{"id":404,"date":"2012-03-08T15:16:21","date_gmt":"2012-03-08T15:16:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/?p=404"},"modified":"2012-03-08T15:16:21","modified_gmt":"2012-03-08T15:16:21","slug":"var-_gaq-_gaq-_gaq-push_setaccount-ua-25646250-2-_gaq-push_trackpageview-function-var-ga-document-createelementscript-ga-type-textjava-30","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/?p=404","title":{"rendered":"<script type=\"text\/javascript\">    var _gaq = _gaq || [];   _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-25646250-2']);   _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);    (function() {     var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text\/javascript'; ga.async = true;     ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https:\/\/ssl' : 'http:\/\/www') + '.google-analytics.com\/ga.js';     var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s);   })();  <\/script>  <\/heat> Session 20 \u2013 Held on Sunday, Mar 4, 2012"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>From Terah to Abraham \u2013 Gen. 11:27-32<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As always I encourage you to read the notes first and then the passage. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/genesis\/11\">http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/genesis\/11<\/a>.\u00a0 This is another genealogy.\u00a0 Compare it with previous one\u2019s to see if you can detect what is similar and what is different.\u00a0 The differences are startling.\u00a0 What is the role of these genealogies that form markers, as it were, from the beginning Adam to Noah, then Shem to Abraham, and now Terah to Abraham.<\/p>\n<p>At this point in Genesis although some things remain constant, namely God and his care and concern, some things change.\u00a0 For one thing God\u2019s strategy becomes clearer.\u00a0 I ask you to attend to two simple words that might hold this transition.\u00a0 The first is <strong>promise<\/strong>.\u00a0 Next week we will read the promise that God makes to Abram.\u00a0 It is a remarkable event in human history.\u00a0 God promises.\u00a0 From then on, despite the concrete facts in the story which makes it seem impossible that the promise can or will be fulfilled, despite the fact that the family in which the promise emerges is anything but perfect, the promise shapes Abraham\u2019s life.<\/p>\n<p>In a startling way, we too are persons whose lives are shaped by promise.\u00a0 We too emerge out of families that are far from perfect; we emerge out of nations that are far from perfect, we emerge out of a church that is far from perfect.\u00a0 Despite all of this our life is shaped by a promise and as Christians that promise is fulfilled in Christ Jesus.\u00a0 In some way this one man, Abram, perhaps more than 3000 years ago, has become a beacon for three great historical religions.<\/p>\n<p>Which leads us to the second word, <strong>faithfulness<\/strong>.\u00a0 The story of Isaac is seared into our memory that resonates with conflicting yet incredible resonance of faithfulness.\u00a0 We must also be clear though, that God\u2019s promise is at one and the same time dependent on Abraham\u2019s faithfulness and is independent of it.\u00a0 In fact Abraham proved faithful; in fact faithlessness was to mar the life of his descendants to our own day.\u00a0 I am a Christian because of the fact of Christ\u2019s faithfulness in response to which God the Father raised him from the dead.\u00a0 Our faithfulness lies in his faithfulness though we too are summoned to be faithful.\u00a0 Life in its radical terror has been overcome by his promise of life eternal.\u00a0 If Christ has not risen, we are the most to be pitied.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From Terah to Abraham \u2013 Gen. 11:27-32 As always I encourage you to read the notes first and then the passage. http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/genesis\/11.\u00a0 This is another genealogy.\u00a0 Compare it with previous one\u2019s to see if you can detect what is similar &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/?p=404\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,5],"tags":[7,18],"class_list":["post-404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-scripture","tag-modern-scripture-scholarship","tag-religion-and-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=404"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":406,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404\/revisions\/406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}