This week we continue our new worship series “Inspired” based on the book Inspired: Slaying Giants, Walking on Water, and Loving the Bible Again by Rachel Held Evans. Those who wish may purchase the book, and it’s also available in the LJUMC library.
It is surely safe to say that we all wish for deliverance from something. For some of us we may wish for deliverance from the temptation of sweets or carb-heavy foods. Others may wish for deliverance from uncomfortably hot months here at the conclusion of summer. Some of us may wish for deliverance from long hours of work.
Still others may wish for deliverance from loneliness; some for deliverance from disease or addiction; some for deliverance from poverty; some for deliverance from judgement and from circumstances and systems that feel so heavily stacked against them.
We are reminded that God hears our cries, even our most desperate cries, and that God leads us to wholeness.
Genesis 21:8-21 (CEB)
8 The boy grew and stopped nursing. On the day he stopped nursing, Abraham prepared a huge banquet. 9 Sarah saw Hagar’s son laughing, the one Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham. 10 So she said to Abraham, “Send this servant away with her son! This servant’s son won’t share the inheritance with my son Isaac.”
11 This upset Abraham terribly because the boy was his son. 12 God said to Abraham, “Don’t be upset about the boy and your servant. Do everything Sarah tells you to do because your descendants will be traced through Isaac. 13 But I will make of your servant’s son a great nation too, because he is also your descendant.” 14 Abraham got up early in the morning, took some bread and a flask of water, and gave it to Hagar. He put the boy in her shoulder sling and sent her away.
She left and wandered through the desert near Beer-sheba. 15 Finally the water in the flask ran out, and she put the boy down under one of the desert shrubs.16 She walked away from him about as far as a bow shot and sat down, telling herself, I can’t bear to see the boy die. She sat at a distance, cried out in grief, and wept.
17 God heard the boy’s cries, and God’s messenger called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “Hagar! What’s wrong? Don’t be afraid. God has heard the boy’s cries over there. 18 Get up, pick up the boy, and take him by the hand because I will make of him a great nation.” 19 Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well. She went over, filled the water flask, and gave the boy a drink. 20 God remained with the boy; he grew up, lived in the desert, and became an expert archer. 21 He lived in the Paran desert, and his mother found him an Egyptian wife.
Psalm 63:1-8 (CEB)
1 God! My God! It’s you—
I search for you!
My whole being thirsts for you!
My body desires you
in a dry and tired land,
no water anywhere.
2 Yes, I’ve seen you in the sanctuary;
I’ve seen your power and glory.
3 My lips praise you
because your faithful love
is better than life itself!
4 So I will bless you as long as I’m alive;
I will lift up my hands in your name.5 I’m fully satisfied—
as with a rich dinner.
My mouth speaks praise with joy on my lips—
6 whenever I ponder you on my bed,
whenever I meditate on you
in the middle of the night—
7 because you’ve been a help to me and I shout for joy in the protection of your wings.
8 My whole being clings to you;
your strong hand upholds me.
Consider these questions:
- Have there been times in your life when God has “made a way where there seems to be no way”? What did you learn from those experiences?
- Do you find yourself in some sort of wilderness now? What brought you here?
- What are some ways in which the Bible has been used to harm and oppress people throughout history and in the present? What are some ways in which the Bible has been used for deliverance? Do these examples shake your faith in the Bible? Strengthen it? A little of both?
- What comes to mind when you hear reference to “the Law” in Scripture? Is your impression positive or negative? Has that changed?
- Rachel Held Evans writes, “For those who count the Bible as sacred, interpretation is not a matter of whether to pick and choose, but how to pick and choose. We’re all selective.” Agree? Disagree?