For the elders – Genesis 24
One of the gifts Covid brought my family was a weekly zoom gathering – precious shared time during the pandemic and the three years of my father’s cancer treatment. But in July last year, after treatment had come to an end, it was clear dad was struggling to follow the conversation on zoom, so we decided to structure each session – asking him to share with us on a topic decided in advance.
The night that got everyone most animated – him, his children, and especially his grandchildren was the night we asked him to tell us how he met and courted mum.
I am not going into the details! What happens on the family zoom stays on the family zoom!
But the same level of energy is found here, in Genesis 24, in this story of how Isaac and Rebekah met.
Of course, this being the ancient world, not the twenty-first century, there are differences. It’s not a girl meets boy story as much as a girl meets boy’s father’s servant story! Same difference. Their eyes don’t meet across a crowded room – a youth group camp for mum and dad – as much as across a crowded well – a classic meet cute for Old Testament patriarchs and matriarchs (Jacob and Rachel, Moses and Zipporah). And Rebekah – oh boy! – this girl really is a tall drink of water! And when Rebekah first sees Isaac, she is so impressed – we might miss this in our English translations – she falls off her camel! Exactly what would have happened when I first met Aron – had I been on a camel!!
But while Genesis chapter 24 is essentially a transition story, explaining how the story of God’s love for this family moves from Abraham and Sarah’s generation (Sarah has just died in Genesis 23) to Isaac and Rebekah’s generation, it also reminds us that God’s promises to this family – land, progeny, protection – were always intended to fan out and bless others – to bless all the families of the earth. For what strikes you about this story – about Abraham’s family – is that Abraham or Isaac don’t appear much at all! Rather the father figure in this story is another elder – Abraham’s servant.
We don’t know very much about Abraham’s servant. Some associate him with Eliezer of Damascus who is mentioned in Genesis 15 as Abraham’s heir. In which case, helping Abraham’s line to continue is acting against his own self-interest! But what we do know is that he is “the oldest of [Abraham’s] house, who had charge of all he had.” (Genesis 24:2) To these responsibilities, Abraham adds another, finding a wife for Isaac; an even more difficult task because she must then leave, as Abraham and Sarah did, country and kindred and father’s house. Abraham’s servant knows how difficult this task is – yet he goes, praying for guidance as he does, praying God will continue to show steadfast love in what unfolds.
Some of us have had parents and grandparents, great grandparents, great great grandparents, who have set us wonderful examples of God’s steadfast love unfolding in their lives – and others of us have had – not biological elders – but adopted elders – spiritual elders – people who like Abraham’s servant have lived for us lives of care and courage and perseverance and faithfulness; people who have become our fathers in the faith, our mothers in the faith.
This week, as Steve mentioned last Sunday, is an opportunity for us to think about these people and give thanks for them.
This week is also an opportunity for us to think about those we are responsible for fathering or mothering in faith, those we might be elders to….
And this NAIDOC Week theme, ‘For the elders’, is also a time for us to realise that it is not only Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people remembering their elders this week, but we are also acknowledging these elders as our elders in the way they parent and grandparent us in justice, in taking responsibility, in truth telling, in perseverance, in commitment to and trust in God’s steadfast love.
One of those elders who has parented and grandparented this congregation – who is part of my family story -is Uncle Graham Paulson.
Uncle Graham was at college with my father and afterwards joined, as dad also did, the Australian Baptist Missionary Society (Baptist Mission Australia now). We went to Papua New Guinea and West Papua, but Uncle Graham and Aunty Iris served at Lajumanu and Wave Hill in the Northern Territory, and they were there during the Wave Hill walk off, an event now celebrated as the beginning of the land rights movement in Australia.
Uncle Graham developed strong connections with the Gurundji people. He and the small church he established provided spiritual nourishment to the protest and he formed a relationship of deep mutual respect with Vincent Lingiari, baptising Vincent in 1970 in the middle of those long eight years of protest.
Uncle Graham was also involved in negotiations with the Fraser government – now known as the Makaratta Talks. In a 2017 Herald article he describes sitting next to Fred Chaney, the Aboriginal Affairs Minister at the time, when the idea of a treaty was discussed. “Fred asked could we not call it a treaty and give it another name and that’s when the delegate from Katherine suggested we call it the Makarrata.” Makarrata is a word from the Yolngu people of north-eastern Arnhem Land that means a coming together after a struggle, facing the facts of wrongs that were done and learning to live in peace.
As we consider the First Nations Voice to Parliament this year we need to continue to be parented and grand-parented by people like Uncle Graeme and Aunty Iris. They began their lives under Protection Acts that controlled every part of their lives, where they lived, where they worked, what they earned, if they could marry. They served with other missionaries who believed that Aboriginal people – black people – were under the curse of Ham (one of the sons of Noah)! Yet they have demonstrated – the perseverance, the trust in steadfast love of God that Abraham’s servant does – continuing to invite others, as the Uluru Statement from the Heart concludes, “to walk with us in a movement of the Australian people for a better future.”
There is another key character in this story of how God’s love spans generations, and that is Rebekah.
What do we know about Rebekah? Firstly, that she makes a good first impression! Verse 16; “the girl was very fair to look upon…” Secondly, that her kindness – her incredible kindness – make a good second impression!
Verse 18 onwards: “Drink, my lord,” she said, and quickly lowered her jar upon her hand and gave him a drink. When she had finished giving him a drink, she said, “I will draw for your camels also, until they have finished drinking.” So she quickly emptied her jar into the trough and ran again to the well to draw, and she drew for all his camels. Then the man gazed at her in silence…
The text says he gazed… to learn whether the Lord had made his journey successful, but I think he gazed – not only because she was gorgeous, but because, as one commentator says, to water ten camels (verse 10) – she was also ‘freakishly strong’. One camel, Google tells me, can drink about 130 litres of water. I don’t know how much her water jar held, but that’s a lot of running and drawing and watering!
