“The Intimacy of God's Love”
Genesis 28:10-19a; Psalm 139:1-12, 23-24; True Christianity 498:1
By Rev. Alison
Longstaff
Bath Church of the
New Jerusalem
Revised For Feb 16th 2014,
preached March 2nd 2014
“Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, ‘Surely the Lord
is in this place, and I knew it not.’”
Today’s story is about an “aha!” moment. But this isn’t your average, run of the mill “aha!”
moment. This is the sort of aha! that makes the hairs rise on your arm, and your
stomach drop. This sort makes one feel shaken and profoundly humbled. We have all had such moments. For some of us they can be as dramatic as
this dream of Jacob’s. For others they
may be more subtle. But they come to each
of us. These are encounters with the
Divine. They are moments in which we
walk in a “thin place”—a place in which we can see beyond the veil—and by which
we are moved and changed.
Today’s story starts out with movement.
“Now Jacob went out from
Beersheba and went toward Haran.”
In Swedenborgian thought, Jacob signifies our
attempts to live our beliefs. Jacob isn't just a desire for God (Abraham), nor
an active intellectual curiousity about God (Isaac). He is the fruit of these: the way these two
produce changes in our behaviour. The
north/south continuum in the Word is describing our intellectual side, where
the east/west continuum is describing our motivational side. So, since Beersheba is
on the southernmost boundary of the Promised
Land, it could be said to represent a time in our faith-journey where we have
gone as far as we can go using just our intellect.
Haran, which is the direction in which Jacob
decides to head, was the land of Jacob’s family of origin and so represents our
spiritual state before we began our journey with God. Beersheba is in the
middle of the desert, but it has a well. Leaving Beersheba means Jacob is
heading into the desert first, which represents a wandering in faith. So Jacob leaving Beersheba to go toward Haran
implies that he is entering a time of spiritual regression. Perhaps the well there ceased to be enough to
satisfy his needs, the way using our intellect alone in our faith journey
eventually ceases to be enough to satisfy our spirit.
Swedenborg describes Haran as representing “idolatrous
worship” which implies that you and I at this point are beginning to revert to
some old survival techniques for comfort.
This could be something as simple as avoiding facing something uncomfortable
in our lives, or as serious as a full-out relapse in an addiction. It is all the not helpful ways we seek to get away from our problems. These are escape attempts, and not actually solutions. We have lost our spiritual focus and have
begun looking for quick-fixes to our spiritual emptiness. In any case, in our story, Jacob is on the
move.
“So he came to a certain place and stayed
there all night, because the sun had set.”
The Hebrew word for “came” here has a definite
meaning of arrival. It has a sense of
meeting or encounter. This cues us to
know that Jacob has arrived at a significant place in his journey. The English translation here says that the
sun has set, but the Hebrew word is actually more like “arrived,” or “done its
thing.” So in the story, the sun could
be said to have arrived and done its thing.
Since the sun represents the Lord, this could be saying in the spiritual
meaning that the Lord has drawn near and this has done what the presence of the
Lord does. It produces a change. The Lord drawing near tends to do that. And like most of us, Jacob doesn’t even see
that anything is different. In fact, it
seems to him that the sun has “set,” and he is more alone than ever. How wrong he
is.
“And he took one of the stones of that place and
put it at his head, and he lay down in that place to sleep.”
It is so interesting to see how the translators handle
some of the unusual Hebrew wordings. The
Hebrew here is more literally translated, “and he took a stone of that place and
used it for his head-place and lay down in that place.” There is a using and re-using of the word for
place. It is the Hebrew word makom, which is no average Hebrew word. The Hebrews have a way of saying “Let us go
to THE Place,” and they are using this word makom. When they say that, they
are meaning, “Let us go up to The Temple.” This “place” isn’t just any old place. This is an important place, a holy
place. The use and reuse of the word
here is telling us that this is a very significant moment in Jacob’s story.
