Sermon Seeds: You Shall Spread

Sunday, July 19, 2026
Seventh Sunday after Pentecost| Year A
(Liturgical Color: Green)

Lectionary Citations
Genesis 28:10-19a and Psalm 139:1-12, 23-24 • Wisdom of Solomon 12:13, 16-19 or Isaiah 44:6-8 and Psalm 86:11-17 • Romans 8:12-25 • Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts/?z=p&d=65&y=17134

Focus Scripture: Genesis 28:10-19a
Focus Theme: You Shall Spread
Series: Faithful and Vital (Click here for the series overview.)

Reflection
By Cheryl A. Lindsay

Running, I have been told, can become addictive. I know of many runners who personally attest to the feeling of exhilaration they receive from a good run that keeps them coming back for more on a daily basis, no matter the weather, location, or other responsibilities they encounter. Those individuals adopt running as a discipline in order to reach or maintain physical and mental goals, for wellbeing and optimal health. Like many disciplines, they often place running within a routine with a specific time of day, distance, and trail in order to facilitate faithful adherence and eliminate excuses and distractions from attaining their goal and enjoying their chosen endeavor.

Running, however, can also assume a less healthy form. Rather than a routine, running may become a response of avoidance in light of difficult circumstances. As Jeff Gaudette, MS writes, “There’s a difference between adaptive stress relief (going for a run to clear your head after a tough day) and maladaptive avoidance (running to prevent yourself from thinking about a problem that needs to be addressed).”

Jacob was a runner…and not the healthy kind. After he steals his brother’s birthright, Jacob runs from Esau and the repercussions of his actions. He begins a long-term pattern of running from place to place, but unlike his grandparents, his lifestyle is not nomadic, it’s sporadic and avoidant. While other biblical characters participate in conflict, even with siblings, Jacob’s running threatens his ability to benefit from the manipulative efforts to receive his father’s blessing.

The overall character arc of Jacob proves especially interesting. He is the grandson of Abraham and Sarah, nomads who lived a long life together as a couple without children until the Holy One makes a promise and keeps it that their descendants will spread throughout the earth. That covenant is specifically renewed with Jacob through a prophetic dream that Jacob has while on the run. Through his sons, a nation forms. Jacob, who will later be renamed Israel, is the father of the nation that is the recipient of the particular promise uttered in this dream.

The news is a blessing that makes the future possible for Jacob. Verse 15 is addressed specifically to Jacob; it is on this key verse that we will focus. But just prior to the announcement that is unique to Jacob, verses 13–14 repeat the threefold promise first issued to Abraham in 12:1–3 and reissued in 26:4 to Isaac. The patriarchs and matriarchs of Genesis are told that (1) they will become a mighty nation, (2) they will inherit the land of promise, and (3) all the nations of the earth will be blessed through them. God has sworn that it will be so; God has limited God’s power in a way that binds God to these promises. The divine options are no longer so open-ended. This binding of God to a particular people is the meaning of covenant and the heart of the good news in the Genesis stories. While the first two parts of the promise focus on the well-being of this particular people (descendants, land), the last concerns the well-being of others (12:3; 18:18; 22:18; 26:4). God is indeed interested in this people, but they are not to retreat into self-interest. God moves them beyond narrow concerns. The way in which this people is to become a blessing to the world is not developed in Genesis; it is Isaiah who will pick up this theme and magnify it. For now, this part of the promise is implicit, hidden, undeveloped.
Celia Brewer Sinclair

Yet, for all the ambiguity about the means and process, the promise does provide clarity: the blessing is not for Jacob and his descendants’ enjoyment alone. Rather, the blessing comes with an expectation that blessings given are blessings shared. To be chosen is to be called for purpose and universal benefit. What may be considered underdeveloped could also be characterized as expansive. The Holy One imposes no limits in bestowing this promise.

Perhaps, that is why this covenant is offered within the context of a dream, which also defies limits and restrictions. It was also a way to catch Jacob, the runner, in a state of rest, immobility, and receptivity.

The theophany occurs in a dream, that state of mind in which humans have no control. The dream state is the domain God chose to reveal God’s self. We are familiar today with dreams as psychological phenomena. We might wish to dismiss the theophany and say that Jacob’s unconscious desires were being manifest in his dream state, or look at the visual elements as archetypes and symbols. But the text will not allow us to deny the objective reality of the dream. The dream does not stand for anything; it is what it is.
Celia Brewer Sinclair

It is worth noting that this is the first direct encounter between Jacob and the Holy One. It takes place at God’s initiative, which reminds us that in all his running, Jacob never runs to God or for God. In fact, when he realizes that God has been present with him, he expresses amazement and wonder.

