Genesis 32:22-31
Proper 13 (18) –Year A
Jacob wrestles with an angel; disciples wrestle with a crowd. In both instances they learn something very important.
“Wrestling Jacob” is significant in the Wesleyan Tradition (Charles Wesley’s poem is now found as “Come, O Thou Traveler Unknown”—386/387 in the 1989 United Methodist Hymnal). G*D is identified in the original publication with the special typography of Love and Universal Love, similar to Lord in the King James version or G*D in this publication.
Jacob wrestled with his father, brother, father-in-law, and self. Neither winning or losing tricks, having little or giving away much, could be counted on for either power or meaning. A blessing is worth much more than any of these or a sore hip.
The disciples wrestle with a crowd and learn their perceived limits are not so—Jesus’ ordered method allows folks to sit together and look at one blessing and see within it an abundance not previously glimpsed.
In the midst of everyone looking every which way (searching for their own best advantage), two loaves (loves) and five fish seem mighty puny. Even if Jacob were to send ahead in time that which went to Esau (200 she-goats and 20 he-goats, 200 ewes and 20 rams, 30 milch camels with their colts, 40 cows and 10 bulls, 20 she-asses and 10 he-asses), it wouldn’t add up to much more than puny for such a one-time crowd, much less a next one. When we look together and opportunity is identified as a blessing—things change.
Given that Jacob and Jesus’ disciples have been willing to indenture themselves to achieve some heart-felt desire, will you as willingly wrestle with an unknown nature of G*D for 7 seconds, or 7 minutes, or 7 hours, or 7 days, or 7 weeks, or 7 years or 70 years?
May you receive a wrestled blessing and offer an audacious blessing in return.
As found in Wrestling Year A: Connecting Sunday Readings with Lived Experience
Jacob/Israel - “A cripple with a blessing” [Brueggemann]
Don’t go the week without singing Charles Wesley’s “Come, O Thou Traveler Unknown” (UMH 386/387) [sometimes known as “Wrestling Jacob”].
And here we are on the progressive end of things with a clear vision of being part of “pure, Universal Love” and yet caught in the misery and sin of the world and our own self-despair. We are still wrestling.
A part of our wrestling with the face of G*D (Peniel) is dealing with the Jacob (trickster)/Israel (G*D-protected) parts of ourselves and our church. Are we the tenacious trickster able to hang on and to turn every turn to our own advantage? Are we the wounded healer able to learn and grow and move the story of life one step further along? It seems obvious we are all of that, and more.
As we wrestle through the week, may you do so as well. May you know, better than ever, that you are part of a Universal Love and your life will be ever more convincing evidence of Universal Mercy.
So what are your specifics? Will you reconcile with your family? Will you stand in the way of 2 George’s reprise of a war against Iraq? Will you find a way to advocate for a Living Wage (not only here in the United States but elsewhere)?
Given that you have been willing to indenture yourself to achieve some heart-felt desire, will you as willingly wrestle with the unknown nature of G*D for 7 seconds, or 7 minutes, or 7 hours, or 7 days, or 7 weeks, or 7 years.
May you receive a wrestled blessing and offer an audacious blessing in return.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2002/august2002.html
Whether we wrestle with much or with little, we all come to limp a bit. Residual atrophy hangs on somewhere. While alone, we are not exempt from stubbing our toe. From some direction we find the wounding of the past being clarified and healed, beyond curing, surfacing through us for ourselves and others.
Our state of being seems to have its plusses and minuses. Are we going to measure our state of mind by our physique? our resources? our emotional state? our relational base? our spiritual calm? our informational sources? our hopes? Are we going to measure satisfaction by some given combination of these or other qualities?
At some point we are thrown into mystery. Strangers come along and offer a new way of looking at things. Our own internals rise up to call us to account. From whichever direction, comes a wrestling that takes us past certainty. We can trust neither disaster or plenty to stay the same.
Give thanks for the wrestles of life. They move us along. And don’t forget to bring along a tag-team partner, it makes the wrestle ever so much more enjoyable and survivable. Whether your partner is a stranger in front of you or a brother from your dim, dark past, thank them for sharing the wrestle of life (which may simply be another way of spelling “The Way”).
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/july2005.html
Jacob wrestles with an angel; disciples wrestle with a crowd. In both instances they learn something very important.
For Wrestling Jacob (in the Wesleyan Tradition) G*D is identified as Love. The disciples learn their perceived limits are not so – an ordered method allows folks to sit together and look at one blessing and see within it an abundance not previously glimpsed.
In the midst of everyone looking every which way (searching for their own best advantage), two loaves (loves) and five fish seem mighty puny, even 200 she-goats, and 20 he-goats (much less 200 ewes and 20 rams; 30 milch camels with the colts; 40 cows and 10 bulls; 20 she-asses and 10 he-asses) don’t add up to much more. When, together we look (and see them identified as a blessing) - things change.
