“Struggle
Promise and Trickery”
July
13, 2014 Genesis 25:19-34
My father’s mother, my grandmother Davies lived with us
as I was growing up. My father’s family
is Australian and six weeks after I was born we went to Australia because my Grandpa
Davies was ill. My grandpa died a couple
of months after we arrived and with my father being the only child when we
returned to Canada a year later my grandmother came with us. Immigrating to Canada in your seventies is a
hard thing to do – immigrating with only a steamer trunk to pack your most precious
possessions must have been even more difficult.
Grandma brought her clothes, some special linen’s that she had done the
handiwork on before her stoke, some china tea cups, a few family pictures and a
few mementos. One such memento was pocket watch that my father had given to his
father as a gift years before, my grandmother cherished it. She kept it close to her, in her headboard of
her bed which had sliding doors.
My two sisters and I loved that watch, we would take it
out under grandma’s watchful eye and hold it in our hands and listen to it tick
– sometimes grandma would let us wind it if we were very careful. Eventually however, the watch got dropped and
the glass shattered. The watch was
placed back in the sliding door in the headboard, to wait until my mother had
time to get it to the jeweller to replace the glass.
One day, I walked by my grandma’s room, and there was
no one inside, I decided to open the door and just have a look at the watch,
see how it was doing. I silently slid
open the door and there it was, just sitting there gleaming brass watch just
begging to be picked up – I picked it up and held it in my hand, I looked
around, no one was around so, I wound it just a little to hear the tick tock
sound I loved. The watch felt cool and
heavy in my hands and I realized that without the glass I could move the hands
of the watch myself. Tentatively at
first I began to turn the minute hand, 1 o’clock, 1:30, 2 o’clock, then I went
a little faster, watching how by spinning the minute hand the hour hand would
move from one number to the next – one time around 3 o’clock, two times around
4 o’clock, three times around 5 o’clock, click, snap oh….oh,oh….
There I was holding my grandfather’s watch in my hand
staring with dismay at the minute hand which was now lying on the face of the watch
no longer attached to the center pin. My
fun and games were over, I quickly put the watch back into the headboard,
laying the minute hand as close to the pin as possible – I think was my hope
that the next person to pick up the watch would think that they were the ones
who broke it, and then I quietly snuck
out of the room.
A few days later when I had completely dismissed the
watch incident from my mind, I heard my mother’s voice call out across the
house: “Girls, come here!” The closer I got to my grandmother’s bedroom
the more I realized that the broken watch had been discovered. The three of us came into the room to realize
that my mom was standing there holding the broken watch – “who did this?” she
asked, showing us the broken minute hand.
“Not I” said my sister Judy
“Not I” said my sister Robyn
“Not I” said myself – all the while looking at my mom
with big unblinking big eyes hoping that she would not be able to see through
me.
“Really?” said my mom – “one of you had to have done
this”
We all shook our heads and said “no” again.
“wait till your father gets home – was what she said
next – these words – wait till your father gets home”, for me and my sisters
were serious words, we knew that we had pushed my mother way too far, and the
consequences would be dire….
That was a long wait, all afternoon my stomach churned
and churned as worried and worried that I would be found out. I practiced keeping a blank face so that my
dad would not know by looking at me, I practiced saying he the words – “not me”,
so that they sounded true – I tried to think of excuses to explain how hands of
a watch could come off without seven year old fingers involved – I came up
blank!
When my father got home, after my mother and he talked,
we were all called into the front hall.
My sisters and I lined up on one side, my parents in the other. My father had the broken watch in his
hand. My dad looked us all over standing
there with our heads down and said in his deep deep voice: “who did this”
“Not I” said my sister Judy
“Not I” said my sister Robyn
“Not I” I said – or tried to say but the words got
stuck in my throat, I coughed, I chocked and then I burst into tears and
confessed to the horrible deed.
I would have made a terrible Jacob – I am unable to lie
and cheat and trick my way through things – my conscious would not have allowed
it and I don’t have the stomach for it.
What is going on inside is written all over my face, so tricking people
has never worked for me. But did it ever
work for Jacob.
Let me remind you about Jacob – Jacob second born son
of Isaac, grandson of Abraham – Jacob, who name means trickster. He is the second born twin, yet right from
the get go – right from his time within the womb – he is already struggling to
be something other that what he is. His
mother, Rebecca long awaited and long anticipated pregnancy is filled with
struggle as the babies which are growing inside her are in conflict with each
other – she can feel it within her – and this is confirmed to her by a conversation that she has with
God – where she finds out that not only is she carrying twins, she is also carrying
two nations – what a terribly troubling and confusing time for an elderly
mother – to wait over twenty years to finally conceive and then to have so much
struggle during the pregnancy must have been very difficult for Rebecca. So when her boys are born – imagine
witnessing to the continual struggle that they have with each other. – the second child grasping out and holding
onto the elder child’s heal as he emerges into the world, trying to what? Move
him out of the way so that he could be born first! Or maybe he was so anxious to get into this
living on earth business that he tried to pull himself forward using his brothers
heal as his purchase. For whatever
reason, this second son begins his life on this earth already struggling for
what he does not have.
