Children of Israel

Children of Israel

A sermon delivered by Rev. Peter T. Atkinson

March 30, 2014

at Gordonsville Presbyterian Church, Gordonsville, Virginia

Genesis 37: 1-9

 Ephesians 2: 11-22

Let us pray, for a welcome mind and a loving heart

Help us to see despite our eyes

Help us to think outside of our minds

Help us to be more than our lives

            For your eyes show the way

            Your mind knows the truth

            Your being is the life.

Amen.

Jacob settled in the land where his father had lived as an alien, the land of Canaan. ² This is the story of the family of Jacob.

Joseph, being seventeen years old, was shepherding the flock with his brothers; he was a helper to the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives; and Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father. ³ Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his children, because he was the son of his old age; and he had made him a long robe with sleeves. ⁴ But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably to him.

⁵ Once Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more. ⁶ He said to them, “Listen to this dream that I dreamed. ⁷ There we were, binding sheaves in the field. Suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright; then your sheaves gathered around it, and bowed down to my sheaf.” ⁸ His brothers said to him, “Are you indeed to reign over us? Are you indeed to have dominion over us?” So they hated him even more because of his dreams and his words.

⁹ He had another dream, and told it to his brothers, saying, “Look, I have had another dream: the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” ^[1]

This story is one of those well known ones. . . the favored son, the jealous brothers, selling Joseph into slavery, and all that. It is one of the stories that when I was thinking about preaching through the Old Testament, that was on my radar from the beginning, and that I was excited about getting to study and preach from. And I still am excited about it. I love this story. I love some of the language and imagery of it. I love the coat of many colors, and how it is such a great and strange detail, too strange to be fiction. . . and so inspiring our imaginations about just what this coat was and what it could have looked like. . . not to mention, also inspiring one of the best country songs of all time, Dolly Parton's, Coat of Many Colors, her tear jerker about a poor girl's mom-made coat and how much, though it was rags and others made fun, her mother made it and she understood it's real meaning and value. I also love the line in this story, describing how angry Joseph's brothers are to him that it says that they cannot speak "peace' to him. They can't speak shalom to him. . . another great simple and telling image, showing the real poetry of the Hebrew language. Shalom being peace, a greeting, health, connected to God, and His power, His place, His work, and brothers cannot speak it to each other. . . These are the elements if you would have asked me back last fall as I was planning that I would have spoken about. . . dwelling on the split and how dangerous jealousy and envy are. . . how human they are. . . but how dangerous they are for us, how deadly to our relationships.

But our journey together through Genesis the last few months has deepened my perspective and changed my focus for this morning. I want to talk about what sets this situation apart from the others that we have read, and if I'm going to do that it ain't about brothers and their squabbles because that is the standard, not the exception in Genesis. Each set, Cain and Abel; Shem, Ham, and Japheth; Isaac and Ishmael; Jacob and Esau; and now the sons of Jacob, the children of Israel. . . it would be a much more revolutionary story if these children would get along rather than the expected infighting that we have here. . . and the more I thought about it that is the revolution, that is the amazing thing, not that Joseph's brothers sold him into slavery, but rather that this family becomes the nation of Israel, and not divided like all the previous generations. Because they have even more reason to break apart than the jealousy between brothers and the selling Joseph into slavery. . . if you look at all the previous generations and how they become warring separate nations. . . destined to be future and all time enemies. . . Jacob's children, the children of Israel, they have all of the same things happen to them, and even worse.

Let's see, what can break up a family. . . the issue between Isaac and Ishmael is that Sarah wanted Abraham to take up with Hagar her handmaiden, and she does and then drives a wedge between Ishmael that child, and Isaac her son. . . the rest is a long long history of enmity and strife, some would say lasting until even this day. . . but Jacob's family has the same problem. . . actually times two. Of Jacob's 13 children, 12 boys and one Girl, they are spread between four different mothers. Of course there are the two wives of Jacob, the sisters, Leah and Rachel, whom he labored seven years apiece for. . . but each of those women each have a handmaiden as well. . . Leah's handmaiden is Zilpah, and Rachels handmaiden is Bilhah. . . and yeah, you guessed it, they each are mother to some of the 12. If you are keeping score. Leah is mother to Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, and the one daughter Dinah. . . her handmaiden Zilpah is the mother of Gad and Asher. . . Rachel is the mother of Joseph, of course the favorite. . . being the oldest of Jacob's true love, and Benjamin, in whose birth Rachel died. . . and then finally Dan and Naphtali are the sons of Bilhah, Rachel's maid. . . Same old story as Sarah and Hagar, just times two. . . if Ishmael and Isaac's feud is still violently playing out in Middle Eastern politics, why did Israel become a unified nation?

There are also many tragedies that happen to this family that could have broken them up before now too, but one time a gruesome one, may actually show their solidarity as a family, shades of the connections of the future, maybe hard times do bring people together . . So picture this. . . 12 sons, and 1 daughter, well actually there may be others, but Dinah is the only daughter mentioned. . . She is one of Leah's daughters. . . now the family travels around alot. . . mostly because their welcome in different places is not warm because of all of Jacob's antics back when he was living up to that name: the trickster. They didn't want to stay with Laban any longer because he was cheating him, and they were working up the courage to reunite with Esau, and they spent some time in Shechem. While at Shechem, one of the Hivites, the son of the Hamor the ruler, the prince, according to the RSV. . . lay with Dinah by force. . . he rapes her, but he supposedly loves her, and speaks tenderly to her. . . all of this can be found in Genesis 34. . . His soul was drawn to Dinah, it says. . . but when her brothers and her father hear of all this they, as you can imagine, 12 brothers would be protective of their sister, they get their revenge. It's a rough scene, they trick them into getting circumcised, saying that they won't allow Dinah to marry them without going through that sacred ritual. . . while they are healing though, still in pain, the brothers kill them all, and plunder the city. Solidarity, and family pride, maybe, but Jacob, surprizingly, is upset with them, ever the shrewd one, he knows that they will never be forgiven by the Canaanites and the Perizzites, and that they are now in a weakened and precarious position, of having small numbers and few friends. . . . but she of course was their sister?

