Sermon: Jacob’s Ladder

Text: Genesis 28: 10-19a

16^th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

July 20, 2008

Scripture introduction.  Our second reading this morning is the story of Jacob’s dream at a place he called Bethel, which in Hebrew means “House of God.”  In his dream Jacob saw something that is generally translated as a “ladder.”  However, this passage illustrates one of the most difficult problems in translation—when a word appears only one time in the entire Bible.  Scholars have compiled modern dictionaries of ancient words by reviewing the contexts of the ancient writings in which the words were used.  But if the word appears only once, there are no other contexts to serve as comparisons.  So it can be hard to say exactly what the word means.  And that is the case with the word normally translated as “ladder,” which appears only once in the entire Bible.  As the notes to our New Revised Standard translation helpfully point out, the word could also mean “stairway” or “ramp.” 

I am particularly attracted to the interpretation of one scholar,[1] who considers the word to signify simply a road paved with stones, especially one that was elevated or inclined.  Of course, this runs counter to the mental image we have of Jacob’s “ladder,” which comes to us through centuries of art and song.  We have been conditioned to think of an actual ladder that leads from the bottom, where we imagine Jacob to be, up to the heavenly realms, where we picture God.  And we think of the angels going up and down on the ladder.  But as we read the story in Genesis, the Hebrew words used to describe the conversation between God and Jacob suggest that God and Jacob are close to one another.  Moreover, the best translation, which is reflected in our NRSV, actually tells us that God was not far away, but rather “beside him,” that is, beside Jacob.  When we combine this with the statement of Jacob at the end of the story that “[t]his is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven,” we begin to get a different mental image.  We may understand that Jacob, high up on the mountain at Bethel, may have been dreaming of the rocky road on which he had just journeyed—not a ladder, but a ramp on which angels were walking up and down between the holy place, where God was—where Jacob was—with the broad expanse of earth below. 

Our final hymn this morning will be “We Are Climbing Jacob’s Ladder.”  I admit that it doesn’t work as well to sing “Jacob’s ramp,” but I invite you to consider how the meaning of the story changes if the holy place—the house where God lives—is located not in the heavens, but right here on earth.

Sermon.  While we were on the mission trip, our young folks asked me whether the sermon for Sunday was written yet.  I pointed to my head and said, with some exaggeration, “It’s all up here.”  “Then what is it about,” they demanded.  I told them it would be about Jacob’s ladder and the mission trip.  Then they advised me that it should all be about the mission trip!

Having experienced the same trip they did, I understood immediately that this suggestion did not arise out of any desire on their part to be the center of attention.  Rather, they wanted our congregation to know what they had been doing.  They wanted you to know how valuable this experience was in their lives.  They wanted you to know what they had been doing to make God’s love real in the lives of others.  They wanted you to know how, as they ministered to others, they found themselves to be the recipients of grace.  They wanted you to know how they had found Christ in the people they met and served.  So, I’m going to take their suggestion and tell you why I believe this mission trip was so successful. 

First, the trip was successful because it was very well planned.  Donna Paul-Bonham has been working for at least a year to make the arrangements.  She constantly encouraged our youth to reserve this time in their busy family schedules.  The Maxwell Street Mission Immersion program offered many different ministry opportunities; we were only able to do some of them.  Donna took the time to consult with our youth about what they would like to do.  And when we arrived the schedule was tailor-made for us. 

Although Cheryl Moles was not able to go on the trip (I think she really wanted to!), she took the initiative to do substantial planning in our behalf.  Under her leadership, the elementary Sunday school class prepared the small, personalized tote-bags that you heard about during the Children’s Moment.  Each bag had a snack, a group picture of the elementary kids, and an encouraging note.  It also contained a devotional booklet that guided our reflections on what we were doing.  Organized around the gospel reading for last Sunday—Jesus’ parable of the sower, the seeds, and the soil—each day’s lesson invited us to make personal connections between the parable and the ministry that we were attempting.  The booklet guided our prayers at the end of the day, asking us to pray for ourselves, the churches at home and in Lexington who supported our trip, and—always—some specific person we had met that day.  It was a splendid way to connect us with the younger children, who one day will be doing mission trips of their own. 

