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Determined at Birth Genesis 25:19 – 34 Richard Semmler is a teacher at Northern Virginia Community College. He teaches calculus and algebra — nothing that would have awarded him special notation in the newspaper last month. He is the son of an electrician and a secretary — who could not afford to send their son to college — again nothing to make him newsworthy. His annual household income is $100,000 — which is upper middle class — certainly not lower or upper income. Average U.S. households give two percent to charity; for Semmler that would mean $2,000. Richard Semmler is a wonderful case for stewardship sermons and conversations. Here is a man who has become a philanthropist — not because he has a great deal of money, not because his parents taught him to be so, but, because, at some point in his life he made a decision to share what he has, as he chose to live a very meager but satisfying life. God provides the good soil and the seeds for wonderful vegetation, incredible people, and a great existence. But the soil and seed combination do not always produce Richard Semmlers. There are many examples of how we harden the soil, plant thistles, and allow the sun to beat us down. However, stories of wonder and joy like this one must bring celebration in the reign and heart of God. Is there something within each of us — designed by God, determined at birth — that gives an indication of our end result? What statistical correlation is there for us with what God had been dreaming for us? Jacob is the main player in today’s Hebrew scripture. Esau, his twin brother, is the fall guy, the one who sets the stage for the star, the buffoon who brings a laugh so that the light will shine brightly on the other. You have heard me say before that the richness of Biblical stories is not for us to remember as fact or history. They were passed through the generations and told — and still are told and read today — so that people of faith would understand how God works in ordinary, flawed, sometimes desperate lives. The stories are told so we can ponder what are the chances of God’s dreams for us to come true. Grandfather Abraham — grandfather to this set of twins — had been promised he would be father to a great nation. The problem was that several of the matriarchs were infertile — or at least the women were taking the rap for not being able to conceive. We’ve already dealt with Abraham’s late-in-life son, Isaac, and his dismissed son, Ishmael. Now we have the reality that Isaac married a woman who was also barren, but, finally, Rebekah conceived. We have a pattern here. God made a promise, but the fulfillment of that promise was not on a very good or acceptable timetable. Then, when the fulfillment did come, there were more complications. The complication with Rebekah was that she had twins and they were fighting even before they were born. Several women of this congregation have had twins and I have known other women who carried twins. Although I have not heard the term ‘fighting’ used ‘excessive activity’ is a descriptor for many sets of twins in utero. The fighting of Jacob and Esau continued for years, and we have several tales throughout Genesis of their antics. When this first promise to Abraham was made, the expectation was for a clear bloodline. That would have been the cultural expectation. Twins mess up that clarity. Suddenly a decision has to be made about which brother the line would follow. This may seem absurd to us (in western, non-royal culture) but this is no small concern for the family of Abraham (nor for many parts of the world still today). The other dissimilar aspect brought up in the passage is about the naming of children. In America we often name our children because we think the name is pretty, cute, ‘good for a boy,’ popular, or because the child is to be named for a favorite relative. Isaac and Rebekah would have thought our reasons for naming our children were very silly. Names for children then coincided with what they knew already about those children. Esau was ‘born red and hairy,’ and, therefore, received a name closely linked to people of the area who looked like him and whose name was similar to red. Jacob’s name means ‘he supplanted’ or ‘he took by the heel,’ relating to his striving to be the first born and trying to get Esau out of the way even in the womb. Added to the problem of twins in the blood line — and their fighting even before birth — is the reality that their father loved one more and their mother loved the other more. OK, God, what are you going to do with all these complications? What are your expectations for these men, and how will your promises be fulfilled through them? Neither one is really a hero…not yet. From the beginning it’s clear that Jacob is the chosen one. It is his story that we follow. It is his heritage that we know. It is Jacob’s life for which the people of faith are most concerned to share and understand. I don’t believe that Esau was ‘destined’ to be so stupid as to sell his birthright for a bowl of soup. I also don’t believe that Jacob was ‘destined’ to be so conniving that he would trick his brother in that way. The God we love does not make pre-birth determinations on our character like that. I believe God wanted more for both men. We always have choice along the path of life. Both these young men were making those decisions that would evolve their life’s circumstances to the next stage. C.S. Lewis in his marvelous book, Mere Christianity (HarperCollins, 1943) writes that the ‘ordinary idea of life starts with ourselves as the center. Then the good of society or morality provides things for us to do…to be good. At the same time, we know what are the bad things we try to avoid. All of life is spent trying to do enough of the good and not being tempted to do the bad…the aim being that at some point we can relax and be our true selves for a while.’ It is a great deal of work! For Lewis, he realized that God wanted more than that from him. When he became a Christian, he had to give up the notion of doing so much good and keeping away from the bad and just give his entire life over — so that it would be utterly transformed, determined for, and consumed by God, whom he knew through Jesus Christ. This is the kind of transformation, I believe, God is hoping for every one of us. This is what God wanted and finally got from his relationship with Abraham. This is certainly what was hoped for with Jacob – and also Esau. So far, we have no evidence of it yet — with one brother being so gullible and stupid and the other being so conniving and mean. The reporter writing the story about Richard Semmler obviously was so taken with his amazing financial contributions that he didn’t ask him about why or how he got to such a point in his life. I would like to believe Mr. Semmler had a transforming experience that allowed him to give everything of his life to be led and guided by God. I would like to believe that he took very seriously the faith we claim — that God will care for us, and, therefore, why would we need to worry about the extravagances or hoarding for the future. I would like to believe that he knew God needed his witness as a good steward; as one who not only would use his talents for teaching, but would also be able to share amazing resources with others in need of them. I believe that God has hopes for all of us — individually and as a faith community — as the people of this world. The question is whether we believe that or want to risk giving up our claims on our own lives — our determinations to steer our own ships…our satisfaction to make decisions to live the way we want to. Like Esau, so hungry for a bowl of soup, many of us are hungry for some power, some prestige, some money, some respect, some adulation, some hidden desire that we sell our very soul — we sell our link to the heritage of God’s dream for us. Or like Jacob, also so hungry for power, for the right to dream of the future, that we would TAKE it rather than receive it. May we see ourselves in this tale, May we consider today the life changing, transforming power that awaits us when we give up ourselves as the ignorant or conniving sibling and be the one God has called us to be. SW |
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