In today’s readings we are presented with one of those classic encounters, Jacob’s Night-long Struggle with the Stranger, which you would have to admit is one of the more difficult of such passages. The Gospel passage presents us with another encounter presented in parabolic form by Jesus. It in itself tells us both about God and ourselves. And it needs to be said that in many ways the New Testament parable and the passage from the Old Testament are related.

Jacob is not the most attractive character of the Old Testament literature. After all he stole his brother’s birthright by sheer trickery. No wonder he was scared as hell at meeting his brother Esau after his 7 year’s absence seeking his wife. The reading we heard today says that Jacob “was greatly afraid and distressed”. This all led to his elaborate plan to soften the blow of his brother’s anger. Thus the plans to divide his worldly wealth up like some modern millionaire dividing his wealth into trust funds, foundations and companies and the like. There is much more of that in the text which we missed out on in the reading. But having made all these arrangements and sending his family ahead to a safe place, Jacob is at last left alone. Just to pause a moment: our own lives are sometimes like that; we make elaborate arrangements to organize our lives and those of our families to protect them and us from every eventuality. But there comes a point where, like Jacob, we are “left alone” with our thoughts, our conscience, our memories with the whole night before us and no one else around. Jacob experiences the night-long wrestle, a sort of Dark Night of the Soul, when he encounters the presence and power of the Other, the mysterious stranger who he realizes next morning is none other than the Lord God of Israel. So he called the place Peniel, “for I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved”. It is not by chance that there are echoes of Gethsemane here.

This extraordinary striving between God and man reminds us of the struggle of faith, or of that sort of prayer which is akin to the woman supplicant in the parable of Jesus. It is that sort of prayer or faith that does not easily give up; which is persistent and passionate. It is premised on a very different view of God than the one we may have learned. For the God we see here is not some distant, benign being but one who is close to us and with whom we can engage in vigorous encounter and argument, yes at times with raised voices and shaking fists. This is the God of the Psalmist and of Job, a God from whom answers are demanded and to whom all concerns are relevant. There is something wonderfully feisty and healthy in this encounter between Jacob and God. And furthermore it is an encounter with its own cost to Jacob. In order to prevail we are told the stranger struck Jacob on the thigh and dislocated his hip. We are reminded yet again that there is always a cost to prayer as there is to love. To pray is to place oneself in God’s hands. True prayer leads to ministry or to a “job of work” to be done. Thomas Merton claimed that it was his deep prayer that led to his protest against the Vietnam War. Desmond Tutu says the same thing about his own stand for justice: that it was the fruit of his encounter with the God of Justice in prayer.

What also fascinates me in this classic Old Testament passage is the verse omitted at the end of our reading. “The sun rose upon Jacob as he passed Peniel, limping because of his hip”. The cost of the encounter with Love is to carry the wound of love with you. You are never the same again having encountered Love. Thus it was in Charles Wesley’s great hymn/poem known as “Wrestling Jacob” part of which is in our hymnbook as number 638, “Come O Thou Traveler unknown”, that the final stanzas link this incident to the Sacrifice of Christ on the Cross. In the hymn the poet cries “’Tis Love, ‘tis Love! Thou diedst for me! I hear the whisper in my heart: the morning breaks, the shadows flee. Pure Universal Love thou art; thy mercies never shall remove, thy nature and thy name is Love”. And in the same vein St John tells us that in the Resurrection appearance to the gathered Apostles in the Upper Room, “Jesus showed them his hands and his side”, themselves the “wounds of love”.

But it also worth noting that from his encounter Jacob not only carried a wound but even more importantly he recognized whom he had encountered; that is not just some unknown stranger, but the living God; and in that encounter Jacob was given a new name, Israel. Jacob moved from being a frightened, cowardly, deceitful man to be God’s chosen agent in forming his faithful people. And more than that the conclusion of the relationship with his brother is entirely different from that he had expected. In the next chapter it says: “But Esau ran to meet him, and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept.” Does that remind you of something? Once again we hear echoes from the Gospels of Jesus and most especially the Prodigal Son. So often our fears and doubts are overwhelmed by the sheer generosity of the love of God.

Turning briefly to the Gospel passage about the persistent woman who drove the Unjust Judge crazy it seems to me that she stands in the tradition of Wrestling Jacob. She like Jacob does not easily give up. Luke tells us it is a “parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart”. It certainly can be seen as a teaching about prayer. But it is more than that. For the woman was seeking justice against her opponent. We are told twice that this judge is unjust neither fearing God nor having respect for anyone. But the woman does not give up and in the end the judge gives way just for a quiet life. The whole point of the parable is to remind us not to give up in our approach to God, in our concerns for love and justice, but also that the God we encounter in the person and work of Jesus, is the complete opposite to the Unjust Judge. If this judge grants the woman’s petition, how much more will our God hear us who call upon him. The woman calls to mind so many great Christians and other human beings who have not given up in their struggle for justice and freedom. You could name William Wilberforce and his life-long struggle for the abolition of the slave trade, the 200th anniversary of which we celebrate this year, or in our own time of Nelson Mandela and his life-long fight for freedom and justice in South Africa.

Can we relate all this to the issue of Stewardship which we are focusing on at present? Well yes I think we can. Like Jacob we get into a bind about our money. Like him we struggle with all the possibilities; will I have enough to survive?; what about my old age?; what about my health?; what if I would lose my job?; what if my building is sold and my rent goes up?; what if the property boom finishes and the markets go bust?; and so it goes on. In our struggles with our finances we often lose faith; of a sense of trust in God’s provision. Like Jacob we think the worst about the future. Like him we need to face up to our financial anxieties; to wrestle with them; to confront them and to see that there are other ways of looking at them; ways that reflect our faith in God and his providence. Jacob discovered on meeting his brother Esau that reality was different. We will discover as we make an act of faith in our stewardship of our money that God not only provides but blesses our generosity of spirit.

Jacob’s struggle with his doubts and demons and the Widow’s persistent struggle with the Unjust Judge are models for us of a living, risk-taking faith that does not give up on Love, Justice or ultimately on God. Amen

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