Drawing Straight with Crooked Lines
July 27, 2008
Rev. Susan Gilbert Zencka
Frame Memorial Presbyterian Church
Texts: Genesis 29:15-28; Romans 8:26-39
This time, the trick was on Jacob. When we left him last time, he was on his way to stay with his uncle Laban, and hoping to find a wife. He had become estranged from his twin brother Esau, the firstborn, through tricking Esau out of his birthright and the blessing from their father. He had dreamed of a ladder going from earth to heaven, and had realized upon waking that God was with him. And indeed, God promised to be with him always. And so Jacob has arrived at his uncle’s home, fallen in love with the beautiful Rachel, won permission to marry her after working for his uncle for seven years and after the wedding – surprise! The lovely Rachel is still single, and he is married to Leah, her older sister…this time, birth order has come back to bite Jacob – he has been tricked by Laban, who explains that the younger daughter may not be married before the older daughter. He is married to Leah, but he may work another 7 years for Rachel, which he does.
And though this morning excerpt ends there, the trickery continues: back and forth, Laban and Jacob maneuvering around one another like rival fraternities, each victory leading to a return and upping of the stakes. And also continuing is the Genesis complications around childbearing – for years, only Leah bears children, eventually having 6 sons and a daughter. Rachel wants children, and so provides her servant to Jacob (remember being here before? didn’t Abraham and Sarah go down this path?). The servant has 2 sons. Leah, not to be outdone, provides her servant to Jacob also, who also has 2 sons. There is also additional trickery here with the wives arguing over mandrakes, which were understood to be aphrodisiacs. Finally Rachel has a son, Joseph – so Jacob’s family at this point will consist of wives: Leah and Rachel, wives’ servants: Bilhah and Zilpah, sons: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, and his daughter Dinah. Later, Rachel will have another son, Benjamin, and these 12 sons will be the progenitors of the 12 tribes of Israel.
Once Joseph is born, a son from the wife Jacob most loves, Jacob is ready to return to the home of his childhood, so he works out with Laban a way to be paid for all his years of working for him – and this is where the trickery continues with Laban. He and Jacob agree that Jacob can have all of the striped, spotted or dark sheep and goats in the flock, but Laban first sends his sons to take all of these to fields far away. Somehow, Jacob returns that trickery with more trickery in manipulating the breeding of the animals so that the strongest and best animals end up breeding spotted, striped and dark animals, so that eventually Jacob ends up with far better herds than Laban. Finally, when Jacob leaves, he sneaks away when Laban is away – taking his herds, his wives, and all the children. He doesn’t know that Rachel also is tricky – she steals the idols from her father’s home. Eventually, he returns to find Jacob, his daughters, grandchildren, the better part of his flock, and his household gods all gone. He pursues Jacob, catches up with him and accuses him of stealing the idols. Jacob says he doesn’t have them and suggests that Laban search the caravan – when he comes to Rachel, she says she can’t be searched because it is her time of the month, and so Laban never finds the idols. Laban and Jacob make a covenant between them – saying the blessing that others have often used, “May the Lord watch between you and me, when we are absent one from the other.” In this context however, it is not really a blessing – it is a recognition that these two have not trusted one another, and still do not trust one another. It is more like “God keep watch over this scoundrel while we are parted from one another.” And while they have a covenant, it is really mutual non-aggression to which they have agreed. And yet, for all that has gone well, for all that has gone poorly, Jacob remains convinced that God is in it, and is with him still. He might have said, as Paul does in the letter to the church in Rome, that “all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.”
So many people misunderstand this verse to mean that God intends everything that happens to us, which is not a Biblical understanding at all.. Much happens in the world that God does not intend – much happens in the world that grieves God. This is a wonderful example of why it’s important to learn to think theologically soundly, because misunderstanding this passage leads not only to passivity but to irresponsibility, and even to evil. It also leads to loss of faith.
There is no way you will ever convince me that God intends the bad things that happen in life to happen to us. God does not give us cancer, kill our children, or get us fired from our jobs. I’m sure that some of you who have lost loved ones have had people say to you something like, “God needed another angel in heaven,” or “God needed him more than you do.” Who needs a God like that? What kind of loving, creative God would take other peoples’ children, or worse, would need them more? When Jason was in 3rd grade and his best friend got leukemia, the nun who was the principal of the school gathered all of the 3rd graders together and said, “We don’t know why God gave Zachary leukemia….” NO. God didn’t give Zach leukemia. But perhaps God helped him, through Jason and through his family and his own temperament and the prayers of others, to laugh during treatment, to play in the hospital, to open his heart and his spirit and his marrow to healing through medical science and the marvels of the human body.
