Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Narrative Lectionary, September 27, 2015
Genesis 32:22-30, Mark 14:32-36
Christ Our Shepherd Lutheran Church
Hope International Mission Sermon
By Young Kim
Grace and peace to you from Jesus Christ who wrestles with you. Amen.
Do you remember what we read about last week? … It was about Abraham receiving the blessing, his son, Isaac. For Abraham, Isaac was a precious gift granted after 25 years of waiting and praying. I bet he was the happiest 100-year-old man on the earth! But he had a greater experience before that. God Godself came to visit Abraham in human form and blessed him with a great promise to grant him a son. Can you imagine God being your guest at your house? Now, that must have been the most honored and exciting moment in Abraham’s life.
In today’s text, another person has met God who came in the form of human. But this meeting goes beyond our expectations. God appeared in front of Jacob and all of the sudden started to wrestle with him. It was quite different from Abraham’s experience. You know, it was not in that serious and dignified posture that Abraham saw from God. It was more like a bodily language in the darkness until sunrise. When we read the Bible, we often meet God who is hard to understand. But what is important here is that Jacob had recognized God even in human form, just like his grandfather Abraham did. Imagine. In the darkness, with no electricity and no light, if you are attacked by an unknown person and you are forced to wrestle with that person, would you recognize that person as God? Perhaps Jacob was stupefied at first, and then was simply resisting to survive from the attack of this unknown person. But as the wrestling went on, he must have realized that this person was not ordinary.
But why? Why did God come and spend the whole night wrestling with Jacob? What meaning did this way of God’s visit have in Jacob’s life? I want you to know that this scene is actually the climax of Jacob’s life story.
The name Jacob has a meaning of “heel grabber” or “supplanter”. It also has a hidden meaning of “deceiver”. As we read Jacob’s story, we can know that Jacob used to live a life of obtaining something by deceiving others. Just like his name Jacob, his life was full of deceiving and being deceived. He took away the birth right from his older brother Esau with a bowl of stew, and he gained the blessing for the first-born as well by pretending to be his brother Esau in front of his almost blind father, Isaac. When his life was threatened by Esau, his mother Rebecca told him to run away to her family and he ended up staying there for 20 years. Interestingly, as much as he deceived others to earn what he wanted, he was deceived by his uncle in return. With his uncle Laban, who was in some way similar to him, Jacob worked for 7 years to marry Rachel. Finally, the day came to take Rachel as his wife. But as we all know, after spending the night with his new bride, he jumped off his bed to find out that he just spent a night with someone else—Leah. He was deceived! But he did not give up. He worked for 7 more years to at last marry Rachel. After that, he worked 6 more years for Laban without being paid properly, which adds up to 20 years of deceived labor at Laban’s house. But we shouldn’t forget that this man Jacob was genius in deceiving others. He paid it back to his uncle by using all sorts of tricks. He took the strong animals while giving Laban the weak animals, and by doing so, he made himself grow exceedingly prosperous.
Speaking of deceiving, I remember the time when I was somewhere around 1st or 2nd grade. We had separate children service, so my mom used to give me 2 coins every Sunday morning for offering. At first, I gave 2 coins for offering. However, there was a small supermarket right in front of the church. Every week, my eyes went to the delicious-looking and colorful sweets and snacks in the market. And the day came that the temptation overcame me. I went into the store and bought a snack before the worship started. I thought that my mother wouldn’t know if I bought a snack with one coin and then give God the other. So I did it. My little secret before worship went on for several weeks, and when it started to become a habit, my mother asked me one morning if I gave the offering. I answered “Yes” with confidence, since I did give the offering although it was not the full amount. But my mother was more specific this time. “Did you, by any chance, stop by the market and bought a snack using one of the two coins?” I was really shocked that she found it out. I thought that God told on me to my mother of what I did. Then I became afraid of God that I was deceiving my mother and most of all deceiving God. So I never used the offering for my desire any longer. Later, my mom told me that it was one of the congregation members who saw me happily hopping into the market before the worship.
Coming back to our text, seeing Jacob grow more and more rich, Laban’s sons started to complain about it, and Jacob realized that Laban’s attitude was not what it used to be. This was when God commanded Jacob, “Go back to the land of your fathers and to your relatives, and I will be with you.” So Jacob went on his trip to his father’s land, Canaan, according to God’s command, but something inside Jacob kept making him uncomfortable. It was the fear that his brother Esau may kill him. He first sent a messenger to check Esau’s heart. But he heard that Esau was coming with 400 men to meet Jacob. Jacob was captured by a great fear that Esau will slaughter not only himself but all the people and animals that belonged to him.
In this fear, Jacob used his abundant properties and strategies to control Esau’s anger. Even with his perfect plan to meet Esau, Jacob could not calm down his anxiety. So he went across the Jabbok river with his family and animals and then came back across the river alone and stayed there through the night.
