The House of God, the Gate of Heaven

Sermon preached by the Rev. Lowell E. Grisham, Rector

St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Fayetteville, Arkansas

July 17, 2011; Proper 11, Year A

Episcopal Revised Common Lectionary

(Genesis 28:10-19a) – Jacob left Beer-sheba and went toward Haran. 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. And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven; and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 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; 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. 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." Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, "Surely the LORD is in this place-- and I did not know it!" 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."

So Jacob rose early in the morning, and he took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it. He called that place Bethel.

(Matthew 13:24-30,36-43) – Jesus put before the crowd another parable: "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, `Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?' He answered, `An enemy has done this.' The slaves said to him, `Then do you want us to go and gather them?' But he replied, `No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.'"

Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples approached him, saying, "Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field." He answered, "The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom; the weeds are the children of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears listen!"

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Jacob is traveling.  He is leaving the southernmost village in Israel, Beer-sheba, where his father Abraham had dug a well to bring life-giving water to his family.  Jacob is traveling far to the north, all the way into what we now call Turkey, to his father’s former home in Haran.  He is going there to search for a wife from his own tribe.  It is a long journey.

Along the way, according to the story, “he came to a certain place and stayed there for the night, for the sun had set.”  And something numinous happened.  In a dream, he had a vision.  He heard a great promise – a promise of hope and fecundity and abundance.  Even more important:  In this liminal, “in-between place” – between home and a destination – in this unfamiliar, unknown place – he heard a promise from God.  A promise of presence.  “Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go…” 

Jacob awoke awestruck.  “How awesome is this place!” he exclaimed.  He looked around at the unfamiliar landscape.  “This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”

Then he did something to memorialize his experience, to remember it, to make a record of it.  He took the rock which was his pillow, raised it upon a stone pillar, and anointed the rock with oil.  He savored what had happened to him, to make it deeper, more real.

Then he resumed his journey with renewed hope and confidence, knowing God would be with him, to guide and bless him.

What happened to Jacob happens to us.  It can happen to us often, in many places along our journey.  It can happen to us in unexpected places and circumstances, like it did to Jacob.

It happens to us when we dream.  From humanity’s earliest history, we have received wisdom, insight and guidance from dreams.  Here at St. Paul’s we offer space for people to share and interpret dreams every Sunday afternoon at 2:00 in the Library.  Every once in a while we offer a dream workshop, or we have a course called “Natural Spirituality,” introducing the fundamentals of dream interpretation through Joyce Rockwood Hudson’s book by that title.  Dreams can connect us with divine wisdom and guidance.

But there are other places that can surprise us as places of presence, houses of God and gates of heaven.  I want to talk about some of those today, and to suggest that places all along your journey can be numinous places, moments of mindfulness and presence.

How many of us spend significant time on our computers?  There are so many ways that our computers can become a place of presence, a gate of heaven or a house of God.  Years ago one of my seminary classmates Barbara Crafton created a virtual community that has grown into her website The Geranium Farm.  Each morning as she finished reading the Daily Office of Morning Prayer, either from her Prayer Book or from the missionstclare.com web site, Barbara would send to her email list the closing acclamation from the Morning Office, the words “Let us bless the Lord.”  As others on her email list finished their own reading of Morning Prayer, they would send a reply email, “Thanks be to God.”  She delighted in the hundreds of responses that filled her inbox through the day into the night as Morning Prayer moved around the globe.

Barbara’s occasional E-Mo’s gave me the impetus to share my own journaling with the daily readings.  So most weekdays I send a Morning Reflection to an email list of over 1200 addresses.  This past week I learned of a virtual monastic community that Benedictine nun Joan Chittister has pioneered called Monasteries of the Heart.  Your computer can be a virtual monastery, another gate of heaven or house of God. 

Some people experience God’s presence through music, listening or playing or singing.  Others find art to be a gateway to the divine – looking deeply at art or creating are.  My acquaintance Renee Miller suggests that going to a movie can be an enlightening experience – engaging both sides of the brain for a couple of hours, watching our emotions, looking for the presence of God or an image of God in the plot or characters.  When you watch a movie or play, what invites you to respond with divine emotion?  Is the Spirit saying something to you?

Our bodies can be instruments of God’s presence.  We offer yoga and tai chi, as mindful activities that can focus us and open us bodily to the presence and vitality of God.  Some people connect with the divine energy through dance or running, bicycling, hiking or climbing.  Our own Roger Joslin’s book Running the Spiritual Path tells how he makes jogging a spiritual sport.  Gardening and nature activities connect us with the creation that manifests the presence of the Creator. 

I have a friend who breathes a blessing prayer upon each caller before he connects with each telephone call.  “How will God be manifest to me through this person?” he asks before saying, “Hello.”

There are so many ways to be conscious of a deeper presence – God in the liminal, in-between place or in the unexpected person.  God speaks to us just as he spoke to Jacob, “Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go.”

But we have to be willing and open to the possibility of presence and blessing.  Life is difficult, and every place and person is ambiguous, with the potential to curse as well as to bless.  Every person and every place is like the field spoken of in today’s Gospel, sown with both wheat and weeds. 

The parable’s suggestion:  Leave the weeds alone.  Let God deal with them.  If you try to pull them out, it’s likely that you’ll cause more problems – unintended consequences and collateral damage.  Jesus’ teaching tells us that we would do better by paying less attention to the weeds – “Get thee behind me” – and instead, spend more time nurturing the wheat – tending to the good in life, fostering its growth. 

I loved last Sunday’s presentation at 10:00 sponsored by the Gaia Guild.  Bryan Welch, who publishes Mother Earth News and Utne Reader, offered an optimistic, value-driven orientation to the problems and issues we face as a nation and a planet.  He spoke of how we went from the invention of the chain-driven bicycle to commercial air flight in just a few years.  Humans are so creative.

He invited us to be creative as we use our energy and resources.  To ask ourselves four questions as we commit to activities and plans – (1) Is it beautiful?  (2) Does it create abundance?  (3) Is it fair?  (4) Is it contagious, compelling enough to spread in a viral fashion?  Four good questions as we face economic and social challenges as a nation.  May we be as surprised as Jacob was by unexpected blessing along our long journey, surprised by blessings of hope, fecundity and abundance.

One last observation about Jacob.  That rock that he placed on the pillar and anointed with oil.  Part of my 10:00 class this morning includes some teaching about savoring the goodness and pleasures of life.  There are four kinds of savoring:  basking (receiving praise and congratulations), thanksgiving (expressing gratitude for blessings), marveling (losing the self in the wonder of the moment), and luxuriating (indulging the senses).

Jacob did all four.  He basked in the blessing and favor of God’s message to him.  He offered thanks and he marveled – “How awesome is this place.”  He luxuriated, spreading the fragrant olive oil over the rock that had been his pillow.

Right now you are in the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.  You can savor this moment and this experience.  Bask in the loving radiance that God pours out upon you.  Open your heart in thanksgiving for all that God gives us.  Marvel, lose yourself in the glory of God’s love for you through Christ expressed right now in this Eucharist.  Luxuriate in the beauty and wonder of the words and sounds and colors of our worship.

Surely the Lord is in this place.  Do you know it?  Can you feel it?  Can you sense the presence?  Savor the moment.  Be fully alive.  Then leave with renewed confidence and hope.  Take with you the sound of God’s voice in your ears, speaking to you as God did to Jacob:  “Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go.”

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