Nothing Never Happens

Genesis 5

Genealogies may not make for the most exciting reading. But they serve to show that God reveals himself in and through human events.

The ages here are astounding. Methusaleh lived to be 969 and so is the oldest person in the Bible (and this was before OHIP). The longevity of the pre-flood characters in the Bible is sometimes attributed to their proximity to the energy of creation. Others say this description is influenced by Babylonian writing that speaks of the early reign of kings of thousands of years (couldn’t the influence be in the other direction?).

With the birth of Noah there is a note of hope, and the stage is set for one of the most famous Bible stories.

Prayer:
Lord, I get so enthralled with the “big names” of the Bible it’s too easy to overlook everyone has their part in the fabric of history and the shape of things. We are each big name players for our own time and place. Help us to realize the role you have for us. Through Christ. Amen.

Civilized

Genesis 4:17-26

Humanity banished from the purity of conversation with the Lord, and even from connection with the ground from which he came, now starts out on his own endeavours. The ensuing elements of society have mixed effects. Metal working, for example, produces implements for agricultural purposes, but the same implements can be used for war. There is music but there is a also a multiplication of murder.

The pursuits associated with the growth of civilization will be both worthy and deadly. Every apparent advance will have its dark side. The hope will be in the purity of the call on the name of the Lord (verse 26).

Prayer:
Lord, help me see my true motives in things without getting tied up in knots of self-absorption. Let me live instead in the spirit of the Psalmist who asked you to examine his heart and give it a good cleaning out. Let my daily conversation be with you that what I do will be more naturally for your sake. Through Christ. Amen.

Marked

Genesis 4:1-16

The question from God that arises here is now not “Where are you?” but “Where is your brother?” The story of Cain and Abel is a chapter out of the primeval history of man. The torn relationship with God shatters peace among his creatures. The divisions have begun – at separate altars to God, no less. The terribleness of the sin is just in that it is committed not apart from God but as part of connecting with him.

What was the difference in the sacrifices? Who knows? God can make whatever choices he wants. We run into it every day. The critical part is how we respond. God tried to warn Cain. But sin appears as a monster he can’t control, making the distance between hateful emotion and hateful action very short indeed. God’s warning reminds us, however, that we are not helpless about this.

Abel’s blood cries out from the ground Cain had made a living from. Now there is a shattering of the relationship between him and the earth from which man himself had come.

Life belongs to God. That’s at the heart of the sin, but it is also the reason Cain gets protection. The meaning of ‘Nod’ is ‘fugitive.’ Murderous man’s home is a state of restlessness, alienation, no belonging. And yet God protects his life, because it still belongs to him.

Prayer:
God, your ways are mysterious. Yet we are not without insight, wisdom, much that you reveal to us as we go forward in faith. May we celebrate interdependence with one another as we go, and find you in the relationships you give us. Through Christ. Amen.

The Sentence

Genesis 3:8-24

Trust wasn’t enough for the couple. But the Gardener will not give up on them. He won’t yield his creation to anyone or anything.

For their part, the focus of the couple has changed; it is not the Gardner. A tiny little pronoun takes over: “I” (verses 10-13). Along with it: fear, hiding, blame.

The sentence that God pronounces on them seems heavy, but we need to recall 2:17, where it was indicated that death would follow disobedience. So grace appears in the sentence given here. They have life, but it will be apart from the Garden, and it will be life that is lived hand in hand with death – but we will find God dealing with that too.

Prayer:
God, give me self-awareness without self-preoccupation. Let me see and acknowledge my own rebellion. You have inexhaustible patience with those who are honest about their sin. Hiding is doubly silly becomes I am completely transparent to you, and yet you smile on me when I admit to you what you know anyway! Apparently as well as being fully of grace, you have a sense of humour. Thanks, in your Son’s name. Amen.

Analysis, Concepts and Shame

Genesis 3:1-7

There is something new here in that this is the first language about God. The serpent (not a phallic symbol or Satan but more like the first theologian) presents himself as knowing something about God. The first question posed contains a lie within a truth. There was a prohibition but it wasn’t about all trees. In reacting to this the woman exaggerates the prohibition.

