The Kitchen Sink
An occasional piece of paper
October 17, 2010
Vol. 13 no. 41
The Lectionary guys still have me baffled when they include “alternative readings” each Sunday, usually a different Old Testament passage and Psalm. Occasionally, I admit to having gone ‘alternative,’ yet keep it quiet. This week’s alternative should be the main attraction. Jacob wrestling with the angel is the pivotal tale of Judaism, and therefore ours as well, for on the other side of the Jabbok River, faith came fully alive in a night of frantic struggle.
Jacob has finagled his way through a lot of situations, seldom a worthy model for us to imitate, and it has all finally caught up with him. Esau, his twin brother whom Jacob had cheated out of his birthright, has found him and is mad. Jacob is prone to dreams, divine visions of a ladder rising to heaven with angels climbing to and ‘fro. Left alone in despair and resignation on the wrong side of the Jabbok River, Jacob starts wrestling without fanfare with a man all through the night. It’s another angel who knowing that he cannot beat Jacob cheats, dislocating his hip. Jacob does not let go of the angel and demands a blessing, always after blessings.
The angel relents, bestowing a new name on him, Israel - the wrestler with God - and acknowledging that Jacob has prevailed over God and people. Israel, the nation who adopted his name, seldom claimed to have beaten God. We, the spiritual descendants of Israel, know we have not been victorious either, but we are wrestlers.
Just like Jacob we grapple desperately not only with the powers and principalities of this world, but also with God to make sense of our defeats and accomplishments. The match is always close and never seems to end, but if you never let go....
Knox-Metropolitan United Church
Regina, Saskatchewan