the strength of those behind me.  A community of people, and sometimes individuals, helping me along, giving me grounding and being there to hold me up when things felt to difficult.  

A community of faith can be those people.  A therapist.  A spiritual director.  A pastor.  A friend.  Or even best, all of the above.  Forgiveness is a journey.  It took Joseph down many wild and wonderful paths.  It can take you somewhere too!

God of mercy, help me to forgive when I find it impossible. Give the strength of people behind me to help me on the path to forgiveness. And help me to know when forgiveness means reunion and when it means letting go.  Amen.

Forgotten Women

Genesis 38:1-19 (NRSV)

It happened at that time that Judah went down from his brothers and settled near a certain Adullamite whose name was Hirah. There Judah saw the daughter of a certain Canaanite whose name was Shua; he married her and went in to her.She conceived and bore a son; and he named him Er. Again she conceived and bore a son whom she named Onan. Yet again she bore a son, and she named him Shelah. She was in Chezib when she bore him. Judah took a wife for Er his firstborn; her name was Tamar. But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord put him to death. Then Judah said to Onan, “Go in to your brother’s wife and perform the duty of a brother-in-law to her; raise up offspring for your brother.” But since Onan knew that the offspring would not be his, he spilled his semen on the ground whenever he went in to his brother’s wife, so that he would not give offspring to his brother. What he did was displeasing in the sight of the Lord, and he put him to death also. Then Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Remain a widow in your father’s house until my son Shelah grows up”—for he feared that he too would die, like his brothers. So Tamar went to live in her father’s house.

In course of time the wife of Judah, Shua’s daughter, died; when Judah’s time of mourning was over, he went up to Timnah to his sheepshearers, he and his friend Hirah the Adullamite. When Tamar was told, “Your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep,” she put off her widow’s garments, put on a veil, wrapped herself up, and sat down at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah. She saw that Shelah was grown up, yet she had not been given to him in marriage. When Judah saw her, he thought her to be a prostitute, for she had covered her face. He went over to her at the roadside, and said, “Come, let me come in to you,” for he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law. She said, “What will you give me, that you may come in to me?” He answered, “I will send you a kid from the flock.” And she said, “Only if you give me a pledge, until you send it.” He said, “What pledge shall I give you?” She replied, “Your signet and your cord, and the staff that is in your hand.” So he gave them to her, and went in to her, and she conceived by him. Then she got up and went away, and taking off her veil she put on the garments of her widowhood.

Three tragic stories of women surround and run through the story of Jacob.  Here, we have the story of Tamar.  Tamar was married to Jacob's grandson, Er, and in her story we learn the fate of widows.  Widows could be given to the brother of her husband to ensure that the family continued for him.  Tamar here is well aware that bearing a child is her only way to ensure security.  We might see her plot as mercenary.  Or we might see it as survival.  

Tamar gave birth to twins after her encounter with Judah, and the end of her story perhaps has something of a happy ending.  She has her sons and in a sense her freedom.  She is no longer passed to another man, and Judah, feeling shame for what he has done, lets her be.  There is the sense that she has gotten what she needed for herself:  the protection of her children.

Preceding Tamar, are the stories of Judah's own mother and sister.  Leah, Jacob's first wife, was considered blessed by all the sons she gave Jacob, but never got to know the love of him.

And Dinah, Judah's sister, appears briefly in one chapter, to serve as the centerpiece of a story of violence and tragedy.  Raped by a prince of the region her family has settled in, Dinah is then sought by the man as his wife.  In an elaborate plot involving weakening all the men of the area by circumcision, two of Dinah's brother's take their revenge by slaughtering each and every man.

Jacob isn't pleased.

What do we make of stories of women like this in the Bible? 

In the first story from Genesis of Adam and Eve we see that God's intention originally was for man and woman to be partners, working together.  Through Abraham, we learn that God's intention was for the nations of the world to be blessed through Abraham and his tribe.  

Here we see how far from God's intent the tribe still was.  Rather than be a blessing, they are still tied up with the cycle of violence that is not of God.  Noah's flood had not wiped out brokenness and sin, and woman continue to be victims of that brokenness even since God's covenant with Abraham.

