Fertile Grounds: Birthrights And Kingdom Privileges
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This week’s primary Old Testament lectionary text brings us the story of Jacob trading away his birthright to his younger brother. While scheming for advantage among siblings may be something we can all relate to, the notion of a “birthright” seems rather arcane to most modern folk. Yet as team member Chris Keating points out in this installment of The Immediate Word, we all share an important birthright: citizenship. United States citizenship is an automatic birthright for native-born Americans -- and because it’s something many of us don’t have to work for to achieve, it’s all too easy for us to take it for granted... much as Jacob did with his birthright. Achieving naturalized citizenship, on the other hand, is such a difficult process that those who have gone through it greatly value it. But as Chris notes, we also share another birthright -- that of citizenship in the kingdom of God. Like our worldly citizenship, this too comes with rights and responsibilities. And as Jesus reminds us in the parable of the sower, as citizens of the kingdom we have a duty to spread the seed of God’s word -- even if not all of the seed we spread finds fertile ground.
Team member Dean Feldmeyer shares some additional thoughts on the Genesis text, and on the notion of Jacob and Esau representing two divided nations. Dean points out what is obvious to most of us -- that we are a deeply divided nation (like Jacob and Esau) that is struggling mightily within itself... and on most days it seems the warring parties have little to say to one another. Yet Dean suggests that despite the divisions it is possible for brothers and sisters to engage with one another... something that as the family of God we should all be seeking every day.
Fertile Grounds: Birthrights and Kingdom Privileges
by Chris Keating
Genesis 25:19-34; Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
For 15,000 American citizens, this year’s Fourth of July celebrations were a party they’ll never forget. While the rest of us ate hot dogs and lit sparklers, these citizens pledged their faithfulness to their new homeland and assumed the same rights and privileges bestowed upon millions of others through birth.
They learned that becoming a citizen takes effort, something many of us take for granted.
Those applying for U.S. citizenship must navigate a complex system of interviews, paperwork, classes, and other requirements. Following 9/11, the process became more stringent -- and the newly enforced travel ban and other political realities further complicate the pathway toward citizenship.
Among other requirements, immigrants must pass an English test and an oral naturalization test which covers the sort of questions that make high school social studies teachers grin. Interestingly, the national pass rate for immigrants taking that exam is over 90 percent, while native-born Americans don’t fare quite as well. A 2012 survey showed that only two-thirds of voting-age native-born citizens could pass the test, and a study of high school seniors in Oklahoma and Arizona found that less than 4 percent earned passing scores.
It seems that having the privilege may not be the same as having the knowledge -- an insight also found in this week’s story of Esau trading his birthright to his brother Jacob for bowl of soup. These boys had always been grabbing at each other’s heels, and now it appears things will only get worse.
They could hardly have been more different: Esau loved hunting, while Jacob preferred hanging around the house. But Jacob always had his sights set on grabbing his brother’s inheritance, and jumped when he had the chance. Their tale is one of rivalry and sibling conflict, but also one of privilege and blessing.
There’s more to the story than the younger usurping the older, of course. This week’s Genesis text is merely an opening to the greater saga of the fulfilling of God’s declaration that the “elder shall serve the younger.” Something fascinating happens when the story of Esau ceding his birthright is placed in conversation with the parable of the farmer seeding his field.
In that light, Jacob’s deal with his brother becomes a reminder of the surprising and often unexpected ways of life in God’s the kingdom. In the end, it’s not about rights.
In the News
My high school civics lessons were often served with a side of Greek wit and wisdom, which often made our classes sound like outtakes from My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Our teacher was a Greek immigrant, and like many immigrants, he was better versed in the United States Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and executive powers than many other teachers. He did not take any of it for granted.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, who represents Washington state’s Seventh congressional district, might understand my teacher’s experience. Jayapal is the first Indian-American woman to serve in the United States Congress. She became a citizen 17 years ago, in a ceremony she recently recounted in a New York Times op-ed piece. Any obstacles she faced only increased her determination to succeed.
“In that moment, as I took my oath,” wrote Jayapal, “I realized how lucky I was. I knew that my future had opened up, and that citizenship would offer me the chance to seek opportunity and to take part in our democracy. I knew, too, that with those freedoms and opportunity came enormous responsibility: to do everything I could to preserve and build our democracy, to vote, and to use my life to pay it forward and ensure opportunity for others.”
It’s possible that immigrants understand the privileges of citizenship better than the average American high school student.
Nearly all American high school students take at least one civics class, yet the number of students who achieve proficiency in the subject is startlingly low -- hovering right around 25 percent. Students in wealthier districts tend to do better, as do students whose textbook curriculum is augmented by community service, attendance at government meetings, and debates.
Like Esau, perhaps many native-born Americans tend to undervalue their birthrights, or at least understand few of the rights, privileges, and responsibilities of citizenship. It’s a theme Sen. Marco Rubio often mentions in his addresses, including his 2012 speech nominating Republican Mitt Romney. Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, reminded delegates that the privileges of citizenship are often ignored.
“As a boy,” Rubio said, “I would sit on our porch and listen to [my grandfather’s] stories about history, politics, and baseball while he puffed on one of his three daily Padron cigars. I don’t recall everything we talked about, but the one thing I remember is the one thing he wanted me to never forget. The dreams he had when he was young became impossible to achieve. But there was no limit to how far I could go, because I was an American. For those of us who were born and raised in this country, it’s easy to forget how special America is. But my grandfather understood how different America is from the rest of the world, because he knew what life was like outside America.”
In 2016, Rubio held to that view of exceptionalism even as others in his party -- including Donald Trump -- adopted differing stances. Rubio held that part of what makes America exceptional is precisely the birthright which granted him citizenship. The 14th Amendment to the Constitution grants citizenship to those born in the United States; yet many conservatives wonder if the promise of citizenship for children motivates undocumented immigration.
Birthright citizenship isn’t an option in many European countries, and it is relatively unimportant to most Australians and Canadians, according to a Pew Research Center study. About a third of Americans believe it is very important to have been born in the United States.
What many native-born Americans do not grasp is the effort involved in becoming a citizen. Something that is bestowed automatically as a helpless infant takes years of effort for others, as Korean-American journalist Sarah Jeong describes in a recent Vox interview. Jeong, an attorney, notes that the oath of loyalty to be admitted to the bar is actually more stringent than the oath of citizenship, even though it is somewhat easier to become a lawyer than a naturalized citizen.
She argues that many Americans do not realize the value of their birthright:
People who are natural-born don’t think about that. They don’t think about the incredible effort it takes to get somewhere. The concentration and effort of will. I was sworn in in a very small group of 29 people. Just 29 people. And if you think about -- this is something my boyfriend said afterward. He said that it was incredible to see all of those people there in that room, how much effort and willpower and tears it took to get there. Like, in that room, just 29 people, but probably a lifetime of effort combined to get to citizenship.
I think about that, and it’s really sad that a lot of people don't realize this and they think it is so easy to come legally to this country. I [put] a lot of effort, a lot of time, energy, and money, into becoming a citizen legally. And I would never begrudge someone who came to this country undocumented. I would want amnesty for them immediately because this isn’t fair. This process isn’t fair.
No doubt Esau would understand.
In the Scriptures
The stories surrounding Abraham and Sarah’s kin get more and more interesting. This family’s saga of betrayal, deception, rivalry, and violence never seems to cease. But neither does God’s promise to them, and perhaps that is the larger point of these fascinating narratives.
Chapter 25 of Genesis begins with a roll call of Isaac’s family. The narrator sets the stage for a tale of folkoric proportions. The theme of infertility is reintroduced, and we are given details of Rebekah’s difficult pregnancy. From the very beginning these boys are locking horns, a foreshadowing of problems to come.
When the twins are born Esau emerges red and hairy, while Jacob comes out grasping his brother’s heel. The stage is set for the struggle to fulfill what the Lord has said to their mother: “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples born of you shall be divided.”
