Sunday, August 3, 2008

From a distance?

Brad Sullivan
Proper 13, Year A
Sunday, August 3rd, 2008
Emmanuel, Houston
Genesis 32:22-31
Psalm 17:1-7, 16
Romans 9:1-5
Matthew 14:13-21


“God is watching us from a distance.” Do you remember that song, “From a Distance”? The song said that from a distance, the earth looks peaceful, and we all look like we’re living in harmony. From a distance, it looks like there really aren’t any problems on earth. I think the idea of the song is that since “God is watching us from a distance”, he sees us as loving, beautiful people who are really wonderful to each other and so he loves us and isn’t upset with us for being rather terrible to each other because he’s watching from a distance. We look beautiful to God...from a distance....what a miserable song.
Looking at the passage from Genesis today, God doesn’t seem to be watching from a distance at all. In fact, God was right here, on earth, wrestling with Jacob. They were having a knock down, drag out fight. Jacob talked with him, held on to him, received a blessing from him, and had his hip dislocated, and none of that happened from a distance. So, we’re going to look at a couple of things from this Genesis story: one, the fact that God does not look on from a distance, and two, the idea of wresting with God like Jacob did, and how we can, do, and maybe have wrestled with God as well. In looking at these ideas, I’m going to mix my thoughts with a book I’ve been reading called Jacob’s Hip in which the author, Kerry Walters, addresses wrestling with God and with our anxiety and dealing with our own vulnerability.

So first, we’ll look at this idea of God watching us from a distance. Well if, like the song says, God really is watching from a distance then no wonder some people think God is dead. If God is watching from a distance and all he sees is harmony, then God’s a pretty darn ignorant guy. The song inadvertently turns God into something of a moron who, if he ever showed up, would be terribly shocked to find that everything in the world isn’t peace and harmony.

Thankfully, God isn’t watching from a distance. Y’all remember the incarnation, Jesus coming and living among us (we celebrate it at Christmas). Well God living among us as the person of Jesus gives us a pretty good indication that God is not far off, but is rather right here with us. The fact that God wrestled with Jacob, again, shows us that God is right here with us, and if God is truly right here with us, then his experience of us is also right here with us. That is to say, God is not detached from us. God dwells with us and feels with us; he pokes and prods us sometimes trying to nudge us in the right direction. God is not above the fray. As described in the book, Jacob’s Hip, being here with us, God is vulnerable with us. Love requires vulnerability. God is love. God is vulnerable in his love for us.

Some would say, “That’s great. God is with us. God is vulnerable. Yippeetah. Why do bad things happen, then, if God is right here with us?” God is with us, but God does not force our hand or control all of our actions. Remember the last time you did something hurtful to someone else? Did God stop you? I assume not, or you wouldn’t be able to remember a time when you did something hurtful to someone. God allows us to act contrary to his will for us. God loves us enough to give us the freedom not to love him or anyone else for that matter. We are able to be hurtful to one another because God is vulnerable in his love for us.

God could bind our wills so that we could choose to harm one another (nor then could we choose to love one another), and then God easily could watch us from a distance. If we had no choice or freedom in our lives, then there would be very little reason for God to be here with us. We obviously can, however, choose to be hurtful to one anther and loving to one another, and God chooses to live and experience those choices with us.

We live in a messy world, and God gets messy right along side us, sometimes because of us. God will wrestle with us, just like with Jacob. Taking a look at Jacob, and his wrestling match with God, Jacob was wrestling God during a time of great anxiety in his life. Jacob was fleeing from his uncle Laban having less-than-scrupulously manipulated Laban out of his best livestock, and Jacob was fleeing toward his brother Esau, who wanted to kill Jacob. Esau even had a whole army set up to do the job. So, we can imagine Jacob was fairly anxious, fearful for his life, and the well being of his family and livestock.

Jacob had really been pretty anxious his entire life. Professor Walters points out the fact that Jacob was constantly trying to build up security around him. He stole his brother’s birthright, his brother’s blessing. He swindled his uncle out of the best livestock. Jacob had a nasty habit of harming other in order to protect himself from his own vulnerability. Professor Walters calls this “safety spirituality”, seeking to build up our defenses against the world. He argues that we often seek security against our own vulnerability through material things as well as through God, trying to pray enough or in the right way, or to be righteous enough for God to protect us, and he sees Jacob as a master of this “safety spirituality”.

