Text: Genesis 32: 26-31
Then he said, "Let me go, for the day is breaking." But Jacob said, "I will not let you go, unless you bless me." So he said to him, "What is your name?" And he said, "Jacob." Then the man said, "You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed." Then Jacob asked him, "Please tell me your name."…And there he blessed him.

In 1999, eight of the top fifteen television cable programs were wrestling matches. The wrestling matches were watched in nearly three million homes and brought in about 1 billion dollars for the Wrestling Federation. [Homiletics/Aug.1999, p.49]

When I was a child, we did not have pay per view. But on Friday or Saturday evenings, my grandmother watched the heavy weight-wrestling matches. I could not understand her excitement in spending an hour watching men body slam each other to the floor or twirl and toss each other into the ropes of the wrestling ring. In order to win, the wrestlers have to position themselves to over power their opponents in a pinned down, suppressive position for a full count of three seconds by the referee.

This sport requires considerable skill and strategy. The crowds’ cheers and jeers seem to propel their favorites to furiously clobber their opponent, sometimes-drawing blood and bruises. The sole purpose of stepping into the ring to wrestle is to emerge as the victor and capture the grand prize money or the championship belt. I suppose my grandmother, found excitement in anticipating the victory of her favorite wrestler and champion. The wrestling announcer would exuberantly proclaim for the spectators, “the winner and reigning champion is….at the conclusion of the match.

In Genesis, we have a story of an unusual wrestling match between Jacob and a mystery man. This event occurred the day before Jacob was to meet and attempt to reconcile with his brother. Jacob was afraid his brother still wanted to carry out his death threat against him for stealing his birthright from him.

On his way, during the night, he encountered a violent stranger and there was a struggle between them. However, there were no crowds cheering these wrestlers on to victory. It was, however, an intensely fierce struggle. Jacob and his mysterious opponent wrested throughout the night until dawn. They tossed, turned, and wrestled with each other with all the persistence, tenacity, and heart thumping energy they could muster. There was no referee to monitor the match, so hitting below the belt was not off limits. Jacob did not initially know whom he was wrestling until daybreak the next morning.

The two men were well matched. Jacob could not over power his opponent and the mysterious man could not overpower Jacob. Jacob struggled with the mysterious and apparently supernatural person whom he perceived to be God. Jacob was persistent because he wanted something very badly -- a blessing that he did not have to steal in a deceitful manner as had been his custom. Jacob refused to let go until his blessing was received. I believe this mysterious being was God. God with loving care would not let Jacob win but wanted their struggle to end before daybreak. However, Jacob was unyielding.

We will not let go of all of the things we want from God as well. Only you know what your deepest desires are from God in whom no secrets are hidden. Sometimes, we obtain our desires and sometimes we do not just like Jacob. Simon Tugwell said God chose to come in human form to overthrow the strength and impressiveness of the world. Sometimes, we nay find ourselves disappointed after continuously asking God for things. We think of God as a dispenser of the good things we desire. However, actually God has nothing to give us at all except God’s loving, caring, and intimate presence in our lives. God does not come all the time with strength like the rock of Gibraltar. God did not come in strength that night to wrestle with Jacob. Tugwell continues, “God is similar to a judo expert who uses the strength of his opponent to bring him to the ground. It is an art of self-defense proper to the weak.

The mysterious, supernatural man asks Jacob his name. knowing that name, Jacob meant ‘supplanted or heel grabber. The stranger, however, did not reveal his name to Jacob. Instead, he granted Jacob a blessing, which transformed Jacob from a ‘heel grabber’ to the father of many nations that would be the twelve tribes of Israel. From this point on, Jacob would be known as Israel in reference to Jacob’s struggle with God. Israel means “God fights or God rules.” In the dark, deliberate battle of that night, while Jacob was in a vulnerable state God was revealed to Jacob at his own level as a human being. Jacob’s prayer of deliverance was answered and Jacob’s life was to be used to maintain God’s covenant with Abraham. We pray as the benefactor of Jacob’s received blessing, to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
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This is a familiar story, though it is strange for most of us. I believe that God, seeing Jacob’s faithfulness and trust, enabled Jacob’s eyes to see that he was wrestling with a supernatural being. This mysterious man was not his brother’s guardian angel. Neither was he Jacob’s, subconscious or a river demon, as some biblical scholars believe. Jacob names the place, Peniel “face of God.”

Jacob is in awe not only from seeing God “face to face” but in surviving such an encounter. Jacob stayed in the pocket just as a quarterback is expected to do. Jacob would never have become the newly transformed man without enduring this experience. Jacob emerges from this encounter with the fears of his brother’s retaliation completely dispelled. Jacob feels compassion for Esau for the first time. We know the brothers’ reconciliation is successful.

I doubt that anyone here has been a professional wrestler. However, I am sure that you have had a something in your life that may have resembled a wrestling match or a struggle. The struggle may have pertained to a new direction in your life, elder care, school issues, friendships, family, colleagues or any number of concerns.

However, if you stayed in the struggle and wrestled with the issue to the best of your ability, God is in the apparent chaos with you and engaging with you along the way. At the Pasadena Playhouse acting school, two students were jointly voted “least likely to succeed.” Their names were, Dustin Hoffman and Gene Hackman. One can only conclude that they wrestled with this early stigma. However, they did not give up. They remained persistent in their struggle and proved them all wrong. Their victory has been a productive acting career. (Homiletics/July 2005).

We have all had painful experiences. However, God cares enough to confront us. God cares enough to engage us in our life struggles because we have the opportunity to emerge as new people for God’s purpose in our life while we struggle to figure out what that maybe.

I remember very often reading repeatedly during my struggle s to my life’s purpose especially prior to and during my vocational discernment, the scripture that speaks of God as the potter and we are the clay. Often our struggles, our hurts our repenting, our brokenness, our search for faith is what shapes us into being God’s own as in a new creature. God initiated the struggle with Jacob for a purpose. God initiates struggle within us for a purpose. God calls upon our faith and boldness to strive through our struggles with the strength of God at our side.

God reminds us that we are “marked and sealed” as during our baptism with the caring love of God. We are all welcomed at the banquet table during the Eucharist meal in fellowship in the loving covenant of God. A new life is found in the outstretched arms of God even when it appears that God is wrestling with us. We are called to stay ‘in the pocket’ of the struggles of life, because we know when we do we come to know the blessings, mercy, and grace of God.

Amen.