And then more tragedy, as Rachel when she finally has a son, Joseph, he becomes of course Israel's favorite, but then she has another child, Benjamin. . . son of my right hand, and in child birth she dies. . . and is buried in Bethlehem. . . her tomb is still there. Jacob is distraught for some time, and you can imagine why he would hold on so tightly to Joseph, and then of course Benjamin when Joseph is sold away, seemingly dead.

If that were not enough, while they were at Bethel, there also was an issue with Reuben, the oldest boy. . . he was Leah's son, but he fathered a child with the handmaiden, Bilhah that was mother to two of his brother's Dan and Naphtali. . .

So with all of these family issues going on, the scene of today's lesson is hardly a shock. 12 boys with four different mothers, the politics of who is a child of a wife and who is a child of a handmaiden, the politics of which are the children of the favorite wife, rather than the first wife, that Jacob was tricked into marrying. Jealousy over not being sure which way the inheritance and blessing will flow, due to all of these politics, and the family history on the subject is also doubtful at best. All of this is going on and the coat of many colors  becomes lost in the shuffle of all the other strife. . . the brothers do as brothers seem to do in the Biblical stories, they remove the problem. . . they sell their brother into slavery in Egypt. And again I say that is not the surprise of the story. The surprise is that Israel, the nation of Israel, the descendants of these boys, have a united history at all, some how.  

Every other time there is a family squabble before this the families separate. . . the tribes become as I said before rival nations. It happens every single time, and all of the genealogies found in Genesis, are a testament to it. It says again and again. . . and these were the children of Esau, forever to be known as the Edomites, and these are the children of Ishmael, and these the descendents of Ham, or Japhet, or Shem. . . they are always breaking apart and forming new nations, but for some reason despite all the drama, all the turmoil, all the repetition of the same history that has split peoples up before. . . Israel, these twelve tribes will remain united together. It isn't an easy history. . . it includes some infighting and disagreement. It involves slavery in Egypt, wandering in the desert, struggling for land, uniting around a King, and then a rival King, a succession of bad kings, consistently growing worse, into exile, into diaspora, persecution by empire after empire from Persia, to Greece, to Rome, to Nazi Germany. . .and somehow is still a nation, not just a state, but a recognizable people as well, today, still beating the odds.

What is it that keeps this family together? What is it? The answer may be a clue to the rest of the story, and what keeps people together still. The easy answer is that they are chosen by God to be a nation, that the promise was made, the covenant is solid, that the line from Abraham straight through is there. And I think that is the case for sure. . . but such was the case for Isaac's and Jacob's generation, too. The promise could have just been passed to one of the 12 sons, as it had in previous times. That Rachel's sons were the favored ones, that Joseph or Benjamin could have become the lone child of promise, or the first born Reuben, as tradition should have it. . . could you imagine Moses praying to the God of Abraham, and Isaac, of Jaccob, and of Reuben. . . but it wouldn't be Moses would it, since he was a Levite. . . No it doesn't happen that way. All of them take their place. . . God chooses them all. God does it but Joseph becomes the vehicle, and the lesson of it all is important for any group of people. . . because often groups are put to the test and often fragment throughout history, and will continue to do so in the future, because the medicine is not easy. Joseph is a remarkable man of God.

Quite simply put, Joseph forgives his brothers: all of them. The roles become reversed, the weak has become strong, the victim has the lives of his assailants in his hands, and he does not hold the grudge. The present and the future become more important than the past. . .and the group survives. It really becomes as simple as that. . .forgiveness, and forgiveness is hard. . . it is of God. I think there is no greater proof in the role of God in this story than the fact that Joseph can forgive his brothers. That kind of perspective, that kind of love only comes from God. . .and we can pray that we are given such grace in our own lives and relationships. . . it is the kind of grace that shouts from the torture, from the chastising, from the cross, "Father, forgive them they know not what they do."

The trend of human life is to break apart, whether it is the fragmenting of the church throughout the last 2000 years, the disintegration of Empire after Empire, the political struggles and fragmentation we face as a culture and a country today, polarized politically, divided ideologically, fractured into groups, identities, interests. . . or on a smaller level. . . friendships, marriages, families, churches, cliques, factions. . . It is likely and normal for all of these things to happen, it is in our nature, to divide, hold grudges, and break apart. . . but the other does happen, and when it does God is there, and when God is there, miracles happen. . . even and most importantly the so simple miracle of forgiveness. . . so simple, yet so powerful, so simple, yet so difficult, so simple, yet our only hope in a world fallen into brokenness. . . such is a world of grace. It breaks the cycle of escalation and separation. . . it allows for God's work to be done, to happen. . . rather than ours of revenge and the justice of limited perspective. I pray it at home  here when the winds of politics shift again, as they always do, I pray it in a Russia holding on to a past gone, but not forgotten, fearing decline on one side, and fearing the iron grip of a curtain pulled tight again, I pray it in relationships at every level, and I pray that somehow in the Middle East, forgiveness could reign, where it hasn't for so long.

