Wrestling with God (Luke 18 Genesis 32, 2 Timothy)

A homily. Jacob wrestles with an angel (Genesis 32: 22-31), Paul instructs Timothy (2 Timothy 3:14 - 4:5), and a widow importunes an unjust judge (Luke 18:1 - 8).
     In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.

     Today's readings, the story of Jacob wrestling with the angel, some instructions of Paul to Timothy, and the parable of the widow and the unjust judge in Luke's Gospel, at first reading do not appear to have much to do with each other. But in fact they do have a common thread, and they do parallel each other to a certain extent. It is their common thread that I want to talk about this morning. 

      Jacob is alone at night, and, our text says, wrestles with a man until daybreak. At least, at the beginning of the wrestling match, Jacob's partner is a man, but by the end of the reading, it is clear that he is more than a man; he is an angel, or even God himself. The angel, or God, does not overpower Jacob, but matches him evenly, and, toward the end, Jacob is very much in control. The angel, or God, is eager to be on his way, but Jacob does not let him go without asking for a blessing. He receives one, and God or the angel leaves as dawn breaks. There is a struggle here, a contest, there is resistance, even a kind of relationship, and in the end a resolution, the achievement of a new state of being, a new awareness, a new step in spiritual life which apparently had not been experienced before. Jacob says, "I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved." "The sun rose upon him as he passed," our story says.

     This story is about an insight which Jacob experiences, a revelation which comes to him. And the insight, the revelation, is this: that in the darkness of struggle with the unknown, that in our coming to know God, we will see God and live. Jacob's growing awareness of this revelation, is indicated by the breaking dawn, by the sunrise. Jacob's dark night of struggle ends with the light of a new life with God, a God he has known, experienced, and seen. A God of mystery and darkness becomes a God of light, warmth, and life. God does not overpower Jacob, but allows him to come to knowledge of him gradually in the darkness, then in the breaking dawn of new realization, and finally in the full light of  day, of full understanding. As Christians we know the fulfillment of this revelation. In Christ we know the warmth and light of new life in God, reached after the struggle of the Passion, and signified by the dawn of the day of Resurrection. Jacob struggles with God, and God allows Jacob to see him. All through this struggle, Jacob remains strong, determined, focused (as we say nowadays) and never loses control of himself or forgets what he wants, which is God's blessing. God gives him that, and more.

     So, too, in Paul's charge to Timothy, there is an awareness of struggle, and expectation. Paul expects Timothy always to be sober, to endure suffering, all in expectation of the appearing of Jesus and the coming of the Kingdom. Paul expects persistence regardless of circumstance, steadfastness, patience. Jacob has all these in his encounter with God, and the same pattern appears in the life of a Christian, and in the letters of Paul.

     In today's Gospel we have the themes of persistence, resistance, struggle. The reading presents its conclusion at the beginning, and a hint of another not-quite-so-obvious conclusion at the end.

     "Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart." Pray always, and do not lose heart. Pray always. We all pray, one way or another. Some of us pray the Daily Office, some use selections from the Prayer Book, some use St Augustine's Prayer Book or other devotional books, and still others are accomplished in spontaneous prayer without the aid of texts. And of course, we all pray in church, in the Liturgy and other services. We remember that Paul says, in the First Letter to the Thessalonians. "Pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."

     How do we do this, in lives which are filled with many activities, of which prayer is only one? I think that the answer is actually in our mere persistence, like that of the widow who keeps coming to the unjust judge. Her focus is continually on one thing, whether she is actually in court or not. Now the Gospel doesn't say anything about why the widow is in court. We are left to imagine a back story. Perhaps she is suing a tenant who hasn't paid his rent, or she is contesting a will, or she is seeking the return of land. The judge is unjust, perhaps because he wants to be bribed, or he is simply incompetent, or he usually rules in favor of the rich and the powerful, and ignores ordinary people. Jesus's followers know stories like this, so he doesn't have to spell out the widow's situation. So what matters in the story is not detail like this, but the attitude, the determination, the struggle of the widow to obtain justice. Just as Jacob would not let the angel, or God, go, until he received a blessing, just as Paul tells Timothy, and us, to continue, to be persistent, to endure suffering and so on, so the Gospel urges relentless persistence in pursuit of God's justice, his Kingdom and righteousness. This is how we pray always, pray unceasingly. And the dawn will break, the day will come, when we will see God face to face, and live. 

     Then comes this astonishing remark in the Gospel, a remark which appears to have no connection to what comes before or after it, as it were dropped into the narrative. "And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?"  Did Jesus actually conclude his parable with this, or did Luke put this saying here, because he couldn't find another spot for it?  I don't have an answer to this, but the mere fact that this remark is here it itself a message, which we must consider as part of the Gospel message, and the message of the whole Scripture. The fact that we have to be told to be persistent, to endure suffering, to keep wrestling with God until he gives us a blessing, reminds us that it is easy to give up, not to bother, to do the comfortable thing, and just let go. Not to persist, not to endure, to forget that God is there to be wrestled with, to forget that God will in fact give us a blessing when dawn breaks, is always possible. Our Lord, and Luke, are warning us not to rest easy, but to continue to put ourselves in the way of God's blessing, to be there when the dawn breaks, to be there when God's justice, that is, new life in him, comes to his chosen ones. And we are all his chosen ones, called to wrestle with him, and to demand a blessing of him.
     In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.