Step by Step

"Jacob left Beer-sheba and went towards 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."

-Genesis 28: 10-12

In 1995 my dad entered what would be his final season coaching basketball on the college level at Clinch Valley College.  He had been thinking for a year or so that the grueling challenges of coaching collegiately were just too much--traveling all over the country to recruit players, traveling all over the southeast to scout opposing teams, days and nights of practice and film sessions that were so long that he often slept in his office, rather than drive the 40 minutes or so back home on the mountain roads.  The years had taken their toll. 

That might have been why Dad did something a little different in the media guide for that 95-96 Highland Cavaliers team.  Coaches often take song lyrics or inspirational speeches and use them to motivate their players.  Dad, however, devoted two whole pages of the team's media guide to a man named Nimrod Workman.  The pages told of how Nimrod grew up in the coal camps of West Virginia and how he himself went to work in the mines at the age of 14.  Most importantly the pages told of Nimrod's passionate work with the coal miner's unions, his partnership with Mother Jones, and his participation in the of Blair Mountain, a civil uprising between miners and their corporate operators in 1921.  And in those pages were the lyrics to a song Nimrod wrote, a song he loved and sang often, with lyrics taken from the opening words of the constitution of the United Mine Worker's of America.  It was the song that would be the theme for that final basketball season for my Dad and the Highland Cavaliers.  Here's the song in its entirety, just four lines long:

Step by step the longest march can be won, can be won.

Many stones can form an arch, singly none, singly none.

And by union what we will can be accomplished still.

Drops of water turn a mill, singly none, singly none.

Nimrod knew that every journey, especially the journey for equality, is about going one step at a time and working together for a common purpose.  When the season drug on, when the Cavs faced their challenges, they came back to this song.  Step by step the longest march can be won.  One step at a time.  By union what we will can be accomplished still.  Only together can we achieve our goals.  That final season didn't end the way we wanted, with a first round loss in the conference tournament.  But the Cavs never lost sight of those words offered to them by Nimrod Workman.  Maybe that's why that was the only team my dad coached at Clinch Valley that had a 100% graduation rate.  Step by step.

Today we hear story of Jacob's Ladder.  Most all of us know that story, I suspect.  Jacob is weary from his travels and so he takes a stone as a pillow and falls asleep.  In his dream God stands next to him, and he sees a great ladder going up to heaven, with angels ascending and descending.  And when he wakes up Jacob promises to follow God, promises to uphold his end of the covenant that began with his grandfather Abraham, that Jacob and his offspring will be God's people, and God will be their God.  Forever and always.

I wonder what that ladder looked like.  I wonder what each rung held.  How far apart were those rungs?  Did the angels ever get tired going up and down them?  Did any of them try to skip over a few rungs?  Or did they all take their time, one by one, step by step?

The story of Jacob's Ladder is an allegory for the connectedness between heaven and earth.  We experience this connectdness in Holy Eucharist when we approach the altar--the place where heaven and earth collide--and most especially we experience it in Jesus, the true ladder that connects heaven and earth. But this story is more than an allegory for these things. It's also an allegory for our very lives.

Some of you probably remember that Sunday School song, "We are climbing Jacob's Ladder"?  My parents used to sing that to me as I drifted off to sleep as a kid.  Every rung goes higher and higher, the song says.  Each day, each passing moment, brothers and sisters, we are climbing those rungs.  We are moving ever-closer to the glory of God.  Step by step.  Together.  Never alone. 

The journey along this ladder is a marathon, it's not a sprint.  Step by step.  And along each step God calls us to do something new, something more that we could not do two or three rungs back.  Several rungs back I thought called was calling me to be an actor, to entertain folks.  I went a few more rungs along and discovered God calling me to be a baseball coach, to inspire and educate others as my Dad had.  But then I continued my journey along the ladder and found God asking something new of me, asking me to be a priest in Christ's holy Church.  And here I am.  I'm not so sure what the next step will be, what the next rung of the ladder will look like, but I do know that I won't be going through it alone.  I've never been alone.  Those angels that ascended and descended Jacob's ladder have been with me.  They're with me now, everywhere I turn.  Like Nimrod Workman, we recognize that the journey that we are on, the journey for justice for all God's children, the journey of bringing about God's kingdom here on earth, is one that is done together, one that is done step by step. It's a good reminder for us when life gets so challenging, and we feel like we can't go on. Step by step.

So I wonder, what might God be calling you to do with your next step along your ladder?  What might God be asking you to give of yourself as you stretch out for that next rung?  What new thing is God working in you as you prepare to take your next step?   Sometimes it's hard to hear God through all the noise of our lives, but when we quiet ourselves, when we find our still place, as Jacob found on that hill that he named Beth-El, the House of God, then we hear God's voice urging us along.  Step by step.  And we know in our hearts that the work of bringing about the kingdom of God here on earth is not a singular task.  We need each other. Many stones can form and arch and by union what we will can be accomplished.  It is together that we do the great work God has called us to do.  Together.  Like those drops of water that turn the meal.  Slowly.  One by one.  But the mill turns.  The work gets done.  We are the drops of water. Each of us has a part to play, each has something to contribute, so that that work gets done.  And God is glorified.  Step by step.  So brothers and sisters, what is God calling you to do with your next rung on the ladder?