Living in the Spirit
July 14, 2014
Scripture Reading: Genesis 28:10-19a
Jacob left Beer-sheba and went towards Haran. 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. 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. 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; 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. 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.’ — Genesis 28:10-15
The movie, Yentl, comes to mind when I envision Jacob alone and frightened running from the wrath his brother has for him and seeking refuge with his uncle. In Yentl, a young Jewish girl, a lover of the Torah who is not allowed to pursue it because she is female, runs from her home to become the person she knows she really is. She too was alone out under the night sky with only the light of a single candle to break the darkness. She prays in a song, Papa, can you hear me? And recognizes that the world is so much bigger now that I am alone.* While Jacob and Yentl were running for very different reasons, their experience of being alone with God was similar. In the movie, Yentl seems to address her prayer to both God and her beloved Papa who was the one who introduced her to Yahweh in the first place. Jacob is reassured in a dream that he is to continue the covenantal commitment between his grandfather, Abraham, and God. It is ironic that Jacob, a manipulator and a bit of a scoundrel, is probably escaping justice, while Yentl who has always lived within the tenets of her faith, is escaping injustice.
Justice is an embedded part of wholeness and wholeness is woven through every fiber of justice. So our work for wholeness must be accompanied by our work for justice and our work for justice must surely include striving for wholeness.
No matter what the circumstances, I believe, we must all spend alone-time with God. The very nature of our relationship with God leads us toward or away from wholeness. Until we get in synch with God, we cannot be God’s champion of Justice.
Prayer: Papa, can you hear me? I want to be in synch with you. Make me whole as You move us ever closer to a just world. Amen.
*From the movie Yentl: the song Papa, Can You Here Me? Lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman.
All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.