And so it goes. Neither of the boys are particularly noteworthy persons of character, and as a morality tale this story falls short of expectations. Jacob, ever the mama’s boy, happens to be cooking some soup when Esau, the hairy hunter, returns from the field one day. The hot and sweaty Esau has a bad case of the “hangries.” Indeed, he believes he is about to die. Sensing his chance, Jacob (who has no doubt been prepped for this moment by his mother) offers a deal.
“How about we trade my ‘red stuff’ for your birthright?” the younger tells the elder. “Deal?” Esau is in no mood to negotiate, but Jacob demands that the deal be notarized before any soup gets served. The deed is done, and the one named “he who supplants” now becomes their father’s legal heir, with all the rights, privileges, and responsibilities appertaining thereto.
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks notes that the incident needs to be read against the totality of the Jacob/Esau saga. While Esau seems more concerned with his physical desires than family responsibilities, Jacob is hardly a man of integrity -- at least not yet. Sacks goes on to note the numerous ways Jewish law reinforced the exclusivity of birthrights.
When the story is viewed in its entirety, it becomes clear that God is not finished with these two. Their conflict will escalate, but it is only when Jacob sets about the task of wrestling with reconciliation that his identity as Israel is conferred. It is neither Jacob’s stew nor Esau’s hunger that defines the outcome. Instead, a pattern of grace emerges.
In spite of circumstances rivaling the shady underpinnings of Netflix’ House of Cards, God continues to be at work. Indeed, the reversal is a reminder that the kingdom may emerge in surprising ways -- much like the seeds sown in Jesus’ parable. In Sacks’ book Not in God’s Name, he offers this wonderful conclusion to the matter. By the end of the story, says Sacks, Jacob/Israel “now knows who he is, not the man holding on to his brother’s heel, but the man unafraid to wrestle with God and with man because he has successfully wrestled with himself. The next morning he gives back to Esau what he had taken from him 22 years before. He now knows that his true blessing was quite different, and to obtain it he had no need of disguise. Sibling rivalry is defeated the moment we discover that we are loved by God for what we are, not for what someone else is. We each have our own blessing. Brothers need not conflict. Sibling rivalry is not fate but tragic error” (p. 141).
In the Sermon
Family battles such as those between Jacob and Esau resonate deep within the experiences of our congregations. We joke about families “owning” certain pews -- but in many churches those stories are real. I recall being dressed down by a certain matriarch of the church because a visitor was sitting in the pew she normally occupied. This was no laughing matter either: the woman’s family had deep ties to the church. She felt as though the pew had come to her as a birthright.
It’s not just pew immigration, however, that should concern us. Birth confers rights upon us, but even that is a gift of grace. In a world where immigrants are distrusted and feared, our birthrights are not to be used as weapons which divide. A sermon could use the rivalry of the brothers and their eventual reconciliation to speak pastorally about the needs of those who lack the legal status of native-born Americans.
Birthrights, as Esau might tell us, have stories to tell. As the stories of immigrants have shown, many of us are not familiar with the depth of the privileges granted to us because we were born in Chicago and not Islamabad. We take for granted -- much like Esau -- these privileges, where others struggle to earn them. What does that say about grace? And how does that influence the sort of “soil” we might become if God were to plant new seeds within us?
Another route, perhaps in conjunction with the parable of the sower, might be to explore the advantages and disadvantages of the “soils” granted to us by our birthrights. Are there privileges associated with our position? What might that say about our ability to receive the seed that God is planting? Moreover, is it significant that Esau cares more about “quick fixes” than the long-term benefit he willingly trades?
Taking care not to reduce Esau and Jacob to this one encounter is critical. As Sacks points out, it is only when we see Jacob limping toward reconciliation with his brother that the fullness of Jacob’s character emerges.
For several years, our congregation was able to support a refugee family who moved from a refugee camp in Africa to an impoverished neighborhood of St. Louis. They arrived on a cold, snowy day, their children walking off the plane without shoes. The years ahead were filled with successes and losses. In a matter of months, their children went from a refugee camp to learning English. A year later, one of the sons attended Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama. It was all a gift of grace, his mother used to say, all a gift of grace.
SECOND THOUGHTS
Ab Uno Multis (From One, Many)
by Dean Feldmeyer
Genesis 25:19-34
“Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples born of you shall be divided...” (v. 23a)
For most of my life I believed that when people referred to “brothers fighting against brothers” in the Civil War, they were using the word “brother” as a metaphor for “countryman.” Turns out I was wrong.
Brothers James and Alexander Campbell emigrated to the United States from Scotland in the 1850s. James set himself up as a drayman and clerk in Charleston, South Carolina, and Alexander found work as a stonemason in New York, occasionally joining his brother to work in Charleston in the winters. Both joined local militia companies and were swept onto opposite sides when the Civil War broke out. Records show that even though they fought on opposite sides, they kept up a relatively amicable correspondence throughout the war.
It was over control of Charleston that the two brothers very nearly met in combat. The Battle of Secessionville was the Union’s attempt to retake Charleston. In the first attack on Fort Lamar, Alexander (as Color Sergeant of the 79th Highlanders) stormed the parapet and placed the Union flag there, holding his position in the face of prolonged musket and cannon fire until ordered to withdraw. James was among the defenders and stiffened Confederate resolve at a critical time by mounting the parapet unarmed and hurling a log into advancing Union troops.
Sometime after the battle (which was won by the Confederacy), James wrote his brother: “I was astonished to hear from the prisoners that you was color Bearer of the Regmt that assaulted the Battery at this point the other day.” He also said that if they met again, “you have but to discharge your duty to your cause for I can assure you I will strive to discharge my duty to my country and my cause.”
Some historians now tell us that not since that tragic and heartbreaking time in America’s history has the nation been so divided as it is in our time.
Every American knows (or should know) the motto of the United States of America: E Pluribus Unum -- out of many, one. But lately it has seemed that the opposite may, in fact, be the case: Ab Uno Multis -- from one, many. It feels like, more and more, we are living not so much in the United States of America as in the Divided States of America.
The divide between conservative and progressive has become a rent in the very fabric of our nation. Unable to agree on even the smallest points, our congress sits idle, our president is incapable of passing promised legislation, and even in our local government and school board meetings business often dissolves into shouting matches.
Compromise has become a sign of weakness. We come into what was supposed to be a discussion with our minds made up, unwilling to move even a millimeter toward the other side -- and nowhere is this more evident than in the increasing number of trials that are ending in mistrial because juries can’t come to agreement.
It often seems as though division, disagreement, separation, and estrangement have become our default settings.
One cannot help thinking of our own state of separation and estrangement when we read of the twin brothers, Jacob and Esau, in this week’s lection from the book of Genesis.
Even before they were born they struggled against each other in the womb, and as they emerged on the day of their birth their struggle continued -- Jacob holding onto Esau’s heel as if trying to hold him back so he could be the oldest. Esau was an outdoorsman, hunting and fishing and bringing to the table the wild meat he had taken in the wilderness. Jacob preferred to hang around the house. Esau was his father’s favorite; Jacob was his mother’s. Esau was passionate, emotional, and forthright about his feelings and desires. Jacob was sneaky and deceptive, traits he apparently learned from his mother.
It was through deception that Jacob and his mother managed to secure for him the birthright usually reserved for the older son. And it was because of this deception that Esau vowed to kill him. Afraid for his life, his mother Rebekah arranged for Jacob to go to Haran (north of Syria), to live with her brother Laban and find a wife there among Laban’s daughters. There, in his Uncle Laban, Jacob would meet his match in the area of deception and sneakiness. The deceiver, it turns out, would be much deceived.
Years later, Jacob decides to take his huge family south, back to Canaan, but to get there he has to pass through Seir (Edom), where his brother Esau was known to be wealthy and powerful. Afraid that Esau might still be angry with him, Jacob sends a delegation with gifts to greet Esau, but his fears are unfounded.
