Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Sermons from Commons Church. Intellectually honest. Spiritually passionate. Jesus at the centre. Since 2014.
Welcome to the commons cast. We're glad to have you here. We hope you find something meaningful in our teaching this week. Head to commons.church for more information.
Jeremy Duncan:This is the 1st Sunday of 2024, and that means a new series to start the new year. And this is gonna be a quick one. It's only 2 weeks long, And it's about picking up, and it's about letting go. No surprise there based on the screen behind me. But that felt like an appropriate conversation to begin the new year with because like it or not, the new year is often a bit of a reset for a lot of us.
Jeremy Duncan:We evaluate our commitments, and we take stock of our energy levels. We make resolutions about how we're going to change and where we're going to be better. We spent a lot of mental energy thinking about what's going to be different. The thing is, for anything to actually be different, We need more than just mental energy. We actually need to pick some new things up, and we need to let some old things go.
Jeremy Duncan:And we wanna start today with the letting go so that next week, our hands are perhaps just a little more free to pick some things up. So let's pray. And then today, let's let some things go. God of new beginnings, who is always ahead of us, Inviting us forward, encouraging us to begin and to begin again. Would you be present in the start of this new year with us As we imagine ourselves in new moments and situations, as we learn to love the best about what it is you have created in us, As we survey a new year laid out before us full of possibility and danger and triumph and failure, Might we become captured by what you see in us, goodness and kindness and strength And resolve we sometimes struggle to notice.
Jeremy Duncan:Fill our lungs with fresh breath of spirit. Allow us to see with new eyes all the possibilities ahead. Bring us forward in joy as real as grace, to celebrate your holy presence in and around us today. In the strong name of the risen Christ, we pray. Amen.
Jeremy Duncan:Picking up and letting go, a conversation about what is going to be different for us this new year. Today, though, we start with the letting go. And to do that, I wanna talk about fantasy football just for a moment. Now stick with me here Because I play fantasy football, but I, like you, hate fantasy football. So this year, I made it all the way to the finals of the b division in in my league, and I still lost.
Jeremy Duncan:And no matter what anyone tells you, missing the playoffs is still better than losing in the final because Tyler Hawkinson got injured in week 16. On a positive note, finishing 2nd in our league means I get promoted to the a division next year where I will Absolutely finish in the bottom 2 and be relegated to the b division the following year still. Here's the thing about this sport adjacent enterprise we call fantasy football. The whole premise of fantasy football is I'm not good at football, But I'm good at having opinions about it. Like, that's it.
Jeremy Duncan:That's why my friends and I have put together a league with 2 divisions and a relegation system and Actual championship belts that everyone else seems to get their engraved name on. I have opinions, and I'd like them to be recognized. Fantasy football is basically Twitter with playoffs. And, honestly, if it didn't exist, someone would have to invent it as a metaphor for society. Still, Who knows?
Jeremy Duncan:2024 might be my year. But I start here not to denigrate opinions. I have a lot of them, and I'm quite fond of them. I start here because opinions have a way over time of being fossilized, and that's a real danger As we enter into a new year, imagining all of the possibilities for change and growth. Because when your opinions get stuck, They have a way of becoming narratives.
Jeremy Duncan:No longer just a statement about how we view the world, but now a story that tells us how we Must view the world. And this is where the practice of continually letting go is far more difficult, and to be honest, I think Far more important than we often realize, because sometimes we're not just letting go of unhealthy practices Or even unhelpful ideas or just old hurts, we're letting go of all the stories that we have allowed to define us, Opinions that have become fossilized and fixed. And often, letting go of that is the prerequisite Who is it for all of the change that we hope to actually see in ourselves? And to talk about this today, I wanna go all the way back Near the beginning, back to the book of Genesis so that we can look today at awkward twins and intimidating reunions, Expected responses and finally, abandoning some of those old stories. And we wanna do that By reacquainting ourselves with the story of Jacob or at least the close of his story and the reconciliation with his brother Esau.
Jeremy Duncan:Now you may not remember the whole story. It's been about 7 years since we talked about our boy Jacob here at commons. Way back in the beginning, a man named Abraham is called by god to leave his home in Ur and go somewhere new. And that's a big deal because right at the start, it orients the story of the Hebrew scriptures in a forward looking posture. Leave where you are.
Jeremy Duncan:Let go of everything you're familiar with to pursue or to pick up, you might even say, a new adventure. That's a pretty new year adjacent posture to begin with. But not only that, in this moving forward, Abraham is told that all peoples, the entire earth, will eventually be blessed through his faithfulness. And that becomes the groundwork for everything that unfolds throughout the Hebrew story. History is going somewhere, and that somewhere is good.
