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Hagar & Ishmael (Genesis 16-17 & 21)

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We come now to a narrative that in some ways is the worst story in all of scripture. The reason it is so bad is because many trace the present-day conflict between Jews and Arabian peoples back to the story, the narrative of Abram, Sarai, Hagar, and Ishmael. A deadly feud that is always in danger of breaking out in full out war, like now - that many see this story as the start of it all certainly makes it a haunted story. It all begins in Genesis 16. The story basically goes like this: Abram and Sarai grow increasingly impatient that the child God promised them isn’t arriving. Sarai especially is having difficulty waiting. Without consulting God, Sarai hatches a plan. Have Abram marry one of their enslaved. Hagar is chosen. Hagar and Abram consummate their union and indeed a child is conceived, a boy who will be named Ishmael. But as the story goes in Genesis 16, the pregnant Hagar makes her lack of fondness for Sarai increasingly known. Sarai responds in kind and worse. A feud begin
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A Pastoral Letter to America's Youth

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I’m making this week’s meditation a letter, an open letter to young people, not just in our church but in the wider community. Dear Young People, As a pastor, I feel the need to directly communicate to you what’s on my heart. I often think of my growing up years. Those years weren’t always easy. I didn’t always like it. I lived with fear and angst like so many kids of my generation in the age of nuclear weapons. But knowing all that you all face in this day and age, my heart aches. I know you deal with so much – wars around the world; mass shootings at schools; vicious, divisive politics; a planet in peril; social media that gives you escape but also sometimes harms you. It’s hard enough to grow up, learn who you are and who you aren’t, deal with your parents and school and your future. Add in all the other stuff, and the difficulty and complexity for you is next level. And we wonder why anxiety is such a reality for so many of you. I personally feel the need to apologize to you, on be
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Abram, Lot, Land (Genesis 13)

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We move to Genesis 13. This chapter begins the story of Abram and Lot’s relationship. Abram, Sarai, and Lot leave Egypt, cast out by the Pharaoh at the end of chapter 12. They traverse the Negev desert which lies between Egypt and the Israel region. They eventually arrive at Bethel which is north of what is now Jerusalem. They settle in Bethel, at least for a time. For Abram, it is a return. Verse 3 specifies that the spot is between Bethel and Ai, a spot that Abram had visited before and where he built an altar. Remember early on in Genesis 12? Before Abram and Sarai’s time as immigrants in Egypt, they inhabited the region between Bethel and Ai, and an altar was built there to prove it. The mention of specific geographic spaces is important because of the dynamic still tragically at play, a dynamic revolving around the question, “whose land is it?” We should remember that the land we’re talking about is not void of people living there. Anyway, Abram and Lot are doing very well. They
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The Gospel of Presence

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In the Hebrew Bible, we are sometimes given a beautiful oasis in the harsh desert. Amid the Old Testament’s difficult stuff, amid talk of the vengefulness, wrathfulness, and tribalism of God, we sometimes come across an oasis of good news that is so relatable and real that it can bring one to tears. To begin this morning, I’d like to look at an example of this, looking at the book of Exodus chapter 33.  Within the book of Exodus itself we see a dynamic playing out. Again and again in Exodus, Moses and his people experience the all-too-human stuff of the wilderness. But every now and again, Moses, and the people through Moses, experience mountaintop moments where the divine realm is real and all-encompassing.  In Exodus 33, we are given an oasis of good news amid the desert, a little snippet of heaven, where God is presented as God really is. But surrounding that oasis is a hard and harsh story. Hardness and harshness makes sense. The people of Israel inhabit the hard and harsh wilderne
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The First Enslaved (Genesis 12:10-20)

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Genesis 12 ends with a peculiar story that includes three main characters – Abram, Sarai, and the Pharoah of Egypt. This story marks the first mentioning of Egypt and Pharoah. Of course, the Jewish people will later be enslaved by the Pharoah in Egypt. However, our story takes place before the firstborn of Israel, Isaac, is a reality. We might call this story in Genesis 12:10-20 as the prelude to the Israel-Egypt connection. Much of the Old Testament is written in the shadow of empire. Three consecutive empires seek to and in fact control Israel. The first is the Egyptian empire followed by the Assyrian and Babylonian empires. The Egyptian empire is the context for the first two books of our Bible – Genesis and Exodus. And the Egyptian empire is the context for our story from Genesis 12. Abram and Sarai immigrate to Egypt. That alone is telling. What does it tell? A couple things come to mind. First, that the parents of the Israel nation were once immigrants helps explain the immigrant
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The Calling of Abram (Genesis 11:27-12:9)

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  We now turn to the story of Abraham (formerly known as Abram) and Sarah (formerly Sarai).  Abraham and Sarah first appear with the names Abram and Sarai in Genesis 11. At the end of that chapter, we are given Abram’s genealogy. Abram is the son of Terah. We are not given the name of Abram’s mother. What does this tell you? If you haven’t learned already, it tells you that the book of Genesis derives from a patriarchal culture. It’s the fathers that count most. The mothers are barely if at all mentioned. In Genesis 11, there is no mention of a mother, not to mention the name of a mother. No daughter is mentioned by name. In fact, the first time a woman is named is with Sarai in verse 29. Even here, she is named as Abram’s wife.  Abram, the son of Terah and an unnamed mother, had two brothers, Nahor and Haran. Haran dies at a younger age but not before he has two children - a son named Lot and a daughter named Milcah. We’re not sure when Haran dies, but it is thankfully before his daug
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