In chapter 27, you see a family conflict.  Isaac prefers his eldest (by a few seconds!) son Esau, the hairy hunter; while his wife Rebekah prefers Jacob, the smooth skinned younger brother.  Rebekah helps Jacob deceive his father into giving him the blessing, instead of Esau.  Esau plans to kill Jacob, but Rebekah hears of it and helps Jacob flee to his uncle Laban’s home in Haran.

One of the best things about the stories of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs in the Bible is how down to earth and honest the stories are.  You see them as they really were, with all their family conflicts, sins, and limitations.

We learn in Matthew 8 something of the difficulty and urgency of following Jesus: we can expect to be homeless and to put Jesus above all other relationships.

Jesus was asleep in the boat.  The disciples were in the same boat, but they were afraid of the wind and the waves.  Where are you in that story?  Are we not often just like those disciples, worried and afraid, all the while our Lord Jesus is in the boat with us?  This reminds me of the most common command in the Bible: Do not be afraid.

I am also struck by the reactions of the Gadarenes to Jesus’ healing of the demon-possessed men.  They ask Jesus to leave.  Are they afraid of Jesus’ power to upset their world by healing the men?  Or are they afraid of losing more pigs into the sea?

Isaac does not get to play a big part in the story of Genesis – he does not even get to go and find his wife Rebekah.  But it seems that he loved his mother Sarah very much, and he grows to love Rebekah too.  It is notable that Isaac and Ishmael together bury their father Abraham after his death.  Rebekah has twins, and had a difficult pregnancy.  Esau was born first covered with red hair, with Jacob gripping Esau’s heel coming second.  In Hebrew, this scene is humorous, since Esau’s other name Edom sounds like the word for red, while Jacob sounds like the word for heel.  Esau was an avid outdoorsman, while Isaac was more of a homebody.  Esau foolishly sells his birthright to Jacob for some red lentil stew.  This sets the stage for an epic family conflict.

Then, Isaac makes the same mistake his father did, with Abimelech.  But God still blesses Isaac and his family, and he grows prosperous and powerful in the land.

The Sermon on the Mount done, Jesus gets to work in chapter 8, healing a leper and a servant of a centurion.  Jesus is amazed at the faith of the centurion, who is a Gentile (a non-Jew).

We learn that Peter has a mother-in-law whom Jesus heals, and thus Peter was apparently married.

When Sarah dies, Abraham purchases land to bury her near Hebron.  Then, Abraham sends a trusted servant to find a wife for his son Isaac from among his relatives back in Haran (modern day Harran in southeast Turkey), and with God’s guidance the servant finds Rebekah.

Matthew 7:1-5 is a major passage on not being judgmental.  Jesus says it plainly: “Do not judge.”  This is perhaps one of the most difficult commandments to follow!

Jesus tells the truth that you know a good tree by its fruits, not its roots.  Though we are saved by God’s grace, and not by anything we do, yet how we live is important.  Jesus calls us to be ‘fruitful’ as we live obediently to God; that is how we build a life on a strong foundation.  You’ll find this emphasis of Jesus’ especially in the Gospel of Matthew. 

Today, I went back and read the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) in its entirety.  Jesus casts a vision for a life lived in God’s presence, mindful of our thoughts and actions, living and sharing Jesus in all we say and do.

In Gen. 20, King Abimelech makes the same mistake that the Pharaoh earlier did – but he acted honorably.  God protects Abraham even when he acts poorly.  Isaac is finally born in Gen. 21, and Hagar and Ishmael are sent off into the desert – but God watches over them.

Genesis 22 is one of the hardest passages in the Bible.  God says to Abraham, ‘Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt-offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you.’  What kind of command is that?  After all that time and God’s promise of a son for Abraham and Sarah, what is God up to?  There is no easy answer.  First, we must say that God very specifically prohibits child sacrifice in the Bible.  As far as I know, this is the only time God has asked anyone to do this.  Second, God is testing Abraham, and does not let him go through with it.  Instead, God provides a substitute – a ram.  Third, remember that later God offered his own Son as a willing sacrifice for us and our salvation.  This story may be a preview of things to come in God’s plan.  In any case, when Abraham passes the test of fear of God – honor, respect, and obedience – God blesses him and his descendents again.

God has a sense of humor.  After Sarah laughed to herself when she heard God (she probably did not know it was God) say that she will have a son (18:12), when the son is eventually born, he’ll be named Isaac, which means ‘he laughs’ or ‘laughter.’  It’s worth noticing that when God visits Abraham and Sarah, three people arrive together.   God is a Community.

