The story of Jacob is one of my favorite bible stories.  The part of Jacob's story that is part of the bible reading for the 16th October is the story of Jacob wrestling with God (Genesis 32:22-31).  I think part of the reason that I love the story of Jacob is because I identify with Jacob and his wrestling with God.  Over the years I have done a lot of wrestling with God.  Most weeks in fact I wrestled with God as I dive into the bible readings for the week and try to figure out what God wants me to say about the passages.  So each week I try to engage with the text, engage with God and try and see what themes are standing out to me, what themes God is pointing out to me.  

This week as I did that I identified the themes:
– persistence in prayer – pray always
– have hope – don’t lose heart
– Persistence in seeking justice
That was early on in the week and I thought "great!" There is my 3 point sermon.  I just need to remind everyone to keep praying, keep the hope, and keep on advocating for justice.  Simple. Done.  But I recognised sometimes it is easier said than done.

There is so much wrong in the world.  There is so much that we need to be praying about.  There is so much injustice in the world, we see this injustice when we sit and watch the news.  There is so much that we can lose heart about.  By lose heart I do not mean feeling sad, or overwhelmed.  To feel sadness, grief, anger, or anxiety are compassionate responses.  We are seeing what is going on in the world, we are seeing the injustice and we know it is not good so feelings of sadness, grief, anger or anxiety are heart responses.  So if you are feeling any anxiety over what is going on in the world, if you are feeling sadness or anger I do not think that is a sign that you have lost heart. 

To me losing heart is when we watch the news and no longer care.  When we become apathetic, when we give up on what is happening around us.  When we stop paying attention because it is too overwhelming and we would rather preserve ourselves feeling good.  I think that is losing heart and what threatens our hopefulness.

As we read the Gospel parable that Jesus told (Luke 18:1-8) we know that God is not like the unjust judge in the parable. God is the opposite of teh judge.  God is full of compassion. A lover of justice and mercy. At the end of the parable Jesus says:

“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.”

I don't know if it is just me but sometimes it feels a bit like God is like the unjust judge.  Sometimes it feels like God is delaying in bringing justice.  Sometimes it feels like our prayers are going unheard and unanswered.  And we can cry out along with the Psalmist and Job "how long O God?"

In Psalm 13:1 it says:

“How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?”

If God is so quick  how do we explain the delay? Is it beyond God’s power? How do we not lose heart, not lose hope? Why do we still see so much injustice?  How long O God?

But I was reminded this week the question “how long?” is not just one people ask God but a question that God asks people.  In Exodus  we read about Moses speaking on behalf of God as Moses questions the Pharaoh saying:

“Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, ‘How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let my people go, so that they may worship me.”

Then later God says to Moses:

“How long will you refuse to keep my commandments and instructions?”

And later again God says to Moses and Aaron:

"How long shall this wicked congregation complain against me?"

Maybe it is not God who needs to do something different?  Maybe it is us, people, humanity?

Is God right now asking the very same question? "How Long?"
"How long before the world is as I created it to be?"
"How long before you love each other as I love you?"

Do we fail to hear God's pleading with us?

Why is it that God acts so differently to the way we would like God to act?

Maybe God, out of love, values free will, personal choice which God gave us, freedom which God gives us, maybe God values that so much that God does not miraculously intervene and right wrongs. Maybe we should not picture God as a great puppeteer in the sky pulling all the strings. I am not saying God does not have the power to control all that happen but that God chooses not to use power this way.  That God does not override our decisions, as terrible as those decisions may be, because God respect people, God loves people and want us to be free.  Maybe this is one of the differences between God and us.  As humans we are much more likely to use the power that we have over and against others, rather than respecting others agency and choice.

So if God does not work that way, does not use God's power over to right all the wrongs what is the point of prayer?  Why pray at all? Does prayer make any difference? Is there any hope at all?  Maybe it depends on what we pray for and what action we couple with our prayer?

You have probably heard the modern parable of the drowning man, also known as "Two Boats and a Helicopter".  I will share it with you:

A storm descends on a small town, and the downpour soon turns into a flood. As the waters rise, a man kneels to pray. Some folk row up the street in a canoe and say “get in the waters are rising fast."
"No," he says. "I have faith in the Lord and the Lord will save me."

