Real. Dysfunctional. Biblical.

I’m sure over the past ten years or so many of you have developed a new “guilty pleasure” The reality TV show. Maybe you’re hooked on Dancing with the Stars, or Survivor. Some of you might love the drama of The Amazing Race. But, there is a new program out that takes reality to a whole new level. “The Real Housewives of the Bible.” This straight to DVD “reality program” chronicles the lives of 6 “real life” women attempting to keep their marriages intact while also attempting to live more like Biblical wives. The program parallels these 6 modern wives with 6 biblical wives that they are attempting to model their marriages after including Sarah (of Abraham and Sarah) and Rebekah (married to Isaac and mother of the two men in today’s first reading). The creator of the program claims that her hope is by using biblical families as role models, modern day wives and families can learn how to be better wives, sustain relationships and live out their marriages in ways that mirror those of biblical women. The creator goes on to say “I’m frustrated by modern day reality TV.” By getting back to living our lives the way people did in the Bible, we’ll have stronger marriages and stronger families.

I will agree with the The Real Housewives of the Bible on one point--the families found in the Bible may make for good modern day reality TV. Today’s first reading, with Jacob purchasing his brother’s birth rite for a bowl of stew is a classic example. However, I don’t think striving to be more like these families will strengthen us. The stories found in the Bible, and the Old Testament in particular captivate us. They, like reality TV demonstrate a sad reality of our broken creation, which, at times, show the worst that humanity has to offer.

Last week we were introduced to Isaac and Rebekah and discussed the messiness of their relationship. This week things get even more messy in our made for reality TV series as we meet their twin sons, Esau and Jacob. These two boys have been fighting from the moment they were born. The reading even tells us when the emerge Jacob is holding onto his brother Esau’s heal! There is favoritism, with Isaac loving Esau and Rebekah loving Jacob best. I can almost see the TV promo now: “Mom loves you more!” “Dad has never thought YOU could do ANYTHING wrong!” The reading is so powerful, because it is so true! And these boys don’t let up when they become men. Esau, famished, on the brink of starvation, comes to his brother asking for stew. And Jacob’ response “I’ll give you some. If you sell me your birthright.” Who needs TV when you have biblical families like this?

So to review, here are some highlights from our 4 week walk through Genesis: God creates the universe, and it is good. We skipped ahead of Genesis 2-6, so we missed the part where God’s first beloved chosen man and woman get themselves kicked out of the garden. We also missed the first murder—a murder between brothers. But, we did read how God thwarts Abraham’s attempt to offer Isaac as a sacrifice. And we covered the story of 40 year old Isaac who marries his teenage cousin. And now we’re examining Isaac’s dysfunctional sons, Esau and Jacob, who, after fighting within the womb, are so divided that Jacob purchases his brother’s birth rite for a bowl of (what does the text call it?) “red stuff.” What a cast of characters! What an unloveable, disconcerting, annoying bunch of relatives we share in this family of God! What is God going to do with these people? What!? He’s going to call them “chosen?” He’s going to spring forth from this dysfunctional family the Son of Man? You mean these are JESUS relatives?

What are we to do with the reality of these stories? I don’t think we strive to be more like them, as suggested in “The Real Housewives of the Bible.” Sadly, I don’t think we COULD be any more like them. It’s our similarity, our sin that caused brokenness then and continues to today. So, instead of striving to be more like them, we put down the TV remove, and we pick up a mirror. We consider our own reality. That we’re in families where brothers despise each other. That we belong to families where jealousy, betrayal and generational fighting is alive and well. We look in the mirror and wonder what God is going to do with a cast of characters like us.

And, once we’ve looked in the mirror, and once we’ve taken time to wonder what God’s going to do, we turn (pause) and we look to the cross and find our answer. We turn to the cross and see how God has turned a Roman device of torture into a device that unifies our real broken families. That through Christ, there is a new reality, one where our birth rite cannot be taken from us, but instead was purchased on (pause) that cross. We bask in the glory of our birth rite, and no longer despise it. And then, we walk to this altar, and we receive the bread and cup of salvation that will nourish our souls for eternity in a way that no “red stuff” ever could. Then, we walk about those doors, and as we leave, we dip our fingers in the baptismal font, reminding us that we are welcomed into the real, dysfunctional body of Christ, just as we are. That, my friends, is a reality better than any that could be created on television.

A messy cast of characters

This sermon explores the story of 40 year old Isaac & his young bride Rebekah.
















