2007 Term 1 Week 2 – Men’s response to evil? Silence

Adam sinned by being silent. Genesis 3
Men are silent when confronted by Chaos.
Examples:
Adam (Genesis 3)
Abram (Genesis 12)
Abraham (Genesis 20)
Isaac (Genesis 26)
Judah (Genesis 38)
David (2 Samuel 13)

Chaos is when life requires more from us than we think we have to give.
Examples:
Friend says, “My dad just got diagnosed with cancer”
Friend says, “I went to a funeral on the weekend”
When confronted by situations such as these we don’t know what to do or say. What we do next is our “silence”. For me I change the subject to something else that appears important, though it is just a cop out. Others do humour. They do or say something funny to avoid the situation. Others are speechless; they don’t know what to say so they say nothing. In each case, men avoid speaking into the chaos. Rather we stick to what we can do.
An example of speaking in to the chaos (or entering it) is to ask the person how they feel about their situation. Being with them.

2007 Term 1 Week 1 – The world we live in

Evil exists

• We are right to be afraid
• It will strike us in the place we are most gifted
• It is not our job to end/destroy evil
• Evil causes death

Nowhere is safe

• We try to make a safe place anyway
• We try to protect ourselves from evil
• We try to arrange for good things to happen
• It is sinful to create a sanctuary (Don’t need God)
• It will cost us more to live in our sanctuary than it will to live in the presence of evil
• God will not create a safe place until Jesus comes again and evil has been destroyed
  

Examining fear is the doorway to maturity

• This is what we will do each week