“THE PROMISE LAND”
Genesis 28:10-19a
Faith United
July 20, 2008


Have you ever made a bargain with God?
We see it all the time on TV
God, if you’ll just do this for me,
I promise I’ll…. I’ll go to church
or send money to the Red Cross
or… or… I’ll just be a really good person…
I’m sure I’ve done it,
I think everybody has

Sometimes, though, the bargain goes the other way
If God doesn’t answer someone’s prayer
then the bargainer gives up on God completely
I’ve come to think it’s pretty manipulative
to bargain with God
First of all, God never says yes to the bargain
and yet we still hold him to it
because surely God wants to give us everything we want, right?
And if we don’t get what we want,
well, we’re not very nice sometimes
But you know, when you’re really desperate,
you do things that you never thought you’d do
When someone is sick
and you would do anything to make them well
When someone is dying
and you’d give your own life to spare theirs
When a son or daughter goes off to war
you’d give anything to make sure they came home safely

One of my professors in seminary
once told the story of when his daughter was little
and he was tucking her in at night
He read her a story
and then as he finished,
he said she lay there with her arms outstretched
a slight smile on her face
and her eyes closed
He said her name out loud to see if she was still awake
and she said, with her eyes still closed,
“Shh, Daddy, I’m melting like an ice cube…”

And he said what a beautiful image that was
of falling… asleep
Melting
Falling asleep, he said,
is a vulnerable thing to do
because you have no control over what happens to you
while you’re asleep
It takes trust to let go, to melt, into sleep
You’re at the mercy of your dreams
you’re at the mercy of the person entrusted to take care of you
Falling asleep, melting, is like just letting go
and saying, “it’s ok, I’m ok, the world is ok for now
I can go to sleep…”
She trusted her Daddy to take care of things while she slept ….

Jacob is one of my favorite Old Testament characters
I’m not exactly sure why
because most of the time he was a real jerk
His very name, Jacob, means “striver, hustler, supplanter…”
He was one of the twins born to Rebekah
Even when Jacob and his brother Esau were in the womb
they were making their mother miserable
fighting to be the first one out
because the first born child
received a special blessing
They were making her so miserable
that Rebekah asked to die rather than to go on like this
with these wrestling babies in her womb!
God said to her that two nations were in her womb,
two peoples butting heads
and one will overpower the other, finally
the older will serve the younger
So, really, from before he was born,
God has promised to bless the younger,
which turned out to be Jacob
When the twins were born,
Esau came out first
but Jacob had a hold of Esau’s heel
and so he was named Jacob, which also means “heel”

Jacob was always trying to get ahead
Esau was a big, hairy strong guy
He was always picked first for the team at school
He was the star athlete
Esau was his father’s favorite
and Jacob knew it
Esau was born having it made
as the first born son of Isaac
Everything came easily to him
Jacob had to work extra hard
to get what he wanted, to get his father’s attention
because he was kind of scrawny
maybe the other kids called him a wimp
and couldn’t understand how he could be the twin brother
of that big burly guy Esau….

Jacob, if anything,
would have been voted Class clown in high school
he was the prankster, the conniver
the sneak
Always figuring out how to get ahead,
to get one over on someone else
especially his own brother who didn’t seem to appreciate
how good he had it
So Jacob learned to manipulate his way through life
When Esau came home from the fields hungry,
Jacob said he’d only give him some food he was cooking
if Esau handed over his birthright
Well, Esau was big in brawn, and not too swift in the head
so he said, sure, whatever, I’m starving to death,
what do I need a birthright for?
So Jacob fed him, pretty pleased with himself
But it really wasn’t up to either of them
who received the birthright,
legally it went to Esau as the firstborn
So when their father Isaac lay dying,
Jacob’s mother worked with Jacob to fool Isaac
into blessing Jacob instead
Close to death, Isaac couldn’t see clearly at all
So Rebekah dressed Jacob up
covered him in animal skins
so that he would be hairy
when Isaac touched him
and would therefore believe he was Esau
And so the plan worked,
Isaac blessed Jacob instead, with the blessing of the firstborn
giving him everything
Of course, when Esau found out about it,
he turned into the Incredible Hulk … well, not literally
but he was really mad
So mad his parents thought he would kill his younger brother Jacob
So they sent him away
to go stay with his Uncle for awhile
until Esau’s rage calmed down
They thought maybe it would be a few weeks,
and it turned out to be many years ….

And so Jacob is on the run
from his big brother
the one who got everything so easily
Jacob could never live up to Esau in his father’s eyes
He would never had all that Esau had
and it burned him
He worked so hard to get what he didn’t deserve
he seemed to believe that if he just worked hard enough
or did things just right
he could get everything he wanted
He could get his father’s love
he could get his father’s blessing
he could manipulate and get whatever he needed

But now he’s a fugitive on the run
He may have gotten his father’s blessing
but it didn’t mean much, now
as he’s running for his life
Finally, after traveling a long time
after looking back, checking every angle
to make sure Esau was not on his tail
he was exhausted
and made camp at Haran
He put a stone at his head
for protection
and lay down to sleep
Maybe he was leery of laying down
in case Esau was lurking about
but finally he had no choice
He was so tired,
he just melted into a deep sleep
from sheer exhaustion

He had the weirdest dream
He dreamed of a stairway to heaven
starting on the earth and reaching up into the skies
and on that stairway were angels
some were going up the stairway
and others were coming down
he’d probably seen stairways just like it
on his travels
for at that time, there were divided stone staircases
leading from the city down to the city’s water source
one side for going up and one side for going down
so the stairway in his dream was probably like
one he’d seen along the way

In the dream,
God… yeah, God The God…
was standing right next to him
it doesn’t say what God looked like
If he was an old bearded man with long white robes
or if he looked more like George Burns
or maybe Morgan Freeman
But somehow, in the dream,
God was standing next to him
and saying to him, as if it were a normal thing to do
to have a conversation with God,
“I am God,” he said, (just in case Jacob hadn’t recognized him, I guess),
“I’m the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac
I’m giving you the ground on which you are sleeping
I’m giving it to you and to your descendents
Your descendents will be like the dust of the earth
they’ll stretch from East to West and from North to South
All the families of the earth will bless themselves in you
and your descendents
Yes
I will stay with you, I will protect you wherever you are
and I’ll bring you back to this very ground
I’ll stick with you until I’ve done everything I promised you.”

