A sermon preached at Kowloon Union Church
on Sunday 2 August 2020, the ninth Sunday after Pentecost, by Timothy Chan. The scripture readings that day were Genesis 32:22–31, Psalm
17, Matthew 14:13–21.
Good
morning brothers and sisters, today we read about the story of Jacob wrestling
through the night. It was not a scheduled MMA fight, I think Jacob himself did
not expect that fight either, but he was caught by surprise, and he had to
respond without giving a thought. We all might have experienced something
similar, to be dragged into a wrestle unwillingly, and be caught up in a
situation which we are not prepared for. No one knows whether we would prevail
or not, but I am sure we would be able to learn one thing or two in this story.
Before we look closer into the scripture, let us pray:
Loving
God, You are the one who looks after us, even in the darkest valley, you would
never leave us alone. We pray that through the story of Jacob, we can learn how
to trust in you, so that we have strength to face those unexpected challenges
in our lives. In Jesus name we pray Amen.
Some of you may not
remember very well of who Jacob is. According to the book of Genesis, he is the
son of Isaac, and is the grandson of the Father of Faith, Abraham. In Genesis
chapter 25, we learn that he has a twin brother, Esau and Jacob was the younger
brother. When he was born, he was gripping Esau’s heel, that’s why he was named
Jacob. In Hebrew, there are multiple meanings related to this name, including
the word “heel” itself, also “deceiver” and “lying”. When he has come of age,
under his mother’s influence, they planned to steal Esau’s birthright, and
eventually Jacob has taken his brother’s firstborn blessing. That’s why Esau
hated Jacob and planned to kill him. His mother helped him to escape, and sent
him to his uncle Laban, where he married both his wives Leah and Rachel.
However, it came with a heavy price, he spent 14 years labouring for his uncle.
After his contract finished, Jacob had already accumulated a lot of wealth.
Together with his eleven children, they decided to leave and find their new
home. The first thing he did after leaving, is to look for Esau, to seek
forgiveness and reconciliation. This little story of wrestling happened right
before the day Jacob was about to face Esau.
Jacob has been living
his life with manipulations and lies. He knew what bad things he did. Imagine
if you are Jacob, after all your families and property have crossed the river,
you are left alone on the other side of the river, and all of a sudden, someone
approached at night and wrestled with you! He has every reason to believe that
person might be an assassin sent by his brother Esau! It might be too dark for
Jacob to see his face. According to the scripture, we don’t even know whether
this person is a man, or an angel or God himself. But he had no time to think,
if he did not fight back, he would have been killed! So all night long they
were wrestling, until daybreak (oh the sermon title), then his opponent said he
had to leave before the dawn! Jacob knew if he is going to persist, he could
prevail. He asked this man to bless him, he wouldn’t let go. Finally the man
gave in and blessed him “You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for
you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed.” And the next
morning, he went to see Esau, and guess what? His brother forgave him. You may
continue to read chapter 33. Such a story!
Jacob prevailed
because he never gives up. Jacob chose to face the unexpected ambush and fight
back. As I said earlier, no one knows who this person was, it was dark, and
nothing was clear. It was like an ambush in the dark. No one sees it coming, no
warning, no sign, no time to prepare, yet he chose to fight and persist. Just
like the Hong Kong national security law, it just came! Last week we have 4
students age between 16-21 being arrested of threatening the national security,
no one knows what will happen to them. All of a sudden, the government
disqualified 12 legco candidates and postponed the election for a year! All of
a sudden, the confirmed case of covid 19 has doubled, breaking the 3000 mark.
All of a sudden, you may lose your job! All of a sudde, things just happen! We
would never know what comes next. There are just things happened out of our
expectation and comprehension, and sadly most of them are not very good things.
We cannot predict. In that dark night, Jacob didn’t have time to ask why and
how. At that very moment, friends, we have no choice, but to engage with this
challenge placed in front of every one of us. I am sure we all have this
all-of-a-sudden moment in life.
