Pastoral Letter 175

Dear Members of St. Andrew’s Uniting Church, Friends and Adherents,

Grace and Peace to you all.

We all should be grateful and thankful to God for being with us, providing our needs and giving us the strength to continue our journey in this world. We should also acknowledge that we have relatively more peaceful life here, in our beautiful country, compared to many around the world who are facing many more challenges and life-threatening situations, be it war, environmental issues, lack of medical services, shortage of medication and food, facing starvation and are losing hope. To mention a few, people in Ukraine, Sudan, the Middle East and Artsakh being under siege for more than seven months and many others, about whom we read about and see on TV news.

Here at St. Andrews’, we are still on track and doing the best we can keeping up with our ministry, being faithful to our mission. We hope soon we will be able to start our conversation with our neighbouring Lane Cove Uniting Church in regard to the future and the possibilities to work together as we will be facing more challenges on the way forward. Please pray for the conversations we hope to have with them very soon.

Our traditional annual Market Morning is fast approaching on Saturday 5 August 2023 from 8:00 am to 1:00 pm. Now it’s time to bring in our donations and let people around us know that we are happy to receive goods for the upcoming Market Morning. I am sure we will be able to get good results and allocate some money for charitable purpose. Set up will be during the week from Wednesday 2 August morning. Please be ready to help as we do every year and if you have any questions, please ask Virginia.

Please save the date Sunday 10 September 2023, which marks the 100^th anniversary of the laying of the stone of our beautiful Sanctuary. We will have a special service at 2:00 pm with many guests, church leaders, families, friends, guests and dignitaries. We will have more details in the coming weeks and we will keep you posted.

God willing, I will be on leave 6-31 August and be on a trip in the Middle East with my daughter Lori. While I am away, James Knowles from England will take the service on Sunday 13 August, LCU Chaplain Liam McKenna on Sunday 20 August and Sunday 27 August we will be joining Crows Nest Uniting Church for Sunday Worship. My thanks to James and Liam.

If you will not be able to be with us tomorrow morning Worship Service, please light a candle and join us following the attached Order of Service.

Be safe and well, continue to pray, remembering those who need care, support and love. Please let me know if you or anyone else has prayer points.

Here are some prayer points for this week:

1. Pray for world peace and especially remember Ukraine and Artsakh.
2. Pray for those who suffer, who are persecuted and abused.
3. Pray for the poor, the sick, the struggling and the stressed.
4. Pray for those who are facing natural disasters causing death, loss and pain.
5. Pray specially for Artsakh as they go through the toughest time with the dire situation resulting in hunger, starvation and death.
6. Pray my upcoming trip and to have a safe journey.

Best Regards,

Krikor

MESSAGE

Bethel – God’s House

Genesis 28:10-22

Who was Jacob?

Why did Jacob stop at Bethel?

Jacob was one of the sons of Isaac and Rebekah, but probably had a very stressful life. Because of his rivalry with Esau. He tricked his father so he would receive the blessing which was supposed to go to the oldest son Esau, so, Jacob fled toward the city of Haran to escape Esau’s fury.

Jacob fled but was also sent away to the land of his mother Rebekah to find a wife. Perhaps this was a reaction to Esau’s marrying two local but foreign women. Nothing is said of either wife, Judith or Basemath, in regard to their faith. We don’t know if Esau was able to lead them into the knowledge of the God of Abraham and Isaac, whether they turned Esau’s heart away from his father’s God, or if he kept the faith and they didn’t. We do know that they did bring grief to Isaac and Rebekah.

There is a contrast, in that Abraham’s servant, Eliezer, had no idea whom he would find as a bride for Isaac. His prayer was answered in that Rebekah fulfilled every one of his prayer requests. Jacob, on the other hand, was sent out, with minimal guidance. He wasn’t told much more than which family to select his bride from. So, in light of the family situation, he set out on his journey, without knowing what could happen.

But on the way instead of having a sleepless night he had a very interesting night. The Bible tells us that Jacob came to a certain place on his journey toward Haran, “and stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep” (28:11).

The main reason, one could say, that Jacob stopped there, at Bethel, because he was tired! In verses 10 and following, the text states that it was dark, and that Jacob spent the night there. We also read that he took one of the stones of that place for a pillow an actual rock!

We also can figure Jacob was tired because he had a dream. In his interesting night Jacob dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth. Some translations say that it was a stairway or a ramp, but in any case, the top of it reached to heaven. The angels of God were “ascending and descending on it” (v. 12).

This dream was interesting because God spoke and made Promises. The Lord said, “I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying” (v. 13). God promised that Jacob’s offspring would be numerous, spreading to the four corners of the earth.

Now the dream itself was unusual: the ladder was touching the earth, but the top reached to Heaven! We wonder if Jacob had any thoughts of the Tower of Babel, which was designed to reach the heavens when he saw God’s ladder. Jacob also saw angels ascending and descending upon the ladder. Even more important, he was one of the few who saw God Himself!