Jeremy Duncan:Now later, Abraham has a son. In that son, Isaac, has a pair of twins, and those twins are named Jacob and Esau. Spoiler, Jacob is later renamed Israel, the one who struggles with god, so he's kind of a big deal. However, Considering that auspicious ending, Jacob is probably not the character you might expect him to be. When he's born, he comes out 2nd, grasping the heel of his brother Esau.
Jeremy Duncan:The image here implying that right from the star. He is struggling with his place in the world, fighting to be the firstborn. Even his name, Ya'aqob, is a pun that's based on that moment. His full name, Ya'akob Eliel, means something like god will travel with him, but akob sounds a lot like akeb, which is the Hebrew word for the heel that Jacob came out holding on to. So just imagine growing up with the name heel grabber in middle school.
Jeremy Duncan:Maybe that's why Jacob turns out the way that he does. Who knows? Because there's grasping and grabbing and striving and even conniving. It becomes more than a pun. It's It's like a vibe for Jacob.
Jeremy Duncan:See, his brother Esau is a bit of a brute of a man. He's hairy and red, and he loves hunting with his dad. Everything Isaac was looking for in a firstborn son, Jacob, more of a homebody. He's a good cook, and he hangs out with mom near the tents all day. We even get this really awkward moment in Genesis 25 where it says that as the boys grew up, Esau became a Skillful hunter, a man of the open country, while Jacob was content to stay at home among the tents.
Jeremy Duncan:Isaac loved Esau, But Rebecca loved Jacob. So already, like, there's some significant family dysfunction going on in the background here all the way along in this story. But this culminates in 2 important moments. 1st, Jacob entices his brother into a really bad deal. He convinces his lovable, but perhaps a little impulsive brother to trade his birthright for a bowl of stew.
Jeremy Duncan:Essentially, exchanging his larger share of the inheritance as the firstborn for lunch one day. Of course, that's kind of absurd. I mean, why would anyone make such a boneheaded decision? But remember, these stories are stylized. They're building to a point.
Jeremy Duncan:That sets us up for our 2nd major moment when Jacob and his mother Rebecca go in together, and they trick their father into giving Jacob a blessing thing that was meant for Esau. I mean, they literally go as far as strapping goat skins to Jacob's arms so that he will feel as hairy as his brother to their old and blind father. They go to the pens, and they Kill 2 of their own goats so they can pass them off as hunted game, and then Rebecca listens for her son, Esa, to leave so Jacob can swoop in. Strapped in fake hair, carrying supermarket meals to steal a blessing from his dying dad meant for his own brother. Like, not cool, bro.
Jeremy Duncan:Fact so not cool that when Esau returns, the somewhat understandably, threatens to kill his brother Jacob, who then has to run away. Like, the point in the story here is basically the collapse of the entire Abrahamic dream. The family that was meant to heal the world now torn apart by dysfunction and deception and naked ambition. So from there, everyone goes their separate ways. And Jacob learned some lessons the hard way.
Jeremy Duncan:He even gets a taste of his own medicine from a deceptive uncle. But over time, Jacob pushes through and gets married, becomes Wealthy wrestles an angel, wrenches his hip, limps with a cane, and gets a new name. And that brings us all the way around to where the story comes all the way around. Because almost immediately upon receiving this metaphorical rebirth and This new name, Israel, we read in Genesis 33 that Jacob looked up, and there was Esau coming with his 400 men. Now this is the climax of a meeting that Jacob has asked for earlier.
Jeremy Duncan:But imagine here, this is the first time that Jacob has seen Esau, since Esau threatened to kill him and remember, Esau was always a man who knew how to hunt. So Jacob is definitely on edge here. Faqisa is variously described by scholars as, quote, an example of bestial veracity, an uncouth glutton, A man of boorish manners. And, yes, those are actual quotes from real scholars in published commentaries, not just taunts from well spoken schoolyard bullies in Britain. Like, come on, guys.
Jeremy Duncan:You serious with this stuff here? Point remains, Jacob is probably more than a little terrified with his brute of a brother right now. In fact, ahead of this encounter here, he has sent wave after wave of gift in front of him toward his brother to, buy him off. 200 female goats and 20 male, 200 ewes and 20 ram, 30 female Camels with their young 40 cows and 10 bulls, 20 female and 10 male donkeys. All of this in 3 waves with 3 servants who supposed to explain that this is a gift from Jacob who hopes to pacify his brothers, how the NIV explains it.
Jeremy Duncan:Now the really interesting moment here, not least of which is because all of this is really hard to translate into English. A literal rendering of the Hebrew here would be something like Jacob sent this gift on his face, Or maybe you could say in front of his face. There's sort of this combination of the gift being A representation of him and his contrition, so it goes in front of him in that sense. It represents him, but, also, I think it's an indication that this gift is meant to Shield him in some way. Right?
