2020.08.02 | Strange Times
“Strange Times”
Rev. Dr. Arlene K. Nehring
We live in strange times. We live in a time between what was once familiar and somewhat predictable, and a time when only God knows what will happen. This thought is paralyzing for some and liberating for others, and it is a time that “is-what-it-is” for many, and yet it is fraught with numerous challenges, large and small.
We wonder what time it is, what day it is, what we will eat for our next meal, what that auto-reminder is reminding us of, and what plague may be just around the corner.
Some people’s days are filled with nightmares, and others find that their dreams are fraught with struggle as our brains work overtime to try and make sense of the brave new world we are living in. So today’s scripture reading serves as a timely metaphor for us in that we find ours, much like the patriarch, Jacob, wrestling with the devil, an angel, maybe even God themselves.
In today’s passage, we find Jacob and his family on their way back from Haran, where he had been living the past 20 years, to the land where he had been born, the land of Cana. On the night described in Genesis 32, Jacob and his entourage camped at “Peniel,” after fording the Jabbok River on the border between the territories of Reuben and Gad.
The past two Sundays, we’ve been reading and reflecting on the story of Jacob as it is presented in the later part of the book of Genesis. Jacob was one of Ancient Israel’s patriarchs. He was a grandson of Abraham and Sara, the son of Isaac and Rebekah, and the twin brother of Esau.
Two Sundays ago, on July 19, we reflected on the story of “Jacob’s Ladder,” in which the patriarch lay down to sleep and saw a vision of angels ascending and descending on a ladder to heaven, and Jacob heard God extending the promise God had given to his grandfather, Abraham: that God would make of their people a great nation.
Last Sunday, we read about Jacob’s life among his mother’s people, and how his Uncle Laban tricked him twice: first regarding his promise to allow Jacob to marry Rachel, and second regarding his promise to give Jacob a flock of sheep and goats in return for many years of labor. In the end, Jacob received what he deserved, but he had to pay double for the opportunity to marry Rachel and double to earn his flock.
II
Like others who have left home and stayed away a long time, Jacob realized as he drew closer that he had some unfinished business with his brother, Esau, and that Esau might host a lynching party instead of welcome home party for him. So Jacob sent scouts ahead to spy on Esau.
When the scouts returned, they reported that Esau was sending 400 men to meet them. Jacob was worried. To demonstrate that he came in peace, Jacob sent his wives and children and his herd ahead of him with a peace offering of livestock for Esau. Meanwhile, Jacob lagged behind at the River Jabbok to rest and prepare for what would surely be a complicated family reunion.
Here at the convergence of the Jabbok and Jordan Rivers, Jacob lay down to rest, but like so many with unresolved issues in their past, He couldn’t sleep—at least not deeply.
Jacob wrestled fitfully in his dreams with a mysterious creature.
As the two wrestled, Jacob was struck on the hip, and his hip was dislocated, but still he would not let go of his visitor. As dawn approached, Jacob’s adversary demanded that he be set free.
Jacob refused unless the creature granted him a blessing. Jacob’s request was granted, and the blessing was given. He received a new name, “Israel,” meaning “striven with God.” From that time forward, the narrator explains, Jacob’s people called themselves “Israelites,” for Jacob (and they) had striven with God.
Knowing that only God could grant blessings, Jacob discerned that the one with whom he had wrestled was God. So the patriarch named that place “Peniel,” which means, “face of God.”
III
The identity of the character Jacob struggled with, and the meaning of that struggle, has fascinated scholars and believers for centuries.
Literary scholars argue that the mysterious creature in Jacob’s dream was one of the ubiquitous river demons found throughout Ancient Near Eastern mythology. This argument makes sense to me, because the Hebrew Bible and the Christian New Testament are filled with images, metaphors, literary genres, and narratives that were influenced by other Ancient Near Eastern and Greco-Roman cultures. So why not this narrative about Jacob, too?
Many Biblical scholars build on literary theory and argue that the Hebrew narrator in chapter 32 added a nuanced meaning to this ancient Near Eastern myth by identifying Jacob’s adversary as God. While it isn’t pleasant to think about God as an opponent, if each of us is truthful about our spiritual journeys, we can probably think of a time when we at least wondered whether God was for us, or against us, in a particular struggle.
Modern psychologists add a further layer of interpretation to Jacob’s story by exploring several psycho-social possibilities for understanding what this wrestling match was all about. Perhaps you can relate. Maybe Jacob was wrestling with his feelings about Laban who had tricked him, sort of like how Jacob had tricked his twin brother, Esau.
A further possibility is that Jacob was wrestling with unresolved guilt about cheating his brother, and harboring all of those icky feelings in his heart for the past 20 years.
No matter which interpretive lens we peer through, or how many lenses we employ, in the end, perhaps we agree that Jacob not only survived his twenty-year ordeal, but he was changed by it.
He received a blessing and a curse: the blessing was a new name--Israel--and the curse was an injured hip. According to Genesis 32, after that all-night wrestling match, the patriarch walked with a limp for the rest of his life.
IV
I don’t know what metaphors you find for describing these strange times that we have been living through, but metaphors such as wilderness journey and wrestling tournament work for me.
We entered into the SIP in the midst of Lent, which begins with Jesus’ temptations in the wilderness. We celebrated Easter a few weeks later, but we found ourselves in a strange new place we had never been before. And, the experts keep telling us that we will not be out of the woods, so to speak, for a long time. Maybe not until deep into 2021.
I suspect it’s hard some days for most of us to remain hopeful in the midst of the pandemic. This is why it’s all the more important to hang onto these ancient stories about our ancestors in the faith. They offer us encouragement and a frame of reference; so that we can stay strong in the struggle and hopeful in hard times, mindful that we will all be changed, and we will be blessed, even if we do not emerge unscathed. Amen.