God’s Movement from the Sacred to the Profane

Let’s review what we know about this man, Jacob.  He was not exactly an exemplary man with an impeccable lineage.  Noah, his great-to-the-10th-power grandfather, got drunk and sinned against God.  His grandfather, Abraham, felt so insecure about God’s protection that he lied to the king of Egypt about his own wife, Sarah, telling the king that she was his sister.  Abraham also wasn’t sure whether God would fulfill his promise to give him children with Sarah, so he slept with Sarah’s servant, Hagar, instead and then threw both Hagar and her child out of the house when his son, Isaac, was born.  Jacob, who was the favored younger son of Isaac, tricked his brother Esau into giving up his birthright for a bowl of soup and then made matters worse by covering his arms with goat hair to steal his brother’s blessing from his father.   So, the man we encounter in our story today is a thief who comes from a house of liars and sinners.

            What is Jacob doing sleeping on the ground like a common shepherd?    That sounds more like something Esau would do.  As it happens, Esau was not very happy to lose both his birthright and his father’s blessing.  He had been planning to kill Jacob to get them back.  But Jacob’s mother, Rebekah, and his father, Isaac, both warned him and sent him away, ostensibly to find a wife in his uncle’s house back in the old country.  But, in truth, he was sent away to preserve his life.  On this particular night, while he was in the vicinity of a city, he had not entered the city.  Perhaps, it was late when he arrived and the gates of the city had already been locked for the night.  Perhaps he thought Esau might look for him in the city and he was safer in the hills outside.   Whatever the reason, Jacob slept out under the stars that night with a rock for a pillow.  And he had a strange dream.

            Now, I would assume, at this point, that, if God came to Jacob in a dream, it would be to tell him that he was condemned forever for his actions toward his brother.  Instead, God came to this man, who was a thief, to reassure him of his holy inheritance and of God’s promise to be with him always?    Instead of punishing him for his sin, God seems to be rewarding him for doing these things to his older brother.  Why?   If God wanted Jacob to inherit everything, why didn’t he just make arrangements for Jacob to be born first?  He could have done that.  Why do it this way?

I believe that there are several lessons that we can learn from the story of Jacob and Esau and God’s actions in history.  First, and I believe most important, is that God chose Jacob to be the one who would receive his blessing.  Jacob was God’s free choice… for our God is a sovereign God and chooses whomever he will for whatever his purpose may be.  It is not for us to understand God’s plan and God’s design… nor do we have any right to judge those whom God calls for his purpose.  God chooses whom God wills… and that is the end of it.  It was God who, in sovereign power, created the heavens and earth and, in placed a human creature on the earth to have dominion over all.   Yet, created in God’s own image and given all this abundance and glory, what did that human do in his first recorded act? He sinned against God by eating from the one tree in the garden that God told him not to touch.  How frustrating for God!

Yet God did not reject Adam… or abandon him.  And that brings us to the second lesson that we can learn from this story.  Throughout recorded history, the human beings that God has chosen have shown how weak and fallible they are by their selfish and self-centered actions that do more harm than good.  Yet God is faithful… and abides by the covenant he has made to be their God.  Time after time after time, from Adam to Noah… Abraham… and Jacob, God has stood by his choice and been unshakable in his commitment to their God.  And, as we trace the story further, God continues to be faithful, despite all that humankind can do… and does do… to show dishonor and disrespect to God.  Our God is faithful… always.

Lesson number three:  Somehow, God’s will is accomplished… because of… but more often, in spite of… all that we do to disrupt or circumvent God’s plans.  Did Adam’s sin stop God from working his will? Did Noah’s drunkenness prevent God from accomplishing his purpose?  Did Abraham’s actions keep God from doing what he willed?  No. Neither will anything that you or I do stop God from working his will in our lives and in our world today.   Then, why do we worry about sin and evil at all? Why should we worry about the actions we take?  Because, as Paul pointed out to the church in Rome, our actions speak louder than words.  “If you… boast of your relation to God and know his will and determine what is best because you are instructed in the law, and if you are… a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of children… you, then, that teach others, will you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? You that forbid adultery, do you commit adultery? … You that boast in the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law?... The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you."

And this is true, even if the sin is not one that can be seen by all.  The English author, C. S. Lewis, in one of his books, pointed out that when people become Christians, if they are not careful, their sinning often shifts from the overt, outward, visible sins of lying, cheating, stealing, cursing and swearing, to the more inward, hidden, non-apparent invisible ones ... and among them he lists "a critical spirit" ... a spirit of judgmentalism, a censorious attitude. In fact, Lewis points out that this sin is one transgression which is more commonly committed by church people than by those who are not. So prevalent is this judgmentalism in churchly circles, that it is sometimes labeled "Christian cruelty."   Who are we to point the finger at others?  Jesus himself said, “Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. For with the judgment you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. Why do you see the speck in your neighbor's eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye?”

