Millions of people have sought the secrets to their background in services like ancestory.com. Sending away their check swabs and information, hoping to learn more about from where they have come. Am I really English? Does my background include family members who are Portuguese or Liberian? People are looking for who they are. They want to piece together the story of their lives and how they came to be who they are today! Have any of you done it? Confirmed some of what you knew and learned something new about yourself perhaps?
As we return to Genesis this week, we, too continue in exploring our collective history, our biblical family ancestry. In Genesis, we find our beginnings and our creation stories. We find not only stories of humanity, but we find our stories and narrative as well. Last week, we explored the familiar Noah’s Ark story. This week, we continue with Noah.
After the declaration of God’s unconditional love and covenant promise through the rainbow, Noah gets drunk. Not just a little glass of wine with dinner or a beer with a burger. He passes out and is discovered naked by his children. This is not a story we teach our children in Sunday School. In fact, I imagine there is more than one of us here, thinking I had no idea THAT was in the Bible.
Let me say, the inclusion of such unflattering passages pointing to God’s larger story of redemption highlights that the Bible is not just a history book or a memoir. The collection of God’s actions with God’s people is sometimes unflattering in its portrayals, but God’s truth points through the embarrassment and shame. The Bible shares the story of God’s people, warts and all.
There are no perfect people. Even after, we have experienced a life changing, God-revealing moment, we, too sin. Right alongside of the devotional time that warmed our heart and gave us new insight into God’s character, we curse our fellow driver for being in too much of a hurry. Right after a moving church service in which we experienced the presence of God, we might find ourselves arguing with a spouse or child.
The way we treat others when they are most vulnerable is a true indication of our character. In the passage, Noah is not condemned for drinking or being drunk. But his sons are judged on how they respond to their father’s vulnerability. Ham’s response to exploit his father’s vulnerability is his failing. Shem and Japheth cared for their father in his time of need, covering him, when he could not cover himself.
Each of the brothers was ostensibly raised in the same environment. How does one exploit vulnerability and others care for it? Who do I get THAT from? Psychologists, social scientists, parents, and people observers have debated and postulated between nurture and nature. Are you like you father because of the genes he passed your way or because you observed him over many years? Where you born with a predisposition to lovingly care for others or did you develop that connection from watching others lovingly care for those around you? The argument for nature versus nurture is deeply important when seeking to shape to life of an individual. We want to reflect on where something comes from to seek to change the pattern of sin.
Sin is all around us. It is sticky and clings to us, even when we think that we have moved beyond it. Sin is not caring for others, when vulnerability is right in front of us and needs our care. Part of sin is downplaying its affect. We might find ourselves justifying it and thinking that is not such a big deal. It is not a big deal that I told my best friend about the great failings of my boss. It is not a big deal that I drove by someone in need. It is not a big deal that I don’t speak out against the harm being done to many by focusing on tax breaks, instead of health care for all, including the most vulnerable among us, with pre-existing conditions.
Generational sin almost always the kind of thing that we would rather not talk about. The conversations that we avoid having, if we have our druthers. The secrets that many of us go to our graves keeping from one or another, or maybe everyone all together. Generation sin is a concept that many of us Americans rebuff. In our boot-strap individualism, we would like to believe that we have fully made our own way and are not shaped by the decisions and influence of others. We do it ourselves! Just like toddlers!
Generational sin starts before us, and we discover it still lives among us. This passage itself has its own generational sin. In the slave trade of the 1700 and 1800, industrious slave traders of the Americas associated race and subjugation, slavery, and justification with this passage. During this horrific period of capturing Africans, kidnapping men, women, and children, and selling humanity, this passage of scripture was abused for selfish purposes of slave traders. Even today, lazy biblical scholarship and biased preaching have sometimes co-opted this passage inserting race and bigotry, where it does not belong.
Racism is one of our generational sins. Like many sins, it is clever and persuasive. We look at others who sin more boldly and who act with oppression and malice, and we think to ourselves, “I am not nearly as bad as that, so that is not my sin.” We look at our personal family trees or our human family tree and we list ways in which we have not excluded and oppressed others. We pat ourselves on the backs and buy into the lie that we have broken the chains of the generational sin. And yet we still live in a world in which a brown-skinned colleague of mine can have the cops called on him for passing out VBS fliers in his own neighborhood.
We learn young. We learn how those who look and act differently than we do are treated and spoken about. We learn how our family group talks about those who venture outside of the expected norms. We learn how our family groups treats those who have gone away and if they come back. We learn how to deal with conflict and when and how to fight with one another.
In order to live free, we need to identify the sin patterns and generation sin that had become a part of the fabric of our lives. One key is there a part of your life that you have sought to change and despite your best efforts, it seems like there is resistance, even within yourself to that change? Have you wanted to reduce your anger outbursts and find that even when you seek to control that anger, it seems to control you?
Have you wanted to care kindly for your neighbors in their hour of need and find that you cannot stir up the courage to take the first step?
Have you been moved by the need of others in the community, but still find yourself bad-mouthing their situations?
Have you found yourself carrying stereotypes that you do not believe?
Generational sin is often when I do the thing I don’t want to do, and don’t do the thing I wanted to do.
