Eric Lemonholm

August 7, 2011

Proper 14 A – with alternate Scripture

Genesis 25:19-34, Genesis 27:1-45; Matthew 14:22–33

 God Chooses You!

If you remember, God had promised Abraham and Sarah that God will watch over their son Isaac, and that through Isaac God will create a nation that will bless the world: the people of Israel.

Finally, after 20 years of marriage, Isaac’s wife Rebekah is pregnant – with twins!

But the pregnancy is no cake walk for Rebekah – it seems like the twins are wrestling within her.

Finally, she asks God about it, and God answers 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.” 

The elder shall serve the younger – that is not how things were done in the ancient world, and yet Isaac was not the eldest son either.

So, why does God choose Jacob over his older brother Esau? 

Why does God side with the younger sibling?

After all, Esau is a burly, hairy, macho hunter of a man, while Jacob stays with his mom at the old homestead.

Even more, Jacob is a bit of a heel, as his name suggests: he manipulates his brother into selling his birthright for a bowl of stew, and with his mother’s help Jacob fools his father Isaac into blessing him instead of Esau.

 

We don’t know why God chose Jacob “the heel.”

It’s like grace.

Why did God choose to create, love, and save you and me?

It’s a mystery of God’s freedom.

God is free to choose, and God chooses you.

 

Jesus’ choice of disciples is like that, too.

Why did Jesus choose Peter, the rough around the edges fisherman, to be his #1 disciple?

Obviously, Jesus saw something in Peter that other rabbis did not.

And it’s that rapscallion Peter who jumps out of the boat in faith!

 

In the same way, in God’s wisdom, God chooses Jacob, an unlikely hero, to be the father of God’s people Israel.

 

One of the reasons we are telling some of the stories from Genesis that we don’t usually hear in worship is because they are so earthy: God works through imperfect people like me and like you.

God works in, among, and through us despite our limitations.

No matter who you are, God has created you as a unique, wonderful person, and God wants to work love and justice through you.

God can work in and through our disagreements and conflicts.

God can work in and through sibling rivalry.

God can even work through Jacob’s manipulation and deception to bring about a greater good in the end, as we shall see in the next few weeks.

 

That’s how God works.

Despite us and our limitations, conflicts, hurts, and mistakes, God blesses our neighbors through us.

God speaks words of love and correction to us through our neighbors.

In and around our fellowship as sisters and brothers in Christ, the Fellowship of the Triune God – Father, Son, and Spirit – dances.

 

This fall, we are going to go on a journey of faith together as a congregation.

We are going to explore the book of Acts, the story of God doing extraordinary things through ordinary people to spread the word of Jesus Christ.

Acts is the story of God’s Holy Spirit moving through Jesus’ friends to begin the movement that becomes known as the church.

We will also be using a curriculum called Bible Song, which combines music, movement, art, and conversation to teach God’s word, to help us all to memorize one Bible verse each week, and to help us grow in faith in our own homes using the Faith 5.

The Faith 5 is a simple model of caring conversation, prayer, and blessing that can be done in the home or Bible study (see the handout):

1. SHARE your highs and lows of the day
2. READ a Bible verse
3. TALK about your highs and lows, relating them to the Bible verse
4. PRAY for one another’s highs and lows
5. BLESS one another with the sign of the cross

 

We trust that God “who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.” (Phil. 1:6)

And, we want to help open one another to God’s good work in us by giving us the tools to grow in faith together.

 

Through our wider church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, we also trust God to work through ordinary people like you and me.

Next week, over 1,000 members of the ELCA will gather in Orlando for our Churchwide Assembly – including our own Lori M.

It was my privilege to meet the members of the 2011 Churchwide Assembly from our Northern Illinois Synod yesterday.

Next week, they will gather together and pray, worship, and discern God’s direction for our life together.

They will pray, discern, and vote on an important Social Statement on Genetics, which will guide our wrestling with complex scientific and moral issues for decades to come.

I encourage you to check out the ELCA website (see the handout) and learn more about what Lori and other leaders will be doing there.  Pray for the Churchwide Assembly.

 

We trust that God works through us together, in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Just as God worked through Rebekah and Jacob, Isaac and Esau, despite themselves.

 

After Jacob had stolen his brother Esau’s blessing, Esau vowed to kill Jacob, and Jacob had to flee to another land, to his uncle Laban’s home.

Jacob’s actions sent him on a life journey that changes him and his descendents to this day.

We will continue Jacob’s story next week.

 

For now, it is enough to remind one another that God loves us, and God chooses us and calls us for a purpose: to love God and our neighbors.

Turn to your neighbor and say:

God loves you – and God calls you – to love your neighbors.

 

Thanks be to God!