Genesis
– with great delight and swiftness Abraham responds to the Lord – the three
visitors. It says that when Abraham saw the three visitors – the Lord he ran
from the tent to meet them. I can picture his enthusiasm and every response he
has in this meeting is immediate and forceful; Abraham really wants to be there
for these guests. Did you notice, as I did that we have three visitors – and yet
when they speak it is as if one person is speaking: “The Lord”? It seems a very
Trinitarian episode – these three persons who are one Lord.
Then
we hear that Sarah laughs – and then denies it – where have we seen this
behavior before? It makes me think of Adam and Eve in the Garden when they have
eaten the apple. Why do you suppose our first response is to deny something?
Does embarrassment make us do it? Was Sarah embarrassed to have been found out?
I mean, I can understand her thinking to herself –yeah sure, now that I am old
I’ll have that baby I’ve always dreamed of; not likely I’d think to myself –
wishful thinking some might say, and yet when the Lord knows the thoughts of
her heart her reaction is to deny it – oh no I didn’t say that. In fact she had
just laughed to herself and then when they (He) knew it she was afraid – who was
this, and how was it that they (He) knew the thoughts of her heart? Even though
Sarah and Abraham were old – they were new to their relationship with the Lord,
it is hard to fathom a God who knows the thoughts of our hearts – and cares to
respond to them.
This
section in 1 Chronicles 19 reminds me of something very personal, and I will
share it here. We see that David has sent his men ahead to pay their respects
and they are treated poorly. Once they have returned to David he says to them
stay awhile at Jericho until your beards be grown (1 Chronicles 19:5) and I was
reminded of a song from a play my mother and Helen Hughes wrote/produced when I
was a girl. The song is about Lima beans and it seems a silly song that I ‘sing’
for my nieces and nephews but the reason I was reminded of it today is that
this phrase we shall stay awhile at
Jericho until our beards be grown is a direct quote in the song and
obviously comes from this passage in scripture...I hadn’t known that. The other
verses in the song speak of other occurrences in the Old Testament that I was
more familiar with so how fun it was to find out that this ‘silly song’ used
direct scripture for its basis. Thanks for letting me share that with you, I
appreciate that it means nothing to you, but ask me sometime and I’ll sing the
Lima Bean song for you.
In
the fear of taking too much of your time today I won’t write much on the Luke
passage, yet it too is very important and my mother did a skit on the Lord’s
prayer. In this passage Jesus tells the disciples how to pray and we all may
know the words, but part of the skit asks us to consider whether or not we
really truly take the time to attend to them – and to their meaning when we
pray? And when we do mean what we pray, and our prayers are answered, are we
living into that newly restored life – or do we fall back into our old patterns
– and find the same demons and worse have moved in to take control? These are
very good questions and I will leave us today to ponder the answers for
ourselves.
Today’s
readings: Psalm 17, Genesis 18:1-15, 1 Chronicles 18-20, Luke 11:1-36
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