The Traveler Unknown

“LIVING TO TELL ABOUT IT”
Genesis 32:22-31
Faith United
August 3, 2008


I think I may have mentioned before
that when I’m going through something difficult
or downright painful,
I hate it if someone says to me,
“it must be God’s will….”
Because if God wants me to suffer like that,
then that doesn’t endear me to God
Or someone will say, “There’s a reason for this,
and you’ll know it later…”
or “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger…”
Of course that’s true, usually,
but when you’re in the midst of hell
it just doesn’t help
to hear that well, this pain will make you stronger
because right now it just feels lousy, awful
and there’s just no seeing the light at the end of the tunnel

Sometimes the best thing to do when someone is in terrible pain
is just to hold them, hug them,
just be there
because sometimes there are just no words to help

I’ve said before that Jacob is one my favorite characters
in the Bible
even though most of the time he’s a real jerk
There’s some comfort in the fact
that if God can redeem this jerk,
than certainly there’s hope for me, you know?
Even his name, Jacob, meant “jerk”
well, not literally,
Jacob means, “supplanter, deceiver, cheater….”
like his mother knew what she was giving birth to!
He was always trying to get ahead
by lying, cheating, manipulating, taking advantage
of his own father and brother
this man had no shame….
He tricked his father while his father was lying on his death bed
tricked him into giving him the blessing that belongs
to the first born, which would have been Esau
Which goes to show the power of words in that culture
because Isaac couldn’t take the blessing back
from his deceiving younger son Jacob
it was too late,
Esau was cheated out of his birthright
by his sneaky, conniving little brother

So since Esau was a big brute of a guy,
Jacob ran for his life, went off to live with Uncle Laban for awhile
until his brother cooled off
He stayed with Laban about 14 years
Turns out conniving and manipulating behavior ran in the family
and Jacob got a lot of his own medicine
at the hands of his Uncle
For 14 years, it like a contest between Uncle and nephew
to see who could cheat the other out of more
until Jacob couldn’t take it anymore
One last time, before he left
he stole some of his uncle’s property
and took it with him when he snuck away
Jacob was not one to face up to anyone
He was not one to communicate directly
instead, he snuck around, lied, cheated
and took everyone he knew for a ride
When he dealt with God, he was always trying to bargain
You do this for me, God, and I’ll do that for you --
He was an arrogant son of a gun ….
He simply could not be trusted
But one day he decided it’d be easier to face
his incredible hulk of a brother finally
than to keep on being taken by his Uncle year after year
So he sets out with all his property, all his wives and children
and even then, he has some audacity
He sends his wives, children and servants
ahead of him
along with his livestock
thinking that he can bargain his way into Esau’s good graces
If nothing else, he figures if Esau kills all the people and animals
ahead of him, maybe he’ll be too tired to kill Jacob
when he arrives
Again, Jacob has no regard for anyone but himself
I told you, he’s just an arrogant jerk
nobody else would see any redeeming quality in this guy

Finally, he sends everyone on ahead, across the river
and sleeps alone, isolated by the River Jabbok
feeling, perhaps, that he’s shielded from Esau
by all the people and animals that he sent ahead of himself
He had heard that Esau was coming toward him
but that Esau wasn’t alone
he had 400 men with him
and that was enough to strike fear into the heart of this conniver
401 against one didn’t seem like favorable odds
and maybe Jacob finally knew he’d met his match
(One can only hope)

But something strange happened that night
again, it seems like strange things always happen at night ….
He was left completely alone
no possessions, no people to shield him from any danger
Then out of nowhere comes a man
a strong man
that attacks him in the dark
He can’t see his face, but he can feel his strength and power
They wrestle all night
and Jacob proves to be quite a match for his attacker
So the attacker strikes him in a vulnerable place
and essentially knocks his hip out of joint
Even in extraordinary pain,
Jacob won’t let go
again, he’s a hard headed son of a gun
And the stranger said,
“Let me go, for day is breaking…”
And Jacob says a weird thing
Despite the incredible pain he must be in
he says through gritted teeth,
“I will not let you go until you bless me…”
That’s all he ever wanted
was a blessing
He just wanted to be blessed by his father
even his uncle, and his brother
but he always got in his own way
of receiving that blessing

