Sermonizing in progress (Genesis 24 thoughts that didn't make the cut)

I love that when you take time to sit with scripture, all kinds of details start to emerge that you may not otherwise notice. When we read these stories--simple or not--we need to ask ourselves, "Why was this story included in the scriptures? What is in here that was important enough to remember?"

The great thing about preaching occasionally is that you have plenty of time to let your thoughts simmer. The down side, however, is that every time I read this story, different details pops out and it's hard to decide...

•  It's really interesting to look through children's Bibles to see which stories get left out, which ones are considered too boring or difficult for kids, or, better yet, which parts in the Bible make good stories.
  ...unfortunately, I think Christians tend to do that with the Old Testament. We'll keep a few Psalms around for comfort (like the 23rd) but we avoid genealogies like the plague, mostly ignore the prophets, and entirely skip over books like Judges and Numbers... We love the stories--Adam and Eve, Noah's Ark, Daniel and the Lion's Den--but too often, we copy-paste the Old Testament stories into our childhood memories and leave them there.
• The first time I read chapter 24, I was enamored by Rebekah's character. Unlike a lot of women in scripture, Rebekah has a name, she speaks, she makes her own decisions...If this scene were a movie, she'd be a Kiera Knightly character. 
• Another beautiful message I find in this text comes from the servants prayer. This random servant who isn't even given a name in this text puts faith in God. In fact, if you read the servant's prayer, he doesn't even connect himself directly to God. The servant says "LORD, God of my master" like the he doesn't have a personal connection there, but he does pray and his prayer is answered. In fact, the servant says the answer appears even before the prayer is over.
       When the servant is later telling the tale, I can just hear the excitement and wonder in his voice: "You're not going to believe what this God did! Before I finished praying in my heart, Rebekah was there." In this story, not only is the servant faithful to Abraham's wishes, but God proves faithful to even this servant. The message here is that God provides. God answers prayers! (granted, I don't think God answers every single prayer with such spectacular drama--and to that end, not all of our prayers should be answered that way--but the core message is here: God cares. God listens. God responds).
• One of the things I noticed was that the camels are well cared for. Rebekah notices them. Waters them. Later when they get to the house of Rebekah's brother, Laban prepares a place for the camels as well as the servant. These details would be easy to leave out, but they're here for a reason. Not to go all ecological on you, but maybe the camels are here to say that creation matters too. People aren't the only ones who need to be cared for...
• When I usually read this text, the camels are the least, the unnoticed, the forgotten. Are there people in this community that we're not noticing? What about visitors? (I'm sorry if you're here for the first time. I'm not trying to call you a camel, but I do want you to be noticed. And welcomed.) Are there demographics, personality types, or certain occupations that we fail to see as people in our daily lives? Cashiers, restaraunt servers, sanitation workers...these people are part of God's creation too.