Notes For Meeting

About Notes For Meeting

Notes for our family's Meeting on Sunday night, for anyone who wasn't able to join us in person. notesformeeting.substack.com (https://notesformeeting.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast)

Publisher

David Brunton

Category

religion & spirituality · society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

23 Sept 2023

Latest episode

29 Jun 2026

Latest episodes

39 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   29 Jun 2026

   Abram, Sarai, and Hagar

   I’m curious what everyone made of the story of Abram, Sarai, and Hagar that we read this week. If I’d been thinking ahead a little more, I might have included a couple more passages about what happens to Ishmael later on, but we’ll read them aloud now. The important punchline of the story of Ishmael can be read in chapter twenty-five of Genesis, which we’ll read together now: This is the account of the family line of Abraham’s son Ishmael, whom Sarah’s slave, Hagar the Egyptian, bore to Abraham. These are the names of the sons of Ishmael, listed in the order of their birth: Nebaioth the firstborn of Ishmael, Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam, Mishma, Dumah, Massa, Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish and Kedemah. These were the sons of Ishmael, and these are the names of the twelve tribal rulers according to their settlements and camps. Ishmael lived a hundred and thirty-seven years. He breathed his last and died, and he was gathered to his people. His descendants settled in the area from Havilah to Shur, near the eastern border of Egypt, as you go toward Ashur. And they lived in hostility toward all the tribes related to them. Don’t you love that little dig there at the end? Note that this is yet another story that’s an etiology, that would be something like saying, “And that is why the people who live there are in a land called Mary, or Maryland.” To me, one of the most interesting parts of this whole story of Abram, is that while he’s counted as a virtuous forefather of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, the stories in the Bible actually don’t paint him in a very favorable light to modern sensibilities. I want to zero in on this part of the story where Hagar is found by an angel near a well. Note that this is a story in which the Lord is present, and there’s a bit there in the middle that seems almost like a throwaway line: “The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur.” We’re not going to read the whole middle part of Ishmael’s story, but after Sarah has a son born to her, there’s another story in which they send Hagar and Ishmael away. And in this story, we’re hearing about God instead of the Lord, and I almost wonder if it might be just a different version of the same story. Let’s pause for a moment and read that one: Early the next morning Abraham took some food and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar. He set them on her shoulders and then sent her off with the boy. She went on her way and wandered in the Desert of Beersheba. When the water in the skin was gone, she put the boy under one of the bushes. Then she went off and sat down about a bowshot away, for she thought, “I cannot watch the boy die.” And as she sat there, she began to sob. God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What is the matter, Hagar? Do not be afraid; God has heard the boy crying as he lies there. Lift the boy up and take him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation.” Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. So she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink. In Islamic tradition, this well is called Zamzam, and is located in the Sacred Mosque in Mecca. The area in the Bible that Ishmael’s descendants are said to have occupied is in the northern part of Saudi Arabia where borders Jordan, which is right next to modern day Israel. I’m curious if there were any other parts of the story that struck you guys as especially important? In case you missed it in the footnotes of the story, Hagar names her son Ishmael, and this means The God Who Hears or God Hears. As the story progresses, Abraham and Sarah have a son together, and his name is Isaac. The very next story we’re going to read is about Isaac, and it’s in Genesis chapter 22, the first nineteen verses. I want to warn you guys that this story we’re going to read next is a difficult one, and I don’t think I really understand it, despite having read it over a hundred times and read lots of things about it. None of the explanations satisfy me very much. In today’s story, the thing that struck me the most, well, this version and the other version, but the thing that struck me the most was the finding of water when we’re thirsty. What a feeling of salvation that would be, and I’m not even in the desert! I love you all so very much. Let’s light our candles and reflect on it together, well, together and apart. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit notesformeeting.substack.com (https://notesformeeting.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)

2. 