I used to be part of a retreat community that had several retreats a year, and often on the planning teams, when something wouldn’t get done as it was supposed to, someone would say, “Well, apparently it wasn’t meant to be.” NO. Just because someone didn’t follow through doesn’t mean we get to claim it was God’s will. The concept of God’s will has excused way too much irresponsibility, tragedy and evil. Bad people do bad things. Normal, frail humans make mistakes. The complexity of life means that some of the things humans have done intending good will have bad consequences.
What this passage in Romans tells us is not that God intends bad things to happen. It says instead something very powerful, and that is that God can draw good even out of the worst that happens. It doesn’t mean that God is so powerful and so mysterious that even things that look like they are bad are somehow good. It means that God is the source of all life and all good, and that in God’s amazing world, with God’s transforming power, good things can even come out of the worst circumstances. It means that God can do better than spin straw into gold – God can bless us, even in the midst of horror, tragedy, evil…or the more mundane – irresponsibility, accident, and neglect. It means that even when we are not at our best, God can work through our efforts and our openness.
When Paul says that all things work together for good for those who love God, he is telling us that when we open ourselves to God, when we work with the powers of life and love in the universe, when we are willing to be available to the possibilities instead of sitting and saying “why me?” – good can happen. This is grace – that God reaches into our lives, and helps to open our hearts, our minds, our bodies to new life, as we are able to cooperate with God. This is grace, that God is loving us, willing good for us, even in the midst of our bad decisions and bad luck. This is grace, that God is available to help us find our way when there is no way. This is grace – God taking initiative and hoping for our response – this is grace, a world in which, when we work WITH God, transformation can happen that wouldn’t seem likely. The drunk can become sober, the enemies can become allies, the shuttered factory can become a park, illness can become an opportunity for change, and crooked lines can become a straight path. In God’s economy, nothing is wasted. Working with God, even a sneaky, tricky guy like Jacob can be part of God’s dream for the world.
And Paul explains to us also that God’s spirit is at work in the world, and God’s spirit is at work in us, even when we don’t know how to pray…and that is awfully good news, because I often don’t know how to pray. This is one reason that my own prayer is most often silent contemplative space, where I try to open myself to God, where I hope to learn God’s prayer for me, and be part of God’s prayer for the world.
And Paul’s letter also assures me that although God is present to my needs, loving me in the midst of my circumstances; God’s larger desire is to move all of creation to wholeness – not only to work within our lives and help us to be transformed, but to work in and through us that the whole world might be healed. Healing doesn’t always look like what we wanted – I remember the writer Madeleine L’Engle said once about a young friend of hers who had cancer – she said “We prayed for healing and our prayers were answered, although he died.” I think sometimes that our brokenness is a necessary step toward the wholeness of God – if we were not aware of our own brokenness, would we recognize the wholeness of God? And in a world that values might, that rewards power, how good to know that wholeness comes not as force but as love.
Finally, through all the twists and turns, Jacob and Laban were able to make a kind of peace with one another. And I don’t believe that the point of this story is that we should cheat our relatives and call it God’s plan, but that God is always desiring reconciliation, and can work through even the most entrenched relationships to bring peace. I think that this story tells us NOT that God’s plan is for us to be sneaky and tricky, but that God’s goodness can work despite all the obstacles we put in the way. And Paul reminds us, God isn’t looking for reasons to condemn us – God is reaching out in all ways possible to love us. God’s goodness is so good, God’s love is so welcoming, God’s embrace is so wide that we can never outrun it.
I don’t know about you, but there are times I need to know this. There are times I need to know that God can work with me even when I haven’t done as well as I’d like. There are times I need to know that God’s Spirit is praying through me, because I can’t find my own way to prayer. There are times I need to know that the brokenness of this world isn’t a sign of the absence of God, and that God is working even through the pain. There are times I need to know that nothing – not the greatest forces of this world, nor my own fumbling, not the worst circumstances, nor my inattention can separate us from God’s love. All things work together for those who love God, all things. St. Julien of Norwich wrote, “God said: ‘It is necessary that sin should exist. But all will be well, and all will be well, and every manner of thing will be well.” Amen.
