A Rock and A Dream
I sleep with a fan on. I am not sure when this practice started but my friend Cherie remembers it from when I would spend the night as a child in her house. Something about the humming is calming to me. I am not alone; many of us probably sleep with fans or sound machines. They are a “thing”. I am pretty particular because though I have been gifted sound machines several times by friends over the years, to me they do not sound the same — maybe it is that the humming is too perfect (you don’t get the occasional clacking sound you get with a fan) — but nothing works for me as well as a good ole fan. I think I truly fell in love with Shrinemont, our Episcopal retreat center, when I realized that they have provided a fan in every room!
Other than the fan, I do like darkness and I do like to have “my” pillow, though I am able to negotiate that at times when I travel. I am able to use other people’s pillows. What I don’t know that I could do is use a rock — which is what Jacob does today in our Old Testament passage.
You remember Jacob. Abraham had Isaac. Isaac married Rebekah and they had Jacob and Esau. Esau was “red” and “ruddy," and Jacob loved him — but Rebekah loved Jacob, the youngest son, and had Jacob steal the birthright from Esau, that was rightfully his as the eldest son.
Today’s passage from Genesis finds Jacob fleeing, as Isaac has died and Esau in Genesis 27, has decided to kill Jacob, so Jacob is on the run.
He finds a place to stay the night and takes a stone to use as a pillow, and he lays down and he has a dream. There has been little to admire about Jacob up to this point, he cheated his brother, he lies, he flees — and it could cause us to wonder why God chose him to build the nation of Israel through. But He does.
God often chooses the unlikely, the downcast, the broken, the simple, sometimes the “least likely to succeed," through which to work.
Which is good news for us. The story of Jacob should remove any illusion you have of having to be worthy enough, or good enough, for God to work through you. Besides all of this trouble with his brother that he experiences now, as he ages, in his own family with his own children, things don’t seem to get much better for Jacob - and yet God still moved and worked through him.
In this story, Jacob is alone and afraid, out in the wilderness, wondering if his brother will find him and come kill him, when he has this dream. A dream of a ladder reaching to heaven. And God assures Jacob that his offspring will be like the dust of the earth and that all the families of the earth would be blessed through him.
That is quite a promise. In the midst of Jacob’s aloneness and be frightened, God assures him, “Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go…”
Jacob dreams of a ladder reaching to heaven, with angels ascending and descending. God does not ask Jacob to come up the ladder to be with God, or to meet him halfway. God didn’t ask anything of Jacob. He went and met him where he was.
God went and stood beside him in his dream. This is a profound Old Testament theological moment — the God of the Universe came and stood by a broken man. Didn’t ask him to raise himself up, didn’t set a list of rules that he must follow in order to obtain righteousness, but rather came to him. It causes us to think about the incarnation and Christ coming to us in human form. God did not require anything of us; God came, and comes, to us freely — without coercion -- meeting us where we are.
During my recent sailing adventure, we anchored off the of side Ellis Island in New York. Ellis isle, was the busiest immigration inspection and processing station in the United States. My grandparents were processed at Ellis Isle; and their names are on a memorial there with the year that they came through. Ellis Isle and the buildings there, now stand as a memorial of the many lives who came through, seeking hope and future, seeking promise. I can only imagine the stirring of the heart as immigrants who had spent many days or months at sea entered New York Harbor, saw the Statue of Liberty promising liberty and a new day.
Memorials are important.
Some of us have profound moments in our lives that we memorialize. Jacob woke from his sleep and proclaimed, “Surely the Lord is in this place — and I did not know it!”
How often have we been in God’s presence and not known it? How often have we known it and had the where-with-all to stop and memorialize the moment, marking its significance in your life?
Memorials are important.
Jacob took the stone that had been under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on top of it and called the place Bethel - as a remembrance.
Monuments commemorate history.
Our Collect for today reads, “Almighty God, the fountain of all wisdom, you know our necessities before we ask and our ignorance in asking: Have compassion on our weakness, and mercifully give us those things which for our unworthiness we dare not, and for our blindness we cannot ask….” It is a Collect that I often use to conclude our Prayers of the People. I use it because it resonates with me. God knows our needs before we ask, we often ask for things that we know nothing off and should not ask, and then it says, “…mercifully give us those things which for our unworthiness we dare not, and for our blindness, cannot ask…”
Doesn’t that about sum it up? God does give us those things which we are not worthy of. Because we are not worthy of anything really. We are God’s created being and yet…
And yet… we are Children of God. (Romans 8:12-25). “ and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ…”
Alleluiah, Amen… and how can this be Lord?
Consider the sufferings of this present time not worthy comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. (Romans 8: 18)
Alleluiah, Amen.
I will pick on my friend Phil here for a second. Phil often laughs and shares, somewhat tongue in cheek and somewhat not, that, “He is ready.” When God calls him home, he is ready to go. While, he has enjoyed his time here on earth — he is ready and willing to be set free for whatever is next. It speaks to his tiredness at times and his awareness this life is not always easy and his great hope and expectation and awareness that he is a Child of God and what God has prepared for him next far exceeds what he has experienced on this earth.
The Gospel passage from Matthew (13:24-30, 36-43) is the parable of good seed being sown along with the bad. And how both will grow together until the harvest. At harvest time Jesus will tell the reapers, “Collect the weeds first … but gather the wheat into my barn..” Jesus has promised his children a gathering where we will be with Him.
Again, this parable is not for you to look around and ponder, “I wonder who around me is wheat and who is a weed?” It is not for us to try classify each other or those around us, but rather to make us aware, that during our time here on earth — we — as God’s children, are living here in the midst of an imperfect world and other imperfect humans.