   21 Jun 2026

   Father Abram, Ahem, Abraham

   It’s Father’s Day, and we’re in the thick of studying through the book of Genesis together. Remember there was no reading assignment this week, we finished the first eleven chapters of Genesis last week, the sort of pre-history part of the story, and this week, we’re going to be introduced to Abram, whose name gets changed to Abraham. We didn’t have reading assignments, and we’re not going to read any passages today, either. We’re going to start with a recounting of some of the major events in the last thirty-nine chapters of the book of Genesis and the book of Exodus, and we’ll sort of gloss over some of the parts we’ve covered previously. You may recall that Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. This is another etiology, “where did we come from” sort of story. There’s a table of nations in the tenth chapter of Genesis, and it’s sort of a “hey, all the people we bothered to mention are descended from Shem, Ham, and Japheth in this way.” When I was a kid, I used to wonder, where are the Chinese people in this story? But I digress. Shem has kids, and their kids have kids, and after ten or so generations, Abram is born in Ur of the Chaleans, and marries Sarai. Ur of the Chaldeans is in modern day Iraq, near the mouth of the Euphrates River, and there was a big ziggurat there too, maybe that was the Tower of Babel. Who knows!? We’re going to dive into a few stories of Abram, but not this week. This week, we’re going for character arcs. Abram calls on Yahweh, though according to the earlier stories he’s not the first, but he calls on Yahweh, and eventually Yahweh makes a covenant with him and changes his name to Abraham, and changes Sarai’s name to Sarah. Abraham is ninety nine years old when this all goes down, and we learned earlier in the story that Sarah isn’t able to conceive, but she does, and they have a son named Isaac. I will also note that Abraham has two sons, and God promises to bless both of them. One is his son with Hagar, and one is his son with Sarah. Notably, there are some differences in how Jews and Muslims tell this part of the story, but the canonical telling in the Bible is that God’s covenant is established with Isaac. Isaac marries Rebekah, and I will mention here that there’s quite a bit of the telling of this part of the story that involves this family being in Canaan, which is the land that their descendants will later take over, but not marrying Canaanites. Again, a bit of etiology going there. So Abraham and Sarah’s Son Isaac marries Rebekah. Rebekah and Isaac’s son is named Jacob, though he also gets a new name later, Israel, hmm, wonder where I’ve heard that name? Jacob slash Israel marries two sisters named Rachel and Leah, and he eventually has a bunch of kids with the two of them and with Bilhah and Zilpah, who are handmaidens to the two sisters. In some tellings of the stories, they’re half-sisters to the two wives, but that’s not in the Bible. Anyway, the five of them, Jacob, Rachel, Leah, Bilhah, and Zilpah, have twelve sons, and the second-youngest is a dreamer named Joseph. Pausing for a moment here, I just want to observe that what we’re talking about is really the living memory of one person. Meaning, the story describes characters that would have literally known each other. It’s much further zoomed in than the last eleven chapters we read, it’s thirty-nine chapters for just four generations. Okay, so who remembers what happens at the end of the story of Joseph? That’s right, the whole gang goes on down to Egypt. And they stay there until Moses is born, Moses is a direct descendant of Jacob slash Israel through his son Levi, but we’re not talking about living memory now. The story, as it goes in the book of Exodus, is that they were in Egypt for four hundred thirty years. Then we dive deep again. Moses leads the Children of Israel out of Egypt. This is the Exodus, which is famously depicted in the book of Exodus. So Genesis, the beginning, Exodus, the Exodus, and then on to Leviticus, which is where we get a real deep dive into the law they got during Exodus. We’re not going to spend a whole bunch of time in Leviticus, but it’s got some good, meaty bits in it. Moses is sort of present throughout the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, as a character. He’s got numerous sidekicks, but the important one who emerges at the end is Joshua, who leads the Children of Israel into the Promised Land. Since you all remember the Lyle Lovett album from 1992, Joshua Judges Ruth, does anyone care to guess about the period just after the Children of Israel enter the Land of Canaan? That’s right, Judges, the next part is the period of the Judges. We’re going to read parts of all of this, but after the Judges there are Kings, the Kings build the first temple, it’s eventually destroyed and the second temple is built, we’ve covered that part of the narrative, and on through the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, when our own Christian religion was becoming an offshoot of Judaism. I will note that Jews and Christians do not have separate stories for this period, our religion literally forked off of theirs, so prior to that, our spiritual ancestors were Jews, Like Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. We do, however, have lots of separate interpretations. When people talk about Abrahamic religions, they’re talking about Jews, Christians, and Muslims, but also some other, smaller religions. Druze have been in the news recently, and there are actually still Samaritans, as in the Good Samaritan, in the world. Okay, so that’s the character arcs, and next week, we’re reading one story about Abram and Hagar and Sarai, everyone read Genesis chapter 16. Until then, I love you all so much, and let’s light our candles. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit notesformeeting.substack.com (https://notesformeeting.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)

