Consequences

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Abram, consequences, generosity, Genesis, hearts, jealousy, Meg Wheatley, perseverance, Sarai, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

After reading today’s text from the lectionary (GN 16:6B-12, 15-16) about Sarai’s inability to have children and her acquiescence to Abram’s need for an heir, I found her decision to “give” her maidservant, Hagar, to him as his concubine rather surprising. Actually, it was her behavior after the decision that belied the seeming generosity of her decision. She was very abusive of Hagar when Hagar became pregnant! Serendipitously, without any effort on my part, (Does anything really happen “by chance?”) I opened Meg Wheatley’s book, Perseverance, and found the following:

Jealousy and generosity are reverse images of one another. In response to any circumstance, one or the other will arise, guaranteed. Since they inhabit the same space, only one can appear at any time; they cancel each other out. Jealousy arises as generosity disappears, generosity flourishes as jealousy is stilled…

As closely connected as jealousy and generosity are, they create very different consequences. If jealousy predominates, we turn inward, shrivel our hearts, and lose strength. If generosity grows, we grow also. Our world expands. We realize there is enough to go round…

The world expands from the inside out – it’s our hearts that have enlarged. We not only feel more loving, we’re also more open and aware. We see more, we take in more, we let in more.

Jealousy is such a waste of a good human heart. (p. 75)

Sacred Contracts

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Abram, contract, covenant, Genesis, Psalm 105, sacrifice, spiritual agreement, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

The lectionary readings today speak loudly of covenants. The best and most dramatic story is from Genesis where God directs Abram to prepare a series of animals and birds for sacrifice and then sends a fire to “seal the deal.” (GEN 15: 1-12, 17-18)

I learned long ago that with reference to God and humans, a covenant is a contract between God and people. This morning I wanted something more sacred and found a short paragraph on the internet that satisfied me. It explained it as follows:

There are some fundamental differences between a covenant and a contract. While a contract is legally binding, a covenant is a spiritual agreement. A contract is an agreement between parties while a covenant is a pledge. A contract exchanges one good for another, while a covenant is giving oneself to the other.

How comforting is is to know – as Psalm 105 reminds us today – that “the Lord remembers his covenant forever.” My question to myself today is: Am I willing to do the same, always remembering my covenant with God?

Holy Land

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Abram, Genesis, listening, Lot, Peace, separate, surrender, the Holy Land, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, willingness

Occasionally – not often but once in awhile – when I read the lectionary texts from the Bible I long for “the old days” – a simpler time. This morning’s reading from Genesis (GN 13:2, 5-18) has Abram and Lot in conversation about their many possessions and how the land can’t support both of them; their herdsmen were quarreling. So Abram simply says to Lot, “We’re kinsmen; we don’t want any strife between our herdsmen or ourselves. Let’s separate. If you want to go left, I’ll go right and vice versa.” So Lot went east and Abram stayed in Canaan – just like that.

Would that things could be settled today in like manner. But no, the strife in “the Holy Land” goes on and on with no peace on the horizon. How are we to interpret God’s promises in these complex times? Certainly not with contentious rhetoric or weapons. How can God break through to the hearts of all parties in a way that will bring peace to the Middle East? Only, it seems, by listening more deeply to the hearts of one another and allowing love for God and for the land to be the impetus for reconciliation. It will take great leaders and great willingness to surrender on the part of everyone in order to see the truth that all are one in God and that there is enough for everyone’s need. May it be true in our day. May peace come to reign once again, I pray.

What’s Your Name?

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Abraham, Abram, Confirmation, Genesis, inhabit, name, Sarah, Sarai, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

In this morning’s first lectionary reading from the Book of Genesis, chapter 17, we have a continuation of God’s conversation with Abram, now known as Abraham, about his wife Sarai, now to be called Sarah because she was to be blessed with a child in her old age – surely a direct result of God’s favor. Those seem hardly noticeable changes, but changes nevertheless. We add or change our names also at certain junctures for different reasons, most commonly in marriage (now often by hyphenation rather than leaving a birth name connection behind) and religiously in the Christian sacrament of Confirmation where our new, additional name should honor a person or signify a character of holiness that we wish to achieve.