“Pillow” here means literally “head-place.” There are a myriad implications in that
meaning alone, but we can simply know that this story is still all about Jacob’s
head, not his heart so much. This is
about the intellect-journey so far. We
are reading about a significant moment in each and every person’s faith
development. Jacob’s laying down implies
a humbling in his spirit, very likely as a direct result of God’s having drawn
near.
“Then he dreamed, and behold, a
ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the
angels of God were ascending and descending on it.”
Oh, this is so beautiful. This is the beginning of an intimate spiritual
moment for Jacob. It is showing him that
there is a direct connection from where he is to the very dwelling place of
God. The word for “reach” here in the
Hebrew carries the meaning of arrival. The ladder didn’t just reach toward
heaven, it arrived. There was a touch
down. “Houston, we have contact.” Jacob realizes that God is very near. Angels are coming and going from his very
location on earth to the presence of God.
And there is contact. Jacob is
touched.
The Hebrew word for angel really means “messenger,”
or communicator. Frequently in the Old Testament,
angels are God’s voice and face and hands on earth. When an angel shows up, it is God. So God is no longer “up there” but right in
the presence of the characters in the story.
This communication is way beyond prayer.
This is an encounter.
Now notice something: The word used for the God at the top of the
ladder that Jacob saw is “Elohim” which is an ancient word carrying the
reminder that we once worshiped many Gods.
It is implying that, at the beginning of the dream, Jacob hadn't really
understood God. The God that Jacob knows
is pretty much still in his head. His
heart has yet to meet God. So, from
Jacob’s point of view, the God at the top of the ladder is still an
intellectual concept. He hasn't actually
met God. This will be a time of
significant change for Jacob.
And behold, the Lord (Jehowah) stood
above it and said: “I am the Lord God….”
(Jehowah-Elohim)
Jacob sees “Elohim” at the top of the ladder, but
it is “Jehowah” who speaks to him. The
Hebrew word translated “Lord” here is Yod Heh Vav Heh, the four sacred letters
of the name of the Divine which the Hebrews are forbidden even to
pronounce. It is vocalized by non Hebrews
as Jehovah, or Yahweh. These four letters
stand for the very Divine, the Source of all, the God of Love. This is the God
of our heart and soul, not just our heads.
“I am Elohim-Jehowah.” The Divine identifies
Itself as the God of both head and heart, of Love and Wisdom. Up to this point Jacob knew God only
intellectually, but this encounter touches his heart. He is deeply moved, and he realizes into
every cell of his body the overwhelming intimacy of God’s great love for
him. This is about a profound shift in our
relationship with God. An encounter with
the immensity of God’s love, tends to have that effect on us.
Let’s continue. “Jehowah … said….” The Hebrew word for “said” here holds the
meaning of a vow, an absolute promise. Let’s
face it, whenever God says something, it is a guarantee. There is no pussy-footing around here. There is no dodging this one or interpreting
it differently. God is indelibly impressing
upon Jacob that He/She is Love and Wisdom inseparable. And God is about to promise a whole lot
more. So it is time to listen up.
I am the
Lord God (Elohim-Jehowah) of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land
on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants. Also your descendants
shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the
east, to the north and the south; and in you and in your seed all the families
of the earth shall be blessed.
Quick translation? The God of every step of our
way, from our earliest beginnings and through all our growing, plans to use our
new awareness, this realization that the God of Love is the foundation and
crown of our spiritual life, to springboard us into our future. We will grow
spiritually in every direction now, in kindness and fairness, in great love and
great wisdom, until we are blessed beyond measure. This is the promise.
But wait! There is more. Behold, 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 for you.
To rephrase this according to the spiritual
meaning: “Now you realize that I am with you. I will never leave you. I treasure you, and will guide and protect
your every step. Even if you wander very
far from the path, I will turn you around.
I will bring you back. I won’t
leave you. There is nothing you can do
to turn me away. I will stick with you
until every good thing which I have promised comes to pass.”
