July 30, 2023 PATRIARCHAL PONDERINGS 6 "Jacob's Wives"

 

Readings: Psalm 105:1-11, Romans 8:26-39, Matthew 13:31-33,44-52, Genesis 29:15-28
Preached at Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church, NY, July 30, 2023

In our Patriarchal Ponderings we saw, last week, that Jacob had a dream of a ladder going up to heaven. But Jacob had another dream. A dream that a lot of people have.  The kind that has consumed generations before and ever since. He’s in love. His dream girl is called Rachel. Leah, Rachel’s sister was OK, she had nice eyes, but when Jacob thought about Rachel, “Oh mamma, that lady was fine.” He promises himself; “She will be mine!”

In our lives we have dreams and passions. We have dreams for our relationships, for our families, maybe even for our community or our church. The lesson we learn from Jacob is that seeing our dreams come to something can take a while and we might not always get exactly what we expected.

•    Firstly, this passage reveals that we are broken vessels that have to live within the consequences of our own shortcomings.
•    Secondly, that we are surrounded by those who do not share our values and are as equally broken as we are..
•    Thirdly, this passage has something overwhelmingly positive to tell us. That whenever love is real, it can change things. God has an unusual way of turning our dreams into His plans!

Firstly, this passage reveals our broken lives

Let us remind ourselves of who Jacob was. This is the mommy’s boy who deceived his visually handicapped father to get an inheritance that should have been that of his twin brother. This is the Jacob who was doing all he could to avoid a confrontation with Esau, who had vowed, “If I ever see Jacob again, I’m gonna kill him!”

This is the Jacob who had become aware God was on his case after having a strange dream of a stairway to heaven. Far from comforting him, this dream terrifies him. It makes him rethink his relationship to God and gives him a sense that life may turn out better if he started trying to do things God’s way, instead of listening mostly to his mothers’ advice!

Jacob is no wide-eyed innocent enduring his first teenage crush. Life was actually passing him by at speed and it seems relationships weren’t something he had a lot of time for. But then he sets eyes on Rachel and something goes ‘zzzinngg’.

Who can explain that? The mystery of human attraction! That ‘Crazy little thing called love.’ And it doesn’t seem to matter if one is a sinner or a saint, once Cupid fires his little golden arrow people are rendered helpless.

And it looks like things are going to work out. Rachel’s dad, Laban, seems to like Jacob. Because of family connections he takes pity on him and even offers him a job. When the subject of payment comes up Jacob says, “All I want is your daughter Rachel’s hand in marriage.” Laban smiles and it seems like it’s a done deal.

Seven years later it turns sour. Really sour. Jacob is getting ready for his wedding night. No doubt there was much partying and probably a bit of drinking involved, but the upshot of it all is that when Jacob awakes in the morning, it is not Rachel laying at his side, but her sister, Leah. Not the lady he thought was so fine he lost sleep thinking about her, but her sister. Ouch!

Laban, the girl’s father, has turned out to be a snake! He turns out to be as cruel and devious and sly and calculating and shifty and unreliable and untrustworthy and manipulative as … well … he turned out to be as much of a sneak as Jacob himself. They do say ‘what goes around comes around’ and Jacob encounters in Laban somebody who has ‘out-Jacobed Jacob’.

We sometimes think that in life we can escape our shortcomings and that we can gloss over our failures. The scary thing is they can actually confront us in the bad behavior of others who share our faults to such an extent that we finally see what fools we can be! How many times have we said, “There but for the grace of God, go I?” How often do we find that we recoil at other people’s actions, because, actually, we have a horrible fear, the kind of fear we bury whenever it raises its ugly head,  the fear we could have done that ourselves?

We never truly escape our upbringing or the mistakes of the past. They come back and haunt us in the most unlikely of ways. At events like school reunions, you go there recalling the good times, but sometimes memories of the bad times also resurface. ‘I can’t believe we used to call him that’ or “What were we thinking!”

Friends, we are all broken. Paul in the Book of Romans simply says ‘There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:22-23 NIV). Life can, as it did with Jacob, bring along experiences that reveal our broken-ness. That’s not a bad thing. Because oftentimes it’s only when we see where we are going wrong, that we start wanting to put things right!

A second thing revealed in this passage is that we are not the only broken ones.

The actions of those who are broken around us can cause us great pain. Laban hurts not only Jacob, but also Rachel and Leah. Because of the tension he creates between them all, he also will hurt their children. We don’t get to hear the whole story of Jacobs’ interactions with Laban, but I can tell you, things did not improve further down the line.

