|
Family ties: Mothers, fathers, Brothers, sisters, Daughters and sons. These are the relationships that weave us together as family – Our families of origin and our family of faith. Stories of family ties abound in our holy scripture, Especially in the Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament. These stories can open us up to the possibility of God’s wisdom, love, and blessing to break forth in our lives. Last week, We heard the story of Esau and Jacob, Two brothers whose relationship of rivalry and rejection is told in dramatic fashion in the text, and includes deceit, anger, threat of murder, and fleeing from their homeland. We discovered how their stories can be a mirror to our own life stories, In the way we sometimes carelessly treat our blessings or take advantage of others. And through their story, God calls us to the task of reconciliation, Not only for reconciliation’s sake, But for the sake of knowing God in the process and in the face of another. This week, We’re invited to learn from two sisters, Rachel and Leah. Two sisters who struggle: with their identity, With their relationship with their father Laban and their husband, Jacob. They struggle with each other, And yes, even with God. And just as with the brothers did last week, Through the story of struggling sisters uur God has lessons, wisdom, guidance and hope for us as well. So, friends, let us listen for the Word of God to us this day. Scripture: Genesis 29:15-35; Genesis 30:22-24 We meet Rachel and Leah in the Scripture when they are of marrying age, Ready to become wives and mothers, To continue the line, To build up the family. We are not given any clues as to what they were like when they were growing up, but I can’t help but wonder if the struggles in the tent of Laban were like the struggles in the house of Lewis. I couldn’t help recall stories of the struggling sisters Kathryn and Rose in their early childhood. Kathryn mostly welcomed Rose with open arms, And in fact, couldn’t wait until she grew older and talked and could play with her. But then there was a time when our dear friend brought over a large refrigerator box to make a house. Kathryn was old enough to help create the doors and windows and Rosie was just toddling around, Trying to figure out how to get in on the action. Soon the final touches were ready to be put on the house. Kathryn made a sign with large, bold letters: “NO TODDLERS ALLOWED.” She put it outside the house, And every time she saw Rose come near, She’d shout: Toddler alert, toddler alert! Poor Rosie struggled to get into that house, Time and time again – And I think she ultimately did when Kathryn wasn’t around – Or, to be honest, when her mother let her in. It seems that Rachel, the younger sister in the family ties story found in Genesis, is also struggling to get into a house, a house filled with joys and blessings of children. She has clearly made her way into the house of Jacob’s heart, But she has not made it into the house of the motherhood. Earlier in the book of Genesis, We are told of Jacob and Rachel’s meeting at the well outside the city of Haran. It is a poignant meeting, as Jacob watches Rachel approach the well, Ready to give the sheep in her care a cool drink. Jacob immediately responds to the vision of the young woman, and prepares the well so the sheep can drink. After watering the flock, Jacob embraces his cousin, kisses Rachel, and then weeps aloud. Some have described this meeting as love at first sight, a moment when it seemed that all time stood still. It’s not totally clear what the meaning of the well meeting is - both Jewish and Christian readers and scholars have interpreted this scene in various ways. What is clear that there is an immediate connection between the two, and Rachel and Jacob are bound together in hope and anticipation, as Jacob serves his father-in-law for seven years to earn the right to call Rachel his wife. And after the deception of the wedding night, Rachel must wait even longer for her and Jacob to be together. And when they finally do come together, Rachel struggles with the a desire she cannot fulfill – the desire to bear children. Friends, our ears, our minds, maybe even our hearts may initially be drawn to Rachel, the younger sister in this story of family ties. If we follow Jacob’s lead, we’ll focus just as he did on Rachel’s plight and struggle. But the text, dear friends, the text draws us somewhere else. It draws us to the sister who is forgotten by her father and her husband, but not by God. God shows favor toward Leah, And it is to God that Leah turns in her struggle. According to Biblical scholar Joan Ross-Burstall, Leah’s words in the text echo the language of the psalms, and in particular the psalms of lament. Leah sings a song of sorrow, for she is all alone in the world, betrayed by both Laban and Jacob. Leah’s lament is in the form of a prayer that she expresses in four parts at the birth and naming of her first four sons. With Rueben, Leah begins her prayer of lament with a confession that God has seen her misery, and petitions that her husband will love her. With Simeon, she continues her lament in the tradition of the psalms, and includes a prayer of complaint about her situation, but wrapped within the affirmation that God knows what her life is like. With her third son, Levi – who will be the tribe of priests in the nation of Israel – Leah expresses