Stairway to Heaven

Text focus: Genesis 28:10-22

As we continue our journey through this sermon series on how God uses messy people, I want to take just a moment to remind us all of our journey so far. A few weeks ago, Abraham and Sarah reminded us that God’s promises come to messy people, even when it seems impossible.

Last week Isaac, Jacob, and Esau, helped us recognize that God is faithful and God’s promises continue even in messy situations, even when trust is broken, plans fall apart, and people make painful choices, because God’s promises are not dependent on perfect people. This week we will follow Jacob’s journey in the wilderness to be reminded that God’s grace pursues messy people. The same Jacob who deceived his family and ran from his consequences is the Jacob God pursues, blesses, and calls. This week reminds us that God does not wait for us to have everything figured out before coming near; God finds us right in the middle of our mess and begins the work of transformation.

Have you ever had a moment where you knew you had messed up?

Not just made a small mistake, or a moment when you forgot something, or misspoke accidentally. I mean the kind of moment where you look at the consequences of your choices and think, “How did I get here?”

Maybe it was a decision you made years ago that still affects your life today. Maybe it was something you said or did that hurt someone you love. Or maybe you are carrying a hurt that someone brought against you.

When we find ourselves in those moments, something happens inside of us.

We begin to wonder if we are still worthy. If God can still use us, or would want anything to do with us. We find ourselves asking, “Can God still do something good through my life after what I have done?”

We have a faith that teaches us to offer forgiveness, but sometimes the hardest person to forgive is ourselves. Sometimes we carry our failures longer than anyone else does. Sometimes we become convinced that our worst moment has become our identity. And we stop seeing ourselves as beloved children of God. Sometimes we start seeing ourselves only through the lens of our mistakes. And when we feel that way, we often do what Jacob did. We run. We avoid the situation. We distance ourselves. We try to escape the consequences.

And that brings us to Genesis 28.

Because Jacob is not having a peaceful retreat with God. Jacob did not go into the wilderness to get closer to God, when we find him in this passage, he is not on an intentional spiritual pilgrimage. Jacob is running. He is running from his family. He is running from his brother. He is running from the consequences of what he has done. And it is in the middle of that wilderness, when Jacob is at his lowest point, that God finds him.

Because the good news of today’s scripture is this: God’s grace does not wait for us to get everything together. God pursues us in our messiness, and offers us grace.

To understand the power of this moment, we have to remember who Jacob is. Jacob the son of Isaac and the grandson of Abraham, is part of the family God promised to bless. But Jacob is also messy. From the beginning, Jacob has lived up to his name “heel-grabber.” He has grabbed, and taken, and deceived. He manipulated to get Esau’s birthright, he deceived Isaac, and stole the blessing intended for his brother. Now Esau is angry, Jacob’s family is broken, and Jacob runs.

Genesis tells us he leaves Beersheba and heads toward Haran.

But what we need to notice is what this journey represents. Jacob is not simply traveling. Jacob is escaping. He is leaving behind the consequences of his actions. He is leaving behind the people he hurt. He is leaving behind the life he knew. And now he finds himself alone with nothing.

Just a rock for a pillow and a long road ahead. Have you ever felt like Jacob?

Maybe not literally running away, but emotionally, spiritually?

You find yourself in a place where you think: “How did I get here?” “Where do I go from here?” “Can anything good come from this?”

There are moments in life where we hit our own wilderness. Moments where we feel alone and uncertain. Moments where we wonder if our past has disqualified us from our future. But here is the first lesson from Jacob’s story:

When Jacob reaches rock bottom, God does not walk away. God moves closer.

Jacob thought he was running away from everything.

But he was actually running into the place where God would meet him.

Because God pursues messy people.

The most amazing part of this story is that Jacob does nothing to earn this encounter. He does not stop and apologize. He does not promise to change or prove himself worthy. Jacob goes to sleep, and God comes.

The passage says: “And he dreamed that there was a stairway set upon the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven; and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.”

This image is powerful. The separation between heaven and earth is crossed. God comes near and the direction here matters. Jacob is not climbing up to God. God is coming down to Jacob.

This is grace. As Methodists, we would call this prevenient grace. The grace of God that goes before us. The grace that reaches for us before we even know to reach for God.

Jacob does not find God because Jacob is finally good enough. Jacob finds God because God was already pursuing him. Notice when God speaks what is said... “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac.”

