Loving God, you continue to come to your people in many different ways and in many different places.  Help us to recognize you whenever we meet you, and grant us an awareness of your blessings; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

    Where is it and how is it that you have encountered God?  Has it been in dreams or visions?  Has it been in a church or out in the middle of nowhere?  Has it been when you were together with others, or all by yourself?  Was it in the middle of lots of noise, or was it in the midst of silence?  Were you at home, or were you far away from home?  Or perhaps you feel as though you have never encountered God at all.

    When we think about some of the people of faith in the Old Testament, we don’t always know how, exactly, God communicated with them, but we often hear about where it happened.  Abraham had at least one conversation with God when he was out under the stars.  Rebekah went to a sanctuary of some sort and was given a message through a seer or a prophet.  Jacob is far from home and all alone when he encounters God.  And next week we’ll hear about Moses, who was out in the middle of the wilderness and encounters God in a burning bush.

    For the most part, these encounters seem to happen in very ordinary places, although later on we also hear about encounters with God that happen in the Jerusalem Temple.  Today, though, we hear about Jacob’s encounter with God, and then we hear very briefly about Nathaniel’s encounter with Jesus, who happened to see him under a fig tree somewhere in Galilee (Jn. 1:50).

    In Jacob’s case, it is hard to distinguish what, exactly, God is up to when he is at home with his family.  There is all kinds of trickery and deception going on, as Esau gets cheated out of the blessing that rightfully should have been his.  In the midst of this, there are quite a few unanswered questions.

    Did God always intend for Jacob to inherit the blessing, or does God work with Jacob in spite of how he got the blessing?  Does God work through Rebekah or in spite of her?  Does Isaac remember the prophecy that had been given to Rebekah about her sons, or has he forgotten all about it (cf. Gen. 25:22-23)?  And what about Esau?  Doesn’t God care about him?  While there are many things in the story that might make us wonder, in the end, it is Jacob who is given a very special blessing and vocation.  He is the one who will serve God and who will give birth to God’s chosen people.  He is the one who will become Israel – not only an individual, but a nation.  He is the one who will encounter God in some pretty amazing ways.  With great blessing comes great responsibility!

    Truthfully, there are actually two blessings that we hear about in this story of Jacob.  The first blessing is the one that he and his mother work very hard for – the one where Jacob is disguised as his brother Esau, and Rebekah cooks up a couple of young goats rather than hunted game.  In fact, Jacob is actually risking bringing a curse on himself rather than a blessing, but in the end his father decides to bless him.

    The content of this blessing, which is found later in chapter 27, goes something like this:  It is a prayer for God to grant fruitful fields and plenty of grain and wine to Jacob.  It is a prayer that other nations would serve Israel, and that Jacob would be lord over his brothers.  It is a blessing that ends with, “Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be everyone who blesses you!” (Gen. 27:29)

    And then, when Jacob is far from home, and all on his own, and under the stars, we hear God’s pronouncement of blessing, which Jacob did nothing at all to earn.  God’s blessing, it would seem, is far broader and deeper than the blessing of his father Isaac.  God promises Jacob many descendants, as well as the land on which he sleeps.  He also promises to be with Jacob wherever he goes and to bring him back to the land of Canaan.  And, significantly, rather than promising that all of the nations will serve Jacob, God promises that through him and his descendants, all the families of the earth will be blessed (cf. Gen. 28:13-15).  In other words, Jacob has been blessed to be a blessing, just as his grandfather Abraham was.

    Isn’t it true that many of us, too, work very hard to earn the blessing of the adults in our lives – whether that means parents or grandparents or foster parents?  Thankfully, it is not quite the same these days, where there is only one blessing that is reserved for the eldest child.  Still, many go through their lives feeling as though they have never had the approval or the blessing of their parents.

    At the same time, we have the Lord of heaven and earth, who has created us and redeemed us and made us holy.  Just as in Jacob’s case, God does not ask us to earn our blessing.  In fact, God has already blessed us – treating us as valuable and lovable in sending Jesus to live and to die among us.  In sending Jesus, God said to us, “You are my precious children, and I love you.  Through Jesus, you will be reconciled to me and to one another and will be filled with my Spirit.  And through you, all the families of the earth will be blessed.”

    Even if we do not have the blessing of our earthly parents, we have the blessing of God, who treats us as precious children and who gives us blessings that are meant to be shared.  Whether it is salvation through Jesus Christ, or food and shelter and clothing, or the knowledge that we are God’s precious creation, these things are meant to be shared.  And the hope is that along the way, we will continue to encounter God in all sorts of different places – reminded each time that God is with us wherever we go and stands ready to bless us through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Thanks be to God!  Amen.

Pentecost 16 (NL 4)                        Genesis 27:1-4, 15-23; 28:10-17
September 24, 2017                    John 1:50-51
St. Luke’s Zion Lutheran Church
Pastor Lynne Hutchison

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