Christianity for Grapplers: what are you wrestling with??

This is a sermon I heard from the pulpit of Rev. Joyce Parry Moore, of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Oakland, California. It was after a reading about Jacob wrestling with the angel. It was just so perfect that I had to reproduce it here...with the permission of Rev. Parry Moore, of course. Read and enjoy...and let me know what you think!

Oh Lord,

Weigh my heart, summon me by night, *
melt me down;  . . .find no impurity in me. Amen.

I was sitting in a sunny Oakland café one morning last week with my family, thinking about the story of Jacob for today’s sermon, when I saw a sign.  The sign read:  yoga for grapplers.  Yoga for what?!  Grapplers?  What on earth was that?  Intrigued, I looked up the location, “Monkey Yoga”, on the internet – and found some interesting ideas.  A place where many styles of yoga were practiced together – balancing movement and strength, flexibility and even aggression. Grappling, as I learned, does not always involve hooks or bungee cords, but rather “refers to techniques, maneuvers, and counters applied to an opponent in order to gain a physical advantage”.  This yoga can be tricky, something like Jacob. Developing such flexibility can prepare you for wrestling – grappling -- with an opponent, a dilemma, or yourself.

Flexibility is certainly a quality displayed by Jacob.  Whether cheating his brother, Esau, out of his birthright and blessing of inheritance, or haggling with Leban over marriages with two sisters, only one of whom Jacob loves and neither of whom had a voice in the negotiations, a major theme in the story of Jacob “the Trickster” is deception and surprise.  However, when we meet Jacob on this night, he has run out of tricks.  As he reaches the river Jabbok – a play on words on Jacob’s name, and also on the word wrestle – Jacob is terrified of facing his comeuppance.  He will soon encounter the fury of his brother, after being chased home by the fury of his father inlaw. 

Here Jacob experiences what St. John of the Cross, St. Therese of Liseaux, Mother Teresa of Calcutta might call his “Dark night of the Soul”.  Jacob can no longer run from his doubts, his fears, and so he wrestles – grapples – with them through the night.  Scripture forms these fears into a man, or God, or an Angel, somewhere in between.  Jacob tenaciously strives with this person, with the story of his life, his mistakes, his challenges.  He is a survivor: as the younger son, the one who is perhaps smaller, smarter, Jacob has used his wits to succeed, often without considering the welfare of others.  We do not necessarily want to emulate Jacob, but we relate to him in his imperfection, and his will to struggle.  And his struggle makes him strong.  At the end of this story, Jacob may have a limp, he may not father any more children, but like many mythical heroes, his halting gait is proof of his maturity.  He has changed into something more.

Since today is Family Sunday, I would like to share another story for our younger family members.  This story was told to me by Rev. Wilfred Vergara, the Asian Missioner of the Episcopal Church.  (I invite our younger listeners today to join me in the front to so they can see and hear the story)

Once a little boy was playing outdoors and found a fascinating caterpillar. He carefully picked it up and took it home to show his mother. He asked his mother if he could keep it, and she said he could if he would take good care of it.

The little boy got a large jar from his mother and put plants to eat, and a stick to climb on, in the jar. Every day he watched the caterpillar and brought it new plants to eat.

One day the caterpillar climbed up the stick and started acting strangely. The boy worriedly called his mother who came and understood that the caterpillar was creating a cocoon. The mother explained to the boy how the caterpillar was going to go through a metamorphosis and become a butterfly.

The little boy was thrilled to hear about the changes his caterpillar would go through. He watched every day, waiting for the butterfly to emerge. One day it happened, a small hole appeared in the cocoon and the butterfly started to struggle to come out.

At first the boy was excited, but soon he became concerned. The butterfly was struggling so hard to get out! It looked like it couldn’t break free! It looked desperate! It looked like it was making no progress!

The boy was so concerned he decided to help. He ran to get scissors, and then walked back (because he had learned not to run with scissors…). He snipped the cocoon to make the hole bigger and the butterfly quickly emerged!

As the butterfly came out the boy was surprised. It had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings. He continued to watch the butterfly expecting that, at any moment, the wings would dry out, enlarge and expand to support the swollen body. He knew that in time the body would shrink and the butterfly’s wings would expand.