As I studied Jacob’s story, I tried to understand how Jacob felt. Why did he come back across the river and remained there alone? For the first time, Jacob probably felt fear and helplessness that he cannot do anything to resolve and get out of this situation even with his clever mind and all the riches he had. I am guessing that he had nowhere else to go but to God.
As it is always promised in the Bible, God reveals Godself to the ones who desperately seek for God. God appeared in front of Jacob who was seeking for God’s salvation in the Jabbok river and wrestled with him. Then comes this question, “Why on earth did God choose the form of wrestling to meet with Jacob?”
God came to Jacob and started to wrestle with him, and even in this moment, Jacob was using his peculiar tricks to wrestle with God. When Jacob tried to use his brain to win God, God hit his hipbone. Hipbone is one of the strongest bones in our body. It supplies energy to walk and run and support the whole body. And it is known that this bone cannot be easily dislocated by a simple hit. So by God hitting this bone, the symbol of strength, Jacob could no longer rely on himself.
Now that he had a dislocated hipbone, there was nothing else he could do other than just holding onto his partner so that he cannot leave. Can you guess where he was clinging on to? I imagined that it would be God’s ankle because it would have been impossible to stand from the severe pain.
When it was near sunrise, God asked Jacob to let go of him, but Jacob insisted to hold onto his ankle and said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” Jacob was someone who had to win and earn things if he desperately wanted or needed them. The means and methods to earn what he needed did not matter for him. For us to see, this life of Jacob doesn’t look quite righteous. But today’s text clearly tells us that this personality of clinging onto something was applied in the same way in his relationship with God.
Realizing that his strength, his trickeries, and his wills were no longer helpful, he squeezed out his last strength to cling onto God to receive blessings from God. He needed that blessing to be protected from Esau. It was then that God asked him what his name was and said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.” This moment that God changed Jacob’s name was probably the best moment in Jacob’s life. It must have been a moment of rebirth for him.
What does it mean to change someone’s name? In the Old Testaments, a person’s name has the significance and the power within itself since a name identifies an individual’s whole life. Until now, Jacob lived his whole life with the name “deceiver”. Between the endless deceiving and being deceived, there was no space for peace in his life. But God promised a new life’s beginning to Jacob by giving him the new name, Israel. The name Israel means “Triumphant with God” or “who prevails with God.” God claimed and confirmed that Jacob’s life will no longer be a life of a deceiver but a victorious life that won in the fight with God. Just like he was given the name Jacob when he grabbed Esau’s heel, he was given the name Israel when he grabbed God’s ankle and didn’t let go of him.
Digging clearly into Jacob’s life, I realized that we all are very much alike with Jacob. We try to earn a better job, better house, and more riches and reputation by using our own knowledge and power. But the more we obtain the things that we want, the more we feel empty and feel the absence of peace within it.
Just like none of his properties or children or his smartness was helping him in his life-threatening moment, we often face challenges and difficulties that we cannot control or solve with our power, money, or people around us. And we feel like we are all alone. In such times, how do you overcome your situations? As for God, God wants you to seek God in those moments. Just like Jacob left all his belongings and families and came back across the Jabbok river and wrestled with God, God wants you to rely on God, and not on your own strength. Jacob couldn’t defeat God in the wrestling. Even so, God called him “the one who prevail God”. God acknowledged Jacob’s desperation and perseverance. That was all God needed from Jacob. God wanted Jacob to focus only on God. God waited until Jacob gave up on his own schemes and wills. I boldly ask you to cling onto God and win what you need. Pray with perseverance and cling onto God to win God’s love, to win the everlasting peace, and to win the confirmation that God will lead your life.
Do you want to meet God? Then seek God. Just like God suddenly appeared in front of Jacob, God will come to you without notice. Are you not certain about your salvation? Then cling onto God and ask for the assurance of your salvation. In the life threatening moment, Jacob realized that his life was only in God’s hand and desperately held onto God for blessing. We also should not forget that our life is only in God’s hand. Do you want to be blessed by God? Then ceaselessly ask God to show God’s mercy and goodness.
Many people ask why the Christianity is walking downhill. Why don’t people come to the church anymore? It is because they haven’t met the living God in their life. And it is because the church no longer teaches them how to meet the living God. But God tells us all throughout the Bible to seek for God. This is what God says in Jeremiah chapter 29, “When you call on me, when you come and pray to me, I’ll listen. When you come looking for me, you’ll find me. When you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, I’ll make sure you won’t be disappointed.”
Whenever you have difficulties in your life, take it as a chance to meet and seek God. Remember the God who is waiting to meet with you in those lonely moments. God is always beside you, in front of you, and behind you protecting you and waiting for you so that God can meet with you whenever you call onto God.
