The reading:
Genesis 32:22-30
The same night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two
maids, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. He took
them and sent them across the stream, and likewise everything that he had.
Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until
daybreak. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him
on the hip socket; and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with
him. Then he said, “Let me go, for the day is breaking.” But Jacob said, “I
will not let you go, unless you bless me.” So he said to him, “What is your
name?” And he said, “Jacob.” Then the man said, “You shall no longer be called
Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans, and have
prevailed.” Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why
is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. So Jacob called the
place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is
preserved.”
The message
This
morning, we continue with the narrative lectionary and our journey through the
Old Testament. Over the past few weeks, we have looked at one of the creation
stories and the story of Abraham and Sarah.
Today, we continue to walk together through the stories of God’s first
communications with the world. We are
now a few years after God appears to Abraham and Sarah as three visitors. These visitors are greeted and well cared
for. As they leave, they share the promise that Sarah will have a child. Sarah is shocked and laughs at the very idea
of this. Her and Abraham are old, at the end of their lives and had given up on
having a child decades ago. One year and
one son named Issac later, Sarah and Abraham learn that God keeps God’s
promises. A few years later, Issac, this miraculous
child and his wife Rebecca become the parents of Jacob, who is the main
character in this story and this part of God’s communication with the
world.
Jacob
becomes the third person to enter a covenant and agreement with God. (the first two were Noah and Abraham). In Jacob’s case the promises God makes are a
repeat and reinforcement of the promises made to Abraham, that his family line
would become a great nation, special to God, obedient and cared for. Jacob had twelve sons and at least one
daughter, by his two wives, Leah and Rachel, and by their servants Bilhah and
Zilpah. (I don’t hear too many people
talking about this common way of life at the time, when they talk about
biblical marriage). Each of Jacob’s sons, Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan,
Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, and Benjamim, becomes the patriarch
of one the twelve tribes of Israel.
Jacob’s
life has some aspects to it that are not really what we would think of as right
or moral and parts of the story play out like a contemporary drama or even a
soap opera. There are time of betrayal and serious lies. First, Jacob should not be that important in
his family. He is the younger brother of his twin Esau. As the younger child, Jacob would not be
entitled to much of anything. He tricks the birthright away from Esau (trading
it for some food when Esau is starving) and then tricking his now blind father
Issac into blessing him instead of Esau. Throughout the stories of Jacob and
his family, there is a constant sort of wrestling between what is right or
wrong, good or evil, part of God’s larger plan or humans acting badly. Perhaps the best example of this is the story
of Jacob’s son Joseph. Joseph’s brothers
are jealous of him so they leave him to die in the wilderness, return home and
tell Jacob his son was killed by wild animals. Joseph does not die. He ends up
being picked up and turned into a slave in Egypt. There, he interprets a dream
for the pharaoh which predicts 7 years of abundance followed by 7 years of
famine. This news allows Egypt to prepare for the coming struggle and Joseph
becomes a powerful and deeply respected leader of Egypt. During the famine, Joseph is able to bring
his whole family into Egypt, where they are able to survive. Joseph tells his brothers, while it was their
plan to kill him, it was God’s bigger plan for their actions to save their
family.
That
idea of wrestling with how to be faithful in a complex and broken world, with
how to understand God’s love and presence in a place where things do not go how
we feel they should, brings us to what I
like to think of as the world’s first recorded wrestling match. I want to share
a little about when this happens. Jacob
and his wives (the sisters Rachael and Leah) have spent twenty years staying
with and serving the women’s father Laban.
At this time, they have nothing to show for it. Jacob and his family takes all of the
property from Laban and tries to flee to Jacob’s father Issac and his
land. Laban chases them and during the
conflict, they come to an agreement to permanently go their separate ways. The wrestling match happens during their trip
back to Issac.
These
few verses in Genesis are amongst the strangest in the bible. The Hebrew
language is not quite clear on who or what exactly Jacob is wrestling with and
neither am I. People have said, its an angel, the angry guardian angel of Esau
who lost his birthright, God, some sort of spiritual being, even a
pre-incarnation Jesus. With that said, Jacob seems to believe he was wrestling
with God. Peniel, the name given to the
place where this encounter happens,
expresses something like “I have seen the face of the Lord and lived”). Israel, the name that Jacob receives at the
end of the encounter, literally means “he who struggles with God”
This
story came up once during Vacation Bible School a few years. At the end of the
program, one of the children from
Rainbow ran over and told me she forgot her plush bear in the classroom (which
was a big deal). I walked over with her
to open the doors and find it. During
our walk, she asked me a really great question,
“If God is so powerful why couldn’t he just beat that guy up”. It took
me a minute to realize she was talking about the reading we just heard
(apparently they recently talked about it in Sunday school at her church). The only answer I could come up with was that
well God was not trying to beat up or hurt Jacob, God was trying to teach Jacob
and all people a lesson.
Now,
a few years later, I have had a lot of time to think about this but I still do
not have a better answer. I would like to end by talking a little about what I
think that lesson is (at VBS, the little girl didn’t let me go that easily, her
next question was “what lesson”). This
story of Jacob wrestling with God is a physical, real illustration of something
we all know and often feel. Faith ain’t
easy but God will be with us in our struggles.
We often imagine we are the only ones who struggle, that we are not like
the great saints. The truth is, the history of almost every person of faith,
historically celebrated or unknown, has these times of wrestling with their
doubt, faith communities and even God,
Martin Luther, the founder of our church (and many other protestant
traditions) wrestled with these things
so much, he gave the experience a name “Anfechtungen”
(At
this point I had to turn to some of our German members and find out how to
actually say this word and talked about Luther's personal struggles with his faith and work, which were numerous)
We
see the universal realness of struggling with God in these stories and we can
see hope in how Luther pulled out of these moments. Luther found help in Scripture, baptism,
communion and the “fellowship of the church” Luther went on to say that the church and the
ministry of the Word were instituted for this purpose, that hands may be joined
together and one may help another. If the prayer of one doesn’t help, the
prayer of another will.”. From this
story of Jacob wrestling with God, we are reminded that when we feel like we
are engaged and caught in doubts, struggles, uncertainty, despair or mourning,
we have help. Most importantly to wrestle with God in the world means to know
God is with us in the world.
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