Jacob Steals A Blessing -- A Message for September 21, 2025

  This morning, we return to the early stories of our faith. Last week, we focused on the story of the difficult choice Abraham was forced to make – whether or not to sacrifice his young son. 

Today we will focus on a story of events that occurred later in Isaac’s life. Isaac married his cousin Rebecka and they became the parents of only two children: fraternal twins Esau and Jacob. Esau was born a few minutes before Jacob. Even though the boys were twins, their birth order made a big difference in their lives.

In Ancient Israel, when an estate was divided among the heirs, it was divided by the number of sons plus one. The oldest son received the extra share. In the case of Esau and Jacob, this meant Esau expected to receive two-thirds of his father’s estate. As the oldest son, he also was supposed to receive a special blessing from his father. Blessings like this were considered legally binding and were considered prophetic – whatever was said during the blessing was believed to be able to predict what would happen in the future.

In a very silly moment, Esau told his brother Isaac that he would trade his special birthright as the oldest son with him in exchange for a plate of food. Brothers and sisters joke around with each other. But, this joke was so absurd that Esau probably assumed Isaac would regard it as a joke, not a binding covenant. Isaac was a trickster, though, and things did not work out in Esau’s favor.

So, let us turn to the story of the two brothers at a crucial time, when Isaac was prepared to bestow his special, binding blessing on his oldest son.

We pick up the story at Genesis 27….listen now to the word of God….

Scripture Genesis 27:1-4, 15-23; 28:10-17

27 When Isaac was old and his eyes were so weak that he could no longer see, he called for Esau his older son and said to him, “My son.”

“Here I am,” he answered.

Isaac said, “I am now an old man and don’t know the day of my death. 

Now then, get your equipment—your quiver and bow—and go out to the open country to hunt some wild game for me. 

Prepare me the kind of tasty food I like and bring it to me to eat, so that I may give you my blessing before I die.”

Then Rebekah took the best clothes of Esau her older son, which she had in the house, and put them on her younger son Jacob. 

She also covered his hands and the smooth part of his neck with the goatskins. 

Then she handed to her son Jacob the tasty food and the bread she had made.

He went to his father and said, “My father.”

“Yes, my son,” he answered. “Who is it?”

Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn. I have done as you told me. Please sit up and eat some of my game, so that you may give me your blessing.”

Isaac asked his son, “How did you find it so quickly, my son?”

“The Lord your God gave me success,” he replied.

Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Come near so I can touch you, my son, to know whether you really are my son Esau or not.”

Jacob went close to his father Isaac, who touched him and said, “The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau.” 

He did not recognize him, for his hands were hairy like those of his brother Esau; so he proceeded to bless him.

The hairy hands were enough to convince Isaac incorrectly that Jacob was Esau. Another absurd occurrence in the midst of a very serious situation.

Esau discovered the betrayal almost immediately….as soon as Jacob was blessed and left his father, Esau walked in with his specially prepared food. Isaac couldn’t undo the blessing. Instead, he gave Esau a lesser blessing. Esau was so angry he vowed to kill Jacob. 

Jacob believed Esau was going to kill him. So, his mother helped him flee – she sent him to live with her brother who lived a several days' journey away. On the way to safety, Jacob had a strange dream. Listen now to the story of the dream:

Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Harran. 

When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. 

He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 

There above it stood the Lord, and he said: “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.”

When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” 

He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”

Here ends this reading of the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Let us pray….

Message Jacob Steals a Blessing

In the dream about Jacob’s ladder, God blessed Jacob…God blessed Jacob and extended the Abrahamic covenant to him and his offspring, even though Jacob had behaved badly to his brother and father. What does this say about God? Why would God reward such a flawed person?

Jacob’s family is the epitome of toxic. His parents had favorite children. His mother connived against his father and his brother. The boys were pitted against each other by their parents. Their father was raised by his grandparents to be the fulfillment of all of their dreams…yet his grandparents had their own share of dysfunction. 

