you're sleeping night & day
how'd you do it
A sermon on the rivalry between Jacob and Esau, and Jacob's dream of the ladder:
After a day he'd just a well forget; Jacob considers all the consequences. For everything, all he has left is a rock for his pillow. He’s so tired of it all, it doesn’t take long for him to fall dead asleep.
Ever had a day like that? …I know I have…
You know the saying, “there are two kinds of people; those who have it made, and the rest of us who have to make it.” Well, Jacob spent his entire life planted firmly in the latter camp.
Jacob just missed being first out of the gate, being the first born with all the rights and privileges that come with it, by seconds. And from that moment on, Esau, not Jacob, was the one who lived the charmed life.
Esau was the brother everyone couldn't help but notice. He was a natural. A hard worker. The kind of guy who played, and started, in three sports. The kind of guy who was on the homecoming court. The kind of guy who got all the best offers to the good colleges.
While Jacob, on the other hand, could only dream of having little of what just fell into Esau’s lap. Jacob, whose name can mean “striver,” had to do that his whole life. Jacob always had to climb just to catch of a glimpse of the heights Esau just naturally rose to.
If you’re here today, I bet you know what it feels like to stand in Jacob’s shoes. Don’t you? I know I do…
It’s right in the middle of that kind of rivalry, that today’s scripture drops us.
Truth be told, today’s scripture plays out more like a heist film, than the precious morality plays we come to church expecting…
It starts when Jacob, the scamp, gets fed up with second place. He decides if the way things were aren’t going to cut him a break, he’s going to make one.
Jacob, the schemer, comes up with a plan. A plan to turn every advantage Esau’s ever enjoyed, against him. A plan to turn what everyone else has seen as Jacob’s weaknesses, into strengths…
In fact, today’s scripture is only the second half of Jacob’s take.
By this point, Jacob has already managed to grift Esau’s birthright from him…
Each day, their daddy, Isaac, would send Esau to work in the fields. He never asked Jacob, though. Jacob wasn’t cut out for that kind of work.
Instead of sitting inside sulking, Jacob hatched a plan to play off Esau’s impulsive side. He cooked Esau’s favorite dish. Making sure it’s aroma filled the house before. Then, when Esau came in, famished from working all day, Jacob came around the corner smiling. Soup in hand.
As Esau’s stomach growled, he fell into Jacob’s trap. Jacob bargained with his starving brother. The only way Jacob would share, was if Esau would give him his birthright in exchange.
Well, Esau reasoned, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bushes. In a hasty decision, Esau made the trade. And no sooner was his hunger abated, than Esau realized the the treachery of his brother…
And today, Jacob finishes the job…
Begins like his last heist, when their dad asks Esau to go out and do what he does best; earn his blessings. While Easu’s out there trying to catch some wild game, Jacob goes into the kitchen snd slaughters a goat to make in lieu of Esau’s wild game.
Jacob will take advantage of his father’s failing faculty’s this time.
Jacob puts on Esau’s clothes to smell like him. He even goes so far as putting the goat skins on himself, to make his skin feel more like Esau’s rough skin!
Disguised as his brother, Jacob goes to his father Isaac, and asks for the blessing meant to Esau. Isaac is suspicion; but Jacob’s plan is airtight. Before Esau can come in from the woods, Isaac has been tricked into giving Jacob the blessing.
Ever been there? So frustrated with the hand of cards life dealt you, that’d you’d do anything to change you luck? I know I have…
There you have it, though! Jacob pulled it off! He’s stolen everything he’s grown up dreaming about! Esau’s birthright, and his blessing to boot!
But then comes the part heist movies don’t show.
What happens after the score.
Because it’s not like the conman can just go back to their old life, can they? Now there are the authorities to run from. There’s the fact everyone in town would wonder about the wealth they’ve suddenly come into.
If the heist is pulled off, you have to spend the rest of their life on the lamb…
And it’s no different for Jacob.
Before long Isaac figures out what’s up. And what’s worse, Esau’s impulsive streak becomes a liability. Esau flies into a rage; determined to kill his conniving little brother.
So Jacob has to flee.
He runs to his distant family, on the other side of the country.
As Jacob runs, he begins to realize this is going to be his life from now on. As it all begins to set in, so does the sun. As the night falls, so do Jacob’s spirits. Suddenly he’s way more weary than he ever was living in Esau’s shadow…
Jacob comes to a part of town he’s never been to before, and looks for a place to call it a night. But nothing is familiar, so he keeps walking until he comes to the edge of town. All he can find there, is a rock big enough to be his pillow for the night.
That’s what it all came down to. For everything, all Jacob has left is a rock. The day can’t be over soon enough. And it doesn’t take long before Jacob’s dead asleep.
As Jacob tries not to think about all the consequences, he dreams. He dreams, of all things, about a ladder.
Not about what he will do now. Not about trying to right his wrong. No, that night, as Jacob sleeps with a rock for his only world possession, he dreams of a ladder…
But when you think about it, it’s not that surprising…
Because Jacob’s spent his life climbing ladders, hasn’t it?
And I bet you know how that feels, too.
The way Jacob finally had enough, and climbed the ladder to end them all. Only to find out, too late—that his ladder was resting against the wrong dream!
Jacob grabbed everything he spent his life dreaming about. And in the process, lost it all.
Now Jacob has to run from the farm he dreamed of inheriting. He has to flee from the classmates he dreamt of proving wrong. He has to leave his share of the estate on the kitchen table, and run with only the clothes on his back.
Which, in a twist of irony, aren’t even his. He’s still wearing Esau’s clothes…
Know what that’s like? To be in that kind of a spot?
The way it only takes one decision to unleash a whole series of consequences you never dreamed of. The way it only takes is one rash action to undo the life you used to have.
While Jacob lies there, as low as he can go, something surprising happens. As Jacob helplessly dreams of ladders; God shows up!
And God doesn’t show up at the top of the ladder. Instead, God shows up standing next to Jacob who can only lie there, helpless.
Do you know what that’s like? I know I do. The way God comes to us, not in our triumphs, but in our troughs. The way God shows up on the nights we’re laid low and the days when we can’t catch a break.
Martin Luther called this the Theology of the Cross. That the God who comes to Jacob after he’s fallen from his ladder, the God who comes to Jacob while he’s on the lamb, is the very same God who comes to us in the cross!
Because in The End, the real heist isn’t Jacob’s; it’s God’s!
The next day Jacob wakes up and realizes God has stolen, not just his ladder, but his very life. Despite his conniving. Despite the fact that he’d never measure up to Esau; God came to Jacob and stole him!
In a cold sweat Jacob looks around and declares, “God was here—and I didn’t know it!”
And here’s the deal, you will too.
After a day you’d just a well forget. When the consequences pile up. God will shows up, not standing atop a ladder, but next to you.
There are no ladders to climb. No heists to pull off. There is just the God who comes to you when you’ve fallen from your ladder. The God who stands next to you when the heist goes bad.
In fact, while you who sit there helpless, God pulls off another heist. In these words, God robs you of your weakness and turns them into the place of your salvation.
In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, in Jesus Christ who goes all the way to the cross to bind himself to you, in the baptismal waters you were drowned and raised up in; God has made a promise to you.
And God will stand next to you until it is fulfilled.
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