Gen 28:10 Jacob
left Beersheba and set out for Harran. 11
When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had
set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to
sleep. 12 He had a dream in
which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven,
and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 13 There above it stood the LORD, and
he said: "I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of
Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. 14 Your descendants will be like the
dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the
north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and
your offspring. 15 I am with you
and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this
land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you." 16 When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he
thought, "Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of
it." 17 He was afraid and
said, "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of
God; this is the gate of heaven." 18
Early the next morning Jacob took the stone he had placed under his head and
set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it. 19 He called that place Bethel.
Our story
continues this week with Jacob on the run. Last week we saw Jacob more or less
swindle the birthright away from Esau. In the intervening passages, this was
confirmed by a further 'trick' played by Jacob when he received the prophetic
blessing of Isaac. What had begun as a 'ho-hum' issue for Esau had, in the end,
kindled his rage against his brother Jacob... and he was out for blood. At this
Rebekah urged Jacob to flee to her brother Laban. This week's reading is taken
from Jacob's 'travelogue.'
At its
core, then, this is a story about finding God in strange places; it's a story
about being in the valley of the shadow
of death, and yet, discovering that God is there also. And just as Jacob
was surprised (vss 16-17), and just as Jacob wasn't expecting it, this can be
our experience also in the Christian life.
There are a
LOT of different things that could be taken from this reading. Rabbi Lord
Jonathan Sacks, for instance, has no less than three essays on the one passage
in his devotional book on the weekly Torah readings. All three essays talk
about prayer at the personal level and liturgy at the corporate worship level
(yes, Jewish people have liturgy also... that's where we got ours from!). The
whole point is that the ascending and
descending of the angels represents the dialog of prayer/worship. That
dialog begins with an ascent. We begin by PRAISING the Creator
for who/what he is. O Lord, open my
lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. So says the psalmist, and so says the opening
lines of liturgical prayer. Jesus begins the same way, teaching us to pray Our Father who art in heaven hallowed by
thy name. Corporate worship/prayer also begins this way, with ascent...with praise of God.
Next comes descent humbly laying our petitions
before God; laying our burdens and cares upon God. This has always had a
mysterious element to it--as surely the pinnacle of faith is to take what we've
been given and not ask for anything else. Yet, the stories of answered prayer
(from Bible times forward) are too numerous to discount the fact that God not
only invites our petitions, but it is his good pleasure either to grant them,
or to give us the grace to keep going if not.
Then
finally, ascent again--which in the
life of prayer/worship is the THANKS we offer to God; thanks that he is God;
thanks that he hears and accepts our prayer; thanks that he is active in this
world. Liturgically that is why we have added our words to the Lord's Prayer for
thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. It is
also why so many services end with some form of Let us bless the Lord; THANKS BE TO GOD.
I really
enjoy seeing this passage as symbolic for the life of prayer and worship. And
yet that whole thing about "angels ascending and descending" has an
interesting NT parallel. In John 1:51 in his dialog with Nathanael, Jesus said:
very truly I tell you, you will see
heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending *ON the Son of Man.
In Genesis 28 the 'link' between heaven & earth that the angels are on
is a stairway. In John's Gospel, the 'link' is Jesus himself. Many people
connect this comment to the crucifixion scene. Where Christ's body and blood
are present, heaven is open, angels wander back and forth dispensing God's
grace and forgiveness to a sin-ravaged world. With this distinctly new
testament approach in mind, the final link in the chain is to see this
Eucharistically. Once again, where Christ's body and blood are present... this
time in the sacrament of the altar... angels are around, as we hear the
celebrant say therefore with angels and
archangels and all the company of heaven.... and God's grace and
forgiveness are dispensed individually with the words take eat, the body of Christ; take drink, the blood of Christ.
What the two passages have in
common is FAITH! Jacob saw what he saw, but in a dream. Upon waking he had
faith that it was, nonetheless, the
reality. Jesus told... we could even say promised Nathanael that he would
see the same thing. Did he? He must have, but in a similar way, it had to
have entailed faith, as John never touches on the matter again. Likewise, Jesus
told his disciples--and the Church of all time--at the last supper that these
elements of bread and wine ARE his body and blood. YOU WILL SEE. Indeed, you
HAVE seen. Like Jacob, you have stood at the very gate of heaven; the house of God. Just like Jacob, you can KNOW
that the Lord is in THIS place. The
question is, do you believe?
Cheers,
TM
TM
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