A Reflection from Carola Darwin

In a poll conducted about 15 years ago by the BBC, 74% of people said that they had had a religious or spiritual experience of some kind, which still affected them. But most had never told anyone about it. Think about that number. If you are on a bus with 9 other people, then 7 or 8 of you have felt the presence of God at some point and in a way that’s still important to you. But if you never tell anyone, or do anything in response, then the danger is that the impression will die away and nothing will change. The stories of Jacob and Nathanael that we’ve heard today are about people who felt the presence of God and responded, and because they responded their lives changed, and so did other peoples. 
 
‘When Jacob awoke from his sleep,’ it says in Genesis, ‘he thought: “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” He was afraid and said ‘How awesome is this place! This is no one other than the house of God, this is the gate of Heaven’. And he performed a ritual with the stone that had been his pillow, to remember that this was where he had felt the presence of God.
 
Nathanael’s sense of the presence of God was even clearer. When he met Jesus and astonishingly, Jesus recognised him, he realised that Jesus was the Son of God, the King of Israel. But the best was yet to come: making a clear link with the story of Jacob’s dream, Jesus told him, ‘You shall see heaven opening and the angels of God ascending and descending.’
 
There’s another important thing that Nathanael and Jacob had in common. Neither of them are particularly promising candidates for divine revelation. Nathanael was distinctly sceptical ‘ Nazareth? Can anything good come from there?’ he said.  He didn’t seek Jesus out, he’s persuaded to meet him by Philip. Have you ever had that experience? Your friend says ‘come and meet this person, or see this film, or listen to this music and you really don’t want to, it isn’t your thing, you’re not going to enjoy yourself. And when you get there, you’re overwhelmed – you can’t believe you nearly missed it. That’s what happened for Nathanael.
 
What about Jacob? His behaviour before his dream was even more doubtful. The younger of twins, he grew up jealous of his brother Esau, because their father Isaac loved Esau best, When he got the chance, and with his mother Rebekah’s help, he disguised himself as Esau and Isaac, old and blind, was confused by the disguise and gave Jacob the blessing that he’d intended for Esau. When Esau found out, he was furious and swore that he’ll kill Jacob once Isaac was dead. As so Rebekah persuaded Jacob to run away and start a new life elsewhere.
 
So far, so pretty disastrous. The sibling rivalry between Jacob and Esau, and Jacob’s trickery, led to the family breaking up and the threat of serious violence. And yet it was at this point, when Jacob was on the run, fearing for his life, that God spoke to him. Jacob saw God’s glory reaching down from heaven, and God’s messengers the angels. And he was blessed by God with a promise not only of land but of descendants without number, to be a blessing to all the peoples of the earth.
 
There is more to Jacob’s story than we have time for today. He travelled on to meet his father’s kinsman Laban and spent 20 years working for him. But in the end he went back to face Esau. And somehow during that time Jacob had changed. Perhaps it was his experience of Laban (who is just as much of a trickster as Jacob himself). Perhaps it was his experience of sibling rivalry between his two wives, who were sisters. But most of all, surely, it’s because of his experience of God and God’s messengers, both in the dream that we heard about today, and in two later meetings.
 
In recognising that God had blessed him, Jacob recognised that he need no longer be jealous of Esau. And he sets himself to make things right with his brother, giving him gifts of cattle and deferring to him. And later still, when Isaac finally does die, Jacob and Esau bury him together. Jacob is changed by his encounter with God, not all at once – he remains a tricky character, not always honest, perhaps not always wise. But because he allows his experience of God to change him, God can work through him. Jacob becomes Israel, the foundation of the Jewish nation. And through the Jewish scriptures and traditions, which are the foundation of Christianity as well as Judaism, we are all blessed.
 
Nathanael was doubtful about Christ – he didn’t think much of people from Nazareth. But Christ recognised what was special about him and called him to be a disciple. God sees our faults – Jacob may have deceived Isaac, but he never deceived God – but he also sees our potential. If you sense God’s presence or feel God’s glory and respond, allowing yourself to be changed, who knows how many people might be blessed through you? Perhaps, like Nathanael, you’ll find that the best is yet to come.