Vision: The Practice of Waking Up to God

Vision: The Practice of Waking Up to God
(Genesis 28.10-22)
A message by Dave Shull
Spirit of Peace United Church of Christ
Sammamish, Washington
The First Sunday after Epiphany – January 8, 2012

The first in a sermon series on the themes raised in our church’s current theology book group book, An Altar in the World, by Barbara Brown Taylor

When you wake up each day, do you expect God to be there? As you go through what you go through each day, is God in it all with you? At the end of your day, when you go to bed, does God watch you fall asleep

Our Bible story this morning is about a young man who doesn’t believe God has anything to do with him. Like many people we meet in the Bible, Jacob is not a moral role model. He makes his near-starving older brother, Esau, exchange Esau’s inheritance for food. He and his mother conspire against his blind father, Isaac. Jacob dresses like older brother Esau, and Isaac gives Jacob the blessing he meant to give Esau. When we catch up with Jacob in this morning’s Bible story, Jacob is on the run from Esau. Who is heart-broken that Jacob stole his blessing. And who now is out for revenge. Jacob truly lives into the meaning of his name. In Hebrew, Jacob means heel. And that’s truly what Jacob is.

So Jacob flees to the desert. He is alone. He is afraid. He’s never looked for God. And he certainly doesn’t expect God to start looking for him. He’s in for a big surprise.

Listen for a word from God.

Jacob left Beersheba and went to Haran. He came to a certain place and camped for the night since the sun had set. He took one of the stones there, set it under his head and lay down to sleep. And he dreamed: A stairway was set on the ground and it reached all the way to the sky; angels of God were going up and going down on it.

Then God was right before him, saying, "I am God, the God of Abraham and Sarah, the God of your parents Isaac and Rebekah. I'm giving the ground on which you are sleeping to you and to your descendants. Your descendants will be as the dust of the Earth; they'll stretch from west to east and from north to south. All the families of the Earth will bless themselves in you and your descendants. Yes. I'll stay with you, I'll protect you wherever you go, and I'll bring you back to this very ground. I'll stick with you until I've done everything I promised you."

Jacob woke up from his sleep. He said, "God is in this place—truly. And I didn't even know it!" He was terrified. He whispered in awe, "Incredible. Wonderful. Holy. This is God's House. This is the Gate of Heaven."

Jacob was up first thing in the morning. He took the stone he had used for his pillow and stood it up as a memorial pillar and poured oil over it. He christened the place Bethel (God's House). The name of the town had been Luz until then.

Jacob vowed a vow: "If God stands by me and protects me on this journey on which I'm setting out, keeps me in food and clothing, and brings me back in one piece to my father's house, this God will be my God. This stone that I have set up as a memorial pillar will mark this as a place where God lives. And everything you give me, I'll return a tenth to you"
(Genesis 28.10-22, adapted from The Message Re-Mix © 2003 Eugene Peterson).

If you’ve spent much time in church, you’ve probably sung the song, We are climbing Jacob’s ladder…. It’s unfortunate the part of this story about the ladder is the part that was turned into a song. Because the ladder isn’t the point of the story at all.

The point of this story is that God shows up
(Walter Brueggemann, Genesis, John Knox Press, 1982, p. 244).

The point of this story is that God shows up. And makes a promise that changes Jacob’s life forever.  The point of this story is that God makes the same promise to us. And it could change our lives forever if we let it.  Utterly alone, utterly afraid, Jacob decides to go to sleep. And see what the morning brings.  Then he gets the surprise of his life. The God he’s never paid any attention to breaks into his world by breaking into his dreams. And when God breaks into Jacob’s life, God doesn’t have the decency to keep quiet. God walks right up to Jacob. And God speaks: I’ll stay with you always.
I’ll stay with you always.
After that, everything is new. Jacob went to bed utterly alone and utterly afraid. But now God has shown up. And told him, I’ll stay with you. So when Jacob wakes up, he wakes up to God. He doesn’t feel quite as alone. And doesn’t feel quite as afraid. For God has found him. And God has spoken.

