God's Presence: The Story of Jacob's Ladder

The following is a sermon manuscript. Please disregard any grammar errors as this was originally intended to be read by only me. Someone (me) forgot to record the sermon this week so this is what we’ve got!

There's a term in addiction recovery called "rock bottom." It's where an addict finally realizes how much they've sacrificed for the sake of their addiction and that it feels like things can't get worse. It's the lowest they've ever been in their life, and it's often a motivation to begin recovery if they have support around them to help. The term "rock bottom" is also used more loosely to describe when life gets so hard it feels like nothing will get better. It's generally a place of helplessness and isolation. Rock bottom is a lonely place to be.  

It used to be said that an addict had to reach rock bottom before they could start reversing course and move forward towards sobriety. But more recent studies are showing that perhaps the most important step to addiction recovery is a community and belonging. It's people around the addict who help them, not by enabling them, but by loving and encouraging them to move forward. By providing for their basic needs including human connection. When addicts has these needs met and feels sense of belonging, it's often motivating to help them move towards the community and pursue a sense of belonging over pursuing the substance. 

Today's story isn't about an addict, but it is about someone who has been pursuing their own selfish desires over what's best for them and their family. Like with an addict's life often is, Jacob's life was filled with secrecy and deceit to pursue what he wanted. We know he deceived his father and brother with the help of his mother. And today we're going to see the consequences of that action and we'll also see how connection and belonging begins to turn things around. 

We're going to read from Genesis 28:10-17. I'll be reading from the NRSV. I encourage you to turn in your Bible or click to the Bible app on your phone and follow along with Genesis 28:10-17. The words will also be on the screen. Here now the Word of the Lord. 

10 Jacob left Beer-sheba and went toward Haran. 11 He came to a certain place and stayed there for the night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place. 12 And he dreamed that there was a stairway set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 13 And the Lord stood beside him and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring, 14 and your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you and in your offspring. 15 Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land, for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” 16 Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place—and I did not know it!” 17 And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.” 

Last week we learned about a family who tried to do things their way instead of God's way and ended up irreparably divided. Team Rebekah and Jacob tried deception and conniving to steal Esau's birthright and blessing, something that had already been promised to Jacob from God. They were pursuing the plans of God but not in the ways of God. And Team Isaac and Esau were disregarding the plans of God trying to bless Esau the elder against the oracle from their birth which states the elder would serve the younger. We said from this as followers of God we must pursue the plans AND ways of God, and that how we do that is by pursuing God Himself.  

Today we continue this story with Jacob. Jacob has been sent away with another blessing from Isaac and with a task: find a wife from the household of Laban, Rebekah's brother. I know this sounds odd to us, but it was common in that time essentially to keep the bloodline pure. So Jacob is sent away. In this story we find Jacob alone. He's traveled just a short distance from home and has many hundreds of miles left before he reaches Laban. 

What must Jacob have been thinking? He's in an undisclosed location translated as "a certain place" likely to communicate that Jacob didn't know where he was. He was alone. Away from his mother whom he adored. Away from his father who had just blessed him. Away from his brother who was seeking to kill him, but surely in this moment alone he's replaying precious childhood memories of Esau in his mind. He must have been so lonely and so full of regret. I imagine the events of the previous days and weeks replaying in his mind too. He's thinking of how excited he felt when he and his mom were planning this deception. Yeah it was wrong, but even doing wrong things with your favorite person can feel fun. It doesn't make them right or acceptable, but doing anything with your favorite person is fun. And his mom seemed to be his favorite person. And now he's separated from her and doesn't know when he'll see her again. He's thinking of the anger and hurt in his father's eyes when he realizes what he's done. And then this man who we know is more of an "indoorsman" than an outdoorsman is sleeping under the stars with a rock for a pillow. He must feel utterly alone.  

In a unknown place he falls asleep alone, and suddenly the God of Abraham sends him a vision. Jacob is no longer alone. He's surrounded by angels ascending to the heavens and descending to earth, and most of all, God is standing besides him. This is the character of God, isn't it? When we're alone and dealing with the consequences of our sin, God still shows up. God's grace reaches us even in our darkest, rock bottom moments. We'll get to what the angels teach us and what God says to Jacob in a moment, but I want to dwell here for a moment. 

Jacob had done absolutely nothing to earn God's presence in that moment. Besides striving for the blessing from Isaac as foretold in the oracle, I doubt that Jacob had given much thought to God. The most of his thoughts likely dwelled on what God could do for him and how he could use God. I seriously doubt that he had an intimate relationship with God as his grandfather Abraham did. Jacob did not to earn God's presence in that moment. And yet, here he is. 

