The Old Testament lesson for July 23 is the story of Jacob at Bethel. It’s a familiar story, and one worthy of reflecting on. You know the context. Jacob is on the run. He has tricked his father into giving him the paternal blessing rather than to his older brother, Esau. After Jacob’s trickery was discovered, Esau swore that he would kill Jacob. So Jacob runs. He hastily leaves home and all that is familiar. He runs away and toward the house of his uncle, who lives far away.
Jacob is in the middle of nowhere. Based on the text, he is not near any known sanctuary. He is not by any population center. He is in a rural area. He is fatigued and exhausted. So, he simply lays down and goes to sleep.
It is an ordinary place. It is a run of the mill setting. Jacob isn’t looking for God. Jacob isn’t seeking an encounter with the divine. He simply wants to get a little sleep so he can continue on his journey. And yet, in this ordinary place, Jacob has an encounter with the divine. Much to his surprise, in the midst of the mundane, Jacob has a dream that there is a stairway that extends from heaven to earth with angels ascending and descending. What the dream reveals is that God is there with him. The vision affirms
that the divine is willing to come down to earth and that all that is on earth is capable of being lifted into heaven.
For Jacob, this was a surprising presence. Existentially, he was leaving a raw and broken past moving toward an unknown future. Geographically, it seems as if was in the middle of nowhere. Yet, to his astonishment, God was with him. Instead of being in the “sticks” or the “wilderness,” Jacob discovered he slept in the presence of the God. Thus, when he awakes, he names the location of his divine dream, this place of a surprising encounter with the divine Beth-el. Beth meaning house and El meaning God. While there are many lessons that can be taken from this story, I offer three.
An Existential Promise: The motif of journey is apt for life. We are moving from the past into the present and onto the future. We are traveling from who we were to who we are to who we will be. For
some, that journey is away from a past filled with mistakes and poor decisions. For others, it is a journey into a future that seems promising and hopeful. For still others, the current journey seems more sideways – not really moving forward in the world, in our job, in our identity or in our faith. Whatever the trajectory of our journey, the good news is that God is with us and God’s angels are ascending and descending around us.
A Vocational Promise: For many of us in the district, this new appointment year comes with us serving in a familiar settings. Such familiarity can lead to a sense of routine and into practices that seem habitual. While still doing good work, but there is a loss of excitement, of novelty or of challenge. We know what to expect because we’ve done it before. For a few, this is a time of becoming acquainted with new churches and communities. Though there is a confidence that God is at work in our new setting, we wonder where and if we will perceive it. In either case, the good news is that God is with us and God’s angels are ascending and descending around us.
A Congregational Promise: Because many people have had a significant experience of God’s grace and saving mercy within a faith community and in a church building, the assumption can be made that God can only be experienced in such environs. This can lead congregations to falsely assume that they need to bring the presence of Jesus to the community around them. Congregations can also be guilty of offering answers to their context, without engaging the people surrounding them and asking what are
their deepest hurts and hungers. With humility, we must understand that anywhere and everywhere can be a Bethel (House of God). When we connect with our community with authentic curiosity and open minds, we can discover where God is already at work and how we can participate in God’s mission of transformation. The good news is that God is with us (and them) and that God’s angels are ascending and descending around us (and them).
Wherever you are in your journey, I pray that you with have many Bethel moments. May you recognize the presence of God around you and within you, and know that God’s angels are ascending and descending around you.