The language of calling and loving response has turned to analysis and calculation. From here on, and with this as on ongoing psychological reality, joy becomes an elusive part of human experience. It seems we weren’t designed to analyze but to respond to and enjoy the divine presence. With analysis there is distortion, and the relationship of trust with God is fractured and guilt is born. Guilt has its own weight. Shame is its twin. Instead of just experience of God and one another as a matter of community and joy, we begin to have concepts. Instead of just being the reality without thinking about it, nakedness becomes a concept. The concept overlays the reality and it is something to avert our eyes from. To be naked with one another in body, mind and spirit becomes a problem. Over to you, Leonard Cohen.

Prayer:
Renew me in purity of conversation with you, Lord. Amen.

No Shame

Genesis 2:24-25

What is to explain the powerful drive toward sexual union? The answer of this text is that we began as one flesh, so have a desire to be joined together. This is a drive that overtakes even ties to the parental home. Sexual union is part of creation.

Shame and all the other angst that can be part of sexual relations is a sign that creation as it was intended is out of kilter. There are powerful drives and emotions here, which may be partly to explain why the church historically has had such a problem dealing with it. Sexual sin seems to have a special obsession. I mean, when was the last time you saw a news report about a church body having extended debate about poverty or the environment, to the same extent we end up debating sex stuff?

The sex stuff is important. As the preamble to the marriage vows in my church observes, “Marriage is a sign of the kingdom of God on earth.” The drive toward union may be a sign of the God’s intended design to bring all things together in him. Physical sex is like fire – vital and beautiful within God’s design, but dangerous and destructive when taken out of context, particularly when it becomes pornographic. That is to say, when the drive itself is what is focused on instead of being part of a relationship. That leads to the objectification of persons, leading often to the linking of sex with control and violence.

Sexual relations are where issues of trust become particularly important. Sexual sin is serious because it invariably involves – and perhaps may even be defined by – a betrayal of trust. The gift of sex is best celebrated, on the other hand, within a relationship of complete trust and growth together, in which two people can be naked together in every way, and not be ashamed.

Prayer:
God of love, you lavish on us an extravagance of all kinds of gifts. Among them is this gift of great pleasure. You are a God who intends joy for us in our service and friendship together in all kinds of ways. You truly are great and to be praised. Thank you. Through Christ. Amen.

The Mysterious Other

Genesis 2:18-25

Poor Adam. He has no “helper.” Now, I know one meaning of that word very well. I’ve done enough crummy jobs to know that a helper is the guy who does what the boss doesn’t want to be bothered with. But this goes back to the fact that it’s just not a good thing to be alone.

From the available parties, no one quite qualifies. God himself is, well, God. The man needs some companionship a bit more on his own level (although that will come even from God.) The companionship he needs is not going to come from among the animals he has had the privilege of naming either.

So something totally wonderful happens. He gets a companion who is both her own person and yet is also intimately connected to him by origin. The culture out of which the writing comes is of course scandalously patriarchal by today’s thinking. But we need to cut through that to the beautiful mystery at the heart of this: There is something deep within us that longs for union. That union is best lived if it includes respect for the mystery of the other. We are deeply connected, and yet are individuals. By some wondrous irony of God’s design, we are more connected by respecting the mystery of one another than if we make a lot of really crude assumptions about people. I don’t really need to know everything about you. It’s nice to get the end product of your appreciation of bad puns, Bach, and anything chocolate (or whatever some of your favorite things are). If you choose to let me know about anything deeper that’s up to you, and I am honoured by your sharing.

More tomorrow on the sexuality aspect of this passage.

Prayer:
God of all, I thank you for the personhood of each person sharing in this prayer with me. Through Christ in whom we are complete. Amen.

Streaming

Genesis 2:8-17

The picture is one of spreading blessing. The trees in the middle of the garden will come up again later. A couple of things here:
1. There was work to do. Work is honourable and intended for people from the beginning. The man was to take care of the garden.
2. The garden is connected to the rest of the world by means of the rivers: living, flowing energy. This image will be picked up more through Scripture, in Ezekiel 47:1-12 and Revelation 22:1-5. Every time, the image conveys the intended design of God that where his dwelling is acknowledged, it is a source of blessing for all that is around.

