I was with a friend the other night who has grown up in the church but wouldn’t consider herself a Biblical scholar.  When I told her that my sermon today was about Jacob her first instinct was that she didn’t know who Jacob was.  But all I had to say was “Jacob’s ladder” and she knew immediately what I was talking about – and probably could have sung the familiar African–American spiritual right along with me if we weren’t in public. And while that familiar song has helped increase our awareness of today’s text, the truth of the matter is there’s not much in the song about the story of Jacob.  The ladder that is referenced in this account of Jacob’s dream wasn’t a step–ladder with rungs on it.  Almost all the commentaries agree that it was probably something more like a ramp or a set of stairs like one would see in front of a monument or a government building.

Perhaps the place where this beautiful and meaningful old African–American spiritual is most at odds with the actual Genesis story is in its reference to us climbing “higher and higher.” Because, you see, the real message of the story is about God’s coming “lower and lower” or “closer and closer” to Jacob and thus symbolically toward us.  The Old Testament story of Jacob and his dream doesn’t have anything to do with a good or holy person getting better and better and thus climbing, figuratively, “higher and higher” and thus approaching God through their merits.

The truth of the matter is that if ever there was a man who didn’t deserve to be paid attention to by God, it was Jacob.  He was a liar and a cheat, a jerk. Let me remind you of a few things about why he was out in that desolate place using a stone for a pillow in the first place.

Jacob’s misbehavin’ started the day he was born to Isaac and Rebekah. He was a twin – the second born of twins.  And as his older brother, Esau, was coming out, Jacob grasped Esau’s heel as if trying to pull him back so that he could be the first one born. From the day he was born Jacob exhibited that his goal was to get ahead any way he could.  Jacob would take advantage of any weakness he saw in another – even if the other was his very own brother – even if it was his very own father.

Those of you who were here last week heard Deb talk about the sibling rivalry that followed.  Most notably how Jacob tricked Esau out of his birthright.

The second episode in Jacob’s saga, the one that resulted in Jacob’s fleeing, happened several years later.  His father, Isaac, was getting up there in years, blind, and concerned about how long he was going to make it.  And so he sent Esau (Isaac’s favorite son) out to kill some of that wild game and promised to bless him before he died if he did.

Their mother Rebekah (who favored Jacob) was listening and she concocted a plot that would allow Jacob to receive the blessing Isaac had promised Esau.  Now, it’s simply beyond my comprehension that these parents favored one child over the other and used them in this way but that’s what happened.  Rebekah’s plan was to have Jacob go get two of the young goats from their own flock.  She would prepare them and Jacob would wear some of Esau’s best clothes and cover his hands and neck with the skins of the goats so that he would feel hairy like his brother, Esau.  Although Jacob was fearful that he’d be caught and get cursed instead of blessed and although Isaac noticed the discrepancy between the hairy skin and the voice, the plot worked and Jacob got the blessing.

When Esau found out, he was livid.  He’d taken all he could from this jerk of a brother and so he let it be known that as soon as his dad died, he was out to get Jacob.  Well, Mom got wind of the threat and convinced Jacob that it would be best for him if he left and went to live with her brother, Laban.

It was while Jacob was on his way to Uncle Laban’s – fleeing from his angry brother – that the scene described in today’s passage happened.  Jacob stopped for the night at a certain place — no where in particular, just the place he happened to be when the sun went down — and apparently in his hurry to get away he forgot a pillow and had to use a stone for one.

Now I’m the type of person who likes to sleep with as many pillows as possible.  Most nights there are 5 pillows on my bed.  I had trouble sleeping on the church floor our first night of work camp not so much because the floor was hard, it was, but because it took me while to get used to only having one pillow.  So this idea of using a rock for a pillow is more than a little bit foreign to me much like I’m sure Jacob couldn’t have dreamed up the luxuries of a nice soft bed, surrounded by soft pillows in an air conditioned home that you and I are used to.

However, my sense is that the author of Genesis used the stone to represent more than the simple physical stone on which Jacob laid his head that night.  Perhaps the stone was both a literal rock and a symbol of all the evil Jacob had ever done.  When Jacob went to sleep that night he likely had some physical discomfort, but perhaps he also had a lot of things running through his head about why he was out on the road in the first place and given the circumstances, those thoughts would have likely caused a great psychological discomfort.  So it is understandable how he could have had a restless, dream–ridden, nightmarish night.

We’ve all experienced such nights in our lives – when our actions or words or thoughts have their way with our ability to sleep – when we just can’t seem to shut out those things we’ve done wrong or when we feel we’ve been wronged – when sleeping is difficult because of everything we’re thinking about.  When we can’t let go of anger, pain, fear, guilt or just plain busyness and have trouble sleeping.

I imagine those were the kinds of thoughts that ran through Jacob’s mind that night when he dreamed about a ladder and the movement of angels up and down it and God talking to him.  The lonely and weary and rotten Jacob became aware of God’s nearness in a place he did not expect, wasn’t looking for and didn’t really deserve.

What I believe happened to Jacob that night was that he became aware in a new way that despite the mess he was in because of the wrongs he had done – the sin in his life – God cared about him and had a plan for the rest of his life and he could say without a doubt, “surely, God is here.”

