September 14, 2017 at Miller Chapel, Princeton Theological Seminary, BGLASS Opening Worship

Genesis 27:1-38

Congregation, I want to ask you,

Is there a blessing that you are seeking from someone in this world?

In our reading from Genesis, there are two children: Jacob and Esau. One of them is going to get the blessing, and one of them will be denied.

Isaac, being the patriarch, gets to decide.

He wants to give the blessing to his older son, his favorite, Esau, who is hairy and likes to hunt, and will prepare for him the savory food that he likes.

Isaac does not check in with God to make sure God approves of his decision.

As the patriarch, perhaps he assumes that God’s preferences align with his own.

Or perhaps he assumes that because the culture around him favored the older male children, that such a culture reflected the will of God.

The powers and the culture of our world today, tend to serve the rich and powerful at the expense of the poor. The powers of this world fear those who are different, those who are queer. The powers of this world want to remain blind to the plight of the refugee, the trans person, the black person.

For the purpose of increasing human wealth, we want to exploit the multitude of living creatures that God has made, instead of protecting them as our siblings.

Our culture today is not so different from Ancient Canaan.

There are still blessings that certain children receive, and others are denied--

based on their gender, on their race, on the way their bodies were made or oriented, on the way they behave, on who or what they love, on the way they talk, on the way they look, on where they were born.

Just as Isaac preferred Esau to Jacob.

We know, in this story, that God has a different plan than Isaac.

We know from the word of God, that God often has a different plan that the powers of this world.

God will exalt every valley, make every mountain low.

In God’s kingdom, the mighty are cast down from their thrones, and the lowly are lifted up.

God has chosen what is foolish in this world to shame the wise.

And God calls us to do the same, in our own hearts, and in our communities.

But how frightening it is to challenge those in power.

The world has a way it likes things to be. This world does not hesitate to tell us how we ought to behave, how we should look, or act, or love.

And it is the easiest thing in the world to follow the directions of the world. We often don’t even realize we are following the world, until we are shocked out of our assumptions.

And as a queer person, I know I have often felt like Jacob, afraid of the curse of the patriarch. I am fearful to be caught mocking the one in power!

Often at the exact moment when God has called me to act differently than the world, to speak up for someone oppressed, or to challenge the expectations or words of a person in power-- when God has trusted me with this opportunity--

often I have failed, turned away,

Like Jacob, afraid to oppose the will of my human father, afraid that I might be caught mocking and bring a curse on myself.

But Jacob has a mother Rebekah, who says to him, “Let your curse be on me, only obey my word.”

Rebekah has no fear of the patriarch’s curse. Why not?

Notice in the beginning of the story, when Isaac calls Esau, he says “Go out to the field, and hunt game for me, and 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.”

Rebekah overhears, and she tells her son Jacob what she heard. But she adds something important, that Isaac didn’t say. She says to Jacob: “I heard your father say to your brother Esau, bring me game, and prepare for me savory food to eat, that I may bless you before the LORD before I die.”

Rebekah has no fear of the curse, because she has faith, and understanding, that the blessing comes from the presence of God.

The blessing does not depend on Isaac’s will. The blessing comes from God.

Rebekah knows that God is a God who blesses, who is the source of every blessing!

Why should she be afraid of a human’s curse?

Like Jacob, we too have a mother, in Christ, who took a curse for us, that we might have a blessing.

Siblings, Know that Christ died so that you could have this blessing.

If ever someone should try to exclude you, or someone you love, from the blessing of Christ--

in what they say about you, or the way they look at you or treat you, or in the way their theology excludes you or ignores you--

If anyone should ever tell you, “this blessing is not for you!”

I invite you to take the blessing of Christ by whatever means your mother Christ shows to you.

And do not be afraid of the curse of a human!

Because there is no curse that can separate us from the love of Christ.

But what if, when the patriarch sees you with this blessing against his will, he trembles violently and calls you a deceiver?

And what if Esau cries out in grief and bitterness, when he sees that you have received the blessing? “Have you only one blessing, father?”

I know I have asked this jealous question: “Have you only one blessing?”

This is a real pain and fear.

This grief finds me when I put our faith in the things of the world, when I fear the judgment of the the powers of this world, when I seek the blessing of a human being, instead of the blessing of God.

When we put our faith in things of this world, of course we will find one day, that our faith in the temporary has failed us-- that the world, whose blessing we sought, has given its blessing to somebody else.

It is the pain of the privilege, and the fear of the patriarchy, to think there is only one blessing to be had, and only one way to earn that blessing.

And it is hard work to seek this blessing from the world!

Esau went out in the morning to earn his blessing. He took his equipment and he hunted in the heat, and labored to bring back his kill, and he prepared and cooked it, just as he was told to do. And he found that the blessing had been given to one who did not even work for it, but who trusted in his mother.

It is the great joy and shock of being queer--

to discover that God gives as many different blessings as God made creations, as there are new moments in this new creation.

And to discover that you do not need to earn the blessing--

For the blessing was promised to you at your birth!

The blessing of God may invite us into moments of vulnerability.

Like Rebekah and Jacob, who trust that the blessing comes from God, we may still find ourselves vulnerable, in front of a patriarch, a human father,

Who might see us as we truly are, instead of who we pretend to be.

And who might reject us, and send us away, and curse us.

But in such moments,

Trust that your true blessing comes from the God who loves you,

Your mother Christ,

And who gave herself for you.

And asks only that you believe her when she says,

“Let your curse be on me! Only obey my word.”

Amen.