Another text I have never preached (or at least I don't remember preaching it). In Brueggemann's commentary, he references the 2 Corinthians passage when discussing the Esau text. Clearly, it impacted the way I shaped the sermon. I love preaching these stories with so many things happening. It might be fun one day to preach the same story over three or four weeks, and each week have a different sermon theme. Or, it could bore the congregation!
Every sermon right now is preached in light of the social unrest in our country and the time of pandemic. it reminds me of how contextual God's Word is, even as we recognize God's claim is not only for one particular moment.
“Changed?” June 28, 2020; St. Andrew Presbyterian Church, Denton; Genesis 33: 1-17; 2 Corinthians 5: 16-21 Richard B. Culp
Now Jacob looked up and saw Esau coming, and four hundred men with him. So he divided the children among Leah and Rachel and the two maids. 2 He put the maids with their children in front, then Leah with her children, and Rachel and Joseph last of all. 3 He himself went on ahead of them, bowing himself to the ground seven times, until he came near his brother.
4 But Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept. 5 When Esau looked up and saw the women and children, he said, “Who are these with you?” Jacob said, “The children whom God has graciously given your servant.” 6 Then the maids drew near, they and their children, and bowed down; 7 Leah likewise and her children drew near and bowed down; and finally Joseph and Rachel drew near, and they bowed down. 8 Esau said, “What do you mean by all this company that I met?” Jacob answered, “To find favor with my lord.” 9 But Esau said, “I have enough, my brother; keep what you have for yourself.” 10 Jacob said, “No, please; if I find favor with you, then accept my present from my hand; for truly to see your face is like seeing the face of God—since you have received me with such favor. 11 Please accept my gift that is brought to you, because God has dealt graciously with me, and because I have everything I want.” So he urged him, and he took it.
12 Then Esau said, “Let us journey on our way, and I will go alongside you.” 13 But Jacob said to him, “My lord knows that the children are frail and that the flocks and herds, which are nursing, are a care to me; and if they are overdriven for one day, all the flocks will die. 14 Let my lord pass on ahead of his servant, and I will lead on slowly, according to the pace of the cattle that are before me and according to the pace of the children, until I come to my lord in Seir.”
15 So Esau said, “Let me leave with you some of the people who are with me.” But he said, “Why should my lord be so kind to me?” 16 So Esau returned that day on his way to Seir. 17 But Jacob journeyed to Succoth,[a] and built himself a house, and made booths for his cattle; therefore the place is called Succoth.
Introduction: We continue our summer preaching series, “People Like Us,” with the invitation to hear the story and reflect on what you can take away from the stories of others that would be helpful in your life as a follower of Christ.
This week, another story of brothers. Instead of Cain killing Abel, we have Jacob and Esau reuniting after many years apart.
Move 1: Background to the story.
a. Like any family saga/drama, there is history.
1. Seldom does that dramatic story in family relationships just happen out fo the blue.
2. Things have happened in the past; hurt feelings; maybe some good memories; events etched in the minds of those involved in the latest drama.
3.So it is with Jacob and Esau.
4. When last they had seen each other, Jacob was running away from Esau because Esau was full of fury and threatening to kill Jacob.
5. Rightfully so, I might add - well, maybe not kill his brother, but Jacob had tricked his brother, lied to their father, and ended up with Esau’s birthright and blessing.
6. One of the great mysteries to me in the biblical text is why God chooses Jacob to be one of the leaders of God’s people.
b. Jacob is now returning to his homeland for the first time in many, many years.
1. He had run away to work for his Uncle Laban, he has continued his swindling ways.
2. In fairness to Jacob, his Uncle Laban has tried to cheat and manipulate Jacob on several counts, including the old switch the wife on the wedding night trick.
3. But Jacob is up to the task and manages to come out ahead with lots of family and riches.
d. Just prior to meeting Esau, Jacob has sent his family across the river, and he spends the night alone.
1. We might remember that when Jacob was fleeing from his brother he spent the night alone and had a dream with a message from God.
2. On this night when Jacob is alone an an unnamed man appears in the night and wrestles with him. thestory does not reveal who do not now who the
Was it a river thief in the night? An angel of God? God’s own self? or was Jacob wrestling with his own demons on the night before he faces his brother?
All we know is that Jacob has wrestled through the night, and his reward is a new name, Israel, and a injury that causes him to limp.
e. A final thought for background to this story - Do no forget that Jacob is returning back to his homeland at God’s command.
1. In other words, what is about to unfold is at God’s behest.
2. Jacob’s encounter with Easy and the future that awaits God’s people, hereafter known as Israel, is of God’s doing.
Move 1: When Jacob meets his brother Esau, he discovered a changed person.
a. As Jacob approaches Esau, he does not seem to expect a brother who has changed.
1. jacob has sent emissaries with gifts to smooth the way.
2. he has set up his caravan so his wives and children are at the front, almost a buffer for Jacob that might appeal to Esau’s mercy.
