So, are we ready? Okay, we'll bless this conference with a scripture verse, Hebrews chapter 12, verse 1 and 2. Brothers, since we for our part are surrounded by this cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every encumbrance of sin which clings to us and persevere in running the race which lies ahead. Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus who inspires and perfects our faith. Tonight we want to look at the wilderness of Jesus, which of course is our wilderness. We've been accustomed since Vatican II to speak of the Paschal Mystery, the mystery of the death, resurrection, ascension of Jesus.

[01:02]

Actually, the Paschal Mystery is the whole mystery of salvation, focusing, of course, in the resurrection, but which contains all the different elements in Christ's saving life and death. And from God's point of view, it's one act. From our point of view, because we live in time, we separate it into different segments. But each one leads directly to the other. So the way that Jesus lived meant that he would die the way he died. His death leads to resurrection. Resurrection leads to the glorification or the ascension. and the ascension means that the spirit will be poured out. So it's one indivisible saving event. What I want to look at tonight is the death of Jesus which led to resurrection, or really to put it in a more active sense, the dying of Jesus, the walking through the wilderness of Jesus, which is what we must do.

[02:10]

The death that Jesus died was a special kind of death. We have different passages which bring this out very beautifully. I wish to know Christ, Philippians 3, 10 and 11. I wish to know Christ and the power flowing from his resurrection, likewise to know how to share in his sufferings by being formed into the pattern of his death. Thus do I hope that I may arrive at the resurrection. And we're very familiar with the reading from Romans 6, which you read at the Easter Vigil. We were buried with him by baptism into death. If we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. And the kind of death we're talking about is not simply physical death. uh... we don't even have to die physically but we have to die the death of christ in the at the end of first corinthians chapter fifteen uh... paul said not all of us shall fall asleep in other words not all of us will die and he thought apparently at that time that he would be alive when christ came back but he says we all have to be changed

[03:41]

we all have to be somehow transformed. In an instant, in the twinkling of an eye, at the sound of the last trumpet, the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. So it's not, the death of Christ is not, sharing the death of Christ is not necessarily sharing physical death, but it is something else. Jesus' physical death, just as a physical death would not be redemptive, had to be a special kind of death. St. Thomas Aquinas said this, We were reconciled to God by the death of His Son because of its special qualities. It was not Christ's death simply as death, which pleased the Father so that it reconciled us to Him. It was rather the fact that the death proceeded from the will of Christ, for Christ willed to die out of obedience to the Father and out of love for us." So the dying of Jesus involves self-giving from his own will, in obedience to the Father, and out of love.

[04:52]

So self-giving, obedient love, is the dying of Jesus. and it's the dying of Jesus which always brings resurrection. That's the pattern. We were redeemed by this act of obedient love, and this is what was on Calvary and still is. All of the external sufferings, of course, belong to the historical time, two thousand years ago. But the internal self-gift, which is the heart of the sacrifice of Christ, is alive all the time and is what is sacramentally celebrated in the Mass, but it's always present. So, by meeting death, Jesus robbed death of its power. He reversed sinful disobedience. and made it loving obedience. So he overturned the sin of Adam.

[05:55]

So when the New Testament speaks of death, there are mainly three ways it uses death. One is physical death, very common, then sinful death, or the death of sin, the sin that leads to eternal death, and then the main type of dying is the redemptive death of Jesus. In doing that, in overturning death, in accepting the self-emptying, the self-annihilation, really, in obedience and love, Jesus reversed the world's values so that now self-emptying love is the way to fulfillment and not self-promotion, self-advancement. Whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake we'll save it. In Hebrews again, chapter 2, Jesus is crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death.

[06:59]

God made their leader in the work of salvation perfect through suffering. So there's a, that's definitely a wilderness statement. Jesus himself was made perfect through suffering. even he had to go through the wilderness in order to give himself in loving obedience to the Father. So, because of Jesus' death and resurrection, our life, the Christian life, is a mystery always of death and resurrection. And where that kind of death is, there is always resurrection. And where there is resurrection in life, you know that that kind of death is present in a person. But you can't have it, you can't have the resurrection without the interior self-giving love of Jesus.

[08:02]

And that's why St. Paul says, I may speak with the tongues of men and angels, but if I have not love, I am a noisy gong, a tempting cymbal. It's all superficial, and it's empty. That reading from Romans 6 says that we're baptized into the death of Jesus, into the death of Christ. And this doesn't mean baptized into his physical death, but into his redemptive death. And so when we're baptized, when we join Christ, we begin a life of dying with Him. And hopefully, when actually we reach our physical death, we will have died inside in a real way. We know that the great saints do this. Probably most of us get far enough along where Christ will do the rest. But we have to be emptied in love and obedience.