The sin of Sodom lies especially in their extreme lack of hospitality, which they show by trying to abuse the men (angels?) staying with Lot, Abraham’s nephew.  Here is what Ezekiel says about Sodom’s sin: “This was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy.  They were haughty, and did abominable things before me; therefore I removed them when I saw it” (Ezekiel 16:49-50).

Here are some more difficult passages from the Sermon on the Mount.  Jesus is calling us to a different kind of life, a life where one turns the other cheek, and loves and prays for one’s enemies.  Jesus also warns us about being “religious” just to impress others.  Faith is a matter of the heart, and we do not need to flaunt our faith in God before others.  That does not mean, of course, that we need to hide our faith.  We can share it, but simply, honestly, and without putting ourselves above others.

In 6:7-15, Jesus teaches the people what we now call the Lord’s Prayer.  It really is a model for prayer.  We begin with praising God, and asking that God’s kingdom come on earth as it already is in heaven.  We ask God for our bread for today, and we ask for forgiveness (the prayer assumes that we are also forgiving others!).  Finally, we pray that God saves us from the time of trial and evil.

Do you fast?  Jesus seems to assume that we do: “Whenever you fast…”  Fasting is going for a time without food, and spending extra time in prayer.  I need to fast more regularly.  How about you?

In the face of our everyday worries about the economy and our financial lives, Jesus has a word to say to us: Do not worry.  Do not let money be your treasure.  Strive first and foremost for the kingdom of God and God’s righteousness.  Do not worry about tomorrow.  Live today for others.

More of Christ’s vision for our lives: do not be judgmental; lift up your concerns to God in prayer; follow the Golden Rule.

Update: I just tweeted this: “Jesus clears the Temple in all 4 gospels, but it only appears in the lectionary once – John 2:13-22. Stirring up trouble is not encouraged.”

I am pretty sure that this is accurate – and troubling.  It’s a major chapter in Jesus’ ministry, and deserves to be heard more often.  Why don’t we have Clearing the Moneychangers Sunday each year?

In ch. 16, Abram and Sarai get impatient with God’s promise, and take things into their own hands.  Sarai gives her Egyptian slave to Abram to bear a child for them.  You have to have compassion on Hagar here.  My Bible says that Hagar ‘looked with contempt’ on Sarai after she conceived, but the original may mean more that Hagar saw herself as an equal with Sarai.   Certainly, Sarai’s harsh treatment of Hagar is not justified.  Hagar flees into the desert, and she is met by an angel of God.  God makes a covenant with Hagar, the Egyptian slave!  Her son Ishmael became the ancestor of the Arabs.  Muslims trace their genealogy to Abraham through Ishmael.  This is important to note in the light of the conflicts in the Middle East.  Every war is, ultimately, a family feud.

At the beginning of chapter 17, God makes another important, everlasting covenant with Abram and changes his name to Abraham (‘ancestor of a multitude’) and Sarai’s to Sarah.

The Sermon on the Mount continues.  Jesus does not abolish God’s law.  Instead, in some ways he heightens it.  Following the law is not a matter of just fulfilling the bare minimum of the law.  It is a matter of the heart and our concrete relationships with others; it is a matter of how we live every day.

In chapter 13, God promises Abram all the land of Canaan (which will one day be Israel).

Abram shows himself to be a capable military leader in chapter 14, and then he receives bread and wine (anyone think of Holy Communion?) and a mysterious blessing from King Melchizedek of Salem – probably Jerusalem (which long ago was called Uru-Salim by the ancient Egyptians and others).  Melchizedek is called priest of God Most High.  Abram gives him a tithe, one-tenth of the plunder.

Just so you know, whenever you see “Lord” in the Old Testament in all capitals, the translators are replacing the name YHWH, which sounds something like Yahweh, with the LORD out of respect for God’s name (more on Yahweh in a couple weeks).  In chapter 15, God makes another covenant with Abram, and promises him a son, many descendants, and the Promised Land.  God also prophesies Israel’s oppression in Egypt and the Exodus.

This is the beginning of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.  Wow.  You could write a whole book on the Beatitudes (5:1-12).  Let me just say that, we would all do well to stop and reflect on what character traits Jesus calls blessed, and ask God to grow those traits in us.

Jesus calls us “salt of the earth.”  As someone has said, when you add salt to food, it disappears into the food and flavors it.  In the same way, we Christians are called to ‘disappear’ into the world and add a godly flavor to it – perhaps spicing up the world with the Beatitudes – being poor in spirit, mourners, meek, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers, persecuted for righteousness’ sake.

