A sermon preached by the Reverend Scott D. Nowack
on Sunday, July 26, 2009,
at Abington Presbyterian Church, Abington, Pennsylvania. 

A Family Reunion of Sorts
Genesis 33:1-17

            Family reunions: the chance to gather together with relatives, both near and distant, to celebrate and remember the common bond that is shared. It’s a great time to catch up with each other; to get the latest news from one another. Cousins meet for the first time. Grandmas and Grandpas share stories from their younger days and pass on family traditions to the next generation. The common bonds they share are reinforced and renewed.

And every family has at least one unique loved one who stands out from everyone else, whether it is in their appearance, their personality and in their behavior.

They may be the one who drinks too much at these gatherings or they love to argue with others or they play one too many obnoxious jokes on certain people. And all this and more pushes some family members to the boiling point. It’s at that point that they let off some steam in a verbal offensive that would make the most seafaring sailor blush in embarrassment. A rift is formed and a wall erected. Years can go by before the two individuals involved apologize and reconcile their differences; sometimes it heals the scar that exists and sometimes it doesn’t.

I don’t think Jacob expected the response he received from Esau at their “family reunion” of sorts. Remember the last time Jacob saw Esau? They weren’t exactly on speaking terms. Esau wanted revenge on Jacob and had threatened to kill him, so when messengers returned to say that Esau was coming to meet Jacob with four hundred men, Jacob is afraid, very afraid. In an effort to appease his brother and find favor with him, Jacob had sent a gift of assorted livestock ahead of him with these messengers. He wants to see if this gift would influence Esau to have mercy on him.

Not knowing Esau’s reaction to the gift, Jacob is anxious and fearful when he sees Esau approaching. So much so that he goes limping ahead of everybody bowing down before him seven times as a servant would in the presence of his lord. Behind Jacob is his family with his favorite wife Rachel and favorite son Joseph protected behind everybody else. What a time to be showing favoritism!

Jacob is expecting a fight, a real rumble, a wicked thrashing from his brother. Ironically, he treats Esau as his lord and himself as his servant. It’s ironic because it was Jacob who was blessed and made lord over Esau by Issac, but now the roles are reversed. Then the unexpected happens…Esau comes not to kill Jacob or to steal from him or cause him harm. Esau comes to welcome him home! Like the father of the prodigal son, “Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck and kissed him and they wept.” (Gen. 33:4) Esau doesn’t come with weapons of war. He comes with open arms and a loving heart. He has forgiven Jacob and seeks to be reconciled with him. They were alienated from one another for over twenty years and now is the time in Esau’s eyes for it to end.

Their conversation is tense and solemn. They speak to one another in a ritualistic manner, exchanging niceties and keeping their interaction as formal as possible. Esau tries to turn down the gift Jacob had sent to curry his favor, but is convinced otherwise by Jacob to accept it. And to seal the deal, Esau offered to accompany Jacob on the rest of his journey home.

This final interaction between God’s chosen one and the rejected one is the final piece in the puzzle for Esau. He departs in trust believing Jacob’s reason for staying behind. Esau acts in good faith while Jacob deceives his brother traveling in the opposite direction. We must ask ourselves whether after Jacob’s face-to-face exchange with God is he a changed man or is this more of his deceitfulness and posturing? We don’t really know for sure. Either way, to the public eye, they have been reconciled. The main issues of birthright and Isaac’s blessing have been resolved. The main tension of their relationship has reached the end.

However, it’s by no means a complete ending. It’s not a “they lived happily ever after” kind of story. Yes, their meeting was civil and proper. There was no yelling or name calling or blood shed. Jacob has no intention of having anything to do with his brother again. He was glad that Esau was now out of his way and out of his life. In essence, Jacob’s encounter with Esau ends short of a full reconciliation.

All of us, at one time or another has left an open wound untreated. In time, it becomes infected; your body tries to fight the infection, forms a scab and leaves a scar. The scar serves as a constant reminder of what caused the wound in the first place. Like a bad tattoo, it never really goes away.

Falling short of full reconciliation, to forgive only in part, leaves a lasting scar on our lives. It’s an easy trap to get caught in because we live in a world that prizes vengeance over peace, retaliation over reconciliation, and getting even over making things right.

When we forgive one another and reconcile ourselves to each other, we are free to truly see the face of God.

The life we live with God and the life we live with each other are two sides of the same coin. We are all interrelated and interconnected. Whatever affects one directly, affects the other indirectly. The poet and preacher John Donne put it so eloquently many centuries ago when he wrote, “No man is an island entire of itself. Every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.” And he goes on to say, “Any man’s death diminishes me, for I’m involved in mankind. So never send for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.”

Reconciliation tears down walls that disconnect us from one another and from God. If I am not reconciled fully with my neighbor, my family, my friends and co-workers and classmates, then I am not fully reconciled with God. And if I am not reconciled fully with God, then I am not fully reconciled with others.

Without reconciliation, we are left isolated from one another and isolated from the God who loves us with a love beyond description.

Evangelist Billy Graham says this about reconciliation, “The number one problem in our world is alienation, rich versus poor, black versus white, labor versus management, conservative versus liberal, East versus West…But Christ came into the world to bring about reconciliation and peace.”

My friends, if we really believe what we say we believe, if we really are disciples of Jesus Christ, then we must follow our calling to bring reconciliation and peace and forgiveness to this world in Christ’s name. The Bible says, “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!” The Apostle Paul in his letter to the Corinthians goes on to say, “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given US the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.” (II Cor. 5:16-21)

Look at yourself. Look at your life. Whose forgiveness do you still seek? Who still needs forgiveness from you? What’s getting in the way? Where have you offered forgiveness only in part?

Jacob falls short of the mark. He reconciles with his brother only in part. With Christ, we are fully reconciled to one another and the Living God.

We’ve been given the message of reconciliation; the message of God’s amazing grace and love for the world. Take this message to work, to school, to wherever your life takes you. We must not waste it, we must proclaim it. We must not hide it, we must live it. We must not deny it, we must provide it to one another.

In Christ’s name, be reconciled to God! Amen.