[09:06]

And when Christ died, it was complete. And so his physical death is like a sacramental sign of what was happening inside him. Unless the grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat. but if it dies, it produces much fruit. So this is the cross, and the life of Jesus is the final stage of the wilderness journey in Scripture, showing us the image, the perfect image of how this is done, giving your life and love for others in obedience to the Father. One of the main images besides the cross for this is the cup. The cup. You remember at one point the James and John came to Jesus, or else they sent their mother, depends on which gospel you read, and they asked, we want to sit on your right and left hand when you come into your kingdom.

[10:13]

And Jesus did not answer their question. He asked them a question. He said, can you drink the cup? And they said, yes. And he said, you will drink the cup. But it's for sitting at my right and left hand. It's for the father to decide. But they wanted to drink the cup. They didn't know what they were saying. But the only way to go with Jesus through the kingdom is to drink the cup, which is that cup of suffering and obedience to the Father. And so they did. And later on, everybody who follows Jesus has to drink that cup. Now we know that that cup showed up again in the garden. And Jesus says, Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass me by. But he couldn't pass it by, couldn't pass it by. And then at the supper, He takes the cup, and he says, this is the cup of my blood. Drink from this cup. And that becomes a symbol every time we have the Eucharist, not only of the precious blood which is there, and not only of the physical death of Jesus, but it becomes a symbol

[11:24]

of the real dying of Jesus, which is a daily thing for all of us. And so when we ascent, when we say amen to that cup, we are agreeing to die that death every day, today, the covenant of the cup. And there's no resurrection without this kind of dying. Ignatius of Antioch, unless we are ready through his power to die, in the likeness of his passion, his life is not in us. Paul, I have been crucified with Christ and the life I live now is not my own, Christ is living in me. And the dying of Jesus is expressed especially in the love for our brothers and sisters. And the letters of John make it very strong. The way we came to understand love was that he laid down his life for us. We too must lay down our lives for our brothers. So the way we know what love is, is the way he died. Conversely, the way we know what the death of Jesus means is the way he loved.

[12:30]

That we have passed from death to life we know because we love one another. The man who does not love is among the living dead. So the Christianity is dying with Jesus. But it is a very positive thing. It is an ascent to the cup. It is a desire to give yourself, empty yourself out in obedience to the Father and in love for others. And these two things grow together. It's not that we die now in order to rise later, though that's true. but it's that we die now and we rise now because the resurrection is already growing in us if we are really dying that way and Paul says that this way continually we carry about in our bodies the dying of Jesus so that in our bodies the life of Jesus may also be revealed so

[13:40]

When we approach the world with the life of Christ, it's possible only if inside us we are dying with Jesus. While we live, we are constantly being delivered to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus may be revealed in our mortal flesh. That's 2 Corinthians chapter 4. Now, we've been talking about the wilderness, the journey, and mentioning that in the story of Jesus, the wilderness, especially the ultimate section, takes the form of the journey to Jerusalem, which also becomes a symbol, the journey to Jerusalem. And the journey to Jerusalem is the journey to the death and resurrection. It's both the place where Jesus is going to be annihilated, emptied out completely, and also the place where he's going to be filled, because he's going to be vindicated, he's going to rise from the dead.

[14:47]

And this also becomes a kind of a paradigm for our journey. As Jesus gets closer and closer to Jerusalem, the two realities of the death and the resurrection grow, because he becomes more and more aware of the sin in the world and of the misunderstanding. And as we know, up to the very end he is not understood even by his closest disciples and it seems that uh... instead of becoming more and more uh... understanding more more they become more and more obtuse and he has to live with that too but also underneath he has the the knowledge that he is going toward the father he's doing the father's will and so the the uh... conviction And the deep joy is growing in him as well. And this is the way it is for us. The further we get along on the way to Jerusalem, the more we are conscious of our own weakness and sin, sin in the world, the sin in our brothers and sisters.

[15:56]

But at the same time, if we are connected with the dying of Jesus, we are also connected more deeply with the resurrection. uh... and uh... this is what's the imitation of christ has to say and i think this is a very accurate also the higher a person has mounted in the spirit the heavier crosses he will often find because the pain of his exile increases with love the pain of his exile increases with love saint augustine says that this way everywhere the greater joy is ushered in by the greater pain But he also says the thing is not right just because it is hard. It has to be always done in obedience and love. Not just pain, not just suffering, but in obedience and love. And this combination of the death and resurrection is very important for our spirituality.

