Day 4 – Genesis 10 – 12; Ps. 4; Matthew 4


Genesis 10, a genealogy does not make the most exciting reading in the Old  Testament and can easily be skimmed.  This particular genealogy is placed  in Genesis in the wake of the Flood Narrative to explain the peopling of the 
whole earth by the remnant family of Noah following the flood in obedience to  the divine directive, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” (Gen  9:1).   Israel’s narrative continues, for the moment, to have 
universal humankind in focus.  In chapter 12, this will change as one  person, Abraham, becomes  the focus, not only of the narrative, but of  God’s call and divine activity.
 Before Abraham, however, Genesis 11  presents  another crisis in the human and God relationship.  You might  have thought that humankind would have learned its lesson following the wrath of 
the flood.  Not so. (Have we ever learned?)  Human pretensions to  divine status are a constant temptation and a consistent theme of the biblical  narrative.   The story of Babel is one entry in this theme.  

The Babel story is undoubtedly very ancient, likely predating Israel’s 
theological evolution to strict monotheism, which is why in verse 7, Yahweh 
says, “Let us…”   The story was originally an “etiology” (a story to 
explain origins, e.g., of customs, places or practices).  In this case, the 
etiology is about the origins of different languages.  But the Babel story 
has been shaped by Israel to go beyond this and to portray the seemingly 
unlimited bounds of human ambition and resistance to God.  The question of 
“languages” is the vehicle for this particular portrayal.   

Biblical scholar, Walter Brueggemann has written, “The text encourages 
reflection upon language as a peculiarly important human activity.  It 
raises important questions about how we speak and how we listen and 
answer.  It asks about the quality of human communication and the function 
of language.  The faithful community exists (among other things) to 
maintain a faithful universe of discourse against the languages around us which 
may coerce, deceive, manipulate or mystify…”  (Brueggemann, Walter – 
Interpretation – A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching:  Genesis – 
Atlanta:  John Knox Press, 1982, 102).   
In our society 
today, polarized as it so often is, when so many seem to speak across one 
another and not to listen to or hear the other, this story of Babel has 
considerable relevance. 

The Rev. Canon William H. Stokes
Rector, St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Delray Beach, FL

The Bible Challenge, Day 3: Genesis 7-9, Psalm 3 and Matthew 3

  In a flash humanity manages to slide down that slippery slope from 
profoundly blessed to doomed for destruction.  We start out in Paradise 
like a newborn baby with infinite possibilities for life, and before we are 
wet behind the ears, we decide to choose instant gratification over 
following the wise instruction from our truly best friend in that forbidden 
fruit incident.  As we begin making our way in the tough environment of 
“real life,” jealous anger lures us to murder a brother, and soon humanity 
has become evil through and through.  It seems that the whole of human 
ancestry has entered its teenage years, playing fast and loose with 
consequences, and pursuing selfishness by default.  

Mark Twain once said: “When a boy turns 13, put him in a barrel and feed him 
through a knot hole.  When he turns 16, plug up the hole.”  And 
even though Twain wrote those words millennia after the time of Noah, God 
recognizes the sentiment.  God makes us for himself, to enjoy our 
company and to watch us grow and flourish, but one day when God looks down 
on righteous Noah, God comes to realize that Noah alone cares about God: 
about worshipping God and enjoying God’s friendship and about treating 
others with respect and justice.  Brokenhearted, God decides to make a 
clean sweep.  God will save Noah and his family and preserve a couple 
of each species in Creation so that they can repopulate the earth after all 
other breath has been snatched away.  There is much about this story 
that we have to read between the lines, but it seems that the extinction 
experiment is somehow traumatic for God.  So, God creates the rainbow 
as a sign that God is not going to choose mass annihilation again.  
People have reassurance and God has a check on negative impulses.

Thus, from the beginning humanity establishes a pattern of going with 
base instincts instead of with divine directions and the Spirit’s nudging at 
our hearts and lives.  Finally God inaugurates a plan that will renew 
the face of the earth.  The sign of this new creation is once again 
water, but this water is not for drowning the reprobate, but for cleansing 
him or her from the inside out.  John bursts onto the scene and urges 
us to wake up, turn around our lives, and embrace a new start as forgiven 
folks.  The act of baptism marks the beginning of Jesus’ adult 
ministry, and in the process his heavenly Father reminds Jesus that he is 
dearly beloved.  God keeps whispering those words into our hearts to 
drown out the flood of criticism and blame the world keeps shouting.  
Do you hear God’s whisper, Beloved One?
 
