Service/sermon July 12, 2020 Leighmoor Uniting Church
-Rev Barbara Allen
Possible hymns:
TIS 703: As the deer pants for the water
TIS 125: The God of Abraham praise
TIS 442: All praise to our redeeming Lord
TIS 595: O Jesus, I have promised
TIS 650: Brother, sister, let me serve you
Call to Worship
Generous God, you are beyond all imaginings, all formulas.
We worship you, the great gift-giver.
Gift us with grateful hearts, open hands, and gentle souls.
Let us worship you today, and always,
Amen
Prayers of Adoration, Thanksgiving and Confession
God of life, our solar system is a magnificent creation. The galaxy, the Milky Way, contains the moon, the planets, and more than 2 billion stars.
In the universe we see some of your glorious works.
God of life, within the smallest insect, and inside the tallest giraffe,
and in everything in between,
is your breath, the breath of all creation.
In birdsong and in the calls of other creatures, we hear the work of your hands.
God of life, in the dampness of winter’s drizzle and showers, in the chill of a frosty morning, we feel the work of your hands.
God of life, you also gift us families and friends.
We thank you for the gifts of love, of friendship, of encouragement.
And yet, as we remember these gifts, and many others, we come before you to confess our sins,
to say we have not measured up to be the people you have created us to be.
Forgive us.
Forgive us when we have neglected your creation, of which we are stewards.
Forgive us when we have taken the wonders of this world, this amazing planet, our home, for granted.
Forgive us when we have failed to love others, or have taken their love for granted, especially in families.
Forgive us if we have favourites. May we see that danger, and seek to love all, equally.
In a time of silence, we remember others things for which we seek forgiveness.
God is love
Through Christ our sins are forgiven
(thanks be to God).
Take hold of this forgiveness, and live your life
in the power of the Spirit,
Amen
Bible Readings:
Genesis 25: 19-34
Matthew 13: 1-9. 18-23
Sermon
What a troublesome family! This legacy of Abraham’s!
From the near sacrifice of Isaac-to trickery and deception!
We go from drama, through to a love story where Isaac is comforted after his mother’s death, due to the love of his wife, Rebekah, to this!
Sibling rivalry, and the disastrous results of favouritism!
Problems in parenting are not confined to our times!
School holidays-usually good times for families, can also be stressful-emotions are on edge, tantrums erupt, personalities come into play.
Just think of a family holiday-for some of us that was quite some years ago-and now-with lockdown-impossible to do-so no long car trips. But we can remember, can’t we?
The elbowing in the back seat…the “Are we there yet?”
The whinging, the petty arguments.
Or shopping. “I want what she’s got!” Or, if one child is given something-the other thinks it is better than what they received.
In my husband’s household-growing up-if a cake or dessert had to be sliced-one of the children would cut…the other would choose which slice they would have. (that scheme worked in a two-child household!)
Peace!
Ah-if only it had been that simple in today’s story.
We see struggle.
We see sibling rivalry.
We see the dangers of favouritism.
Today’s reading needs to be read, with another unassigned lectionary reading in mind.
Next week we are three chapters ahead, in Genesis 28
BUT
this rivalry, and stealing, happens again in Chapter 27, when Jacob steals Isaac’s blessing from Esau.
We need to have these stories side by side to really grapple with the consequences.
The consequences of having favourites.
One Australian comedian said that when a parent says to his or her child: “Darling, I don’t have favourites,” you can bet your bottom dollar that parent means “You are not my favourite!”
Is that true?
It is interesting to note the many similarities between this story of the birth of Jacob and Esau, and the birth of Isaac.
Rebekah is barren, as was Sarah-the Lord finally granted Isaac’s request for a child (which is odd in itself-how were Abraham’s descendants going to be ‘as numerous as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore’…without a child? Of course he had other children-Ishmael, and others with the wife he married after Sarah’s death, Keturah…but the promise was thought to be continued through the line of Isaac.)
