Last Sunday morning I asked the question: what type of father was Father Abraham? I suggested that his actions remind us that his family and his parenting was far from perfect families. And so we find Bible families are actually real families, filled with ordinary human people, caught up into God’s story.
The sermon drew a lot of positive feedback. (In fact, the amount of positive feedback on my sermons has increased over the recent months. I am not sure whether I have improved, or whether there are more encouragers appearing among us (and I am thinking here of people being Elizabeth-like in Luke 1:39-45, speaking words of blessing and hope)).
Encouraged by your feedback, I continue this week, looking at family through the eyes of Hagar and Ishmael; asking: Where is God when families break up?
I remind you of some guidelines for translating the world of the Bible into the world of today; (taken from How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth);
Bible stories describe what happened, not what should have happened.
Most of the people in Bible stories are far from perfect.
What people do in Bible stories is not necessarily a good example
We are not always told whether what they did was good or bad.
Bible stories are selective. What appears is what the author thought important.
Bible stories will not answer every one of our questions.
God is the ultimate hero of all Bible stories.
May your family this week be both real and become an experience of God’s story this week.