It is a test of
perseverance, only if we persist, we would be able to see the daybreak, only if
we fight, we could find the opportunity to turn things around. Only if we
believe, we could see the blessing and work of God in our lives. Friends, no
matter what you are going through, don’t give up!
At that night, Jacob was not only wrestling with this
unexpected ambush. After reading this story together with what he had been
through. I realize, at that night, he might also be wrestling with his dark
side. All of a sudden it becomes a Star War movie. No. if we read again verse
22 to 24, we would see. “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.” Not
only physically he was alone, psychologically he was vulnerable as well.
Remember this is the night before Jacob was about to face his biggest fear and
retribution, he was going to face Esau, his own twin brother whom he has
mistreated. It was a night where he was wrestling with his old self, the
deceiving one, the cunning one, the one who always got away from his own
mistakes. He was also wrestling with his own guilt, shame and fear. These
unexpected ambushes in life are also opportunities for us to face our own
problems. They might be buried deep, but when we are caught up all alone, we
couldn’t run away, but to face it. It might be the emptiness, insecurity, and
desire in your heart, it might be the wound untendered, or a need to forgive
and to be forgiven. This is the moment when you may ask, what is stopping us
from crossing that river? What is stopping us from turning the page?
Trust me,
we all know our problems, but we just find excuses not to face them. We run
away from them, and we pretend they are not there. We are even tempted to
accept them as part of our life, to justify the problems we have! But think of
why Jacob would come to this moment? Because he left his uncle and wanted to
find a new home! He didn’t want to be manipulated anymore! He wanted to start
fresh! In order to start new, we must all be courageous to face our own issues
and start to take the responsibility. This is what Jacob did!
Friends, there is one more thing I would love to share
with you about this story. This event is not only a teaching us how to face
unexpected event in life, and how to deal with our inner struggles. It is also
an event of transformation too. Nowadays, people care about the result more
than process. We judge something based on its outcome. People care about their
own achievements in life, people care about how people look at them. Today,
it’s not difficult to find this kind of teaching in the mainstream
Christianity, that emphasizes the blessings from God, but talks very little
about God in suffering and endurance. If we look at the result of this wrestle
in the dark, no one is winning, but Jacob earned a blessing, his life is
transformed. Today when we are fighting, even we couldn’t get what we hoped
for, it doesn’t mean all our effort would go in vain. No. Look at the
democratic movement in Hong Kong, if we look at the “result”, we are getting
worse! But we see HK people are more united than ever, we see people involved
in this movement in different creative ways. The more we resist, the oppression
would be more intense. Only if we are not focusing on the result, we could
different beautiful things are happening at the same time.
This
wrestle is the turning point of Jacob’s life. His name is no longer Jacob, the
man gave him a new name, Israel. On that daybreak, he said goodbye to his old
self of deceiving and cheating. He no longer relies on his own wisdom, but on
God’s faithfulness. He no longer grips his brother’s heel, but the promise of
God. Today, the world has an endless supply of bad news, what are we choosing
to grip? In view of the pandemic, the rise of totalitarianism, and the
ecological crisis, these remind me of what Jesus has said about the End Time in
the Gospel of Matthew Chapter 24:13. Jesus said “But the one who endures to the
end will be saved.” We Christian might not be stronger or tougher than anybody,
we would be angry, lost, frustrated and wanting to give up. Fortunately, we are
not facing all these alone, we face all these as a community of Christ. We
share each other’s burden, and we share what we have. We might be as desperate
as the disciples, wondering how 5 fishes and 2 loaves can feed these thousands
of people, but Jesus is always there to save. So friends, are you ready for
some wrestling? This is a long fight, the daybreak seems to be very far away, but
I believe, only if we persist together, justice would prevail. Amen.
# posted by Kowloon Union Church : Sunday, August 02, 2020