Jeremy Duncan:Like, he can't face his brother directly. Maybe he even struggles to face a past that he's ashamed of directly so the gift will go in front of him. Except it's not just that. Because while the gift was sent in front of his face, Jacob now says that he hopes the gift will pacify his brother or more literally cover the face of Esau. It's in front of his face to cover his brother's face.
Jeremy Duncan:And that term covered, kapara, in Hebrew Is the same word kippur from Yom Kippur or the day of atonement, the day when god covered the sins of the people? Except you see the problem here. Right? Like, Jacob isn't trying to cover his sins. He's not trying to atone for what he's done.
Jeremy Duncan:Perhaps he doesn't ever think he can actually make amends for everything. So instead, he tries to cover his brother's face and blind Esau with large ass. I will buy my way back from the brink, he thinks. That's what all of this placing a gift between his face and his brother's face is all about. It's about using, Let's be gracious here and call it generosity to build a barrier between Jacob and his past.
Jeremy Duncan:And look, I'm not down on generosity. It can be a powerful way to show repentance and the fact that you've changed your priorities. All of that can be good, but this This isn't really that, is it? This is Jacob trying to buy his way out of facing what he did to his brother. And this is what I mean when I talk about our narratives slowly coming to define us, How powerful they can be in our lives because it's been years, decades actually, since Jacob has seen his brother.
Jeremy Duncan:And a lot has happened in the interim. Right? Jacob literally wrestled an angel and saw the face of god and lived to tell the tale for goodness' sake. And yet, here in this moment, About to meet his brother, the only story that Jacob has available to him is the one that took shape All those years ago when Esau was at his most vulnerable. For Jacob, Esau is still, Exactly who he was when in a moment of anger, he lashed out in frustration.
Jeremy Duncan:And maybe part of the problem here is that Jacob wonders if he's still that same person too. And so to avoid that story, he sends gifts, Wave after wave in front of his face to build up a wall between himself and his past, and he looks up, and there's Esau coming with his 400 men. So he thinks, well, this isn't good. So he divides his children among his wives, Leah and Rachel and His 2 female servants, and he puts the female servants and their children in front, and Zia and her children next, and Rachel and Joseph in the rear, but he himself, he goes on ahead. And he bows down to the ground 7 times as he approaches his brother.
Jeremy Duncan:But Esau, When he sees Jacob in the distance, he runs to meet him and embraces him. He throws his arm around his neck and kisses him, and they wept together. If that sounds familiar, by the way, that's because this is exactly the moment that Jesus has in mind when he tells the story of the prodigal son. Remember that one? A son that squanders his father's wealth on wild living and hits rock bottom and has nowhere to go, So he finally comes home, but while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and filled with compassion for him.
Jeremy Duncan:He ran to his son, Threw his arms around his neck and kissed him, Luke 15/20. Jesus thinks Jacob is the prodigal in this story, which by the way should also tell you something about how Jesus views our wealth because Jacob is loaded at this point. But as Jesus tells it, he's hit rock bottom until he can reconcile with his brother. And just to make that point clear, this is how Esau responds to Jacob's generosity. Verse 8, Esau asked, what's the meaning of all these flocks and herds I met To find favor in your eyes, my lord, Jacob replied.
Jeremy Duncan:But Esau said, I already have plenty, my brother. Keep what you have for yourself. That is not what I'm here for, Jacob. And this is what I find So fascinating about the entire Jacob story, because Jacob is undoubtedly the protagonist of the tale. Right?
Jeremy Duncan:He's the one renamed Israel. He's where the entire nation gets its name after all, but he is not the hero here, At least not the way we might expect. See, over and over and over again, We find him messing up his relationships and tripping over his own ambition. We see him hurt people that he should care about. We watch him figuratively and literally struggle with god.
Jeremy Duncan:And the only consistent takeaway that I can possibly imagine from making This guy, the nation's namesake, is that as far as god is concerned, you are not now who you were then. The steadfast love of god is new every morning, and who you are now is not determined by who you were. But then it's not just that, is it? Because if you're not your worst moment, then, Well, neither is anyone else. Right?
Jeremy Duncan:And think about it here. We get to watch Jacob stumble and fall and pick himself back up again. We get to watch the moment where his attempt to buy his way back from the brink is completely unmasked by grace. But you know what we don't get to see? We don't get to see how Esau ends up here.
Jeremy Duncan:I mean, the last time Jacob saw him, he was threatening to kill him. Careless scholars are describing him as something less than human. His readers We get one little snapshot where he heads off to marry a woman specifically because his dad doesn't want him to. Manja, here at the end of the story, we're united with his brother. It's Esau that surprises us.
