Hold My Beer...

 

Hold My Beer…

 

Genesis 28:10-19a
28:10 Jacob left Beer-sheba and went toward Haran.
28:11 He came to a certain place and stayed there for the night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place.
28:12 And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven; and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.
28:13 And the LORD stood beside him and said, "I am the LORD, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring;
28:14 and your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you and in your offspring.
28:15 Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you."
28:16 Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, "Surely the LORD is in this place--and I did not know it!"
28:17 And he was afraid, and said, "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven."
28:18 So Jacob rose early in the morning, and he took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it.
28:19a He called that place Bethel; but the name of the city was Luz at the first.

I’m always fascinated by stories about ladders, possibly because the ones I have owned usually seem just a rung or two too short for what I need them for! I bought a 16 foot extension ladder when we moved into our townhouse, figuring it would help us paint the interior entrance tower. (We bought only a 16-footer, because it was the size we could: a. afford; b. get home with our Forrester, since it was only 8 feet in total length; and c. had room to store in our garage.) And yes, it was JUST a bit too short. I finished painting the entranceway on my tippytoes, hanging off the top of the ladder (DON’T try this at home!). By the way, in my youth, I would climb a 40-footer with reckless abandon, as I painted houses for a summer job. Now, at the top of my “par three” ladder, I’m far less steady. Time steals your balance. Believe it. 

 

Facebook and other public, social media sites have videos of people setting up elaborate ways to “beat” the way-too-short ladder, or to place a ladder precariously in a place where it just doesn’t work safely, yet climbing it, nonetheless. These videos usually are captioned by something like this: “Why women outlive men…” The “joke” in our time is the challenge that a person—usually a stunted-thinking man—takes on the risky (Ridiculous? Stupid?) challenge with the expression, “Hold my beer.” 

 

 

Is the Christian church in danger of becoming a “Hold my beer” organization? I am convinced that the recent migration of congregations away from the United Methodist Church via the “Great Disaffiliation” may have been, at its heart, one of these foolish, “Hold my beer” moments. For years, warring theological camps have been lobbing charges and counter-charges back at forth, with one or the other threatening to “leave,” because of the either “too tight” or “too loose” views of the other. And when the tenuously compromised “Protocol of Reconciliation and Grace” dissolved (both sides accuse the other of being the cause, by the way), it was the “orthodoxy” crowd that set down their beer and set up the rickety ladder of disaffiliation. No matter how you view it, it was a schism. Initial estimates that “less than 10%” of protesting congregations would leave turned out to be way low, and around 25% of UMC congregations left to either become independent or join with the recently established Global Methodist Church. Both factions now find themselves in the situation of backing down off the unsteady ladder of escalation that got them here, in an effort to rebuild a foundation under themselves. “Hold my beer,” as the “fun” is just beginning, especially for the most vulnerable churches and the least competent clergy leaders.

 

Regarding the rickety church, this week’s morning chapel speaker—Dr. Craig Barnes—told a funny story about flying to various engagements. He said that he hoped that none of his “seat mates” and potential conversationalists ever ask him what he “did for a living.” When they did, he said there were three possible responses: he would be ignored by them, after hearing he was a pastor; when they found out he was a Presbyterian pastor, they would try to “lead him to Jesus”; and finally, the other party in the dialogue would begin a long harangue about what they felt was wrong with the church. Barnes said that he would let them go on, and when he got a word in edgewise, he would say: “Look, I’ve worked in the church a long time, and I’ve been around the church a LOT longer than you have, and I can tell you, it’s a LOT worse than you think; a LOT worse!” (He would go on to say that still, he NEEDS the church to bring him regularly back to Jesus, and to be his “community.”)

 

I’m writing this message in the library at the Chautauqua Institution where we have been enjoying the lectures and activities of Week Four around the theme of “What We Believe.” No, it’s not a study of doctrines or dogmas of one faith, but an interesting conversation of what makes us “tick” in our adopted believes about a lot of things, religion being only one element of this. Kate Bowler, a young historian of faith, pretty much told us that the American religious landscape may best be summed up in the adversarial, challenging exclamation, “Oh YEAH?” Religious faith in American society is usually cruising for a fight, rather than seeking how to love; calling out what’s wrong with our neighbor’s religion, rather than offering to help them in their time of need. While this is a more hostile variation on “Hold my beer,” it tends to have the same stupid and less-than-productive outcome.

 

If ever there was a “Hold my beer” character in the Bible, it was Jacob. The conniver, the trickster, the cheater, is chosen by God to “father” the tribes of Israel. Go figure. Maybe we come by our “Hold my beer” mentality honestly? Every time you read of a flawed, or even scandalous figure in the Bible, believing God will get out the “smite stick” to cool their jets, it seems GOD says, “Hold my beer,” and does something great through them. Does God do this to goad the “righteous,” who always seem to think THEY deserve to be “the chosen?” Or does God do this because that’s what God does—redeems, recycles, and reinvigorates the sick souls? Maybe God just does it because God can, and WE usually WON’T even try. Jacob is one of these characters, indeed.

