Redemption Hill Church - Stewartville, MN
  • Welcome
  • The Gospel
  • Happenings
  • About Us
    • Our Purpose Statement & Core Values
    • Our Beliefs
    • Our Commitments
    • Our Pastor
  • Media
    • Sermons >
      • Genesis Sermon Series
      • Exodus - Deuteronomy Sermon Series
      • Joshua & Judges Series
      • Ruth Book Study
      • 1 Samuel Sermon Series
      • Job Sermons
      • Proverbs Sermon Series
      • Jonah Sermon Series
      • Sermon on the Mount Series
      • Jesus' High Priestly Prayer (John 17) Series
      • Luke/Acts Sermon Series
      • Galatians Sermon Series
      • Ephesians Sermon Series
      • 2 Timothy Sermons
      • Titus Sermon Series
      • Hebrews Sermon Series
      • James Sermon Series
      • 2 Peter Sermon Series
      • "What Do We Believe?" Series
      • Other Sermons
    • Pastor's Blog
    • Members/Friends Portal
  • Contact Us
  • Donate

"I Am Not Abraham's Mistake"

4/18/2013

0 Comments

 
Picture
We're currently taking a break from our Genesis sermon series between chapters 11 and 12 to do "On Earth As In Heaven."  In about a month, though, we'll be diving into Genesis and God's story through Abraham.  This article by Derek Rishmawy captures the gospel heartbeat of these next chapters of Genesis well...


I Am Not Abraham's Mistake

September 11 was a weird day for me. I was a sophomore in high school and distinctly remember thinking to myself, Oh God, I hope it wasn't Arabs, as soon as I heard a plane had crashed into the first tower. I'm three-fourths Palestinian and at times have a distinctly Arab cast to me. My last name is Rishmawy. Admittedly it was a selfish thought, but I just didn't see that going well for me in high school. And I was right.

That afternoon in football practice, upon discovering I was of Arab descent—a "Palestilian" according to one educated linguist on the team—a teammate of mine took it upon himself to spear me in the back. Twice. For those of you who've never played, that sort of thing hurts. Thankfully, my coach caught on quickly and put an end to it. Still, for the next few years I was lovingly called "dune-coon," "sand-nigger," "Taliban," "Osama," and the like by a good chunk of my teammates and friends. And yes, I do mean lovingly. It was wrong, and I don't really get it, but for some reason racial slurs were a way of bonding in the locker room. Still, it grated on me at times.

As frustrating and awkward as being an Arab high-schooler in post-9/11 America could be at times—given garden-variety prejudices, fears, and ignorance—none of those slurs frustrated me so much as what some of my well-meaning, evangelical brothers and sisters ignorantly implied: that my entire ethnic heritage was an unfortunate mistake—Abraham's mistake to be exact.

Anatomy of a Mistake



The first time I was struck by that thought, I was working the front counter at a gym in college. At the time, plenty of the regulars knew I was a Christian, and a number were Christians themselves, so we'd chat sometimes about faith, life, and the Bible. In one such counter chat, the subject of the end times and the Middle East conflict came up. My lovely, kindhearted brother said something to the effect of, "Yeah, if it weren't for Abraham's mistake with Ishmael, this whole business could have been avoided." I'd like to say that was the only time I'd heard something in that vein, but it wasn't. In fact, you can hear the same thing implied at churches on Sundays, in Bible studies, and on second-rate Bible and prophecy blogs.

For those of you who don't get the "Ishmael" reference, he's referring to Abraham's firstborn child by his concubine Hagar. Abraham and Sarah were getting impatient about God's promised child, the one through whom God would make Abraham a great nation, so they thought they'd help him out by having Abraham father a child through Hagar, Sarah's Egyptian handmaid (Gen. 16). This caused some family problems that led Abraham, under pressure from Sarah, to send Hagar and Ishmael away (Gen. 16, 17, 21).

