Word or World

Many folks tend to hear Sunday's reading in Genesis as being about Jacob, and how sneaky he really is - a trickster who connives his way into a birth right not really his.

But, it’s not about that is it?

Isn't the story really about Esau, and how totally concerned he is with his own passions, desires, needs and hungers? Isn't it about his care for his own bodily world is so great that he sells his birthright for some ‘stuff,’ for some lentil soup. And let’s be clear, the birthright that he is trading for a single meal is his place in the miraculous kingdom that God is trying to make through his family.

Now you’ve had lentil soup before. Would you give up the Kingdom of God for that?

Esau disregards the value of his own miraculous birth to a barren couple participating in God’s dream of making the world better, giving that up for a bowl of stuff, because he is famished after a long day of pursuing his own private goals, ‘hunting.’

Would you do the same? Genesis, Paul and Jesus say you probably would.

Yes today’s readings are about the two ways of life – the way of anxiety and worry over worldly things – or the way of setting your heart on the Lord.

To be clear, anxiety is not a new-fangled word created by self-help gurus. It’s actually in the Gospel today, in Greek, in Matthew, where Jesus speaks of those who have too many “cares.” The word translated as “cares” is actually the Greek word for anxiety.

Yes, anxiety.

Jesus says the better way is the way of ‘understanding the Word’ – or in literally in Greek -- the way of ‘setting together with’ the Word of God.

What Jesus and Paul are saying is that the tendency to focus on our urges, desires and hungers – like Esau - on food, shelter, ego, pride, control, etc., - this focus leads directly to anxiety. And anxiety silences our hearing of the Holy Spirit and the promise of the Kingdom. And no work of God can be done in us or through us or with us.

Whereas, Focus on the Word, the voice of God breathing within – leads directly to spiritual and creative growth in us, through us, and with us.

Focusing on the Word – according to Jesus is more than just reading it – of course. It’s more than just hearing it. It’s more than just understanding intellectually what the Church says in Word, Sacrament and prayer.

Focusing on the Word – that living and active communication of the Holy Spirit to all people – is the way God changes lives and the world through those lives.

But its so hard, when our bodies and bodily nature are conspiring to demand from us our utmost attention. Yes, it’s hard to get beyond the demands of self and family.

I know that all my life I have made more choices from anxiety over body and bodily cares than any other motivating factor.

Yet, conversely, those few choices which I have made from intentional response to God’s call – those few have redefined my whole life. Yes, just a few leaps of faith have gotten me farther than countless shuffle steps of anxiety.

This is the message of the parable of the sower, of Paul, yes, even of Jacob and Esau: Choosing to join with the mind of God results in strides larger than we are privately capable of making.

Joining together with the Spirit is the basis of discipleship and mission. And it is the only way to get through life in a world of anxious thorns, toward a Kingdom that has already started, but is not yet complete.