A Wrestling Match
A service and sermon on wrestling with scripture with Christ as the interprative lens.
Call to Worship:
One: Today we come together to worship the God of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Many: We unite, eager to know what is the hope to which God is calling us.
One: In this place, we look for God’s power at work,
Many: not only in raising Jesus from the dead,
One: but in declaring Jesus head over all things in the church!
Many: So let us worship God, giving thanks to the One whose power binds us together.
1st Reading: Psalm 146
Hallelujah!
Praise the Lord, O my soul!
I will praise the Lord as long as I live;
I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.
Put not your trust in rulers, nor in any child of earth,
for there is no help in them.
When they breathe their last, they return to earth,
and in that day their thoughts perish.
Happy are they who have the God of Jacob for their help!
whose hope is in the Lord their God;
Who made heaven and earth, the seas, and all that is in them;
who keeps his promise for ever;
Who gives justice to those who are oppressed,
and food to those who hunger.
The Lord sets the prisoners free;
the Lord opens the eyes of the blind;
the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down;
The Lord loves the righteous;
the Lord cares for the stranger;
he sustains the orphan and widow,
but frustrates the way of the wicked.
The Lord shall reign forever,
your God, O Zion, throughout all generations.
Hallelujah!
2nd Reading: Genesis 32:22-32
The same night he 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, “Let me go, for the day is breaking.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.” So he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” Then the man said, “You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans and have prevailed.” Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, yet my life is preserved.” The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip. Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the thigh muscle that is on the hip socket, because he struck Jacob on the hip socket at the thigh muscle.
How many of you grew up watching wrestling or used to watch wrestling? Back in the mid 80’s into the 90’s the world of so called “professional wrestling” was in its heyday. You had two leagues I guess you could call them, the WWF and the WCW and all sorts of wild characters from Andre the Giant, Macho Man Randy Savage, and so on. My cousin Willie and I were big into wrestling, and we would watch them perform on TV and then wrestle in the living room each portraying our favorite wrestler at the time. In fact, that’s how I was responsible for breaking Willie’s hand the first time, as he “the ultimate warrior” jumped off the top ropes, which was the couch, and I “the undertaker” solidly planted two feet into his chest propelling him backwards where he slammed his knuckles against the ropes which was in fact the very solid wooden arm of the couch. Ah, sweet memories, hahaha.
Well todays scripture is about a wrestling match of literally biblical proportions. In the one corner we had the trickster Jacob, the less hairy grandson of Abraham, and in the other corner we had the mysterious unnamed divine being. If you remember, Jacob was the second son of Isaac and Rebekah, who as the story goes held onto his brother’s heel as they were being born. Esau, the firstborn, was a quite hairy fellow and an avid hunter, and the favorite of his father…daddy’s boy. Jacob, however, was a momma’s boy. Jacob eventually tricked both his brother and then his father into giving him the inheritance that should have been Esau’s. It’s good to know that families back then were just as messed up and complex as they are now. Anyhow, Jacob had run away in fear and as time passed, he deeply regretted what he had done…anyone here know about regrets? If not, you will soon enough. This is where we pick up the scripture today, in the night he began to wrestle with his conscience, he wrestled with God and in the end somehow he came out on top, albeit with a hip injury, and demanded a blessing. Jacob then gets a new name, Israel, which means “one who wrestles with God.”
This is the story of his descendants, the people of Israel, and also the story of all mankind, the ones who wrestle with God. Since the dawn of time mankind has been searching for God, wrestling with God, and each other. For Jews, Christians, and Muslims that search means wrestling with the scriptures and stories which are a record of our ancestor’s journey along this path. We each approach these ancient verses with our own experiences and our own biases, and we are expected and encouraged to wrestle with them in community together. We as Christians would do well to learn from our Jewish brother and sisters who have a long history, much longer than ours, of wrestling with what we call the Old Testament…it is after all, theirs first and foremost. In their tradition, as I understand it, it is expected and encouraged that scripture is to be thoroughly examined, questioned, debated, and re-interpreted. In fact, there are whole volumes of this wrestling that have been recorded down through the years and is called the Talmud. Even Jesus and later his disciples followed much in that tradition as they questioned prevailing scripture interpretations and understandings of the day. Job, Ecclesiastes, the Psalms, the Prophets…all of these books of the Bible are evidence of man’s need to wrestle with our conceptions and understandings of God and Scripture. So, when someone tells you the scripture is clear on this or that or whips out a snippet of scripture to clobber someone over the head with, you should be weary and have a questioning attitude.
You don’t need to be bible scholar, you don’t need to be fluent in ancient Hebrew or Greek because we as Christians have been given a lens through which all things written in this book and all things around us must be looked at. That lens is the life and teachings of Jesus. We’re approaching advent and Christmas so this will be a timely reference because I think Martin Luther expressed it best when he said (and I’m paraphrasing) that the Bible is the cradle or manger that held baby Jesus, the Christ. It’s what pointed to, built up to, set the scene for Christ but it is not Christ. The wise men came to worship Jesus, not the manger. Some folks are so busy admiring the joinery of the cradle that they miss its purpose, the one who entered into it and then journeys beyond it. I always get a tickle when I pass a church has bible in its name or proudly declares a particular English translation as the only authoritative infallible uncorrupt version. Talk about missing the forest for the trees.
History is filled with stories of where the church and Christians failed to wrestle with scripture, where we have failed to the use Christ as our lens with which to read and understand it. Things like over a millennia of persecuting our Jewish brothers and sisters, engaging in slavery and racism, how we treated indigenous peoples, and the subjugation of and denial of rights to Women to name a few. Even today, there are many Christians who continue to persecute groups of people because they are not seeing things through the eyes of Christ. We are not Abrahamites, Mosesites, Davidians, or Paulians… we are Christians, little Christs, followers of his way. You can profess to know and name check Jesus all you want, show up to church every Sunday, listen only to Christian music, and all that…but if your not seeking to humble yourself and live into the way of Jesus…to truly follow in his footsteps…not just those recorded in a book, but where Christ is walking today in the here and now you better get ready to rumble, and it’s going to be much worse than a sore hip for you. Live, love, and forgive in a manner befitting our name…Christians. Wrestle with the scriptures, but never forget that Christ is the Key and that Christ is still at work in the world today, in unlikely places, in different and often marginalized faces, won’t you follow him?
Benediction:
Go forth into the world in peace;
be of good courage;
hold fast to that which is good;
render to no one evil for evil;
strengthen the fainthearted;
support the weak;
help the afflicted;
honor everyone;
love and serve the Lord,
rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit;
and the blessing of God Almighty,
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
be among you and remain with you always. Amen