July 26-Gen. 28,God works through us. We are the raw material for god’s continuing action.God's promises, promises that are fulfilled in spite of and even through the less-than-admirable actions of the human beings in the story. Though Jacob is a liar and a trickster, God graciously gives him the blessing God gave to Abraham and to Isaac. In addition, God promises to be with him and to bring him back to his homeland. -starts to be fulfilled through Laban's trickery and the rivalry that develops between Leah and Rachel.. Though the text does not say this explicitly, it seems that God is working with this flawed man to re-make him. Jacob, after stealing Esau's blessing, is caught in a net of his own making. The deceiver will be deceived, and the one who broke the law of the firstborn is caught by another version of it from Uncle Laban.. All these experiences will help to re-make the shallow young man we first met in Genesis 25 into the father of the nation Israel. may be a dream quest at a cultic site-same idea as an axis for the temple-movement goes both ways- has he always needed God- or is this a realization?- the last is negative will not abandon/forsake is that what motivates him? Trust v. anxiety? Even though he stole his birthright/blessing, he adds to God’s promise and makes it conditional. Jacob has control issues, but who can predict the future-unforeseen event and consequence happen all of the time; it does not seem to me that god treats us a puppets on a string-
Mt. 13:24-30, 36-43- kingdom of heaven is not only entrance into God’s dwelling place after we die. It is the totality of God’s vision for and god’s way in the world now. It is the alternative to a new way, a paradigm shift fi you will, from our culture, our ideas, our common sense. A weed, darnel, looks like wheat when growing, so one cannot easily discern the wheat from the weed.It is put in an apocalyptic setting, at the end of the age.
Jesus pictures God’s good world as under assault, this time a covert, sophisticated assault by evil. God in this story does not cause the evil..I haven’t noticed that the parable starts with question we all may ask about the cause of trouble and evil in the world. We do not receive an explanation,but we do get an answer that evil, not God, is its cause. Long also sees the parable has given a trace of vision of God’s power.God does choose to clear up the matter at the end, but God’s power is not one of uprooting, of coercion, of waving a wizard’s wand. God works with the world as it is and works to draw good out of it at an appropriate time and place.
Jesus makes clear that we simply cannot be certain who is "in" or who is "out." In fact, God's judgment about these matters may take many by surprise . Thank God it is not up to us! We can leave the weeding to the angels, and get on with our task, our calling, to help with God’s garden, east of Eden. The parable then leads us to an examination of the virtue of humility. We have a hard time being able to determine weed from what in our mixed up world. God works in ways large and small. God works on the wheat and weeds within the soul and within us. God’s time frame differs from ours. Mature faith realizes what a complicated, complex, situation we all share.
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