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September 9, 2006

Scripture Reading:   

Rev. Dr. Carol  L. Kerr

 Blue Point Congregational Church

There is a children’s book called The Runaway Bunny, by Margaret Wise Brown.  In it a little bunny tells his mother that he is going to run away.  The mother promptly replies that if he runs away, she will run after him.  “For you are my little bunny.”  But the little bunny insists on running away anyhow.

“If you run after me, I will become a fish in a trout stream and I will swim away from you.”

  The mother replies,

“If you become a fish in a trout stream, I will become a fisherman and I will fish for you.” 

“If you become a fisherman, I will become a rock on the mountain, high above you.”

“If you become a rock on the mountain high above me, I will be a mountain climber, and I will climb to where you are.”

Then the bunny insists he will become a crocus in a hidden garden.  The mother says she will then become a gardener and find him.  The bunny says he will become a bird.  The mother says she will become a tree with branches he flies into.  The bunny says he will become a sailboat.  The mother says she will become the wind and blow him where she wants him to go.  The bunny says that he will become a trapeze artist in a circus.  The mother says she will become a tightrope walker.  Finally the bunny says, well then…

“I will become a little boy and run into a house.”  The mother says,

“If you become a little boy and run into a house, I will become your mother and catch you in my arms and hug you.” 

This is a wonderful story.  Who has read it?  Who remembers their Mom or Dad reading it to them?  The thing about the story, is that I always wonder what is the little bunny running away for in the first place?  Maybe the little bunny is just thinking mischievous little thoughts and testing his mother to see what she says.  However, although this story is a simple story for very young children it captures an important and big thought that everybody wonders , young and old alike.  Where do I belong? 

When I was a kid, I tried to run away once.  I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone.  I think I was in fifth grade.  I was mad, really, really mad.  I don’t remember exactly what I was mad about.  I think it had something to do with my mother taking my sister’s side about something.  Whatever it was I was so mad, I felt like a balloon so full of air that I was about to blow up into 1000 pieces if I didn’t let it out somehow. 

So, I called out loud and clear for everyone to hear.  I called out really loud and clear so my mother could hear even though she was up in her room.  I called out,

“I am running away!  You hear me?  I am running away!”  Then I grabbed my jacket, yanked open the front door, declared one more time to make sure everyone  in the house knew what I was about to do, “I am running away!”  stepped out and slammed the door loudly behind me. 

I marched down the driveway.  I turned right.  I have no idea why I turned right.  Probably because most of my friends’ houses were right.  But, I wasn’t going to any of their houses.  I was running away.  So, I just started walking and walking.  It was November and all the leaves were off the trees.  The sky was as gray as the road ahead of me.  It was the time of year when you are wearing you fall jacket and really could have used your winter coat.  I had no idea what or when I was going to eat. 

It was an enormous 10 minutes before I heard my mother calling me. 

“Carol.  Carol.”  I didn’t answer.  But, I did exceedingly enjoy hearing her call my name.  I could tell she wasn’t just calling it from the house either.  She was outside walking down the road.  I was enjoying hearing her call my name that I slowed up to relish the sound of it.  “Carol.  Carol.”  Funny thing happened then.  Hearing her call my name made me sort of like her again, even though I had hated her a few minutes earlier.  I slowed down even more.  She caught up with me.

“Why don’t you come home?  Dinner is ready.”  I asked,

“What are we having?”

“Lemon-pepper chicken.” 

“My favorite!”  I said.  We turned and walked home together.  I never even thought of running away after that.  It was awful.

Where do I belong?  To run away is a big thing.  You have to be really upset.  And, you have to wonder, where do I belong?

In the bible story I read, Jacob was running away.  It all started because Jacob’s father, Isaac, was going to give his older brother Esau his blessing.  In the bible days, the older brother received the blessing of the father.  The first born received a double portion of the inheritance (twice the allowance for life but twice of all of what your parents own for life!) and, maybe even worse, the blessing meant that the older brother was specially loved by the father. 

Jacob thought that this was really unfair.  You see, Jacob and Esau were twins.  Esau was older than Jacob only by a few seconds.  A few seconds!  That is the only reason why Esau was getting twice as much as Jacob. 

Have any of you ever thought your parents sided with your brother or sister?  See even some of the adults are raising their hands.  We all worry about it one time or another.  How many of you were really mad then?  I was really really mad when I thought my mother was siding with my sister.  Jacob was really mad.