Frame Memorial Presbyterian Church
Texts: Genesis 29:15-28; Romans 8:26-39
This time, the trick was on Jacob. When we left him last time, he was on his way to stay with his uncle Laban, and hoping to find a wife. He had become estranged from his twin brother Esau, the firstborn, through tricking Esau out of his birthright and the blessing from their father. He had dreamed of a ladder going from earth to heaven, and had realized upon waking that God was with him. And indeed, God promised to be with him always. And so Jacob has arrived at his uncle’s home, fallen in love with the beautiful Rachel, won permission to marry her after working for his uncle for seven years and after the wedding – surprise! The lovely Rachel is still single, and he is married to Leah, her older sister…this time, birth order has come back to bite Jacob – he has been tricked by Laban, who explains that the younger daughter may not be married before the older daughter. He is married to Leah, but he may work another 7 years for Rachel, which he does.
And though this morning excerpt ends there, the trickery continues: back and forth, Laban and Jacob maneuvering around one another like rival fraternities, each victory leading to a return and upping of the stakes. And also continuing is the Genesis complications around childbearing – for years, only Leah bears children, eventually having 6 sons and a daughter. Rachel wants children, and so provides her servant to Jacob (remember being here before? didn’t Abraham and Sarah go down this path?). The servant has 2 sons. Leah, not to be outdone, provides her servant to Jacob also, who also has 2 sons. There is also additional trickery here with the wives arguing over mandrakes, which were understood to be aphrodisiacs. Finally Rachel has a son, Joseph – so Jacob’s family at this point will consist of wives: Leah and Rachel, wives’ servants: Bilhah and Zilpah, sons: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, and his daughter Dinah. Later, Rachel will have another son, Benjamin, and these 12 sons will be the progenitors of the 12 tribes of Israel.
Once Joseph is born, a son from the wife Jacob most loves, Jacob is ready to return to the home of his childhood, so he works out with Laban a way to be paid for all his years of working for him – and this is where the trickery continues with Laban. He and Jacob agree that Jacob can have all of the striped, spotted or dark sheep and goats in the flock, but Laban first sends his sons to take all of these to fields far away. Somehow, Jacob returns that trickery with more trickery in manipulating the breeding of the animals so that the strongest and best animals end up breeding spotted, striped and dark animals, so that eventually Jacob ends up with far better herds than Laban. Finally, when Jacob leaves, he sneaks away when Laban is away – taking his herds, his wives, and all the children. He doesn’t know that Rachel also is tricky – she steals the idols from her father’s home. Eventually, he returns to find Jacob, his daughters, grandchildren, the better part of his flock, and his household gods all gone. He pursues Jacob, catches up with him and accuses him of stealing the idols. Jacob says he doesn’t have them and suggests that Laban search the caravan – when he comes to Rachel, she says she can’t be searched because it is her time of the month, and so Laban never finds the idols. Laban and Jacob make a covenant between them – saying the blessing that others have often used, “May the Lord watch between you and me, when we are absent one from the other.” In this context however, it is not really a blessing – it is a recognition that these two have not trusted one another, and still do not trust one another. It is more like “God keep watch over this scoundrel while we are parted from one another.” And while they have a covenant, it is really mutual non-aggression to which they have agreed. And yet, for all that has gone well, for all that has gone poorly, Jacob remains convinced that God is in it, and is with him still. He might have said, as Paul does in the letter to the church in Rome, that “all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.”
So many people misunderstand this verse to mean that God intends everything that happens to us, which is not a Biblical understanding at all.. Much happens in the world that God does not intend – much happens in the world that grieves God. This is a wonderful example of why it’s important to learn to think theologically soundly, because misunderstanding this passage leads not only to passivity but to irresponsibility, and even to evil. It also leads to loss of faith.
There is no way you will ever convince me that God intends the bad things that happen in life to happen to us. God does not give us cancer, kill our children, or get us fired from our jobs. I’m sure that some of you who have lost loved ones have had people say to you something like, “God needed another angel in heaven,” or “God needed him more than you do.” Who needs a God like that? What kind of loving, creative God would take other peoples’ children, or worse, would need them more? When Jason was in 3rd grade and his best friend got leukemia, the nun who was the principal of the school gathered all of the 3rd graders together and said, “We don’t know why God gave Zachary leukemia….” NO. God didn’t give Zach leukemia. But perhaps God helped him, through Jason and through his family and his own temperament and the prayers of others, to laugh during treatment, to play in the hospital, to open his heart and his spirit and his marrow to healing through medical science and the marvels of the human body.
