Feb 2015
Chapter 4 - Community (Part One): Exodus
26/02/15 19:53 Filed in: Community
In chapter 4, the old man tells the next chapter of the story. Four centuries later, Abraham’s descendants still hadn’t seen the promised land. Under a new and hostile dynasty of pharaohs, the Israelites were forced to become slaves. An exodus was needed that would free the oppressed as well as the oppressors.
God’s intention remains to liberate us from all the things that keep us in bondage, distant from God and each other.
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God’s intention remains to liberate us from all the things that keep us in bondage, distant from God and each other.
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Chapter 3 - Covenant
18/02/15 19:45 Filed in: Covenant
In chapter 3, with God’s people still exiled from their homeland, the old man wonders if God has forgotten them. The people’s songs are about the covenant God made with Abraham after the catastrophe, but their present experience feels like God’s absence. And so, for the evening’s fireside, he decides it might be timely to retell the story of when God made a covenant with his people.
To save humanity from themselves and mend the broken cosmos, God continued the work of creation in a new way, by choosing one family from all the families of the earth, the family of Abraham (first called Abram).
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To save humanity from themselves and mend the broken cosmos, God continued the work of creation in a new way, by choosing one family from all the families of the earth, the family of Abraham (first called Abram).
Read More...Chapter 2 - Catastrophe
12/02/15 19:53 Filed in: Catastrophe
In chapter 1, we heard of the story of creation and the goodness of God. We left “ha-nahash and ish-sha” (Adam and Eve) in unity in the garden. They experienced the nearness of God and each other, being "naked and unashamed".
In chapter 2, a shadow creeps across this perfect picture as the serpent tempts them to mistrust. As they begin to investigate the fruit of the tree they are not to eat of, a seed of doubt is sown in their minds. Why are they not allowed to eat it? What will happen, really? Surely they won’t die?! The serpent suggests that their eyes will instead be opened and they’ll become like God.
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In chapter 2, a shadow creeps across this perfect picture as the serpent tempts them to mistrust. As they begin to investigate the fruit of the tree they are not to eat of, a seed of doubt is sown in their minds. Why are they not allowed to eat it? What will happen, really? Surely they won’t die?! The serpent suggests that their eyes will instead be opened and they’ll become like God.
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Chapter 1 - Creation
02/02/15 20:43 Filed in: Creation
As we begin the story, we find God’s people gathered around the evening campfire, disoriented and feeling impotent rage. They are in exile in Babylon, shaking their fists at God, wondering when their suffering will be vindicated and their kingdom restored.
An old man (the narrator of the story), realizes his people have forgotten their story amid their suffering, and asks them to listen to their story. But the people are angry. They want answers, not stories! The old man understands their rage but begins anyway, reminding them that their story did not begin with exile or with the Babylonians who put them there. Their story began in Eden.
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An old man (the narrator of the story), realizes his people have forgotten their story amid their suffering, and asks them to listen to their story. But the people are angry. They want answers, not stories! The old man understands their rage but begins anyway, reminding them that their story did not begin with exile or with the Babylonians who put them there. Their story began in Eden.
Read More...