Jacob jumps off the cold desert ground. And he shouts so loudly anyone within a ten-mile radius will hear: God is in this place—truly. And I didn't even know it! (Genesis 28.17). He realizes God is everywhere…that all the earth is God’s House. Jacob wakes up to a God who’s as real as the sore head he has from using a rock for a pillow. He wakes up to a God who’s as real as his fear his brother Esau will track him down and do him in.

The author of the book the church book group is reading now tells us what happens when we wake up to God:

Even if Jacob could never find the exact place where the feet of that heavenly ladder came to earth – even if he could never find a single footprint in the sand – his life was changed for good. Having woken up to God, he would never be able to go to sleep again, at least not to the divine presence that had promised to be with him whether he could see it or not
(Barbara Brown Taylor, An Altar in the World, HarperOne, 2009, p. 4).

The message of this story is something that is not easy for rational, reasonable people to accept. The message of this story is that God breaks into our world. Yours and mine. God breaks into our world. And God talks to us. Or at least tries to. God doesn’t keep a polite distance. God doesn’t just “speak” to us through the sunrise over Tiger Mountain or our favorite piece of music. God doesn’t just “show up” in a lover’s embrace or a baby’s cry. Across the millennia, Jacob shouts out to us, God is in this place – truly! And then, because even though he knows God is with him, he’s still kind of a heel, he can’t resist adding with smirk, And I bet you didn’t even know it!

My favorite Old Testament scholar describes what rational, reasonable Christians often feel like doing with a story like this.

The narrative raises difficult questions about the nature of an encounter with God. On the one hand, we may be tempted to imagine that this is a “primitive” religious report that has not pertinence to modern reality, for we have “outgrown” such matters. Or on the other hand, we may wish to explain it psychologically and deny its objective reality. But neither of these will do. The narrative shatters our [need for God to make sense]. It insists the world is a place of such meetings (Brueggemann, p. 242).

What if we let go of our need for God to make sense? What if we let ourselves believe God does things in this world? What if we believe what Jacob is so sure of? What if we believe God is present in this place – truly!? What if we believe God speaks to us all the time? Walks beside us all the time? Loves us all the time?

Friday evening, I had a two-hour phone conversation with someone I truly love. Since September, he has been in a very painful place. A place where anxiety wakes him up at 2 in the morning and keeps him awake until he has to go to work. A place where voices from the past attack his self-confidence. And convince him that in spite of his many accomplishments, behind the outer shell he is hollow. Behind that calm, competent exterior, there is one who’s terrified of being exposed – because that demonic voice convinces him there’s no there there. Stepping back and looking rationally at all his life, he can see that this voice is lying. There’s all kinds of “proof” that he has nothing to be anxious about.

And we talked about how that rational analysis of all his abilities and successes crumbles to ashes under the assault of that voice. Because that voice is irrational. So my friend knows he needs something more than reason and rationality to heal.

He grew up with a reasonable, rational God. Who keeps a polite distance. And doesn’t embarrass us by breaking into our day-to-day lives and talking to us. Three-quarters of the way through our conversation, we started talking about how God just might be right there with him in that hell. How God just might be there. Shining life-giving light onto him. And even though my friend is terrified that that light will show everyone that there’s nothing there, we talked about what might help him stay in that light. In spite of his fears. At the end of our conversation, he asked if we might pray together. So we were silent for quite a while. Listening.

Then he prayed. And he prayed to a God who wasn’t just a nice idea. He prayed to a God who wasn’t just in the mountains he loves so much and where he always feels closest to God. This friend whom I love prayed to the God who comes into that hell with him. And says, I’ll stay with you. And shines a light on him that says, “You are Good Enough.” My friend prayed to a God who was real enough, personal enough to help him heal. He prayed to the God of Jacob, who is in this place, this God whose House is every corner of this earth. Even that corner where my friend hides. Especially that corner where my friend hides.

May we open ourselves to such a God as well. Amen.