Genesis 29:13-28
Our community
has suffered a very tragic set back this week. No doubt you have heard, it’s been all over the news. A 22 year old young man took the life
of his mother on Wild Rose Road.
This is heartbreaking and dreadful and a real set back to our
community. I’ve come to
understand the Orange community as a tightly knit town who genuinely cares for
one another and comes together in times of distress. And now this.
While you may not have known this family personally, you have to agree
that something like this plays with your psyche. Murder and Orange in the same sentence just don’t compute.
Set backs
happen. We know that. In the
global community, in the local community and in our lives we can be assured
that when we think we have boarded the train for New York City we wake from our
catnap and find ourselves in Rochester.
That’s the nature of life and that’s what we’ve got to work with. We thought we were a bucolic community
outside of crime-ridden New Haven and while we are outside of New Haven, we are
crime ridden too and it is a set back because we now need to rethink things as
we go forward.
We are still
reflecting upon the epic narratives of Jacob who has been exiled and in
Haran. Remember last week he had
this dream of angels and a ladder to heaven and a visit from God letting him
know that all will be well, all manner of things will be well and that he was
going to be the father of many nations.
Remember also that throughout all of these stories we have delved into
this summer, God has been faithful all along the way. With Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, and now Jacob,
their son.
It seems that
Jacob is just getting his life back on track. He makes it to Haran and by chance meets some of his kin
once again at a well. Here he also
meets the love of his life, Rachel, Laban’s daughter…Laban being his
uncle. He has reached his
destination. Let us here today’s
word of God from the NIV, the book of Genesis the 29th chapter….
As
soon as Laban heard the news about Jacob, his sister’s son, he hurried to meet
him. He embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his home, and there
Jacob told him all these things. Then Laban said to him, “You are my own flesh
and blood.”
After
Jacob had stayed with him for a whole month, Laban said to him, “Just because
you are a relative of mine, should you work for me for nothing? Tell me what
your wages should be.”
Now
Laban had two daughters; the name of the older was Leah, and the name of the
younger was Rachel. Leah had weak eyes, but Rachel had a lovely figure and was
beautiful. Jacob was in love with
Rachel and said, “I’ll work for you seven years in return for your younger
daughter Rachel.”
Laban
said, “It’s better that I give her to you than to some other man. Stay here
with me.” So Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only
a few days to him because of his love for her. Then Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife. My time is
completed, and I want to make love to her.”
So
Laban brought together all the people of the place and gave a feast. But when
evening came, he took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob, and Jacob
made love to her. And Laban gave his servant Zilpah to his daughter as her
attendant.
When
morning came, there was Leah! So
Jacob said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? I served you for
Rachel, didn’t I? Why have you deceived me?”
Laban
replied, “It is not our custom here to give the younger daughter in marriage
before the older one. Finish this daughter’s bridal week; then we will give you
the younger one also, in return for another seven years of work.”
And
Jacob did so. He finished the week with Leah, and then Laban gave him his
daughter Rachel to be his wife.
Ouch! I suppose
you could say, “What goes around comes around” or “What’s good for the goose is
good for the gander.” Pick your
favorite idiom! Jacob coerces Esau
out of his birthright and then, with the help of his mother Rebekah he deceives
his father Isaac for the blessing.
Guess there is some proof for interfamilial conflict and actions that
repeat themselves.
Deceit is in the lifeblood and DNA of this family and now
Jacob; his own Uncle Laban deceives the master of deceit! He asks for Rachel, he gets Leah. He gains two wives in one week and has
to work as an indentured servant for seven more years for a total of 14
years. Don’t think this is what he
bargained for, do you? And
yet he does it, in what seems to be in his estimation, a heartbeat. Polygamy
back then was not unusual and it still exits today in some cultures.
But we see that in all of this dysfunctional and crude
behavior God is steadfast to the promises made so very long ago, that Jacob
would be the father of many nations.
Leah gives birth to Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulan and
one daughter Dinah. Zilpah, Leah’s
handmaiden gives birth to Gad and Asher, Bilhah, Rachel’s handmaiden gives
birth to Dan and Naphtali, and finally Jacob’s most beloved Rachel births
Joseph. Thus completing the twelve
tribes of Israel and God’s promise.
You guessed it, Jacob was a busy man and not to mention a fertile one.
But that deception lurks in the background. Deception always destroys. In fact it has ruined friendships and
shattered marriages because it chips away at your trust in someone who before
you may have risked your very life.
It was Sir Walter Scott who once said, “Oh what tangled webs we weave,
when we practice to deceive.” Lie
upon lie upon lie, the web of deceit grows and Jacob is now the one
caught. He can’t move
forward, in fact he is set back 7 years.
I think that we often find ourselves in a situation that is
similar to Jacob’s. You’ve had
some vision or awakening, you’re on the path into your future and BAM,
something happens. A set back
occurs. Could be of your own making or not, that doesn’t matter. A tree falls in front of your path and
it’s going to take you longer to get to your destination, if that is even the
destination where you are supposed to be.
You get down to a week before graduation only to find out
you are missing three credits. A
relationship that you thought was rock solid disintegrates before your very
eyes. Life is full of setbacks,
there is just no way around it and you might just commiserate with Jacob,
you’ve worked hard for something then something else happens and you have to
work even harder to find some relief.
It is in this very spot that you feel alone and helpless and
that God is simply not responding to you.
It’s here that your faith might be at one of its lowest points because
our spiritual lives and our emotional lives are twined together.
But it is here in these moments and disappointments also
that we remember the words of Paul in his epistle to the Romans…..
Meanwhile,
the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping
us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. ‘The Spirit’
does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our
aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our…condition,
and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail
in our lives of love for God is worked into something good. ‘The Message” Romans 8: 26-28
Deepless sighs that is what will pull you through when a
major setback, a life-altering event happens to you. Because with the deepless sigh, ruah, the Spirit of God
intercedes and set you on your way once again. It’s just different than you expected!
Understanding God’s call for you to head into a different
future than you had anticipated may be difficult and you may go into it kicking
and screaming. It will take time
and effort. But it will turn out because you are a beloved child of God, and
God’s got you covered.
When setbacks happen accept and embrace them. Jacob didn’t turn around a run home to
mommy and daddy; he didn’t take revenge or become an embittered man. He took it in stride and walked
faithfully into a future of blessing.
And you will too.
As one theologian prayed, “Help me see the good and the bad,
O God, as equal opportunities to lean closer into your loving embrace.”[i] Let that be our prayer for today.
Amen.
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