Liminal Setting - Traveling out of normal space and time denotes danger. [1]  And so Jacob the traveler stops at a mysterious place. The story is liminal, hovering between states of consciousness. Jacob dreams about God. The actual dream aside, God promises land and progeny. The promise of land is tied to the very place upon which Jacob sleeps. The promise of posterity is not for personal aggrandizement, but a promise on its way through Jacob to the world. Such will be the standard for all the promises of God. [2]

Ziggur-what? - What was this stairway up to heaven? The vision probably drew from the culture of the day-the ziggurat. Such was attached to temple towers and were viewed as a microcosm of the world: the top of the tower represented heaven, home of the gods. Priests and divine beings traversed up and down the stairway, providing communication between the two realms. [3]

Dreams - The dream is one-sided: Jacob is passive, God active. Thus, Jacob was not in control of what was happening within him. But on the other hand, Jacob must respond to God’s promises in order to shape the future. The text helps us to envision that the world is a place of divine meetings; that God can actually use liminal experiences to get through to us even today. [5]

[5] Recall recent “liminal” movies . . . movies that hover between the reality and non-reality? (EX: The Mothman Prophecies, The Outsiders, The Sixth Sense, etc.)

What makes Jacob run? Being homeless? Landless? Aimless? Sleepless? Friendless? Other reasons why people run: .

What does Jacob learn about God in this story? What did you learn about God?

What is the most remarkable and striking thing about the dream?

You might want to shape your homily in the direction of finding God in unexpected places and in unexpected ways. Jacob breaks from the familiar, the comfortable, the predictable-okay, he has little options left! Many of us have found ourselves in a similar situation: running through a new place. But in that new place God can choose to reveal God’s Self to us.

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[1] Diane Jacobson, Proclamation 2002 (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2001), page 135. 
[2] Ibid, page 136.
[3] The New Interpreter’s Bible I (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1994), page 541.
[4] Ibid, page 543.
[5] Some questions are adapted from Serendipity Bible (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, rvd. 1998), p. 81.