[16:57]

uh... if you're not careful, you can fall off on one side or the other, or overemphasize one side or the other, overemphasize the death, the dying, the emptying out, or overemphasize the joy of the resurrection. Historians of spirituality say that that from the Middle Ages because apparently because of the black death in Europe and all the horrors and the pessimism that it raised that uh... there was an overemphasis on the suffering of Christ in our lives and uh... this held on all the way up until Vatican II in Vatican II there was such a radical swing that we overemphasize the resurrection. And so then instead of saying whatever is harder is better, which is sort of what was a pre-Vatican II spirituality, after Vatican II it was sort of like whatever feels good is good.

[18:04]

Whatever goes with the flow is from God, and that's not true. Neither one of those are true. What's true is however God calls you, to be obedient and loving in the present moment is the call. And sometimes it's hard and sometimes it's easy. But the emphasis is on God's call. So we live those two things entwined. They're always growing together. But the scriptures tell us that though the death and the resurrection of Christ grow in us all the time, we live them, if when we have a choice, we consciously live them in a different way. The resurrection is meant to be a public gift to the world, but the dying of Jesus in us is a secret. So the resurrection, the world needs to see

[19:06]

resurrection in us, because the world will always see death in the sense of sinful death. It will always see pain, death, suffering, injustice, war, dishonesty, pessimism, cynicism. But what the world needs from us is what only God can give, and this is the fruit of the Spirit, peace, joy, love, honesty, optimism, compassion, patience, radiance, to be signs of life in the world. That is what we must do, and our dying has to remain inside, like a grain of wheat. Now, because of original sin, we prefer it exactly the opposite. We prefer to let people know how hard it is for us, and we like to hide our joy because we don't want to seem naive, that we don't know how bad things are. But what Christ calls us to do is to be signs, be lights on the mountaintop. to shine, not with our light, but with the light of God, which is only going to be in us if we are dying with Jesus.

[20:15]

And so, the tendency for us is to let people know how bad things are, murmuring, to let people know how sick we are, how hard we work, how much we pray, how much we're misunderstood. Be on your guard against performing religious acts for people to see, you have already had your reward. So Jesus tells us, don't publicize that, don't hide it, but don't publicize it. And don't go around publicizing other people's evil, exposing them. If they need to be exposed, your light will expose them. The world knows enough of pain and sorrow. Evil is not our business. Good is. Now there's a story from the Desert Fathers which says something like this. Abba Makarios was a great hero of the desert and he had a lot of special abilities from the Lord.

[21:23]

One time there was a murder And they had a suspect, but they weren't sure if this was the guy. And so they went to Abba Makarios and they said, Abba Makarios, you have insight into these things. Is this the murderer? Makarios said, I don't know. But let's go ask the guy he murdered. They said, okay. So they go out to the cemetery. Makarios, hello down there. Is this the man who killed you? No, that's not the one. And so Makarios starts walking away. And they come after him and say, Abba Makarios, ask him who did kill him. And Makarios says, it is enough for me that the innocent goes free. It is not for me to betray the guilty. A very interesting, interesting idea. But the idea behind it is that we are to be interested in the truth, justice, and not traffic in evil.

[22:25]

The evil will be exposed. So we live the resurrection as a public gift. We hide the death. That's the program. And we have, as we well know, that even when we live publicly as Christians, even if we live publicly as monks, professed in the world, professed religious, which means that we have a public profession, a life, we know that still our interior life is interior. It is secret. Nobody knows how much I pray, how obedient I really am, how chaste I really am, because nobody is within me or around me all the time. It's a secret. The way the world will know if I am following the law of Christ and am chaste and obedient and loving is by the way my light shines. Because if I am truly of God, if I'm truly living that way, it will show, but not it won't be something I have to broadcast.

[23:30]

It will simply emerge. But in order that that this dying of Jesus does not overwhelm us, we are provided with ways to share it. We share it very privately with a counselor, a superior, a spiritual director, but with a very, very, very few people. One, two, three, so that we don't lose the power by becoming proud of it, and it doesn't hurt us because we can't bear it. we let it uh... consume us but with help there was a back in the in the nineteen sixties uh... in the south when uh... there was a here's a very very tough time interracially and a lot of uh... there was a a big uh... movement of voter registration of blacks well this was a big issue in arkansas especially eastern arkansas and mississippi in louisiana and alabama and uh... about nineteen sixty four five we had an interracial workshop at our at our uh... guest house in the monastery a lot of people were there and there was a uh... young man that came to that uh... who was from out of state but he was working in voter registration in eastern arkansas

[24:58]

and he came to the interracial workshop and during the thing we we knew that it was a very dangerous time because all kind of things were happening down there beatings and murders and so we asked him isn't that a pretty dangerous work that you're doing yeah he said it's pretty dangerous we said well did you ever get hurt yes he said i've been beat up hit with sticks and clubs and spit on and hit with chains and and so we said well uh... did you ever fight back he was a pretty good size college age kid Yes, he said, he said, I did for a while. And he said, I was able to hold my own pretty good. But he said, after a while, I figured that I wasn't doing any good by fighting back. Because he said, all the hate that was coming at me, I was returning it. It was bouncing back off of me and nothing was happening and it was still going. But he said, I realize that if any of the hate is going to die, I have to absorb it.

