Audio version available: http://meridianstreet.org/sermon/wrestling-with-god/
(Genesis 32:24‑30 NRSV) Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. {25} 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. {26} Then he said, "Let me go, for the day is breaking." But Jacob said, "I will not let you go, unless you bless me." {27} So he said to him, "What is your name?" And he said, "Jacob." {28} 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." {29} 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. {30} So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, "For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved."
(Genesis 32:24‑30 NRSV) Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. {25} 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. {26} Then he said, "Let me go, for the day is breaking." But Jacob said, "I will not let you go, unless you bless me." {27} So he said to him, "What is your name?" And he said, "Jacob." {28} 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." {29} 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. {30} So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, "For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved."
It all began with Dan Brown and his novel THE DIVINCI
CODE.
Well, that is
not completely true.
It really began, for me, as a child. I read the Bible, I went to church, but to be
honest — some things just didn’t make sense.
My parents, raised me in the church (my father is a retired United
Methodist minister) but, more importantly, they raised me with a sense that it
was okay to ask questions. I didn’t have
to believe everything at face value.
I was a history major in college. Maybe that is where the blame lies. In learning history, I learned that
everything is seen through the lens of those who are telling the story. The history of an event, told from opposing
sides, sounds sometimes like it is two different events — yet, they both told
the truth, as they perceived it. That
lesson seeped over as I began to earnestly study the Bible and the history of
the early Church.
Maybe Albert Sweitzer, the great doctor and missionary is
too blame. As I studied his quest to
find the historical Jesus, I realized that the only Jesus that we have is not a
Jesus of history, but a Jesus of faith.
That doesn’t mean that Jesus didn’t live — I believe he did. But what we can know about the Jesus of
history can never be isolated from the Jesus of faith.
While I have learned to live comfortably in that grey area of
life, I know that many people struggle with this. I see this most profoundly in people who are
what Bishop Spong calls “The Church Alumni”, people who no longer can believe
the doctrine of the church, yet are still looking for something.
There is a great deal of excellent scholarship out there on
the formation of the Bible and the early church. I claim no expertise. What I do claim, is that Christianity is
still valid and important in the 21st Century.
The “Old” Christianity may be dead (or at least dying), but
Christianity certainly is not. Jesus
came to show us a way of life, and he died trying to teach us.
About a year and a half ago I was struggling with what God
desired for my life. I had been ordained
for 30 years and had spent the last 17 years in Munster.
I sensed that it was time for me to move on, but I wasn't
able to get a clear vision of what that meant.
I think what really made the waters muddy was the fact that
I had said repeatedly over the previous 17 years that Ridge Church was my last
appointment.
But now it
was coming to an end --- what does one do?
I spend many hours praying and listening intently to what I
thought God might be speaking to me --- but to be honest --- I never got a
clear answer. The only thing that was
clear to me was that my ministry at Ridge Church was coming to an end.
What made it even more difficult was that I was passionately
involved in the community. I took John
Wesley's imperative: All The World Is My
Parish very seriously, and the other thing that was clear to me that my
ministry in that role wasn't completed.
So what does one do?
How do we KNOW what God wants for our lives?
How do we KNOW, that our interpretation of scripture on a
particular hot button issue is correct?
Unfortunately I don't thing we do KNOW, with absolute
certainty.
The challenge for me has been getting comfortable living in
the grey.
About four years ago I attended a seminar led by Donald
Miller called STORYLINE. Don is best known as the author of a number of books
including Blue Like Jazz and the one that really grabbed me: A
Million Miles in a Thousand Years.
At the STORYLINE conference, one of the things we were
challenged to do was create a timeline of significant events in one's life ---
the good and the bad.
The good is easy
Making the
decision to go to Duke
Meeting Nancy
there
Our wedding
The birth of
our children
Starting Celebration
Church
Buying our
first house
The list
could go on and on
Even coming up with the bad for the most part isn't that tough
Being told in
elementary school that I can't sing
Failed
relationships
The death of
my brother Stewart
Leaving
Celebration Church
The death of
Nancy's dad and brother in a six month period
Dealing with
the declining heath of parents
Again the list
could go on and on
The hard part is honestly
looking back at those events and seeing God present in them and finding
purpose in them.
Don’t get me wrong --- I don’t believe God allowed Stewart
to die to change me --- I have come to believe that through Stewart’s life and
death God gave me the opportunity to grow.
I don’t think God is mad at the USA so we are seeing this
spike in violence --- God is praying that we will grow and learn and change
because this violence is happening.
Jacob is one of my favorite characters in the Bible.
Jacob was the younger of twins, and throughout the pregnancy
he and his brother Esau were fighting in the womb of their mother.
Rebecca (their mother) is rather unhappy about this fighting
that is going on inside of her and she takes her struggle to God and we are
told that she asks God “why?”
Why this
conflict that is going on within her womb.
And the text tells us:
(Genesis 25:23 NRSV) And the LORD said to her, "Two nations
are in your womb, and two peoples born of you shall be divided; the one shall
be stronger than the other, the elder shall serve the younger."