Jacob left one toxic family system and entered another. He sought protection and rescue in the family of his mother’s brother, Laban, who used him for labor, tricked him into marrying a wife he didn’t want or pick, and later had to flee with his 12 children and four wives from the wrath of his uncle-slash-father-in-law. Jacob’s own children tried to kill each other, sold one of their brothers into slavery, and one of his sons raped his own sister. Not an ideal family-system.

Yet, these messed up people and this messed up family is blessed by God. These are the people who are our ancestors in the faith – the patriarchs and matriarchs of Judaism and Christianity.

We believe in a God who blesses imperfect people. I hope none of us come from families of origin that were as terrible as Jacob’s, but there are people in this room who have come from toxic families. We may be currently navigating relationships with people who are not easy to get along with or with whom we don’t feel safe. And, we know stories about our friends and neighbors and know that people we know have troubled, messy lives. 

The people in the Bible, like Jacob and his family, are examples of how God uses imperfect people. The example they set for us is that no matter how unworthy we feel, no matter how flawed we believe ourselves to be, we are still capable of doing helpful and just and useful and Godly actions in our lives. We must not let our pasts define us. We must not allow our pasts to predict our futures. God loves us. God needs us to do God’s work in the world. We are called to be attentive to guidance of the Holy Spirit – maybe the Spirit is speaking to us in our dreams, or in the quiet times of our days, or when we are walking around our neighborhoods clearing our heads. God has work for us to do. And, God will use us to care for God’s creation, to love God’s people, and to work on God’s behalf to repair our broken world. 

So, take heart, and remember, no matter what kind of family we are part of, no matter what mistakes we have made, no matter what we haven’t done yet in our lives, we are being called by our God to do God’s work in the here and now. So, let’s listen to God pulling on our heart strings. 

May it be so. Amen. 

Abraham's Real Test -- A Message for September 14, 2025

 Friends, we are in the second week of September. During our worship services, we use a series of readings called the Narrative Lectionary that recommend our scriptures for the week. The scripture readings are chosen to fit together in a narrative – if we follow the suggested readings for the four year cycle, we will cover a large swath of the Bible and have a clearer picture of the story of our faith.

One of my seminary professors loved to say that people are messy – we rarely get everything right. We make mistakes. Tragedies befall us.

The story of our faith is also messy. The Bible is a record of believers and how they related to God. In the written words of the Bible, they wrote down how they experienced God. Sometimes they believed God to be loving and good; other times, they were afraid of God, and afraid of God’s vengeance. Sometimes, they were unsure – they didn’t understand why God did things the way God did them.

Today’s reading is one of the most difficult passages in our Bible. It is a “text of terror” – a story that we don’t usually hear preached about because it is so upsetting. Although I remember learning about this story when I was a little kid, it certainly is one of the uncomfortable stories modern parents probably avoid exploring with their children. 

So, despite our discomfort, let us turn now to Genesis Chapters 21 and 22.  

Scripture Reading: Genesis 21:1-3; 22:1-14

Now the Lord was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised. 

Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him. 

Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore him. 

Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!”

“Here I am,” he replied.

Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”

Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. 

On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. 

He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.”

Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, 

Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?”

“Yes, my son?” Abraham replied.

“The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”

Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together.

When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 

Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 

But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”

“Here I am,” he replied.

“Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”

Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. 

So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”

Here ends this reading of the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Let us pray….

Message Abraham’s Real Test

This story sounds horrible to us – Isaac was the special son born to Abraham and Sarah after a prossibly 60 year wait. They longed for a son of their own during the many years of thier marriage. And, God promised them that if they followed God, left their homeland, and migrated aroud the Middle East, that they would one day have human descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky. Their opportunity to have grandchildren and descendants hinged on Isaac having children of his own. So, what was God thinking when God told Abraham to take Isaac and sacrifice him??!!??

This story is very troubling indeed.

Many ministers hestiate to preach on this text. We struggle to figure out what the “good news” is in this story from our faith.

But, we are not immune to sometimes thinking that God is cruel. Even though we like to think of ourselves as rational, and mature, and educated, and enlightened….we sometimes succumb to thinking in a very black and white way. If we experience a tradegy, or a loss, or a disappointment, we sometimes blame God for the problem – why did God let this happen to me? What did God allow this bad thing to happen to someone I love? Why is God punishing me in this way? Why is God out to get me?