Still the waters rise and the man continues to pray, now upstairs on the balcony. A SES rescue boat comes by and they say:
"We need to get you out of here. The river is still rising it is not safe for you to stay"
Once again, the man says. "I will stay. The Lord will see me through."

The flood continues to rise and by now the man has climbed to the roof with water rushing all around him, when a helicopter descends out of the clouds, and calls down to him:
"Grab the ladder. We are here to save you."

But again, he refuses saying that God will save him.  And, predictably, he drowns.
He goes to heaven and gets to have a conversation with God in which he says, "Lord, I had unwavering faith in you. Why didn't you save me from that flood?"
God looks at him and shakes his head. "What did you want from me? I sent you two boats and a helicopter."

There is danger when we pray and then leave all the work up to God and think that we don’t need to change or do anything.  

Prayer is active, dynamic, relational, and mystical.  It is a connection between us and God.  Over the years I have come to think prayer is less about trying to convince God of something and getting God to do something but is a way for God to transform us.

We see this in the Genesis reading.  Jacob, the trickster who purchased his older brother’s inheritance for a bowl of soup. Then later Jacob tricked their father into giving him the blessing that was reserved for his older brother. This upset Jacob's older brother us you could imagine and Jacob ended up having to flee from home because his brother wanted to kill him.

Years later, when God told him to return home, he headed home and he gets word that his brother was coming to meet him and was bring 400 men.  Now either the older brother is throwing a massive welcome home party or something much more sinister is going on. We are told that Jacob was "greatly afraid and distressed".  Jacob was not expecting a party.  So he separated from his camp and spent the night alone and wrestled with God. Through this very intimate experience Jacob was changed.  The passage tells us that “Jacob’s hip was put out of joint” 

I imagine Jacob, this trickster, this younger brother who has managed to get his older brother's birth right just for a bowl of soup and tricked their father into giving him the blessing too, I imagine that Jacob walk with a bit of a swagger.  I imagine Jacob having a kind of arrogance and presence that was expressed in the way he walked and moved.   But after wrestling with God he walked humbly with a limp.  I wonder if Esau on seeing Jacob, this time not with the swagger that maybe he was expecting but walking with a limp towards him maybe he changed his mind about the kind of reception those 400 men were going to give him.  That he had seen that Jacob had changed, that there was a humility in the way Jacob was presenting and in turn that changed Esau's response to one of compassion and kindness.

We need to be open to the way God is changing us through our praying. Like Jacob we need perseverance and strength to pray in an active, dynamic and intimate way just as Jacob wrestled with God.

Back to the gospel reading, what can the parable tell us today? What hope can this word of God it give? It is hard to keep seeking justice.  It is a real struggle.  Giving up or living in denial of justice issues is much more comfortable than pursuing justice when the rulers of the world appear as the judge in the parable, uncompassionate and lacking respect for anyone or anything save themselves and their power.

As we look at the parable we see that the judge does not change his mind.  It is not because of a good argument that the widow has present to the judge that he becomes convince. He still fails to have compassion.  He did what he did to save himself.  He saves himself from being badgered, from being harassed, from being nagged by the widow.  This translation feeds into the stereotype of a nagging woman.  A more literal translation is to save himself from receiving a black eye.  He is literally saving face.  Do we also need to metaphorically “hit people in power where it hurts”?

It may feel like we don’t have much power, much agency but compared to a first century widow we have quite a bit of power and agency. How are we using it? Are we as faithful as the widow?

We live in a time of now and not yet. A time in which the Kingdom of God is here and still coming.  We can see glimpses of it in people who work for justice, people who persevere and show compassion, not just helping those who are hurt by the system but also working to change the system.

We need to not lose heart.  To have faith, to keep praying, to bring your deep hopes, our yearning, our fears, our grief and anything else before God.  This will ultimately drawn us more deeply into God’s presence and grace which will overwhelm us with love rather than hopelessness.  I pray that we may listen also for what God is be calling us to do for the sake of God's world.  I pray that we will keep working for justice and know that God works with us. Thank we may keep faith that all will be well in the end and if all is not well it is not the end.

Amen.