SCRIPTURE: Genesis 28: 10-19a
TEXT:15 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." THEME: God’s love is with us even when we are not perfect (selfish). INTRODUCTION So far in Genesis we have seen unexpected guest that have made Sarah (us) laugh at how absurd God can be. We have had Isaac’s baby luau where the after-party showed us the expansiveness of God’s love, extended to Hagar and Ishmael where more stories about God can be found. We will live in communities where practices and beliefs about God don’t match what we have discovered about God. Don’t sacrifice your children for a better life for yourself, but use the template of love we are developing about how God is, to understand the God of the Old Testament is the same described by the Apostle Paul. Last week we found that even if we are raised in the same household siblings, we can be very different from each other, in what they think and in what they prefer. That is okay, we don’t have to be the same, God loves diversity and God will always work with us. We inherit a lot of things from our parents, but one thing we don’t inherit is our faith or passion. The next meal that is our focus, was a repeat of the lost birthright stew, but this time, it featured a lovely venison stew, where more characters were involved, with more trickery, a slight of hand and conspiracy that bestowed the blessing of the future the family, upon the child impersonating the other. God can even work with that. SCRIPTURE Jacob is on the run afraid of his brother’s anger after impersonating him and getting their father to bless him instead of his brother. Jacob is running away as far and as fast as he possibly can. When darkness falls and he lays low, using the available stones as a pillow. Desperate, alone, in the dark, out in the wilderness, (remember Jacob is the twin that doesn’t like being outdoors in nature), exhausted, fearful, this is a thin place, where the separation between heaven and earth is permeable. Jacob has a dream of a ladder with angels ascending into Heaven while other angels were descending to Earth. Then God confirms the blessing Jacob acquired through unscrupulous means, by standing next to him and speaks. Jacob must have thought, “This is real. God is real. Grandpa Abe’s God is real, Daddy Isaac’s God is real. And now this God who is real is My God too. The promise made to Grandpa, to Dad, is now passed down to me. God will be with me, where ever I go and bring me back-to-back to this land. “ Jacob thinks it is the place that is special so he takes the stone pillow he had his dream on, and anointed it with oil. He marked the spot to remember it. Maybe he could reduplicate the experience again when he needed it. But if he listened a little closer, we would realize that it is not the place that is special, but God who has been through several generations, is committed to work with him in fulfilling God’s purposes. This is the beginning of a faith relation and a faith adventure for Jacob. APPLICATION The characters of this family are deeply flawed but God makes promises to them and travels with them. God confirms that their trickery, manipulation, favoritism, and deception does not disqualify them from God’s grace or love. No matter where they are in life’s journey, they are welcomed by God. What are the markers in our lives that indicate we are headed in the right direction with God? Humans were not created to be perfect. But when we aspire to such heights it is amazing. A ’10’ on the gymnastic floor exercise, free style snowboarding perfection, and hole in one. A flawless performance on the piano, we are on nerve because anything could go wrong and yet mesmerized as we witness what this person is accomplishing through hours of practice, natural talent, determinism, and drive. God wants us to do our best but does not expect perfection in our lives, except when it comes to relationships, and the only way we can achieve this is through grace, love, and forgiveness. We do not have to earn favor with God. We are people on a journey with God. This is real people, good, broken, ambitious, competitive people who love God and don’t love God who have a realization of God and live with this reality. Some with passion, some for their own advantage, some to get ahead, some just following the rules, some just because…and God, just because God loves us. No matter where we are on life’s journey God confirms that we are welcomed. confirms that God is in our lives. We have misconceptions about God and what it means to follow God. Last week a woman and her son knocked on my door. She wanted to share a verse from Isaiah with me about the evil world we live in with lies, deceptions, greed, and destruction. I asked if she was referring to Trump’s indictments, which made her laugh off script. She excused herself abruptly promising to come back. Clearly in control of our conversation and when they would show up again. If she had stayed, I would have talked about the good at creation and the incarnation. About how ‘we are not a problem that needs to be fixed.’ About God’s love for us not expecting us to be perfect but to take responsibility for our action and deepen in our relationship with God through the love of Jesus. These conversations always go better in my mind after they leave and never while they are firing scripture at me, rapid fire like ammunition, jumping from one context to another. CONCLUSION Our relationship with God can be seen as a journey. Wherever we go, whatever we do, there will be those time when we lay down and God will minister to us in our sleep. Those pillows will be markers of things we have learned, figured out, put in order, or rested for whatever may come our way. We could erect monuments to those encounters with God that indicate when we had felt especially close to God. The starting point of our journey of faith with God. The times when we were in trouble the most, those times when we had no answers for our behavior but just held by God. Whether passionate for God, not first in line, clever, God’s adventures are written in our lives and in the relationships, we foster around us. The communities we leave in our wake, are the markers of the presence of God.
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