[26:01]

I have to absorb it and take it in with my body and just love the people who are doing it. Well, that knocked us all over. He said, and he said, my body can be a grave for some hate. Now, that was enough to get our attention. But if you reflect on it, and I reflected on it later, that that isn't the whole story. That is one of the functions of a Christian in the world, to absorb hate wherever it is, and not to let it fly back, not to react, to take it in just as Jesus did, just as the saints did. a lot of times being misunderstood and what exactly the very mission they were doing for the person who was mistreating them. But because of the power of the resurrection, because of the power of the resurrection in us, the Holy Spirit present in us, anything that we absorb like that in love for the other becomes grace.

[27:08]

It becomes a source of life. And so it not only transforms us, but it goes back to the world as grace. And so sin enters us, and if we absorb it as Jesus did, and exactly what he did was absorb the sin of the world and turn it around and save the world with it, or from it. And the hatred that is in the world and the sin that is in the world can be turned into grace by a heart that is dying with Jesus. Saint Francis de Sales has a beautiful saying about the cross. The everlasting God has in his wisdom foreseen from all eternity the cross that he now presents to you as a gift from his inmost heart. This cross he now sends you, he has considered with his all-knowing eyes, understood with his divine mind,

[28:11]

tested with his own hands to see that it be not one inch too large and not one ounce too heavy for you. He has blessed it with his holy name, anointed it with his grace, perfumed it with his consolation, taken one last glance at you and your courage, and then sent it to you from heaven, a special greeting from God to you, a gift of the all-merciful love of God. Of course, it is a gift because it unites us with Christ and makes us saints. So to conclude, I want to read again this passage from Philippians 3, 10 and 11. I wish to know Christ and the power flowing from His resurrection, likewise to know how to share in His sufferings by being formed into the pattern of His death. Thus do I hope that I may arrive at resurrection from the dead. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and for shall be, for ever and ever.

[29:16]

Amen. We're going to see the presence of discernment. Discernment, it's the key to the application, this way, because everything is... I mean, whatever there is carries the seed, so to speak, of both, you know, good and evil. And it can be rightly applied and wrongly applied, or applied for the wrong reason for the right reason. You have to continually look at your motive, you know, whether it's loving obedience for others rather than self-promotion of some kind or self-defense. And one of the things that Newman did, I think is a very helpful axiom.

[30:18]

I don't know if he said it exactly this way, but this is what it was. Because we're always being attacked in some way, a lot of times misunderstood, but he said, never defend yourself if it is only yourself you are defending. In other words, if somebody else is involved, then it's loving to defend them like you could defend your community. like Newman himself wrote his apologia in defense of the priesthood. And of course it wasn't defense of himself, but the purpose of it was to defend the priesthood. And we notice in the gospel that Jesus, whenever he is slandered, he never defends himself unless somebody else is being misunderstood. For example, when they called him a Samaritan, he responded because it wasn't bad to be a Samaritan. or when they called him hatted devil or something like that, he wasn't too quick, unless it involved something about his father.

[31:20]

Never defend yourself unless it is only yourself you are defending. That's a gift it is only yourself. Yeah, that's a very high level of holiness, I think, but that's his principle, and he tried to do that, and I think it's a very powerful thing. And you don't continually have to respond when you're misunderstood, unless there's some other principle involved, you know, the church, something. But otherwise, God will defend you. His point was, if I need to be defended, God will defend me, and I'll either be cleared later, or now, or much later, maybe after I'm gone, and I can wash it all from heaven. We have the mass of dying of Jesus.

[32:34]

It's not that he died, it's the way that he died. Yeah. And it's a process of, I'd say, it's not something that's done to you, it's something that you embrace, you know, the dying of Jesus. The physical death was something that was done to him, but the real death of Jesus was something that he did. I'm going to start, this was a little prayer from Jacob. In Genesis chapter 48, the God in whose ways my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, that God has been my shepherd from my birth to this day, the angel who has delivered me from all harm. Today, again, a little different twist on our wilderness journey.

[33:53]

We're going to look at the story at the wilderness journey of one of our forefathers, a very important forefather, the patriarch, Jacob, and the Jacob story. This is going to be this morning and this evening in two conferences. It's a long story. It is a very good story, and it is a story of transformation. Again, like the story of Moses in one sense, a story of call. A person who wasn't worthy of the call, wasn't really interested in the call for the right reason. but who, with whom God persevered, God's patience in working out the design, a very instructive story, and it's written in a way to be our story.

