On a ship, there is a piece of equipment called the Jacob’s Ladder- and yes it is as the name implies – a ladder. It is very flimsy, if I handed it to you, to say, paint your house or change a light bulb, you would probably choose a more standard variety of ladder- say aluminum or one of those really great one advertised on TV- (you, know the one that forms a triangle and can seemingly make the space program unnecessary due to it’s incredible reach). The Jacob’s Ladder I am talking about is a rope with rungs attached. It’s purpose is to save lives, it is a bridge between the ocean and the safety of a ship, it is flimsy, it makes your heart beat faster when you descend or ascend it. It is, to say the least, a nerve racking affair when you must climb it. It is attached from the top and descends to the water to save lives. I think there are major parallels between the story from Genesis and this piece of maritime equipment, they both join the turbulent earth with sanctuary. These ladders are connections between the divine salvation and despair. Both of these ladders can also be a comfort, it tells us of the connection between salvation and the enveloping deep are not that far away from each other. They are both as close as you can reach, they are both (the divine ladder and the more earthly one) designed to reach to earth, not some tantalizing carrot that causes us only to yearn and groan, but to yearn and groan and reach the goal of salvation, whether from the sea or the brokenness of our increasingly cruel and unstable world. If we can reach up in our very souls and grasp this ladder and some how bring heaven to earth we can change the world, we can grab all of the wonderful souls of creation and bring them into the ship of God’s love. It is not easy, the waves and tumultuous currents of modern culture make it hard to reach, many give up- but, we cant give up because God’s love will always be there if we just strain for the ladder.
Now, how is the Old Testament story of Jacob’s vision of a ladder joining of Heaven and Earth relate to the Parable of the Sower. The parable tells the story of a farmer that plants good seed and basically weeds come up around the good seed, bit Jesus assures us that we should not be concerned because- basically- all will be taken care of. Jesus then goes on to explain that the Son of Man on Earth is the good crop, the nourishing crop- & evil is obviously the weeds- but the good crop will “overpower- or triumph” the evil weeds through the divine. Here is the second analogy of the evening- I love gardening, especially herb gardening- I don’t know sometimes I think I’m a medieval monk herbalist born in the wrong time, without the silly haircut of course…………
But, anyway I like to plant Basil, and other herbs that I like to cook with. I also like Mint for my iced tea. If you have ever tried to grow mint, you know that it will take over your garden. Weeds and centipede grass try to take it over, but their efforts are futile in vanquishing the planted mint. Here’s where the analogy comes in- when Jesus tells the story of the parable, he acknowledges that there will be weeds- when he speaks of planting good seed, he is not speaking of horticulture, he is speaking of love and us- as the hands and feet of Christ in this world. To be Christians, we must do hard work. We must overcome the weeds-just like the mint does and with God’s help the weeds have no chance. What are the weeds that we must overcome you might ask and how do we overcome them, and what does the analogy of Jacob’s ladder have to do with all of this?
The story of Jacob’s ladder paints a picture of a three tiered universe- a medieval version of the universe. When I was a child, I was told of a place in the sky- or heaven and then our green and blue gift of the earth in which we have stewardship of ( and are standing on at this moment) and well the hotspot located underground- the place you went to if you were bad (or squirmed in church as my granny used to say – God rest her soul). This is a very popular version of the cosmos that prevailed as the dominate science until the renaissance. But as an incarnational people, could it be possible that the ladder is us doing what God wills us to do, obtaining heaven through becoming closer to Christ through prayer and action? Could it be that this ladder is not some paranormal gate, but a mystical one reached by prayer? And not just the prayer we do internally, but the prayer that Rabbi Abraham Heshel, a noted Jewish theologian and activist, said that was best performed with our feet through action and SACRED activism? This ladder is in us and so is the garden that Jesus speaks of. In our internal private places we have desires and thoughts of greed (hum, wonder if I can score the last piece of pie), coveting our neighbour’s possessions (this happens every time I see a Hybrid car), not to mention the gluttony that happens often in many of us. The weeds of complacency are in our minds- the weeds of the acceptance of the injustices of this world – the weeds of rage that happen when many of us feel like we have not received the respect we deserve- the thoughts of prejudice that we all have when we see someone who is not exactly like we are. It is through Christ and the good seed that is God that will bring the harvest of love, compassion and –yes- sacrifice, to our souls and deliver us into unity with God and all of Creation. It is the internal ladder that we must groan and stretch for that will deliver us to this heavenly country. It is a ladder to the divine that is so fragile that if you blink you might miss it, but it must be found and ascended so that we can tend the good crop and watch it flourish, and when we have found this ladder is it not our duty as Christians to share our discovery? Isn’t a crop to be shared- not horded? When we decide to accept and climb our ladder, we can then throw our ladder down into the weedy tumultuous garden that is the treacherous sea and reach down and grab those who suffer and bring them into Love.
