B Pentecost18 2015
September 27, 2015
Genesis 32:22-30
Mark
14:32-36
Readers:
Narrator, Man, Jacob
Narrator: The same night [Jacob] got up and took
his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of
the Jabbok. He took them and sent them across the stream, and likewise
everything that he had. Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him 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. Then he said,
Man: Let me go, for the day is breaking.
Narrator: But Jacob said,
Jacob: I will not let you go, unless you bless me.
Narrator: So he said to him,
Man: What is your name?
Narrator: And he said,
Jacob: Jacob
Narrator: Then the man said,
Man: You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you
have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed.
Narrator: Then Jacob asked him,
Jacob: Please tell me your name.
Narrator: But he said,
Man: Why is it that you ask my name?
Narrator: And there he blessed him. So Jacob
called the place Peniel, saying,
Jacob: For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is
preserved.
+ + +
Grace to you and Peace from our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ.
Whenever I hear someone say, “I have no regrets…” I just have to wonder. Come on… who wouldn’t
want to go back to their Jr. Hi self and whisper a few tricks and tips in his
or her ear. Who doesn’t want a “do-over” every once in a while?
Sometimes we even get tricked into believing that regrets
define us. They mark us as “the person
who wishes I had raised my children differently” or “the person who should have
taken that career change for meaning.” We
might get so focused on our regrets, we see them as our whole identity “wanting
a better relationship with my family” or “the one who hurts people,” or “the
one who makes unforgivable mistakes” or even “I am afailure.”
Jacob gets tricked like that. The one who’s name means
“trickster” or more literally, “heel.” He has been a swindler, a trickster, a
betrayer, a fraud… a heel. Jacob is
facing the consequences of his own actions at this moment in the sacred story
when he is going home. Last time he saw his
twin brother Esau, Esau had sworn to murder him, because Jacob had stolen his
birthright and his blessing from their dying father.
It’s a heart wrenching story, Jacob’s childhood, of one child
being chosen over the other – and it wasn’t Jacob. Jacob – he got this name
when, at birth, he came out grasping his brother’s heel. And second to Esau he had always been, al
least to their father Isaac. Which came first, the name or the behavior? It’s hard to tell… but Jacob had certainly
acted like a heel, stealing what was not rightfully his – an elder brother’s
birthright and blessing. Though I really
don’t get why two minutes older means a status change and why a father has only
one blessing to give… But the sacred story tells us, Jacob, the one who was not
chosen, has stolen the chosen-ness from his brother.
And now, after having run away from his murderous brother 20
years ago, and knowing Esau is heading toward him with 400 men… Jacob is facing
his past, his regrets. This is one of
those painful homecomings where the past looms larger than the now, where the
landmarks take Jacob closer and closer back into an old, old story about
himself. Jacob is facing what he did to
his father and his brother. He is facing
his fear of death, fear of broken relationship with Esau, maybe even broken
relationship with the God who wouldn’t approve. And so he sends across the
river all of his livestock and his servants and also his whole family… in order
to be alone, to wrestle with the demons of his past… or, in this case, maybe in
all cases, to wrestle with God.
Jacob sends away his wives and his children and he grabs hold
of the only thing left – God’s steadfast presence. And Jacob wrestles with his taunting
thoughts… He’s going to kill me. I do
this. I did it with my Uncle Laban too –
though he tricked me just as well. But
I’m the one. I trick people. I’m a thief and a scab. I’m a heel! Here I am, about to be caught in
the trap of my own making! I betrayed my
brother. I deserve his wrath. God help me!
And God wrestles back. Here is God, coming to Jacob in the
night. Or rather, God’s already
there. God is always already there. It’s not that God comes to Jacob, it’s that
Jacob seizes God who is ready and waiting to wrestle!
There, in the middle of the night, Jacob says, “I will not
let you go!” You have promised me, even
when I wasn’t sure I believed it. You
have promised me that you would make of me this great nation, blessed to be a
blessing, graced to be graceful.
You have promised me /and I am holding you accountable to
your promise, God. With fear, mind you,
because I am not worthy of it! I am not
worthy of this promise. I don’t know why
you keep promising me these good things.
Especially when I am a jerk and a trickster and I steal things from my
brother and I make him so mad he wants to kill me. I don’t deserve special treatment, your
blessing, but you have promised to bless me.
And I want that blessing. I want that
grace!
All night Jacob wrestles and struggles with this promising
God who will not let him go// God who says at daybreak, “What is your name?” And I imagine Jacob has to admit it is not
the name he wants. “Heel” is not the
name anyone wants. It is not the name he
wants…anymore. And God says, no longer
is your name Jacob, heel. Now your name
is Israel for you have striven with God and with men and you have prevailed. God
lays hands on Jacob in this holy moment and marks him forever the man who’s
struggling is WITH God, not without
him: seeking God’s blessing, God’s affirmation of his value as God’s own
beloved. And belonging to God, bearing
his mark.
His new name is Israel.
Here is the first time this name is spoken. The whole people of Israel who have striven
with God and humanity – and have prevailed. The descendents of Jacob/ and
Abraham, his grandfather before him.
Israel – People who are blessed, who are numerous, who cover
the earth with God’s grace and promise.
The people who do not let God go.
Who do not let God’s promises go.
Who hold God accountable to God’s promises. Who say to God, I do not deserve it, but I
want those promises anyway.
Jacob wants God’s promises.
The whole nation of Israel wants those promises. We, who are grafted in to Israel, into the
Hebrew family alongside Christ our brother.
We want to be in that promised community too. To be God’s chosen
people. To bear the name that reminds us
when we’ve forgotten – that we are the people who struggle WITH God. We accept the responsibility, the mantle, the
honor… to be blessed to be a blessing, graced to be graceful.
And so God drenches us in the waters of baptism and births us
anew into this family of grace. God is the God who has created us and has given
us our very breath and life, has given us the joy of relationships and
laughter, God who has given us security in community. A community that holds onto the promises,
even when we’re struggling. In this
birth at the font God washes away the past that clings to us, the regrets and
mistakes, the selfishness and sin. “God
delivers us from sin and death and raises us to new life in Jesus Christ. We are united with all the baptized in the
one body of Christ, anointed with the gift of the Holy Spirit and joined in
God’s mission for the life of the world.”[i]
God’s mission that all might have life. That all might know that God is a God of
promises and blessings and grace. That
all might be welcomed to God through the light of Christ. That all might bear the mark of the struggle
that God struggles with us. The mark of
the cross. The mark of this beloved and
belonging relationship. The mark of
falling into Grace with God.
Amen.
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