Carolyn B. Helsel - The Flawed Family of God: Stories about the Imperfect Families in Genesis

The Flawed Family of God

The Flawed Family of God

Stories about the Imperfect Families of Genesis

Carolyn B. Helsel
Song-Mi Suzie Park

2021 Carolyn B. Helsel and Song-Mi Suzie Park

First edition

Published by Westminster John Knox Press

Louisville, Kentucky

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All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Westminster John Knox Press, 100 Witherspoon Street, Louisville, Kentucky 40202-1396. Or contact us online at www.wjkbooks.com.

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and are used by permission.

Book design by Sharon Adams

Cover design by Barbara LeVan Fisher, www.levanfisherdesign.com

Cover illustration: Turkana Afternoon, 1994 (oil on canvas) Tilly Willis / Bridgeman Images

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Helsel, Carolyn B., author. | Park, Song-Mi Suzie, author.

Title: The flawed family of God : stories about the imperfect families of Genesis / Carolyn B. Helsel, Song-Mi Suzie Park.

Description: First edition. | Louisville, Kentucky : Westminster John Knox Press, 2021. | Summary: This Bible study examines the families of Genesis, starting with how the Adam and Eve story encompasses far more ways of being family-including singleness-than most of us think, and shows us that the ups and downs of the relationship between Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, and Ishmael can help us understand the complicated dynamic of blended families Provided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020047404 (print) | LCCN 2020047405 (ebook) | ISBN 9780664265984 (paperback) | ISBN 9781646980383 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Bible. GenesisCriticism, interpretation, etc. | FamiliesBiblical teaching.

Classification: LCC BS1238.F34 H45 2021 (print) | LCC BS1238.F34 (ebook) | DDC 222.11/30685dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020047404

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020047405

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Contents

T o write a book about flawed families seems almost a confession, because you cannot write about what you do not know, right? And to some extent, that is true in my life: I grew up in a beautifully flawed family with four sisters and a younger brother, with plenty of family drama over the years. Throughout my childhood, we attended a large church downtown in the city where we lived, and everyone going to church always seemed so perfect. Dressed in perfect clothes, looking like their lives were in perfect order, with cheerful expressions on everyones faces showing they were the emblems of success. I felt my family was the only one with problems. What a relief it was to read the Bible and find out that was certainly not the case!

So let me first begin by thanking my wonderful family: my parents and each of my siblings, for the support you all have provided me and one another over the years, and for your faithfulness amidst the many ups and downs we have known together. To my mom and dad, thank you for taking us all to church so that we could hear the Scriptures read and proclaimed, and I could learn from these texts how flawed families were not only part of Gods greater story but they played a starring role! I continue to experience Gods grace and love through you all. Thank you.

To my husband, Phil, who has made the creation of our own family such a joyful journey, I cannot thank you enough. For our children who daily teach me how to wonder at the world, I am so grateful. My sweet family offers me the opportunity to see God at work in birding, poetry, painting, story-writing, and backyard chickens.

I also am so glad I got invited by Suzie Park to work on this book with her. It was her idea to cowrite this book, and I have learned so much along the way from her brilliant scholarship. Suzie, thank you for trusting me enough to invite me into the journey of writing together! I was amazed at how seamlessly we worked on this project, and how fun it was to write.

Finally, I have to say a huge thank-you to the dear friends who shared their stories with me so that I could share them here. Kyle Walker and his husband, Nelis Potgieter, in . All of them were so gracious to give of their time and to tell their stories of witness: while the biblical stories so often provide bad examples for how to live as a family, these modern-day people of faith are setting better examples for us to follow, and to all of them I say a loud and deep thank-you!

For all the families out there who need to hear that their struggle is real, that God is with us when we are not at our best, and that there are people navigating family life in better ways than we may have imagined in the past, this book is for you.

C AROLYN H ELSEL

Many people were helpful to the conception, writing, and completion of this work. First, I want to thank the members of the Moveable Feast pastor cohort, who asked me to participate in their meeting as a scholar in 2018. The idea for this book came from overhearing members of this cohort talking about the lack of resources for thematic preaching. Thank you for graciously letting me participate and also for letting me listen in on your conversations.

Though the initial idea stemmed from the cohort, it was primarily my coauthor, Carolyn Helsel, who offered the motivation and gentle push needed to complete this work. Without her, I most certainly would have taken a bit too long. I am thankful for her energy and am grateful to be her colleague and coauthor.

Carolyn is one of many wonderful people I get to work with at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, all of whom are kind, thoughtful, interesting, and fun.

I am also grateful to Stephen Milburn and Julia Burkley, my research aides, as well as Robert Ratcliff and other editors at Westminster John Knox for their help in improving this work.

Attendees and fellow presenters at the Bible and Practical Theology section of the 2019 AAR/SBL meeting asked wise questions and provided great feedback when Carolyn and I presented on this book.

Thanks also to Kevin Lam, who faithfully and carefully read, edited, and offered suggestions. He has surely made this work better.

Finally, to my mother and father, who instilled in me a love of the stories in the Bible, thank you.

S UZIE P ARK

Biblical Families?

What does the Bible say about what it means to be a family? And what does the Bible have to do with the current struggles of families today?

A husband and wife are worried about their sons who keep bullying, fighting, and teasing each other, so much so that the parents worry about their sons physical safety. Their fighting has caused a split in the family as each parent lines up to the side of one child or the other.

An older couple have been trying for years to conceive a child without success. They have given up hope of being able to have their own child, so they go through a process of surrogacy. Another woman carries the child for them. But then the unexpected happens: the surrogate wants to keep the child she has borne, and the couple struggling with infertility conceive a child of their own. What happens now to the child conceived through surrogacy and to the woman who carried that child for the couple?