{"id":19463,"date":"2025-07-08T10:46:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-08T10:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.stjameschurchabinger.org\/?p=19463"},"modified":"2025-07-14T07:55:31","modified_gmt":"2025-07-14T07:55:31","slug":"sermon-2025-07-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stjameschurchabinger.org\/?p=19463","title":{"rendered":"Sermon 2025-07-13"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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13th jULY 2025 eVENSONG<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Genesis 32:9-30 and Mark 7:1-23.<\/strong><\/p>

I love escaping into the pages of a good book, it is something I have enjoyed since I was a young child.\u00a0 Sometimes we can be tempted to skip ahead to find out what happens next.\u00a0 \u00a0I remember being told by my mother how much it would ruin the story the story if I missed how the author had slowly developed their ideas page by page.\u00a0 Today\u2019s lectionary reading from Genesis begins almost at the end of the story of Jacob and Esau.\u00a0 So please forgive me if I follow the rules and start at the beginning!<\/p>

We are told that Isaac and Rebekah had not been able to conceive for over 20 years.\u00a0 Isaac prayed earnestly to God, Rebekah became pregnant and they were blessed with the gift of not one child but twins.\u00a0<\/p>

Isaac called out in earnest to the Lord and the Lord heard his prayer.<\/p>

If we look closely at the text, there are several spoiler alerts of what was to come.\u00a0 We are told Rebekah\u2019s pregnancy was immensely difficult, she was aware that even in her womb her twins seemed to be fighting one another.\u00a0 Rebekah cried out in anguish to the Lord.\u00a0 He foretold that her babies would represent two nations, one would be stronger than the other and in time her older child would serve her younger child.\u00a0<\/p>

Rebekah cried out in pain to the Lord and the Lord answered her.<\/p>

Esau was Rebekah\u2019s first born son, we are told that he was both hairy and red \u2013 I\u2019m not sure those are the qualities that we would like to be remembered for the most!\u00a0 Rebekah named her second son, Jacob and he was born grasping the heel of his brother.\u00a0 In Hebrew there is a saying Jacob means \u2018he deceives\u2019.\u00a0 This does not seem to be a particularly auspicious start for Rebekah\u2019s long awaited twins, Esau the hairy and Jacob the deceiver!\u00a0 We are told that Esau became a skilful hunter and was especially loved by his father.\u00a0 Jacob on the other hand was more content to stay at home and was loved deeply by his mother.\u00a0<\/p>

And so on to the part of the story that we all remember the most.\u00a0 Jacob is at home cooking a stew when his brother Esau comes in famished from the fields.\u00a0 Esau asks his brother for food immediately but Jacob comes up with a cunning plan.\u00a0 He withholds the food from his brother until he sells him his birthright.\u00a0 Esau is so hungry he agrees to anything as long as he can eat all that he wants.\u00a0 Jacob snatches his chance to be considered as the older son whose inheritance will be the greatest.\u00a0<\/p>

In Isaac\u2019s old age his eyesight fails him, he is no longer able to see his sons clearly.\u00a0 On his death bed Isaac calls for his beloved first born son Esau.\u00a0 But Esau was out in the fields hunting so Rebekah encourages Jacob to take Esau\u2019s place.\u00a0 Jacob deceives his father who is led to believe he is giving Esau his blessing.\u00a0 By the time Esau returns to see his father and the trick that Jacob has played is revealed.\u00a0 Esau vows to kill his brother.\u00a0 Jacob is instructed to flee to the land of Haran where his mother\u2019s brother Laban lived.\u00a0 Jacob obeys and begins the long journey.\u00a0 As he travels he reflect on his actions and questions how he will be received by others.\u00a0 So instead of seeking shelter in a nearby town, he chooses to lie out alone under the stars.\u00a0 It was here that Jacob has an extraordinary dream.\u00a0 In his dream Jacob is promised safety, land and he is reassured that God will never leave him.\u00a0<\/p>