Genesis 32:22-30, Mark 14:32-36
Christ Our Shepherd Lutheran Church
Hope International Mission Sermon
By Young Kim
Grace and peace to you from Jesus Christ who wrestles with you. Amen.
Do you remember what we read about last week? … It was about Abraham receiving the blessing, his son, Isaac. For Abraham, Isaac was a precious gift granted after 25 years of waiting and praying. I bet he was the happiest 100-year-old man on the earth! But he had a greater experience before that. God Godself came to visit Abraham in human form and blessed him with a great promise to grant him a son. Can you imagine God being your guest at your house? Now, that must have been the most honored and exciting moment in Abraham’s life.
In today’s text, another person has met God who came in the form of human. But this meeting goes beyond our expectations. God appeared in front of Jacob and all of the sudden started to wrestle with him. It was quite different from Abraham’s experience. You know, it was not in that serious and dignified posture that Abraham saw from God. It was more like a bodily language in the darkness until sunrise. When we read the Bible, we often meet God who is hard to understand. But what is important here is that Jacob had recognized God even in human form, just like his grandfather Abraham did. Imagine. In the darkness, with no electricity and no light, if you are attacked by an unknown person and you are forced to wrestle with that person, would you recognize that person as God? Perhaps Jacob was stupefied at first, and then was simply resisting to survive from the attack of this unknown person. But as the wrestling went on, he must have realized that this person was not ordinary.
But why? Why did God come and spend the whole night wrestling with Jacob? What meaning did this way of God’s visit have in Jacob’s life? I want you to know that this scene is actually the climax of Jacob’s life story.
The name Jacob has a meaning of “heel grabber” or “supplanter”. It also has a hidden meaning of “deceiver”. As we read Jacob’s story, we can know that Jacob used to live a life of obtaining something by deceiving others. Just like his name Jacob, his life was full of deceiving and being deceived. He took away the birth right from his older brother Esau with a bowl of stew, and he gained the blessing for the first-born as well by pretending to be his brother Esau in front of his almost blind father, Isaac. When his life was threatened by Esau, his mother Rebecca told him to run away to her family and he ended up staying there for 20 years. Interestingly, as much as he deceived others to earn what he wanted, he was deceived by his uncle in return. With his uncle Laban, who was in some way similar to him, Jacob worked for 7 years to marry Rachel. Finally, the day came to take Rachel as his wife. But as we all know, after spending the night with his new bride, he jumped off his bed to find out that he just spent a night with someone else—Leah. He was deceived! But he did not give up. He worked for 7 more years to at last marry Rachel. After that, he worked 6 more years for Laban without being paid properly, which adds up to 20 years of deceived labor at Laban’s house. But we shouldn’t forget that this man Jacob was genius in deceiving others. He paid it back to his uncle by using all sorts of tricks. He took the strong animals while giving Laban the weak animals, and by doing so, he made himself grow exceedingly prosperous.
Speaking of deceiving, I remember the time when I was somewhere around 1st or 2nd grade. We had separate children service, so my mom used to give me 2 coins every Sunday morning for offering. At first, I gave 2 coins for offering. However, there was a small supermarket right in front of the church. Every week, my eyes went to the delicious-looking and colorful sweets and snacks in the market. And the day came that the temptation overcame me. I went into the store and bought a snack before the worship started. I thought that my mother wouldn’t know if I bought a snack with one coin and then give God the other. So I did it. My little secret before worship went on for several weeks, and when it started to become a habit, my mother asked me one morning if I gave the offering. I answered “Yes” with confidence, since I did give the offering although it was not the full amount. But my mother was more specific this time. “Did you, by any chance, stop by the market and bought a snack using one of the two coins?” I was really shocked that she found it out. I thought that God told on me to my mother of what I did. Then I became afraid of God that I was deceiving my mother and most of all deceiving God. So I never used the offering for my desire any longer. Later, my mom told me that it was one of the congregation members who saw me happily hopping into the market before the worship.
Coming back to our text, seeing Jacob grow more and more rich, Laban’s sons started to complain about it, and Jacob realized that Laban’s attitude was not what it used to be. This was when God commanded Jacob, “Go back to the land of your fathers and to your relatives, and I will be with you.” So Jacob went on his trip to his father’s land, Canaan, according to God’s command, but something inside Jacob kept making him uncomfortable. It was the fear that his brother Esau may kill him. He first sent a messenger to check Esau’s heart. But he heard that Esau was coming with 400 men to meet Jacob. Jacob was captured by a great fear that Esau will slaughter not only himself but all the people and animals that belonged to him.
In this fear, Jacob used his abundant properties and strategies to control Esau’s anger. Even with his perfect plan to meet Esau, Jacob could not calm down his anxiety. So he went across the Jabbok river with his family and animals and then came back across the river alone and stayed there through the night.