As a congregation, you did important planning work, too.  Through your elected leaders and through your giving, this trip was in the church’s budget.  And there were candle sales and other fund-raising activities, all of which you supported generously.  Thank you!

And when we think about planning, let’s not forget the members and staff of Maxwell Street Presbyterian Church in Lexington, who with a holy passion have embraced urban ministry.  They coordinated with the local agencies that needed help, making sure that when we arrived, we would be expected and that meaningful work was available for us to do.  They maintained the property in which we lived, a very old, but still serviceable, antebellum-style home.  They involved us in their own weekly ministries to the community.  So, as with every successful venture, there was a lot of good planning by many committed persons.

But good planning will only take us so far.  A mission trip, if it is to be successful, somehow has to have that extra something that makes it gel, that makes it “click.”  That extra something is the work of the Holy Spirit, who uses the advanced planning and all the other faithful human efforts and then focuses them for maximum effect.  As I reflect back upon the trip, I feel strongly that we could not have done what we did without God’s help, without the quiet strength that comes from the Spirit.  In a way that can only be described as providential, we were drawn together as a team.  Donna Paul-Bonham, Jim Moles, Amanda, and I each have very different skills and gifts.  Through the power of the Spirit, our diversity became a strength, and we quickly learned to make space for each other’s talents.  And the Holy Spirit worked strongly among our youth.  They, too, have different personalities and abilities; and their age-range was considerable.  But they supported one another, feeding off each other’s energy and insight, maintaining the high level of enthusiasm that is necessary to sustain a week of intensive immersion in mission.  It is not easy two or three times a day to meet an entirely new group of homeless men and women, or of children from stressed home situations, or developmentally challenged co-workers.  I was amazed at the courage of our youth: by the time each two- or three-hour session was concluded, they had made friends with the kinds of persons we often avoid or ignore.  When there was work to be done—cleaning, painting, playing with children, teaching, cooking, serving meals—they did it cheerfully and without complaint.  They were organized and considerate as we all had to share the same sleeping, cooking, and bathroom spaces.  They were good travelers.  I am so very proud of them and what they have done; I want you to be proud of them, too.  And I must warn you—having seen what mission looks like in other places, they have returned with a better idea of what it might look like here at Central.  They already have shared some of these ideas, and I am excited to hear them.  I urge you to listen to them with your hearts.

So, where is Bethel—the house of God?  According to our lesson from Genesis, it is on the earth.  Maybe in a high place near the heavens, on a mountain top.  But still, on the earth, with God’s angels, God’s messengers, going up and down the ramp from that high place to the lower places of human need.  Our mission trip participants have just returned from a mountain-top experience.  From that high point in our lives we have been able to see more clearly the value, the potential for good that is in each person—both in church members and in those who might be frightened to set foot in a church.  From our new vantage point, we have seen Christ in the tearful face of a love-hungry child; and our own hearts have grown.  In a ham and cheese sandwich delivered on a rainy Sunday morning, we have seen a tiny seed of hope planted in someone’s life, a seed that tenderly promises life may hold more than rejection and despair.  From our mountain top, the place where God dwells, we have seen each other using spiritual gifts that we did not know we had.

So often in situations of suffering we ask, “Where is God?”  Now, like Jacob, we understand that God has been busy.  We have seen that often God already has provided all the gifts and resources necessary for fruitful ministry; they wait only for a Spirit-filled person with the creative energy to use them.  With Jacob, we cry out, “Surely the Lord is in this place,” and we include not only the church sanctuary but also every place of suffering.  We may not have known it, but God always has been in those places of suffering.  From the mountain top, now our eyes can see it! 

Jesus Christ (“Emmanuel”—God with us) is our best evidence that God is not remote, but rather chooses to be among us—to care for us and to help us grow into the persons God created us to be.  Jesus himself told us the good news that the kingdom of God was “at hand.”[2]  That means very close—within reach.  This mission trip was successful because we—adults and youth—reached for the kingdom and in so doing learned some important lessons about ourselves and about the world.  We learned that God is not far away at the top of some celestial ladder.  God is right here with us.  Every place where our spirit touches the spirit of another is holy ground.  When that happens, it is “awesome;” it is the place where God dwells—the very gate of heaven.