I wrote a poem once, looking at this world as an optimist would, I read it a few weeks ago, "Where I would Like to Live." It was the one with the line about "chocolate and peanut butter finding a taste for eachother". . . it also contained the line, "where history is forgiven, if not forgotten". . . so simple yet so difficult, as the pendulum of power swings back and forth wielding the guillotine's blade again and again. . . instead of the song of revenge, we must cry. "Forgive us our debts", and let us somehow forgive our debtors, we know not what we do any more than they do, but instead let us forgive, for such is the way of thy kingdom, and the way of the Kingdom when it comes to be on Earth as it is in heaven, and it remains the only answer now, next time, and the next time the tables are turned, when the last are first again and the first are last one more time, when the meek inherit the Earth, can they forgive the mighty, can that lion and lamb really lie down together, all the nations and peoples of the earth have been on both sides of oppression, and the cycle will continue, until we all can forgive. . . hopefully we can, and end the cycle forever, forever, and ever, may God's perfect will be done. . . Amen.

---

^[1]The Holy Bible : New Revised Standard Version. 1989 (Ge 37:1-9). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

Grabs the Heel

Grabs the Heel

A sermon delivered by Rev. Peter T. Atkinson

March 23, 2014

at Gordonsville Presbyterian Church, Gordonsville, Virginia

Genesis 27: 30-40

Let us pray, for a welcome mind and a loving heart

Help us to see despite our eyes

Help us to think outside of our minds

Help us to be more than our lives

            For your eyes show the way

            Your mind knows the truth

            Your being is the life.

Amen.

³⁰ As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, when Jacob had scarcely gone out from the presence of his father Isaac, his brother Esau came in from his hunting. ³¹ He also prepared savory food, and brought it to his father. And he said to his father, “Let my father sit up and eat of his son’s game, so that you may bless me.” ³² His father Isaac said to him, “Who are you?” He answered, “I am your firstborn son, Esau.” ³³ Then Isaac trembled violently, and said, “Who was it then that hunted game and brought it to me, and I ate it all before you came, and I have blessed him?—yes, and blessed he shall be!” ³⁴ When Esau heard his father’s words, he cried out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry, and said to his father, “Bless me, me also, father!” ³⁵ But he said, “Your brother came deceitfully, and he has taken away your blessing.” ³⁶ Esau said, “Is he not rightly named Jacob? For he has supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright; and look, now he has taken away my blessing.” Then he said, “Have you not reserved a blessing for me?” ³⁷ Isaac answered Esau, “I have already made him your lord, and I have given him all his brothers as servants, and with grain and wine I have sustained him. What then can I do for you, my son?” ³⁸ Esau said to his father, “Have you only one blessing, father? Bless me, me also, father!” And Esau lifted up his voice and wept.

³⁹ Then his father Isaac answered him:

“See, away from the fatness of the earth shall your home be,

and away from the dew of heaven on high.

⁴⁰     By your sword you shall live,

and you shall serve your brother;

but when you break loose, 

you shall break his yoke from your neck.” ^[1]

I've always been a big fan of Kevin Costner as an actor. There was a period where every movie this guy made was just great. He made sports movies, he made funny movies, he made epics, and I just loved them all. One of my favorite movies of his is his epic, Dances with Wolves. It is a movie with such beautiful scenery, beautiful music, some funny memorable one liners, and a great story. One of the aspects of that movie that I've always liked the best was the way that the Sioux tribe depicted in the movie gave names that have meaning, and always based in on some great moment in the person's life, a character defining moment would then stick in the tribes memory by becoming the basis for their name. People would know them because of what their name was, know something about them, that their name was a story and told a story. My favorite, other than the title of the movie name, Dances With Wolves, for the Kevin Costner character, was his love interest, another white woman, who was kidnapped and raised by the tribe in a true to life ironic mix of cruelty and caring. . . she had to stand up for herself at many points in her life, but at one major moment she stood up for herself by punching a would be bully in the face, and stood over him, forever then to be named Stands with a Fist. Jacob, the character, that takes up the center of this morning's lesson is a character with a name like that, and of course a story like that. . . his name means Grabs the Heel.  

He earned that name, his first moment of his life, in the womb, Rebekah had some trouble the story tells us. . . that in the womb Jacob and his brother Esau were already fighting inside their mother. We get the story of their unique birth in Genesis 25: 22-24

The children struggled together within her; and she said, “If it is to be this way, why do I live?” So she went to inquire of the Lord. ²³ And the Lord said to her,

“Two nations are in your womb,

and two peoples born of you shall be divided;

the one shall be stronger than the other,

the elder shall serve the younger.”

²⁴ When her time to give birth was at hand, there were twins in her womb. ²⁵ The first came out red, all his body like a hairy mantle; so they named him Esau. ²⁶ Afterward his brother came out, with his hand gripping Esau’s heel; so he was named Jacob.^[2]

So Jacob gets his name day one, and from day one he was doing exactly that, grasping the heels of his brother. . . I remember back from my wrestling coaching days that there was a really simple take down move called the heel pick, you just reach down and grab your opponents heel and lift or stop its movement, and down the other person would go. . . this is Jacob, constantly doing things to trip up his brother Esau, or as some other translators take liberty to translate Jacob's name, as the supplanter. Jacob from his first moment in this world is looking for ways to supplant his brother, to be the  younger son, but have all of the older sons rights and blessings.

