Reflections on "Dreaming of Heaven" Genesis 28: 10-17; Acts 10: 9-16

Another sermon that I really liked preaching.  I think I'm going to enjoy this series on OT stories.

That being said, I also could have done some different things.  If I preached it again, I might be tempted to do one of the following:

     1.  Start with Aka's statue of Jacob's ladder and move into different interpretations of what the ladder could mean to us and use that as the framework for the sermon.

     2.  Or, tie it more directly in with Martin Luther King, Jr. and his "I Have a Dream" speech.  I did my preparatory work several weeks ago, so I wasn't really thinking about the following Monday being MLK, Jr. celebration.  While preaching the sermon in the Sanctuary, it hit me that I had missed that connection, which led to me adding a sentence at the end.  That theme probably should have had more impact on the sermon.

I also told read the story, told it again in the Time with Young Disciples, and then told it a third time in the sermon.  That repetition is intentional to help people learn the story, but it might be too much.

“Dreaming of Heaven” January 19, 2014; Genesis 28: 11-22; Acts 10: 9-16; OT Stories series; FPC, Troy;

Introduction: are you a dreamer?  I am not. This morning we read about dreams.

First, Jacob’s dream.  A ladder that reaches to the heavens with angels ascending and descending on it.  More than likely, you have seen it as if the angels were dancing up and down on the ladder.

We also read of Peter’s trance-induced dream.  Again, very visual – a sheet being lowered with all sorts of reptiles and four-legged creatures and a voice calling out, “Get up Peter, kill…eat”

I want to focus on Jacob’s dream this morning and reflect on Jacob, the one who has the dream; the place where Jacob dreams; the ladder in the dream; and finally, the God about whom we learn in the dream.

Move 1: Jacob.  Remember Jacob?

            a.  Jacob, the twin of Esau who leaves the womb just a few seconds after Esau.

1. In theory, that means Esau is the older brother who will receive his father Isaac’s blessing and the birthright.

2. But Jacob, who comes into the world pulling on Esau’s heel, is named Jacob because it means literally “heel-puller.”

3.  A term also used to describe a scoundrel or a rascal.

4.  Jacob, who will spend his life living into that name.

5. He’s the kind of guy who makes you check to make sure you still have your wallet and your money after you have met him.

6.  The kind of guy where you better read the fine print of the contract.

7. The kind of guy who will find a way to gain an advantage even if the fine print does not allow it.

b. This story immediately follows Jacob stealing the birthright from his Esau.

1. He has fooled his father Isaac as his father lay sick in the bed.

2. Then in a hard to understand moment, Isaac receives his father’s blessing.

3. We catch up to Jacob as he is fleeing from home to escape his brother’s wrath.

c. Apparently, Jacob has no place to go and ends up in the middle of nowhere.

1.  With no pillow for his head, he grabs a rock.

2. I don’t’ know about you, but I think I might have a restless night’s sleep if I was lying on the ground with a rock for my pillow.

d. His restless sleep includes a dream.

1. Jacob apparently does remember his dreams.

2. In fact, dreaming becomes a family tradition as we recall that his son Joseph will one day have dreams and be an interpreter of dreams.

3. Both Jacob and Joseph have dreams that reveal God.

Move 2: stop for a moment and think about the place where Jacob has his dream.

a.      Dream takes place where Jacob stops for the night.

1.      This is just a spot in the road.

2.      Non-descript, never heard of before place.

3.      No reason for Jacob to be there, except it’s where he stops to sleep.

4.      Nowhere important.

b.      Until the dream.

1.      After the dream reveals God to Jacob, he names the place Bethel.

2.      Bethel, which literally means “house of God.”

3.      Bethel will become an important place in the history of God’s people.

c. Bethel takes on importance because of God’s presence.

Move 3: What about that ladder?

            a. Probably more like a stairway to heaven than a ladder like we would think of one.

                        1. More of a ramp than ladder going straight up.

                        2. As someone who has fallen off a ladder, I sort of like this image of ramp!

            b. Dream has angels coming back and forth between earths.

