Trouble in the Home - Hagar and Sarah

It is interesting how the lesson speaks about trouble in the home solely from the side of Sarah. Here is Hagar, a slave, whose body was used by Sarah and Abraham for the sole purpose of getting a son. And then, according to the scriptures, Hagar mocked Sarah (Gen 21:9).

Usually when we read these text we emphasize that the problem of disbelief can cause many problems for us. And that is true. This story demonstrates that the wrong decision can cause much strife for many years.

However, we cannot be so quick to put down Hagar and glorify Sarah as the "innocent" party. Both found themselves in a situation where society and the promise of God suggested that having this son would be of the greatest importance. No doubt Hagar had heard the story of the promise from Abraham and Sarah. And here is a slave seeing the possibility of a better life for one of her offspring. Could her child be that one of promise?

Our story reminds us that lack of faith in God can result in humanity taking advantage of others. It can also cause us to bring others into our own scheme that can only end up in pain and heartache for Sarah and Hagar and ultimately Abraham.

The story reminds us...that lack of faith in God...and lack of walking in the way of duty can end up with many hurt people. Even if our reason for going down the path we are on is to "fulfill the promise of God."

Questions on Doctrine PDF Download

The book Seventh-day Adventist's Answer Questions on Doctrine can be downloaded in PDF format this link. You can also look at the same book in HTML format at this link. These are the original 1957 edition of the book.

This book was the outgrowth of the discussions between Donald Barnhouse and Walter Martin and some Adventist officials to determine if Seventh-day Adventists were indeed Christians or were they members of a sub-Christian cult. Here is the wikipedia entry on the book.

Some Adventists at that time, most notably M. L. Andreasen, took exception to the picture of Adventism presented in the book. Ever since then there has been much argument over the book. Some see it as distorting Adventism while others see it as an accurate representation of mainstream Seventh-day Adventist doctrine. Now you can download and read the book for yourself.

Lying to Save Your Skin or Standing up

Genesis 12:11-13 gives the story of Abraham telling a partial truth to protect himself from death. Abraham was scared that the Egyptians would kill him and take his wife from him. We will set aside the acidic belief that Abraham had that he and his tribe alone "feared" God. That discussion alone deserves more time. However we will look at how Abraham did something that the weak have always done to protect themselves from the strong. Engaged in deception.

Howard Thurman speaks of this in his book Jesus and the Disinherited. We often engage in deception because it seems to be the only form of defense that the weak have. But is it the only defense we have? Thurman reminds us, that we always have the option of standing forth and stating the truth. There may be repercussions. In most cases there will be repercussions, but the only hope of a better world is not to hide behind a lie which keeps the status quo as is. Neither is the hope for a better world in the destruction of the more powerful by might. Such only perpetuates the pain that is already in the world and at best creates a new oppressor. No the way to a better world is to confront it and say to it, "This is wrong, Here is the truth, and if you must punish me for standing for the truth, then so be it!"

Such was the mindset of Civil disobedience. Such was the mindset of the Civil Rights Movement. I don't blame those who feel that they must survive, but real change comes from standing up to evil and saying "no!" The Christian church has been called to be a witness to the truth especially in these last days. Will we stand up and be a witness for the truth?

Abraham and Faith -

This weeks Sabbath School lesson provides a look at the father of the faithful and what we can learn from such a look. One thing that we can learn from Sunday's and Monday's lesson is that this father of the faithful wasn't always pictured as exactly our idea of what is faithful in the text.

The Promise to Abraham

Sunday's lesson gives us the promise of God to Abraham found in Genesis 12:2. Abraham would be a great nation. However, the problem was that Abraham didn't have a child. And Abraham was getting up in age. So Abraham came to God and offered to adopt Eliezar to be the son of that promise. (Gen 15:2-3). Here Abraham looked at his circumstances and realized that it was not exactly in line with the promise that God had given to him. Certainly God didn't mean that he would have a son at his age. How often do we look at the promise that God has for our own lives and see that they don't make sense? How often do we begin to seek to find ways to fulfill that promise? I don't really blame Abraham. Abraham simply realized that he best do something now. But God wasn't with that plan. Genesis 15:4-5 has God saying that Abraham would be the natural father through birth.

Taking Advantage of the Weak to Fulfill God's Promise

So Abraham and Sarah once again sought to fulfill this promise. They did it by giving the slave Hagar to Abraham. (Genesis 16:1-3) While supposedly this was a custom of the area, it is still just as despicable as it would be today. That act caused the creation of problems between two sons both who have right to be called the son of Abraham. That act caused problems in the home that would never be resolved. Here both Sarah and Abraham took advantage of their status as "slave masters" over the slave to fulfill the "promise of God." It is easy to be so caught up in attempting to do what God has promised that we don't take time to think about who we hurt? Perhaps the greatest evils in the world have been done in the name of God or for God's glory. When God's promise comes, we cannot take advantage of others to fulfill that promise.

Sarah will be the Mother

Finally, God said "Sarah will be the Mother!" Genesis 17:16, 19. As I read this text, I begin to wonder why God didn't just say that up front? Why did God go so slow? If God, in this narrative, had said totally up front, "Abraham, you and Sarah will have a child and through that child there will be a great nation. If God had done that, Abraham may have done the same thing that he did in this case. Maybe not. But in any case, the story reveals something that is often the case. Sometimes we learn God's will in life. Sometimes we learn God's will by trying and failing. Sometimes it is only after a misstep that God reveals more of God's plan.

