Reflections from Morning Prayer: The Household Gods

The 31^st Chapter of Genesis reveals another, and wildly significant, episode in the drama of Jacob’s relationship with his relative, Laban. After having lived with Laban and married both of his daughters, Jacob slips away at night, along with both wives and a lot of other people and livestock. Unbeknownst to Jacob, his wife Rachel also took with her Laban’s prized collection of household gods.

Household gods? Are we sure this story is in our Bible? Strange as it may seem, Rachel could not bear the thought of leaving home without these familiar religious objects from her father’s house, so she stole them. Laban pursues and catches up to the fugitives, and demands that his household gods be returned. Jacob, for once, is innocent, and encourages Laban to conduct a thorough search of the camp. When Laban enters Rachel’s tent, she conceals the gods by sitting on them, and excuses herself from standing up by saying to her father, “the way of women is upon me.”

When Laban fails to discover the stolen items, he apologizes to Jacob, and the two men proceed to hold an elaborate ceremony to celebrate their reconciliation.

What is the message for us, hearing this tale of deception read to us at Morning Prayer in Christ Church Cranbrook, many thousands of years after the fact? I think it is two-fold, and profound:

1. God wants reconciliation, and it is going to happen, whether we like it or not.

2. Reconciliation is accomplished behind the scenes, through the agency of the least powerful and most vulnerable, even while the big powerful men are busy congratulating themselves and taking all the credit.

The Bible invites us to step behind the scenes, and to become privy to the ancient and redemptive trick God is pulling on chiefs, kings, and patriarchs. But shhhh…they still think they are the ones in charge….

Jonathan+

PS. I perfectly well that I, by virtue of gender, race, class, and profession, am welded into the patriarchal patrimony of Jacob and Laban and their ilk. I wonder what sort of beatitudinous trickery God is pulling on me this very minute, even as I compose witty words about wily ways of Yahweh?