The Text
Last Time on Tales of Faith
Since the creation of the world and humanity, things have not gone so good. Remember that tree with knowledge of good and evil, the one that they were not supposed to eat from? Well, they did, and God exiled them from the garden of Eden. The right relationship with God, with each other, and with all creation was broken; but there was also a promise, that the offspring of the woman would defeat the offspring of the serpent who tempted her. In the next generation, we find more broken relationships as Cain kills his brother Abel by striking him in the field (like a snake). Even though God promises to protect Cain, Cain builds a city where his violence multiplies. Eve and Adam have another son, Seth, who continues on the righteous line. Things get so bad, that God causes a complete restart in the de-creation of the Great Flood. All of Cain’s descendants are wiped out, and only Noah and his family are saved. One of Noah’s sons tries to usurp him, and is cursed.
We are now in the second movement of Genesis, the Abraham Saga. God has called a man, Abram, and his wife Sarai, to go to a new land. God promises that Abram will be a great nation (despite the fact that Sarai is barren), that God will bless Abram and make his name great (despite the fact that he is a nobody), and that God’s blessing would be manifest in Abram, even extending to all the nations. So Abram followed, with Sarai and his nephew Lot, to the land of Canaan, which God promised to Abram. We are now decades later. Abram is now Abraham, and has indeed been blessed. Abraham has had one son, Ishmael, born of the abuse of an enslaved woman, but God has promised a child through Sarah (formerly Sarai). However, Sarah still has not had a child, and she is almost a hundred years old.
Overview of Genesis
Ch 1-11: Prehistory: Why is the world the way it is?
11:10-23:20 The Abraham Saga: A Chosen Nation
11:10-26 The line of Shem
11:27-32 Terah takes his family out of Ur
12:1-9 YHWH calls Abram, Abram moves to Canaan
12:10-20 Abram goes to Egypt, Sister Sarai (Part 1)
13:1-18 Abram and Lot Separate
14:1-16 Lot gets captured, Abram defeats an army
14:17-24 Melchizadek, king of Salem, Priest of God Most High
15:1-21 YHWH makes a covenant at Abram
16:1-15 the abuse of Haggar and Ishmael
17:1-27 New names, God promises a child through Sarah, oh and about your penis
18:1-15 God appears and promises that Sarah will bear a child
18:16-33 God warns about Sodom, Abraham talks them down
19:1-11 Angels sent to investigate Sodom, Lot is hospitable, the others are not
19:12-38 Lot and his daughters escape, and start a couple of nations
20:1-18 Abraham and king Abimelech: Sister Sarah (Part 2)
21:1-7 Sarah gives birth to Isaac (laughter)
21:8-21 Haggar and Ishmael abused again, gain freedom
21:22-34 Abraham and Abimelech make a covenant, the blessing of the nations
22:1-19 The Binding of Isaac
22:20-23:20 News from home, Sarah dies and is buried on Abraham’s own land.
24:1-26:35 The Isaac Saga: The Obedient Middle Patriarch
25:19-36:43 The Jacob/Israel Saga: The Crafty Heir
37:1-50:26 The Joseph Saga: #TheImageofGod
Characters
Abram/Abraham (father of nations)
Sarai/Sarah (princess)
Isaac (laughter)
Lot (veil/ hidden)
Haggar (flight/forsaken)
Ismael (God will hear)
Abimelech (my father is king)
Melchizedek (my king is righteous)
Today’s Story
The Promises of God:
This is a major theme throughout the Abraham Saga, the rest of Genesis, the Torah, and Tanakh. Last week’s story ended with the declaration that the man and woman were naked, yet unashamed. We reflected briefly on the beauty of that statement for the relationship that they had with one another, as well as the implied relationship with God and all of creation. This is the ideal, humanity as the #ImageofGod. However, the rest of the pre-history section tells of how poorly humanity does at being God’s image, and in recognizing the image of God in one another. Clearly, God is going to have to try a different approach.
The choosing of Abra(ha)m, Sarai(h), and their family is a clear attempt to restore the righteousness (right relationship with God, with one another, and all creation) that humanity was created for. The key promise is that of blessing. “I will bless you, and make your name great,” says YHWH to Abram, “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 will be blessed” (Genesis 12:2-3 NRSV). The choosing of this one family is explicitly for the blessing of all the families. God takes this nobody, send him to nowhere, and as a result everyone everywhere will be blessed.
To be sure, Abraham and Sarah will not be good at being blessed. They will mar the image of God in others, they will allow deceit and temptation rule to them, and they will pass those toxic traits to their children (especially grandchildren). And yet, in spite of their deep humanity, God will be with them, so that all the world might be blessed.