Seems strange that such an arrogant man
would now be pleading for a blessing
He had tricked Esau out of his birthright with a pot of stew
he fooled his father into blessing him
but apparently a stolen blessing wasn’t enough
he knew it wasn’t real
that it didn’t really belong to him after all
because having gotten it,
it no longer felt like a blessing
it was another empty prize for his cunning skills
but it didn’t bless him after all

“Bless me,” he says through gritted teeth
sweating through the pain,
almost sick with pain
feeling a cold sweat
but still holding on…
“What is your name?” the mystery man asked
as if he didn’t know

“My name is Jacob…” he said
My name is Deceiver, my name is Cheater, Manipulator,
in other words
In ancient times, names were very, very important
They revealed the person’s character
The self was reflected in the name
and therefore had great power

“What is your name?” the stranger asked
in other words, “who are you? What are you?”
What is your name?

Then the man said,
“You shall no longer be called Jacob,
but you are Israel, for you have striven with God
and with humans and have prevailed…”
In other words,
you are no longer Jacob,
tonight you are transformed
you are no longer the Cheater, the Conniver
but you are Israel,
which means, “God rules…”

“Tell my YOUR name,” an exhausted Jacob says
“Why do you want to know my name?” the stranger asks
And without waiting for an answer,
he blessed Jacob, who was now Israel
and then he disappeared
For to tell Jacob his own name,
would be to give Jacob power over him,
and the stranger would not allow Jacob
the power that everyone else had handed over to him
all those years
And an exhausted, sweaty man named Israel now
got up and winced in pain
from the sharp pain in his hip
He would now forever walk with a limp
because of his wrestling match with the stranger
but somehow he didn’t care anymore
that he would bear that scar

He named the place “Peniel,” which means, “the face of God,”
because, he said, “I have seen God face to face,
and lived to tell about it…”
because it was an ancient belief
that one could not look upon the face of God
and live
because God was that powerful
and here Jacob Now Israel
came face to face with God
and survived ---
Sort of
He wasn’t the same,
He wasn’t Jacob anymore
he wasn’t a jerk anymore

“What is your name?” the stranger had asked him
because all his life
Jacob had lied about who he was
he was always trying to be who he wasn’t
All his life he hurt other people all along the way
to get what he wanted
and it was never enough
But in all his arrogance, he’d come face to face with God
and met his match
and was humbled
reminded that he was just a man
a lying one at that
and he had the limp, as a scar to remind him of that night
when he realized he wasn’t what he thought he was
and yet God blessed him
made him someone greater than he really was

That morning, he gathered his family
and went on ahead of them
to meet his brother Esau and the 400 men with him
he bowed to the ground seven times before his brother
which must have really blown Esau away
to see this new brother, this new, humble, gracious brother
And Esau ran to his little brother
and wept on his neck, it says
the two embraced, weeping
Then Jacob insisted that Esau receive the gifts he brought for him
because he said, “seeing your face is like seeing the face of God.”
The face that haunted him all these years
the face that haunted him growing up
because Esau always got what Jacob wanted
and he hated him for it
and then the face that he feared most of all
because he knew that Esau could kill him with his bare hands
and that he deserved it
Now that same face
feels to him like the very face of God
of grace and mercy
the face of love….

