Learning not to grab

Genesis 28:10-17

St. Michael & All Angels, September 29, 2024

Holy Trinity Cathedral

“Learning not to grab”

From the beginning, they called him a grabber.  Maybe that’s why his mother named him Jacob, which roughly translates from the Hebrew as “he will trip or grab by the heel”.  Later on in the Bible he gets a new name, but first Jacob has to learn to trust God’s promise for him.  It comes through a dream of angels. God’s message is to put aside his fear of missing out on his share in life.  As he realizes that he doesn’t have to grab to get what he needs, Jacob begins to become a better person.  It doesn’t happen all at once, but this is the turning point in reconciliation with God and his brother.  What does this passage have to say to us, who fearfully clutch rather than recognize others’ rights and resources?

With Jacob, it started at birth.  As the younger of twins, he emerged into the world grabbing at the heel of his slightly elder brother.  By order of arrival, Esau is the majority heir of his father’s wealth.  And Jacob resented his brother’s advantages.  When Esau comes in hungry from an unsuccessful hunt, Jacob sets the price of a bowl of lentil stew as his brother’s birthright. Either Esau doesn’t understand, doesn’t care, or doesn’t think anyone will believe the transaction, so he goes ahead and relinquishes his spot in the will.  Then, just to make sure that this reversal will be binding in the eyes of his aged father, Jacob arranges to receive the elderly Isaac’s blessing.  He disguises himself to feel and smell like Esau so his blind old dad won’t catch on.  By this point in life, Jacob has managed to play the entrepreneur in order to take advantage for himself. 

Now, we can somewhat admire the trickster at work, but his dealings wreak havoc on family relationships.  His brother is ready to kill him.  His father is tearful and fearful of what is going to happen next.  Mom has the bright idea of sending Jacob away back to her family to find a wife who can hopefully make him behave.  So off Jacob goes, back towards Haran and his maternal uncle’s farm.  And in the loneliness of his journey, maybe he reflects on what he has done with his life.  One night he sleeps beneath the stars, and he dreams of a ladder set up between earth and heaven, with messengers from God going up and down.  He realizes that he is not alone in this place.  It is holy ground, for God is reaching out to him there with a promise that goes far beyond his attempts at his own fortune.  Rather than fighting and wrestling for a share from his brother, he is to trust God’s much larger plan.

That’s not an easy ask. When we are driven by our own needs, humans tend not to pay much attention to the needs of others.  There is the reality of FOMO- the fear of missing out when we think that there are limited supplies.  It could be food, a safe home, a loving relationship, an opportunity.  It’s what happens when people don’t queue up to get on a bus but all push to get through the doors in case they snap shut.  I saw it in action at a food bank distribution point, when some of the volunteers were also clients who received supplies every week.  Early on, some of the donated items started disappearing as soon as they got unloaded from the truck.  The volunteers were “helping themselves” to their share before the rest of the recipients got through the doors, just in case the food bank ran out of items.  They didn’t want to be the last and the least.  When we changed the procedure, upped the order, and allowed the volunteers to collect their own allotted items first, the pilfering diminished.  They no longer feared they would miss out when their turn came. 

It’s one thing to change an organizational task to address an inequity.  It’s quite another to deal with historical wrongs that have resulted from one group feeling they have the right to take something from another group. When different claims are laid, how do we work towards a solution that will provide enough for all?  In our world, groups are in conflict over resources and land at a much greater scale than Jacob and Esau’s disagreement over inheritance.  The Bible points to a role for those who can carry the message of God’s plan to those involved.  With Jacob, it started with a dream in which he felt that there was a possible connection between himself and the God whom his father and grandfather served. 

At first, he is very afraid.  But this is no longer the fear of missing out.  It is awe at the presence of the Divine.  He called the place where he encountered the Holy “Beth-el”- the house of God.  And through the message, perhaps for the first time in his life, he committed himself not to his conniving, but to trust that God would be enough.  At this point, there are still some conditions, you will notice! “If God will be with me, and will keep me in the 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” (Genesis 28:29-21).  But it is a move in the right direction. 

Jacob builds a memorial marker to pledge his recognition of this turning point.  From now on, he will try not to grab so hard for what he thinks he needs.  When difficult times come again, and he wrestles with his faith, the only thing he reaches for is God’s blessing. He eventually reconciles with his brother, giving him flocks and goods to compensate for his past actions.  He settles in the land that God has promised and has many children that will be the next step in God’s plan.  Jacob takes on a new name, Israel.  But the story of Jacob and his grabbing not just a campfire tale of a trickster.  It is a reminder for people of faith. 

We are told that God’s offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, from the west and the east and the north and the south.  We are part of God’s people, connected to each other through the love of our Creator.  We too need messengers to teach us to live with each other without grabbing.  May we hear the voices of creation and our brothers and sisters in our journey to truth and reconciliation.  Amen.