Community Church Sermons
July 24, 2005
Genesis 29:15-28
It was the wedding disaster of all wedding disasters.
It ranks right up there with the wedding in New York where the bride and groom got into a big argument that resulted in a fistfight which led to the bride’s being arrested on a charge of assault and battery. Perhaps it even compares with the wedding where the minister’s invitation for anyone to object to the joining of the handsome groom and beautiful bride was actually responded to…by the groom’s WIFE!
Wedding disasters! They happen all the time: there’s the famous wedding scene from the movie “The Graduate”- there’s the “Funniest Home Videos” wedding where the bride’s gown comes apart during the procession – there’s the ring bearer who loses the rings… Chances are, if YOU’VE ever had a wedding, or put one on for your kids, you’ve had a wedding disaster or two of your own.
And so it was with our spiritual ancestor Jacob. Jacob was in love. He was in love with his beautiful cousin Rachel. Yes, his cousin. His first cousin. And yes, Leviticus 18 forbids marriage between any close kin, but as is often the case among the great heroes of our faith, what is taught and what is practiced are two entirely different things. Even so, the incestuous nature of the marriage between these two kissin’ cousins is not the wedding disaster we’re talking about today.
Jacob has gone to work for his uncle Laban. Laban is grateful for the help, and asks Jacob how he can repay him. Jacob says, “Let me have your beautiful daughter Rachel for a wife. I’ll work for you for seven years to win her hand.” Laban agrees.
So Jacob goes to work.. One year creeps by…two years... three. Isn’t it amazing how slowly time goes by when you’re separated from the one you love?
Four years …….. five years …………………… six years ………………………………… six and a half years …………………………… seven!
The Great Day finally arrives! Jacob goes out and buys a ring, rents a tuxedo, gets a haircut, has a bachelor party.
Then Laban throws the biggest wedding you ever saw. It is a great feast and the whole town is invited! There’s eating, and dancing and drinking – oh, there’s lots of drinking! And then, when night falls, Laban gives Jacob the hand of his daughter, and off they go giggling to the Honeymoon Suite at the local Motel 6 where Tom Bodine says they’ll “leave a light on for ya.”
Well, evidently, it wasn’t a very bright light. Because in the morning, when Jacob awakens, the woman lying next to him is not Rachel! It’s the Maid of Honor! It’s Leah, Rachel’s older sister!
Now THAT is a wedding disaster! I’ll bet no one here has experienced one like that!
Uncle Laban has pulled a fast one on Jacob - the old bridal switcheroo. You see, Leah is not very popular with the guys, yet she is the older sister who would be dishonored if her younger sister were to marry before her. And Leah’s father, looking out for the welfare of his older daughter, has concocted this deceitful scheme to get her married off to Jacob.
So there they are staring at each other the morning after. Jacob, though he never once complained all night long, now voices dismay that the woman he is with is Leah and not Rachel. He screams for Laban who comes and makes excuses for why he reneged on the deal.
And then, Laban says, “Tell you what, I’ll let you have Rachel, too…if you work for me another seven years!”
So what will Jacob do?
Will he kill Laban on the spot? Will he throw Leah and all her belongings out into the hallway outside the Honeymoon Suite of the Motel 6 and tell her to hit the road? Will he pack his bags, grab Rachel, and run off to Las Vegas where life is sure to be less a gamble than living with Laban? Will he stay and just never speak to Laban again? Will he call Judge Judy and sue for breach of contract? WHAT WILL JACOB DO?
What would YOU do in a situation like this when you’ve been cheated out of seven years of your life, deeply betrayed by someone you trusted, and your hopes and dreams have been ruined?
This is an important question, you know.
A little more than two weeks ago, four young men – one a teacher, another an athlete, the third a father of one small child with another on the way, and the fourth a teenager – left their homes in the suburbs and traveled to the city where they blew themselves up in London’s subway system and on a tourist bus, killing more than 50 people and wounding hundreds of others.
As our New Hampshire summer
pastor Bill Salt asked on the Sunday after, “Why would four children of God
do something like this to other children of God?”
Among the seriously injured were Katie and Emily Benton of Knoxville. In a television interview this week, Katie said that she was praying for the victims – and even for the bombers. That surprised me, so I listened carefully to her reasoning. She said she can’t feel anything but pity for these four young men who were so mislead that they came to believe they would actually accomplish some kind of justice for themselves and their cause by doing such a terrible deed.