The story goes on
(Genesis 25:24‑26 NRSV) When her time to give birth was at hand, . . .
{25} The first came out red, all his body like a hairy mantle; so they named
him Esau. {26} Afterward his brother came out, with his hand gripping Esau's
heel; so he was named Jacob.
Jacob, in Hebrew Ya’akob, means “supplanter.”
It was the perfect name for him, as it spoke of his tendency
to want to get ahead, to try and turn the tables and change the outcomes —
so that the smaller could become
the greater, the younger could gain the privilege of the older, the one with
little could get a lot.
There are a number of stories in Genesis about Jacob trying
to best his brother.
In one story
he convinces Esau to sell his birthright for a bowl of stew.
In another he and Rebecca create a
plan to trick old, blind Isaac (the boys father) into giving his blessing to
Jacob, when it should have gone to Esau.
When Esau finds out what has happened, you can imagine he
was just a little upset at his brother for stealing their father’s blessing,
and we are told that because of his brothers anger --- Jacob the deceiver flees
for his life.
Chapter 28 of the book of Genesis is all about Jacob on the
run from an angry and murderous Esau.
On his way to his uncle’s home in Haran he lies down and
dreams a remarkable dream. In his dream the Lord is poised atop a ladder, or a
stairway, and from this place the Lord makes a promise to Jacob:
(Genesis 28:13‑15 NRSV) And the LORD stood beside him and said,
"I am the LORD, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the
land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring; {14} and your
offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to
the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and all the
families of the earth shall be blessed in you and in your offspring. {15} Know
that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back
to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised
you."
I am with you, God says.
I will protect you
wherever you go.
I will bring you back.
I will not leave you.
At the
heart of these promises is the promise of presence and protection. God commits
God-self unconditionally to be with Jacob.
As far as we know, this
is Jacob’s first encounter with God. And the interesting thing is that the
promises, by themselves, are not enough for Jacob.
Jacob wants proof.
Jacob wants to KNOW that God will deliver.
So, when he wakes from
his dream, Jacob makes a vow.
It is an interesting
vow:
(Genesis
28:20‑21 NRSV) "If
God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me
bread to eat and clothing to wear, so that I come again to my father's house in
peace, then the LORD shall be my God,
God’s promises to Jacob
were unconditional. Jacob, however, lays down conditions.
Jacob
is concerned for his survival, for his safety, and for his well being.
I don't know about you,
but too many times in my life I have been like Jacob. God promises unconditional love, but I offer
back conditions.
Eventually Jacob's past
catches up with him.
The deceiver is deceived
by his uncle and unaware he marries the ugly older sister instead of the
beautiful sister that he loves.
After all kinds of twists
and turns, the time comes for Jacob to return home.
In order to go home, he
must face his past.
He must acknowledge
those bad moments in his life.
And for the first time
in his life --- Jacob feels afraid.
He is afraid of what his
brother Esau might do to him.
So Jacob sent send
messengers ahead bearing extravagant gifts of goats, sheep, camels, bulls, and
donkeys, 550 heads of livestock in all.
But before that can happen, Jacob encounters God and learns
what it really means to see the face of God — to engage, to wrestle, in
authentic relationship with another.
After Jacob has sent his possessions and his family —
everything that he owns; to the other side of the Jabbok — he is utterly
alone.
It is then that we read this remarkable story:
(Genesis
32:23‑28 NRSV) 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.
{26} Then he said, "Let me go, for the day is breaking." But Jacob
said, "I will not let you go, unless you bless me." {27} So he said
to him, "What is your name?" And he said, "Jacob." {28}
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."
This encounter is a
turning point in Jacob’s life.
When Jacob
wrestles—truly wrestles — with God — He receives a new name, and with that new
name, he is transformed.
He is, as Paul writes in Galatians “a new creation”.
He is
no longer Jacob the deceiver --- he is now Israel, the one who wrestled with
God
When I look back at
those critical moments in my life I find one constant
Not that I have the answers to:
Why
Mrs. Boone told me at 12 that I could not sing
Why
Stewart at 23 developed cancer and died
Why
Mike at 55 died suddenly just six months after the death of his father
When I wrestle with the issues of violence in our society
Why we
kill each other
Why we
distrust each other
What I have come to
understand is ----
I don't wrestle alone
God wrestles with me
·
God weeps with me over the deaths of Philando
Castile and Alton Sterling
·
God weeps with me over the deaths of Lorne
Ahrens, Michael Smith, Michael Krol, Patrick Zamarripa and Brent Thompson.
·
God weeps with me over the violence and hatred
in this world
·
I do not have the answers
--- but I know that God is willing to wrestle with me
God wants to wrestle
with you too
Not to solve your
problems
But to
help you understand that in the midst of them --- you are not alone
I too am willing to
wrestle with you --- not to give you my answers, but to help you encounter God as
you wrestle to find yours.
Like Jacob of old, God
wants to wrestle with you and change your name as you grow in ministry and
service with Jesus.
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