So many great stories! (from Genesis 21 to 39)

I could easily preach the better part of the year just from the book of Genesis. Years ago Bill Moyers did a wonderful series on this single book of the Bible in which he convened a diverse group of intelligent people (I think not only does he magnetically attract brilliant people, but I'll bet people get brighter and more articulate in conversation with him) to discuss the great and challenging stories of this one book. They are so old, and yet we know people like these people and we struggle with the issues they struggled with. They will always remain in the realm of myth, though my friends who have visited the Holy Land say they have been shown several 'historical' locations of Sarah's home, her tomb, etc. I personally get frustrated with the kind of folks who spend untold years and millions of dollars looking for Noah's ark, as if to find it would make the Bible truer than it already is or as if not having archaeological artifacts takes something away from the validity of stories of the relationship of the God of the Covenant with all God created out of unbounded love. End of that sermon. For a glimpse of the Moyers series go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rw6wxYFD6SE&noredirect=1

We had to know that things would not go well between Sarah and Hagar especially after Isaac was born. Think "Big Love" gone bad. There are logistical inconsistencies with the story especially with regard to the age of Ishmael, but the gist is that Sarah made Abraham banish the other woman and her child from her household. God does not let them die in the wilderness though, and Ishmael is blessed to become the patriarch of the Arab people.

The story of God's test of Abraham's faithfulness is the most troubling story in the Bible for me. I preached on it in June. http://www.stalbansaustin.org/SERMON_JUNE_26_2011.htm so won't discuss it here save to say that Isaac himself is not much of a patriarch. He seems to be little more than a link in the chain that connects Father Abraham with the eventual nation of Israel. Isaac's two sons are another story altogether.

The boys are duking it out even before they are born. The firstborn, Esau, is hairy and red, sweet-natured but not so bright. Jacob, on the other hand is slick and wily and out for Jacob and only Jacob from the get-go. It doesn't help Esau a bit that Jacob is also Mommy's darling. (I kid you not: there was a guy who had three dogs: a golden retriever named Esau and two black labs named Jacob and Rebecca. Personalities were biblical matches, and Sarah had twelve puppies and you can guess what the guy named them. I promise I didn't make this up.) So Jacob cheats Esau out of everything that the firstborn son is entitled to and Isaac is too weak and blind to stop him. Then Jacob, with mom's help, runs away rather than face up to Esau's anger. While he is on his way he has a dream of a ladder of angels reaching both ways from heaven to earth and back. God blesses him and promises him his faithfulness and favor and the fulfillment of the threefold promise made to Abraham. It is clear that God will work with whomever God chooses, not necessarily the gifted or righteous person. There is hope for all of us.

Jacob ends up in his uncle Laban's home, where he falls in love with the younger daughter, Rachel. When he earns the right to marry her by seven years of servitude, Laban pulls the switcheroo on him and he wakes up married to Leah, the older, who we are told has strange eyes. He does get to marry Rachel in the end, but it is Leah who gives him son after son while Rachel remains barren for years.Eventually Rachel gives birth to two sons, the elder of whom is Joseph, Jacob's favorite and the subject of the next installment of the narrative lectionary. The theme of human infertility repeats itself over and over, highlighting the fact that all things are possible with God, the theme we will hear echoed when Mary becomes impregnated with the Holy Spirit and Jesus is born.

Meanwhile, Jacob, both wives, and all their children and livestock steal away from Laban and even steal his household gods. While they are fleeing Jacob receives word that Esau is coming to meet him. Fearing the worst, he divides up the two families in order to cut his losses. He anticipates vengeance and camps out the night before the encounter. In the darkness of night he is attacked by someone first described as a man but later revealed to be an angel and ultimately God. Because he is not defeated he is blessed by God but left with an injury to his hip which will cause him to limp for the rest of his life. When the brothers meet, rather than attacking each other they are reconciled, and so Jacob and his family go eventually to Bethel, where they raise an altar to only God.

We are given an extensive genealogy of all the descendants  of Esau and his Canaanite wives, proof of one form of the fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham. They become the nation of Edom, while Jacob and his offspring settle in Canaan, which will become the nation of Israel. It is now that we are introduced to the story of Joseph, which not only wraps up the saga of the patriarchs, but sets the stage for the foundational myth of the Jewish people, the deliverance of the children of Israel from slavery in Egypt by God in the book of Exodus.