15th Sunday after Pentecost          

Genesis 27:1-4 & 15-23

When Isaac was old and his eyes were dim so that he could not see, he called his elder son Esau and said to him, “My son.”

And [Esau] answered, “Here I am.”

[Isaac] said, “See, I am old; I do not know the day of my death. Now then, take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field, and hunt game for me. Then prepare for me savory food, such as I like, and bring it to me to eat, so that I may bless you before I die.”

Then Rebekah took the best garments of her elder son Esau, which were with her in the house, and put them on her younger son Jacob, and she put the skins of the kids on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck. Then, she handed the savory food and the bread that she had prepared to her son Jacob.

So, he went in to his father and said, “My father.”

And, [Isaac] said, “Here I am; who are you, my son?”

Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn. I have done as you told me; now sit up and eat of my game, so that you may bless me.”

But, Isaac said to his son, “How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son?”

Jacob answered, “Because the Lord your God granted me success.”

Then, Isaac said to Jacob, “Come near, that I may feel you, my son, to know whether you are really my son Esau or not.”

So, Jacob went up to his father Isaac, who felt him and said, “The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.”

He did not recognize him because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau’s hands, so he blessed him.

Genesis 28:10-17

Jacob left Beer-sheba and went toward 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 stairway set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.

And, God stood beside him and said, “I am 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.”

Then, Jacob woke from his sleep and said, “Surely God is in this place—and I did not know it!” 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.”

 

Oh, For a Bowl of Soup

I’ve heard many times, in many places, and in many ways, about how fallible human memory is. Sometimes when I think of things that happened in my childhood, or even my early adulthood, I’ll remember something, but I won’t be sure if it actually happened, or it won’t quite line up with the memories of other people who were there. In my early twenties, I did a lot of mission trips to Mexico, and in my memory my siblings were always with me when I did those kinds of things. So, sometimes, I’ll reminisce with my sister Dianne about something that happened on one of those trips, and she’ll look at me and say, “Charles, I wasn’t there when that happened. You always think I was there, but I wasn’t.” And now, even though I know she wasn’t there, I still remember her as being there.

Another memory that seems like it might be false, but I’m pretty sure is true, is the time when she told my brother James to bite me. I have no idea what led up to this, it was almost forty years ago, but for some reason, James had my toothbrush, and I was chasing him to get it back. And, I ended up cornering him, but my sister was somehow there, too. She had her back to the corner, and she was holding James in front of her. So, I walked up to them, holding my hand out to take my toothbrush back, and Dianne told him to bite me! And, he did! I screamed, they ran away, and I have no idea what happened after that. Suffice it to say, family dynamics are weird, especially among young siblings.

Last week, we read about how God tested Abraham by asking him to kill his son Isaac. According to the story, Abraham was about to do it, until God stopped him. And today, we have a story about Isaac’s sons, twin boys named Esau and Jacob.

Our reading today is about the time when Jacob, the younger son, tricked his father Isaac into giving him the blessing that was meant for Esau. But, long before that happened, Jacob had already gotten Esau to transfer his rights as the firstborn son to him, the younger brother.

Like Isaac’s mother Sarah, Isaac’s wife Rebekah was barren. They prayed for children, and Rebekah became pregnant with twins. God told her, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger.”

Imagine Rebekah’s surprise when God told her that the older would serve the younger. We all know that it’s the firstborn that has the special status. It’s the firstborn that inherits the largest portion of the estate when the parents are gone.

All throughout the world, throughout the history of the human race, with only a few exceptions, it has always been the firstborn son that basically got everything. No matter what a person’s culture, religion, or ethnicity was, this was just the way things were done. The oldest would get most of the sheep from the flock or cows from the herd. The oldest would get most, if not all of the land. The family business would get passed down from firstborn son to firstborn son, generation after generation of bakers, carpenters, and stonemasons. Even kingdoms and empires are passed down in this way.

It makes sense that we’ve adopted these traditions of the oldest inheriting everything. The firstborn would start learning the family trade as soon as they were old enough and would help to teach any younger children that came along after. Even while the parents were still alive, the oldest child would have a lot of responsibility.

