Genesis 3

A native American story teller used to begin his tribes creation story with the following words:  "I don’t know if it happened exactly like this, but I know this story is true."

There is great wisdom expressed in that line. It reminds us that for something to be true, doesn’t mean that it is historically true. Jesus told parables: A man was on a journey from Jerusalem to Jericho. On the way he was attacked by robbers and left for dead. A variety of religious leaders walked by on the other side of the road. A Samaritan stopped and took care of him.

In that parable, Jesus is teachings us certain truths about the nature of what it means to love one’s neighbour as oneself. But it is a fictional story. The truth of the story does not depend on the story being historically true. It is a reminder that truth is something bigger than fact.

When it comes to the story of Adam and Eve, like the story of Noah and the Ark that we looked at last week, it is possible to read the story in different ways.

One way is to read the story as a record of history, as literal historical facts about the creation and fall of the very first human beings.

But just like the Noah Story, we are soon confronted by some uncomfortable questions:

• If the Adam and Eve story is historically true, who did Cain and Abel marry? Did they have to marry their sisters? Would that not have been incest, which is later out-lawed in Leviticus?
  
• How did the snake talk to Eve? It takes a very particular kind of mouth and tongue that enables us to talk and pronounces words and sounds.
  
• Where is the garden of Eden today? Why can we not literally find the Garden of Eden somewhere on the earth that and angel is literally guarding with flaming swords so that we are unable to enter?
  

Another way to read it is to approach it as an ancient parable, designed to convey a different kind of truth. And so we might say like that native American story teller, “I don't know if it happened exactly like this, but I know this story is true." In other words, I know that there are truths within this story if we are willing to listen.

What then might some of the truths be that the story is seeking to communicate to us. In exploring this question, I rely on some of the interpretation given by the Rev. Alan Storey, who does a quite masterful job of exploring the depth of this ancient parable.

1) The first thing that the parable seeks to communicate to us is the sense of the generosity of God the Divine. The story begins with God providing abundantly for Adam and Eve.

And when we look at the world, we see that it is true. This world is filled with such abundance and variety. Everything that we need for a contented and happy human existence has been provided for us. The variety and abundance of the natural world is astounding.

The parable underlines the sense that God has generously provided by the richness and diversity of this beautiful world we live in.

In the little parable, God says: this whole garden is yours to enjoy, but just don’t eat of that one tree in the middle of the garden. We’ll come back to the tree in a moment.

2). Secondly, in this story, we encounter a snake that speaks.

Have you ever heard a snake talk? Well I guess probably not, because Holy St Patrick drove all the snakes out of Ireland! Anyway, for those who have seen a snake, live and in person, you will know that snakes don’t talk. Alan Storey, says, we may all be able to agree that snakes don’t talk, but that doesn mean that we don’t hear them speak.

His gives a few examples:

When he gets to a traffic light in a car, and a big 4X4 SUV pulls up next to him and he can hear it sort of rumbling and grunting, we know that motor cars don’t talk, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t hear them speak. And so when he sees that 4X4 SUV and he hears the rumbling of the engine, it begins to speak to him. And do you know what it says: “If you get yourself inside behind the wheel of this car, you will feel like a real man.”

I think it is true that different cars speak to different people. Maybe a 4X4 doesn’t speak to you. Maybe it is the latest Audi or BMW... if you sit behind this wheel, then you will have arrived.

Or perhaps when you are driving past a particular housing estate or a particular house that you have seen for sale. We know that bricks and mortar don’t talk, but if we are all honest, we have all heard them speaking to us at one time of another.... if you could just move into this house, then you will be truly happy. Houses don’t talk, but we hear them speak.

Or perhaps a pair of shoes... shoes don’t talk, but we hear them speak. Have you heard a pair of shoes speaking to you before?

Snakes don’t talk, but they do speak.

And in this ancient Jewish wisdom story, this parable, the snake speaks with all sorts of enticing promises. It is the voice of discontentment with the abundance we have received. The voice that makes us forget God’s abundant provision. The voice that begins to say: “Brian... if only you had that thing over there, then, Ah, then, you would be truly happy”.

We all know that snakes don’t talk, but we hear them speak. The snake in this story is true, it is anything and everything in life that makes us doubt the loving abundance of God.

Instead of finding happiness in the Divine gift of life that has been abundantly given, we begin to look for happiness in the wrong places. The snake tempts us to find happiness in things that are never able to fulfill our truest and deepest longings. Only God can do that. As St Augustine famously said, “O God you have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until we find our rest in you.” Or as Pascal famously said, “There is a God-shaped hole in every human heart, that only God can fill.

3) Thirdly, This little ancient parable teaches us the truth that freedom is the air that love breathes.

Love, by definition must have the freedom not to love. The air that love breathes is freedom. If you remove oxygen from the air that you breathe, you will soon suffocate and die. If you remove freedom from love, then love too will soon suffocate and die.

Love is not something that can be forced. That is why controlling and manipulative relationships are so destructive. Love can never be forced. That is why abuse of various kinds is so destructive. Abuse robs another of their freedom. As soon as you rob another of their freedom, love begins to die.

Thich Nhat Hahn, the Vietnamese Zen monk writes that if we want our love to grow, we need to ask our beloved: “Is there space around your heart” In other words, do you have the freedom to be yourself.

Alan Storey believes that God has made us in love, by love, and for love. But for love to truly be love, it has to be free. Free to choose.

And that is one possible significance of the mythical tree of good and evil in the centre of the Garden. We read the story and wonder why God placed temptation in the way of Adam and Eve. Why did God make the snake in the first place. If God had not put the tree there, perhaps it all would not have gone wrong.

But if God had never made the snake to speak to us, and if God had never placed the forbidden fruit in front of us, we would never have had the opportunity to to truly love.

We might ask the question, why did God make us with freedom, and the ability to make really stupid and sometimes destructive decisions in life.

But if we were made with no freedom, we would all be robots with no capacity to truly love.

And so from this perspective, the perspective of love, the forbidden tree in the middle of the garden is a necessary part of life, because it creates the freedom to choose. And without that freedom to choose, there can be no real love, only pre-programmed robots.

