Blessing

I think that it is important for us to take a moment and recap where we have been…sort of like television shows that recap what happened during the last season. In Episode One, "Creation", we discovered that God is the creator who declared that all of creation (including human beings) is good. In Episode Two, "The Fall", we witnessed part of that creation, humanity, deciding that they knew better than God how to run their lives; thus leading to death dealing and not life affirming ways of being human. God responded to that act of defiance in Episode Three, "Discipline and Grace" not through annihilating humanity but by responding with a complex combination of forgiveness and consequences. Finally we watched as God reestablished the relationship with humanity through covenants in Episode Four "Covenants"; agreements in which each side promised to live up to certain commitments. Where this part of the Biblical narrative leaves us is with a present reality in which God and humanity coexist in a rather loose relationship but do not seem to have a plan for restoring the full goodness of God's creation.

This lack of a plan is addressed almost immediately in our current episode, "Blessing."

This episode begins very abruptly in Chapter 12 of Genesis where we hear God speak to a man named Abram from Haran (Iraq) telling him to move to Canaan (Israel). Abram's journey was not an isolated one. Sometime around 2000 BCE large numbers of people moved from Upper Mesopotamia (Iraq) to the area we call Palestine (Israel). Chances are Abram and family were part of this great migration. Additionally within the Abram stories we see names, customs and places which can be historically rooted in that period of time.

The opening words of Chapter 12 also offer us a look at some of the promises God makes to Abram. We hear God make three promises (most of which are fleshed out later in the story) of land, offspring and blessing. Each of these promises will play a critical role in the unfolding story, but for the moment let's focus on the promise of blessing.

The blessing comes in two forms. First God will bless Abram and those who bless Abram. Second, and for our purpose more importantly, through Abram and Abram's family all of the families of the earth will be blessed. Though we are not told the specifics of what it means to bless all the families of the world what this promise implies is that Abram's family will play a decisive role in God's plan to restore creation. The work of this wandering Aramean and his family matters because they are the vehicle through which hope for humanity comes.

In this episode Abram, his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot and their retinue engage in a series of amazing adventures (and misadventures for that matter) as they journey to Canaan, Egypt and back to Canaan. They fight battles, tell lies to protect themselves and meet a wide variety of interesting people. Eventually God speaks once again (Chapter 17) and makes a covenant with Abram. As part of the covenant Abram's name is changed to Abraham and God instructs that all of Abraham's males will be circumcised as a sign of the covenant. Sarai is also given a new name, Sarah, and a promise that she will have a child in order that the promise of the blessing to the world is real.

We close this episode with hope; hope birthed because God has initiated a plan for restoring the blessings for creation that God originally intended in God's good creative work.

Next week: the Blessing at Risk