Center of the Labyrinth

A Reflection for VIII Pentecost                                             All Saints’ Church, Southern Shores, NC August 3, 2014                                                                        Thomas E. Wilson, Rector

Genesis 32:22-31        Psalm 17: 1-7, 16        Romans 9:1-5              Matthew 14:13-21

The Center of the Labyrinth

video of the sermon is on You Tube:  http://youtu.be/PxysrFQeAj4 

This is the last of the four part series we are having about the hero's journey of Jacob. Let me use another metaphor in order to shed light on what happens in the archetype of the “Hero’s Journey”, a life-long journey of living into who we were created to be. I call your attention to the labyrinth that is in the grove on the other side of the parking lot. The Labyrinth is an ancient symbol of life’s journey from mere existence to meaning. One enters the labyrinth with prayer, as we remember the words of our Lord who, in The Message translation, said, “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” For those of you who love the old translation, it goes, “Come unto me, all ye that travail and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
In the Labyrinth we walk prayerfully one step at a time, through many twists and turns, being aware of the many burdens we carry with us, until we reach the center. There we remember who we were created to be and stand alone before God. We make the decision to leave the garbage of the past and, offering prayers for guidance, we walk slowly and prayerfully along the same path out of the labyrinth and into the beginnings of a new way of living. In today’s lesson Jacob has come to the center of his labyrinth and comes face to face with God.
In the first of our reflections on the meaning of Jacob's hero journey, we met him at his birth holding on to the heel of his older twin, Esau.  We followed him through the trickster persona he adopted as he schemed, cheated, and lied his way through life and, as a consequence, he broke his father's heart, caused grief to his mother, and made a sworn enemy out of his brother. His burdens are getting heavier.
In the second reflection, we are with him as he has to flee from his home to find shelter with his uncle, Laban, and Laban's two daughters, and as he is on his way, he enters a dream where he encounters God who promises to be with Jacob.  Jacob says a version of “R-I-I-I-I-G-H-T” and builds a monument of  stone and goes on his way, still carrying heavy burdens in his soul. Yet, there is something that remains deep inside him, an awareness that this God has gotten under his skin.

In the third reflection, we are with him as he gets to Laban's tents where he and Laban play a series of manipulative schemes on each other, for they are both from the shallow end of the gene pool. But that awareness of God, always in the back ground, comes more into the conscious mind when he is able to “fall in love”, getting tangentially in touch with his deeply hidden soul. He ends up marrying both of Laban's daughters, but he is moving slowly toward the center.

In the meantime since last week’s lesson, he is able to break from Laban's yoke and escape to begin a new free life. Laban catches up with him and they are able to form a spiritual peace as they agree to no longer be enemies. They make a pledge invoking Jacob's God and Laban's God, and they vow as they build a heap of stones, which is a reminder to Jacob of the stone he erected when he had the dream in which God told him that the God of his father and grandfather would stand beside him. The vow is a variation of the “trust but verify” concept:

Laban said, “This monument of stones will be a witness, beginning now, between you and me.” (That’s why it is called Galeed—Witness Monument. It is also called Mizpah (Watchtower) because Laban said, “God keep watch between you and me when we are out of each other’s sight. If you mistreat my daughters or take other wives when there’s no one around to see you, God will see you and stand witness between us.”)

Jacob continues to go deeper into his soul, and the awareness of the presence of God grows. Right now Jacob is about 40 years old, he has two wives, two concubines, plenty of sons, and has gotten rich by all his cleverness, but there is emptiness with all he has achieved. Jung says that people's lives are divided into two parts - the first half of life is dedicated to getting ego needs met, the “what's in it for me?” stage of life. In the second half of life, we start to look for meaning and go deeper into ourselves as we know that we are becoming the ones who can begin to see the approach to the gateway of death. However, Jacob gets word that the gateway may be closer than he thought, as he hears that his brother Esau is coming after him with over 400 men and will be there the next day.

