Big Muddy rancher
Well-known member
This is the message my niece wrote and delivered at the church service last summer when we had the 75th anniversary celebration of our ranch. My sister just e mailed me a copy the other day As i read it it i was comparing Jacob wrestling with God to how we wrestler with our problems and faith.
A Sermon based on Psalm 121 & Genesis 28:10-22
Some of the favorite pastimes we grandchildren had here at the ranch involved rocks. I remember as a child making our way to the fossil pile as we called it to search out the unique imprint of leaves in those precious pieces. Social studies was much more interesting when you climbed the hill to look at the tepee rings set atop it and heard the story of Sitting Bull recounted. And probably one of our favorites was hiking up to the rocky outcrop, Roy Rogers lunch box in hand, with Grandma, for a picnic.
When you think of this place, it might be hills that come to mind, but it could just as easily be rocks. For I'm sure many of you have dazzled in the geological formation of the Three Sisters. And just yesterday I heard someone wonder if sandstone like that here in the yard would make good stepping stones for their garden.
In our scripture reading from Genesis this morning we hear of Jacob. A little background... Jacob was the grandson of Abraham, Isaac was his father, and thus a descendant of the covenant or promise God made to the people of Israel. Jacob was born holding onto his brother Esau's heel and he and his mother Rebecca cheated Esau out of his birthright and blessing. Later in his life God renamed Jacob "Israel", which means "he struggles with God". In fact Jacob struggled with God his entire life, as many of us do. As he matured in faith, Jacob depended on God more and more. But the turning point came after a dramatic, all-night wrestling match with God in which the Lord touched Jacob's hip, a moment of being both broken and renewed. For the rest of his life he walked with a limp, demonstrating his dependence on God, the one whom he came to trust.
The Story of Jacob we hear today talks about provision and trust rooted in God. First God gave Jacob a vision of abundance and provision. Jacobs response was to praise the Lord and offer of himself to this God who provides. The scene of these events he called Bethel.
When I think of all this unfolding, I can't help but think about what it must have been like for my great-grandfather and later my grandparents to come upon this place. I haven't heard any account of ladders bridging heaven and earth, or the anointing of rocks with oil. And it is not called Bethel, but rather Circle Y. However as we look back on these past 75 years. I think you will agree that we, like Jacob, can say "surely the Lord is in this place".
God has blessed four generations with land that provides. Practically it provides things like water from the spring and grass to feed the cattle which in turn feed us. Spiritually it provides beauty that nourishes the soul and creates a landscape in which to gather, be it riding through the hills at round-up or the sojourners that pass through this locale.
Jacob's story also helps us reconcile when it is not all awesome and wondrous, when prairie fire threatens or the winter is long and cold, when low cattle prices or disease make things tight, when conflict arises, when things just don't go as planned. Whether you call this place home or not we can all relate to such times when it feels like we aren't very blessed by God or like God is not in this place. Jacob's story reminds us that struggle and blessing are not mutually exclusive. God continues to journey with us, God is faithful even when things don't seem especially Godly.
And that is why struggle is not the end of Jacobs story. God does not say to Jacob I will make your limp go away, but rather that God will use Jacob to bless the earth, that God is with him and will keep him wherever he goes, that God will not leave him.
This is powerful imagery and I love that Jacob takes God on God's word and delights in the Lord, making the vow, saying "If God will be with me, and will keep me in the way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, so that I come again to my Father's house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God." So often we calculate such risks, we wonder what our return on investment will be before we commit. I'm not advocating for careless abandon, for we live in a world that has limitation and realities, but I do wonder sometimes if we lose sight of or underestimate God's love and provision for us as God's people.
Just as struggle is not the end of Jacobs story. Struggle in whatever form it manifests in our lives is not the end of our story. This is the promise made by God when Jesus came into our world. God becoming human to truly know what it was like to be us. Surely if God can come back from the dead, God can address our trouble. Though as life after death is unexpected we don't always know how our need will be met.
Living in this promise, we give thanks for God's provision thus far in our lives and in this place. For adventure realized. For love found. For children born. For people gathered. For history preserved. For creation stewarded. For gathering. The list goes on... And as we move from this place to the places which we go, may we remember that God goes with us, that we like Jacob can proclaim surely God is in this place, at work in our lives that we might be at work in the lives of others. Part of a legacy of love that started at creation, endured through the age of Jacob and his kin, came into fulfillment in the dying and rising of Christ and carried forth in our Christian living in this day and age. To thus we lift our eyes to the hills and say "Amen."
