summer series: Dreams

This summer, I thought it would be fun to do a summer sermon series on the various dreams found in our scriptures.  So, as we begin with this first dream, often referred to as Jacob’s ladder, I will share a bit of background on Jacob.  The story really begins with Abraham and Sarah, called by God to leave their land and follow God.  Eventually, Sarah and Abraham have a son named Isaac and now the next generation has been born.  Isaac marries Rebekah and has twin sons: Esau and Jacob.  During her pregnancy, Rebekah seeks the Lord and learns:  And the Lord said to her,

“Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples born of you shall be divided;
the one shall be stronger than the other, the elder shall serve the younger.”

Esau is born first which secures him the birthright of the eldest son.  Jacob was rather cunning and bought his brother’s birthright from him for a bowl of stew.  Then, with the help of his mother, Rebekah, he is able to trick his father, Isaac, into giving him the blessing instead of Esau.  Between taking his brother’s birthright and his father’s blessing, Esau and Jacob are no longer on speaking terms, in fact, Jacob flees with the fear that his brother just might kill him. 

            It is here that today’s passage begins, a younger brother, destined by God to break the cultural norm of birth order, fleeing for his life.  As night fell, Jacob found a place to rest and as he slept, he had a dream.  President of Princeton Seminary, Rev. Craig Barnes says this:  You see, when it comes to dreams, the only good ones come from God. And God insists on just giving them to us. The most important dreams are things like being loved, having a child, beholding beauty, discovering your purpose in life, finding joy in your work, or finding a friend who will stick with you through anything, even the truth. Those dreams, the things for which we yearn most in life, come only as blessings from God. And blessings can only be received.

            As Jacob falls asleep, he dreams of a ladder, a ladder connecting the earth to heaven and going up and down on this ladder are angels.  What I think is interesting is that God is not up at the top, God is not up in heaven sending his message down the ladder through the angels, but rather, we are told that the Lord stood beside Jacob.  And then Jacob was given a promise, if you compare this message from God to that given to Abraham it is almost the exact same.  God promises, that Jacob will have numerous descendants and this land will be his.  But more importantly, all the families of the earth shall be blessed^[d] in you and in your offspring. ¹⁵ Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go. 

            Perhaps before this dream, Jacob knew that he was to inherit his father’s blessing, perhaps he knew that he was going to assume the role of the elder brother even though he was the younger, but it is not until this dream, that he truly understands that this is not a role of power but a blessing, a gift from God, a sacred calling. 

            How often in our lives, we seek to climb the ladders before us, if you are in the corporate world, we even call it the corporate ladder.  We want to climb up, we seek promotions, we seek job security because we then have financial security.  But how many awful stories have we heard of people climbing and climbing and climbing only to destroy their own lives? 

            Jacob has to learn to live into who he is, and that God is with him and God will journey with him where ever he goes.  As Jacob awakens from this dream, he proclaims:  Surely the Lord is in this place—and I did not know it!”  As we seek to grow in our professions, or in our daily journey, God reminds us through this dream to do so with God alongside of us.  Jacob could have lived his life for his own gain, but God desires for his life to be one of blessing. 

            I’ve met a handful of people in my life that had rather prestigious careers and had some sort of divine intervention and changed their course in life in order to be more connected to serving others.  One couple I met gave up their dream of retirement and moved to a rural area in order to be full time volunteers for the mission program our church was involved with. 

            Now, I have had some rather vivid dreams, if they have any kind of religious meaning, most of the time they are of me showing up on Sunday morning without a sermon.  But imagine, waking up from a night of sleep, of having such a powerful dream, that you proclaim: Surely the Lord is in this place—and I did not know it!”  What a wonderful dream, to awaken one’s self to the presence of God all around us.  And to awaken to a promise that in Abraham and in Jacob God has promised a blessing upon their descendants.  All the families of the earth shall be blessed.  What an amazing dream to live into.  Summer is a time for dreaming.  Some of us are trying to embrace the dream of being a part of God’s blessing, some of us are trying to embrace the dream of God’s blessing extending to all, some of us are somewhere in between.  But the dream of Jacob’s ladder continues into today’s world.  God is standing beside us, the angels are ascending and descending the ladder to heaven, and the promise of blessing is flowing for us to receive but also for us to give.  We know there is much pain, suffering, and struggling in this world, and together, as Christ’s disciples, we are called to be agents of blessing.  God had a new dream for humanity, and so God called Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to be a great and mighty nation but also to be a people of blessing, bringing God’s love and peace and joy into this world.  We too are called by God, as a congregation to dream a new dream, to be a people that imagine a ladder to heaven with angels ascending and descending, with God standing next to us, reminding us that we are blessed to be a blessing, and encouraging us to remember:  Surely the Lord is in this place.