I was talking recently with a small group of parishioners about some the stories in the book Genesis. Those stories can be read in many ways. Some take them as literally true and others as myths and folk tales, as stories of fictional heroes from a long, long time ago. Of course, that does not deny that they teach us truths. What I also believe is true is, while they are wonderful stories for telling us about the human experience, where all the goodness and pettiness or worse of human character is on display, there is another story running in the background. It is the story of God who makes an appearance at the beginning and reappears here and there within a narrative that generally seems to focus our attention not on God, but mostly on the characters and unfolding plots of the subsequent Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob sagas. In these sagas we catch glimpses of God’s character, God’s faithfulness, and God’s enduring providence. We see that time and again, human failing does not prevent God’s will from being done. These stories show God working with humans as they really are, as real people like you and me, and not with saints and superstars. God does not give up on them and in the end we see transformed people coming a little closer to being the people who show the character of God in their lives and their relationships. The hope these stories should give us comes from believing God is still God, still having God’s way, still working in and through us, still transforming us even if slowly, and that in the end God’s justice, peace, and reconciliation will win the day in our lives and the world.
Just to note a couple examples from these early Bible stories, recall the twins Esau and Jacob. Two boys from the same mom and dad, reared in the same household, but yet so different in interests, outlooks, and character you might think they belonged to different tribes. The story suggests that Esau was dim-witted and impulsive. His brother Jacob was a crafty, manipulative, liar. Neither is the sort of person we should aspire to be. Jacob takes advantage of his brother, lies to his father and steals his brother’s blessing, and his mom helps him do it. Esau seeks to kill his bother but before we have Cain and Abel Part II, mom helps the favored son get away. This is not the first nor the last dysfunctional family. Years later, they reunite. Esau is now wealthy, as is Jacob, both have large families, and both apparently so without any mention of what they inherited from their father Isaac. So much for the material gains of that birthright that was so easily given away for a bowl of stew. You see, God made a promise to Abraham much earlier in this family story. It was a promise to bless and prosper God’s people. Family dysfunction might make us wonder if and how that promise will appear but appear it does. In the end, God’s will be done.
Likewise, we read about another sibling rivalry in the story of Leah and Rachel. These are the co-wives of Jacob, the ones he gets when the trickster himself is tricked by his maternal uncle named Laban. What goes around, right? Seems just doesn’t it? Telling the truth is not a defining family trait of these folk. Yet there is sadness too. Leah is the unloved bride. The Hebrew text says that she has timid eyes, which may be “lovely” as the NRSV translates it, but the Hebrew word suggests that Leah had already lost hope. I wonder what has caused this because the text does not say. Maybe it was all the bad behavior she had seen. On top of this despondency she gets married off by trickery, has to face the rejection she must have felt the morning after her marriage when Jacob reacts with shock to seeing her in the marriage bed, and then suffer the humiliation of knowing that her new husband was willing to accept another seven-year term of service to get what he really wanted - Rachel. “Lovely” eyes indeed. But this is all people being people, right? It is pride, and envy, and fleshly unholiness as well as, I am sure, some righteous behavior here and there. All the while, God seems to have eyes on Leah the unloved and she has many children while Rachel does not. God’s love for Leah is evident. I wonder if her eyes changed. Both sisters end up with the blessing of children and those children end up with their own sad discontent and struggles. Yet it is from this very human family that we get the line of David and the line of Jesus. In the end, God’s will be done.
I find these hopeful stories for our times. The details of where we find ourselves as families, as a community, and as a nation are different but we are not so different in our character and our struggles from Esau and Jacob, Laban and Rebekah, Leah and Rachel. God worked in and through them, often appearing only behind the scenes, but never giving up on them and so, I suppose, never giving up on us either. Keep the faith. In the end, God’s will be done. In the end, there is grace.
Grace and peace,
Fr. Bill+