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| Gustav Dore, 1855 |
Abraham Lincoln wrote, “Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other.” I have Barry Brown to thank or blame for that quote. At February’s Vestry retreat, Barry promoted the use of Twitter as a way to stay connected. Barry is a credible source and someone who is up to the minute. So I took his advice and joined Twitter. (By the way, you can follow St. Patrick’s on Twitter. @stpatsparishdc) A couple of days ago, one of the Twitter feeds that I follow tweeted the quote from Abraham Lincoln about perseverance. After some research, I discovered that it was the last sentence in a November 5, 1855 letter from Lincoln to Isham Reavis, an aspiring lawyer. The point of his letter, and this quote, was for Reavis to keep his eye on his goal. Of course, Lincoln was known for doing the same thing. It was what made him such an excellent leader. He may not always succeed but he wouldn’t give up. He didn’t let his humble beginnings stand in the way of becoming educated, practicing law, seeking public office, and ultimately uniting a fractured country.
This quote caught my attention because I was praying about the Jacob story, particularly the passage today about Jacob wrestling with an angel. This story is the continuation of the Genesis preaching series and Bible study. It was on my mind, and that is why the quote from Abraham Lincoln caught my attention. We have heard about Jacob’s life. From wrestling with his twin brother in his mother’s womb, to the win at any cost battle for the birthright, to his years of labor for his father-in-law and uncle Laban so he could marry the love of his life, he then learned to manipulate the breeding of Laban’s flocks to accumulate a great herd for himself. Jacob lived a life bearing in mind his own resolution to succeed and he certainly believed it more important than any other.
Jacob’s life choices don’t leave us thinking that he was righteous. Quite the contrary. What we do wonder is how we have been duped into calling him one of our God favored ancestors. He reeked of sleaze. And yet, God didn’t abandon him. Two weeks ago we heard that God spoke to Jacob in a dream replaying the promise of land and many descendants, the same promise God made to the much more favorable Abraham. This week, we hear that he wrestles with a presumed angel of God and he doesn’t lose.
How is that possible? Couldn’t an angel just throw Jacob to the side with almighty power? This was a test. Just as God tested Abraham’s greatest strength - his faith (remember the call to sacrifice Isaac) - God tested Jacob’s greatest gift - perseverance. It wasn’t a test that only God could handle, it was a test tailored to the person being tested. It was challenging, but not unfairly so. Jacob held on and didn’t give up. He proved his perseverance. God was impressed. So much so that God marked Jacob, blessed him and gave the ultimate honor, God renamed him ‘Israel.’
There is an important lesson that we can take from God’s relationship with Jacob. Jacob met God when he dreamed at Bethel (that was 20 years before Jacob wrestled with the angel in today’s lesson). In that dream, God promised to be with Jacob no matter what. Jacob lived life, let’s say, less than honorably, but God was willing to love him anyway. God knew that Jacob had gifts and God knew what those gifts were.
We are Jacob’s descendants, the ones that God promised to him. No matter how righteous we believe ourselves to be, others might read our story and notice how what we do fails to live up to what we hope to do. At Tuesday night’s Bible Study, there were some who remembered the passage from Romans from a few Sundays ago when we heard Paul’s claim, “For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.” (Romans 7.19) No matter how often we promise, we never seem to live up to God’s and even our own expectations. Thankfully, we can rely on God to support us, just as God supported Jacob, no matter what.
There is something more to this story. It has to do with what Jacob took away from his wrestling experience. We hear about what he took away physically, a limp from what Robert Alter calls the holy touch of God. And we know that he took away a nickname, Israel which is defined as “struggling with God.” But these are not the most important things Jacob took away from this experience. When Jacob renames the site, Peniel, in honor of seeing God’s face and yet his life was preserved, we see how the experience changed him on the inside.
The thing is, God’s face, in the form of the angelic ‘man,’ was shrouded in the darkness and before the sunrise, the angel slipped away. Jacob didn’t get the greatest of looks at that face, and yet he claimed to have seen God’s face. I do believe that to understand what Jacob meant, we have to look a few verses later, in the 33rd chapter of Genesis, to the conclusion of the story arc of Jacob and Esau (it is not included in the lectionary).
We are led to believe that when the sun rose after Jacob’s wrestling, Esau, the brother whose wrath Jacob feared more than any other, was on the horizon with 400 armed and dangerous soldiers. Jacob hadn’t seen him since tricking their father Isaac for a blessing. Jacob knew he had done wrong by Esau and he was scared for his life and the life of his family. He feared Esau more than he feared God or anything else.
Jacob had no choice but to face his brother. There was no way that he could get his family, herds, and servants back across the Jabbok. He trains them all to bow down to Esau. Unlike the night before when he wrestled an angel, Jacob bows down as his brother approaches (he is not interested in wrestling with his brother). Esau ran at Jacob, hugged him, and kissed him and wept in joy. [I always think of the greeting Lando Calrissian gave Han Solo in the Empire Strikes Back (that will mean something to some of you).]
Esau gave Jacob unexpected forgiveness. Jacob offers his brother a gigantic tribute, but Esau refuses it telling him that he has plenty already. And here is that connection to today’s lesson: Jacob says please take it because seeing your face is like seeing the face of God. “Please accept my gift that is brought to you,” Jacob said, “because God has dealt graciously with me, and because I have everything I want.” (Genesis 33.10)
I believe that Jacob recognized God in Esau because Esau, like God, was graciously forgiving. That is what Jacob recognized in his brother. Jacob would hold onto that vision forever. Yes, he would limp, people might call him by a different name, and he was continuing to be blessed by God, but Jacob finally understood the power of forgiveness. It was something that God gave without question and his brother did the same.
Forgiveness is how we share God with our friends and family. It may take a lifetime to realize it, but forgiveness is the greatest gift Jacob took away from his Godly test.
We are all on a path of spiritual growth. We might stumble upon crumbs of insight in our daily experiences. We might face a test of our faith or a test of our perseverance or a test of our patience, or a test of our courage. We will face tests in a variety of ways, but each of those tests is an opportunity to grow and mature in our life with God. We come to worship on Sunday and we pray during the week not so that we can persuade God to be with us. God is always with us. We do these things to prepare ourselves for the tests of our lives. Jacob spent twenty years trying to understand what he was to do with this God thing. He had a mountaintop experience on the plains of Bethel and he didn’t realize what it meant until he wrestled with the angel at the Ford of the Jabbok, a place he called Peniel.
When we gather to understand our faith and to understand God’s eternal message, we take from it something different every time. We explore it in everything that we do and each of those experiences opens us to seeing God’s face in the people around us. Jacob took away from his experience, that night, something that changed his life forever. It was something that he hoped to pass to his children, but as we will soon discover, they would have to experience it for themselves.
“Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other.” (Abraham Lincoln) There is something in what Abraham Lincoln had to say to that aspiring lawyer. Something Jacob may have told his friends and his children. But after his experience with the angel, I do believe he would have added, “but always remember that you are gifted with the graciousness of God and keep in mind the power of forgiveness and love gifted by your fellow servants of God and do likewise.”
As Jesus taught, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” (Matthew 25.40) In everybody, we can glimpse the face of God, even those we fear the most. The question is, “Will we be aware?” Jacob was finally aware, are you?
St. Patrick's Episcopal Church
July 31, 2011Proper 13C
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