Author: Steve Harsh

This is the first of a weekly blog of ideas for preaching and Bible study on texts from the Revised Common Lectionary.  I will be working a week or two ahead in hopes these ideas and thoughts might be helpful to my colleagues in the pulpit.

“Jacob’s Ladder and God’s Surprises,” Genesis 28:10-22 (Hebrew Scriptures lectionary text for July 17, 2011)

 If there had been a TV show in Biblical times called “Israel’s Most Wanted,” Jacob would have been a headliner – wanted for fraud and extortion, for impersonating a son.  Jacob is like the prodigal son in the New Testament, only worse.  The prodigal son only took his share of the inheritance, but Jacob wanted his Brother Esau’s share too.  He took what was not rightfully his.  By my count Jacob broke at least 4 of the 10 commandments before they were even given to Moses!!!

 The story seems very familiar to us because many of us learned to sing about Jacob’s ladder at an early age.  But if we look more carefully, it is full of surprises:

 Surprise  #1.  Jacob is surprised God is out there in the wilderness, in a place one might describe as “god-forsaken” where Motel 6 doesn’t even leave the light on.  God’s presence is not good news for Jacob because of his guilt over tricking his poor old father and cheating his brother.  Remember, he’s out there in the wilderness because he’s on the lam.  So, Jacob is first fearful and then pleasantly surprised that he doesn’t get judged and punished for his sin.  He could have been a crispy critter on the spot.

I remember a Bible study several years ago where our youth group discovered some of the R-rated stories in the Hebrew Bible—the ones you never learn in Sunday School about incest and rape and adultery and murder.  Many of the youth knew that in his later life Jacob had 12 sons, but they were quite surprised to learn that those sons were from 4 different mothers and that old Jacob wasn’t even married to two of them.  Finally, one of the youth said, “Those aren’t very good people.  What are they doing in the Bible?”   Because like us, they are sinners and like us they are loved by God anyway.  That’s why Jesus ate with sinners; if he hadn’t he would always have eaten alone.

Surprise #2.  For this one, stop and think about what you envision when you think about Jacob’s dream and the ladder or stairway to heaven.   Where is God in that picture?  Up there, like the giant at the top of the beanstalk right?  Now listen to what the NRSV translation says in verses 12 and 13: “and he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven; and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.  And the Lord stood beside him and said, ‘I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father….”     How did we miss that?  God is right there next to us to guide and direct us, not far removed in Heaven.

An old curmudgeon decided to tease some children on their way home from Sunday School.  He said to them, “I’ll give you 10 cents if you can tell me where God is.”   One sharp little girl responded immediately, “I’ll give you $100 if you can tell me where he ain’t.”

One of the problems with our theology from sources like the Jacob’s ladder song is that it perpetuates a narrow view of  the hierarchical nature of our faith journey toward a God “who art in Heaven.”  The song says, “We are climbing – higher, higher,” but we aren’t.  The world is in worse shape now that it’s been in years.  The ladder theology implies if we just climb high enough, we’ll know all we need to know about God, and that’s not the way God works.  Someone once said that talking about God is like trying to bite a wall – none of us ever climb high enough to have the whole truth about God.

When United Methodist clergy are ordained, we are asked a lot of questions that date back to one of our founders, John Wesley.  One that always gets a chuckle is “are you going on to perfection?”  The point is simply that we all need to be reminded regularly, especially clergy, that we are called, as the prophet Micah puts it, to “walk humbly with our God.”   None of us can ever climb up the ladder of perfection, and the good news is we don’t have to – because God is already right here beside us.

You’d think that would be good enough wouldn’t you?  But are we satisfied with that?  Was Jacob?  Surprise #3: God has just spared Jacob from divine judgment, given him unconditional love, forgiveness, renewed God’s eternal covenant with him, and what does Jacob do – say thanks, or sing the Hallelujah Chorus?  No, he starts negotiating, putting conditions on the relationship with God!

Unfortunately, the lectionary selection of this story usually ends at verse 19, but I would urge you to also read verses 20-22 to get more of the story.  In those verses we find the five conditions or “ifs” that Jacob tries to put on God:   If God will be with me, if God will keep me in this way that I go, if God will give me bread to eat, if God will give me clothes to wear, and if God will bring me to my father’s house in peace–then the Lord shall be my God!  And even then God only gets 1/10^th of Jacob’s income.   Such a deal!  We give bigger tips to the servers at a restaurant.

Jacob doesn’t get it.  God’s covenant isn’t measured in material rewards.  The only promise is that God is with us, no matter what happens or where we are.   Appropriately, the Psalter lesson for July 17 is Psalm 139:  “Where can I go from your spirit?  Or where can I flee from your presence?  If I ascend to heaven you are there; if I make my bed in hell, you are there.  If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me.”

