Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?

Abraham is minding his own business (and tent!) when the image of three men appear on the horizon. It is in the middle of the day, when it’s so hot, you don’t want to be caught dead outside—so . . . you stay in or near your tent. Abraham’s tent is a reminder of the true definition of faith in Genesis—faith is not belief in the existence of God but the belief that in the journey, God has new worlds, new lands, new people, and new possibilities for you.

Abraham then looks up. He sees the men coming. He looks again. Abraham teaches us an important lesson: seeing is not the same thing as perceiving; looking is not the same as comprehending what’s taking place. What’s his immediate inner-thought? Robbers? Young teens selling steaks out of the back of their old truck? Abraham meets the men as they approach and recognizes there is something “other” about them; something worthy of prostration. Abraham does what a good ancient Near-Easterner would do . . . he offers them food, drink, rest, and most importantly, shade. Like the Godfather, Abraham makes and offer these visitors can’t refuse. The Big Three accept his offer and this sends Abraham into frenzy. His idea has consequences for those who are still in the tent.

Sarah is inside the tent minding her own business. Switching between the weather channel and Oprah (o.k. . . . Dr. Phil), Sara hears Abraham run inside, breathing heavily. “Sarah, we have guests. We have guests.” Sara thinks to herself “another great idea from my husband to be carried out by me. Lovely. Just lovely.” “Make bread, lots of it,” Abraham declares!

Just as fast as he’s entered, Abraham leaves. A cloud of dust where he used to stand . . . Abraham is outside preparing the main course—beef: it truly is what’s for dinner. Once the meal is ready, the father of Jewish and Christian faith “set it before them (the Big Three); and he stood by them under the tree while they ate.” Just as Ugandans and Hondurans did for me when I stayed in their home/hut . . . people of generosity love to watch their guest eat—it gives them great joy. They are so concerned with your well-being; the thought of eating never crosses their mind.

Things are just now heating up in the story.

The Big Three turn and ask Abraham a rather odd question, “Where is your wife Sarah?” Uh-oh. Is Abraham going to sell her out again? Surely he won’t tell them too that Sara “is not my wife . . . you thought Sara was my wife . . . ha . . . no she’s my sister.” Not that again.

Apparently Abraham has learned his lesson. Three weeks on the couch will teach a fella. “My wife is in the tent.” What Abraham is told next will forever change his life and life on planet earth. “Sara’s going to have a son” says one of the men. “Yep, when the time is right. You heard me. She’s going to have a boy.” Sarah is eavesdropping at this point (Oprah is on commercial break). The narrator pauses to let you know an important detail: THIS IS CRAZY. Abraham is old. Sarah is old. Two old people do not cancel out “old” . . . it just makes you really old. This is exactly what Sarah’s thinking (the story-teller is no longer interested in Abraham). After all, she’s so far past menopause; it might as well be the name of a foreign country. Sara does what we all do in the face of ludicrous information—she laughs. Hard. Intense. Pointed laughter. Sara can’t stop laughing. It’s the kind of laughing that happens in church at the worst possible moment (during a prayer, in the middle of a funeral) and the harder you try and stop, the worse it gets.

Just when Sarah catches her breath she laughs again at the thought of the claim. Pay attention to the details of the story for Sarah laughs mostly not at the notion of being 90 and pregnant (material enough for beginning comedians) but at the notion of what it would take for someone her age to get pregnant in the first place. In verse twelve, the text reads, “After I have grown old . . . shall I have pleasure?” The word for pleasure is “ednah” which denotes sexual gratification. Sara is laughing because she literally can’t remember the last time she had sex with Abraham. Or . . . she can remember and quite honestly she doesn’t think she’s up for it . . . not in her currently physical condition, anyway. Conceiving a child usually requires that you increase your sexual activity. For an older woman, the prospects are humorous. That ship has sailed baby. No way. Now how. More laughter . . .

God asks Abraham why Sarah is laughing (as if God doesn’t know). And he asks the question that runs all the way through the drama of Jewish and Christian scriptures “Is anything too wonderful for the Lord?” It’s the same idea Jesus captured when he told his disciples that anything is possible with God (Mt. 17:20). It’s the question the young parent asks when she finds out their daughter has Down Syndrome. It’s the question the young man asks as he buries his 45 year-old wife who’s just died of cancer? It’s the question the Old War Vet asks as he stares into his 12^th beer of the night as he sits alone at the bar in a run-down part of town.

“Is anything too wonderful for the Lord?”