            But neither happened!                                                                       

  

The butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings.

It never was able to fly…

As the boy tried to figure out what had gone wrong his mother took him to talk to a scientist from a local college. He learned that the butterfly was SUPPOSED to struggle. In fact, the butterfly’s struggle to push its way through the tiny opening of the cocoon pushes the fluid out of its body and into its wings. Without the struggle, the butterfly would never, ever fly.

As you go through school, and life, keep in mind that struggling is an important part of growing. In fact, it is the struggle that causes you to fly.
 flu

Returning to the story of Jacob, I wonder whether, in playing the Trickster throughout his life, Jacob had not developed sufficient strength he needed for all that would happen in the next chapter.  


To grow up fully, even at this stage in his life, Jacob needed to wrestle, to entwine himself with God, until he received the blessing that actually belonged to him.  Not a stolen blessing, but rather his true identity as one who strove with God and with people.  This identity gives the new Jacob, now called Israel, enough strength to become the father of a nation. 

Wrestling, as an Olympic sport and as a way with words, was also central to the Greco Roman culture from which Jesus followers, including the Apostle Paul, emerged.  In his letter to the Romans, Paul also wrestles with his true identity:  as a Jew himself, an Israelite, one of the chosen of God, or as a Jesus follower, one who tries to convince his people of this new salvation story.  Paul may have grappled with this for his entire life, and in so doing, wrote the foundation of our Christian theology. 

The writer of the Gospel of Matthew builds on this salvation history, and tells us about the struggle that the first disciples experience when Jesus challenges them.  In today’s story, we find them after a long day of travel and ministry, when the disciples wish to return to some comfort, to send away the throngs of followers.  Matthew shows us how, in ordering the disciples outside of their comfort zone, Jesus challenges them to increase their faith, their strength, their possibility. 

So today I must ask us:  are we willing to wrestle?  To go beyond comfort, in our homes, our relationships, or finances, our politics, vocations, even church, in order to grow?  As people of privilege, we live in a world designed for our comfort and convenience.  What are the ways in which we trick our way through life, avoiding pain, grief or conflict, and in the process may be running away from our true selves or from God with us?  What name does God want to give to us?

While I was in seminary, not very long ago, I admit to developing my fantasy of life as the priest of a country church, something like the Vicar of Dibley. I imagined pedaling my bicycle around some quaint village, wearing Wellingtons and delivering plum jam, delivering heartwarming sermons amidst farm animals and tea parties.  Thankfully, God saw me for who I really am, and caused me to wrestle with a more expansive, less comfortable, vocation last summer.  Now, every day, I minister outside of my comfort zone – between languages, cultures, on the very edges of our city, in a very urban environment.  Each day I must face feeling foolish, uncertain, being the only woman in a very male world, wrestling with social and economic injustices that I do not have the power to change, but only the Love to witness.  My office is small, my hands covered with oil, and we are constantly understaffed. Each day is exhausting, and each day brings a unique and rich Blessing; a feast of fish and rice and faith beyond what I could image. 

And I invite you to the struggle. Jesus challenges us to contend with conflict, to stretch beyond our expectations, to face our fears and our pain, and ultimately to find a balance that will bring us a new strength of vision.  I invite you to Christianity for Grapplers. To that stretching of your wings that will allow you to fly. 

Some bright morning when this life is o'er
I'll fly away
To that home on God's celestial shore
I'll fly away.

I'll fly away, oh Glory
I'll fly away in the morning
When I die Hallelujah, by and by
I'll fly away.


When the shadows of this life have gone
I'll fly away
Like a bird from these prison walls I’ll fly
I'll fly away.


Chorus:
I'll fly away, oh Glory
I'll fly away in the morning
When I die Hallelujah, by and by
I'll fly away.


Oh, how glad and happy when we meet
I’ll fly away
No more cold iron shackles on my feet
I’ll fly away.
I'll fly away, oh Glory
I'll fly away in the morning
When I die Hallelujah, by and by
I'll fly away.

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