Now, there are several things in this story that provide us some helps as experience for our journeys of faith.  The first one is that God is present all the time, everywhere, and in everyone and we can become aware of God’s presence in the most unexpected ways, places and people.  God can be known in the midst of joyous occasions and in the midst of very depressing events in our lives and in the midst of the day–to–day routine of living.  And though God is always present everywhere, perhaps getting away, leaving his stresses and sins behind was what enabled him to experience God that night.

For me, no matter how many times someone tells me God is always with me, no matter how many books I read, sermons I hear or Sunday school lessons I teach, there are still times when I forget to open my eyes, my ears or my heart to God.  I get so caught up in what has to be done that I forget how to experience God in the day–to–day.  Sometimes, the best reminders to me have been when I have gone away not on vacations (although those help too), but on work camps or mission trips.

Some people wonder why groups spend so much money, time and resources going elsewhere to do mission work when there is so much need in our own community.  And after filling up for 12 passenger vans and a truck with gas on the way to North Carolina with 38 youth and adults from this church last month, I’d be lying if I told you that thought didn’t cross my mind.  And when I look at the people who lived at the 2 homes that we helped work on all week, I know that there are persons in similar situations in Columbus and probably even in Clintonville that we could help in similar ways.

But there is something about getting away.  There is something about leaving the day–to–day routine of our lives that allows us to open ourselves up to God’s presence in a different way than we might otherwise.  That was true for me when I was 13 and went on my first work camp and it was true for me last month when I went to North Carolina with the youth from this church.

First of all, the idea of going on a trip, going to camp, getting away is appealing – especially to youth.  So in that sense there were people on this trip who would never volunteer to paint a porch, replace a roof or really do anything that involved dirt, heat and work (and especially not all 3).  But came anyway and spent a week working to help others.  I saw God working through some of these youth as they challenged themselves, learned new things and understood that serving God doesn’t always mean following our preferences.

There were also youth and adults on this trip who went to WORK.  They wanted the most challenging jobs.  They would have worked longer days if we could and will jump at any chance to use their tools and skills at home or away.  But when they go away, they are challenged in a different way.  They have to learn patience with the organizations through which we work and with each other when someone on the team might not know how to do something or might not take as much initiative to do new things.  Yet, I experienced God work through these persons as they took the time to show some of the newer work campers how to do a project as they took on the less than glorious jobs because they needed to be done.

I experienced God work through the 12 other adults who took time away from their families and jobs to encourage, care for, teach and love each of the youth on this trip and each other.  God was present in the 6 recent graduates who worked to understand their role as senior leaders not as privilege but as a responsibility.  God was present in the lives of the persons we worked for – some in ways we could see and in some ways that we may never see.

The thing that makes work camps different than the story of Jacob is that he went off by himself not to find God, but to escape the wrath of his brother.  He didn’t go to God for forgiveness, but God found him.  And how refreshing is it for us to know that Jacob was able to feel God’s presence in spite of himself.

But if God is everywhere we don’t have to go away to find God.  Sure those getaways are nice, but they’re not always practical and quite honestly we shouldn’t use Jacob as a model for how to act in community.  I think we can agree that the purpose of this story was not to lift up the way Jacob treated anyone as a positive example by which we should follow.  No, Jacob was a jerk, that is pretty clear.  And if you’ve ever spent a week living with 37 other people, you know there will be times when individuals and the group as a whole does a pretty lousy job honoring each member of the community.  There will be times, as with any group when we make mistakes.  And there were times on this work camp and in most groups I’ve been apart of when the group did a little too much tearing each other down and not enough of lifting each other up.  But there were also times when I believe God was present as new relationships were formed, God was there when relationships were strained and God will continue to be present anywhere and everywhere.

This year’s work camp will forever be for me another reminder of how God is present not just in my life, not just at church, but everywhere.  God cares about us no matter what kind of people we’ve been or are – that God reaches out to us because God is a God of grace – that God can take the rocks of our lives and make use of them for good – and that as a result those mistakes of our lives, those sins, those evil thoughts and deeds become markers of the occasions when we encounter God just as Jacob’s stone became a pillar to mark that sacred space.  The rocks in our lives that disturb our sleep and disrupt our lives can become pillows of discipleship if we let God come to us and heal us of the guilt those rocks produce in us.  And when we allow God to heal us and forgive us, God can change us and make us new.  The rocks in our lives can become pillars marking those places where God has touched us so that we can open doors for others to experience God’s love as well.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, God wants to, and is ready to, do great things in us – through us – with our lives.  You are invited to hear the good news this morning in a new way – in a personal way – that God cares about you – no matter what the sins are now that are eating at your soul and controlling you with guilt.  God loves you and forgives you and has a plan for you.  You are invited to face the rocks in your life this morning and to believe the good news that God has a plan for you despite what has been controlling your life in the past.  Allow God to take on the pain, the fear, the guilt or whatever else you are carrying with you and allow God to work through you as God worked through Jacob.  The Bible contains story after story of the not so great people that God worked through… why not you?

We will be taking in new members of our faith community during both services today.  They have made a decision at this point in their lives that this is a place where they can experience God with this community of faith and we are delighted to have each of them and all of you be a part of North Broadway United Methodist Church.  Many of you have made a similar decision at some point in your life and you all in one way or another made the decision to be here this morning.  Though we might not always be able to escape our problems as smoothly as Jacob did, I encourage each of you to continue to use those moments, those getaways, and weekly worship as the reminders you need to keep your eyes, your ears and your hearts open to experience God in everything you do.

Today’s Psalm says Search me, O God, and know my thoughts.  What would happen if you started each day with that prayer?