What we did get to hear in our story was Laban’s lame excuse for marrying Jacob to his older daughter instead of his younger one. He tells Jacob that, ‘Well, it’s just the custom around here. We don’t allow the younger one to get the inheritance before we’ve taken care of the senior child’s needs.’

Was this God’s way of making Jacob understand just what a rotten thing he had done to his brother Esau? Esau, was after all the oldest child who had deserved to be taken care of first, even if he was only older by an arms length! One of the twins had to be born first, and that counted for something back in those days. Once again, some kind of negative karma seems to be impacting Jacob and enabling him to see the error of his ways.

We have no control over what others do to us. If folk are mad at us or uncaring towards us or disrespectful of us, then whilst we don’t have to be a doormat and let them walk all over us, we also have to accept that there are some folks we just can’t change. Why? Because...they are, like us, broken. That is not to excuse bad actions or reprehensible behavior, just to say that some people are very, very resistant to change.

We don’t have a choice in the way other people act towards us, but we can choose the way we respond to them. We can choose to go beyond gut reactions and the search for vengeance. We can come to the realization that when we hold anger towards others, it is chewing us up far more than it is them.

And our model for doing that, is our Savior Jesus Christ. In Him we see a compassion that refuses to be sidelined by those who rejected it. As we take our hurts and our failures to God in prayer, so we seek for the strength to overcome our very human reactions, that they may become something more, something that carry the acceptance and love of God that we ourselves have found in Christ.

In the midst of this crazy story about Jacob we see a little miracle. Love changes Jacob. When Jacob realized he has been tricked by Laban, the natural ‘Jacob’ reaction would have been for him to totally lose it. To storm off back home to mother, who would create a fuss, and other family would get involved and soon it would be like the set of a Jerry Springer show.  Family Feuds part 2!

But what happens in this story? Jacob asks Laban; “What’s going on?” Laban lays it out for him and says if you want Rachel, then you have to work another 7 years. The miracle here is Jacob’s silence. There is no argument. Laban says, fulfill your duties to Leah, then get back to work.” We read “And Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week; and Laban (after 7 years) gave him Rachel his daughter as his wife” (Genesis 29:15-28)

And this moves us quickly to one of the few positive points in this story.

When love is for real, it can change everything

There is, of course more going on here than the fact that Jacob is crazy in love with Rachel. That is a huge part of it, but the other side of it is that Jacob is beginning to realize that the love God has for him requires him to change.

Jacob already knew God was on his case. He had understood that when he experienced the dream of a ladder going up to heaven and was aware that God was covenanting with him to walk with him and lead him in his life. When he met Rachel, he must have thought, “Yes, this could work!”

But Jacob also had to come to a place where he could be confronted by his sins in such a powerful way that he would determine that this time around, things were going to be different. Through the love of a woman and the love of God, change was happening!

We can run from our sins and our failings for a long time. But there needs to come to all of us, those moments when we realize, we need help. And the only true hope of forgiveness and change is the love of God that we can discover in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Only His life-changing Holy Spirit can take what is broken and make something beautiful out of it!

We are victims of our own actions and we are victims of the actions of others. Jesus Christ went to the Cross, as a victim, to totally identify with our situation. The story did not end in death, but in new life. In the birth of the Church. In the blossoming of hope of in people who recognize their need and encounter God’s love.

We like Jacob, live our lives, may well fall in love and face many strange twists and turns. We will sin and be sinned against. So, we can learn from Jacob.

•    We learn that we are all broken.
•    We learn that, through the love of God, broken lives can be remade.
•    We can learn to watch and wait and trust that in God’s time, all things are possible.

That crazy little thing called love really can make a difference. Whenever we allow God’s love and peace and joy and hope to transform us, nothing remains the same.  

And to God’s name be all the glory. Amen.

The Reverend  Adrian J. Pratt B.D.

July 23, 2023 PATRIARCHAL PONDERINGS 5. "Jacob's Ladder"

Readings: Psalm 139:1-12, Romans 8:12-25, Matthew 13: 24-43, Genesis 28: 10-22
Preached at Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church, NY, on July 23, 2023

Jacob has a dream. A leader reaching down from the clouds towards him. On the ladder, traveling up and down are angels. At the top, God, who identifies himself as the God of Jacob’s father Isaac, and grandfather, Abraham.