When we read about God telling Abraham to kill Isaac, we read about a God that is punitive and irrational and cruel. He put Abraham through a horrible trial in order to test his faith and obedience in God. This doesn’t fit into a more New Testament way to imagine God – God is love. The Letter of 1st John explores this again and again: “ Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.“ We are more comfortable conceiving of a warm and fussy and loving God, not the punitive, Old Testament version of God.

This story from Abraham’s life may tell us more about Abraham thant it tells us about God. Abraham lived in a time period when child sacrifice was common. Abraham lived in a area where child sacrifice was common. Abraham grew up in a culture where child sacrifice was common. When crops failed…when droughts occurred…when wars were looming, people sacrificed children. They thought that killing children would appease their gods, and motivate thier gods to do what they wanted. 

In the events we read about this morning, Abraham starts to follow the child sacrifice rituals. He travels to a special worship site. He brings wood and the victim. He sends away the servants. He has the victim, Isaac, carry the wood himself – creepy but what they did. Isaac questioned his dad because this was something they hadn’t done before, but he was probably old enough that he knew the neighbors sacrificed human children and was worried about what was going to happen to him. Isaac was loyal and trusting and willing to do what his father demaded….Isaac allowed himself to be tied up. And, in the nick of time, God called the whole thing off.

In the moment that God made Abraham stop, God redeemed the situation. God provided a ram to be slaughtered. From this point onward, God said that no more children should be sacrificed. A custom of the ancient Middle East, that children must be sacrificed to appease the gods, was ended forever for the faith that came to dominate the Middle East….all believers from the families of faith that see Abraham as our forebearer are against the sacrifice of children…Jewish people don’t sacrifice children, Muslim people don’t sacrifice children, Christian people don’t sacrifice children. Child sacrifice is no longer a part of any world religion.

We weren’t there when this incident took place. We weren’t in Abraham’s head. Jewish scholars and rabbis have suggested that this story is part of our scripture to teach us that even when we think we are being directed to do something by the voice of God, if what we are being asked to do goes against God’s nature and who we know God to be, then the voice we are hearing is likely not God’s voice – We should therefore revaluate our actions. Some of the stories of our faith teach us what we are not supposed to do.  

When God intervened, he saved Isaac’s life. Our God is a creative force for good – God wants life, not death. God wants good, not evil. God gave Abraham and Sarah an important mission, an important calling, to be the forebearers of countless people. When we chose to believe in Jesus, we were grafted into the line of succession, the line of descendants that were birthed by Abraham and Sarah. 

So, even when people get things wrong, or when they may think God is telling them to do something wrong, we are called to strive for health, wholeness, and love in our relations with each other. God’s nature is good and just…let us work for goodness and justice in our world and in our relationships with each other. Amen.

God's Good Creation -- A Message for September 7, 2025

 

Today is Welcome Back Sunday in church. Just as the school year is starting, we are in the beginning of a few things here at Trinity. Sunday school is resuming for young people. The time of our Adult Bible Study has moved to its 8:30 “regular time” slot. And, we resume using our Narrative Lectionary to guide our worship services.

A lectionary is a schedule of Scripture readings that we use in worship and also is used by Christian believers in their personal worship life. Lectionaries have been used by Christians since they were developed in the 4th century. We follow them in our worship life so we can hear many of the important stories from the Bible regularly in worship. We began using a lectionary called the Narrative Lectionary last year – it is a four year cycle of scripture readings that emphasises the stories of the Bible and the ways those stories and events are connected to each other. The Narrative Lectionary follows the school year calendar – each year, the fall readings come from the Old Testament, the Gospel readings are in the Advent and Christmas season, and the readings for the rest of the year focus on Jesus’ life and ministry. 

Every year, the first reading of the Fall focuses on Creation. So, this morning, we will turn to Genesis Chapter 1 and read the first of the creation stories in our Bible. 

Scripture Genesis 1:1–2:4a

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 

2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 

5 God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.

6 And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.” 

7 So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. 

8 God called the vault “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.

9 And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. 

10 God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good.

11 Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so. 

