Jacob was a man God chose to do wonderful works through. Jacob is one of our great fathers of the faith, a central figure in the life of God’s chosen people. Jacob…was a jerk. We step into Jacob’s story as he is on the run, and for good reason! Jacob has conned his way into his older brother’s birthright and his brother’s blessing. Jacob, worked with his mother in a scheme of deceit and selfishness, betraying his brother and lying to his father and running like mad! On the run Jacob ends up working for a man name Laban who gives him two wives and a good amount of live stock. Over the many years spent together Jacob and his father-in- law cheat and lie to each other and eventually come to a covenant agreement. Then and only then, after many years and some success, is Jacob ready to turn around and go home to reconcile with his father and brother. So, we find Jacob on the move again…what is behind him is a not-so- distant past which promises to give him scars and baggage he will carry with him forever, and he runs into a future marked with, well, only God knows what…this place between his sorted past and tumultuous future is where we find Jacob, the blessed jerk.
(Genesis 32:22-31 is read)
There is a strong theme in our readings this morning — the reading from Genesis and our gospel story are connected with people that can only be politely described as “persistent”. In our gospel story there is a widow who pleads for justice over and over and over and over until the crabby, harsh judge finally breaks down grants her justice. And Jesus connects this story to the ways of God, saying that God will not delay in sending help to God’s children who cry out just like the persistent widow.
This is a side of God we don’t acknowledge very often, this side of God that is in relationship with people who are far from being all cleaned up and present in church on a Sunday morning. I find God’s presence in our Genesis story even more confounding!
What is the Lord doing here! And this man has proven to be a deceitful, unfaithful runaway, what is the Lord doing with him! Why would God lavish all these promises on Jacob, promises of land, children and grandchildren as far as the eye can see to all four corners of creation. Jacob is promised the blessing and constant companion of God…this place? The Lord is in this place with this man? The Lord must be lost!
This raises a question I’m sure all of us have wrestled with in our own spiritual journeys…the question of “Where is God” in our lives and in this world? I know I’ve had plenty of seasons of life where it has felt as though God is lost or maybe giving me space.
This place…is the Lord is in this place with us?
…In our world, a sacred and beautiful planet we have abused and consumed, our earth-home that groans under our weight and excess and we run from hurricanes as storms?
…In our nation, divided party line against party line where our leaders are wrestling for power and prestige instead of purpose and for the sake of the poor. This place…the Lord is in this place with us?
…And, this church? Or any church that wrestles with what it means to be the body of Christ in our neighborhoods and homes? Our church filled with sinner/saints and differing opinions and hard questions and fear of the future?
…And our very selves and bodies, worn and tired, exposed and disrespected, our very beings filled with who knows what, influenced by who knows what, our hopes as aimless as the wind,
This place…the Lord is in this place with us?
The good news for Jacob-the- jerk, and for you and for me, is that God is not lost. The Lord is in this place. The Lord chose Jacob, as Jacob ran from a shame-filled past to an uncertain future, God started to get to work. God promised things to Jacob that were completely undeserved! God promised truth where there were lies, God gave the promise of a land and home when Jacob was on the run and alone. God promised a family at a moment when Jacob has torn his very own apart. Undeserved promises, in an unlikely place…this place, this man, this God. Because of this God, this God who hangs out with the jerks and shows up in unholy places….because of this God, Jacob and the unholy places are never the same again.
While Jacob is traveling with his entire entourage he suddenly stops and sends his wife, children and all of his possessions across the river. So, he finds himself alone at night and with no warning a man appears. They struggle together all night and through this struggle Jacob is moved from night to morning, moved from darkness to light, moved from isolation to relationship. However, the struggle leaves a mark, I do not just mean Jacob’s feelings are hurt…no, the mysterious man takes out Jacob’s hip! Jacob is, literally, forever changed! And then, Jacob demands a blessing, he talks to this mysterious man in a way that no self-respecting church person would talk. Holding God by the collar and saying “Bless me.” Not only is Jacob blessed, but his entire identity is changed. The man says because Jacob has striven with God and with humans, Jacob will now be Israel . Jacob went into the night alone, and came out as the sun was rising…having struggled with God, receiving a blessing and being forever changed because of this encounter with God most High.
And this is true for us, because of God…you, me and all people and all places we would deem unholy…we who encounter God are never to be the same again. For many of us, we first encounter God through our baptism, when the water sprinkled over our unassuming heads, and we were covered with undeserved promises. And throughout our lives God comes to us, when we open the Bible, when we bow our heads in prayer, when we look another person in the eye and care for them, we encounter God. When we are in unholy places, when we are doing hurtful or harmful things to ourselves or others, God comes to us still. When we run away from God, when we run away from each other, God stays with us even then, even in the most unholy places and times we can think of.
And in the most unholy places, this God, this God who wrestles with conniving-mama’ boys-wrestles the same with us, God pushes and pulls, staying with us and we are changed!
And finally, we encounter God in the most unholy of places—we encounter God tragically and mercifully on the cross. There God sends the most undeserving man to bear the undeserving pain, there God gives promises that seep through death, presence that finds it way into and through our shame, our grief, our very bodies. Because of the cross and death of Jesus Christ, we are never the same.
And because of the cross we say this…
Yes, in this place…in our sacred and beautiful planet, where there is damaged earth or poisoned air, God remains offering creative movement.
Yes, in this place…when we stand nation against nation, God remains shouting through the prophets, praying through the Spirit, God is in this place sending us to move to unity and peace-filled resolutions.
Yes, in this place…in our diagnosis and fear, in our strained relationships, when we are too tired for the person in need, God remains empowering us through the Spirit, wrestling with us and teaching us ways of love, patience, compassion.
Yes, in this church. When we rely on our faith and hold God by the collar and say “Bless me!”. Because people of faith are complainers…we complain about injustice because we desire to see the kingdom of God known in this place. When we wrestle with God, we are given a new identity, a new way to be church, a new way to live together. Do you believe that?
Yes, in this place…when we exploit or abuse our bodies and our beings, when we forget the transforming power of God, God remains, making us new again and again.
Yes, in this place…God remains in this place, showering us with undeserved blessings and promises to never leave us…and we will never be the same.
God is here with you today. Thanks be to God.
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