Wrestling with the God who renames us

PPT – Genesis and family tree

1.   The book of Genesis [Bible [Project]

2.   Chapters 1-11; creation, all is good, then downhill.

3.   Chapters 12-50; Abraham and descendants

a.   Abraham – blessed to be a blessing

b.   Last week we heard about the covenant God made with Abraham, the birth of Ishmael and the birth of Isaac.

c.    Jacob steals the blessing from his brother Esau

d.   Jacob wrestles – reading today

e.   Joseph hated by his brothers and sold into slavery

f.     Joseph saves the family in time of famine

4.   Family tree

a.   Interbreeding

5.   12 tribes of Israel

In the readings these past few weeks, all have had something to do with names.

In Genesis chapter 2, Adam is made from the Adamah [earth], and then from Adam comes ish and ishah, the man and the woman.

Last week the names of Abram and Sari were changed to Abraham and Sarah.

This week Jacob is renamed Israel.

Have you ever changed your name? many of the women will have changed their surnames when they married, something that happens less often these days. I know when I changed my surname from Bannister to Lawrence, it was like undoing what my mother had done, as my mother’s maiden name was also Lawrence.

Have you changed your name, or the name you are known by? I know growing up different groups of people called me different names. At school I was Pat, at home and with family Trish or Trisha, when I started going to Sunday School, there I was called Patty. That meant in my teenage years I was known by three different names.

What does your name, or your choice of name say about you?

What name does God use when talking with you?

Sometimes we name people in ways that are unhelpful - stupid, sissy, nerd, failure ….

How might God rename you? gift, beloved, creative …  

The relationship between Esau and Jacob

Abraham and Sarah waited into their old age to have Isaac. Isaac marries Rebekah, they have twin sons. Esau was born first, and Jacob was holding onto his heel. therefore, Esau was granted all the rights of being the eldest son.  Jacob was a deceiver, and deceived.

Jacob took the birthright and blessing that was due to Esau. Esau was hungry and gave Isaac his birthright as eldest, for some food. [25: 29-34] When Isaac was about to die, he asked Esau to go hunting, kill an animal and cook it for him, then he will receive his fathers blessing. But Jacob and Rebeca colluded so that Jacob would get the blessing from Isaac. [chapter 27]

When Esau returns from hunting and cooking, he finds out he has been swindled of the blessing, and vows to kill Jacob as soon as Isaac dies.

Jacob leaves and goes to his mother’s people, there he works for Laban, his uncle, and falls for one of Laban’s daughters.  Uncle Laban is just as sneaky as Jacob, and after working 7 years to be able to marry Rachel, Jacob wakes up after the wedding night to find he has married Leah. A week later he marries Rachel but must work another seven years for Laban.

More time goes by; after a total of twenty years, Jacob, his wives, servants, children and flocks leave to return home.

Then we get this episode we heard this morning.

Jacob is understandably anxious about how Esau might react to seeing him. Jacob heard that Esau was coming his way with 400 men; that sounds like war! Or a picnic?

Do you always assume the worst scenario in any situation?

  

The Jacob sent ahead some very generous gifts, goats, sheep, camels, cattle and donkeys.

When you read chapter 33, you find out that Esau was please to see Isaac, he runs and hugs and kisses Jacob. Esau tells Jacob he doesn’t need all the animals, he has enough already.

Sometimes what we imagine is not what happens.

Do you usually imagine the worst scenario?

The thing that kept coming to mind for me this week was the idea of wrestling, with ourselves or God or ….

Last week we heard how Abraham and Sarah showed hospitality to three strangers, strangers who had a message from God.

This week we hear of a man who wrestles with Jacob, but is it a man, an angel, or God. or is it Jacob’s own conscious?

“Our physical bodies so often reveal our emotional tensions.  The person who is carrying the weight of the world has shoulders that slump inward, bowed by an invisible, deeply felt burden.  The person who is all bent out of shape emotionally also has mysterious aches and pains.  The one who can’t stand something develops pain in the feet or ankles.  In a similar way, Jacob begins the night wrestling with his own fears about his upcoming meeting with his brother Esau, and then spends the rest of the night wrestling with a mystery figure.  The outer fight mirrors the inner one.” [i]

I wonder what keeps you awake at night; what or who do you wrestle with?

It seems that many people today are unable to sit with their own thoughts, there is always music or games or Television or YouTube – something to stop the thoughts that come in the silence.

What is it we are afraid of?

Is it God, or our pain, our shame, our guilt or our fears?

Has Jacob finally acknowledged and owned his past behaviour?

Just as Jacob was wounded and blessed, struggles change us – we can be both wounded and blessed by a struggle.

I don’t often think about wrestling with God.