Esau arrives at the head of 400 men, but he is not there to attack. He dismounts, runs to his brother, embraces him, and weeps with joy at seeing him. The 400 men have been brought to escort them safely to Seir as Esau’s guests. Jacob demurs, using as an excuse the slowness of his caravan, given the young age of his grandchildren and the pregnancy of his livestock. He promises to come back at a later date, a promise which, according to the biblical record, he never keeps.
The only other time they will be together is when they weep together at their father’s funeral.
Why can’t we all just get along?
Rodney King’s question seemed simplistic and naïve when first he uttered it in the midst of the riots in Los Angeles. But it has become a lament for our time.
Why can’t we all just get along?
Is it our destiny to strive mightily against one another like Jacob and Esau? Or is it a choice that we make, standing one against the other, refusing to budge or to consider moving even a hair’s breadth from our position? Are we destined to sink into the mire of history, unwilling and unable to reach out and help each other solve the problems that threaten to swallow us?
What was it that healed Esau’s wounds so he could embrace his brother?
Some say that since he became a success in his own right he had nothing to lose in doing so. Others offer that he had the upper hand (400 men), a position from which forgiveness comes more easily.
But a few others point out that the healing agent may have been time. As we age we tend to back away from specific events in our lives, whether they be pleasant or hurtful, and become more cognizant of the big picture. We see the slight that was made yesterday, but we also see the joys of the distant past.
No doubt, from his vantage point of success, power, physical distance, and time, Esau was able to remember not just the deception and guile of his younger brother but also the love and joy that they had shared as children and youth -- and it was this latter perspective through which he chose to greet Jacob as he crossed through Edom.
My younger brother Scot (one “t”) and I could not be more different politically. I am a “Bernie Sanders liberal” and he is a “Rush Limbaugh conservative.” We battle mightily on Facebook.
And we play golf together, dine out together with our spouses, sit together at wedding receptions, go to ballgames together, and weep together at family funerals. How is this possible? Well, we’re brothers, for one. We have a long history together, longer now that we are both in our 60s. We have seen each other through great joys and great sorrows, back-breaking challenges and mind-blowing victories. And when we are together, it is those things that we choose to remember.
On the bookshelf in my office I have a photograph that was taken in our backyard when I was five years old and he was three. We are both wearing cowboy hats with six-guns in holsters so heavy they are threatening to pull down our pants. My right arm is around his shoulders, and we are both smiling at the camera.
It is that image (and a thousand more like it that I carry in my head) that allows us to love each other and get along when we need to: the image of ourselves as brothers.
Perhaps, if we are ever to wade out of the bog we have found ourselves to be stuck in as a nation, it will be because we have managed to create such a picture in our own heads: of liberals and conservatives, brothers and sisters, looking in the same direction and smiling.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Mary Austin:
Genesis 25:19-34
Right Down to the Bone Marrow
Like Jacob and Esau, the sibling bond between Elizabeth Lesser and her sister was not always peaceful. In her memoir Marrow, Lesser writes about her sister Maggie’s illness and her need for a bone marrow transplant. Elizabeth turns out to be a perfect match for her sister Maggie, and she begins to consider the cost of the bond with her sister. What is a sibling worth?
The sisters decide that for the transplant to work, they have to clear out any old hurts and bad feelings between them. The publisher’s notes explain: “Hoping to give Maggie the best chance possible for a successful transplant, the sisters dig deep into the marrow of their relationship to clear a path to unconditional acceptance. They leave the bone marrow transplant up to the doctors, but take on what Lesser calls a ‘soul marrow transplant,’ examining their family history, having difficult conversations, examining old assumptions, and offering forgiveness until all that is left is love for each other’s true selves. Their process -- before, during, and after the transplant -- encourages them to take risks of authenticity in other aspects their lives. But life does not follow the storylines we plan for it. Maggie’s body is ultimately too weak to fight the relentless illness. As she and Lesser prepare for the inevitable, they grow ever closer as their shared blood cells become a symbol of the enduring bond they share.” For these two siblings, it turns out that their birthright is shared.
*****
Genesis 25:19-34
Do We Belong Here?
Esau, in a moment of weakness, is willing to sell his birthright for a fantastic-smelling dinner. The birthright then travels from the older son to the younger one, reversing the usual expecations and rearranging tradition. In a similar way, historian Annette Gordon-Reed brought the life story of Sally Hemmings to light, rearranging our understanding of Thomas Jefferson as one of the founding fathers of our country. Gordon-Reed, a history professor at Harvard University, says in an interview with On Being’s Krista Tippett that Sally Hemmings and her children also have a birthright as a part of our early American history. Gordon-Reed says that “they can’t just be side characters. They have to be part of the story. And so there was real resistance to that” when she first brought their story to light.
As with Abraham’s own complicated family line, Gordon-Reed observes, “Slavery created a mingled bloodline between African-Americans and whites, acknowledged and unacknowledged, but that shows the complexity, the tragedy in all aspects of the institution.” Abraham’s family, too, includes enslaved people and free people, and all of them are part of the story -- all of them share in the birthright granted to Abraham’s descendants by God.
*****
Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
Planting Tiny Seeds
Microloans are common now, but Mildred Robbins Leet was among the first people to give away grants of $50, hoping to alleviate poverty. People predicted that she was just wasting her money, that she would never make any difference, but Robbins Leet believed she could start something that would grow. She founded the organization Trickle Up in 1979 with her husband, using $1,000 of their personal funds.
“Trickle Up used local aid organizations to find the neediest people, more than 80 percent of them women, and helped them create a basic business plan. If the business plan was deemed feasible, the program granted petitioners a first installment of $50, basic business instruction, and financial advice. The second installment was paid in six months if the participant and the enterprise were meeting their goals. The charity has helped start more than 200,000 businesses, like making dolls or cooking plantain chips, in dozens of countries, including the United States, said William M. Abrams, Trickle Up’s current president. Today it operates in five: Mali, Burkina Faso, India, Guatemala, and Nicaragua. Grants now range from $100 to $225.” The seeds she planted have grown more than a hundredfold since Robbins Leet’s initial investment.
*****
Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
Starting with a Seed
“I think a lot about seeds,” says Marc Ian Barasch. Barasch is the executive director of the Green World Campaign, which he founded in 2005. He says a seed is more than a seed. “How does a tiny dot of seemingly inert matter buried in dirt produce such beauty and utility? A seed is less a physical object than it is the germ of an idea. It’s the information it contains that mobilizes elements in the soil to join the dance that creates magnificent living structures.”
We each hold seeds within us, he says. “There’s something within each of us, within each situation, that already knows how to grow, that just needs light and nourishment to potentiate truly magical creative forces. If you start small, dream big, plant a seed of intention, and care for it, it’s not unrealistic to expect something marvelous to come up. I’ve come to admire the metaphoric elegance of a tree: donating free oxygen, running on solar energy, sheltering all creatures, putting on a display of life’s ceaseless generativity. Since forever, people have gathered beneath trees to parley and palaver, to picnic and to play. Every faith has a Great Tree somewhere in its narrative. Each sapling we help to plant feels like a resurrection of hope, an emissary to future generations. We’re now setting out to scale up our efforts, convinced that the Green World Campaign can help plant billions of trees, restoring the economy and ecology of some of the world’s poorest places. I made up a slogan, a mantra I apply to both daily increments and grand gestures: It’s amazing what one seed can grow. Sown in the ground, planted in the heart, each day it grows a little more true.”
A seed holds more life than we imagine, when it’s planted and nurtured into fuller life.
