Posts

BLESSINGS STOLEN, RECEIVED, AND GIVEN

"The Path" Chapter 4: Joseph Had a Dream For reading and reflection the week of Oct 22-28, 2018 Deception and betrayal -- A mother and child teaming up to steal a blessing from a spouse and sibling. An uncle hoodwinking a nephew. Brothers deceiving a parent with a phony story of a tragic death. A hidden identity used to pull a power play that leaves a treacherous group of brothers groveling for their lives.  Who are these people?  They are imperfect human beings like you and me. They (we) are also of God's own creation, and the object of God's love. And that's a good thing, for if it had anything to do with merit, we'd be sunk. The book Genesis seems to move from one human failing to another, and further and further away from the unity and harmonious relationship which God intended. And yet, there always remains some goodness, some hope, that God will provide the means for God's people to survive their (our) disobedient ways. The blessings of Go
Post a Comment
Read more

TAKING THE LONG VIEW

"The Path" Chapter 3:  The Ancestor of a Multitude For reading and reflection the week of Oct 15-21, 2018 With all the commercial services being offered to help you trace your family lines, or have your DNA analyzed, it's become quite popular for many people to dig into finding out "where they came from" and "who they are." Are they related to someone from the past who was/is famous? Are the oral family histories and traditions actually true?  While such pursuits are relatively harmless (unless, of course, you have to endure countless antidotes about a friend's lofty family tree), they are also backward looking. They speak more to the lives of others and not to our own present state of life. They don't help us know where we are going, and they lack any promise of the future. Essentially, looking to past is about discovering facts, while looking to the future is about faith. The story of Abraham is a story about faith; about listenin
Post a Comment
Read more

TENTATIVE FIRST STEPS

"The Path" Chapter 2:  The Sign of the Covenant For reading and reflection the week of Oct 8-14, 2018 The Lord God had provided Adam and Eve with everything that they needed, including a free will to make their own choices. They could have chosen to love God for all they had received, and in that love made the choice to listen to and follow God's commands. But they listened to other voices that took them away from God. As the consequence, they were sent out of the garden and into the fields of life to work and provide for themselves.  God, however, had given them the means to care for the earth and each other, and to go forth and be fruitful. The two became three, and then four. And then the trouble began as affirmation of self-worth brought division and death into the world as Cain murders his brother Abel. Yet even in division the Lord God provides a way forward for humanity to survive and coexist. God will not be deterred by the shortcoming of his creature
Post a Comment
Read more

THE STORY BEGINS

"The Path" Chapter 1: God Saw That It Was Good For reading and reflection the week of Oct 1-7, 2018 In the beginning . . . These familiar words open the biblical account of God's love affair with the entirety of creation and humanity. The account is not meant to be scientific, for that would be applying modern standards to our ancestors' observations and understandings of the world. However, might we not credit the ancients with sensing that God's work of creating took place with some logical order and progression? I once knew a bishop who had been trained in the sciences, and he could offer a fairly solid case for seeing within the biblical account support for the modern scientific theory of evolution. Whatever one's view of how the world came into being, we can agree that it is both wonderful and good. The ancient storytellers also knew that deep within humanity is a rebellious streak: a desire to have things our own way, to compete for resources,
3 comments
Read more