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"Becoming the House of God"
Genesis 28:10-22
A Sermon Preached by The Rev. Douglas M. Donley
January 13, 2002
University Baptist Church
Minneapolis, MN
This Epiphany season, we are looking at the concept of altars. We will look at different scripture stories and reflect upon the altars that surround our lives. We will even offer opportunities for us to create or enhance the altars of our lives as individuals and as a body of believers. As Peg Streep reminds us in her book Altars Made Easy, "The word altar comes from the Latin for "high" and thus probably reveals the primacy of mountaintops as sacred space; technically, it describes a place where offerings or sacrifices are made. The word shrine, now a niche for sacred objects, once described a chest and, later on, a reliquary for the bones of saints."(pp. 6,7) But altars can mean so much more than that. They are places where we are reminded of God’s presence. They are places where objects are collected that bring us into a new state of consciousness, perhaps hearkening back to an important memory, like the life of a loved one or a time when we made a commitment to God. Altars call us to be more than we are.
This space at UBC does not have a fixed altar. But the architecture points us toward certain focal points. The space is cruciform with the word and music happening where Jesus’ head lay on the cross. There is the Baptistery, a table which often holds a Bible, a cross and candles. Even the organ is a focal point. When we move the pews to next Sunday, the focal point will change. Not only will we look at the table in the center, but we will also look at each other in a different way.
For five of the six years I served as Pastor of Dolores Street Baptist Church in San Francisco, we shared our worship space with a secular community center. This meant that each Sunday, we needed to create a focal point, hang our liturgical art, make the space into sacred space. It took a bit of work, but it also caused us to be intentional about our altars, about our sacred space.
Altars are important. They encourage us to intentionally recognize and embrace holiness in our lives. Where better to start exploring altars than the story of the altar build by Jacob at Bethel. Bethel means the house of God.
Jacob was the son of Isaac and Rebekah. He was the twin brother of Esau. Not unlike many brothers in a family, Esau and Jacob fought a lot. Jacob stole Esau’s birthright and won favor from his father by deception, lying and greed. In fact, the name Jacob in Hebrew means to deceive and to trip.
In typical biblical irony, Jacob received the favor of his parents and Esau was forced into exile. So Esau, filled with the rage of being ripped off, vowed to kill is evil brother. Momma Rebekah, in her wisdom, told Jacob to flee until Esau’s anger subsided, "Why should I be bereft of you both in one day?" she pleaded. That’s why Jacob left Beer-Sheba and went toward Haran as this scripture opens. As he was running away from his brother, running away from his mother and father, running away from the truth about him, running away from God, night fell and Jacob had his famous dream.
Picture the poor fugitive Jacob. He was in terror of his brother, outcast by his family and to top it off, he was sleeping in a strange place with rocks as pillows. And given conventional wisdom, he deserved it. He was a thief, a liar, and anything but his brother’s keeper.
But in his sleep, when he was out of control of his destiny, when his logical faculties were marred by the mire of visions and nightmares, Jacob received an outlandish message from God. We might expect the message to be one of judgement. One of condemnation. One of fear. But instead it was one of presence and assurance. Maybe it is true that you can attract more flies with honey…
For on that ladder, Jacob saw angels bridging the gap between him and God.
And God spoke to Jacob, almost word for word the assurance given to his grandfather Abraham and his father Isaac: "the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants; and your descendants shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and by you and your descendants shall all of the families of the earth bless themselves."
Jacob was comforted, we can imagine, for he had heard these words as his bedtime stories all his life. He had gotten pretty smug in this divine assurance. Maybe that’s why he was such a scoundrel. It was a test to see if God was going to be true to God’s word. Jacob was feeling quite self-righteous about all of this until he heard the words added especially for him.
"Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done that which I have spoken to you."
Uh oh.
God is with us. God is no longer far off. God is right here. We can’t escape. "I am with you…I will not leave you…" In other words. You can’t hide any longer. Your running is over. It was as if God was saying, "I have come to those who are the most hopeless and I promise not to leave you desolate."
God would say the same thing to Jeremiah centuries later, "They shall fight against you; but they shall not prevail against you, for I am with you says YHWH, to deliver you."(Jer. 1:19)
The psalmist says the same sentiment in the 23rd Psalm; "Yeah though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff they comfort me."