Jeremy Duncan:It's Esau that cuts through all the nonsense and the extravagance. It's Esau that steps through all the history and hard feelings. It's Esau that grants his brother what Jacob can't even imagine is possible. And it's not it's not just a blind eye to what happened. It's reconciliation.
Jeremy Duncan:It's repair from all the years that Jacob has carried around an old, old story about what he did to his brother and what his brother must Think of him still. And that is made possible because there is a lifetime of healing and maturing and growth and transformation that takes place in Esau, and all of it happens off the page where we don't get to see it. And all the while, Jacob is still holding on to an old story about his brother from his worst moment 20 years ago. Esau's a radically different person, and Jacobs thinks he's still who he was then. See, as much as this story is about how Jacob is more than his mistakes, it's also equally about how Esau is so much more than his hurt.
Jeremy Duncan:If you go back to the start of the story in chapter 27, and Jacob has just Cheated him out of his birthright and stolen his blessing. Esau cries out in pain. He says, this is the 2nd time he's taken advantage of me. Literally, he says, this is the 2nd time he has Jacob ed me. That's what he actually says in Hebrew.
Jeremy Duncan:Because that's what he thinks brother. Right? He's a no good dirty rotten scoundrel, and perhaps in that moment, he's not wrong. But the problem is, for some of us, we're still stuck way back there. And someone hurt us or they betrayed us, they misrepresented us, they took Something that wasn't theirs and they got away with it, but we didn't.
Jeremy Duncan:And it's been years, and we're still holding on to all that hurt. I was taken advantage of, and I deserve my revenge. And sometimes what's happened is that old story has stopped us from moving forward in our story. And that moment, as painful as it was, has now become a narrative that's telling us things about ourself And things about all the people around us and things about who god is and things about how we can never trust again. And look, I'm not here to tell you when to let go.
Jeremy Duncan:That's for you to work through. I have no idea when or where Esau came to the place where we reunite with him in chapter 33. That's his story, and apparently, it was for him. Sometimes it takes all of us a very long time to get there, but I am gonna suggest that at some point when the time comes and you've held on long enough And you've learned the lessons and you've grieved the pain, there will come a point where you just need to let go of it. And please hear me here.
Jeremy Duncan:That does not mean you need to let your Jacob back in your life. There are some moments that relationships just simply can't come back from. I get it. What it means is that at some point, you stop letting an old story tell you what's possible now. Because sometimes, like Esau, when we're ready in god's grace, what we find is They're not who they were either.
Jeremy Duncan:And here's the thing about this new year As we enter into with new goals and new energy for who we're going to become, a lot of us are sometimes holding on to old narratives that are gonna make it very hard to pick up anything new. And maybe this year, you're Jacob, and you need to let go of an old story about who you were and the kind of grace that you are worth. You've changed. Or maybe you're Esau, and you need to let go of an old story about someone who hurt you, and you can discover your own capacity for healing. They've changed, and maybe you can forgive.
Jeremy Duncan:Maybe it's as simple as this. You look at the new year and you're like, look, I need to slow down. I need To rest better in the new year, but even that, that means you're gonna need to let go of an old story that tells you your worth comes from what you produce. Like, there are a thousand of these old stories that loop in our minds, and they tell us what is possible. And as much as we dream about what we might pick up this new year, those dreams will only take shape once we let go of what's been holding us in place right now.
Jeremy Duncan:So may you begin to dream about health and wholeness for yourself This year, may you believe that your capacity for healing and forgiveness and transformation is Larger than you imagined last year. May you trust that god is working in the letting go, God is working in the picking up because god is present wherever it is that you find yourself today. Let's pray. God, as we head into a new year, Recognizing that at the end of the day, it's just another mark on the calendar. But it is a chance for us to look back And to recollect our memories, to think through the stories we begun to tell ourselves about ourselves because of that history, And then to decide what stories we need to let go of.
Jeremy Duncan:Stories about ourself and who we are and what our worth is. Stories about those around us who've hurt us that we can't imagine they could possibly change. Stories that hold us in place when there is a whole new adventure just waiting for us on the other side of tomorrow. God, by your spirit, might you be near, helping us realize that the letting go is just as important as the picking up, And that sometimes that's the first step into the new path you're calling us down. In the strong name of the risen Christ, we pray.
Jeremy Duncan:Amen. Hey. Jeremy here, and thanks for listening to our podcast. If you're intrigued by the work that we're doing here at commons, you can head to our website commons.church for more information. You can find us on all of the socials at commonschurch.
Jeremy Duncan:You can subscribe to our YouTube channel where we are posting content regularly for the community. You can also join our Discord server. Head to commons.church/discord for the invite, and there, you will find the community having all kinds of conversations about how we can encourage each other to follow the way of Jesus. We would love to hear from you. Anyway, thanks for tuning in.
Jeremy Duncan:Have a great week. We'll talk to you soon.