Rebekah’s utterance “Why do I live?” as they struggled within her. She wasn’t prepared to put up with this (yes, childbirth is difficult-it is life threatening-we forget how dangerous it is and why prayers were recited in times past). Rebekah was at the end of her tether, so she went and asked God about it, or consulted God through an oracle, which goes to show though desperate, she was not as yet resigned to her fate.
‘the elder shall serve the younger’ : family law. Usually the elder son was entitled to an inheritance which was double that of the younger; however, in Mesopotamian legal practice, the sharer in the larger portion could be designated, contrary to the actual order of birth. The interesting thing about this is, that this was later outlawed (in Deuteronomy 21:16 [setting out laws regarding the children from more than one wife]: ‘on the day that he wills his possessions to his sons, he is not permitted to treat the son of the loved as the firstborn in preference to the son of the disliked, who is the firstborn.’
The tradition behind this narrative as well as behind Genesis 27, is a focus on the prehistory of the nations of Israel and Edom.
The contrast between the two is highlighted: Esau is a man of the outdoors, who is given to hunting.
Jacob, on the other hand, refers the quieter life indoors (‘in tents’). They are opposites: the aggressive hunter and the reflective semi-nomad.
But-back to today’s story.
Trickery. Perhaps not valuing what is important, until it is gone.
Maybe a lesson in weighing up short term gain versus long-term gain.
A question for us: what are we at risk of selling, or giving away, too easily?
Perhaps when are we too willing to compromise our faith as Christians?
Must have been a superb lentil stew, worthy of MasterChef status!
It is worth noting that the passage is full of name plays.
Esau, meaning ‘red.’ At birth: ‘The first came out red, all his body like a hairy mantle; so they named him Esau.’ Then the ‘red’ lentils. Then Esau’s name is changed to Edom, which also means ‘red’ (later, Edom was the name given to the nation that sprang from Esau).
Soup and names- all mean, or are ‘red,’ in some form.
Then ‘Jacob’-with part of the word meaning ‘heel’ as he grabs his elder brother and comes out first.
-as he grabs his brother in the handing over of the birthright.
-as he grabs his brother, yet again, in Chapter 27, when Jacob disguises himself as Esau, using goat skin, to trick his brother out of his blessing. There Esau remarks ‘Is he not rightly named Jacob? For he has supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright; and look, now he has taken away my blessing.”
(Jacob means: ‘he supplants, or ‘he takes by the heel’)
Calling someone a ‘heel’ is not exactly paying them a compliment, is it?
Will there be favourites?
In Chapter 27, the rivalry between Jacob and Esau, the rivalry that focuses on birthright in the one, and the father’s blessing in the other-portrays Esau in a different light. In the first, today’s reading, Esau is portrayed as a caricature of the uncouth hunter, who has only himself to blame for what happened; in Chapter 27, however, he is a deeply moving figure, an innocent victim of a heartless plot.
In Hosea 12:3, Jacob is perhaps viewed with disapproval for his treatment of his brother:
‘In his womb he tried to supplant his brother,
And in his manhood he strove with God.’(Hosea 12:3)
BUT in this story in Genesis 27, Jacob getting the blessing meant for Esau, let us hold back judgement. Jacob did not think up the scheme; he acted, under pressure from his strong-willed mother, and he had to pay for his misdeed with twenty years of exile!
In the incident from Genesis 27, we feel the tension, which mounts constantly as Isaac, sightless and never altogether convinced by the evidence of his other senses, resorts to one test after another: his visitor sounds like Jacob, but says he is Esau, yet the hunt took much less time than expected; the skin feels like Esau’s and the food tastes right; the lips betray nothing, but the clothes smell of the chase; so it has to be Esau after all! The reader is all but won over by the drama of Jacob’s ordeal, when Esau’s return restores the proper perspective. The scene between the brothers is tragic-and most poignant of all is the stark fact that the deed, the passing of the blessing-cannot be undone.
History is made up of the acts of humans.
