Surely God is in this Place

Jacob, the opportunist, the manipulator, the operator. Of all the patriarchs, Jacob is arguably the least attractive. He is certainly the least deserving to be instrument of God’s saving purposes in the world. We can admire Abraham for his patience as he and Sarah waited for God to give them a son, as he had promised. We can sympathize with Isaac, because of the trauma he endured when his father bound him and nearly sacrificed him on the altar. But Jacob? His name means, “He who grasps” – an apt description of his personality. Jacob was successful, but he left in his wake a series of broken relationships and resentments. He was estranged, first from his brother, and later from his uncle and father-in-law. He left home as a young man and had little to do with his parents for most of his adult life.

Jacob’s story is a testimony to the fact that the Lord welcomes “all sorts and conditions of men,” as the prayer book puts it.[1] The Lord knows us through and through. He knows who we are – peole with good and bad consciences; the content and the dissatisfied; the confident and the diffident; Christians out of conviction and Christians out of habit; believers, half-believers, and unbelievers.[2] And the Lord knows where we come from – from close families and an intimate circle of friends or from strained family relationships and great loneliness; from lives of quiet leisure or lives of quiet desperation; from situations which cause shame and distress; from the inner circle of the Christian Church or from the fringes. Whatever our condition, the Lord knows us, reveals himself to us, and calls us into relationship with him.

When we meet Jacob this morning, he is on the lam. His brother Esau intends to kill him, because he tricked him out of his birthright. Their mother, Rebekah, who arranged it all, persuades Jacob to get out of Dodge until Esau cools off. He narrowly escapes, and heads off into the desert to seek refuge with his uncle, Laban.

He is alone, with only the clothes on his back. After walking all day long, the suns sets, so he finds a place to spend the night. He places a stone at his head, and lies down to sleep. Parenthetically, the stone is not a pillow, as often imagined, but rather a protective barrier.[3] He looks up at the stars – brilliant in the desert night – and turns over in his mind the events of the last several days – his deception of first Esau and then Isaac; the blessing which he received from his father; his narrow escape. He has the blessing of the firstborn – but at what a cost! He is alone, without any prospects, and forced to throw himself at the mercy of his uncle, Laban, whom he has never met. With these fretful thoughts, he falls into a deep sleep and has a vivid and strange dream:

And he dreamed, and look – a ladder [ramp] was set up – legs on the ground, extending all the way to heaven. And there – the angels of God going up and down. And there – the Lord was poised over him and he said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac;. The land you are lying on I am going to give to you and your descendants. And your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will burst forth to the west and the east and the north and the south, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed through you and your descendants. Now look – I am with you and I will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land; for I will not forsake you until I have done all that I have spoken to you.”[4]

What does this dream mean? It is not entirely clear, but then, this is the way dreams often are. When we wake up from a powerful dream, we may find it hard to describe exactly what we saw. What lingers are the emotions – fear, wonder, joy, or a powerful impression of someone in the dream. Jacob had overwhelming sense of the divine presence, the mysterium tremendum: “Truly Yahweh is in this place,” he exclaims, “and I did not know it. How awesome is this place! This can only be the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.” Here, we have the key to the dream’s meaning.

This is Jacob’s first encounter with the Lord. Until now, his life and energies have centered on getting ahead. He certainly did not set out into the desert searching for God. But the Lord meets him and establishes a relationship with him. He promises to be his God and to use him in his plans to redeem the world. This personal encounter with God changes his situation and redirects the course of his life.

Jacob’s response is to worship. He takes the stone which he had used to protect his head and uses it to build an altar to the Lord. And as he worships, he makes a promise to God:

If the Lord God is with me and protects me on this journey I am making, and gives me food to eat and clothes on my back, and I return safely to my father’s house, then Yahweh will be my God. And this stone which have set up as a sacred pillar will be a house of God. And of all that you give me, I will assuredly tithe it to you.[5]

Notice how Jacob bargains with God here: If you are with me. . . if you provide for me. . . if you get me out of this mess and get home safely, then you will be my God and I will give you a tenth of my possessions. This is true to character. Jacob knows what he wants and says in effect: If you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours. This is the only place in the patriarchal narratives where the promise of the covenant is treated like a transaction, quid pro quo. Jacob thinks he can deal with the Lord the same way he deals with people. And this pattern does not end after his “conversion,” so to speak. He continues to treat the Lord this way. But we shouldn’t be too hard on Jacob. An encounter with God does not radically alter your personality. Introverts don’t automatically become extroverts. Overbearing people do not suddenly become docile. Grace does not destroy nature. Jacob remains an operator after meeting the Lord, even as his life begins to move in new direction.

God’s ways with Jacob reveal something of his ways with us. The Lord finds us even when we are not seeking him. He reveals himself to us and establishes a personal relationship with us. Like Jacob, our relationship with the Lord is not always easy. Any intimate relationship involves conflict, occasional misunderstandings, and anger. At times, Jacob grabs the Lord by the lapels, so to speak, and makes demands. And the Lord takes it. God is seeking active covenant partners. Granted, it is not an equal partnership – he initiates the relationship and remains the senior partner. But he can take a challenge.

When we are face to face with the living God and he addresses us as he did Jacob, we can only worship and promise to follow where he leads. The Lord can and does reveal himself anywhere and under any circumstances he pleases. But there is one place where he promises to be present – among the congregation gathered to listen to the word of God and to receive the sacrament.

The Lord knows who we are and where we have come from. Despite all our differences, we have this in common: we are all in the wrong before God and in our relationships with others; we will all die one day, and we would all be lost without God’s grace. And God’s grace is promised to us all through our Lord Jesus Christ.[6]

[1] BCP, 814.

[2] Paraphrasing Karl Barth, Fifty Prayers, trans. David Carl Stassen (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008), 1.

[3] The NRSV, along with most translations, is unhelpful here when it speaks of Jacob placing a stone “under his head.” Many commentators, including Robert Alter, render the verse as follows: “he took one of the stones of the place and put it at his head.” The Five Books of Moses, 149. See also Westermann, 451.

[4] My translation here and throughout unless otherwise noted.

[5] Alter’s translation.

[6] Barth, op. cit.