Many Thanks!

I’d like to thank those who came out to “Chillin’ Time” last night.

It was very kind of all of you to come and offer your support and well-wishes as Natalie and I embark on a new phase in our lives. I apologize for my awkwardness. Generally speaking, the limelight doesn’t suit me, and I never know how to handle positive feedback or praise. Extra special thanks to James and Susan for organizing things, and to Toby and Nick for saying such wonderful words.

I believe that the Holy Spirit has moved amongst this group, and that God himself had a hand in orchestrating so many moments that we experienced over the last few years. I feel blessed to have been a part of it, and humbled that you more or less entrusted me with the awesome task of teaching (a task I took quite seriously…most of the time).

I was so touched last night by the kind words that many of you had for me and Nat. I get so wrapped up in the Bible and the message that I’m trying to communicate that I often fail to build relationships or notice that I’m building relationships. There are so many folks in this group that I really only see on Tuesday Night, and yet I feel like I know you so well. How fortunate I am to know you.

I know that God will continue to move among FCC and “El Grupo” aka “Tuesday Night.”

Nat and I will be around town, let’s not be total strangers!

Oh, and the Kindle was probably the coolest gift ever. Seriously, I’m geeking out!

More Thoughts on Genesis 22

I have already posted a “post-game” on Genesis 22, so I don’t intend to do that. However, I thought I’d draw your attention to a post I did on my blog (some were asking about this):

“The Psychology of Abraham (Genesis 22)”

To boil it down, I replay some of our discussion on the chapter and then offer a few more thoughts that we didn’t have time to discuss. My aim was to think about what was going on with Abraham at a specific point within the story. Here’s a teaser:

When we lose something or are in danger of losing something, we often downplay its significance for us. We do this not only to make a great external show to put up a façade of strength, but also to put a wall around our hearts and preserve them from the pain and horror of loss.

I hope you’ll check it out.

I’d also like to draw your attention to the comments. There’s a nice little discussion going on there between me, a Mormon, and a Quaker. Gotta love it!

Post-Game Thoughts on “God’s Close-up”

I was so glad that so many of you could come last Tuesday. Unfortunately, I was feeling ill and was not able to fully prepare Genesis 23 as planned. However, I was lucky/blessed to run across an episode of This American Life called “God’s Close-up.” I showed it to y’all, and really enjoyed our discussion afterwards.

If you missed it, the story follows Ben McPherson, a Mormon artist who is working on a series of paintings depicting New Testament events. His quest for models leads him to the hobos and outcasts of Salt Lake City as well as a Marxist economics grad student and his girlfriend, a former Mormon herself. Each person in the episode has something to say about the role of religion and God in their lives and the lives of those around them.

In our discussion, we immediately latched on to the brokenness that Mormonism seems to have engendered in each of these people. However, I think that we could insert almost anything in the place of “Mormonism” in that equation. No matter how inclusive we might try to be, religion — by the very fact that it takes a stand, demarcating what one believes about the nature of reality — is an exclusivist enterprise. The problem wasn’t Mormonism; the problem was legalism and religion.

Legalism is pervasive amongst Christian denominations. This is unfortunate, because Christ was not a legalistic dude. In fact, Christ berated the chief legalists of his day, the Pharisees. Check out what Jesus says (Matthew 23:13–36, ESV):

¹³“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in. ¹⁵Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.

¹⁶“Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’ ¹⁷You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred? ¹⁸And you say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his oath.’ ¹⁹You blind men! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? ²⁰So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. ²¹And whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it. ²²And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it.

²³ “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. ²⁴You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!

²⁵ “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. ²⁶You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.

²⁷ “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. ²⁸So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

²⁹ “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, ³⁰saying, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ ³¹Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. ³² Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. ³³You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell? ³⁴ Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, ³⁵so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of innocent Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. ³⁶Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.

Legalism means improperly fixating on rules and regulations, pegging our salvation on adherence to those rules. I can tell you without a doubt that I am frequently guilty of this.

What rules and regulations are you holding on to that keep you from fully experiencing freedom in Christ?

What rules and regulations do you impose on other people that keeps you from loving them as your brother/sister?

Post-Game: Thoughts on Genesis 22

I really appreciated everyone that came out last night to discuss this remarkable piece of Scripture. I know I learned a great deal from all of your different perspectives. As always, I am astounded at the depth of the Word — this incredible text has so much meaning packed so densely into such a small space — it is a singularity inside of which all humanity and divinity is packed. Good stuff!

So, what did we talk about?

Mostly, we talked about the story and the struggle of Abraham. The text is terse when it comes to Abraham’s feelings. Therefore, we are forced to speculate about how ol’ Abe felt when God asked him to sacrifice Isaac. Some felt like Abraham was the ultimate faith warrior (a “Knight of Faith” as Kierkegaard would say); therefore, he hopped to it and didn’t ask questions. Others felt like Abraham probably agonized over the decision all the way up to the point where the angel stayed his hand. I have a few thoughts on this myself, but I’ll save them for another time.

We also talked about Isaac’s role in this business. How old was Isaac? Was he old enough to resist? Did he go along willingly? Etc. Some felt like he was too young to resist his father. Others noted the fact that Isaac needed to be bound.

Finally, we touched briefly on parallels to the Crucifixion. Abraham, like God, (nearly) sacrificed his beloved son. That son was forced to carry the instrument of his death (wood) up a hill and into the unknown. There’s so much here, and I’m sorry that we barely got to hit it.