*****
Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
Vegetable Seeds
Vegetable seeds also became the seeds of change for Karen Washington, a black urban farmer in the Bronx and a pioneer in the urban farming movement. Washington says, “The first plant that changed my life was a tomato. It was the one fruit that I used to hate.” But after watching one that she’d grown shift in hue from green to yellow to red and taking a bite of it, she was instantly hooked. “When I tasted that tomato, when it was red and it was ripe, and I picked it off the vine, [it]... changed my world because I never tasted anything so good, so sweet. I wanted to grow everything.” For a quarter-century, all manner of trees and flowers, fruits and vegetables, have thrived across abandoned lots in the Bronx because of Washington.
Washington has dedicated countless hours to sowing seeds in her neighborhood, and teaching others how to do it too. Since 1985, Washington has assisted dozens of neighborhoods in building their own community gardens, taught workshops on farming, and promoted racial diversity in agriculture. Your food “is not from a grocery store, it’s not from a supermarket. It’s grown in the ground,” she says. “You have to understand where your food comes from. It gives you power.”
It started when she saw a man walking along with a shovel and a pick, unusual sights in urban New York City. Washington asked what he was doing, and “he told her he was thinking about creating a community garden. ‘I said, “Can I help?” I had no idea about gardening. I didn’t have a green thumb,’ she recalls. Despite that, a city program that leased undeveloped lots for $1 gave Washington and her neighbors lumber, dirt, and seeds, ‘and we gave them power -- muscle power -- and hopes and dreams to turn something that was devastating and ugly into something that was beautiful.’ Within days, the first seeds of the Garden of Happiness and Washington’s lifelong activism were beginning to sprout. Ever since, Washington has helped others in the Bronx locate empty neighborhood spaces that are prime real estate for something to blossom and led volunteers through the process of opening a community garden -- earning her respect throughout the Big Apple and beyond.”
She never expected that any of the seeds she first planted would grow into a passion this large, and one involving so many other people.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion.
People: To you shall our vows be performed.
Leader: You visit the earth and water it; you greatly enrich it.
People: The river of God is full of water; you provide the people with grain.
Leader: You crown the year with your bounty.
People: The pastures of the wilderness overflow.
OR
Leader: God our creator calls us to join together as family.
People: As God’s people, we all belong together.
Leader: We have been given a birthright: the Spirit of God.
People: The Spirit of God’s love dwells in each of us.
Leader: When we look closely, we can see that all are in our family.
People: We will look for God’s mark on each face we meet.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
“Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven”
found in:
UMH: 66
H82: 410
PH: 478
CH: 23
LBW: 549
ELA: 864, 865
W&P: 82
AMEC: 70
Renew: 53
“Morning Has Broken”
found in:
UMH: 145
H82: 8
PH: 469
CH: 53
ELA: 556
W&P: 35
STLT: 38
“Help Us Accept Each Other”
found in:
UMH: 560
PH: 358
NCH: 388
CH: 487
W&P: 596
AMEC: 558
“Where Charity and Love Prevail”
found in:
UMH: 549
H82: 81
NCH: 396
LBW: 126
ELA: 359
“O Spirit of the Living God”
found in:
UMH: 539
H82: 531
NCH: 263
LBW: 388
“I Am Thine, O Lord”
found in:
UMH: 419
AAHH: 387
NNBH: 202
NCH: 455
CH: 601
W&P: 408
AMEC: 283
“Breathe on Me, Breath of God”
found in:
UMH: 420
H82: 508
PH: 316
AAHH: 317
NNBH: 126
NCH: 292
CH: 254
LBW: 488
W&P: 461
AMEC: 192
“Make Me a Captive, Lord”
found in:
UMH: 421
PH: 378
“We Are His Hands”
found in:
CCB: 85
“People Need the Lord”
found in:
CCB: 52
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELA: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who makes us your own children by our creation: Grant us the grace to live fully into our birthright so that we may reflect your image and Spirit; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, for creating us as your very own children. You have made us in your image and filled us with your Spirit. Help us to live into our birthright so that we may reflect your image and your Spirit. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, and especially our failure to live as members of God’s holy family.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have betrayed our birthright, as we have failed to live as your image in this world. We live in separation from our sisters and brothers, instead of working together to bring your reign to completion. Call us back once more to you, so that we may be filled with the power of your Spirit. Help us to shine with the light of your grace and love. Amen.
Leader: We are God’s children and the bearers of God’s image. Receive the power of the Spirit to live out the reality of your birthright in God.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord’s Prayer)
Glory and honor are yours, O God, for you are the Creator. You have made all that exists and you have made us in your image.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have betrayed our birthright, as we have failed to live as your image in this world. We live in separation from our sisters and brothers, instead of working together to bring your reign to completion. Call us back once more to you, so that we may be filled with the power of your Spirit. Help us to shine with the light of your grace and love.
We give you thanks for the wonder of being your children. Your love and grace fill us and surround us. You unite us with yourself and with all of creation. We thank you for our brothers and sisters who reflect your image and share your love with us and others.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for one another in our need. You have made us one in you, and we feel the pain of others as our own. We long to reach out and ease the hurts of our sisters and brothers. Help us to share your love and grace with those we encounter.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together, saying:
Our Father . . . Amen.
(or if the Lord’s Prayer is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the Name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children’s Sermon Starter
Sometimes families have special traditions. They may gather at the same house every year for Thanksgiving or Christmas. There may be special ornaments on the tree that have been in the family for years. They may always go to the same place for vacation.
There may be physical characteristics that run in the family: red hair, tall or short, etc. Sometimes you can look at someone and know what family they belong to because they look so much alike.
In God’s family we may not look alike physically, but we all have God’s image on us. That image is of love. We should be able to recognize each other by the loving ways we act.
CHILDREN’S SERMON
Siblings
by Beth Herrinton-Hodge
Genesis 25:19-34
(Gather the children and welcome them.)
How many of you have brothers or sisters? (If you know these children, you know who has siblings or who has brothers/sisters “on the way.” Try to find a way to engage all of the children in your message.)
(Continue asking questions for a brief conversation.) Do you have older siblings, or younger? Do you play together? Go to the same school? Do you get along with one another? Do you fight sometimes?
Today’s scripture reading is the beginning of a longer story about twin brothers. We’ll just hear the beginning of their story today.
Jacob and Esau were twin brothers. Even though they were twins, they were as different as can be. Esau was born first. He was hairy and rugged and liked to hunt and do things outdoors. Jacob was born second. He was pale and skinny. He preferred to be inside. He cooked and hung out with his mom.
Do you think these two brothers played together very often? Do you think they got along with one another? (Give children a chance to respond with their thoughts/ideas.)
The Bible doesn’t tell us about everything that happened between these two brothers while they were growing up. But there’s one part of the story -- when Jacob tricked Esau into trading him all that their father would give to Esau, just so Esau could have a bowl of stew.
Most of what their father owned would be passed down to the first-born son when the father died. That means Esau would inherit more than Jacob because he was born first.
Esau came in from hunting one day, and he was HUNGRY!!!!
Remember, Jacob liked to cook. He happened to be making some yummy-smelling stew. Esau begged Jacob for some of his yummy stew, and Jacob said: “Sure, I’ll give you some stew if you promise to give me all that our father will pass on to you when he dies.”
Esau was so hungry that he agreed to Jacob’s deal, just so he could get something to eat!
Can you imagine trading something so big... all that your father will give you some day... for a bowl of stew today?
I’ll bet you can guess that once Esau ate the stew and realized later what he had given away... he was pretty angry! But it was too late, the deal had been done. Jacob had tricked him.
What do you think? Would you have been angry with Jacob? Do you think Esau made this trade fair and square?
There’s more to this story in the Bible. I’ll tell you a spoiler! Jacob and Esau get into a big fight... so big that they don’t see or talk to each other for many years. But in the end, they work things out and come back together at their father’s death.
I like this Bible story about Jacob and Esau. It lets me know that sometimes brothers and sisters do not get along with one another. It’s not that we want to fight or argue with or trick one another. But it happens -- even to people we read about in the Bible.
