Wrestling with God, and Ourselves

Sermon given at Evans United Methodist Church
August 6, 2017

Wrestling with God, and Ourselves

Romans 9:1-5
1 I am speaking the truth; I belong to Christ and I do not lie. My conscience, ruled by the Holy Spirit, also assures me that I am not lying 2 when I say how great is my sorrow, how endless the pain in my heart 3 for my people, my own flesh and blood! For their sake I could wish that I myself were under God's curse and separated from Christ. 4 They are God's people; he made them his children and revealed his glory to them; he made his covenants 5 they are descended from the famous Hebrew ancestors; and Christ, as a human being, belongs to their race. May God, who rules over all, be praised forever! 
Amen.

Genesis 32:22-31
22 That same night Jacob got up, took his two wives, his two concubines, and his eleven children, and crossed the Jabbok River. 23 After he had sent them across, he also sent across all that he owned, 24 but he stayed behind, alone.

Then a man came and wrestled with him until just before daybreak. 25 When the man saw that he was not winning the struggle, he hit Jacob on the hip, and it was thrown out of joint. 26 The man said, “Let me go; daylight is coming.”

 

“I won't, unless you bless me,” Jacob answered.

 

27 “What is your name?” the man asked.

 

“Jacob,” he answered.

 

28 The man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob. You have struggled with God and with men, and you have won; so your name will be Israel.”

 

29 Jacob said, “Now tell me your name.”

 

But he answered, “Why do you want to know my name?” Then he blessed Jacob.

 

30 Jacob said, “I have seen God face-to-face, and I am still alive”; so he named the place Peniel.  

 

31 The sun rose as Jacob was leaving Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip. 32 Even today the descendants of Israel do not eat the muscle which is on the hip joint, because it was on this muscle that Jacob was hit.