But something better is coming. Memorialize those moments in your life where you are aware that God has been there, that God has been with you. Remember those times so that when you are down, you can look back and say, “Oh I remember God… I remember His faithfulness.”
And look forward to the future. Knowing that God has something better for you. Something you may not even be able to ask for, or even imagine.
Amen.
Other than the fan, I do like darkness and I do like to have “my” pillow, though I am able to negotiate that at times when I travel. I am able to use other people’s pillows. What I don’t know that I could do is use a rock — which is what Jacob does today in our Old Testament passage.
You remember Jacob. Abraham had Isaac. Isaac married Rebekah and they had Jacob and Esau. Esau was “red” and “ruddy," and Jacob loved him — but Rebekah loved Jacob, the youngest son, and had Jacob steal the birthright from Esau, that was rightfully his as the eldest son.
Today’s passage from Genesis finds Jacob fleeing, as Isaac has died and Esau in Genesis 27, has decided to kill Jacob, so Jacob is on the run.
He finds a place to stay the night and takes a stone to use as a pillow, and he lays down and he has a dream. There has been little to admire about Jacob up to this point, he cheated his brother, he lies, he flees — and it could cause us to wonder why God chose him to build the nation of Israel through. But He does.
God often chooses the unlikely, the downcast, the broken, the simple, sometimes the “least likely to succeed," through which to work.
Which is good news for us. The story of Jacob should remove any illusion you have of having to be worthy enough, or good enough, for God to work through you. Besides all of this trouble with his brother that he experiences now, as he ages, in his own family with his own children, things don’t seem to get much better for Jacob - and yet God still moved and worked through him.
In this story, Jacob is alone and afraid, out in the wilderness, wondering if his brother will find him and come kill him, when he has this dream. A dream of a ladder reaching to heaven. And God assures Jacob that his offspring will be like the dust of the earth and that all the families of the earth would be blessed through him.
That is quite a promise. In the midst of Jacob’s aloneness and be frightened, God assures him, “Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go…”
Jacob dreams of a ladder reaching to heaven, with angels ascending and descending. God does not ask Jacob to come up the ladder to be with God, or to meet him halfway. God didn’t ask anything of Jacob. He went and met him where he was.
God went and stood beside him in his dream. This is a profound Old Testament theological moment — the God of the Universe came and stood by a broken man. Didn’t ask him to raise himself up, didn’t set a list of rules that he must follow in order to obtain righteousness, but rather came to him. It causes us to think about the incarnation and Christ coming to us in human form. God did not require anything of us; God came, and comes, to us freely — without coercion -- meeting us where we are.
During my recent sailing adventure, we anchored off the of side Ellis Island in New York. Ellis isle, was the busiest immigration inspection and processing station in the United States. My grandparents were processed at Ellis Isle; and their names are on a memorial there with the year that they came through. Ellis Isle and the buildings there, now stand as a memorial of the many lives who came through, seeking hope and future, seeking promise. I can only imagine the stirring of the heart as immigrants who had spent many days or months at sea entered New York Harbor, saw the Statue of Liberty promising liberty and a new day.
Memorials are important.
Some of us have profound moments in our lives that we memorialize. Jacob woke from his sleep and proclaimed, “Surely the Lord is in this place — and I did not know it!”
How often have we been in God’s presence and not known it? How often have we known it and had the where-with-all to stop and memorialize the moment, marking its significance in your life?
Memorials are important.
Jacob took the stone that had been under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on top of it and called the place Bethel - as a remembrance.
Monuments commemorate history.
Our Collect for today reads, “Almighty God, the fountain of all wisdom, you know our necessities before we ask and our ignorance in asking: Have compassion on our weakness, and mercifully give us those things which for our unworthiness we dare not, and for our blindness we cannot ask….” It is a Collect that I often use to conclude our Prayers of the People. I use it because it resonates with me. God knows our needs before we ask, we often ask for things that we know nothing off and should not ask, and then it says, “…mercifully give us those things which for our unworthiness we dare not, and for our blindness, cannot ask…”
Doesn’t that about sum it up? God does give us those things which we are not worthy of. Because we are not worthy of anything really. We are God’s created being and yet…
And yet… we are Children of God. (Romans 8:12-25). “ and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ…”
Alleluiah, Amen… and how can this be Lord?
Consider the sufferings of this present time not worthy comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. (Romans 8: 18)
Alleluiah, Amen.
I will pick on my friend Phil here for a second. Phil often laughs and shares, somewhat tongue in cheek and somewhat not, that, “He is ready.” When God calls him home, he is ready to go. While, he has enjoyed his time here on earth — he is ready and willing to be set free for whatever is next. It speaks to his tiredness at times and his awareness this life is not always easy and his great hope and expectation and awareness that he is a Child of God and what God has prepared for him next far exceeds what he has experienced on this earth.
The Gospel passage from Matthew (13:24-30, 36-43) is the parable of good seed being sown along with the bad. And how both will grow together until the harvest. At harvest time Jesus will tell the reapers, “Collect the weeds first … but gather the wheat into my barn..” Jesus has promised his children a gathering where we will be with Him.
Again, this parable is not for you to look around and ponder, “I wonder who around me is wheat and who is a weed?” It is not for us to try classify each other or those around us, but rather to make us aware, that during our time here on earth — we — as God’s children, are living here in the midst of an imperfect world and other imperfect humans.
But something better is coming. Memorialize those moments in your life where you are aware that God has been there, that God has been with you. Remember those times so that when you are down, you can look back and say, “Oh I remember God… I remember His faithfulness.”
And look forward to the future. Knowing that God has something better for you. Something you may not even be able to ask for, or even imagine.
Amen.