Monday XIV Week of Ordinary Time
(Genesis 28)
Lutheran congregations are often named “Bethel.” In the reading from Genesis today we hear why. Bethel means the “abode (or house) of God.” Certainly God resides in the people who come together in His name and, by extension, God is found in the building where they meet.
At Bethel the Lord promises Jacob that in his “descendents all the nations of the earth shall find blessing.” We see this prophecy doubly fulfilled. First, the Jewish people have brought blessing to the whole earth for the Scriptures that they have handed down through the centuries, for their wisdom in the arts and the sciences (which is really quite remarkable), and most of all for bringing to fruition the promise of Jesus Christ. As the Gospel of John says, “Salvation is from the Jews.”
We see a second blessing that surpasses the first in the spiritual descendants of Jacob. We Christians have been largely grafted into Judaism to become the greater and more efficacious branch of God’s people. It is mainly through us that the world knows Christ, its creator and redeemer. This claim sounds pretentious because we know many Christians who hardly live up to the name. Nevertheless, it is our calling as well as our faith. Because we are Christian, we are called to make Christ’s love known to the world.
