As I write this I am preparing a eulogy for my father. I don’t like the term eulogy, although it has a good ancestry (Paul uses it in 2 Cor 1, and Ephesians 1 and so does Peter in 1 Peter 1). It sometimes sounds like whitewashing, especially at funerals. Sometimes they are just opportunities to talk about ourselves (I have heard some terrible ones).
But most of us want to say something about a friend or father who has died. Of course there are far too many things that could be said, and many that probably should not be said. Many are anecdotes, memories, recollections, views from different angles. In the same family people have different memories and views – sometimes radically different.
So what to say? And who to say it to?
These studies are meant to help us read and understand better the book of Genesis.
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It is difficult to hear Genesis speak to us in its own right because there are many other voices shouting at us or at Genesis, demanding to be heard, demanding to answer questions that are not the concern of Genesis, and wanting to set their own agendas for our reading of the book.
Some of these voices are our own of course. Genesis has been caught up in debates about the origins of the universe and we want to have a clear idea what views we should have in the debate. However the debates about science and origins can hijack our reading of Genesis so that the book only becomes a source of ammunition in the debate.
We are about to read again the stories of Abraham and his family. Old “Father Abraham” whose family had such a chequered history. Those of us with chequered families will be able to identify with (and take heart from) Abraham’s tribes.
We in our church family will also find lots of points of connection with Abraham and his kids. The stories in Genesis start wonderfully but end dismally – in captivity. But the beginning of stories often shows the ending. That’s the case in Genesis, although the end takes a long time in coming. In the middle there are many struggles, tragedies, acts of faith and disobedience, and over it all is a somewhat frustrated God.
The simple answer is, “Because of death.” Why should there be death in the first place? How come if God created everything, he made things to die? Of course he didn’t. He made them so they could live with him forever.
But something went wrong with the humans he made. To tell the truth, the humans went wrong. They had a difference of opinion with God as to who was the boss – who got to say how things should be. They tried to have a kind of coup, a takeover, a rebellion, you could say. The only trouble is they weren’t capable of running the world like God. Certainly not capable of living like God – you know, always just, fair, good, loving, caring ...
Sounds a bit boring. Sometimes it is called “Palm Sunday”, sometimes called “Passion Sunday”, sometimes known as the Sunday of “Holy Week”, or the “Great Week”.
From around the 4th century in Jerusalem there was a ceremony of blessing palms or branches and a procession to commemorate Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. From about the 8th century the practice gradually spread into the western (Roman) church. However by the time of the 16th century the liturgy of this week was strongly dominated by the passion of Christ.
A strange idea. I knew a man once who burnt all his Heavy Metal CDs – and his guitar – when he turned to Christ, because he saw them as part of a demonic dark period in his life from which he wanted to be free. But they were his CDs.
But where would you go to find out about burning other people’s Korans? The Old Testament gives some suggestions about smashing and burning idol images, but that is for idols that find their way into God’s land. It is not as though there was a general world-wide mandate given to the Israelites to search out and destroy all idols world-wide.
“Would you like to come to church with me next Sunday? The services are helping us understand about Jesus and why he died and was raised.”
Can you imagine a conversation like this? Or a variation of it? How would you change the dialogue to be more what you could imagine? “Would you be interested in coming to church with me ...?”
Most people who join congregations come because someone invited them. During last year’s Back to Church Sunday 100,000 Christians had 100,000 invitations accepted worldwide. Feedback in Australia suggests many people were waiting for an invitation.
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