PEOPLE'S CHURCH OF DOVER

Genesis 32:22-30                                                                                        WRESTLER
Sermon September 27, 2009:  People’s United Church of Christ, Dover, DE:  The Rev. Dan Griggs

            Everybody has a favorite Bible character.  A couple of years ago I did a presentation for the Women’s Fellowship in which each person identified her favorite Bible character and then thought about what it is in that character that resonates with her own life.  For example, a perfectionist might be attracted to Ezra the scribe, or to James the apostle:  both characters taught and lived a very closely-guarded life.  A poet might be attracted to Job, because Jobs looks into the heart of the human condition with a poet’s soul.  A politician or a captain of industry might be attracted to David, who knew just how to use his front-man Joab, and how to work a crowd.  Maybe your favorite Bible character isn’t a real person but a character in one of Jesus’ parables:  the Good Samaritan, or the pearl merchant, or the one-talent servant who gets short-changed.  My favorite Bible character is Jacob—the younger brother, the mystic who wasn’t above cheating everybody, the patriarch whose name the whole country of ancient Israel took for the national name.  And my favorite story about Jacob is our First Lesson today:  Jacob wrestling with the angel at the Brook Jabbok.  My question to you is this:  What is God trying to wrestle you for? 

            Jacob lived about 1400 years before the birth of Jesus.  Sometime in the 700’s before Christ there lived a prophet named Hosea who preached about God’s struggle with the people of North Israel.  In Hosea’s time North Israel had its temple in the town of Bethel, where Jacob had worshiped all those centuries before.  There the people sang a hymn about Jacob wresting with the angel.  It went like this:[1]

Those North Israelites thought of their own temple worship as a mirror reflecting their ancestor Jacob’s meeting God at Bethel, wrestling with God for a blessing.  Along came the prophet Hosea trying to call them to true repentance and faithfulness, and he added a second verse.  Hosea sang:[2]

            What the prophet did with the story of Jacob is surprising, and it goes to the core of my soul.  Let’s go back and remember the story of Jacob’s wrestling match, as told in the Book of Genesis.[3]  Here is Jacob, younger twin of Esau:  they look exactly alike except that Esau’s arms are hairy.  But Jacob spent his whole life trying to get everything he could.  When the twins were born the midwife tied a ribbon on the first hand out:  the hand went back in, and the other twin was born first—Esau; but the ribbon was on Jacob’s finger, second-born.  He even over-reached his brother as a baby.  That’s how he got the name “Jacob”—it means “supplanter,” or “cheater.”  As a young man Jacob plotted with his mother Rebecca to fool his father Isaac, now blind, into thinking he was Esau and giving Jacob the heritage blessing.  He cheated his brother out of his inheritance.  So Jacob had to run away—Esau was so mad he wanted to kill him.  And that first night on the run he camped near a town named “Luz.”  He had a dream:  a great ladder or staircase from earth to heaven, and the angels of God ascending and descending on it; so he later changed the name of Luz to “Bethel”—where North Israel later built its temple. 

            Jacob fled to Syria where he worked for his Uncle Laban, married two of his daughters, Leah and Rachel, had ten sons and a daughter, became rich in sheep and cattle; and then he started home.  But he even cheated Uncle Laban out of the best cattle as he was leaving.  This was not a nice guy—Jacob! 

            Now Jacob and his tribe of family, servants, sheep and cattle are entering the Jordan Valley—home.  They camp at the Brook Jabbok, one of the tributaries of the Jordan River.  It’s night, and tomorrow he will meet his brother, who (he has heard) is headed this way with four hundred men; so Jacob didn’t sleep that night.  He sent his family and property across in two separate companies, and as he stepped into the water at the crossing a dark warrior rose up.  The Book of Genesis calls it an angel; Hosea calls it God himself.  And all night long Jacob wrestled with God.