In this dream God promises Jacob that the land upon which he was sleeping would be the dwelling place for the numerous descendants who would be Jacob’s heirs. In addition, God promises that wherever Jacob goes, God would go with him, never leave him or forsake him and at the last bring him to the land of promise. Jacob is left in total awe. He declares “How dread-full is this place” (‘Dread-full’ in the sense of being completely awesome and wonder filled)… “This is the gate of heaven.” He marks the place as sacred and vows to be a servant of God for the rest of his days.

Must have been a vivid dream! I’ve had some strange dreams, even some challenging dreams, but nothing quite like Jacob’s ladder. And what does it all mean? To Jacob it is a life-changing encounter with God. But what about us? What can this passage of scripture say to people like us, so far removed from Jacob’s experience?

One thing I believe that it reminds us of is that;

God is a God of Mystery

There is a satirical movie called ‘Dogma’ that has an image of Jesus as sporting a cheesy grin and giving the ‘thumbs up’ to life. This icon, known as the “Buddy Christ,” is a cynical reflection on the modern church’s attempt to introduce their deity to a fun loving world.   

At times we do indeed portray Jesus as the ‘best buddy we could ever have’ or in such homely, earthly tones that we are in danger of obscuring the fact of His deity. “Jesus is my co-pilot” “He’s my forever friend.” A kind of holy Care Bear. We create a very safe God for ourselves. A God we can define, a God who can be fully known and is in full agreement with our earthly desires.

That is not the God revealed to us by Jacob. Jacob’s God is one who transcends time and space, a God whom can only be known through what that God chooses to reveal. A God whose holiness is of such magnitude that this God can only be approached through visions and dreams for a face-to-face encounter would surely destroy us.

One author uses the Latin phrase “Mystereum Tremendum”. Another, Rudolf Otto in his book “The idea of the Holy” coins the word “Numinous” to describe the nature of God. This numinous God of tremendous mystery is known only through revelation. This God drops a ladder down from heaven and sends angels scurrying back and forth to do His bidding.

This God is wholly other than what we are. Rather like a scene in a Sci-Fi movie, this God occasionally creates a portal, a ‘Stargate’ to the other world, the other dimension,  where we catch just a glimpse of a greater reality behind the external world of our everyday workaday lives.

As Christians we believe we have a broader picture of God than Jacob, in the life and work of Jesus Christ. However, if we lose the sense that God is ultimately unknowable and the One who remains beyond us and above us, then we are no longer worshiping the God of Scripture, but a deity created within our own imaginations. A God that will be contained by our prejudices, misunderstandings, and unbelief.

Those angels going up and down, God working in unseen and scarcely comprehensible ways, a God who remains unpredictable and whose purpose we never can fully fathom… such appears to be a more realistic portrayal of the God of the Bible than any lame ‘good buddy Jesus.’ Jacob’s ladder reminds us that God is a God of mystery.

Whilst mysterious, that does not equate to unknowable. We can know God through what God chooses to reveal to us. One of the revelations that comes to Jacob is that;

God is a God of Promise

At the Glastonbury music festival in the UK this year one of the big surprise successful acts was the singer Rick Astley. Rick Astley had a huge hit in the nineteen eighties, “Never going to give you up.” Thanks to the power of the internet and a phenomena knows as ‘RickRollin.” that led to his video being viewed over a billion times, the song received a huge boost in popularity and thousands turned out at Glastonbury to sing-a-long …

“Never gonna give you up, Never gonna let you down, Never gonna run around and desert you,
Never gonna make you cry, Never gonna say goodbye, Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you.”

Well, that isn’t exactly what Jacob heard from God, but he is given particular promises in relation to his life’s journey. Supreme of these is that promise that wherever he goes and wherever life leads him, God was never going to give up on him. In words reminiscent of Jesus’ commission to the disciples on the mountaintop, Jacob receives this assurance in verse 15; “I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

That the unknowable, awesome, almighty God, should promise such a thing to any mortal man or woman took Jacob’s breath away. “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it” (verse 16). The promises of God that come to us are no less awe-inspiring!  Think for a moment! Why should God even be bothered with the likes of you and I? What is there about us that is noteworthy to the Divine? Why should God care to be involved in our lives and interested in where we end up?

God has revealed God’s self as a parent who cares for God’s children, as a redeemer who in Jesus Christ seeks to bring restoration and healing and renewal to our lives, and as the Holy Spirit who desires to be in us and around us and working through us the things of God’s Kingdom.

It makes no sense. In our lives we seem to be running from God as much as we run towards God. We know the commandments and seek to find ways around them. We know our inconsistencies and struggles and besetting sins. We know we are not all that we think we are, let alone all that others may be generous enough to think we are.