God calls out to Jacob as he sleeps, he comes when Jacob is in greatest need.<\/p>

And now we are nearly at the end of the story, point at which today\u2019s reading begins.\u00a0 Jacob stays away in the land of Haran for twenty years.\u00a0 He works for his uncle Laban, who treats him like a servant.\u00a0 Jacob longs with all his heart to return home.\u00a0 His life in Haran is becoming more and more difficult, his uncle\u2019s sons were getting more and more resentful of him.\u00a0 Jacob senses the danger he is in, God calls out to him and instructs him to return to the land of his father.<\/p>

God called out again to Jacob assuring him that he will be alongside him as he journeys home.<\/p>

Jacob obeyed God\u2019s call at once and set out with his wives, children and flocks.\u00a0 As he travelled he started to become nervous, he had been away so long.\u00a0 He became afraid and questions started whirring in his head, what would it be like to be home, why had he not heard from his mother, would Esau have forgiven him?\u00a0 I think all of us who have been away for any length of time can empathise with how Jacob was feeling as he approaches his long awaited destination.\u00a0 Jacob sends messengers ahead to reassure Esau that he is coming in peace.\u00a0 We hear that the messengers return far faster than Jacob expects telling him that Esau is coming to meet him and has 400 men with him.\u00a0 That is definitely not the welcome Jacob dreamed of\u2026.\u00a0 400 men, that was an army, how was he to respond, what should he do.\u00a0<\/p>

In fear and desperation Jacob cried out to the Lord:<\/p>

\u2018O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, Lord who said to me go back to your country and your relatives and I will make you prosper.\u00a0 I am unworthy of the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant\u2026.. Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid.\u2019<\/p>

Jacob came to a stream rushing with water as it had recently rained.\u00a0 He helped his wives, children and the livestock across the river safely and they went on ahead of him.\u00a0 Jacob is drawn back to the river, he questions what he should do, should he flee, Esau\u2019s men must be really close.\u00a0 Night had fallen and he sat alone in the darkness once more.\u00a0 Suddenly he felt a strangers hands on him, a mysterious man he did not recognise.\u00a0 Jacob fought with all his might.\u00a0 At first he thought the stranger was his brother Esau. \u00a0The struggle went on for several hours all through the night.\u00a0 Yet the longer it went on the more it seemed like a dream.\u00a0 As dawn approached the stranger asked Jacob to release him.\u00a0 Jacob retorted \u2018Not until you bless me\u2019, remembering that his father had blessed him instead of Esau.\u00a0 Now he needed his brother\u2019s blessing.\u00a0 The stranger asked, \u2018What is your name\u2019 to which he replied \u2018Jacob\u2019.\u00a0 It was then that Jacob realised that the stranger he assumed was his brother did not sound like Esau.\u00a0 The man said<\/p>

\u2018You shall no longer be called Jacob, I shall call you Israel because you have struggled not only with God but also with humans and have overcome.\u2019<\/p>

God came again to his servant Jacob who had cried out to him in despair.<\/p>

It was then Jacob realised that he had seen God face to face.\u00a0 He named the place where he had seen God face to face Peniel which means the face of God. \u00a0\u00a0Jacob\u2019s struggle had been seen, acknowledged and God granted him his forgiveness.\u00a0 As Esau and his 400 men approached and again Jacob was afraid.\u00a0 But Jacob had nothing to fear, Esau stretched out his arms and welcomed him home.\u00a0<\/p>

Two weeks ago, I was at the Petertide ordinations of those who I trained alongside at the Local Ministry Programme.\u00a0 They were priested and the following day all led their first Communion services in their own churches for the first time. I have no doubt that all of those newly priested ministers have cried out, wrestled, questioned and felt unworthy of God\u2019s call at some point in their journey to ordination.\u00a0 And yet they trusted, they stayed in that uncomfortable place and discerned what God was calling them to do.\u00a0 We are assured that God will be faithful and equip all those who answer his call.\u00a0<\/p>