Prayer:
God of all, I am reminded that there is nothing that comes from me. There is only stuff that passes through. I haven’t had an original thought in my life. Nothing good I have done started with me. Yet you give me the privilege of having a part in shaping things along the way, and yet not me except as part of a community. The whole thing is multiplied by all taking part in it. What a river, what a God. Amen.

Becoming

Genesis 2:4-7

We head ever deeper into a story, a road traveled. There is important teaching here, but the teaching is not prior to the story. In other words, it is not moralistic in the sense that someone said something like, ‘I want to teach this so I’m going to tell this story to convey it.’ It’s more like real life, because that’s what it is. There are things to be discerned in our own stories, but our life stories are not concoctions to convey points. God could do that, but he seems to take our personhood more seriously than that.

We should be prepared, therefore, to find more questions raised than answers provided. But the more we are drawn into it, the more we will see ourselves in it, be drawn together and to the author. The answers we seek will come from living that story together.

We are living beings because of the breath (the same word can be translated ‘spirit’ or ‘wind’) of God in us. We can depend on him for the inspiration we need in every respect.

Prayer:
Your Word is so full of wonder, God. It has all the excitement of fantasy, but is even more intriguing and involving because it is anything but fantasy. May your Word fill my heart as well as my mind, that my understanding may come from closeness with you. Through Christ. Amen.

Sabbath

Genesis 2:1-3

Creation came into being through gracious speaking. Now God provides for the creation’s reflection on life as a gift. Sabbath rest remains a reminder that life does not depend on us and our self-seeking. It may come as a shock to some of us that the world will not fall apart if we bring a halt to our endeavours. The word relies on God’s Word and God’s commitment, not on us. It’s a way for us to say, “It’s not about me.” It is, beyond that, a welcome break from every effort we might be inclined to make to remake the world, the people around us, the organizations we’re part of, in our own image. Some of us need to be relieved of the burden of thinking nothing will work right without our stamp on it. The world has already been made, and claimed. Praise God.

Prayer:
Remind me that observing Sabbath rest is more than just showing up for worship. Let me truly rest, let go, shun the normal things of the week, get back to what it’s really about, and be remade. Let my every prayer be a Sabbath moment. Through Christ. Amen.

Ruling through Serving

Genesis 1:28-31


Man ruling as God’s representative, but with no blood shed, not even for food: That was the picture in the beginning. This is a kind of ruling we don’t usually think of, the kind the ensuing pages of Scripture will picture as shepherding. It will be embodied by the one who will rule over all, but who counted the position of ruler to be nothing (Philippians 2:5-7). There is subduing (verse 28) that is about subjugating, and there is subduing that is about instilling a spirit of peace, the biblical ‘shalom’, which is about well-being in every respect.

Prayer:
God, you make pretty clear how we are supposed to exercise whatever authority you entrust to us. If your own Son said he came not to be served but to serve, what does that say about me? In Him. Amen.

God's Image

Genesis 1:24-27

The land animals other than humankind have their own attention and blessing. But then man is made in God’s image. The cultural context of the writing is one which abhors any idea of a humanly-fashioned image of God (e.g. Exodus 20:4). Man, instead, is made in the image of God: a living, breathing, social entity. This is linked directly to his stewardship of the rest of the creation. Man is to be God’s responsible representative, standing for God and bearing his character in the world.

If the passage looks toward humanity’s care for the rest of creation, it should be a no-brainer that humans care for one another, a forgone prerequisite. Something, it is painfully obvious on this date, has gone horribly, horribly wrong.

Prayer:
God, why is your image so distorted? Would you turn hearts to you, toward the new man, the first-born of a new creation? Turn me nearer to you and to be part with others of what it is to be your image, as I welcome your Son more fully to be your new life in me. Amen.

