CELEBRATING:
SERMONS
"Wrestling With God"
Sept 1st, 2002
Prayer:
May only truth be spoken and only truth be heard, O
God.
This is our prayer in Christ. AMEN
"Soul is made by grappling
with ultimate things: with one's own nature, with one's
kin, and with God."
That's Peter Pitzele's observation in his book "Our
Fathers' Wells" after studying the various Genesis
myths, and especially the story of Jacob wrestling with
the Holy One at the ford of the river Jabbok.
If Pitzele's observation is right,
then this may account for the scarcity of soul in our
time. Our generation spends too much time being entertained
and amusing ourselves, seeking distractions, being consumed
by things, or too much time just working.
The result is that souls in our time tend to be stunted
and the human spirit, hollow. That's certainly where
Jacob was.
Last week, you remember, Jacob left
Beth-el and the heavenly ladder dream behind, in order
hurry out of his isolation to Haran, to his mother's
ancestral home. He was seeking sanctuary from the murderous
anger of his brother Esau.
In Haran, Jacob makes a contract
with his uncle Laban. In exchange for seven plus seven
years of hard work and a little acquisitive treachery
he will be allowed to marry Laban's two daughters: Leah
and Rachel.
Family values in the early biblical myths have little
to do with monogamy, but much to do with building up
the clan and ensuring next generations.
Between his two wives, Leah &
Rachel and their two servant women, Bilhah and Zilpah,
Jacob sires 12 sons and at least one daughter. He is
creating his own dynasty.
Before too long the uncle-father-in-law
household is getting to crowded for both of these cunning
and competitive men and their families.
Jacob decides it is time to take his brood and servants
and workers and flocks back to Canaan - the land of
promise.
But at the best of times, going
back can be a challenge.
There are hurdles to overcome. There is unfinished business
to attend to. Debts outstanding. Deep, old wounds to
heal. Sometimes we just want to keep walking away from
those old feelings and hurts. But we also know they
keep surfacing at awkward moments, demanding resolution.
Even after decades of distance,
Jacob can't forget the cunning and callous ways he robbed
his elder twin brother Esau of his birthright and patriarchal
blessing.
Mother Rebekah and Father Isaac are dead, so there is
no way of resolving the way he tricked the blind Isaac
into giving Esau's blessing to Jacob.
As far as his parents are concerned,
it's too late for Jacob.
I suspect that not a few of us carry with us some unfinished
business with our parents. For those whose parents are
still living, this may be a good time to deal with it:
some conflict we wish we had concluded with an embrace
and forgiving words; some self-disclosure that would
have resulted in deeper mutual understanding; some reminiscing
that would have opened up deeper joy in our relationship.
For Jacob, the unfinished business
with Isaac and Rebekah will have to keep. But brother
Esau - that's another matter altogether. He's alive.
But Jacob doesn't know what has happened to the murderous
thoughts.
So Jacob decides to test the waters.
He sends a messenger with the news: I am coming home.
Before long, the messenger comes back reporting that
Esau is on the way to meet Jacob and with an entourage
of +400.
Are they warriors, primed for battle
and slaughter?
Anxiety grows in Jacob's heart.
He is exceedingly afraid and very distressed.
Is this the beginning of the end for him and his family?
But what about God's promise that I and my families
will be a blessing to the nations?
Does that just disappear in the shifting sands? What
am I to make of this?
Jacob works on his contingency plans.
He raises a quick prayer to the God who promised to
be with him and his family into succeeding generations
and reminds God of the obligations of promises made.
It's a typical urgent foxhole prayer, we know all too
well:
God I'm in distress. Help.
But Jacob's real energy and efforts go elsewhere.
Known for his cunning and shrewd
ways, Jacob organizes a huge gift of goats and camels
and cows and donkeys for Esau. Is it a gift? or is it
a bribe?
We know from court news here in BC this past week how
hard it can be at times to distinguish between the two.
We'll never know whether Jacob's offering was intended
as gift or as bribe, but knowing how Jacob operates,
we have our hunches.
For the meeting with Esau, Jacob
prepares a security plan for his large family. Women
and children go first - the Bilhah and Zilpah and their
children, Leah and hers, then the favourite Rachel and
her son.
He sends them across the river. That leaves Jacob alone.
Nothing to distract him. Nothing to pay attention to.
All alone yet again.
Last time being alone gave rise
to a dream and a covenant.
This time we find the more mature Jacob absorbed into
"the dark night of the soul."
Jacob goes into the night and begins wrestling - deeply,
profoundly,
wrestling with … an angel, a human, a spirit -
yes, all that.