The good news: in the end, the brothers get over their differences -- it takes work, but the brothers are able to stop fighting and come together.
The important thing to know (with brothers and sisters): they will always be your brothers and sisters -- no matter what. Jacob and Esau find this out the hard way. In the end, love and forgiveness, honesty and struggle brings them back together.
Pray: Thank you, God, for families. Thank you for the love and forgiveness you show to us. This helps us to love and forgive one another... even our brothers and sisters. Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, July 16, 2017, issue.
Copyright 2017 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
Team member Dean Feldmeyer shares some additional thoughts on the Genesis text, and on the notion of Jacob and Esau representing two divided nations. Dean points out what is obvious to most of us -- that we are a deeply divided nation (like Jacob and Esau) that is struggling mightily within itself... and on most days it seems the warring parties have little to say to one another. Yet Dean suggests that despite the divisions it is possible for brothers and sisters to engage with one another... something that as the family of God we should all be seeking every day.
Fertile Grounds: Birthrights and Kingdom Privileges
by Chris Keating
Genesis 25:19-34; Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
For 15,000 American citizens, this year’s Fourth of July celebrations were a party they’ll never forget. While the rest of us ate hot dogs and lit sparklers, these citizens pledged their faithfulness to their new homeland and assumed the same rights and privileges bestowed upon millions of others through birth.
They learned that becoming a citizen takes effort, something many of us take for granted.
Those applying for U.S. citizenship must navigate a complex system of interviews, paperwork, classes, and other requirements. Following 9/11, the process became more stringent -- and the newly enforced travel ban and other political realities further complicate the pathway toward citizenship.
Among other requirements, immigrants must pass an English test and an oral naturalization test which covers the sort of questions that make high school social studies teachers grin. Interestingly, the national pass rate for immigrants taking that exam is over 90 percent, while native-born Americans don’t fare quite as well. A 2012 survey showed that only two-thirds of voting-age native-born citizens could pass the test, and a study of high school seniors in Oklahoma and Arizona found that less than 4 percent earned passing scores.
It seems that having the privilege may not be the same as having the knowledge -- an insight also found in this week’s story of Esau trading his birthright to his brother Jacob for bowl of soup. These boys had always been grabbing at each other’s heels, and now it appears things will only get worse.
They could hardly have been more different: Esau loved hunting, while Jacob preferred hanging around the house. But Jacob always had his sights set on grabbing his brother’s inheritance, and jumped when he had the chance. Their tale is one of rivalry and sibling conflict, but also one of privilege and blessing.
There’s more to the story than the younger usurping the older, of course. This week’s Genesis text is merely an opening to the greater saga of the fulfilling of God’s declaration that the “elder shall serve the younger.” Something fascinating happens when the story of Esau ceding his birthright is placed in conversation with the parable of the farmer seeding his field.
In that light, Jacob’s deal with his brother becomes a reminder of the surprising and often unexpected ways of life in God’s the kingdom. In the end, it’s not about rights.
In the News
My high school civics lessons were often served with a side of Greek wit and wisdom, which often made our classes sound like outtakes from My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Our teacher was a Greek immigrant, and like many immigrants, he was better versed in the United States Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and executive powers than many other teachers. He did not take any of it for granted.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, who represents Washington state’s Seventh congressional district, might understand my teacher’s experience. Jayapal is the first Indian-American woman to serve in the United States Congress. She became a citizen 17 years ago, in a ceremony she recently recounted in a New York Times op-ed piece. Any obstacles she faced only increased her determination to succeed.
“In that moment, as I took my oath,” wrote Jayapal, “I realized how lucky I was. I knew that my future had opened up, and that citizenship would offer me the chance to seek opportunity and to take part in our democracy. I knew, too, that with those freedoms and opportunity came enormous responsibility: to do everything I could to preserve and build our democracy, to vote, and to use my life to pay it forward and ensure opportunity for others.”
It’s possible that immigrants understand the privileges of citizenship better than the average American high school student.
Nearly all American high school students take at least one civics class, yet the number of students who achieve proficiency in the subject is startlingly low -- hovering right around 25 percent. Students in wealthier districts tend to do better, as do students whose textbook curriculum is augmented by community service, attendance at government meetings, and debates.
Like Esau, perhaps many native-born Americans tend to undervalue their birthrights, or at least understand few of the rights, privileges, and responsibilities of citizenship. It’s a theme Sen. Marco Rubio often mentions in his addresses, including his 2012 speech nominating Republican Mitt Romney. Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, reminded delegates that the privileges of citizenship are often ignored.
“As a boy,” Rubio said, “I would sit on our porch and listen to [my grandfather’s] stories about history, politics, and baseball while he puffed on one of his three daily Padron cigars. I don’t recall everything we talked about, but the one thing I remember is the one thing he wanted me to never forget. The dreams he had when he was young became impossible to achieve. But there was no limit to how far I could go, because I was an American. For those of us who were born and raised in this country, it’s easy to forget how special America is. But my grandfather understood how different America is from the rest of the world, because he knew what life was like outside America.”
In 2016, Rubio held to that view of exceptionalism even as others in his party -- including Donald Trump -- adopted differing stances. Rubio held that part of what makes America exceptional is precisely the birthright which granted him citizenship. The 14th Amendment to the Constitution grants citizenship to those born in the United States; yet many conservatives wonder if the promise of citizenship for children motivates undocumented immigration.
Birthright citizenship isn’t an option in many European countries, and it is relatively unimportant to most Australians and Canadians, according to a Pew Research Center study. About a third of Americans believe it is very important to have been born in the United States.
What many native-born Americans do not grasp is the effort involved in becoming a citizen. Something that is bestowed automatically as a helpless infant takes years of effort for others, as Korean-American journalist Sarah Jeong describes in a recent Vox interview. Jeong, an attorney, notes that the oath of loyalty to be admitted to the bar is actually more stringent than the oath of citizenship, even though it is somewhat easier to become a lawyer than a naturalized citizen.
She argues that many Americans do not realize the value of their birthright:
People who are natural-born don’t think about that. They don’t think about the incredible effort it takes to get somewhere. The concentration and effort of will. I was sworn in in a very small group of 29 people. Just 29 people. And if you think about -- this is something my boyfriend said afterward. He said that it was incredible to see all of those people there in that room, how much effort and willpower and tears it took to get there. Like, in that room, just 29 people, but probably a lifetime of effort combined to get to citizenship.
I think about that, and it’s really sad that a lot of people don't realize this and they think it is so easy to come legally to this country. I [put] a lot of effort, a lot of time, energy, and money, into becoming a citizen legally. And I would never begrudge someone who came to this country undocumented. I would want amnesty for them immediately because this isn’t fair. This process isn’t fair.
No doubt Esau would understand.
In the Scriptures
The stories surrounding Abraham and Sarah’s kin get more and more interesting. This family’s saga of betrayal, deception, rivalry, and violence never seems to cease. But neither does God’s promise to them, and perhaps that is the larger point of these fascinating narratives.
Chapter 25 of Genesis begins with a roll call of Isaac’s family. The narrator sets the stage for a tale of folkoric proportions. The theme of infertility is reintroduced, and we are given details of Rebekah’s difficult pregnancy. From the very beginning these boys are locking horns, a foreshadowing of problems to come.
When the twins are born Esau emerges red and hairy, while Jacob comes out grasping his brother’s heel. The stage is set for the struggle to fulfill what the Lord has said to their mother: “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples born of you shall be divided.”
And so it goes. Neither of the boys are particularly noteworthy persons of character, and as a morality tale this story falls short of expectations. Jacob, ever the mama’s boy, happens to be cooking some soup when Esau, the hairy hunter, returns from the field one day. The hot and sweaty Esau has a bad case of the “hangries.” Indeed, he believes he is about to die. Sensing his chance, Jacob (who has no doubt been prepped for this moment by his mother) offers a deal.
