Songwriter and novelist, John Darnielle said, I think wrestling is the. one [thing] that presents theater for people who want to see some theater but

Transcription

1 1 Jabbok Reading from the Gospels: Mark 14: Reading from the Old Testament: Genesis 32: Songwriter and novelist, John Darnielle said, I think wrestling is the one [thing] that presents theater for people who want to see some theater but don't necessarily have to dress up or be quiet while they're watching. Echoing that sentiment, comedian cum professional wrestler, the late and always odd Andy Kaufman said, There s no drama like wrestling. I don t know if that was before or after he was wearing a neck brace. Indeed Old Testament scholar Patrick Miller suggested that professional wrestling was the last milieu where there was a clear distinction between good and evil. I can t say that I have ever caught the wrestling bug, and I made it my habit in high school to keep my distance from the wrestlers cutting weight before a match. Life was safer that way. Yet, I do have childhood memories of those pre-cable Sunday mornings when one of the St. Louis stations broadcast a local program called Wrestling at the Chase, the Chase being Chase Park Plaza, an elegant dining spot and hotel that seemed a contradiction to the homespun spectacle of beefy men in polyester underwear and tall leather boots throwing one another into the turnbuckle or grabbing a ringside folding chair and cracking it over the head of their opponents. Baseball icon Joe Garagiola was the first play-by-play 1

2 2 announcer and Charlotte s own Ric Flair made regular appearances along with wrestlers like Handsome Harley Race, Dick the Bruiser, Killer Kowalski, and Rufus R. Jones, whose secret weapon was the steel plate in his forehead. The characters were certainly colorful and the production value was minimal, but actually, the real spectacle wasn t in the ring. No, it was in the small live audience where you would often see an elderly woman screaming and throwing fits, gesticulating and shouting epithets at a wrestler as if the guy getting his eyes gouged was her own son. Maybe he was. I have not witnessed the spectacle of the modern day steroid empire of grappling called WWE, and to be honest, I don t plan to. You see, these days I have a remote and hundreds of options, but as a child the only other option was that sappy claymation series, Davey and Goliath, and they just couldn t compete with Wahoo McDaniel and The Great Kabuki. But even though I don t know the difference between a sleeper hold and a half nelson, I do know about wrestling and so do you. The foes you face may not have a catchy nickname or threaten you with a folding chair, but they are far more real and menacing. Your wrestling opponents do not assault you inside a ring but inside your head, your heart, and your stomach. 2

3 3 You lay your head on your pillow and the fight begins, robbing you of sleep, leaving you dispirited, exhausted, anxious. You agonize over the prospect of facing, confronting, avoiding the person who has wronged you, insulted you, accused you, or assaulted your character. Your restless mind cycles through a catalogue of scenarios that will never take place, and yet, you can t close the catalogue and put it away, and each time you turn a page your blood pressure jumps and your stomach turns. You work your job and you are proficient, you are steady. But your job is crushing your spirit and engulfing your identity and the dread of tomorrow rises in concert with tasks that are multiplying even as you lie still, awake, and overwhelmed. You ve backed yourself into a corner and you ve run out of escape routes. Deadline past. Job not done. Someone s been betrayed. Judgment day is coming. Responsibility ignored. Consequence looming. You may never buy the ticket, witness a takedown, or get in touch with your inner Vince Mcmahon, but you know wrestling just like Jacob, son of Isaac, son of Abraham. To understand our text today, we need to go back to a birthing room in Canaan. Isaac and Rebecca were expecting twins, but unlike the twins of 3

4 4 today, the parents didn t carefully measure ice cream scoops and pie slices to ensure that their twins received equal treats, sweets, opportunity, and privilege. Nope. First one out received birthright privileges, preferential blessings, and a significantly larger share of the inheritance. As soon as that first Braxton Hicks contraction startled Rebekah, Jacob was busy pumping iron and drinking protein shakes preparing for the wrestling match that would determine who would be first born. On delivery day, Esau made it out first even though Jacob was hanging onto Esau s heel for all he was worth, trying to pull him back in. Jacob is a great name, a popular name, and a lot of cool people bear that name: Jake Gyllenhaal; football stars Jake the Snake Plummer and Jake Long. Great name, but the origin of the name Jacob is in our text and it comes from the Hebrew word meaning heel grabber, schemer, one who will supplant - and Jacob represented his name well. Esau was the stereotypical first child responsible, an outdoorsman, a skillful hunter helping to provide for the family. Jacob, meanwhile, was back in the tent playing video games and devising schemes to con and torture his brother. Jacob swindled Esau out of his birthright and conned his father, Isaac, into giving him the blessing and firstborn privileges that belonged to Esau. 4