When God created us with freedom, to love or not o love, Alan Storey suggests that God took an incredible risk. In fact, he says that love is spelled R.I.S.K. Whenever we love, we take a risk. You cannot have love without it. It is a risk, because when we start loving we feel vulnerable.

And so, May we cherish the abundance with which God has made this beautiful world. Truly, we live in the Garden of Eden, if we had the eyes to see. Secondly, may we become more aware the snakes that speak to us.... enticing us to find happiness where true happiness can never be found. And lastly, when we despair at the destructiveness of humanity, may we remember that freedom is a necessary gift, for without it there would be no real possibility to love. May we honour the freedom of our loved one’s, and may we always make sure that they have space around their hearts. And lastly, like God, may we be willing to make ourselves vulnerable, and be willing to take the risk of loving others. Amen.

Genesis 6:1-22 & Genesis 9:9-17

There are a number of ways of reading the story of Noah and the Flood. Today I would like to reflect on two possibilities.

One way is to read it as a literal historical account. When one does so, then all sorts of questions follow:

• Today we know of million of species. How did Noah fit all those animals into the ark? Even if one were to use a modern day cruise-liner, it would seem like a logistical impossibility.
• How would science explain a flood that covered every land mass on earth with water up to the highest mountain peaks. Scientifically speaking it is sounds like an impossible story.
• Perhaps the most important question of all... Is God really like that? Did God, in a flash-flood of anger, really wipe out the whole population of the earth. Is God really like that? If, as we learn from Jesus, God is essentially love, then how does a loving God in a moment of calculated anger wipe out the entire inhabited world. Is this a God you can trust? Because if truth be told, we all have our weaknesses and faults. None of us is without our problems and without our sins. Are any of us safe in the hands of such a ruthless and angry God?

Rev. Alan Storey says the following about this story:

“I am troubled by this story of the universal flood. I’m troubled by what it seems to suggest on the surface about the nature and character of God. I’m troubled by the horror of the text. The horror that is not recorded. The drowning. The screaming. The gasping. The fleeing to higher ground, but to no avail. The climbing of trees to higher branches but to no avail. The final embraces. The words of love. The letting go of children. The unanswered prayers. If it were a movie, it would be a horror movie. Age restricted and rightly so. The destruction of all of humanity? The destruction of creatures? Beautiful and innocent? The wickedness and violence of humanity seems to be answered with an even greater wickedness and violence from God, suggesting that there is no problem too big that violence cannot solve. This sounds like Terminator 3."

Isn't it interesting that probably the most popular image that is used on a children’s Bible is the image of Noah and the Ark.

And yet, Wendy shared with me that as a child, growing up with this story she found it quite traumatising. What if she were one of those who God chose to wipe out in a flood. What about all those innocent animals that were made to suffer for the sins of human beings?

Reading this story as a literal history raises an enormous amount of questions...

There is a second possible way to read this story is to read it as an example of ancient Jewish mythology, as a way of explaining and making sense of a world that especially for ancient people, must have often seemed unpredictable and chaotic.

Rob Bell puts it like this....

Imagine you had no pictures of earth from outer space, no weather reports, no Google images, no airplanes – imagine if you’d never been a few miles from where you were born. And then imagine a flash flood – massive, undulating, swirling, terrifying water – coming at you out of nowhere and wiping away your house and crops and animals and family members. Imagine how devastating that would be to your psyche.

You would do what people do whenever they suffer – you’d look for causes... an explanation. And in the ancient world, it was generally agreed upon that the forces that caused this were the gods who had had it up to here with humans and all their backstabbing, and depraved ways and had decided to unleash their wrath.

That’s how people saw the world. That’s how they explained floods.

What is probably of particular interest is that cultures all around the world have folk tales within their sacred mythologies of flood stories. Often the stories involve one or two people who are saved, and who have to begin all over again. Often, but not always, they involve a deity wanting to punish humanity for their misdeeds.

When the world seems like an unpredictable place with forces much greater than yourself, these forces become personified as the gods, or the ancestors, or as signs that the gods, the ancestors or the Supreme Being is sending a punishment. What other explanations were there for primitive, ancient people who had no other knowledge of the weather.

When read in this light, the story in Genesis 6-9 stands for us as an example of an ancient Jewish myth attributing the destructive forces of a great flood to the punishing will and actions of the Divine Being.

Is that the end of the story for us? Is there no further or deeper meaning that can be found in this story?

Some interpreters have suggested that while in many ways, this story needs to be regarded as part of a primitive ancient Jewish mythology, there is also something quite remarkable about this particular Flood Story. There are rays of light that shine through this ancient primitive myth that are worthy of our reflection today, thousands of years later.

What is perhaps particularly interesting in this Jewish version of the ancient Flood story is that we have an unexpected ending to the story... The God-figure does a strange thing. The God-figure in the story expresses regret over what has happened. Isn’t that an interesting twist in the tale. In most ancient mythologies the gods were not portrayed as really caring very much about human beings. But in this version of the story, this God-figure has a change of heart.

Part of the punchline of this ancient Jewish rendition of the flood mythology is that God forsakes what has been called the myth of redemptive violence. The myth of redemptive violence is the belief that somehow peace can be achieved in this through violence, through wiping out one’s enemies and the undesirables of this world by brute force.

At the beginning of this story the God-figure seems to be a believer in the myth of redemptive violence. If he can wipe out all the evil doers in this world with brute violence, with a divine act of mass genocide, only saving one righteous man and his family, then the problem of evil will be dealt with in this world, and things can go back to the original harmony that God had intended for this world.

But within just a few verses of the end of this story, it becomes apparent that the myth of redemptive violence is really just a myth, an illusion. It doesn’t work. Not even in the hands of an almighty God. No sooner has the flood receded and Noah and his family have begun to re-settle themselves and repopulate the earth, sin reappears and the whole downward cycle happens all over again.

Even though this ancient Jewish legend or myth is primitive and violent it carries with it a deep and a profound reflection on the nature of violence as a means to solve the problems of the world. How many of us, like the God-figure in this story haven’t at one time or another had the same desire: the desire to see the wicked of the earth wiped out with one final act of violence. But this ancient Jewish story conveys a profound message: the myth of redemptive violence doesn’t work, not even in the hands of an almighty God.