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when we awake
we shall see righteousness
and be satisfiedwhen will that be
that steadfast love
will be recognizedhow do we help one another
perceive grace and mercy
as ever presentso often there is such need
hungers are so high
we can’t spare the timewe anticipate a zero-sum game
driven by competition
and miss compassion’s presenceattend to our night cry
wrestle with us
til day breakslove dawns
blessing abounds
we go on together
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_07_01_archive.html
What does it mean to be made in the image of G*D? Jeremiah suggests that it is not simply mirroring (where things turn out to be turned around, so left becomes right and good becomes evil). Image that is only skin deep is a pretty shallow way to live. But when image goes all the way through, so there becomes an equivalency, that’s deep imagery (where to say G*D is to say human, and vice versa).
This imagery needs to go as deep as a hip bone and leave its mark. So you and I wrestle with G*D, receive new names, and move, together, one step closer to wholeness.
Now, who will you wrestle with until they learn a new name. It is all too easy to give up on folks, pull up the covers, and hide away. But this is a call to action, so back to the joy of G*D-wrestling, neighbor-wrestling, self-wrestling, sibling-wrestling, and enemy-wrestling.
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speaking of a call to action
hopefully I’ll see some of you
at this year’s
Call to Action
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_10_01_archive.html
Sure enough, being alone is tough. If we’ve just sent a crowd away, we still have an identity to wrestle with.
Wrestling through who we are now to the folks we once knew is painful. It is like competitively forcing oneself into an advanced yoga asana – some hip is going to be permanently out of joint, at least a nose.
Rejoice that an unexpected blessing can come from folks showing up out of the blue or settling down for a long winter’s nap.
A face of G*D is constantly showing up. We find that face in other’s need of mercy. We find that face in ourself needing mercy. Having been trained in parables we can see G*D’s Presence anywhere and everywhere.
May you find the blessing of a face of G*D in your today.
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Our reader, Una Malachica responded . . .
Here's my entry from Sunday"s Child:
When Jacob wrestled Esau’s blessing away from Isaac, he then went into exile for a couple of decades. Blessings can carry costs.
We’re told in verse 24-25, that a man struggles with Jacob. Yet, in verse 30, Jacob says that he has seen God face to face? Who was he struggling with? Is it possible to wrestle with anyone without that struggle being with God?
How much has Jacob changed because of each of his wrestling matches? He walks away from this match, limping. Will he continue to limp?
How much of this is about the man Israel and how much about the nation Israel? How much is about us?
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2008_07_01_archive.html
When afraid I won't be treated with compassion, but recompense, it is easy to fall into a headset reflective of a fearful heart. I plan and plot how I can jigger the system to at least let me skim by. Assurance of an abundance of compassion fades in the realism that I'm not going to escape having to face a judgment against which I have no defense, but if I can parse things closely enough I may yet skate by.
This is similar to the state that those who put doctrine first keep running into - for every rule they impose there needs to be loophole for them to be able to access. Since they are the ones who set up the rules the out is not visible to any but themselves. Result: others bear the brunt of what the rule-setter will be able to slide out from under. They are consummate bargainers, finding just the right button to push when push-comes-to-shove and they can side-step G*D's justified anger with them or reality-based experiences that deny a neat systematization.
In this story we need to pay attention to Jacob's fear that his trickery has caught up with him and his response to that. After attending to this reality we might catch a glimpse of a different level of rule that has nothing to do with being able to figure things out ahead of time - A surprising mystery that we still have a new name to get used to. Every time we strive with G*D or Neighbor or One Another or Self or Enemy we are open to a new name, a new understanding beyond our previous limit of knowledge.
What new name have you sensed rising up? An old one reinvested with later experience? One given by others to you? One that is just there, as in a Never-ending Story? One that comes out of the blue to bless you and to become a blessing for others?
Try this one on for size - I am Penstock. I am a gateway for living water to multiply life and love and loaves 30-fold, 60-fold, 100-fold.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2011/07/genesis-3222-31.html
Into the midst of trepidation that all we knew was coming to an end, our past had caught up with us and there was to be no choosing of doors to escape, Jacob has a dream realer than real.
A wrestling ensues. The battle was lost with a broken hip and no way to leverage any foot upon a strong foundation. There was only limping around an altar of past success.
The contest had gone on long enough that evening was becoming morning. In the end there is an end to wrestling. In this end is neither victory nor defeat, but blessing.
We are renamed, reoriented, reanimated. Imagine what it would be like in your world if word finally came to you, “you have striven with G*D and Neighb*r, and have prevailed.”
In prevailing we, too, would want to know a name to rename. Though a name is not revealed here, Charles Wesley later penned a poem, “Wrestling Jacob”, turned into a hymn, “Come, O Thou Traveler Unknown” (386 and 387 in The United Methodist Hymnal of 1989). Here Charles’ conclusion is, “thy nature and thy name is Love.” Though not included in current versions of the hymn, the 14th and concluding stanza runs:
Lame as I am, I take the prey,
hell, earth, and sin with ease overcome;
I leap for joy, pursue my way,
and as a bounding hart fly home,
through all eternity to prove
thy nature, and thy name is Love.
A challenge to us in these days of discouragement of wars and rumors of war and great community splits happening and threatened, is to reveal in our life the nature and name of Love that will not let us go nor escape our grasp, even should the night darken or the morning come.
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You are encouraged to read Thy Nature & Thy Name Is Love: Wesleyan and Process Theologies in Dialogue, Edited by Bryan P. Stone & Thomas Jay Oord.