| "THE
PROMISE OF BETHEL"
TEXT: Genesis 28:10-19a; Romans 8:12-25; Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43;
10
Jacob left Beer-sheba and went toward Haran.11 He came to a certain place
and stayed there for the night, because the sun had set. Taking one of
the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that
place.12 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.13 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." Romans 8:12-25 12
So then, brothers and sisters, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live
according to the flesh-13 for if you live according to the flesh, you
will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body,
you will live.14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children
of God.15 For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into
fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, "Abba!
Father!"16 it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit
that we are children of God,17 and if children, then heirs, heirs of God
and joint heirs with Christ-if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we
may also be glorified with him. Matthew 13:24-30,36-43 24 He put before them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field;25 but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away.26 So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well.27 And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, 'Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?'28 He answered, 'An enemy has done this.' The slaves said to him, 'Then do you want us to go and gather them?'29 But he replied, 'No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them.30 Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.' " 36 Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples approached him, saying, "Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field."37 He answered, "The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man;38 the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom; the weeds are the children of the evil one,39 and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels.40 Just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age.41 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers,42 and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears listen! TEXT: Genesis 28:10-19a; Romans 8:12-25 MESSAGE: As I stand before you this morning, how I wish I could show you credentials proving that I am one of those people to whom Paul refers to as "led by the Spirit of God and thus children of God." I know that that is whom I want to be. That is what I desire to be. Yet, I know me too well. I mean by that there are times when I truly wish that I was one of those people whom others pointed to and say, "Now, such and such, is truly a spiritual person." And they mean it as a compliment. However, more often than not I fear that I am one of those "weed" people that Jesus' disciples were so worried about. You know the story- a farmer planted a field of wheat and then later that night a neighboring farmer who had it in for him came into the field and sowed weed seed. The farmer's help when they discovered the evil deed wanted to rush in and root out all the bad seed. I feel that I must have some weed seed in that there are times that I want to do nothing more than run around pulling out the weed seed that I think that I see all around me. A sure sign that one has a problem that needs to be dealt with by God is his or her eagerness to find that problem or worse in everyone else. Perhaps you know the feeling. I was talking to someone earlier this week who was using the same kind of excuse that I would want to use for not coming to church. "Pastor, I haven't been living the way I know that I ought, so I can't come to church. When I get things right again I'll be there. Count on me!" Only reason that I am reluctant to use it is that you pay me to be here. No, not really-but you know the feeling. "I'm not worthy." Now theological understandings of the nature of Good and Evil or how the Bible came to be will not solve the struggle within us. We are connivers in some area or another. We live in a "go for the gusto" grab it while you can, the ends justify the means kind of world. We have been promised great things, and no one is going to make it happen but you so go for it now! Kind of mentality. Theology, you may as well forget it unless you are a scholar. Was that the J, E, P or D tradition that gave us the account of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob-or of Sarah, Rebecca and Rachel-depending on your perspective? Most likely it doesn't really matter. For the truth is in the story, in the telling and re-telling of the story. And it is not theology which gets me up and going each day in the face of my struggle to be the person whom I believe God would have us be, but rather the story. In this case the story of a conniving momma's boy kind of trickster who cheats, and lies and steals from his very family to have the opportunity to be "numero uno." You have heard the story read at least once and perhaps twice this morning already and now I come to tell it. It is the story of a man, of every man and woman. It is the story of a dream and of a promise. It is the story of transformation. It is my story. And perhaps it is yours. For in the hearing of it, we discover how the problems which Spirit filled living and weed picking gardening are overcome. It is the story told by J and E milleniums ago which rings as true for Manhattanites on the precipice of yet another millenium.
A. He is at Bethel. Historically this area had been know as the "house of el." God had been there all along, and Jacob just didn't know it. In fact, Jacob to this point seems to not have acknowledged God at all. there is no "climbing Jacob's ladder" on the part of Jacob-the spiritual has it wrong-The famous dream has been popularly misinterpreted. we often want messengers to take our petitions to God, we see the avenue as designated "one way" like our avenues in NYC However, there is a two-way street here. And glory be, God isn't at the top, although the presence of God is indeed there, God is standing beside Jacob on Jacob's ground B.
ladder is reminiscent of stairs up ziggurats or up the side of places
like the pyramids of the Mayan culture Jacob did not climb any ladder.
We don't climb the ladder. It is an avenue of grace. God was beside him
and those climbing up and down the ladder are doing so to minister to
him. Jacob, nor we as individuals, can climb any ladder to God. God always
comes to us. How like the Christian community today: "We'll build you a house and if you, God, do this or that for us, then you can count on us to do our part." something here about promise keepers: God as promise keeper and Jacob as well the immanence of a transcendent God the presence of the significant in places of insignificance the grace of God to an ankle grabbing usurper and deceiver the dynamic of our modern willingness to accept the message of a dream than it would be for us to accept a direct divine appearance - Walter Brueggemann reminds us that the "world is a place of such meetings" and that God can, and does, use such moments as a vehicle for getting through to us even today dream reflects not simply a mental world, but an actual world that can be slept on, touched, and built on, dream comes entirely at divine initiative-Jacob not in control of what is happening within himself God's presence never means "passivity" II.
Bethel in Time of Celebration (35:1-15) III.
Bethel as a sacred place not because it is an outward, geographical place,
but rather important for what can occur there.
God can bind self with unconditional promises to tricksters and deceivers God is a promise-keeper, as so we must be as well
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