And so in this profound ancient and primitive story, the God-figure in the story regrets his actions. One can even say, God, repents. He turns his back on violence. Like an ancient warrior who has seen too much violence in his life-time, he hangs up his warrior's bow in sorrow. Some interpreters would say that that is the real significance of the rainbow in this story. It is taken as a symbol of God renouncing the way of violence, hanging up his warriors bow in the heaven’s as an eternal reminder that violence is not the answer.

And so by the end of the story, no longer does the God character believe that violence is the answer to the problems of this world. God must find another way.

And that brings us to the story of Jesus. In the story of Jesus, we find a new way to address the problems of this world. Not through redemptive violence. Put away your swords, Jesus says to Peter in the garden of Gethsemane when the Romans come to arrest him. Jesus seeks to express a different way of bringing peace on earth. Not by slaying his enemies with a sword or even a great flood, but rather breaking open their hearts in an act of supreme love and sacrifice. Instead of redemptive violence, Jesus invites us to become part of the story of redemptive love.

Genesis 2:4 -25
Having preached on Genesis chapter 1 last week, I thought it might be worth spending some time reflecting on Genesis 2 this week.

These two passages are often harmonized in people’s minds, as though they are two parts two one story.

But many scholars would tell us that these are in fact two different and separate creation stories with two different separate authors, whose origins stand about 500 years apart. The most obvious clue that these stories were written by different people at different times is that in Genesis 2 a different name for God is used. In Genesis 1 the name that is used is Elohim. In Genesis 2 the name Yahweh (Yod-He-Vah-He) is used, sometimes in conjunction with the word Elohim, and sometimes by itself.

Another clue... In Genesis 1 the Hebrew word that is used when it says God created human beings is the word “bara”, whereas in Genesis 2 the Hebrew word that is used is yatsar. And so the two passages use different vocabulary.

Also, the style of writing and the way language is used is also different, Genesis 1 being rhythmic and poetic while Genesis 2 is a narrative, written in the form of a folk-tale.

In addition, there are some significant differences, one could even say discrepancies, in the details between these two creation accounts, most easily seen in the order of creation:

In Genesis 1, vegetation is created before the first humans,
In Genesis 2, the vegetation is created after the first human being is formed.

In Genesis 1, male and female are created together on the 6th Day.
In Genesis 2, male and female are created at different times possibly days, weeks or months apart.

In Genesis 1, the animals are created before the first human beings.
In Genesis 2, the animals are created after the first human being.

As I had suggested last week, Genesis chapter 1 does not give a scientific explanation of creation. Rather it was written as a form of poetry meant to inspire those who first heard it to find new meaning and purpose in the midst of the darkness and chaos of the lives they were living in exile in Babylon.

In a similar way, I believe that Genesis chapter 2 is not an historical account of the origins of humanity. Rather it is to be regarded as a sacred wisdom story designed to explore the meaning and purpose of life.

There are so many gems of wisdom hidden within this story, but for our purposes today, I would like to reflect on just three.

The first gem of wisdom comes in the name Adam. But in fact, the names that are used for the human beings in the story are not really names. They are a kind of play on words.

The name Adam as we know it comes from the Hebrew word: adam, which is a word-play with the Hebrew word ‘adamah’ which means ground or earth. The 'adam' is formed from the 'adamah', and so rather than being a proper name, the word ‘adam’ is meant to emphasize something of the nature of humanity. We are all 'adam', we are all earth creatures. In a way, that is a very apt description for our physical dimension. Physically speaking, every atom of our bodies comes from the earth. The well-being of our physical bodies is connected with the well-being of the earth.

And yet, this ancient Jewish wisdom story tells us that there is another dimension to our lives. The ancient Jewish story teller calls it wind, breathe, or spirit, and it comes from God. In verse 7, we read that Yod-Heh-Vah-Heh, Elohim breathed into the adam. There is an inner spiritual dimension to our lives. Our bodies are made from the ground, but there is another dimension to us, an inner life that comes from God, and connects us with the Divine. As Jesus reminds us in the temptation story of Matthew’s Gospel, man or humanity cannot live on bread alone... There is a dimension to us that is beyond just the physical. To live a full and meaningful requires that we nurture not just the outer physical dimension of our lives, but that we also nurture and pay attention to the inner, invisible part of our lives that more directly connects us with the Divine, with Yod-Heh-Vah-Heh, Elohim, the Divine Mystery from whom all life proceeds.

Secondly, Desmond Tutu reveals to us another gem of wisdom in this ancient story. Isn’t it interesting he writes, that in this passage that when Yod-Heh-Vah-Heh, Elohim creates the woman, Yod-Heh-Vah-Heh Elohim does not create her from the man’s toe, so that she should be beneath the man, that she should be subservient to him. Neither does Yod-Heh-Vah-Heh, Elohim create her from the top of the man’s skull so that she should rule over the man. Rather, significantly, she is formed from the man’s side. Male and female according to this ancient wisdom story are meant to stand as partners, side by side.

The fact that the woman is called ‘the helper’ in this passage is also not an indication of inferiority in this story, because further on in the Old Testament, God, Yod-Heh-Vah-Heh, Elohim, is also referred to as our ‘helper’. In this passage, she is not the helper in that she stays at home and cooks for the male, rather, she is a suitable companion as one who can work side by side with the man in the task of working the earth and caring for it.

Lastly, when we think of paradise, utopia, most people would think that to live in paradise or utopia would be to live without work. In paradise, no-one will work according to our modern way of thinking. We will all laze around on the beech all day... But that isn’t what this ancient Jewish wisdom story suggests. When God places the adam, the earth creature into this new little paradise called the garden of Eden, the first thing that Yod-Heh-Vah-Heh, Elohim does, is to assign work for the 'adam', the earth creature, to do.

In verse 15, “The Lord God took the adam (earth-creature), and put him in the Garden of Eden, to work it, and to take care of it.”

Our real purpose in life is not to try and free ourselves from the responsibility of work. Work is part of what it means to be human according to this passage. Our real purpose is to find work that is meaningful and life-giving. To work and contribute to God’s creation is part of our dignity as human beings. It is part of what brings meaning and dignity to life.