Is this God, we ask, and we understand
when Jacobs calls this place Peniel in Hebrew -- "the
Face of God" in English - for even if this Other
cannot be fully discerned, here Jacob encounters the
living God.
We understand about those dark nights
of the soul. Dark nights of the soul are truly human
experiences.
Pierre Trudeau called it his nighttime
walk in the snow on the day before retiring as Prime
Minister. We'll have to wait for Jean Chretien's biography
perhaps to know whether he experienced a similar nighttime
of struggle before his decision.
We can imagine that the parents of Christina Huckvale
and Christopher Markoff lost near Kitimat are having
their darkest nights.
And people falsely accused or those abused or those
wrestling with vocational issues -
Generals on the eve of a battle have to confront all
their doubts and fears.
In Shakespeare's drama Henry V currently being performed
at the Bard on the Beach, we hear King Henry anguishing
over the decision to do battle against the much superior
French army at Agincourt. In the struggle and prayer
he comes to peace in his relationship with God and resolves
to attack. Inspite of the odds, the English forces are
given victory.
Would that we could sense some more
of that anguished wrestling in the White House and Pentagon
as American leaders blithely drag the world into yet
another immoral, illegal, and potentially catastrophic
war with Iraq.
Jacob - and all who follow him into
the dark lonely night of the soul - struggle with the
most profound issues that shape life. The questions
come to us from deep within:
Who am I? Whose am I? How will I survive? What am I
called to do? How am I to be with others?
The struggle is demanding and hard.
We remember Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane before
he was sold out. The anguish and the pain was palpable
as he wrestled with God over his destiny.
We need to hear about the struggle
as a caution.
If we think that our lives - personal or congregational
- can be transformed without sweat, blood, and tears,
if we think that we can entertain ourselves into new
faithfulness,
then we are really fooling ourselves.
If we presume that our congregation will just drift
into new life, we are misguided.
And I don't think we as a congregation have done with
the wrestling needed to discern where God is leading
us.
Wrestling with God is an awesome
activity. In this image of wrestlers, we are both opponent
and lover. In the struggle we recognize the mysterious,
wholly Other, who challenges and demands, but who is
also the Other of passionate embrace.
Preachers who are serious about
their craft go through this struggle in greater or lesser
ways everytime they dare to speak a Word from God. The
divine mystery is never easily revealed and is usually
disclosed only in the grappling.
The living God does not easily give
up the mystery of being to us mortals. When Jacob asks
"What is your name?" He gets no answer. In
scripture, the name of God remains impenetrable mystery,
but the heart of God is disclosed with blessing and
as steadfast love.
The struggle exacts a high price.
Jacob wrestles as if his life depends on it. In fact,
it does!
At dawn the wrestling must end. It comes to a decisive
end as the Other wounds Jacob, leaving him marked and
infirm.
Our text says his hip was wounded. But the Hebrew word
"yarekh" can also mean loins, his guts, the
place where the "fire in the belly" burns,
where his passions are deepest.
He is fundamentally touched and
is given a new name: Israel - God wrestler; the one
who strives with God.
But Jacob successfully elicits the blessing he has so
long been craving and seeking. God's blessing has finally
come to him - to his deepest mature self.
With the blessing and newfound confidence
Jacob is free to take the next step.
Jacob finally has the courage and the internal strength
to face his brother.
The brothers throw themselves at each other in tear-filled
embrace. They are reconciled and at peace - time for
celebration and feasting.
They don't go back to living in the parental home, things
are too far along for that. Jacob decides to keep a
little distance. It will help the brothers maintain
the peace, just as fences make good neighbours.
Most of us don't seek out opportunities
to wrestle with God.
In fact there is, I believe, a common conspiracy in
our culture to prevent that profound engagement with
the deepest and the highest. The culture wants us to
avoid the encounter with the living God.
But people of faith know that running
away from the struggle leads to superficial living and
decreased humanity.
When we don't enter into the human-divine
struggle, we act as though we have nothing to regret,
nothing to confess, nothing to leave behind - we become
arrogant and self-sufficient.
Entering into the struggle is risky
and costly. It requires change in our lives - Changes
that can save creation, that can redeem the world's
hungry and poor, and can challenge those who have lost
their way to God.
"Soul is made by grappling
with ultimate things."
May the blessing of the living mysterious God fill our
lives with the gift of Christ.
Thanks be to God. AMEN.
With thanks to Peter Pitzele,
"Our Father's Wells", Harper Collins, 1995.
Ch. 12
Back
to Top
Shaughnessy Heights United Church
congregation is a Christian faith community — people
at various stages in the faith journey.
1550
West 33rd Avenue,
Vancouver, BC V6M 1A7
Canada SEE
MAP
Tel:
604-261-6377
Email: admin@shuc.ca
|
