22nd Sunday after Pentecost ---- 20 October 2013

Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak.

• Jacob is a man in trouble. Just why he is in so much trouble needs a bit of explanation.
• Jacob has tricked his way through life. He cheated his brother, Esau, out of his heritage for a bowl of stew. He took their father Issac's blessing by deceit. He was cheated by his father-in-law over the woman he wanted to marry. He has a lot of stuff – possessions – but no friends. Now, Jacob receives word that Esau is coming after him with 400 men, so Jacob is awfully afraid. Still he remains the trickster; He sends a huge bribe of livestock and tells his servants to drive the animals toward Esau, but to keep the various animals in separate groups so that Esau has to encounter wave after wave of gifts of livestock. Then he sends his family across the stream, while he waited alone. He is trying to save his family from destruction and massacre, although he is willing to die himself.
• Then comes the mysterious part of the story. While he waits through the night, “a man wrestled with him until daybreak.” They wrestle and Jacob will not give in, even though “the man” cheats by punching him in the hip! Before he lets “the man” go, he desires a blessing. Surprisingly, the blessing comes in the shape of a new name for Jacob and the mysterious response to the question, “Please tell me your name.”
• The “man” also comes out of nowhere, for no conceivable reason. This whole wrestling incident seems to have nothing to do with the predicament that Jacob is in, but it has everything to do with it.
• At the bank of the stream, Jacob is reduced to nothing. His riches are gone. His wives and children are sent away. His bag of tricks is empty. He is face to face with himself, just as he is. And in that, he is face to face with God. So they wrestle. Jacob might have tried to trick God by surrendering but not really meaning it. But in that he'd only be attempting to trick himself. Jacob might have chosen the other path and abandoned everything, walking away from his past and his God. He did neither; He stayed and struggled.
• In that struggle, he was crippled and blessed. He received a new name that described the new person he had become. His wound would be a constant reminder of the presence of God in his life. Jacob could no longer trick the universe. He could no longer be Jacob the trickster, Jacob the “grabber”. (That's approximately what his name means.) Now he would be “Israel”, the one who struggles with God. He would limp for the rest of his life and he would know the reality of God for the rest of his life.
• If we have had to contend with God in our lives, we might have received the same blessing as Jacob/Israel.
• In the face of troubles and terrors, or in the light of success and congratulations (which can sometimes be more dangerous), we might be reduced to exactly who we are and nothing more. Then we are face to face with God. We can try to falsely surrender or we could walk away... or we could wrestle. In the wrestling, we find our real opponent is God, who is not so much wrestling as trying to keep us from hurting ourselves.
• It may seem strange to equate this sort of struggling and wrestling with fidelity, yet it takes a great faith to not give up the struggle.
• Jacob did not give up without a blessing. Only when he had received a blessing and a new identity, did he surrender the struggle.
• The persistent widow from the Gospel of Luke shows the same sort of fidelity. She would not give up until she had received justice from the judge of her case. She could have submitted to his lack of judgement or she might have given up the struggle. In the end, she prevailed against the unjust judge by pestering him to the point where he feared he would be shamed in public. Our reading has him saying I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming. That's a wonderful line. It's great because it has been tremendously sanitized by the translators. The original Greek says something like this: “I will grant her justice, so that she won't give me a black eye!”
• This widow would not give up until she received her due. Jacob would not give up the struggle until he became Israel.
• Since the parable in the Gospel story is paired with the story of Jacob, they both say something about the Kingdom of God. The message could be just this simple: Have faith. Persevere. Keep praying and don't give up. A blessing is coming and it might be better than you could expect. God will not give up the struggle with you.
• When you feel despair and abandonment, keep on struggling and praying. If it is God you content with, God remains close, even if we kick and squirm like an infant in the arms of the child's mother.
• Finally, if the judge who respected neither man nor God would give justice to the persistent (read that as pestering) woman, what could we expect from our loving God? Hear the words of the Gospel: And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them.