As part of a psychology experiment to explore the nature of work in the lives of human beings, a psychologist employed a group of otherwise unemployed men to dig holes. They weren’t told what the purpose of the task was. They assumed it was for some larger purpose, and did so with enthusiasm. When they had finished digging the holes, the psychologist told them to now fill up the holes they had just dug, giving them no explanation. Even though they were being paid for the work they were doing, when it became apparent that this work was meaningless, no longer contributing to some larger purpose, the participants very quickly lost a sense of motivation and enthusiasm.
This ancient Jewish wisdom story suggests that there is human dignity in working (not just for money) but making a contribution in life. It suggests that the ideal life is not a life where work is absent, but rather where our energy and time are given in work for the benefit of something larger than ourselves. Work is not just about earning a living, work is meant to be earning a giving. Making a contribution.
The specific work that is assigned to the 'adam', the earth-creature in this passage is significant, especially in light of our current ecological crisis. The ‘adam’ the earth creature, is placed by Yod-Heh-Vah-Heh into the Garden of Eden with the purpose of taking care of it. The instruction in verse 15 is to work it, and take care of it.

The meaning is clear, the over-arching and guiding purpose of all human work, is ultimately meant to be towards the aim of caring for the earth. When we fail to care for the earth, we are falling short of our God-given, Divine purpose in life.

There is a strange notion in the world today that humanity is faced with a choice: either we can care for the earth, or we can care for human beings. But at the root of that notion is a fatal flaw in our logic. For it is to believe that human beings, who are essentially earth creatures, can somehow live without the earth. When you think about it, it is an irrational argument. Our well-being as earth-creatures is dependent on the well-being of the earth.
This little ancient Jewish wisdom story has enormous wisdom to share with our world today for it reminds us that we are earth creatures, who have been made for partnership, to work side-by-side with one-another in our God given vocation of working and caring for the earth. And the good news is that when we do so, we begin to connect ourselves again with our God given dignity, meaning and purpose.

Genesis 1:1 – 2:3

As we stand at the beginning of 2020, the beginning of a new year and a new decade, what more appropriate way for us than by reflecting on the first chapter of the Bible that begins with the words: “In the beginning...”

Contrary to popular Christian opinion, most scholars would say that Genesis 1 is not a scientific paper giving a scientific explanation of the beginning of the universe. More appropriately, it could be considered to be a form of religious poetry that was designed to inspire those who first heard it.

The first indication that this is not a scientific exposition is that while darkness and light are created on day one, the sun moon and the stars are only created on the 4th day. Now we know that the measurement of time by days relies on the revolution of the earth around the sun, so the question remains, if the sun is only created on day four, how do we know how to count the first three days. As Rob Bell puts it: How do we know that the first three days are actually days. Most scientists would agree also that there is no vault or dome separating waters above the sky from those below. This is clearly not a scientific explanation of creation.

What then are the signs that Genesis chapter 1 is better categorised as a piece of poetry rather than a scientific exposition. The clearest sign is to be found in the rhythm’s of language created by repetitions and patterns.

The most obvious repetition is the phrases “Let there be...”

-Let there be light...

-Let there be a vault between the waters...

-Let there be water under the sky...

Another obvious repetition is the phrase:

• “And there was evening, and there was morning, the first day...”
• “And there was evening, and there was morning, the second...”

A further repetition is the phrase comes at the end of each day of creation as we hear these words: “And God saw that it was good...And God saw that it was good...”

But the repetitions and patterns are also more subtle than these...

The whole poem is set around the theme or the structure of seven days. For religious Jews, seven was the number of completeness and wholeness.

But what is interesting is that the number seven appears in multiple patterns throughout the poem:

• the phrases "and it was so" occurs 7 times.
  
  
• the phrase "God saw that it was good" occur 7 times.
• The very first sentence of the poem, interestingly, consists of seven Hebrew words,
• The second sentence of the poem consists of of fourteen Hebrew words which equals two lots of sevens.
• The word ‘earth’ appears 21 times: 7x3
• The word ‘heaven/firmament’ occurs 21 times: again 7x3
• The word Elohim, is the Hebrew name for God in this passage is mentioned 35 times, which equals 7x5.

And so there are sevens and patterns of seven all throughout this poem.


In addition, there are also a number of patterns of 10.

• The phrase ‘to make’ occurs 10 times
  
  
• The phrase ‘according to their kinds’ occurs 10 times
• The phrase ‘and God said’ occurs 10 times: 3 times in relation to people, 7 times in relation to other creatures.
• And the phrase ‘let there be’ occurs 10 times: 3 times for things in heaven and 7 times for things on earth.

As Rob Bell says: You begin to think that the writer had help.


But what does it all mean? That is the question that remains:

To understand meaning, it is always important to know the context. Who were these words first spoken to? And what might they have meant to them?

By examining the language of the poem, scholars suggest that it was written during the Jewish exile in Babylon.

The Babylonian army had invaded Palestine in about 587 BC and the majority of the population was marched off to Babylon. The Jewish people lost almost everything: their Temple, their land, their homes, for many of them, their family members who were left behind. Psalm 137 gives us an indication of what impact this had on them: “By the rivers of Babylon, we wept!”

Everything that was stable in their life was taken from them. Everything that was familiar. Everything that brought stability and order was gone. The Jewish exiles must have felt like life was out of control, like they were living on the edge of the abyss, living in the midst of chaos... like a darkness had come over them as a people.

And into this context of chaos, an inspired preacher or spiritual writer speaks these words:

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, Now the earth was formless and empty. Darkness was over the face of the abyss, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters of chaos.”

The phrase "formless and void" or “formless and empty” used in verse 1 is a translation of the Hebrew tohu wa-bohu. Tohu means "emptiness, futility"; it is used to describe the desert wilderness – unable to sustain human life. Wa-bohu has no particular meaning but seems to have been used to rhyme with tohu suggesting a lingering or an ongoing emptiness, futility and meaninglessness.

And so firstly, for a people who felt like they were living in darkness and chaos, whose lives in exile felt empty, futile and meaningless, this inspired religious poem in Genesis 1 reminded them that over the chaos and the darkness of their lives, the creative spirit of Elohim was hovering. Darkness and chaos are not the last words in life, because over the darkness and chaos hovers One who can bring forth new patterns of life and beauty. Hovering over their lives of darkness and chaos was a presence that created out of chaos in the very beginning, and who could bring something new out of the chaos and darkness of their lives once again.

