Exodus begins

The readings from the Transformation Journal yesterday and today are a couple of my favorite Old Testament stories. First, the Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, two courageous women who not only disobey Pharoah's unjust orders, but follow through with an amazingly clever lie! "How come you're not killing the boy children like I told you to?" Pharoah wants to know. And the midwives answer, "Well, our women are vigorous and strong--not like the refined Egyptians--and their labor goes so fast we never get there on time!"

And then there's God's commissioning of Moses, and his heartfelt prayer: "O my Lord, please send someone else!" Who hasn't prayed that same prayer once or twice? I know I have!

The Journal asks us to reflect on what God expects of us. Someone wise once said, "God doesn't call those who are fit; God makes fit those whom He calls." Do you think that's true?

something to get you in the spirit!

Greetings! Here's a link to a version of "O Holy Night" that I just listened to courtesy of Pastor Rick McKinley's blog over at Harbor UMC.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIDLhJGDPUY

I hope you enjoy it!

Genesis--the covenants

Grace and peace to all of you! If you're keeping up with the daily readings, you'll notice that we've moved from what's usually called the "primeval history" (Genesis 1-11) to the "ancestral history" (Genesis 12-50) of the Israelite people.

Here are some notes adapted from a resource I'm using to help organize my own thoughts about this material which is so familiar, yet so strange.

We're deep into Priestly material here, and according to the Priestly view, each period of history begins with a covenant--the new age of the earth and humanity by the covenant with Noah, and the age of Israel's ancestors by this covenant with Abraham. Just like the covenant with Noah, the covenant with Abraham is established by God as an everlasting covenant, and is accompanied by a covenant sign. (With Noah, it was the rainbow. For Abraham, it is circumcision.) These are symbols of God's promise of blessing and security.

And so it's these gifts, these blessings, that Abraham wants to share with his son, Ishmael. The book asks us, "Who is your Ishmael?" Who is it that you want to bring into God's covenant through Jesus Christ?

I'll bet every one of you has an answer to that question. Maybe it's a child or a grandchild. Maybe it's a coworker or a friend. Maybe it's a parent. All of us know someone who's in need of the light of Christ, and a new relationship with God. Let's all pray today for these folks with whom we long to share the goodness of life with God.

Genesis -- the beginning

Grace and peace to all of you! Just a few thoughts on the readings we're doing together:

Wow--it has been a long time since I read the flood story--Tuesday's reading from the Transformation Journal! Probably because of the course I'm taking on the sacraments, I kept thinking about the words in our baptismal covenant: "In the days of Noah you saved those on the ark through water. After the flood you set in the clouds a rainbow."

You know, this is a confusing set of chapters, mostly because there really are two flood stories being woven together here. One comes from a source scholars call "P" for Priestly, and the other from a souces called "J" for Yahwist. (The insight comes from German scholarship, and they use J where we use Y.)

Anyway, you tell which source is being quoted by looking at the name used for God. The "J" or "Yahwist" author always uses God's proper name, YHWH, usually pronounced "yahweh." It gets printed in English Bibles as LORD in all caps. In the verses from the Priestly souces, God is called God--from the Hebrew "elohim."

Now, if I haven't turned you off the reading completely, check back for some more spiritual reflections later this week!