Edina Morningside Community Church

Today’s scripture reading: Genesis 21:1-3; 22:1-14

Sermon audio:

Thanks be to God?? We often end Scripture readings with, “Hear what the Spirit is saying to the church. Thanks be to God.” But “thanks be to God”, for this?? Today’s scripture challenges that verse of Second Timothy which claims, “All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness….”(2 Tim 3:16). But I struggle to recognize as God the voice at the start of Genesis 22, who commands a father to kill his son in order to demonstrate ultimate devotion. Taking these verses on the level of fact would ask us to shelve a morality so fundamental that it shows up in the Ten Commandments: “You shall not murder.” We must question and challenge the divine command here, lest we encourage others to claim God-given license to commit murder. The God we know in Jesus Christ does not ask things like this, so we’re best to be on guard when the Bible starts to make it sound otherwise. Perhaps this story exists not for instruction, but “for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” Sometimes instead of a roadmap to follow, the Bible gives us a warning of where not to go.

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Edina Morningside Community Church

Today’s scripture reading: Genesis 1:1-2:4a

Sermon audio:

After an oxygen tank exploded aboard the Apollo 13 spaceship in 1970, three astronauts were stranded in a small lunar module only meant for one. All of those astronauts breathing the same air for days would lead to a deadly buildup of carbon dioxide that would kill them. The air filters they had available from the spaceship were the wrong shape, so they had to figure out how to put a square filter into a round hole. The movie version of these events suggests that, down on Earth at Mission Control, a team of engineers dumped out on a conference table a jumble of cardboard boxes overflowing with everything that the astronauts had available to them in space. From the chaotic pile of hoses, wires, curtains, cables, screws, spacesuits, plastic bags, and duct tape, they would need to pull together something to filter the air and save the lives of the crew.

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