We begin our journey through Genesis with the two creation stories handed down through the centuries.  What do they tell us about the nature of God and the created order and the role of human beings in that order? 

Adam and Eve eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and awaken.  We are now conscious of ourselves, conscious of our capability to do good and inflict harm.  The ancient story is rich with wisdom about what it means to be human. 

We are all challenged with a great struggle: to aim for our ideal self and make the right sacrifices - to be Abel, or fall prey to the resentment of being and to murder that ideal - to be Cain.  Which path will we choose? 

Noah and the flood is another ancient story that teaches us something about how to prepare for and deal with catastrophe in our lives today.  There is no avoiding the flood, but God does show us how to build an ark. 

The ancients told a story about the amazing heights of human ability and the great dangers of pride.  The Tower of Babel helps us today to understand that humility is a great virtue - to understand ourselves exactly as we are - not as gods, nor as insignificant - but as we are. 

The first of the great patriarchs is called forth to a new land, with a promise of prosperity and a great family.  Abraham listens to God's call but the journey and the destination do not turn out as he expects! 

God had promised that Abraham's descendants would be as numerous as the stars and yet in old age he and Sarah had still not had any children.  The coming of Isaac was like a bolt from the blue.  

God asks the unthinkable and Abraham obeys.  Why?  Why would God need such a test?  Why would Abraham obey?  What does this story tell us about our faith and our relationship with God? 

The death of Sarah was a great loss to Abraham and her family.  What dies the life and death of this matriarch teach us about handling lost hope and about our lives of faith? 

Isaac's second son, Jacob, is a trickster and lives a life full of manipulation and deception.  It all catches up with him and culminates in a barren place where he wrestles God and becomes Israel - the symbolic father of a nation. 

The youngest son of Jacob is his favorite and the boy feels destined for greatness to the chagrin of his older siblings.  Sold into slavery into the land of Egypt, a remarkable turn of events raises Joseph to the right hand of the Pharaoh.   

Joseph's foresight saves all of Egypt from a terrible famine, including the household of his father Jacob.  Joseph forgives his siblings for their terrible betrayal and is reunited with his father starting the next chapter of the Hebrew people in the land of Egypt.