Two different times Jacob cheats his brother out of what is his due. It says that Esau loved to go out and hunt and be outside, and so was his father Isaac's favorite, but Jacob it says liked to stay around the house. . . idle. . . plotting. So this one time Esau has been out hunting and working he comes in and is starving, and while he was out Jacob took control of the food, so when Esau comes in Jacob makes him trade away to him his birthright. And so in that moment Esau does give him that birthright just to eat this one meal. . . hardly brotherly love. And then later when Isaac is getting old and looking to bless his favorite son, he sends Esau out to bring back some game to give him so that Esau can receive his blessing. But Rebekah favors Jacob, and she gets him to again play a trick, supplanting his brother. She tells him to go out and kill two of the goats to give to his father, pretending to be Esau, but Jacob is worried about his arms which have no hair, he says,

¹¹ But Jacob said to his mother Rebekah, “Look, my brother Esau is a hairy man, and I am a man of smooth skin. ¹² Perhaps my father will feel me, and I shall seem to be mocking him, and bring a curse on myself and not a blessing.”

That's his big issue, that's his big concern. . .

¹³ His mother said to him, “Let your curse be on me, my son; only obey my word, and go, get them for me.” ¹⁴ So he went and got them and brought them to his mother; and his mother prepared savory food, such as his father loved. ¹⁵ Then Rebekah took the best garments of her elder son Esau, which were with her in the house, and put them on her younger son Jacob; ¹⁶ and she put the skins of the kids on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck. ¹⁷ Then she handed the savory food, and the bread that she had prepared, to her son Jacob. ^[3]

So he pretends to be Esau. He lies to his father. Isaac, blind in his old age, even asks making sure that he really is Esau, and without hesitation Jacob says yes.

So Jacob went up to his father Isaac, who felt him and said, “The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.” ²³ He did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau’s hands; so he blessed him. ²⁴ He said, “Are you really my son Esau?” He answered, “I am.” ^[4]

Can a brother stoop so low? Can a father be so gullible to not know his own son? Can God bless such a person? It would seem the answer to all three of those questions, somehow is yes. . Jacob does realize that what he did to his brother is unforgivable. Very similar to the Cain and Abel story, murder is put on the table. Esau is planning to kill his brother in revenge, but Jacob gets wind of it and heads out to find his fortune and a bride. Rebekah sends him back to her homeland to stay with her brother Laban, and in Laban Jacob, the trickster finds his match.

All this week the song, "I am so glad that Jesus loved me" has been going through my head. You know, "I am so glad that Jesus loved me, . . . Jesus loved even me." Yeah even me. If Jacob, then certainly even us. . . Jacob is just one sharp rock away from being as bad as Cain. But then again, as bad as Cain was, God didn't completely abandon him either. It is right after all of this trickery that Jacob gets a glimpse of something few have ever seen. In a strange dream, he looks up and sees a staircase in the sky, and it is connecting heaven and earth and angels are going up and down.

And the Lord stood beside him and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring; ¹⁴ and your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you and in your offspring. ¹⁵ Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” ¹⁶ Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place—and I did not know it!” ¹⁷ And he was afraid, and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.” ^[5]

And he called the place Bethel, which means house of God. It is quite amazing that God stands beside Jacob here, but he is about to get some of pay back, and show a very different side of himself. He finds his uncle, Laban, and it so happens that Laban has two daughters, the beautiful Rachel, whom Jacob immediately falls in love with, and her sister Leah, who is said to have nice eyes. Jacob wants to marry Rachel so agrees to work for Laban for 7 years. At the end of the 7 years Laban sneaks Leah into Jacob's marriage bed, in a switcheroo, worthy of Jacob himself, and so Jacob then works another 7 years and marries his beloved Rachel. Jacob and Laban go back and forth pulling tricks and swindling each other for many years, but you begin to see something in Jacob as the time passes. I'm not sure what it is because there really isn't any one event that redeems him, I kept looking for one, but rather you just start to get a different opinion of him. He becomes much more likeable when he is dealing with Laban. You start to get the idea that he is walking with God in some way. That faith has entered into his story, that he is dynamic as a character, and capable of change. . . I can only think of one thing that is the quality that I find in Jacob to admire, and that is perseverance. He just keeps going. No matter what happens he keeps going. He fights. He survives. He clutches. He grabs hold. He won't ever let go. This becomes the defining characteristic in him over time. The story becomes not about what he has been, but what he is going to do next. Not every step along the way has been pretty, and certainly you could say that most of them weren't pretty at all, most  you couldn't even say have been honest, but they have been perseverant, consistent, and with God. And maybe there is just something to that afterall, maybe that is what human life is. Maybe that is what it is like to be chosen. . . that the journey leads all over, that no matter what you do, God has plans and will work it to good, will work you to good.

Jacob gets a name change along the way, by the way. . . after his time with Laban, when he is heading back to the land where Esau lives, the land of his father. . . he has a new encounter with God.

Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. ²⁵ When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket; and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. ²⁶ Then he said, “Let me go, for the day is breaking.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.” ²⁷ So he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” ²⁸ Then the man said, “You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans,  and have prevailed.”^[6]

And so Jacob becomes Israel, the trickster becomes the one who wrestles with God, and he becomes the namesake for the chosen people, the people of the story, the people who God will lead out of bondage and into the land again. They will, like their forefather, not walk the straightest of lines, will often go astray, will do things that are not great, will do things that are dishonest, will become stiff-necked and rebellious, will forget from time to time who they are and whose they are, but they will walk the path, will follow the way, and will persevere, will run the race completely, and wrestle with God, but never let go. . . and like Jacob they will wear the mark of their wrestling with God, and the entire world will see it. . . such is their legacy, such is our legacy. . . such it is that we do. . . like Jacob we try to make our own way by any means necessary, like Israel we wrestle God, trying to find our place in this world, and through it all we run the race, persevere, for God is working out our lives, and working through our lives, knowing that, we can really never get lost. Never too far, never too much, which is what I was thinking when I wrote the prayer of preparation in your bulletin. . .

I took what was not mine,

But it wasn't enough.

I exploited my brother's hunger,

But it wasn't enough.

I fooled my father to give me what was his,

But it wasn't enough.