Who was the stranger?
Some say it was an angel
Some say it was God himself
The text never really says for sure
but only hints that the being was divine
and whoever it was,
somehow Jacob knew that this person
could give him what he always longed for
but couldn’t gain for himself
no matter how conniving and masterful he was
at playing the Game

In our world,
we hate weakness
We hate failure or frailty or struggle
We try to appear strong and in control
because that’s what is valued in our world
to be the Dominating force
to be the Winner, the Intimidator
Yet here we are, in a nation that has the largest, most powerful
military force the world has ever known
and yet we living in more fear than ever
We have POWER
We have technology
and none of it makes up for the longings of the human soul
We are unhappier, more frustrated, more in despair as a people
than ever
All that power doesn’t make us happy or
make us feel more secure
Jacob is blessed, finally, not for winning,
but for enduring the struggle
he doesn’t win the fight
he is left with a permanent scar—a limp
Endurance is surviving the worst
knowing that we have survived
And finally, when it’s all over,
we realize that the struggle brings out the best in us
We can’t know that when we’re in the midst of it
when we’re in the throes of the darkest night
when the agony is at its deepest
but somehow we hang on, we hang in there
as if we believe that it is eternally worthwhile
to press on for that blessing
Struggle leaves us scarred
You may not be able to SEE the scars
of what we’ve endured
but they are there
Human struggle burns off all the stuff that isn’t worthwhile
It fires us down to our real size
and reveals who we really are
I hate it
I won’t glorify pain and struggle
Some people do
Some people glorify suffering
as if suffering itself is a virtue
but I don’t think that’s true
I don’t think God wants suffering
but God knows that suffering and pain
are a by-product of living in this crazy world
and so God is able to use our suffering
to shape us into the people that we are
Isn’t it true that when you’re in agony or grief or despair
you don’t want anyone around who hasn’t Been There
who hasn’t sufferered
who doesn’t bear any scars
I had a woman who had a hysterectomy tell me,
“Peggy, I’m sorry, but if you’ve never had surgery,
there is no way you can understand how I feel…”
And it’s true
I cannot claim to know the physical pain
of recovering from surgery
And someone who has never lost a loved one
simply can’t know the agony and grief
of someone who has
They can care, they can have sympathy
but they can’t really understand
and when I’m up against it
when I’m in the middle of the darkest night
I want someone with me
who has known just how dark the night can get
I don’t want someone who’s going to be sunshiney
and cheerful
and tell me that God has a reason for my agony
That’s not helpful
and that certainly doesn’t endear me to God…
We will all struggle
if we’re alive at all, especially if we have a heart,
we will struggle, we will know pain in this world
because it can be a very painful place to be
Jacob had left his old land
and was headed to a place where he had no idea
what would happen to him
So that night at the river Jabbok,
he was in that in-between place
he had nothing but himself
nothing was there to be able to hide behind
He came face to face with who he was
“Hi, my name is Jacob, and I am a jerk.
I’m a deceiver, a liar, a cheater.”
He had to face himself before he could be any better
than he was
before he could get a new name
before he could receive a blessing
that he didn’t work for….
before he could learn about the absolute grace and mercy
of God who finds us in the darkest of nights
and doesn’t leave us alone
God ambushes us and our lives with new chances
to begin again
You are no longer Jacob
the liar, the cheater, the supplanter
Now, you are Israel
You are strong, in the ways that count
You are one who has striven with God and endured….
You are a new person
We can’t know in the midst of the struggle
that we will survive,
and if we remember where our help comes from,
we will not only survive,
but we will be stronger
scarred, maybe, but stronger
we may walk with a limp
to remind ourselves that we are only human
that we are breakable…
but also, that we are allowed to come face to face
with the one who made us
and therefore loves us
and believes in us
and is always working to make us better than we are
not by might or power or being the winner
but by being the humble, gracious people of God
who know that we can’t be who we are
without relying on the mercy and love of God our creator
We are still here
No matter what we’ve been through,
we are here, perhaps looking for a blessing we can’t name
and trusting that God will find us in our darkness
to give us what we need to live
No matter what we’ve face or are facing
we are here, we have endured so far
and we can trust that when we reach out
into the darkness
not knowing what we’ll find ahead
God will take our hand
and lead us through
that no one can do it for us
but by the grace of God we will all find our way home
and finally receive the blessing
we’ve hungered for all our lives
And we will have lived to tell about it