October 16,2022
Indianola Presbyterian Church, Columbus
" A Faith That Wrestles"
Sermon by Rev. Trip Porch
October 16, 2022 Based on Genesis 32
I picture God a lot of ways, but I can't say "wrestler" is an image that has ever, even once, entered my mind. Apart from playful horsing around with my kids, I don't have much personal experience with this image.
It leads me to wonder… what sort of wrestler is God?
Is God theatrical and over the top like the professional wrestlers in the US?
Is God acrobatic, fast, and nimble like the Mexican luchadors?
Is God a giant mass of muscle and power like the Japanese Sumo Wrestlers?
I've never been much for confrontation or shows of strength, so I don't know that I'll ever truly understand what it's like to be a wrestler. To step into the ring, and charge into your opponent with nothing but your strength. What must it feel like to be there struggling with all your might, head-to-head, locked up, muscle against muscle, until one person missteps or relinquishes and the other person has the advantage?
Wrestling is not a pleasant image. Its visceral and violent, honest and raw. It’s brute force, power and might. It’s sweat, and sinew and struggle. And in our story today, it’s how we encounter God.
On the night before he is to meet his brother Esau again after years when Jacob leaves everyone and goes off by himself into the darkness of the night, to sit alone, to calm himself, to pray, to think, to soothe his anxiety. What must have been going through his mind? When he last saw Esau, Jacob had done the unthinkable and betrayed his brother, taken his inheritance from him on their dads deathbed. Now, years later, he is about to face his brother again. Does Esau still resent him? Can they ever reconcile? Will he forgive him? What will happen when they see each other at last?
I imagine Jacob sitting alone in the dark stillness of that night and it’s clear that the wrestling is going on internally before anything else in the story takes place. To that end, what happens next is actually kind of beautiful. It turns out Jacob isn't that alone, he has a partner to meet him in the struggle. Someone to wrestle through this conflict with.
God arrives and the two of the them wrestle through the night. Jacob holds on and refuses to let go until God blesses him, though it’s not the blessing he would have imagined. He leaves this struggle limping, but he also leaves utterly changed, God blesses him with a new identity, a new name…
It is a really important theology we learn from this scripture. To meet a God that is not aloof or removed from our problems, not shy of conflict or struggle, but in fact works in the struggle to bless us.
Have you ever had a time in your life of deep reflection, searching, or discernment?
A time of wrestling where you felt like, on the other side, once you went through that season you had changed fundamentally somehow, like you aren't anymore the person you once were and through this time you have taken on almost a new identity.
As I think back through my life I can think of so many different times like this, When I grieved the death of a family member, or when I went through a break up. I don't share it that often, but even the story of my call to become a pastor was born out of a time like this in my own life.
I had been raised in the church, a cradle presbyterian. While some folks are pk's, or pastors kids I was a gpk, my grandfather was a presbyterian pastor and my parents gave church and our faith a high priority in our upbringing.
As I grew up, I had gone through all the motions and learned the rhythms of faith, but I remember the time of high school being the first time I ever thought about my faith in any sort of critical way. I was really involved in my youth group and church, but I was beginning to question… Do I actually believe any of this? Or do I just believe because this is what my parents taught me? Out of this experience, I began to question and deconstruct everything, and in that experience I felt pretty strongly that I didn't believe in God.
In hindsight the best word I could use to describe this time was: wrestling. But I was never alone in my wrestling, I talked about it with my family and friends, with pastors, and mentors. And to their credit every single one of them met me and my doubts and questions with deep love, and kindness, and respect.
After wrestling with my faith for a couple weeks, I remember one night in particular where the questions were hitting me particularly hard. I could not turn my brain off, and I could not go to sleep. And I remember almost involuntarily …praying.
I started to talk to God about my disbelief in God, and I realized in that moment that God is beyond my belief or disbelief, that God is beyond my knowing. And just as Jacob found blessing and transformation through struggle, I found my faith again through the questioning, doubting, wondering, and wrestling. In that night I felt my faith had transformed into a mature faith that not only endures conflict, but deepens and strengthens through it.
Maybe, just as it was for Jacob, the blessing and transformation we find in this life isn't after times of struggle or when everything is going great but maybe the blessing is the struggle itself. Maybe it is the change and the growth we find in adversity that blesses us, transforms us and leaves us on the other side with a whole new identity.
I don’t know fully all that you have wrestled with in this life. the problems you have faced and are still facing head on, the conflicts that pin you to the ground and refuse to let go. But I pray that you don’t lose heart or feel that you are alone. Instead, I pray that in that struggle, you can, like Jacob, hold on. I pray that you keep on fighting and refuse to let go until you wrestle some sort of blessing out of this struggle. And I pray that you find the partner that is there with you in that struggle, who brings the blessing in everything and brings you to the broken but not beaten, blessed with a new identity, the one who wrestled with God and with others and lives to tell the tale.
