Some time ago, a so-called "Christian leader" offered a most bizarre solution to the so-called "rogue leader" of Venezuela. It startled most of us because, however tangential our contact with Christianity, calling for murder of an enemy—especially by a minister—is hardly a central tenet or even one of the peripheral teachings of Christianity. The public outcry that followed showed that the incongruity between Christian teachings and the desired action was blatantly obvious.

More recently in the news, another able leader and pastor was exposed as one who was preaching and advocating publicly against a particular way of life, yet was himself deeply engrossed in it privately. The price and damage from the web of deceit that he so carefully wove will continue to unfold for a long time to come, and the repercussions for all involved are—God forbid—inestimable.

Though these recent occurrences are separated by many centuries from the stories we encounter in this week’s lesson, the similarities abound. The lives of Isaac and Rebekah, their two boys Esau and Jacob, and the boys’ uncle and cousins present us with cyclical or generational incongruence, beginning with the gracefully memorialized "faithful" Abraham.

There is a pattern that runs through the process of duplicity. First, the opportunity presents itself often in an environment removed from the public eye, and even quite possibly in the confines of one’s own mind. For example, both Abraham and Isaac lie that their wives are their sisters (if only technically in Abraham’s case) as they sojourned from home to Gerar. They are afraid for their own lives, since their wives are beautiful and will be objects of desire to the people of the lands of their sojourn, who will feel compelled to kill the husbands in order to possess the wives.

Second, the desired action overcomes one’s faithfulness and commitment, which is more often than not lived out in the public sphere. Then follows the need for deception because duplicity involves other unsuspecting and unwilling participants. Finally, deceit is followed by exposure, and the fallout from the duplicity has far-reaching consequences.

However, there is a danger in looking at the tabloid newsmakers and biblical stories for examples of duplicity. They are too far removed from the people who are given the generic tag of ordinary folks. Duplicity happens in the daily-ness of living; in dropping the kids at school and day care; in the daily rituals of meal preparations and diapers and cleaning and going to court and hospital and school; and of course in going to church. Duplicity occurs as we go about our ordinary busy-ness. It is an affliction common to all. No one is exempt, immune, or need apply, for it comes to all unbidden.

As the story of Esau and Jacob indicates, the seeds of duplicity can be planted and aided by a larger circle of people, especially trusted influencers like members of the family or those we admire. But Jacob was still a moral agent; he had initiated the process sometime before, unaided, when he took advantage of Esau’s weakness and hunger. He had chosen ill gain instead of doing the gospel (God’s bidding) and being hospitable to his own brother. He displayed some spurts of conscience or just plain fear of getting caught during his mother Rebekah’s orchestrated deception to steal her other son’s blessing.

But even Jacob’s very motive for his duplicity was a longing for a blessing—a good and noble thing—which culminated later as he wrestled with a stranger and would not let go until he had received the blessing. In Genesis 25:19–29:30, Jacob is described as a complete, morally innocent person, or as a man of integrity, among other meanings. In the story, he is presented as one who is obedient and not rebellious, unlike his brother, who spites his parents with the choice of wives. Jacob obeys his mother through the deceptions and listens to his father as he is sent away with the instruction not to marry a Canaanite woman. This ability to listen to his parents is the same ability employed when listening to God.

Duplicity is therefore a kind of dichotomy that occurs within the self, allowing the cohabitation of faithfulness and unfaithfulness at the same time. This cohabitation allows for faithful adherence to the gospel to be substituted for the unfaithful aspiration or longing: sister for wife, a meal for a birthright, Jacob for Esau, Leah for Rachel. In our earlier examples, it was the substitution of the gospel for a call for murder and the substitution of trust and commitment to God, (his) family, and congregation for a sexual rendezvous, respectively. Further still. it applies personally and politically when the untenable but accepted adage of our nation and times, "protection of our (my) strategic interests" at others’ expense, is substituted for the gospel, which is to love God with "much-ness" and neighbor as self.

Since there is a wage or a price for any effort under the sun, duplicity is no exception. In duplicity, God suffers the highest price. God’s reputation is damaged when those associated with God’s name fail to be faithful to God. Secondly, we dull or postpone the possibility of others drawing closer to God because when our duplicity is exposed our credibility suffers, and no one wants to be a part of a group of people that has no credibility.

Finally, God has the final word. God’s stubbornness to bless outdoes the damage. This stubbornness always stands in our favor; it is a gift of grace to each of us. In this story, God appears to work within the meanderings and dysfunctions of these characters because he promised a blessing to Abraham, who actually belonged to the past generation. It is God’s prerogative to bless, and for those of us who hunger after a God of our own prejudices, this should be a point of gratitude, because tomorrow could dawn on our own duplicities, and at that time we will need a graceful God: This is a God who will bless in spite of the present circumstances because a mother and a father years ago presented her/his children and the children’s children to God and nothing will impair God’s memory and resoluteness to bless as promised.

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