Stairways Of Heaven
Sermon
WRESTLINGS, WONDERS AND WANDERERS!
Sermons For Pentecost (First Third)
As I studied in depth this passage of scripture, I learned that I have long carried misconceptions about "Jacob's ladder." My first surprising discovery was that all the commentaries I read suggested that Jacob's vision was not of a ladder as we know it today, but more of a "ramp" or "stair-like pavement."9 This "ramp" was to handle traffic between heaven and earth.10 Heavenly messengers could approach thereby those dwelling below.
After reading about Jacob's ladder being a ramp-like structure, I decided to look at the familiar song I loved to sing at youth camp, "We Are Climbing Jacob's Ladder." We would sing the song as we walked in single file up the path at night to the outdoor chapel. But when I studied the song's text, I soon realized that it really was not about the story of Jacob found in Genesis, but simply used its imagery.
Jacob's story is not about Jacob or any human creature's climbing "higher and higher." It is not about our moving toward God. Jacob's story is about God's coming lower and lower, closer and closer, that he might be near and dear to us. Jacob's story is not about a holy man going to a holy place to meet God. It is about a fugitive, scared of a brother's wrath, who is encountered by the God of his fathers, the God of Abraham and Isaac.
Do you remember what has happened just before Jacob's dream? Jacob has tricked his father into giving him the blessing rather than to his brother, Esau, and once his trickery has been discovered, decides it's healthier to find a new residence --
pronto! In other words, the hairy-chested brother, Esau, has discovered that he has been betrayed and apparently is ready to eliminate his sibling rival forever.
So when Jacob lies down to take his rest, it is not after he has attended vespers or said his prayers -- except maybe prayers for protection. Jacob is little more than a fugitive on the run, stopping to get enough sleep to continue his journey. Jacob pauses for sleep, but what he receives will be far more refreshing, far more empowering, far more advantageous than a restful slumber. He receives an encounter with God: a vision of a ladder or "ramp" and a speech from God that renews his promise to Abraham's descendants.
I have uneasy feelings as I envision the image of the "ramp." It brings to mind escalators, which have not turned out to be my best friends. I sincerely hope that heaven does not have an escalator as a means of entry. If so, I may never be able to enter. Let me explain.
When I am at a mall, I invariably go to the wrong place to catch the escalator. If I want to go up I make my way past cosmetics and the men's department and finally arrive at the escalator entrance. Of course, when I make it to the entrance, the steps are going down, not up. And, as you might have guessed, the up escalator is on the other side of the store, past ladies' lingerie and housewares.
This has happened to me so many times that I have become suspicious the escalators are engineered so that they can be rotated half a turn and that someone, who hates either ministers or people with last names like mine, stand at the controls. If I start in the right direction toward the right escalator, he rotates the escalator away from me. If I start out wrong, he allows me the privilege of messing up by myself.
The fact is that there never seems to be an escalator going in the right direction. Or, to put that same idea theologically, there does not seem to be a way to go up when I'm feeling down. There does not seem to be an access to heaven when the world has dropped me in the pit.
But our story of Jacob would disagree with that conclusion. It would insist that heaven and earth are conveniently connected. Even better, it would insist that the God on high is willing and able to come down to us, even when we least expect him, in places both holy and secular, at times when we are saints and more often when we are sinners, at times of the "blues" and the "blahs."
The story of Jacob's ladder is not about a sweet encounter in the "Garden of Prayer." It is about the Creator of heaven and earth finding a fugitive in flight and giving him a large dose of grace, an ample portion of promise, a full anointing of his Spirit. It is about God providing an escalator when we need it the most.
When God comes down to speak with Jacob it is not through a burning bush. He speaks to him in a dream. Of course, dreams always have been a means by which God could speak. Dreams also are ways for us to become aware of our innermost selves or our anxieties and fears. In our story, God does speak to Jacob through a dream and the message is clear. The ramp or ladder becomes an important image as it reminds us of God's accessibility to us. Jacob discovered that even away from his homeland, he was not alone. He discovered that even in his sinfulness, God approached him. Now he knew that heaven and earth could touch in unexpected times and places. The God on high was not content to keep his heavenly distance.
And God also makes sure that Jacob hears again the promise first made to Abraham, a promise of a land and of many descendants. But the main message, I believe, is one that relates to the image of a ladder, or what we may refer to as the ramp or staircase or even "gate of heaven" that Jacob uses at the end of the story. In verse 15, God gives a fanfare to his message with the word "Behold." The good news follows: "Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go…."
