Faith is Risk - A Sermon for Sunday September 21, 2025
We continue to journey through Genesis
with the Narrative Lectionary.
God is Creator,
God speaks and it happens,
God’s Word brings order and beauty out of chaos.
God is irrevocably connected to God’s people.
God always keeps God’s promises.
God promised to make of Abram and Sarai a great nation,
and it took a lifetime,
but Sarah bore Isaac,
and when it seemed Isaac would be killed,
God provided the way
God was the ram in the thicket.
Today we hear the story anew
of God keeping God’s promises,
with Isaac and Rebekah’s children;
Jacob and Esau.
Remember how Abraham was 100 years old, and
Sarah was 90 when Isaac was born.
Remember Abraham’s deceit,
having Sarai pose as his sister.
Well, Isaac and Rebekah’s story is very similar.
Like Sarai, Rebekah was barren.
Remember that barrenness was understood to mean
shame and curse from God.
God hears Isaac’s prayer.
God keeps God’s promises.
And just like his dad Abraham,
Isaac had Rebekah pretend to be his sister;
a ruse to keep safe.
It’s hard to hear this story
and not consider generational sin.
Speaking of which,
an important detail:
God spoke to Rebekah - “Two nations are in your womb,
and two people born of you shall be divided.
The one shall be stronger than the other.
The elder shall serve the younger.”
This part matters,
Two nations are in her womb.
Jacob is one,
Esau is the other.
Jacob is the one who will wrestle with God,
who will succumb to injury,
but is renamed Israel.
Jacob is Israel,
Israel is Jacob.
Esau represents the nation of the Edomites.
We should remember this,
as much as it is a story of God with these individuals,
it is the story of God’s people,
of nations at conflict,
of generational sin.
Israel’s shady past,
the trickery and lies and deceit,
are not hidden.
Like Israel,
we all need to grapple with our collective past.
Another little note - what we hear today is a comedy.
This is a funny story,
there ought to be plenty of Isaac - laughter.
When the twins were born,
“the first came out red,
all his body like a hairy mantle;
so they named him Esau.
Afterwards his brother came out
gripping Esau’s heel; so they named him Jacob.”
It’s actually quite funny.
Imagine naming your kids “the hairy red one”
and “the ankle grabber”
And, spoiler alert,
how ridiculous is it
to dress Jacob in goat’s fur
and that tricks old Isaac into thinking
he’s the hairy red one?
No one is that hairy.
Anyhow,
Their quarrels began in the womb
and continued throughout their lives.
One day, Esau came from the field famished
while Jacob was cooking stew.
Esau asked for some stew, and Jacob said
“first sell me your birthright”
The oldest son has the birthright which comes with
a position of leadership in the family
as well as inheritance rights.
Just to satisfy hunger,
Esau sells Jacob his birthright,
and thus Esau despised his birthright.
Later on, Esau marries two women:
Judith and Basemath
and they made life bitter for Isaac and Rebekah.
Although the author doesn’t really say how
they made it bitter,
perhaps we can all imagine how one sibling
could make life miserable for another.
(Invite scripture reader forward)
Let us turn now to God’s Word,
to hear God’s Story,
and in it we find our story.
Like a soap opera,
The tricks and deceit continue,
But God is up to something.
Let us listen for God’s voice.
Narrative Lectionary Reading: Genesis 27:1-4, 15-23; 28:10-17
Pronunciation Guide:
Beer-sheba: BEE-er-SHEE-buh
Haran: HAY-ruhn
A reading from Genesis.
Chapter 27
1 When Isaac was old and his eyes were dim so that he could not see, he called his elder son Esau and said to him, “My son,” and he answered, “Here I am.” 2 He said, “See, I am old; I do not know the day of my death. 3 Now then, take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field, and hunt game for me. 4 Then prepare for me savory food, such as I like, and bring it to me to eat, so that I may bless you before I die.” 15 Then Rebekah took the best garments of her elder son Esau, which were with her in the house, and put them on her younger son Jacob, 16 and she put the skins of the kids on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck. 17 Then she handed the savory food and the bread that she had prepared to her son Jacob.
18 So he went in to his father and said, “My father,” and he said, “Here I am; who are you, my son?” 19 Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn. I have done as you told me; now sit up and eat of my game, so that you may bless me.” 20 But Isaac said to his son, “How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son?” He answered, “Because the Lord your God granted me success.” 21 Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Come near, that I may feel you, my son, to know whether you are really my son Esau or not.” 22 So Jacob went up to his father Isaac, who felt him and said, “The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.” 23 He did not recognize him because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau’s hands, so he blessed him.
Chapter 28
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.”
Word of God, word of life.
Thanks be to God.
Two brothers,
two nations grew in Rebekah’s tummy,
and it was a struggle from the womb.
It is bigger than two brothers,
this is two nations’ past as a people.
Conflict between nations has to begin somewhere,
and we continue to live in the wake
of our past conflicts.
Two nations gathered around a lunch table on Thursday.
One nation, so to speak,
was the local Lutheran clergy gathered for ministerial.
The other nation, so to speak,
was local Turkish Muslims.
They were our hosts,
they welcomed us warmly
and served delicious food.
We heard about the Hizmet movement,
which sounds a lot like a Reformation:
a return to loving service and friendship,
to faith making a difference in the community.
We heard about people of faith volunteering their time
particularly to help rehabilitate convicted felons
and help them find work,
people striving for justice in our city.
