Readings:
Genesis 28:10-19a;
Psalm 139:1-11, 23-24;
Romans 8:12-25;
Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

Collect:
Grant us, Lord,
not to be anxious about earthly things,
but to love things heavenly;
and even now,
while we are placed among things that are passing away,
to hold fast to those things last forever.
This we pray through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen

Reflection

It’s only to be expected, I suppose, that we think we know the bible stories, especially the well-known ones. The story in Genesis for this Sunday is very well-known. It’s the one about Jacob dreaming, seeing a vision of angels going up and down a ramp or ladder, and at that place meeting God.

Perhaps prompted by some of Chagall’s images, in my mind’s eye, I see a builder’s ladder. Wood, strong enough, but just a bit wonky, an old-fashioned ladder, not the modern aluminium ones. Then I see adult angels, not cherubs, flapping gently, even teasingly, ascending and descending, beckoning Jacob to follow. At the top, as if looking down through the loft entrance, is God, motioning to Jacob to come up. 

How daft is that! There’s nothing like that in the story, and no matter how well I think I know the reading, it’s as well to read it again. As I read it this time, I was surprised by verse 13: “And the LORD stood beside him …” (NRSV translation). I read it again. I thought, “Surely this is not right. How can God be standing BESIDE him? God must be at the top of the ladder, looking down.” So, I got out my Revised English Bible. Sure enough, it says: “The LORD was standing beside him …”. I checked the Jewish Publication Society translation, the Tanach – the same, “beside him”. I did check the Authorized Version (I do have a copy), and there the translators prefer the Lord standing “above it”, but this confused me even more as now Lord is standing above the ladder, “it”. No reference to Jacob, and so, back to looking down from the loft. 

I guess what I realized is that I think in pictures. I read or hear the story and imagine it taking place, and if the story I hear seems to me to have gaps, I fill them in. But, of course, I am filing in the gaps, gaps that I imagine are there. Your imagination may not complete the story as I do, but I suspect that as we make sense of the story, we all imagine things which are mostly quite irrelevant, and not actually there at all. This will certainly influence how we take the story to heart, for surely this is one of the objects of our reading and listening, to take the story to heart.

I’m no linguist to know which is the better translation. The Good News keeps “standing beside him”, but of modern translations, the New Revised Jerusalem Bible translates it as “And there was the LORD, standing over him,” (now him, not it) and Today’s New International Version prefers, “There above it, stood the LORD” – above the ladder.

So why this fussing about above or beside? Does it make any difference? Who cares? Actually, I care (be warned, here comes a psalm reference). This is what makes the psalm for today such a personal and intimate one: “You are all around me on every side (enfold me); you protect me with your power.” God ever-present and ever-near. 

As a matter of principle, I read the bible stories as personal and intimate. The tenor of the Bible is God close to us and by us, to challenge and encourage, to correct and support, to judge and to show mercy. This is not at a distance. Right by our side.

Barry Lotz