One of the glories of reformed theology is that it rests heavily upon the concept of, what we were talking about last week, the Grace of God. That we are saved, not by our acts of commitment to God, but by God’s promises and acts of commitment towards us. Supreme in those acts of commitment is the death of Jesus Christ on the Cross of Calvary. There is nothing we can do to win the favor of God. We are entirely dependent upon God for our salvation.

As we have seen in our previous ‘Patriarchal Ponderings” Jacob was no saint. He was a smooth-talking mothers’ boy who tricked his brother Esau out of a birthright that rightly belonged to the elder brother. In the process he deceived his own Father, played a trick on his dad whilst he was in his old age and was suffering from the loss of mobility and sight.

If you follow Jacob’s story, his romances, his deals with different families and powers, the times he runs away rather than face consequences, there is a lot about his life that is decidedly unsavory. Like his descendant Abraham, he has a soap opera like life and muddles through difficult events that are mostly his own fault. Were it not for the Grace of God that called him and carried him and forgave him, and refused to give up on him, Jacob would have ended his days as a nobody.

The love of God is such that it embraces all of us no-bodies and makes us somebody.  Somebody that Jesus cared enough to die for. Somebody whose life can make a difference.  A child of God. Unique.

And it’s all because of God’s grace. Acts of commitment come as a response to the love that God is showing us. Praise God! Jesus has secured our salvation! But we must claim it as our own. It’s no good having won a prize if you never claim it! A third thing we see in Jacob’s story is that;

God is a God who inspires commitment.

Our New Testament passage gave us the parable of the weeds growing alongside the good seed. The expectation would be that the farmer would say, “Go and gather up all those weeds right now!” But no. They are allowed to grow up together. Only at the final harvest will it all be sorted out.

In our lives we have to live with both the good and bad things about ourselves. Be it in temperament, be it our health, be it particular quirks or individualities that everybody else sees, but remain blind spots to ourselves. There are some things about us we never, this side of eternity, seem to get sorted out!

We know that about ourselves. It can help us get along with others if we grant them the same permission not to be perfect. That we recognize that we are all works in progress. The Good News is that, if we are prepared to open our lives to God’s influence, God promises to work with us and make us more into the sort of people God can see we could become.

In response to the promises of God, Jacob makes some promises of his own. Verse 20 :- “If God will be with me and will keep me on this journey that I take, and will give me food to eat and garments to wear, and I return to my fathers house in safety, then the Lord will be my God".

It’s a response to the grace of God. Not a perfect one, but a response nonetheless!

The God of Jacob is a God of mystery. Let us not lose sight of the awesome wonder of the God of Scripture.

The God of Jacob is a God of promise. Let us claim the promises of Jesus for own lives, promises that He will always be with us, will never give up on us, will guide us and help us draw others to share in the blessings of His Kingdom.

The God of Jacob is one who inspires our commitment. We love because we are loved. We forgive because we are forgiven. We serve because Christ came to serve. We are called to be as accepting of others as God has been accepting of us. Why? Because we are all recipients of amazing grace!  

Makes me want to finish with a prayer. Something along the lines of…

“You know God, You just keep on loving me, in spite of the mess I make of things, You keep showering down blessings on me, and promising You are never going to give up on me. You sent Jesus to make things so much clearer, and deal with the things, that could keep us apart. The Scriptures tells us, that there’s even, some out of the world positive stuff, at the end of the road, for those who trust in You… So, Lord, be my God and help me to be Your sort of person. Amen!”

To God be all Glory! Amen.

The Reverend  Adrian J.  Pratt B.D.

July 16, 2023 PATRIARCHAL PONDERINGS 4. "Jacob and Esau"

Readings: Psalm 119:105-112, Romans 7:14-19, Matthew 13:1-23, Genesis 25:19-34
Preached at Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church, NY, on July 16, 2023

We continue our series on Patriarchal Ponderings, today looking at the sons of Jacob and Rebekah, Jacob and Easau. If there were one word to describe todays reflection it would be “Conflict.” Conflict.

Jacob and Esau never could get along. Even before they were born, they fought for position in Rebekah’s womb. After they were born, things just got worse. As different as chalk and cheese, one favored by mum, the other favored by dad, they were a disaster waiting to happen.

It wasn’t that one was the sinner whilst the other was the saint. They were both equally capable of irresponsible and devious acts, a fact made worse by the fact that in Jacob’s case his mother positively encouraged his wrongdoing. Yet…both were also recipients of God’s blessing and destined to become the fathers of great nations.

