CONNECTED TO HEAVEN
A Sermon On:
Genesis 28.10-22
PREPARED BY
KEN GEHRELS
PASTOR
CALVIN CHRISTIAN REFORMED CHURCH
NEPEAN, ONTARIO
If you were with us last week you'd have been able to take part in our first look at this character Jacob. A bit of a mama's boy. Loved to stay home and cook. Ignored, sort of, by dad. A quick thinker -- schemer. Always able to tilt the table his direction at the crucial moments. The man with the golden touch.
When we meet him, though, it looks as if his string of successes has run out. Jacob had pushed the envelope in terms of trying to get a foot up on his brother Esau. Swipes best spot in the family from him. But then has to leave it all behind and run for his life with the muttered death threats of his brother Esau still echoing in his ears.
His life, which had been full and busy, was suddenly empty and cold.
Alone. Broke. Discredited.
That's how we meet Jacob as he drops to the ground after a day of running. His bag of tricks empty. And it is there that a most amazing thing happens. He drifts off to sleep, and rather than being troubled by deadly nightmares, he is confronted by God.
This fellow who has been thorough consumed with lining his pockets and padding his portfolio suddenly discovers a whole other dimension to reality;a dimension he'd thought about some, in a spare moment or two, but never seriously. Just sort of a word here or there at bed time prayers... if he remembered those.
A door in the sky opens. The stairway. Angels. And at the top -- oh man, how bright and glorious -- There is God himself. And words - comforting words: "I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go.... I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you."
And little Jacob, who in his youthful arrogance was so thoroughly convinced that he had the world by the tail, little Jacob is brought right to his knees.
Two things Jacob says when he wakes up:
- Wow - look what I missed. Oh man, oh man, oh man. I walked right past God and didn't even know it.
The Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.... How awesome is this place.
- If this is really what God is about -- this caring, providing, accompanying stuff -- then the only option is to jump on board, both feet.
If God will be with me and will watch over me... then the Lord will be my God.... and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth.
A link is joined between this solitary figure, dangling at the end of his rope, and the enormous, unthinkably great and majestic glory and power of Creator God, reigning in His Heavenly splendour.
Jacob didn't deserve it. God gave it as a free, unmerited gift.
Didn't even chase it. God hunted down this wandering son.
Does anything in this story resonate with your life; ring true to your ears?
Jacob had been a busy man, and that busyness had left no time for a relationship with God. Sound familiar? Jobs that demand us at our best. Then home from work to prepare supper. Spend a few moments with the kids. Off to one meeting or another. Do some work around the house. Then drop exhausted into bed. Tomorrow it'll be the same thing all over again. Saturday won't be much different, and perhaps neither will Sunday. Time for prayer?
Time to read the Bible?
Time to think about God or to meditate?
Maybe at church...... maybe, but certainly no more.
Busy, busy, busyness that leaves no time for a relationship with God.Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.
Till....
Till....Till the ladder splinters the darkness and the solitude of the desert is shattered by dozens of flaming beings gliding up and down this stairway to heaven. Moving to and fro, coming and going from earth as they engage in the work of the One who sends them, the One at the top of the staircase - God. The amazing truth is that even though Jacob was so busy, even though Jacob had no time for God, God had lot's of time for Jacob.
Even though Jacob had no care for God, God had lots of care for Jacob.
Even though Jacob was busy and running from everyone, God included, God didn't allow him to get away.
God doesn't leave him alone.
God doesn't play a game of hide and seek.
God doesn't leave Jacob to wander about and eventually try and stumble across whatever form of satisfaction in life he can find.
God himself comes to Jacob."I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go and I will bring you back to this land."
Can you imagine? This isn't just some momentary contact. This isn't just a fleeting glimpse into the world beyond. This is God himself promising to accompany Jacob as an unseen guide and guest through every future moment of life.
This is the greatest guarantee of security that a person could ever hope for!
God and Jacob - Partners!
Then God steps back and Jacob is called to decision.
The dream is over.
Morning comes.
Now he must respond.
And he does. He goes through a religious ritual that symbolizes this as being a turning point in his life -- setting up a stone as a monument and pouring oil on it. This has been a sacred moment for Jacob.
Then he makes a vow: "If God will be with me - and he knows now that this will be the case - then the LORD will be my God and this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God's house and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth."
In other words, Jacob will remember this stone as the place where God came to live in his life, the place where his life became the house of God. And he would demonstrate his allegiance to God through dedicating a tenth of everything he took in to God through offerings and gifts to God.
