Ordinary Holiness

https://youtu.be/3z1VPY5NxFs

First Reading

A READING FROM THE BOOK OF GENESIS

Jacob left Beer-sheba and went toward Haran. He came to a certain place and stayed there for the night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place. And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven; and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And the Lord stood beside him and said, "I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring; and your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you and in your offspring. Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you." Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, "Surely the Lord is in this place - and I did not know it!" And he was afraid, and said, "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven." So Jacob rose early in the morning, and he took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it. He called that place Bethel.

GENESIS 28:10-19A

Sermon: The Rev. Dr. Maryann Amor

When we think about holiness, often what comes to mind are those things that are set apart from our normal, everyday lives. Holy places are churches, synagogues, and mosques. They are those thin spaces, like Iona in Scotland or Taizé in France, where people often speak of feeling close to God. Holy people are the saints, the prophets, those called in extraordinary ways to do the work of God. Holy places and holy people are special, unique, set apart from the ordinary.

But in our first reading today, we discover that these ways of understanding holiness don't quite fit Scripture.

In this reading we heard the familiar story of Jacob's ladder. Jacob is in the middle of a journey. As he travels, night falls and he has to stop. He finds a stone, places it under his head as a pillow, and falls asleep.

And while he is sleeping, God appears to him. God shows him a ladder—a stairway—that connects heaven and earth, with angels ascending and descending upon it. Then God speaks to Jacob: "I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring... Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go... for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you."

Jacob wakes up shocked and says to himself, "Surely the Lord is in this place—and I did not know it." He realizes he has encountered something holy. He takes the stone that had been his pillow, stands it upright, pours oil over it, and names the place Beth-El, which in Hebrew means House of God.

On the surface, it really does look as though both Jacob and the place where he stopped must have been holy. After all, God appears to Jacob in a dream, and the place becomes known as the House of God.

But when we look more closely, neither Jacob nor the place is particularly holy at all.

The place where Jacob stops is simply an ordinary place. Jacob didn't choose it because it was sacred. He chose it because it was getting dark and he needed somewhere to sleep.

And Jacob himself is anything but perfect. His name in Hebrew is associated with grasping the heel, because he was born grasping the heel of his twin brother Esau. Throughout Genesis, his name comes to suggest someone who schemes, because Jacob cheats Esau out of his birthright—the blessing promised to the oldest son by their father. At this point in the story, Jacob is known more for his scheming than for his honesty.

So both the place and Jacob are just ordinary. He doesn't stop at a temple. He isn't a saint. He isn't searching for God. He's simply tired.

But God is present. And I think that's one of the most amazing parts of this story.

The place did not suddenly become holy because God decided to show up there. Jacob's own words tell us what happened: "Surely the Lord is in this place—and I did not know it." God was already there. The place was already holy because God's presence filled it. What changed was not the place—it was Jacob. His eyes were opened to the holiness that had been there all along.

The same is true of Jacob. God doesn't wait until Jacob has sorted out his life before speaking to him. God comes to him as he is, in the middle of his failures, in the middle of his journey, and promises, "I am with you." And maybe this is where we find ourselves in the story.

It invites us to see that holiness isn't reserved for special places and special people. But God's holiness breaks into the ordinary because God is already there. The challenge isn't to make ordinary places holy. The challenge is to see the holiness that is already present because God is present.

Our calling is to become like Jacob—to recognize God's presence and say to ourselves, "Surely the Lord is in this place." Surely the Lord is in my home. Surely the Lord is in my workplace. Surely the Lord is in my neighbourhood. Surely the Lord is at Eastlink, or Tim Hortons, or Superstore.

Maybe Beth-El isn’t just a place in the Bible, maybe Beth-El is wherever our eyes are opened to the presence of God.

And the same is true of people. Sometimes we imagine that God works only through the exceptionally holy—the saints, the prophets, the great spiritual writers. But Jacob reminds us that this isn't true. God works through imperfect people. God meets ordinary people. God calls flawed people.

To be one of God's people doesn't mean pretending we are perfect or somehow becoming worthy enough for God to love us. It means recognizing that God already knows us and still chooses to walk with us.

The psalmist says today that God "has searched us out and known us." God knows our sitting down and our rising up. Even before a word is on our tongue, God knows it.

We might beat ourselves up when we make a mistake, when we lose our temper, when we say something we regret, when we fail to live up to the people we want to be. But God already knows every one of those moments. God knew Jacob. God knows us. And still God says, "I am with you."

God begins with us exactly as we are. And maybe that is where holiness begins—not with our perfection, but with our willingness to recognize God's presence and respond to it.

Holiness isn’t escaping ordinary life or waiting until we've become perfect. It is not about believing that God is only found in special places or among extraordinary people like the saints. But holiness is opening our eyes to the God who has been with us all along.

So let us leave here today with Jacob's words on our lips: "Surely the Lord is in this place—and I did not know it." And wherever we go this week, may we discover that the ordinary places of our lives, and the ordinary people we encounter—including ourselves—are already holy because God is present.

Amen.