“How about we trade my ‘red stuff’ for your birthright?” the younger tells the elder. “Deal?” Esau is in no mood to negotiate, but Jacob demands that the deal be notarized before any soup gets served. The deed is done, and the one named “he who supplants” now becomes their father’s legal heir, with all the rights, privileges, and responsibilities appertaining thereto.
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks notes that the incident needs to be read against the totality of the Jacob/Esau saga. While Esau seems more concerned with his physical desires than family responsibilities, Jacob is hardly a man of integrity -- at least not yet. Sacks goes on to note the numerous ways Jewish law reinforced the exclusivity of birthrights.
When the story is viewed in its entirety, it becomes clear that God is not finished with these two. Their conflict will escalate, but it is only when Jacob sets about the task of wrestling with reconciliation that his identity as Israel is conferred. It is neither Jacob’s stew nor Esau’s hunger that defines the outcome. Instead, a pattern of grace emerges.
In spite of circumstances rivaling the shady underpinnings of Netflix’ House of Cards, God continues to be at work. Indeed, the reversal is a reminder that the kingdom may emerge in surprising ways -- much like the seeds sown in Jesus’ parable. In Sacks’ book Not in God’s Name, he offers this wonderful conclusion to the matter. By the end of the story, says Sacks, Jacob/Israel “now knows who he is, not the man holding on to his brother’s heel, but the man unafraid to wrestle with God and with man because he has successfully wrestled with himself. The next morning he gives back to Esau what he had taken from him 22 years before. He now knows that his true blessing was quite different, and to obtain it he had no need of disguise. Sibling rivalry is defeated the moment we discover that we are loved by God for what we are, not for what someone else is. We each have our own blessing. Brothers need not conflict. Sibling rivalry is not fate but tragic error” (p. 141).
In the Sermon
Family battles such as those between Jacob and Esau resonate deep within the experiences of our congregations. We joke about families “owning” certain pews -- but in many churches those stories are real. I recall being dressed down by a certain matriarch of the church because a visitor was sitting in the pew she normally occupied. This was no laughing matter either: the woman’s family had deep ties to the church. She felt as though the pew had come to her as a birthright.
It’s not just pew immigration, however, that should concern us. Birth confers rights upon us, but even that is a gift of grace. In a world where immigrants are distrusted and feared, our birthrights are not to be used as weapons which divide. A sermon could use the rivalry of the brothers and their eventual reconciliation to speak pastorally about the needs of those who lack the legal status of native-born Americans.
Birthrights, as Esau might tell us, have stories to tell. As the stories of immigrants have shown, many of us are not familiar with the depth of the privileges granted to us because we were born in Chicago and not Islamabad. We take for granted -- much like Esau -- these privileges, where others struggle to earn them. What does that say about grace? And how does that influence the sort of “soil” we might become if God were to plant new seeds within us?
Another route, perhaps in conjunction with the parable of the sower, might be to explore the advantages and disadvantages of the “soils” granted to us by our birthrights. Are there privileges associated with our position? What might that say about our ability to receive the seed that God is planting? Moreover, is it significant that Esau cares more about “quick fixes” than the long-term benefit he willingly trades?
Taking care not to reduce Esau and Jacob to this one encounter is critical. As Sacks points out, it is only when we see Jacob limping toward reconciliation with his brother that the fullness of Jacob’s character emerges.
For several years, our congregation was able to support a refugee family who moved from a refugee camp in Africa to an impoverished neighborhood of St. Louis. They arrived on a cold, snowy day, their children walking off the plane without shoes. The years ahead were filled with successes and losses. In a matter of months, their children went from a refugee camp to learning English. A year later, one of the sons attended Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama. It was all a gift of grace, his mother used to say, all a gift of grace.
SECOND THOUGHTS
Ab Uno Multis (From One, Many)
by Dean Feldmeyer
Genesis 25:19-34
“Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples born of you shall be divided...” (v. 23a)
For most of my life I believed that when people referred to “brothers fighting against brothers” in the Civil War, they were using the word “brother” as a metaphor for “countryman.” Turns out I was wrong.
Brothers James and Alexander Campbell emigrated to the United States from Scotland in the 1850s. James set himself up as a drayman and clerk in Charleston, South Carolina, and Alexander found work as a stonemason in New York, occasionally joining his brother to work in Charleston in the winters. Both joined local militia companies and were swept onto opposite sides when the Civil War broke out. Records show that even though they fought on opposite sides, they kept up a relatively amicable correspondence throughout the war.
It was over control of Charleston that the two brothers very nearly met in combat. The Battle of Secessionville was the Union’s attempt to retake Charleston. In the first attack on Fort Lamar, Alexander (as Color Sergeant of the 79th Highlanders) stormed the parapet and placed the Union flag there, holding his position in the face of prolonged musket and cannon fire until ordered to withdraw. James was among the defenders and stiffened Confederate resolve at a critical time by mounting the parapet unarmed and hurling a log into advancing Union troops.
Sometime after the battle (which was won by the Confederacy), James wrote his brother: “I was astonished to hear from the prisoners that you was color Bearer of the Regmt that assaulted the Battery at this point the other day.” He also said that if they met again, “you have but to discharge your duty to your cause for I can assure you I will strive to discharge my duty to my country and my cause.”
Some historians now tell us that not since that tragic and heartbreaking time in America’s history has the nation been so divided as it is in our time.
Every American knows (or should know) the motto of the United States of America: E Pluribus Unum -- out of many, one. But lately it has seemed that the opposite may, in fact, be the case: Ab Uno Multis -- from one, many. It feels like, more and more, we are living not so much in the United States of America as in the Divided States of America.
The divide between conservative and progressive has become a rent in the very fabric of our nation. Unable to agree on even the smallest points, our congress sits idle, our president is incapable of passing promised legislation, and even in our local government and school board meetings business often dissolves into shouting matches.
Compromise has become a sign of weakness. We come into what was supposed to be a discussion with our minds made up, unwilling to move even a millimeter toward the other side -- and nowhere is this more evident than in the increasing number of trials that are ending in mistrial because juries can’t come to agreement.
It often seems as though division, disagreement, separation, and estrangement have become our default settings.
One cannot help thinking of our own state of separation and estrangement when we read of the twin brothers, Jacob and Esau, in this week’s lection from the book of Genesis.
Even before they were born they struggled against each other in the womb, and as they emerged on the day of their birth their struggle continued -- Jacob holding onto Esau’s heel as if trying to hold him back so he could be the oldest. Esau was an outdoorsman, hunting and fishing and bringing to the table the wild meat he had taken in the wilderness. Jacob preferred to hang around the house. Esau was his father’s favorite; Jacob was his mother’s. Esau was passionate, emotional, and forthright about his feelings and desires. Jacob was sneaky and deceptive, traits he apparently learned from his mother.
It was through deception that Jacob and his mother managed to secure for him the birthright usually reserved for the older son. And it was because of this deception that Esau vowed to kill him. Afraid for his life, his mother Rebekah arranged for Jacob to go to Haran (north of Syria), to live with her brother Laban and find a wife there among Laban’s daughters. There, in his Uncle Laban, Jacob would meet his match in the area of deception and sneakiness. The deceiver, it turns out, would be much deceived.
Years later, Jacob decides to take his huge family south, back to Canaan, but to get there he has to pass through Seir (Edom), where his brother Esau was known to be wealthy and powerful. Afraid that Esau might still be angry with him, Jacob sends a delegation with gifts to greet Esau, but his fears are unfounded.
Esau arrives at the head of 400 men, but he is not there to attack. He dismounts, runs to his brother, embraces him, and weeps with joy at seeing him. The 400 men have been brought to escort them safely to Seir as Esau’s guests. Jacob demurs, using as an excuse the slowness of his caravan, given the young age of his grandchildren and the pregnancy of his livestock. He promises to come back at a later date, a promise which, according to the biblical record, he never keeps.
