How sweet it is when a trickster gets tricked!
When the sneak gets sneaked!
When the player gets played.
When the wily one gets wily-ed.
Justice is sweet.
These make the best stories.
Jacob has the proverbial rude awakening. In a scene straight out of a National Lampoon movie, Jacob wakes up next to the wrong woman. He married the wrong wife.
His uncle Laban tricked him. Apparently, it runs in the family.
Jacob had to take a dose of his own medicine.
You know they had a good laugh at that one. You can hear God and the heavenly host having a gut busting belly laugh. “Did you see the look on Jacob’s face?!”
When the wily one gets played. Oh, that’s good. One of the oldest and best stories in human history.
To his credit Jacob behaved and worked another seven years to marry his beloved Rachel.
And the story of Jacob’s continuing awakening goes on.
When we all wake up on resurrection day, I imagine we are all in for a similar surprise when we see who we wake up next to. Oh my! You should see the look on your face!
God is wily, out playing the devil, turning the defeat of the cross into the rude awakening of Easter morning. The devil woke up to an empty tomb. You should have seen the look on his face!
These stories and parables of faith that have been passed down to us, they reveal God.
God is known in the twists and turns of human lives.
That is the great leap at the heart of faith, that God can be known, and that God is known in the stories of human lives.
The kingdom of heaven is like…the kingdom of heaven is like… a whole bunch of stories.
Stories that show God involved in the drama and comedy of our lives.
Stories of surprising awakenings and just desserts.
Parables of small hidden things that become great.
Parables that gather everything together and sorts them out.
Parables of all-consuming devotion, commitment and attention.
They all involve something unexpected.
The kingdom of heaven is something unexpected and surprising.
All the ordinary, the dramatic, the funny stories of our lives, they are cram packed with God.
Something unexpected and surprising.
God’s glory is ablaze in the simple stories of God’s creatures.
Wake up to that.
You are a parable of God. God is made known to us in you.
The kingdom of heaven is like…you.
No pressure.
Is it surprising that the small and petty stories of our lives are something holy? Holy scripture? Sacred writing revealing the living God? The Holy One?
You should see the look on your face!
Wake up to that.