Today, I went to the doctor and finally got a flu shot.  Now, I have the flu!  Actually I think I was coming down with it yesterday – it’s going around.

The pre-history of the Bible continues.  In yesterday’s reading, God made a covenant with Noah and every creature on earth, not to flood the world again.  God set down his weapon, his bow (a rainbow), as a sign of God’s covenant agreement with creation.  People begin to multiply again on the earth.

Shem was one of Noah’s sons.  Just for fun, I made a spreadsheet of Shem’s descendents (11:10-26).  The interesting thing is, if you take this passage completely literally, Shem lived for 35 years after his great great great great great great great grandson Abraham dies at age 175.  Here is the spreadsheet:

The point of this genealogy is to make a bridge from the world’s history (and pre-history) to the ancestors of Israel, starting with Abram (whose name will change to Abraham) and his wife Sarai (whose name will change to Sarah).

Genesis 12 is an important chapter.  First, God calls Abram to go to the Promised Land, and God makes a big promise to Abram: ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. ²I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. ³I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’  God promises to make a great nation out of Abram, bless him, make his name great, and bless all the families of the earth through Abram.

Then, in the same chapter, we see that Abram is far from perfect – even though God has blessed him and watches over him, he is a human being just like us. 

Jesus is led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil for 40 days and nights.  Jesus withstands the temptations of food, of fame, and of power.  After this, and after John the Baptist is arrested, Jesus begins his ministry, proclaiming “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”  Jesus also begins to call his disciples to fish for people.  Jesus’ ministry in Galilee consisted of teaching, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing the sick.

We are continuing our journey through the primordial, pre-history of Genesis 1-11.  During the flood, God does not forget Noah and the ark.  After the flood, God decides not to ever ‘curse the ground because of humankind’ again.  God realizes that the flood really did not change humankind: “the inclination of the human heart is evil from youth” (8:21).  God will find another way to deal with sin and evil.

John the Baptist bears a message of repentance to Israel, turning from sin, turning to God.  He is preparing the way for Jesus.  When he cries out, “Bear fruit worthy of repentance,” I ask myself, How is God calling me to be fruitful in my family, my church, my community?  How can we live fruitful lives?  Jesus will help answer that question.

Jesus’ baptism is a mystery, and each Gospel writer deals with it differently.  What is clear is that the baptism is a key event in Jesus’ life: the Spirit descends on Jesus in a visible and audible way at his baptism.  Jesus is anointed with the Holy Spirit and God’s verbal affirmation that he is God’s beloved Son.

I am already enjoying cracking open the Book of Faith in 2012.  Last year, I picked up the fourth edition of The New Oxford Annotated Bible, which includes lots of notes and articles.  While not necessary, a good current study Bible is a great way to get into God’s word.

Genesis 4 shows us that jealousy and violence go far back into history.  The first son of Adam and Eve, Cain, kills the second son, Abel.  God banishes Cain, but puts a mark of protection on him, so that he would not be killed by others.  After Abel is murdered, Adam and Eve have another son, named Seth, and the family tree continues to Noah and his sons.  There some mysterious parts of this story.  The ‘sons of God’ in 6:2 are members of the divine court who have heroic children with humankind, and the Nephilim in 6:4 are a race of giants.  The ancient Greeks and other ancient cultures thought similarly of the people who lived before their time, as the stories that were passed down from the past took on larger than life proportions. 

God becomes sorry that he made the world, when he sees all the violence in it, and God decides to make a clean sweep and start over with Noah, his family, and two of each kind of animal.  There are other flood stories in ancient cultures, but in the biblical account God is reacting to human violence, while in the other ancient flood stories the gods are capricious and act out of annoyance.  What is clear from the flood story is that God stands against violence: what is the message to us who are citizens of the strongest military power in history?

When Joseph found out that his fiancé Mary was pregnant, he was undoubtedly deeply troubled.  Joseph was ‘righteous,’ and yet he did not want Mary to be publicly shamed.  He had decided to quietly break off the engagement.  But then, he was visited in a dream by an angel of God, who told him that Mary’s child was from the Holy Spirit.  The angel also told Joseph to name the child “Jesus,” which means ‘He saves.’

The story of the Wise Men tells us that even some non-Jewish people recognize that Jesus is the Messiah, the Anointed One of God.  They offer the infant Jesus gifts worthy of a King.  King Herod, of course, really does not want to pay Jesus honor, as we shall see tomorrow.

The end of this passage is terrifying.  Joseph takes Mary and the infant Jesus and flees to Egypt to escape King Herod’s wrath; the rest of the little ones of Bethlehem are not spared.  After Herod’s death, the family relocates to Nazareth.