I was always happy with my name in one sense; I was always the only Lois in my class at school and it was rare to meet someone else so named. That was easier than trying to figure out which Mary or Maureen or Michael was the subject of conversation. It was only in my high school Math class that I jumped every once in awhile, thinking I had been called on, when the truth was that the teacher was talking about the “lowest common denominator.” (Say that phrase aloud quickly and you may see what I mean.)

On the other hand, I grew up with lots of references to being Superman’s girlfriend, Lois Lane, which wasn’t so bad, I guess, but would have been better if I really had access to the favors of such a hero. More concerning was the question of my “patron saint.” All Catholic children had to have a name derived from that of a recognized saint of the Church so my patron, I was told, had to be St. Louis (King Louis IX of France) or St. Louise de Marillac, founder of the Daughters of Charity, a religious community of nuns in the 16th century. Since my name was not Louis or Louise, I chose always to remind people that my middle name was Ann – mother of Mary, grandmother of Jesus, which was okay but not easily evident and required explanation. Imagine my joy and surprise when I began to read the Bible and realized that the second Letter of Paul to Timothy spoke of Timothy’s “mother Eunice and grandmother Lois.” What a relief!

All of this babble is only half of the point I wish to make this morning. My first thought was to focus on the importance of our names and whether or not we “inhabit” them. It took me a long time to feel comfortable with “Lois” although when spoken by someone who loved me it always sounded better. As I have grown into and accepted more and more the person whose name is Lois, I am more content. I do wonder about the son that was born to Abraham and Sarah in fulfillment of God’s promise, however. How would you feel if your name meant “he laughs” which was Abraham’s reaction to God’s prediction. Unless Isaac could turn the meaning around and become a happy-go-lucky person (quite hard work if we believe the chronicles of his life), I think he must’ve struggled a bit!

What about you? Do you know the genesis of your name? Is it special to you? Have you grown into it gradually or always been comfortable? Do you have a special, secret name by which you hear God or special people call you? What name would you choose if you were given the opportunity, and why? Today I plan to listen for God saying my name in the silence. Hearing that call could be more precious than gold.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Count the Stars

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Abraham, Abram, covenant, descendants, Genesis, God, night sky, silence, stars, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, weather

Last night when I finally turned off my bedroom light and got into bed I immediately had to get up again. I have a high window on the wall beside my bed and in the dark I saw that the night sky was resplendent with stars! I knelt on my bed to see what I could from there and then moved to the window that looks out on the back yard. Not enough of a view, I went into the room next to mine to see if I could escape the fullness of the trees…Not really. I needed to be outside to get the full effect – but it was late and, not willing to disturb the lovely, absolute silence of the house, I went back to bed, but smiling inside and out.

This morning I felt a little envious of Abram (not yet Abraham since God’s covenant with him was yet to be made) as I read that God took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars, if you can. Just so,” God added, “shall your descendants be.” I can only imagine Abram’s feeling inside – a complex mix of amazement, wondering and perhaps doubt, since he and his wife were getting old and had no children. Maybe it was the enormity and beauty of the stars that convinced him to trust in God’s promise; the Scripture says that at that moment, “Abram put his faith in the Lord.” (GN 15:1-12)

Back in my own backyard, I was thinking more about the day with reference to Abram’s life and mine. The weather held everything yesterday: a cool breeze, magnificent sunshine, a quick, loud and torrential thunderstorm – even the smallest arc of a colorful rainbow, just for a moment – and, of course, the stars. I’m guessing, by what we know from the Scriptures and from what is easy to extrapolate from those texts, that Abram’s life was a bit like the weather – as is mine. It wasn’t all, as they say, “sunshine and flowers” but the rainbows and glorious night sky were likely enough for him to hold on when the hard times came. (Who of us would be happy to uproot our whole clan and move to another country at age 75? Maybe a modern-day refugee could give us a good sense what that costs.)

God made a covenant with Abraham that day and kept it. I’m certain that it had to be renewed in Abraham’s soul on a regular basis. We would do well to pay attention to the stars or whatever prompts us to bow down to the marvelous things God is doing in our lives that reminds us to stay the course for another day.