the blessed assurance of being heard, And the hope that she and her husband will now be joined together. And with her fourth son, Judah, Leah’s prayer is one of praise to the God who has partnered with her in her sorrow. Just like the psalms, Leah’s prayer moves from confession and complaint to praise, from protest to adoration. Leah’s prayer ends in hope – her circumstances have changed, And perhaps more importantly, She has changed. She no longer laments, And she is no longer alone, and she is a woman of strength and worth. Leah’s worth, perhaps never fully realized by Jacob, is great in the eyes of God. The sign of that worth – in that time and culture – Was the blessing of children. Leah had not just any children, But the children who were to become half of the tribes of Israel. The tribe of Levi will become the priests of the nation of Israel, And the tribe of Judah will grow and flourish, And will be tribe that is the ancestor of our savior, Christ Jesus. It is through Leah, With her lovely, tender, eyes, That God’s promise made to Jacob – of descendants and a nation will be fulfilled. And God’s promise to us –that God will come to us, to be one of us – will also be fulfilled. Perhaps there are some of us gathered here this morning – Women and men – Who are singing a song of lament today. We may be struggling with the fact that we are not as loved as another – maybe even within our own families. Perhaps we feel we’re not as beautiful, or smart, or talented, or gifted as another. We want what others have – more money, a different job, a sense of belonging, And there are times - late at night or early in the morning – when we feel all alone in the world. It’s when we feel this way – now or in the future- that we have an opportunity to turn to our God to sing our song of lament, to let God hear our prayer of protest, our complaint, to let God change our situations, to let God change us. It is in these moments - When we long for the things that we think will make us worthy in another’s eyes or heart, that we are invited by Leah’s story to remember that our real worth comes from God. Friends, can we be content with the gift that God made us to be? Can we let our God be present to us in the midst of our struggles? Just as God partnered with Leah in her sorrow, I believe that God desires to partner with us in our sorrows and struggles. If we do – When we do – We might just discover what Leah discovered – that we, too, will be blessed by God and we will be moved to give our thanks and praise to the One who companions us through all of life. Leah is not the only sister who knows struggle and sorrow. Rachel does too – with Leah, with her husband, Jacob, and with her situation of knowing the fullness of love but not the fullness of her womb. In fact, in the 30th chapter of Genesis, We are told they are “mighty wrestlings.” And in the Hebrew, the words are “naftulei eloheim,” literally God wrestlings. Friends, Rachel’s struggle is not merely a fight with her sister, But a divine struggle, A struggle in which God nourishes soul and spirit. Rabbi Sandy Eisenberg Sasso says it this way: “What Rachel sees reflected in Leah’s soul are the unloved parts of herself. We don’t read of Rachel as the unloved one. Yet her father offers her older sister to her beloved Jacob, Callous to the feelings of his youngest daughter. God has presumably blessed Rachel with beauty, But God does not bless her with the children for whom she yearns.” Rachel’s anger and jealousy with her sister is a self-hatred of the love and worth she cannot find in herself.” And isn’t that sometimes true with our struggles as well? Don’t we often find ourselves wrestling with someone - In our family, in our church - only to discover that it is what we see reflected in them is a part of ourselves that we don’t like. Rachel looked at her sister Leah and her ability to bear children for Jacob, And it was her inability that she despised most in herself. I get frustrated – Maybe you get frustrated – With someone’s impatience, And then I discover that it’s my own impatience that I’m frustrated with. I know there are times when it is difficult to be around others who seem to do nothing but complain, only to discover to overhear ourselves talking – and doing a lot of complaining, too. Rachel’s story reminds us that the mighty wrestlings we have with others can a place where God can speak to us, Can nourish our souls and spirits, Can transform us into people of strength and worth. Through her struggles, God brings something new to birth in Rachel. We heard a portion of it from the 30th Chapter in Genesis: The birth of Joseph – He of the amazing technicolor dream coat. Rachel will also bear a second son, Benjamin. But children were not Rachel’s only blessing – Something else is born in her that allows her live side by side, Tent by tent, with her sister Leah. Scripture tells us that they travel together side by side with Jacob when he decides to leave Haran, And they will continue traveling together to the end of their days. Just as surely, friends, Just as surely, God can bear something good in us through our mighty wrestlings. Two sisters, Two struggles, one God who is with them both. And one God is with us all – In our sorrows, In our wrestlings, In our joys, In our birthings, and as the source of all our blessings. It is to that God that we give our thanks and praise. Amen and Amen. |