Wow. That
is God’s promise. This is God’s
unconditional, unequivocal promise. What
God promises, God will do. God will
bring us home. God will bless us. This is profoundly personal. This is as personal as it gets. The God of all the universe, the Source of
Love and everything Good will never leave us.
No matter how alone you or I may feel, God is always immediately present.
“Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said,
"Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.”
Jacob awoke.
This is a wake-up moment, a transformative spiritual event. Jacob in the
story, and you and I in this stage of the spiritual journey, will never be the
same. This is a new spiritual day.
There are so many layers of meaning here. I am just skimming the surface of all that there
is. Up to this point in our spiritual journey, God and faith have mostly been
intellectual activities. But this encounter
wakes us up to the reality that God is not just “up there.” God is right here, right now, in this place,
in this moment. “The Lord is in this place, and I didn't know it.” This
place. This one.
Here is that Hebrew word makom again. Place. It is that same word used to refer to the
temple. A sacred place. Because if God never ever leaves us, every
place is a sacred place.
"Surely
the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.”
We are always in God’s presence. We never leave it. We mortals decided there was a separation
between the religious and everything else, between the sacred and everything
else, between what is holy and everything else.
But there really isn't. God
doesn't need that. It just makes us more
comfortable to have those divisions.
And he was full of reverence and said,
"How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and
this is the gate of heaven!" Then Jacob rose early in the morning, and
took the stone that he had put at his head, set it up as a pillar, and poured
oil on top of it. And he called the name of that place Bethel.
How cute is that?
God just finished declaring to Jacob and showing him that God is right with
him at every moment and will continue to be with him no matter where he goes, and Jacob decides that that physical place is the house of God. Awww.
Oh well. It is what we do. Of course we do! We all have a God-hunger in one way or
another, and whenever we find something or some activity or some place that
evokes that sense of nearness to God— tremendous well-being, peace, joy,
reverence, great beauty—we tend to want to nail it down somehow. That way we can repeat it, you see. It is as if we can just name it and mark it, then we
can access it at will. This is still
under the illusion that it will go away.
…and took the stone that he had put at
his head, set it up as a pillar, and poured oil on top of it. And he called the
name of that place Bethel.
Bethel means “house of God.” Jacob
names that place House of God, and sets up a monument right there. What is fun is that there is a play on words
in the Hebrew which shows up in the English too. In English we read that Jacob’s pill
ow became a pill
ar. In Hebrew his
mer-ah-ash-aw becomes a
mats-tsay-baw.
Pouring oil on the stone is yet another image
of love joining with faith, of heart with head.
Jacob’s story, like every story in the Bible, contains a message for you and
for me. Jacob is lost and
wandering. He’s even kind of regressing,
spiritually, because face it, we all do from time to time. He arrives at what he thinks is a pretty
empty place, with nothing but a stone for his head. He has no idea that it is actually the house
of God.
This is your story and mine on so many
levels. How much are you aware on a
daily basis that God is right with you in every action and every moment? If you are like me, the answer is: “Not aware
much at all!” In fact, I believe that
many of us kind of squirm at the idea of God being right with us in the very
flesh of our lives. God is with us in
church, but not in the bathroom! God is with us when we are singing beautiful
Bach choruses, but not when we are burping! Right?
Well guess what, God became incarnate for a reason. Our connection with God is absolutely and
always rooted in the right here, right now; in our breath; in our heartbeat. God’s love is always with us and then deepens
and becomes grounded when we live that love into action with our voices, hands,
and lives.
Never forget it.
No matter where we go, God’s protecting love is right with us. There is nothing so terrible that we can do,
that God cannot forgive and heal. There
is nothing so horrific that we can suffer that God cannot transform into a
greater power for love in the world. We
may give up and lose hope, but God never will.
God will turn us back and wake us up to beauty and love again and again
and again, until we realize we are whole.
How is that for an aha!?
