Genesis 28.10-17; Revelation 12.7-12; John 1.47-51
"Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it." (Genesis 28:16)
Those words of Jacob which we heard in the Old Testament reading have echoed through many centuries because they capture an experience that many people recognise. We often assume that God is present in the obviously holy places such as churches, or in prayer, in worship, in those moments when faith seems clear and strong. Yet life doesn’t always work like that. We can find ourselves in places of uncertainty, disappointment, anxiety or loss, and it becomes much harder to believe that God is near.
Yet the surprising message of the Bible is that God often chooses those very moments to make himself known. Again and again people discover that God was present long before they recognised him. Heaven is closer to earth than they imagined.
That, I think, is the theme that runs through all our readings this morning.
Today we are celebrating the Feast of Michael and All Angels… Angels haveoften fascinated people. Yet in the Bible they rarely occupy centre stage for long. They are messengers and servants whose task is not to draw attention to themselves but to point us towards God.
Today, they remind us that in Jesus God comes near, and we are invited to recognise him, trust him and follow him.
When we meet Jacob in the Book of Genesis, he is not at a high point in his spiritual life. In fact, he is running away. He has deceived his father, cheated his brother and created a family crisis that has left him isolated and uncertain about the future.
Like many biblical characters, Jacob is both gifted and flawed, which is perhaps why so many people find him relatable.
As the story unfolds, Jacob is travelling through unfamiliar territory. He reaches a lonely place as night falls, finds a stone for a pillow and goes to sleep. There is nothing particularly impressive about the scene. He is not praying. He is not worshipping. He is not seeking a spiritual experience. He is simply exhausted.
And that is where God meets him.
Jacob dreams of a stairway stretching between earth and heaven, with angels ascending and descending upon it. It is a famous image from the Bible. Yet the heart of the story is not really the stairway itself. The crucial thing is what God says: "I am with you." Those words transform everything.
God does not come to condemn Jacob or to run through his failures. He does not tell him to sort himself out before he can expect God's help. Instead, God renews his promise and assures Jacob that he has not been abandoned. The future remains uncertain, but whatever that future is, God will be with him. His mistakes remain real, but they will not have the final word.
Abraham falters, Moses hesitates, David fails spectacularly, Peter denies even knowing Jesus, and yet God continues to work through them all. The Bible is not primarily a story about good people earning God's favour. It is a story about God, who refuses to give up on imperfect people.
Perhaps that is why Jacob's experience still speaks so powerfully today. Most of us know what it is like to have some sort of regrets. Most of us can think of choices we wish we had made differently or opportunities we have missed. We know what it feels like to face an uncertain future and wonder what lies ahead.
Jacob discovers that God meets him before any of those problems have been resolved. The Lord comes to him in the middle of the mess, not after it has been tidied up.
When Jacob awakes, he says, "Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it."
Many Christians could tell a similar story. Looking back over their lives, they can recognise moments when God's presence seemed hidden from them at the time but became clearer with hindsight. Situations that seemed empty or hopeless eventually revealed signs of God's faithfulness. Jacob learns that God was nearer than he realised, and many of us have discovered the same.
Then our reading from John's Gospel takes us to another encounter. This time it is not Jacob but Nathanael.
Nathanael begins not with faith but with scepticism. When Philip enthusiastically announces that he has found the one spoken of by Moses and the prophets, Nathanael responds, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?"
There is something wonderfully honest about Nathanael's question. He says exactly what he thinks. Philip does not argue with him. He simply says, "Come and see."
What a wonderful response. Philip is confident enough in what he has found in Jesus to say, "Don't just take my word for it. Come and see for yourself."
Christian faith certainly involves thought and reason, but at its heart it is an encounter with a person. Philip understands that what Nathanael needs most is not a debate but an opportunity to meet Jesus for himself.
That invitation still lies at the heart of the Church's mission: "Come and see."Come and listen to Jesus. Come and read the Gospels. Come and ask your questions. Come and discover whether Jesus really is who Christians claim him to be.
Perhaps some people are closer to Nathanael than to Philip. Perhaps there are doubts, questions or assumptions that make faith difficult. The good news is that Jesus is never threatened by honest questions. Nathanael did not have to pretend certainty, and neither do we.
Yet there is also a challenge here. We should not allow an old prejudice or assumption to become our final answer. Nathanael was willing to take Philip's invitation seriously. He came and saw.
And when he meets Jesus, he discovers something remarkable. Before Nathanael has worked out who Jesus is, Jesus already knows him.
Long before Nathanael understands Jesus, Jesus understands Nathanael.
That is one of the most encouraging truths in the Christian faith. We often speak about people searching for God, but the Gospel begins with God searching for people. Jesus knows us more completely than we know ourselves. He knows our strengths and weaknesses, our hopes and fears, our faith and our doubts. And stillhe calls us to follow him.
As the conversation continues, Jesus refers back to Jacob's dream. Nathanael will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.
It is a remarkable statement because Jesus takes one of the great images from Israel's history and applies it to himself. Jacob saw a stairway joining heaven and earth. Jesus says, in effect, "I am that meeting place."
In him, heaven and earth come together. In him, God enters human history andthe distance between God and humanity is bridged forever. The stairway in Jacob's dream was only ever a signpost. The reality towards which it pointed is Jesus himself.
That is why the Christian faith is ultimately centred neither on angels nor experiences nor even moral teaching. It is centred on Jesus. Christians believe that in Jesus we encounter not merely a wise teacher but God among us.
And that brings us naturally to our reading from Revelation.
It is easy to become fascinated by the imagery of this passage, but its message is straightforward - evil is real, yet evil does not have the final word.
Michael and his angels are engaged in a battle against the dragon, the symbol of all that opposes God. Yet Michael is not the true hero of the story. The victory belongs to God.
The Christian faith does not encourage us to deny the reality of evil, suffering or temptation. Neither does it leave us trapped in fear. The cross and resurrection declare that the decisive battle has already been won.
Michael and the angels serve God's purposes, but the triumph belongs to Jesus.
There is an old story about a student filling in a university application form who was asked whether she was a leader. Knowing herself to be an honest person, she ticked "No". Later she received an acceptance letter explaining that the university already had plenty of leaders and was delighted to discover someone willing to follow.
Whether the story is true or not, I think it contains an important lesson.
The angels never seek attention for themselves. Their delight is in serving God and directing others towards him. In a culture that values recognition, achievement and visibility, that can feel rather counter-cultural.
But Christian discipleship begins not with leading but with following.
Following Jesus when the path is clear. Following Jesus when the future is uncertain. Following Jesus in the confidence that God who met Jacob, welcomed Nathanael and defeated evil is still at work today.
So perhaps there are some questions for us to take away this morning.
Where have we assumed that God is absent? If we are struggling to take up the invitation to come and see, what is stopping us? And are we willing to follow Jesus faithfully, trusting in his grace?
Jacob awoke and said, "Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it."
Perhaps that is a prayer we need today: Lord, open our eyes.
Open our eyes to your presence where we least expect it. Open our eyes to Jesus, the one in whom heaven and earth meet. And give us the courage to follow him with confidence, knowing that God who met Jacob, called Nathanael and conquered evil walks with us still. Amen.
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