Why? Why is God here with Jacob? It's actually a really simple answer with enormous implications. GRACE. Just grace. This is an excellent example of what we Wesleyan's call Prevenient grace. It's grace that goes before us before we're ever saved. It's grace that softens our hearts even just a little bit to be able to receive God's presence and salvation despite our sin nature. Prevenient grace is all around us. It empowers people to do good even if they don't have a relationship with God. It draws people TOWARDS a relationship with God. And in this moment prevenient grace is what Jacob experienced when God showed up with him undeserved.  

God's grace is one display of his faithfulness. God made a promise to Abraham to make him into a great nation. God chose Jacob to continue the line. So even though Jacob has wandered from the God of Abraham, God still saw Jacob and still pursuing Jacob. God is still faithful even when we are not. 

So whether we do good things or bad things, God's grace cannot be earned. You can't earn up enough good deeds to get more of God's grace. It's just a free gift given to us. It's there whether we recognize it or not. Certainly Jacob hadn't recognized it before that moment, but God's grace was difficult to avoid when God is standing right next to you. 

Let's move onto these angels. He sees them ascending and descending this ladder or stairway. That's why this passage is famously called "Jacob's ladder." In this Jacob ladder dream, these angels show Jacob that he's never alone. Even when he feels like he's alone – either in isolation as he is now or in the secrecy of deceit – he isn't really alone. God is always present and these angels are constantly attending to the work of God in the world. What a vision. What a gift to see that God's work is always being done. God is never idle. We're never having to wait on God to wake up from a nap before He can do something. He's always working Himself and through His angels throughout the world. And Jacob got to see that. 

Now the message from God. It should sound familiar it sounds a lot like the promise God made to Abraham, but now it's continued in its journey to Jacob. This land where Jacob is a stranger will one day be the home for his descendants, God's people. We have the repeated promises: your family will be numerous and your family will be a blessing to all the earth. And God says that he will not leave Jacob.  

Jacob, wandering and alone from his own sinfulness, is now experiencing the presence of God and seeing the evidence that is always at work even in this moment. In this moment he experienced God's grace despite his actions. That's just what God does. God's grace isn't about us or what we do. It's not about how good of a sermon I preach, how great of a parent you are today, or how hard you work in school. Yes those are good things, but none of them will EARN God's grace. It's just there for you. God's grace is present for you not because of anything you've done, but because of WHO GOD IS. God's grace is extending because God's nature is one of grace. I know I'm repeating myself but I am because I think this is hard for us to grasp. Too often we're consumed by shame from our sin like Jacob. Or we're trying to earn God's favor. And neither of those things is going to help us experience God's grace. It's just a free gift.  And then Jacob gets the additional gifts of hearing God's promise to Abraham repeated for Jacob, and he gets to the work of God in the angels coming down to earth. What immense gifts this man receives in this moment. 

How does Jacob respond in this moment? He responds in awe and worship. He recognizes his own ignorance that God has been at work this whole time, and he was in awe at God and all he saw. When we wakes up he ends up anointing that place and makes his own vow to God as an act of worship. Jacob's response is awe. It says Jacob is afraid too. I think there's something terrifying about experiencing something that's truly "awe-some". Something or someone that makes us full of awe. It makes us realize our smallness. I remember being at the Grand Canyon a few years ago. Though I had been there before as a child, the experience was still striking as an adult. It's beautiful and vast and terrifying. And yet it draws you into want to see and explore it. I imagine you have an experience such as that too where you were filled with awe. A sense of wonder and terror and yet you're drawn in to want more of it. That's what Jacob is experiencing here. Wonder and terror and yet wanting more.  

That's what God's grace does to us. It's so overwhelming that it almost feels scary, and yet it's something we so desperately need that we crave more and more. And the free nature of God's grace to us kind of flies in the face of us as Americans. We like to think we're totally independent and that if we can just pull ourselves up by our bootstraps we'll be okay. Or we think that I get to decide how my life goes and it's all my responsibility and no one else's. Both of those ideas can be rooted in good things. It's good to be hard working and it's good to be self aware and pursue good things. But if those things become your identity then grace feels so contrary to that. Because when we think that "me" is all I got, then when we have "Jacob's ladder" moments of our own, it feels so unexpected and maybe even a little insulting. How dare God think I can't do this myself? How dare God think I can't save myself? It's funny when we say these things out loud they immediately sound a little ridiculous. None of us are entirely independent. We learned that in the recent power outage. Even those of you with generators were suddenly very dependent on gasoline, and then dependent on cash to even get gas there for awhile. We are dependent on people and things. How much more are we dependent on the grace of the God who made us?  