What does all of this have to do with the Middle East? In his faithfulness, God promised Abraham that, although Ishmael wouldn't be the child of the promise, he would still bless him. Indeed he did bless him and make him the father of many nations—"12 princes" to be exact (Gen. 17:19-21; 21:18; 25:12-18). In the broader Jewish, Christian, and Muslim traditions Ishmael becomes the father of modern-day Arabs, with varying significance attached to the claim. For example, it's common for Muslim Arabs to claim Ishmael as their ancestor and the original heir of the covenant instead of Isaac, making them the rightful heirs to the Holy Land. Indeed, in much of the popular Christian imagination, this is at the root of the conflict in the Middle East—the conflict between the Muslims' misguided claim on the Holy Land and God's irrevocable promise of that land to Israel.

According to my well-meaning brother at the gym and those he represents, this whole conflict in the Middle East could've been avoided if Abraham had just been patient and not fathered Ishmael—and the Arabs never existed.

Sweet. Thanks guys.

Bigger Picture



Of course, this remark needs to be set against the broader picture of general post-9/11 fears about Muslim Arabs and a prevalent popular-level dispensationalism that contributes, not hate of course, but a sort of theologically laced ambivalence toward Palestinians and Arabs as a people group. This ambivalence has a range, starting with total ignorance that Palestinian Christians like myself even exist. Or American evangelicals tending to identify more with Israelis than the dwindling Christian population still living in squalor on the West Bank. Or worse, seeing them as that group of people cursing God's chosen Israel. I know of one Orange County, California, pastor who hosts well-attended "prophecy" conferences that, in the course of raising support for Israel, regularly engages in what amounts to fear-mongering about Palestinian/Muslim terrorists and end-times scenarios (that's where the pop-dispensationalism comes in). None of this should be taken as some bitter anti-Zionism or stealth criticism of conservative support for Israel. I've grown up decently conservative and know some of the complex logic at work—that's a legitimate policy debate. I'm simply pointing to some of the broader context in which this kind of remark is made—most of which doesn't contribute toward warm fuzzies for Palestinians and Arabs.

So what's wrong with this overall picture and the Ishmael comment in general? Leaving aside various technical reasons for doubting the simple identification of the Arabs with Ishmael (biblical, genealogical, geographical, and historical), and the roots of conflict in the Middle East, the main problem is this sort of comment betrays a seriously shoddy theology in at least a couple ways.

1. God's Providence

First, it reflects a deficient view of God's providential ordering of history. As remarkable as it seems, God's hand is never far from any event in human history. Jesus declares that the number of hairs on your head are numbered (Luke 12:7) and that a sparrow doesn't fall to the ground without God's consent. Old Testament wisdom reminds us that while you might be rolling the dice in Vegas, they land where God determines (Prov. 16:33). Your parents might have decided to move into the neighborhood you grew up in as a kid, but you got there because God appointed it as the time and dwelling place for you to live and reach out to find him as the source of your life (Acts 17:26-27).

I don't intend to deny human responsibility or the contingency of history but to remind us that, in biblical thought, contingency and freedom are ultimately realities upheld, sustained, and governed by God's fatherly hand. God was no more caught off-guard by Ishmael's birth than by Isaac's. Isaac is the child of the promise, but Ishmael was no accident. Most pro-life evangelicals would object to thinking of any child as an accident, an unplanned mistake. In God's ordering of history, no child should be considered an accident—how much less an entire people group?

2. God's Purposes

This sort of sentiment also betrays a weak view of God's intention to bless all peoples through Abraham. God's original call of Abraham culminates in the promise to bless him in such a way that through him all families on the earth might be blessed (Gen. 12:3). God reiterates this promise in various places, especially in his covenant with Abraham and his seed, or offspring (Gen. 15:18). Paul takes up that promise and shows its ultimate fulfillment came through Christ, the true seed of Abraham, the faithful Israel through whom the blessings of the covenant would come to the whole world (Gal. 3:15-29). God's intention in the election of Israel had always been the blessing of the nations and the salvation of the world.

