Wrestling with God

Sermon preached at St. Mark’s, Honey Brook, PA

by The Rev. Thomas C. Pumphrey, Pastoral Leader, October 17, 2004

Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost (year C, proper 24): Genesis 32:3-8, 22-30; 2 Timothy 3:14-5:5

2 Timothy 3:14-4:5 (NRSV) But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, and how from childhood you have known the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work. In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I solemnly urge you: proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable; convince, rebuke, and encourage, with the utmost patience in teaching. For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths. As for you, always be sober, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, carry out your ministry fully.

Genesis 32:3-8 (NIV) Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom. He instructed them: "This is what you are to say to my master Esau: 'Your servant Jacob says, I have been staying with Laban and have remained there till now. I have cattle and donkeys, sheep and goats, menservants and maidservants. Now I am sending this message to my lord, that I may find favor in your eyes.'" When the messengers returned to Jacob, they said, "We went to your brother Esau, and now he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him." In great fear and distress Jacob divided the people who were with him into two groups, and the flocks and herds and camels as well. He thought, "If Esau comes and attacks one group, the group that is left may escape."

Genesis 32:22-30 That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, 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 men and have overcome." Jacob said, "Please tell me your name." But he replied, "Why do you ask my name?" Then he 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."

Two very competitive friends were arguing once about religion. Neither had been to church in years, but each man claimed that he was well trained in the Bible. One man replied “I’ll bet you twenty dollars that you don’t even know the words to the 23^rd Psalm!” “I’ll take that bet!” said the other. “OK, let’s hear it!” said the first. His rival paused, prepared himself to recite the sacred words he had learned as a child. Unfortunately, all he could remember was his bedtime prayer, and he said, “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep…” The other man stopped him, threw a twenty down on the table and said “OK, OK I didn’t think you knew it!”

Apparently, neither man took the Bible as seriously as he thought he did. The Bible is often treated in strange ways, some more amusing than others. The Bible is the bedrock of Christian doctrine, yet our Holy Scriptures are often subjected to unfortunate abuses. Surely, we can find a way to keep these scriptures Holy, and to hear the voice of God through them.

The portion of the second letter to Timothy that we heard today comments on the value of scripture. ‘Continue in what you have learned from childhood from “the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness…”

Christians follow the Jews in their reverence for scripture, for their trust of God’s inspiration in the law and the prophets. Christians likewise honor the witness of the apostles in the writings of the New Testament as inspired by God for the building up of the Church. From the Bible, we learn the history of God’s saving acts for humanity, we learn something of who God is and who we are and how we relate to God and to each other. We learn of the grace and mercy of Jesus, and of God’s gift of the Holy Spirit. As this reading indicates, our scriptures also provide the basis for teaching about living a Christian life.

When we encounter the Bible, however, there are risks. Our reading goes on to note one response to the gospel message: “The time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, and will turn away from listening to the truth.” Sometimes scripture provides a challenge to us. Sometimes, the message is not comfortable for our ears, for we hear that God may not be so happy with what we do with our lives, how we treat each other, how we treat ourselves, and how we avoid God’s involvement in our lives. Sometimes what we read in scripture clashes with polite American civil religion or the measure of what our lives should be according to television. Even in the church, I find theologians and clergy who seem to dismiss the challenge of scripture because of its political incorrectness. Truly, there are leaders in the church who seek or preach a message that merely suits there own desires, leaving the church as a whole with the difficult task of rebuke or discipline. Rather than allowing themselves to be challenged by scripture, many have dismissed scripture as irrelevant to enlightened ideas.

There are other risks, of course. The Bible can be dismissed, but the Bible can also be domesticated, turned into a tool for one’s own purposes. Fragments of scripture are often pulled out of context and used to prove one’s rightness. The Bible is sometimes used as a tool rather than a teacher, an idol of law rather than a way of encountering the voice of a living God. This response also becomes an insidious way of finding teachings that suit one’s own desires, rather than seeking sound doctrine, or a true word from God. Such abuse is often quoted as a reason why scripture should be dismissed in the first place.

