{"id":695,"date":"2012-11-14T16:32:11","date_gmt":"2012-11-14T20:32:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/?p=695"},"modified":"2012-11-14T16:34:25","modified_gmt":"2012-11-14T20:34:25","slug":"var-_gaq-_gaq-_gaq-push_setaccount-ua-25646250-2-_gaq-push_trackpageview-function-var-ga-document-createelementscript-ga-type-textjavascript-ga-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/?p=695","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> Gen. 20:01-18 \u2013 Abraham, Sarah, and Abimelech \u2013 Part 2 &#8211; Held on Sunday, November 11, 2012"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Gen. 20:01 \u2013 18 \u2013 Abraham, Sarah, and Abimelech<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Background<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As the notes on USCCB website <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/genesis\/20\">http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/genesis\/20<\/a> inform us, this is the second story of Abraham passing his wife, Sarah, off as his sister.\u00a0 The first occurred in Gen. 12:10 \u2013 31:01 and a third version of the story involving Isaac and Rebekah occurs in Gen. 26:06 \u2013 11.<\/p>\n<p>The passage itself is built around three dialogues: Abimelech and God in vv. 03-07, Abimelech and Abraham in vv. 09-13, and Abraham and Sarah in vv. 15-16.\u00a0 There are number of things to note in this story.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Abraham is revealed in a rather failed character light.\u00a0 Despite this fact God protects him, requires Abimelech to obtain Abraham\u2019s intercession, and listens to Abraham\u2019s intercession.<\/li>\n<li>God engages Abimelech even though Abimelech is not a member of the community of faith.\u00a0 God acknowledges Abimelech\u2019s innocence. \u00a0Despite his innocence God states that he is a dead man and later we learn that the consequences of his act could affect his entire family and kingdom.<\/li>\n<li>For me the most significant message is that there exists a moral order that is not dependent upon the innocence of the person but the immorality of the act.\u00a0 Consequences follow irrespective of the innocence or guilt of the person who has performed the act and that sin has a social nature to it.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>One of the newest members of our group pointed out that in the Sacrament of Reconciliation [Confession] by telling the priest our sins we are acknowledging the social dimension of sin.\u00a0 I thought that her comments were especially on target.\u00a0 The comments also reminded me of the decline in the celebration of\u00a0 this Sacrament which I believe is better expressed in terms of reconciliation, confessing our sins is an important part of the Sacrament but only a part.\u00a0 The heart of the matter is celebrating the saving grace of Christ Jesus who in dying reconciled all of us to his Father in Him.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>In comparison to Abraham, Abimelech, the outsider, is much more appealing, even magnanimous in his response to what Abraham has done.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><strong>Our Questions<\/strong> \u2013 <strong>The fourth question seems to me to be the most critical; answering it undoubtedly will elicit a wide range of responses and probably differences of opinion amongst us.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>For the sake of completeness I will include in our blog the basic questions that guide us in hearing the passages we study each week.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>First who are the characters and what role does each play? To the extent that we can identify\n<ol>\n<li>what the characters say and do, or<\/li>\n<li>don\u2019t say and do but we would expect them to do so, and<\/li>\n<li>finally when they enter into the passage and leave it<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>We can more easily and more accurately know what their role is from the point of view of the author and \/ or the editor of the passage.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>The \u201cwhen\u201d question is quite complicated and again for the sake of completeness; there is\n<ol>\n<li>The \u201cwhen\u201d within the story \/ passage itself,<\/li>\n<li>The \u201cwhen\u201d of the editor, and most importantly,<\/li>\n<li>The \u201cwhen\u201d of our life at the time we are actually reading \/ studying the passage.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<li>What is the plot, the point of the passage?<\/li>\n<li>Finally, because each passage is at one and the same time the word of human beings and the Word of God, there is revealed the values that are part and parcel of the human beings in their time and place and there is the values revealed by God for the believer.\u00a0 Our final question is to discern which values in the passage are attractive to us, we are drawn to and which are we repulsed by, inclined to reject?\u00a0 The more difficult task, if we do identify these two responses in us of the values revealed, which are of God and we are being challenged to embrace and which are not of God and we are being challenged to correct and develop.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><strong>My Refrain<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Before we read though, let&#8217;s quiet ourselves, remember whatever we can from the background, our questions and, most importantly, pay attention to what happens inside of us as we read.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Reading of the passage\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/genesis\/20\"><strong>http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/genesis\/20<\/strong><\/a><strong>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Discussion Gen. 20:01 &#8211; 18 \u2013 Abraham, Sarah, and Abimelech<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As is quite common our group took off with their own thoughts and reflections before we had a chance to respond to our list of questions. Carol wondered who the author was and Faryl referred to the notes which state, \u201c[<a href=\"http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/gn\/20:01\">20:1<\/a>\u2013<a href=\"http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/gn\/20:18\">18<\/a>] Abraham again passes off his wife Sarah as his sister to escape trouble in a foreign land (cf. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/gn\/12:10\">12:10<\/a>\u2013<a href=\"http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/gn\/13:01\">13:1<\/a>, the J source). The story appears to be from a different source (according to some, E) and deals with the ethical questions of the incident.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Michael pointed out that this second account makes more sense.\u00a0 God talks with Abimelech, tell him that Abraham is a prophet, and that gives some rationale for why Abimelech was so generous with Abraham.<\/p>\n<p>Ken was interested in \u201cgetting into the mind of Abraham.\u201d\u00a0 I wondered if Ken found Abraham appealing in this story and, of course, he didn\u2019t.\u00a0 Yet Abraham did intercede for Abimelech and God responded favorably to Abraham\u2019s intercession.\u00a0 This highlighted for me that God listens to us even if we are sinners.\u00a0 It recalls a phrase that often comes to mind for me, God loves us not because of us but because of who he is.<\/p>\n<p>When we return next week, perhaps we should spend a little more time on this passage.\u00a0 There are a number of issues in the passage but the one that continues to capture my attention is the fact that even though innocent and acknowledged to be so by God, Abimelech&#8217;s innocent act violated the moral order and would have consequences.<\/p>\n<p>Your comments, observations, questions are welcomed.\u00a0 See \u201ccomment\u201d link below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Gen. 20:01 \u2013 18 \u2013 Abraham, Sarah, and Abimelech Background As the notes on USCCB website http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/genesis\/20 inform us, this is the second story of Abraham passing his wife, Sarah, off as his sister.\u00a0 The first occurred in Gen. 12:10 &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/?p=695\">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":[5],"tags":[7,18,19],"class_list":["post-695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-scripture","tag-modern-scripture-scholarship","tag-religion-and-culture","tag-scripture-study"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695","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=695"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":701,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695\/revisions\/701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}