Genesis 27:1-4, 15-23, 28:10-19a
September 14, 2025
First Congregational United Church of Christ of Manhattan, KS
Sermon by the Rev. Caela Simmons Wood
Oh, Jacob, Jacob, Jacob. What an epic tale.
We meet Jacob in Genesis 25. He’s the son of Isaac and Rebekah. You may remember Isaac from that little story about how HIS father, Abraham, almost murdered him on the mountain in Moriah. But I’m not preaching on that story today - lucky me. Isaac grew up and married Rebekah, who gave birth to twins: Esau and Jacob. While pregnant, she received a prophetic word: that the older son would serve the younger. Which is not how it usually goes.
The story goes: Esau was born first, with Jacob close behind - grasping his heel, in fact, as if he were trying to pull his elder brother out of the way and enter the world first. There are entirely too many stories about Jacob for me to summarize in one sermon, but today we get a couple of Jacob stories.
By the time we get to chapter 27, Jacob has already tricked Esau into selling his birthright for a bowl of stew (hey, when you’re hungry, you’re hungry) and in today’s reading we see him tricking his elderly father into giving Jacob Dad’s best blessing. When I was listening to the Bible Worm podcast earlier this week, Rabbi Amy Robertson and Dr. Bobby Williamson were cracking me up by comparing this part of Jacob’s story to Little Red Riding Hood.
Rebekah wants to ensure the prophecy is fulfilled so she guides Jacob to go into his aging father who is, one imagines, comfortably seated is his La-Z-Boy recliner. Because Esau is noticeably, well, there’s no other way to say this, I guess - he’s just a lot hairier than Jacob - Rebekah gussies up her younger son’s arms with animal pelts in order to fool Isaac, who isn’t seeing as well in his golden years.
And this is where it starts to sound like Little Red Riding Hood.
Isaac said to Jacob, “Come here and let me touch you, my son. Are you my son Esau or not?” So Jacob approached his father Isaac, and Isaac touched him and said, “The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the arms are Esau’s arms.” Isaac didn’t recognize him because his arms were hairy like Esau’s arms, so he blessed him.
“Myyyyyyyy what big teeth you have! Myyyyyyyyy what hairy arms you have!”
As I listened to Bobby and Amy laugh, I couldn’t help but smile. Somehow I’d never really seen the comedy in this story before. I think I’ve spent too many years clutching my pearls and taking it way too seriously. I’d get mad at Jacob for lying. Mad at Rebekah for telling him to do lie. Mad that the liars win, and on and on.
All this time, I’ve missed something important about Jacob’s story, but now I see it. With extreme gratitude to Biblical scholars Karla Suomala and Justin Michael Reed, may I present to you: Jacob, the Trickster. [1]
This story doesn’t read like history because it isn’t. There’s no evidence that a person named Jacob had all these adventures. The story reads more like a legend, a tall tale, folklore. Perhaps you were lucky enough to have a teacher who taught you about elements that are commonly found in human folklore and fable - stories like these transcend culture and time, existing throughout human history and all over the globe. These traditional stories often have morals, themes like good vs evil or the loss of innocence. We know we’re hearing one if it begins with “once upon a time….” And these stories typically have character archetypes: the old wise crone, the innocent child, the clown, the damsel in distress, the seer, and tricksters like Jacob.
The Trickster is the underdog who isn’t supposed to win, but sometimes does. He’s not rich or handsome or strong - he’s not the expected hero. Instead, he’s wily, smart, clever, creative. He’s not afraid of bending the rules to reach his long-term goals. He exists outside of societal conventions and this frustrates others. He doesn’t always win - sometimes he just gives us a good laugh.
I would be remiss, of course, if I didn’t note that Jacob is not the only Trickster in this saga. His mother, Rebekah, uses her smarts to orchestrate things behind the scenes. As a woman in this culture, her formal power was limited, but she certainly knew how to make things happen. And it seems like trickery may run in the family as Jacob later meets his match in Rebekah’s brother, Laban, who has a few tricks up his sleeve, too.
There are Tricksters all over the place in our human stories. Coyote in indigenous American folklore. Anansi the spider-man from West Africa. Loki the Norse shapeshifter. Maui the Polynesian hero. Robin Hood the English outlaw. And, for those into more contemporary references: Captain Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.