I want to connect this back to what I mentioned at the beginning about addiction. Jacob thought he was all alone in this rock bottom moment. But God and his angels showed up and showed Jacob that he's not alone. God's amazing isn't he? Well before psychologists and sociologists started to figure out how important connection and belonging is, God knew. God knew that helping Jacob feel less alone would also help motivate Jacob to start looking for God and, slowly, he'll start pursuing the plans of God in the ways of God too. But it'll take him awhile to figure that out more fully. But for now, Jacob knows he isn't alone. And that is a good start. 

Much like Jacob, we're often blind to the work and presence of God around us. We get so caught up in the day-to-day of life that we just miss God. I do it too. I'm sure I don't have to tell you that a full time job with two little kids is not for the faint of heart. Life with two little kids is not for the faint of heart period. There's the early morning wake ups, middle of the night wake ups, incessantly asking for snacks all day, trying to have healthy snacks too, potty training, diaper changes, tv time, re-evaluating tv time, ... just to name some things we're dealing with at the moment. If we're not careful, we miss God too. Yes, even me. Even the pastor. If I don't intentionally look for God, I'll miss what He's doing too. 

In addition to the busy-ness of day to day life, we also might feel like we're in a wilderness like Jacob was. All alone and unsure what God could be doing. Perhaps we're in a place that feels godless even. Though Jacob learned that was present even there, I bet laying under the stars with his rock-pillow felt like a godless place to be. We have places that feel godless too. Perhaps when we look at the political election, read about heartbreaking world events, see the devastation from a hurricane, or maybe our godless place is when you're trying to file a home insurance claim for damage from Helene.  

So whether we're busying ourselves to death or we feel like we're in a godless place, it can be easy to miss what God is doing because we're so caught up in the circumstances. Like I said, I do this too. So what do we do when we're so caught up in our circumstances that we miss the work of God? When we're so caught up with the unfaithfulness of the world that we miss the faithfulness of God? When we think we can't receive God's grace?  

Here's what I do. It's simple but it comes with a warning. I just ask God to help me see Him work. Bring people into my path and bring me into other people's paths to help me see the work of God in the world. Here's the warning God's timing is far more concerned about people's needs than my convenience. So when you're on the way to Tybee Island for a vacation, as I was a few weeks ago, and a woman who was stranded at a gas station decides your husband looks trustworthy and asks him for help cause her car stopped working and she speaks broken english... God is far more concerned that you're there to help that woman that he is that we're going to be late for dinner. That happened to us recently. The day before I prayed that God would bring people into our path to show His love to. And He did! Phill did most of the helping, and I prayed before we left once she was squared away. We didn't know her, but God did. And in having us help this woman, God showed ME how He's working in the world. You see God isn't just working through his angels. He has others too. That's us. You and me. We are also the messengers that God is using to do his work in the world. 

I'm going to say it again: ask God to help you see that God is at work. Ask God to help you see Him. I firmly believe if you pray that prayer and you start to pay attention, God will show you ways he's working you've never noticed before. You'll understand a new level of God's grace and faithfulness in the world you haven't noticed before. You might think "God's doing something new here." But most likely God has been at work and you've been too busy to notice. But when you take the time to see it, it's amazing. 

And WHEN you see and experience God's faithfulness and grace, I bet you'll respond the same way Jacob did. You'll respond in worship.  Worship is so much more than just singing Christian songs. It's about experiencing God. It's about inviting God into our lives, seeing Him work, and responding with gratitude. The nature of worship could be a whole sermon series by itself, but for now know that worship is so much more than a song. It's a state of your heart towards God. Jacob worshiped God when he met him in that unknown place, and we worship God when we experience Him and see his work in the world. So ask God to know you what He's up to. I believe you'll see it. And if you want to be brave, do what I did and ask God to bring people into your life that He wants to help and love through YOU. He keeps doing that for me. It's a joy to be the hands and feet of God to others. It's a true joy. And I do indeed respond with heart-felt worship. 

If you haven't noticed, I end every sermon with a personal application. Something you can take with you and do even today. Even right now! And today's application is simple. Ask God to show you what He's doing and where He's at work around you. And for the bonus assignment, ask God to bring people into your path to help show His grace and love to. The bonus assignment won't earn you more grace or love, but you'll get to experience it even more. So ask God. He'll deliver. He'll show up. Let's pray together. 

Dear Heavenly Father, I thank you that you are with us always. Help us to open our eyes to see you. Open our eyes to see your work. And help us be your hands and feet of  grace in the world. Amen.