Genesis 32:22-31
Introduction
To anyone who ever says to me, “The Bible is so boring” I always say, “Then clearly you have never read the Bible.” Or to those who say, “The Bible is just a bunch of rules about stuff we’re not allowed to do” I will say, “And do you know why? Because people in the Bible do things they shouldn’t, and we are shown why we should avoid doing the same thing—because it never ends well!”
Swindle people out of their land that has been in their family for generations— people are going to come at you. Hear God say you’re gonna have a baby when you’re 90 and then laugh at God— you’re gonna wish you hadn’t. Rape, your sister and people are going to come after you. Use your power to cheat on your wife, get the other woman pregnant, then try to cover it up but fail, so you send her husband to the front lines of war and then instruct everyone to fall back so he is killed—people are gonna frown upon that kind of leadership.
Ever heard of Samson and Delilah? Dude fell asleep only to wake up to his eyes gouged out and grinding somebody’s corn. So he decides he’s just gonna destroy a building with 3000 people in it, killing all of them, including himself. Anybody know what Noah soon did when he got off the boat? Look it up Genesis 9. Anybody ever heard of a woman named Jael? Look her up. Judges chapter 4. And while, in the book of Judges, read about Elhud in chapter 3, and how he used his sword, but why he was unable to retrieve it afterwards.
This is to say nothing about how Jesus was always ten steps ahead of his adversaries. Turn the other cheek; when they take your coat give them your cloak too; if they make you walk one mile walk a second mile—these were not instructions to be meek and let people take advantage of you. These are ways to be lawfully subversive to those who abuse their power against you.
To people who think the Bible is boring, I tell them the things you can find in the Bible make reality tv shows like The Bachelor, Below Deck, Real Housewives of wherever—all of them—look like a day at Disney World. And our text for today is another one of these stories—one that is absolutely scandalous, a life and death sibling rivalry, brother against brother, where one of them eventually has to wrestle with God. But while wrestling with God sounds bad—which it is— you find out if you stay in the fight, good things can come and you’ll be able to say, “And still I rise.” But you are going to limp when all is said and done.
Move 1
In Genesis 32, we pick up the story of Jacob at a point where he is literally fearing for his life. And the reason for this fear is because back in Genesis 27 Jacob tricks his brother Esau out of his first-born birthright—trading it for a bowl of stew—all at their mother’s urging. Then Jacob lies to their father Isaac by pretending to be Esau so that just before Isaac dies, he blesses Jacob with the first-born birthright that was supposed to go to Esau. So again, we have an example of what NOT to do because Jacob had to flee to the relatives of his mother to escape Esau’s retaliation.
Now in this foreign land, Jacob made a good life for himself, accumulating quite a family and herd. He was comfortable and successful. If this was a Disney tale, we could say they lived happily ever after. But it’s not. This is the Bible! And God ain’t no cute little Disney character! God had other plans for Jacob—calling him to leave this place of security and comfort and take his family and possessions back home.
Now it’s been a minute since Jacob fled the wrath of Esau, but as far as Jacob knows, his brother still wants blood, so why go home? Jacob has made a good life for himself— why should he leave and go back home to possibly be killed? Not to mention the complicated logistics of moving large amounts of people and livestock. But Jacob obeys.
Here in chapter 32, Jacob is almost home and he has been making all kinds of strategies to defend against a probable attack from his brother. He separates his large caravan into two camps, so if attacked one camp might survive. He sent several “peace offerings” ahead to gain Esau’s favor—they were bribes. “You can have this herd of cows if you don’t kill me!” And now he has separated himself from everyone and everything, just in case Esau comes to kill him. Clearly Jacob is in a precarious spot. But what seems like a no-win situation for Jacob is actually the perfect, fertile ground for transformation.
Move 2
Pain and struggle, fear and discomfort can often be powerfully persuading motivators for rising up transformed. After all we rarely seek out change when we feel comfortable and satisfied.
The importance and power of such is the very first act shown in God’s word, in the first chapter of Genesis. Creation was brought forth out of chaos, and when God’s hand intervened transformation happened. This is our take away from this story.
Jacob was rightfully drawn out of his place of comfort into a place of chaos and confusion because the place of comfort was not where God had called him. God had other plans for Jacob, but Jacob was never going to rise up to that call if he didn’t go through the pain, struggle, fear, and discomfort.
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I like to think Jacob felt he deserved Esau to come after him for what he did to Esua, and thought maybe he should surrender and die without a fight. But if God had a plan for him, shouldn’t he defend himself and do everything possible to live? And what about his family? Wasn’t it his responsibility to protect them? But did he really want to risk a bloody battle?