Amen.
We welcome all who worship here this morning!
WE GATHER IN AWE AND PRAISE
PRELUDE
INTROIT “Praise to the Lord” arr. Paul Sjolund
WELCOME Rev. Trip Porch
*OPENING PRAYER
Holy Wrestler, contending with us until daybreak, holding us in the grip of your argument, grappling with our questions and doubts, you who strive to deepen us through struggle, and strengthen us through adversity: Hold on to us now in that fierce love that will never let us go. Bless us, as you name us, as those who have prevailed. Amen
*HYMN No. 833 “O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go” ST. MARGARET
*LITANY OF CONFESSION Doug Slusher
One: God, you have stricken us,
All: And will bind up our wounds.
One: God, We bring you all that is comfortable and self-satisfied in us,
and we let it go. A brief silence is kept
One: God, you have stricken us,
All: And will bind up our wounds.
One: God, we bring you the times we have avoided the struggle, taken the line of
least resistance, colluded, and let them go. A brief silence is kept
One: God, you have stricken us,
All: And will bind up our wounds.
One: And because we believe that you bless us in the end, we bring you our
questions and doubts and uncertainties, and we offer them. A brief silence is kept
One: Bless us as you name us,
All: As those who have prevailed.
One: We bring you all that we find hard to deal with, tasks, relationships, feelings,
and we offer them. A brief silence is kept
One: Bless us as you name us,
All: As those who have prevailed.
One: We bring you all the messy, unwinnable struggles and adversities that we face,
and offer them. A brief silence is kept
One: Bless us as you name us,
All: As those who have prevailed.
One: Amen.
*ASSURANCE OF PARDON
*RESPONSE OF PRAISE # 695 “Change My Heart, O God” CHANGE MY HEART
*PASSING OF THE PEACE
One: The peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all,
All: And also with you.
WE LISTEN FOR GOD’S WORD
ANTHEM “A Unified Prayer” B.E. Boykin
CHILDREN’S MESSAGE Trip Porch
PRAYER OF ILLUMINATION
SCRIPTURE: Genesis 32:22–31
Jacob got up during the night, took his two wives, his two women servants, and his eleven sons, and crossed the Jabbok River’s shallow water. He took them and everything that belonged to him, and he helped them cross the river. But Jacob stayed apart by himself, and a man wrestled with him until dawn broke. When the man saw that he couldn’t defeat Jacob, he grabbed Jacob’s thigh and tore a muscle in Jacob’s thigh as he wrestled with him. The man said, “Let me go because the dawn is breaking.” But Jacob said, “I won’t let you go until you bless me.”
He said to Jacob, “What’s your name?” and he said, “Jacob.” Then he said, “Your name won’t be Jacob any longer, but Israel, because you struggled with God and with men and won.” Jacob also asked and said, “Tell me your name.” But he said, “Why do you ask for my name?” and he blessed Jacob there. Jacob named the place Peniel, “because I’ve seen God face-to-face, and my life has been saved.” The sun rose as Jacob passed Penuel, limping because of his thigh.
Holy Wisdom, Holy Word
Thanks be to God
SERMON Trip Porch
*HYMN INSERT “Give Me Jesus” GIVE ME JESUS
PRAYERS OF THE CHURCH with The Lord’s Prayer using debt and debtors
TIME OF OFFERING
*OFFERTORY RESPONSE #596 “You Are Holy” DU ÄR HELIG
*PRAYER OF DEDICATION
Gracious and holy God, accept what we offer today: our money, time, and energy, but also our faltering steps, our brokenness, our leftovers, our hope, our risking, our lives. Bless and transform all that we offer and all that we hold back, that new life may be ours, to celebrate and share in Jesus’ name. Amen
*HYMN NO. 760 “Bring Many Names” vs 1-3 and 6 WESTCHASE
TIME OF COMMUNITY SHARING
CHARGE AND BENEDICTION
BENEDICTION RESPONSE “Here I Am, Lord” Daniel L. Schutte
POSTLUDE
Acknowledgments: Unless otherwise indicated, all texts and music are printed and broadcast under OneLicense.net license #A-702452
WORSHIP LEADERS
Pastor – Rev. Trip Porch
Liturgist – Doug Slusher
Children’s Message – Rev. Trip Porcch
MUSIC LEADERS
Chancel Choir
Organist – Orlay Alonso
Assoc. Director of Music – Ariel Alvarado