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That was, of course, a retelling of Gen. 18:1-15 and the Hospitality Story.

Prep

The week leading up to Thanksgiving and Christmas are the only two weeks I find difficult to prepare to preach/teach. I am anxious to watch movies, get in extra work-outs, watch RC hoop games, spend time with family, etc. This week, we're starting a new series at Rochester Church called Visitation. It's our version of advent.

This week we're exploring God's visitation to Abraham and Moses in the form of conversation and a burning bush.

I love this quote from Elie Wiesel on Moses (The Messengers of God, 182).

It is not surprising that Moses occupies a special place in Jewish tradition. His passion for social justice, his struggle for national liberation, his triumphs and disappointments, his poetic inspiration, his gifts as a strategist and his organizational genius, his complex relationship with God and His people, his requirements and promises, his condemnations and blessings, his bursts of anger, his silences, his efforts to reconcile the law with compassion, authority with integrity—no individual, ever, anywhere accomplished so much for so many people in so many different domains. His influence is boundless, it reverberates beyond time.

Pharaoh's Nightmare

One of the major goals of the course I'm taking this week is to help minister, teachers, and preachers read the Torah with fresh eyes. Brueggemann (Brew-ga-mawn) said to us yesterday, "To read the Bible well . . . this is ultimately what I have to teach you."

So each day, different people walk the class through Brueggemann's approach to reading the Bible. It's intimidating to employ a method while the inventor (so-to-speak) of the method is in the room. What would it be like to dabble in relativity with Einstein or philosophy with Aristotle? To a lesser degree, that's what it is to do "the method" with Brueggemann in the house while the kids color, trying to stay between the lines.

Today, one group led the class through a section of the Joseph Story in Genesis--one of the more breathtaking and incredible sections of Torah. In fact, Joseph might be the only "truly impeccable character" in Torah.

After haggling through Hebrew, theology, syntax, word meanings, etc. . . . Brueggemann asked the class this question (because the questions we ask are vital): "Why is it that Pharaoh has a nightmare?"

"He's paranoid," someone muttered.
"He's a control freak."
"He does not want to lose his power."

Brueggemann laughed his sincere laugh and rolled his head around twice. "I'll tell you why. Pharaoh had a nightmare because the people who have the most . . . have the most anxiety about NOT having enough. So, be wary of the people who are most anxious in your congregations. They have a lot to lose."

CTS Part Two

I will try and translate what I'm studying this week at CTS. This morning's session was excellent. I wrote so fast I thought my index finger was going to fall off (I like to write as opposed to type when taking notes . . . I type so fast that my brain gets out of sync. However when I write, it slows me down a bit).

Here were some highlights from today's lectures and discussions. I'll save the nerd stuff for other conversations.

"Every family/church has their own genre (story). And when your genre (story) comes colliding with someone else's--be it marriage, church leadership, preaching--you'd better be aware of the stories around you."

"The Bible, just like the humans who wrote them under God's influence, is complex. Therefore, just as we move beyond judging people for their complexity, we must move beyond judging the Bible and move into a living, breathing relationship. We must allow the Bible to critique us. To ask questions we would not dare ask if left to our own devices."

On the Bible: "There are no answers in the back of this book, only long standing schools of interpretation."

"Every spiritualization is rationalization," (regarding the Christianity that allowed Nazi Germany to exterminate Jesus's people, the Jews).

"There is a profound difference between history and memory. Memory is the way in which we remember history. So, in reality, perhaps history and memory aren't all that different."

"When we read the Bible we're always asking ourselves . . . 'What is God saying and doing?'"

"Von Rad (noted OT scholar) was the only professor in the theology department at this university not to join the Nazi Party. Because of that, students refused to take his courses. The Confessing Church (led by Bonhoeffer et al) therefore sent students to take Von Rad's lectures lest the the university terminate Von Rad. So the moral of the story . . . just because you have a small church doesn't mean you are not doing God's work. Don't base everything upon popularity."

"We are all selective fundamentalists. That is, we all choose which parts of the Bible we read and which parts we do not. Therefore, a healthy reader will confess to this problem, help others to see their own participation in selective reading of the Bible and courageously move forward to let all of Scripture serve as our guiding force."

"The texts calls us to more freedom than we are ready to have."

We spent the last hour of class going through Dr. Brueggemann's approach to interpreting the Bible. He's just written a new book about it so it was fascinating to learn up close from one of this generations great thinkers/writers.