But that does not mean that subjugation of these women was God's desire.  Through each of these stories, the writer's commentary includes hints as to God's continued activity in wiping out the injustice to these and other women.  God gave many children to Leah as a balm for the lack of love from her husband.  Tamar is finally, after having children, given a sense of independence and freedom.  Only with Dinah are we left wondering what happened.  Her fate is not mentioned.

The story is still unfolding.  The story of these women perhaps struck me today as I think of the plight of the poor girls from Nigeria who like many women of the Old Testament have been treated with violence and used as property and pawns in a war not of their making.  We know when we read the rantings of their captor that God is not blessing their action.  My feeling is that God was not happy with the treatment of Tamar, Dinah, or Leah either.

God of all people, help us to remember that so many women are still treated like second class citizens in this world.  We pray especially today for the girls of Nigeria.  Lord, bring them home.  Amen.

Jacob

Genesis 32:22-32 (NRSV)

The same night he got up and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. He took them and sent them across the stream, and likewise everything that he had. Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket; and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. Then he said, “Let me go, for the day is breaking.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.” So he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” Then the man said, “You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed.” Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved.” The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip. Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the thigh muscle that is on the hip socket, because he struck Jacob on the hip socket at the thigh muscle.

Jacob is one of the most interesting characters in the Old Testament for me.  There certainly is a wealth of story to choose from with him:  Jacob tricking Esau out of his birthright.  Jacob trying to win Rachel's hand from Laban.  Jacob's ladder.  Jacob's favoritism of Joseph leading to tragic consequences for the family.

But this is my favorite.  Jacob wrestling the angel.  Or, God?

It's what makes Jacob one of my favorite Old Testament characters.  

Like Noah, Jacob is a character that is best left unsanitized.  He's far from ideal. He's a trickster.  A liar.  A thief.

And yet....

And yet, in that moment of wrestling with God, I see more of my own faith life than I do with most Biblical characters.  Faith often feels like a wrestling match to me.  What I know vs. what God wants to tell me.  What I believe vs. what I feel.  What I want vs. what God wants.  And finally, perhaps most acutely, the actual process of growing in faith is every bit like wrestling:  holding onto the faith of my childhood when new ideas and growth comes can turn into a wrestling match; clinging to the old rather than letting go to move to where God is leading us to.

And from Jacob we learn God isn't afraid of a little wrestling.  Jacob was many things, but his tenacity to hold onto this visitor showed God that here was a man who was determined.  And one who knew the value of a real blessing.

Jacob - imperfect, trickster Jacob - became Israel.  God gave him the name that became the name of the very country that would come out of this tribe.

God continued to keep the promise to Abraham to spread blessing ever outward.

That blessing is still moving outward.  And sometimes a little wrestling helps it along.

God of blessing, remind me not to be afraid when a new idea or learning challenges my faith.  Hold me tight and comfort me while I wrestle with it, and sometimes even wrestle with you, so that I may continue to grow into the person you have created me to be.  Amen.

Esau

Genesis 25:19-34 (NRSV)

These are the descendants of Isaac, Abraham’s son: Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah, daughter of Bethuel the Aramean of Paddan-aram, sister of Laban the Aramean. Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife, because she was barren; and the Lord granted his prayer, and his wife Rebekah conceived. The children struggled together within her; and she said, “If it is to be this way, why do I live?” So she went to inquire of the Lord. And the Lord said to her,

“Two nations are in your womb,
    and two peoples born of you shall be divided;
the one shall be stronger than the other,
    the elder shall serve the younger.”

When her time to give birth was at hand, there were twins in her womb. The first came out red, all his body like a hairy mantle; so they named him Esau. Afterward his brother came out, with his hand gripping Esau’s heel; so he was named Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them.

When the boys grew up, Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man, living in tents.Isaac loved Esau, because he was fond of game; but Rebekah loved Jacob.

Once when Jacob was cooking a stew, Esau came in from the field, and he was famished. Esau said to Jacob, “Let me eat some of that red stuff, for I am famished!” (Therefore he was called Edom.) Jacob said, “First sell me your birthright.” Esau said, “I am about to die; of what use is a birthright to me?” Jacob said, “Swear to me first.” So he swore to him, and sold his birthright to Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank, and rose and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.

Of all the lines that stand out for me in this passage it is the last: Thus Esau despised his birthright.

