This blog serves as an outreach for Pastor Randy Powell of the First Baptist Church of Franklin, PA. Feel free to ask questions or send me an e-mail at pastorpowell@hotmail.com
God's promise to Abram about the land of Canaan is the foundation for a conversation about the challenging history and complicated present of this land and its people that leads to two resolutions: (1) The Jewish people have a right to live in this land, (2) everyone else who lives in this land deserves basic human rights and freedoms.
Following the Tower of Babel incident, when God dispersed a human effort to establish his presence among humanity, the narrative of Genesis turns toward the family line that leads to Abram, the man whom God will choose to begin his relationship with one particular people, and through them bless the world.
God asks a lot of Abram, to leave his homeland and trust that God will make him into a great nation despite the lack of children in his marriage with Sarai. But God also promises amazing things to Abram, going far beyond what any connection to a God in the Ancient Near East would expect to be by proposing to Abram an enduring relationship. With God it wouldn't be a mutually beneficially bargain, instead it would be an outpouring of grace.
Sometimes it is difficult for us to connect with the purpose behind why a particular portion of scripture was included in the sacred text. Lists of names are probably high on that list, and so too is the story of the Tower of Babel given how often it is misunderstood.
These two episodes in chapters 10-11 of Genesis are there to set the stage for God's work in calling Abram in chapter 12. The 70 nations show the diversity that God had to choose from, emphasizing as always that salvation is God's grace not human effort, and the Tower of Babel illustrates this principle in action. The builders of the tower, a ziggurat, had hoped to invite God (or a god) to come down from heaven to dwell with them, a stairway from heaven (not a prideful stairway to heaven). This is a noble thought, but a misguided one. Humanity cannot solve its own sin problem. We need a savior, and it needs to be on God's terms and according to God's timetable.
For whatever reason, I can't share this link directly to Facebook; it was removed as spam. So I'll write a quick block post and encourage anyone who clicks on my post to go to the webpage below and look at this long list of unethical and unacceptable behavior on the part of the current administration.
Why does this topic matter to me? Cornerstone University was deeply influential on my intellectual and spiritual development, it was a major step in the road that led me to where I am today as an ordained minister serving the Church. As such, watching this institution that I love, that once was something that I was proud of, become something that fits snuggly into the politics and culture war tainted world around us is heartbreaking.
Voice of CU: Documentation and Testimony
Note: I don't know who the anonymous alumnus behind the Voice of CU is, he/she attended the school long after I did, but I understand the desire to remain anonymous given the culture of fear created by a willingness to retaliate against any/all critics.
To read my previous posts connecting to this current unfolding sad drama:
The Cornerstone University I graduated from is no more, my daughter won't be going there.
In our only glimpse in Genesis into the lives of Noah's 3 sons, a family incident involving Noah being passed-out drunk leads to one son, Ham, choosing to spread the news about Noah (gossip) rather than help him, and the other two, Shem and Japheth, doing their best to show respect to their father even in his current state.
In the narrative of Genesis, this brief story functions as a device to frame the upcoming judgment of God against Ham's symbolic descendants, the Canaanites. It also reminds us that issues within our families are some of the most difficult moral questions and character moments in our lives. It may not be easy, but we can rise above the situation and respond with kindness, honor, truth, and the like.