The Arabs, descended from Ishmael or not, compose part of that broader crowd of "all the families of the earth" that God intended to bless through Christ. "All" really means "all" here. If, by faith, Arabs or Palestinians are united to Christ, then in the body of Christ they "are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise" (Gal. 3:29) in the truest sense, because "there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Gal. 3:28). At the wedding supper of the Lamb, when members of every "tribe, tongue, and nation" (Rev. 5:9; 7:9) gather to sing the praise of the King, those redeemed from the Arab peoples, descendants of Ishmael or not, will join in the same song, giving glory to Jesus in ways that draw on their particular ethnic and racial particularity—as Arabs and Palestinians. Viewing an entire group of people—one of the "families of the earth"—primarily as an obstacle to peace instead of as an object of God's reconciling love in Christ is a sub-Christian view of God's purposes for the nations in the drama of redemption.

The tangle of ethnicity, Middle East politics, and eschatology in American evangelicalism won't be easily solved. But what concerns me—and ought to concern you—is whether we in the church have the proper zeal to carry the gospel, in word and deed, to all nations and peoples. Do we see all people as Abraham's potential heirs? Even Ishmael's alleged descendants? In generations past and in different parts of the globe, the church has forgotten, excluded, or considered differing ethnic or cultural groups to be beyond the gospel's reach. This must not be the case with our Arab and Palestinian neighbors today.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, as a Palestinian Christian, I am not Abraham's mistake. I am God's choice in Christ.


Editors' Note: This article originally appeared at Christ and Pop Culture. 


Derek Rishmawy is the director of college and young adult ministries at Trinity United Presbyterian Church in Orange County, California, where he wrangles college kids for the gospel. He got his BA in philosophy at the University of California, Irvine, and his MA in theological studies at Azusa Pacific University. 


0 Comments

This Is The Body The Lord Has Made

4/8/2013

0 Comments

 
Picture
It isn't very often that you will hear Marcus or I teaching/preaching specifically on physical exercise.  However, this is not because the topic is unimportant.  Rather, with our commitment to a general pattern of working through biblical books verse-by-verse, we simply don't run into texts on exercise with much regularity.  So then we must ask--does that mean physical exercise is unimportant to God?

I believe scripture calls us to answer that question with a firm "no."  While scriptural teaching on the topic is not extensive, it is certainly not absent.  Additionally, we are living 2,000 years later than even the most recently-written biblical texts, in a world that presents different challenges than that of even Jesus' day.  Modern processed and "refined" foods affect our bodies in ways not previously experienced, and our genetics are more affected by entropy than by "evolution."  So it makes sense that the biblical writers would not have addressed our modern American needs for exercise in any detail.  Stewardship of our physical health is simply a different ballgame than it used to be, or than it is in other places in the world even now.

This does not mean, though, that we are left under-equipped to think about this topic.  God promises that, through Scripture, He has provided everything we need to know in order to be completely equipped for every good work He has for us. (2 Timothy 3:16-17)  So it seems that, as we think about life (including exercise) in these physical bodies and find no passages that mention treadmills or basketball, wisdom calls us to search God's word for principles and not just specific topical teaching.  The following article by John Perritt, while certainly not an exhaustive discussion, is a good first step...


This Is the Body the Lord Has Made

From the dreaded magazine aisle at the local supermarket to the borderline pornographic advertisements we see while surfing the internet, we are bombarded with images of the human body. 60 seconds to ripped abs. Lose inches from your waistline while sleeping. These constant "promises" tempt us to discontentment and idolatry. And yet we don't talk enough in our churches about what God wants from our bodies. 


Is our culture's obsession with the human body completely wrong? After all, we believe in a sovereign God who created our bodies. And we know that God doesn't shy away from discussing physical beauty in his Word.  David, Bathsheba, Saul, and Rachel were just a few biblical characters who could have posed for magazine covers. The Bible tells us Esther was beautiful in form and easy on the eyes (Esther 2:7). Absalom, God tells us, didn't have a flaw from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head, and there wasn't another in the land who equaled his appearance (2 Samuel 14:25).

Therefore, it seems that God, too, places a certain amount of emphasis on the physical form. We must not become modern-day gnostics and abhor the physical. So what are Christians to do? How do we begin to think about exercise and body image?  