            Last chance, Jacob.  Going home, facing the music with Esau, rich by crooked means, and yet bearer of the patriarchal blessing—Jacob didn’t want to be questioned about his life; but he can’t defeat the wrestler.  They throw each other.  They sweat.  They groan.  Pain shoots through all his limbs, especially when the wrestler pulls his hip-joint out of its socket; but he continues to wrestle.  Dawn approaches, and the wrestler tries to break away; but Jacob holds him and won’t let him go until the wrestler blesses him.  And then something happens that catches Jacob by surprise.  The wrestler asks him, “What is your name?”  Who are you?  Who is it you really are, Jacob?  And before he thinks he answers, “Jacob.”  It means, “I’m the cheater, the supplanter of my father, my brother and my uncle.  This is who and what I am.”  And as soon as the words are out of his mouth, Jacob is stunned by the truth of his life.  He really is the cheater, and nothing more.  He sits in the mud of the river bank and looks into the abyss of his own sinfulness.  First light:  the wrestler turns to leave; but before he departs God says, “From this day your name shall be ‘Israel’—the one who wrestles with God and man, and wins.” 

            What was God wrestling Jacob about?  Probably the original story was about a water spirit defending the brook from a trespasser, and had to disappear before dawn.  But the Hebrews knew better:  there is only one God, and God is moral.  God calls our lives into question, and demands an answer:  Who are you?  And you’d better give an honest answer.  Jacob gave an honest answer:  I am the cheater.  And only then could God give him a new life, a new character, a new destiny, and a new name.  And so it is for us all.  What is God wrestling you for?  For honest confession, and to give you a new name.  To bless you. 

            Jacob, “Israel,” then crossed the brook.  He did meet Esau, and they reconciled.  Hosea says that something really did change about Jacob.  He had met God, and God really does speak to “US,” saying (in Hosea’s verse):  “Return to your God.”  “Turn!”  “Hold fast to love and justice, and wait continually for your God.” 

            To finish the story:  Jacob settled near a town called Shechem and became a highly respected man in the community.  He grew old with dignity.  His sons were wealthy.  His manner of life was just in his relations with the other inhabitants.  And his own favorite son, Joseph, became prime minister of Egypt and saved the whole tribe from death in a drought.  In other words the man named “Israel” really was different from “Jacob” the supplanter.  Israel had met God at the Brook Jabbok, and God had transformed him into a man worthy to bear the blessing. 

            So here is my favorite Bible character—Jacob.  I guess part of my attraction to him is that we’re both younger brothers.  But Jacob sort of chose me—I didn’t choose him.  There have been a lot of wrestling matches in my life—not literal ones, but life matches; for example, five of the first six churches I served as pastor were churches in conflict:  that was a lot of fun.  And I’ve told you some of the stories about my brother.  When you face one after another wrestling match, you can lose your perspective and become self-centered; and so you need some spiritual disciplines to “forget yourself into the arms of God,” so to speak. 

            And what about you?  Do you really think you can avoid the spiritual and moral issues of your life?  that the wrestler will leave you alone?  Have you told yourself, “Maybe if I go to work every day until retirement, and if I pay my bills, and if I do my best rearing my children, and if I manage my sexuality right, and if I don’t cause too much trouble—maybe I can slip over some Brook Jabbok I’ve got to cross and the wrestler will let me pass”?  Is that your philosophy of life?  In Jacob’s story the wrestler appeared to be one of those water spirits primitive people feared, but he turned out to be none other than God—no water spirit defending his turf, but wrestling you until you come clean.

            Genesis calls the wrestler an “angel”—the word means “messenger.”  It could be one of your children, or a fellow-worker, or even an investment account that behaves like it has a mind of its own.  God moves in mysterious ways and means; but whatever form it takes, God’s messenger is coming to you, and you can’t break its hold.  You will come away from this match with a limp; but that limp (physical, emotional, social, or whatever) will always stand as a sign of your encounter and your blessing.  So the only thing you can do—really do—is come clean.  Like Jacob did.  So Jacob’s story is our story:  Jacob’s lies are our lies; Jacob’s acceptance of a new name and a new self is also yours.  Jacob’s blessing awaits you.

AMEN