There’s a lot of different ways of looking at this story. On one level it’s about the sort of troubles that can arise in any family. The hierarchy and chain of command amongst older and younger brothers and sisters can be a tremendous source of conflict. It often seems people born into the same families just can’t get along and the passing of years can harden their animosity.

I was reading one commentary on this story that focused on the changes that were to come in the nation of Israel. It saw Esau as representing the old agricultural ways, his whole personality being associated with the red earth. Jacob on the other hand represented the new economic order that would come into being, a life based around cities and settlements and the opportunities trade would bring.

How ever you interpret the passage, one thing remains the same. The central image is that of conflict. There is conflict between Isaac and Rebekah. There is conflict between the lifestyles of Jacob and Esau. There is conflict between the purposes of God and the cultural traditions that society held regarding inheritances.

Even the naming of Jacob is a source of conflict. In Hebrew his name means, “he who grabs by the heel‘ or ‘the one who supplants’. Hebrew names carried with them a sense of character and purpose. Maybe giving a second born twin such a name as ‘Jacob – “the one who is grasping after his brothers’ rightful dues” was inviting trouble!

Esau, on the other hand, simply had the meaning ‘Red’. That ‘red’ theme reappears several times. We’re told he is born ‘red all over, like a hairy garment”. At the end of the story Esau wants the ‘red soup’ so badly that he’s prepared to give up his birthright for it! The red hairy guy loses it all for the sake of a pot of red stuff! Eventually he becomes so red mad in rage that he would happily spill some of Jacobs red blood as an act of revenge, a fact that causes Jacob much to worry about further down the road of his life!

The picture of conflict is everywhere in this story. Conflicting loyalties. Conflicting ideas. Conflicting desires. Conflicting loves. The first signs of conflict appear in the womb of Rebekah. Jacob and Esau were in conflict before they were born!

Scripture suggests that we are all conflicted people. In Paul’s letter to the Roman church, chapter 7, verses 14-19 he speaks of a conflict that, like the fighting twins in Rebekah’s womb, took place deep in his own life.

“For we know that the law is spiritual; but I am of the flesh, sold into slavery under sin. I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. But in fact it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.”

Quite some conflict going on there with Paul! It’s a conflict that seems to be a fundamental part of his growth towards Christian maturity; that he recognizes that whilst he aspires to great things, his life didn’t always come up with the goods. This tension, between ‘how we feel should be’ and ‘how we actually are’ can be a frustrating inner conflict that we never seem to master.

It is a conflict that is birthed in us from the moment we arrive on the planet. You see… I reckon that there’s a bit of the Jacob and a bit of the Esau in us all. Both their good points and their bad points!

We are told that Esau was the skillful hunter. He was the outdoor one, ‘the man of the field’. Yet he was also the one driven more by appetite than thought. His desire for ‘the red stuff’ led him to squander his birthrights. He lived only for the day and gave too little thought to the consequences of his actions.

Do we see a bit of Esau in ourselves? On the positive side, there’s a part of us that just wants to get the practical things done. You’ll work hard to get what you want. You are impatient with those who seem to be ‘all talk, but no action’. But on the negative side, a little voice now again whispers in your ear, “Just satisfy that immediate need you sense, and never mind the consequences!”

What about Jacob? Well, he was the thoughtful one. Different translations use such words to describe him as ‘peaceful’, ‘plain’, quiet’ and ‘mild’, all of which are an attempt to translate the Hebrew word ‘tal’, which can mean ‘innocent and upright.’ Later in the story, in the King James Bible it is explained that his brother was a “an hairy man” whilst he was “a smooth one.” He’s a planner, which is good, but he’s also a schemer, a smooth talker, prepared to take advantage of others to get what he needs.

Is there something about Jacob in the way we are? We have those reflective moments when all is well with the world. But underneath the surface things are not always so pretty. There are motivations and desires that move us in the wrong direction. There is a devious side to Jacob. The Jacob voice whispers, “Just wait for the right time… and when it comes, forget about what’s right and what’s wrong, the end will justify the means.”

What to do about all this conflict? What happens in their story is this. Humanly speaking they are hopeless. It’s a wonder they never murdered each other. This is not though, simply a human story. It is not just a story about conflict. It’s an account that speaks to us about the Grace of God. That God could take these two feuding brothers and, despite their animosity, still work towards the founding of Israel, is nothing short of a miracle, a miracle of grace.

It is in the grace of God that we also should place our hope as we travel through whatever conflicts touch our own lives, be they within us or around us. At the end of the day Jacob and Esau are what they are by the Grace of God. In our lives it can be no different.

