MIZPAH

This coming weekend at The Virginia Military Institutute is a big one: Ring Figure Weekend. This is the time in a cadet's time at The Instititute in which at a formal dance the cadet receives his/her class ring. It is a ring designed by each class in the Second Class or the Junior year. And receiving the ring is next to graduation in terms of importance for a VMI cadet.Yesterday I read the history of the VMI ring and Ring Figure on the Institute's web-site http://www.vmi.edu/archives.aspx?id=7689. Though the November custom of Ring Figure was not solidified until 1928, the first ring is pictured above from 1848. As a pastor, it was the word on the ring that grabbed my attention: Mizpah. Mizpah is a Hebrew word from the Old Testament of the Holy Scriptures, first recorded in Genesis 31: 49 and it means "watchpost". It was the pillar that the patriarch Jacob erected as a sign of the covenant between he and his kinsman Laban. And on that occasion Jacob said, "The Lord watch between you and me, when we are absent one from the other. It just so happened that when I read that yesterday I was teaching that chapter as part of my lesson for the Confirmation class. The lead-up to the stone pillar, Mizpah, briefly put is this:

Jacob had a twin brother Esau. Esau was older, literally by a heel (Gen. 25: 26). Later, Jacob tricked his brother out of his birthright. Then with his mother Rebekah's help, Jacob tricked his Father, Isaac out of the blessing that should have gone to the oldest (25: 27--34; 27: 1--45). And Esau vows to kill his brother Jacob (27: 41) Again, with Mother's help, Jacob flees to Haran, way to the north to live with his kinsman, Laban. Jacob falls immediately in love with Laban's daughter Rachel. He wants to marry her (29: 1--6). Laban says on one condition: you work for me for 7 years. Agreed, said Jacob. At the end of the seven years, at the marriage feast, Laban veils his other daughter Leah and Jacob sleeps with her! Laban had tricked him. And yes, this is in the Bible! (29: 17--30). So Laban says, if you still want Rachel...work for me for another 7 years. Jacob does. After 2o years, Jacob finally tricks Laban out of his wealth: sheep, goats, camels and with his wives and their 11 children, flee from Laban. Laban goes after him with the intent of bodily harm (31: 29) but the Lord tells him do nothing to him, neither good nor bad (31: 24). So they have quite a frank discussion...after 20 years of bad blood (31: 25--42). Laban suggests they make a covenant between them. They do. They pile a heap of stones together and call it Galeed, "heap of witness" (31: 46--47). And a pillar: MIZPAH. "The Lord watch between you and me, when we are absent one from the other." But note: between Jacob and Laban it is cautionary not comforting.

In this year's second class, as Pastor for Lutherans and other Christians on Post, I have had the priviledge of serving the Word and Sacraments since their Rat year the following who will receive their ring this weekend: Jessica, Kate, Matt, Andrew, Brock, Edmund, Berley and Jonathan. And from this class, I have had the honor to teach Andrew instruction into the Lutheran Church and Brock has begun Instruction.

The Lord in His Word is cautionary...as it was between Jacob and Laban. Laban and Jacob probably could not trust each other away from one another. Not everything had gone well all the time. And the Word of Lord, even when it is cautionary can be comforting...as on the first ring at VMI. The Lord watch between you and me, when we are absent one from the other. I hope this prayer becomes yours as brothers and sisters in Christ. The "watchpost", the Mizpah, is the Lord's place in our lives by His grace upon the Cross for us all: to watch between us. He is our watchpost. In the Lord alone, can we be reconciled: for this BR ("brother rat") is also one for whom Christ Jesus died (cf. 1 Cor. 8: 11). In the Lord, you have been given much and I applaud your achievement this weekend!

And truly, we are to keep the watch: watchful for His coming, watchful in prayer, looking out for each other and alert to His Word for us in Holy Communion. And in the Lord I thank the many members of Good Shepherd who have kept watch over you in their homes. The Lord watches over you. He is the Rock, the strong Pillar...and so my prayer for you, Jessica, Kate, Matt, Berley, Jonathan, Brock, Andrew and Eddie is summed up in that one word:

MIZPAH!