You get the point — we really can’t go anywhere that God isn’t.

Surprise #4, perhaps the biggest of all: If rascals like Jacob and you and I are in Beth El, which means the house of God, then everyone is.  To paraphrase St. Paul, in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female – Muslim or born again Christian.  We are all one big dysfunctional family like Isaac and Rebecca and Jacob and Esau. 

 Jacob doesn’t deserve God’s love, and neither do we; but that doesn’t mean we have to hoard it or cheat others out of their eternal inheritance. God’s amazing grace is bountiful enough for every one of God’s children everywhere.  There is no need for sibling rivalry in the family of God

Our spiritual journey isn’t about anything we can or have to do – it’s about realizing Jacob’s surprise — that God is right here beside us, even if we don’t know it or deserve it.  Our spiritual growth and salvation isn’t about us.  It’s not about our climbing higher and higher on the stairway to heaven.

We can’t draw closer to God –not because we aren’t good enough, but because God is always so near to us that whenever we cry, God tastes the salt of our tears.

I can’t say this any better – so I’m just sharing thoughts from Jim Wallis of Sojourers on why we need to end the costly war in Afghanistan now.

Christians Must Call For This War to End There is no more room or time for excuses. The war in Afghanistan — now the longest war in American history — no longer has any justification, and I am calling upon Christians, along with other people of good, moral sense, to lead the effort to finally end this war and bring our troops home. On moral, financial, and strategic grounds, the continuation of the war in Afghanistan cannot be justified. The completion of the largest and most expensive manhunt in history for Osama bin Laden must be a turning point to completely rethink our response to terrorism. The threats of terrorists are still real, but it is now clear that full-scale military action is not the most effective response. It was the campaign against bin Laden and al Qaeda that was always used to justify the war in Afghanistan. General David Petraeus has said there are about 100 al Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan. We have more than 100,000 American troops and another 40,000 coalition soldiers in Afghanistan. That means 1,400 soldiers for each al Qaeda fighter. It costs about $1 million a year to deploy and support each American soldier — or more than $100 billion a year total. That breaks down to our country spending $1 billion per year, per al Qaeda fighter. Every deficit hawk in America should now oppose this war. The cost is simply too high, especially when compared with all the painful budget choices this failed war is causing us to make. Even more important is the human cost of 1,570 Americans killed, more than 10,000 wounded, and many more families separated — lives disrupted and changed forever. And Christians must always care about the casualties on the other side, especially innocent lives who are the collateral damage of war. From 2007 to 2010 that number is at least 10,000. This war is not worth that human cost. The damages it causes far outweigh the possible results, and that makes this war unjustifiable. As Chuck Colson recently said, “Maintaining 100,000 troops in Afghanistan no longer meets the just war criteria.” Continuing the war will lead to greater human and financial costs without a clear understanding of what success could even look like. What began as an understandable action to pursue those who launched the attack on September 11, has now become a war of occupation in Afghanistan; a massive counter-insurgency; the defense of an utterly corrupt and incompetent government; and an impossible effort at military-led nation-building. Long term and sustained strategies of development and democracy building will not be accomplished by an endless, massive military occupation and counter-insurgency; in fact, our current strategy will prevent long-term nation-building. As more and more people have pointed out, the operation that found and killed bin Laden was not the massive war of counter-insurgency in Afghanistan. It was the result of smart intelligence, good detective work, and aggressive law-enforcement work — policing, rather than war-making. Even many conservatives have pointed this out, as George Will recently wrote, “bin Laden was brought down by intelligence gathering that more resembles excellent police work than a military operation.” I met with veterans three weeks ago and heard them say one word over and over again as their moral judgment on what they saw and experienced in Afghanistan — “cost.” The cost of this war, in any terms, is just too high, and the war must end. This is a nonpartisan issue. I was honored to stand at that same press conference with two of the most consistent and courageous congressional voices, against this war, Democrat Jim McGovern and Republican Walter Jones. What convinced Jones was his regular visits to the wounded veterans of his home district. He saw and felt their pain, he saw the results of the war, and concluded it was not worth the cost. The time has come to end the war in Afghanistan. Many have shown how it is possible to end it responsibly. (See Sojourners magazine’s March issue.) The war must end now, and I believe the faith community must lead the way. Jim Wallis is the author of Rediscovering Values: A Guide for Economic and Moral Recovery, and CEO of Sojourners. He blogs at http://www.godspolitics.com. Follow Jim on Twitter @JimWallis.