This whole world is shot through with subtle order and patterns. When frost begins to set in over night, the deeper the frost sets in, the more the frozen water molecules begin to find order in beautiful and intricate patterns.

For anyone who has lived long enough in this world, it is very apparent that God does not save humanity from disasters that happen. This life is unpredictable. At times from our vantage point it can feel futile, empty, meaningless, dark and chaotic... but this poem reminds us that whenever we find ourselves in those dark and chaotic places, the creative, spirit of Elohim, is brooding and hovering, ready to bring forth new patterns, new meaning, and new creation in our lives.

Isn’t it interesting that while we normally speak of morning and evening, the poet who wrote this poem speaks of evening and morning. “And it was evening and it was morning, the first day.”

The day begins in darkness and proceeds to light. When our lives feel like they are in darkness, there is always the promise that light will come. As another Hebrew poet writes in Psalm 30:5 “Weeping may endure for a night, But joy comes in the morning.”

Secondly, in the context of exile in Babylon, the exiled Jews were treated with disdain and with contempt by their Babylonian captors. In Psalm 137 one gets a sense of how Jewish exiles in Babylon were taunted: While they are weeping at the rivers of Babylon we read that their captors taunted them saying: sing us one of your songs from Jerusalem. And they reply: How can we sing the songs of Jerusalem in a foreign land.

In exile, they were a people stripped of their dignity and taunted taunted. But in this inspired poem in Genesis chapter 1 they are reminded that in fact, they have been made in the image of Elohim, and if they have been made in the image of Elohim, then their lives have supreme meaning, value and worth. They have been made for nobility.

Thirdly, the poem ends, culminates, climaxes with Elohim, the great creative force behind the entire universe resting. It is part of a healthy rhythm of life. A meaningful life requires both action and rest. It requires both breathing in and breathing out. Evening and Morning in this poem provide the basic rhythm of working and resting. But in addition to the rhythm of evening and morning, for good measure, a seventh day is created as a Sabbath. A day of rest. In addition to a six day cycle of evening and morning, working and rest, a seventh day is added purely for rest. Interesting that over a seven day cycle there is more time given to rest then to work.

When you are in exile and life feels chaotic and formless, the tendency might be there to get into a pattern of work work work, trying to bring order out of the chaos by ourselves. But in this poem they are reminded that creative strength is renewed and restored through rest. Human dignity is not enhanced by working without a break. Human dignity and the human spirit is fed by making time for rest.

And so, at the beginning of 2020, may we be reminded of the creative spirit of Elohim hovering over the chaos and darkness of our lives, waiting to bring forth new patterns of life and meaning for us. May we be reminded that we and all people who walk this planet have an inherent dignity as children of God, made to reflect God’s image. And lastly, may we be reminded that a healthy and a meaningful life comes from breathing in and breathing out, from working and resting, and may we especially be reminded that at least once a week we all need a sabbatical, to find time to be restored and renewed.

Amen.

The picture below represents the Hebrew understanding of the world according to Genesis 1

Matthew 2:1-12 and Genesis 12:1-3
When Wendy’s Mom was visiting with us in November we went into Belfast to do a bus tour. It was on the same day that Holland were playing Northern Ireland in the football. All over Belfast there were people dressed in Orange. It was quite an experience seeing Belfast invaded by all these orange uniformed Dutch football supporters. It was a reminder of just how small the world is. For someone from South Africa, Europe often felt so far away. But here, the rest of the countries of Europe are just a short flight away. It is quicker to fly from Belfast to Amsterdam than it is to fly from Jhb to Cape-town.

But seeing all these orange clad football supporters was also a reminder that even in modern Western societies, the concept of belonging to a tribe still exists, but in different forms than it would in other parts of the world, like South Africa, where the concept of tribalism is still very much alive.

In modern Western societies, sports clubs, like football clubs have become sort of substitutes, or modern expressions of that more ancient concept of tribal identity. On the whole, when it comes to sports, such tribal identities of being a Manchester united supporter or a Liverpool supporter are generally kept within the realm of fun and recreation. (I use the word generally, because I have seen that there are some in this congregation who take these affiliations very seriously.)

But in more ancient cultures, as reflected in the Bible, tribal belonging had far more at stake.

Rob Bell writes that in the Biblical Culture of the ancient Near East, your tribe was your family, your bloodline, your home, your identity – your tribe was everything. Everyone belonged to a tribe. Every tribe had it’s own God or gods who they prayed to and who they sought protection from.

The whole of life was regulated by one’s tribal affiliation. You worked for the well-being of your tribe, as did everyone else in the tribe. You accumulated possessions, fought battles, made alliances, all in the name of tribal preservation. And if you did something unacceptable, something shameful, it reflected poorly on your tribe.

The world that the Old Testament introduces us to was a world in which tribal war-fare was a regular occurrence. (There is a reference in the Old Testament that says it was the season for battle. War was a seasonal occurrence. And so, your tribal identity wasn’t just about your bloodline and your gods – it was also about safety. The world was an extremely dangerous place, and without the protection of a tribe, you could easily find yourself enslaved or killed by another tribe.

Tribalism was ultimately about survival. In the Bible, this was life and death. Kill or be killed. And no matter how many battles you’d fought and won, you were always only one battle away from the enemy crushing you and wiping out your entire tribe, or killing some of you and taking the rest to be assimilated into the conquerors tribe.

And so within this context, in the story Genesis chapter 12 with the calling of Abraham we find a fascinating and an interesting thing happening... something quite unheard of begins to happen within this world of ancient tribal identity.

In Genesis 12, into this world of tribal conflict and tribal protectionism, according to the ancient Jewish story , we find God calling a man called Abram (later to be called Abraham) to be the father, or the leader, of a brand new tribe.

And as God call’s Abram, in this ancient story, God tells Abram that “All the people’s of the earth will be blessed through you.”

At that time, tribes existed for their own well-being and preservation. That was the whole way they operated. In a sense it was their reason for being... to protect and preserve themselves against other tribes.