As an oldest child myself, I happen to know some of things that oldest children have to put up with. When I think back on how I was raised, there were times when it seemed like my parents didn’t really know what they were doing, like I was some kind of experiment. They were really strict with me and I had to practically beg to do anything fun. And, I believe this is a sentiment that a lot of firstborn children can commiserate with. By the time my youngest brother came around, they had pretty much figured everything out. By then, they had seen it all, and the crazy things that kids do just didn’t faze them like it used to.

In a lot of ways, it’s as true today as it was in the past that the oldest is expected to take on a lot of responsibility for taking care of the family. And even if we don’t agree with it, we still need to understand it and know that it is part of our cultural make-up, and that it influences the decisions that we make and the things that we do.

Of course, times are different now, and we don’t always follow the traditions of the oldest getting everything. But, back in the days of Isaac and Rebekah, that was the rule, and when Rebekah’s twin sons were born, Esau came first, but his younger brother, Jacob, was literally holding onto his foot. They were seconds apart. But still, one was the oldest, and the other was not.

As they grew, each boy developed different skills. Esau became a great hunter, and Isaac was so proud of him because he would bring home wild game. Jacob tended to stay at home with his mom and help with the household chores, and so he became her favorite.

Esau came home one day while Jacob was making a stew, and Esau said, “I’m starving! Give me some of that stew!”

So, Jacob said, “I’ll trade you some stew for your rights as the firstborn.”

Now, I think anyone in their right mind would have refused, or at least try to bargain for a better deal, but Esau just said, “I’m starving! What good is my birthright if I am dead?”

And so, he gave away his rights as firstborn to Jacob. All of the rights and privileges that he enjoyed as the firstborn son, gone with the dip of a spoon and a swipe of crusty bread.

It’s possible that Esau just wasn’t very bright and he actually thought that it was a fair trade. He does say that his inheritance will do him no good if he starves to death.

Of course, it’s possible that he was just so hungry that he couldn’t think straight. Or, maybe he thought that his brother was just joking with him, or wouldn’t hold him to his word later, because it was after all, just a bowl of soup.

So now, we have Rebekah and Jacob, playing a trick on Isaac, to steal Esau’s blessing. Isaac’s eyes are bad, so Rebekah puts goat skins on Jacob’s hands and neck, so when Isaac touches Jacob, because he will sound like Jacob, and not Esau, Isaac will think that he feels like Esau, because Esau is hairier than his brother Jacob. So, Isaac gives Jacob Esau’s blessing. And, this is where our reading stops, but when Esau finds out, he is furious! First, Jacob had taken his rights as the firstborn son, and now he had taken their father’s blessing, the blessing that was supposed to go to Esau. Rebekah was so scared that Esau might hurt his brother, that she sent Jacob away to live with her brother.

And, Jacob was gone for a long time. He had wives, children, and grandchildren. He amassed a fortune: hundreds of goats and sheep, thirty camels, thirty donkeys, fifty cows, and brought all of it back as a gift for his brother, just hoping that his brother wouldn’t be mad anymore. And as Jacob approached, timid and scared, Esau ran up to him, hugged him and kissed him, and they both wept together.

My brother James and I bickered a lot as children. Of the four of us, our personalities were the most opposite. He was quick-tempered and I was more mild-mannered. He was energetic and was always running around doing something. He played soccer, and did kung fu. I played soccer, too, but only because my dad forced me to. I liked to cook and read and play video games.

As we got older, we stopped fighting, but we were still very different. He joined the Airforce, and I went into ministry. He collected guns, and I have never owned one. But, all of that stuff that happened when we were kids, all of the disagreements and the arguing, the time that he bit me, and the time that I whacked him on the head with a stick, none of that mattered, because we were brothers.

And, maybe that’s what these stories are trying to tell us. People do crazy things, things that are unfair or even cruel. But, our relationships are more important than the grudges that we might want to hold onto. And, maybe there are people in our lives that we want to stay mad at, people in the world that we want to stay mad at, but that doesn’t fix anything, and it’s just not productive. That’s why Jesus is always saying to love and forgive. That is more important than any grudge we could hold, no matter what it’s for. That’s all God asks us to do: to love and forgive.

Amen.

~ Rev. Charles Wei