|
Scripture: 2 Corinthians8:1-4 and Genesis 32:22-29
Audio Podcast: Wrestling for the Blessing 
Sermon:
Our scripture this morning
is the story of Jacob Wrestling with the Angel. Jacob is one of
the patriarchs in biblical history. He is the son of Isaac and
grandson of Abraham.
Jacob was not what you would
call a highly principled person. He had been cheating people his
whole life. He had cheated his brother out of the inheritance, cheated
his brother from his father’s dying blessing, cheated his blind father;
and he tried to cheat his uncle. His whole life he had been cheating,
and manipulating people. But now, the story takes a life-changing turn,
where we see Jacob wrestling with an angel.
This passage about Jacob and
the angel is a favorite of an acquaintance of mine, Eric. Eric
tells the story of being fresh out of college, and on a week-long retreat
with other students that he did not know. The group was studying
the story of Jacob wrestling with the angel. As a way of getting
in touch with the story, the students were invited to find partners
to do some role-playing; one partner would play the angel, and the other
would play Jacob. The one who played Jacob was to ask the angel
for a blessing by saying ‘Bless Me’. The one playing the angel
was to resist the blessing for as long as possible. The one who
played Jacob was allowed to be persistent in pursuing the blessing,
even using physical force if desired.
Eric was partnered with a forty-something
man named Paul. Paul suffered from polio as a child and was on
crutches. Eric of course is thinking to himself, how am I going
to wrestle someone who can barely stand up? Why did I have to
get paired with someone who is physically impaired? He worried
about what the other students would think of him. As Eric is thinking
about what to do, Paul says, why don’t you be the angel? Remember,
the angel is supposed to resist giving Jacob the blessing. Eric
says OK, but he is still off in his own thoughts wondering how this
is going to work.
Suddenly, Paul throws away
his crutches and falls forward onto Eric. All the while he is
saying bless me, bless me. Eric is now trying to push Paul off
or away and is saying No, No. Paul shouts Bless me, pushing more of
his weight on Eric. Eric shouts No, No, still trying to push Paul
away. Eventually, they both tumble to the floor. Paul is
now using his arms to push Eric down and shouting Bless Me, Bless Me.
Eric is still trying to get this weight off of him and shouts No, No.
After tussling and struggling
for some time amidst shouts of Bless Me and No, both Paul and Eric finally
lay down exhausted. In their exhaustion, and coming back to their sense,
they were no longer in their roles, but they both knew that something
had changed. From a place of deep exhaustion, Eric said, I bless
you.
When Eric, who played the angel,
talked about how he remembered the experience, he said that sometime
during the role play, the roles reversed. He recognized that he was
not only wrestling physically with his disabled partner, but he was
wrestling with his own angel. Eric knew that as a person he was
good and blessed, but he also knew that part of him was fallen and in
need of redemption. He says, in the experience, he was playing
the role of the one to give the blessing, and he ended up being the
one who needed the blessing the most. And he received the blessing,
even with his unconscious rejection of Paul. In that blessing,
Eric says he could see himself more clearly, his strengths and weaknesses,
his own desire to be accepted. He says that in that moment of
being blessed, he got a glimpse of what God might have in store for
him.
A learning from this story
is that often, when we think that we are the ones giving the blessing,
sharing God’s gifts with others, or offering to be helpful; it is
in giving that we discover that we are the ones in need of healing,
of blessing, of help.
Jacob, went away limping because
of a dislocated hip during his encounter with the angel, Eric walked
away from the wrestling experience with an acknowledged brokenness in
himself, and with a trust in a greater glory. When we encounter
God, we come away changed. We are new creations, not the same
as before.
Jacob had been cheating people
his whole life. He had cheated his brother, his blind father; and even
his uncle. His whole life he had been cheating and manipulating
people. But that night, in a wrestling match with the angel, God touched
him in such a way that he was changed. God gave him a blessing.
Now, what does this story of
Jacob and the angel have to do with you and me so many years later?
I think the story is relevant because we all wrestle with God at one
time or another. Maybe we say we are wrestling with our thoughts, or
our conscience, or maybe an angel? But I think that it is God.
And it is strange that we wrestle with God, because if God wanted to
win, that would be it.
God could easily slam us to
the floor and stomp on us. If God wanted, God could pin us down and
make us believe and obey. But that isn’t the way God wrestles. God
wrestles in such a way that we slowly surrender our lives.
We put our hands, our hearts and our trust in God, and God begins to
lead us on a path of righteousness and right relationships. That is
the way that God wrestles with us. God allows us to join in the goodness
of the Lord and then we begin a walk together. That is the way God wrestles.
We all go through a fundamental
transition in life. The issue is this; whether or not we will continue
to be self centered, cheating, cunning, manipulative people thinking
that we can force God to bless us, or whether we will finally surrender
our lives to God’s blessings. Who will rule in our lives? Jacob
or God? Who will rule within me, Jacob or God?
Today is Stewardship Sunday,
and the story of Jacob wrestling the angel may seem an odd choice for
Stewardship Sunday. But actually, all this month we are going
to be returning to the theme of God’s gifts, God’s blessings and
God’s bounty, to us.
During this month, I am asking
you to spend time this season thinking and praying about God’s blessing
and God’s bounty to you. I want you to ask yourself, what will
I return to the Lord in light of God’s blessing upon me? Perhaps
you are having your own fight with an angel. Perhaps you are resisting
surrendering to God, if so, what a blessing will mean in your life.
Thinking about what we can
return to the Lord embodies a feeling of gratitude for the many blessings
in each of our lives. Gratitude inspires a generous response, a response
expressed as giving. As you do so, please plan to return the pledge
cards that are being sent out this week. On the last Sunday of
the month, the Sunday after Pentecost, we will celebrate our gifts that,
together, we will return to the Lord in grateful thanksgiving for the
bountiful love and blessings we have each received.
May it be so. Amen.
 |
Queen Anne 