Jacob, in short, gives his life fully into the hands of God.
And now the ball gets tossed to us;
to we who have been witnesses to the unmerited goodness of God chasing and grabbing hold of this stubborn, smart-alecky child of His.
For, you see, that unmerited, gracious action of God continues.
The stairway that Jacob glimpsed for a moment and which left again with the end of the dream, was given as a signpost.
God's Holy Spirit ensured this account would be recorded for posterity in order to point us to something far greater;to a connecting link, a stairway between heaven and earth that will NOT fade away with the coming of dawn; a link that is NOT exclusive to one person.
A couple of weeks ago we read a bible passage from the New Testament which is the echo and fulfilment of Genesis 28. Anyone recall what it was? Those of you who have already checked the sermon out on the Web Site can't respond!
Let's read it together -- John 1:43-51
Nathaniel - sittin' under a fig tree. Doing what? Quite possibly meditating and praying. You see, the gospel of John doesn't record a single detail in stories about Jesus without a purpose. It is a gospel that is sparse and tight. Everything in John is symbolic. Including the fig tree -- which, apparently, was known as a place in town where people would plunk themselves down to pray and meditate and seek God.
Nathaniel was seeking God.
Unlike Jacob, Nathaniel was at the point in his life where he knew that satisfaction simply wouldn't be found with a padded RRSP portfolio, a calendar packed with parties and appointments and a minivan lifestyle in the 'burbs.
Nathaniel was spiritually thirsty.
There's got to be more to reality than this.
And Nathaniel is brought to an encounter with Jesus, hearing from the Rabbi:"I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man." Guess what, Nathaniel -- your search is over.
What you've thirsted for is here.
Heaven has touched down and made contact with earth.
They are linked.
And you're standing at that point of contact
Nathaniel believes that. He confesses, "You are the Son of God..."
The gap between heaven and earth has been bridged not by a staircase in a dream, but by God coming himself to live on earth!
Jesus is the stairway to heaven. Jesus is the one, the only one who can provide contact with, and entrance to heaven. He can deliver the life, the power, the vitality of heaven into our lives.
Without humanity, without you and me, deserving it God has reached down to a world dangling at the end of it's rope;
without a future
pockets empty.
Without us seeking Him; in fact while we were quite busy amusing and preoccupying ourselves with stuff that eventually devalues and disappears or gets willed to the grandchildren --
God came chasing, seeking, longing after us.
What grace.
What blessing!
What a miracle.
Heaven -- not distant, unreachable, in some other dimension.
No -- right here, walking and talking on earth, connecting with human life, becoming human in the person of Jesus.
Flowing the care, the blessing and shalom of God into needy lives and hearts.
Doing it through Jesus.
And only through Jesus.
In another place Jesus said: (Mt 10.32-33)"Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven."
We reach to Jesus, and He grabs hold. He then reaches to the Throne of Glory. He links us to the life and power and hope and future that only our Father in Heaven could make available. New life.Because of Jesus we become linked, adopted, into God's family. Because of Jesus angels are sent down from heaven to provide protection, care and direction into our lives as ministering spirits (Heb 1.14) -- more on this in a couple of weeks.That is true for us as individuals. We can try and run through our few years on earth alone, or we can do it connected straight to Heaven. Tonight we can reaffirm our decision to stand beside Nathaniel and Jacob, clinging to the only stairway to heaven.
That is true for us as a congregation. We could get all caught up in programming, and styles of services, and square feet of building space. We could, but we won't. We won't because we recognize that at the very centre of our community and institution has to be our connection with heaven through the One who is our go-between, our connection, our stairway to heaven -- Jesus Christ. Quite simply -- when people ask us what we're about at Calvin Church the answer can be given in one word - Jesus. To reach up to Him, our link to glory. And to reach out to others, that they may find Him, too. That we as individuals, we as a community, and others as they come to join us may acknowledge Jesus -- only Jesus. And that then He will acknowledge us before the glory of His Father.
Oh - may we never lose this. May we never become so busy, or so preoccupied with little things, with side issues that we come out of a week of work, or even out of a church service, finding ourselves saying, "Surely God is in this place and I was not aware of it."The Spirit of Jesus is among us and within us. And the promise of God that first came to Jacob -- to go with us.
See Him. Reach to Him.
And go into this week, living in that hope, that power, that promise.