‘History is but the gradual unfolding of a divine master plan, many details of which must forever remain a mystery to mortals.’ wrote one commentator.
It so happened that Abraham’s family was singled out to serve God’s ultimate purpose-that is all we know.
Can families heal?
Earlier in today’s chapter, we read of Abraham’s death.
‘Abraham breathed his last…an old man and full of years, and was gathered to his people. His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah…There Abraham was buried, with his wife Sarah.’
Isaac and Ishmael…they are together, in order to mourn their father.
There are other undercurrents; the field that Abraham had purchased from the Hittities in order to bury Sarah was given to him by the Hittites, by strangers…but Abraham insisted on purchasing the field.
What I like about this, is that the Hittites (whom scholars consider to be classed as Canaanites in the Bible, descended from Ham, through Canaan and Heth (Genesis 10)) understood how important it was to observe the mourning customs of another people. They said to Abraham: ‘Bury your dead in the choicest of our burial places; none of us will withhold from you any burial ground for burying your dead.’
They honoured Abraham’s dead. They allowed him to purchase what became the patriarchal burial plot.
That was Isaac and Ishmael.
What about Jacob and Isaac?
We must be careful before passing judgement on Esau; we could be left with the picture of Esau lacking manners and judgement, but I think this is to make it a good story! In Chapters 33: 1-17 we get an altogether different picture of Jacob’s older brother. When Jacob finally meets with Esau, after being on the run and fearing retribution from Esau, we read:
‘But Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him and they wept.’(Chapter 33:4)
Isn’t that moving? All those lost years as brothers.
Favouritism can be damaging-but there can be ways to aid healing.
Healing can be due to wisdom that may come as we age; sometimes we realize what is petty, and what is important.
What are we willing to fight for-and what are we willing to ‘let go’?
Esau despised his birthright. Let us never despise or be ashamed to be Christian.
Abraham Heschel wrote: ‘Our life is not our own property but a possession of God. And it is this divine ownership that makes life a sacred thing.’
The impulse and urgency of youth (I don’t really miss that! Sometimes though, I’d like to have the energy of the young!)…this can give way to a more considered weighing up of matters when we are older, or due to life’s circumstances.
What we are willing to settle for- for peace.
Being willing to forgive-to be less judgemental.
Forgiveness-is a sacred matter
-and knowing that we are human-flawed, but loved.
God has NO favourites-we are ALL loved, flaws and all.
Before we leave the sermon, several questions to think about:
- Were their ‘favourites’ in your family?
- What can happen to faith when families don’t get along?
- Do we see the playing out of family dramas in our own families through the generations?
- How hard is it to forgive?
Amen
Prayers of the People
Caring Christ, we pray for the world, our communities, our loved ones, and for ourselves.
The world continues to hurt. At times we are overwhelmed by the covid-19 crisis, especially now as it hits closer to home in Victoria.
We pray for health care workers, emergency services, defence forces, politicians-all those involved in keeping us safe, and getting these hot spots under control.
We pray for residents in high rise buildings, confined, perhaps remembering other times of confinement.
Reassure them, decrease their fears.
We pray for people we know who are sick, or who are recovering from surgery. Grant them healing, or peace.
Be with those who are dying, and stand beside their families and friends; may they feel your comfort, and your reassurance.
Be with those unable to attend funerals, as they mourn loved ones.
In a time of silence we remember those dear to us, who need our prayers, and we also pray for issues or circumstances that weigh heavy on our hearts.
(silence)
Lord, you hear every prayer we say, every prayer we utter, every prayer we cry.
We thank you that when we find it difficult to find the words, you know what we feel.
You have also given us a prayer we can draw on, which we now pray:
‘Our Father in heaven…’
Amen
Blessing
In the words of blessing used by Desmond Tutu:
‘Go in peace, and remember:
goodness is stronger than evil;
love is stronger than hate;
life is stronger than death;
victory is ours
through Christ who loved us.’
Amen
Rev Barbara Allen, Leighmoor Uniting Church
July 12, 2020