At the very least, all of these missteps didn't stand in the way of Abraham still being called the father of the faithful. While gives me hope. Even when I have not done as I should have done. God does not cast us off.

Problems of Some Black Preaching

The problem of some Black preaching that makes it difficult to engage in authentic Adventist preaching is that we often celebrate, according to Rock, "doctrinal neutrality camouflaged in verbal vehemence."

If we are honest with ourselves, we will realize that we have allowed people to prostitute the Black Tradition by simply yelling. We hear preachers copying the sermons from media ministers talking about our "Breakthrough" or our "blessing" while the teachings of our Adventist tradition and our Black tradition lay dormant.

Yelling and telling folks that they need to "worship God with noise" is not the essence of the Black preaching tradition. Less I am misunderstood, Celebration is an important component of Black worship and preaching. We should celebrate the goodness of God and the Gospel, but something is wrong when people are celebrating and have not been given any true reason for celebration.

There are some great Adventist preachers in the Black tradition, but noise without a core justice hermeneutic ain't the beast of the Black tradition. And yelling without any application to the traditions of our own church ain't Adventist preaching.

What is called for from Rock is not simply yelling...It is adherence to the Spirit of the Black Preaching Tradition as well as the Adventist Preaching Tradition. As we continue we will look at what Rock Considers we should do to get to that kind of preaching.

Problems of Some SDA Preaching

Calvin Rock speaks about the necessity for Black Preachers to make use of their cultural experiences in their sermons as well as staying truly "Adventist" in their preaching. Then he notes that there are two problems that can stand in the way of a Black Adventist Preacher from doing this effectively.

Rock notes:

A primary problem with traditional Adventist preaching is its socially conservative interpretation of the Scripture, and that of Black Preaching is its acceptance of raw excitement as the definition of success and the user of arbitrary stimulation as a means of attaining that acclaim.

Socially Conservative Adventist Preaching

The first problem, according to Rock, that makes it difficult to preach both in the Black Tradition as well as in the Adventist Tradition is the tendency of Adventist preaching to be pro-status quo.

He notes that this comes from first a tendency to read the Bible in a "minimalist view of New Testament sociology." Here they see in some of the actions of Jesus (not striking out against Roman oppression) and Paul (sending Omnesimus back to his slave master Philemon).

However Rock quotes Yoder who sees in both cases Paul and Jesus pushing the bounds of the status quo as much as possible. For example, Jesus called Herod "That fox." (Luke 13:32) and Paul told Philemon to receive Omnesimus as a brother. Rock sees Ellen White in this tradition when she told Adventists to disobey the Fugitive Slave Act, because at that time one could push the bounds even further than in the time of Paul and Jesus.

Another Reason for the socially conservative reading is the idea that since there is no hope of overcoming societal evil we should not even try. We simply wait for Jesus to do it all at the Second Coming. I would encourage all to read my own series on that subject "The Second Advent and Passivity").

A final reason why Socially Conservative preaching is considered normative in much Adventist preaching is because they often make a dichotomy between physical and spiritual and thus interpret the Bible's insistence on choosing the spiritual as negating the physical. Because of this the physical needs of humanity are not a part of the work of the church of Christ. Even if you do address them, you address them as individuals and not corporate entities. Often you address them to "open the door to real evangelism."

Some Adventists are challenging this notion by looking at how work for others is inextricably connected with preaching the Gospel. It is a fundamental disconnect to preach the Gospel of peace and say nothing about war. It is fundamentally inconsistent to preach the Gospel of Love and say nothing about the hate that is running rampant in the world. It is a fundamental problem to preach the Second Advent while living as if this present order will go on as is indefinitely.

Certainly All Adventist preaching does not fall into this trap. Also it is true that there are others outside of the Black Tradition that are teaching against this kind of preaching that promotes the status quo, but the African American Preaching Tradition provides a vehicle for a group of preachers to stand up against this and preach the Full gospel rather than a truncated version thereof.

In the next post we will look at what Rock considers problematic about some Black Preaching that makes it difficult to preach Adventism.

Lamb Horned Beast Chronicles

Many in the Adventist Blogosphere are fuming over the Scooter Libby situation. Ryan Bell, Johnny Ramirez, and the Oak Leaves blog are all talking about this situation.

For all the talk about justice and righteousness we have the actions of Satanic agencies. The people who are hardest on crime are the softest on on their own crime. The people who condemn the wickedness of others hide their own under a cloak of presumed righteousness.

Revelation 13 tells the story of a beast. Not a lamb-like one, but a beast-like beast that has two little horns like a lamb. This beast talks like a dragon, but wants you to look at its horns that supposedly speak of innocence. This beast will start a war on a lie and then tell you that the opponent had it coming anyway. This beast will kill thousands of innocent civilians as collateral damage to continue this war started on the basis of that same lie. This beast thinks that 30 months is excessive to leak information that is virtually putting a "hit" on another individual. Yes it is a beast.

However, God has a word. The third angels message. It is here to tell the world that this beast does not have the last word. This beast will be overthrown. Today, that lamb-horned beast continues stamping on all the principles it claims to support in its founding documents, But God has a word! God needs us to tell that Word. Let us tell that word.