I
love how the founders of our church chose this story to give us our name Bethel: House of God. This story is an important
turning point in Jacob’s life; it’s when he finally accepts God as his God
instead of just being his father’s God. Each of us who have grown up in the
church need to also make that same change in our relationship with God when we
accept God as our God instead of just being our parent’s God, a time when we
say to Jesus, “I commit myself to you, I don’t want to walk through life
without you, I need, oh I need you.”
I
want to take you back a few weeks for just a moment. On New Year’s Day
we looked at when Joshua led the Israelites across the Jordan River and how
they took stones from the middle of the river and set up a monument to God so
that they would never forget how God has led them into the Promised Land. This
is another monument story, another story of making sure that we never forget
who God is. This is a ‘promise story,” a story where God builds on his
relationship with his people. God extends his blessing that he had given to
Jacob’s grandfather and dad and now to Jacob too.
Jacob
has always been conniving to get this blessing from his dad. That’s why he
took advantage of Esau’s hunger to buy the blessing from him, and then deceived
his dad to make sure that Isaac and Esau didn’t take it back. The funny thing,
funny strange, is that during all this conniving, Jacob had never really
accepted God as his God. He wanted what God gives without making a commitment
to God. Unfortunately, still today, that is so common; we want God’s blessings
without really wanting God or making a commitment to him. God loves us way more
than we love him.
What
strikes me about Jacob is that it’s only when he’s messed up really bad, when
he realizes that his actions can have painful consequences, that he becomes
open to God’s presence. Jacob’s running away from his brother’s anger after
deceiving their father and receiving the family blessing. Jacob’s heading to
the safety of his mother’s family, to his uncle Laban’s place in Haran.
Jacob
has had a hard day’s travel. He’s walking and has made it about 48
miles, or 77 kilometers. He’s tired and now that the sun has set, he sets up
camp for the night. Jacob grabs a stone for a pillow, no Sleep Country pillows
are available, and he goes to sleep. Jacob sleeps the sleep of the exhausted
after the long journey and the emotional parting from his family. Since Jacob’s
not coming to God, God comes to him in a dream. In his dream, Jacob sees “a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to
heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.” The
angels are busy doing the business of heaven here on earth; carrying messages
and tasks from heaven for earth.
At
the top of the stairway, Jacob sees God. God speaks now, “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham
and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which
you are lying. Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you
will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All
peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. I am with
you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this
land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”
It
strikes me that the longer God is interacting with Abraham’s
family, the longer and more detailed the blessing he’s giving them becomes. There’s the promise of the land Jacob is sleeping on,
the promises of lots of descendants, but now God tells them they will spread
throughout the world, not simply stay on this one piece of land, the reminder
that all peoples will be blessed through their family, but now God also tells
Jacob that he will be with him as he leaves the Promised Land and will watch
over him for protection until he brings him back home again. We hear the echo
to Jesus’ promise to his disciples of the gift of the Holy Spirit in John 14, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give
you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth.
The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you
know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as
orphans; I will come to you.”
I
love Jacob’s response; he recognizes the Lord is there even though he
wasn’t even aware of it. He’s afraid, a combination of awe since he’s had a
glimpse of God, and of fear, a realization of how great God is and how small he
is. We remember that Moses is the one writing this years later, Moses who went
up the mountain to meet with God, Moses who completely understands what it’s
like to see God. As Moses writes, “Jacob
was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the
house of God; this is the gate of heaven.” This is where our name comes from: Bethel, which means “house of God.” Jacob sets up the stone he used as a
pillow as a monument to God’s presence.
We often think of heaven as being the place where God
lives, yet here we see that God is not limited to heaven,
that his presence and influence flows out into the world. This is what it means
when Solomon builds the temple, and during its dedication, the glory of God
pours into it. This
story of Jacob meeting God reminds us that God is here and active, he’s
not sitting in an easy chair in heaven watching what’s going on here on his
tablet or iPad. Jesus becomes the visible presence of God and when he returns
to heaven, he sends the Holy Spirit to be with us.
The central part of Jacob’s dream is the stairway, the ladder between heaven and earth with angels moving
up and down it. Adam and Eve may have been kicked out of Eden and God’s
presence, but God never abandoned earth or his people. Jacob’s ladder is a
visual reminder that God is actively at work in our world, that heaven and
earth are connected, that the work of heaven happens on earth. A former mentor,
when talking about heaven would say that the veil between heaven and earth is
really thin, only the breath of God thick. Jesus joined the angels in
descending to earth, to equip 12 men, along with other followers and disciples
to carry on his work of telling the gospel story and making more disciples of
Jesus.
This is why God has placed Bethel Church here; to join God in the work he’s already doing here in
Lacombe. We are like the monument stone that Jacob set up, a visual reminder of
God’s presence here in Lacombe. This is why we’ve gone through this beautiful
renovation; not just for us, but to be able to better reach out into our
community, to be able to better serve our community, to be a place where we can
feel comfortable inviting friends, neighbours, co-workers, fellow students to
join us to learn more about Jesus as we follow him, as we grow deeper in our own
faith and help others become disciples of Jesus. The pastoral elders have
embraced the call to help you grow in your relationship with Jesus and helping
us as a church family to grow and be a disciple making church family. We are
focusing on this because we know that the Holy Spirit is in this place and will
give us what we need, when we ask him, to help all those whom God has placed in
our life to lead them to Jesus.
This beautiful building is a wonderful tool God has given us to join him in building his kingdom
here, expanding his kingdom of shalom and peace. As Tim Keller writes in The
Prodigal God, “The ultimate purpose of Jesus is not only individual
salvation and pardon for sins but also the renewal of this world, the end of
disease, poverty, injustice, violence, suffering and death.” Our renovated
building, in a small way is a gift to give thanks for that gives a tiny glimpse
of what God is doing here in Lacombe and calling us to join him in. This is not
for us only, but a sign that God is in this place and he is at work, inviting,
commanding us to join him in his kingdom work!
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