September 30, 2022 Faith Story: He Dreamed

Hebrews 11:1-2, 21 & Genesis 28:10-22

Faith Story: He Dreamed 

Rev. Rhonda Blevins

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Indeed, by faith our ancestors received approval.

By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, "bowing in worship over the top of his staff."

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Jacob left Beer-sheba and went toward Haran. 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. And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven; and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 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; 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. 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." Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, "Surely the Lord is in this place—and I did not know it!" 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." So Jacob rose early in the morning, and he took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it. He called that place Bethel; but the name of the city was Luz at the first. Then Jacob made a vow, saying, "If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, so that I come again to my father's house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God, and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God's house; and of all that you give me I will surely give one-tenth to you."

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Dr. Richard Kimble is a man on the run.  If you’ve ever seen The Fugitive, you know what I’m talking about.

Kimble, played by Harrison Ford, a successful vascular surgeon, arrives home one day to find his wife fatally injured and the perpetrator, a one-armed man, is still in the house. Kimble wrestles with the man, but he escapes. Kimble, despite his innocence, is arrested, tried, and convicted. He is sentenced to death row.

On his way to a maximum-security prison with other death row inmates, there’s a terrible accident involving a train. Kimble manages to escape, after saving the life of a guard, of course. And the rest of the film, the audience roots for Kimble as he outwits, outsmarts, and outruns the law.

When we meet Jacob today, Jacob, like Dr. Richard Kimble, is a fugitive. Not from the law, mind you, but from the vigilante justice of his brother, Esau.

Jacob has just tricked Esau out of their father’s blessing (Jacob means “trickster” you may recall). Esau vows to kill Jacob upon father, Isaac’s, death. So their mother, Rebekah, finds a way for Jacob to outwit, outsmart, and outrun the wrath of Esau.

“Let us send Jacob away to our ancestral homeland,” she coaxes Isaac, “so that he won’t marry one of these godless, foreign women.” (My paraphrase.) Isaac agrees. Jacob leaves home to journey toward the birthplace of his grandfather, Abraham.

Like Dr. Richard Kimble, Jacob is a fugitive. Unlike Dr. Richard Kimble, no one is cheering for Jacob to prevail. Unlike Dr. Richard Kimble, who did nothing to deserve his fate, Jacob has done everything to deserve his brother’s wrath: he stole both his brother’s blessing and his brother’s birthright.

There’s not much to like about Jacob up to this point in the story.

So with little more than a blessing for his future, a birthright from his past, and a brick under his head, Jacob settles down to sleep a fugitive’s sleep.

Up to this point in time, Jacob has not been particularly religious or interested in the God of his forebears. In the dialogue in which he deceives his father and steals Esau’s blessing, he tells Isaac that “the Lord your God” has blessed him. Not my God. Not our God. “Your God.”  (Genesis 27:20)

This disconnect with divinity is about to change.

With his head on a brick and nothing but a tunic between Jacob and the stars, Jacob falls asleep. And falling into REM, Jacob dreams the dream of a lifetime. A ladder from earth to heaven. Angels ascending and descending. God standing beside Jacob, promising to bless him. And maybe most importantly, promising to be with him:

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.

When Jacob awakens, he remembers his dream. “How awesome is this place!” he exclaims. He calls the place Bethel—the house of God—the gate of heaven.

We call this story “Jacob’s ladder.”

Let’s consider the who, what, where, when, and why of this dream we call “Jacob’s ladder.”

Who? Who was the dream for?

We call it Jacob’s ladder, but it wasn’t just Jacob’s ladder. It didn’t belong to him. It still doesn’t. We’ve given the ladder to Jacob just like Esau gave him his birthright, just like Isaac gave him the blessing, just like Rebekah gave him an escape plan. Jacob thought it was all about him, but it wasn’t. It isn’t “Jacob’s ladder.” It’s humanity’s ladder. Jacob was just the first to see it.

 What? What was the dream about?

There are lots of interesting interpretations:

·         A traditional Jewish interpretation holds that the place where Jacob saw the ladder would later become the site for the Temple in Jerusalem, thus likening the Temple to the gate between heaven and earth.

·         Another Jewish interpretation sees the Torah as the ladder or mediator between heaven and earth.

·         Irenaeus, in the second century, believed that the ladder represented the future Christian church that would bridge heaven and earth.⁠

·         Other early church figures would see the ladder as the ascetic pathway by which souls might approach heaven while still earth-bound.

