Genesis 12.10-20; Mark 8.14-21
Who was the first President of the United States?
Ya’ got that right … George Washington … a great he was ... the right one at the right time for the moment of decision … who knows what might have happened had the mantle of leadership fallen on shoulders other than Washington’s … but this we know - the mantle fell on his shoulders, and he wore the mantle well … winning the gratitude of his nation and deserving of our admiration.
George Washington died in 1799, and one year later, a book was published, entitled, The Life of Washington, written by Mason Locke Weems, an Anglican priest, who took pride in having lived in Dumfries, Virginia, nearby to a church where George Washington had worshipped in pre-Revolutionary days … Mr. Weems capitalized on this slight connection and claimed knowledge that was more fiction than fact … oh well ...
In this little book about Washington, Weems creates a story that now everyone now knows to be fanciful … about the young George Washington … anyone wanna guess what that story might be?
Right! … the Cherry Tree Incident … as Mr. Weems wrote it, young George experimented with a hatchet, and chopped down his daddy’s favorite cherry tree.
When confronted by his father, young George confessed, I cannot tell a lie, father; I did it.
It would be good, I suppose, if life played out this way …
But life doesn’t play out like this … life’s vitalities are strange and oftentimes dark … befuddling and frightening … a mystery to us … why we behave as we do, sometimes … children sometimes chop down a tree, and when confronted, may flat out a lie about it - It wasn’t me; it was my sister.
Paul the Apostle said it well, when he wrote to the Romans … I know what I should do, but I don’t always do it. In fact, I often do just the opposite. What’s wrong with me?
The Bible never stops with just the good stuff … it tells the whole story, the good, the bad and the ugly.
From Genesis 3 on, we know that it’s going to be a bumpy ride:
Adam and Eve pluck the fruit ...
Cain kills Able … Lamech boasts of his blood-vengeance … Noah gets drunk … his son Ham laughs at him, and Noah curses him …
As the Genesis 12 story unfolds, after God’s call to Sarai and Abram, to be the mother and father of a new nation, with blessings for the world, we’re told in stark terms: There was a famine in the land.
Abram and Sarai set out to find food; they’re refugees now, hunger gnawing away at them … and so they end up in Egypt, of all places … Egypt!
When the story tellers of Judah crafted the Genesis material, they would have laughed at this point, an ironic laugh, to be sure … Egypt, of all places - what a strange sense of humor has God.
Genesis was written 1500 years after Abram and Sarai made their journey to Egypt … a land that would finally become the land of slavery and the house of bondage … four hundred years of slavery for the sons and daughters of Sarai and Abram.
And when Jesus is born, and Herod gets his back up, Mary and Joseph hit the road, refugees fleeing a bad political situation, and where do they go? The land of Egypt.
To fulfill, says Matthew, what the LORD had spoken: I have called my son out of Egypt.
Egypt, of all places!
Strangers in a strange land … and they’re scared.
Refugees are always scared, aren’t they?
Abram says to Sarai: You’re a fine looking woman …
Abram was already an old man - 75 years old he was … and Sarah was quite likely a bit younger …
Tell Pharaoh you’re my sister, if he wants you … that way he’ll spare my life.
Pharaoh falls for Sarai and takes her … things go well for awhile … Abram prospers … then things go south … plagues strike the house of Pharaoh … maybe Sarai dropped a few hints … Pharaoh adds it all up … calls Abram and says to him, Why did you lie to me?
Here’s Sarai … take her … and get the heck outta here … take what I’ve given to you; you don’t need to give me anything back, but leave us, please … be gone with you!
In this little story, so many truths …
The dreadful onset of famine ...
The power of fear …
The readiness to lie …
The woman as a pawn …
And strangely enough … Pharaoh the teacher!
What? What’s that you say?
Pharaoh the teacher!
More laughter, for sure … that the father of the nation receives moral instruction from, of all people, Pharaoh.
Humiliating … and honest!
Abram is a good man, but not all the time … he loves God, but sometimes self-love is all that he knows …
We don’t know what would have happened if Abram and Sarai had told the truth …
The story is not intended to promote speculation … the Bible doesn’t deal in what ifs, and what could have happened … as my son always says, “wouldas, couldas and shouldas never get us anywhere.”
So why would Judah tell such a strange story about the Mother and Father of the Nation?
Why not a story like the George Washington Cherry Tree Incident?
The Bible deals with reality … reality is where we live, and reality is where God does God’s work.
God at work in all things …
God in love with human beings … just as we are!
The message is clear ...
If God can love and call Abram and Sarai, then God can call anyone of us, all of us, just as we are … and though we don’t always get it right, God uses us for great things … great love, great moments … to change the world … and if not the world, at least change our corner of it … or maybe just change our mind, and change our heart.
I saw the movie, “42” yesterday, the story of Jackie Robinson, the first African American to play in the major leagues, 1947, hired by Branch Ricky, the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, “Dem Bums” … with hell to pay - heckling in the games, threats of violence, terrible letters written … Branch Ricky violated the code of baseball - A game only for white men …
When Jackie asks Branch Ricky, “Why did you do this?” Mr. Ricky replies, “I could no longer ignore it.”
Earlier in the story, Mr. Ricky says of Robinson, “He’s a Methodist,” and then adds, “I’m a Methodist, and God’s a Methodist - we’ll get it worked out.”
Mr. Ricky changed his own world, and then he changed the Dodgers, and then he changed baseball … when Branch Ricky had a chance, he did good.
God calls us to greatness … and Abram and Sarai were great people … doing great things for God … but they were not morally superior.
The call of God doesn’t make us morally superior to anyone else!
To know Christ doesn’t make us any better than someone who worships Allah, someone who’s a Buddhist or a Hindu … and certainly it doesn’t make us any better than an atheist … in the world we all live in, sometimes believers are terrible people, and sometimes atheists do wonderful things.
That’s a hard lesson for believers to understand sometimes … but it’s a vital lesson, which is why the Bible makes it so clear - it’s not about perfection, moral superiority, being better than others … it’s being available, available to God … Here I am, O LORD, here I am … and humble about it all, willing and ready to see the hand of God all over the place, and in all kinds of occasions, in every moment, and in all kinds of people.
God sees to it that goodness and morality and truth are found everywhere …
A constant reminder to us all … even Pharaoh can teach us some lessons now and then …
Maybe there are no enemies in this world after all, if we really think about it … who knows? … we can learn from everything and everyone, can’t we? … maybe that’s why Jesus says Love your enemy … that doesn’t mean have mushy gushy feelings - it means to give respect, pay attention, to - give to the enemy that which we would hope for from anyone else - treat others as we would hope to be treated … and, who knows, even from Pharaoh, we might have a thing or two to learn.
Teachers and learning-moments come in surprising ways …
Amen and Amen!
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