GENESIS 25:19-34

19 These are the generations of Isaac, Abraham's son: Abraham fathered Isaac,

20 and Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean of Paddan-aram, the sister of Laban the Aramean, to be his wife.

21 And Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife, because she was barren. And the Lord granted his prayer, and Rebekah his wife conceived.

22 The children struggled together within her, and she said, “If it is thus, why is this happening to me?”  So she went to inquire of the Lord.

23 And the Lord said to her,

“Two nations are in your womb,

and two peoples from within you shall be divided;

the one shall be stronger than the other,

the older shall serve the younger.”

24 When her days to give birth were completed, behold, there were twins in her womb.

25 The first came out red, all his body like a hairy cloak, so they called his name Esau.

26 Afterward his brother came out with his hand holding Esau's heel, so his name was called Jacob.  Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them.

27 When the boys grew up, Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man, dwelling in tents.

28 Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game, but Rebekah loved Jacob.

29 Once when Jacob was cooking stew, Esau came in from the field, and he was exhausted.

30 And Esau said to Jacob, “Let me eat some of that red stew, for I am exhausted!” (Therefore his name was called Edom.)

31 Jacob said, “Sell me your birthright now.”

32 Esau said, “I am about to die; of what use is a birthright to me?”

33 Jacob said, “Swear to me now.” So he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob.

34 Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank and rose and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.

According to the song “Love Is A Many Splendid Thing.”  Of course, sometimes the love that you find in a song is a lot different from the love that you find in the real world. A wife learned that lesson by watching her husband.  After they had been married twenty years she made the following observation. 

If you get sick shortly after you get married you can expect your husband to be very sympathetic.  In fact, you’ll probably hear something like this:

“Sweetheart, I don’t like the sound of that cough.  I want you to go to bed right now and get some rest. Don’t worry about supper.  I’ll fix something and bring it in to my little sugar dumpling.”

Wait ten years and you’ll probably hear something like this:

“You don’t look so hot.  So, why don’t you be sensible?  After you feed the kids and give them their baths, just finish the dishes and the laundry and then try and take it easy.” 

Wait ten more years and you’ll probably hear something like this: 

“Will you stop all that sneezing?  What are you trying to do give me pneumonia?  And for crying out loud why don’t you gargle or something instead of just sitting there and barking like a seal!”

Sometimes love motivates you to make sacrifices for others and sometimes love can be downright selfish and self-centered.  I wonder if that’s one of the things that’s wrong with America these days?  Look at it this way.  What do you think would happen if we had to fight World War II today?  Would people be willing to make the sacrifices for each other and the greater good that people made back then?  What do you think would happen if people were told that the gas for their SUV’s was going to be rationed?  What do you think would happen if people were told that the sugar for the Starbuck’s coffee was going to be rationed?  It probably wouldn’t be very pretty.

Do people today willing make sacrifices for each other and the greater good or are we more like Jacob?  Jacob had an opportunity to make a sacrifice for his brother Esau.  All he had to do was share a little of his stew with Esau but he didn’t.  Instead he doing that Jacob used his brother’s predicament as an opportunity to take advantage of him.  Now that shouldn’t come as a big surprise.  After all you can see that Jacob wasn’t the nicest guy on the block by looking at his name.  Jacob’s name means heel in Hebrew.  Jacob got that name because he came out of the womb holding on to his brother’s heel.  When you look at what happened that day you begin to wonder if Jacob really was a heel.

Then again, maybe we need to little up a little and give Jacob the benefit of the doubt..  Maybe Jacob was famished himself that day and there wasn’t enough stew for the both of them  Or maybe Esau was always getting himself into predicaments like that and Jacob was tired of bailing his brother out of those predicaments.  If that’s true then all you do is just say “no.”  “No you can’t have any of my stew.”  You don’t do what Jacob did. You don’t use the predicament to blackmail your brother into giving you his sacred birthright.

Let’s also not forget where the meat for that stew came from in the first place.  Remember now. Esau was the hunter in the family.  We’re told that Jacob was “a quiet man” who spent all his time in the tent.  So, it probably safe to say that Esau was the one who provided the meat for that stew in the first place.   Ah, but Jacob conveniently forgot that little detail.  So instead of making a small sacrifice for his brother decided to selfishly take advantage of  his brother.

