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| Image by Xavi |
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A GREETING
I bless the Lord who gives me counsel;
in the night also my heart instructs me.
(Psalm 16:7)
A READING
Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place. And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven; and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And the Lord stood beside him and said, ‘I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring... Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.’ So Jacob rose early in the morning, and he took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it. He called that place Bethel; but the name of the city was Luz at the first. Then Jacob made a vow, saying, ‘If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God, and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God’s house; and of all that you give me I will surely give one-tenth to you.’
(Genesis 28:11b-13;15;18-22)
MUSIC
A MEDITATIVE VERSE
‘Very truly, I tell you,
you will see heaven opened and the angels of God
ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.’
(John 1:51)
A REFLECTION
The tradition of Jacob's dream, of the angels going up and down on the ladder, would then be connected with the belief that when you worshiped God in [God's] house, God was really present, with angels coming and going to link heaven and earth... [John 1] verse 51, then, seems to be a tight-packed and evocative way of saying,... You won't necessarily see the angels themselves, but you'll see things happening which show that they're there..." When you're with Jesus, it is as though you're in the house of God, the Temple itself, with God's angels coming and going, and God's own presence there beside you.
- from John for Everyone Part 1: Chapters 1 - 10,
by N.T. Wright
VERSE OF THE DAY
The word of the Lord came to me, saying,
‘Jeremiah, what do you see?’ And I said, ‘I see a branch of an almond tree.’ Then the Lord said to me, ‘You have seen well, for I am watching over my word to perform it.’
(Jeremiah 1:11-12)
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| Image by Adam Reeder |
How many of us would choose a stone for a pillow? And yet in today’s text, a stone becomes a gateway to other ways of knowing, and in particular dreaming. God has many ways of reaching out to the figures of the biblical story, from appearing to Moses as the burning bush, to becoming the voice in a cloud when Jesus is transfigured in front of his friends. On Friday, we experienced the otherworldliness of Elijah’s encounter with the angel messenger. In today’s reading, the theophany (manifestation of God) happens in a dream. Jacob is given a promise by God that will help direct his entire future. God also promises Jacob that he will be accompanied, that God will not leave him at any time during his life. Jacob commemorates the place where the dream occurred by leaving the stone there as a monument.
In our own lives, dreaming is a state where our consciousness is perhaps more open than in our waking hours. While dreams can bring forward images that create fear in us, dreams can also be touchstones of our lives, in which we suddenly have clarity and understanding. God is present to us in all of it, including the rougher, harder passages, and dreams that seem to portend something terrible. God doesn’t want us to be fearful, but when fear takes place, God is with us in it.
Jacob's vision came as he slept in a place called "Luz", one of the words for 'almond tree'. After his dream, he called the place Bethel - literally 'house of God', though some scholars believe that Bethel and Luz were distinct places a short distance apart. It is a biblical tradition that prophets are visited with a startling and profound vision at the start of their days. In this case, a place of almond trees would be a very appropriate backdrop, since almond blossoms have a history of meaning. The almond tree was the first fruit tree of the new year: it awakened the earth to spring from the winter. In Numbers 17, God causes almond blossoms and almond fruit to sprout on the staffs belonging to Aaron and the Levites as a way of showing that they are divinely chosen as priests. The root of the word for 'almond' used in Jeremiah means 'to awaken', 'to watch'. The presence or context of almond trees means God is about to be present in abundance, in this case to awaken someone.
When have you be ‘awakened’ to a purpose through your own dreams? How do your dreams continue to inform you today?
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A STORY OF ENDURANCE
During routine archeological excavations that took place between 2007 and 2016 near Aylesbury, England, a discovery was made of in-tact chicken eggs that dated to the Roman era. Scientists came to realize that they had largely been deposited there as part of a religious practice or ritual. In the same pit were other objects as if these items had been dropped into a wishing well. Some of the eggs did not survive the attempt to move them, while others did. In 2019, a scan of one of the eggs revealed that there was still liquid inside it -- more than 1700 years old. The egg is now so fragile that it can barely be handled. It was preserved in peat, which is credited for its long survival. Read more about it here.
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LC† Awakened by the Spirit is a project of Lutherans Connect, supported by the Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and the Centre for Spirituality and Media at Martin Luther University College. To receive the devotions by email, write to lutheransconnect@gmail.com. The devotional pages are written and curated by Deacon Sherry Coman, with support and input from Pastor Steve Hoffard, Catherine Evenden and Henriette Thompson. Join us on Facebook, and on Twitter. Lutherans Connect invites you to make a donation to the Ministry by going to this link on the website of the ELCIC Eastern Synod and selecting "Lutherans Connect Devotionals" under "Fund". Devotions are always freely offered, however your donations help support the ongoing work.
Thank you and peace be with you!