A Great Awakening

Genesis 28:10-22 ~ Jacob’s Ladder

[Title slide] Consider a person who would say, [Worship & words] "Surely God is in this

place—and I did not know it!" What have they discovered? What made them come to this

realization? Why did they not know this before? Where is the place? Is it special? Why? Will this

insight change their life? Is God where you are? How would you know? These are just a few of

the questions that swirl around this remarkable scene from Jacob’s life, the night of his

awakening. And for us it’s one of the most intriguing and instructive biblical story for awakening

to the presence of God, for Jacob’s story is our story.

[Jacob birthright] Jacob is not a paragon of virtue (in fact, he’s a pretty rotten guy), and

he begins this story utterly alone. He’s fleeing to escape his brother Esau’s wrath after

deceiving him twice, finagling for Esau’s birthright (25:29-33) and stealing Esau’s blessing

(27:20). Jacob is in liminal, in-between space; and here this nowhere man will encounter God.

[Jacob sleeping] The sun has set and it’s night time, a time of danger, vulnerability, and

mystery. Jacob has come to ‘a certain place’ that he later names Bethel. To Jacob it’s just a

place but in rabbinic tradition the Hebrew word for ‘place’ is also a name for God. Listen to the

language: Gen 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.” ‘Place’ is important!

So he’s taken a stone for a pillow. In the stories of the patriarchs of Israel when stones

are mentioned it’s usually about building an altar. If that connection holds true here Jacob
could be seen to be placing his head on an impromptu altar making an inadvertent offering of

himself to God.

[Jacob’s dream] Then he goes to sleep and has one of the most famous dreams in

history. The dream begins dramatically as we behold in increasing amazement the revelation of

God – Behold a ramp! Behold the angels! Behold the Lord! Angels ascend and descend the ramp

indicating there’s a constant connection and presence between the two realms. It’s telling us

that the spiritual is greatly present in the material. God is present.

God then speaks to Jacob, repeating the blessings and promises of land and progeny

given previously to Abraham and Isaac. These promises are very personal. God promises God’s

presence directly and ardently to Jacob saying [road sky words] “Behold! I am with you!”

Now we get to my favourite part! For me the story’s about awakening to God’s presence

and v.16 is the moment it happens. [Pray palms up] “Surely God is in this place – and I did not

know it!”

Here Jacob has a spiritual awakening and encounters God’s omnipresence as an

experiential reality for the first time. What was stopping him before? “God was here all along,

and the reason I didn’t know it is because I was too busy paying attention to myself.”

[Breathe God] There are two main ways God is talked about in the bible: as

transcendent and as immanent. The more common one is the transcendent God who’s the

maker of heaven and earth. God ‘out there’. But there’s another understanding too. God ‘right

here’!

The idea of an immanent and personally knowable God is all through Genesis: God

strolls through Eden (3:8), grieves over creation (6:6), delights in pleasing aromas (8:21), and
lunches with Abraham (18:1-8). This is the aspect of God that Jacob has never encountered

before. He could ignore the ‘out there’ God – but he can no longer ignore the ‘very Present’

God.

[Worship field light] Because now he has awoken, literally and figuratively, to a

profound paradigm shift and has come to a new understanding of himself and his relationship

with God. The critical difference in this verse and in Jacob’s life is not that God suddenly

became present to Jacob; [Worship field light + words] the difference was Jacob became

present to God. Rabbi Kushner says, “Now Jacob begins to ponder the events of his life in a new

way… ‘If God was here, and I didn’t know, then perhaps God has been other places also.’” And

boom! The light goes on and your world changes!

[Pray silhouette hand] vv.16-17 “Surely the Lord is in this place—and I did not know it!”

And he was afraid, and said, “How awesome is this place!”

In Hebrew afraid and awesome are the same word – yr’. Both meanings are meant both

times. Yr’ is the emotion of fear or being scared, and also a powerful sense of awe and

reverence and utterly overwhelming mystery. Encountering God’s Presence is frightening and

wonderful at the same time. It’s a kind of fear that’s indistinguishable from joy. That’s what

Jacob is experiencing! He’s fully awake now, and he realizes that God truly is in this place. He’s

savouring the awesomeness and the scariness of the moment. He’s revelling in the awakening.

