July 17, 2005

Genesis 28:10-19a

Romans 8:12-25

Matthew 13:24-30

Jacob wasn’t having a good day. He was sent back to his parents’ homeland to find a wife. He was sent, not asked. Actually, it appears he may have been sent away because if he spent another day where he was, Esau would probably kill him. That Jacob had to sleep on the ground when he got to Haran and use a rock for a pillow, gives us an idea as to how hard things had become. Maybe a rock was a fitting pillow for such a hard-headed man.

But something got through Jacob’s thick skull that night. And what a dream it was. A ladder stretched up to heaven and angels ascended and descended on it. And there was God’s covenant, one like Abraham received, promising Jacob’s descendants would be a great nation.

Jacob probably didn’t deserve such a bright future, but covenants seem to be the sort of thing God plans and carries out in spite of us.

Jacob didn’t have much choice but to accept that he was part of something bigger and better than his current situation would seem to indicate. Beyond the family squabbles and his lack of integrity, he was part of something bigger and better than himself.

Faithful people have always believed this to be true, that somehow beyond one’s sinful limitations, one’s falling short of God’s glory, God’s Big Plan goes on. Faith is not about having it all figured out, having it all right, but about being swept up in God’s greater plan for things. It’s living out the dream, the promise that there’s more to life than what we come up with on our own.

The Apostle Paul makes this clear in the eighth chapter of the book of Romans. There is more to life than a physical existence. Flesh and blood do not, or it least it should not, define us. We are of the Spirit. The Spirit gives us life. The Spirit connects us with God and tells us who we are, whose we are, that we are God’s children. And when that Spirit lives in us and breathes through us we know God as "Abba". It’s a name, by-the-way, that means, "Daddy". When we live by our spiritual nature, we know God in intimate terms: "Daddy".

When I was invited to help with last year’s Confirmation Class boatbuilding project, a door of cooperation between Second and First Congregational churches opened a little bit and some light slipped into the room. It wasn’t long after I started making plans with Rev. Lee, Charlotte, Rich and Kristen that Sam and Henry got involved in a big way. Then, other volunteers stepped in as needed and people made cash and material donations. People at First Church took an interest in what was happening at Second Church. The little project just grew and grew. And when launch day came, a crowd of interested folks from both congregations came and helped lift the boat on and off the trailer and into the water.

Now, how was it that some plywood, screws and epoxy brought us all together? Or was there something more going on here, perhaps? We were able to be part of something good for some Confirmation kids, good for those who helped and especially good for a needy fishing family in Haiti. We were part of something bigger and better, something beyond ourselves. We caught a glimpse of something like heaven or at least the world as God means for it to be...our dream becoming reality, in spite of us, God making something good of us.

Is it just a dream, too much of a leap to believe such a Spirit can make a real difference in this city and the world? On Rev. Lee’s office door is a poster which reads, "It only takes a small group of committed Christians to change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has." It’s a quote from the great anthropologist, Margaret Meade. We don’t have to be a big deal in and of ourselves. We just need big dreams and a trust in the One who makes it happen.

An important anniversary came and went two days ago...do you know what it was? It was the 60^th anniversary of the first atomic bomb test. When the bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, President Harry Truman exclaimed, "This is the greatest thing in history!"

Evidently, he forgot about the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

When people are thoroughly impressed with themselves, awestruck by their own creative or destructive power, they can forget all about God. Such is the human condition. Left to our own devices, we are impressed when we blow things up. God have mercy on our souls.

The Good News is, God does. When we look beyond ourselves and seek God, turn to God for forgiveness, for guidance on the path of true peace, we discover what real greatness is. It’s more than us, always bigger and better than our immediate circumstances. It’s angels on a ladder from there to here, heaven on earth, the Kingdom drawing near.

The first words of Jesus recorded in Mark are these:

Repentance opens the heart and mind to God. Believing is trusting God. The rest is up to One who reveals the Kingdom to us and through us. Herein lies our hope...and hope for the world in which we live.

There’s more to life than human accomplishments and human shortcomings. There is more to life than innocent Iraqi children and adults being killed by their neighbors and terrorist attacks in subways. There is more to life than the politics and cultural upheaval that set the stage for such violence. There’s more to life than hatred and prejudice and abusive power.

Faith tells us there is more to life because there is also great love in this world, often undeserved, unconditional love. And we believe this love comes not only from within but ultimately from above and that it hopes all things, believes all things, bears all things, endures all things and never ends. There is something bigger, something better and we are somehow part of it - God’s great love for all things, God’s great plan for things.

It can be a hard old world, but in troubling and thorny places we have this bloom. In a weed patch where everything around us seems to deny any possibility of harvest, we are planted and called to bear this fruit.

The Kingdom of heaven is near. The Spirit beckons and waits for willing hearts. Who will be the rose between the thorns? Who will change the world if not this small group of committed Christians?