Zora Neale Hurston wrote about the gift of Tricksters. They show us how the underdog can sometimes “make a way out of no way.” And even when they don’t win, Hurston said, Tricksters can help us laugh in the midst of some very hard times. [2]
It turns out that humor is a powerful force for those on the margins. When you’re just a small fry, up against the powerful, corrupt leaders, a little creative humor might be just what you need to turn the tide.
Srđa Popović is a modern-day Trickster. Born in 1973, he was one of the founding members of Otpor!, a youth-led, nonviolent Serbian resistance movement that played a key role in the overthrow of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milošević back in the year 2000. Otpor! started out as a small group of 20-somethings in Belgrade. They were not rich or powerful. They were just young folks who wanted freedom. They knew instinctively that they didn’t stand a chance against the government if they chose violent resistance, so they took a different tack.
We all know that non-violent resistance is morally superior to violence, but many don’t realize that non-violent resistance is also much more effective - especially when there’s a huge power differential. Political scientists have studied uprisings all over the globe and have found that nonviolent actions are much more likely to succeed. [3]
Otpor! may have looked like a scraggly group of college kids, but they knew how to use the resources at their disposal to make big waves. Humor was one of their best tactics. Popović calls this strategic use of humor “laughtivism” and says that it works for at least three reasons:
Humor melts fear. Fear is the handmaid of tyranny. But it’s hard to be afraid when you’re laughing. When we’re joking, fear just seems to melt away. Leaning into playfulness makes us braver, stronger, and more deeply connected to each other.
Humor makes your movement look cool. People want to have fun. If you’re able to laugh in the face of evil? People will want to join you.
Finally, humor creates a can’t-win situation for your opponent. If you mock someone in power, they basically have two options. If they ignore you, chances are good others will also start to ridicule them and their power will erode. If they come after you, they’ll probably end up looking very foolish and their power will erode. It’s a lose-lose scenario. [4]
Like any good Trickster, Otpor! mastered the use of strategic humor. The more ridiculous, the better. One of their earliest stunts involved a giant metal barrel. They painted it red and left a baseball bat sitting nearby. They attached a sign that invited people to drop in a coin for Milošević’s retirement fund OR if they couldn’t spare a coin due to his economic policies, they could take a whack at the barrel. In a matter of minutes, crowds had gathered, laughing, making tons of noise, and venting their frustrations on the barrel. The police showed up but couldn’t find the culprits who had left this odd gift on the sidewalk. Unsure of what else to do, they awkwardly hauled the barrel off in the back of a squad car, Creating a perfect photo op that undermined the authority of the government because they looked ridiculous “arresting” a metal barrel. [5]
Former members of Otpor! have been sharing what they know all over the globe for decades now. And their humorous tactics have been used by everyday people all over the world, fighting for democratic freedoms. One of the funniest stories I heard this week took place in Germany about ten years ago. Every year, neo-Nazis gather in Wunsiedel for a Nazi parade. [6] The locals hated it but couldn’t stop it. So they created a “charity walk,” raising funds for an anti-Nazi group and made the Nazis unwitting participants. They put up big banners and signs celebrating all the money raised. For each meter the Nazis marched, more cash was raised for the anti-Nazi cause. They had aid stations where they handed the marchers snacks. They gave them congratulatory certificates at the end of the walk. They didn’t have to punch Nazis to make their point, they just ridiculed them. And had fun raising $10,000 for a good cause at the same time.
Humor melts fear. Humor makes your movement look cool. And humor creates a can’t-win scenario for those who unfairly hoard power.
Tricksters know these truths. They make us laugh. They make us cheer for the underdog. They win, they lose, then frustrate, they entertain. And if we can loosen our grip on our pearls ever so slightly, they might even remind us that we worship a God who has scattered those with arrogant thoughts and proud inclinations, pulling the powerful down from their thrones and lifting up the lowly. A God who has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty-handed. A God who came to us in human flesh, born among stinky animals and laid in a manger. A God who proclaims the last will be first, and the first will be last.
Thanks be to our tricky God. Amen.
NOTES:
[1] https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/narrative-lectionary/jacobs-dream/commentary-on-genesis-271-4-15-23-2810-17-2, https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/narrative-lectionary/jacobs-dream-2/commentary-on-genesis-271-4-15-23-2810-17-4
[2] https://hackneybooks.co.uk/books/124/571/HighJohn.html
[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgaDUcttL2s&t=2s
[5] Engler, Mark; Engler, Paul. This Is an Uprising: How Nonviolent Revolt Is Shaping the Twenty-First Century (p. 67).
[6] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-30100756