There is an alternative to these abuses, however. A more faithful response to scripture neither dismisses the Bible nor simplifies the Bible. A more faithful response to scripture, however, might feel a little intimidating, but the blessings are astounding. One of the best illustrations that I can think of when searching for an image for faithful, heartfelt engagement with God through Holy Scripture is the Old Testament story that we heard this morning from Genesis.

This is the story of Jacob wrestling with a mysterious figure who tells him that he has wrestled with God and has endured. Jacob is one of the first patriarchs of the Old Testament. Jacob is Abraham’s grandson and the father of the twelve tribes of Israel. Jacob started out, however, as something of a cheat and a scoundrel. Among his exploits, he cheated his brother Esau out of the inheritance of their father. So, later in life, when Jacob seeks mercy from his brother, he discovers that Esau will meet him the following day with four hundred men. In fear of his brother’s revenge, he divides his extended household, livestocks, possessions, and servants and waits for daybreak all alone by the river Jabbok.

Then, unexpectedly, we read that Jacob wrestled with someone 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.” But Jacob did not let go. Jacob’s opponent protested, but Jacob said “I will not let you go unless you give me your blessing.” Then the mysterious, unnamed opponent names Jacob “Israel,” a name that means “one who wrestles with God,” and he blesses Jacob.

In this mysterious encounter, Jacob is alone and without support or defense, he is vulnerable before the approach of his cheated brother the following day, and he wrestles with God and fights fiercely, holding on with both hands, saying “I will not let you go unless you give me your blessing!” By morning’s light, Jacob becomes Israel, and his life and the lives of many are blessed. How often do we think of wrestling with God? How often is God either too quaint to be taken seriously, or to fearful to be encountered?

The Bible is full of those who took the challenge of God and God’s word seriously. The most human and telling of these figures, however, are those who let their humanity and doubt and uncertainty be a full part of their relationship with God. David and other Psalm writers often shout at God, crying, ‘when will you save me, God! Why are my enemies defeating me?’ My heart is breaking!’ David and Jacob and Job and Moses and Jonah and most all the prophets find challenge from God, but their lives are apparently most blessed when they wrestle with this challenge, when they stand up to God and say “I don’t understand!” or “This is too difficult for me!” or “Help me to make sense of this situation, or to make sense of what you’re telling me, because this seems too much for me to believe.”

This is where we find sound doctrine. When we wrestle with God, when we wrestle with scripture, when we struggle with what we read and hear and hold on with both hands demanding God’s attention, yearning to understand and to follow more closely, we will hear the voice of God speaking, and we will receive God’s blessing.

Rather than dismiss scripture as having no authority over us, and rather than domesticating scripture as a simplified defense for our own culture, we can wrestle with what we read, asking questions of God, being willing to be pinned down by God, being open to God’s challenge.

God’s blessing will surely be found when rich people read the indictment of the prophet Amos, or when pacifists read Jesus saying “I have not come to bring peace, but a sword” or when a soldier hears ‘offer the other cheek also’ and ‘if someone takes your coat, give to him also your shirt;’ when a clergy person [that’s me] reads Jesus’ harsh challenge to the Pharisees (the religious establishment), or when a person struck by tragedy reads “rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice!” When we find challenge to our business, or our family life, or our political loyalties or our deepest affections, we will surely find God’s blessing when we struggle to hear the voice of God speaking to us.

I suppose that this approach to scripture could sound intimidating, and make God sound more fearful. I must admit that I find the metaphor of wrestling with God so appealing primarily because of my own wrestling—from those times when I have been challenged and yet in the end blessed by the experience. Somehow, from that wrestling, even when God stretches my comfort zone, I discover God’s grace and kindness and affection for me.

Perhaps you have seen young children with their parents on a lazy afternoon. Young boys, especially, seem to love to wrestle with their parents. Can you imagine a 35 pound five-year old wrestling with his 175 pound father? Physically, the father could seem fearful to the child, but the laughing, joyful child knows the safety of the father’s arms and finds the reassurance that these strong arms are the child’s sure defense, and a very help in times of trouble.

My friends in Christ, answer God’s invitation to wrestle with God in prayer and in the reading of scripture. Be open to the one who loves you deeply enough to let you hold on with both hands and say ‘I will not let you go until you give me your blessing!’ You may find yourself changed, but you will also find your life greatly blessed.