Childbearing:
Implicit in this story is the high cultural significance of bearing children, specifically sons, in the ancient near east. We must be honest about the deeply patriarchal nature of life in that time. Women were treated as property, and their value was directly connected to their ability to bear children. We might be surprised then to find that the female lead, Sarai (whose name means ‘princess’) is barren. She is, however, highly prized for her beauty, so much so that Abra(ha)m tells two separate kings that she is his sister (not technically a lie) so that they do not kill him before marrying her. The anxiety of not having a child leads the two to misuse Haggar, the enslaved Egyptian acquired in the first deception.
Nevertheless, God promises that Abra(ha)m will be the father of a great nation. If that seems remarkable when he is seventy-five (the age of Hillary Clinton and Steven King), and Sarai is seventy-four (Charles III, Samuel L. Jackson); 25 years later, when Abraham is ninety-nine (Bob Barker before he died) and Sarah is ninety-eight (Jimmy Carter before he died) it is downright impossible (which is the point). God adds to this impossibility by asking for a sign of the covenant, male circumcision. They are in their upper nineties, Sarah has gone through menopause (“it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women”), and now God asks for Abraham to be wounded in the area that he needs for that process. The narrative is pointing a picture of utter hopelessness and impossibility, or as the letter to the Hebrews would later put it, “Therefore from one person, and this one as good as dead, descendants were born” (Hebrews 11:12, also for the record, Sarah did the vast majority of the hard work).
Hospitality:
Abraham is camping near the oaks of Mamre (Tree of Life/Eden imagery), when three travelers appear. The reader is told that they are YHWH, but it will take Abraham a minute to figure it out. While this might not be an everyday occurrence, it probably would not have been uncommon to encounter travelers seeking rest on their travels. If I say that hospitality was important in the ancient near east, I would not be stressing it enough. Hospitality to travelers was a moral imperative. If you were a person of any means, you were expected to provide food and even shelter to someone who came to you. There were no motels, inns, or even caravansaries at the time, so depending on the ‘kindness of strangers’ was the only way to go.
Abraham is here the picture of abundant hospitality: He runs to the men, bows himself down, and begs them to rest in the shade. He offers water to wash their feet, and offers to bring ‘a little bread.’ Abraham then tells Sarah to make “three measures” worth of bread. If that sounds familiar, it is because that is the same amount used in Matthew’s parable of the yeast, which would yield around 52 loaves of bread. He adds to that an entire roasted calf with cheese and milk (ballsy, serving God a non-kosher meal). The point is that he is pulling out all of the stops to make sure that these guests are well provided for.
In part, this is to contrast the lack of hospitality displayed in Sodom (in Luke 10, Jesus tells his disciples to shake the dust off of their feet if they are not well received, and “it will be more tolerable for Sodom than for that town.” In Ezekiel 16:49, the prophet specifically says that Sodom’s sin was “pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy.” This is within the context of the prophet comparing the sins of Jerusalem to graphic prostitution.) Hospitality is a key aspect of the Sodom/Gomorrah story, Lot provides hospitality to the angels of God, while the men of Sodom only want to humiliate them by gang rape. Lot’s hospitality goes even as far as offering his own daughters to the mob (though, it does not qualify him for father of the year) instead of letting his guests be humiliated.
How interesting it is that the giving of new life (for Sarah/Abraham, as well as Lot and his daughters) comes along with the receiving of strangers, and providing them with hospitality. In both cases, those giving hospitality are literally saving the lives of their guests: three strangers wandering through the desert in the middle of the day, two strangers naively staying in the town square of an unjust city. How often have we cut ourselves off from beautiful and enriching conversations or interactions by not receiving those who we see as strangers?
Meeting God in the Face of a Stranger:
We have here one of the many times when there is some sort of theophany (God appearing) in the Hebrew Scriptures. Three strangers appear in the wilderness, Abraham and Sarah show abundant hospitality, and at some point, the voice of the stranger is the voice of YHWH, speaking to them. While Christians make much of the fact that there are three strangers (is this Jesus in human form? squee!), there is not a lot of significance for our Jewish siblings other than one of them seems to be YHWH, while the other two are the angels/messengers that will suss-out Sodom.
In general, the idea of a divine being appearing in human form was not a surprising one in the ancient world, and should not be for us as well. The letter to the Hebrews warns disciples of Jesus to not neglect showing hospitality, because some have entertained angels of God unaware (Heb. 6:13, and a great classic Newsboys song). In Matthew 25, Jesus tells a story about the final judgment in which the king judges people based on the way that they treated the poor, hungry, thirsty, naked, stranger, imprisoned, and sick. The king so deeply identifies with these, that when the ‘sheep’ care for them (or the ‘goats’ don’t) “whatever you did to the least of these, you did to me.”
How would we treat others differently if we truly expected to see the face of God in them? Our Hindu siblings have an interesting phrase to express this: Namaste, the divine in me recognizes the divine in you.