A modern synonym for birthright perhaps is inheritance, but that has never seemed strong enough for me.  In the Hebrew scriptures, with a birthright comes a blessing.  A birthright then is a holy thing.  A sacred thing.  It sets the son apart.

So Esau rejected this holy thing for a bowl of stew.

Do we ever reject something holy, something bigger than ourselves, for a single moment of satisfaction?  For a moment of pleasure?

We know that Isaac favored Esau.  Esau had it all then.  He had it made.  But in one moment, he gave that away.

A lot is made sometimes of Jacob's trickery.  Yet Esau made himself easy game.

Do we have a birthright?  

The Apostle Paul tells us we do.  "If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise." (Gal. 3:29).  Through Christ, the firstborn of all creation, we have the promise and the blessing of God as well.

The birthright is ours, not to be taken away.  Given by grace.  Given through faith. 

A holy thing.  Holy isn't perhaps a word we are any more use to using than birthright, so it is easy to take for granted this gift we have in Christ.  

With Jacob and Esau the birthright passed from one to the other because of thoughtlessness.  We can not have our birthright taken from us so easily.  Yet in the moments we forget the holiness of it, we miss out on fullness of the abundant life our birthright offers us.

Gracious God, you have called us your heirs and made us your children. Help us to see the holiness of this relationship by living fully into the promise you have given us in Christ Jesus.  Amen.

Hagar

Genesis 21:1-21

New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

The Lord dealt with Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as he had promised. Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the time of which God had spoken to him. Abraham gave the name Isaac to his son whom Sarah bore him. And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. Now Sarah said, “God has brought laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh with me.” And she said, “Who would ever have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”

The child grew, and was weaned; and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, playing with her son Isaac. So she said to Abraham, “Cast out this slave woman with her son; for the son of this slave woman shall not inherit along with my son Isaac.” The matter was very distressing to Abraham on account of his son. But God said to Abraham, “Do not be distressed because of the boy and because of your slave woman; whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for it is through Isaac that offspring shall be named for you. As for the son of the slave woman, I will make a nation of him also, because he is your offspring.” So Abraham rose early in the morning, and took bread and a skin of water, and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, along with the child, and sent her away. And she departed, and wandered about in the wilderness of Beer-sheba.

When the water in the skin was gone, she cast the child under one of the bushes. Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot; for she said, “Do not let me look on the death of the child.” And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept. And God heard the voice of the boy; and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, and said to her, “What troubles you, Hagar? Do not be afraid; for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. Come, lift up the boy and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make a great nation of him.” Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. She went, and filled the skin with water, and gave the boy a drink.

God was with the boy, and he grew up; he lived in the wilderness, and became an expert with the bow. He lived in the wilderness of Paran; and his mother got a wife for him from the land of Egypt.

This is the second time Hagar has been in the wilderness.  The first time was when Ishmael was born when again Sarah's jealously reared it's head and Hagar fled.  That time, an angel came to her and told her to go back to Sarah.

Twice Hagar is in the wilderness and twice an angel - a messenger of God - comes to her.

There are times in scripture where the messenger of God gets confused with God.  When Jacob wrestles with the angel, Jacob also said he wrestled with God.  When the angel came to Hagar the first time in the desert, Hagar names God: "El roi" and exclaims in amazement that she has seen God and lived.

However you interpret this, it is clear that God was directly looking out for Hagar.  

Hagar, the slave.  Hagar, the banished.  Hagar, the kept woman who bore an illegitimate son.  Hagar, the mother of the child who tradition says became the ancestor of the prophet, Muhammed, and therefore the father of Islam.

"I will make a great nation of him" says God.  

Sound familiar?

Also familiar, the angel tells Hagar: "Do not be afraid."  The most common instruction in scripture.  

Already God's promise to Abraham - that he would be blessed so that all nations would be blessed through him - is beginning to unfold.  The blessings of God have followed Abraham from his home and followed this slave girl into the wilderness and then into Egypt.

What does this tell us about who is blessed and how God's blessing works?  What does this tell us about the deepness of God's love and protection?  Who is the Hagar in our lives?  The outcast who seems to be everything we think God is against?  How does God's blessing open our eyes and heart to see them in new light?  