Jacob may not have intended to stop at Bethel, but he did, and what may have been simply a night under the sky became an encounter with the true and the living God.

Then God concluded with the words, “I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you” (v. 15).

What did God really say at Bethel?

Let’s take a look at some of these:

a. God revealed Himself to Jacob by using the name Yahweh/Jehovah, the covenant name, spelled LORD in all capital letters. There were and are other names such as Adon or Adonai, usually spelled Lord; and El/Elohim, the word for God, yet God chose to use the name Yahweh/Jehovah in this case.

b. God affirmed the faith of Abraham and Isaac. That would be a real blessing to us, knowing the God of our father and grandfather and who knows how far back it goes would speak to us personally. We need to remember that very few people have ever experienced the joy of fellowship with God Himself, but it’s possible!

c. God also confirmed the promise He had made to Abraham and Isaac. Part of that promise was that their descendants would be “like the dust of the earth” but, Abraham had only one genuine son, Isaac, and we only read of two sons of Isaac, Esau and Jacob. God’s ways are not our ways, and His timing isn’t the same, necessarily, as ours, but He will absolutely make good on every promise He made.

d. Finally, the most important promise was that God affirmed He would always be with Jacob, and He would bring him back to this land. Remember that Jacob left with the whole family in turmoil: Esau wanted to kill him, Rebekah wanted to protect him, and Isaac was really displeased when Jacob had deceived him. Now, Jacob was alone—we don’t read of anyone going with him on this “wife search”—and he had no one to share his concerns with. No family, no servant, not even an animal: and yet, God promised He would always be with Jacob. When we walk with God, we are never alone!

What did Jacob do after he heard God speak?

When did Jacob become a believer? We don’t recall reading that “Jacob believed God”, as was said of Abraham. Was it here? Was it before? Was it later? Regardless, there was a time when Jacob came to what we could call “saving faith” and became a believer in the God of Abraham and Isaac. We can find at least some initial steps in the following:

He stated clearly, first, that he didn’t know, or hadn’t realised, that God was there. The concept of God being everywhere may not have been easy for these early believers to grasp but it’s true. God is everywhere and He doesn’t have that limitation.

The second display of Jacob’s faith was the multi-part vow which he made. He basically said: “All right, God, if You keep Your promise, then You will be my God and I’ll give a tenth to You”.

This is where the narrative stops, for this first encounter with God at Bethel, but it wasn’t the last, not for Jacob and certainly not for some others.

What can we learn from Jacobs Dream?

Jacob’s dream reveals to us that:

1. God wants a relationship with us. The ladder between heaven and earth is a clear sign that God wants to be connected to us.

2. God desires for relationship with us.  This was seen first when Adam and Eve “heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day” (Genesis 3:8). God said: “Where are you Adam?”

3. We find connection when the word of God “became flesh and lived among us.”

4. Jacob’s dream reveals that God wants to be with us, not distant from us. God enters into the very centre of human life, in all of its complications and difficulties.

5. We also learn God comes to us in grace, not in judgment.

– If anyone deserved to be judged for his sins, it was Jacob. He took advantage of Esau when the older brother was weak with hunger, offering him bread and Lenten stew in exchange for his birthright (Gen. 25:29-34).

– Jacob disguised himself as Esau in order to receive their father’s blessing (27:1-29). And yet, when the Lord appeared to Jacob, God offered him gracious gifts of land and numerous offspring.

Jacob’s dream shows that God gives us what we need, not what we deserve. Psalm 145 says: “The LORD is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich love”.

6. God also promises to be with us wherever we go, and to remain faithful to us.

– The name Immanuel means “God is with us,” says the Prophet Isaiah

– God never leaves us or abandons us, but stays close beside us, through all of our pains and struggles and failures. Although we sometimes fall away from God, the Lord never falls away from us. “I will not leave you,” says God to Jacob, “until I have done what I have promised you.”

7. Finally the Bible tells us that when Jacob awoke from his sleep, he said, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it!” (v. 16). He discovered in his dream that God was far closer than he ever imagined, and that the place of his sleeping was “the house of God” and the “gate of heaven” (v. 17). Then Jacob called the place “Bethel,” which means “House of God”.

Jacob’s dream tells us surely the presence of the Lord is with us.

• Surely the presence of the Lord is here with us when we are sleeping and not working.

• The Presence of the Lord is here with us when we’re sitting still and not running about.

• The Presence of the Lord is here with us, where relationships are damaged, and His presence wants to re-connect us.

• The presence of the Lord is here with us, where judgment should be, but it’s the presence of amazing grace and not just judgment.

• The presence of the Lord is here with us, the place of wherever we go or wherever we are.

Dear friends, there is no need to find a “Bethel” or any other place that some may state is sacred, special, or anything else to meet God. If we have never met God before, we can do so any place, any time, when God speaks to us.

It could be on the top of the mountain or in the valley.

It could be in the middle of the desert, where the red dirt is or it could be in the middle of the ocean.

God is here with us, He is everywhere, He is at “Bethel”.

Amen!