As I reflect on my own life, it’s obvious to me who has been responsible when things have gone wrong.  I take full responsibility for the mess ups! But those times when things have gone well? I always feel that those times are the result of God’s grace working in my life.

Like Paul I’ve often felt like “I can will what is right, but I cannot do it.” Like the fighting twins in Rebekah’s womb, it sometimes seems that that’s the way things have to be. Maybe we should give up on ourselves and just live as we please. Not so! In verse 24-25 of Romans 7, Paul speaks of his reason for not being frustrated by the conflict his life experienced. “Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

“Thanks be to God!” declares Paul. In the midst of his struggle the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ was working. During our conflicts, grace can also do amazing things. The fact that we are in the struggle at all is testimony to the work of the Holy Spirit within and around our lives. If God were not on our case, we wouldn’t be concerned to even make the slightest effort to live in a Christian way.

This is where the parable of the Sower can be helpful. “He who has ears, let him hear” invites Jesus. All the time into our lives God’s Holy Spirit is sowing seeds of love, grace, hope and joy. But different influences work upon our lives. And the combination of all these influences creates conflict. In what way?

Sometimes we are just too preoccupied to listen. Our minds are conflicted by dealing with other things than the word God speaks. The world is too much with us. We just don’t hear it.  It goes in one ear and out the other and leaves no trail in our minds along the path. I’ve experienced that. I’ve been listening to a message that could help, but my mind has wandered and I’m not paying attention.  I am in conversation later in the day or week and somebody says, “Well, that’s exactly what we need to do, like we heard in the message.” And I’m like… “What message?”

Sometimes it’s more like the rocky ground. I hear it. I get it. But then I become busy with something else and forget all about it. Like it’s never been spoken. It doesn’t take root.

Some seed fell among the thorns. I think of the thorns as being my prejudices and misunderstandings. Ideas that I hold so strongly that they blind me to receiving truths that I seem incapable of grasping yet. We all have this picture in our minds of how things are meant to be and at certain points it contradicts with the way Scripture tells us things should be. For example, “Love your enemies” Jesus tells us. “Nah, not going there. Never work. Not even going to try” whispers the thorny voice. And that’s it. That seed is never going to grow into anything. Yet.

Thankfully, there is the fourth category. “Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.” Times when we actually get it. When we actually, by grace, break through to some new revelation about ourselves or our situation, it is always far more influential upon us than we dared imagine.

That growing seed process. It’s about conflict. How God sows good seeds in our lives, but there are things that come along and conflict with their ability to grow. It can be random. It can be chaotic. It can be a struggle.

Yet because God loves us, because Christ died that we might live, because the Holy Spirit is still the great creative force that enables order to emerge from out of chaos, we, with Paul, say “Thanks be to God!”

God was at work in the conflicts of Jacob and Esau. So don’t give up on yourself. Don’t give up on others either. Conflict is an inevitable part of discipleship. There will be those times when, because we are human, our actions are more like those of Jacob and Esau, than what we would expect of a disciple of Jesus.

The great news is …
God’s Grace is greater than our sin.
Such is a theme reflected time and time again in the bibles story.
It’s there in the conflict of Jacob and Esau.
The grace of God brought them through!
There was conflict in the life of Paul.
God bought him through!
God sows into our lives seeds of spiritual love.
God wants to bring us through!
“He who has ears, let him hear”

That Grace is there for us. As we commit our lives to Christ.
In His strength … Through His grace…
Praise God…
We can grow through the conflicts of our own lives!

Though the story of Jacob and Easu is one defined by conflict,
it is ultimately ‘GRACE’ that has the last word.

As we place our lives under God’s influence,
may ‘Grace’ become the word that defines our discipleship journey.

AMEN.

The Reverend  Adrian J Pratt B.D.

July 9, 2023 PATRIARCHAL PONDERINGS 3. "Rebekah and Isaac"

 

Readings: Psalm 45:10-17, Genesis 24:34-67, Romans 7:15-25, Matthew 11 16-30
Preached at Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church, NY, July 9, 2023

The last couple of weeks we have been looking at passages from the Book of Genesis. Today we learn about Abraham’s search for a wife for his son Isaac. If I could choose just one word to describe the whole account, it would be ‘Providential.’

It’s a refreshing passage. As churches we are constantly challenged to  embrace new ways of doing things. It can feel a bit like we are trying to redesign the bicycle while continuing to ride on it. You have doubts about this and that and “What now? and “How come?” questions arise.

