At what point in our lives do we
acknowledge the presence of the Holy . . . the presence of God? And, in that acknowledgement, how do we mark
that occasion?
Thanks to some under-handed trickery
by his mother, Jacob steals the official blessing of his father for the eldest
son from his brother, Esau. This adds
fire to the smoldering hatred Esau already felt for his twin brother who had
earlier swindled his birthright when he thought he was starving to death for a
bowl of stew and a piece of bread. Esau
the bigger and stronger of the two sons, hated his brother . . . swore he would
kill him once the old man was dead.
Hearing this plot of vengeance, their mother—Rebekah, creates a scenario
to have Jacob sent away to keep his brother from killing him.
Thus we find Jacob on the run. Going a day’s journey, he stops for the
night. While sleeping that night he has
a dream . . . angels of God ascending and descending upon a heavenly staircase
. . . and, standing above it all is God.
God speaks to Jacob. God tells
Jacob that a great nation will come from his descendants . . . that through him
and his offspring all people will be blessed . . . and, that God would always
be with him until all these promises were fulfilled.
Upon waking up Jacob realized the
gravity of his dream . . . realized that he had encountered the Holy,
encountered God . . . that he was in the presence of the Holy. “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was
not aware of it. How awesome is this
place! This is none other than the house
of God; this is the gate of heaven.”
Then he proceeded to erect a pillar of stones and consecrate it with
oil. In doing this he “marked” the spot
as reminder of his encounter with God.
Whenever he encountered this landmark he would remember.
What Jacob did was to erect a cairn .
. . a heap of stones piled up as a memorial or as a landmark. What had happened to Jacob was something that
he did not want to forget, thus he created for himself a reminder of the
encounter with God. Whenever he would
see that landmark he would remember . . . he would remember how God had told
him of the creation of a great nation . . . how he and his offspring would be a
blessing to all people . . . and, how God would never abandon him in this
journey. In this action Jacob
acknowledged his encounter with the Holy—with God, and he marked it for
remembrance.
We, here in Montana, are pretty
familiar with cairns. We see them all
around us in fields . . . along trails in the mountains. They are landmarks to help us find
direction—which is the other purpose of a cairn. Probably the majority of the cairns we
encounter have little more significance than giving direction; but, I contend
that we are not as unfamiliar with the sacred role of cairns as we might think
we are. I contend that we erect sacred
cairns in our lives all of the time, though we may not be using stones to do
so.
How many of you have a pair of bronzed
baby shoes sitting around your house?
That is a sacred cairn that marked the birth of a child into your life
and family. Whenever you glance upon
those bronzed shoes . . . you remember. Dana
and I never bronzed any of the shoes of our children, but we have sterling
silver baby cups engraved with their birthdates that sit in our china
hutch. They sit with other sacred
markers in our journey together . . . there is the cake topper from our wedding
. . . there special ornaments from the many places we have lived . . . there
are moose that sit upon the top of the hutch that mark our moving to Joliet and
the wedding of our daughter. All serve
as a mark in our lives that help us to remember.
On the desk in my study there sits a
small brown stone. That stone comes from
the day that I was installed to be the pastor of Joliet Christian Church. The Reverend Dr. Ruth Fletcher, our regional
minister, spoke at that service and then offered to all who were there a stone
. . . a stone to remember that moment, that promise, and that dream. The stones were polished and donated by
Reverend Don Beal, then the pastor at Billings Central Christian Church. That stone sits upon my desk. Every time that I glance upon that stone . .
. I remember that day and how special it was in my life. It is a cairn . . . a sacred cairn.
The truth of the matter is . . . we
all mark those encounters with the Holy . . . those encounters with God in our
lives. So powerful and awesome are these
encounters that we do not want to forget . . . we want to remember. Across the years of our journeys, as we look
back, we see on that path a myriad of cairns marking the way and showing us the
future. And, for each of us they are
sacred.
This morning I want everyone (who
wants to share) to share a story of their encounter with the Holy . . . with
God. It might be the story of that
moment in your life when you gave yourself over to God through Jesus . . . a
baptism story . . . or some other encounter.
I want people to share those sacred moments when they knew they were in
the presence of God . . . when they knew that it was an “awesome” moment. I want people to mark that moment in their
lives so that we can all celebrate them together as something worth remembering
and celebrating. And, I want us to start
a tradition . . . a tradition of marking and remembering the Holy in our lives
on an annual basis . . . a “Sacred Cairn” Sunday each year.
As each individual offers a story, at
its conclusion they will be given two stones.
One stone is to be kept as a reminder of this day; the other stone is to
be shared during our time of offering.
During that time the individual will be asked to come forward and to
place the stone upon the cairn sitting in front of the communion table. In this way we erect a cairn as Jacob did . .
. we consecrate the moment and offer not only the gift of the encounter with
the sacred, but also ourselves to God.
In this way we will all remember.
Who would like to share a story?
(Individual stories are shared.)
I thank all of you who shared a story
this morning. We all have stories to
tell of our encounter with the presence of God who surrounds us like the air
that we breathe; but, not all of us are ready to publicly share those
stories. God knows those stories . . .
and, for you there are stones to keep and offer this morning.
As we journey through life we need to
remember . . . we need to remember the presence of God in our lives in those
times of joy and happiness . . . in those times of difficulty. We need to remember the promise of God to
never abandon us in our journeys . . . that God is always with us until we have
fulfilled God’s promise in our lives . . . and, we need to mark those moments—those
times, so that we will not forget. We
need to erect and continue to erect those sacred cairns that show us from where
we have come and lead us to where we are going.
May the Lord bless us in the sacredness of this day . . . may we never
forget. God is good. Amen.
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