“Wrestling With God”
By Caroline Dean
August 14, 2011
Genesis 32: 21-32 and Genesis 33: 1
[ Audio
(mp3, 4.8Mb) ]
Jacob's gifts went ahead of him, but he himself spent the night in the camp. That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two female servants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the river Jabbok. After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all of his possessions. So Jacob was left alone, and a man came and wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower Jacob, he touched the socket of Jacob's hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said, ‘Let me go, for it is daybreak.'
But
Jacob replied, ‘I will not let you go unless you
bless me.'
The
man asked him, ‘What is your name.'
‘Jacob,'
he answered.
Then
the man said, ‘Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have
struggled with God and with human beings and you have overcome.'
Jacob
said, ‘Please tell me your name.'
But
he replied, ‘Why do you ask my name?' Then the man blessed him there.
So
Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, ‘It is because I saw
God face to face and yet my life was
spared.'
The
sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip. Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to
the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob's hip was touched near the
tendon.
Jacob
looked up and there was Esau, coming with his four hundred men…”
Let us pray: God of
Jacob, in the struggles of life, we ask that you would give us the courage to
hang on until daybreak, and the strength to beg you for a blessing in the midst
of the struggle. Amen.
What
have you inherited from your
family? When most of us hear the word
“inheritance,” - we think about stuff: tangible wealth or precious family
heirlooms. However, our inheritance is
not just about antique sofas or money. We inherit more than material things from our family. What else
has been passed down from your parents and their parents: their quirks, their
passions, their attributes; these things influence WHO we are, not just WHAT we
own. I have inherited my mom's tendency to spy on people who are talking on
the phone. I have also “inherited” my
mom's bad eyes and tan complexion, my dad's calling to the church, my oldest
brother's humor and my middle brother's appreciation for music. What have you inherited from YOUR
family?
When
we belong to a people, they leave us a legacy. This legacy contains a wealth of blessings. We inherit a history that
gives us roots and a sense of identity. We inherit a community that can love and support us. We learn from each other's gifts and
strengths. We are inspired to “be like
them when we grow up.” However, if we
are honest, we also inherit the baggage
of our family. We inherit their vices
along with their virtues. We inherit
their struggles and their fears. (just
this week…inherited the “Lawson-debate-gene” which is wonderful in many
circumstances, until egos get involved and we run the kids away from the
table…)
We
inherit both the blessings and the baggage of our family. We are bound up in their strengths and their struggles.
In
Genesis 32, we encounter a man who is greatly concerned with his inheritance or
“birthright.” And at an early age, Jacob
was so passionate about claiming this inheritance that he stole his older
brother Esau's blessing on their father's deathbed. After this trickster move, Jacob fled from
his home in fear of Esau's wrath. Years
later, on the night before Esau and Jacob would meet again for the first time,
Jacob sent his family away in fear of Esau's retribution. So, in this narrative, we find Jacob on the
eve of the dreaded day when he will face his older brother and confront his
past. Jacob sleeps alone and a man comes
in the night and they wrestle until dawn. The next morning Jacob limps up the hill, perhaps bloodied with a black
eye, to meet his older brother for the first time in years. Will Esau accept Jacob's apology and his
gifts of reconciliation or will Esau strike down Jacob and his family?
Before
we consider Jacob and Esau's reunion, I wonder, what do we, as the church
inherit from Jacob's life? This is a
story from the Hebrew Scriptures and it is certainly a story that is important
to the Jewish people and even in the cannon of the Islamic tradition. But what is our connection to this story? We must not claim inheritance from this story
that disregards or trumps other
traditions. However, we can be
honest about the fact that our faith is deeply connected to the story of Jacob
and just as we inherit from our family, we inherit these stories from our
Christian roots.
In
this passage, God renames Jacob with the new name, “Israel,” which means “one
who strives with God and humans.” The
root of the word “Israel” in the Hebrew means to “contend,” to “strive,” or
perhaps to even “wrestle!” Jacob's
entire journey in Genesis is marked by struggles or “wrestling matches.” Even in the womb, Jacob and Esau wrestle over
who will be born first. The
“birthright,”– which is the double portion of inheritance and therefore double
portion of responsibility to take care of one's family– would be given to the
twin who entered the world first. Even
at the moment of birth, Jacob is “wrestling” – clinging to this brother's heel
and yearning to be the firstborn. Later,
Jacob wrestles with his brother stealing the birthright at his father's
deathbed. Jacob also struggles to marry
his wife, Rachel, after he is tricked to marry her sister Leah, beforehand. But this text today, we find Jacob in his most heated struggle: a wrestling match with God.