Whoa.
Jacob woke up,
and at first he didn’t move
he looked around to see if God was still standing
next to him, but saw nothing
He was a little shaky
and everything felt different
everything looked different
though he couldn’t explain it
He looked around at the land he laid on
and he said, “God is in this place, God is here… truly
I didn’t even know it!”

And as one can imagine, he was terrified
I mean, it’s not everyday you come face to face with God
I imagine it might be a little intimidating
“Incredible,” he whispered, looking around at the beauty
of the early morning
“Wonderful. Holy…. this is God’s House,
This is the Gate of Heaven.”
He was terrified and exhilarated all at once
He got up and rolled the stone at his head
so that it was standing upright
he took some oil out of his pouch
some oil that his mother had given him
and poured it on the stone, consecrating it
as an altar to God
And he named the place, “Beth-el”
which means, “God’s house”

But Jacob didn’t have a major transformation that day
he still had a very long way to go
Before he left, he said out loud,
“If God stands by me and protects me on this journey
if God keeps me in food and clothing
and brings me back in one piece to my father’s house
THIS God will be my God…”
Even then, Jacob is still making a deal
Even then, he makes promises that are conditional
upon God’s behavior toward him
If you do what I want, God, then I’ll worship you
but if not, the deal’s off

He still had a lot to learn
Jacob still believed that he could control his destiny
he still believed that getting what he wanted and needed
depended entirely on him and what he achieved
He thought he was in control
He missed the point
that God came to him when he was most vulnerable
when he was asleep
and therefore defenseless
when he couldn’t interrupt God
or contradict him
He could’ve learned then
that God has always wanted to bless him
that God told his mother that Jacob would be blessed
and yet all his life he fought for that blessing
not knowing that it was a gift
and you can’t earn a gift
Jacob believed that nothing would happen
unless he made it happen
and yet if you read his whole story
he really messed things up for a long time
trying to be the one in control
Trying to make deals
to get ahead
trying to climb that ladder to heaven
and yet he kept falling off

If only he’d stop trying so hard
he’d discover that God wanted to bless him all along
and all he had to do was open his arms
and let go
To trust
like a child falling asleep in her parent’s arms
trusting that they will not drop her
but that they will care for her
and give her what she needs even in sleep

Do you dream?
Do you have dreams?
Maybe, like me, you’ve had dreams that didn’t come true
maybe you tried climbing the ladder to what you thought
would be heaven
but you just couldn’t get there
you kept falling off
and you didn’t understand why God didn’t give you
what you thought you needed in order to be happy
Maybe, like me, you’ve learned time and time again
that you’re not the one in control
and that we don’t always understand what’s going on
and we can’t always see the good
in the place where we are
God wanted to bless Jacob all along
Jacob didn’t have to work so hard to make that happen
God would bless him
but that blessing would be a gift,
it’s not something Jacob could achieve on his own
or manipulate
this time, he wasn’t in control
he had to give that up,
surrender, open his arms
and let God take over

Jacob would have to trust
that God knew what he was doing
and I assure you, that was really, really hard
But even when he was thickest in the head
Jacob had that dream to remember
where God promised to give him everything he needed
God promised to never leave him
no matter what happened
Jacob would not be alone
And so Jacob, through all his striving
and losing and learning and stumbling
and rising again
he remembered that Dream that God gave him
silly and simple as it might have seemed to others
he never forgot that dream

We have dreams all along the way
but the only dreams that last
are the ones that God gives us
We may dream of climbing that ladder
only to find ourselves stuck
no matter what we do, no matter how hard we try
We may dream of getting that blessing we long for
of proving ourselves
of achieving something important
of making enough money to keep from worrying
But the only good dreams come from God
the only good dreams are a gift
and not something we can control
Finding that person who will love you for better for worse,
for richer for poorer,
in sickness and in health,
till death parts you

The dream of being able to see beauty all around you
in the people near you
the dream of finding joy in your work
of having a friend who will stick with you through it all
good and bad
when you’re at your best and even at your worst

God is most able to get to us
when all our defenses are down
when we’ve reached bottom and we've given up
being able to do it on our own
or in the middle of the night
when it seems like we come face to face
with everything we’ve been able to run from
during the day

Jacob didn’t get what he deserved
He was a liar, a cheat, a manipulator, and a deceiver
he didn’t get what he deserved
he got a blessing instead
one he couldn’t have ever gotten on his own
Yet God never gives up on him
and God makes him a blessing
forever
The God of Abraham, Isaac and JACOB….
The God who works best when we let go
trust enough to fall into his arms
and make us into the people he would have us to be
People who walk on this earth
but can catch glimpses of heaven
people who see something beyond
what is right in front of our eyes
people who dream of something outrageously better
more beautiful,
and seemingly impossible
People who dream God’s dreams…..