This very human process of reorganizing and coming up with different strategies can sometimes make you question where God is within the process. Nobody likes to change and churches... in particular...  would like everything to stay as it was, or at least be given direct instructions and an actual map of the way ahead!

Which brings us to Isaac and Rebekah.  The story of Abraham’s search for a wife for his son Isaac is one of the longest narratives in the Old Testament. Abraham had been promised that he would be the father of a great nation. Against the odds, his barren wife, Sarah bore him a son. Then Abraham’s faith was tested, almost beyond limit, when on Mount Moriah his loyalty to God and attachment to Isaac was questioned. But both he, and more importantly Isaac, live to tell the tale.

Somebody asked me on the way out of church, how do you think Isaac felt about that? We’ll never know, but it seems he is now all grown up and none the worse for the experience. But there is a problem. Time has moved on. Abraham’s wife and Isaac’s mother Sarah has died. Isaac remains unmarried. As was the way in the culture at the time, a wife for Isaac must be found.

We met a number of characters in the story.
•    Firstly, there was a faithful servant, whose name we are never told, entrusted by Abraham to find Isaac a wife.
•    Then there was Rebekah, the daughter of a wealthy family living in the homelands.
•    We met Rebekah’s brother Laban who serves as a go-between on behalf of Abraham’s servant and the rest of Rebekah’s family.
•    Finally, we of course get to hear of Isaac himself.

As the drama unfolds there is an air of uncertainty and numerous crossroads where events could take unexpected courses. These pivotal moments cause the reader to ask, “What if?”

What if Abraham, despite all his wisdom and wealth, is now forcing the issue? He had made some telling errors of judgments in his past, particularly when it came to the women in his life. He had twice passed off his own wife as his sister to save his own skin. He was so unsure of God’s promises that he had fathered a child through his slave girl Hagar before Sarah had become pregnant. Was sending a servant laden with gifts and promises of blessing truly the best way to find a wife for a son of God’s choosing?

And what if the servant proved not up to the task? Sure, the servant prayed, but we’ve all prayed to God and not seen the specific thing we sought actually take place! So, Rebekah turns up at the well whilst the servant is praying. Hey... coincidences happen all the time. It could be a trick of fate. It sounds just too good to be true.

And what if Rebekah doesn’t want to be betrothed to some family that had left town for new lands? What if her family doesn’t approve? What if they interpret the gifts as either being too little or too much? What if Laban turns out to be the overprotective brother and does everything in his power to keep his sister near home?

And what if after all that has taken place, Abraham sending, the servant searching, Rebekah arriving, Laban negotiating, what if Isaac took one look at Rebekah and said, “Come on Dad, she’s not my type. I think I can do better for myself!”

Despite the “What if?” questions, the providence of God takes precedence over the pitfalls in the plan!
 
•    Abraham is shown to be faithful and insightful;
•    His servant is shown to be completely trustworthy.
•    Rebekah proves to be a most suitable bride and to be at a stage of life where she is ready to move on.
•    Laban is the most diplomatic and practical brother who sees in the events something more than just a marriage.
•    And Isaac… well Isaac is bowled over when the beautiful Rebekah comes into his life!

And they all live happily ever after. Well kind of… but not really…as you'll learn if you read the chapters ahead.

The Providence of God is the theme that lies at the back of the story. Everything that happens, happens because behind it all God is working out God’s purposes. And even as I say that... I know that very statement... is raising questions in my mind. What if people hadn’t co-operated? Would God’s plans have been negated? Is God dependent on us doing God’s will to make things happen? Or are we just puppets in some cosmic drama who really have no say and no role to play?

These are just the kind of questions that float in and out of this story of Abraham finding Isaac a wife. The cynic may wish to take God out of the story all together. The cynic may say that Abraham was simply shrewd enough and rich enough to manipulate events in such a way as he could die happy.

They cynical may point to Rebekah being a savvy girl who recognized a good deal when it came her way. They may suggest that Laban's actions had more to do with self-interest than any notion of God’s goodness. The cynic may suggest that Isaac had to marry somebody and the fact that it turned out to be a pretty, well connected girl from the homelands was just good luck! Eliminate God from the picture and it’s just one of those tales whose only moral is “Well… that’s life, sometimes you get the good breaks, and sometimes you crash and burn.”

A question I am occasionally asked, in whatever church I have been ministering in, is “So, how did you end up here?” I’ll save all the details for another time, but I truly never sat down in my youth and thought, “Hey, What shall I do with my life? Oh, I know. I’ll become a Presbyterian minister and end up in Bridgehampton on Long Island in the USA”. I hate to disappoint anyone, but that was never on my bucket list.