I'm certainly no model man,

But nothing separated me from God's plan.

Paula read for us from Hebrews 12, it reiterates this notion of what the journey of faith is all about, it says:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely,  and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, ² looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of^b the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God. ^[7]

God has called us through Jesus Christ, that though we be sinners, our lives mean something in relationship with him, though we wrestle with our faith, we are not the first, there is an entire cloud of witnesses who have wrestled before us, let us clutch to God as they do and never let go, no matter what, God has shown that he will do the same. All praises be to God. Amen.

---

^[1]The Holy Bible : New Revised Standard Version. 1989 (Ge 27:30-40). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

^[2]The Holy Bible : New Revised Standard Version. 1989 (Ge 25:22-26). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

^[3]The Holy Bible : New Revised Standard Version. 1989 (Ge 27:11-17). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

^[4]The Holy Bible : New Revised Standard Version. 1989 (Ge 27:22-24). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

^[5]The Holy Bible : New Revised Standard Version. 1989 (Ge 28:13-17). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

^[6]The Holy Bible : New Revised Standard Version. 1989 (Ge 32:24-28). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

^b Or who instead of

^[7]The Holy Bible : New Revised Standard Version. 1989 (Heb 12:1-2). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

In the Middle

In the Middle

A sermon delivered by Rev. Peter T. Atkinson

March 16, 2014

at Gordonsville Presbyterian Church, Gordonsville, Virginia

Genesis 24: 52-60

Let us pray, for a welcome mind and a loving heart

Help us to see despite our eyes

Help us to think outside of our minds

Help us to be more than our lives

            For your eyes show the way

            Your mind knows the truth

            Your being is the life.

Amen.

⁵² When Abraham’s servant heard their words, he bowed himself to the ground before the Lord. ⁵³ And the servant brought out jewelry of silver and of gold, and garments, and gave them to Rebekah; he also gave to her brother and to her mother costly ornaments. ⁵⁴ Then he and the men who were with him ate and drank, and they spent the night there. When they rose in the morning, he said, “Send me back to my master.” ⁵⁵ Her brother and her mother said, “Let the girl remain with us a while, at least ten days; after that she may go.” ⁵⁶ But he said to them, “Do not delay me, since the Lord has made my journey successful; let me go that I may go to my master.” ⁵⁷ They said, “We will call the girl, and ask her.” ⁵⁸ And they called Rebekah, and said to her, “Will you go with this man?” She said, “I will.” ⁵⁹ So they sent away their sister Rebekah and her nurse along with Abraham’s servant and his men. ⁶⁰ And they blessed Rebekah and said to her,

“May you, our sister, become

thousands of myriads;

may your offspring gain possession

of the gates of their foes.” ^[1]

Isaac and Rebekah has been a hard story to find something to add to it, to bring out of it, to say about it, because it is so basic. There really isn't much here. What happens is what has happened for so many years to so many people throughout countless generations. A Man and a Woman come together in marriage. In fact there isn't much about Isaac and Rebekah in the Bible at all. They are kinda place holders, there in the middle of the more in depth stories. They are basically just children of famous parents, and parents of famous children. Stuck in the middle between the fame. After chapters and chapters with Abraham, and before chapters with the infamous exploits of that trickster Jacob, we get very little about the life of this child of promise. His birth is so built up, but not much is given after that. After he survives the blood sacrifice scene, he grows up, gets married, interestingly to a girl from back in Ur his father's home. He sent one of the servants to go back there to find him a wife, the first example of the importance of family and avoiding intermarrying with the Canaanites. . . but other than that, in the story, as we read just now, she agrees to go to Isaac and becomes his wife, this woman, Rebekah. she decides to go, and the rest is untold history, until they have their children. Yeah not much happens, except we get introduced to some of the players in the next generation. We meet Laban, Rebekah's brother, who will prove important in Jacob's adventures in the weeks to come, but again it's all people who will be important later. . . not now. . . now we are simply in the middle times, between generations, the peaceful, uneventful time within the cycle of it all.

So that got me thinking about one of the interesting ideas about the Bible and history in general in a free society. There seems to be a cycle within the generations, that has repeated and repeated again and again throughout history, and it is important because we seem to be a part of that cycle, and we can look at where we as 2014 Americans fit within the cycle, whether we like Isaac and Rebekah are living in those middle times, or whether those are behind us as we come upon something more challenging and world shaping. We'll see.

Like I said, there seems to be a cycle within generations, and it is shown in the Bible. In the Sunday School class we have just worked our way through Judges. . .and Judges is a book that is filled with the cycle, and all throughout, there is the repeated refrain. . . "and in that time there was no king in Israel, and everyone did as they pleased" . . . again and again it says those very same words. And in between those words you have a repeated pattern. God acts in the life of the community, and that generation is faithful, the next lives in peace, the next goes astray, and then the next deals with calamity, God acts again, inspiring a great leader to surface and lead the people back to God, and then the cycle continues repeating itself. It happens again and again, whether the hero is Deborah, or Gideon, or Samson, or countless others. It keeps repeating.

You could say that the pattern is very similar here in our story in Genesis. Abraham walks with God, Isaac follows in his father's footsteps, not much to tell, a time of peace, then Jacob faces some challenges, you could say that he goes astray at times, especially in his younger days, but then he has those sons, and they each have problems starting with their treatment of their youngest brother, Joseph, who becomes that next person to take that difficult walk with God, and bring about the healing that is needed. . . but even after Joseph the pattern repeats, because eventually there is a Pharoah, who does not know Joseph, and Israel finds themselves in slavery. Sometimes the pattern finds itself here, slavery, or tyranny because then sometimes when there are kings involved it seems like the pattern is delayed, like the control can stave off the cycle's depths for awhile, but what seems to happen in that case is the cycle just gets wider, the highs get higher, and when the destruction comes it gets deeper. . . there are reasons for that, that we'll look at later in this series, especially when we get to the period of the kings in Israel, and often those kings are chosen to make the pattern wider, to stave off some of the pain. . . the very pain and hard walk with God that leads us to the new closeness, the new high point, the new time of great peace and faith, that safe middle time like Isaac and Rebekah seem to enjoy.

