How awesome is this place!
Category: Sundays after Pentecost
Speaker: The Rev. Shearon Sykes Wiliams
Sacred places are mysterious and awe-inspiring. When I was on vacation last week, we visited a place called the Garden of the Gods in Manitou Springs, Colorado. It was a fascinating place, an area of red rocks in many different configurations. Some of the formations have “churchy” sounding names like “cathedral spires,” pulpit rock,” and the “three graces.” It is really a place that you feel God’s presence, a place to marvel at the infinite creativity of God.
When we read about creation “in the beginning” in the book of Genesis it is important to remember that creation continues. The earth is alive beneath our feet. God unleashed forces “in the beginning” that continue to form and reform the earth. Creation isn’t locked in a one-time event. It is an ongoing process. And within creation there is incredible diversity and many varied landscapes.
Geologists love the Garden of the Gods because it is unique. It was formed millions of years ago when plates in the earth shifted and forced the rock upward. Wind, water and erosion added to the process to create all shapes and sizes. There is evidence that pre-historic peoples as well as various Native Americans thought of this area as hallowed ground. And the 19th century settlers of European descent had the same sense. Each group, though separated by time and culture, thought of it essentially the same way. This is no ordinary place. This place is sacred. By experiencing it, countless people have received a special blessing – and an invitation to see the world in a new way.
When we think about all of the ways that human creatures have caused the world to go awry, especially mindful this morning of the plane crash in the Ukraine and the ongoing fighting in Gaza, it is reassuring to know that God has not given up on us, that we too can be recreated.
In today’s Old Testament reading, we heard the story of Jacob’s encounter with God in the wilderness. He was tired from his journey and stopped to sleep for the night. And he had a very unexpected experience of God in a dream. He saw angels ascending and descending on a stairway and God spoke to him, telling him that the land that he was resting on would be his land, and that he would have many children, that the world would be blessed through his family, and most importantly, that God would be with he and his family always. That was quite a dream, especially for a man on the run. Jacob was fleeing his older brother’s wrath. His brother was supposed to receive the birthright and blessing of their father, but Jacob tricked their elderly father into bestowing the blessing on him instead. And his brother was so angry that he wanted to kill Jacob. So he ran away, hoping that he could return after his brother’s rage subsided. And today’s story of God’s appearance to him in a dream happens while he is on the run.
God speaks to us in undeserved ways and unlikely circumstances. When we think about all that is going on in our world, it is cause for despairing. But our faith calls us to look at the news with hopeful eyes, as challenging as that is. To see that God’s creative activity is not limited to geological formations. God continues to create in us, as individuals and as groups of people with different cultural outlooks. As deceptive as Jacob had been, as much as he had grievously wronged his brother, tricking him out of his birthright, they were finally reunited many years later. The story ends on a hopeful note, the possibility of a new future, if only Jacob and Esau will cooperate with God’s desire for them to live harmoniously.
That perhaps is food for thought and prayer today. What can we do to cooperate with God’s desire for us to live in peace with our brothers and sisters? What can we do to be part of God’s creative, reconciling, activity in the world- the activity that forms awe-inspiring geological wonders and that forms us into the people of hope, justice, and peace that we are called to be.
God can work in us infinitely more wonders than we can hope or imagine. We too can become sacred ground. “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and the gate of heaven.”
Sources:
Interpretation: A Biblical Commentary for Teaching and Preaching, James L. May, Series Editor, Genesis by Walter Brueggemann, pp. 241-248. Atlanta: John Know Press, 1982.
The New Interpreter’s Bible, Leander E. Keck, Senior Editor, Genesis by Terence E. Fretheim, pp. 540-574. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1994.
www.gardenofgods.com