3. 

   8 Jun 2026

   Old Testament: The Flood

   It was really fun to start our discussions on the Old Testament when everyone was home, and now we’re moving back to being spread abroad. I posted our last few weeks of meetings on Substack, and we’re going back to recordings at least while Tom is abroad. This week’s reading was a little bit longer, four chapters, but all concerning one story, the story of The Flood, capital-t-capital-f, The Flood. I’m so interested to hear everyone’s take on it. I’m going to turn on comments in case anyone decides they want to comment on the Internet, and to remind everyone who’s following along but not here in person, the reading for this week was Genesis chapters 6, 7, and 8, and chapter 9 through verse 17. I reminded people to take particular note of how many animals were taken onto the ark, and how many days the flood covered. Everyone was also keeping an eye out for which parts of the story are interactions with God-slash-Elohim, and which are interactions with The-Lord-slash-Yahweh. But before we dive into that, just a quick review of the story. Right there at the start, we have the Nephilim, who are pretty enigmatic characters in some ways, but if we take the whole thing at face value, God has sons, those sons take human wives, and their sons are heroes. But there in verse five things take a turn and the Lord decides to destroy all the humans, so it goes. Then for the rest of chapter 6, God tells Noah to build an ark and load the animals by twosies, twosies, elephants, and kanga-roosies, roosies, children of the lord. Oh, but it’s not children of the Lord at this point, they’re God’s people in chapter six, and then the Lord actually gives slightly different instructions in chapter 7, which Noah also follows, and then there’s a flood. The numbers of days of things kind of vary throughout the story, it’s something like forty days of rain, plus 150 days of flood, plus forty more days on the top of Mt Ararat, plus a couple more weeks of waiting, but it’s also interesting to note that what we appear to have here is a couple distinct stories that were woven together into a whole, and some parts of the original stories were left as they were when whoever was weaving them together found them. So there are a couple different times that forty days, or fourteen days, or a hundred and fifty days get mentioned, but regardless there’s a long flood, then the flood is over, and then one of two things happens. At the end of chapter 8, Noah has a barbecue and the Lord really loves the barbecue. Then at the end of chapter nine, there’s an alternate ending where God makes a covenant and ties it up nice with a bow. You all please don’t murder each other, and I will also never murder all of you again. Okay, so that’s the sketch of the story, now I’d be interested in hearing what you all think of the story, and about how the story is woven together. I’ve read at least one translation of the Book of Genesis where they actually pull the two stories back apart, and just present them as two different, but loosely related stories. It’s fun to think that maybe there were two flood myths that had been passed along, and then someone took the time and care to merge them back into a single story. But it’s also fun to think about the fact that there are lots and lots of fun flood stories from all over the world. For everyone who’s following along on the podcast or on substack, we’ve been spending more of our meeting time in discussion, which partly accounts for the shorter podcast this week. Next week, we’re only reading a very short section of chapter 11, verses one through eight. It’s the account of the Tower of Babel, which is a fun story. For this week, let’s light our candles together or in our hearts, and consider what the flood story has to tell us. I love you all so much. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit notesformeeting.substack.com (https://notesformeeting.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)

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Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

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Spotify

5.0 / 5

1 ratings