But in Genesis 12, as God calls Abram to be the father or leader of a new tribe, we learn that this tribe, would be different. This tribe would not exist just for itself and its own safety, this tribe exist to bless all the other tribes of the world.

Into this primitive and violent world, we find a leap forward in human consciousness, the concept of a new tribe that wouldn’t only exist for itself, but a tribe that would exist to be a blessing for other tribes.

The rest of the Old Testament is essentially the story of Israel trying to work out the implications of this sense of calling to be a different kind of a tribe. But generally in the Old Testament, Israel doesn’t quite get the hang of this new concept.

I guess, it is possible for all of us to see why this was such a radical new idea and why it would take so long for this idea to catch on. It is still a concept that is hard to sell in this world.

But the story of Jesus is essentially a story of a person whose meaning and purpose in life was to call his Jewish tribe back to their original calling to be a blessing to all other tribes.

It is one of the major questions in Matthew’s Gospel. Has Jesus as the Messiah, the New King David, come only for the benefit of his own tribe to restore the fortunes of the Tribe of Israel. Or has he come to restore Israel’s original calling as the tribe of Abraham to be a blessing to all other tribes and to the whole world.

Throughout Matthew’s Gospel, there are clues along the way, that Jesus has come to call the people of Israel back to their original calling to be a blessing to all other tribes and all other nations.

And that brings us to our passage today. In the story of the Magi from the East, we see the first major clue that the coming of Jesus is meant to help Israel to fulfill it’s destiny of becoming a new kind of tribe. A tribe that no longer lives for it’s own self-preservation and protection, but for the benefit of all people.

Right near the beginning of Matthew’s Gospel, we see that Jesus has come for the benefit not only of his own people, but for the benefit of foreigners as well. People of a different skin colour and a different language and a different culture. Jesus has come to break down our old tribal identities and to make us into a new people a new tribe that will embrace and include everyone.

At the end of Matthew’s Gospel, the message is clear... go out into all the world and make disciples from every tribe or nation.

And in the book of Revelation chapter 7 we see a vision of this calling coming to fruition:

“9 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages...”

The challenge of the Story of the Magi remains for us today... the calling to see beyond the boundaries of our own tribes.

The calling to become part of Christ’s new tribe that will include people from every nation, tribe, and tongue.

And the calling to move beyond just our own self-preservation to become a people who live to be a blessing to others... even those who are different from us. To become part of a tribe whose purpose is to bless all other tribes.

Let us pray...

John 1:1-14


I would like to read a reflection from a book by Robert Fulgham. He writes the following:


When I was a small child, during the war, we were very poor and we lived in a remote village. One day, on the road, I found the broken pieces of a mirror. A German motorcycle had been wrecked in that place.


I tried to find all the pieces and put them together, but it was not possible, so I kept only the largest piece. This one. And by scratching it on a stone I made it round. I began to play with it as a toy and became fascinated by the fact that I could reflect light in to dark places where the sun would never shine - in deep holes and crevices and dark closets. It became a game for me to get light into the most inaccessible places I could find.


I kept the little mirror, and as I went about my growing up, I would take it out in idle moments and continue the challenge of the game. As I became a man, I grew to understand that this was not just a child's game but a metaphor for what I might do with my life. I came to understand that I am not the light or the source of light. But light - truth, understanding, knowledge - is there, and it will only shine in many dark places if I reflect it.


I am a fragment of a mirror whose whole design and shape I do not know. Nevertheless, with what I have I can reflect light into the dark places of this world - into the black places in the hearts of me - and change some things in some people. Perhaps others may see and do likewise. This is what I am about. This is the meaning of life.


At Christmas we speak of the Light of God coming into the darkness of this world in Jesus.


Indeed in John’s Gospel, We read the words of Jesus as he announces to those around him: “I am the light of the world.”


But we make a mistake if we think that somehow the Light is only contained in Jesus. Jesus reminds us in Matthew’s Gospel that we too are meant to be lights in this world, like Robert Fulgham, coming to see that our true meaning in life is found when we learn to reflect the light of God into the dark places of this world, beginning with the dark places in our own hearts.


Christmas was never meant to be a once off event in the past. Christmas was always intended to be repeated over and over again, every day in each of our hearts as we learn to become the Light of the World, learning to reflect and shine the light of Christ into the darkness.


Christmas only becomes meaningful when we allow Christ the light of the world to be born within our hearts and in our actions.


And so may Christmas be repeated this year as we allow the Light of Christ to be born in our hearts and as we become the light of the world for others. Amen.

Matthew 1:18-25

Two weeks ago we looked at Jesus family tree in Matthew’s Gospel and spent a little time looking at the scandals in that family tree.... scandals of incest, prostitution, mixed race, adultery, and murder.

As we continue on to the next section of Matthew’s Gospel which deals with the birth of Jesus, we discover that there is another scandal. Mary conceives a child out of wedlock.

In verse 19 we read the heaviness or the weight of the scandal... Joseph, her fiancée, was a righteous man and did not want to disgrace her publicly, so he decided to break the engagement quietly.

It’s funny that verse. We read that he was a righteous man and did not want to disgrace her publicly, so he decided to break the engagement quietly. But in actual fact, doesn't it sound a whole lot more that he didn’t want to disgrace himself publicly, because the truth is, the only way that he could make sure that she wasn't disgraced was by marrying her.

By divorcing her, Joseph would have been sealing her fate. Forever more, she would be regarded as an unwed mother. For the rest of her life she would live under the shadow of scandal.

And indeed, within the early years of the Christian Church, there clearly was scandal around the birth of Jesus.

There was even a story or a rumour that went around that suggested that Mary had become pregnant by being raped by a Roman soldier. Not only that, the Roman soldier even had a name: “Pantera”. It can be found in the writings of Celcus in the 2nd century, as well as earlier in the Jewish Talmud.

The scandal around Jesus birth can even be seen within some of the New Testament Scriptures:

• In Mark’s Gospel, Jesus is referred to as the Son of Mary. It was a very strange way of referring to someone in 1st century Jewish culture. No-one in Jewish culture was referred to as the son of their mother, unless there were question marks about the paternity.
  
  
• Some suggest that in John 8:41 where the Pharisees protest that they are not illegitimate children born of sexual immorality, they are by implication suggesting that Jesus is.
  