I had a full page of “big ideas” that I’ve drawn from Genesis 22. I looked at my page this morning and realized that we only hit a couple of them. Consequently, I would like to revisit Genesis 22 next week (July 21). We will probably split our time between Genesis 22 and Genesis 23. At some point in the next day or two I’ll put up some questions for Genesis 23. Also, be looking ahead to July 28, when we’ll breeze through Genesis 24 and 25 and then have a Q&A about Abraham and Sarah and what they have meant to history, literature, and the Christian and Jewish faiths.

Blessings!

The Binding of Isaac in Art & Literature

"The Sacrifice of Isaac" by Caravaggio (ca. 1601–02)

Genesis 22 has found its way into numerous works of art, pieces of literature, and songs. Here are just a few. Feel free to provide links to some more if you know of any.

“Abraham to kill him…”

by Emily Dickinson

Abraham to kill him—
Was distinctly told—
Isaac was an Urchin—
Abraham was old—

Not a hesitation—
Abraham complied—
Flattered by Obeisance
Tyranny demurred—

Isaac—to his children
Lived to tell the tale—
Moral—with a Mastiff
Manners may prevail.

"Sacrifice of Isaac" by Chagal (ca. 1960–65)

“The Parable of the Old Man and the Young Man”

by Wilfred Owen
Owen’s parable ends a tad differently than Genesis 22.

So Abram rose, and clave the wood, and went,
And took the fire with him, and a knife.
And as they sojourned both of them together,
Isaac the first-born spake and said, My Father,
Behold the preparations, fire and iron,
But where the lamb for this burnt-offering?
Then Abram bound the youth with belts and straps
and builded parapets and trenches there,
And stretchèd forth the knife to slay his son.
When lo! an angel called him out of heaven,
Saying, Lay not thy hand upon the lad,
Neither do anything to him, thy son.
Behold! Caught in a thicket by its horns,
A Ram. Offer the Ram of Pride instead.
But the old man would not so, but slew his son,
And half the seed of Europe, one by one.

Excerpt from “Highway 61 Revisted”

by Bob Dylan

God said to Abraham, “Kill me a son.”
Abe said, “Man, you must be puttin’ me on.”
God said, “No.” Abe said, “What?”
God said, “You can do what you want, Abe, but
“The next time you see me comin’ you better run.”
Abe said, “Where do you want this killin’ done?”
God said, “Out on Highway Sixty-One.”

Post-Game: Thoughts on Genesis 21

Whew! Maybe I’m speaking just for myself, but that was a tough text! Sometimes it is not clear exactly what God wants us to know or learn from a chunk of Scripture. Genesis 21 definitely falls into that category for me.

I’m thankful that so many of you showed up tonight and did your best to try and find something relevant in it.

Here’s a quick recap of some thoughts that we discussed:

• On the surface, the story seems like a mixed-up repeat of Genesis 16 in which Sarah and Hagar get into a quarrel, and Hagar is booted out of the house. Further inspection, however, shows that the ends of these stories are radically different. Genesis 21 ends with Ishmael and Hagar running around the desert and Ishmael becoming quite the bowman.
• For me, the biggest issue that I had to deal with was the fact that the text seems to treat Ishmael as a little boy rather than a teenager of at least 15 years. Chris found some evidence that maybe v. 14 isn’t saying that Hagar carried Ishmael on her back. I have since reviewed that evidence and I am not totally convinced. I think both readings have a great deal of validity. Others (I believe it was both Sarah’s) postulated that perhaps time is a bit skewed in a way that we don’t understand. After all, Abraham lives to be 175! Maybe Ishmael was a little boy when Isaac was born. It’s all a bit confusing…
• Moving beyond that, Pete pointed out that this is a coming of age story. Ishmael goes through a trial and then grows up to become quite the hunk! We laughed over comparisons between Ishmael and Hatchet.
• Natalie brought up the thought-provoking question: Was Genesis written by one person or is it a bunch of sources stitched together? How does that affect the way we read it and how we feel about the text? — Your thoughts?
  
• Finally, we talked a bit about how God has gone out of his way to preserve the Ishmaelites. We touched on some things that the descendants of Ishmael will go on to do. We also took note of the fact that Ishmael is descended from Egyptians and how Sarah’s poor treatment of Hagar and Ishmael will come back to haunt her when her offspring are enslaved for 400 years!
• We hardly touched on the story about Abraham and Abimelech, except to say that it appears to be a story about how this well, Beer-sheba, got it’s name.

Great thinking, guys! I’m so glad that we have a place to come and be open and honest about how we read and understand God’s word.

If you have any thoughts or questions about the things we discussed tonight, feel free to post a comment below.

Andrew Boone: Luke 7:36–50

Many thanks to Andrew Boone for leading us through Luke 7:36–50 last night.

That particular passage inspired a very important notion for me:

No human being has been forgiven any more or any less than any other human being.

This is a key thought for me. When Jesus says that “he who has been forgiven little loves little” (v. 47), I must realize that this should not apply to me or to anyone for that matter. None of us have “been forgiven little.” We are all gigantic sinners in our own way; we all struggle.

I appreciated everyone’s willingness to think and talk about this particular idea. I know that for me it was one of those “ah-ha” moments — an epiphany.

We have a couple of weeks off before we plunge back into Genesis. Finally, after all of the hullabaloo, we are going to see Abraham and Sarah’s child: Isaac. Please read Genesis 21 in preparation for that.

God bless!