The first thing God does is remind Jacob of the promise. The same promise given to Abraham. The same promise carried through Isaac. The promise that continues through Jacob even in his imperfection.

Next, God says, “Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go.”

God does not say, go fix yourself and then I’ll be with you, or I will be with you after you become the person worthy of this blessing. God does not tell Jacob that he has to fix his messiness to deserve being in God’s presence.

God says, “I am with you.” I am with you right now, and I will continue to be with you wherever you go. Jacob expected judgment and punishment. But instead, he encountered grace. And that grace does not leave us unchanged.

This encounter started with prevenient grace. Jacob encounters God’s grace before he has repaired the damage he has caused. God’s grace does not ignore his failures, but it meets him before he has everything fixed. Receiving grace does not mean pretending our choices did not matter. As grace works in our lives, it gives us the courage to face what happened and become someone different.

God’s justifying grace begins to work in Jacob here, but we don’t see the repentance that accompanies forgiveness; the work of Grace continues long after Bethel. Calling Jacob to face the harm he has caused, so he can find forgiveness and restoration, and we will have an opportunity to see how it is continuing to work in Jacob’s life next week. You see this week we saw Jacob go from a man afraid of his own shadow, of all the dark, harmful, shameful things he had done. A man who believed he was alone. To a man that understood his relationship to the God that created and blessed him. A God who showed him mercy in place of judgement, and belonging in place of criticism.

But God’s work did not end that day with Jacob, he was not immediately cleared of his messiness, God’s grace continued to work in him. You see God met Jacob exactly where he was, but God loved Jacob too much to leave him there. Next week we will hear how God’s grace continues to work on transforming Jacob into the person he was created to be.

Because grace does not simply forgive our past. Grace transforms our future.

One of the most beautiful truths in this story is that God knows exactly who Jacob is. God is not fooled. God knows his failures, his harmful choices, and his brokenness and God still pursues him.

And God knows you. God knows every thought you have had, ever action you have taken, every intention good and bad, every hair on your head. And God still pursues you.

That is the good news: God’s promises are bigger than Jacob’s failures, and they are bigger than ours

God made a promise to Jacob, one that is still there for us today, I am with you and I will go with you wherever you go. None of Jacob’s failures were bigger than God’s promises, and nothing we can do is bigger than God’s love for us. Paul writes in Romans 8: “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come… nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Nothing.

Not our past.

Not our mistakes.

Not our failures.

Not our regrets.

Nothing can separate us from God’s love.

Now, that does not mean our choices do not matter. Jacob’s choices caused real pain. His deception damaged relationships. And part of the work that God’s grace was doing in Jacob was helping him find the courage to face those failures, But God’s grace was greater than Jacob’s failures. This doesn’t mean that Jacob will not have any other failures, in fact he has a few and we will talk about those more in future weeks.

What’s important to recognize here is that God’s grace is greater than all those failures, and it is greater than ours. Today Jacob gives us an answer to the question: Can God still use me after what I have done?

Jacob’s story says, tells us yes. Because God is not limited by our shame. Our shame may tell us that we are disqualified. Our shame may say that our mistakes define us. We may feel the need to run away. Sometimes we find ourselves in wilderness because of our own choices. Sometimes we are there because life has wounded us. Either way, God meets us there and says, “I am with you. You are still my beloved. Come closer.” And God rarely intends for us to stay in the wilderness alone.

If you are carrying something today, hurt or regret, a season of life you wish you could redo. A place where you feel like you failed or were failed.

Hear this: Your worst moment is not the end of your story.

God is with you.

God meets us in our shame, anger, and confusion and calls us into grace.

God’s grace meets us before we are fixed, loves us before we are worthy, and transforms us so we can become people who participate in God’s healing work.

This week, I want to invite you to write these words on your post-it note: “God’s grace is bigger than this.”

Then put it next to the one from last week that reminded us God is still working, and every time you see it, let it be a reminder that nothing is bigger than God’s promise.

Because the same God who met Jacob in the wilderness is the God who meets us today.

Jacob was running and alone. He went to sleep afraid and carrying the weight of everything he had done. But when he woke up, he realized something immensely important: “Surely the Lord is in this place.”

Jacob thought he was alone, but he was never alone. And maybe that is the word someone needs to hear today. Your story is not over. You are not alone, God is with you now and goes with you wherever you go.

Because nothing can separate us from the love of God, and the same God who pursues us, stays with us, transforms us, and uses us. And God has a special way of working through messy people. Amen for that.