The only other time they will be together is when they weep together at their father’s funeral.
Why can’t we all just get along?
Rodney King’s question seemed simplistic and naïve when first he uttered it in the midst of the riots in Los Angeles. But it has become a lament for our time.
Why can’t we all just get along?
Is it our destiny to strive mightily against one another like Jacob and Esau? Or is it a choice that we make, standing one against the other, refusing to budge or to consider moving even a hair’s breadth from our position? Are we destined to sink into the mire of history, unwilling and unable to reach out and help each other solve the problems that threaten to swallow us?
What was it that healed Esau’s wounds so he could embrace his brother?
Some say that since he became a success in his own right he had nothing to lose in doing so. Others offer that he had the upper hand (400 men), a position from which forgiveness comes more easily.
But a few others point out that the healing agent may have been time. As we age we tend to back away from specific events in our lives, whether they be pleasant or hurtful, and become more cognizant of the big picture. We see the slight that was made yesterday, but we also see the joys of the distant past.
No doubt, from his vantage point of success, power, physical distance, and time, Esau was able to remember not just the deception and guile of his younger brother but also the love and joy that they had shared as children and youth -- and it was this latter perspective through which he chose to greet Jacob as he crossed through Edom.
My younger brother Scot (one “t”) and I could not be more different politically. I am a “Bernie Sanders liberal” and he is a “Rush Limbaugh conservative.” We battle mightily on Facebook.
And we play golf together, dine out together with our spouses, sit together at wedding receptions, go to ballgames together, and weep together at family funerals. How is this possible? Well, we’re brothers, for one. We have a long history together, longer now that we are both in our 60s. We have seen each other through great joys and great sorrows, back-breaking challenges and mind-blowing victories. And when we are together, it is those things that we choose to remember.
On the bookshelf in my office I have a photograph that was taken in our backyard when I was five years old and he was three. We are both wearing cowboy hats with six-guns in holsters so heavy they are threatening to pull down our pants. My right arm is around his shoulders, and we are both smiling at the camera.
It is that image (and a thousand more like it that I carry in my head) that allows us to love each other and get along when we need to: the image of ourselves as brothers.
Perhaps, if we are ever to wade out of the bog we have found ourselves to be stuck in as a nation, it will be because we have managed to create such a picture in our own heads: of liberals and conservatives, brothers and sisters, looking in the same direction and smiling.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Mary Austin:
Genesis 25:19-34
Right Down to the Bone Marrow
Like Jacob and Esau, the sibling bond between Elizabeth Lesser and her sister was not always peaceful. In her memoir Marrow, Lesser writes about her sister Maggie’s illness and her need for a bone marrow transplant. Elizabeth turns out to be a perfect match for her sister Maggie, and she begins to consider the cost of the bond with her sister. What is a sibling worth?
The sisters decide that for the transplant to work, they have to clear out any old hurts and bad feelings between them. The publisher’s notes explain: “Hoping to give Maggie the best chance possible for a successful transplant, the sisters dig deep into the marrow of their relationship to clear a path to unconditional acceptance. They leave the bone marrow transplant up to the doctors, but take on what Lesser calls a ‘soul marrow transplant,’ examining their family history, having difficult conversations, examining old assumptions, and offering forgiveness until all that is left is love for each other’s true selves. Their process -- before, during, and after the transplant -- encourages them to take risks of authenticity in other aspects their lives. But life does not follow the storylines we plan for it. Maggie’s body is ultimately too weak to fight the relentless illness. As she and Lesser prepare for the inevitable, they grow ever closer as their shared blood cells become a symbol of the enduring bond they share.” For these two siblings, it turns out that their birthright is shared.
*****
Genesis 25:19-34
Do We Belong Here?
Esau, in a moment of weakness, is willing to sell his birthright for a fantastic-smelling dinner. The birthright then travels from the older son to the younger one, reversing the usual expecations and rearranging tradition. In a similar way, historian Annette Gordon-Reed brought the life story of Sally Hemmings to light, rearranging our understanding of Thomas Jefferson as one of the founding fathers of our country. Gordon-Reed, a history professor at Harvard University, says in an interview with On Being’s Krista Tippett that Sally Hemmings and her children also have a birthright as a part of our early American history. Gordon-Reed says that “they can’t just be side characters. They have to be part of the story. And so there was real resistance to that” when she first brought their story to light.
As with Abraham’s own complicated family line, Gordon-Reed observes, “Slavery created a mingled bloodline between African-Americans and whites, acknowledged and unacknowledged, but that shows the complexity, the tragedy in all aspects of the institution.” Abraham’s family, too, includes enslaved people and free people, and all of them are part of the story -- all of them share in the birthright granted to Abraham’s descendants by God.
*****
Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
Planting Tiny Seeds
Microloans are common now, but Mildred Robbins Leet was among the first people to give away grants of $50, hoping to alleviate poverty. People predicted that she was just wasting her money, that she would never make any difference, but Robbins Leet believed she could start something that would grow. She founded the organization Trickle Up in 1979 with her husband, using $1,000 of their personal funds.
“Trickle Up used local aid organizations to find the neediest people, more than 80 percent of them women, and helped them create a basic business plan. If the business plan was deemed feasible, the program granted petitioners a first installment of $50, basic business instruction, and financial advice. The second installment was paid in six months if the participant and the enterprise were meeting their goals. The charity has helped start more than 200,000 businesses, like making dolls or cooking plantain chips, in dozens of countries, including the United States, said William M. Abrams, Trickle Up’s current president. Today it operates in five: Mali, Burkina Faso, India, Guatemala, and Nicaragua. Grants now range from $100 to $225.” The seeds she planted have grown more than a hundredfold since Robbins Leet’s initial investment.
*****
Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
Starting with a Seed
“I think a lot about seeds,” says Marc Ian Barasch. Barasch is the executive director of the Green World Campaign, which he founded in 2005. He says a seed is more than a seed. “How does a tiny dot of seemingly inert matter buried in dirt produce such beauty and utility? A seed is less a physical object than it is the germ of an idea. It’s the information it contains that mobilizes elements in the soil to join the dance that creates magnificent living structures.”
We each hold seeds within us, he says. “There’s something within each of us, within each situation, that already knows how to grow, that just needs light and nourishment to potentiate truly magical creative forces. If you start small, dream big, plant a seed of intention, and care for it, it’s not unrealistic to expect something marvelous to come up. I’ve come to admire the metaphoric elegance of a tree: donating free oxygen, running on solar energy, sheltering all creatures, putting on a display of life’s ceaseless generativity. Since forever, people have gathered beneath trees to parley and palaver, to picnic and to play. Every faith has a Great Tree somewhere in its narrative. Each sapling we help to plant feels like a resurrection of hope, an emissary to future generations. We’re now setting out to scale up our efforts, convinced that the Green World Campaign can help plant billions of trees, restoring the economy and ecology of some of the world’s poorest places. I made up a slogan, a mantra I apply to both daily increments and grand gestures: It’s amazing what one seed can grow. Sown in the ground, planted in the heart, each day it grows a little more true.”
A seed holds more life than we imagine, when it’s planted and nurtured into fuller life.
*****
Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
Vegetable Seeds
Vegetable seeds also became the seeds of change for Karen Washington, a black urban farmer in the Bronx and a pioneer in the urban farming movement. Washington says, “The first plant that changed my life was a tomato. It was the one fruit that I used to hate.” But after watching one that she’d grown shift in hue from green to yellow to red and taking a bite of it, she was instantly hooked. “When I tasted that tomato, when it was red and it was ripe, and I picked it off the vine, [it]... changed my world because I never tasted anything so good, so sweet. I wanted to grow everything.” For a quarter-century, all manner of trees and flowers, fruits and vegetables, have thrived across abandoned lots in the Bronx because of Washington.