12 The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. 

13 And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day.

14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, 

15 and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. 

16 God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. 

17 God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, 

18 to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. 

19 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.

20 And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.” 

21 So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 

22 God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.” 

23 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day.

24 And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. 

25 God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.

26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

27 

So God created mankind in his own image,
    in the image of God he created them;
    male and female he created them.

28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

29 Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 

30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.

31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.

2 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.

2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 

3 Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.

4 This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, when the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.

Amen

Here ends this reading of the Word of God for the People of God. Thanks be to God. Amen

Let us pray…

Message God’s Good Creation

The first chapter of Genesis was not written to be a science textbook. It was not intended by its authors to be a history text either. The men and women scribes who wrote down the poetic words of the book of Genesis were putting on parchment words that were memorized and repeated and passed down from one generation to the next. They were not meant to be a factual recording of an event that exactly happened the way it was written, but were intended to express the faith of a people that believed God created the world and is present in the created world. 

Instead of being a history, or a natural science textbook, the Bible is primarily a testimony about God’s relationship with God’s people. The first chapter of Genesis is a summary of how God created the world and us. We believe in God’s creative action in the world….God created the heavens and the earth. There are several creation stories in the Bible – the one we read just now; the story that follows with Adam and Eve in the Garden: the first chapter of John that tells about the Word being in the beginning; and the creation story in Psalm 104, a story that praises God and says: “How many are your works, Lord! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.” So, we believe God has been present in creation – and God is still present in creation.

In Genesis 1, after each portion of the heavens and earth were created, God exclaimed that they were good. The light was good. The land and the seas were good. The vegetation was good. Day and night were good. The birds and the sea creatures were good. The creatures who lived on land were good. Verse thirty-one says: “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.” 

We, the people, sometimes struggle to see the Good in each other. We, the people, sometimes struggle to see the good in ourselves. But, this story of Creation reminds us that God sees us as inherently good. Yes, we make mistakes. Yes, we are not perfect. Yes, we even sometimes do the wrong things on purpose. But, at our core, we are good. God loves us, warts and all. And, when we interact with other people, it is important to remember they are also good. They are also loved by God, even in their imperfections. It is important for us to work to recognize the good in each other. Even when we are running out of patience, and are frustrated, and are angry, that the people around us are loved by God and are good, and we should love them as well.

The world of the twenty-first century is chaotic. The news is full of strange events and odd political decisions and fear-mongering. When we hear about what is happening in the wider world, it is overwhelming. 

But, in the creation story for Genesis 1, God is very logical. God has a plan. God is meticulous. This reminds us that God has a logical plan for us and lives have a God-ordained meaning. We may feel overwhelmed by the chaos and disorder we witness in the world, but the first story of creation reminds us that God has a plan, God has an order, God has a design for us and our lives that is entirely methodical and good. 

On the seventh day of creation, God rested. God took a break. God didn’t need to keep busy all of the time and keep working and keep doing. God stopped and rested and relaxed. This reminds us, in our increasingly busy and complex lives, that we also need to take breaks – to take a good look at the wonders God created – take time to appreciate God and appreciate all that God does for us – and breathe. God made us as beings who are capable of doing wondrous and amazing things, and God also created us as beings who need to pause and rest and appreciate the blessings we have received. 

God made us as stewards of God’s creation. Stewardship is responsibly planning and managing resources. We are stewards of the created world, and are called to care for each other, care for people who are struggling, care for the created world, and carefully manage the gifts God has passed down to us. 

The first story of Genesis, the creation story of Genesis 1, reminds us of several things. All that we have, all that we are, is created and given to us by our loving God. God made this world and declared it Good. God made us and declared us Good. We may not understand why our world seems so unpredictable, but our God has a plan for us and and order for doing things that is logical and good. God created us to care for God’s creation and each other, and as beings who need to pause and appreciate all that we have been blessed to inherit from God in our world and in our lives. 

So, let us remember, God made the world and declared it Good. Let us work to bring good into the world as we care for God’s creation and each other. Amen.