April 21, 2013, "Jacob Wrestles with God"

Genesis 32.22-32; Mark 7.24-30

Great things almost always require great work … lots of things, of course, can be done hurriedly … and sometimes life requires hurry … we can’t dawdle and delay at every turn of the road … 

Fire fighters and police officers can’t sit around and twiddle their thumbs when a call comes in … no time to sit and ponder life’s weightier matters … when the call comes, they jump and run to wherever the need might be … they have to hurry!

But behind all of that hurry is great work … they hurry because they’ve trained their instincts and honed their skills … as much as anyone can know in an emergency, they know it … as much as anyone can prepare for the unexpected, first-responders are well-prepared … months and years of training.

Great things almost always require great work …

A pianist in concert at Disney Hall … a renown poet reciting her work at the Kennedy Center … a surgeon working on a child’s brain to remove a malignant growth … 

Years of work and training … lots of disappointment along the way … setbacks and closed doors … frustration at all the work, the long lonely hours, the books to read and classes to attend, and practice, practice, and practice …  and the nagging fear that it won’t work out … that dreams won’t come true … that all the ambition in the world won’t win the day, and the labors of life will end without reward.

Great things almost always require great work …

I came across a delightful poem this week, called Leisure, by W.H. Davies … first published in 1911 … 

We don’t often connect leisure and hard work … but Davies does in his poem:

WHAT is this life if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare?—

No time to stand beneath the boughs,
And stare as long as sheep and cows:

No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass:

No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night:

No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance:

No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began?

A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

It takes time to learn how to look at life and see everything … never let a moment pass us by without some effort to see the people walking by on the street … folks in their cars … drinking coffee and texting - LORD have mercy! - to see children playing in a park - listen to them, their laughter and their complaints … watch their faces, and the proud faces of their parents …

Take time to smell the roses, we sometimes say … 

When my children were off to some new place in their travels, I always said to them, Pay attention … use all of your senses - smell the food, taste the food; listen to the music, watch the people and see what they wear, and how they laugh … pay attention, record all of it in your brain, so you’ll remember it later in your life, and in your memories, you can always go back for a visit. 

I guess there are times when it’s good to do nothing … to put the brain into neutral and veg-out … 

But life is precious …

Use all of our God-given senses to touch the deeps and wonders of life … life’s goodness and delight … and it’s sorrow, too … to live is to laugh; to live is to cry … 

Which is why Paul the Apostle says, Weep with those who weep, and rejoice with those who rejoice … life is all of that, and then some.

Whatever it is that we do, to pay attention … to be mindful … use our abilities … bear patiently the hard times of life; love the simple things that bring us cheer; pay attention to children; forgive at the drop of a hat; let go of dark things and bad memories; live on the sunny side of the street; be of good cheer … look for the positive, and make the best of things … and if we can’t say something good and decent to someone, then choose the glory of silence … seal the lips … be quiet … why add to the hurt of world with thoughtless words?

It does take work, doesn’t it?

That’s why Jesus says, Take up your cross if you wanna follow me. It won’t be easy … folks didn’t like me, and if you say what I say and do what I do, guess what? They won’t like you either. Be prepared for hard times when it comes to faith, hope and love. I’m with you always, but I never promised you a rose garden.

Great things almost always require great work …

I love our two stories this morning …

Poor old Jacob … he was his own worst enemy … and things got so bad between Jacob and his brother, Esau, Jacob left home for faraway places … but finally God says, You have to go back; you can’t stay here with Uncle Laban; time to go home.

Jacob is scared witless … he fears what his brother, Esau, will do … Jacob gets as ready as he can, and having sent his family to a safe place, Jacob is all alone with his thoughts … and in the night of his fear, a stranger appears, and for whatever reason, they wrestle with one another … all night long … it becomes clear to Jacob, this is no ordinary man - this is something divine, something of a larger order - an angel of the LORD, God in all of God’s glory … wrestling with Jacob …

As dawn nears, the stranger makes to break away, but Jacob holds on … won’t let go until he’s got something out of the deal … all of this wrestling, all night long - it has to mean something … something here that I have to find … so Jacob holds on …

Even when the stranger hits Jacob in the hip, Jacob won’t let go … injured or not, Jacob won’t let go until he’s found the mystery, the hope, the goodness - until he’s found God.

The stranger, the angel, blesses him, gives him a new name … Israel, one who wrestles with God … and for awhile Jacob limps … it isn’t easy being touched by an angel.

The other story - the mother who pleads with Jesus for her daughter’s healing … but she’s a Greek, a foreigner, a Gentile … she’s doesn’t belong … and Jesus says to her, The food belongs to the children.

Now we have to be mindful here … Jesus isn’t being cruel … he says to her what she expected … she knows that Jesus is Jew, and that Jews are forbidden to associate with Gentiles, and a Jewish Rabbi is forbidden to talk with a woman … she knows that she has no standing with him … she has no rights … she means nothing to him … he’s a child of God; she’s a child of the devil … he belongs and she doesn’t.

She’s knows all that … but she comes to him anyhow … 

When he tells her, The children have to be fed first, I’m believe that Jesus winked at her … he said the commonplace … what she expected, and perhaps what the disciples expected.

So he winks at her … to encourage her … he knows her heart; he knows a mother’s love for a child.

So she says right back at him - Sure, I know, it’s true, but even dogs get to eat the crumbs that fall from the table.

And with that, I see Jesus with a sly smile on his face - Well done … you didn’t back down … you stood firm for your child … and you didn’t accept the standard religious hoo ha of the day … how religious folk love to divide the world into who’s in and who’s out, who’s been naughty and who’s been nice … who prays right and who prays wrong … who goes to the right church, the wrong church, or no church at all … those who know the truth, and those who don’t … the children and the dogs … 

She didn’t buy any of it, because she was clear that Jesus didn’t buy any of it, either. Did his reputation proceed him? I think so. She knew that she might have chance with him.

A Rabbi with a difference … and she got what she needed … she didn’t give up, and she didn’t walk away …

Great things almost always require great work …

Today, tomorrow, and for the rest of our life … life … roses to smell, people to love, a wrestling match from time-to-time, all night long, with God … and the love we have for our children, and to God we go - Help us, please help us!

Big things require big work.

Jacob got the blessing at the end of the night … 

The Syrophoenician woman prevailed for the sake of her daughter … 

Jacob didn’t give up … nor did the woman in Tyre.

In the end, they got what they needed.

The blessing was granted … the healing was given.

Great things almost always require great work …

Amen and Amen!