Romans 8: 12-25                                                                                                         Rev. Dr. Galen E. Russell III

Genesis 28: 10-19a                                                                                                                                 July 19, 2026

“And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven; and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.”



Prayer: You are holy, O God, and you’ve shown us the way ever since the genesis of our faith. Thank you. Amen.

I find this story of Jacob’s Ladder amazing because it is chock full of symbols and truths about—God! About the Divine. How the Divine is all around us. How God is with us in all parts of our lives. And loves us. 

And remember, the ladder is part of a dream Jacob has, but God’s truths can come in dreams just as easily as through reading something or talking with someone.

So, dream or no dream, this story reveals God’s truths that speak to me, and I hope to you too. Because these God-truths are in the genesis of our faith. The beginnings. And they stand true today. So, I want to share with you a few of the God truths I picked up from the story.

At first glance, Jacob’s Ladder story takes me to the Celtic theology “thin place.” It’s where the distance between heaven and earth, between God and humanity, between the spiritual and physical worlds grows thin.

In fact, it’s so thin that the lines between the two get blurred and fuzzy. Where the Divine is infused into life so much so that you can’t distinguish which is which. When our senses get opened, like they are sometimes, or more so in our dreams, we see the holy around us.

When Jacob woke up, he knew it was a thin place. Where the metaphorical ladder connected heaven and earth. And God’s angels were moving up and down on it, touching earth. Touching heaven. So, no wonder he said, “Surely God is in this place and I didn’t know it.” He had spiritual hindsight. And he named that earthly place “Beth-El,” which means ‘house of God.’

So, I think there are numerous times when our senses are opened a bit, and we feel the holy around us. We experience the divine. We would do well to see the entire earth, I think, as Beth-El, the house of God, where God is.  Question is, do we see it? Can the whole earth be seen as a thin place?

I love and remind us again of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s words “Earth’s crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God, But only he who sees takes off his shoes; The rest sit round and pluck blackberries.” The question is can we see God all around us, or do we just sit around and pluck blackberries?

Also, I think it is a thin place when something profound happens, making our hearts lift in praise and thanksgiving?  Like when security guard Herman Gil was rescued eight days after the earthquake in Venezuela.  With profound gratitude we might feel God’s presence. In a moment like that, we may say, “The Lord was in that place, and we didn’t know it.” But thank God, now we do. Spiritual hindsight

I think one of the most significant truths that the Jacob Ladder story reveals is that it’s about who God is and about God’s love and grace.

See, the book of Genesis is not shy about telling the truth about Jacob. Right from his time in Rebekkah’s womb, he wrestled with Esau, his twin brother, Esau was born first. At the time of his birth, he was the supplanter who held on to Esau’s heel because he didn’t want Esau to be born first. BTW, the name ‘Jacob’ means ‘heel’. Jacob was a con artist and manipulator who cheated Esau out of his birthright. He took advantage of the blindness of his old father, Isaac, in securing the birthright for himself. Then later on, he outdid his double-crossing father-in-law, Laban, and escaped while stealing Laban’s household idols. And there’s so much more that Jacob did making him a trickster and a fraudster. Read Genesis 25-33.  

So, when Jacob lies down to sleep and God comes to him in this dream, you would expect God to give him the chewing out that he deserves.

But no. Instead, God told Jacob that the land he was lying on belonged to him and his descendants, and that someday his descendants would become a great nation and a great blessing to all the other nations on earth.  And then this: God said, “I am with you and will keep you wherever you go.”

The truth revealed here is that even for a dyed-in-the-wool, double-barreled con artist like Jacob, there are a few things in this world you can’t get but can only be given, and one of these things is love, in particular the love and grace of God (Buechner, Frederick, personal email, retrieved July 18, 2026). 

Because the truth is that God doesn’t love people because of who they are or what they do in life, but because of who God is.  And God showed that love to Jacob, of all people, who became not only the father of the twelve tribes of Israel, but the many-times great-grandfather of Jesus of Nazareth. And by grace Jesus was born into this world. By grace Jesus conquered death. And by grace, Jesus Christ’s living spirit lives in us.

