Sunday, October 21, 2007
Genesis 32:22-31
“Wrestling For Blessings”

[Note: As is often the case, I preached this sermon without notes, and so this is the text I had written prior to the sermon and revised after the sermon.  It is a little bit different from the spoken word, but hopefully faithful to it.  AVH]

I would like to share with you a little bit of the story of Rachel Carson, marine biologist and author.  I learned about this amazing woman by listening to a pod cast of the recent episode of Bill Moyer's Journal on PBS (1).  In addition to writing books about the ocean and the life therein, as well as a number of children's books, she authored the groundbreaking 1963 book, Silent Spring, which called into question the indiscriminant use of pesticides and other chemicals and their dangerous effects on our environment and on human beings.  Her book, and she herself, came under attack from the chemical industry and from some in the Department of Agriculture.

What came after her bestselling and viciously criticized book can be labeled nothing less than a revolution.  The Environmental Protection Agency, formed soon after Silent Spring was published, credits its birth to her book.  Hundreds of laws, never before imagined, which would protect the health and welfare of human beings and all living creatures, would be passed, in large part due to the awareness Rachel Carson raised.

But before all that success, the chemical industry would put its multi-million dollar weight into trying to discredit her work, and Rachel Carson as an individual.  One critic maligned her by saying that as a “spinster” with no children of her own she did not have the right to worry about genetics!  She was required to testify before congressional hearings and defend herself on news shows time and time again.  Some of that criticism has resurfaced today, trying to get us to roll back some of the vital legislation passed in the 1960's.

But what I really want you to reflect upon is that at the very same time she was researching her book, writing it, and then defending it before the public, she was also taking care of a dying mother and her adopted her deceased sister's 11-year old son, and was waging a very personal and private battle against breast cancer, from which she would die the following year.  But she never regretted what she had to do, and never shied away from doing it.  Rachel Carson is a model for how, more often than not, at the very time when life's situations have us weary and wasted, a huge, life-changing problem confronts us and we must wrestle for our life.

Our ancient forbearer Jacob knew this truth all too well.  Wrestling with life seems to be our lot as human beings, and certainly as people of faith.

It is an age-old conundrum that the more one cares about life, the more one struggles with it.  The more one tries to live with integrity, it seems the more one must wrestle with doing so.  I remember being taught in high school the ancient truth “the unexamined life is not worth living.” (Socrates, in Plato, Dialogues, Apology).  I agree, and believe in this maxim wholeheartedly.  But my heart wonders is this the same thing as saying that an “unwrestled life” is not worth living?  Couldn't all this struggle simply be a challenging mental game that simply needs to be thought through more critically?  No, my experience seems to prove that life has to be an all out struggle, nothing less than wrestling with life, oftentimes to the point of life or death.

Likewise, these two examples with which I've begun my sermon challenge my perception that there should be an ebb and flow to our wrestling, our struggling; that there should be periods of rest, renewal, contentment between great periods of exertion.  It simply doesn't seem to match my experience, nor the experience of Rachel Carson nor Jacob.  “No rest for the weary” seems to be truer and truer the older I get.

How, then, does Matthew 11 “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest” balance out with Genesis 32 and “There's no rest for the weary.”  On top of these questions, laying like a heavy stifling blanket on top, are the words of Martin Luther King, Jr. "The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."

So to catch a breath I must step back and look at what is happening in Jacob's life.  He was born into a conflicting life, with his father devoted to his older brother, Esau, but his mother insistent on Jacob being the blessed child.  He came out of this tense family relationship a tried-and-true trickster.  But here, in today's text, years later, he is returning to his brother, from whom he stole the eldest son's birthright, hoping to make amends, and yet is afraid for his very life.  But before the confrontation with Esau, Literally on the eve of confronting all his dirty and convoluted past, he is forced to wrestle with “a man.” 

We now assume that this was a messenger from God.  Like Jacob, we don't always know in the midst of the struggle if something is for God or against God, of God or of something ungodly.  But what Jacob does, using all of his well-honed con-artist skills, he holds onto this attacker for dear life, and assumes… no, expects this struggle to be of God, and demands a blessing.  His hip is pulled out of it's socket, but he gets his blessing, and a name change to boot.  Jacob now becomes Israel - a man is ironically made whole and a nation is born.

There are three things we learn from Jacob which will help us in our own wrestlings in life.  One he models before the actual struggle, and two he models during.

First, he meets his adversary face to face.  He knows all-too-well that he has mistreated his brother, Esau, and has snarled his relationship with his family beyond recognition.  But rather than do what is often the tactic we humans take, running away or trying to solve the problem indirectly, he heads directly into the maelstrom and seeks to work this out with his brother.  Even at the risk of death, which is clearly what Jacob is preparing for as he sends most of his caravan heading in a different direction, he still moves toward the one with whom he is in conflict, and models for all of us healthy communication.