  
• Some have even suggested (like Celcus) that claims of a virgin birth were the early churches attempt to downplay or even cover up the scandal.
  
  

And so, if by Joseph marrying Mary there was still a wiff of scandal around Jesus’ birth, how much more there would have been if he had quietly divorced her and left her to fend for herself, never able to marry ever again because no one would take her as a wife.

The logical implication in tour Gospel story today is that Joseph was probably more concerned about saving his own reputation than saving the reputation of Mary.

Isn’t that human nature. Don’t we do that sometimes. We make it look like acting in someone else's best interests, but it is a strategy to cover over the fact that we are acting in our own best interests.

"Joseph, her fiancée, was a righteous man and did not want to disgrace her publicly, so he decided to break the engagement quietly."

I would like to pause for a moment and examine the word righteous that is used to describe Joseph, because it is a significant one in Matthew’s Gospel.

It is one of those disputed words in the Gospel. Part of the purpose of Matthew’s Gospel is to explore the true meaning of the word ‘righteous’. It is a word that appears seven times in Matthews Gospel.

As the rest of the Gospel unfolds it is clear that the Pharisees, the main Jewish political and religious party had their own understanding of that word ‘righteous’. It had a lot to do with following minute and detailed rules and laws.

Jesus on the other hand has his own understanding of what that word means and he is very critical of the way in which the Pharisees live out their so-called righteousness. For Jesus in Matthew’s Gospel the word righteous has a lot more to do with the word’s compassion, fairness and most importantly the word love.

As I had shared two weeks ago, in Matthews Gospel, Jesus is critical of the Pharisees righteousness, because it is primarily about outward show. On the outside, they like to give the appearance of being righteous. They say long prayers in public. They wear special religious clothes, wearing long tassels and a little box called a phylactery on their forehead that contained a verse of scripture. They liked to make a public show of how much money they would contribute to the temple treasury. Outwardly they liked to show just how faithful they were to following the religious rules and laws.

But later on in Matthew’s Gospel, as I suggested two weeks ago, Jesus compares the Pharisees to white washed tomb-stones. Nice and neat and clean on the outside, but full of dead bones. The righteousness of the Pharisees was an external righteousness. They fulfilled the letter of the laws, but their hearts remained unchanged.

Early on in Matthew’s Gospel in the sermon on the mount, Jesus tells his first followers, that their righteousness needs to exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees if they are to truly live as citizens of the Kingdom of God. In other words their righteousness needs to go deeper than that of the Pharisees. It needs to flow from a heart of love, which Jesus suggests is the heart of the Law... love of God and love of neighbour.

Near the end of Matthew’s Gospel, in the climactic parable of the sheep and the goats, Jesus describes the actions of the truly righteous: The truly righteous are those who give water to the thirsty, food to the hungry, those who show acts of love to those in prison, and all the while, they are not even aware that these actions are actually righteous. They do them spontaneously out of love rather than by trying to be religious or trying to earn brownie points in heaven.

And so getting back to the story of Joseph, we read that he is a righteous man. Right at the beginning of Matthew’s Gospel, Matthew introduces us to this word ‘righteous’. But the big question is, what kind of righteousness is it? Will Joseph act according to the Pharisees approach to righteousness where he is more concerned about outward show and public opinion, making sure that he keeps his reputation in tact in the eyes of his neighbours? Or will Joseph act in accordance with Jesus approach to righteousness. Will Joseph act out of faithfulness and love even at the risk of his own reputation?

In the story, Joseph has a dream in which an angel encourages Joseph not to be afraid to take Mary as his wife and that the one born of her will be called Immanuel for through his life and presence, people will know that God is with them.

In verse 24 we read: “When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded and took Mary as his wife.”

Joseph listens to the Divine voice within. He follows the voice that speaks within the depths of his heart rather than the voice that speaks from his head that is more concerned about what others will think.

At the end of this little episode, the reader sighs a little sigh of relief. Joseph is indeed a man of integrity and honour. His righteousness is not just outward show but inward authenticity. Early in Matthew's Gospel, in this act of faithfulness and love towards Mary, Joseph is already showing us the way of Jesus.

But ultimately this story is not just about Joseph is it. Ultimately the story is about us. It is about you and it is about me, the readers of Matthew’s Gospel.

And the question remains....

Will we live our lives with our primary concern being outward show and public opinion, or will we live a life of deeper authenticity. Will we live our lives primarily out of the desire to win the approval of those around us? Or will we live our lives from a deeper principle, a deeper integrity, listening to the deeper voice of Divine Love from within?

Matthew 1:1-17

Every family has it’s secrets...

Wendy’s Mom has recently been staying with us for 2 weeks. I have known her for the past 10 years. It was only on Monday night that I discovered that in her day, she was quite an accomplished pianist.


She came with us to the Songs of Praise as Wendy asked her if she has ever made it onto television before. After a short pause she said, yes. She did a piano recital that was recorded for National Television in South Africa in her late teens.

As I said, I have known my mom in law for 10 years, and now all the secrets start coming out.

Over the past few years, my Mom-in-law has done quite a lot of research into her own family tree. She has managed to trace her family back to Scotland, but is battling to get any further. She said that one of the problems she has encountered in tracing one’s family tree is that a lot of people don’t want their family secrets to be revealed. She has found a number of times that she has hit brick walls when people have put privacy banners over certain information because they don’t want the world to know some of their family secrets and family scandals.

And that brings us to our gospel passage from Matthew’s Gospel today. When one looks at Matthews version of Jesus family tree, he makes no attempt to cover up the scandals. In fact if anything, he seems to almost go out of his way to try and highlight them.

Why would Matthew do that? It is a question that I will come to in a few minutes.

But firstly I want to make a few general comments about the genealogy of Jesus that Matthew presents to us.

The first thing to take note of is that Matthew has very neatly laid out Jesus genealogy in 3 groups of 14 generations.

But in doing so Matthew has had to be a little creative with the facts. In order to create such a neat numerical pattern, Matthew has had to leave out a few names in places on the one hand, and on the other hand he has repeated David’s name twice.