What is most interesting is it seems, at least there is a theory, that this similar pattern of a four generation, 80 year, four score cycle has occurred and may still be recurring within American history. And in some ways it makes sense, we are in fact living in a time of freedom, "there is no king" here. We call the second half of that statement, the "every one did as they liked" part: liberty, the great experiment of liberty, and we speak of it in a much more positive connotation, than what I feel when I read it repeated in the book of Judges. We enjoy freedom. We see it as a great thing, a natural right, in other words, the way that God, and God's laws created human beings to live. There is no king by design. . . self rule, or as could be argued ruled by God, and the natural systems God has set up to govern the world he created for us, within those systems and within God's provident care, flourishing beyond what humans can imagine.

But as I said there are theories that historians have, that I find interesting and compelling, that we can see these cycles within the story of American History, and I say the story of American history because obviously the day to day is much more complicated than any single narrative, but surveys of history like this are about the patterns rather than the details. If you do the math, much of the major events in our history, both defining moments and Awakenings of religion seem to be spaced out in these 80 year spaces. . . four generations, or as Lincoln put it four score. . . If you think about it the founding of the colonies in the early 1600's, especially in New England, where most of our history is centered (at least since the Civil War shifted the center of study northward). The first generation to come across, are zealots and hard workers. From much of what we see of them they saw their mission as God's work, they were Separatists, they were seeking religious freedom, in a new land, in a new place, in a new world, they wanted to create a "City on a Hill" for the world to see: a perfect Christian society. The second generation was relatively stable, but then by the third we see much more turmoil and friction. If you read the sermons of the time they get much more intense, trying to instill fear in the people, to control. It's typical to preach like that not because everybody is doing what you want, but rather because they are not, it is obviously in response to a generation they saw slipping away from the founding faithful ideals of the founders of the settlement. You have perceived if not real decline, and the powers that be begin to tighten down. In this time period you have the Witch Trials of the 1690's, the famous ones in Salem having as much to do with squabbles over property as the supernatural workings of the devil, but regardless you have a time of turmoil, King Phillip's War as well in this time, but this is all followed by the First Great Awakening, all clearing the way for the American revolution, a period of great struggle, but also great movement forward for the ideals of liberty, and the following of "divine providence" as the Declaration of Independence puts it. This great event is followed by the second Great Awakening. . . yet another period of Religious fervor within the country. Which brings us to four score and seven years later, 87 years, when in the midst of the Civil War, Lincoln gives the Gettysburg Address. . . certainly the next biggest challenge to the American people, divided greatly, and then interestingly enough roughly 80 years later the country goes through the Great Depression. . .and the turmoil and disillusion of that, followed by the hard struggle and greatness of World War II, coming together to defeat the Japanese in the Pacific and the Nazi's in Europe, some would say a walk with God against evil. . . also followed by a highpoint in religious fervor in the fifties, when we saw the membership of churches at their highest levels.

And we are living roughly 60 years from then. Where are we on that pattern? Where are we in the middle? Have we passed the Isaac and Rebekah stage, where nothing really happens, when people get married and have kids. . .. Is that the years where baby boom generation was born?  Is that the fifties and early sixties? Has there also been the period where tradition was questioned, where people go astray? Are we looking at a point now where nothing is for certain, and many things seem to be spiraling out of control? It is here that many pastors would say, like our Colonial Predecessors did back in New England, offering Jeremiad warnings, like the prophet Jeremiah, that we should get it together or it is going to end badly for us, but I’m not going to do that. There are many parallels in American History, if you look at them with certain eyes, and again I say that because history doesn't necessarily have patterns as they are lived. . . It may not be real, none of it may be real. The evidence and facts of history may be wrong or incomplete, but it is interesting to think about. No matter what it is in God’s hands not our own. . . this seems the most important thing to remember as we walk forward together.

You have to admit that there are many striking similarities between the last 20 years and the time of the 20's and 30's. The early 2000's of excess and speculation, followed by the bubble bursting and economic hardship. There are many issues that we face today. Some are good and some aren't. . . it is impossible to say what is to come next. Many may say that the world is going down the tubes and these kids today just don't understand truth, don't understand what it's all about, have lost sight of God, have no faith. . . In someways that may be the case, at least that is an oft made perception. But that is what it is, perception. . . because even when the story isn't interesting God is there, even when the story gets difficult God is there, even when people go astray and try to lock God out of their lives, they really can't. God is working his way. .. . out of the darkness God is constantly bringing light. So if this cycle theory is real, if we are heading for hard times. . . let them come, it is in trying to alter this path that the liberty is lost and replaced with tyranny, we need not seek a king to lead us away from the edge, which only puts off the calamity and makes it much deeper, but if that is God's will, it will all work out, and on the other side all will be made right. Think about it these patterns have been here before, we’ve split apart and become divided before, we’ve walked difficult roads before, we’ve struggled as a people before and always God has brought us through. . . and will again.

