Proper 11

Taking a stone, he put it under his head and lay down. He dreamt that there was a ladder set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven; and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.

In the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen.

Thank you for making Carrie, the girls, and I feel welcome here at St Nic’s. It’s been a crazy few weeks but we’re feeling settled in and I’m enjoying emersing myself in an anglo-catholic context. I’m fresh out of 3 years in the vicar factory but I still have much to learn, as I’m sure you’re about the realise!

In this morning’s homily, I’m going to focus on the Genesis reading of Jacob’s dream. I’m going to be trying to read the text as a story to be enterred into, a bit like the liturgy of the Mass; as something we participate in, try to appropriate for ourselves, and, most importantly, trying to see scripture and the Mass as pointing to Christ and the gathering up of all things, the whole of history, in him.

There were two priests sitting next to each other on a plane and one priest said to the other, do you believe in infant baptism? The other replied, believe in it, I’ve seen it with my own eyes!

Last week Holly and Toby, two of the fantastic members of our junior church, were baptised in what was a really wonderful service. Earlier this week - this isn’t a complete tangent - I found the first grey hair on my chest. I saw it in the mirror in front of me and had a moment of, oh boy. I had to go and show Carrie to check and she confirmed the news. I’m not sure what that says about my first two weeks at St Nic’s as my heart ages like never before, because it’s been overwelmed by the beauty of the worship I’m sure!

And whilst I’m receiving tangible signs of enterring into the next stage of life, Holly and Toby last week received a tangible sign of their stage of life, as they came through waters similar to the breaking of the waters which hold a baby at birth, they came up to feed for the first time at the Mass and to be held by the Church, our mother. Maybe it was also a sign for us, to remember who we are, a part of the community whose role is to nurture and protect the faith of those like Holly and Toby.

Of course, as we grow up, we encounter the challenges of being a part of a community, whether that’s the Church, our school, our workplace, the rugby club, or our own families. Jacob knew the challenge well. In the passage before today’s reading, Jacob has fallen out with his own brother, Esau, so badly that his Esau wants to kill him, and his father, Isaac, has sent him away. Isaac himself it seems wasn’t living with his father, Abraham, and it isn’t clear whether he ever lived with him again after the horrible event at mount Moriah.

Leaving this broken family, Jacob, tracing Abraham’s journey in reverse, comes to a nameless place, puts a stone down, and falls asleep because the sun has set. How was he feeling? Lost? Alone? Happy to have left? Hopeless? Wanting his mum and dad? Not sure who he is or how he can fix what he doesn’t understand? We can only speculate.

He lies down to sleep and as he sleeps he dreams. He dreams of the heavens. Of the numberless stars which were made to rule the times and the seasons. He looks at them and he is angry with them as all he can feel is a time of dispair and a season for weeping. But he looks at them also with hope, pleading them to bring a time for him and his family to be as they should be. For a dreamer looking down on earth, to see in their light that things are good.

As well as the heavens, he dreams of the earth and of a small child lying asleep. He sees himself, one of God’s children who, as the stars were made to rule the heavens, he, like all human beings, was made to rule the earth, to love it and care for it. But the child is lost and can barely care for himself, let alone the things he loves. He looks at himself with anger; he feels frustration that he can’t figure himself out. As he looked at this sleeping child, he noticed that there was also something like a ramp or a ladder that stretched from earth to heaven, and that on it God’s angels were going up and down and looking at the child with love.

They were ascending and descending for the child, for the sake of Jacob. I’m here trying to meditate on an ambiguity in the Hebrew of the Genesis text. In verse 12, most English translations translate the end of the verse something like this, “and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.” The final word in Hebrew, בֹּֽו, in it’s most basic sense means in it or in him; it can also mean by means of it or him - as in this translation, the angels ascended and descended on the ladder or by means of it - one of the other things it can mean is for it or for him, or because of it or him. Perhaps, and we can only speculate but it is by speculation that we get drawn deeper into the stories of the Jewish Scriptures which it seems have been written in a way so as to encourage speculative readings - perhaps the text is meant to read not, “the angels of God were ascending and descending on it, on the ladder”, but “the angels of God were ascending and descending for him, or for Jacob”. They were going up and down the ladder for the sake of Jacob, because of him. Maybe to care for him, to minister to him. Maybe just to descend to see him, the image of God on earth, and then to ascend to the heavens, to see the stars, the image of God in the heavens, and to wonder in awe. Did you notice at the end of the Gospel reading, that, at the end of the age, the righteous will shine like the sun in the sky?

As Jacob dreams, he sees the angels going up and down, from heaven to earth and back again. He saw them look at the sleeping child with a tender care, caress the head of the boy as he slept on the stone, and return to the heavenly stars, to put into motion a plan to bring a time and a season for the restoration he dreamt of. To share a meal with his father and mother and brother, and to be a blessing to others, rather than seek to bless himself through decit.

In his dream, Jacob stared at this scene for some time. As he looked at the sleeping boy, for a moment he thought that, instead of a little boy, he glimpsed a grown man and the stone which he lay on was a buriel stone inside a tomb. Two of the angels which had descended sat on either end of the stone, their eyes closed like the man on the stone.

All of a sudden the man opened his eyes, he was alive, and the dream became filled with light, and the angels all sang out like bells ringing, Holy, Holy, Holy. At that moment, Jacob also awoke and he had hope. Pause

As we come to receive the Mass, let us, like a child passing through a dream, or passing through the waters of baptism, feel ourselves to a part of something bigger than ourselves, and to glimpse how the drama of the life of Jesus gives us the hope that all things will be restored in him.

In the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen.