October 16, 2022

 When I was growing up there was a book of prayers in my home, full of pictures of blooming fields of daisies and orange autumn leaves with prayers and quotes that were soft and gentle and heartwarming.  Still when I see these kinds of books I feel a sense of nostalgia for the late 70s and early 80s even though I know that for me the life of faith is not often gentle and heartwarming.

When Jacob stole his brother Esau’s birthright, he had been living a not so gentle life.  He was the second born of twins, born grasping his brothers heal.  As he grows up, his brother is his father’s favorite and he is his mother’s favorite, so always these brothers are pitted against each other.  There isn’t enough of the father’s blessing for both children, so Jacob’s mother helps him trick his father into giving him the blessing, ending in the split of the family, with Esau pursuing Jacob to take his life for this theft of what he had a right to, had been expecting, was entitled to.  Now Jacob cannot rely on any of his family to protect him, but ventures out on his own to live a life in exile.  What he hoped would be a blessing becomes a struggle.  He struggles with his own family, his own twin.  He struggles with his own ambition, his greed, his sin against his family.  He struggles with his own father in law who put him to work for 7 years, having promised Jacob his daughter Rachel who he loved and instead married her sister Leah to him, adding on 7 more years until Jacob could marry the woman he loved, only to have Rachel be barren for a long time and her finally dying in childbirth with their second child Benjamin.  Jacob struggled and he persevered and he fathered the heads of the 12 tribes of Israel, but it wasn’t fields of daisies and autumn leaves and hazy sunrises and gentle prayers of ease.  Jacob struggled and wrestled.

It all came to a head in our reading from the Hebrew scripture today.  All his life Jacob has struggled and now he’s about to meet his brother again after many years and many struggles, after many prayers and much guilt and that terrible rift between them that was Jacob’s fault for creating.  Jacob sends his wife and children ahead of him, hoping that his brother may be merciful and take pity on him.  In the night, Jacob wrestles.  I’m sure he wasn’t able to sleep in all his anxiety.  Instead, as he waits in anxiousness and longing for his brother, he meets the Holy One.  He truly wrestles, as he has all his life, struggles, and strives.  The reading says he struggled with a man—was Jacob wrestling with himself, his brother, his father, various situations he’d encountered?  Was he wrestling with his faith?  Maybe all of the above?  Jacob wrestles with someone the whole night, and prevails.  But Jacob is injured, he is marked by this encounter.   He has a new way of walking that reminds him of all the wrestling he’s done in his life, a physical manifestation of his struggles. I can imagine his grandchildren asking, “Grandpa, why do you limp?” and Jacob telling this story of his wrestling match. 

 Then they have this conversation about identity and blessing.  Jacob recognizes something in his opponent and asks for a blessing.  He once asked for his father’s blessing, disguised as his brother, lying to his father.  Now he asks a blessing for himself and who he is in all his struggle, before he faces again that brother he once defrauded.  This man he wrestled with gives him a new name that strips away any deceit and names very clearly who Jacob is and what his life has been like—a wrestling match, a struggle.  Israel means one who struggles with God, strives with God, wrestles with God.  But the name does not just name Jacob Israel, but names God as well.  Jacob who had been very alone, despite his large family, is now named in relationship with others and with God.  So God names God’s own self, identifies God’s self to Jacob, in relationship with Israel, as he moves forward with a new name and a new limp—an outward sign of a struggle and a name of struggle. 

Maybe prayer is more a struggling and striving with God, a relationship of struggling and wrestling more than it is pages filled with filtered light and peaceful, feel-good sayings.  Furthermore, prayer does not happen in a vacuum, but is accompanied by action.  There is an old adage, “Pray for potatoes with a hoe in your hand.”

This is confirmed by the Gospel reading.  Here is a judge and a widow communicating with each other.  What is prayer but communication with God.  This woman brings her petition to the court to be heard and when two people wrestle, communicate, struggle, they are affected by each other.  This woman didn’t just sit at her house and pray.  She went to someone who had a say in her matter.  She spoke her truth.  She didn’t let it stop her that this judge was crooked.  She was there to wrestle with him and when she didn’t get her way, she showed up again and again. 

From her we can learn to take notice of the wrongs whether they happen to us or others.  Don’t accept that this is how life is.  God doesn’t accept it—God is bringing about an entirely different vision. 

Evaluate who has a say in this matter and what motivates them.  This widow knows of a judge who has a say.  He doesn’t like to be bothered.  He is easily worn out by persistence.  She goes to him and doesn’t give up.

                Sometimes it is easier to put on bandaids and be seen or fixing problems—feeding people, providing health checks, giving out home covid tests and masks.  There is nothing wrong with that.  It should be partnered with prevention, though, too, and advocacy.  We can make a much bigger difference through advocacy, writing letters and making phone calls and organizing in our communities to speak truth to powerful agencies and institutions.  So let’s do both.  But one is political, right?  We don’t engage in politics.  Well actually Jesus did and we do.  Political means “the way power is achieved and used in a country or society” or “the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals.”   When Jesus lifted up this widow, he was saying to notice the wrongs and speak up about them, to try to influence each other to do the right thing, to share power so that abundant life can flow.

                So we are invited to pray to God so that we won’t give up and to motivate us to do what needs doing—either using our hoe and taking direct action to bring about potatoes or whatever else it is we need, or influencing those that have the control over the hoes so that they can be used for the greater good.  This isn’t about endorsing a candidate or a political party but it is about knowing who makes the decisions and helping to shape our neighborhood and society into one that works for more than just those who are rich and powerful.  There are lots of kinds of power and ways to use power and this woman shaming this judge and bothering him improves not just her life but the lives of those around her.

                When we pray, we need to be careful that we see prayer as a powerful tool for change, to identify what is wrong, to address it ourselves, and to encourage others to address it, too, since we can’t change everything ourselves.  We must be prepared for prayer to motivate us to action, to tell our story, to make room for the stories of those who have been wronged, to be changed by prayer in relationship to God, one another, and God’s creation.

I read an interesting take on this Gospel reading yesterday, and that is that maybe God is the widow and we are the unjust judge. Maybe God is appealing to us day and night to do the right thing and grant justice and we have no fear of God nor respect for people. Maybe we have the power to grant justice but instead we mostly ignore those in need. However God is not going to give up on us and will nag us until we relent. How different God is, quickly granting justice to those who cry out in need.

When we go to God with our justice concerns, we know God is listening and surely will ensure justice is done. And when the poor and hungry go to God with their justice concerns, God will surely hear their cries and bring justice, not with a magic wand, but with the persistence and power of God's people who see that vision, who know what is right and what isn't, and who speak up and use our power to change this world to better match God's vision.

In the Gospel lesson this morning we read, "Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart."  Just before communion each Sunday we say these words: Lift up your hearts, we lift them to the Lord. Lifting our hearts is continuing to have hope, continuing to pray in hopes for healing and life. When we lift our hearts, they are vulnerable and open, helpless, but also brave and ready to do what needs to be done. When we lift our hearts, we are ready to face whatever powers stand in the way of God's vision, and lift our voices and our power in the service of God's vision, and ensure God's blessing goes out to all who all who wrestle.