Roads are absolutely necessary,
whether they are dirt roads, gravel roads, or paved roads; interstate highways, back roads, or trails. That was brought
home to me vividly while Fred and I were traveling recently through West
Virginia. After we had crossed the huge bridge over the New River Gorge, we
drove the narrow, winding road that leads down into the gorge and up the other
side. That road was once the only way to cross the gorge. While we crossed the
gorge in under a minute on the big bridge, it took us more than 45 minutes to
cross the gorge on the old road; and if there had not been a road there at all,
crossing the gorge would have been next to impossible. We travel on roads all
the time: to the grocery store; to the doctor or the dentist; to the homes of
friends or family. We simply could not do without roads. That has always been
the case; and you can see it in the texts of the Bible. Many Bible stories are
about people who are traveling somewhere! Early in the book of Genesis, God
tells Abraham that he should leave his home and travel along a new road to a land that God would
show him. Joseph was sold as a slave and dragged off to Egypt along a road that
caravans used regularly. We even read that God made a road for the Hebrews
so they could travel safely through the waters of the Red Sea from slavery to
freedom.
Roads can take you places where
you have never been, and lead to encounters with things that you never, ever
expected to find! That’s one of the reasons that Fred and I like to get off the
interstate and travel what are now considered to be “back roads.” We often
stumble across interesting sights that are impossible to see from the
superhighway. If you have been following my recent vacation photos that I posted
on Facebook, you saw some of those things: an exposed seam of coal in a small
mining town; a big old building in the same town that formerly served as a
company store for the miners who lived there; even a statue of the Mothman, a supernatural
creature that is said to haunt Point Pleasant, West Virginia. Yes, you run into
all kinds of unexpected things when you travel. Sometimes, you even meet God.
That was the experience of Jacob
in this morning’s scripture reading (Genesis 28:1-19). As that reading begins,
Jacob is running away from his older brother, Esau, because Jacob has tricked
their father into giving him the blessing that, by rights, belonged to his
Esau. Esau has let it be known that he is gunning for Jacob, saying, in effect,
“This town ain’t big enough for both of us!” Jacob, who hates confrontation –
especially if he is likely to get the worst of it – lost no time in getting out
of town. He made it as far as a deserted little spot where he stopped for the
night. He expected no more than an ordinary night’s rest; but without any
warning, God showed up.
Most of us are familiar with this story. As
Jacob slept, he dreamed; and in his dreams, Jacob saw a staircase leading all
the way up to heaven, with messengers of God going up and down along it. He
even heard God’s voice reassuring him that God would travel with him wherever
he went and bring him safely back home. Jacob was amazed to realize that he had
stopped to rest in the very spot where heaven touched earth; and he set up the
stone on which he had laid his head as a memorial stone – in Hebrew, as an
“ebenezer” – for all time. He even named the place “Bethel,” meaning “house of
God.”
Jacob didn’t understand, though,
that the place where he had stopped for the night – the place that he named
Bethel – was only one of the many gates of heaven where an encounter with God
is possible. Today, we know that God isn’t confined to any geographical area.
We might encounter God anywhere. Now, God seems to be more easily encountered
in some places than in others; and we sometimes call those locations “thin
places,” where the barrier between heaven and earth seems to be more open so
that we can encounter the divine more easily. The reality is, though, that we
can encounter God in any place and at any time.
And when we meet God, we never
know what will happen.
Sometimes we are changed forever,
and our lives are never the same again. That’s what happened to Saul while he
was traveling on the road to Damascus. The risen Christ met him with such power
that he was struck blind. He was changed from Saul, a zealous Jew who was
convinced that Christianity must be wiped out, to Paul, a zealous Christian who
proclaimed the good news of the risen Christ to everyone he met! Yes, our lives
can be changed permanently when we meet God during our travels.
Sometimes we meet acceptance that
we have never known before. That’s what happened to the Ethiopian eunuch, a
castrated, black slave who was traveling home from Jerusalem on the day of
Pentecost. During his journey, he met Philip, who told him the good news of
God’s love through Christ that includes everyone, no matter what their status
may be in this world. The Holy Spirit led that eunuch to be baptized right then
and there!
And sometimes, we are surprised
by overpowering joy! That’s what happened to the two disciples who were walking
from Jerusalem to Emmaus on the first Easter Sunday. They didn’t recognize the
risen Christ when he joined their sad little group; and they told him about how
Jesus had been crucified, extinguishing all their hopes. Dinner that night
changed all that, and they were surprised by overwhelming joy when they
recognized that the risen Christ was sitting right next to them!
We are all traveling roads today;
and many of them are not roads that we want to be traveling at all. We are being
dragged down the road of pandemic, as we deal with a virus that continues to
surround us even after months of dealing with it. We are being asked to travel
a road that leads to real equality between people of color and their white
neighbors; a road that we didn’t even realize that we still needed to travel. And
we are moving way too fast down the road of global ecological change, as
beloved species of birds and animals are threatened with extinction from
habitat change due to human greed and global warming. I don’t want to be on any
of these roads; and I’ll bet that you don’t, either. They are difficult roads,
often joyless, with steep climbs and rocky valleys. Our feet are blistered, our
backpacks are heavy, and we are weary beyond belief. I’ll bet that sometimes,
we are wonder whether God has forsaken us on these roads.
But here is
the good news. God hasn’t forsaken us at all. It’s difficult to see God most of
the time because of the dust clouds that are billowing up from the road, and
because we’re focusing on the obstacles that lie ahead of us. But God is still
there, ready to meet us at unexpected times and in unexpected places, just like
God met our ancestors on their journeys: in Jacob’s dreams, as he lay with a
stone for a pillow; as Saul traveled to a faraway city preparing to arrest the
people he was convinced were heretics; as Mary visited a graveyard at dawn,
hoping for nothing more than to lament her crucified Lord. God met them in the
middle of their roads; and God still meets us in the middle of ours.
Beloved, the ladder that Jacob
saw reaching from heaven to earth is still there, wherever we may be, and
whatever road we may be traveling. Every place we go is Bethel, the house of
God. Don’t lose hope! When you least expect it, in the middle of your most
difficult road, God will surprise you. Thanks be to God!
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