Summer
Sermon Series: Wrestling with Jacob
Genesis
33:1-17
Today we continue in our summer
sermons series, “Wrestling with Jacob”.
Last week we read the most famous part of the Jacob narrative, his story
of wrestling with God, and we mused about how we too can experience God as one
who wrestles. This week we finally reach
the climax of the tension of the Jacob narrative. Since the beginning of his story, Jacob has
been pitted against his brother Esau.
Today we discover if their reunion after 20 years apart is one of grace,
or one of violence.
(Read Genesis 33:1-3)
Jacob looks up and sees Esau and his
troops on the horizon. He has no way of
knowing if Esau comes in peace, or if he still has a heart set on
vengeance. Followers of the Jacob story
will remember that Jacob tricked Esau out of a birthright and out of an
inheritance. Last we saw him; Esau was
plotting to kill Jacob.
Jacob divides the family into
units. His maids Bilhah and Zilpah and
their children go first. Then we find
Leah and her children. And in the rear,
in the safest position possible, Jacob places his beloved Rachel and her child
Joseph. We know that these are his
favorites, and it is clear that he intends to keep them from harm for as long
as possible.
Jacob goes out front, putting himself
in the most vulnerable position. With
each step he bows himself to the ground, clearly illustrating the submissive
position he intends to take before his brother.
(Read Genesis 33:4-11)
In yet another mark of God’s grace
upon Jacob’s life, the brothers’ reunion is one of mercy and not violence. After 20 years apart, Esau’s anger seems to
have abated. Upon seeing Jacob he runs
to greet him, weeping and kissing the brother who has been gone for so
long. As modern readers, we are
immediately reminded of the scene from Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son in
the gospel of Luke. Just as the wronged
father runs to meet the lost son, here we have the wronged brother, running to
embrace the brother who has been lost for so many years.
Jacob introduces the family and Esau inquiries
about the gift. You will remember from
last Sunday that Jacob sent herds of over 550 animals ahead of the party as
gifts to appease Esau’s anger. Esau
tells Jacob that a gift of appeasement is not needed, yet Jacob continues to
offer the gift. God has richly blessed
Jacob and he seeks now to share that blessing with Esau. Finally Esau accepts the gift, not as a form
of appeasement or repayment, but as a gift from one brother to another in love.
(Read Genesis 33:12-17)
Unfortunately the spirit of brotherly
love does not last very long for these two.
Esau suggests that the two tribes merge.
They could journey together, and make a home together as one
nation. But Jacob rejects this idea
outright. He comes up with some lame
excuse about children and animals, clearly wanting to avoid any further contact
with his brother. Again Esau asks about
a union of tribes, he is willing to travel at Jacob’s pace, but again Jacob
refuses. It seems that now Jacob knows
his life isn’t in danger, he no longer has a desire to be submissive or
friendly to his brother. The old Jacob
is back, continuing to deceive even in this moment of reconciliation.
One of the things I continue to marvel
about with the Jacob narrative is that so many aspects of it reflect our own
lives today. Jacob is a blessed
character, beloved by God, but he is not necessarily a good guy. Over and over again we find his motivations
to be complicated, and often self-serving.
In this example, he is happy to offer a gift to Esau, but he is not
happy to offer a merging of families.
Jacob wants to keep God’s blessing for himself, and that means keeping
his own family and his own tribe apart from Esau’s. This will be reflected throughout the history
of the nations as Jacob’s nation, Israel, will remain in minor conflict with
Esau’s nation of Edom.
I love that the Biblical characters
offered in the Jacob narrative aren’t perfect. Then they would seem imaginary and too distant
from our own experience. Jacob and his
family are flawed people, just like us, and so we can relate to their struggles
and their story.
I think that oftentimes, real families
look a lot like Jacob and Esau. When we
are young we are in competition for resources.
As children, siblings often battle for the limited resource of parental
love and attention. As adults, the
battle is often over the limited resource of wealth as well as the question of
who will have to take care of elderly parents.
In some cases everyone gets along great, like a storybook family, though
I have to admit I know few of those. In
some cases things get too hot, and the family is never able to come together in
reconciliation. But most often, I see
families that look just like Jacob and Esau.
There is reconciliation, but there is also distance and unease. They aren’t going to kill each other, but
they’re not best friends either.
As flawed people, we aren’t very good
at this reconciliation thing. We aren’t
very good at getting along. It’s always
been this way. Even today’s Psalmist
sings the praises of family when they can just get along. “How good and pleasant it is when kindred
live together in unity!” If only we
could be so lucky.
We can find this struggle for
reconciliation in our families but it is also part of our life as a nation as
well. Racial tensions continue to flare
and the left and right seem to be at each other all the time. In many ways we are siblings within this great
country, and like siblings, we are in danger of having an insurmountable
disagreement. Will we be able to
reconcile enough, like Esau and Jacob, to live in peace in our own separate
camps? Or will we ignite a fire so hot
that it burns the whole thing down and tears the family of this country apart
forever? I don’t have an answer to that,
but it is certainly something I pray about.
Our declaration of faith today comes
from the Confession of 1967, a confession written at a time when the church was
reflecting on conflict within the nation that looked much like the conflict of
today. The hope found within this
confession is that God is the one who is always seeking reconciliation. Just as humans are unable to achieve perfect
unity with each other, so too we are unable to achieve perfect unity with
God. This confession points the church
to the reconciliation worked by Jesus Christ to heal the brokenness between God
and humanity. And this confession
challenges the church to share the gospel of reconciliation and to work toward
bringing peace and justice to our nation and our world.
Tomorrow there is an amazing event
happening in our country, the Great Eclipse.
We are lucky enough to be positioned in optimal viewing range and will
hopefully have chance to share in this spectacular cosmic moment together. It will take an hour and a half for the
shadow of the eclipse to pass over our country.
In that short time, we will be united as a nation, witnessing together
the power and wonder of this amazing universe our God has created. I admit, in the face of our violent
disagreement an hour and a half of togetherness is not a lot. But it is certainly a sign of hope and God’s
power to unite us as a people.
I think this summer sermon series on
Jacob has been wonderful for two reasons.
One, the story of Jacob is very relatable to our own lives and our
relationships with each other. And two,
most of these texts aren’t in the lectionary reading so you may never have
heard them before and I certainly haven’t had a chance to preach on them
before. When I originally planned the
series I thought I was going to end here, but there are two more exciting
chapters to the story so I have decided to keep going. We will finish Labor Day weekend, which for
many is the end of summer anyway. We can
have a 10 part summer sermon series right?
I mean who doesn’t love Jacob? So
come back next week, as we continue to wrestle with Jacob, as well as with
issues in our own lives. Amen.
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