That's a nice dream, don't you think? Wouldn't you like a dream like that to replace some of the weird ones you have? It is a good dream to dream anytime, but what a special dream for Jacob at that time and place. With a stone for a pillow and hard ground for a bed, with fear surging through his body and anxiety running rampant in his mind, Jacob found not a wrestling opponent but the Prince of Peace to calm his fears. Jacob received words of grace from God: "I will be with you;" you are not alone.
Perhaps we need today a new Christian symbol: an ancient, dirt-paved ramp or perhaps a modern escalator. Both would point to the good news: There is not just one access to God and heaven. The "up" ramp for us and the "down" ramp for God always are side by side. The gateway of heaven is not hidden behind the hardware department. It is not obscured by the walls of fear or the darkness of tragedy, or blocked by the stockpiles of our sin.
The good news is that God's escalators are everywhere. The stairways of heaven are no farther than the breath of God's Spirit or the sigh of our prayers. Heaven and earth are forever connected. Why? Not because we always choose to go up to him, but because God never fails to come down to us. There is an escalator by every pit we ourselves dig and by every pit provided by life. God's promise to Jacob is given to us as well: "I will be with you." And Jesus repeats that promise: "… and lo I am with you always, to the close of the age."
The modern symbol of the escalator reminds us of the good news: Even in exile, our God descends to us. The gateways of heaven are always open. The stairways from heaven to earth are always available to two-way traffic. We can go up; God can come down. We can seek our Father; the Great Shepherd can and does seek us. We can take Jacob's ladder and climb higher, higher. But we must never forget how it all started. God has always come lower, lower, before we have been able to go higher, higher. Remember, the tower of Babel failed. We, by ourselves, cannot reach God or become like God. Earth cannot reach heaven until heaven comes to us.
In the movie, Field of Dreams, only dreamers saw the vision. Only those touched by heaven could understand. Those who live only in the realm of earth -- who never realize the heavenly visits, who never hear heavenly voices -- may well remain hopeless skeptics.
But Jacob caught the vision. He caught it not simply because he saw a ladder or ramp. He caught it because he accepted the promises God gave to him and, as he did, heaven and earth touched. The good news that claimed him made earth and stone a holy place.
But did you hear Jacob's confession? The verse that stands out for me is this: "Surely the Lord was in this place and I did not know it." Does that fit your experience? Have you ever been in God's presence and hardly noticed it? Have you ever suddenly realized that God had been with you long before you knew he was there? Have you ever been in exile or in fear only to discover the Spirit of God coming to your aid?
The good news of Jacob's story is not simply that there are links to heaven. The good news is not that God sometimes comes to us. The good news is not that heaven and earth are somehow connected, making encounters possible. The good news is all but hidden in the sentence, "Surely the Lord was in this place, and I did not know it." Do you understand? Do you have it?
The promise of God is not what will be or can be; the promise concerns what is! God is with us! God is with us in our exile and in our pain, in our fears and in our joys, in our sin and in our service, in our homeland and in our new frontiers. The good news is this: God is with us always -- whether we know it or not!
On the way to one of our favorite spots -- Cuchara, Colorado -- there is a formation that has been named the "Giant Staircase." It is a huge mass of stone that forms three or four gigantic steps. After studying this text I would like to rename those steps the "Staircase of Heaven." I did not name it the staircase to heaven because we are not giants who unassisted can make our way to heaven. It is God on high who brings a touch of heaven to us. The stairs originate not on earth but in heaven. It is the God who promises to be with us who connects forever heaven and earth.
The good news is that there are staircases of heaven all around us. There are spiritual escalators everywhere. These escalators have the "up" and "down" ramps side by side for easy access. We may approach God. God will meet us. And God will meet us in the strangest of places. He greets us at the tomb. He encounters us at the cross. He meets us at the graveside of our grief. The "visitor of dreams" comes to us in our sleeping and in our waking. He comes to us so often when we are unaware.
The One who comes down to us invites us to rise and walk. He invites us to rise and live again. The One who meets us promises to be with us forever and wherever. So the next time we are on the run, the next time fear has the best of us, the next time we are estranged from a brother or sister, the next time we feel lost in a foreign land, let us remember Jacob's dream and the promise of God's presence.