As I studied Jacob’s story, I tried to understand how Jacob felt. Why did he come back across the river and remained there alone? For the first time, Jacob probably felt fear and helplessness that he cannot do anything to resolve and get out of this situation even with his clever mind and all the riches he had. I am guessing that he had nowhere else to go but to God.
As it is always promised in the Bible, God reveals Godself to the ones who desperately seek for God. God appeared in front of Jacob who was seeking for God’s salvation in the Jabbok river and wrestled with him. Then comes this question, “Why on earth did God choose the form of wrestling to meet with Jacob?”
God came to Jacob and started to wrestle with him, and even in this moment, Jacob was using his peculiar tricks to wrestle with God. When Jacob tried to use his brain to win God, God hit his hipbone. Hipbone is one of the strongest bones in our body. It supplies energy to walk and run and support the whole body. And it is known that this bone cannot be easily dislocated by a simple hit. So by God hitting this bone, the symbol of strength, Jacob could no longer rely on himself.
Now that he had a dislocated hipbone, there was nothing else he could do other than just holding onto his partner so that he cannot leave. Can you guess where he was clinging on to? I imagined that it would be God’s ankle because it would have been impossible to stand from the severe pain.
When it was near sunrise, God asked Jacob to let go of him, but Jacob insisted to hold onto his ankle and said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” Jacob was someone who had to win and earn things if he desperately wanted or needed them. The means and methods to earn what he needed did not matter for him. For us to see, this life of Jacob doesn’t look quite righteous. But today’s text clearly tells us that this personality of clinging onto something was applied in the same way in his relationship with God.
Realizing that his strength, his trickeries, and his wills were no longer helpful, he squeezed out his last strength to cling onto God to receive blessings from God. He needed that blessing to be protected from Esau. It was then that God asked him what his name was and said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.” This moment that God changed Jacob’s name was probably the best moment in Jacob’s life. It must have been a moment of rebirth for him.
What does it mean to change someone’s name? In the Old Testaments, a person’s name has the significance and the power within itself since a name identifies an individual’s whole life. Until now, Jacob lived his whole life with the name “deceiver”. Between the endless deceiving and being deceived, there was no space for peace in his life. But God promised a new life’s beginning to Jacob by giving him the new name, Israel. The name Israel means “Triumphant with God” or “who prevails with God.” God claimed and confirmed that Jacob’s life will no longer be a life of a deceiver but a victorious life that won in the fight with God. Just like he was given the name Jacob when he grabbed Esau’s heel, he was given the name Israel when he grabbed God’s ankle and didn’t let go of him.
Digging clearly into Jacob’s life, I realized that we all are very much alike with Jacob. We try to earn a better job, better house, and more riches and reputation by using our own knowledge and power. But the more we obtain the things that we want, the more we feel empty and feel the absence of peace within it.
Just like none of his properties or children or his smartness was helping him in his life-threatening moment, we often face challenges and difficulties that we cannot control or solve with our power, money, or people around us. And we feel like we are all alone. In such times, how do you overcome your situations? As for God, God wants you to seek God in those moments. Just like Jacob left all his belongings and families and came back across the Jabbok river and wrestled with God, God wants you to rely on God, and not on your own strength. Jacob couldn’t defeat God in the wrestling. Even so, God called him “the one who prevail God”. God acknowledged Jacob’s desperation and perseverance. That was all God needed from Jacob. God wanted Jacob to focus only on God. God waited until Jacob gave up on his own schemes and wills. I boldly ask you to cling onto God and win what you need. Pray with perseverance and cling onto God to win God’s love, to win the everlasting peace, and to win the confirmation that God will lead your life.
Do you want to meet God? Then seek God. Just like God suddenly appeared in front of Jacob, God will come to you without notice. Are you not certain about your salvation? Then cling onto God and ask for the assurance of your salvation. In the life threatening moment, Jacob realized that his life was only in God’s hand and desperately held onto God for blessing. We also should not forget that our life is only in God’s hand. Do you want to be blessed by God? Then ceaselessly ask God to show God’s mercy and goodness.
Many people ask why the Christianity is walking downhill. Why don’t people come to the church anymore? It is because they haven’t met the living God in their life. And it is because the church no longer teaches them how to meet the living God. But God tells us all throughout the Bible to seek for God. This is what God says in Jeremiah chapter 29, “When you call on me, when you come and pray to me, I’ll listen. When you come looking for me, you’ll find me. When you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, I’ll make sure you won’t be disappointed.”
Whenever you have difficulties in your life, take it as a chance to meet and seek God. Remember the God who is waiting to meet with you in those lonely moments. God is always beside you, in front of you, and behind you protecting you and waiting for you so that God can meet with you whenever you call onto God.