5 5 Jacob must have learned the con game from his mother, Rebekah, as she is the one who came up with the plan to fool an aging and blind Isaac to give Jacob what belonged to Esau. In Genesis 25 we read, Isaac loved Esau because he was fond of game; but Rebekah loved Jacob. How s that for biblical family values? Can you spell dysfunction? Well, Esau was not in a forgive-and-forget state of mind. In fact, he had a plot of his own. He would wait until his father died and the assigned mourning period was past. Then he would kill Jacob. Let s just say that shows like Dallas, Days of Our Lives, Scandal, and House of Cards are anything but original. When Rebekah heard about this, she told Jacob to run. Run, Jacob, Run. Get out of Dodge. Go on the lamb. Make like Jesse James and take the next horse out of town. So, Jacob picked up his Xbox and fled. Well, that would work for awhile, long enough for Jacob to get married twice; long enough get in a fight with his father-in-law, amass significant wealth, and father eleven children eleven! But, Jacob knew he needed to go home. Actually, he may have preferred to keep running, but God told him to go home, leading Jacob to pray for God to somehow deliver 5

6 6 him from his Esau s wrath. Given the story up to this point, the reader is hoping God s answer to Jacob would be, Fat chance, heel grabber! It wasn t so much of a generous spirit as much as it was fear and desperation that would lead Jacob to send an 18-wheeler stuffed with treasures, along with enough livestock to film a John Wayne movie, across the Jabbock River as a skin-saving gesture, I mean, as a gift to Esau. His servants load up and depart toward the approaching Esau. And get this, Jacob even sends his family out toward Esau, forming a human shield to protect him. I m behind you all the way! So, it was there at the ford of the Jabbok River that Jacob was left to himself. And if you ve mistreated others, taken advantage of others, hurt others, manipulated others; if you have cheated, been less than generous to those who have been so benevolent and patient with you; if half-truths, lies, excuses, and/or negligence have started to come easy, becoming habitual, the norm, your standard operating procedure; if you think you ve been exposed, found out, and you hear the expensive piper piping being left by yourself can be uncomfortable, awkward, torturous, terrifying. You know what you ve done and you re the last person you d want to be stuck with when everyone else leaves. No one to blame but yourself, no one to hide 6

7 7 behind, no one to salve your guilty conscience, only a mirror every which way you turn. He took them and sent them across the stream, and likewise everything that he had. Jacob was left alone. So let the wrestling begin! In this corner, weighing in at 132 lbs., the con man of Canaan, the Syrian Schemer, the heel-grabbing heel, Jacob! And in the far corner, with a record of 5,000, God. It s bad enough that Jacob s been left alone with his sins to ponder. He wears them like a tattoo around his neck, across his chest, and down his arms. But then who shows up? God, the Alpha and the Omega, before whom nothing is hidden, who always knows what you did last summer and who shall not be mocked. This could get ugly. Genesis says they wrestled until daybreak, and then the text throws us a curveball. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket; and Jacob's hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. 26 Then he said, "Let me go, for the day is breaking." But Jacob said, "I will not let you go, unless you bless me." 27 So he said to him, "What is your name?" And he said, "Jacob." 28 Then the man said, 7

8 8 "You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed." Prevailed? You don t prevail against God, do you? I mean, when all is said and done, Jacob s the one leaving with a limp. We don t know exactly what s going on here, but there may be a clue, or at least a hint in the text. Without a referee there is no one to stop the fight, so as they stand there, hands clasping one another s necks, their pungent mingled sweat offering the aroma of a locker room after an August football game, and Jacob s unnamed opponent (let s call him God), says What is your name?" And he said, "Jacob." 28 Then the man said, "You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel. A name, an identity, a future has been changed. Jacob, heel-grabber, supplanter, con man, swindler is now Israel. Walter Brueggemann points out that the etymology of the word Israel is disputed. It could mean God rules, God preserves, God protects, any of which would be a far cry from heel-grabbing con man. Jacob is now Israel. Jacob prevailed? I don t know but maybe, just maybe, prevailing is walking away from the schemes, the cons, the efforts to manipulate the world to your will and walking into that world where God names you, walking into that world where your identity is defined by God s love, 8

9 9 walking into that world where we pray the prayer of Jesus: Not my will, but Thy will be done. Maybe prevailing against God is entrusting your future to God. We all find our way to the ford of the Jabbok where our best selves will wrestle with our worst selves, where the selfishness of our sin is confronted by the selfless love of God, where our brokenness is confronted by God s transforming grace; where there is the possibility that our identities may be reformed by the God who made us; where our mess collides with God s future. Were they wrestling or was the great Potter molding and forming and shaping. Jacob becomes Israel. Literally, a nation is being birthed. Oh, there will be more wrestling as we, like Jacob, attempt to wrest control and authority from God, and surely, like Jacob, we ll wind up with our share of bruises and limps. But marked by God and named by God and claimed by God, we will walk into God s future, not with schemes, but with hope. Amen. 9