Genesis 32-24-32; Matthew 8:44-45

Impact point

Dear friends,

When she was living at the Kansha, Chelsea taught me a new appreciation for birds with her parakeets.  I always saw birds as being off on their own planet. Little, partially featherless, turkey taught me a lesson.  I kind of miss the little guy.  So I look with different eyes when I see the turkey vultures circling over the redwoods in the neighborhood or the murder of crows cackling away in the neighbor’s eucalyptus tree or the exhausting humming bird feeding on the flowering succulents outside the kitchen door. Then there are the Myna birds in Hawaii. They position themselves on the side of the coconut tree across the lanai looking for a plate left unattended for just a second.  They are really noisy creatures and they walk around like pompous little men with hands behind their back.  Last May Carolyn and I went to a restaurant and they asked us if we would mind sitting at a table on the veranda.  “Why would we mind,” I thought.  I was soon to find out why I would mind. The familiar noise of the myna having a dysfunctional family meeting on the roof above us did not trouble me, yet.  Soon after the meal came I felt a splat on my head.  I said:” I think a myna just pooped on my head.”  I went to the bathroom and cleaned off the little pasty treasure.  Ten minutes later, splat, in the exact same place.  This time I kept on eating but tried to calculate the odds of this happening. Ten minutes later, splat, another time, same place.

Friends, you could say the Myna or Mynas made an impact. The impact on me was to make me think: what does this mean? Carolyn assured me that for the Chinese it meant good luck, but I wasn’t convinced.  A few days later I asked a local what the Native Hawaiian view would be: “Ah the Myna they would say,” he responded. The Hawaiians don’t trust the myna because the myna is not from the Pacific islands, it was imported from India.

                Today we heard the story of Jacob. Jacob returns home to face the brother and family he has wronged.  At night he is alone, having sent his large family across the stream.  And then a person appears. The text itself seems confused: is this a human or is it God or perhaps an angel or is Jacob, metaphorically, struggling with his better angels.  He wrestled with the mysterious force and he prevails.

But his adversary strikes him at the hip, dislocating it from then on. Jacob also gets a new name, Israel, and he receives a blessing.  The hip is a point of impact and it becomes a reminder of Jacob’s sin but also of his rebirth, his reconciliation and his redemption.

                In Luke the woman with a hemorrhage touches Jesus’s cloak. He is immediately aware, even though a crowd pushes against Him.  “Who touched me,” He asked, which to the disciples is a silly question of course. They are thinking:” Come on, who didn’t touch You?” Jesus knew that all those other people were not his point of impact. That sick woman who could barely reach Jesus, she was His impact point that day, that was the life he was supposed to touch above all, that was the wound He was supposed to heal. You could say she impacts him as much as He impacts her.

                In the movie Forrest Gump Tom Hanks’ character is and eye witness to a big chunk of twentieth century history. He has no idea of his impact and sometimes there hardly is any.  But he meets three presidents, contributes to the rise of Apple Computer, saves a life in the Vietnam War, does a war protest, teaches Elvis Presley how to dance, marries a drug addict etc. History seems to find him every time.  Friends, history finds us too, although perhaps not as often, and if you have some faith, that history has God behind it. Even if you don’t have faith, it still has God behind it. 

We go through life just doing our thing, you and I, doing what our parents, grandparents, teachers, supervisors and bosses tell us to do. Sometimes their commands and advice are contradictory, but never mind that.  We’re good little citizens overall.  But at one moment or another, and this could be when we least expect it sometimes, the question bubbles up:” So what’s the point?” Well, the answer is that this question arises because we feel unable to provide a significant point of impact.  When we are in our zone, that question usually does not arise?  The world and us rub past each other and if we engage with that world, then there are a hundred chances a day to make an impact, a letter to a politician, a conversation with a homeless woman, a child tutored, an online donation to some daring new charity, a word of welcome at church.  The points of impact become meaningful when they are done deliberately. You add it all up and it can become something huge.

Jacob is symbolic of and our journey. He is just a much bigger scoundrel than most of us. But at least he becomes an honest scoundrel.  Deservedly God gets the credit for this. God never stops wanting to touch Jacob’s life and Jacob is smart enough to get it. He calls the place of the struggle Peniel, Face of God. The story reminds us that we are all part of something bigger, no matter the small way in which we live our lives, and that God keeps calling. “Make an impact,” She says. “And let me impact you. Let me touch your heart, for you are part of mine. I am heartbroken for you,” says God.

On March 19, 1995 I preached a sermon at this church as a 38 year old.  I was considering being your interim pastor at the time. The title was “a clear vision…a humble mission.” Exactly one year later you interviewed me for the job I will hold until midnight today.  One of the texts was one you find on the cover.  It was also my ordination verse.  Allow me to quote myself from that sermon (which by the way was way too long but says much of what I have told you in the years since):
“the task is up to you to choose together where your calling, your contribution and your heart is for the years to come, as all churches and all persons must do for themselves. This calling, this contribution and your passion will change over the years and you will find yourselves doing things you never dreamed of doing.” 

So as a congregation you are coming full circle once again. What I said before the beginning of our journey together, I say at the end. We must find out where our heart is? Individually, we also come full circle once or twice in our lifetimes and for the younger generations that may be many times. We all struggle with the world and with life.  We are called to engage, although it may leave us limping. For each of us, there is, at any given time, an impact point or a touch point. May we choose it wisely and may God give us the wisdom. Thank you. Amen.