Jacobs Ladder

God has been with us through the week just gone, in all the joys and all the sorrows. Let us come together and worship God as creator and sustainer of all things, and our constant companion in all things.

63: All my hope on God is founded

A GATHERING PRAYER

Almighty God, thank you for all the times and places where we have seen you at work this week. Come and reveal yourself to us again now, that we might be strengthened in our faith and renewed in our trust of you. Amen.

A PRAYER OF ADORATION

Almighty God, all-seeing and all-knowing, with confidence we accept your power and authority, knowing that we can always trust in your judgement; for your loving nature pervades creation, and all shall be well – all shall be well. Amen.

A PRAYER OF CONFESSION

Lord, we confess that we are quick to decide and make decisions about others; mostly, we think they are whoever is outside these walls, while casting our brothers and sisters down in our harsh judgement. But you, Lord, see that your grace and love is offered to everyone, Forgive us, Father, for the less-than-Christian thoughts and attitudes we allow to take hold of our souls, smothering the good you have nurtured within us. Help us to accept that we all have our failings, and so it is right that we should all be given a chance, for you are the only one who sees everything and is fit to judge. We humbly ask your mercy, O Lord. Amen.

ASSURANCE OF FORGIVENESS

God the creator and re-creator, constant in your care for your creatures and creation, you forgive us time and time again when the thoughts and attitudes that challenge our faith you give us your love and your grace within us. We thank you that we can trust your judgement and rely on your forgiveness in all circumstances. Amen.

296: Away with our fears

READING

Genesis 28: 10-19a

Jacob’s Dream at Bethel

10 Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Harran. 11 When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. 12 He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 13 There above it[a] stood the Lord, and he said: “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. 14 Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.[b] 15 I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

16 When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” 17 He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”

18 Early the next morning Jacob took the stone he had placed under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it. 19 He called that place Bethel,[c] though the city used to be called Luz.

69: The King of love me shepherd is

SERMON

There is a story about a church leader. It happened during one particular troublesome year, made trips to London and then onto Israel. According to the story, while in London, the man visited the prime minister at Downing street. During the visit, he noticed three telephones on the PM’s desk and asked about them.

"Well," said the PM, "The black one is a regular telephone, the white one is for calls within Downing Street and the red one is a hotline to God."

"Wow," replied the Church Leader, "with all the problems we are having, I could certainly use some advice from God. Could I possibly use that hotline for a few moments?"

The PM was happy to oblige and left him alone in the to make his call. And so, he had the opportunity to talked directly with God.

Afterward, he asked the how much he owed for the call. The PM called the operator and got the time and charges. The Churchman immediately paid, considering it money well spent.

Later that year, while in Israel, he also had an audience with Israel's prime minister. He noticed that the prime minister had three telephones in his office as well, so he asked about them.

"Well," said the prime minister, "The black one is a regular telephone, the white one is for calls between government offices and the red one is a hotline to God."

Remembering how helpful his last conversation with God had been, back in London so asked for and permission to use the prime minister's hotline for another call to the almighty.

After completing his call, he asked the prime minister how much he owed for the call. The prime minister looked a bit surprised and then said, "You don't owe anything. Over here, phoning God is a direct call."

A little lame joke there but I guess, we all have times when we wish we could have our own direct hotline to God. In fact, in a more serious vein, aren't there times of personal crises or important decision when we sincerely wish that God would contact us and tell us what to do? At least it would be helpful if he told us what the consequences of each of our choices would be.

In our reading about Jacob, who found it for the best to leave his father's house in a hurry after having defrauded his brother Esau, stopped one night to sleep in the wilderness. In his dream that night, he saw a ladder that reached from earth to heaven. Angels were traveling up and down this ladder and God himself was standing at the top of it. God spoke to Jacob about the promises that he had made with Jacob's father Isaac and to his grandfather Abraham. And now onto Jacob himself.

When Jacob awoke, he realised that he had had an experienced something that very few are granted. That ladder had been his own hotline to God.

Rabbi Harold Kushner suggests the ladder represents the distance between “who we are” and “who God intends us to be.” If you study the text closely, you will find that Jacob doesn’t constructs the ladder, neither does he climb it.

Jacob has been climbing a ladder all his life. The problem is that his ladder was one of his own making, Jacob’s personal ladder is a ladder of greed. Grab what you can while you can. Success for Jacob, like mantra for many today, which means getting the better of the other person before they have a chance to get the best of you. After all, is life not the survival of the fittest?

So, what if we lie? The average person lies 13 times a week, according to statistics. Never mind that we cheat. Seventy-five percent of teenagers admit to cheating in school exams.

The question is are we really guilty, or as many believe today that we are only guilty if we get caught?

George Lucas, the creator of the Star Wars movies was once asked why Anakin Skywalker became the evil Darth Vader. George Lucas replied, “He can’t let go of things. That makes you greedy. When you are greedy you are on the path to the dark side.” Jacob’s ladder was a ladder of greed.

The ladder that Jacob created was a ladder of competition.

DO whatever it takes to win. In Jacob’s view, somebody had to win, and somebody had to lose, and he was going to be a winner.