We all would do well to follow Jacob's example and face the consequences of our behaviors directly, walk honestly and forthrightly to those with whom we disagree or are in conflict, and seek a resolution that is honorable and straightforward skills (see handout on the Rule of Christ from Matthew 25).

Second, as this “man” wrestles with Jacob throughout the night, somehow he recognizes that God is in this struggle, and that clearly no one will really prevail.  At this point, Jacob holds on to him for dear life.  Jacob holds on to God. How often have we let go of God just as the struggle begins to get rough?  Could we not also follow Jacob's lead and, when we are in the heat of the battle with the foes of life, hold on to God with everything we've got.  When it looks like there will be no winners and no losers, rather than throwing up our hands, giving in and giving up, what would happen if we just held on… to God?

We all would do well to follow Jacob's example and, in the midst of our struggles, when it appears it's going to be a long sleepless night, or the battle is going to be a draw, to hold on to God.  Whether through prayer or cursing or whatever, the challenge is to hold onto God and trust what will happen will be holy, if albeit unexpected.

Third, and finally, Jacob asks… no, demands a blessing from the divine messenger.  He didn't ask for it in the relaxed atmosphere of life before the trip to Esau's place.  He didn't wait until afterwards, when he either knew the end of the story, whether he would live through this wrestling match with God or through the face-to-face with Esau or would die.  He asks for God's blessings in the midst of the struggle.  How amazing and powerful is that? 

We, too, would do well to follow Jacob's example and try to remember that in the middle of the struggles of life is precisely where the abundant blessings of God are to be most readily found.

Jacob gets his blessing, but not without a scar, a mark, a permanent reminder of the struggle of that night.  We do, too.  Rarely do we struggle with life - and never with God -  without walking away without a limp.  Physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, or even just symbolically… it doesn't matter.  The scar becomes a part of who we are.  Not a medal of honor that we survived, but simply a marking point of a particularly difficult place on the journey of life.

Ask any woman who has had a mastectomy.  The scars of the struggle become a part of who you are.  And blessings are possible, not in spite of the struggle, not apart from the scars, but because of them.  Talk about faith!

Just like Rachel Carson in her struggle with the powers that be, chosen and given, blessings do come.  Unlike Jacob, she dove directly into the conflict knowing that she was in the right.  But like Jacob, she held onto the truth she knew to be holy and she sought after and received the blessing that was there.  Jacob-Now-Israel would never truly understand nor see the epic story of the peoples who would be named after him.  Likewise, while Rachel Carson would never fully see the results of her hard work, the multitude of blessings realized, our world is better because of her courage, her wisdom, her poetry, and her passion.

And may God Bless us all in all the struggles of our lives!

Amen.




MORE ON Rachel Carson:

The Environmental Protection Agency looks to her as a founding inspiration and the Fish & Wildlife Service as a source of agency pride. The EPA's official history site states: "There is no question...that SILENT SPRING prompted the Federal Government to take action against water and air pollution - as well as against the misuse of pesticides - several years before it otherwise might have moved."

But the common view of Rachel Carson's impact goes far beyond government bureaucracy. Carson and her most famous book, SILENT SPRING, are credited with no less than inspiring the modern global environmental movement. In its collection of the 100 most important people of the 20th Century, TIME magazine said: "Before there was an environmental movement, there was one brave woman and her very brave book." In 2007, the centenary of Carson's birth is being celebrated around the world - and her work is still making waves - just as it did in 1962.

The success of THE SEA AROUND US enabled Carson to retire from government service. She turned her attention to documenting the effects of pesticides on the environment. As she noted in "Essay on the Biological Sciences" in GOOD READING - from 1958 the notion of ecology and the idea that some wondrous new technologies may come with destructive side effects were new.
Only within the 20th Century has biological thought been focused on ecology, or the relation of the living creature to its environment. Awareness of ecological relationships is - or should be - the basis of modern conservation programs, for it is useless to attempt to preserve a living species unless the kind of land or water it requires is also preserved. So delicately interwoven are the relationships that when we disturb one thread of the community fabric we alter it all - perhaps almost imperceptibly, perhaps so drastically that destruction follows. -"Essay on the Biological Sciences" in GOOD READING, 1958
Carson undertook her own painstaking research and the result was the blockbuster - SILENT SPRING - that garnered the attention of the populace, the President and the chemical industry. SILENT SPRING had been excerpted before its 1962 publication in THE NEW YORKER and furor over the book came swiftly. Some critics characterized Carson as a hysterical alarmist who advocated for rolling back progress - though Carson never argued for out-right pesticide bans - but rather for study and caution. (1)

(1) http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/09212007/profile.html





Rev. Allen V. Harris
Franklin Circle Christian Church
www.FranklinCircleChurch.org


 

Copyright 2007 -- The Rev. Allen V. Harris

Franklin Circle Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

1688 Fulton Rd., Cleveland, OH 44113-3096