"Naming What Was Hidden" July 24, 2011

Genesis 30: 25-43
Matthew 13: 31-35 & 44-52
Years ago, when my bride and I first married, we had very little. We lived in a Studio apartment on the Upper Westside of Harlem in Manhattan as I went to Seminary and she to Grad School. As wedding gifts her grandparents had refinished a table and chairs for us, and our most precious possession was a noisy, metal, 20 year old used window air conditioner from her uncle. Routinely, in each week's trash we would find a broken chair, a trunk painted the wrong color, and we carried these back to refinish and furnish our home. When we graduated and went to the first church, the movers said “Now all these antiques need to be insured.” Over 30 years, with two children now grown, we have accumulated a lot of stuff, and periodically we want to bring everything out, new and old, discerning what is really needed. The same is true in faith, except perhaps what is brought out of our faith is more obscure.

Parables... Guilt... Forgiveness... Predestination... Rights of a first born... Let my people Go... A 2000 year old weapon of execution... Conversion... Salvation... How do we bring out into the open, all that we have hidden and accumulated, in order to discern what we truly believe in? Recently, I learned a wonderful interpretation of “Predestination” having nothing to do with circumstances being fore-ordained, with damnation or election, but that Predestination is the response of those who do believe that who they are and what they experience in life is a gift from God. As opposed to “The Devil Made me Do It,” or “Being a Victim of Society,” or simply “Bad luck,” to intentionally claim “You are Blessed by God.”

Some of us grew up Catholic, must they throw away the Holy Rosary; some began life Jewish must they abandon the Table fellowship of the Seder and the saying of prayers to worship; Christian denominations separated 5-800 years ago are there still pieces of value that separate us, or do we cling to being separate from others? While many of us grew up as Presbyterian or Episcopalian, Baptist and Orthodox, it seems the fastest growing most prevalent faith today is what is described as “Shiela-ism.” You won't find the times of worship services for Shiela-ism listed in the newspaper, on-line or on a sign board. Shiela-ism, is Shiela or Steve or Sally deciding for themselves what they think is going to be important, making it up as they go along.

There are three primary differences in Shiela-ism and Presbyterianism. First, because Steve-ism is going to be different from Sheila-ism, Shiela-ism only has room for one, each of us individually going about life trying to make sense for ourselves. Second, because Shiela-ism is focused only on what we choose to believe, there is not even room for God, and we believe and worship only ourselves. Third, that having no one and nothing, not even God to relate to, we obsess and fill ourselves with guilt, crazy ideas others would have been able to challenge or to share, or to forgive us for ages ago, but we made ourselves the center of our identity and faith, without the ability to be forgiven or to know we are loved. Funny how much we worry about the estimated value of our homes, how much we try to effect the curb-appeal, when the value is only realized when we sell our home to move on; yet our faith in God, our ethics and values of what is really important go hidden gathering dust, until crises arise, and suddenly we desperately want prayer to work for us, suddenly we want to find the faith we used to have.

Faith is not about having occupied a pew for an hour each week, not about knowing when to stand up or how loudly we sing, not even guilt over how few Bible verses we memorized. Faith is what gives your life meaning and purpose, what would you live and die for? Part of the reason for a disconnect between that generation that fought WWII and the Generation who matured in the 1960s and 70s and between that generation and those fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq today, has been whether we knew we had something to believe in, whether we believe in our band of brothers, or whether cynically, we questioned if there was anything worth believing in. What would it be, to be working at our jobs as routine as plowing a field back and forth all day every day, when suddenly you find a buried treasure? The parable questions, would you pocket what you found, always concerned someone would contest your having it, or would you go about proving your right and ownership before claiming the prize. The underlying question however is what would it be to find a treasure in the midst of daily routine? Something worth selling everything else, risking everything, to be part of.

The ancient story of Genesis is marvelous. For while it is external, following the misadventures of all the generations of the dysfunctional family of Abraham, there are pearls here for each of us.

The story of Jacob, begins with Isaac and his wife Rebekkah playing favorites between their twin sons. Isaac loves Esau who is all boy, a hunter and fisher, an outdoorsman. Rebekkah loves Jacob, Mom's boy who helps her and takes care of whatever she needs.Through their children, Isaac and Rebekkah play out their relationship, and try to win, over each other as to who is more important, who is right. Jacob, the younger twin, the favorite of his mother, tricks his brother, deceives their father and having gotten the better of everyone has no place safe once he has won, so runs away.

Jacob returns to the land where his grandfather Abraham had grown up, goes to his mother Rebekkah's family, to Rebekkah's brother Laban. And what do expect is going to happen? Rebekkah and Isaac did not invent their relationship out of thin air, their relationship was modeled after that of their families, so right away Jacob and the extended community are contesting for who will dominate, who will win. There is a custom that everyone wait until all the sheep are brought in, and together the shepherds roll away the rock to water the flocks. In a feat of strength, challenging cultural norms and concerned only with his own success, Jacob rolls the boulder away to water the flocks of Laban's daughter Rachel. Jacob the trickster, the deceiver, now gets tricked by his uncle Laban into marrying Leah the first born as well as Rachel the wife he prefers and committing to 14 years of free labor. There is no thought to Leah's feelings, or to Rachel's, Laban like Jacob seems to see people as objects to be manipulated, possessions to be used.

Our passage this morning comes after Jacob has worked for Laban for nearly 20 years. He has two wives, and their maids, 11 sons and a daughter , the youngest of which is his favorite Rachel's first-born Joseph. With Joseph having been born, Jacob wishes to return to the promised land, but Laban does not want him to go. Laban knows that he has prospered by having Jacob work for him, so when push comes to shove offers to pay Jacob. Each one tries to manipulate and trick the other, without revealing to the other what they are really about.

How difficult to read this passage this week, as the leaders of our government contest over the Debt. Hopefully, we will not offend anyone's politics by naming what may have been hidden, that what drives the debate is not concern over the National Debt, over what will happen to our economy and future. One side wants to protect the entitlement of those who worked for and accumulated their wealth. The other side wants to protect the entitlement of programs for the marginalized. Both want to protect the wants of their constituents, both want to be re-elected, and both sides want to win by whatever means. Not far different from Laban and Jacob in their game of breeding and hiding flocks.

The contest between Jacob and Laban is finally settled by Jacob's wives, Laban's daughters who saddle their camels and making ready to leave. Returning both men to what this was really all about, Laban letting Jacob's people go, a phrase that would be echoed in future generations between Moses and Pharaoh. Yet, even then, the daughters as members of this family trick their father one last time.

Would that in the midst of this current debate, someone would question the intrinsic meaning of our DEBTS, and whether we really believe the words of Our Lord's Prayer. That we turn to God asking for daily bread, and asking that our Debts would be forgiven as we forgive our Debtors. Perhaps in that way, rather than this being an 11th hour political fight between parties, we would consider our value system, and International Debts between nations who can never repay the principle let alone compounded interest.