So, it seems remarkable that God would choose to extend a vision to such an unsavoury character as Jacob, but the point is, the only way such direct access to God can be had is if God himself offers it. There is nothing we can do to establish this link.

There are some points where we can identify with Jacob's story. In the first place, Jacob was in exile from his home even though it was self-inflicted. We may not feel too much sympathy for him since his exile was the result of his own wrongdoing. Still, some of us know what it is like to be cut off from people we love, or to know that some of our actions could have been the cause that led to issues or even ended certain relationships.

Although, however, that there is nothing in Jacob's demeanour as he camps out that night to suggest that he had a guilty conscience or a desire to mend his ways. He may have been a little nervous, as far as he knew, his brother could have been after him. He was probably a bit despondent. And since he wasn't at home, there was no chance of him actually receiving the inheritance he had won by treachery. Yet, he does not appear to be sorry for what he had done.

We may be able to identify with Jacob at this point, too. Have any of us ever said, "Well, what I did may have been wrong, but I am not going to apologise”!

The remarkable thing about this whole account is the fact that God comes to Jacob in this dream without Jacob calling out to God for forgiveness. God doesn’t rebuke Jacob for his sin. On the contrary, God confirms to Jacob the inheritance that he thought he had lost, assures him, and promises to be with him.

Yet even after this powerful dream, Jacob shows little evidence of conversion. In fact, demonstrating what a conniving rascal he still is, he responds to the dream with the following vow:

If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, so that I come again to my father's house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God....If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, so that I come again to my father's house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God....

— Genesis 28:21-22 (emphasis added)— Genesis 28:21-22 (emphasis added)

The truth is nothing Jacob did made him deserving of a vision of God, but he needed that vision, and God gave it to him.

But that is a point for us, too. Even if we have never done anything as bad or devious as Jacob did, none of us have been deserving of the grace of God, and yet God gives it to us anyway.

In John 1:43-51, that tells of Nathanael's call to be an apostle, Jesus tells Nathanael that he knew he had been sitting under the fig tree when he first heard about Jesus. That Jesus knew this astonished Nathanael, but Jesus then startled him even more. Jesus referred to the Old Testament story of Jacob's dream and then said to Nathanael, "... You will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man."

In other words, Jesus was saying, "I can do more for you than read your heart. I can be for you and all people the ladder that leads to God."1

It is extremely hard for us to really feel the impact of those words, "I am the way." We who have been raised in the Christian faith have been taught for so long that God is accessible to us that we take it for granted.

But think for a moment what our lives would be like if we did not know the way to God.

In our age there are still plenty of people who don't know how to reach God. Although in one perspective, this doesn't seem to be a very religious age we live in, in another perspective it's a time when people are hungry to believe in something beyond themselves.

In book shops the "religious" books category includes New Age, Scientology, believe-in-yourself, and a host of other titles on spirituality that are far from Christianity.

You see, many people are hungry to believe, to connect with that which is beyond themselves, but they don't know the way. As a result, people swallow all sorts of stuff — everything from astrology to crystals to UFOs to Elvis sightings. People want to connect with a "higher power" but have no idea of how.

Also, even among those of us who have some inkling that Christ is the way, some of us perhaps don't grasp what that means. We may be relying on a record of good deeds to get God's attention and so fail to realise that God can be reached through faith in Jesus.

There may also be some of us who feel we are too sinful or have done something too terrible for God to listen to us.

We may think that we can't come to God until we've "cleaned up our act." We may not understand that God calls us to come just as we are, and that Jesus is the way.

How would you feel if, during a crisis, if you could think of no way to reach God? Would you not feel even more abandoned and alone? But Jesus says to us, "I am the way. I'm the ladder from your house to the Father."

Jesus as the ladder doesn’t mean that he provides instant answers to prayer, but he provides an instant audience with whom we can share our burden, and he provides instant access to God. He is the ladder by which we ascend to God and the ladder by which God's love descends to us.

Perhaps the most helpful part of Jacob's story for us is the knowledge that Jacob's sinfulness did not stop God from communicating with him.

As we start to climb up, we will find that God is already climbing down to meet us.

And that's what God does for each of us. He sets the ladder named Jesus Christ down into our lives and stands near the bottom rung, ready to hear our pleas and strengthen us, and help us to climb to God.

That is one of the treasures of our faith: Jesus is the ladder to God. Amen.

OFFERING DURING HYMN

Lord, you give all to us etc.

295: Spirit of the living God

PRAYERS OF THANKSGIVING AND INTERCESSION

Loving God, who provides a ladder through Jesus Christ, allowing the light of truth to shine upon us, we thank you for your patience and forbearance with your fallen and faltering children. We do not notice the things within us that prevent our spiritual growth, shutting out your truth, yet we are quick to spot them in others. We thank you for your slowness to condemn us, praising you for your unmerited mercy and grace, for all are sinners and have fallen short. Amen.

Merciful God, you call us and challenge us to live in the world, to be part of the world, to belong the world and now for the world we bring our prayers.