This struggle between the two brothers continued as
they grew. Their parents did nothing to
dissuade this competition in fact they took sides which probably made everything
worse. The first born son, Esau was the
apple of Isaac’s eye. Esau was a strong,
robust, outdoorsy, hearty boy who thrived in the physical pursuits. Jacob, Rebecca’s favorite, was a boy in the
tents as the writer tells us, a sensitive child who liked a gentler life,
learned to cook, and was smart, cunning and slight of build. This competition between the brothers defined
not only their lives in boyhood but also who they would become as men.
The first sign of this adversarial relationship is at
birth, with the hand on the heal – the next comes when they are young but old enough
to know that the social, cultural and religious norms of their day, makes Esau
the inheritor of their father’s legacy and not Jacob.
Once- after a long hot day of hunting Esau returned
home famished, exhausted and interested only in getting some food and getting
some sleep. As he goes into the tent, he
smells a wonderful smell, and his stomach starts to gurgle and his taste buds
start to salivate in anticipation of the wonderful food he smells cooking on
the fire. Jacob has cooked a lentil stew
and Esau wants some desperately. Now a
kind brother would just offer up a bowl, but Jacob, is more manipulative than
kind makes a desperate deal with a desperate brother – this stew is for you, if
you are willing to pay the price – “anything” says Esau – “anything” says Jacob
– really? Than what I want for this pot
of yummy red lentil stew is your birthright – I want to be the one that inherits
our father’s legacy – if you give me that, I will give you this stew. Stew for birthright – how would one even be able to give that away
– I wonder if that is what Esau thought when he agreed to the deal – giving away
something that can’t be given away is an easy trade for a pot of stew…, but
Jacob takes it even further – and later – much later – as the end of Isaac’s life comes, he is still seeking something that
was not his by birthright.
Jacob yet again moves into trickster mode – and deceives
his dying father…
As with the customs of the day, when a father lay dying
he calls to his side his children and blesses them and passes on words of hope
as to what his wishes are with regards to his legacy, kind of like the video
wills that people do these days except they are done before death not
after. When Isaac gets to this time so
close to his death, he calls Esau in but Jacob seeing another opportunity to
take from his brother what is not rightfully his – disguises himself, by taking
some goat hides and wrapping them around his arms, because his brother has
hairier arms than he does, and goes in Esau’s place to receive the blessing of
the first born. With his goat haired
arms and disguised voice, he sits down beside his now mostly deaf and blind
father and receives the blessing meant for his brother, while his father
strokes his fake hairy arms.
Not long
after Isaac dies, and Jacob’s trickery has caught up with him; he must flee his
home which now belongs to the brother he spent a life time tricking. You will need to return next week to hear
more of the Jacob saga and see where his trickster ways take him to next….
Isn’t it lucky for us that God does not love people for
who they are but for who God is. God can
love and bless and continue a covenant promise with a cheat, liar and trickster
– God can choose a lying watch breaking child
to grow up to go into ministry. And God
can choose people just like all of you sitting in these here in these pews to
be bearers of the Good News, to bring about the kingdom of God. It is not because we are normal that we are
chosen or that we are good or special or perfect, in fact these stories teach
us just the opposite
Rick, an Episcopal priest from the US reminds us
that it is not about human perfection that attracts God to bless us – in fact
it is often just the opposite, it is in our flaws and human failings that God
gets in and the kingdom comes, and he writes:
“But, this story reminds me that it doesn’t have to be fine. Nothing has
to be fine.
Things can be awful and embarrassingly
dysfunctional–and God can still move. God can still do great things.
I really believe that at the heart of the stories
of the patriarchs, and the whole of the history in in the book of Genesis, is
the truth that God does things through the lives of the strangest and most
awkward of people.
When God looked out over the whole world to find
the people he would call his own–the people he would bless with the privilege
of being a blessing to the whole world–he chose what often times looks like the
“b” team. The replacements. The ones who didn’t even have the illusion of
having their act together.
He chose people—Just. Like. Us…..
We don’t have to be perfect and have everything
figured out and in flawless order before God can visit us, and bless us.
In fact, we can be a blessing to the whole world. If God can work in the household of Isaac,
Rebekah, Esau, and Jacob–then my goodness, there is no doubt that God can work
with us too.”[1]
God did not choose people who had their act together;
who lived perfect and upright lives, no God chose and continues to choose perfectly
flawed and failed human beings just like us, to love God with all our heart, to
love our neighbour as ourselves, to care for the sick, to help the lame to walk,
to set the prisoners free; to scatter the good seed on the land and to harvest
the abundance of God’s crop. God choose
us to bear the good news and to live the kingdom here on earth as it is in
heaven – you are God’s chosen people, Thanks be to God. – Amen.
