Today’s Readings: Psalm 38; Genesis 12:9-13:1; Matthew 22:1-14; Romans 5:6-11; Psalm 113
I always smile when I hear a member of what some have called the Religious Right talk about the family values espoused in the Bible. Clearly they aren’t thinking of passages like today’s passage from Genesis. In that passage, we see Abram and Sarai take on a set of values that we wouldn’t normally associate with God. Fearing for their lives, both Abram and Sarai panic and lie through their teeth in order to protect themselves from the Pharaoh when they enter Egypt. And why do they do that? Because they fear the Pharaoh would kill Abram in order to win the hand of his beautiful wife Sarai. That’s why they tell the Pharaoh that Sarai is merely Abram’s brother rather than her husband. What really annoys me in the story is that the author(s) tell us it’s not the one who lied who faced the consequences of the deceit (Abram); instead, it was the ones who were lied to that faced the consequences (the Pharaoh and those in his palace who got sick). To top it off, Abram got to keep everything he gained through his deceit. Not exactly the tale of family values you might expect! So what lesson can be taken from such a challenging story? Well, for me the lesson is that God can work through any set of circumstances – no matter how much we human beings might muck them up. You’ll notice, for instance, that nowhere in the story are we told that the deceit was God’s idea. The implication is that the deceit was Abram’s idea. And yet by the end of the story the ancestor of God’s chosen had the resources he needed to establish what would become his nation. The story gives me confidence that no matter how much you or I muck might things up in our lives, that God can find a way to pull things together. That gives me hope and strength. I hope it does for you as well. Til next time…
I always smile when I hear a member of what some have called the Religious Right talk about the family values espoused in the Bible. Clearly they aren’t thinking of passages like today’s passage from Genesis. In that passage, we see Abram and Sarai take on a set of values that we wouldn’t normally associate with God. Fearing for their lives, both Abram and Sarai panic and lie through their teeth in order to protect themselves from the Pharaoh when they enter Egypt. And why do they do that? Because they fear the Pharaoh would kill Abram in order to win the hand of his beautiful wife Sarai. That’s why they tell the Pharaoh that Sarai is merely Abram’s brother rather than her husband. What really annoys me in the story is that the author(s) tell us it’s not the one who lied who faced the consequences of the deceit (Abram); instead, it was the ones who were lied to that faced the consequences (the Pharaoh and those in his palace who got sick). To top it off, Abram got to keep everything he gained through his deceit. Not exactly the tale of family values you might expect! So what lesson can be taken from such a challenging story? Well, for me the lesson is that God can work through any set of circumstances – no matter how much we human beings might muck them up. You’ll notice, for instance, that nowhere in the story are we told that the deceit was God’s idea. The implication is that the deceit was Abram’s idea. And yet by the end of the story the ancestor of God’s chosen had the resources he needed to establish what would become his nation. The story gives me confidence that no matter how much you or I muck might things up in our lives, that God can find a way to pull things together. That gives me hope and strength. I hope it does for you as well. Til next time…
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