[34:55]

Abraham, I mean Isaac and Jacob, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Abraham is our father in the faith, but in a very important way, so is Jacob, and often Jacob is referred to as the father. Of course, his name changed to Israel, and he becomes the father of the people. It's a very important story if you have doubts about yourself and very helpful also if you have doubts about someone else because God's amazing power to work things out. Now the way this story starts is in the whole last half of the book of Genesis from 25 to 50 is about this story. It includes the story of Joseph, which is a little different, but the two work together, and it's a long story. And it starts even before Jacob is born.

[35:59]

Isaac entreated the Lord on behalf of his wife, Rebekah, since she was sterile. The Lord heard his entreaty, and Rebekah became pregnant. And so, then she finds out that she has twins. The children in her womb jostled each other so much that she explained, if this is to be so, what good will it do me? And she says, I asked for this, but I wish I hadn't. I've got more trouble, double trouble. And then she went to consult the Lord and he answered her, two nations are in your womb, two peoples are quarreling while still within you. but one shall surpass the other, and the older shall serve the younger." We actually have, you might say, three layers here. You have the historical layer, way back there, and then you have this story as applied to Israel and its enemy, Edom. And then you have it as a story of anyone, or as our father in the journey,

[37:11]

uh... pattern for us the older shall serve the younger when the time of her delivery came there were twins in her womb the first to emerge was reddish and his whole body was like a hairy mantle so they named him Esau his brother came out next dripping Esau's eel so they named him Jacob and one interpreter said the names of these twins are Harry and Gravy Esau, of course, has the idea of reddish, and it is also sometimes referred to the red clay of Edom. But Jacob has the idea of grabbing, and it has the idea of heel, grasping the heel. So, planting or deceiving. Jacob is a fighter from his birth. He's grabbing a hold. And it also

[38:13]

says that he has very little hair, and again, the same interpreter that called him Harry and Grabby says that implies that he is a smooth operator. And there's something to that. Now, we're introduced to them. Isaac is 60 years old, and then we hear, the first thing we hear about them is this famous story of the bargaining for the birthright. Esau became a skillful hunter, a man who lived in the open, whereas Jacob was a simple man who kept to his tents. Isaac preferred Esau because he was fond of game. That's a pretty sad thing to say. I like you because you feed me. But Rebekah preferred Jacob. Once when Jacob was cooking a stew, Esau came in from the open famished. And so Jacob is a man of the house. Now those of you, and I guess all of you cook, you know, you can imagine how Jacob felt when Esau, after he'd been slaving there all morning on this beautiful stew, Esau comes in and says, let me gulp down some of that red stuff.

[39:25]

I'm starving. But Jacob replied first, give me your birthright in exchange for it. And it escalates this thing to an immense high level. and again it's Jacob is very smooth his left hand always knows what his right hand is doing and so uh... he's not going to give up anything the uh... the uh... implication is that Esau is very obtuse and he doesn't care so he said uh... look I'm on the point of dying what good will any birthright do me and so he gives Jacob his birthright and uh... Now this story is very, very deep, and so immediately there's a connection here with the story of the first part of Genesis, Adam and Eve, who also sold their birthright for something to eat. So these things run very deep in this story. I was just thinking, I didn't think of this earlier, but somehow this struck me this morning.

[40:31]

One time when I was the soccer coach in our school, We had a very good team. We had a game that we were going to have with a junior college and this was a very tough game because most of these players were from the Middle East and they were going to school here in the States and a lot of them were from Iraq, Iran, there were some from Palestine, Jordan, and we were going to play them Saturday morning on our football field and then and they were going to go back home, and I said, well, we ought to get some lunch for them because we're going to finish about noon, we can all eat together, have a nice common meal. So I told, I asked the kitchen, they'd send down something after the game. So they said they would, and so I sent up a boy about half time to get some. He came back. These people, of course, these players were all Muslim. Not all of them, but about 90 percent. And so they came back with ham sandwiches. And so they all looked around and said, we can't eat that.

