Holding On

Eighth Sunday after Pentecost - Proper 13 - Year A

August 3, 2014

Genesis 32:22-31

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. He took them and sent them across the stream, and likewise everything that he had. Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. 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. 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." But he said, "Why is it that you ask my name?" And there he blessed him. So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, "For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved." The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip.

A Note: A week ago my daughter suffered a tragic accident and had several of her fingers severely damaged.  We have yet to know if she will be able to retain a reattached finger tip.When I was in Seminary, my preaching professor told us that we needed to be always aware of who our sermons were for. We needed to preach the sermons our congregations needed to hear; not the sermons we wanted to hear, or the sermons we wanted to preach. Today, I'm breaking that rule. Today, this one's for me.

For the last few summers one of the television shows that has returned every year is American Ninja Warrior. The show is basically a competition where the contestants compete against one another to finish an obstacle course that contains often ridiculous tests of strength, endurance, balance, and agility. The one thing that I have noticed is a shared trait among a great majority of the tests is the necessity to hold on. Sometimes it's holding on to a swinging rope. Sometimes it's holding on to hanging bars. Sometimes it's hanging on to the top corner of a wall. The slightest slip, the weakening of the grip, and you fall and are eliminated from the competition. It's sort of like the chin-up contests we had in elementary school where whoever hung on the longest wins.

I was pretty good at those hanging contests; of course, I was a skinny kid, nothing but skin and bones, so there wasn't that much to hold up. When I think back on my childhood, there were a fair amount of times when I had to hang on. Climbing the neighbor's tree, I had to hang on more times than I can remember as my feet slipped on a branch. When I was racing BMX in high school, I gripped the handles of the bike as a launched into the air; now in those situations, I wasn't always successful at holding on, and I've got some scars here and there as proof of my inability to do so.

Of course, holding on, grasping for a secure hold, isn't just a physical thing, it's also a part of other parts of our lives. In school, how often did we struggle to grasp a new idea, a new concept? I remember struggling to memorize lines for a play, I remember grasping for answers on tests. Struggling and grasping for things seems to be a part of our lives. Sometimes, it seems as if life itself can be a struggle.

Here in the United States, most of us don't have to struggle for our daily lives, but in other parts of the world that isn't the case. In the last week we have been hearing and reading the reports out of Israel and Palestine, how the people there are struggling to live as bombs and rockets explode around them. West Africa is currently being hit by the worst outbreak of Ebola in years, hundreds of people have died after contracting the disease. Around the world there are literally millions of people who struggle to survive each and every day. Struggling to find food and clean water. Struggling to find ways to provide for themselves and their families. Struggling each and every day in ways we might not even be able to imagine in the face of situations and events beyond their control.

When things happen that we do not understand, when things happen that are beyond our control, when things happen that are both tragic or joyous, we can often struggle. Why? Why did this wonderful thing happen to me when others are so much more needy? Why did this terrible thing happen to me? Why did dad die? Why cancer? Why injury? Why her? We struggle, we seek answers, we shout out our struggles to God in prayer, in promises, in pleas. Sometimes we may even struggle with God, wrestle with God.

I think all of us have wrestled with God at some point in our lives. Maybe we've wrestled about things that have happened; things that have not happened. Perhaps we've wrestled about a decision we are making; what is God asking us, provoking us, prompting us to do? I've wrestled with God about what is right, what is wrong. I've wrestled with God over understanding verses and passages in the Bible. I've wrestled with God about things I've done and not done. I've wrestled.

One of the things about our passage from Genesis that I like is that it's not really clear who started the wrestling match. Maybe it was God, maybe it was Jacob. Maybe our struggles with God started with God coming at us, challenging us on something. Maybe our struggles started with us coming at God, challenging God, challenging what has happened, what we think the Bible says, what we understand God's will to be. The thing is, it doesn't really matter where the struggle originated, what matters is that the struggle happens.

When we encounter a problem, a struggle, an obstacle of any kind, there are two options that we have: take it on, or not. When God and us engage in a struggle of any kind, we can either enter into the fray, get into the struggle, wrestle; or we can go in the other direction: run away, avoid, deny. If you look at the story we have, we find Jacob and God wrestling all night, there is no apparent victor. Neither one gives up, neither one overcomes the other; yet, in our text God declares, “you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed.” Some texts say 'won'. No winner that we can see, yet Jacob is seen as a victor of sorts. Why?

Because he didn't give up. He didn't walk away. Jacob wrestles with God in the dark of the night. We too wrestle with God in the dark times of our lives. We grasp and struggle, sometimes not even sure what it is we are holding on to. Yet, we struggle on and that is the key. And just as with Jacob who strove through the night into the bright light of a new day, we too when we struggle, when we hold on to God through our darkest moment will after the long dark night enter into a new and bright shining day.

Wrestling, struggling, holding on is the key. The thing about wrestling, the thing about struggling is that it's something you cannot do alone. Do your best, try to wrestle all by yourself. You can't. You either wrestle with yourself, or an opponent. You cannot wrestle alone. And in this life we are never alone. God is there. Sometimes walking beside us, sometimes carrying us, sometimes wrestling with us. God is always there holding on to us, from the day we take our first breath, from our 'borning cry' as the song says, until we breathe our very last. God is present, God is with us.

We are never alone. In the midst of our darkest moments. In those times when we struggle to understand, when we struggle to find peace, when we are unsure what or even if we believe, God is there. God is there holding on to us, asking us to hold on as well. Hold on for all we've got. Hold on and struggle. Hold on when we don't know if we've got the strength. Hold on when we don't know how long the night will be. Hold on when we feel we can go no longer, when we feel our hip, our legs go out beneath us. Hold on to God, because God is holding on to you. Hold on to God and you will come through the dark night and enter into a new day, a new beginning, and we will be able to claim with joy the name God has given to all of us: beloved child of God. Amen.