Teeming

Genesis 1:20-23

Abundance. Not a word you hear a lot in normal conversation but it’s what this passage exudes. God just gives the word, and all sorts of living things respond with their own worshipful movement and language – the broadly inclusive scope of this is underlined by the mention, first, of mythical sea-creatures, which presumably live far from the experience of humankind that likes to see itself as the centre of things (he/she’s not even on the scene yet, and look at all the blessing of life there is!).

Prayer:
God, forgive us for looking at the rest of creation as being for our selfish use. We can see the results. We rightly worship only you, but we also honour you by respecting every part of your creation. Let me see what I’m doing today with what is the home for all your creatures, and ask what could be different. In Jesus. Amen.

Day and Night Lights

Genesis 1:14-19

The lights appearing in the sky are described in functional terms. They serve a purpose. They do not have the divine status that they might have in some world views that would surround Israel. It’s intriguing that the sun and moon are not named. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that those names would be the names of gods for some. However significant the lights in the sky are in their function, we are to see that they do not compare with the light that is before them and of which they can only be a reflection.

Prayer:
God, when the circumstances and round of events of this life seem overwhelming, remind me that my worth and my destiny need not be determined by present circumstances. Your call to let there be light still echoes. That call is prior to and more powerful than anything else that might seem to be regulating my life. With you all things truly are possible. Open my heart and mind to your possibilities. Through Christ. Amen.

DeFence

Genesis 1:9-13

The third day completes the ordering of the waters, by gathering the water that is under the sky to allow dry ground appear.
The picture that remains is of chaos and danger all around the edges of the world that is to be inhabited. It previews a condition of there being something, on an ongoing basis, hostile to God and his responding creation. But the creation can be assured God is watching over this situation and has power over it, power exercised for the creation’s blessing (Psalm 104:7-13).
The note about the varieties of plants indicates the order and beauty God intends for his creation.

Prayer:
God, may I love your beauty, and the beauty of all that you have made. There is something of that darkness and chaos within, however. I have done my share of cooperating with that which would work against the joy you intend. The light is good. Your design is wonderful. Your purposes will not fail. Let me love the right things. Through Christ. Amen.

Making a Place

Genesis 1:6-8

On the second day God made the “expanse” or firmament to separate the waters above the earth from the waters below. At the time of writing people thought of the sky as a kind of upside down bowl made of hammered out metal. Attached to this were the lights regulating day and night.

Although we see the physical world differently now, the most basic reality is the same. As in the other days of creation, we see creation as living and able and willing to respond to the voice of the creator (“Let there be …”). The recurring refrain that God saw that it was good is the cue for subsequent life and living as a matter of worship and celebration. It expresses that life is a matter of God’s calling and the creation’s (including us) joyful response. What a vibrant view of what life is about!

The separation of the watery chaos is the beginning of the establishing a place for God’s creatures to enjoy his love. And one variety of his creatures will have the great privilege of being able to respond to him in intelligible ways: ways of worship, growth, service and echoing the whole response to others.

Prayer:
God, we know of so many who think they don’t matter, that there is no place for them in this world. How that must sadden you. Use us, use me, to spread the word in every way about what you have done, and live out your actions in what we say and do. Through Christ. Amen.

By His Will

Genesis 1:3-5

God spoke and it came to be. There was light We would note that there are yet no light-giving bodies. The NIV Study Bible notes that this light enables us to perceive the rest of his creation, and gives life. It is God speaking to us that brings light and life. He still calls for light, and those who hear and allow his voice to work in them are filled with light and life, and pass on light and life.

But what is described here is not merely metaphor for what God does on an ongoing basis. This is a critical point. I said yesterday that what we find here is not history or science as we usually understand them, but there was a beginning, as red saucer notes. We don’t understand the particulars of that – whether God’s days were 24 hour days or seasons of development doesn’t matter. The point is it happened, and still happens, because there is a God who willed it, and spoke these realities into being. Why? We will see that he was preparing a place for a people to love, a people who would be his image in mirroring his light-giving love in their daily lives. But I’m jumping way ahead.

Prayer:
God, thank you that you purposed to bring about what we see and know. What are we doing with it? Amen.