Genesis 32: 26-30: Psalm 17: 1-3

 Struggle and wisdom

There is a comedy show that features a skit called “what’s up with that.”  The talk show hosts winds up asking celebrity guests inane questions, but before they can answer he breaks out in song featuring repeatedly the words “what’s up with that.”  All he is interested in is singing  the theme song of his show.  He is happy just to sing out the question” what’s up with that.” It’s a common question in our society.  It is the first line of much of American contemporary comedy: “what’s up with that?”  Seinfeld, an eighties show was said to have been a tv show about “nothing.” It meant on for many years.  Sometimes you and I just want to talk about nothing.  We just want to talk about inane things, because it reminds us that life is good and controllable and predictable.  Friends, I have a question for you and that is “What’s up with Jacob?” But really it’s not a bad question.

Jacob is the third of the three Hebrew patriarchs.  While some of the characters in the Bibles get only a paragraph or two, Jacob gets several good size chapters.  There are many dimensions to Jacob’s story.  He is born to Isaac and Rebecca as the younger and less manly of the two brothers.  His mother favors him and thus commits the sin of favoritism.  This forces him into exile and he winds up in the land of his uncle.  On his way out he has a dream. In it God reaches out to him.  God’s love for him is stronger than his misdeeds. Last week we saw that he works hard and responsibly, but it is almost as if there is some Bible karma here: the trickster is tricked, the cheater is cheated. On is wedding night he finds out he has married his beloved’s older sister after working for her for seven years. So he works another seven.  Today it is time for Jacob to return to his land and face his brother, but he faces a moment of struggle so deep.  Being a spiritual person he senses something is about to happen and he sends everybody across the stream. He fights with a stranger. Some say it is an angel, others say it is God, again others say it is his conscience. So many other things happen that this would make a good K-drama set in the palace:   a tale of two brothers, the sin of favoritism, betrayal, flight out of the Promised Land, a dream and a memorial, hard work, love, betrayal, love, struggle, return,  a vast land run by his offspring, loss, the sin of favoritism,  an attempt at fratricide of Joseph by his brothers, famine, the flight to Egypt, reunion. Three lands, two wives, many sons, three countries. But I think today’s story is the richest of the ones about Jacob, one of the richest in the Bible.  First there is lonely struggle, not the struggle with an audience as in the movies, then the opponent who is never completely revealed, then the injury to the bone and the limp it creates, then the request for a blessing, then the giving of the new name, “struggle with God,” or “Prince of God.”  Just this story tells us not what’s up with Jacob, but it tells us what’s up with us.  First, we too must struggle with our spiritual life and our conscience alone. Sure we try to give other people easy answers about faith, but they have to make it their own. Second, we sometimes don’t know who our opponent is, whom we are fighting with.  Sometimes it is the past, sometimes it is our anger, sometimes it is our fear.  But struggle we must, pushing beyond our comfort zones. But then as we wrestle with who we think we are and as we wrestle with what we believe, we are blessed at the end of it.  We are renewed.  It is almost as we have a new name or should have a new name, but we stop short of that because we don’t want to change the name on our driver’s license or on our bills, our deeds and our email even.  Friends, Jacob becomes Israel. He comes closer to becoming the man God wants him to be and he takes his people with him. His name and the name of his people become the same and will forever be linked. Because the church is the new ISRAEL, we too are forever linked with Jacob.  As Christians who are part of that name, we have to take life and our calling within it seriously.  To do that means to wrestle with ourselves.  Like any wrestling match, this leaves us bruised and even limping.  At last week’s conference at Tahoe during an hour and a half break a massage expert spoke to us and had us do exercises and one of the first things she had us do was check all our joints. This made me realize how many sports injuries I have.  These are not serious, but we also have our spiritual injuries and scars. They too may not be crippling, they are reminders of our struggles to become the honest, real, authentic and compassionate people God wants to be.  Friends, personal struggle, injury, blessing, name. These are all part of Jacob’s crucial experiences in today’s text.  They are also part of the Christian life toward growth.  Faith is no cake walk. It is also not a crutch. It is a mirror, but it is also a journey from one place to another, from one stage of life to another.  The journey continues. Thanks be to God.