What is the meaning that Matthew is wanting to communicate to his original readers. By using the number 14 in the design of his genealogy, Matthew is wanting his original readers to see that Jesus is the fulfillment of all God’s promises to King David. In Jewish numerology, where numbers were assigned to every letter of the alphabet, the name of David added up to 14.

Ray Fowler therefore writes: Fourteen is also double the number seven which is the number of completeness in Scripture. So three groups of fourteen equals six groups of seven, which would mean Jesus was born at the beginning of the seventh seven, a fitting and climactic place for the Messiah’s birth. And so by arranging Jesus family tree in this semi-artificial way, the pattern is meant to declare Jesus to be the new David, and the fulfillment of Israel's history.

Since the Babylonian exile roughly 600 years earlier, Jews had been without a King. They looked forward to the day when the line of David would be restored and God would restore the fortunes of the Jewish people.

Matthew declares that it has happened in Jesus. But it is also not quite how people expected it.

And that brings us back to the family scandals.

From the time the Jews returned from exile in Babylon, back to the ruins of the city of Jerusalem, Ezra and Nehemiah and their descendants, right up to the time of Jesus, had declared that in order for restoration to happen, in order for their fortunes to be turned around, they needed to clean up their act. They needed to maintain the purity of the Jewish race. Jews were forbidden to marry foreigners. They also had to become morally perfect, by obeying the tiniest letter of the Jewish law.

Ezra and Nehemiah tell us how Jewish men who had married foreign wives had to send them and their children away leaving them compromised and vulnerable.

In addition, at the same time, the story of David that had previously been told in the books of Samuel, was cleaned up. The story was retold in the books of Chronicles and in the retelling of the story they gave the story of David a face lift. All the scandal was removed. David was re-presented as a perfect and spotless King.

Why does Matthew reverse this? Why does Matthew’s Gospel re-introduce us to the scandals?

As we read through the rest of Matthew’s Gospel, we begin to see the dangers that happen when we bury our failings and our weaknesses and when we put on an outward show of purity and an outward show of holiness and perfection.

This was the sin of the Pharisees... later on in the Gospel, the Pharisees are described as white-washed tombstones. Nice and neat and clean on the outside, but full of dead-bones and skeletons on the inside. They are also accused of washing the outside of their eating bowls, but leaving the dirt and filth on the inside.

When we bury our scandals too deeply... when we try to hide them even from ourselves, they become repressed in our psyche and begin to affect our personalities in quite profound ways. One of the ways is what psychologists would call projection. We begin to see and judge in others, the very qualities that we have hidden from ourselves and push into the shadows of our own personalities.

It has the danger of producing a cold judgementalism of others. And that is what it did in 1st century Pharasaic Judaism. Pharasaic Religion was all about looking good and holy on the outside. But on the inside the dirt was still there.

Why does Matthew bring out the scandals in the history of Jesus own descendants? I think he is trying to remind us that we are not saved by pretending that we are perfect and by covering up our failings and weaknesses.

The Christian message is not that we need to be perfect in order to be saved... rather God saves us precisely because we are not perfect.


Salvation happens when we can be honest about our own failings. When we can hold our own failings in humility.

It is significant that in Alcoholics Anonymous the fourth step is taking a searching and fearless moral inventory of oneself. In other words the road to recovery requires a radical honesty. A willingness to confront and be honest about the skeletons and the scandals in one’s closet.

What are the shadows that we are trying to hide from others and even from ourselves? In what ways are we trying to project to others that we have got all our stuff together? And how might that preventing us from being truly and deeply human? How might our attempt at projecting perfection be preventing us from being truly and warmly loving... because love is only truly love when it is expressed in the face of weaknesses and shortcomings.

Well by now you are probably wondering what these scandals are that I keep referring to in Matthews genealogy:

The scandals can be identified through the inclusion of four woman in what should have been an all male family tree.

The first woman named is Tamar (Genesis 38:1-30). The story of Tamar and her father-in-law Judah is a story of incest. When Judah lost his wife, Tamar dressed up like a prostitute and slept with her father-in-law Judah and subsequently gave birth to twins. Those twins were Perez and Zerah, and according to the sacred story through Perez the messianic line continued. So Jesus had incest in his family line.

The second woman named is Rahab (Joshua 2:1-24, 6:22-25) Rahab lived in Jericho. Not only was she a foreigner and an informer on her own people, but she was also a prostitute. And yet according to the sacred story we read that this ex-prostitute became the mother of Boaz, the great-grandfather of King David. Jesus family line contains the scandal not only of incest but prostitution too.

The third woman named is Ruth (Deuteronomy 23:3-6; Ruth 1:1-7). The scandal of Ruth was that she was from Moab. Deuteronomy 23:3 said, “No Moabite or any descendants may enter the assembly of the LORD (in other words, become part of the people of God), even down to the tenth generation.” (Deuteronomy 23:3) And yet according to a later part of the sacred Jewish story, not only was she received into the assembly of the people of Israel, contrary to a commandment in their own scripture, but according to the story she married Boaz and became the great-grandmother of King David. Jesus family line contains the scandal not only of incest, prostitution but also the scandal mixed marriage and mixed blood which it was not just frowned upon, but in fact forbidden.

And then finally we come to Bathsheba. (1 Samuel 11:1-27) Matthew doesn’t actually name her but instead simply calls her “Uriah’s wife.” (Matthew 1:6) Perhaps it is a reminder that the scandal was more David’s than Bathsheba’s. It reminds us not only of David’s adultery with Bathsheba but his murder of Uriah to cover up the sin. Jesus family line contains the scandal not only of incest and prostitution and the scandal of mixed race, but also the scandal of adultery and murder.

Matthews inclusion of these four woman in the genealogy of Jesus suggest that Jesus was not embarrassed or defensive about the skeletons in his family closet.... Just imagine if we didn’t have to feel embarrassed about the skeletons in our family tree closets. How freeing it would be if we didn’t have to spend all that energy covering up the past and pretending

Perhaps more than anything, the scandals highlighted in Jesus family tree by Matthew suggest that true religion is not meant to be about a false outward appearance and pretense, but rather with a humble honesty.

True religion is not about us pretending to be better than we really are, but an utter reliance on the grace and love of God to touch us and transform us with Divine Love.