I used to be part of a retreat community that had several retreats a year, and often on the planning teams, when something wouldn’t get done as it was supposed to, someone would say, “Well, apparently it wasn’t meant to be.” NO. Just because someone didn’t follow through doesn’t mean we get to claim it was God’s will. The concept of God’s will has excused way too much irresponsibility, tragedy and evil. Bad people do bad things. Normal, frail humans make mistakes. The complexity of life means that some of the things humans have done intending good will have bad consequences.
What this passage in Romans tells us is not that God intends bad things to happen. It says instead something very powerful, and that is that God can draw good even out of the worst that happens. It doesn’t mean that God is so powerful and so mysterious that even things that look like they are bad are somehow good. It means that God is the source of all life and all good, and that in God’s amazing world, with God’s transforming power, good things can even come out of the worst circumstances. It means that God can do better than spin straw into gold – God can bless us, even in the midst of horror, tragedy, evil…or the more mundane – irresponsibility, accident, and neglect. It means that even when we are not at our best, God can work through our efforts and our openness.
When Paul says that all things work together for good for those who love God, he is telling us that when we open ourselves to God, when we work with the powers of life and love in the universe, when we are willing to be available to the possibilities instead of sitting and saying “why me?” – good can happen. This is grace – that God reaches into our lives, and helps to open our hearts, our minds, our bodies to new life, as we are able to cooperate with God. This is grace, that God is loving us, willing good for us, even in the midst of our bad decisions and bad luck. This is grace, that God is available to help us find our way when there is no way. This is grace – God taking initiative and hoping for our response – this is grace, a world in which, when we work WITH God, transformation can happen that wouldn’t seem likely. The drunk can become sober, the enemies can become allies, the shuttered factory can become a park, illness can become an opportunity for change, and crooked lines can become a straight path. In God’s economy, nothing is wasted. Working with God, even a sneaky, tricky guy like Jacob can be part of God’s dream for the world.
And Paul explains to us also that God’s spirit is at work in the world, and God’s spirit is at work in us, even when we don’t know how to pray…and that is awfully good news, because I often don’t know how to pray. This is one reason that my own prayer is most often silent contemplative space, where I try to open myself to God, where I hope to learn God’s prayer for me, and be part of God’s prayer for the world.
And Paul’s letter also assures me that although God is present to my needs, loving me in the midst of my circumstances; God’s larger desire is to move all of creation to wholeness – not only to work within our lives and help us to be transformed, but to work in and through us that the whole world might be healed. Healing doesn’t always look like what we wanted – I remember the writer Madeleine L’Engle said once about a young friend of hers who had cancer – she said “We prayed for healing and our prayers were answered, although he died.” I think sometimes that our brokenness is a necessary step toward the wholeness of God – if we were not aware of our own brokenness, would we recognize the wholeness of God? And in a world that values might, that rewards power, how good to know that wholeness comes not as force but as love.
Finally, through all the twists and turns, Jacob and Laban were able to make a kind of peace with one another. And I don’t believe that the point of this story is that we should cheat our relatives and call it God’s plan, but that God is always desiring reconciliation, and can work through even the most entrenched relationships to bring peace. I think that this story tells us NOT that God’s plan is for us to be sneaky and tricky, but that God’s goodness can work despite all the obstacles we put in the way. And Paul reminds us, God isn’t looking for reasons to condemn us – God is reaching out in all ways possible to love us. God’s goodness is so good, God’s love is so welcoming, God’s embrace is so wide that we can never outrun it.
I don’t know about you, but there are times I need to know this. There are times I need to know that God can work with me even when I haven’t done as well as I’d like. There are times I need to know that God’s Spirit is praying through me, because I can’t find my own way to prayer. There are times I need to know that the brokenness of this world isn’t a sign of the absence of God, and that God is working even through the pain. There are times I need to know that nothing – not the greatest forces of this world, nor my own fumbling, not the worst circumstances, nor my inattention can separate us from God’s love. All things work together for those who love God, all things. St. Julien of Norwich wrote, “God said: ‘It is necessary that sin should exist. But all will be well, and all will be well, and every manner of thing will be well.” Amen.