We Finished Or We Just Started

Reims Cathedral

 Genesis 48-50

“…and he (Joseph) was embalmed and placed in a coffin in Egypt.” 50:26

It’s ironic that Genesis starts and ends in the void.  It all began formless and void, dark as a 1000-foot hole and when the coffin lid shuts it’s just as black and blank.  Only God remains.  God gives everything the essence of existence.  Life is like a semblance of what’s to come in God through Christ.  It’s like a slide show of great art, the slides aren’t art but only a weary semblance.  You never get over the first time you see Reims Cathedral or Anish Kapoor’s Cloud Gate.  It’s then that you fully realize the hoax of the photo. 

That is what knowing Christ as Savior is like.  It’s like the hoax of life has been replaced by the Real Thing...Life, Life Abundantly. 

Cloud Gate
by Anish Kapoor

Post Script:  If you have followed along for this year you have just read through the entire Bible.  Good advice?  Start again tomorrow.

“And There Have I, Though Vile As he…”

Genesis 45-47

There is a God whose love is sewn through this family’s story that makes the dysfunction of the family irrelevant.  The story of the Israelites, of Joseph, his brothers, his father and all the rest is our story.  We are all, from Adam to you, messed up!!!  Only God can make us right!!!

Since we were on William Cowper yesterday lets listen to him again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hY7oXmxvwAI

Joseph Receives His Father
by Salomon deBray

God Can Use Anyone

Genesis 41-44

Joseph is a cocky little tease.  That’s how I read it.  He’s a spoiled braggart as a kid, a naive teenager as a servant and a vindictive practical joker as a young man.  Even in Hebrews 11 his faith is only mentioned in taking care of getting his bones back home. 

Why is his story told? 

God moves in a mysterious way

his wonders to perform…

                  William Cowper, 18^th C English poet

Joseph Accused By PotipharsWife
by Rembrandt

Lots Of Wax Needed

Genesis 35-40

From The Garden to Bethlehem, God is going to sculpt Himself into His human drama here on earth.  He’s sincere in this.  The word sincere comes from the Greeks meaning “without wax.”  This term was used when a bronze cast was without flaw.  When the bronze cast had a crack in it the sculptor would fill it with wax.

Chapter 38 is God’s wax.

Standing Women
Willem deKoonings bronzes, as do his paintings, seem to
be exactly matched to the readings today.

Staking Out The Earth

Genesis 31-34

Have you ever driven a stake into the earth?  Marked the planet to allow the ages to know you walked here. 

“And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where He (God) had spoken with him, a pillar of stone, and he poured out a libation on it; he also poured oil on it.  So Jacob named the place where God had spoken to him, Bethel.” 35:14-15

It is important that the finite time of the earth be wrinkled with your visit here.  God giving you existence is as meaningful as the sun, moon and stars!!!

Chris Nadaskay and I drove this stake in the earth, our sculpture named
Bethel, to commemorate God acting through His people.

The Dirty Laundry Of A Prize Stud

Genesis 27-30

These chapters are like airing the dirty laundry of all the skeletons in the closet.  The authenticity of the Bible is underscored by the dysfunction of many of its main characters and one of the most dysfunctional is the father of the twelve tribes, Jacob, soon to be renamed Israel.  He is a conniving scoundrel relegated to prize stud for his quarreling wife’s.  Not a bad perk but scandalous all the same. 

At times God’s love can only be maintained by the shaking of His head in honest recognition of His flawed creations.

Meeting Of Jacob And Laban With Rachel, Leah And Servants
by Jan Van Neck

How To Survive

Genesis 23-26

We come and we go.  One generation is gathered to the last and another is born to take its place.  Abraham and Sarah die, Isaac, Esau and Rebecca take their place and the journey ends for some and begins for others.  Something that is significant in today’s reading is the digging of wells.  Why is that included in their narrative?  A well was the only way they survived.

What are the wells in your life?  

Mother Earth
by Nubuo Sekine, an eight foot cylinder
dug in the earth and a matching
one on th earth.

Trees and The Everlasting God

Genesis 19-22

What happens when you encounter God?  How do you mark the event when He gives you a child, a grandchild, performs a miracle in your life or meets you along the way?

“And Abraham planted a tamarisk tree at Beersheba and there he called on the name of the Lord, the Everlasting God.” 21:33

We build altars and plant trees.  Just this past Sunday I held my granddaughter Reese by the hand and walked through the woods to show her, her tree, the tree we planted for God when she was born. 

Is there not a gift you can give God?

A Storm In The Rockies
by Albert Bierstadt of the Hudson River School

Don't Be A Gambler

Genesis 13-18

A profound mystery is unveiled in chapter 18.  Abraham successfully negotiates with The Lord.  We should take great joy in the fact that we are able to negotiate with God about everything from the frivolous to the fantastic.  A greater truth;

“You got to know when to hold’em

Know when to fold’em

Know when to walk away

Know when to run

You never count your money while you’re sitting at the table

There’ll be time enough for counting when the dealings done.”

An even greater TRUTH;

Never take God’s benign nature for granted.

HE NEVER HAS TO NEGOTIATE WITH US!!!  

Album cover

Infinite New Years

Genesis 8-12

Recorded history moves as a lightning bolt, life as a falling leaf.  It seems like today is long enough but the past, where did it go.  Today came the flood, the rainbow, the Tower of Babel and the calling of Abram.  The earth is being established.  Time is a profound thing.  All humans are eternal and yet we live like there’s no tomorrow.

Come to God.  There are infinite tomorrows with Him but only if we decide to live them with Him!!!

The Tower Of Babel
by Pieter Bruegel the Elder

The Ark Of Life

Genesis 4-7

How quickly our fate can change, one minute we are in heaven on earth and the next we’re out hoeing the weeds in the field.  In and out just like that.  

“Then the Lord said to Noah, “Enter the ark…”and Noah did according to all that the Lord had commanded him.” 7:1&5

Enter is one of those words we are grateful got invented.  We are invited to “enter” into God and in Him is eternal safety from even the worst of storms…death!

Noah's Ark
by Edward Hicks