{"id":774,"date":"2013-03-22T18:39:34","date_gmt":"2013-03-22T22:39:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/?p=774"},"modified":"2013-03-22T18:39:34","modified_gmt":"2013-03-22T22:39:34","slug":"var-_gaq-_gaq-_gaq-push_setaccount-ua-25646250-2-_gaq-push_trackpageview-function-var-ga-document-createelementscript-ga-type-textjavascript-ga-29","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/?p=774","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> Isaac and the Promise Renewed Part II &#8211; Held on Sunday, March 17, 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>Personal Note on Posting Timeline<\/b><\/p>\n<p>We will be meeting on Palm Sunday but not Easter Sunday.\u00a0 So I will post on \u201cGood Friday\u201d March 29<sup>th.\u00a0 <\/sup>There will be no post on the week following East; the next post will be no later than Friday, April 12.<\/p>\n<p><b>Review<\/b><\/p>\n<p>See previous post for details.<\/p>\n<p><b>Background: Gen. 26: 23 \u2013 25: Isaac and the Promise Renewed<\/b><\/p>\n<p>The whole of Ch. 26 is devoted to Isaac, the only chapter which does that.\u00a0 In fact, Isaac is the least well know of the ancient patriarchs.\u00a0 In these three verses God appears for the second time and renews the promise but there are important differences in the passage.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s begin with a reading of the passage: 26: 23 \u2013 25: &#8211; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/genesis\/25\"><b>http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/genesis\/2<\/b><\/a><b>6<\/b><b><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>Our Discussion<\/b><\/p>\n<p>We quickly identified the characters, Isaac, God, Isaac\u2019s servants, and a reference to Abraham.<\/p>\n<p>A text that spoke to Mark raised a question for him.\u00a0 He wondered what is the meaning and significance of blessings.\u00a0 I have a quite limited understanding of the Jewish blessings.\u00a0 What I do know is that we, Christians, tend to ask God to bless but the scriptures are more likely to ask the people to bless God.\u00a0 As I understand this notion of blessing, it is to put into language that God is the giver of ever good gift.\u00a0 I recite each day the following, \u201cBlessed are you Lord God, Creator of the Heavens and the Earth and giver of every good gift.\u201d\u00a0 For me, to bless God is to thank God for the day and ALL that fills it, good, bad.\u00a0 In fact if we only thank God for the good we think happens to us, we miss much of what fills our life that might be bad in the short term but ends up being good.<\/p>\n<p>V. 23.\u00a0 I asked if anyone could identify the \u201cfrom there\u201d location.\u00a0 Ken was able to find out that the \u201cthere\u201d referred to \u201cGerar.\u201d\u00a0 Although I don\u2019t know the geography, the story implies that Isaac who had settled in Gerar now went north to Beer-sheba.\u00a0 Because of what Isaac is to do there, Beer-sheba becomes a place of significance in the Israelite history.<\/p>\n<p>V. 24.\u00a0 As we had mentioned when the phrase, \u201c\u2026 the Lord appeared to him [Isaac]\u201d occurred in the previous passage, the scripture is affirming God\u2019s involvement in the life of Isaac but it is not affirming the mode of that involving.\u00a0 How else to communicate this, near mystical experience, but to put into words that the people could understand in their time and place.<\/p>\n<p>There are two different terms being used for the same character as I have pointed out so many times that I have quite counting.\u00a0 The English text has one word, God, which translates Elohim and The Lord, which translates YHWH, Yahweh, not pronounced by the Israelites.\u00a0 However, there is an important description of who this God is.<\/p>\n<p>Which is?\u00a0 \u201cI am the God of your father, Abraham.\u201d\u00a0 We can learn so much in this one single phrase. \u00a0Within the text, God is identifying who he is.\u00a0 But from a different perspective the author is telling his audience who God is for them.\u00a0 He is the God of our ancestors.\u00a0 To get at this meaning, I suggested that we think of how \u201cHot Button\u201d bumper stickers say a lot.\u00a0 One bumper sticker says, \u201cRight To Life,\u201d another, \u201cPro Choice.\u201d\u00a0 These \u201csymbols\u201d speak volumes; a point of view, a value system, a mindset.\u00a0 So what does \u201cGod of your father, Abraham\u201d speak?<\/p>\n<p>The Israelite God was not a God of Mountains, Water, Thunder.\u00a0 He was the God of their fathers.\u00a0 He was their God.\u00a0 God had chosen them.\u00a0 They were God\u2019s chosen ones. This one phrase defined them and their relationship to their God.<\/p>\n<p>Carol saw in this identification a message that God was one and what he had done for Abraham.\u00a0 Ken brought out the fact that it also communicated what Abraham had done before God.\u00a0 Both brought meaning into the lives of the Israelites then and to this day.<\/p>\n<p>The God says, \u201cDo not fear, I am with you.\u201d\u00a0 The verse doesn\u2019t tell us any content of the fear.\u00a0 It\u2019s not saying Isaac don\u2019t fear the Philistines?\u00a0 Don\u2019t fear Abimelech?\u00a0 Don\u2019t fear the famine?\u00a0 Etc. Etc. Which raises the question of \u201cfear\u201d in our own lives?\u00a0 And why fear, because I am with you.\u00a0 Is it possible for us to believe that what is being communicated to Isaac in the story, was also being communicated to the audience of the author, and are we not also that audience?<\/p>\n<p>Mark made another keen observation.\u00a0 In this blessing there is both a present tense and a future tense.\u00a0 And, of course, the promise is couched in future terms.\u00a0 His observation reminded me of a similar structure that we recited in slightly different words at every liturgy.\u00a0 After words of remembrance of Christ\u2019s last supper, we announce its meaning to us.<\/p>\n<p>Christ HAS died.\u00a0 Christ IS risen.\u00a0 Christ WILL come again.\u00a0 I then commented that the last sentence always leads me to wonder if our vision of \u201cgoing to heaven\u201d is looking in the wrong direction.\u00a0 Not that we don\u2019t want to \u201cgo to heaven\u201d but that \u201cheaven\u201d is coming to us.\u00a0 A second phrase that emphasizes that point with me is in the prayer that our Lord taught us to pray, \u201c\u2026 Thy Kingdom Come.\u201d\u00a0 God is coming to us much more than we are going to God.<\/p>\n<p>Another phrase deserves our attention; the blessing is being given \u201cfor the sake of Abraham, my servant.\u201d\u00a0 Abraham has become God\u2019s \u201cservant.\u201d\u00a0 He has been faithful to God; done what God asked of him.\u00a0 And now, for his sake, God blesses Isaac and his descendants.<\/p>\n<p>For we Christians the \u201cfor the sake of\u201d is Christ.\u00a0 In Christ Jesus is our righteousness.\u00a0 Powerful to those who believe and what is believed is the meaning of the proposition that the Father raised Christ from the dead reconciling the world with him in Christ.<\/p>\n<p>There was more, but I leave that for further conversation if you should choose to enter into the conversation<\/p>\n<p>Your comments, observations, questions are welcomed.\u00a0 See \u201ccomment\u201d link below<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Personal Note on Posting Timeline We will be meeting on Palm Sunday but not Easter Sunday.\u00a0 So I will post on \u201cGood Friday\u201d March 29th.\u00a0 There will be no post on the week following East; the next post will be &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/?p=774\">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":[7,18,19],"class_list":["post-774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","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\/774","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=774"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":775,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774\/revisions\/775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}