Many of you will know of the cartoon, Peanuts, with the adventures of Charlie Brown and Snoopy being told – there’s one cartoon where Lucy is talking to, or lecturing, Charlie Brown while Snoopy watches and listens. Lucy tells Charlie Brown, "You sow what you reap and you reap what you sow. That is the way it is!" They walk away and Snoopy thinks, "I'd like to see a little more room for error."
I think we can understand what Snoopy means. I think we all appreciate the gift of grace – which gives us a little more room for error so that our errors and sins and shortcomings do not absolutely determine our destiny.
On the other hand, I think we all like justice as well. Mark Twain, a great satirist of religion, especially American Christianity, wrote that what bothered him about the Bible was not what he did not understand but what he did understand. He liked to point out that the Bible, especially the Hebrew Scriptures or Old Testament, has many persons whom he did not consider to be good moral examples.
And I would think that Jacob would probably be one such example. Jacob seems a poor specimen of morality compared to his brother Esau. Jacob liked to stay home with his mother who doted on him, while his brother was more of a worker. His mother even helped him deceive his blind father, disguising him with animal hair on his arms and disguising goat stew to taste like rabbit, so Jacob could receive the blessing that was due to Esau.
And then Jacob, in bed one night, after fleeing for his life from his brother's anger, is alone and afraid. He puts a stone at his head for protection and sleeps. While he sleeps, he dreams of a ladder, divided by a wall for those descending and ascending. Jacob dreamed that the angels of God ascended and descended. He dreamed the Lord was beside him and promised the covenant of Abraham would continue through him, not Esau, and that God would not leave him, and all the families of the earth would be blessed through Jacob.
When Jacob awoke, he said that the Lord was in this place and he did not know it. 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." There are at least two important points about this story. Jacob, the cheat and swindler, is chosen by God over Esau. Why did God make such a choice that seems so unjust ?
The second point is that Jacob experienced God in an unusual revelation in a dream. God is seeking Jacob it seems. "I'd like to see a little more room for error," said Snoopy, and we all agreed that grace and mercy are good things, but this seems a bit much. Why does a God of justice and love choose Jacob ?
I think to consider this point though is really to underestimate God – we may have dreams of God, we may even have visions at times, but I think maybe God also has dreams of us – he dreams that we can be what he wants us to be, that we can live according to his plan, that we can all really achieve something good in our lives…
God saw good in Jacob, and he sees good in us, and asks us to see good in others. It might be that in the kingdom of heaven, in the dreams of God, what is poisonous, what is sinful, what is evil might grow to be wholesome, righteous, good. "I'd like to see a little more room for error," said Snoopy.
I should tell you that Robert Short, the writer of the gospel according to Peanuts, a very popular 1960’s book said that, in Peanuts, Snoopy often functions as a "little Christ" figure, offering faith and faithfulness, hope and grace. It may be that Snoopy's desire for a little more room for error is the dream and purpose of God, that we may grow so that our goodness might be known and harvested by God.
Perhaps it might be that as we allow ourselves to move more closely into the presence of God we might receive the dreams of God, and be changed and transformed, and through Christ Jesus, receive grace, hope and forgiveness which Snoopy called "more room for error."
God chose Jacob, a dreamer, he commended Mary, who sat at his feet, over the hard working Martha, and he has used dreamers to bring change ever since – people like William Wilberforce was a dreamer who believed that slavery could end and that child labour could be made unlawful, Mother Theresa was a dreamer who believed that she really could with God’s help make a difference in the world by touching the lives of a relatively small number of people, Martin Luther King believed that there could be hope for a multi racial and tolerant society – many have dreamed inspired by their faith, and began to then through their work and willingness to be used by God, they have turned those dreams into being.
John F Kennedy once said, ‘We need men who can dream of things that never were’. Today God needs those men, he even needs those women !!! God made each of us that we might grow and flower and bloom through Jesus. He has hope for us, and we have hope. We have Christ. We have dreams of God and he has dreams of us. Amen
I think we can understand what Snoopy means. I think we all appreciate the gift of grace – which gives us a little more room for error so that our errors and sins and shortcomings do not absolutely determine our destiny.
On the other hand, I think we all like justice as well. Mark Twain, a great satirist of religion, especially American Christianity, wrote that what bothered him about the Bible was not what he did not understand but what he did understand. He liked to point out that the Bible, especially the Hebrew Scriptures or Old Testament, has many persons whom he did not consider to be good moral examples.
And I would think that Jacob would probably be one such example. Jacob seems a poor specimen of morality compared to his brother Esau. Jacob liked to stay home with his mother who doted on him, while his brother was more of a worker. His mother even helped him deceive his blind father, disguising him with animal hair on his arms and disguising goat stew to taste like rabbit, so Jacob could receive the blessing that was due to Esau.
And then Jacob, in bed one night, after fleeing for his life from his brother's anger, is alone and afraid. He puts a stone at his head for protection and sleeps. While he sleeps, he dreams of a ladder, divided by a wall for those descending and ascending. Jacob dreamed that the angels of God ascended and descended. He dreamed the Lord was beside him and promised the covenant of Abraham would continue through him, not Esau, and that God would not leave him, and all the families of the earth would be blessed through Jacob.
When Jacob awoke, he said that the Lord was in this place and he did not know it. 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." There are at least two important points about this story. Jacob, the cheat and swindler, is chosen by God over Esau. Why did God make such a choice that seems so unjust ?
The second point is that Jacob experienced God in an unusual revelation in a dream. God is seeking Jacob it seems. "I'd like to see a little more room for error," said Snoopy, and we all agreed that grace and mercy are good things, but this seems a bit much. Why does a God of justice and love choose Jacob ?
I think to consider this point though is really to underestimate God – we may have dreams of God, we may even have visions at times, but I think maybe God also has dreams of us – he dreams that we can be what he wants us to be, that we can live according to his plan, that we can all really achieve something good in our lives…
God saw good in Jacob, and he sees good in us, and asks us to see good in others. It might be that in the kingdom of heaven, in the dreams of God, what is poisonous, what is sinful, what is evil might grow to be wholesome, righteous, good. "I'd like to see a little more room for error," said Snoopy.
I should tell you that Robert Short, the writer of the gospel according to Peanuts, a very popular 1960’s book said that, in Peanuts, Snoopy often functions as a "little Christ" figure, offering faith and faithfulness, hope and grace. It may be that Snoopy's desire for a little more room for error is the dream and purpose of God, that we may grow so that our goodness might be known and harvested by God.
Perhaps it might be that as we allow ourselves to move more closely into the presence of God we might receive the dreams of God, and be changed and transformed, and through Christ Jesus, receive grace, hope and forgiveness which Snoopy called "more room for error."
God chose Jacob, a dreamer, he commended Mary, who sat at his feet, over the hard working Martha, and he has used dreamers to bring change ever since – people like William Wilberforce was a dreamer who believed that slavery could end and that child labour could be made unlawful, Mother Theresa was a dreamer who believed that she really could with God’s help make a difference in the world by touching the lives of a relatively small number of people, Martin Luther King believed that there could be hope for a multi racial and tolerant society – many have dreamed inspired by their faith, and began to then through their work and willingness to be used by God, they have turned those dreams into being.
John F Kennedy once said, ‘We need men who can dream of things that never were’. Today God needs those men, he even needs those women !!! God made each of us that we might grow and flower and bloom through Jesus. He has hope for us, and we have hope. We have Christ. We have dreams of God and he has dreams of us. Amen
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