I think of encounters with Jesus or God or the Spirit, divine encounters, holy moments – and generally i think of the pleasant ones, where i was comforted, or given a word of peace or encouragement, but if i ma honest, not all encounters with the Holy are pleasant. There are times when God will call me out for something I have done, or not done.

Some of our conversations while I was running away from ordained ministry were not comfortable or comforting.

what do you wrestle with?

How would God rename you?

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[i] https://revgalblogpals.org/2019/09/17/narrative-lectionary-mixed-martial-arts-genesis-329-13-22-30/

'helping' God

[the first 19 PPT slides are from https://www.stevethomason.net/2019/09/12/a-cartoonists-guide-to-abraham-sarah-and-laughter/?fbclid=IwAR0johUt6hrDFAcU2gH8aDnPzaVOZ5QfMeeYLquwyC42Wry0hvgMtdDLuHg]

To get the full picture of what is going on in this reading, we need to go back a few chapters.

PPT:

1.   The Promise to Abram and Sarai

2.   In Chapter 12 we are told that Abram was seventy-five years old.

3.   The LORD told him to leave your country, your family, and your relatives and go to the land that I will show you.

4.   I will bless you and make your descendants into a great nation.

5.   Abram was told he would be blessed to be a blessing

6.   Then there is a trip to Egypt – more on that later. After some battles, the Lord spoke to Abram in a vision, “Abram, don’t be afraid! I will protect you and reward you greatly.” [15:1]

7.   Abram responds that God has given him everything except children, and the promise is reaffirmed

8.   “Look at the sky and see if you can count the stars. That’s how many descendants you will have.”

9.   The Lord also promises Abram that his descendants will live in the land of Canaan, and they make a covenant, complete with sacrifices.

10.        By chapter 16, Sarai and Abram are wondering about this promise of God, and Sarai gives Abram her maid servant, Hagar, who bears a son for him.

11.         Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar gave birth to their son, and he named him Ishmael.

12.        Here is the first part of today’s reading, another confirmation that the child God has promised will be with Sarai, not Hagar. And their names are changed to Abraham and Sarah.

13.        And Abraham laughed [17:17]

14.        A sign of the covenant is that each male will be circumcised

15.        Ishmael is not the promised son

16.        Three travellers, Sarah will have a son

17.        Sarah laughs

18.        “is anything too wonderful for the Lord?”

19.        Isaac born – Isaac means laughter

20.        Map –

a.   this is so you can see that Abraham and Sarah, along with Abraham’s father Terah and nephew Lot, left Ur headed for Canaan. But they settled in Haran.

b.   God tells Abram and Sari to move, and they do, this time making Canaan

c.    When a famine hit the land, they travelled to Egypt, there Abram pretended that Sarai was his sister – the Egyptian king did not like being deceived, so Abram and the people and animals travelling with him were told to leave.

d.   Abram went to live near the great trees of Mamre at Hebron, where he pitched his tents. There he built an altar to the Lord.

21.        Trees of Mamre

So much for the introduction:

 I know many people will be preaching about hospitality based on this reading, but the thing that resonated with me this week was how we try and ‘help’ God.

 God told Abram he would have many descendants, as many as the stars in the sky. Abram and Sarai waited, not knowing how this would happen, they are past the age of having children. They wait, one year, two years, three, … ten years.

Was what God told them true??

Well if Abram slept with Hagar, the child would be his. Maybe that would fulfil God’s plan.

But that wasn’t God’s plan.

Abraham was 100 years old when Isaac was born, 25 years of hearing God’s promise, of fighting wars, travelling, staying alive, wondering about the promise. 25 years of hoping for the impossible and wondering if it would ever come true.

And in that time, Ishmael was born.

When Isaac was weaned most likely 2-3 years of age, Hagar and Ishmael are sent away.

While I feel for Sarah, being childless for so long

I feel sorry for Hagar and Ishmael. They did nothing wrong yet are treated badly and then sent away because of Sarah’s jealousy.  God does look after them, but it reminds me of the human frailties of each one of us. and it reminds me of those whose lives are impacted by our anger and shame. Those whose lives are considered less important, less worthy, expendable.

People like refugees, drug addicts, people who are homeless or living with mental illness. People who live in other countries, especially so called third world countries.

Who are the people we think are worth less than we are?

In the book of Hebrews, chapter 11, we read of the faith of Abraham and all he did in the strength of that faith.

We talk of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Yet this story does not sugar coat the fact that Abraham was willing to take matters into his own hands.

Waiting for God to act, waiting for God to fulfil the promise of an heir, a descendent who would have many, many, descendants

I am not surprised that Abraham and Sarah both laughed. If God told me that Ian and I would have children, I would laugh to. I mean what kind of crazy idea is it that people of our age can imagine having children.

Has God ever asked you, or promised you something so outrageous you couldn’t believe it?

