Richard Mallory

Good Sunday morning, beloved ones,

Today’s Old Testament lesson for the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels is from the Jacob cycle of stories in Genesis. That consummate schemer is in flight to escape the wrath of his twin brother Esau. Jacob, enabled by their mother, has fleeced the somewhat elder brother out of his rightful inheritance and the singular blessing that only one son could receive.

Mother Rebecca concocts a scheme to whisk Jacob out of reach of  Esau’s murderous rage by sending him to her brother’s clan.

Jacob is on the run. He is in fear and, especially to the ancient mind, in grave danger of being alone without family, kin or tribe. We might even sense that he is in terror. His guilt, conscious or not, is huge and that kind of guilt leaves a person ungrounded and fearful.

The Bible always surprises. Those who have been deemed least qualified get chosen. Nonetheless, there goes the deity choosing Jacob as a major player in bringing about what God has in mind for humanity. In abject aloneness and guilt, Jacob has a dream.

He gets knocked off his rocker by no less than the God of his father Isaac and his grandfather Abraham. A promise is offered. Jacob’s line of descendants will bring blessing to “all the families of the earth.” A promise of inclusiveness of all if there ever was one!

In the dream are angels ascending and descending. Angels are commuting from heaven to earth and vice versa. It is splendid, glorious, and full of wonder. Jacob wakes up. He is initiated into a new way of perceiving and knowing. The healing of Jacob begins now and that trajectory is very long, finally leading up to the remarkable story of the twin brothers’ reconciliation.

Jacob’s words upon awakening are thrilling, “Surely the Lord is in this place—and I did not know it.”

It is often after the fact that in our lives we look back and know, “Surely the Lord was in that place—and at the time, I did not know it.”

—Richard