We should not be surprised to find God there. We know to look for escalators in the strangest of places. Heaven and earth meet not once but many times. So on our journey, as we fall into the pit or as we climb higher and higher to get a glimpse of God, we should not be surprised to discover that "Behold, the God of Jacob… is already with us!"
After reading about Jacob's ladder being a ramp-like structure, I decided to look at the familiar song I loved to sing at youth camp, "We Are Climbing Jacob's Ladder." We would sing the song as we walked in single file up the path at night to the outdoor chapel. But when I studied the song's text, I soon realized that it really was not about the story of Jacob found in Genesis, but simply used its imagery.
Jacob's story is not about Jacob or any human creature's climbing "higher and higher." It is not about our moving toward God. Jacob's story is about God's coming lower and lower, closer and closer, that he might be near and dear to us. Jacob's story is not about a holy man going to a holy place to meet God. It is about a fugitive, scared of a brother's wrath, who is encountered by the God of his fathers, the God of Abraham and Isaac.
Do you remember what has happened just before Jacob's dream? Jacob has tricked his father into giving him the blessing rather than to his brother, Esau, and once his trickery has been discovered, decides it's healthier to find a new residence --
pronto! In other words, the hairy-chested brother, Esau, has discovered that he has been betrayed and apparently is ready to eliminate his sibling rival forever.
So when Jacob lies down to take his rest, it is not after he has attended vespers or said his prayers -- except maybe prayers for protection. Jacob is little more than a fugitive on the run, stopping to get enough sleep to continue his journey. Jacob pauses for sleep, but what he receives will be far more refreshing, far more empowering, far more advantageous than a restful slumber. He receives an encounter with God: a vision of a ladder or "ramp" and a speech from God that renews his promise to Abraham's descendants.
I have uneasy feelings as I envision the image of the "ramp." It brings to mind escalators, which have not turned out to be my best friends. I sincerely hope that heaven does not have an escalator as a means of entry. If so, I may never be able to enter. Let me explain.
When I am at a mall, I invariably go to the wrong place to catch the escalator. If I want to go up I make my way past cosmetics and the men's department and finally arrive at the escalator entrance. Of course, when I make it to the entrance, the steps are going down, not up. And, as you might have guessed, the up escalator is on the other side of the store, past ladies' lingerie and housewares.
This has happened to me so many times that I have become suspicious the escalators are engineered so that they can be rotated half a turn and that someone, who hates either ministers or people with last names like mine, stand at the controls. If I start in the right direction toward the right escalator, he rotates the escalator away from me. If I start out wrong, he allows me the privilege of messing up by myself.
The fact is that there never seems to be an escalator going in the right direction. Or, to put that same idea theologically, there does not seem to be a way to go up when I'm feeling down. There does not seem to be an access to heaven when the world has dropped me in the pit.
But our story of Jacob would disagree with that conclusion. It would insist that heaven and earth are conveniently connected. Even better, it would insist that the God on high is willing and able to come down to us, even when we least expect him, in places both holy and secular, at times when we are saints and more often when we are sinners, at times of the "blues" and the "blahs."
The story of Jacob's ladder is not about a sweet encounter in the "Garden of Prayer." It is about the Creator of heaven and earth finding a fugitive in flight and giving him a large dose of grace, an ample portion of promise, a full anointing of his Spirit. It is about God providing an escalator when we need it the most.
When God comes down to speak with Jacob it is not through a burning bush. He speaks to him in a dream. Of course, dreams always have been a means by which God could speak. Dreams also are ways for us to become aware of our innermost selves or our anxieties and fears. In our story, God does speak to Jacob through a dream and the message is clear. The ramp or ladder becomes an important image as it reminds us of God's accessibility to us. Jacob discovered that even away from his homeland, he was not alone. He discovered that even in his sinfulness, God approached him. Now he knew that heaven and earth could touch in unexpected times and places. The God on high was not content to keep his heavenly distance.
And God also makes sure that Jacob hears again the promise first made to Abraham, a promise of a land and of many descendants. But the main message, I believe, is one that relates to the image of a ladder, or what we may refer to as the ramp or staircase or even "gate of heaven" that Jacob uses at the end of the story. In verse 15, God gives a fanfare to his message with the word "Behold." The good news follows: "Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go…."
