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Readings and Thoughts
 | | On this page are presented readings, pictures and thoughts inspired by the key Biblical stories. In medieval times the use of wall paintings to illustrate theological truths to an illiterate congregation was considered standard practice but the Calvinistic teachings of the reformation inspired the puritans to cover them over. Today thanks to the internet it is possible to appreciate thousands of masterpieces of religious art. I have selected one for each story. |
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Adam and Eve
 | And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
8 And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.
9 And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
The creation story is one of the most fundamental in the whole Bible. From it stems everything else. For many it is a stumbling block to faith - hasn’t science disproved the Bible, doesn’t evolution disprove creation? Many evangelicals place a great deal of emphasis on the literal truth of creationism. They argue that (i) evolution is unproven and (ii) creationism is theologically essential to Christianity. They reject the compromise position of theistic evolution where natural selection is seen as God’s means of guiding creation to His ends. I suggest that at present both the evangelical claims are open questions and no one should use creationism as a reason for choosing to disbelieve in God. What is critical is that we understand that God created everything and that He made humans to be special - in His own image - and capable of a relationship with Him.
When Adam and Eve chose to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil they were seeking to gain a moral understanding (and a status) independent of God who had created them. They gained that knowledge, but by doing so they gained a knowledge of right and wrong untempered by any sense of love and so cut themselves off from God. For those who prefer to accept an evolutionary theory this story symbolises the fact that at some point humans gained a moral insight that animals lack and in so doing became subject to sin.
A difficult question is that of original sin. How could the actions of two people be laid at the door of all humanity? This hardly seems fair. Science suggests an answer. Prof. Dawkins (a militant atheist) talks of the ‘selfish gene’ - could original sin be a symbolic statement of the scientific fact that genes ‘seek‘ only their own survival?
Jesus (and so the solution to sin) is represented by the Tree of Life which was also in the Garden of Eden and which was not forbidden to Adam and Eve. They were driven out of the Garden because this Tree would have given them everlasting life which they had forfeited by their sin.
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Noah's Ark
 | And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth ... For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth. And Noah did according unto all that the LORD commanded him. And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth. And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood... And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth. (Genesis 6-8 extracts)
The story of Noah is a reminder of several key truths -
· the wickedness of mankind
· the mercy of God
· His promise never to repeat the flood (symbolised by the rainbow)
People sometimes ask why God allows evil to persist. One answer is that the only way to eliminate it would be to destroy every living person! This God has promised not to do. For a fuller discussion of this issue, see Sermon Two.
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Abraham and Isaac
 | Abraham prepares to sacrifice his son
2 Then God said, "Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about." ...
... 9 When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 11 But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, "Abraham! Abraham!" "Here I am," he replied. 12 "Do not lay a hand on the boy," he said. "Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son." ......15 The angel of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven a second time 16 and said, "I swear by myself, declares the LORD , that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, 18 and through your offspring [2] all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me." (Gen 22)
This is a very difficult passage. are we to accept that it literally happened? Is it not horrific to believe that Abraham would sacrifice his son or that God would wish him to? Did not God condemn the heathen for that very crime? A key is to see this as a pattern of faith. Abraham demonstrated faith in God's word and was rewarded for this. The sacrifice symbolises the later sacrifice of Jesus, God's own son. Even in those early times, we are to conclude, faith was the way to know God.
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Moses and the 10 Commandments
 Moses on Mt Sinai
1 And God spake all these words, saying,
2 I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
7 Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
12 Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
13 Thou shalt not kill.
14 Thou shalt not commit adultery.
15 Thou shalt not steal.
16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
17 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.
18 And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off.
The giving of the 10 Commandments marks the institution of the Old Covenant. This was - for the Jews - the (temporary) solution to the problem of the sin first committed in the Garden of Eden. By obeying the commandments and by following the complex rituals laid down in Jewish law it was possible to be righteous. Except that it was not really possible. No one could hope to obey every rule and so St Paul could state without fear of contradiction that ‘no one is righteous, no, not one’. Of course, the commandments form the basis of all western and muslim moral teaching and most of them would be regarded as still valid today but for the Christian they were superseded by the New Covenant of Jesus which does not require humans to become righteous by their own efforts but through God’s grace. |
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