With Christ’s living spirit in us, the best response we have is to spread the gospel like crazy. To share the good news that love and grace are available to all, God’s realm is open to all who long for it.

We aren’t in God’s family because we earned it. Or because we have the right beliefs. You don’t have to be straight to be part of this family. Or Republican. Or Democrat. Or American. Or rich. Or sinless. You don’t have to have it all figured out with all the right answers.

You just have to come. You are adopted in. God sees you as a beloved child. No matter what, nothing can separate you from that. Nothing. (Evans, Rachel H., Braving the Truth, Harper One, 2026, pg. 232).  This is an amazing truth. And when we hear that truth, we will be like “Whoa! God is in this place of life with me! And I didn’t know it. Now I do. Spiritual hindsight”

Another truth of God I sense is found in the genesis of our faith is that the Jacob’s Ladder story symbolizes God moving with us up and down on the ladder of life. God is moving with us in our failures, and our accomplishments. Our dreams, our reality. On the journey of life.

God celebrated our joys with us in our past and does so in the present. God is with us as we live through life’s struggles but also helps us face the struggles in the future.  Because God isn’t bound by time the way we are.

I think that the truth about God not being bound by time is powerful. Because we can in retrospect trust that God was in our past. And we have a good sense that God is in our present moment. In this place with us now.

But because God is not bound by time, God is already present in the future we may fear. God is ahead of us, helping us live with faith, confidence, and trust, teaching us not to fear, but to have faith. To trust that God knows all about our circumstances and what we are facing.

God knows about that upcoming MRI or surgery. God knows how the transitions at work are going to shake out. God knows what you face when that baby arrives. God knows about the elevator and PDA bathrooms. God knows about what life will be like in retirement. These are things some of you are facing. God is already there; present in the future we may be fearing. What’s in your future? Have faith that God is already there and knows all about it. We learn from looking backwards. We grow faith when we look forward.

Once our minds and our faith are grounded along this line, then when we face life’s difficulties, it’s as easy as breathing to say, “Why God knows all about it!” When perplexities come, it’s a natural thing to have trust in God. And to say, “Why God is surely here, and I didn’t know it. But I know it now. And God is with me.” You gain confidence. Peace of mind. Faith.

Now I want to share one more truth coming from Jacob’s Ladder story. God doesn’t want sedentary Christians nor museum pieces, us just sitting back, saying on faith that God knows all about it. God wants and needs our engagement. Our partnership. Our voices. God proverbially needs us to get up. Get going. Take the stone under our head and make an altar out of it. Made it a place of worship. A place called “The house of God.” Because God was in that place.

Which I take to mean that the truths I speak about need to be lived. Our faith requires collaboration with God. I think it requires our activism. Standing up for these truths we believe in. Being led by the Spirit to be children of God. For all creation waits eagerly for the children of God to be revealed. By standing up and doing what is right and just.

I became aware this past week that many customers of Citizens Bank made their voices heard because the bank was providing financial services to CoreCivic and The GEO Group, both companies that own or run private prisons throughout the country. Which includes ICE prisons. The customers didn’t want their money to be used the bank to fund ICE prisons, deportation and detentions centers.

And at least two city councils in New Jersey—Montclair and Jersey City—voted to withdraw their money from Citizens Bank if they did not cut ties with the private prison operators. You know what’s happened? The result was that Citizens Bank decided to wind down its financial relationship with two private prison companies. Surely the Lord was in that place! And we didn’t know it… at first (Citizens Bank to end financial relationship with two private prison contractors | AP News, retrieved July 18, 2026).

I think this is a direct example of living out the truths of our faith founded way back in the days of Jacob. God needs us to take what we believe and act upon it.  Living the faith we’ve been given, the faith we’ve grown. It’s God’s word come to life. It is justice being done. It’s a thin place—where heaven and earth are smushed together. Amen.