Wednesday, June 7, 2023

Wisdom Wednesday: Abram and Sarai

Grace and peace to you. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. I’m posting videos each Wednesday sharing devotions, reflections, church news, and book studies. Today is Wednesday, June 7, 2023 When I was a child in Sunday School, Miss Amanda, my Sunday School teacher, read us the story from the Old Testament of Daniel in the Lion’s Den. Daniel, a Jewish man, living in Babylon had been ordered by the Babylonian King not to pray to God, but Daniel did, so the king threw him into a den full of lions. The next morning, the King opened the den to see if Daniel had survived, which he had. Daniel said that God had closed the Lions’ mouths, preventing them from killing Daniel. It’s not in the scriptures, but I’m guessing God remembered to put mittens on the Lion’s claws too. Miss Amanda, my Sunday School teacher, had us make a Lion’s Den by our cupping our hands together and then we looked inside to count the number of lions we imagined in our dens. I don’t think Miss Amanda read us the end of the story in which the king ordered those who had conspired against Daniel to be thrown into the Lion’s den along with their families, and the lions absolutely killed all of them. The stories from the Bible that we were told as children often have unpleasant aspects to them. God saved Noah, and his family and all the animals on the ark, but what happened to Noah and his sons after the story is not really appropriate for a children’s Sunday school class. You can read that in Genesis 9. The young shepherd David was God’s chosen to be King of the Jewish people after he knocked out the giant Goliath, but what David did to Uzzah, one of his own soldiers was despicable. You can read that story in 2 Samuel chapter 11. Most of the great Biblical heroes and heroines do not always make good and Godly decisions, which is why I their stories so much. God was able to use these very flawed men and women to be a blessing to the nations, and that’s good news for me and for us because I am a very flawed person, and I do want to be a blessing to my family, my church, and my neighbors. Throughout the rest of the Sunday worship services in June, I’m going to be focusing on the biblical stories of the first family of Genesis: Abraham and Sarah, Hagar who is the mother of Abraham’s oldest son Ishmael, Abraham’s and Sarah’s son Isaac, and Isaac’s son Jacob. I’ll begin this upcoming Sunday, June 11 with God’s call to Abraham and Sarah, who were at that point known as Abram and Sarai. Each Wednesday beginning today and throughout June, I’ll give you a preview of Sunday’s Biblical story. So next Sunday we’ll read Genesis 12, verses 1-5, God calls Abram and Sarai and tells them to leave their home country and to travel to a new land. God tells them that they would settle in the new land, have a family, become a new people, and become a blessing to the nations. That’s a very tall order considering that Abram and Sarai had no children and were well beyond childbearing and child raising years. How they were to have a family and be a blessing to anyone was a mystery beyond them, but they went, and God delivered. Eventually. Abram and Sarai had any number of mistakes and misadventures and miscommunications along the way. We make mistakes and have misadventures and miscommunications along our way as well. And yet, God is willing and able to use us imperfect people to do good and Godly things. I’m eager to read these stories with you over the next few weeks! See you on Wednesdays and see you in church!