 

Our text tells us these various images come to Jacob in a dream, as he sleeps with his head on a rock (itself an interesting image). The ladder in this story serves as a bridge between heaven and earth, here being “tested” by angels, ascending and descending. It almost sounds like they are just having fun, touching down on Planet Earth. (One can imagine these angels telling the other, less mischievous angels, “Hold my beer!”) Is the ladder an usual Christophany, forecasting God’s ultimate “bridge” between the Realm of God and the human home world? Another thought, and is one that would associate Jacob, God’s “heal grabber,” with Jesus, God’s “soul grabber.” Jacob, of course, becomes the lynchpin of God’s plan for growing Israel in the Hebrew Bible; Jesus is the culmination of the redemption of all of the people of God, in the New Testament. 

 

A little “side trip” story: Dara and I attended a Bible Study on Tuesday night at the United Methodist House here at Chautauqua. It is held weekly, and is led by Dr. Paul Womack, a retired pastor and scholar, and current interim pastor at the historic Hurlbut Memorial Church (UMC) on the Institute grounds, and Joe Lewis, a British, Jewish lay teacher. I must say, the interaction between these two is amazing. They have been “stuck” on the book of Jeremiah for some time, but there is so much to cover with the “Weeping Prophet.” Mr. Lewis (whom I mistakenly called “Rabbi,” upon which he immediately corrected me) told a story from British religious lore I thought you might enjoy. The “pillow stone” that Jacob slept on in this week’s text was supposedly later came into the possession of the prophet Jeremiah, as a kind of relic. Later kings of Israel were crowned upon the stone, because of its significance, and as a symbol that, as Jacob “fathered” all of Israel’s tribes, so the stone would signify that the king was the monarch over all of Israel. After some of the leaders of Israel—in fulfillment of Jeremiah’s prophecies—were later taken into captivity in Babylon (today’s Baghdad), legend has it that Jeremiah fled the country WITH the “pillow stone” and sailed to Ireland. The stone later winds up on Scotland, where it is dubbed the “Stone of Scone,” and is incorporated into a special throne upon which the kings of Scotland would be crowned. In subsequent wars with England, it changes hands a time or two, but mostly resides in England, to this day. King Charles II was crowned on that throne, complete with its “Stone of Scone,” supposedly symbolic of England’s monarch being “king” over all the realm, including historical “Israel.” Mr. Lewis told us that England now “loans” the throne/stone to Scotland so they may use it to crown their own leaders as well. He told us that this whole story is highly suspect, and that we should NEVER tell anyone that he told it to us. “Hold my beer…”

 

If the ladder image in today’s text is a foreshadowing of God’s future incarnation in Jesus Christ (the ultimate presence of God with humans), we should take special note of what is the central theme of this passage, namely God telling Jacob “I am with you” and “I will not leave you.” 

 

Quick seminary story: I was in the first year of my M.Div. studies, taking the required “Interpreting the Bible” course (which we all called “Interrupting the Bible,” just to be a bunch of wise asses). Dr. Donald Gowan, a giant of Old Testament scholarship, was teaching the “left side of the Bible,” as Steven Tuell would say. As he began each class, he would open his notes, pray, and launch into a particular OT book. This one week, however, before he opened his notebook, he did something quite uncharacteristic: He asked if we had any questions. Catching us all by surprise, one wiseacre in the back of the room spontaneously blurted out, “Yeah. Can you summarize the whole Bible in one sentence?” The class laughed a quick, awkward laugh, but Dr. Gowan REALLY shocked us by almost immediately saying, “Yes, I can.” Before he spoke, I can tell you that every pen or pencil was poised for THIS bit of wisdom! Then, he answered: “Here’s the sentence: It’s God, saying, ‘I will be with you.’” “’I will be with you.’ That’s the theme of the whole Bible.” And here it is again, in this story of Jacob and his rock-headed dream.

 

I’m not sure it’s worth trying to tie all of this together for you, as there are enough messages in this narrative for you to extract the one that works for YOU this week! I SHOULD say, however, that I am NOT advocating for the kind of “Oh YEAH?” version of a faith that is meant, instead, to be about loving God and neighbor, rather than taking them on in a challenge, although Jacob WILL later engage God in a wrestling match, won’t he? And I am NOT suggesting that “Hold my beer” should be our discipline or the praxis of what we believe. It’s unfortunate that, according to so many of the speakers we have heard at Chautauqua this week, this is what the world sees happening in Western Christianity with our warring over “orthodoxy,” “Biblical authority,” abortion, birth control, and the rights of LGBTQ persons. Remember, “Hold my beer” usually precedes acts of pure idiocy, or at the very least, high folly. And the outcome is typically not something designed to give glory to God, either.

 

Here's the good news: In these ridiculous pursuits, we are in danger of being as conniving and devious as Jacob. And yet, God was WITH him, and found a way to use him to launch the nation of Israel. Maybe even in our foolish “Hold my beer” mentality, God will not only NOT abandon us, but will perform a “new thing” and redeem our rickety ladder-climbing, launching a fresh expression of forgiveness, love, and grace? Jesus actually climbed DOWN the ladder so we don’t have to do anything as silly as try to climb UP it! Jesus brought God to US. We certainly can hope and pray for a “new thing” that God might now do in our midst to revitalize the church!

 

AND we can “borrow” the image of the ladder between heaven and earth as a hopeful sign that Jesus Christ is still in the “bridge” business, bringing together opposing forces and disputing factions, and rebuilding a church out of it all. 

 

In a way, we can take comfort in the thought that NOTHING is impossible with God! “Hold my beer…” Amen!