On January 1 our Covenant Groups resumed meeting after Christmas breaks, and began reading Genesis. We started our groups reading last October with the New Testament and finished up December 31 in Revelation. Now we start back at the beginning. My last post shared the fruits of our extraordinary journey through the word together. Now we get into the saga of Israel - and meet the "God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob", as God of the Old Testament has been labeled.
But God is also the God of Sarah and Rebekah, Rachel and Dinah. God is the God of all the servants of these patriarchs, their wives and children. God is God of all the nations and even the enemies of Israel, who follow other gods. As we read we must not forget the encounters these people had with God, and their stories that complete the full understanding of the scope of awesome God's love and promise.
My husband in his reading in Genesis this week was struck by the story in Genesis 24 of Abraham's oldest and beloved servant, whom Abraham sent to find a wife for his son Isaac. Ron was struck by the servant's faithfulness and obedience, his courage and tenacity, his devotion to God and his master and his spiritual disciplines. He was taken by his love.
Look what he discovered: 22:9 He took a solemn oath to follow Abraham's instructions. He trusted God who sent an angel to lead and protect his journey (verses 6-8). In verse 11, he made all bow to God in reverence. In verse 12 he began his duty in prayer, "O Lord God of my Master, give me success and show kindness to Abraham." He prayed for his master, his duty and his success. He was diplomatic and respectful with Rebekah's family. He gave God the glory for his success when he found Rebekah in verse 26. He never asked for anything in return - he had the best interest of others first and foremost. And he must have been trustworthy and safe, for Rebekah went with him back to Isaac; he brought her to Isaac himself. I imagine he stood near them, beeming, as Isaac made her his wife, for "he loved her very much, and she was comfort to him after the death of his mother." The perfect mate.
My husband found the story very romantic - remembering the God who had brought us together through friends and circumstances 22 years ago. Friends who cared about us and wanted the best for us. Servants really who are part of our love story. There are only a few like this in the Bible stories - who complete the love story, smaller characters, used by God. Only a few who have obedience and others' well-being as their only motives. Who are for God, and not against Him. It is not so with many other characters we meet on the pages of the Old Testament. It is not always so in our own lives.
May we discover the real and faithful servants in our lives - who follow God and lead us straight into the arms of God and others who would help us grow in faith, love and devotion to our Great Lover.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Monday, November 26, 2007
holiday musings november 26 07
It's been awhile since I posted. Got a little compulsive about blogging there for a time, so I took a holiday from blogging. Got a little political from time to time too - sorry. But as a former seminary professor told me once, "everything's political," so guess I can't avoid that. Faith and conscience and church and work and life - all meshed together in a politically religious experience...(?)
Anyway, I actually feel some kind of cyber-connection in the process of posting that I've missed. My son has begun a PhD at University of Texas on how the Internet and electronic communication has influenced rhetoric and relationships. At least that's what I think he's doing. He'll have to comment more about it...How 'bout it, Will?
I stopped sending lectionary thoughts for a time, not because I'm not reading scripture, but because I'm deferring to the leaders in our covenant groups to do that. We have over half of our congregation in small groups, reading the Bible together every week. I'm preaching each week on one of the week's passages. The leaders are sending their own messages and thoughts out every week, and I don't want to influence the groups' discernment. Isn't a preacher's job, in large part, to excite people to read all about it themselves, to wrestle with meaning and application and grow personally as well as corporately? So, I've stepped back - but I do miss everyone. The word connects us no matter the media.
Amazing things are happening in these groups. The older folks amaze me the most. 90 year olds who have been in church all their lives but NEVER talked about their faith, or questioned the Bible - they're talking and asking and weeping and loving it, thanks to 2 compassionate leaders who are coaxing them out of a frozen chosen state of faith. We have 6-8 black teens in a group and the leaders tell me, they're getting real with each other about their fears and brokenness. The missional spirit is bubbling up and is mostly spontaneous. One of our praise band members showed up at 97 year old Elsie's home to do some repairs. The men's group have begun quarterly "Undie Sundays" to solicit new underwear donations for a men's rescue mission. Another adopted a family for Christmas and still another will be selling fair trade coffee and other items to raise money for missions and new windows in the church. Black and white, young and old, are engaged together in the word. I could go on.
What I see in these groups is the church being the church. When all hell is breaking loose in the institutions (there I go being political again), the fruit of the Spirit is evident in the very diverse believers at South-Broadland PC. It's evident in the worship every single Sunday. And it is such an encouragement to this pastor to see how they are learning to love each other more and more, and are finding ways to love others. It's real, it's simple, and it's possible, if we leaders would just let the church be the church, however the Spirit leads them. For the Spirit is blowing outside the doors of our properties and writing new pages in our rule book. It's simple - they will know we are Christians by our love. They are teaching me a lot.
Anyway, I actually feel some kind of cyber-connection in the process of posting that I've missed. My son has begun a PhD at University of Texas on how the Internet and electronic communication has influenced rhetoric and relationships. At least that's what I think he's doing. He'll have to comment more about it...How 'bout it, Will?
I stopped sending lectionary thoughts for a time, not because I'm not reading scripture, but because I'm deferring to the leaders in our covenant groups to do that. We have over half of our congregation in small groups, reading the Bible together every week. I'm preaching each week on one of the week's passages. The leaders are sending their own messages and thoughts out every week, and I don't want to influence the groups' discernment. Isn't a preacher's job, in large part, to excite people to read all about it themselves, to wrestle with meaning and application and grow personally as well as corporately? So, I've stepped back - but I do miss everyone. The word connects us no matter the media.
Amazing things are happening in these groups. The older folks amaze me the most. 90 year olds who have been in church all their lives but NEVER talked about their faith, or questioned the Bible - they're talking and asking and weeping and loving it, thanks to 2 compassionate leaders who are coaxing them out of a frozen chosen state of faith. We have 6-8 black teens in a group and the leaders tell me, they're getting real with each other about their fears and brokenness. The missional spirit is bubbling up and is mostly spontaneous. One of our praise band members showed up at 97 year old Elsie's home to do some repairs. The men's group have begun quarterly "Undie Sundays" to solicit new underwear donations for a men's rescue mission. Another adopted a family for Christmas and still another will be selling fair trade coffee and other items to raise money for missions and new windows in the church. Black and white, young and old, are engaged together in the word. I could go on.
What I see in these groups is the church being the church. When all hell is breaking loose in the institutions (there I go being political again), the fruit of the Spirit is evident in the very diverse believers at South-Broadland PC. It's evident in the worship every single Sunday. And it is such an encouragement to this pastor to see how they are learning to love each other more and more, and are finding ways to love others. It's real, it's simple, and it's possible, if we leaders would just let the church be the church, however the Spirit leads them. For the Spirit is blowing outside the doors of our properties and writing new pages in our rule book. It's simple - they will know we are Christians by our love. They are teaching me a lot.
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