Rembrandt's vision of Jacob and Angel

He divides his company into two units so that maybe there will something left after Esau chases one or the other. That night he is alone by the ford of the Jabbok river and he enters a dream. Many think that a dream is like a movie or play acted out in your head. But, the Biblical understanding was that a dream is not something you watch, but is instead a sacred space that you enter and encounter parts of yourself, your soul, and the soul of the divine. Dreams are ontological encounters with the depth of our being. One does not “have” a dream like a possession, or an experience, or an idea we can totally comprehend, rather one moves into a different dimension of space and time. In the dream we encounter mysterious symbols that meet us in our soul. Just as we do not “have” souls, we are souls, and in the same way, we do not “have” dreams, we are dreams of God. Soul Work is not about learning theology, or doing more good deeds, but it is the living into the dream of God. This dream that Jacob is experiencing is a nightmare as Jacob, the “I person” in the dream, wrestles with his demons and with his God. Nightmares are not meant to scare us but to call our attention to something we have long ignored. This nightmare has a physical component in which the nocturnal thrashing is so violent that Jacob's hip is thrown out of joint in the reality of the dream, and the wound holds over in his waking life so that he can no longer run away

God meets us where we are and takes us into different dimensions on our spiritual journey. We can see how God does that in the Gospel lesson for today from Matthew. The miracle of the loaves and fishes is not a matter of sleight of hand, a magician's trick, or even an impromptu covered dish supper. I understand miracles, the same way I understand dreams. God takes us into a different dimension, where time, space, and laws of physics collapse in on each other,  where the narrowness of our concepts of what we know are exploded and we are encountering God, that which is beyond our ability to comprehend.   I tend to follow St. Augustine who wrote, "Since it is God we are speaking of, you do not understand it. If you could understand it, it would not be God."

Sir Jacob Epstein 's  vision

The nightmare ends with Jacob embracing the symbol of God which Jacob's dream gives him, and he will not let go until he is blessed. I once saw a sculpture of Jacob wresting with the angel, and the bodies were so entwined that I could not tell if they were wrestling for control or if they were embracing as if they were making love; which was it? The answer of course is “yes”. To struggle with God is to make love with God, to be vulnerable enough to hold on, hold on for the blessing while those false options we chose to replace our original blessing, dream, and birthright from God are reduced to shadows.  Jacob has arrived at the center of his labyrinthine journey for meaning in his life, and now he must move toward the end of his journey.

Jacob begins his life by wrestling with his brother in the womb, and he arrives at the center of his labyrinth journey with God by wrestling with God in God's womb. It is this encounter with God that allows Jacob to cross the ford of the Jabbok and walk painfully with a limp, vulnerable before his enemy and brother, Esau, armed only with the strength of God’s love.  He allows himself to be embraced as the family of brothers become whole. The story ends with hope, and God knows we all need hope.

The journey for Jacob will continue, for there are many labyrinths through which to walk. “We have to walk them by ourselves; nobody else can walk it for you . . .”.   That line sound familiar to you? It is an old Gospel song, at least 100 years old, called Lonesome Valley, which has been sung by so many people from Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, and Joan Baez in folk version to George Jones, Johnny Cash and  Elvis Presley in country, to Mississippi John Hurt in Blues, and it reflects the archetype of the Hero’s journey. Let me close with the lyrics as modified by Woody Guthrie:

You gotta walk that lonesome valley,
You gotta walk it by yourself,
Nobody here can walk it for you,
You gotta walk it by yourself.

Some people say that John was a Baptist,
Some folks say he was a Jew,
But your holy scripture tells you
That he was a preacher too. 

Daniel was a Bible hero,
Was a prophet brave and true,
In a den of hungry lions
Proved what faith can do for you.

There's a road that leads to glory
Through a valley far away,
Nobody else can walk it for you,
They can only point the way.

Mamma and daddy loves you dearly,
Sister does and brother, too,
They may beg you to go with them,
But they cannot go for you.

I'm gonna walk that lonesome valley,
I'm gonna walk it by myself,
Don't want to nobody to walk it for me,
I'm gonna walk it by myself.