Bethel

I'm in Washington State for the weekend for a wedding that I am in. I came this way on a bus. Yes, a bus. From South Bend, IN to Spokane, WA on a Greyhound bus. It was one of the most uncomfortable, but interesting things I have ever done in my life. As I rode, I met different, random people. Some of them were fun to talk to, others were boring, others were just plain scary.

One man that I sat with for a couple hours, from Minneapolis to Fargo, was an Asian man going back home to Seattle from Chicago. We talked for a little while about a lot of things. From weather to baseball to economics. But eventually we got on the subject of Religion after he found out that I am going to school to become a pastor. He told me that he is a Christian, too, and how he goes to church every Sunday so he can be where God is.

That got me thinking for a while. Do we go to where God is? Or does He come to where we are? There is a story in the Bible that is very familiar to many people. It's the story of Jacob.

Jacob was the second born son of Isaac, the son of Abraham. His older brother was Esau. There was a big difference between Jacob and Esau. Esau was a "man's man." He would go out and hunt every day. He was very strong. He also was a very hairy man. I know that sounds strange to talk about but it's very important in the story. Jacob was different than that. He was a "mama's boy." He spent his days indoors with his mother. They would cook and clean together. He was probably the boy that got picked on a lot and would be picked last in a game of pick-up baseball. And he was not hairy at all. Very opposite of his brother Esau.

Now Isaac had promised his inheritance to Esau because it was his birthright as the older son. But Jacob wanted it. And Jacob's mother also wanted him to have it. So they devised a plan. While Esau was out hunting, Jacob killed a lamb and put it's fur on his arms so it felt like he had hairy arms. He then went into the tent of his old, blind father. And Isaac blessed him and gave him his inheritance, thinking that it was Esau. When Esau came back he found out that the inheritance already went to Jacob. And he was extremely mad. Mad enough that he wanted to kill Jacob.

And here is where the story gets interesting to me, in the situation of my friend on the bus. Jacob skipped town. He took off, fearing for his life. And he ran and ran. He stopped to sleep in the middle of nowhere. While he slept he had a dream that God sent him. And he realized that God was with him even while he feared for his own life. When he woke up, he named the place Bethel, which translates to something like "Place of God."

Now this is big for the people that may have been reading this. Because Moses wrote this, so probably the first people hearing this story were the Isrealites wandering around the desert. And to them, God had always been only in the temple and the sanctuary. He had only been in the structures they had built for Him. And when they read this they realized that God isn't just in those places but he is everywhere. This whole world, this whole universe could be named Bethel because it is the place of God.

And that is my point. God is everywhere. We don't go to church every Saturday or Sunday to be where God is. We exist in the world so that God can be with us. We can't go to where God is. That's as absurd as saying we can go to where God isn't. God is omnipresent. He is everywhere.

I wish I had been able to think of this when I with that man on the bus. I hope to see him again one day. Maybe not on this earth or in this life. But in heaven and in the life to come.

God, please be with this man from Seattle. Bless him and his family and may he come to a realization that you are everywhere. Not just in the church building that he attends. May he see you in everything that he does. And may he love you with an undying and uncontrollable love. Amen.