3. When the emissaries return and tell Jacob that Esau is coming with 400 men, Jacob assumes the worst.
4. he divides his group into two so Esau will only destroy half of his caravan.
5. And Jacob pleads to God for help. and is distressed.
b. Jacob expects a brother with vengeance in mind; Esau arrives as a brother with the open arms of reconciliation.
1. We do not know what has happened to Esau.
2. Years have passed, but I suspect there have not been enough years gone by for Esau to have moved on from his anger and the course direction Jacob brought to his life with his manipulative actions.
2. something more than the passing of time has happened.
3. Esau has had a change of heart.
4. To use Paul’s language, Esau has become a new creation.
5. The God who will be known as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob has been at work in Esau’s life and called him to a new understanding of how he should engage his brother Jacob.
c. That, of course, is what happens when we become new creations.
1. God calls us to give up that which holds us back and invites us to new possibilities, new relationships, and new life.
2. As Paul tells the Corinthians and reminds us, at the heart of those new possibibities, now relationships, and new life is reconciliation.
3. 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself,[d] not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. 20 So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
4. Being a new creation is not jus for the sake of “oh, I want to do something different,” or “I need a change of pace.”
5. We are called to be new creations so that we can beGod’s ambassadors of reconciliation in the world.
6. As we live in a time with people crying out for change in the symbols we use, the ways in which we police, how we share power, how we view each other, at the heart of the conversation should be our desire to be ambassadors of reconciliation.
7. there may not be easy answers, but I challenge all of us as we work to find answers to make sure that any answer we have offers the hope and possibility of reconciliation.
d. This week I read a story about two churches in Charlotte, NC . pandemic possibilities
1. Two Presbyterian churches.
2. One is the tall-steepled First Presbyterian Church, which was established in 1821. It’s history goes back to a time when slave owners would sit in the pews with their slaves.
3. After the Civil War and the freeing of slaves, the church relegated the freed slaves from worshipping in downstairs’ pews to the balcony.
4. Not only a physical divide, but a refection of the unreconciled divide between people.
5. In 1866, the freed slaves started their own church, First United Presbyterian Church, a stone’s throw away from the First Presbyterian Church.
6. The two church have continued as separate churches over 150 years. IN the last decade or so, there have been some measures taken to connect the congregations. Shared Bible study for four weeks each year, including a meal together.
7. In recent years they have worked to worship together twice a year - once in each church’s sanctuary.
8. Then the pandemic. first Presbyterian Church already had a TV ministry that reached 20-30K households a Sunday morning.
9. The idea came about - why not have the worship leadership from both churches come together to lead worship. So now the ministers from both church lead worship together.
10. As the minister of First Unied Presbyterian Church notes: “I never imagined that God would move in the midst of this pandemic, bringing healing and blessing,” said the Rev. Lorenzo Small Sr., pastor of First United Presbyterian.
(“How a pandemic brought healing to a centuries-old racial wound,” https://www.presbyterianmission.org/story/pt-0720-outreach/)
11. who knows what the long-term future will hold, but in this moment, the possibilities of reconciliation are being realized in a way not seen before.
Move 3: Let me finish by pointing out the question Jacob asks his brother: “Why should my lord be so kind to me?
a. The only answer, the only possible answer is God’s grace
1. God’s grace in Esau’s life.
2. God’s grace the invited Esau to move beyond his desire to kill his brother and receive his brother with open arms.
3. God’s grace in Jacob’s life that allows him to return to his homeland and continue on as the leader of God’s people.
4. God’s grace that will continue to unfold.
b. Fo course, as Jacob asks the question, we are not sure if he will accept Esau’s gift of grace from God.
1. In fact, Jacob immediately rebuffs Esau’s offer to walk forward side by side.
2. Jacob, in fact, finds his own place away from his brother to build his new home.
3. Jacob is not sure if he can trust God’s grace he discovers in Esau.
4. i am reminded of Donald MIller’s reflection on grace. he writes: “I would hear about grace, read about grace, and even sing about grace, but accepting grace is an action I could not understand. It seemed wrong to me not to have to pay for my sin, not to feel guilty about it or kick myself around. More than that, grace did not seem like the thing I was looking for. It was too easy. I wanted to feel as though I earned my forgiveness, as though God and I were buddies doing favors for each other…I love to give charity, but I don’t want to be charity. This is why I have so much trouble with grace.” (Blue Like Jazz, Donald Miller, 83-84 FPC, Troy; 5/11/14; Easter series 2014)
Conclusion: Lots of call for change in our world today.
1. Why should we consider change? Why should we believe that we can change, or accept the change in others?
2. Why - because we know God’s grace.
I also consulted the following resources for this sermon: Amy Merrill Willis’ article on Genesis 32 at http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=2132; Genesis (from Interpretation series) by Walter Brueggeman; and Genesis (from Westminster Bible Commentary) by W. Sibley Towner.
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