1. Serves as a reminder that God comes into our midst.

2.  The earth is a place where God is at work.

3.  Earth is a place of possibilities.

4. Too often we look around us and see limitations.

5. The ladder speaks of possibilities for what God can do.

6. The sky is the limit, so to speak, because as the ladder reaches into the sky it brings God’s presence into our midst.

c. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, had an interesting and compelling image of the ladder.

1.  Represents the mediation of Christ.

2. Christ is the ladder. The foot on earth in his human nature, the top in heaven in his divine nature; or the former is his humiliation, the latter is his exaltation. All the intercourse between heaven and earth since the fall is by this ladder.

3.  Christ is the way: all God's favours come to us, and all our services come to him, by Christ. If God dwell with us, and we with him, it is by Christ: we have no way of getting to heaven but by this ladder; for the kind offices the angels do us, are all owing to Christ, who hath reconciled things on earth and things in heaven, Colossians i, 20. (http://www.ccel.org/ccel/wesley/notes.ii.ii.xxix.ii.html)

4. I sort of like that image.

4. We also have the visual image of the metal sculpture that sits outside our church that was sculpted by Aka Pereyma.  

1.      Not a ramp.

2.      Not a ladder like you would use to put up Christmas lights on the house.

3.      an artist’s rendition using metal and welding as her tools.

4.      If you go back far enough in your memory banks, before the new addition, you might remember that the ladder was oriented in a different direction.

5.      Little known story – it now faces the wrong way. 

6.      Jacob’s ladder was originally directed toward the church.  I think it was to symbolize the God who comes into the world comes into the life of the church. 

7.      I sort of like that.  It can preach.  The angels descend into the midst of this congregation to empower us to be the body of Christ.

8.      Turned around.  Architect’s decision.  Not sure it was theological.   But I sort of like that orientation as well.  It too will preach.  The ladder from heaven directing the church into the world.

9.      I was there when the architect and the artist talked.  I heard them come to an agreement about the new orientation.  But later it turns out Aka didn’t really understand what the architect was talking about.  She was not happy with the way Jacob’s ladder now faces.

10.  I sort of like it facing out into the world.  But, I also like knowing how it originally faced as well.

A strong reminder of the God who comes to earth, calls us to be the body of Christ and sends us into the world to serve Christ.

Move 3: The God revealed in the dream.

a.  I read an article recently about how we all live out a script (These theses about rewriting the script were presented by Walter Brueggemann at the Emergent Theological Conversation, September 13-15, 2004, All Souls Fellowship, Decatur, GA., USA]

1. Script typically connected to the worldview.

2. Power, consumerism, self-interest first.

3. Role of God’s Word and the church to rewrite the script.

b.  God rewrites Jacob’s script.

1.  You do not have to steal. I will give you my blessing.

2. You do not have to flee in fear.  I will go with you.

3.  You are not alone in this place.  I am present with you.

            c. Peter’s dream in the Acts.

                        1.  Script was the rules and regulations.

                        2. God rewrites the script and releases Peter to know the freeing power of the gospel and to share that with the world.

c.      The same God who calls us to rewrite our scripts. 

1.      To know God’s presence in our midst.

2.      To lay claim to what God calls us to do and to be in our world.

3.      To turn away from the world’s view of things and see things in light of our call to follow Christ.

Conclusion:  Charlie Brown cartoon:  Charlie and Lucy are going through the psychiatrist-patient routine. Charlie asks about his dreams and why they occur. Lucy says, "The dreams  of the night prepare you for the day that follows / at night when you are sleeping your brain is really working / trying to sort out everything for  you / trying to make yourself see you as you really are." Charlie starts to leave saying, "Even my brain is against me."

Jacob dreams;  tomorrow we celebrate the life of Martin Luther King who shared a dream for what this country could be in the 20^th C; we dare to dream;  not to discover that our brain is against us, but to discover the God who is for us.

Again, I have relied on Walter Brueggeman’s commentary on Genesis that is part of the Interpretation series.