They talked about risk;
faith is risk.
One day, they took a risk,
they showed up at Lutheran Church of the Cross,
to talk,
to find commonality.
It takes some risk as a Turkish Muslim
to step into a predominantly white,
Christian community.
Faith is risk.
Faith is found in relationships,
and, I’ve found that I experience God profoundly
in the people who are different than me.
I am encouraged by our new friends
to risk,
to pray for courage,
to find commonality,
to listen for God’s voice,
and by the Spirit be willing
to take risks.
I couldn’t help but wonder, then,
we heard about Rebekah’s deceit,
helping Jacob trick his father, Isaac
into a blessing,
What if it was faith?
It was a risk,
and arguably a risk God didn’t ask her to take,
but she made an interpretation,
she heard God’s Word,
and found a way to make it happen.
Isn’t that what we all do?
We hear God’s Word,
we interpret it,
and we step out in faith - or not.
It’s messy - it may or may not have been God’s will
but God was at work in it.
Perhaps this is a story of Rebekah’s risk in faith.
Another piece of wisdom gleaned from this lunch,
Peace is only possible with relationships.
Sometimes peace happens
when someone simply opens the door.
Fear keeps us apart.
After Jacob’s trickery,
Esau returned with food for his father
as he was asked.
Esau and his father Isaac discover the trickery,
but Isaac remained steadfast.
Esau begged and cried out for Isaac’s blessing as well,
“do you not also have a blessing reserved for me?”
but Isaac says
“Your brother came deceitfully,
and he has taken away your blessing.”
Esau has sold Jacob his birthright.
Isaac blesses Jacob and makes Jacob lord
over the land and over Esau.
The trick works,
Esau is filled with rage, and rightfully so.
But if you thought Esau hated Jacob before,
Esau now has a whole new level of hatred
for his brother Jacob.
He hated Jacob so much that he planned to kill him.
Rebekah, their mother, found out about the plot
and urged Jacob to flee in exile
until Esau’s anger would fade.
Fear and anger kept the brothers,
the nations,
apart.
In this exile, Jacob had nothing,
except for a dream and a blessing.
This dream helped him see God is here,
God is at work,
God is present with Jacob.
God blesses this trickster,
not as a reward for deceit,
but because God simply blesses.
That’s who God is.
God always keeps God’s promises.
This story has been called Jacob’s dream,
but Jacob doesn’t call it a dream.
Jacob sees angles ascending and descending,
but they seem to matter less than the greater reality:
God stands beside Jacob.
God speaks to Jacob.
“Surely the Lord is in this place and I didn’t know it!”
It didn’t happen surrounded by servants,
by family, by neighbours, by riches, by armies.
God stood beside Jacob in a foreign place,
in loneliness,
in poverty,
in the normal.
God is found in the normal.
I came across this story from Tony Campolo,
and I’d like to share it with you:
Every Sunday,
the ducks in a certain town
waddle out of their houses
down Main Street to their church.
They waddle into the sanctuary
and squat in their proper pews.
The duck choir waddles in and takes its place,
and then the duck minister comes forward
and opens the duck Bible.
She reads to them:
“Ducks! God has given you wings!
With wings you can fly!
With wings you can mount up
and soar like eagles.
No walls can confine you!
No fences can hold you!
You have wings.
God has given you wings,
and you can fly like birds!”
All the ducks shout, “Amen!”
And then they all waddle home.
(Tony Campolo, Let Me Tell You a Story (Word, 2000))
You, dear Christian, are a new creation.
Your past need not define your future.
We are forgiven and set free,
we are made in the image of God,
we are filled with the Holy Spirit
God goes with us,
We have wings of faith to soar like eagles.
So don’t waddle home,
you can fly.
We can forgive.
We can extend a hand instead of a fist.
Peace with God is yours,
so let us live at peace with one another.
We can stop in at the Mosque or the community centre,
we can call the person,
we can acknowledge the fear we feel
and trust that God’s peace is greater.
You will face fear that keeps us apart,
but you are filled with the peace of Christ;
multiplying peace is worth the risk.
Jacob does eventually return,
but not before wrestling with God.
He will have to take responsibility for his actions.
He will have to own his tricks and lies and deceit.
But God is at work in the reconciliation.
Eventually Jacob reaches out to Esau to reconcile.
But Jacob was scared - afraid -
because word came that
Esau was coming to meet him
followed by 400 men.
Jacob expected violence,
but took the risk and met his brother.
Esau was gracious.
Esau ran to meet him,
and embraced his brother,
fell to his knees and kissed him,
and they wept together.
The 400 men were not an army hired for vengeance,
Esau said they are “the children
whom God has graciously given your servant.”
You see, God provided for Jacob,
but God also provided for Esau,
and they are generous in forgiveness.
Jacob’s story should teach us
that our past need not define our future.
The tricks, lies, deceit, and sin do not stop God.
God forgives,
God sets God’s people on a new path.
God’s will is that your past
does not keep you shackled or hindered.
God’s grace allows you to own your past
and move forward in Christ’s peace and reconciliation.
May we listen for God’s voice
and take the risk in faith that brings peace.
May we be open to relationships,
especially those who differ from us,
and in the relationships find peace.
May we look for God right where we are,
in our normal,
and trust that whether we see it or not,
Surely the Lord is in this place.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
