This prayer seeks God's guidance to confront injustice while celebrating liberty, asking God to help Christians keep their devotion to the cross above any symbols. It thanks God for blessings on all people and nations, and prays the church remains focused on Jesus' message of love and grace for all.

1. PRAYER
Architect of the world, who created this nation
and every other nation with equal measures of love,
we come to you this day seeking ways of hearing
your voice through the noise of modern life and
division, and asking that you be with us and that
you help us to keep our ears, eyes, and hearts pointed
only towards you and your way of love, this we pray
through the Holy Spirit and in your loving Son's name.
Amen.

2. the CHURCH calendar: SUNDAY, 6.11.23
Confronting Christian Nationalism Sunday

4. The Story of the People of God: Part I
every STORY has a BEGINNING…

5. GENESIS ISANANCIENTSTORY BY
ANCIENT PEOPLE
The Pentateuch wasn’t compiled/
completed until 539 BC (@ 700-1,000yrs
after the time of Moses).
539 is when the Persian King Cyrus
defeated Babylon and released Israel
who had been held captive there since
586 BC. These stories probably didn’t
start being written down until the time
of King David (@ 1,000 BC).

6. Genesis as we have it…is written
as part of the Pentateuch, and…
the Pentateuch is written as Israel’s
constitution in light of the traumatic
events of the Babylonian exile…

7. These Israelites were not interested in
reading about Noah and the flood
because it’s a great story or…it has a
principle to live by. And they weren’t
interested in finding out ”what really
happened,” as a modern historian
might. They were writing/reading these
stories to understand their own
relationship withGod.

8. Ur
?
Nege
v
Ur?

9. Now Sarai was barren; she had no child.
Terah took his son Abram and his grandson Lot
son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his
son Abram’s wife, and they went
out together from Ur of the Chaldeans
to go into the land of Canaan; but when
they came to Haran, they settled there.
GENESIS 11:30-31

10. Now the LORD said to Abram, ‘Go from
your country and your kindred and your
father’s house to the land that I will show you.
I will make of you a great nation, and I will
bless you, and make your name great,
so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who
bless you, and the one who curses you
I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth
shall be blessed.’ ** Sets the agenda
forGenesis-Kings, and the story of Jesus…
GENESIS 12:1-3

11. (The Lord) brought (Abram) outside and said,
‘Look towards heaven and count the stars,
if you are able to count them.’ Then he
said to him, ‘So shall your descendants be.’
And he believed the LORD; and the LORD
reckoned it to him as righteousness.
Then he said to him, ‘I am the LORD
who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans,
to give you this land to possess.’
GENESIS 15:5-7

12. When Abram was 99yrsold, the Lord appeared to
Abram, and said to him, ‘I am God Almighty; walk
before me, and be blameless. And I will make my
covenant between me and you,
and will make you exceedingly numerous.’
Then Abram fell on his face; and God said
to him, ‘As for me this is my covenant with you:
You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of
nations. No longer shall your name be Abram, but
your name shall be Abraham…
GENESIS 17:1-5a

13. …for I have made you the ancestor
of a multitude of nations. I will make you
exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations
of you, and kings shall come from you.
I will establish my covenant between me
and you, and your offspring after you throughout
their generations, for an
everlasting covenant, to be God to you
and to your offspring after you.
GENESIS 17:5b-7

14. And I will give to you, and to your offspring
after you, the land where you are now an alien, all
the land of Canaan, for a perpetual holding; and I
will be their God.’
GENESIS 17:8

15. So Abram went, as the Lord had told him**;
and Lot went with him. Abram was 75yrs old when
he departed from Haran. Abram took
his wife Sarai and his brother’s son Lot, and
all the possessions that they had gathered,
and the persons whom they had acquired
in Haran; and they set forth to go to the
land of Canaan. When they had come
to the land of Canaan… **No covenant ‘til 99;
sacrificing inheritance, future security, etc.
GENESIS 12:4-5

16. Abram passed through the land to the
place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh.
At that time the Canaanites were in the
land. Then the Lord appeared to Abram,
and said, ‘To your offspring I will give this land.’
So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had
appeared to him. From there he moved on to the
hill country on the east
of Bethel, and pitched his tent, with Bethel
on the west and Ai on the east…
GENESIS 12:6-8a

17. …and there he built an altar to the Lord
and invoked the name of the Lord.
And Abram journeyed on by stages
towards the Negeb.
** None of the promises ofGenesis are fulfilled
withinGenesis, and the promise
to be a blessing to the nations goes unfulfilled within
the Hebrew Bible,
until – forChristians – the time of Jesus…
GENESIS 12:8b-9

18. Part I: God and the Promises to Abram
every STORY has a BEGINNING…

19. • Creation + Salvation
• People + Land
• Struggle + Progress
• Covenant + Kingdom
• Invitation + Challenge
• Faith + Works
• Individual + Universal
THEMES INTHESTORY

20. THESTORY REMINDSUS:
1. God has always interacted
with God’s creation with grace

21. 1. God has always interacted
with God’s creation with grace
2. God has always chosen specifically
in order to
ultimately choose universally
o Adam/Eve, Noah/family,
Abram/Sarai, Jacob/Israel
o Jesus/Disciples
o Apostles/Church
THESTORY REMINDSUS:

22. 1. God has always interacted
with God’s creation with grace
2. God has always chosen specifically
in order to
ultimately choose universally
3. …of God’s initiative
and our response
THESTORY REMINDSUS:

23. 1. Where have I seen God’s grace?
Where might I have missed it?
2. Is there anyone I don’t
want God to choose? Why?
3. Has God been asking/inviting
me to do something, but I have
not followed through? Why not?
QUESTIONS

24. A Prayer For The People of God
Heavenly Creator, who loves all in equal measure no matter race, religion,
nationality, or sexuality: Thank you for the blessings of this earth that
you have poured out on every people and nation. As our nation
celebrates Flag Day this week, help us to be grateful for the
liberties and sacrifices it represents to many, while also being
mindful of the injustices and oppression it represents to others.
Guide us to confront those injustices, so we may love our neighbors well.
Keep us from venerating symbols as idols, and may the cross and
its message of love and grace remain supreme in our churches
and hearts, now and always. This we pray through the unity
of the Trinity, and in the name of Jesus, the King and Savior of all.
Amen.