The Wrestler #1 7/10/11. The Struggle Begins Genesis 25:19-34

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1 The Wrestler #1 7/10/11 Introduction: The Struggle Begins Genesis 25:19-34 There s something about our personality that s with us from the beginning. The way we are on day one is generally the way we continue. Have a placid baby, for instance, and it s likely he ll turn into a laid back adult. Have a contentious baby, on the other hand, and it s likely she ll grow up to be a perfectionist. Believe me I know what I m talking about here. Sure, there ll be all other kinds of elements that will develop over time. But that core temperament seems to be there from the start. If there ever was a person where we see the character from the 1 st, it s with the one we just read about. Later in life Jacob will be become known as the one who wrestles with God. But as we heard, that contentious aspect is there from the very beginning. Even in the womb he is fighting with his twin brother. So as we begin our summer series on the wrestler, we ll start from the top. Today we examine how the struggle begins. 1. A flawed cast of characters. The people involved in our story are definitely people with baggage. They are far from perfect. We start with the twins: Jacob and Esau. Even before they are born they are already fighting. The two of them are creating so much turmoil that their mother prays about it. If it s to be this way, why do I live? Clearly, this is no easy pregnancy. At the moment of birth comes another telling sign. Jacob has his fist around Esau s heel. He s got him in his grasp. He s not letting go. As they grow it s clear that they are very different from one another. Jacob is the city boy. He likes gourmet restaurants and subscribes to the symphony. Esau on the other hand is the outdoors type. He loves hunting and fishing.

2 But it s not just their differences; it s their approach. Esau we see is ready to give up his future for immediate gratification. He sells Jacob his birthright for a bowl of stew. Jacob is ready to take advantage of his brother s weakness. He s the one who sets the price for the food. Esau seems strong but stupid, Jacob smart but sneaky. And then to cap it all there are the parents: Rebekah and Isaac. Parenting question: what do you think parents should do when their kids are squabbling? Help them work it out, right? Let s see what we can do to get you two to cooperate. But what do these parents do? Take sides! Rebekah prefers Jacob; Isaac prefers Esau. Can you spell dysfunctional? As I was reflecting on the story what came to mind was a soap opera. You want the next Days of Our Lives, or Dallas or Desperate Housewives? Try Jacob and his family. This is anything but a perfect family. They are a flawed cast of characters. 2. At the same time though, they are a nation s founding family. This is not just any cast of characters. They are the central ones. From them will come the Jewish people. Later in our series Jacob will get a name change. At his decisive wrestling match with God, he ll be told his name is now Israel. In other words, he will be the one who gives identity to an entire nation. He and his immediate family will become Israel s equivalent of Franklin, Jefferson and Washington all rolled into one. Frankly, it s a bit surprising, don t you think? We tend to want our heroes to be flawless. They should be all virtue and strength, superman and wonder woman. Of course, they really aren t. But we do like to think of them that way. In fact, when historians attempt to show us how flawed our own nation s heroes might have been, one of our reactions can be to get a little cranky. We dismiss the historians as revisionist. But one of the things I like about the bible is that it doesn t avoid questions of character. It doesn t sugar coat people.

3 Even when they are justifiably heroes, people who do great things, we get to see that they have flaws as well. Back in the 17 th century Oliver Cromwell had the title of Lord Protector of England. He and his troops had overthrown the monarchy and he was, in effect, military dictator. Cromwell was not anyone s idea of a flawless leader. Some of what he did was definitely tyrannical. But there s an indication that maybe he knew it. Once he was having his portrait painted. Usually the artist would do the equivalent of airbrush out all the facial wrinkles and imperfections but, so the story goes, Cromwell would have none of it. I want you to paint my portrait warts and all he is reputed to have said. Warts and all is definitely what we get with Jacob. He and his family are unquestionably a flawed cast of characters but they are not just any cast of characters they are the central ones. They are a nation s founding family. 3. Of course, Jacob s family is set in an inequitable system. They are not living in some ideal world. They are living in circumstances that set one against the other. How they behave is affected by the conditions that they are in. We really only get hints about the system in the story but they are there. This whole idea of birthright is one. Jacob is envious that Esau has a birthright and he doesn t so he tricks him out of it. But what is a birthright anyway? Essentially it is the right of inheritance. Esau stands to get the land and the flocks and the status and Jacob stands to get nothing. You mean I m born a second or two after him and I totally lose out? Yes, that s the way the system works. No wonder Jacob is just a tad put out. No wonder that there s the possibility of conflict. Given his pugnacious nature we shouldn t be too surprised that he acts the way he does. Now, ascribing some of the behavior of the family to their circumstances doesn t mean we are simply products of our environment. This isn t an argument for some sort of rigid determinism. The truth is that who we are arises from a complex interplay of genetics and environment. But we are affected by our circumstances. How we act and react is always rooted in our place in life. We might make lemonade out of lemons or we might make lemons out of lemonade. But it s out of our actual circumstances that we make our choices. Think of virtually any social or global problem.

