Proper 13a 2026; 2 August
Genesis 32:22-31; Jack Hardaway
STRIVING
I once had a friend in high school whose name was Rock.
He was very large and he wrestled in the heavy weight division for our high school. Rock was a very appropriate name for him.
I remember one wrestling match when Rock went up against someone twice his size. We were all terrified by this mountain of flesh towering over our giant friend who suddenly seemed very small.
The long and short of it is that Rock actually won by a hair after being pretty much thrown around like a rag doll.
We all went crazy. I cheered till I went hoarse. We were so loud we cracked the cinder block walls. Rock’s Mom cried, Rock even cried.
That night has always been the picture in my head of what wrestling is.
Wrestling.
Striving.
Wrestling a man who is really an angel, who is really God, alone, at night, in the wilderness, in a place that is nowhere, just a place between one place and another, and it lasts all night.
Limping away with a hip put out of joint.
Limping away at daybreak with a blessing, the blessing of a new name, Israel.
Israel, the name, the man, the people, who strive with God, wrestling in the night, not letting go until God gives the blessing.
That place in-between here and there, that place on the way to somewhere else, the shallow ford in the river named Peniel, the face of God.
What a story!
A true Rascal like Jacob, coming up against a divine being in the night that says that Jacob has striven with God and humanity and prevailed.
Let me remind you of the story of Jacob, God’s rascal, a true con artist.
A few flashbacks of Jacob’s life.
He and his brother Esau were twins. They wrestled in their mother’s womb, driving her to despair.
Esau was born first, Jacob was born next, gripping Esau’s heel.
Fast forward to Jacob swindling his brother out of his inheritance for a bowl of pottage.
Skip ahead to Jacob tricking his father, Isaac, into giving the blessing intended for the firstborn Son, for Esau, and taking it for himself.
Then Jacob runs for his life across the wilderness, he skips town, to work for his uncle, Laban.
Jacob works seven years for Laban to marry his daughter Rachael, then gets tricked into marrying her sister Leah. That was a literal rude awakening! It was Laban this time who ran the con and out tricks Jacob. Jacob deserved it. But it wouldn’t happen again.
Jacob works for seven more years for Laban to marry Rachael, the love of his life. After finishing the years of service and marrying Rachael he then works six more years for Laban.
In those six years Jacob out smarts and out tricks Laban out of most of his wealth. Laban had it coming, the whole time he was trying to out con Jacob, it is just that Jacob was the better conman. However, Laban’s sons get tired of seeing their inheritance swindled away so they plan to kill Jacob.
So once again Jacob has to skip town for fear of his life, being chased by Uncle Laban and company.
This time, however, he can’t run so fast, because he now has two wives, two maids, eleven children, and most of Laban’s considerable flock and possessions.
Eventually Laban catches them, they have words, and Jacob gets to keep it all as long as he never ever, ever comes back onto Laban’s turf.
They make a sacred oath and part ways. Laban kisses his two daughters good bye, for good, and goes home, I’m sure to find somebody else to swindle, this time not so bright as that rascal Jacob.
Where is Jacob to go?
Back home to face his brother Esau.
To ensure his safe return he sends all his earthly wealth on ahead of him, which he didn’t get to keep for long, easy come easy go. He sends it ahead as a present to Esau.
The last Jacob hears is that Esau is on his way with four hundred men to catch Jacob on his way back home.
Things don’t look so good. This is the classic cliff hanger at the end of the season, is this the end of that rascal Jacob, does he finally get his due? Tune in next season to find out!
It is that night that Jacob wrestles the angel, and he is given the name that marks all of history, Israel, the one who strives with God.
Jacob the rascal, who strives with everyone, even God.
So what is the moral of the story?
Is it to never give up? That life is worth all the striving and the struggling?
Is it that what goes around comes around, that we reap what we sow, that for good or ill our actions always catch up with us?
Is it to never mess with Jacob, and to hold on to your wallet when he is in town?
Or is it about the God who refuses to abandon his people no matter how crazy and foolish they act. God is stubbornly faithful, even more stubborn and wily than that rascal Jacob, determined to bless the world over and over.
So what is the moral of the melodrama of our own lives?
What is the lesson to be learned from our own continuing efforts to make life even more interesting than is necessary?
The only way to find out is to wrestle and strive with God, refusing to let go until we limp away with a blessing. Tune in next season to find out.