What an insight from a young woman! They actually believed they could regain what they perceived they had lost by committing an act of violence in return.
You and I live in a world where the prevailing mindset often is that justice will only be achieved by inflicting greater injury on the perpetrator– that peace can be won by waging war – that happiness can be attained through litigation or payback or vengeance – that relationships can be helped by ostracizing and demonizing those who hurt us - that the best way to get back what you’ve lost is by getting even with the one who took it from you.
We live in a world where people like Laban are always
taking advantage of the Jacobs, visiting them with oppression, injustice, and
all manner of terrible injury. Some of the Jacobs in our world are Jews, and
some are Muslims, and some are Christians, and some are people with no
religious brand at all. There are male Jacobs and female Jacobs, black and
white Jacobs, and Jacobs young and old. There are Jacobs sitting right here in
church today whose lives have somehow been injured by the actions of others, or
even by the misfortunes of life. Let me ask you: “Are YOU a Jacob?”
And as all of us Jacobs go about our lives in such a brutally unfair world, our faith asks us to raise the important question:
WHAT WILL JACOB DO?
Well, we know what our ancient ancestor Jacob did.
In his own humanly imperfect way, Jacob did what was right.
He accepted his responsibility
toward Leah as his wife. He labored another seven years for the hand of Rachel.
He was wary of, and protective about, but honest in his dealings with Laban. At
the end of the story, in fact, Jacob and Laban erect a monument of stones and
call it Mizpah which means, “May the Lord watch between me and thee
while we are absent one from another.” Another way of saying it would be, “May
the Lord watch our backs when we can’t see each other.” Or, as Robert Frost
once wrote, “Good fences make good neighbors.”
What did Jacob do? Jacob worked hard to do what was right, and that would build a better future for his wives and his children.
I find myself wondering why someone would choose this path – the path of doing right even in the face of wrong – the path of giving respect even in the face of disrespect – the path of taking responsibility for things that aren’t entirely of your own making - when the other path of blame and retribution and retaliation is so commonly followed.
Perhaps the answer is that Jacob centered his life on the same principles St. Paul would later articulate in the eighth chapter of Romans. They are remarkable guidelines for living in a world that has a tendency to go crazy on us. Listen to these four life-principles:
· God’s Spirit helps us when we are weak.
· In all things God works for the good of those who love God.
· If God is for us, who can be against us?
· Nothing – not in life or even in death – can separate us from the love of God.
Maybe Jacob truly believed in God! Maybe Jacob truly believed that the way of God is better than the way of Laban!
In the bathroom of our camp at Highland Lake in New Hampshire there hangs a big poster that is titled “Murphy’s Law.” On it – for the reading pleasure of those using the room - are listed a number of those pithy sayings that prove Murphy’s point that anything that can go wrong will go wrong, and usually at the worst possible time. There are sayings like:
· No good deed ever goes unpunished.
· Just when you think things can’t get worse, they will.
· The probability of a piece of bread landing jelly-side-down on the floor is directly proportional to the cost of the carpet.
· The light at the end of the tunnel is the headlight of the oncoming train.
While looking over the Murphy’s Law poster the other day, it struck me that there is a certain amount of truth in all those proverbs. Life really is unpredictable and disaster-prone. Life really can turn on you in a heartbeat. Emily and Rachel Benton know this from their experience in London. Jacob found out in his relationship with Laban. And Jesus experienced it too when they took him and led him out to crucify him.
So how does one live in such a disaster-prone world?
We can, of course, simply become
additional contributors to Murphy’s Law, inflicting wrong on top of wrong on
top of wrong. We can become Laban-like ourselves and add to the world’s
population of those mislead into believing that evil actions and words and
attitudes can somehow beget good. We can deceive ourselves into thinking that
violence can bring about peace, that retaliation can restore relationship, and
that the true Golden Rule is to “do unto others BEFORE they do unto you.”
We can go that way – the way the world has gone from the beginning.
Or we can start the world moving in a different direction!
The way of Laban, or the way of Jacob? Murphy’s Law or God’s Grace?
Which way will be YOUR way as you leave here today, Jacob?