When you look at what happened that day you begin to realize that Jacob and Esau came from a very dysfunctional family.  Not only were they not the closest of siblings but at their parents, Isaac and Rebekah, weren’t an Old Testament version of Ozzie and Harriet.  Instead of working together to raise their sons we’re told that Isaac loved Esau and Rebekah loved Jacob.

Their family was a lot like the family that got into a heated conversation one day when the sixteen year old daughter asked a simple question.   When she asked, “Has anyone seen my new sweater?” 

Her father grumbled, “You mean the one that cost $80?” 

Her sister groused, “You mean the one you won’t let me wear?”  

Her brother giggled, “You mean the ugly one that makes you look fat?” 

Her grandmother groaned, “You mean the one with the really low neckline?”

And her mother griped, “You mean the one that has to be washed by hand in cold water?”

Jacob came from a very dysfunctional family and because of that he didn’t share his stew with his brother.  He didn’t make that simple sacrifice for his brother.  The bad news is that Jacob would feel right at home with us today.  The good news is that we can be better than that.  We can be much better than that!  After all, we have been created in God’s image.  What that means is that inherent in you and me is the capacity to love and we’re not just talking about the every day run of the mill kind of love.  We’re talking about agape love, the ability to make sacrifices for others and to make sacrifices for the greater good. Don’t forget that sacrificial love is at the very heart of the Christian faith.   What was it that Jesus said at the Last Supper?  He said to his disciples and to us, “Greater love hath no man than he lay down his life for his friends.”    Jesus, by the way, practiced what he preached.  The very next day he went out and made the ultimate sacrifice on the Cross.

Jacob didn’t make that sacrifice for his brother but we can do better than that; much better. So, while the politicians fight to the death over money and deficit reduction we can be sacrificial in our giving to help the least among us.  While the status seekers step on and over each other to climb the ladder of success we can be sacrificial with our time and talents in helping those who can’t even get onto the ladder of success.  While the high and mighty throw stones at immigrants and drug addicts and call those who are homeless lazy we can sacrifice our reputations by putting ourselves in their shoes and walking with them.   While people scream and shout over issues like abortion and the death penalty and health care reform we can open our hearts and our ears and listen.  It may mean we’ll have to sacrifice a few of our deeply held opinions but just remember what Mark Twain once said.  “If you can’t remember the last time you changed your mind when it comes to something important pinch yourself. You may be dead.”

Never forget that you have been created in God’s image and that deep down in your soul you have this wonderful ability for that agape kind of love.  You have the ability to willingly make sacrifices for others and for the greater good!  

Have you ever heard the story about Sadhu Sundar Singh? Sadhu Sundar Singh was a Sikh who born in India in 1889.  Later on in life he became a devout Christian. One day he and a friend were trudging through a pass high in the Himalayan Mountains. The biting wind and bitter cold made the journey painful and difficult.  At one point they came upon a man lying in the snow unconscious.  Sadhu Sundar Singh wanted to help the man but his friend objected.  The friend said, “If we burden ourselves with him we’ll all die.” Sadhu Sundar Singh, however, refused to leave the man in the snow to die. So his friend went on without him while Sadhu Sundar Singh picked the man up and started to carry him on his back.  It made the journey even more painful and difficult, but eventually something wonderful happened. The heat from his body warmed the man up. After a while the man regained consciousness.  A little while later the man was walking again and the two of them continued their journey side by side. Eventually, they caught up to Sadhu Sundar Singh’s friend and found him lying in the snow, dead with the bitter cold and the biting wind swirling around him.

It is through the sacrifice that Christ made for us that we are saved and it is through the sacrifices that we make for each other and the greater good that this nation and the wider world will be saved.  Right now there may be a voice in your head saying, “Don’t do it.  It’s too much to ask.”  That’s the voice of Jacob.  Don’t listen to it.  Instead listen to that other voice in your head.  It’s the voice of the Jesus who said, “You are the light of the world,” the Jesus who said, “You are the salt of the earth,” the Jesus who said, “Love one another even as I have loved you.”  Amen.

Rev. Dr. Richard A. Hughes

July 3, 2011