Sunday: 12th Sunday after Pentecost
Reading: Genesis 32:22-31
Preacher: Peter C. Lane

Do you wrestle with God? Do you grab God and not let him go even if he wounds you? Do you pin God down and say, "Bless me!" Or do you domesticate God, making him Lord of all that is nice and friendly? The story of Jacob is, to me, a story of how God is mixed up in everything. In the Jacob story God is not some distant deity who upholds the values of liberal society, but one who is all mucked up in the miry clay of life. These past couples of weeks have been a real privilege for me as a preacher and a pastor. Last week we had that incredible passage from St. Paul, "Nothing will be able to separate you from the love of God." This week we have the profound story of Jacob on the banks of the Jabbok. The bible is so rich, so thorny. While most of us are familiar with the story of Jacob, I think it is worth it to hear this incredible story again.

The fun starts right at the beginning with Jacob. In Genesis 25 we are told that Jacob and his hairy brother Esau "struggled together within" their mother's womb. Jacob lost the race to be first out, but he had his hand grasping the heel of his brother. These wrestling brothers, Jacob and Esau, were not identical twins. We are told that Esau grew up to be a "skillful hunter" and "man of the field." Not so, Jacob. He was a quite man who lived in tents. (what?!) Jacob was a mommy's boy. His mother Rebekah loved him best. Now at this point you might be thinking that Jacob would not have made such a great wrestler. I know, got beat in the race to pop out first, was quiet, lived in tents, loved his mom... He probably ate Arugula. But don't let that throw you off. This Jacob was one tough nut.

And a conniving little trickster. You remember how clan leadership worked way back in the day? The father gave it to his oldest son and the oldest son became master of the family. Jacob wasn't going to live with that. One day Esau returned home desperately famished. Jacob refused to give him any of his stew until Esau swore that Jacob could have his birthright. Of course, the birthright was not really Esau's to give and so Jacob had to do a little more tomfoolery. He had to trick his dad Isaac. That involved following a scheme concocted by his mother Rachel that involved good food, Esau's clothes and skin from a baby goat to imitate Esau's hairiness. It amazingly worked and Jacob became Esau's Lord and the master of all of his brothers. Esau's reaction? He decided to kill Jacob. Can you see how the Jacob story is all about God being in the muck of life? There's more.

Trying to avoid being killed, Jacob fled to his Uncle's place. It was there that he married Leah and Rachel by working 14 years for their father. You heard that story last week about how Jacob didn't realize he had married the wrong sister until the morning after! Whatever. Jacob stayed with his uncle another six years, just long enough to pull the wool over Uncle Laban's eyes to make himself wealthy. That wore out his welcome and it was time to return home. You can imagine that this made Jacob nervous. Esau was not exactly going to be happy to see him. So Jacob tried to grease his palm. Jacob sent animals and servants and all kinds of presents to appease Esau. His messengers came back to tell Jacob that Esau was coming to meet him-with 400 men! And that sets up our wrestling match.

Before going to meet Esau, Jacob sent his wives and maids and children and everything he had across the river Jabbok. He spent the night alone. But he didn't spend the night alone. He wrestled a man until daybreak. It seemed to be a draw until the opponent used a cheap shot to injure Jacob's hip socket. Having his hip out of joint didn't dissuade Jacob. He refused to let go of this man/angel, saying, "I will not let you go, unless you bless me." It worked. The man/angel gave him a new name, saying, "You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have strived with God and with humans, and have prevailed." Still, Jacob was not satisfied, demanding to know the name of his opponent. The opponent preferred mystery to revelation and did not give his name, but he did bless Jacob. Jacob named the place where he wrestled Penuel saying, "For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved." Jacob was somehow not wrestling a man, but was wrestling the divine. Maybe that means he was wrestling an angel, maybe it means he was wrestling with himself all night. The point is that Jacob didn't let God off the hook. In Jacob's mind God was no weak-kneed deity, but a God whose blessing was worth a little pain. One of the last lines of our passage is so meaningful, "The sun rose upon [Jacob] as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip." In the sun, limping. That's it, isn't it? When we throw our lot in with God, we will be blessed, but we'll limp. The idea that God blesses without consequence is so much nonsense.

Sometimes I would like to go a few rounds with this man/angel/God that Jacob had a shot at. I'll tell you why by sharing with you two brief experiences I had this week as a pastor here at St. Paul and the Redeemer. I think they will illustrate why we must wrestle with God. First, I met this week with a couple preparing for marriage. The joy in the room was palpable. What an incredible God that would create a universe where people could find love, companionship, and happiness by sharing life with another. God really is the giver of all that is true and lovely and gracious. My second pastoral experience was far, far from that. I spent time with the grandmother of a 5-year-old boy killed in a hit and run accident. Where is the true and lovely and gracious in that? How could God have created a universe where a five-year-old boy returning from the beach with his grandfather could be callously killed? I mean... "Your hands fashioned and made me and now you turn and destroy me?" [1]

The good and the bad are so intermingled. Where is God in all of it? Walter Brueggeman thinks that the story of Jacob and Esau is about the juxtaposition of the inscrutable power of God with the self-serving cleverness of human desire. He doesn't see the two as working against each other exactly, but interweaving in such a way that God's purposes might be at work in the world. [2] Maybe God's purposes are accomplished; it sometimes seems that human desire has the upper hand.

Great joy and great sorrow are our companions in this world. I believe that God is involved in the whole lot. Don't the deceit and adventure and red bloodedness of Jacob's story communicate that? And so we must wrestle with God. We can't domesticate him by just imagining some nice, kind, just grandpa. God is God. Sometimes maddeningly so. So wrestle people. Follow Jacob's lead. Let God be God of all. But don't let go of God until you get your blessing. It's worth a little limp to be walking in the sun.

[1] Job 10:8
[2] Walter Brueggemann Genesis (Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1982), 212.