            Oh, we are fallible.  There is no denying that!  And, apparently, we come from a long line of fallible people of God. Yes, there are weeds in God’s garden… weeds that can choke the good work that good people are doing.  That is what our gospel lesson tells us today.  The sad part is that, too often, we are the weeds in that garden.  Too often, it is our actions that keep people away from church… for they see that our actions do not match our words.  It has often been said that God’s worst enemy is not Satan, but Christians… Christians who say they love God, but do not do the will of God.  Only imagine… if we were truly the people that God wants us to be, how many more people would be drawn to the Christian faith by what they would see in us!

            So, why does God pick such people to be God’s people?   Why did God choose Adam… Noah… Abraham… and now Jacob?  Why will God choose Sampson… David… Jeremiah… and Job?  All of them good people… with good hearts and a desire to do God’s will… but all of them weak and fallible… and prone to sin.  Why does God seem to choose those who are weak and fallible?  The Apostle Paul actually had an answer for that: “God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world… so that no one might boast in the presence of God.  He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, in order that, as it is written, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord."   What was true for Noah… for Abraham… and for Jacob is doubly true for us today.  We, like them, are weak and fallible, but we, like them, have a great God who is able to do all things.  For that reason, we, like them, should give God all the glory, for it is only through God that we triumph. Left to our own devices, we would fail, but, as the angel told Mary, nothing is impossible with God.

            But there is one final lesson that we can learn from this story of Jacob:  The grace of our God is boundless… and that grace is given freely to sinners.   Jacob did not deserve God’s love and God’s grace.  Jacob had not kept his part of the covenant.  Jacob had not earned the right to have a God who was faithful.  But that did not stop God from building a ladder from heaven to earth and sending his holy ones down that ladder from the sacred heights of heaven to the profane earth below. It’s strange that, when we think of God’s reconciling action in history, we usually think of Jesus… of how God sent his only Son to die for us.  Yet that was not where God’s reconciling actions began.

God has always reached out to his people to bring them back to himself… despite their sin and their wickedness.  God saved Noah from the flood.  God gave Abraham his son Isaac.  And now God shows Jacob how willing God is to maintain the relationship between them… despite Jacob’s sin against his brother.   "I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your descendants; and your descendants 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 by you and your descendants shall all the families of the earth bless themselves.  Behold, 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 that of which I have spoken to you."

There is a story about a preacher who had a strange dream one night. He dreamt that he had died and was trying to get into heaven. When he approached the pearly gates, St. Peter told him he needed one hundred points to get in.  With great pride, the preacher said, "Well, I was a pastor for forty-three years." "Fine," said St. Peter told him, "That's worth one point." "One point? Is that all?" said the preacher. "Yes," said St. Peter. "Well," said the pastor, "I visited the sick, the elderly and shut-ins." St. Peter responded, "That's worth one point." Frustrated, the preacher began digging for more: "I worked with our young people and taught them God’s word," he said. "That's worth one point," said St. Peter. And so it went through the rest of the list: "I went out on Mission Work Days.” “One point.” “I worked to get our website linked to daily scripture readings.” “One point," said St. Peter. "You have five points now. You need ninety-five more." "Oh no," said the preacher in a panic. "I’ll never make it.  I feel so helpless… so inadequate.  Without the grace of God, I don't have a chance."  At those words, St. Peter smiled and said, "The grace of God – that counts for one thousand points. Come on in!"

You see, it is not our actions that determine whether God will be with us.  We are saved by God’s grace… and only by God’s grace.  God’s grace alone can open the doors of heaven for us… just as God’s grace opened the doors of heaven for Jacob in this dream.  Jacob never earned the right to see heaven… or to see God.  Instead, it was God’s movement from the sacred to the profane… from all that is holy to all that is wicked… from all that is pious to all that is blasphemous… that revealed God’s actions to Jacob in this dream… giving him the courage to go on, knowing that God would always be with him… despite his own weakness and fallibility.

What does this mean for us today?   Are we weak and fallible?  Yes.  Has God abandoned us because we are weak and fallible?  No.  Does God promise to be with us despite our selfish and self-centered lives?  Yes, for our God is always faithful.  Will God accomplish his purpose despite the obstacles that we put in his way?  Yes, for our God is a sovereign God, mighty and powerful beyond belief.  And yet, our God is a God of mercy and of love, whose grace knows no bounds.  This God… the God of love and grace, is the God of Beth-el and our God.  Amen.

Genesis 28:10-19a