And six hundred years later, God’s child would come bearing the name Emmanuel, "God-with-us."
The scriptures tell us that Jacob awoke from this dream a new person. He said, "surely, God is in this place and I did not know it!" So he took the stone which was at his head and built it as the cornerstone of an altar to God. Jacob called the place Bethel, the house of God. Whenever Jacob and later others encountered the altar at Bethel, the house of God altar, God no longer seemed far away, but present to challenge, comfort, assure, convict and point in the right direction all who encountered that altar.
This place today, is a new place. The Christmas colors and tree are gone, replaced by the green of ordinary season. But wait, there are stones here, to remind us of the fact that God is surely present with us all. That no matter what we have done, how we have journeyed this way or that, how we might have wronged our brother or sister, God is watching. God is wanting us to repent of our sins and to enjoy and celebrate the bounty which God has given us, recognizing that such a bounty must never be used at another’s expense. Is it possible that we awake in this place, not unlike Jacob and say, "Surely God is in this place and I did not know it"?
God is here. God is in Bethel. This is the house of God. And these stones are reminders of that fact.
Stones are symbols of power and presence. You know that a stone takes a tremendous amount of pressure, a tremendous amount of heat and a tremendous amount of time for it to develop. Pay attention to the stones around this church building, this 80-year-old altar to God in which we worship from the porous sandstone of the façade to the floor tiling to the stone foundations and brickwork.
But it takes more than the right trappings to become the house of God. It takes more than altars. It takes more than singing hymns and hearing bells. It takes more than showing up at 10am for worship. It takes intention. It takes looking for God. It takes recognizing God. It takes leaving part of yourself behind. Suspending yourself, if even for an hour or so. But make no mistake about it. This is the house of God. For God is with us always and even unto the end of time.
But the house of God does not only have to be a church space. In many Native American traditions, the whole earth is God’s sacred place.
Why not transform your home into a mini house of God: a mini Bethel during Epiphany? At Christmas, we set up our altars at our homes. We set up a crèche or a Christmas tree or an Advent wreath, but then we pack it all away around this time of year and our homes are bereft of altars for another ten or eleven months when we pull all of those decorations back out again. I would encourage you during this Epiphany season to find a place in your home which you can set aside as an altar. It doesn’t have to be fancy. It doesn’t have to be pretty. It doesn’t necessarily have to look churchy. But have a place where you can go to reconnect with what makes you, you.
The mantle in my church office is an altar as are the bookshelves in my home office. On both, I have arranged the icons of my life. To the untrained eye, they may look like a collection of tchotcskis, but to me they form part altars. I have two vessels given to me at my ordination, one says Passion and the other says Solitude. I need to fill both if I am to be fully who God wants me to be. There are stones picked up from a volcanic lake in Nicaragua. There is a piece of driftwood with seashells glued upon it made by my mother. There are pictures of my family. There are candles. There are peace cranes. There is a Salvadoran cross. When I go to these places and write my sermons or reflect or even just veg out by myself, I am reminded of who I am, and who I seek to be.
In your home altar, you may want to put on it a picture, or a book or a candle or a mirror or a momento or two. Home altars are by definition fluid. But it is an intentional discipline. The creation of a home altar is a reminder that not only your home, but also you are a house of God.
The stones which we have in front of us here on this table can become the start of an altar in your home. I encourage you during the singing of the next hymn to come forward and take a stone which speaks to you. Some of these stones are smooth, some are rough, they are different colors, shapes and sizes, not unlike many of us. You may want to take the stone home and use it as a part of an altar. You may want to carry it around in your pocket. The important thing is to remember that God is here with you and that wherever you dwell can become the house of God.
When Jacob built his altar at Bethel, he remembered that God would be by his side. Jacob remembered that he could not hide from God.
When we come into this house of God, or the house of God which we create in our own homes, we are reminded of this fact as well. No matter how good or bad our lives have been to this point, God will stay by our side. God will not leave us comfortless. God wants something better for our lives.
May we always recognize when we look at the rocks and stones in our journeys that we are dwelling in the house of God.
Amen.