I would like you to remember the story of Jacob with me...
Twenty years before the incident recorded in today's reading Jacob had fled his father's home; he left with the clothes on his back, a bartered birthright and a stolen blessing. Jacob had lived up to his name - a name which means "heel catcher", or more simply, "one who deceives, or tricks another".
Jacob went to the land of HARAN and there he practised his art on his father-in-law, a man who also was rather crafty and tricked Jacob into marrying the wrong woman.
After twenty years Jacob fled his father-in-law's home, taking with him the great wealth that he had earned a wealth measured in wives, livestock, and children and in fleeing the home of Laban Jacob decides to return to his homeland for he has had a dream in which an angel of the Lord has told him to return to his native land.
But there is a catch - as there so often is when we try to go home after leaving it under a cloud.
When Jacob returns he must face his brother Esau, the very brother whom he had taken advantage of, the very brother whom he had cheated out of his birthright.
And Jacob is afraid.
So as Jacob approaches his homeland he sends a messenger to inform Esau that he is on his way, and that he has become very wealthy and when the messenger returns he tells Jacob that Esau is coming out to meet him, and that there are 400 men with him.
This news does encourage Jacob at all.
So Jacob divides his herds, and his people and everything he has into two groups, thinking that just perhaps if Esau attacks him, at least one group will escape.
And then he prays, and he sends five messengers to Esau, each a little after the other, each with a different gift of livestock. Hoping perhaps to both impress and appease his brother.
And then night falls.
It is at this point that today's Old Testament reading occurs. Esau is a but a little way ahead of Jacob, sometime the next day they will meet.
And Jacob is afraid.
To prepare for the morning Jacob sends his two wives, his two concubines, his eleven sons, and all the rest of his possessions across the stream called Jabbok.
And he is left totally alone, in the dark, camped by a little stream wondering what will happen the next day, and something happens to him.
The bible puts it this way: Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak.
We hear that this man whom Jacob wrestles with could not overpower him, so he wounds Jacob in the hip, but Jacob still will not let go. Even as the sun begins to rise Jacob and this man are locked tightly together.
Finally the man pleads with Jacob to release him. But Jacob refuses to do so until he receives a blessing.
The man agrees to this condition, saying to Jacob:
"Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, for you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome."
Jacob, at this point, asks the man his name, but the man refuses to answer him, saying "why do you ask me my name"
And then he blesses Jacob, and disappears from our story.
And Jacob?
Jacob gives the place where he camped a name - PENIEL saying "It is because I saw God face to face and yet my life was spared"
And he limps away because of the wound to his hip, and rejoins his family and goes forth to meet Esau, and Esau receives him kindly, hugging him and welcoming him as a long lost brother.
It is an interesting story - but what are we to make of it?
Who or what was it that Jacob wrestled with?
Was it his own fear?
Or was it with his own personality that he struggled?
His habit of always looking for the advantage?
His way of doing wrong when he should do right?
What we know for sure about this incident is that it was hard, it was draining, and that it left Jacob with a mark, a distinguishing mark - a limp caused by an injured hip.
And we know too one other very important thing, namely that Jacob himself was convinced that he had struggled with an angel, that he was convinced that he had struggled with God, and that he had won something important - that he had won a blessing.
That is at least what Jacob thought, but the question remains. Who did he really struggle with? The man, after all, refused to give his name.
While Jacob wrestled all that long night, he did not know with what he was struggling, he only knew that he would not let go until some good came of it.
And it was long, and it was hard, And it hurt, And, even though he had family and friends, and wealth, he was alone in his struggle.
I believe that all of us, despite the mystery of Jacob's story can, if we try, understand it.
I believe that because all of us have had, or will have, the same struggle as did he.
And always, it is long, it is hard, and it is, despite any help from family and friends, lonely and dark.
For each of us there is appointed a dark night of the soul. A time when we must struggle and either win or lose a blessing.
In those times, there is doubt, and confusion, often there is anger and despair, mistakes we have made catch up to us, and things we did not anticipate, and do not know the name of who seek to overwhelm us.
And we are afraid.
Afraid because the struggle itself is painful, and afraid because deep down we know that if we give up, if we let go, we will be overwhelmed.
And afraid too, that even if we manage to survive the struggle that nothing will come of it but another struggle and then another.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, many of us, no - all of us, carry inside us some pain, some hurt, some issue, with which we must struggle.
It is not fun, But neither is it insurmountable, or unbeatable.
Piet Hein, the author of a set of books called "GROOKS" gives us this rhyme in his MAXIM FOR VIKINGS:
Here is a fact that should help you to fight a bit longer. Things that don't actually kill you outright make you stronger.
Jacob struggled, he wrestled, he won. And so can we.
The prophet Isaiah says:
Fear not, for I have redeemed you. I have summoned you by name; you are mine.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.
For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Saviour.
There is a choice in our struggles, a choice in our dark nights when we are alone and must face - must face - that which we do not know - that which may be related to our past - that which may be connected to our future,
The choice is this: Do we see the struggle as a struggle with angels, a struggle in which we can win a blessing or do we see it as simply and only unwanted pain?
We have, you and I, a name - the name of Christ, and we, like Christ, also bear the name of Jacob. With Christ, we are spiritual descendants of the man who struggled by the stream Jabbok and received the name Israel, "He struggles with God".
We have a choice. Our trials can be blessings to us, our wrestling can result in grace being heaped upon us, our struggles can end in triumph and glory. Or we can give up and let go.
Jacob did not know with whom he struggled, nor was he ever told, but he was clever enough to ask for a blessing within it, and he would not let go until he received it.
And yes, Jacob was injured in his struggle, his hip was damaged, and he walked with a limp. But as a result of his struggle he did win. And his injury became a sacred thing,
Remember always that the man who left the Jabbok the next morning was a changed man, a man with a new name, a man who founded a people and a nation because he would not give up in his struggling.
We too have a new name - we were baptized in it, we were baptized in the name of Christ, and in that baptism we were united with Christ, united in his struggles and his death, and united in his victory over death.
In the next few years of our ministry together here at St. Luke's I invite you to struggle with me in the name of Christ, as I struggle with you in his name, that together we may win through.
Like Jacob, now called Israel, we are called to embrace the struggles, realizing that while, by times, they may seem to us to be evils, they will prove, if we but hold on and do not give up, to be God struggling with us.
If we hold on; If we are willing to claim the victory that Christ has won for us, then we will win through and emerge, both you and I, as stronger and freer and more loving people; a people who can change the world, as did our father Israel as did our brother, and our Lord, Jesus.
Blessed be his name, now and forever. Amen.
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