Jacob’s Children – Held on Sunday, September 22, 2013

Summer Events

It’s hard to believe but we are in our third year of “reading’ Genesis.  We began our first session by sharing some of the highlights or memorable events that occurred during the summer.  We learned about both the highs and lows, the joys and sorrows that make up our life, the summer was no different.

I was excited to share the good news of the birth of my fifth grandchild, Salome, Swahili for peace.  There was also my two week stay in the Holy Land.  Without going into a lot of the details, I mentioned first the geographical impact that the visit had.  Being in the land allows one to know first hand the terrain, the distances, the mountains, the plains, the desert, the plant life, the river, the valley, etc.  The bible assumes all of these facts without ever mentioning them, they simply form the backdrop, what the writer and the reader / listener take for granted.  Being there allows me to read / hear these details in a new, more concrete way.  I hope to share that as they emerge in our study.

Besides the geography, there were the people.  I mentioned the story of just one, Stephanie, who is a Christian, mother of two, living in the Old City of Jerusalem.  My hope is that I will be able to connect with her via Skype and she could share her story with our group.  That’s the plan, more as it develops.

A New Image of Scripture Study

          Me         You      The Text

Imagine yourself as the center of exhange

between [in this case] me and the Biblical Text

I attended a seminar that introduced me to a new image of what is going on when we study the bible.  The center of the study is you, you are in the middle and on either side is the presenter in this case me and on the other side is the text, in this case Genesis.  Of course, this occurs not online as type this image but in a live group.

What matters is what is happening inside of you.  We believe that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit [all three] are with us, in us.  Attending to what is happening within us is the first step to discerning God’s will for us.  Ultimately discerning God’s will is reason for attending to what is happening within us.

There are only a limited number of events that can occur within us, either we will attend or we won’t.  It is highly unlikely that we will attend the entire time, so we might catch ourselves drifting, thinking of the concerns of our life, day dreaming, etc. But when we catch ourselves, that very act is asking us to return to the now of our studying.  Attending might lead to a question or not.  If not we might be assuming that we understand what is being read / listened to, studied.  If we do have a question, then we either express it or we don’t.  Either way there was the movement of a question and our response.  During the course of our time, our question may be answered or our understanding challenged.  But we are not satisfied with that.  We want to know if what we understand, the answer to our question is true.  The answer to that question can be a simple yes or no but it might also be, I don’t know, maybe, etc.  But each of these is also some event within us.  It can also occur when we do reach a yes, what we understand is true, we are prompted to ask, well what are we to do now.  And that is also an event occurring within us.  Along with this back and forth, we may notice as well the feelings that accompanying these events.  Such in the most general terms are the categories that help us define the events within us.  These movements are a potential source of discerning God’s will for us.

The reason for asking our Who, What, When, Where questions is to help us to attend, to wonder, to search.  The image I attempted to describe, along with the probable type of events that occur within us, are meant to help enrich our hearing of the scripture, to discern God’s will for each of us, individually, uniquely.

The Context of Today’s Passage.

Walter Brueggemann, in Genesis Interpretation, offers an outline of the literary unit running from 29:01 – 31:55, p. 249

29: 01 – 04: – preliminary meeting – a kiss of meeting

29: 14 – 20: – meeting with Laban and the contact

29: 21 – 30: – deception of Jacob by Laban

29: 31 – 30: 24: – The Offspring

30: 25 – 43: – trick of Laban by Jacob

                                                  [31: 01 – 16: – a theological reflection]

     31: 17 – 42: – meeting with Laban and dispute

31: 43 – 55: – covenant and departure – a kiss of departure

From Brueggemann’s outline, it might be easy to recognize that “The Offspring” is the central focus of the entire unit.  And the focus of “The Offspring” section is the very last paragraph in which our author reminds in 30:22 “Then God remembered Rachel. God listened to her and made her fruitful.”

Reading: Gen. 29:31 – 30:24: The Offspring.  http://usccb.org/bible/genesis/29

At the heart of this passage, its central message is God’s fulfilling his promise that began with Abraham, the promise of offspring.

There were many comments by our group.  Here are a few that caught my attention.  Ken was quite first that the families that make up the story are very ordinary families in a lot of ways; that they are far from perfect, in fact dysfunctional in our terminology.  But that this fact reveals that God power is manifest in our weaknesses.

We had this wonderful conversation about who knows what.  Again Ken brought out that Rachel doesn’t know the rest of story about Joseph.  I pointed out the author / editor does know though and that it is the author / editor who is inspired not necessarily the characters in the stories that he tells.

Michael then said something that has a lot of significance.  He listened to the story but he also knew in advance the “rest of the story” as it were.  He knew about Joseph and that knowing shaped how he heard the story of his birth.  But it is not only knowing the story of Joseph that shapes how we hear, it is also, as Christian, knowing the story of Christ, that shapes, gives meaning, to the stories we read / listen to, as well as to our life.

Finally Tim pointed out how time is factor.  After all Jacob worked for more than 14 years to “earn” first Leah and then Rachel.  When we are caught up in the struggles of our life, we find it very difficult to see these events in the context of God’s Kingdom which encompasses the entire universe from its beginning to its conclusion.  Such a vision changes everything but being open to that vision itself  is a gift from God.

Your comments, observations, questions are welcomed.  See “comment” link below

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