A Sermon based on Psalm 121 & Genesis 28:10-22
Some of the favorite pastimes we grandchildren had here at the ranch involved rocks. I remember as a child making our way to the fossil pile as we called it to search out the unique imprint of leaves in those precious pieces. Social studies was much more interesting when you climbed the hill to look at the tepee rings set atop it and heard the story of Sitting Bull recounted. And probably one of our favorites was hiking up to the rocky outcrop, Roy Rogers lunch box in hand, with Grandma, for a picnic.
When you think of this place, it might be hills that come to mind, but it could just as easily be rocks. For I'm sure many of you have dazzled in the geological formation of the Three Sisters. And just yesterday I heard someone wonder if sandstone like that here in the yard would make good stepping stones for their garden.
In our scripture reading from Genesis this morning we hear of Jacob. A little background... Jacob was the grandson of Abraham, Isaac was his father, and thus a descendant of the covenant or promise God made to the people of Israel. Jacob was born holding onto his brother Esau's heel and he and his mother Rebecca cheated Esau out of his birthright and blessing. Later in his life God renamed Jacob "Israel", which means "he struggles with God". In fact Jacob struggled with God his entire life, as many of us do. As he matured in faith, Jacob depended on God more and more. But the turning point came after a dramatic, all-night wrestling match with God in which the Lord touched Jacob's hip, a moment of being both broken and renewed. For the rest of his life he walked with a limp, demonstrating his dependence on God, the one whom he came to trust.
The Story of Jacob we hear today talks about provision and trust rooted in God. First God gave Jacob a vision of abundance and provision. Jacobs response was to praise the Lord and offer of himself to this God who provides. The scene of these events he called Bethel.
When I think of all this unfolding, I can't help but think about what it must have been like for my great-grandfather and later my grandparents to come upon this place. I haven't heard any account of ladders bridging heaven and earth, or the anointing of rocks with oil. And it is not called Bethel, but rather Circle Y. However as we look back on these past 75 years. I think you will agree that we, like Jacob, can say "surely the Lord is in this place".
God has blessed four generations with land that provides. Practically it provides things like water from the spring and grass to feed the cattle which in turn feed us. Spiritually it provides beauty that nourishes the soul and creates a landscape in which to gather, be it riding through the hills at round-up or the sojourners that pass through this locale.
Jacob's story also helps us reconcile when it is not all awesome and wondrous, when prairie fire threatens or the winter is long and cold, when low cattle prices or disease make things tight, when conflict arises, when things just don't go as planned. Whether you call this place home or not we can all relate to such times when it feels like we aren't very blessed by God or like God is not in this place. Jacob's story reminds us that struggle and blessing are not mutually exclusive. God continues to journey with us, God is faithful even when things don't seem especially Godly.
And that is why struggle is not the end of Jacobs story. God does not say to Jacob I will make your limp go away, but rather that God will use Jacob to bless the earth, that God is with him and will keep him wherever he goes, that God will not leave him.
This is powerful imagery and I love that Jacob takes God on God's word and delights in the Lord, making the vow, saying "If God will be with me, and will keep me in the way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, so that I come again to my Father's house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God." So often we calculate such risks, we wonder what our return on investment will be before we commit. I'm not advocating for careless abandon, for we live in a world that has limitation and realities, but I do wonder sometimes if we lose sight of or underestimate God's love and provision for us as God's people.
Just as struggle is not the end of Jacobs story. Struggle in whatever form it manifests in our lives is not the end of our story. This is the promise made by God when Jesus came into our world. God becoming human to truly know what it was like to be us. Surely if God can come back from the dead, God can address our trouble. Though as life after death is unexpected we don't always know how our need will be met.
Living in this promise, we give thanks for God's provision thus far in our lives and in this place. For adventure realized. For love found. For children born. For people gathered. For history preserved. For creation stewarded. For gathering. The list goes on... And as we move from this place to the places which we go, may we remember that God goes with us, that we like Jacob can proclaim surely God is in this place, at work in our lives that we might be at work in the lives of others. Part of a legacy of love that started at creation, endured through the age of Jacob and his kin, came into fulfillment in the dying and rising of Christ and carried forth in our Christian living in this day and age. To thus we lift our eyes to the hills and say "Amen."