Place of Blessing

What makes our church “Beth-El” – the house of God? How does God’s Word take root in us, and what growth or harvest is expected? How does God encourage growth?

Throughout our lives God is with us, even when we do not understand how or why. God continues to bless us to be a blessing to all creation. Like Jacob, we are on an ongoing journey of realizing God’s presence. Like the psalmist, we can celebrate how God knows us. With Paul and Jesus, we give thanks for our place in God’s family.

Scripture Readings

(Click on the link to read on Bible Gateway)

Genesis 28:10-19a (Jacob’s dream at Bethel)
Psalm 139:1-12,23-24 (God’s knowledge of us)
Romans 8:12-25 (The spirit of adoption)
Matthew 13:24-30,36-43 (The Parable of the Weeds)

Focus Scripture: Genesis 28:10-19a

We join the unfolding story of Jacob as he is on the run, fleeing for his life after cheating his older brother Esau out of their father Isaac’s blessing (Genesis 27). In ancient times, affirmation of an inheritance demanded the powerful word of blessing. Speaking the word made the inheritance valid. Such a word of blessing could not be recalled.

Rebekah coached her son Jacob in deceiving Isaac, and Rebekah warned him to flee the wrath of Esau by going to Haran and the home of her brother Laban. Haran was also the home of Abraham and Sarah at the time they set out on their covenant journey with God. In a sense, Jacob is returning to the beginning point of the covenant relationship with God.

In today’s focus verses, Jacob is alone at a sacred place near the border, about to leave the land of promise. Years before, Abraham and Sarah had built an altar near this place as they entered the land (Genesis 12:8). Jacob stops to rest for the night, and falls into a dream-filled sleep. In the Hebrew Scriptures, dreams were considered visions and messages from God.

In the dream a ladder or stairway appears, one that is an avenue to heaven. Some scholars suggest the ladder is a metaphor for times that human beings feel close to God and times they feel at a distance,-- inherent parts of human experience.

“Angels of God” (28:12) are on the ladder, travelling to and from God’s realm. In Jacob’s time, angels were considered spiritual beings who served at God’s pleasure and delivered God’s messages. In scripture, some angels helped God’s people; some angels punished God’s enemies.

Jacob may have felt vulnerable and thought he was facing life’s challenges alone, but God’s presence is there. In contrast to how Jacob tricked Isaac into blessing him, God appears to Jacob in the dream and extends a generous gift of hope and blessing: “I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land” (28:15). Jacob inherits the promise first given to Abraham.

The next morning, Jacob takes the stone that had been his pillow and uses it to form an altar. Jacob names the place Bethel, which means “house of God.” Hundreds of years later, Bethel was the site of an important temple for the people of the Northern Kingdom of Israel.

The psalmist in Psalm 139:1-12,23-24 gives witness to God’s hope and presence at all times in life. “You hem me in” (verse 5) uses a Hebrew verb that also can mean “protection” or “confinement.” The psalmist rejoices that we are never beyond God’s care.

In words of hope and promise in Romans 8:12-25, Paul declares that God knows us and seeks us out to transform us into God’s children. The trials and tribulations of all creation will give birth to the time when all can recognize and claim this adoption.

One in a series of parables about the reign of God, Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 13:24-30,36-43 invites hope-filled trust in God. There is mystery in how God plants, nurtures, and weeds to secure a harvest of promise.

It takes a lifetime to learn how God has been with us, is with us now, and will be with us in the future: to comfort, strengthen, challenge, and guide through life’s mysteries. What does it mean to live with openness to the mystery of God’s leading and presence in all situations of life? In what ways do you,– as an individual and as a church – express the gift of hope and blessing that God gives?

REFLECTION

God of compassion and mercy, we give thanks that you journey with us into the future. Open us to the gifts of your presence, and increase our willingness to follow as you lead. Turn our hearts to find their way home in you. Amen.

 

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