So, Jacob did something sneaky.  His father, Isaac, was very very old.  He was so old that he was going blind.  So, Jacob dressed up like his brother Esau and tricked his father into giving him the blessing instead of his brother.  “Ahhh  The smell of my son is like the smell of the open country blessed by God.  May God give you of Heaven’s dew and Earth’s bounty of grain and wine.  May peoples serve you and nations honor you.  You will master your brothers, and your mother’s sons will honor you.  Those who curse you will be cursed, those who bless you will be blessed!”

In those days, they believed that the blessing was like a magical incantation.  Once it was given it couldn’t be taken back, even if it was given to the wrong person.  Jacob had tricked his father and his older brother.  The magic had been performed.  Jacob has stolen his brother’s blessing.  This meant that Jacob and not Esau got twice as much money and land when their father died.

 Now it was Esau’s turn to be mad, really really mad.  Esau was so mad that he was going to murder his brother.  This is when Jacob ran away.

Where do I belong?  The thing about running way is that you feel really lonely when you have done it.  After all, you no longer have a home.  The runaway bunny would have been out at sea all alone.  After I walked passed my friends’ houses, where was I going to go?  Jacob had run away.  That night he camped out.  He had to pick up a stone and use it as a pillow.  A stone is a pretty cold and hard pillow. 

It is a lonely feeling.  People can have this lonely feeling even when they haven’t run away.  You may belong to a neighborhood, a company, a club, a scout troop, a sports team, a school.  But, there may be times that no matter what you do it seems like no one cares.  None of your friends call you to invite you some place.  Kids ask other kids to play four square.  You drive by a house that has lots of cars parked in its driveway and on the street.  “I wonder whose having a party?”  You think.  “I wonder who has been invited to the party.”  You wonder.  Where do I belong? 

Sure, Jacob stole his father’s blessing.  But, what did that matter now that he had to run away from home?  It is not the same as choosing to be alone once in a while, or being independent at times.  It is the feeling that no one is near, that no one remembers, that “no one cares for my soul.”  (Psalm 142:4)  When you run away, one and only one question looms before you – Where do I belong?

Then Jacob fell asleep on that stone pillow and had a dream.  Or, maybe it wasn’t a dream because it was so real.  (The Family Story Bible).  Jacob was sure he saw a bright light from up in the sky.  Then there were stairs, or a ladder, that began right beside him on the ground, and reached all the way up into the sky.  “There were angels on the stairs,”  he told his children many years later.  “Angels going up the stairs and angels coming down.  And at the very top, there was God.  Then God spoke to me.” 

This is what God said, “I am the God of your grandparents, Abraham and Sarah, and of your parents, Isaac and Rebecca.  The promise is now yours, Jacob.  You will be the great-great-grandfather of many, many people.  People all over the world will learn about me, because of you.  And Jacob, I will be with you.  I am your God I will take care of you.” 

Jacob was wondering, where do I belong?  He got his answer, he belonged to God.

The stories in the Bible are about faith moving in raw experience.  It is about running away, getting lost, being completely alone and God showing up to find you.  It is about being in the darkness and God coming with a light.  It is about sleeping with a stone for a pillow and ending up with a promise for all eternity.  God’s promise is not just for Jacob, it is for all of us.  The Bible is about this:  You belong to God.  Remember the top of the bulletin in your hand for today?  After “meditation” it says fill in the blank with your name: 

This is what God says,

                          I made you, O __________________,

                         I formed you, O _________________,

                      Do not fear, for I have paid for you (redeemed);

                         I have called you by name,_______________,  you are mine.

  –Isaiah 43:1 adapted

You belong to God.  How much is God willing to pay for you?  God is willing to sell off the whole world to get you back, and trade all of creation just for you.  (Isaiah 43:4)

God says to Jacob in his dream “I will be with you Jacob.  I am your God and I will take care of you.”  This is God’s promise to us.  The church word for this promise is covenant.  God has made a covenant with us that we are his people and he is our God.  Just like the mother of the runaway bunny said, “I will run after you for you are my little bunny.”  No matter who you are, no matter how mad you are, no matter if you have done something sort of wrong.  No matter where you run away to, or how far you run away.  God will always find you because you belong to God.  The covenant makes us close friends with God.  This is salvation.  It brings us back to the garden of Eden.  It takes us home. 

Let’s all use the Adventure Bible that the older kids are going to use this year.  Now let’s turn to Psalm 139 and read verses 1-12 out loud together….  Sounds like the runaway bunny, only better…..

EVERYONE READ.

The story of Jacob ends like this:  After he had his great dream he woke up and said, “God is in this place – truly.  And I didn’t even know it!” He whispered, “Incredible.  Wonderful.  Holy.  …This is the gate of heaven.”    So Jacob took the stone he had placed under his head for a pillow and set it up as a pillar and named the place Bethel which means God’s home.