Another key is how has this lived out in your family. Reflect on the way in which your parents and siblings, aunts and uncles, grandparents and extended family engage the same idea. Is there a general trend towards addiction? Do you notice that gossip is the currency of conversation? Sin can hang around for longer than we expect and show up in the most unusual places. Learn from where you have been to see where you are headed. Do not let the sin of another trigger your own reaction.
In Christ, the chains of generational sin can be broken. Through Christ, we are no longer condemned to repeat the patterns of our parents and our parents’ parents. We are empowered to move beyond the sin that has held us back breaking our hearts and injuring those around us. Sin necessarily hurts others and breaking its bondage brings freedom and restoration. To break the bounds of sin that hold us, we need Jesus!
All week long in VBS, our children have been talking about the power of superheroes! Superheroes who can fly and shoot spider webs. Superheroes who are invisible and invincible. Superheroes do the most unbelievable things! They learned that Jesus is the most incredible superhero of all. Jesus’ power encompasses all of this and more. Jesus can work in us when we believe there is no room for change. We need Jesus to break the power of sin in our lives. We need Jesus to break the generational sin chains that hold us back and limit us from becoming who Christ calls us to be.
We need Jesus. And we turn to Jesus, in prayer and confession, offering these sins and our repentance, our desire to turn around from where we have been, so that we may live more fully. When we initially ask Who did I get THAT from?, we might have thought about our thick hair or long fingers or short temper. Let us turn instead to the freedom Christ offers from our generational sin asking Who did I get THAT (that freedom, that courage, that reconciliation, that hope, that love, that power) from?
CHRIST JESUS!
Let us pray as we ask God’s forgiveness in our lives and embrace freedom in Christ.
God of Power, we praise your name and join the generations of those who have known your power, those who sing your praises. We confess that too often, we have fallen into the rut and rhythm of lazy behavior and patterns of exclusion, instead of embracing your way. We confess, that too often we have divided the world into us and them. We have too often seen how we are different and forgotten that your family is larger than our understanding. We confess that we have not cared for the vulnerabilities of our brothers and sisters. We confess that we have subjugated our brothers and sister, and not spoken up in times of oppression. Forgive us, we pray. As we repent, may our lives turn around and face you again. May our lives shine your love and power. That others may ask where did you get THAT from? And all we can do it point to you, gracious God, and sing your praises. In the name of the God of good news, we pray, Amen.
Old Testament Lesson: Genesis 9:18-10:1
The sons of Noah who went out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Ham was the father of Canaan. These three were the sons of Noah; and from these the whole earth was peopled.
Noah, a man of the soil, was the first to plant a vineyard. He drank some of the wine and became drunk, and he lay uncovered in his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside.
Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and walked backwards and covered the nakedness of their father; their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father’s nakedness. When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him, he said,
Cursed be Canaan;
lowest of slaves shall he be to his brothers.’
He also said,
‘Blessed by the Lord my God be Shem;
and let Canaan be his slave.
May God make space for Japheth,
and let him live in the tents of Shem;
and let Canaan be his slave.’
After the flood Noah lived for three hundred and fifty years. All the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years; and he died.
These are the descendants of Noah’s sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth; children were born to them after the flood.
New Testament Lesson: 1 Peter 3: 13-22
Now who will harm you if you are eager to do what is good? But even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear, and do not be intimidated, but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be ready to make your defence to anyone who demands from you an account of the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and reverence. Keep your conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned, those who abuse you for your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if suffering should be God’s will, than to suffer for doing evil. For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight people, were saved through water. And baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you—not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him.
Meditations For Your Week
Sunday, July 16~ Saturday, July 22
Sunday: “Noah drank some of the wine and became drunk, and he lay uncovered in his tent.” Genesis 9: 21. Prayerfully consider this chapter in Noah’s journey. After listening well to God, Noah finds himself in a compromising situation. God never walked away from Noah, but rather, his own choices complicated his life. Prayerfully ask God to show you where you need to be aware of compromising situations in your life.
Monday: “And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside.’ Genesis 9: 22. Gossip is tempting. Where do you need to confess?
Tuesday: “Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and walked backwards and covered the nakedness of their father; their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father’s nakedness.” Genesis 9:23. Shem and Japheth sought grace and dignity for their father. Where can you offer grace and dignity?
Wednesday: “May God make space for Japheth, and let him live in the tents of Shem; and let Canaan be his slave.” Genesis 9: 27. God’s character makes space for people. Prayerfully ask God where you can be making space for others.
Thursday: “Now who will harm you if you are eager to do what is good? But even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear, and do not be intimidated,” 1 Peter 3: 13-14. Fear is not the language of love. Listen through your fear for God’s way of love.
Friday: “For it is better to suffer for doing good, if suffering should be God’s will, than to suffer for doing evil.” 1 Peter 3: 17. Where is God calling you to do good, seek peace, and go after it? (Our VBS superheroes learned this!)
Saturday: “When God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight people, were saved through water. And baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you—not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him” 1 Peter 3: 20b-22. Pause in prayer to thank God for the life of Jesus that does not leave us to do it all on our own!