Stories that Stick: Jacob

Note:  This message includes Bethlehem member Marsh Pechauer sharing reflections about his favorite story from the bible.

There’s a story I like to tell about my dad and the Bethlehem community. It’s from almost 20 years ago — before my parents joined the congregation. They would show up for worship at the Minneapolis campus on occasion — every time I preached. People started to pick up on the pattern — if Marsh and Martha were in the gallery, Mary was going to be in the pulpit. On one particular Sunday, Pastor Chris Nelson asked my parents what he needed to do to get them to join. Without hesitation my dad told Chris: “Just one thing… Put Mary in the pulpit every week.”

Fast forward to the present — my parents are very much part of this community, worshipping every Sunday whether I’m in the pulpit or not. And… warning… commercial: my dad leads the Sunday morning Bible study at 9:15. If you’ve ever wanted to check it out… this is a good time to try it. It’s not just because Dad’s a gifted teacher (and I’m not just saying that because I’m his kid) but also because the conversations are rich, the questions are honest, and the shared insights by those gathered make for meaningful dialogue. Isn’t that something we all have a hunger for?

Dad is retired clergy — having served congregations in Richfield, Minn., Chicago, Ill., and Madison, Wisc., his last call having served as Mission Director for the ELCA in this region. While his official status is retired — he continues to pastor. When I asked him to share some reflections about a favorite bible story he chose:

Genesis 33:1-17

Now Jacob looked up and saw Esau coming, and four hundred men with him. So he divided the children among Leah and Rachel and the two maids. He put the maids with their children in front, then Leah with her children, and Rachel and Joseph last of all. He himself went on ahead of them, bowing himself to the ground seven times, until he came near his brother.

But Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept. When Esau looked up and saw the women and children, he said, ‘Who are these with you?’ Jacob said, ‘The children whom God has graciously given your servant.’ Then the maids drew near, they and their children, and bowed down; Leah likewise and her children drew near and bowed down; and finally Joseph and Rachel drew near, and they bowed down. Esau said, ‘What do you mean by all this company that I met?’ Jacob answered, ‘To find favour with my lord.’ But Esau said, ‘I have enough, my brother; keep what you have for yourself.’ Jacob said, ‘No, please; if I find favour with you, then accept my present from my hand; for truly to see your face is like seeing the face of God—since you have received me with such favour. Please accept my gift that is brought to you, because God has dealt graciously with me, and because I have everything I want.’ So he urged him, and he took it.

Then Esau said, ‘Let us journey on our way, and I will go alongside you.’ But Jacob said to him, ‘My lord knows that the children are frail and that the flocks and herds, which are nursing, are a care to me; and if they are overdriven for one day, all the flocks will die. Let my lord pass on ahead of his servant, and I will lead on slowly, according to the pace of the cattle that are before me and according to the pace of the children, until I come to my lord in Seir.’

So Esau said, ‘Let me leave with you some of the people who are with me.’ But he said, ‘Why should my lord be so kind to me?’

Since the beginning of time we’ve told stories — whether painting on cave walls, sitting around the campfire, weaving them in tapestries, creating stained glass windows, or writing lyrics to a catchy tune. Science indicates that our brains become more active, more engaged when we hear or tell stories. The power of a really good story is that it meets the listener wherever you are but doesn’t leave you there. A really good story moves you — softens your heart, changes your mind, opens you to what’s possible.
There is so much about Jacob and Esau that make for a good story: sibling rivalry marked with deceit and greed which keeps them at odds. By the time they leave home Esau lives with a grudge he carries for years and Jacob lives with a deep fear that his brother will eventually find him and kill him.

But something happens to quote my dad. We don’t know exactly how but in faith we know who makes this transformation happen and why. The shift with humility and the result is a relationship restored.

This is how God faithfully chooses to be at work in the world and in our own hearts. This is God’s way of being. God, who humbled himself, took on human form, and the risk of vulnerability, humiliation and suffering in order to reconcile us to himself. Through Jesus our relationship with God is restored. It’s a holy pattern for living that God has made possible. It’s the only pattern for living that’s able to hold onto hope that something different is possible, something new can come into existence. God invites us into this way of being, to practice humility for the sake of relationships restored.

I remember hearing a story about Congressman John Lewis of Georgia years ago. We mourn his recent death and give thanks for his life’s work and witness to God’s vision for a healed world. We honor his legacy by telling his stories. You’re likely familiar with this particular story one. It doesn’t get old even though it happened about 10 years ago.

As a seminary student during the days of Martin Luther King Jr., Congressman Lewis participated in many of the marches during the Civil Rights movement. He was beaten many times, once to the point of almost having died. One of those attacks was committed by a man named Elwin Wilson. Mr. Wilson took part in several beatings during that time period. He eventually joined the Ku Klux Klan. But 48 years later made a special trip to Washington D.C. to apologize in person to Congressman Lewis. Wilson said that it was his church that changed his mind over time. The story of Jesus changed his perspective. God had softened his heart. He confessed his sin. God’s great love at work in and through him moved him to ask forgiveness from the man he had almost killed. Congressman Lewis did forgive Wilson. The conversation ended in an embrace. And when Lewis commented on the experience he gave full credit to the power of God’s love, the power of God’s grace.

These are hard days. Isolation. Worry. Anxiety. Uncertainty. Reckoning. We hear the story of Jacob and Esau and Congressman Lewis and Elwin Wilson and we’re reminded that there is a holy way to live. May we lean into God’s promise and may we stay open to the Spirit at work in your heart and mine — calling us to humility and moving us to relationships restored.