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Facing Up To God By Rev. Jonathan Gale Sunday 31st July, 2011 Genesis 32: 22 - 31 Jacob Wrestles at Peniel 22 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. 23He took them and sent them across the stream, and likewise everything that he had. 24Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. 25When 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. 26Then he said, ‘Let me go, for the day is breaking.’ But Jacob said, ‘I will not let you go, unless you bless me.’ 27So he said to him, ‘What is your name?’ And he said, ‘Jacob.’ 28Then the man said, ‘You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed.’ 29Then Jacob asked him, ‘Please tell me your name.’ But he said, ‘Why is it that you ask my name?’ And there he blessed him. 30So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, ‘For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved.’ 31The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip.
Matthew 22: 15 - 22 The Question about Paying Taxes 15 Then the Pharisees went and plotted to entrap him in what he said. 16So they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, ‘Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality. 17Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?’ 18But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, ‘Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? 19Show me the coin used for the tax.’ And they brought him a denarius. 20Then he said to them, ‘Whose head is this, and whose title?’ 21They answered, ‘The emperor’s.’ Then he said to them, ‘Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.’ 22When they heard this, they were amazed; and they left him and went away.
This wrestling bout we read about … The word of God has a way of describing great inner conflicts in ways that are concrete; for we hate looking into the abyss of consciousness. There are things deep in our psychological makeup that are difficult to face at times. There are monsters there, some of our own making, and others, less threatening, which have come from outside. By that I mean there are unpleasant parts of us which seem to be intrinsic to our makeup and others which are clearly external influences. One way or another the unpleasant side of our inner conflicts is associated with sin, whether in a generalised sense as part of the world we live in, or in a personal sense – sometimes frustratingly personal; and Jacob, sly so-and-so that he was, was not exempt from sinfulness. If anyone exemplifies the Christian doctrine of original sin (that is, the tendency we have towards putting ourselves at the head of the pack, and not God) it is Jacob. In his birth, he was fighting with his twin brother in the womb and grabbed his heel as they were born. Thus his name: heal-grabber or deceiver. Jacob goes on to steal his brother’s birthright and his blessing. His brother Esau had finally had enough and he tries to kill Jacob who flees for his life northwards to Haran where he takes up with his mother’s brother, his uncle, Laban. The influence of his uncle Laban – just as slippery a character as Jacob ever was – hones Jacob’s abilities to put his own interests first and he returns a well-rounded sinner, having suffered at the hands of someone who took advantage of him for 20 years. Jacob may well not have suffered as much at the hands of Laban, but he had a weakness, the beautiful Rachel, and she was Laban’s daughter. However, Jacob (like every Christian) has one important thing going for him; God intends to bless him, and when God intends to bless us, he intends to play a major part in our lives. And so we find Jacob in our story on his way back to Canaan from Haran, where he had accumulated 4 wives and 11 children. And Jacob was nervous. Having bested his uncle in the sheep and goat stakes he runs off with a huge retinue of livestock and servants. Sending them ahead of him in groups: the least favoured first (in case his brother Esau is still mad at him); with himself in the background ready for a quick escape if it comes down to that. Jacob, in the prime of his life, crosses the Jabbok river and into the arms of God’s blessing: an all night wrestle with God. The ford of the river Jabbok was a place where there was a conflict between two paths. It was at the confluence of two streams. Jabbok comes from a root word meaning to empty or make void. This is where Jacob encounters the first stage of spiritual maturity, where the flesh or the sinful nature has to be made void, emptied, made nothing by the power of God. He wrestles with God all night (we know it’s God because the man says “you have striven with God” and afterwards Jacob says “I have seen God face to face.”) So Jacob wrestles with God all night and in his own strength he prevails, so God in his mercy grabs him by the thigh (the strongest part of the body representing his natural strength) and twists his hip out of joint. Jacob’s own strength, his self-reliance is dealt a blow, but he has had a taste of an encounter with God – he has come face to face with everything that is good – and he won’t let go. He asks for a blessing, and he gets one in a new name (Israel – one who strives or prevails with God). When God engages with us, he expects us to respond with the kind of determination Jacob showed. God in turn will respond to that determination with blessing: and that blessing inevitably involves the breaking of our own self-reliance. There is only room for one God in our lives. When we’re under pressure, as was Jacob, caught between his uncle Laban on the one hand, and his brother Esau on the other, we will face a Jabbok, an emptying out of our own strength. If, at that moment we cling to God, not satisfied until he releases us with his blessing, we’ll prevail. We’ll win – but not on our terms – on God’s terms. Facing up to who God is (the Lord of all and inexplicably one who loves us deeply) involves a capitulation, an emptying of the lordship we have exercised over our own lives. We may well walk off with what seems to be a limp, but it will be the old self-reliance that is limping. God’s blessing will determine our lives from that point on. It’s not always easy. We can avoid the challenge of the Jabbok (the emptying of ourselves) and continue in our own strength (filled with that original, self-preserving and delusional strength) and miss the best that God has for us. Or we can, wounded by the deceit practised against us by others, avoid the Jabbok for fear of being emptied of the little strength we have left. Hurt by the Labans of life, things external to ourselves, our trust in God at an all-time low, we can creep on in life determining our own lives, and miss the3 best that God intends for us. There is only one viable alternative, and that is to engage with God, to face up to who God is, and in spite of what that means to our self-centredness, hang in there and appropriate a much greater blessing than the sad little advantages of our self-centredness. The resurrection life of Christ (now with room to exert influence within us) brings real blessing. Jacob moves on – and I love this poignant final verse in our reading: 31The sun rose upon him as he passed Peniel, limping because of his hip. In order to pass before the face of God (Peniel) we need to cross our own Jabbok. Jacob did so and just one verse later he goes on to meet Esau, and we read, Vs. 1 “Jacob looked up, and there was Esau, coming with his 400 men … Vs 4 But Esau ran to meet Jacob and embraced him; he threw his arms around his neck and kissed him. And they wept.” Is this not a picture of the grace of God? And yet we fight God. · God, who gave his own Son in exchange for our salvation. · God, whose rightful place is on the thrones of our lives, is constantly dethroned by us because of our self-centredness, our overweening pride and spiritual blindness. · God, who in Jesus, said from the agony of the cross, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” Most of us are familiar with our Gospel reading – the story of Jesus being confronted by the Pharisees who ask him whether it is right to pay taxes to Caesar or not. Jesus asks for a coin and says, “Whose image is this?” “Caesar’s” they reply. “Give then to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God, the things that are God’s” Jesus says. “Whose image is this?” Jesus asks. Now if someone were to look into your face today, whose image would they see? They would see Peniel – the face of God – for we are all made in God’s image. Isn’t that astounding! Each and every one of us made in God’s image. That’s why we are so special to God. Let us give then the things that bear God’s image to God. Let us bow our heads in prayer: Loving God, in your holy presence this morning we acknowledge that we are made in your image, and that as such we belong to you. We give ourselves to you now. Through Christ your image goes deep within us, Lord, and we dare not hang onto anything that is at odds with you. We confess our tendency to displace you. We ask for forgiveness, and give ourselves to you. Thank you for touching our hip, Lord, for displacing our selfishness with your glorious presence. Thank you for living in us. You are our Lord.
31The sun rose upon him as he passed Peniel, limping because of his hip.
Amen. |
