Date: October 13th & 16th
Preacher: Pastor Ashley Rosa-Ruggieri
First Reading: Genesis 32:22-31
Psalmody: Psalm 121
Second Reading: 2 Timothy 3:14--4:5
Gospel: Luke 18:1-8
When I was in High School, part of my extra-curricular endeavors included cheerleading. Not only was I a cheerleader for football, which is usually what people think of, but where I come from there were also cheerleaders for wrestling. And so, over my four years I attended dozens of wrestling matches, meets, and tournaments, cheering on our wrestlers from the edge of the mat. One match in particular I remember was at a state qualifying tournament, and one of our senior wrestlers was in the middle of his last match of the day. The first round was good, lots of reversing, a few takedowns, it seemed like a good match where both wrestlers were equally struggling.
About halfway through the second round, the opposing wrestler put our wrestler into a headlock, though it was blocked from the referee, and turned it into a type of chokehold, which was not only an illegal move, but dangerous. While trying to stop himself from being pinned, our wrestler’s face began to turn purple, and it became obvious to us that he was not able to breathe normally. The ref was not calling it at all, he was behind the other wrestler’s back and could not see it! Eventually, though our guy was struggling as hard as he could, he had to give in and tap the mat to end the match, after which his opponent let go, and he could finally breathe normally. Of course, our entire team and group of supporters were outraged as the match ended, the other player cheated, but there was nothing to be done.
I tell you this story to start today’s message for two reasons. The first is as a reminder that although we may struggle and fight in this world to the best of our ability, sometimes things or people or situations are unjust. And the second is that sometimes in the midst of difficult times or a crisis of faith—we can feel like we are struggling with, or wrestling with, God. To start with my first point, I look to our reading from Luke today. This parable told by Jesus sets us up right from the start to know that the judge in this story is unjust. He did not have respect for God, nor did he care for the people that he was in charge of ensuring justice for. Because of his lack of care and justice, he ignores the widow’s pleas for an extended amount of time.
Eventually, he does grant her request, but not as a matter of justice, but rather as a matter of convenience for himself. This means that although the widow was the one seeking justice, the responsibility for its fulfillment was placed on her shoulders. For justice to be secured, it took her dedication and her constant, consistent struggle. Everything was up to her. The unjust judge only granted justice in the end because he was annoyed at dealing with the woman seeking retribution in the first place. This is not a just system.
Jesus then mentions in the parable that God is NOT like the unjust judge, God grants mercy to the prayers of those who go to the Lord. This message is one that we find throughout scripture—the Lord is our help, the Lord is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, the Lord seeks justice and peace for all who are oppressed, the Lord shows mercy beyond comprehension, I could go on for hours reading passages of scripture that show us how just our God is. Still, when we live in a society that is filled with opportunities for injustice, from oppressive systems to unjust judges, our world always has places where the struggle of a life like the widow in this story is a daily task. These repetitive situations of injustice paired with our knowledge that we follow a God who IS just, can lead us to think that to be in relationship with a just God means that we cannot or should not struggle with God. But that is where my second point from the wrestling story, and our reading from Genesis, come in today.
The second point of my wrestling story was to offer a visual of what it looks like to wrestle, to struggle with someone else. When we use this image as a baseline for our Genesis reading, we can begin to picture what it might have been like for Jacob to struggle with the angel, or with God. Many scholars discuss this passage and disagree on who exactly Jacob is wrestling. Some will say an angel or messenger of God, sent as a connection between the Lord and Jacob. Others will say that Jacob is wrestling with God in this chapter, and that is why Jacob names the place Peniel—literally meaning “face of God,” and why he says he saw God face to face but was preserved. In either case, the message of this story is that Jacob, a man of faith who would eventually become the leader of the nations, struggled with God. If our ancestor in faith who has his name changed to Israel, and will become the patriarch of the twelve tribes of Israel, can wrestle with God, then we can to.
Sometimes popular Christianity tells a toxic message that doubting God or struggling with your faith or asking questions are in some way an unfaithful way to live into our baptismal calling. But I would say that it is in our own tradition that our ancestors in faith questioned God and struggled with God all the time. This story in particular is so clear that Jacob struggled all night with this angel carrying the face of God, and though he left with a hurt hip and a limp, he left a struggle that was fair, and went on to live out his faith once more. It is not unfaithful to struggle, quarrel, fight, question, wrestle with God. Moments like these are what continually build our relationship with the Lord stronger and better than it ever could have been. And even in the midst of this wrestling, we can rest assured in the promise that the God we are wrestling with is fair and just.
The struggle does not come from unfaithfulness, but from a desire to be more faithful to a just God who is larger than we can ever comprehend. And though we may not always leave the struggle as fully intact as we were before, we leave knowing that God was there even in the midst of our fighting and rebelling. Following Jacob’s example, we will find that God accompanies us through every fight or struggle and will do so again and again, forever and ever. Injustice like that shown by the unjust judge may be rampant in our world around us, but our God is always just. We may wrestle with and question the Lord time and again throughout our lives, but on each occasion, our God will hear our prayers, never abandon us, and meet us in the struggle once more. Thanks be to God.