My life feels more like it has been one door opening, another closing and then I’ve gone and walked through a totally different one that I hadn’t noticed before. A song by the British group ‘The Clash’ has often played in my head, “What I really want to know, Is should I stay or should I go!” And there’s been a lot and lot of praying. “Lord, this way, Lord, that way?”

Yet always there’s been a sense of guiding hand of grace beyond it all and within it all. A sense that, if I just hang on in there and keep trusting and keep watching and keep praying, it is going to work out. Probably not as I expected, or not as I anticipated, but it’s going to be all right!

This is the mystery of God’s providence. There are times when we look back, and… well at the time we thought we were calling the shots… but in retrospect… if it hadn’t been for the work of God then it would never have worked out. Then there’s those other times, when we were floundering around like a fish out of water,  running around like headless chickens, banging our heads against imaginary brick walls… but through it all, a grace greater than our gravity, did something unbelievable.

If I could define how providence works out, based on this story, based on personal life experience, I can best put it like this. At every crossroad of uncertainty there appear events that may not be accidental. I'll repeat that. At every crossroad of uncertainty there appear events that may not be accidental.

Abraham’s servant was uncertain how to proceed. Yet as he prayed, as ‘he spoke in his heart’, along came the ideal partner for his master’s son. Rebekah was sure of many things, but as she helped a stranger water his camels there was a feeling in the air that more was at stake than hospitality. Laban held the best interests of his family close to heart.

Yet there was something more to the events around him than exchanging goods and observing traditional customs. Isaac presumed that there would come a time for him to begin a family. As Rebekah approaches, his heart skips a beat. Something more than coincidence was taking place.

At every crossroad of uncertainty there appear events that may not be accidental. It is easy to look at the church of today and despair. Here at Bridgehampton, we have our fair share of uncertainty about what our future church may look like. We easily become frustrated at our lack of growth and the drift of folk to congregations that offer a different way of doing things or folk just disengaging entirely from their church homes.

We can look back and say, “What if?” We can look at our current circumstances and presume that God is not working in our favor. But you know, and I know, the gospel story is one that's all about letting go and things that die and become resurrected by grace... and about a God that constantly reinvents life in forms that are unfamiliar and strange.

In this account of Abraham finding a wife of Isaac we see demonstrated the peculiar audacity of exercising faith in God to work things out. While there are promises of faith that we are to keep in mind; there are never any guarantees of outcome. We are called to trust in the providence and ability of God to do what God wills to do. As Jesus prayed in the garden of Gethsemane, “Not my will, but Thine be done, Father God!”

And as we consider the gospel message; was there ever such a mission surrounded by “What ifs?” as that of Jesus Christ? What if the disciples didn’t believe? What if He were not raised? What if His death were just another pointless and regrettable blip upon the pages of humankind’s gory history?

We meet every week to proclaim the God of providence, who guided a servant to find Isaac a wife, has acted in an unprecedented way through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We are here to seek for God to send the Holy Spirit to be in and around our lives that we may know the purposes of God for our own live and our faith communities. We are here to pray, to seek God's way, to abandon our personal agendas and seek the new beginning God desires.

We cannot fathom all the mysteries of God’s purposes, nor explain the contradictions of faith. At every crossroad of uncertainty there appear events that may not be accidental. We commit ourselves to doing our best, trusting that God can take the fragile abilities and yearnings of life that echo in our soul, and do so much more than we dare imagine.

You know, we are all at different places in our lives. I have no way of looking into your soul and seeing exactly what your struggles are or where precisely you are in your spiritual journey right now. I don’t need to do that because God already has that covered. Some are looking back, seeing how they can best invest the things life has already bought them. Others are just starting out and it’s a whole, wide world out there before you. Life is uncertain. We never know.

One of the messages as we travel through these' Patriarchal Ponderings' is that God can take care of us. That those who say, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord,” are guaranteed that God will watch over them, over their families, over their relationships, over their comings and goings, and to and froing. That does not mean everything will go smoothly.

There will always be “What if’s” and those moments of hesitancy. But remember, at every crossroad of uncertainty there can appear events that may not be accidental. Be like that servant tasked with finding a wife for Isaac. Keep on praying. Keep on watching. Keep on praying. Keep on trusting. Keep on praying. Keep on hoping. Keep on speaking in your heart with the God who is at the heart of all good things.

To the God whose providence turns uncertainty to possibility we give all praise! Amen.

The Reverend Adrian J. Pratt B.D.