And
so, if we inherit the story of Israel, then perhaps this story can help us
acknowledge that we are indeed all “wrestlers!” Sometimes in the accomplished communities surrounding New York City,
we aren't allowed to struggle. We
aren't allowed to admit that we have broken relationships and baggage. We aren't allowed wrestle with physical
sickness. We aren't allowed to struggle
with a decision, an emotion, or a temptation. All of these things get swept under the rug in order to
keep up appearances. But if we inherit the story of Jacob as our
spiritual ancestor, then first of all we inherit his struggle. We all
deal with real conflict, with each other and with God. And sometimes we wrestle through the night,
and we struggle to cling on to the mysterious God through it all. We hope for daybreak and we beg for a
blessing. But instead of being ashamed
of our struggle, we can give each other permission to share our brokenness and
practice vulnerability together.
Secondly,
if we receive Jacob's struggle and
the legacy of a people “named” for
their struggle, the people of “Israel” – then we also receive the legacy of
Jacob's limp. Jacob's “wrestling match” wounds him and his
gait will never be the same again. He
carries the pain of this wound with him the rest of his life.
The
morning after the wrestling incident we can imagine Esau peering over the hill
at his younger brother and his family as they approach in the distance. Perhaps, Esau notices that Jacob's posture is
different. He now walks with a limp, carefully
choosing each step, as he walks up the hill to meet his brother. On the way, Jacob takes seven bows as he
approaches Esau. This posture of bowing
was probably very painful because of Jacob's fresh wounds from the night
before. And yet, his hip wound somehow
brought him lower to the ground. Instead of masking his pain, Jacob carried his fresh wounds to his brother's
feet. Bowing, Jacob humbly asked for his
brother's forgiveness. Perhaps Jacob's
black eye and limping gait reminded Esau of the wounds of their childhood
wrestling matches, giving Esau a moment of empathy and providing space for
reconciliation. Esau runs to meet him
and embraces him and they weep together.
In
life we are tempted to ignore our wounds and the scars that
we carry around with us which will always cause pain. However, if we ignore our “limp” then we
ignore the wounds that draw us to our knees. We ignore the wounds that help us cry out for reconciliation with God
and our brother. If we ignore that we
are broken, then we cannot cry out for forgiveness. Our “woundedness” can help us connect with
God and one another.
Lastly,
as we receive Jacob's struggle, and his limp, we also cry out for Jacob's blessing. At the end of the struggle in the night, in
an act that seems almost defiant and surely desperate, we can beg for God's blessing over our
struggles and our wounds. We do not
wrestle in order to receive the birthright of success and privilege defined by the
norm around us, but rather we struggle to receive God's blessing. Our wrestling match with God is not about
receiving the blessing of our father or our older brother, or our boss or our
peers. It is rather about receiving the
mysterious blessing from the God who wrestles with us. And once Jacob receives a blessing from God,
he can finally let go of his struggle over an earthly birthright with his
brother. The gracious reconciliation of
the sinner and the one who has been sinned-against is the blessing of God in this story. What is the blessing of God in your
story? What do you gain when in the
moments when we can let go of the “birthrights” that we strive for in terms of
power and success, in order to embrace the blessing of being reconciled with
God and one another?
In
this passage, Jacob no longer wrestles with his brother for the inheritance and
responsibility of the firstborn. Instead, Jacob reverses this conflict by turning it upside down and blessing, his brother. He gives Esau symbols his own security and
success. He sends three groups of
servants, donkeys, cattle, sheep and goats to go before him to meet Esau. Jacob empties himself of the same wealth, and
responsibility, which he has sought to gain from his brother's birthright. He recognizes in his struggle and in his
wounds, that God's blessing calls us to bless one another
rather than claiming a blessing over
and against our brother or sister. As we inherit Jacob's blessing from God, we also inherit Jacob's call to bless one another. We are called empty ourselves of the wealth,
and responsibility, which encourages us to steal blessings from our sister
rather than enabling us to reconcile with her by blessing her in humility.
And
so beloved, as we inherit the story of Jacob the “wrestler” – we inherit the
responsibility to acknowledge the
struggles that have been passed down to us – we inherit the wounds that are birthed out of these struggles – and lastly we
inherit Jacob's blessing as he blesses his brother with God's “birthright”
which is for all people.
Amen.