God’s immense and intimate love is right here,
right now.
Amen
Revised
from a sermon called “Surely
The Lord Is In This Place” preached July 10th, 2011
Genesis 28:10-19a
10 Now Jacob went out
from Beersheba and went toward Haran. 11 So
he came to a certain place and stayed there all night, because the sun had set.
And he took one of the stones of that place and put it at his head, and he lay
down in that place to sleep.
12 Then he dreamed,
and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven;
and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.
13 And behold, the Lord stood above it and said: "I
am the Lord God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which
you lie I will give to you and your descendants.
14
Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread
abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and in
your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
15 Behold, 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 spoken to you."
16 Then
Jacob awoke 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!"
18 Then
Jacob rose early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put at his
head, set it up as a pillar, and poured oil on top of it.
19 And he called the name of that place Bethel;
Psalm 139:1-12, 23-24
O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know
my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off. You
comprehend my path and my lying down, And are acquainted with all my ways. For
there is not a word on my tongue, But behold, O Lord, You know it altogether.
You have hedged me behind and before, And laid Your hand upon me. Such
knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is high, I cannot attain it. Where can I
go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into
heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. If I
take the wings of the morning, And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
Even there Your hand shall lead me, And Your right hand shall hold me. If I
say, "Surely the darkness shall fall on me," Even the night shall be
light about me; Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You, But the night
shines as the day; The darkness and the light are both alike to You.
TCR 498:1
My paraphrase
True spiritual
freedom resides in each person's soul in full perfection. From the soul this
freedom flows into both parts of the mind—the will and the understanding—like a
fountain of water into a pool. And through these it flows into the body and
into the speech and action. There are three levels of life in each person: the
level of the soul, the level of the mind, and the level of the physical,
sensate body. All the perfection of the higher levels flows down by degrees
into the lower levels, affecting them. Each
person enjoys such perfect spiritual freedom, and the Lord’s Presence can be
felt by means of, within, and because of this freedom. The Lord presses to
be received without ceasing, but
never sets aside or does away with our freedom, (because nothing which a person
does without spiritual freedom can last). It could be said that it is this very
freedom itself which is the Lord’s dwelling within a person's soul.
There are many theories out in the world about this
dragon, with most of them full of fear, and asserting that this dragon is or will
be some specific earthly organisation at a set time in history doing some bad
things. *Sigh.* The eternal and timeless nature of God’s love and God’s Word is
never so limited and specific. God’s
Word speaks to all humans of all time, and is uniquely designed to do so. No one story, not even one abstruse and
fantastical prophecy in the Bible is ever secretly about helicopters or bar
codes or which nation controls the land west of the Jordan River. God’s Word is incapable of being so
limited. The Bible is about spiritual human dynamics. It is about the individual journey of the
human heart towards God. It is about our
struggle to learn to trust God and trust the process. We don’t need to be afraid of any story in
the Bible. Even the number 666, or “the
mark of the beast” is simply describing the nature of religion when it stops
teaching love. When we are loving, we
embody the best of what is human. But
when we forget compassion and loving-kindness, when we think we need to be
afraid and to judge and to make religion to be about rules and a certain
lifestyle, we look more like a beast. We
become inhuman. The number 666 is a
simple spiritual representation of “getting it all wrong.” 666 means we completely missed the boat. *Buzzer sound* “Try again.” And the beauty is, we can. 
Remember, the Bible is also the story of the journey
Jesus made on his path from human infant to Divine Human. That means even Jesus had to battle this
spiritual dragon, and it didn’t want to go away for Him either. I think we see it when the devil promises him,
“Just bow down to me, and all the world will be yours.” It must have been very tempting to want to
simply force us all to be good—to
take control—to remove the process and zap us all into instant perfection. We can be so slow to learn! And we do such horrible things to each other
in the process! We did such horrible
things to Jesus. He must have been tempted to simply eliminate all the struggling and
pain and suffering.