The startling element in the narrative is not the appearance of God, for religious phenomena are still with us in all sorts of ways. But here, the amazement is not in the appearance. Rather, it is God! The element in the narrative that surprises Jacob and seems incredible to us is not the religious phenomenon of appearance. It is the wonder, mystery, and shock that this God should be present in such a decisive way to this exiled one. The miracle is the way this sovereign God binds himself to this treacherous fugitive. The event is told as an inexplicable experience. It cannot be assessed by any comparisons or norms outside itself.
Walter Brueggemann

That is the essence of the covenantal promise. It defies comparison. It is not a contract in that both parties agree to terms with mutual responsibility and accountability. The Holy One always keeps their part of the promise regardless of human failing and faithlessness. The covenant is a gift of God to human beings, often flawed in character and behavior, yet the Holy One continues to engage like an addicted runner who cannot help but to seek the euphoria of the run or the disciplined runner who keeps their routine as a sign of integrity and commitment to themselves.

Ultimately, if God runs, it is to chase wayward humans who resist turning to the Holy One when faced with challenges and troubles. In his story, Jacob spends a lot of time and energy running from the consequences of his actions, from facing the wrath and anticipated retribution of his brother, and even from God. The only way for the Holy One to interrupt and disrupt Jacob’s flight was to address him while he slept. In this first direct encounter, the Holy One promises Jacob what no plot or scheme of his own making could have achieved. And, the promise is not made with a list of prerequisites or conditions to be met. The Holy One said, “shall.” In other words, it will happen. Jacob has no other requirement to participate in God’s plan and promise than to receive it.

Reflection from Voices of People of African Descent
The 33rd General Synod adopted a Resolution to Recognize the United Nations International Decade for People of African Descent (2015-2024). As part of its implementation, Sermon and Weekly Seeds offers Reflection from Voices of People of African Descent related to the season or overall theme for additional consideration in sermon preparation and for individual and congregational study.
As a girl, touched by the mystical dimensions of Christian faith, I felt the presence of the Beloved in my heart: the oneness of our life. At that time, when I had not yet learned the right language, I knew only that despite the troubles of my world, the suffering I witnessed around and within me, there was always available a spiritual force that could lift me higher, that could give me moments of transcendent bliss wherein I could surrender all thought of the world and know profound peace.
Early on, my heart had been touched by its delight. I knew its rapture. Early on, I made a commitment to be a seeker on the path: a seeker after truth. I was determined to live a life in the spirit. The black theologian James Cone says that our survival and liberation depend upon our recognition of the truth when it is spoken and lived:
‘If we cannot recognize the truth, then it cannot liberate us from untruth. To know the truth is to prepare for it; for it is not mainly reflection and theory. Truth is divine action entering our lives and creating the human action of liberation.’
In reflecting on my youth, I emphasize the mystical dimension of the Christian faith because it was that aspect of religious experience that I found to be truly liberatory. The more fundamental religious beliefs that were taught to me urging blind obedience to authority and acceptance of oppressive hierarchies– this didn’t move me. no, it was those mystical experiences that enabled me to understand and recognize the realm of being in a spiritual experience that transcends both authority and law.
― bell hooks, Teaching Community

For Further Reflection
“A covenant is a God-initiated relational bond of promise that seeks the covenant-keepers to dwell with God.” ― Nakhati Jon
“It’s when you stop believing your imagination that your fear can become your reality.” ― Daniel Kemp
“When the enemy realizes he can’t derail God’s covenant with you, he’ll work overtime to derail your faith response to it.” ― Andrena Sawyer

Works Cited
Brewer Sinclair, Celia. Genesis (Interpretation Bible Studies). Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1999.
Brueggemann, Walter. Genesis: Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching. Louisville: John Knox Press, 2010.
Gaudette, Jeff. “Are You Addicted to Running? 7 Warning Signs You’ve Crossed From Dedication to Destruction.” https://runnersconnect.net/running-addiction/#:~:text=The%20Avoidance%20Trap&text=There’s%20a%20difference%20between%20adaptive,your%20mental%20health%20and%20recovery. Accessed July 9, 2026.

Suggested Congregational Response to the Reflection
For the season after Pentecost, the themes are derived from the categories of the Marks for Faithful and Vital Churches. Each subseries will invite engagement with one Mark within the category. Each local church should choose how this will be incorporated. (This could be a sermon talk-back from the lens of the Mark, a direct discussion on the Mark, a prayer or song that relates to the Mark.) The response may also be a call to action embedded in the sermon or the sending inviting engagement beyond worship.
Mark for Congregational Response: Relating to one another with gentleness, kindness, and compassion, with sympathy, empathy, and healthy, life-affirming behaviors.

Worship Ways Liturgical Resources
https://www.ucc.org/worship-way/after-pentecost-8a-july-19/

The Rev. Dr. Cheryl A. Lindsay, Minister for Worship and Theology (lindsayc@ucc.org), also serves a local church pastor, public theologian, and worship scholar-practitioner with a particular interest in the proclamation of the word in gathered communities. You’re invited to share your reflections on this text in the comments on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/SermonSeeds.

A Bible study version of this reflection is at Weekly Seeds.