But let's use this historical theory now to understand the Biblical story that much better. In this time of peace for Isaac and Rebekah, they are raising their kids. They will walk with God themselves, but how do they pass that on to Jacob and his brother Esau? How do they teach the faithful journey that Abraham had walked? Do they not know because their faithful journey has been much easier, much less fraught with peril, and twists and turns? Have they not experienced that, so passed on a much different world view to Jacob and to Esau? I want to make sure we keep these questions in our head, as we go further into the story of Jacob, whose name means trickster, who will wrestle with God and then become Israel the namesake of the chosen people, from whose struggle we have learned so much about ourselves and about the God we serve. Thanks be to God. Amen.

---

^[1]The Holy Bible : New Revised Standard Version. 1989 (Ge 24:52-60). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

Jehovah Jireh

Jehovah Jireh

A sermon delivered by Rev. Peter T. Atkinson

March 9, 2014

at Gordonsville Presbyterian Church, Gordonsville, Virginia

Genesis 22: 1-19

John 3: 16-32

Let us pray, for a welcome mind and a loving heart

Help us to see despite our eyes

Help us to think outside of our minds

Help us to be more than our lives

            For your eyes show the way

            Your mind knows the truth

            Your being is the life.

Amen.

22 After these things God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” ² He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you.” ³ So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac; he cut the wood for the burnt offering, and set out and went to the place in the distance that God had shown him. ⁴ On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place far away. ⁵ Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; the boy and I will go over there; we will worship, and then we will come back to you.” ⁶ Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together. ⁷ Isaac said to his father Abraham, “Father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” ⁸ Abraham said, “God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So the two of them walked on together.

⁹ When they came to the place that God had shown him, Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood in order. He bound his son Isaac, and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. ¹⁰ Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to kill his son. ¹¹ But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” ¹² He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” ¹³ And Abraham looked up and saw a ram, caught in a thicket by its horns. Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. ¹⁴ So Abraham called that place “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.” 

¹⁵ The angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven, ¹⁶ and said, “By myself I have sworn, says the Lord: Because you have done this, and have not withheld your son, your only son, ¹⁷ I will indeed bless you, and I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of their enemies, ¹⁸ and by your offspring shall all the nations of the earth gain blessing for themselves, because you have obeyed my voice.” ¹⁹ So Abraham returned to his young men, and they arose and went together to Beer-sheba; and Abraham lived at Beer-sheba. ^[1]

If I was going to plan a sermon series where I preached through the Old Testament, trying my best to use the natural rhythms of the Christian calendar to enhance the stories, I would have picked this Sunday, the first Sunday in Lent to tell the story of Abraham and Isaac, and the sacrificing, the very story that we come to today, on this the first Sunday of Lent. I would have done it this way if I had planned it, but I'm not  good planner, so I didn't plan it, it just worked out this way. The reason that this story fits Lent so well is that Lent is a season where we look inward, we look at ourselves and honestly take an appraisal of ourselves, our faith, our life, our connection to God, our relationships, where we are from a Spiritual Wholeness Standpoint. Lent is about preparing us for Easter, preparing ourselves for the amazing reality of the Risen Christ in our lives and everything it means. For that reason it is pretty awesome to look at this story and the high water mark of faith, for that is what this story is about, as gruesome as it seems, it is about faith, faith that God keeps His promises. For God has promised Abraham a ton. The land, the blessing, the nation, all of that, it all hangs on the balance of the life of this child Isaac. There is no way that Isaac's death is part of the bargain, right? right? How would that work, no Abraham heads out going through with the unthinkable, the unbelievable, the impossible, Abraham heads out to offer Isaac as a burnt offering. . . complete offering. . . the slaughtering of Abraham and Sarah's only son, the child of promise, the child they have been waiting for, the child we have been reading about. . . just born last chapter, and now is being put on the altar as a sacrifice.  So as troubling as this story is, and as troubling as that soul search of Lent sometimes is, they are a good match. . . for there are certain parallels that come to the surface here.

If the promise is made there in chapter one of this Biblical redemption story, chapter 2 is all the walking from place to place, chapter three this baby is born, and here in chapter four has quite a twist. If the walk of faith with all of its twists and turns wasn't enough to test your faith, or to spoil the story as a  reader, this one would surely make you close the book, but it is important that it is only chapter 4, because though here the plot thickens, this story is about more than Abraham's faith, it also is all about foreshadowing. Here you have so many precursors to later pieces of the redemption story. The details all come up to the surface all showing the future in all its glory. I want to take a look at some of those details right now.

First, in this story you have an important word repeated, in English it is actually three words, it's "here I am", but it Hebrew it is the one "hineni" this becomes later in the story the response call of prophets, of those seeking to do God's will, to begin their missions, it is the mark of real intimacy between God and prophets later on, but it finds its first utterance in the story here, and the intimacy that it will display between God and the later prophets is built here. Look at the passage, "here I am" is repeated three times, each time by Abraham. First when he is called, "Abraham", Abraham responds "hineni." Here I am God, where shall I go, what shall I do, I am your vessel, shape me, mold me, direct me, I am yours. All of that is wrapped up in that little word "hineni' and it will be echoed by Moses, and Samuel, and Isaiah, and others. God calls us by name, we say, here we are, and the mission begins. . . thy will be done, type stuff. And here the will of God is for Abraham to slaughter his son, that child of promise. The next, "here I am" comes from Abraham, this time in response to his son. . . showing that devotion that way as well, a man with love in two directions at once, duty to God duty to son, this is what is being put to test. . . Isaac says, "Father" and to this as well, Abraham responds, "Heneni, here I am." A strange response, awkward in English, showing that the "here I am" is much more meaningful than merely a statement of place, but also of attentiveness, focus, devotion, care. Here I am, physically, spiritually whole, and completely present, ready to hear what you have to say, willing to do whatever you ask, that is the presence embodied in that Hebrew word. And then the third time it is said, when the Angel of Salvation comes, when the knife in Abraham's hand is stopped, saying, "Abraham, Abraham", and then we hear Abraham again, "Hineni," "Here I am" remaining faithful, ready to do whatever it takes, ready, able, and somehow willing. . . "do not lay a hand on that boy or do anything. . . " It's quite a full circle, with that one important word laying the framework.

