October 21, 2007

Jacob is going to meet the brother he cheated years ago. And remember he did not cheat in a game of backgammon, it was serious. Jacob got the birthright and the blessing- stole it from his bumbling brother. Neither brother ever forgot that swindle. It meant everything. Not easy for Esau to forgive. Not easy for Jacob to forget.

Family feuds can last generations. Old injuries. Long grudges. Guilt that lays heavy on the back of the neck. You have trouble deciding which is worse, the pain of clearing the air, or the pain of not clearing the air. Jacob was traveling to face the music.

I have long thought that Jacob was being a coward. As a coward, he sent everybody else ahead of himself. I thought Jacob was aiming for one of two things. First, to bribe Esau into forgiveness. The text is quite clear that the many flocks and herds Jacob sent ahead were presented as a gift- an appeasement- a bribe. A BIG bribe.

But if the bribe failed? There is a fall back possibility here. Perhaps Jacob's second hope was that Esau would take his anger out on the entourage- a slaughter of everything and everybody Jacob sent ahead! MAYBE all that anger would be spent by the time Jacob came along. Jacob, the coward- was betting everyone else's life to save his own. Nice.

Maybe. Could be a scheme. If Esau was known to be hot-headed, Jacob was known to be scheming. And family feuds often involve the very personality traits that seem the most deeply rooted- the ones least likely to change.

All that is possible. But a new angle has occurred to me.

By sending everyone ahead, Jacob is alone at the Jabbok river. All alone in the wilderness, he is now open to violent attack. Maybe he knew this. Maybe it wasn't cowardice, or cunning. Maybe it was brave honesty. He is alone- as if to say 'Come and get me, Esau- kill me here and you get all the wives and children and livestock- you'll get back all the things I took from you! You get property as payback, and I get the death I deserve.'

Maybe. We don't know.

We do know that there was danger. Esau was on the move with four-hundred armed men. That's not a hunting party, it's a militia.

Was Jacob avoiding a fight, or preparing to accept punishment? We can't say for sure. But he was attacked. In the night. Maybe Jacob was expecting an attack. If so, he was expecting Esau. That is not what happened.

Question. Does God ever attack people? HURT people?

The text starts out with the word man- a man wrestled with Jacob. By the end of the fight we know it is God. I think it is written that way so it dawns on us readers the way it dawned on Jacob. Jacob assumed one thing at the outset and learned the truth as the fight went on. The writer had the wisdom to allow us that same experience. It's a man- no- it's God! We often see the hand of God only in hindsight.

Some of you are asking, 'Did it really happen?' What if I suggested that what is real is ANYTHING we cannot forget? This story grips us- a man wrestling with God, wrestling so well God has to pull rank in order to win.

The text does not wince at the idea that God injured Jacob. Jacob had a face-to-face meeting with God, and held his own. Jacob wrestled so well that he risked seeing God's face in the light of day and that meant death! God gave him a limp, but only in order to save Jacob's life.

The story seems to say that only by fighting God, only by wrestling, only by demanding something from God are we able to see and know God. And if we do, there is blessing, and also cost. After sunrise, Jacob entered the promised land with a new name. But he entered limping.

We modern people think of God as distant, removed, amorphous. Did it really happen? We want to know because we LONG for a God so definite, so solid that wrestling is possible. Wouldn't you accept a hip injury if it meant you really did see God?

Our actions are meaningful. They have consequences. When we follow God-given vocations, we participate in building up the world as God intended. Honesty in business. Compassion to the needy. Worship in a public building so the world sees a witness to God's Word.

Our harmful actions also have consequences. Extinction is forever. Family feuds can spread like cancer, and echo down the generations. Words and actions set off resentment and counter resentment. Humpty Dumpty shatters.

Sometimes we run from others, and sometimes we run from ourselves.

I will never solve the mystery of how much our own struggling and striving contributes to our life of faith. What is God's doing and what is our own? Is it true that we MUST wrestle with God in order to get a blessing? How much depends on our own will to engage in the struggle?

I don't know. I do not know.

But there is something underlying this story that we must see. It's not in the assigned reading, so I'll just tell you. This whole scene of confrontation between estranged brothers happens because God has called Jacob to come back to his homeland from his exile.

God opens the possibility of a new and different future. God called Jacob from his career-building sojourn to return, face his fears, and open the door to forgiveness. A huge risk. But one that heals the past and opens a new door, a new future.

We are offered a new future when we come here with our questions and our hopes.

This story is the declaration that God is calling the world to reconciliation. Jacob HAD to face God because his guilt was real- he really did cheat his brother- he really did hurt someone. To face his wounded brother, Jacob had to wrestle with God- the very notion that I need God, b ut in my shame I don't WANT to see God. Don't want the honesty or the challenge this meeting implies.

Hebrew tradition also uses the individual to represent the nation. In this text we see God calling tribes and nations to settle the family feud. How much like warring brothers- the violence of this world. Muslim against Muslim. Tribe against tribe. And the tribal flavor of politics and religion which has grown in our own back yard.

God calls for honesty and humility, and the risk of coming together. If we come out of the experience limping, it is only because we have been spared a much greater calamity.

God wills reconciliation. Forgiveness is possible. God goes to great lengths to see it happen. Even to the giving of his Son.

We are who we are. We're stuck with that, just as Esau and Jacob. But God is moving, calling, guarding, and promising. Here and now, we enter God's promises, limping, but restored and at peace. There is blessing here, in the blood of the covenant.