Wrestling with God Changes You

Today we have the pleasure of sharing in the sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation. Natalie will be Baptised by full immersion and Craig’s Baptism as a child will be confirmed. They are both adults and they are making their own choices to follow Jesus as the central commitment of their lives. Such a decision comes after much consideration and sometimes even struggle.

Becoming a Christian is no longer the socially acceptable thing, so this decision can effect some of their relationships. No one does this any more, without thinking deeply about it and making a definite choice. Its all about change and that is never easy. All their experiences, and even their struggle has led them to choose faith in God as the guiding purpose of their lives.

Our reading today is from Genesis 32: 22-33. It is part of the story of Jacob. Graeme told us last week about his record as a cheat and trickster. In that story God met Jacob in a dream of a stairway to heaven, and we can see that he is beginning to change.

Jacob has also spent twenty years being tricked himself, by his father-in-law, Laben. Now he is going home to his own country. How is he going to face Esau, the brother he cheated out of his inheritance? Jacob is scared. So Jacob sends waves of presents on ahead of him to appease Esau, but his fear does not subside.

Finally towards the end of the journey he sends all his family and possessions across a river and stays behind, alone. Jacob is on the brink of his homeland, a new beginning. That night a man, who Jacob interprets as God (v30), comes to him and they wrestle all night. Jacob is winning so the man dislocates Jacob’s hip, but still he is in control. The man asks to be set free, but Jacob refuses unless the man blesses him.

The man then changes his name from Jacob to Israel. The name change is an expression of a change of focus in Jacob’s life. No longer is he to be thought of as a cheat, but as one with whom God strives. Maybe the name suggests that God is making a commitment to working with a very human Israel (man and nation); that even though Israel continues to be difficult God keeps wrestling with him (them).

This seems to be a story of Jacob’s conversion. All of his struggles, wrestling with God and man come together in this night of struggle. The issue of the night seems to be, who will control Jacob’s life from here on, Jacob or God? The truth for Jacob, and all of us, is that we have the power to control our lives. Jacob is winning. It is also Jacob’s choice to submit. That’s what Jacob does when he asks for the man’s (God’s) blessing. It is only then that he is offered a new name.

This is like a baptism, a new beginning, a promise of God’s continual blessing.

Jacob is a changed man, but his life goes on. He limps off to face Esau, just as fearful as before, but he knows that whatever happens he has the blessing of God.

I am sure that Natalie and Craig will have faced some serious struggles in their journey so far, but they have chosen to ask for God’s blessing on their live, and in their Baptism and Confirmation they are assured that they have it. They will still have many things to face, and they are assured that God will go with them always.