The problem with such safety spiritualities is that we end up seeking to control others in order to protect ourselves. Jacob sought to control his brother, his father, and his uncle to the end that he had to flee for his life twice and ended up with less security than he had to begin with. Jacob treated others as play things in his quest for security rather than as human beings to be loved and honored.

We may find in our own quests for security, a tendency to try to control others and even to control God. Again, if we can pray just right, then we can manipulate God to obey our will and protect us as we want. God is not ours, however, to manipulate and control. Other people are not ours to manipulate and control. We may gain some false senses of security, like Jacob did, through our efforts to control God and others, but such security is an illusion. By controlling others, we only end up dehumanizing them, hurting them and us. By seeking our own security by controlling others we only add suffering to the world.

By looking at God as our huge safety net from all of the dangers of the world, we forget the promises God made to us. Did Jesus say nothing bad would ever happen to us? No, he said he would always be with us. God does not prevent every bad thing from ever happening to us. Again, out of God’s love for us, he gives us the freedom to harm each other, and he gives us the freedom to harm him. God is with us in our frailty, in our vulnerability, and in our insecurity about the future.

So, in our times of great anxiety, rather than seeking false security through controlling God and others, take a note from Jacob, and wrestle with God. Maybe you won’t have a physical , WWF Smackdown kind of wrestling match with God, but wrestling with God can take many forms. In times of anxiety, talk to God. When you’re at a crossroads in your life, pour out your heart and admit your vulnerability to a God who is vulnerable with you. You don’t need high and lofty words or eloquent speeches. Like a good wrestling match, pouring out one’s heart to God is an unscripted, messy affair. We simply are with God, giving to God everything that is on our hearts and minds.

Another way in which we can wrestle with God is by taking absolutely seriously the instructions, the commandments, and teachings that God has given us. Looking again at Jacob again, he made his life vastly more difficult than it had to be by treating others so badly, by worrying so much about the future that he built up security by harming others. Now, the 10 Commandments hadn’t been given yet, Jesus hadn’t spent years teaching yet, so maybe Jacob just didn’t know any better than to treat people badly, but we do. God has taught us.

We’ve been given a wonderful gift by God in that he has taught us how to live. He’s taught us that we don’t need to be anxious about tomorrow, not because bad things will never happen to us, they still might, but we don’t need to be anxious about tomorrow because God is with us and will be with us no matter what happens to us.
We have the freedom, therefore to follow God’s commandments, to live according to God’s teaching without the need to place ourselves first for fear of the future. Now, following God’s teachings isn’t easy. Living the way God wants us to live can be like a wrestling match with God, and looking again at Jacob’s wrestling match, we might get a little bit hurt. Jacob had his hip dislocated, and that never really healed. Jacob also received a blessing from God and was forever changed from Jacob, the trickster, to Israel, the one who strove with God and man and prevailed.

If we follow God’s commandments and teachings, then we too might get hurt in some way. Change in our lives often hurts, and I’m guessing there are ways in which all of us aren’t quite following the way God has given us to live. Changing our lives in order to more completely live into God’s teachings and commandments will likely hurt a little bit, but think of how much easier our lives could be if we would simply follow God’s instructions.

In Vacation Bible School this week, we looked at five ways of life God has given us. Be kind. Be obedient. Be bold. Be forgiving. Believe. Think how much easier our lives could be if we would simply live out those five rules. Be kind to one another, even to those who aren’t kind to you. Be obedient to God; follow in his ways. Be bold in approaching God. Be forgiving; let the past be the past; let go of past wrongs. Believe in God; believe in Christ, and live out that belief.
If we live according to these rules, according to the way of life God has given us, wrestling with God in this way, we’re still gonna be hurt. Jacob’s hip got dislocated, but I have a feeling he much preferred walking with a limp to running in fear for his life. If we too wrestle with God, we might be hurt, and we’ll definitely be changed, but if we wrestle with God and don’t let go, then we will also receive God’s blessing, the blessing of a God who is here with us, loving us, and getting messy in this life with us.

God could have stayed away and seen us from a distance, but God chose to be vulnerable, to love us right here where we are. Take advantage of that vulnerable love God has for us. Wrestle with God, and be blessed. Amen.