·         A common Christian interpretation sees Christ as the ladder, citing Jesus’ apparent reference to Jacob’s ladder in a comment he offers to Nathanael, “You will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.” (John 1:51)

This is the interpretation John Wesley held, saying that the ladder is, “The mediation of Christ. He is this ladder: the foot on earth in his human nature, the top in heaven in his divine nature; or the former is his humiliation, the latter is his exaltation. All the intercourse between heaven and earth since the fall is by this ladder. Christ is the way: all God’s favours come to us, and all our services come to him, by Christ. If God dwells with us, and we with him, it is by Christ: we have no way of getting to heaven but by this ladder.”⁠[1]

Where? Where was the dream experienced?

The most important part about the “where” question, to me, is that it was “in-between.” Between the place Jacob was and the place he was going. It was liminal space. A threshold.

It’s no surprise Jacob completely misinterprets the dream. When he wakes up, he takes the stone upon which he rested his head, set it up as an ebenezer—a memorial. He called the place “Bethel,” house of God. He said that the spot was the “gate of heaven.” The ironic thing is, it wasn’t about that particular spot. The “gate of heaven” is not relegated to time and space. Jacob couldn’t grasp this deepest truth. Most of humanity still cannot recognize this deepest truth.

When? When was the dream experienced?

We’ve already named that Jacob was in between one place and another. But he was also between one stage of life and another.

Think about it. Jacob had lived with his family since birth. He was a grown man still coddled by his mother. He was heading into a time in his life when he would no longer receive that kind of favor.

I’ve noticed in my own life that my dreamlife is far more active during transitional times in my life than when I’m comfortable and settled. In fact, I once had a ladder dream. The situation I was in was becoming uncomfortable because I was outgrowing it. In my dream, I was climbing a rickety ladder up and out of that situation. As I reflected on the dream in my waking life, I understood it to mean that I was reaching up into new spiritual heights, which would require me to leave behind what was known into an unknown future.

One psychologist calls this “turning point dreams.”[2] They can be powerful markers.

 Why? Why did God plant this dream in Jacob?

What all the interpretations of this dream have in common is a recognition that God’s presence is not relegated to some sphere beyond earth or distant from human experience. Rather, a metaphoric “ladder” exists to bridge the dualistic, imaginary gap between binaries: heaven and earth, divinity and mortality, God and humans. Jacob’s ladder is a beautiful symbol of non-separation.

“I am with you,” God tells Jacob. “I will not leave you.”

And it didn’t matter how undeserving Jacob was. Conniving, scheming, manipulative, thieving Jacob.

“I am with you,” God tells Jacob. “I will not leave you.”

And remember, it’s not just Jacob’s ladder. It’s our ladder too.

The promise of God’s presence is not just Jacob’s promise. It’s our promise too.

Maybe you’re like Jacob—in between what was, and what will be. In fact, aren’t we all like Jacob? Between what was and what will be? Don’t we live our lives inside the “cone of uncertainty?”

We are the who. Here is the where. Now is the when.

And the what and the why?

By the time of Jacob, in Genesis 28, God is so passionate about reconnecting with humankind that God plants this dream in Jacob, who will become Israel. And through this dream that has stood the test of time, all people in all places in all times can know that we are not separate from our God, we are not distant from heaven, the realm of God isn’t “somewhere out there.” Through Christ, we are one with God.

We are the who. Here is the where. Now is the when.

And Oneness is the eternal why. We are never lost, we are never alone. The gate to heaven is always as close to us as our next breath.

Receive this promise. And this “Blessing for the Place Between” by Jan Richardson.[3]

When you come
to the place between.

When you have left
what you held
most dear.

When you are traveling
toward the life
you know not.

When you arrive
at the hardest ground.

May it become
for you
a place to rest.

May it become
for you
a place to dream.

May the pain
that has pressed itself
into you
give way
to vision,
to knowing.

May the morning
make of it
an altar,
a path,
a place to begin
again.

[1] John Wesley, Wesley’s Notes on the Bible, https://ccel.org/ccel/wesley/notes.ii.ii.xxix.ii.html

[2] https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/developmental-life-cycle-dreams-karen-chambre/

[3] Jan Richardson, The Cure for Sorrow: A Book of Blessings for Times of Grief