UNIFORM LESSON FOR October 7, 2018 Scripture passage and lesson focus: Genesis 6:9b-22 In her book “Wave,” Sonali Deraniyagala tells of her grief at being the only survivor of a tsunami that killed her entire family. The story of Noah and the flood is the ancient equivalent of Deraniyagala’s work. It is a disaster narrative about how a catastrophic flood sent by God destroyed everything on earth. And as with all disasters, the event raises complicated theological questions about fairness and divine justice. Genesis 6:9b-10 — Noah: The only good guy? The story begins abruptly in Genesis 6:7 when God without explanation declares an intent to destroy the world. This statement is followed by abruptly introducing a man named Noah who mysteriously finds favor with the Lord. Perhaps sensing that careful readers might question why God, who has just declared his regret at the existence of cosmos, singles out Noah with favor, the text attempts to offer an explanation in the next verse: … [Read more...]

UNIFORM LESSON FOR September 30, 2018 Scripture passage and lesson focus: Genesis 3:8-24 The beginnings recounted in Genesis 1-2 describe good things created by God: the natural world, animals and the first human family. Genesis 3 is different. Sin intrudes in the idyllic garden. Countless sermons, doctrines, books and works of art have offered interpretations of the fateful actions of the first human beings in the Garden of Eden. Jewish and Christian theologians have struggled to understand what is often called “the fall.” Where did evil come from? Was it Satan in the form of a very clever serpent who tricked Eve and her passive mate into disobedience? Perhaps John Calvin was right when he wrote in his commentary on Genesis 3, “Man, after he had been deceived by Satan, revolted from his Maker, became entirely changed, and so degenerate, that the image of God, in which he had been formed was obliterated.” Many people believe that the sin of the first humans was an unmitigated … [Read more...]

UNIFORM LESSON FOR September 23, 2018 Scripture passage and lesson focus: Genesis 2:18-24, 4:1-2 The book of Genesis is a book of beginnings. Two composite traditional accounts (Genesis 1:1-2:4a and Genesis 2:4b-25) describe the beginning of the heavens and the earth through the creative power of God. The first creation story unfolds in six creative bursts called days, ending with the creation of human beings on the sixth day. It culminates with the creator (identified as Elohim) resting on the seventh day, thereby declaring the seventh day a holy Sabbath day. This is a central idea in the priestly tradition that shaped this account of creation. The second account of creation in Genesis begins with God (identified as Jahweh) creating a human being from the dust of the earth. Our translations refer to this human being as “he,” but as Phyllis Trible and other Bible scholars have pointed out, the Hebrew word used here is not gender specific. God breathes life into the human being … [Read more...]