Sunnyvale Presbyterian Church
July 23, 2023
“In God's House”
Rev. Hardy Kim
And join us on Wednesday for the
Modern Worship Collective at 6:30 p.m.
Greetings!

I know that the news about the world around us seems pretty bad right now (especially when it comes to the weather). But I want to say that even that wasn’t enough to keep me from marveling at the beauty in the many places I visited during my recent trip to Scotland and Ireland. Yes, maybe things weren’t exactly as they were supposed to be on account of the climate, but it was still humbling to walk ancient streets and spirit-lifting to hike around high mountain lochs.

Sometimes getting outside of our own contexts and routines can help us see the world differently, in ways that are good for us even as they might be a bit uncomfortable. In the story we will dig into on Sunday, about Jacob and his dream, we see a person who is also seeing his world a bit differently than usual. Let’s go on a little journey with him, to see how it might help illumine our own daily walk.

Peace,
Hardy

Please join us immediately following the Sunday service for our Coffee Hour
(in-person in Trinity Court or online via Zoom).
Theme for Sunday

“The third characteristic of MacLeod’s Celtic spirituality, or way of seeing, was his sense of the immediacy of the spiritual realm, of God’s presence in the whole of life. It included a keen mystical awareness of those who have gone before and of the host of heaven present among us on earth…. For him, as for Alexander Scott and others in the Celtic tradition, the ladder that connects heaven and earth is everywhere present.”

J. Philip Newell, Listening for the Heartbeat of God

Questions for Reflection
  • Has there ever been a time when you were in a new or different place and you felt very close to God? What about the place gave you that feeling?

  • Has there ever been a moment when someplace very familiar to you was transformed for you by a particular thought or experience? What happened and how did it change your understanding of the world?
Genesis 28:10-19

Jacob left Beer-sheba and went toward Haran. He came to a certain place and stayed there for the night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place. 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. And the Lord stood beside him and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring; and your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you and in your offspring. Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place—and I did not know it!” And he was afraid, and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.” So Jacob rose early in the morning, and he took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it. He called that place Bethel; but the name of the city was Luz at the first.
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