 The Rev. Jennie 
Lou D. Reid+
Rector, St. Faith’s Episcopal Church, 
Cutler Bay,  Florida

Matthew 2  

As Christians looking at the history of our salvation, we note that at certain  precise moments God intervenes in noticeably unique ways in order to advance the  plan of bringing all women and Men to God.

A beautiful hymn in the Church of England’s hymnal, “Hymns Ancient and  Modern”, states the following in the first stanza:  “God is working his  purpose out as years succeed to years.

God is working his purpose out And the time is drawing near
Nearer and nearer draws the time
The time that shall surely  be
When the earth shall be filled with the glory of God 
as the waters  cover the sea.

 As we look at the story in the second chapter of the Gospel of Matthew,  we see God’s plan being challenged by King Herod, using trickery and even a  massacre of innocent children to block God’s plan.  He fails as we can see  and everything went as announced by the prophet according to the gospel, “He  will be called a Nazarene.”

 While we humans are endowed with God’s gift of freedom of choice, we  are yet called to participate in this great plan of salvation and given specific  tasks.  We know that come what may, God is in charge.  

There is a Haitian proverb that expresses the belief found in Psalm2,  “No flood can remove what God has set aside for his purpose.”
 
The Venerable J. Fritz Bazin, D. Min.
Archdeacon for Immigration 
and Social Justice Ministries
Diocese of Southeast Florida

Day 1:  Genesis 1-3, Matthew 1, Psalm 1

“…and they meditate on his  law day and night.  They are like trees planted by streams of water…”  (Psalm 1:2b-3a).

My favorite tree is a venerable Atlas Cedar that stands 
sentinel over the Bishop’s Garden on the grounds of the National
Cathedral.  Impossibly long green-blue boughs, gnarled and lithe, reach to  the sky in a loving embrace.  It conveys power, beauty and life – a  God-given image for a life rooted, growing and thriving in God’s love, as the  psalmist understood.

In Genesis 1 we start not at the beginning but in the 
beginning and so are drawn into the glorious mystery of God’s eternal being.  From the creative power of God’s Word springs forth life, which evolves in an orderly way, from the simple to the complex, from the inorganic to  the organic.  God’s creative work culminates with humankind – male and  female – formed in God’s image.  Our spiritual DNA enables us to receive  and respond to God and to mirror, however imperfectly, God’s nature.  I  find this holy and humbling each day.  Genesis presents us not with a  scientific blueprint of creation, but something more profoundly revealing:  God’s desire for humanity and all creation to share in God’s abundant  life.  As God says, this is “very good”.  It still is.

God’s  affirmation of the goodness of creation is cosmic and personal.  At our  baptisms, the moment of God’s birthing us as children of God by water and the  Holy Spirit, we hear the words Abba spoke at Jesus’ baptism, echoing and  personalizing the divine affirmation:  “This is my beloved child, joy of my 
heart, with whom I am well pleased.”  This is very good, indeed.

A favorite game we play in our family is selecting the names for future pets  –Isabella the cat, Dietrich the German Shepherd.  It’s not just a game, for  in Genesis 2, God creates human community, the mutuality of Eve and Adam as companions, whose responsibility includes naming the animals.  Stewardship  of creation remains fundamental human work.  This stewardship extends to  ourselves.  God gives us the gift of the Sabbath rest, the regular pause of reflection and re-creation as a holy pattern for living.  This gift is ever  more precious in a world which values human success increasingly in terms of  multi-tasking productivity.

Genesis 3 changes everything.  Evil craftily  asserts itself into the human condition distorting our relationship with God.  Disobedience to God’s command provokes the distressing consequences  of fracturing our relationship with God, each other and with creation  itself.  A Dr. Phil-like episode of “the blame game” ensues in which Eve blames the snake, while Adam blames Eve and God.  Instead of walking with  God in the cool of the evening breeze, Adam and Eve run for cover.  Banished from our intended home, they live in a world “east of Eden.” This is where we still live.

The word “obedient” at its etymological root means to  “listen deeply”.  As we listen anew for God’s call, we hear the call to  come home to God.  Our journey to read the Bible in a year points us to  this second journey:  the life-long sacred pilgrimage to return to our  first Love and true home.  As St. Augustine wrote, “our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee.”

Through the generations, God issues this call until  the Call becomes flesh and dwells among us as Jesus, whose very name means “God  saves”.  As the opening of Matthew’s gospel reveals, it begins with a  faithful maiden, Mary, and a gracious husband, Joseph, and continues when we say  “yes” to God’s life being born in us.

In just these first several chapters,  the flow of God’s living water feels unimaginable wide and deep.  It’s good to be an Atlas Cedar planted by this stream. 

The Rev. Andrew J.  Sherman,
Rector, St. Gregory's Episcopal Church, Boca Raton