Genesis 28:10-19
Proper 11 / Year A
One literary scholar describes Jacob as being “the
first real human being” in the Book of Genesis. Those who come before him, she notes, are
somewhat one-dimensional characters who, more or less, do or do not do as God
asks, with or without protesting. The
stories about Jacob provide us with a rich range of behaviors, impulses, and
motivations. And, more so than say Adam
or Noah or even Abraham, we see in Jacob what we find in ourselves – the good,
the bad, and the ugly. And through it
all, we see a person called by God, blessed by God, and never forsaken by God.
In today’s reading, we find Jacob at a turning
point in his life. Another scholar says
of this moment he is “a fugitive fleeing for his life; a vagabond somewhere
between a conflict-ridden past and an uncertain future.” You recall how he persuades Esau to swap his
birthright for a bowl of soup. And just
before today’s passage, with his mother’s help, he deceives his father,
pretends to be Esau, and tricks the old, blind man into blessing him; an action
which, while procured by dubious methods, is irrevocable. The older brother reacts with murderous rage
and when Jacob’s mother learns of this, she directs him to flee to her far away
homeland and while there to find a suitable wife.
On the run, Jacob finally possesses his coveted
golden ticket. It is through him God’s
promise to Abraham (Jacob’s grandfather) now runs. He is now the one through whom God will raise
up a mighty nation and yet he finds himself homeless, landless, single, and the
product of a deeply dysfunctional family.
Conflict-ridden past and uncertain future.
Looking at Jacob’s young adulthood it is easy to
see something of ourselves and/or those we know. One of my favorite verses of Scripture comes
from the prophetic writings of Jeremiah:
I know the plans I have
for you, says the Lord. Plans for
welfare and not calamity, to give you a future and a hope. 29:11
“The plans I have for you.” This is what God offers, but in our youth, we
are more taken with “the plans I have for me.”
Jacob tests himself to see how much he can get the world to bend to his
whims. He works and schemes and connives
to bring to fruition what he dreams for himself. And you know what. It works.
He achieves everything he is after – birthright, blessing, inheritor of
the great promise. He makes himself the
one, the man. Up to this point he has gotten
everything he was after… “I am achieving the plans I have for me”… so why then
is he on the lamb. Why is he fleeing for
his life? Why this calamity?
There is nothing wrong with having aspirations, but
Jacob pursues his with no regard for what God has planned for him or how God
will bring it about. It is the same
temptation Jesus faces when Satan bids his worship in exchange for the
authority to rule all the kingdoms of the world. It is what God wants for Jesus, but not at
all how God plans for it to come about.
I think back to my college years when I volunteered
with a high school outreach ministry called Young Life. I wanted so badly to be the leader, so I
pushed myself forward and gave more of my time and made more sacrifices so when
the moment came, I was the obvious choice to put in charge. Looking back, I can say I wanted to lead so
things would go as I thought they should, I wanted to be recognized for my
efforts, and I wanted the affirmation which comes with being at the top. I am grateful that by the grace of God some
good came out of that ministry because by the time I graduated, I felt like
Jacob with his head on a stone looking up at the stars and wondering how
everything I worked so hard for turned out so wrong.
And then Jacob falls asleep and dreams. He has a profound religious experience, the
kind of thing which happens only once or twice in a person’s life. Now, his family raised him in the faith,
telling him all the bible stories they had up to that point and teaching him
all the things he should do and not do, but this is the first time Jacob has a personal
encounter with God. This is not like
listening to a Sunday morning sermon about God; it is an awe-inspiring experience
of Divine Mystery.
God stands beside Jacob and says, “I know the plans
you have had for you and I see it has brought you to calamity and stripped you
of the future you wanted and the hope you held in yourself. Now, let me tell you about the plans I have
for you.” And God goes on to lay it all
out: Jacob’s offspring will be like the “dust of the earth” (numerous and
spread everywhere) and they will be a blessing to every family of every nation. God promises to keep him wherever he goes, to
bring him back to his homeland, and never to leave him. It is a promise of welfare and not calamity,
providing a future and a hope.
Jacob will have a role to play in all of it, but,
like I said a few Sundays back, sometimes you need to wait for God to act and then
be positioned to respond. This is how
grace works. This is how grace
happens. The opposite of grace, I think,
is effort and Jacob spends most of his early years pushing, pushing, pushing
for what he wants.
He will leave this place and call it Bethel – the
house of God – because he found God here (or, maybe it is more accurate to say,
God found him here). He will leave this
place and try to figure out what it looks like to live into God’s grace. He will fail at it a time or two. He will be tested by it. He will succeed in some instances. In short, he will be just like us, a real
human being. And, as with Jacob, God
promises to never leave us… to give us a future and a hope.