[41:37]

And so they made their meal on potato chips. But after a while, one of those guys started eating ham sandwich. And so I happened in conversation with him. I said, well, I'm surprised. Are you not a Muslim? I said, the rest of these guys can't eat this. Oh, he said, no, I'm a Muslim. I'm a very faithful Muslim. And I said, well, how come you're... He said, it says in the Quran, and I don't know if this is true, maybe Brother James knows this, He says in the Koran that if you're in danger of death, you may eat pork. And he said, I was in danger of death. So this is like Esau eating the birthright. And so that story ends, and then it kind of almost starts over. We find the next thing we have is that Isaac is on his deathbed, and extremely old, and he can't see. and uh... the story also you might think he's not too bright but uh... because he can be fooled so easily but the story is about again the birthright and the older and the younger and cheating now rebecca likes uh... jacob and he she jacob has inherited her genes because they're both schemers and she wants to hurry the process along god has promised the older will serve the younger but god is biding his time and

[43:01]

Rebekah says, well, I'll help God along with a little cheating. So she helps her son lie to fool her blind father and to rob his brother, her real nice mother. God is taking too much time, something must be done. St. Vincent de Paul has this saying, those who are in a hurry delay the things of God. uh... and jacob does not want to do this at first he says my father will curse me and then rebecca said any curse let it fall on me and jacob says okay let's go and then he as you know he goes out and gets some game he brings it back in and he saw isaac as surprised he said where did you get this how'd you get so fast and then he says the lord did it So he's getting himself deeper and deeper. You know, there used to be a comedian who always said, the devil made me do it. Here, it is God. And so, he tricks his father, he receives the blessing of the firstborn son, and it's the kind of blessing that when Isaac gives it away, he can't take it back.

[44:10]

It's independent of him now, and so Jacob has it. When Esau comes in, he's very, very angry. but he can't have that anymore, it's gone. And so he can get a second-rate blessing, and he's very angry. In fact, he says, when the time of mourning for my father comes, I will kill my brother Jacob. So this thing has really gone into murder, murderous intent. And so, here's the consequence of Rebecca's diligence. She has managed to make her beloved son run away in fear. She's put enmity, even murderous enmity, between her two sons. And she says, ironically, must I lose both of you? And she says, I've got to send Jacob away. And must I lose both of you in a single day? Which is exactly what she did. And she never sees them again. And Jacob, her beloved, and also the other son. And this follows back from the earlier part of Genesis where sin has consequences and it multiplies.

[45:13]

You know, one sin leads to another until it's all over. And the same thing is true here. And so here we have, this is setting the scene for the story of Jacob. You say, this is the father of our country. This is our spiritual father. What kind of a guy is this? And so the raw material is a really kind of a detestable person, a brat who's very self-centered and a grabby person. He lies to his mother. He lies to his father. He lets his mother be cursed. He robs his brother and then the story robs him twice. and no sign of repentance at all. He simply runs away. And this is very important because everybody who reads this story, every one of his descendants, his spiritual descendants, can say, I'm not that bad, and there's hope for me. And in fact, if you do think you're that bad, you have to remember that Jacob began being bad when he was in the womb, and you can't go back any further than that, so that there's hope for all of us, and this is something that's going on.

[46:19]

So, Jacob, however, is the one who has been called. He is the one that God has called, and God is going to stick by the call, even though Jacob, to our idea, isn't worth it. It's a wrong call. Jacob goes back to the old country, back east back to the uh... back to the home and uh... Rebecca's going to send him back to her family so he can be protected and on the way there he by accident goes across Bethel the house of God, the sanctuary and again James just brother James just told me that uh... he saw somebody one time put his head down on a rock for a pillow right and that's in this story so they still do that over there and so he he puts one of the stones of the shrine and so because he is so blessed he happens to lie down without knowing it right in the middle of the shrine and this is God blessing him and God appears to him in a dream and he has the ladder and then the Lord says to him and here's the promise the great promise which we we will hear again and again I the Lord am the God of your forefather Abraham the God of Isaac

[47:34]

the land on which you are lying I will give to you and your descendants and then he goes on and finally says no that I am with you see there it is that's the thing I am with you I will protect you wherever you go and bring you back to this land I will never leave you until I have done what I promised you now we know the story that's gone ahead and we wonder why doesn't God say I was going to call you, and I still may, but you've got to straighten up first." He doesn't make any allusion to Jacob's unworthiness, because he has made his choice. And so he doesn't rebuke him here. He doesn't call back, take back the call. He simply takes Jacob as he is, repeats the call, and then he buys his time, and as we see in the story, begins to work behind the scenes and work on Jacob. I will be with you. God's faithfulness to His call.

[48:35]

There's a statement by Archbishop Anthony Bloom, which I think is a nice interpretation of this. It's about, he says, this is the way we should deal with anybody. I make an act of faith and I help you emerge from your own chaos as you are to be without my knowing what you will become. That is the way God treats chaos. he creates us with the world of things unresolved and he calls us forth he shows us humankind in perfection jesus mary the saints and shows the way not commands to be carried out but a measure to be fulfilled he acts powerfully within this chaos of course it is a beautiful image of community that each one of us has all kinds of things inside of us in chaos and so we help one another emerge be bad, or we take our time, or we're patient. Paul has the idea of being a midwife to another. You are my children, and you put me back in labor pains until Christ is formed in you.

