This past week at Morning Prayer we were led deeper into the murky family dynamics that lie at the heart of our spiritual tradition. Esau and Jacob are twins, always at odds. Their mother Rebekah, connives shamelessly on behalf of her favorite, Jacob, with the eventual result that Jacob has to go into hiding to escape the Esau’s fratricidal wrath.

Jacob is a conniving hustler, yet the Bible, while sympathetic to Esau, clearly represents Jacob as the chosen Man of God, the heir of Abraham’s vision and namesake of Israel. In the coming weeks we will hear how Jacob, in one of the Bible’s most powerfully moving episodes, came to be reconciled with Esau.

I suppose some people might be scandalized to learn that the roots of our faith lie in stories of tribal politics and sibling rivalries. For me, it is just the opposite. To me, it suggests that our own family dynamics and histories can also become part of God’s project of redemption and reconciliation. If Jacob and Esau can be reconciled, so can we.

It might also be reassuring for us as Anglicans to know that Henry the Eighth was not the first conniving politician to serve as an instrument of God’s saving activity.