Wrestling With God

Homily for Sunday, July 31, 2011

Lessons:
Genesis 32: 22-31
Matthew 14: 13-21

Wrestling with God. At first glance, it seems like a pretty crazy thing to do. Who would stand a chance in a battle with the Almighty? Yet, in this famous story of Jacob spending all night wrestling with the Lord, it is the Lord who willingly enjoins the fight and who gives in first.

A couple of years ago, I delivered a homily I called "The Bad Boys of the Bible. " On my list of bad boys were Moses, David, and Jacob--all of whom, in addition to being notorious misbehavers, are three of the most significant figures in Hebrew history. Moses, remember, murdered an Egyptian taskmaster and had to flee from Egypt. When God spoke to him from a burning bush, Moses tried every ruse he could think of to get out of the task God gave him--leading all of the Hebrew people out of Egypt. And King David, remember, had an affair with a married woman and then had her husband killed when he found out she was pregnant. These are not the everyday sins of average human beings. In their efforts to do what they wanted to do rather than follow the will of God, Moses and David wrestled with God, struggled and failed more than once, but ultimately served God to the best of their abilities. Moses and David were big men and big sinners, but God still loved and forgave them.

In our story about Jacob, he is on his way home to encounter his twin brother Esau after living in exile for twenty years. Remember, Jacob had to go into exile after he manipulated the elder Esau into trading his birthright for a bowl of soup. Then he tricked his father Isaac into giving him the blessing that also rightfully belonged to Esau. Jacob was in fact an ambitious con man. Even so, the Lord willingly grapples with him, and Jacob's stubborn determination is rewarded when the Lord blesses him and changes his name to Israel. The twelve sons of Jacob became the founders of the twelve tribes of Israel, the people led out of Egypt, through the Red Sea, and into the Promised Land by Moses. Once again, it is clear that even the worst of sinners (and the greatest of wrestlers) can be loved and used by God.

This is really good news, because I think most of us spend a lot of time wrestling with God. I wrestle with God when things around me seem to be going all wrong and I'm not patient enough to let God reveal a solution. I am also prone to wrestling when what God seems to be calling me to do is not at all what I want to do. We wrestle with God when bad things happen and we want to know why God allowed them. Jacob's story tells us that God not only understands why we wrestle but also encourages us to do so.

In other words, God can handle anything we might want to say when we are anguished or stressed. God seems to prefer that we speak our hearts honestly, express our anger if we need to do so--as long as we stay tuned in for God's response. There's a story about St. Teresa of Avila that illustrates the point very well. St. Teresa, who lived from 1515 to 1582, was traveling by cart one day, on the way to visit one of her monasteries. The cart overturned as it crossed a stream, and St. Teresa's leg was broken. She looked up to Heaven and said, "Lord, if this is how you treat your friends, it's no wonder you have so few."

St. Teresa also said,
Let nothing disturb you
Let nothing frighten you
Everything passes
God never changes
Patience obtains all
Whoever has God wants for nothing
God alone is enough.
Amen.