A Homily On Jacob's Struggle With God

This homily was given to St. Thomas the Apostle Episcopal Church in Nassau Bay, TX, on July 31, 2011

When I found out that I was going to be preaching on this day, on this day in particular, I got very excited. That is because the readings for this day include my favorite passage from the Old Testament, "Jacob Wrestles With God". Its so mysterious, so alien, and yet somehow, so familiar. The imagery: Jacob all alone, the river, the dark and then God. A God so incarnate that in their subsequent wrestling match, God actually dislocates Jacob's hip. And then when God blesses Jacob He names him Israel, which is the name that would be given to God's people. And Israel doesn't mean "loves God" or "serves God" but rather "struggles with God". To be blessed by God, to be one of God's people, is to be called "struggles with God". I don't know about you, but that's my whole life right there man.

The other thing I like about this story is for an analytically minded person like myself, a historical background for the story is easily reconstructed. A more superficial reading is possible; because Jacob sends his family to the other side of the river. It's clear he's conflicted. He's asking himself "am I going to do it? Am I going to face the brother I betrayed all the years ago? Am I going to do the hard thing? Am I going to do the right thing?" And so the struggle is, on this reading, a struggle of conscience. It is something every day; something we all can relate to: we've all failed in life and had to struggle with the question of whether or not we would face the music for our failure. But to keep the reading on this level without the other is, to miss the point, for the point is that through that simple human moral struggle Jacob discovered God. He discovered a God that isn't high and raised up, distant from him, but an incarnate God, a God that was closer to him than he was to himself.

And the Gospel reading is the sort of thing. A historical reading is possible, especially when we realize that in the John version of this passage, the original loaves and fishes were brought by a little boy. It is easy to imagine using this young man's sacrifice to inspire the people there to give, and they did give until there was enough for everybody and more. But again, to leave the reading at this level without the other is to miss the point, for what really matters is that in that moment, the people there felt God moving in a way they never had before. They saw in the face of the leader who had inspired them to give the very face of the Divine.

One of my favorite theologians, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, was a gifted pastor and prolific writer. Perhaps one of his most enduring lessons is that if we want to encounter Jesus Christ, the living incarnate God we must discover Him through the moral struggles of our lives in the world. He said this explicitly in a letter to his friend Eberhard Bethge the day before he was sentenced to death for his involvement in the plots to kill Hitler. He said, "I learned later, and I am still learning up to this moment that it is only by living completely in this world that one learns to have faith. By this worldliness, I mean living unreservedly in life's duties and problems, successes and failures. Taking seriously, not our own suffering, but the suffering of God in the world. In so doing we throw ourselves completely into the arms of God, standing with Christ at Gethsemene. That, I think, is faith. That is metanoia, and that is what it means to be a Christian, and a man." The Genesis passage, and the gospel passage are no less profound than this. They are about a cosmic dimension behind human moral experience; a divine theater within which everyday human life takes place.

As a Christian educator, I have come to believe that instilling a sense of cosmic significance behind everyday human life is the primary challenge for the Church in the 21st century. This realization was driven home to me when a friend of mine came to me with a problem. Her child, I think he was six at the time, said to her one night, "mommy, I want to see Jesus. I don't want Jesus to just be in my heart I want to see Jesus right now." My friend didn't know what to say and to be honest, neither did I. But I've spent a lot of time reflecting on that child's simple request, and I think it corresponds to a need I see within the young people I meet. You see the young people of today are seeking faith, but they are seeking a faith that is relevant to life in this world. They will not abide a religion that demands that they stand at the edge of life and look to a time after death when they will finally know the relevance of their beliefs and finally see the face of their Creator. They yearn for the sense that what they do in this life matters, and matters ultimately.

This is a need I think that we as a church would do well to take very seriously, because I think it gives us an opportunity to reflect upon what Christianity is really all about. For I have come to believe that Christianity at its best is not primarily a set of doctrines and beliefs, which isn't to say that doctrines and beliefs don't matter. I don't even thing that Christianity is, primarily, a way of life, which isn't to say that actions don't matter. I believe that Christianity is, at its best, a way of seeing; a way of seeing the world and a way to see God in the world. And so Christian education is primarily not a teaching what, but a teaching how: a teaching how to see life in a whole new way. It is the instilling of a skill. The problem is that the church has been stuck in patterns of teaching what, rather than teaching how: teaching what to believe, and teaching what to do, and like I said all that stuff matters. But the real challenge to day is not giving laundry lists of beliefs and actions but the raising of consciousness, the changing of perspectives and the instilling of new points of view, and that is a much more difficult challenge.

Now, I am not sure how we meet this challenge exactly. I know that in my own ministry, television and film have played an important role. We watch a particular piece of art, we change the way we look at it and hopefully, over time, this helps us change the way we look at every day life: art can be a wonderful way to change perspectives. But I know that this methodology is limited, and that there will be more to it than that. As I said I don't have all the answers. Its a challenge, its a calling, but it is a calling I feel we must heed, because if we don't than we fail to communicate an incarnational theology and thus why Jesus matters at all.

To teach people how to struggle with God, to teach them how to struggle alongside God. That is what it means to be Israel, to be God's people, to be Christians and to be truly, fully, human. Amen.