God help us never to doubt the breadth of your love for your people.  Even those we may find unloveable ourselves.  Open our hearts to love as fully and as deeply as you.  Amen.

Abraham

Genesis 17:1-14 (NRSV)

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless. And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will make you exceedingly numerous.”Then Abram fell on his face; and God said to him, “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you the ancestor of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. And I will give to you, and to your offspring after you, the land where you are now an alien, all the land of Canaan, for a perpetual holding; and I will be their God.”

God said to Abraham, “As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations. This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. Throughout your generations every male among you shall be circumcised when he is eight days old, including the slave born in your house and the one bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring. Both the slave born in your house and the one bought with your money must be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant. Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”

Abraham means "father of many nations."  Already, even before God's covenant with Abraham - before his name was changed - God had told him that he would be a blessing to the nations.  

But up until this point, the son that Abraham believed would be the fulfillment of this promise, had not materialized.  He had fathered Ishmael with Sarai's (now Sarah's) servant, but Sarah was still barren.  

And yet God persisted with the promise.

God persists with Abraham over and over again.  And over again over again, Abraham looks for ways to try his own way at forcing God's hand: have a son with a slave girl.  Make a relative his heir.  To bring God's will about with his own effort.

Because perhaps he was tired of waiting.  He had left his tribe and everything he knew and he wasn't getting any younger.  Neither was his wife.

But God initiates a covenant.  Now God's promise to make Abraham a blessing to the nations will be sealed with a bond that will follow Abraham's descendants.

God's part will be to make Abraham the father of many nations; to make him fruitful; to given him the land of Canaan (thus lifting up Noah's age old curse on his grandson).

And for their part, Abraham's sons and all the males of their tribe will be circumcised.  A rather literal reminder perhaps of being "cut off" from God should the covenant be broken?

God persists.  

On God's time.

Not on ours.

And it's hard - often - to reconcile that.  It's hard to live in a culture where "now" is one of the most important words and be patient with God's time.

But God persists.  God persisted with Abraham and persists with us.  The covenant with Abraham will play out now over and over through scripture because the promise made to Abraham wasn't just about Abraham.

It was about God's and God's people.  It was about God's people being a blessing to all the nations.  Abraham would only perhaps get a hint of what that meant.  

He was just the beginning.

God of blessing, grant us patience when we expect your time to be ours.  When we seek our way before yours.  When we forget how persistent you are and that you are the God of all people, not just out small selves.  Amen.

Abram

Genesis 12:1-3 (NRSV)

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house 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.”



Abram was Shem's great times seven grandson.  And sometime in between Shem and Abram was the Tower of Babel.

God's creation had begun in a garden, and with sin spread "east" of Eden. With further sin, God pulled the reins in and brought creation back to a small size with one family after the flood.  But before too many generations, once more creation spread and sin, with Babel, sent creation off near and far.

So when we meet Abram - already an old man - he is part of one of the many tribes that have formed on the face of the earth, spread away from each other after Babel.

And still, God is trying to save creation from their turning away.  With Abram, he finds a new way.  This time, rather than destroy creation, with one man, God will save creation.

And the rest of scripture will be the unfolding of this plan.

We all perhaps have a verse in the Bible that we believe to be the most important.  In the Old Testament - the Hebrew Scriptures - this is mine.  God is doing a new thing with Abram, and it is an important thing that I think we sometimes miss.

God isn't calling Abram to save Abram and his family.  God is calling Abram so that through him, the entire earth may be blessed.

All of it.

One man and his tribe will be the vehicle through which all the other tribes of the world will benefit by God's blessing.

One tribe will be the yeast so that there is enough bread for all.  One tribe will be salt so that everything can be preserved.  One tribe will be the light so that everyone will see.

This is the inheritance we get through Abram by way of Jesus. We are blessed so that others can be blessed.  We are salt and light.  

We are part of God's salvation plan not for the evacuation of our souls at death, but so that all the earth may be blessed.  So that the Kingdom of God may reign both now and not yet.

God's promise to Abram will have twists and turns all through the Old Testament. The promise will be forgotten by Abram's tribe over and over again.

But God will not forget.

Lord, bless us to be a blessing.  Make us salt and light not to save our selves, but so that we can show your love to the world.  Amen.