Exercise and the Curse


Some people want to curse when they hear the word exercise, but they don't often consider the effects of the curse on exercise. We know that God cursed our work after the Fall, but we typically think of this cursing in terms of frustration: jammed printers, bumper-to-bumper traffic, difficult coworkers. 

However, we don't often think about the curse of our work coming in the form of an air-conditioned office, an assistant for every chore, or a comfortable sedan effortlessly transporting us to the office. Our physical bodies were designed to toil and labor, but our labor isn't all that laborious at times. Don't get me wrong, these things are pleasant graces from our Lord. But few of us burn the energy we were created to exert. The curse is now evident in sore backs and achy joints that aren't sore from physical exertion but atrophy. Our modern professions require that we now supplement this physical exertion in the form of exercise.

Busyness and Priorities


Even though most of us know we should exercise, when can we find time? We're driving the kids to different sports, working more than 50 hours, and serving at church—we don't have time and energy left over.

We need to know our priorities. Don't neglect the Lord in Word and prayer. Don't neglect your family. And don't neglect the church. But so also is physical exertion a biblical call (Gen. 2:15; 2 Thess. 3:6-12). Make room in your schedule. Put exercise on the calendar and plan on showing up to the appointment. Kill two birds with one stone by being active with your family and friends, listening to sermons while running, or praying for others while walking around the block. You're keeping multiple priorities in place without sacrificing extra time.

Here's some extra incentive. God, in his infinite wisdom, gives fully functioning bodies to some but not to others. Some humans will never leave a wheelchair and would love to exert their bodies physically. See the arms and legs we have as a grace from God and joyfully use them. As you run that next mile (or think about working up to a mile), thank God for the many muscles working together to propel you along. Rejoice in the Creator of the human body and boast in what he has done.

Priority Not a Profession


We must, however, be cautious of our idolatrous heart. Nothing is necessarily sinful about training for a marathon or doing CrossFit for a couple of hours every day. Of course, if you're only after a 26.2 sticker, you might want to look discerningly at your heart. God has called us to steward the body, but be careful stewardship doesn't turn into worship. If your day is ruined when you miss a workout, chances are you need to trust God to root out some idolatry. If you attach joy to anything other than Jesus, it will fail you.

There's so much more to discuss, but here are 10 final thoughts for reflection as you begin to make exercise a priority:

  • As far as results go, think internal—a healthier heart opposed to abs.
  • Think of exercise as a literal way of fighting the sin of laziness.
  • Christians are charged to be disciplined, and exercise reinforces that discipline.
  • This "job" will sometimes get mundane, just like your current one.
  • This investment may keep you from becoming a physical and financial liability later in life.
  • Physical fitness assists you in serving others.
  • Your body houses the Holy Spirit.
  • Physical inactivity is often a sin.
  • You will feel better.
  • Christians, no matter what your body looks like, Jesus redeemed it and one day soon you will have a glorified one.


John Perritt is the youth pastor at Pear Orchard Presbyterian Church in Ridgeland, Mississippi. He is a graduate of Reformed Theological Seminary and hopes to pursue his DMin in youth ministry at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in November 2013. He blogs on film and theology at www.reel-thinking.com. John and his wife, Ashleigh, have three children, Sarah, Samuel, and Jillian.


0 Comments

    Author

    Chad Skaran, pastor

    A note from Chad:
    While I will occasionally write original material for this blog, time constraints and my own slow writing style will usually lead me to share content from other authors who have already said it well themselves.  Enjoy!

    Picture

    Archives

    July 2015
    May 2014
    December 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012

    Categories

    All
    Church Life Together
    Cultural Issues
    Dating / Courtship
    Discipleship: Following Jesus
    Parenting
    Pastoring
    Physical Health
    The Gospel: Knowing It
    The Gospel: Sharing It

    RSS Feed

​Redemption Hill Church 
100 5th Street SE - Stewartville, MN 55976
507.533.8808
Home
About
Contact