There’s another thing we know about Rebekah – she had another kind of strength as well. When Abraham’s servant insists that they leave, and her family try to delay her departure, Rebekah is called in and asked her opinion to settle the matter, suggesting a remarkable instance of female agency in this patriarchal context. And in her decision, as I mentioned earlier, to leave country and kindred and father’s house, she parallels the actions of Abraham and Sarah, in chapter 12, journeying from the known to the unknown, another model for us of faith and trust in God.
Those words from the Uluru Statement I quoted earlier begin with this… “In 1967 we were counted, in 2017 [now 2023!] we seek to be heard. We leave base camp and start our trek across this vast country. We invite you to walk with us in a movement of the Australian people for a better future.” Will we journey with those calling for a First Nations voice, an advisory voice on matters that affect them, people demonstrating not only strength, but a willingness to walk with others?
Are there other areas of our lives where we need to step out – in faith, in love, in new or renewed relationship, in courage in response to God’s call? Other areas where we need to demonstrate the strength and faith and trust of a Rebekah?
There’s a third feature of this story. We have the perseverance and faithful faith of Abraham’s servant. We have the strength and courage of Rebekah. And then there’s the water itself. Water that begins with a sip – “Let me sip a little water from your jar,” the servant asks – that flows on, that carries on, that overflows, that cascades into litres and litres of water poured out for thirsty camels.
I mentioned earlier that wells were classic meet cutes for patriarchs and matriarchs. It’s because they were meeting places, yes, but also because they symbolised life – they meant actual life in a dry climate. They were symbols of health and abundance and fertility. In the Bible they are also symbols of God’s grace, God’s abundant grace and God’s steadfast love. Abraham’s servant prays for a sign of the steadfast love of God and one comes – in abundance!
And we can make the leap from this story to the living water that Jesus speaks of, in the gospels, in John 4, to the Samaritan woman at the well, living water that becomes in us, Jesus says, “a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.”
Where are the meeting places where we ask for water – for living water? Where are the meeting places where we pour out – not just a sip – but litres and litres of living water into the lives of others, water that becomes in them “a spring of water gushing up to eternal life”? Where do we see demonstrations of God’s steadfast love?
Is it here in our worship? Is it here in the faithful witness, the faithful welcome, the perseverance, and service of this congregation. Is it in the strength and conviction of all who go out into their workplaces, their friendship groups and families and sporting activities and local cafes and pour out and pour out and pour out the love of God?
Is it in the lives of elders that we see this perseverance and faithful faith in steadfast love of God? I remember this morning my father who loved this character – who loved the character – of Abraham’s servant, for whom this passage about a man who persevered, a man who was faithful, a man who trusted he would see God’s steadfast love, was extremely influential.
Is it in the lives of younger ones where we see the strength and the courage to answer God’s call? All this week – in prayers – we’ve been remembering Fredah making a difficult journey – a dangerous journey it turned out – to join Johnson here in Canberra. We give thanks to God for her safe arrival on Friday night! And we have been remembering Lisa Churcher who answered the call to use her gifts in Uganda; how that has been a very dangerous journey for her, and yet how she has continued to pour out and pour out and pour out the love of God in her life.
And there are many others – elders who show perseverance and young ones who demonstrate strength – all who show us God’s love – closer to home. And perhaps we are among them – perhaps we are some of these saints of God for others?
Can I invite you to pray – to give thanks to God for an elder in your life, to think about someone you are an elder to and to commit yourself – again – to seeking and revealing God’s steadfast love in your daily interactions – as we sing this beautiful song by Graham Paulson’s song, Grant…I am waiting here.
And then – as a sign of that commitment – or as your thank you to an elder in your life – or as a prayer for someone you are elder to – you are invited to come and pour a cup of water from the buckets here into our well this morning.
Prayer of Intercession
(Response – Living Water, may you become in us – a spring of eternal life.)
Holy God, whose Spirit moved over the waters at the dawn of creation,
hear our prayers for all who thirst today.
We pray for those who are thirsty for something, but don’t know what it is
who long to know that you are real, that you are in our lives…
who long to find real community and connection – to feel valued and loved,
those who are searching for meaning and purpose – for hope.
Living Water – may you become in us – a spring of eternal life.
We pray for those who are physically thirsty,
who do not have clean water to drink, or enough for their animals or their crops,
we pray for those parts of the world where ice that has never melted is melting
and we lift to you the temperature of our world that this week has risen
praying for your help and mercy and greater commitment to alleviating climate change among us, and greater compassion for those most affected.
Living Water – may you become in us – a spring of eternal life.
We pray for those who are thirsty for justice,
who long for an equal sharing of resources – of water and food, of safety and security,
of education and opportunity and a future for their children.
we pray for the discussion about a First Nation’s Voice on matter that affect them; we pray for our discussions here, and discussion being held elsewhere,
that all these discussions will ripple out across our country and bring health and life.
We pray for those in our congregation who are grieving – for Kelly Hughes and for the family and friends of Graham Neate and Joan Adcock.
We pray for those whose health is fragile or who continue to have treatment.
We pray for those in our congregation who are rejoicing – for Johnson and Fredah, for Dan and Hannah and their wider family, for Sue as Rod now has a good place to live.
We pray for all our families and children and youth that are on school holidays – that these will be safe and refreshing.
Living Water – may you become in us – a spring of eternal life.
God, we ask,
that you will open our hearts to the needs of all who thirst.
That you will give us courage to walk together and work together for justice,
that all people, everywhere, may live full and abundant lives,
and discover the abundant life you promise to every one of us.
In the name of Jesus Christ—the source of living water—we pray.
Amen.