Water for Camels!!!! (my first summer sermon)

“Water for Camels”
A Sermon on Genesis 24
July 2, 2011
Fuquay-Varina United Methodist Church

Our text this morning is not a dissertation on faith or the nature of God. It’s not a 10-step guide for how to live your life or a list of sins which should be avoided.

Our text this morning is a narrative. A story.

We just had vacation Bible school this past week and one of my favorite moments was on Wednesday when I got to lead storytime with the preschoolers.  All these cute little kids came in and sat criss-cross-applesauce on the carpet and they looked at me (with their pigtails and their round little faces)—and wanted to know what the story was going to be for that day.

In any other setting, we would have called it a Bible study, but Wednesday morning, it was a storytime. And the Bible was exciting. 

Somewhere along the line, a lot of us have lost that joy for God’s word. Or we’ve just forgotten that scripture can be exciting in the first place.

So in the spirit of Vacation Bible School, I read this morning’s text in a children’s Bible… It was called “the story of how Isaac gets a wife” …and it was cute. Very simple (“Abraham had a son named Isaac who needed a wife. So Abraham sent a servant to find a wife for Isaac. After traveling to a faraway well, the servant prayed to God and said, “God of my master, whoever waters my camels, please make her the right woman for Isaac.” And then Rebecca came. She said, “I will draw water for you and your camels.” And the servant rejoiced and praised God because he had found the right woman. )

Now on one hand, I think simple is good. It’s important to teach things so that even our youngest disciples can learn God,

 but too many of us take Abraham and Isaac, David and Goliath, Noah, Deborah,  Esther…we take these stories, we copy-paste them into our happy childhood memories and we leave them in Sunday school.  We forget that these stories—these scriptures—have deep theological, practical, and spiritual meaning for our every day grown up lives. These aren't just bedtime stories....These are the heroes and ancestors that taught Jesus how to live. These are the people whose hearts, lives, and relationships formed the foundation for our faith. This is the word of God for the people of God.

 Yes, Isaac gets a wife here in this story and the last verse in this chapter tells us that he loves her (which is happy and romantic) but it also tells us that, because of Rebekah, "Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death." With that verse, this story becomes one that stands against loneliness. We don't talk about loneliness very often in this church or with each other, but it's a bitter and present reality in this world--a reality which is not according to God's plan for us. Loneliness is not God's desire for you. Now I'm not saying that marriage is God's answer for loneliness, but I do think community is. I do think a church--this church--should stand with those who mourn and walk alongside those who are alone. And on the flip side, if you're lonely, then this community has a place for you. Reach out.

But this text also talks a lot about camels—a detail which I didn’t notice ‘til I read it three or four times.  In the whole book of Genesis, camels are mentioned 22 times. 15 of those are in this chapter. That’s pretty significant. The servant takes ten camels with him. The camels kneel by the well. When things are repeated—especially in the Old Testament—it’s because they’re meant to be remembered. And this whole story of the servant praying and Rebekah watering the camels—the whole thing is repeated later when the servant tells the story again, so it’s meant to be noticed.

And the camels—the camels are meant to pop out because they shift the focus from the characters themselves and bring attention to what Rebekah does. In this chapter, it’s important not only that Rebekah was chosen. It’s also important to notice why the servant notices her.

 The servant could have chosen anything. He could have said, “all right, we’re lookin’ for the chick with sweet aviators and sparkly Toms.” Or he could have said “gimme that girl with her hair in a mess. Sleepy little smile and her head on my chest…” (Eh? Any Country music fans out there?)

But servant isn’t looking for just anyone. He wants the kind of person who will bring water to camels…not a small task. Remember Rebekah's working with a well--not a faucet and if there are ten camels and each camel can each drink up to 20 gallons of water at a time (thank you, google!) this girl is making many, many trips. Rebekah is of outstanding character.

But I think the servant wanted high standards. By marrying Abraham's only son, Rebekah becomes a part of the Abrahamic covenant. That means that God's special blessing to Abraham’s family would extend to her. When he’s at the well, this servant is looking for a woman worthy of God’s chosen people. And he finds her.

By offering to water the camels of a total stranger, Rebekah demonstrates radical hospitality. She shows compassionate. Strength. Willingness to serve.  She sees a need and she steps up.

But Genesis 24 doesn’t stop there. Not only is Rebekah the type of person who waters camels, but we’re also told us that she's beautiful, wellspoken, from the right family, a virgin. When Isaac and Rebekah finally marry, Isaac loves her. She’s perfect—of course God would choose her.

Rebekah is the example—the typecast—for how all of God’s people should act. She sets the bar (writes the resume) for what it takes to be worthy of God’s blessing.

She’s good. But she’s also hard to live up to.

I don't know about you, but I don't always do the right thing. I don't always take the extra step for hospitality's sake. I don't always hear the cry of the needy. I don't always love (or even notice) my neighbor...and even when I do the right things, I never feel like it's enough. Maybe it’s because I’m a perfectionist, but I never feel like I'm good enough for God.

And I’ll bet I’m not the only one who feels that way.
Luckily, there's another biblical story about a woman who stands by a well. The story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman in John 4 follows the same pattern as our Genesis text from this morning, but it's radically reversed. This new Rebekah has no name. The Samaritan woman is from the wrong family, she's sarcastic, an adulteress. For all intents and purposes, this woman doesn't have any of the right qualities, but Jesus chose her anyways. Out of all the people in the gospel of John, Jesus reveals himself first to this nameless nobody. Where Rebekah was brought into the Old Covenant because of her actions, the Samaritan woman is chosen by grace. God's new covenant--God's NOW covenant--is based on grace.

That means it's not up to us. That means that we don't have to come to God perfect.

A covenant of grace means that our actions don't make us worthy to God. A covenant of grace is not about water for camels. Granted, the camels in this story are important because God does expect us to live a certain way, God does expect us to care for creation and see the needs of the people around us, but no matter how great our actions may be, God will never love us less or more.

That means that no matter what we've done or what we haven't done, no matter the guilt, no matter the greed, no matter the sin, no matter the struggle. God looks at us--like Isaac --and says "you are loved. You are chosen."

A few summers ago, I worked at a Presbyterian Church and there was a sixth grade girl named Haley. (loved her. she was wonderful)  Well, one day Haley came up to me and said "Ms. Emily! Ms Emily! I made you something!!!" And she gave me this drawing of what was apparently me--and I gotta be honest with you, for a middle school kid--it wasn't a very good drawing. But I didn’t look very long at Haley’s drawing. What touched my heart was Haley's face when she handed me that picture....her smile. Haley made that picture beautiful.

We can try and try and try to do everything right. To water camels like Rebekah. We can stretch out the canvas that is our lives and scribble all over it, and whether it’s beautiful art or a total mess, when we give our lives to God and say "look, God! Look what I did for your!" --God looks at all of our messy crayon scribble and God cares more about us than about what we did.

No matter what we've done or what we haven't done, no matter the good, no matter the guilt, no matter the sin, no matter the struggle. God looks at us--like Isaac looked at Rebekah--and says "you are loved. You are chosen. You are welcome to this table of grace."