Jacob

Sermon Intro

Series Intro - at the tables - or

When you hear the word PATRIARCH, what do you think of?

When you hear the word PROPHET, what do you think of?

…

Patriarch vs patriarchy

basic: male head of a family/tribe

biblically:

more widely - the 20 male ancestors between Adam and Abraham

but more narrowly and more common - Abraham, Isaac & Jacob - ancestors of the Israelites

Abraham’s story begins in Genesis 12… and God makes a promise to Abraham to bless the entire world through the nation that will come from him. (Only problem is, he’s OLD and his wife has not been able to bear any children)

Isaac is the son God gives Abraham and Sarah. The one whose name means “laughter” because how could they do anything but laugh when they realized Sarah had conceived?

Jacob is Isaac’s younger son. The second of twins who emerged from the womb grasping the heel of Esau and who continued to grasp and strive and deceive his way through life. But we’ll get to him in a minute.

Our series will give us an opportunity to examine some of the “big names” from the Old Testament… and to discover among the patriarchs & prophets some very human companions for the journey. People who wrestled and limped. Who stuttered and shied away from leadership. Who listened for the still, small voice. Who, when faced with a world of injustice, longed for justice to be realized. Who longed for hope in the midst of what could rightly be called a hopeless time. And who continued to look for glimmers of light in the midst of deep darkness.

Maybe Abraham, Isaac & Jacob, Moses, Elijah, Amos, Jeremiah and Isaiah are the companions we need.

Abraham, Isaac & Jacob. The Patriarchs.

Do you have a disability?

The Accessible Canada Act defines a disability as:

“any impairment, including a physical, mental, intellectual, cognitive, learning, communication or sensory impairment – or a functional limitation – whether permanent, temporary or episodic in nature, or evident or not, that, in interaction with a barrier, hinders a person’s full and equal participation in society.”

Do you consider yourself to be “able-bodied”?

If so, have you ever considered that you are likely “temporarily able-bodied”? Or put another way, temporarily non-disabled?

What about the Bible? Doesn’t it highlight stories of healing? Stories of people finding a cure for what ails them? But what about Isaac’s vision impairment? What about Moses’ speech disorder? What about Jeremiah’s mental health?

Ok… why did you ask us about patriarchs and prophets - and now you’re asking about disabilities?

Where is this going?

Amy Kenny wrote a brilliant book exploring disability justice in the church called My Body is Not a Prayer Request.

Her take on the Jacob story is so helpful.

Our reading this morning, traces the beginning of Jacob’s disability.

Here’s what Amy writes as an intro to our reading:

“Jacob’s story of becoming disabled is a weird one. You might remember that Jacob and his twin brother Esau don’t get along very well. It might have something to do with the fact that Jacob beguiles Esau into giving up his birthright…or it might have to do with the fact that Jacob is a mama’s boy. Or maybe it’s because Jacob tricks their dad, Isaac, into giving him Esau’s blessing.

Esau promises to kill Jacob in response to all this deciet and trickery. And frankly, who can blame him? This makes most of our sibling rivalries look tame and uninspired. So Jacob figures he’ll wait out Esau’s anger at their uncle Laban’s house. Twenty years, two wives, and eleven sons later, he’s on his way back to Canaan when we meet up with him in Genesis 32… which Brian will read for us now. Would you please stand as you’re able for the reading of God’s Word?

Genesis 32:22–31 NRSVue

22 The same night he got up and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23 He took them and sent them across the stream, and likewise everything that he had. 24 Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. 25 When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket, and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. 26 Then he said, “Let me go, for the day is breaking.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.” 27 So he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” 28 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.” 29 Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. 30 So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, yet my life is preserved.” 31 The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip.

This is the Word of the Lord.

THANKS BE TO GOD.

Wrestling & Limping

There are two things that we see Jacob doing in this text.

Wrestling & Limping

We see Jacob wrestling with an unknown stranger

Identity shift:

Jacob “he grabs the heel” has been wrestling with his brother trying to grab an inheritance and a blessing that isn’t his. But now… now he’s wrestling for a new identity.

He’s wrestling and that IS his new identity.

“To be “one who contends with God” suggests action, tension, and future wrestling, not arrival or completion.” Amy Kenny

OT Scholar Derek Kidner puts it this way:

“After the maiming, combativeness had turned to dogged dependence, and Jacob emerged broken, named and blessed.” Derek Kidner

The second thing that we see Jacob do is limp.

Wrestling and limping.

The wrestling results in a permanent disability for Jacob.

An injury with permanent consequences. A physical change for Jacob.

This messes with our sense that intimacy with God will lead to our healing and health.

What if wrestling with God leaves us with a limp? What if wrestling with God results in permanent injury?

What if our transformation is marked by both healing AND limping?

Jacob is being transformed - from the grasper to the one who contends with God. And the blessing that will flow through Jacob is huge. But he will limp his way through the rest of his life. Always reminded and reminding others

“Pre-wrestling match, Jacob’s faith is one of fickle allegiance in which he retains his own insurance policy in case God doesn’t pay out. “Sure, God will bless me,” Jacob muses, “but I’ll need to wear goatskin and defraud my dad to get the lifestyle I want.” Jacob doesn’t fully understnad who God is or how blessings function until he is disabled.

…

He finally acknowledges who he really is - a schemer - and calls out to the God of his dad to deliver him from the vicious cycle of radical independence. He finally stops trying to fix everything and learns dependence on the living God.” (Amy Kenny)

How do we know that Jacob is transformed even a little?

Look at what happens in the next chapter:

Genesis 33:1–5 NRSVue

1 Now Jacob looked up and saw Esau coming, and four hundred men with him. So he divided the children among Leah and Rachel and the two maids. 2 He put the maids with their children in front, then Leah with her children, and Rachel and Joseph last of all. 3 He himself went on ahead of them, bowing himself to the ground seven times, until he came near his brother. 4 But Esau ran to meet him and embraced him and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept. 5 When Esau looked up and saw the women and children, he said, “Who are these with you?” Jacob said, “The children whom God has graciously given your servant.”

Genesis 33:10-11

Genesis 33:10–11 NRSVue

10 Jacob said, “No, please; if I find favor with you, then accept my present from my hand, for truly to see your face is like seeing the face of God, since you have received me with such favor. 11 Please accept my gift that is brought to you, because God has dealt graciously with me and because I have everything I want.” So he urged him, and he took it.

Jacob is now approaching Esau as a fellow image-bearer. Instead of stealing blessings, Jacob is now handing them out. He even describes the wrestling match as an experience of the gracious God of their father and grandfather.

“We get the sense that Jacob is changing into the Israel he’s meant to become: a forgiving, humble, generous person who witnesses God in those he used to despise. An Israel with a limp.” Amy Kenny

Hebrews 11:21 NRSVue

21 By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, “bowing in worship over the top of his staff.”

Imagine… Jacob - the deceiver and grabber turned one who contends with God - leaning on his cane, STILL LIMPING, but also still trusting in the gracious God and that trust makes him into one who because of his faith in a gracious God can turn to all of Joseph’s sons (who did some deceiving and wheeling & dealing of their own) to bless them as the nation God promised Abraham begins to come into view.

And so, what is your identity?

How are you like Jacob?

How are you being invited to wrestle with God? To grab on and to ask to be saved? To demand a blessing from a God you maybe til now have been hedging your bets on?

How are you limping? In what ways do you assume that your disability (present or future) is a sign of God’s absence, or God’s failiure, or your own?

Is there any way in which God might be inviting you to see your own limitation as a reminder of God’s graciousness and ongoing faithfulness to you?