(A child bride & her new husband)

Every week you receive in your bulletin about 2 pages of announcements. In addition to the weekly calendar and information on upcoming events, you find a list of people whom you are asked to pray for including those facing illness or have been deployed. We send our blessings upon the life of Emily on her Baptism day and congratulations to Amy and Joseph on their wedding weekend. These announcements are not a Holy Trinity community calendar. They aren’t simply an FYI of the meetings and activities of a group of people. Our announcements, and the time that we use at the beginning of the service to highlight these announcements are a public profession of God’s work in our Christian community. It is a testimony, that at the beginning of life, God and the community of God’s people are present in events like Emily’s Baptism. It’s a testimony that God, and the community of God’s people are present at the end of life as well. The announcements are a statement of faith—we believe that we are called to gather in worship, grow in faith and go in service. That Christ’s call to “go forth and make disciples of all nations” is a call for us…It’s a call we live out by sharing the Word of God during VBS. These “announcements” are a testimony that we take seriously God’s call to feed the hungry and live it out by filling Christian Ministries food bank. You will notice, through these statements of faith in our weekly announcements that we don’t only highlight the neat, clean, positive aspects of life. They don’t simply include the “positive” aspects of community life. Because we don’t believe that God is absent when tragedy strikes, or when life is painful, we don’t wash over the announcements and stories of life that are painful. We believe God is present throughout our lives, in our joys and in our sorrows, and in the sometimes unconventional decisions we make.

The belief that God is present in all stages of our lives, in the clean parts, and in the messy are not only highlighted in our announcements. They are highlighted in scripture. When we look at today’s 1^st reading from Genesis 24, we find a God who is present in the mess of life, remaining faithful to His people. Isaac, who is about 40 years old in this passage, has not yet found a wife. His nervous father Abraham decides to address this matter, telling his servant (ie slave) that he needs to find a wife for Isaac. Not just any wife, but someone in the family. The servant/slave swears an oath that he will go back to Abraham’s homeland and bring back a wife—he won’t allow Isaac to live with the girl’s family, instead, the servant needs to find a girl and bring her back. The servant sets off, and begins to pray, and during this prayer sees a girl who may be a relative. He asks who she is, and the girl confirms that she is indeed family…a cousin to Abraham and Isaac. After meeting with the girl’s family, it is agreed that Rebekah, who is probably around 12-14 yrs old, is to leave her family, likely never to see them again, and go marry a 40 year old man she has never met. The passage concludes as she is taken by Isaac into his mother’s tent, and they are married. Isaac is comforted by his new wife following his mother’s death.

We have a 12-14 yr old girl taken from her home and family, sent to marry a 40 year old relative she has never met. I’ve written many announcements for church bulletins, but I have to say, that one would be a bit tricky! But, the Bible was not given to us as the Word of God so we could examine the neat, clean lives of upstanding citizens from ancient times. It’s not a history book filled with perfect events or perfect people, just like our announcements are not edited down to only include “happy” events. The Word of God was given to us, so we may see that God is present with, and uses the lives of very messy people. He promises never to abandon young girls who are married off to strangers, those who experience this 5,000 years ago as well as those who experience it today. God is present with Isaac, who is still mourning the death of his mother, 3 years after she is gone in the same way He is present with those in our midst who mourn the death of their mothers. This passage tells us that God is present in the midst of our lives, no matter what our lives may contain. God is in the ordinary, everyday events of life—births, weddings, deaths through the generations. God doesn’t stop his active role in human history because births, weddings, and deaths get messy. Instead, He fully immerses Himself in human history BECAUSE births, weddings, and deaths get messy. Moreover, God uses this messy family: Abraham, who fathered a child with a slave. Isaac, who marries a teenager. Rebekah, taken from her homeland. And it doesn’t stop with the messy people of the Old Testament. God will continue to use each and every one of us in the midst of our messy lives. When we are ill, when we disappoint our loved ones, when we are in jail, when we are divorced. In a society that says “we can’t use someone like you” God turns to us and says “I can. And I will.”

Scripture passages like these also give us permission to tell our own messy stories and share God’s presence in them. When we read these uncomfortable passages, we can find comfort, because we know that God did not abandon the people of the Bible for their practices, and He will not abandon us for ours. Instead, the messy stories help spread the faith and work of God—stories from 5,000 years ago, and stories from 5 minutes ago. Telling these stories does not mean we are accepting them as "correct" or what God wanted as a whole. Instead it is professing our faith that God has and will continue to work within us, moving us toward the fulfillment of his promise that comes through Christ.