Genesis 28:10-19a; July 19, 2026; Eighth Sunday after Pentecost
“…and he called that place, Bethel.” – Genesis 28:19
Fitting, as Bethel literally translates to “House of God.” A place of holiness.
Which, honestly though, is a tad ironic, as elsewhere in scripture Bethel was also known for being the exact opposite. A place of degradation, idolatry, and corruption.
Though Bethel is where Jacob sees this ladder full of angels, and though it’s where Abraham originally sets up his tent, later the evil king Jeroboam (who you all know and remember, surely) erects one of his two golden calves here, and the prophet Jeremiah writes that “the house of Israel grew ashamed of Bethel (Jeremiah 48:13).” Grew ashamed of “the House of God.”
In 2 Kings 23:15-16, King Josiah (remember him? He was a good one) is said to have destroyed the altar of Bethel that was erected to a false god. Well, actually, he took it several steps further. Listen to this: “Josiah looked around, and when he saw the tombs that were there on the hillside, he had the bones removed from them and burned on the altar to defile it (2 Kings 23:16).” He not only destroyed idols, he started a bonfire of the dead upon them! “The House of God.”
Moreover, Amos, that fiery minor prophet where we get MLK’s famous quote: “Justice will roll down like a river, and righteousness a never-failing stream (Amos 5:24),”he warns God’s people against seeking Bethel, for one day Bethel will be reduced to nothing (Amos 5:5). “The House of God” — the place of holiness, reduced to nothing. Think about that.
I have friends who left the church, the house of God, long ago out of shame. Out of being shamed. Who were more or less burned at the altar and reduced to nothing because of one of their letters.
I have also experienced moments of a quiet, fleeting shame, where I’ve apologized before even getting the words out, when simply answering the question “what do you do for a living?” Not because I don’t love it, or feel called to it, but because the “House of God” in so many loud corners just seems so ugly to so many people. Degrading even. Full of idol-worship and hypocrisy.
How can we be the “House of God” when we butcher the chief commandment Jesus gave us: To Love God and To Love Each Other?
In many ways we are living in modern Biblical times and are actively reducing the House of God to nothing, especially when we let injustice roll down like rivers, and unrighteousness, lies, and corruption flowfrom on high like a never-ending toilet flush.
But don’t just take it from me. Where have you seen Bethel in your own lives, my friends? A place of holiness, a house of God, reduced to shame if not a laughingstock?
Do you have a spot in your lives where you have once seen majesty, but now, only see rot?
I bet we all can name a few.
More than a few.
…
And yet, here’s the astonishing news: even in those places, God is pitching new tent. Building a new ladder.
“Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go…for I will not leave you…” — Genesis 28:15
“Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place—and I did not know it!” – Genesis 28:16
My friends, how many times have we dismissed God being in present in our lives? Or, where we have been too distracted to notice? Or too privileged that we’ve taken God’s presence for granted? Or just too sinful, greedy, prideful, that we wouldn’t have noticed God standing right there talking to us from a burning bush, a burning world, with smoke coming from the north?
When can you recall being like Jacob and rendered astonished that God has been there the entire time? Even in these worst of times and in the worst of places?
And yet, even upon this hardened soil, amongst these thorns, God is at work!
Ben, please put up that photo that is also on our bulletin cover.
This is modern-day Bethel. Located near the dangerous West Bank. The House of God, reduced to nothing. And yet, even here in sheer ruin, abandoned and desolate, God is present. For “Surely the Lord is in this place—even if we did not know it!”
And God isn’t just in these places, my friends, floating about above in the clouds somewhere, but God is with us, holding our shaky hands. Working for us. Working on us. Building a ladder on the back of Jesus Christ. For God hasn’t and will never give up on us, even if we are the hugest of scoundrels.
For lest we forget, Jacob was a big one indeed.
Remember your scripture?
Jacob stole his brother’s birthright (Esau’s) through deceit and trickery.
Remember that?
More specifically, Jacob goes to their blind and dying father (Isaac) in the middle of the night basically wearing a furry costume, and he deceives Isaac into thinking that he is blessing Esau, who was apparently quite hairy himself. And then like a thief Jacob runs out into the night with a stolen inheritance.
This, my friends, is the context behind our story today, and why Jacob was where he was in that place, and why he was so astonished by his vision of this ladder.
Because, deep down, I believe, he knew he didn’t deserve it. That his Earthly riches had come through corruption, through lies, through unrighteousness, and yet… at Bethel, in the House of God, he receives the majesty of God’s Heavenly goodness, of God’s pure holiness and grace.
And that’s sort of the point of all this, isn’t it?
That, like Jacob, none of us deserve it. And that even the least among us can receive the same vision of a ladder reaching down out of heaven towards us. Forgiving us and giving us a second chance at the dream of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
So even if others won’t, how about today we respond in kind, with humility, and stop pulling up the ladder behind us.
Helping to deconstruct it rung by rung, scrapping it for parts.
Amen.
