Reading: Exodus 4-6, Psalm 18 One of the most famous stories in the world, transcending culture, time, and place, is the story of the Israelite Exodus. An inspiration for slaves, pilgrims, settlers; a warning to rulers, kings, and the powerful. The story has been made into countless plays, movies, and books which have
Reading: Exodus 1-3, Psalm 17 When we last saw the family of Israel, it was seventy or so people living in the land of Goshen in Egypt. They were protected by Joseph, who was the ruler of all of Egypt. But eventually Joseph dies, and as time goes on the family of Israel becomes
Reading: Genesis 48-50, Psalm 16 I love serialized stories and I love stories set in outer space. When I was twelve years old, I sat in the living room with a plate of nachos and watched the pilot movie of what would become the television series Babylon 5. I already loved space opera, having
Reading: Genesis 46-47, Psalm 15 So Jacob makes his way down to Egypt. We get a count off of the seventy persons who were his own descendants who came with him. One of the functions of these little geneologies is to remind us where we’ve been in the story. When we read the names
Reading: Genesis 43-45, Psalm 14 I heartily enjoy stories with well engineered plot twists. Movies, books, television shows, even video games- no matter what the medium, the unexpected revelation that tells the audience that the story is different than they thought it was is one of my favorite storytelling techniques. I would share
Reading: Genesis 41-42, Psalm 13 One of the great tragic characters in fantasy literature is Denethor, Lord Steward of Gondor in The Lord of the Rings. While the Peter Jackson movies portrays him in an entirely negative light, in the original story Denethor is the greatest man of his time, who holds back the tide of Mordor
Reading: Genesis 38-40, Psalm 12 Today’s reading is tells two apparently disconnected narratives, one about Judah and the other about Joseph. Our last story about Judah did not give us the best impression of him- the kind of guy who sells his own brother into slavery and tells their father he is dead. But,
Reading: Genesis 35-37, Psalm 11 One of the great tropes of storytelling is the unlikely hero. There are far too many examples to recite- from Wart becoming Arthur in The Sword in the Stone to Frodo in The Lord of the Rings to Emmet in The Lego Movie. All these are good stories, but I think my all time
Reading: Genesis 32-34, Psalm 10 Our story opens today with the Jacob’s return to his home country, and he is understandably nervous about it. If you recall the circumstances of his departure (Genesis 28) you will remember that he was in large part fleeing the murderous wrath of his brother, Esau. Jacob had
Reading: Genesis 29-31, Psalm 9 The Hebrew name יעקב (Jacob) is a bit of a play on words. It looks a lot like two Hebrew words, one the noun meaning the heel of the foot, and the other a verb meaning one who comes from behind and takes. Jacob and Esau’s birth narrative back