We are all called, by name by God.\u00a0 I wonder what the Lord is saying to you at this moment, what is he calling out to you and what do you need to hear?\u00a0 Is there something on your heart today, like Jacob, that you need to cry out to the Lord?<\/p>

The psalms are perhaps our greatest source of solace that the Lord will hear us when we call out to him.\u00a0 In Psalm 18 we hear the psalmist say,<\/p>

\u2018In my distress I cried to the Lord,
I cried to my God for help.
From his temple he heard my voice:
My cry came before him, into his ears.\u2019<\/p>

Maybe this week, we can take some time to reflect on God\u2019s call on our own lives.\u00a0 We do not know what the next chapter of our story might look like. \u00a0Whether at this moment we feel we need to cry out and be heard or thank God for all that he has already shared with us.\u00a0 He is always ready to listen if we are ready to hear.<\/p>

Genesis 32: 9-30<\/u><\/strong><\/p>

32\u00a0Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him;\u00a02\u00a0<\/sup>when Jacob saw them he said, \u201cThis is God\u2019s camp!\u201d So he called that place Mahanaim.[a<\/a>]<\/sup><\/p>

Jacob Sends Presents to Appease Esau<\/p>

3\u00a0<\/sup>Jacob sent messengers before him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom,\u00a04\u00a0<\/sup>instructing them, \u201cThus you shall say to my lord Esau: Thus says your servant Jacob, \u2018I have lived with Laban as an alien and stayed until now,\u00a05\u00a0<\/sup>and I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, male and female slaves, and I have sent to tell my lord, in order that I may find favor in your sight.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>

6\u00a0<\/sup>The messengers returned to Jacob, saying, \u201cWe came to your brother Esau, and he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.\u201d\u00a07\u00a0<\/sup>Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed, and he divided the people who were with him and the flocks and herds and camels into two companies,\u00a08\u00a0<\/sup>thinking, \u201cIf Esau comes to the one company and destroys it, then the company that is left will escape.\u201d<\/p>

9\u00a0<\/sup>And Jacob said, \u201cO God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O\u00a0Lord\u00a0who said to me, \u2018Return to your country and to your kindred, and I will do you good,\u2019\u00a010\u00a0<\/sup>I am not worthy of the least of all the steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant, for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two companies.\u00a011\u00a0<\/sup>Deliver me, please, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I am afraid of him; he may come and kill us all, the mothers with the children.\u00a012\u00a0<\/sup>Yet you have said, \u2018I will surely do you good and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted because of their number.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>

13\u00a0<\/sup>So he spent that night there, and from what he had with him he took a present for his brother Esau,\u00a014\u00a0<\/sup>two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams,\u00a015\u00a0<\/sup>thirty milch camels and their colts, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys.\u00a016\u00a0<\/sup>These he delivered into the hand of his servants, every drove by itself, and said to his servants, \u201cPass on ahead of me, and put a space between drove and drove.\u201d\u00a017\u00a0<\/sup>He instructed the one in the lead, \u201cWhen Esau my brother meets you and asks you, \u2018To whom do you belong? Where are you going? And whose are these ahead of you?\u2019\u00a018\u00a0<\/sup>then you shall say, \u2018They belong to your servant Jacob; they are a present sent to my lord Esau, and moreover he is behind us.\u2019 \u201d\u00a019\u00a0<\/sup>He likewise instructed the second and the third and all who followed the droves, \u201cYou shall say the same thing to Esau when you meet him,\u00a020\u00a0<\/sup>and you shall say, \u2018Moreover your servant Jacob is behind us.\u2019 \u201d For he thought, \u201cI may appease him with the present that goes ahead of me, and afterwards I shall see his face; perhaps he will accept me.\u201d\u00a021\u00a0<\/sup>So the present passed on ahead of him, and he himself spent that night in the camp.<\/p>

