{"id":1371,"date":"2022-12-06T15:12:59","date_gmt":"2022-12-06T21:12:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/nourishing-vocation\/?p=1371"},"modified":"2022-12-21T12:49:46","modified_gmt":"2022-12-21T18:49:46","slug":"engaging-the-living-word-rachel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/nourishing-vocation\/2022\/12\/engaging-the-living-word-rachel\/","title":{"rendered":"Engaging the Living Word"},"content":{"rendered":"<div data-modular-content-collection><h4 style=\"text-align: center;\">The Nourishing Vocation Project<\/h4>\n<h5 style=\"text-align: center;\">Engaging the Living Word<\/h5>\n<h6 style=\"text-align: center;\">Rachel &#8211; Genesis 30:1-24<\/h6>\n<p>What is the particular text?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Family story\n<ul>\n<li>Ancestor story<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Genealogy story<\/li>\n<li>Conflict story<\/li>\n<li>Theology<\/li>\n<li>Promise<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>How does the text function within the scriptural story?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Moves the covenant promises forward<\/li>\n<li>Tells the birth of Jacob&#8217;s descendants<\/li>\n<li>More clearly identifies the rivalry between Leah and Rachel in the names of their sons<\/li>\n<li>Portrays biblical narrative pattern of barrenness to conception to birth<\/li>\n<li>Portrays biblical narrative patterns of God working both through and in spite of human beings<\/li>\n<li>Depicts a God who remembers God&#8217;s own<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>How can this text function in the church today?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Calls the church to remember God&#8217;s promises today<\/li>\n<li>Remember for the church to examine where\/how it is present amid human longing and suffering<\/li>\n<li>Invitation to name our own emptiness, barrenness as a church<\/li>\n<li>Challenge to be intentional about naming who God is calling us to remember today &#8211; and then actually lean into\/embrace that remembering<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>What does the text do to you? How do you react to the text? What feelings does this text engender in you?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Evokes empathy<\/li>\n<li>Reminds of personal suffering<\/li>\n<li>Reminds of personal times of emptiness<\/li>\n<li>Frustrates me: life doesn&#8217;t always move from emptiness to emptiness fulfilled<\/li>\n<li>Sadness, sorrow<\/li>\n<li>Hope<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>What do you have to say to the text?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Are Rachel and Leah more than characters in a divine drama?<\/li>\n<li>Though part of the historical, cultural practice, the use of the slave women is gut-wrenching<\/li>\n<li>I wish teh women could tell their own story<\/li>\n<li>Barrenness &#8211; of a host of kinds &#8211; does not always meet with fulfillment<\/li>\n<li>Family systems &#8211; and their dysfunctions &#8211; are powerful<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>What do you see through this text from the story itself?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Suffering is real<\/li>\n<li>Family systems are hard<\/li>\n<li>There is a fine line between passively waiting on the promises and being agents that work to fulfill God&#8217;s promises<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>What do you see from within your church\/community\/world? (2022)<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Rivalries amid God&#8217;s people are nothing new<\/li>\n<li>We want quick solutions to our problems, and sometimes take those solutions into our own hands in unhelpful ways<\/li>\n<li>We sometimes seek to create our own, quick solutions to problems that take time to resolve<\/li>\n<li>Temptation to reduce the Gospel to theologically empty clich\u00e9s or tropes\n<ul>\n<li>Wait on God and everything will be fine<\/li>\n<li>Everything happens for a reason<\/li>\n<li>God will provide if we are just patient enough<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Crises of our current time\n<ul>\n<li>Women&#8217;s agency over their own bodies<\/li>\n<li>We are an &#8220;instant gratification society:&#8221; we have no patience for waiting<\/li>\n<li>Suffering makes us uncomfortable<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>What do you see within yourself?\n<ul>\n<li>Times when my hopes have not been fulfilled<\/li>\n<li>Experiences of conflict within the church<\/li>\n<li>Times when hindsight was the only way to have insight<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>What is the context &#8211; textual and historical?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Family narrative of Jacob<\/li>\n<li>Follows Jacob marrying both Leah and Rachel<\/li>\n<li>Amid the story of favoritism of Rachel over Leah<\/li>\n<li>Follows the narrative of Laban tricking Jacob into marrying Leah that is reminiscent of Jacob tricking Esau out of his birthright<\/li>\n<li>Sets up favoritism of Joseph by Jacob over his other sons<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>What questions does this text raise for you?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>How would Rachel and Leah tell their own stories?<\/li>\n<li>What about those who do not feel like they are remembered by God?<\/li>\n<li>What does it mean today to be remembered by God?<\/li>\n<li>Could Leah and Rachel have been anything but rivals?<\/li>\n<li>Are there any biblical stories about women that are not in some ways &#8220;texts of terror?&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>What words\/themes seem of particular import?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Rivalry<\/li>\n<li>Barrenness\/emptiness<\/li>\n<li>Promise<\/li>\n<li>Fulfillment<\/li>\n<li>Sorrow\/Hope<\/li>\n<li>Women<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>What is the Gospel\/transforming Good News within this text?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>God hears<\/li>\n<li>God remembers<\/li>\n<li>God&#8217;s vision is bigger\/broader than our own<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>What is the as-over-againstness of this text?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Suffering is real<\/li>\n<li>Emptiness is real<\/li>\n<li>Not all emptiness is fulfilled<\/li>\n<li>Family systems can be painful<\/li>\n<li>Conflict can be generational<\/li>\n<li>Actions of one really do impact lives of others<\/li>\n<li>Naming human longings and sufferings is not always comfortable<\/li>\n<li>Sometimes people don&#8217;t know how to hold space for others who name their longing\/suffering<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Who does this text say that Jesus is, or if not Jesus, then who does this text say that God is? What does this text say about God?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>God hears<\/li>\n<li>God Remembers<\/li>\n<li>God acts<\/li>\n<li>The sorrow of the human experience matters to God<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>What have others said about this text?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Her protracted infertility fits into a larger biblical pattern that signals the special importance of the child (Joseph) who finally arrives. In this sense, Rache&#8217;s tragedy is also her triumph.&#8221; &#8211; &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bibleodyssey.org\/en\/people\/main-articles\/rachel\">Rachel<\/a>,&#8221; by Amanda Mbuvi<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>What will I teach or proclaim?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>You are not alone in your suffering<\/li>\n<li>Human longings are real: naming those longings is essential<\/li>\n<li>God remembers<\/li>\n<li>God calls us to hear the cries of the suffering of others<\/li>\n<li>God calls us to be the ways that God remembers those who suffer<\/li>\n<li>Name that emptiness is not always fulfilled &#8211; and wrestle with what that means<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/nourishing-vocation\/files\/2022\/09\/Rachel-Genesis-30.1-24.docx-3.pdf\">Downloadable PDF Version<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Nourishing Vocation Project Engaging the Living Word Rachel &#8211; Genesis 30:1-24 What is the particular text? Family story Ancestor story Genealogy story Conflict story Theology Promise How does the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8561,"featured_media":1212,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wp.stolaf.edu\/nourishing-vocation\/files\/2022\/11\/NurishingGraphicF-fullimage-e1692651216451.jpg?fit=500%2C375&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/nourishing-vocation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/nourishing-vocation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/nourishing-vocation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/nourishing-vocation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8561"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/nourishing-vocation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1371"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/nourishing-vocation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1371\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1440,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/nourishing-vocation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1371\/revisions\/1440"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/nourishing-vocation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/nourishing-vocation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/nourishing-vocation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/nourishing-vocation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}