[49:42]

Again, in community we experience this. We're in labor pains with one another. God says, I am with you, and I will be with you, and I will protect you. And here's what Jacob says in reply. This is a Jacob prayer. Jacob then made this vow, if God remains with me to protect me on this journey I'm making and give me enough bread to eat and clothing to wear, and if I come back safe to my father's house, the Lord shall be my God. So, a big day for God. Jacob is going to do that much for him. And then he says, of everything you give me, I will faithfully return a tenth part to you. Now, this is not phrased as a tithe, because a tithe is meant to stand for the whole. You can't give everything you give as if something stands for the whole. It stands for yourself. Here, the tithe stands for a tithe, just a tenth.

[50:45]

If you do all these good things for me, then I'll break down and give you a little bit off the bottom. So, his concerns are not God's will or the faith, fulfilling the promise, but his own protection, his own food, his own clothing. And there's a bargaining involved. We can do this too. We can say, God, if you do this, I will do this. When I pray, when I have time, I will pray. I will use only the luxuries I need. I will fast when I'm not hungry, give to the poor anything I don't need, and obey when I agree. And when things are going my way, I won't murmur." In other words, I will give to you, O God, whatever I don't really need and wouldn't miss. So, Jacob now has had the call reiterated, and he goes forward. He comes to Haran, the old family home,

[51:47]

And he comes to the well, Jacob's well, and again, blessings are just dropping on him one after another. And he's not worthy of them, but they keep dropping on him. And so he comes to the well, and he says, whose well is this? No, he asks the people at the well, do you know Laban, son of Nahor? And they say yes, this is his daughter coming, Rachel. And so Rachel comes with her flock, and she's very beautiful. and they wait by the well because they can't move the stone. They have to wait until everybody gets there to remove the stone. And so Jacob gets so inspired by Rachel that he rolls the stone off by himself. Again, an idea he can do anything. He owes nobody nothing. He can do everything. He's independent. He has no dependence, no insufficiency. Laban comes up, or he goes to Laban's house.

[52:50]

When Laban heard the news about his sister's son Jacob, he hurried out to meet him. And after Jacob recounted to Laban all that had happened, Laban said to him, you are indeed my flesh and blood. A very ironic statement, because Laban and Rebekah are brother and sister. Jacob is just like them. And when Jacob tells him about all the deceit and manipulation, Laban says, you are my flesh and blood. And after Jacob had stayed with him a full month, Laban said to him, I see Jacob is a freeloader. And so he stays there not working. And Laban is too shrewd to come out and say, look, you got to go to work. He does it in a roundabout way. He says, should you serve me for nothing just because you are a relative of mine? tell me what your wages should be so wages means work and Laban had two daughters the older was called Leah the younger Rachel now here's one of these beautiful sentences of scripture Leah had lovely eyes but Rachel was well formed and beautiful and since Jacob had fallen in love with Rachel he answered Laban I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel now

[54:09]

This is a big turning point for Jacob. He is smitten by Rachel, and he has never experienced love before. Now, this doesn't mean that he wasn't loved. We don't know. His parents may have loved him well. In fact, Rachel or Rebecca loved him, but he never experienced it. He didn't experience it in the way that he really loved anybody else. And so he's been completely self-protected and never been out of himself. And all of a sudden, he's out of himself by this love. And so Laban is right there to take advantage of it. And so Laban says, well, he doesn't say, that's wonderful, I'm so happy to have you. He says, well, I prefer to give her to you rather than to an outsider. Stay with me. So Jacob serves seven years for Rachel. Now remember, that wasn't the year 2001 where nobody waits two weeks you need to wait seven years and he's not living with her yet these seven years seem to him but a few days because of his love for her and so uh... uh... jacob it has been taken advantage of but he doesn't even know it because he's in love and this is very important that that uh... number one he meets rachel who who opens him up and number two that he meets layman who takes advantage of him and treats him the way he's been treating everyone else and so uh...

[55:38]

Jacob, after seven years, says, Give my wife that I may consummate my marriage with her, for my term is now completed. And as we know, at nightfall, Laban tricked him and took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob, and Jacob consummated the marriage with her. And of course, we realize that part of the reason this works is because they've been drinking a lot, and also the women are veiled. And here's another beautiful statement of Scripture. In the morning, Jacob was amazed. It was Leah. So he cried out to Laban, how could you do this to me? Was it not for Rachel that I served you? Why did you dupe me? And Laban doesn't say that I needed to get this older daughter married off or, you know, and I, what he's really doing, instead of giving just a week of celebration for two, and therefore two weeks of celebration, he's going to give two girls away for one week. of feasting, one at the beginning and one at the end of the week. And so he doesn't say, I'm sorry, he says, oh, I forgot to tell you, it is not the custom in our country to marry off a younger daughter before an older one.

