Jacob has come to a “certain place,” an unnamed place in the midst of darkness on the outskirts of town. He has come to this certain place because he’s on the run. From the day he was born Jacob was a trickster. When he and his twin brother, Esau, were born, Jacob was clutching Esau’s heel, trying to be the first born. Later in life, Jacob was preparing a fine stew and his brother, who had been hunting all day, was famished. Esau demanded some food, and Jacob obliged, but not before he asked for his brother’s birthright. Esau said, “What is a birthright to me? If I don’t eat, I’m going to die,” so Jacob handed over the stew and Esau handed over his birthright. Not long after this dinner fiasco, Jacob tricked his father, Isaac, into giving him his brother’s blessing, leaving Esau with no birthright and no blessing. Needless to say, Esau threatened Jacob’s life, which sent Jacob fleeing his brother’s wrath out in the wilderness, out into the darkness. Jacob is not a fine, upstanding gentleman. This trickster and deceiver is on the run and he finds himself in this unnamed, certain place.
Two weeks ago, Sunbright, TN was a certain place. Sunbright was the destination of our Appalachia Service Project team. We knew where it was and how to get there, but it held little significance. It was a certain place. Our church divided into two teams. One team built a deck in the back yard, and this was nothing less than a miracle. I felt like Isaac asking his father about the lamb. “There’s the wood. There’s the tools, but father, where’s the person who is going to tell us how to put it together.” And then there was a voice from heaven saying, “The Lord will provide, my son.” Well, it didn’t exactly happen that way, but for our team to build a deck where there was no deck was a beautiful thing to see. The other team from Broadmoor repaired flooring in a trailer. This woman’s home had holes in the floor throughout. When the team was finished, the woman’s daughter begged her mother to go to the store and buy a mop because she wanted to keep the floor beautiful. By the end of the week we realized that this wasn’t simply a construction project. By the grace of God we were transforming lives, and not just those whom we helped but our own lives were changed. In the midst of sawing, nailing, leveling, and tiling, we experienced the presence of God in the faces of our brothers and sisters of Sunbright, TN. Before we left on the trip, Sunbright, TN was a certain place, but after this experience of the grace of God, the mention of Sunbright has eternal value.
Jacob came to a certain place and lied down for the night, and while he was sleeping he had a vision of God. He dreamed there was a ladder connecting the earth with heaven, and on this ladder angels were ascending and descending. Then God spoke saying, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac . . . Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” God’s desire to be with us and to hold us close resonates throughout scripture. The Lord says to Moses, “The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.” Numbers 6:24-26. Psalm 121 reads, “I lift up my eyes to the hills—from where will my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade at your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time on and forever more.”
We could talk about what Jacob’s ladder looked like or what Jacob saw, but the point is God’s proclamation, that God says to Jacob, “I will be with you and keep you.” Keep in mind that Jacob is a rascal. The only time he mentions God is when he is tricking his father out of his brother’s birthright. Isaac asked his son Esau to go find some game and prepare a meal. While Esau was away, Jacob and his mother whip something up in the kitchen, and when Jacob returns with food, his aging father asks, “How did you find food so quickly,” and Jacob replies, “Because the Lord, your God, provided.”
Jacob had no idea of the truth he was proclaiming. It certainly wasn’t a faith statement on his part, but it was truth nonetheless. It’s like the high priest Caiaphas in the Gospel of John when he says in chapter 11, “You know nothing at all! You do not understand that it is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed.” Caiaphas was concerned that Rome would burn Jerusalem to the ground if one among them was proclaiming to be king, but the author of John’s Gospel provides some great commentary saying, “Caiaphas did not say this on his own, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus was about to die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but to gather into one the dispersed children of God.
Isn’t this the true mystery of Jacob’s ladder? God proclaims that he will be with us. The name for “God is with us,” is Immanuel—Jesus. This ladder, this vision Jacob sees of the divine presence being connected to the earth is a vision of Jesus himself. Fully human, fully divine who gave his life so that we might have life and live it abundantly. You see, God has an unshakeable resolve and an unwavering desire to be with us. Looking at the cross, we can see that God is dying to be with us.
When Jacob, this unsavory character awakens he says, “Surely the Lord is in this place and I did not know it.” God is no longer “your Lord,” the Lord of his father’s house. “How awesome is this place,” because this Lord has accepted a wretch like me. It is certainly a moment of Grace, and if you want to be Methodist about it, it is a moment of Prevenient Grace, the grace God blesses us with even when we did not know God.
Jacob rose early in the morning—for God’s sake don’t miss that resurrection imagery! Jacob rose and took a stone and built a pillar and anointed it and named that certain place, Bethel—the house of God. After having an experience of God, that certain place now had meaning and purpose. It’s kind of like Sunbright, TN. This certain place we knew little about became a place we experienced God, a place which will forever remain in our hearts. What is your “certain place?” Where is that place in your life in which you need to be reminded that God is with you, that God is dying to be with you? Jacob was running away from everything and found the only thing. God is with us, and God is calling us together as God’s children to transform the world, from Shreveport to Sunbright to Russia and beyond. God is with us. Thanks be to God. Amen.