Absurdist humor:
The visitors ask where Sarah is, and Abraham answers that she is in the tent. The visitors say that they will return in a year, and at that time, Sarah will have given birth to a son. Again, we need to remember that she is even older than Mitch McConnel or Dianne Feinstein at this point (!), and even in her prime she was barren; so what they are saying is truly bonkers. Perhaps understandingly, Sarah (who has been listening to the conversation like any decent, self-respecting housekeeper*) laughs at the idea. It is ridiculous, but of course, that is the point. Everything in the narrative has brought us to this conclusion.
Of course, this laughter is turned around when Sarah finds out that she is pregnant (that would be an interesting conversation). When the child is born, she names him Isaac, which means ‘laugher.’ The vibe has shifted, where before it was a scoffing laugh, now it is a laugh of joy, “everyone who hears will laugh with me.”
*A reference to White Christmas (1954), not a commentary on gender roles.
A God of New Life:
I don’t know about you, but I need to be reminded that we serve a God of new life, miraculous life out of death, of resurrection. This is something that we know, deep down, but to live it out is difficult. I think that there are two camps:
The Old Guard: These are those who have lived in the institutional church in its hay-day of the 1970’s, 80’s, and 90’s. For them, the idea of restoration is a return to that way of being the church: when the church was rich and prosperous, when an abnormally high amount of the general population attended church, when the church had well-attended children’s and youth ministries, and you can fill in many of the tales that you have heard. This camp has a difficult time seeing the downsides of this era: The viewing of the church as a social club; institutional racism, sexism, and homophobia; the fact that most of those children and youth do not attend church in their adulthood; etc. For these, the idea of a renewed church would be a restoration of what was, a clone of the church of their young adulthood (which was, in turn, a clone of the 1950’s). The idea that church could (and even should) look different receives ‘scoffing laughs.’ They will fight tooth and nail against anything that is not ‘the way things used to be.’ In their experience, just because something is new, does not mean that it is good (in fact, it means that it probably is not).
The New Kids: Then you have the more emergent crowd, who envision a different kind of church. They dream of a beloved community which seeks justice and radical inclusivity, part worshiping community, part social ministry, part community organization. However, because both camps are in the same church communities, this group have had to fight and scratch for every millimeter of progress made. The idea of God making new life out of these old bodies leads to a cynical scoffing laugh from this crowd too.
Is it possible that God is indeed giving hope in a hopeless situation? As we look at the religious landscape we see very little hope, we are ‘as good as dead’ and actuarial tables are far more useful in charting the future of the church than anything else. Perhaps that is the point? ‘After we have grown old, and our members are old, shall we have vibrant and sustainable ministry?’ we ask with a derisive laugh. And into our pessimism over yet another change, into our cynicism about whether change is possible at all, the voice of God asks, “Is anything too wonderful for YHWH?”
Pop Culture References
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is a cinematic masterpiece. It tells the story right before A New Hope (Episode IV, the first Star Wars) of the Rebels who “have won their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire” (from Episode IV’s opening crawl). Throughout the film, ‘hope’ is a recurring theme, Cassian (A Rebel Spy) tells Jyn Erso (the protagonist) that “Rebellions are built on hope,” which she later uses in an impassioned speech to leaders of the Rebel Alliance. Spoiler Alert, none of the main characters from Rogue One make it through the movie (though Cassian Andor got his own series on Disney+ that is fantastic), but in a heroic effort, they get the Death Star Plans to Princess Leia. The closing sequence to Rogue One, which leads right into the opening scene of A New Hope, tracks these plans as they are transmitted onto a hard-drive, and then physically run from the bridge of a capital ship to the Tantive IV, and the Princess herself (or a rough approximation of her, superimposing a digital version of Carrie Fisher's face onto another actor’s body). Captain Antilles asks what they have brought, and Leia answers (with the final word of the film), “Hope.” The audacity to hope in the face of impossibility is the mark of a Rebellion against an evil Galactic Empire, just as it is the mark of a beloved community in the face of overwhelming odds.
This story, and the appearance of YHWH in three strangers makes me think about the 90’s classic, “One of Us” by Joan Osborn (1995)
More Links
The Bible Worm Podcast 502; Episode 102 (2019)
Bible Project: Genesis 12-50 (Read the Bible Series)
Bible Project: Genesis 12-50 (Torah Series)
Bible Project Podcast: “Under the Trees with Yahweh” (Genesis Scroll Series)
Bible Project Podcast: “Trees of Testing and Blessing” (Genesis Scroll Series)
Faith Adjacent Podcast (Formerly ‘the Bible Binge’): “Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar”
Hymn Suggestions
Earth And All Stars (GTG 26)- This is our ‘hymn of the month’ which we sing through the month.
The God of Abraham Praise (49)
I Was There To Hear Your Borning Cry (488)
Child of Blessing, Child of Promise (486)
Namaste