every common bush afire with God: Genesis 12 - 35

Read the purpose for these posts here.
p.s., I hope you'll be watching for these lower-case i incarnations of truth in the art you encounter in your own journey.  Feel free to share them in the comment section!

Union Center Worship, Oct. 3:  Abraham is Blessed to be a Blessing (Genesis 12 - 35)

• Arise O God and Shine, (words: William Hurn, music: Chris Miner)
•  Reading from The Story, p. 10 (building the bridge from Noah to Abraham)
• Famous One, (Jesse Reeves and Chris Tomlin)
• Greeting One Another/ Offering / Announcements
• Scripture Reading
• Give Reviving, (words: Albert Midlane & Chelsey Scott, music: Chelsey Scott & Aaron Sands)  
• Message, part 1: the Abrahamic covenant
• Changed, (Aaron Niequist)
• Message, part 2:  Suffering of Hagar, Abraham, Isaac and God
• O the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus, (words: Samuel Trevor Francis, music: Walsh melody adapted by Thomas John Williams)
  
• Call for Repentence

Linked to Worship Blog Carnival at worshipcommunity.com.

Week Two: Genesis 12 - 35

Hagar in the Wildnerness Camille Corot oil on canvas, 1835

Themes:  family tree of Abraham, test of faith, patriarchal blessing, naming, dysfunctional family makes good, searching for the Promised Land, sibling rivalries, 

The Sacrifice of Isaac Caravaggio oil on canvas, 1601-02

"The Fear came to me in the night and whispered words of hope into my ear. He told me that he loved me as he had loved Laughter, my father before me, and Abraham, my grandfather before that.  He repeated the ancient promises that never fail to frighten me with their beauty just as the Fear himself never fails to frighten me." (Frederick Buechner, The Son of Laughter)

Literature:

• The Idiot, Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1868-9)
• The Lord of the Rings series, J.R.R. Tolkien (1954-55)
• The Source, James A. Michener (1965)
• Silence, Shusaku Endo (1966)
• Hyperion, Dan Simmons (1989)
• The Son of Laughter, Frederick Buechner (1993)
• Gomorra,  Robert Saviano
• The Red Tent, Anita Diamant (1997)

Farewell to Ishmael George Segal sculpture, 1987

Abraham to kill him

Was distinctly told—
Isaac was an Urchin—
Abraham was old—

Not a hesitation—
Abraham complied—
Flattered by Obeisance
Tyranny demurred—

Isaac—to his children
Lived to tell the tale—
Moral—with a mastiff
Manners may prevail. 
(Emily Dickinson, Abraham to Kill Him)

Poetry:

• Abraham to Kill Him, Emily  Dickinson (1874)
• The Parable of the Old Man and the Young, Wilfred Owen (1920)

Jacob and the Angel Sir Jacob Epstein alabaster sculpture, 1940-1

"Oh God said to Abraham, 'Kill me a son'/
Abe says, 'Man, you must be puttin’ me on' "

(Bob Dylan, Highway 61 Revisited)

Music:

• Die Jakobsleiter, Arnold Schoenberg, (1920's, oratorio)
• Canticle II Abraham and Isaac for alto, tenor and piano, Op. 51, Benjamin Britten (1951)
• Abraham and Isaac, a sacred ballad for baritone and orchestra, Igor Stravinsky (1963)
• Highway 61 Revisited, Bob Dylan (1965)
• The Story of Isaac, Leonard Cohen (1969)
• Stairway to Heaven, Led Zeppelin (1971)
• Gomorrah, Jerry Garcia (1977)
• Jacob's Ladder, Rush (1980)
• Dark Light, Kiss (1981)
• Jacob's Ladder, Huey Lewis and the News (1986)
• Isaac and Abraham, Joan Baez (1992)
• Concerto of the Desperado, The Roots (1996)
• Abraham, Sufjan Stevens (2004)
• Mr. Shiny Cadillackness, Clutch (2007)

Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah John Martin 1852

Film/Television:

• The Godfather, 1972
• The Sacrifice, 1986
• The Seventh Sign, 1987
• Jacob's Ladder, 1990
• The Lion King, 1994
• Seven, 1995
• The Believer, 2001
• The Lord of the Rings trilogy, 2001-03
• The Scorpion King, 2002
• Gomorra, 2006 
• A Serious Man, 2009
• West Wing episode, "Isaac and Ishmael"
• Lost episodes "Catch-22" and "The Substitute"

The Lion King includes themes of blessing, naming, rivalry and sacrifice.

Art from the archives influenced by Genesis 1-8:

• review of Silence for IAM Reader's Guild
• a meditation I wrote on Jacob wrestling with the angel
• an excerpt from my meditation on Abraham interceding for Sodom
• a review of David Taylor's Laity Lodge retreat talk, "Mentoring as Naming"

Resources: 

The Writing on the Wall: High Art, Popular Culture and the Bible by Maggie Dawn

The Text This Week

The Story