Surely God is in this place!

[Praying senior man] So why there? Why did Jacob awaken to God in that particular

place? Was it because of its geography? Would he have had the same dream if he had
journeyed one more kilometre, and would Bethel then be a kilometre further than where it is

now?

What makes a place holy ground? Is it that the place is imbued with a particular innate

holiness? Is it like a church that’s accrued a spiritual residue from numerous worshipful

experiences that have occurred over time in that place? Maybe it’s a sacred space because the

people in it are sacred and the place is neutral?

Quite simply, a place is holy if God is in it, and since God is every place then every place

must be holy. We encounter God in some places (like in church, hopefully) in order that we

might notice God everywhere. Again, it’s not about a particular place – the missing piece is our

perception, our awareness, our awakening.

[Camp meeting] There was a fascinating movement that happened in the United States

in the 19th century called the Great Awakening. They had camp meetings – passionate

preaching, lively new music, big gatherings that people hadn’t experienced before.

Camp meetings, or revival meetings, were all about ‘reviving’ people’s lapsed or

sleeping faith. True, for some it became cultural and they wanted to be revived over and over

again, but it was an undeniable outpouring and movement of the Spirit. These were people

who were already churched and knew what they were supposed to be doing but weren’t doing

it. It was an awakening from nominal faith to deep and vibrant faith.

So was it the preaching? The music? Was it the place where they set the tents up? Was

it the collective spirit of all the people who gathered? [Awakening] What caused the Great

Awakening? All those things may have been a catalyst and created some favourable openings,

but I think the difference was the exact same thing that caused Jacob’s great awakening, and
causes yours and mine: “God was here all along, and the reason I didn’t know it is because I was

too busy paying attention to myself.” By showing up the people got out of their own way, and

God, who was there all along, was revealed! The missing piece is our perception, our

awareness, our awakening.

Now, what does one do after one is awakened? Clearly the answer should be to make

some sort of response. Did Jacob? Well, not right away. [Jacob stone] Astoundingly, Jacob goes

back to sleep after his life changing encounter with God. I’m not sure what to make of that. He

has a dream, gets promises from God, has a paradigm-shifting experience, awakens to God’s

Holy Presence in him, with him, and all around him, and then decides to go back to sleep.

Maybe he wanted to see if he lay down for a while the strange feeling might go away!

But it didn’t! [Jacob stone anoint] When he arises in the morning he responds to God’s

presence with an action and a vow. It was a family thing, apparently. Following encounters with

God, Abraham made altars and planted trees (21:33), Isaac made altars and dug wells (26:25),

and Jacob set up pillars (28:18; 31:45; 35:14, 20) and anoints them – first mention of oil or

anointing in the bible, by the way. [Jacob stone anoint + words] And Jacob named the place

Bethel which means ‘house of God’ (literally Beth-el).

Then Jacob “vowed a vow”. He will repeatedly stumble and fail at keeping his vows

throughout the remainder of his story, but in this moment, in the afterglow of his awakening to

the personal presence of God, we will take him at his word. God is now “my God” (28:21) to

Jacob. Now he will turn his attention to trying to live Coram Deo.

[Surrender woman] Jacob’s awakening teaches us that no matter who we are, or how

estranged from God we may feel, or how dark our spirit may be, God is seeking to stand beside
us and bless us with God’s abiding presence. Our task is to lay our head on the altar and

become vulnerable enough to allow God through our defences.

[Awaken] God may come in visions, or words, or nudges, and we can choose to ignore

them and stubbornly stay asleep, or we can choose to awaken to the awesome, fearful,

wonderful mystery and have our world rocked. This kind of profound spiritual transformation is

a daunting challenge for us logical, rational, traditional mainline church types, but it is the sure

path to the heart of God.

Surely God is in every place, but we have not done a good job of helping people learn to

perceive that. It’s time for an awakening – a great awakening! God is present, in this place and

every place, waiting for us, like Jacob, to awaken and be present to God. Everything else in our

faith journey flows from our great awakening.

So… [Clock] let’s wake up! May it be so! Amen.1

1
Adapted from a sermon by the Rev. Larry Doyle of Faith United Church, Courtice, ON. Used with permission.