Jacob Wrestles at Peniel<\/p>

22\u00a0<\/sup>The same night he got up and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.\u00a023\u00a0<\/sup>He took them and sent them across the stream, and likewise everything that he had.\u00a024\u00a0<\/sup>Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak.\u00a025\u00a0<\/sup>When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket, and Jacob\u2019s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him.\u00a026\u00a0<\/sup>Then he said, \u201cLet me go, for the day is breaking.\u201d But Jacob said, \u201cI will not let you go, unless you bless me.\u201d\u00a027\u00a0<\/sup>So he said to him, \u201cWhat is your name?\u201d And he said, \u201cJacob.\u201d\u00a028\u00a0<\/sup>Then the man[b<\/a>]<\/sup>\u00a0said, \u201cYou shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel,[c<\/a>]<\/sup>\u00a0for you have striven with God and with humans[d<\/a>]<\/sup>\u00a0and have prevailed.\u201d\u00a029\u00a0<\/sup>Then Jacob asked him, \u201cPlease tell me your name.\u201d But he said, \u201cWhy is it that you ask my name?\u201d And there he blessed him.\u00a030\u00a0<\/sup>So Jacob called the place Peniel,[e<\/a>]<\/sup>\u00a0saying, \u201cFor I have seen God face to face, yet my life is preserved.\u201d<\/p>

Mark 7 1-23<\/strong><\/p>

7\u00a0<\/strong>Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him,\u00a02\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them.\u00a03\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>(For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they wash their hands,[a<\/a>]<\/sup>\u00a0thus observing the tradition of the elders,\u00a04\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash,[b<\/a>]<\/sup>\u00a0and there are also many other traditions that they observe: the washing of cups and pots and bronze kettles and beds.[c<\/a>]<\/sup>)\u00a05\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, \u201cWhy do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders but eat with defiled hands?\u201d\u00a06\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>He said to them, \u201cIsaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written,<\/p>

\u2018This people honors me with their lips,
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0but their hearts are far from me;
7\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>in vain do they worship me,
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0teaching human precepts as doctrines.\u2019<\/p>

8\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>\u201cYou abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.\u201d<\/p>

9\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>Then he said to them, \u201cYou have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition!\u00a010\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>For Moses said, \u2018Honor your father and your mother,\u2019 and, \u2018Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must surely die.\u2019\u00a011\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>But you say that if anyone tells father or mother, \u2018Whatever support you might have had from me is Corban\u2019 (that is, an offering to God[d<\/a>]<\/sup>),\u00a012\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>then you no longer permit doing anything for a father or mother,\u00a013\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>thus nullifying the word of God through your tradition that you have handed on. And you do many things like this.\u201d<\/p>

14\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>Then he called the crowd again and said to them, \u201cListen to me, all of you, and understand:\u00a015\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.\u201d[e<\/a>]<\/sup><\/p>

17\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>When he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about the parable.\u00a018\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>He said to them, \u201cSo, are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile,\u00a019\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>since it enters not the heart but the stomach and goes out into the sewer?\u201d (Thus he declared all foods clean.)\u00a020\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>And he said, \u201cIt is what comes out of a person that defiles.\u00a021\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: sexual immorality, theft, murder,\u00a022\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, debauchery, envy, slander, pride, folly.\u00a023\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.\u201d<\/p>

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Amber Wood \/ 13th July 2025<\/h6>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

13th jULY 2025 eVENSONG Genesis 32:9-30 and Mark 7:1-23. I love escaping into the pages of a good book, it is something I have enjoyed since I was a young child.\u00a0 Sometimes we can be tempted to skip ahead to find out what happens next.\u00a0 \u00a0I remember being told by my mother how much it … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Sermon 2025-07-13”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_angie_page":false,"page_builder":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stjameschurchabinger.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stjameschurchabinger.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stjameschurchabinger.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stjameschurchabinger.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stjameschurchabinger.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19463"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.stjameschurchabinger.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19463\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19557,"href":"https:\/\/www.stjameschurchabinger.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19463\/revisions\/19557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stjameschurchabinger.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stjameschurchabinger.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stjameschurchabinger.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}