Instead, you must seek the place YHWH your God will choose from among all your tribes to put the Divine Name for a dwelling place. To that place you must go.

~Deuteronomy 12:5 (Inclusive Bible translation)

You Are Here

We all have locations that are special to us. A place associated with a fond memory or an important event. 

It can be as mundane as the room where you first read your favorite book. Or as momentous as the place where you met your future partner or spouse. It might even be connected to something sad or bittersweet, such as the place where your loved one’s ashes were dispersed or where they were buried.

The writers of Genesis also had places that they considered special. Such places included the location where the whole relationship between God and the world began, like the Garden. Or where an Israelite ancestor first encountered or were visited by God, such as the Oaks of Mamre. Not infrequently, it was a place where someone got into deep trouble and received unexpected help—for example, Beer-Sheba and Beer Lahai Roi. Or, more happily, a place where they met their future partner, like at the well at Nahor in Haran. 

Many of these important places consist of or are marked by trees or sources of water. That’s because most of the journey of the Israelite ancestors took place in the Negev, which means “dry land” or “the south.” As the name suggests, it was a place not dissimilar to the American Southwest and to parts of Texas. It was bright and hot and sunny. 

No wonder the locations of trees or beer (which means “well” in Hebrew, though the English meaning works here too) were particularly noted. We too can resonate with the joy of encountering a large shade bearing tree or a drinking hole in the summer. In the midst of a long, hot, tiring walk, shade and water feel miraculous indeed. Worthy of celebration. Worthy of remembering.

These places were especially important because they were places of memory, of a bygone age. Many scholars think that the biblical writers, who were descendants of the figures discussed in Genesis, wrote about these places many hundreds of years after the events they describe. By the time they wrote these tales, the writers had been forcibly removed and exiled from their homeland. They were homesick and nostalgic. They longed to go back but couldn’t. Their only way to “return” and connect was through their memory, their stories, and their writing.

The memory of these places, understandably, is bittersweet. Filled with longing, sadness, joy, and also hope. That’s why they wrote about these places and these figures — to remember and to keep a record in case their children or their children’s children ever got a chance to return some time in the future. 

As Saint John's begins the new sermon series, I hope that these stories from Genesis resonate with you, sparking empathy and conjuring memories of the special places in your journey.