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PENTECOST 19, 10/20/2019
Sermon on Luke 18:1-8, by David Zersen
A Sermon based on Gen. 32:22-31 and Lk. 18:1-8 (RCL)
Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. 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. Then he said, “Let me go, for the day is breaking.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.” So he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” 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.” 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. So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved.” The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip. (Gen, 32L 24-31)
And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”(Lk. 18: 6-8)
CLAIMING YOUR BIRTHRIGHT
People may claim certain rights as a result of being born in a given family or country. In the U.S., citizenship is provided to all who are born in the country. Especially controversial is the fact that some pregnant women from foreign countries come to the U.S. to give birth to their children because they are then guaranteed citizenship—and the law has been lenient on granting citizenship to those who seek to care for the new citizens in the U.S. Some people especially in countries that still recognize nobility can pass on a rank or status to their children. All this results from an assumption about birthright.
Christians believe that baptism provides a second birth or an access to a life that God alone can grant. Such a concept of birthright is especially strong in denominations that practice infant baptism. In a situation where an infant can provide nothing, the belief is that in accepting a child God alone claims the baptized as his own. And once embraced by God, such a birthright lasts forever.
All of us who have been baptized can admit to shortcomings and failures that take us far from the intent that God’s birthright claimed for us. Each time we pass a baptismal font we are called to remember the claim of our birthright. And both the Old Testament and the Gospel lesson for today invite us to consider the power of God’s claim over us.
Troubled Like Jacob
The Bible is replete with fascinating stories, often challenging to us because we can recognize ourselves in the stories. You may know that Jacob’s name means usurper, cheater, and supplanter. He deceived his father, Isaac, and stole the birthright, the status belonging to the elder son, Esau. He carries the meaning of his name with him as a burden, just as many of us are burdened by the reality of what we have become, people far removed from the intent of the birthright that was given to us in baptism. Then one night, as the story goes, Jacob has a dream and in it he wrestles with a man who demands to know his name. How difficult it will be for Jacob to admit that his name means trickster, charlatan, scoundrel! As he wrestles with the stranger, and gets his hip out of joint in the process, he is told that he will be given a new name, Israel, one that means “one who wrestles with God.” Jacob limps away from the encounter as a new man and becomes the father of a nation.
There is a profound relationship between this story’s meaning and our experience in baptism. God claims us in baptism, drowns us in its water and raises us to new life. Both St. Paul and Luther found great meaning in this description of dying and rising. I love the story about Luther who admitted that if ever he felt depressed, uncertain about what or who he had become, he wrote in the dust on Kaethe’s dinner table, “Baptizatus est.” “I am baptized.” I love that insight because we can practice that act as well. When we are troubled about our thoughts and actions and we pass the font, we can dip our finger in the water, or write a message to ourselves on our iPhone, reminding that we are baptized! That we are called by name and are known to God.
This past Sunday a baptism took place in the church we were attending and a practice was used that has become common. The words of the Rite of Baptism make clear that baptism involves dying and rising to a new life. But then the pastor takes the child and parades around with it, chatting about its lovely blue eyes and the women in the congregation coo “Isn’t she beautiful.” This increasingly common practice focusing on cuteness tends to cheapen the importance of the new possibility that is born in each of us as we are baptized.
Psychologically, each of us knows that the Christ that is made alive in us in baptism is crucified again and again as we act in ways that deny our rebirth and allow the old Adam within to deny our birthright. Just as Jacob carried a burden of failure with him, so we also are troubled with the ways in which our actions and thoughts deny the Lord who would live in and through us. Placing ourselves in mind of our baptism regularly calls for repentance as we seek to walk into a future free from our past.
Celebrating the grace that accepts us
The Gospel lesson for today tells about another person who wrestles with God, this time a woman seeking justice and feeling upset that God doesn’t grant her wish. The story reminds me of many people who have rejected Christianity because it seems to them that Christianity’s God is unjust. “If there is a merciful or just God,” some ask, “why would he allow my spouse to die such a difficult death?” The same type of question about God’s mercy or justice asks why wars are allowed or serial killers or hurricanes or illnesses like AIDS? And those who actually struggle about such things in prayer have all the more reason to ask whether their God is trustworthy?
Jesus’ comment at the end of the parable suggests that the bigger issue is not whether God is just, but whether people are fervently pursuing a relationship with him. It’s too easy for a person to write God off because something happened that doesn’t meet your expectation of truth or mercy or justice. And sadly, many of the objections raised by God’s critics have political implications. Five U.S. soldiers die and four-hundred Afghan soldiers die and the patriots are concerned only about the five. “Ok, another five and I’m done with God! Why would he allow this?” Like the woman in the parable, we need to be wrestling in prayer to discover the larger issues implicit in questions about using military solutions for international problems or questioning how we can legitimately call people enemies when Jesus has called them friends?
Most importantly, with both Jacob and the troubled widow, do we appreciate the grace that accepted us in baptism and that supports us in faith every day of our lives? We who are graced, who are loved, can claim God’s forgiveness implicit in our new name, Christian, and walk away from a past in which failures lie like trinkets on our paths. And like the woman who is all too ready to believe that her view of justice is bigger than God’s, our acceptance in baptism encourages us using the power of prayer to replace our shortsighted conclusions with alternative realities.
I have noticed the all too common change among secular Christians now easily claiming that because of some personal trouble or assessment of world problems they are agnostics or even atheists. However, in increasingly diverse societies in which large numbers of neighbors may be Muslim or Buddhist or Sikh, they have become more comfortable in aligning themselves with an earlier self-understanding. If one is not wrestling in prayer with persistence, it’s all too easy to say “I’m done with God.” But if one has a personal experience that belongs only to those who are persistent, then words like grace, forgiveness, repentance and mercy and cherished in new and different ways.
And the God who wrestles with Jacob… and also with you.. can remind you of the joy of affirming the name you first received at your baptism-- child of God, Christian, beloved.
Hymn: The Birthright God has given to us. (Jordan)