On and on must have gone his wrestling within himself and his attempt to discern God’s plan for him. And from there it became a wrestling match with God. A match that would result in change, rising up, transformation…but also a limp.
Move 3
It is human nature to want control. But change—especially when it feels like change is forced upon us—reminds us how little we really do control. We can be infinitely creative in finding ways to fight change and reestablish our sense of control and security.
Jacob wrestled all night because no matter which way he went, he found no clear answers. He didn’t run back to where he came from, and he didn’t give up in powerlessness. He stayed in the process, even after being wounded, insisting that some blessing would come from it.
Jacob is in an unfamiliar place, a major life transition without any guarantee of a happy future or even of living long enough to have a future. It is dark, and Jacob has isolated himself from the needs or influence of others. Jacob stays in the process, he keeps wrestling with what he should do, even though he doesn’t know with whom he is wrestling or why. He knows he needs to keep grappling and wrestling and not give up or give in. Jacob’s pain, struggle, fear and discomfort results in a wounding, a limp. But it is a wound that humbles him in such a way that he can be open to receiving the blessing.
The actual moment or catalyst for transformation might seem like it was when he was wounded, but it’s not the wound—not the limp that transforms him. The wound is what opened him up to the possibility of transformation. There have been many times we wrestled and didn’t feel transformed. Many times we are wounded and didn’t move past feeling victimized.
The struggle and wound were part of the “fertile soil” where transformation could happen— but Jacob’s actual transformation, his rising up… was in his renaming. There are no logical explanations as to why he deserved renaming. It was simply God’s grace. But what can be explained is that his struggle and his wound were what moved him past thinking of himself—as he had always done— and into a place of seeing himself in a new way…in the way God sees him, as one who is able to rise up and become what God would have him be…even though he limps. It will be the wound, the limp, along with his renaming, that keeps him humbled and focused on what he is called to do and be.
Jacob’s new identity made it clear that his life’s importance was no longer about himself and his immediate family, but about God’s community and his larger purpose within it.
Conclusion
Jacob’s new identity follows the struggle and the wound and his story invites us to put ourselves in Jacobs shoes and ask…When was a time I have felt wounded in the midst of a struggle or life transition. In what ways amI still carrying that mark, that wound? In what ways am I still limping?
And once we consider these questions, let us go further and ask …
What identity or purpose might I be wrestling with while trying to discern God’s plan for you today in the midst of all the pain, struggle, fear, and discomfort in your life? What identity or purpose might our congregation be wrestling with while trying to discern God’s plan in the midst of all the pain, struggle, fear, and discomfort around us? How might I use my transformative blessing, my limp, to serve God and be part of the work that enables others to be able to say, “And still…we rise”?
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If you’re wondering how things went with Jacob/Israel and his brother Esua, well, you’ll have to read the rest of the story in Genesis. But don’t stop there. The bible might have a reputation of being boring, but trust me, it’s far from it. It’s full of story after story of unlikely people finding an unlikely path where pain, struggle, fear, and discomfort lead to a new and transformed life…even though they may limp. But the limp is what reminds them that the struggle was worth it because they were blessed for it. Amen.
Pastoral Prayer, March 19, 2023, Lent 4
Holy God, you are the author of all transformation that is good and right and holy. By your hand and word, order is brought out of chaos, new life comes from death, what is broken is made whole.
Still, we know that your transformative works don’t always come with ease and comfort. Holy transformation often requires wrestling with old identities and wounds that likely leave their mark for the rest of our lives.
And though they do, and though we limp from these marks, we know it is by your grace that we are able to rise up from these wounds.
That is what comes when we are blessed to have had a unique struggle with you and your holy purpose for our lives. And when we bring these limps, when we bring these blessings of transformation in service to you, we become the people, the servants, the blessed who share your blessings with others so they can be guided to you, and have a unique struggle that will lead them to the blessings of your holy purposes for their lives.
Help us discover the gifts and blessings we have received from our own wrestling and how we might use those gifts in service to your church and your children. But don’t let us stop when we are comfortable. Don’t let us stop when we become so wounded we think we can’t go on or that we can’t be of any use. Like Jacob in his wilderness time, learning the creative gift of wrestling and opening a gift that comes from pain and woundedness make it that we too keep wrestling to reach the blessing that will surely come that will enable us, and others, to still rise up, even though we do so with a limp.
We ask that you would listen now to the prayers of our hearts as we lift them to you in this time of Holy Silence.
All this we pray in the name of the one who endured the wounds and death of the cross for each of us, Jesus the Christ, our Savior, who taught us to pray, saying, “Our…”