That's a nice dream, don't you think? Wouldn't you like a dream like that to replace some of the weird ones you have? It is a good dream to dream anytime, but what a special dream for Jacob at that time and place. With a stone for a pillow and hard ground for a bed, with fear surging through his body and anxiety running rampant in his mind, Jacob found not a wrestling opponent but the Prince of Peace to calm his fears. Jacob received words of grace from God: "I will be with you;" you are not alone.
Perhaps we need today a new Christian symbol: an ancient, dirt-paved ramp or perhaps a modern escalator. Both would point to the good news: There is not just one access to God and heaven. The "up" ramp for us and the "down" ramp for God always are side by side. The gateway of heaven is not hidden behind the hardware department. It is not obscured by the walls of fear or the darkness of tragedy, or blocked by the stockpiles of our sin.
The good news is that God's escalators are everywhere. The stairways of heaven are no farther than the breath of God's Spirit or the sigh of our prayers. Heaven and earth are forever connected. Why? Not because we always choose to go up to him, but because God never fails to come down to us. There is an escalator by every pit we ourselves dig and by every pit provided by life. God's promise to Jacob is given to us as well: "I will be with you." And Jesus repeats that promise: "… and lo I am with you always, to the close of the age."
The modern symbol of the escalator reminds us of the good news: Even in exile, our God descends to us. The gateways of heaven are always open. The stairways from heaven to earth are always available to two-way traffic. We can go up; God can come down. We can seek our Father; the Great Shepherd can and does seek us. We can take Jacob's ladder and climb higher, higher. But we must never forget how it all started. God has always come lower, lower, before we have been able to go higher, higher. Remember, the tower of Babel failed. We, by ourselves, cannot reach God or become like God. Earth cannot reach heaven until heaven comes to us.
In the movie, Field of Dreams, only dreamers saw the vision. Only those touched by heaven could understand. Those who live only in the realm of earth -- who never realize the heavenly visits, who never hear heavenly voices -- may well remain hopeless skeptics.
But Jacob caught the vision. He caught it not simply because he saw a ladder or ramp. He caught it because he accepted the promises God gave to him and, as he did, heaven and earth touched. The good news that claimed him made earth and stone a holy place.
But did you hear Jacob's confession? The verse that stands out for me is this: "Surely the Lord was in this place and I did not know it." Does that fit your experience? Have you ever been in God's presence and hardly noticed it? Have you ever suddenly realized that God had been with you long before you knew he was there? Have you ever been in exile or in fear only to discover the Spirit of God coming to your aid?
The good news of Jacob's story is not simply that there are links to heaven. The good news is not that God sometimes comes to us. The good news is not that heaven and earth are somehow connected, making encounters possible. The good news is all but hidden in the sentence, "Surely the Lord was in this place, and I did not know it." Do you understand? Do you have it?
The promise of God is not what will be or can be; the promise concerns what is! God is with us! God is with us in our exile and in our pain, in our fears and in our joys, in our sin and in our service, in our homeland and in our new frontiers. The good news is this: God is with us always -- whether we know it or not!
On the way to one of our favorite spots -- Cuchara, Colorado -- there is a formation that has been named the "Giant Staircase." It is a huge mass of stone that forms three or four gigantic steps. After studying this text I would like to rename those steps the "Staircase of Heaven." I did not name it the staircase to heaven because we are not giants who unassisted can make our way to heaven. It is God on high who brings a touch of heaven to us. The stairs originate not on earth but in heaven. It is the God who promises to be with us who connects forever heaven and earth.
The good news is that there are staircases of heaven all around us. There are spiritual escalators everywhere. These escalators have the "up" and "down" ramps side by side for easy access. We may approach God. God will meet us. And God will meet us in the strangest of places. He greets us at the tomb. He encounters us at the cross. He meets us at the graveside of our grief. The "visitor of dreams" comes to us in our sleeping and in our waking. He comes to us so often when we are unaware.
The One who comes down to us invites us to rise and walk. He invites us to rise and live again. The One who meets us promises to be with us forever and wherever. So the next time we are on the run, the next time fear has the best of us, the next time we are estranged from a brother or sister, the next time we feel lost in a foreign land, let us remember Jacob's dream and the promise of God's presence.
We should not be surprised to find God there. We know to look for escalators in the strangest of places. Heaven and earth meet not once but many times. So on our journey, as we fall into the pit or as we climb higher and higher to get a glimpse of God, we should not be surprised to discover that "Behold, the God of Jacob… is already with us!"