4 It can be failing schools, drug addiction, terrorism, unemployment, hunger, illegal immigration, governmental ineptitude, corporate malfeasance, declining church attendance or anything else. One range of explanations will always deal with individual choices. They ll talk about weak people, evil people, stupid people, misinformed people, exploited people or whatever seems to fit. A whole different range of explanations will talk about root causes. They ll focus on things like economic climate, cultural norms, historical background, institutional practices and social conformity. Which is right? Both. We do make choices but we do so not in some abstract theoretical realm but in real life situations. When we look at Israel s founding family they are definitely flawed people. But it s also important to recognize that they are not living in some ideal world. An underlying cause of their struggles is living in an inequitable system. 4. And yet, what s also true is this: we have a God of transformation. Just because the world is the way it is doesn t mean that s what God intends. What God wants is for us to be whole people in a whole world. Listen to the reply Rebekah gets from God. She has gone to God wondering about why the twins she is carrying are fighting. What God says in response is this: Two nations are in your womb The one shall be stronger than the other; the elder shall serve the younger. Who is the stronger? Esau Who is the elder? Esau Who is going to come out on top? The younger, the weaker, Jacob. Now, the way this statement is written, it doesn t exactly say that God will be the cause of this reversal. But it does fit with what we know of God. God doesn t conform to the inequities of the world. God transforms them. Throughout the bible we find God working to change structures of domination. Time and time again God sides with the weak, the oppressed, the sick, the outsider. Examples are numerous. There s Ruth, an alien immigrant who became the ancestor of Jesus. There s Jeremiah, a teenager, called to be speak the truth to the powerful of his day. There s Zaccheus, bag man for the Roman Empire, changed into a benefactor of the poor. There s Mary Magdalene, a woman in a man s world, commissioned to be the first to tell of Jesus resurrection. There s Paul, the sworn enemy of the church who d become its greatest advocate.

5 Certainly, the powerful try to use God to their own ends. There are plenty of instances of that both in the bible and in history. But a dominant theme in the bible is of God s concern for those on the underside. The result is when MLK tied the civil right movement in the US to the biblical vision of reconciliation, it resonated. People responded to what he was saying. Just because the world is the way it is doesn t mean that s what God intends. What God wants is for us to be whole people in a whole world. We have a God of transformation. 5. What s more, we have a God who starts where we are. God doesn t wait for us to measure up to some standard of perfection first. God begins with who we are and where we are. Do you suppose God liked the kind of person Jacob was or the way in which Rebekah and Isaac played favorites? Do you suppose God simply took an instant dislike to Esau for some inexplicable reason? No: God takes us as we are, warts and all, and God works with us from that point. Now, of course, character matters. To say God takes us as we are is not to say that God leaves us where we are. Part of God s goal is that we are transformed and that we go on to perfection. But God doesn t expect us to start there. God s transforming actions begin with wherever we happen to be. This last week it s quite likely that one of the people we might have thought about is Thomas Jefferson. He is the author of those inspiring words all men are created equal. Now we know how we understand those words. To us they mean all people whoever they, wherever they come from are created equal. But what did they mean in Jefferson s day? For one thing when they said men, they meant quite literally males. For another, they didn t say so but they implied, white men, not black or American Indian. The fact is, as we well know, Jefferson (like Washington and many others) owned slaves. He was conflicted about it but nonetheless he owned them. Would it have been better if he d freed his slaves? Absolutely: what could have been a more dramatic and convincing display of his convictions? Does the fact that he didn t free his slaves mean his words just ring hollow? Certainly not: sometimes what we set in motion is bigger than we are and go further than we can.

6 Just because Jefferson was flawed doesn t mean he s not significant. Just because Jacob was flawed doesn t mean he couldn t found a great nation. Just because you and I are flawed doesn t mean God can t use us. God doesn t wait for us to measure up to some standard of perfection first. God starts where we are. Conclusion: In the next weeks we ll be looking at more episodes in the life of Jacob. We ll see how he struggles for a future, struggles for love, struggles with God, and struggles for reconciliation. But the place it all starts for this wrestler is with what we ve looked at today. As we ve seen, it is from the very first that the struggle begins.