"Choosing Between" July 30, 2017

Genesis 29: 15-28 Matthew 13: 44-52 How quick we are to judge and choose between options, as being wrong, rather than recognizing how blessed we are that we live in a time and place that we have choices. In Jesus’ parables of the Kingdom, would you value farmland because it is fertile and healthy, or only if you find a treasure in it? As a Jeweler, would you disregard a string of pearls for One of Great Value? All M&Ms in a bag for One green one? Over the last several weeks, I have listened to Grandparents describe that their grandchildren were not being raised with the same boundaries, traditions and customs that they had raised their kids, instead of recognizing we have the joy of grandchildren, and share miraculous resources as normal! The story of Jacob’s marriages and family, describe the circumstance of a family, having their customs, their faith and traditions, their identities based on birth-order, passed on from generation to generation; which then are challenged by a stranger, who demonstrates other ideas that are not wrong they are just different, and we have the choice between and maybe to include both. We probably need to insert the disclaimer here that Television and Radio shows do: “This morning’s sermon will include matters that may not be suitable for children... “Beauty, Love, Marriage, Infertility, Fertility drugs, Genetics, S-E-X.” Before you ask, there is no theme running here, that this week is about SEX and last week about Drugs and Rock & Roll, we just preach what the Bible and Holy Spirit give us! Jacob walked across the desert. Arriving at a Watering hole he does the unthinkable: Jacob asks for directions! Only to discover he is already, where he wanted to be! According to Tradition, the Shepherds of several different flocks patiently wait until all others have arrived, to share together in opening the floodgates, so to water their sheep equally. Jacob asked if they knew his Uncle Laban, and they respond that “Yes, Laban is known, He is very prosperous, and by the way here is his daughter.” Wanting to get Rachel alone, Jacob suggests that all the others leave so as to have her to himself, when they refuse because they have not yet watered their sheep, Jacob picks up the boulder it took several shepherds to move, and he waters their sheep himself! Break all customs of patiently waiting, working together, sharing water equally, Jacob has other ideas. Then, in addition to knowing she was his “wealthy relative’s” daughter, Jacob literally is knocked down by how drop-dead gorgeous Rachel is. He kisses her hand and weeps over how beautiful she is. Laban hears there is a stranger asking about him, so comes to the watering hole to meet Jacob and invite him home for dinner. Over the meal and the next few days, Jacob tells their family story to Laban, all about his parents…Laban’s sister & Isaac the brother-in-law, but also the time Jacob got the better of his brother Esau for a pot of stew, and how he tricked his father into giving him what the father intended for Esau. Much like the family stories that are told among our own kin over vacation. At which Laban affirms: “You are bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh!” In my own family, my grandfather began a tradition, that when a couple is married, the night before the wedding, the father-in-law presents the bride with a pearl necklace. My Grandfather did so to my mother; my father gave my wife a pearl necklace; and as the minister in the family called upon to officiate weddings, not only do I have necklaces in case either of my sons ever marry, but I have given them to each of my nieces and cousins as I blessed their marriages. It is a family tradition. Laban responded to Jacob, “So if I give you a job, what wages do you desire?” Having not read President Trump’s The Art of The Deal, Jacob blurts out that he wants Rachel, and instead of negotiating a dowry of cattle, or working several years, he commits to seven years of hard labor to possess her. Laban agrees that trusting him is better than a stranger. There is this wonderful statement of love, that to Jacob 7 years passed as a few days! We are known for having Celebrations, especially Weddings, but Jacob’s Wedding lasted 7 days & nights, of feasting and drinking. However, the morning after the wedding night, Jacob discovers Laban tricked him, to consummate the marriage with Leah instead of her sister Rachel. Laban explains it is against their tradition and customs to marry a younger daughter before the first-born. There is an irony here, for Jacob who stole Esau’s right of first-born. At which Laban offers, that Jacob not give up, but finish out the week-long Wedding celebration, at the end of which he will be married to Rachel as well, if Jacob works another 7 years. Poor Rachel not only has to share her husband with sister, she does not get her own wedding! Now there is an odd translation here, because the same word in Hebrew could mean Weak or Beautiful. So either Leah, had Weak eyes, meaning she was near-sighted, squinted, her eyes were dull, had no sparkle, OR where her little sister was gorgeous …the only thing beautiful about Leah, was her eyes. Which again is ironic in a culture where women are veiled from head to foot, so the only thing visible was her eyes. While it is not our tradition to have more than one spouse at a time, the reality is that we marry: the strengths & weaknesses in one another, for better & worse. The difficulty in this story being that the two sisters compete for Jacob’s affections. When Leah does not have Jacob’s love, she consoles herself by bearing the children Rachel cannot. In rapid succession Leah gives birth to the tribes of Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah. HOWEVER, because she cannot conceive, Rachel is unsatisfied with Jacob’s love; and he reacts “Am I God, to grant you children or deny you?” Using the tradition of Jacob’s Grandma Sarah, Rachel produces the sons she desires: Dan and Naphtali, by Jacob through her slave Bilhah. Not to be outdone, Leah has Jacob impregnate her slave Zilpah, for children named Gad and Asher. Incorporating another family custom, the Superstition of Old Wives’ tales, there was a Fertility drug made from wild Mandrake Root. We probably know this better from the Harry Potter series, Mandrake roots bear a resemblance to a newborn baby, HOWEVER, Mandrake can produce the side-effects of :Total Paralysis, Psychotic Hallucinations, Death, Blurred Vision, Dilation of Pupils, Dry Mouth, Difficulty Urinating, Dizziness, Headache, Vomiting, Blushing, Rapid Heart Rate, Hyperactivity, Unconsciousness, Rheumatoid pains, Melancholy, Convulsions, Madness, and did we say Death! Really puts you in the Mood, does it not! And like several medications today, should not be handled by children. One day, Leah’s eldest son Reuben finds and pulls up several roots. Desperate for children, Rachel sells her sister a night in Jacob’s bed for Leah’s son’s mandrakes. No good turn goes unpunished, and Leah is suddenly able to get pregnant again, giving birth to Issachar, Zebulun, and a daughter Dinah. And finally a year after purchasing the mandrakes, Rachel becomes pregnant with Joseph. Having acquired 2 wives, 2 concubines, 11 sons and a daughter, Jacob wants to leave, to go home. But Father Laban says, “I have been blessed for having Jacob here; so tell you what, if you work for me another 6 years, for a total of 20, I will give you all the sheep and goats of my herd, that are born speckled or spotted, or anything but wholly black or white.” But, trying to fix the deal, that night Laban steals from the herd all the sheep that are in any way spotted, striped or marked, sending these off with his sons, leaving only all black or all white sheep and goats. A few years ago there were a series of books published about what you needed to do to have a female baby, versus a male, what foods to eat, what positions… Jacob believed that if while the sheep were breeding, they looked on stripes or spots, that is what would be born. So he whittled stripes and spots on sticks. Further tradition, is that he only put the striped and spotted sticks in front of the strongest and healthiest of sheep. So by the end of the 6th year, Jacob had the majority of the herd, and Laban’s were weak and sickly, while the sheep and goats of Jacob were strong. Realizing each has been tricked by the other, Laban and Jacob break all relationship with one another, cutting off each other, by establishing a Stone Altar, as a dividing line between them, with the vow “The Lord watch between me and thee, while we are absent one from another.”