[56:47]

I just forgot to bring that to your attention. And so he says, finish the bridal wig for this one, then I'll give you the other two in return for another seven years of service with me. And Rachel and Jacob is very vulnerable. He has no problem with that. So 14 years of service. and then in only one week of feasting, and Laban is riding high. So Laban is a very smooth man himself. Now after about 20 years, the story goes on, it's very interesting, different things that happen. Jacob realizes that he's been duped. Jacob was kind of a slow learner, you know. And he wants to return home, but Laban, of course, thinks of the economics. He's got all these sons, and he doesn't really want to lose this service. And so, he doesn't... Now, around here, I noticed that you've got these sheep, and you used to have cattle, but I don't think you ever used the breeding techniques that Jacob used, where in order to get these spotted cows, he had spotted sticks set up in front of them when they were mating, and then picked out the best ones.

[58:04]

but uh... the lord said to jacob returned to the land of your father's where you were born and in there is the same again i will be with you chapter thirty three thirty one verse three again jacob is not confident they go protect us a slips away he gets help with some trickery by his wives and uh... layman pretends to be very offended for family reasons and he said if you're only told me this i would have sent you away and with tambourines and harps. But in verse 43 of chapter 31, Laban says he owns the women and children, but being big-hearted, he will let them go. And then, right at the end of the chapter, they set up a covenant. Now this, however, is a little different than most covenants. It's a covenant of mistrust, or a covenant of hatred. This mound shall be a witness from now on between you and me. May the Lord keep watch between you and me when we're out of each other's sight.

[59:08]

You know, it's interesting, several years ago, somebody sent me a valentine. Now, Hallmark has capital, you know, it picks the verses out of scripture, and whatever they mean, it uses them. And so somebody sent me this valentine, and on the cover it had this beautiful statement, it said, May the Lord keep watch between you and me. The trouble was, I knew the rest of the verse. But scripture can be used that way. And so, if you mistreat my daughters, etc., etc., God will be witness between you and me. And so, early the next morning, Laban kissed his grandchildren and his daughters goodbye. He set out on his journey back home while Jacob continued on his own way. Then God's messengers encountered Jacob. He said, this is God's encampment. And then what happens? He sends messengers ahead because he hears that Esau is coming to meet him.

[60:14]

And so this is from the frying pan into the fire. Jacob has been gone 20 years from his home he still is concerned, worried about what has happened between him and Esau and how he cheated Esau. And so he sends messengers ahead to his brother Esau with the message, Thus shall you say to my lord Esau, your servant, Jacob, speaks as follows, I own cattle, asses, and sheep. I'm sending my lord this information in the hope of gaining your favor, so he's going to bribe Esau. And when the messengers returned to Jacob, they said, and you can think about what's going through Jacob's mind, we reached your brother Esau. He is now coming to meet you accompanied by 400 men. So this is where we're going to break for the day, get the rest of the story tonight. We've got the setting. Now, this is a story of how God works with people, how God uses different people in our lives.

[61:23]

Jacob wanted Rachel in his life, but he didn't want Laban. And it's a toss-up which one is doing him the most good. He needs both of them. But then the one who's going to do him the most good is Esau, even though he's the last person that Jacob wants to meet. And as the story comes to this critical moment here, Jacob sees Esau coming with 400 men. And now Esau makes another prayer. And this again is a Jacob prayer. O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, you told me, O Lord, go back to the land of your birth and I will be good to you. So you've got to keep your promise. I am unworthy of all the acts of kindness that you have been loyally performed for your servant. Although I crossed the Jordan here with nothing but my staff, I have now grown into two companies. Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau.

[62:28]

Otherwise, I fear that when he comes, he will strike me down and slay the mothers and children." And then he says again, you yourself said, remember, I will be very good to you. I will make your descendants like the sands of the sea, which are too numerous to count." And so that's where we wait to see what God is going to do for Jacob. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. I don't think I have the I don't think I know anymore where I got that. In fact, I think I got it from an article somewhere. It might have not even been an article by him. But here's what it said, just to repeat. I make an act of faith, and I help you emerge from your own chaos as you are to be, without my knowing what you will become.

[63:31]

That is the way God treats chaos. He creates us with a world of things unresolved, and He calls us forth. He shows us humankind in perfection. Jesus married the saints and shows the way, not commands to be carried out, but a measure to be fulfilled. He acts powerfully within this chaos. So, only God knows the recipe.

[63:56]

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