Washington has dedicated countless hours to sowing seeds in her neighborhood, and teaching others how to do it too. Since 1985, Washington has assisted dozens of neighborhoods in building their own community gardens, taught workshops on farming, and promoted racial diversity in agriculture. Your food “is not from a grocery store, it’s not from a supermarket. It’s grown in the ground,” she says. “You have to understand where your food comes from. It gives you power.”
It started when she saw a man walking along with a shovel and a pick, unusual sights in urban New York City. Washington asked what he was doing, and “he told her he was thinking about creating a community garden. ‘I said, “Can I help?” I had no idea about gardening. I didn’t have a green thumb,’ she recalls. Despite that, a city program that leased undeveloped lots for $1 gave Washington and her neighbors lumber, dirt, and seeds, ‘and we gave them power -- muscle power -- and hopes and dreams to turn something that was devastating and ugly into something that was beautiful.’ Within days, the first seeds of the Garden of Happiness and Washington’s lifelong activism were beginning to sprout. Ever since, Washington has helped others in the Bronx locate empty neighborhood spaces that are prime real estate for something to blossom and led volunteers through the process of opening a community garden -- earning her respect throughout the Big Apple and beyond.”
She never expected that any of the seeds she first planted would grow into a passion this large, and one involving so many other people.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion.
People: To you shall our vows be performed.
Leader: You visit the earth and water it; you greatly enrich it.
People: The river of God is full of water; you provide the people with grain.
Leader: You crown the year with your bounty.
People: The pastures of the wilderness overflow.
OR
Leader: God our creator calls us to join together as family.
People: As God’s people, we all belong together.
Leader: We have been given a birthright: the Spirit of God.
People: The Spirit of God’s love dwells in each of us.
Leader: When we look closely, we can see that all are in our family.
People: We will look for God’s mark on each face we meet.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
“Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven”
found in:
UMH: 66
H82: 410
PH: 478
CH: 23
LBW: 549
ELA: 864, 865
W&P: 82
AMEC: 70
Renew: 53
“Morning Has Broken”
found in:
UMH: 145
H82: 8
PH: 469
CH: 53
ELA: 556
W&P: 35
STLT: 38
“Help Us Accept Each Other”
found in:
UMH: 560
PH: 358
NCH: 388
CH: 487
W&P: 596
AMEC: 558
“Where Charity and Love Prevail”
found in:
UMH: 549
H82: 81
NCH: 396
LBW: 126
ELA: 359
“O Spirit of the Living God”
found in:
UMH: 539
H82: 531
NCH: 263
LBW: 388
“I Am Thine, O Lord”
found in:
UMH: 419
AAHH: 387
NNBH: 202
NCH: 455
CH: 601
W&P: 408
AMEC: 283
“Breathe on Me, Breath of God”
found in:
UMH: 420
H82: 508
PH: 316
AAHH: 317
NNBH: 126
NCH: 292
CH: 254
LBW: 488
W&P: 461
AMEC: 192
“Make Me a Captive, Lord”
found in:
UMH: 421
PH: 378
“We Are His Hands”
found in:
CCB: 85
“People Need the Lord”
found in:
CCB: 52
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELA: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who makes us your own children by our creation: Grant us the grace to live fully into our birthright so that we may reflect your image and Spirit; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, for creating us as your very own children. You have made us in your image and filled us with your Spirit. Help us to live into our birthright so that we may reflect your image and your Spirit. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, and especially our failure to live as members of God’s holy family.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have betrayed our birthright, as we have failed to live as your image in this world. We live in separation from our sisters and brothers, instead of working together to bring your reign to completion. Call us back once more to you, so that we may be filled with the power of your Spirit. Help us to shine with the light of your grace and love. Amen.
Leader: We are God’s children and the bearers of God’s image. Receive the power of the Spirit to live out the reality of your birthright in God.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord’s Prayer)
Glory and honor are yours, O God, for you are the Creator. You have made all that exists and you have made us in your image.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have betrayed our birthright, as we have failed to live as your image in this world. We live in separation from our sisters and brothers, instead of working together to bring your reign to completion. Call us back once more to you, so that we may be filled with the power of your Spirit. Help us to shine with the light of your grace and love.
We give you thanks for the wonder of being your children. Your love and grace fill us and surround us. You unite us with yourself and with all of creation. We thank you for our brothers and sisters who reflect your image and share your love with us and others.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for one another in our need. You have made us one in you, and we feel the pain of others as our own. We long to reach out and ease the hurts of our sisters and brothers. Help us to share your love and grace with those we encounter.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together, saying:
Our Father . . . Amen.
(or if the Lord’s Prayer is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the Name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children’s Sermon Starter
Sometimes families have special traditions. They may gather at the same house every year for Thanksgiving or Christmas. There may be special ornaments on the tree that have been in the family for years. They may always go to the same place for vacation.
There may be physical characteristics that run in the family: red hair, tall or short, etc. Sometimes you can look at someone and know what family they belong to because they look so much alike.
In God’s family we may not look alike physically, but we all have God’s image on us. That image is of love. We should be able to recognize each other by the loving ways we act.
CHILDREN’S SERMON
Siblings
by Beth Herrinton-Hodge
Genesis 25:19-34
(Gather the children and welcome them.)
How many of you have brothers or sisters? (If you know these children, you know who has siblings or who has brothers/sisters “on the way.” Try to find a way to engage all of the children in your message.)
(Continue asking questions for a brief conversation.) Do you have older siblings, or younger? Do you play together? Go to the same school? Do you get along with one another? Do you fight sometimes?
Today’s scripture reading is the beginning of a longer story about twin brothers. We’ll just hear the beginning of their story today.
Jacob and Esau were twin brothers. Even though they were twins, they were as different as can be. Esau was born first. He was hairy and rugged and liked to hunt and do things outdoors. Jacob was born second. He was pale and skinny. He preferred to be inside. He cooked and hung out with his mom.
Do you think these two brothers played together very often? Do you think they got along with one another? (Give children a chance to respond with their thoughts/ideas.)
The Bible doesn’t tell us about everything that happened between these two brothers while they were growing up. But there’s one part of the story -- when Jacob tricked Esau into trading him all that their father would give to Esau, just so Esau could have a bowl of stew.
Most of what their father owned would be passed down to the first-born son when the father died. That means Esau would inherit more than Jacob because he was born first.
Esau came in from hunting one day, and he was HUNGRY!!!!
Remember, Jacob liked to cook. He happened to be making some yummy-smelling stew. Esau begged Jacob for some of his yummy stew, and Jacob said: “Sure, I’ll give you some stew if you promise to give me all that our father will pass on to you when he dies.”
Esau was so hungry that he agreed to Jacob’s deal, just so he could get something to eat!
Can you imagine trading something so big... all that your father will give you some day... for a bowl of stew today?
I’ll bet you can guess that once Esau ate the stew and realized later what he had given away... he was pretty angry! But it was too late, the deal had been done. Jacob had tricked him.
What do you think? Would you have been angry with Jacob? Do you think Esau made this trade fair and square?
There’s more to this story in the Bible. I’ll tell you a spoiler! Jacob and Esau get into a big fight... so big that they don’t see or talk to each other for many years. But in the end, they work things out and come back together at their father’s death.
I like this Bible story about Jacob and Esau. It lets me know that sometimes brothers and sisters do not get along with one another. It’s not that we want to fight or argue with or trick one another. But it happens -- even to people we read about in the Bible.
The good news: in the end, the brothers get over their differences -- it takes work, but the brothers are able to stop fighting and come together.
The important thing to know (with brothers and sisters): they will always be your brothers and sisters -- no matter what. Jacob and Esau find this out the hard way. In the end, love and forgiveness, honesty and struggle brings them back together.
Pray: Thank you, God, for families. Thank you for the love and forgiveness you show to us. This helps us to love and forgive one another... even our brothers and sisters. Amen.
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The Immediate Word, July 16, 2017, issue.
Copyright 2017 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
