The Rev. Kathi Johnson
A Lectionary 16 – July 20, 2014
Text: Genesis 28: 10-19a
Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, Grand Prairie, Texas
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Grace and peace be with you, from
God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
It is one thing to encounter God in
a church, or a cathedral, or in some other house of worship. It is another
thing altogether to encounter God while out in the wilderness, completely
alone, on the run from a brother who is trying to kill you.
It’s really the stuff that soap
operas are made of, the story of Jacob on the run. Jacob has just tricked his
older brother, Esau, out of his birthright and their father’s blessing. Esau is
mad – and at the end of Genesis 27, he is filled with hatred for Jacob and
ready to kill him. So their mother, Rebekah, steps in and tells Jacob to go off
and find himself a good wife with their kin who live a distance away. It’ll
give Esau a chance to cool off a little.
So, when we encounter Jacob today,
he is traveling in the same region where his grandfather, Abraham, had received
a promise from God: “To your offspring I will give this land.”[1]
Unlike Abraham, though, Jacob is alone. He has no wife, no other family with
him. He’s out there, on his own – isolated – and estranged from his brother.
The sun is setting, so he must stop
for the night. He takes a stone (presumably bigger than this one) to use as a
pillow, and he falls asleep, dreaming of a ladder (or stairs) going up into
heaven. It’s filled with angels going up and down, and then there is the LORD, speaking
to him, giving him the same promise made to Abraham so many years before: “the
land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring…”[2]
And then, God continues: “and your
offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to
the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and all the
families of the earth shall be blessed in you and in your offspring. Know that
I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to
this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”[3]
I will point out here that, up till
this point, Jacob has not exactly been a model follower of God. He hasn’t been
particularly pious or even very kind to members of his own family. And yet, here
is God, remembering the promise that he made to Jacob’s forefather, and
promising to show favor to this greedy, imperfect person, who’s camping out
under the stars, using a rock for a pillow.
Jacob wakes up the next morning and
takes that stone and sets it up in honor of this incredible encounter with God.
Going on – past today’s reading – he then makes a hesitant vow to God. He’s not
completely on board quite yet, but he’s ready to give God a shot. And God, of
course, is faithful, and enlarges Jacob’s family, the family that would become
the Israelites, as numerous as the dust of the earth, spreading to the four
corners of the earth.
All of this, beginning out of this
one encounter with God.
This week, I’m traveling to Iowa to
visit some friends and on my way, I’ll be stopping in Kansas, the land of my
forefathers and foremothers (on my mother’s side). This is a part of my family
tree that I know a little about. I have this little devotion book that belonged
to my great-grandmother. I never knew her but I know of her, and she was a
faithful woman – devout, and she had the same habit that I do, of making note
of important events, some of which are found in this little book.
I’ve often thought of these little
notes – both hers and my own – as being similar to the stones that the biblical
patriarchs would set up to show a place where they encountered God. They serve
as markers for us – visual reminders of the holy times in our lives – the times
when we have, in some way or another, encountered God (whether we were
expecting to or not!).
We need these reminders of holy times, because creation is groaning
for hope. Like in the parable from our gospel lesson today, our world is a
wheat field, interspersed with weeds and they want to steal our hope.
This past week, I watched a video
message recorded by Pastor Mitri Raheb, who is the Pastor of the Christmas
Lutheran Church in Bethlehem. He and his flock are – quite literally – surrounded
by yet another war and yet his message is still filled with hope. In fact, he
said this: “Remember, hope is what we do.”
Hope is what we do. Hope is what
the people of God have always done – throughout biblical history – back to
Abraham and Isaac and even Jacob – they encountered God, and they found hope.
As I travel this week, I’m going to
try to be open to encounters with God. And, when I encounter God, I’m going to put
a stone in that place as a marker – a visual reminder of a holy time.
I invite you to do the same this week. There
are stones located in each pew. Take one, or more, and be open to encountering
the living God of hope, and remind yourselves of those holy times.
Amen.
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