Have you waited, wondering if God’s promises will come true?

Wondered if your prayers are heard?

Wondered of God even knows you exist?

Do you wonder if you matter in God’s amazing and grand story?

We need to work with God, and certainly not obstruct God’s work, but we also can’t go off and try to force what God may do in the future.

Some of you will have noticed that I am not the most patient person. I don’t like having to wait; yet with illness, operation and broken ankle this year, I have had to rest and wait; and I still don’t find that easy.

Abraham and Sarah waited 25 years, a quarter of their life, for an impossible promise to be fulfilled.

What might God yet fulfil in your life?

In our life?

you are dust

Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.

this is from the Ash Wednesday service, as the ashes are marked on your forehead, one of the options to say is:

Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.

The reading we have just heard is the second story of creation, though it is likely that it originates during the time of King David, and the version found in Genesis one, originates later, during the exile.

These stories tell us a lot about what was happening in the life of the people, they were not written to be scientific explanation of the beginnings of the world and people.

Does your family have origin stories, how you came to live in a particular place, or in a particular country? Or stories about a close shave that almost wiped out the family, or lost fortunes.

These are origin stories that speak into the life of the people of Israel, they speak of the creativity of God, the orderliness of God, the place of people in creation and the responsibility given to people to care for the creation.

“The Lord God took a handful of soil and made a man.”

Unlike Genesis 1, where God speaks creation into being, here, God makes people from dirt. In my mind I see God making mud pies. I thought of bringing clay or play doh this morning and you could all make a person. “God breathed life into the man, and the man started breathing”

This reminds me of the valley of the dry bones in Ezekiel.

But we are not God, even if we made a person from clay, we are not able to breathe life into it to make it live.

God sculptured the dirt of the ground and formed a person. In the Hebrew there is a word play, Adam from Adamah – or earthling from the earth.

And God placed the person in a beautiful garden.

Then, God realises that it isn’t good for the earthling to live alone.

I wonder why?

Then we hear how God created animals and birds from the dirt and had the person name them. Naming the animals made the person a partner in the creation process.

In summary, God made a person out of dust, put him in a garden, looked for a companion in the animals and birds, and we know that then God a partner for the person, one person became two people.

I am not a Hebrew scholar, but I am told that the word Adam is grammatically male, but that does not imply that Adam was male. It isn’t as obvious in English, as our words for ‘a’ and ‘the’ are gender neutral. In some languages, the words for ‘a’ and ‘the’ are different depending on the gender of the word. For example, in German the word for Friday is masculine, and the words for trees are generally female, which means different words for ‘a’ and ‘the’. In Hebrew the word for person, Adam, is male.

Then when the person becomes two people, different Hebrew words are used ‘ish and ishah’ – man and woman.[i]

One thing that I am guessing you are waiting for me to talk about are the trees, the two special trees in the middle of the garden.

 ‘One of the trees gave life—the other gave the power to know the difference between right and wrong.’ And we know that the people did eat from the tree they were told not to eat from. When i was thinking about this passage this week, i wondered what God expected. Have you ever told a child not to eat another lolly or biscuit? What do they immediately want to do?

What did God expect, as soon as you say – you cannot, don’t even think about it, what do you do?!

In this story, God made people to tend the garden, to be gardeners, but they decided they wanted to be gods rather than earthlings.[ii]  

What happens when we decide we know better than God?

This story reminds me of to whom we are accountable. We are accountable to God for the state of the garden we were made to tend; as humans we are part of the ecosystem that encompasses all that God made. As we have become more mechanised and modernised, life expectancies, health and education have all improved. But with these advances it seems we have forgotten, that we too are creatures not gods. The earth is not an infinite resource for us to plunder. In this version of the creation story, the earth is a beautiful garden which we are to tend and care for.

with plastic in our oceans, and silt in our rivers

with fires in the Amazon and rising sea levels

we have not tended the garden well.

Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.

I think sometimes the biggest issues of our times come from us not wanting to recognise that we are part of nature. When we try and separate ourselves, and our future, from that of the plants and animals, we damage ourselves as well as the rest of creation.

When we forget that God created us to live in community; to work together and to care for each other; it is easy for people to be overlooked and isolated.

What do we need to live?

………………

Two songs came to mind as I was pondering this passage, one is a Bob Dylan song: Man gave names to all the animals; and we are not hearing that one today.

and the other is Beautiful things by Grungor.

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[i] https://www.stevethomason.net/2019/09/06/a-cartoonists-guide-to-genesis-218-25/?fbclid=IwAR2c8QMQ7MpZNFT6EPy7TWHSs250kHy2kGTCPvEz2riFLbk0ND0xEze7VaI

[ii] https://robertwilliamsonjr.com/reading-eden-time-ecological-crisis-genesis-2-4b-