Out of the Cocoon, When God Invites Change; Jacob

God created us for a lifetime of change. God created us so that no two days are alike and that next year will be different from this year.  God created us so that day to day to day, our bodies and our minds and our Spirits will change.

I do not want to overdo this, but let me remind you of an image that we saw last week. This was I in the summer of 1962. I was 17 years old. The person on that photo has exactly the same DNA as I. Do you see any differences? Is there any way that I could look in 2007 as I looked in 1962?  Should I have the same mind as I had then? Should my body be the same?  (Don’t I wish?) Should I relate to people in the same way?  In those days, I had quite an interest in 16 year old girls. What would you think of me if I had the same interest today?  There is something infinitely sad about a 60 year old man who cannot get over being 18. Body, mind, and spirit; all have changed and that is as it is supposed to be. We were created for change.  

Our theme verse for this series of sermons is Ephesians 4:15.  “Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.” “Growing up”, becoming mature in Christ is our theme.  God’s plan for us is that the changes in life will lead us to maturity in Christ.

Does every change in life come directly from God?  No. But God can transform the changes that God did not initiate for the purpose of our maturation in Christ.

One of the fundamental realities is that change frequently comes with a struggle. And it comes with a struggle even when we welcome it.  If you have been married, do you remember the way that you anticipated the wedding? You welcomed the change from single life to married life. Do you remember the adjustments that followed? The only people who say that it was all easy are those who were not aware of what was happening! All change involves some sense of struggle.

And that includes spiritual maturation. All spiritual growth involves struggle, all of it. I think that there are no exceptions. If you wish to grow in Christ, if it is your desire to grow up into Christ, then you can expect to have some wrestling matches with God.

Jacob was a schemer, a liar and a thief.  He had conspired with his mother to steal his brother’s inheritance.  You may remember that he had caught his brother Esau at a time of intense hunger and had convinced him to trade away his birthright, his inheritance, for a bowl of soup.  And his mother had dressed him up to look like Esau so that their father Isaac would give him, give to Jacob, the blessing that rightly belonged to the oldest son,

Esau.  He stole what rightly belonged to his brother. And he had used that nest egg to build a fortune.

Now both Jacob and Esau are much older. Jacob has two wives and two maids and eleven children. And he is about to meet Esau for the first time in many years. The two brothers, long alienated, are about to meet again and Jacob is worried. He is afraid the Esau is going to try to take back that which should have been his decades ago.

He takes some measures to protect his property and his family and tonight he is alone. Tomorrow he will meet Esau and tonight he sleeps alone.

He is alone. For the night, he has been separated from everything that supports his identity as a successful man. He has been separated from his family, the sanctuary of comfort and security. His brother is nearby but not here. Tonight, there is only Jacob.

Those who have studied the soul and its growth all agree that there are times when maturation demands solitude. Family and friends and church all have their necessary places in our spiritual growth, but there are times when we must go to God alone. There are times when all of our accessories must be stripped off. When all of our make-up must be removed, when all of our costumes and jewelry must be taken away, when the only thing that we take to God is ourselves; these are necessary times in our spiritual growth. There are times when I must meet God all by myself, as I am at the very center, at the very core of my being. It was that time for Jacob. Jacob is alone.

He tries to sleep but his mind will not grow quiet. He counts all of the stars in the sky and there are not enough stars to put him to sleep.  When the dawn breaks, he will meet Esau, his brother, the man he cheated decades ago. 

Jacob is afraid. Esau may still be angry. Esau may try to kill him. Already Jacob has sent gifts ahead to assuage Esau’s anger. He has sent word ahead that he wants for this to be an amicable meeting, a time to settle differences, a time to make peace. But Esau has not replied. He doesn’t know how his brother, his long alienated brother, will respond.

The language suggests a dream-like state. But if it is a dream, it is a dream so vivid and powerful that Jacob remembers every moment.

A man wrestles with Jacob. The wrestling match goes on all night and the “Man”, as yet unnamed, “the Man” cannot win. But, then again, neither can Jacob. The Man delivers a blow to Jacob’s hip and the socket is put out of joint. Forever after, Jacob will walk with a limp, but still The Man cannot win.

The Man says, “Let me go for the day is breaking.”  Jacob replies, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”  Who is this “Man” who has the ability to bless?

The Man asks, “What is your name?”  The meaning is clear. Jacob is required to identify himself and more than his name is at stake. His identity is on the line. His history, his scheming and his thievery and everything that has shaped his character until this moment; all of it is to be revealed to the Man.  He says, “Jacob.” As he is at the center of his being, his core character has just been revealed. “I am Jacob.” For good and bad, all that has been right and wrong, I am Jacob.

