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A Sermon Delivered at First Christian
Church Stockton Romans 9:1-5, Matthew 14:13-21, Genesis 32:22-31 The
same night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maids, and his
eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23 He took them
and sent them across the stream, and likewise everything that he had. 24 Jacob
was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. 25 When
the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the
hip socket; and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with
him. 26 Then he said, “Let me go, for the day is breaking.” But
Jacob said, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.” 27 So
he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” 28 Then
the man said, “You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for
you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed.” 29 Then
Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it
that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. 30 So Jacob called
the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my
life is preserved.” 31 The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel,
limping because of his hip. 32 Therefore to this day the Israelites
do not eat the thigh muscle that is on the hip socket, because he struck
Jacob on the hip socket at the thigh muscle. Living
a life in fear is like living a life in prison. You lose all hope of a new day, a better tomorrow.
Each day becomes like the next, and oddly, you begin to find
comfort in routine, no matter how dark and dreary things are.
When I have talked to people who have been depressed for years on
end, they tell me they find some comfort in their misery.
The thought of doing something new is frightening.
They become like birds whose wings have become clipped, like dogs
chained to a tree, like men or women living in prison without hope. You
will remember Jacob, son of Isaac and Rebecca, grandson of Abraham and
Sarah, husband of Rachel whom he committed 14 years of servanthood in
order to win her from her father, Laban.
You will also remember him as a man in exile, without a country, on
the run because his brother Esau was planning on killing him for stealing
his birthright and the blessing of his father.
Many years had passed for Jacob.
He had grown and become a man and less of a scoundrel.
He had married twice and he had 11 children, and he had accumulated
much wealth. And it was time
for him to go back and to face his brother, even if it meant being killed.
He had avoided the situation long enough.
It was time for Jacob to come to terms with his past mistakes, meet
them head on. Before
he could go to his brother Esau, he needed to wrestle with God.
He could have skipped wrestling with God, or he could have rolled
over and allow God to win. But Jacob was not willing to wallow in the mistakes and
failures of his past. He was
no caged bird, nor a chained dog. He
was a person who was willing to confront his past, make amends, and live
life without fear. He was
willing to wrestle with the stranger in the night, and he came out
victorious in the morning, with a limp that followed him the rest of his
life. It was hope that
enabled Jacob to do what needed to be done, no matter what the odds and no
matter what the consequences. It
is our fears of living and being hurt that cause us to be swallowed up in
despair and to lose all hope. You
see it in the woman who remains in an abusive relationship with a husband,
or a child that is being sexually abused.
They see no hope, no way out, and rather than finding a way to
escape, they submit to the pain and torture until their soul is drained
and internally they die. We
cannot blame them for staying; it isn’t their fault.
A life without hope is a life of utter hell. We
also see it in teenagers who have no direction or purpose, and so they
give up their hope to drugs, destructive living, maybe suicide.
Their life becomes complete darkness with no light at the end of
the tunnel, and their life becomes an eternal hell. We
see it in the man who goes to his lousy job everyday, but he goes because
he see no alternative. Long
ago he gave up all hopes and dreams of doing something with his life.
He is imprisoned in a dreary life, and at night he copes by washing
away some of hells fire with a bottle of Jack Daniels.
Why
do some people manage to find hope in the midst of despair?
Why do some people find a way to not only cope with their demons,
but actually climb over the walls of their prison and go on to a new life
of meaning and purpose? If it
were just sheer determination we could teach it, or bottle it and sell it.
But I think, my friends, it is something else.
It is something much more radical that therapy or pills, both of
which can help, but alone they are not the answer.
It is a willingness to confront the past, a willingness to enter
the ring with God, an openness to being in the grasp of God and allowing
God to touch us and maybe even receive a permanent limp.
But
who of us is willing to enter the ring with God? If you have suffered from the beating this world has to
offer, who could be willing to wrestle with God in the middle of the
night? Forget it!
I’d rather wallow in my own self pity and drown my sorrows in a
bottle than risk going at it with God, the creator and sustainer of the
universe. What chance do I
have? Clip my wings, chain me
up, shut the prison doors, I cannot do it! In
the movie, Shawshank Redemption, Tim Robbins is a prisoner who was
unjustly convicted of a double homicide.
His life on the outside was destroyed, and he is sentenced to life
behind bars. In Prison he
develops a friendship with Morgan Freeman, and Freeman teaches the young
and naïve Robbins how to survive in prison.
Freeman has lost all hope of ever seeing the light of day, as had
all other prisoners, except Robbins.
Robbins believed that someday he would be exonerated, and if not he
would find a way to escape. Eventually,
after years of planning and work, Robbins escapes. After a few years, Freeman is paroled. Like many freed prisoners, he does not know how to cope
outside of prison. The rules
are different. There are many
risks. In this scene, Freeman
contemplates his two choices. Will
he buy a gun and kill someone so that he might go back to prison, a place
familiar to him, or will he buy a compass so that he can find the freedom
and hope that his friend had told him about. All
of us are imprisoned by our past, cage by our fears, tied up by our
addictions and fears. Are we
willing to wrestle with God in order that we might receive freedom and
hope, or will we choose to stay in our comfortable prisons? Christ
offers us a path, a road to redemption, a life of hope and blessings.
It is the cross he wrestled with.
Take the risk and you will see not only the light of day; you will
see life as it was meant to be led, free from prisons and chains.
And you will fly! Michael Malone
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