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St. Charles Episcopal Church – St. Charles, IL

The Tenth Sunday after Pentecost – Proper 11a – July 20, 2008

Genesis 28:10-19a; Psalm 139: 1-11, 22-23; Romans 8:12-25; Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

The Reverend Jeanette M. Repp

Recently I counted that I can get 276 channels on my digital cable tv. 276! I don't subscribe to all of them, but I could. And I probably actually watch less than 10% of that, anyway. That leaves over 90% unwatched, or empty, at least to me. . .empty, meaningless air-time with 100's or 1000's of taped people reporting and acting to whom? Anyone? Anyone listening? Anything worth hearing being said?

Robert McCracken, a renown preacher from Riverside Church in New York, was once asked –'why people came to church.' He thought about it for a moment and said,'they come hoping to hear some word from beyond themselves.'

A word from beyond ourselves. Isn't that a hope of ours, as well? Don't we long for a word, a message, that will satisfy the deepest needs of our hearts, and banish our greatest fears? But so many of the words of our world are empty.

Perhaps that's why Jacob’s dream appeals to us so strongly in this text we just heard. So many of the people of his time, and of ours, were so numbed out from so many empty words and promises, to get through to him, God had to really get in his head and challenge him. It's a beautiful image, this dream. Was it seen then as an empty image? Or did it satisfy a deep need or calm a great fear?

When Jacob fell asleep that night he was probably exhausted from walking all day, and just wanted a good night’s sleep. Instead, he dreamed a deep and powerful dream: there was a ladder. It was set upon the earth, and the top of it reached heaven. And the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And where was God? Enthroned at the top of the ladder? Interestingly, no. To one side of Jacob is this angelic escalator. and to the other is God, at first standing quietly beside him and then telling him what is to become of him and his many descendants. Huh! A very accessible God, who nevertheless needs to use some drama to get thru to Jacob.

Although many people swear that they don’t dream, we all do—we just don’t always remember them. Freud called dreams “the royal road to the unconscious,” but perhaps the Jewish Talmud speaks more directly to us when it claims that unexamined dreams are “unopened letters” from God. And yet what is the most potent part of this passage? That Jacob dreams this dream of angels and God? If we ‘open this letter’ that is Jacob’s dream, we come to the heart of it in the second half. After all the beautiful and busy imagery it simply says -“know that I am with you.”

In this passage, Jacob is the herald of something new a new people. a new faith. A new kind of God! This is a God who cares enough to not only send dreams of angels, but to stand beside the dreamer who dreams it.

Empty words? No! These words are full of power! And by one promising the coming of the power and a means to be different and make a difference!

With our world so full of empty words, what is the message that our hearts long to hear? With our world so full of empty words, what are the fears that need to be calmed?

With our world so full of empty words, it is good to know that God is with us. Amen.