What we have in this story is some of the most interesting details. The Hebrews did not have a ton of words to use. . . like most other ancient languages and peoples, they told their stories with simple language, and the poetry of it had to fill in the deeper meaning. In writing like that, details are important, and they aren't wasted. They aren't just willy nilly thrown together, and they were noticed by the audience. When they heard certain phrases it mattered to them, and the story teller wouldn't use them on accident. An example of what I mean is like the basket that Moses is placed in to save him as he floats in the water, yes it was "ark" the very same word used to describe Noah's vessel of salvation meant to do the same thing. In this story we have so many great details. Look at the beginning of this, where God tells Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, he doesn't just say, sacrifice Isaac, he says, "Take your son, your only son, whom you love" . . . certainly sounds familiar doesn't it. Hmm interesting. . . Now look at verse 4, "on the third day" he sees the place, and Isaac and Abraham venture forth alone. . . another familiar parallel. . . and they keep coming. . .

They take up the wood, and he lays it on Isaac, yes, Isaac carries the wood that he will be sacrificed upon, and the knife. . . again the parallels, and Isaac says, "Father, we have the wood, but where is the lamb for the offering. . . and here you have it, the promise, the truth, the one reason that Abraham can go through with his life, his faith built upon promises and a journey, leading up to this point, his entire life is built on faith that there is more to this story than the end of a promise here, and his entire life is on the line when he says, "God, himself will provide. . ." God Himself will provide the lamb. . .again how very familiar and how very true. The prophetic understanding of what Jesus will do is so wrapped up in this story, that the prophecy is strong here, rivaling even the prophecies in Isaiah.

And then you get to the real moment of truth, the third of the hineni's, prefaced by this statement, a statement that is one of the most paradoxical and harsh in all of the world's literature, so much more than Priam doing the unthinkable in the Iliad, when he kisses the hand of the man who murdered his son. . . kissing Achilles hand in an act of humility. . . no so much worse than that, and it is slow, drawn out, in great story teller fashion, here we have, "Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to kill his son." Could you imagine? I was writing this last night with Coralee beside me on the couch, she had thrown up twice already, and was lying there peaceful, and I would do anything in the world, anything in my power to take pain from her, and here Abraham has to do the opposite. . . and then there is the but. . .  But the Angel of the Lord called to him from Heaven." Right at the perfect moment. . . again the promise shows up and is real. "I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son" . . . again, "Your only son from me." An at that moment God looks up and sees a ram, caught in the thicket by its horns. . . and that becomes the offering. . . The Lord Provides.

And so Abraham names that place, the Lord Provides, in Hebrew that statement holds one of the Old Testament names for God, most often transliterated as. . . Jehovah Jireh. . . Jehovah, of course being. . . the name for God. . . the I am, we will get from Moses and the burning bush much later. . . that strange unpronounceable name for God. . . and then Jireh. . . will provide, or other times who provides. Jehovah Jireh, God will provide the lamb. . . and God does. . . and the paragraph ends with another important statement. . . "as it is said to this day, "On the mount of the Lord, it shall be provided." Does that mean Ararat, where Noah's Ark reached land beneath the rainbow of promise, or Sinai where the name of God was given to Moses, and then later the law, or Horeb? or Zion, the hill on which Jerusalem stands, the Mount where Jesus preaches, or is it the story that has been paralleled throughout this text, Calvary. God provides. Jehovah Jireh.

¹⁵ The angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven, ¹⁶ and said, “By myself I have sworn, says the Lord: Because you have done this, and have not withheld your son, your only son, ¹⁷ I will indeed bless you, and I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of their enemies, ¹⁸ and by your offspring shall all the nations of the earth gain blessing for themselves, because you have obeyed my voice.”

And to close out this story, the promise is again restored, and now is again expanded.  Abraham is not just to be the father of a nation, a nation blessed through him, but the entire world, all the nations of the earth gain blessing for themselves, because you have obeyed my voice. From the darkness of this story, the violence, self slaughtering of hopes and dreams, through faith on the other side is promise, light, peace, promise, blessing. Here we have God again, as God has done since the beginning, bringing darkness to light, and fulfilling His promises beyond doubt, and beyond our wildest imaginings. The Lord provided Isaac, and the Lord would not force Abraham to sacrifice his only son, the son he loved. . . no God would not make Abraham do that, even though Abraham was willing, instead God would save that sacrifice for himself. Let's close with the Gospel lesson for today again, John 3:16-21

⁶ “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

¹⁷ “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. ¹⁸ Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. ¹⁹ And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. ²⁰ For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. ²¹ But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.^[2]

The parallels are impressive, and show us the nature of faith, the nature of God's promises, the nature of being "tested", the depths from which darkness can be turned into light in God's control, and that God in fact will provide, Jehovah Jireh. . . I'm still uncomfortable with this story. It is one of the most troubling stories in the Bible, but when seen in context, within the story of salvation, and that God does in fact do what he doesn't require of Abraham, and there is real power in the story, real meaning, and I thank God for it having happened, and for it being in God's Word, to show us another glimpse at the amazing nature of God, of which I am in awe and wonder. Allelujahovah Jireh, Hallelujah and Amen.

---

^[1]The Holy Bible : New Revised Standard Version. 1989 (Ge 22:1-19). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

^[2]The Holy Bible : New Revised Standard Version. 1989 (Jn 3:16-21). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.