The Man replies, “You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans and have prevailed.”

Then Jacob says, “Tell me your name.” And the man answers, “Why do you want to know?”  The Man refused to answer. The Man refused to reveal his full identity. The Man remains a mystery. But the Mystery Man blesses Jacob before he leaves.

So Jacob named the place Penuel saying, “I have seen God face to face and yet my life is preserved.”  Now we know the Man and it is none other than God. Jacob has spent this night wrestling with God.

 As a student of theology, my mind is boggled. How can any human being wrestle with God and win?  God is the creator and we are the creatures. God is all powerful and we are not. God is God and we are mere mortals. How can any person wrestle with God and win?

Both of my sons wrestled in high school and Peggy and I watched our fair share of wrestling matches. The young men push and pull and grapple with one another and in the process, they twist and turn and manipulate one another into some really strange and nearly unnatural positions. The one sure thing about two people wrestling is this; they are fully engaged with one another. Each has the other’s full attention.

As Jacob wrestled with God, God had Jacob’s full attention.  Jacob was paying attention, and paying attention is the beginning of spiritual growth.

How can anyone wrestle with God and win? Most of the time we are wrestling with ourselves as well as with God. We are wrestling with the reality of our sin and the need to change. Or we are coming to terms with some very significant change in our lives and trying to adapt to that change and that change is experienced as a wrestling match with
God. We keep asking God, why can’t things just be the same and we wish that they could stay the same, but they won’t and God keeps calling us forward to meet the changes in our lives and we don’t want to go. And we win when we lose!  When we finally come to the moment when we can say, “OK Lord, I’ll move forward.” Then we win by losing.

When we struggle with the need to change or the need to repent or the need to accept something that we really do not want to accept, when we wrestle with the reality of God’s presence, we are wrestling, not with an enemy but with a friend who wants nothing but our own well being.

Now the truth is that there are times in this wrestling match when we wonder if God is the enemy. We are asked to do something that we really do not want to do and because we don’t want to do it, God feels like an enemy. And it is only later that we discover that God really did have our own spiritual maturation in mind as God led us along the pathway of life.

Did Jacob change?  God gave him a new name. He said that his name would be “Israel” because he had wrestled with God or striven with God and won. In staying in the confrontation, in refusing to quit, Jacob received God’s blessing and he became Israel.

And so it came to be that God’s chosen people were called Israel, those who wrestle with God! The essence of the character is in the name, those who wrestle with God.

Does that fit the Christian?  Look at Jesus. He began his ministry in the wilderness of temptation and he ended it in the Garden of Gethsemane praying, “If it be possible, let this cup pass from me.”  That sounds like wrestling matches to me. The essence of the relationship was found in confrontation and conversation and total engagement.  That is the way to spiritual maturity.

In the midst of the conflict, Jacob prayed, “Bless me.”  “Before you go, bless me.”  It is a good thing to ask God for a blessing. It is a good thing to ask for him to give to you the blessings of God’s spirit. When we are wrestling with the sin in our own lives, it is a good thing to ask God for forgiveness and for the wisdom and strength to walk a new way. When you are facing the necessary changes that life brings, it is a good thing to ask God for wisdom and light to find the right path and to do the right thing. When wrestling the consequences of pure evil, it is a good thing to ask for God’s strength and wisdom and grace to persevere and prevail.

One last observation about the story of Jacob; when he asked the Man, “Who are you?” the man did not answer. God is always a mystery. We never know more than is revealed to us.

As Christians, we are convinced that God has revealed himself most completely in Jesus Christ. We often say, “If you want to know God’s character, look at Jesus.”  Through Jesus, we are led to know all that we need to know for our journey to spiritual maturity and salvation. But knowing all that we need to know and knowing all there is to know are two very different things. God has been, is, and always will be a mystery to us. God will always be more than we can wrap our minds and hearts around.  Living and loving, knowing that we do not fully know, that is the pathway to spiritual maturity.

God is calling us to “grow up in every way into Christ.”  Growing up always involves change and change never stops. And some of those changes involve real live spiritual wrestling matches with God.

Are they difficult? Yes.

Are they sometimes painful? Absolutely.

Do they lead us into unexpected and unknown places? You can count on it.

Are they finally the source of blessing? They really are. Because all blessings are grounded in our close encounters with God. It is in those close encounters, in those struggles of the soul with God, that we ultimately win even when we lose.