I know what this feels like, on an earthly level. There was not better felling while I was in the Coast Guard than reaching down that jacob’s ladder and pulling someone onto your ship.
As followers of Christ, and as a loving, incarnate people, don’t we have a responsibility to throw down the ladder and pull those up around us. Can we help weed the garden of the world and let the Spirit flourish as does Mint in the summer? Can the entire crop of God’s love flourish and feed the world?
So, let us grab up the harvest and use the ladder to deliver Christ’s love to a hungry and distressed world.
Now, how is the Old Testament story of Jacob’s vision of a ladder joining of Heaven and Earth relate to the Parable of the Sower. The parable tells the story of a farmer that plants good seed and basically weeds come up around the good seed, bit Jesus assures us that we should not be concerned because- basically- all will be taken care of. Jesus then goes on to explain that the Son of Man on Earth is the good crop, the nourishing crop- & evil is obviously the weeds- but the good crop will “overpower- or triumph” the evil weeds through the divine. Here is the second analogy of the evening- I love gardening, especially herb gardening- I don’t know sometimes I think I’m a medieval monk herbalist born in the wrong time, without the silly haircut of course…………
But, anyway I like to plant Basil, and other herbs that I like to cook with. I also like Mint for my iced tea. If you have ever tried to grow mint, you know that it will take over your garden. Weeds and centipede grass try to take it over, but their efforts are futile in vanquishing the planted mint. Here’s where the analogy comes in- when Jesus tells the story of the parable, he acknowledges that there will be weeds- when he speaks of planting good seed, he is not speaking of horticulture, he is speaking of love and us- as the hands and feet of Christ in this world. To be Christians, we must do hard work. We must overcome the weeds-just like the mint does and with God’s help the weeds have no chance. What are the weeds that we must overcome you might ask and how do we overcome them, and what does the analogy of Jacob’s ladder have to do with all of this?
The story of Jacob’s ladder paints a picture of a three tiered universe- a medieval version of the universe. When I was a child, I was told of a place in the sky- or heaven and then our green and blue gift of the earth in which we have stewardship of ( and are standing on at this moment) and well the hotspot located underground- the place you went to if you were bad (or squirmed in church as my granny used to say – God rest her soul). This is a very popular version of the cosmos that prevailed as the dominate science until the renaissance. But as an incarnational people, could it be possible that the ladder is us doing what God wills us to do, obtaining heaven through becoming closer to Christ through prayer and action? Could it be that this ladder is not some paranormal gate, but a mystical one reached by prayer? And not just the prayer we do internally, but the prayer that Rabbi Abraham Heshel, a noted Jewish theologian and activist, said that was best performed with our feet through action and SACRED activism? This ladder is in us and so is the garden that Jesus speaks of. In our internal private places we have desires and thoughts of greed (hum, wonder if I can score the last piece of pie), coveting our neighbour’s possessions (this happens every time I see a Hybrid car), not to mention the gluttony that happens often in many of us. The weeds of complacency are in our minds- the weeds of the acceptance of the injustices of this world – the weeds of rage that happen when many of us feel like we have not received the respect we deserve- the thoughts of prejudice that we all have when we see someone who is not exactly like we are. It is through Christ and the good seed that is God that will bring the harvest of love, compassion and –yes- sacrifice, to our souls and deliver us into unity with God and all of Creation. It is the internal ladder that we must groan and stretch for that will deliver us to this heavenly country. It is a ladder to the divine that is so fragile that if you blink you might miss it, but it must be found and ascended so that we can tend the good crop and watch it flourish, and when we have found this ladder is it not our duty as Christians to share our discovery? Isn’t a crop to be shared- not horded? When we decide to accept and climb our ladder, we can then throw our ladder down into the weedy tumultuous garden that is the treacherous sea and reach down and grab those who suffer and bring them into Love.
I know what this feels like, on an earthly level. There was not better felling while I was in the Coast Guard than reaching down that jacob’s ladder and pulling someone onto your ship.
As followers of Christ, and as a loving, incarnate people, don’t we have a responsibility to throw down the ladder and pull those up around us. Can we help weed the garden of the world and let the Spirit flourish as does Mint in the summer? Can the entire crop of God’s love flourish and feed the world?
So, let us grab up the harvest and use the ladder to deliver Christ’s love to a hungry and distressed world.
No comments:
Post a Comment