August 18, 2024
Anything but Ordinary
“Jacob Wrestles at Peniel”
Genesis 32:22-31
Rev. Dr. Heather W. McColl
Genesis 32:22-31
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.
Jacob Wrestles at Peniel Genesis 32: 22-31
This morning, we have a similar story to the one we heard a few weeks ago, the story of Jacob’s dream where he witnessed a ladder coming down from heaven with angels descending and ascending it at the same time. We have a similar story to the one we heard a few weeks ago but as we take another look at our text, we realize that there are significant differences between the two stories.
Sure, each story tells us about Jacob’s experience with the Divine, but the first story doesn’t change Jacob. After he witnesses the angels coming to and fro from heaven, he still is the same person. He still has the same name. He is still known as a trickster. He is still known as one who supplants.
But this morning’s text is different. Jacob walks away from that encounter with the Divine, not only marked by his experience but he walks away with a new name, a new identity. This experience with the Divine changes him. It transforms him. This is a new beginning for the one who is the father of what will become a great nation. He is no longer known as Jacob. Now he is Israel. Now he is known as one who has striven with God, who has striven with humanity and prevailed. Now he is known as one who has seen God face to face and survived.
The interesting thing about this text is that nowhere are we told that God wrestled with Jacob. We assume that is the case based on Jacob’s new name, but we aren’t told this definitely. Yet somehow, we know that it is God who meets Jacob where he is that night, God who wrestles Jacob in a struggle of wills. We assume that it is God whom Jacob encountered that night all those years ago. Maybe we assume that because like Jacob, we too have been in the same situation ourselves. Maybe in our lives, in our faith, we too have struggled with the Holy. We too have wrestled with the Divine Mystery while seeking answers to things we don’t understand. Maybe at some point either in our lives, or in faith, or maybe in both at the same time, we have wrestled with the Holy. And maybe nothing about the encounters specifically told us that it was God, but we knew, we knew that we had encountered the presence of God in our midst. We knew in our souls. We knew in our bodies. We knew in our hearts that we were engaging, that we were encountering something so much bigger than ourselves. We may not have been able to put the experience into words, but we knew…we knew it was God who had met us where we were and invited us to engage the Holy Mystery in our midst.
And for me, that is what I appreciate the most about this text is that it picks up on this disorientating, life-giving feeling. It does not try to describe it to us. It does not even tell us exactly who God is in this moment. Yes, we are told that Jacob wrestled with a man. But we are not given a description of that man. We aren’t told it was an old man with a white beard, sitting on a throne high above the heavens. We aren’t told that it was a blond-haired blue-eyed man standing in front of a door knocking, holding a lantern, waiting to see if we will open the door, you know like the picture we see in churches all the time. In fact, we aren’t told really anything about this person except that he is a man which in my humble opinion is the author using limited language of what he knew to try and describe the mysterious. But that’s another sermon for another day.
For the author, and for us as people of faith, what matters is that we see, we hear, we understand that there is an invitation for us as the people of God to engage, to wrestle, to encounter the Holy in our midst. The author reminds us that our God is not distant, that our God cares about us, cares about what happens to us. The author reminds us that our God sees us, our God hears us, that our God meets us where we are. The author reminds us that our God is okay with us bringing everything we are, the good, the bad, the ugly and the breathtakingly beautiful, God is okay with us coming to God with all our emotions, with all our frustrations, with all our doubts, with all our joys, with all our sorrows because our God is big enough to handle all of it.
Now, there is a word of warning if that is the right language to use. The author also reminds us that we as people of faith, we as humans, we who are called to be in relationship with our God, we cannot be so arrogant to assume that we as mere mortals can wrestle the Divine in our midst and not be changed, not be transformed. These encounters with the Holy will and do mark us in some way. And we will, we are no longer the same person we were before the encounter with the Holy in our midst. We cannot go back, nor do we want to. Our encounters with the Divine change us. They transform us. These experiences where we encounter, where we wrestle, where we engage the Divine in our midst open our eyes, open our hearts, open our minds, open our very beings to a new way of being in community, of being in relationship. They give us a new narrative where love, peace and grace shape our decisions and actions. They give us a new identity, an identity which fulfills the promises of God. They are the beginning of us becoming the person God created and calls us to become… Beloved Children of God, loved more than we could ever imagined, and strengthened by the Divine.
For me, that’s why it matters that this story is a part of our sacred text. It reminds me again and again that my story, our story is not finished yet, that I am, that we are not finished yet. Jacob’s encounter reminds me, reminds us that we are in the process of becoming and through it all, our God is there, inviting me, inviting us to encounter, to engage, to wrestle with the Divine in our midst. This story reminds me, reminds us that as Beloved Children of God, we are invited to be a part of something so much bigger than us, that we are invited to embrace the gift of love, God’s love which will not let us go, God’s love which blesses us, God’s love which reminds us time and time again, that no matter what happens in this life, we as people of faith have striven with God, striven with humanity and prevailed, that we have encountered God face to face and our lives were not only preserved, they were saved by the grace and peace of God. Jacob’s story reminds us that we as people of faith are called to be in an authentic relationship with our God who is steadfast and faithful, our God who loves us more than we will know, our God who meets us where we are and challenges us to become the person God created us to be. Jacob’s story reminds us that our lives were not only preserved but saved by our God who is anything but ordinary. Amen.
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