An Encounter with Yourself

August 6, 2023 Genesis 32:22-31 An Encounter with yourself 10th Sunday of Pentecost Year A Prelude Welcome Call to Worship L: Good Morning! Welcome to a celebration of God’s love for us! P: We surely need to see that love; stresses weigh us down. L: You’ve come to the right place. This is a place where all of us can seek God’s presence and share our deepest inmost concerns with God. P: We are glad to hear that, for we wrestle with our faith far too often. L: Don’t fear! God is with you always, loving and transforming your lives. P: Lord of mercy and compassion, be in our hearts this day. Help us to reach out with love to others. AMEN. (United Methodist Ministry Matters, Nancy Townley) Opening Prayer In the darkness of night and the brightness of day, you, O Lord, are present to us. As we wrestle with situations which seem to drain us of our energy; as we struggle to find out who you call us to be, you reach out to us with reassurance of empowerment and courage for the days ahead. Calm our spirits and prepare our hearts and lives to receive your awesome grace. It is in Jesus’ name that we pray. AMEN. (United Methodist Ministry Matters, Nancy Townley) Song Break Thou the Bread of Life UMH 599 Children’s Sermon Put the ice cubes in a bowl and keep them frozen until you’re ready to use them. Set out the rest of the supplies. Keep the hair dryer out of sight until you use it. You’ll need to be near an electrical outlet. Have you ever watched a wrestling match? Wrestling is a popular sport all over the world. Wrestlers have to be strong and determined to win. Wrestling isn’t a modern invention, though. It’s one of the oldest sports in the world, and it dates back thousands of years. Have everyone show you their best wrestler face and pose. In today’s Bible lesson, Jacob spent an entire night wrestling with an angel of God. After an entire night of wrestling, God’s angel told Jacob to walk away. Jacob left the wrestling match with a new name and a limp from his hurt hip. We sometimes struggle with God, too. We may want to do things our way instead of His way. When is it hard for you to obey God? (Allow time for responses.) Give each child a paper towel. Explain that they’re in charge now. They’ll each have to choose how they think they can most quickly melt an ice cube. They can use a straw to blow hot air on it, sprinkle salt on it, or hold it to try to melt it most quickly. Pass around the supplies so kids can choose, then distribute the ice cubes. Give kids one minute to try to melt their ice cube using their chosen method. Meanwhile, turn on the hair dryer and blow hot air on your ice cube. Call time, then compare everyone’s efforts. How did your way compare to my way of melting the ice cube? Why was my way more effective? My ice cube melted much faster because I had more power. And with God’s power, we can do greater things. We can stop doing things our way. We can surrender to God’s will and trust that He knows best. Dear God, please help us remember that You are the One who knows what’s best for us. We can surrender to Your will and trust You. In Jesus’ name, amen! Responsive Reading Psalm 17 UMH 749 Prayer for illumination Since we do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from your divine mouth, make us hunger for heavenly food, that it may nourish us today in the ways of eternal life; through Jesus Christ, the bread of heaven. Amen. (Presbyterian Outlook, Dana Mould) Scripture Genesis 32:22-31 Sermon An Encounter with yourself How many of you are into the sport of wrestling? I guess I should clarify which kind of wrestling I’m talking about, because there are a surprising number of competitions with the word “wrestling” in them that aren’t exactly sports. I’m sure all of us have tried arm wrestling or thumb wrestling at one time or another. But have you tried toe wrestling? Two barefoot opponents lock their big toes together and try to pin each other’s foot down. Ouch. Some folks in Staffordshire, England, created the World Toe Wrestling Championships in 1976. Reportedly, they were trying to create a competition “where Brits could reign supreme” and this is the best one they could think of. (1) Lancashire, England is home to the World Gravy Wrestling Championship, which happens every year in August. There are separate competitions for men and women. Wrestlers earn points for “fancy dress, entertainment value and wrestling ability.” The man and woman wrestlers with the most points at the end are declared the winners. The World Gravy Wrestling Championship is a charity event that raises funds for the East Lancashire Hospice. (2) In case you’re envious of the Brits for getting all the good wrestling competitions, Barnesville, Minnesota, is home to a mashed potato wrestling competition every year during its Potato Days Festival. The competition takes place in the parking lot of the Assumption Catholic Church in Barnesville. A pool is set up and filled with potato flakes and water. Competitors get two three-minute rounds in the pool. The competitor with the most 3-second pins per round moves on to the next round. At the end of the day, local cattle are brought in to eat up all the leftover mashed potatoes in the pool. (3) Wrestling, no matter whether it’s with arms or thumbs or toes, in gravy or in mashed potatoes, is not for the faint of heart. For many competitors, the secret to success is in holding on until your opponent simply wears out. Of course, that strategy won’t work if you’re wrestling an angel of God. So, what did Jacob hope to get from his wrestling match in Genesis 32? In our scripture, Jacob is in a wrestling match that changes his life. Who don’t know who he’s wrestling with, or even if he wins the fight. This story is a good one to remind ourselves that life is difficult. Now Life is a blessing, life is a gift, life is a journey. But most of all, life is a struggle. No ones comes out of life alive. And at some point in the midst of that ongoing struggle, we find ourselves in a wrestling match – with an opponent that we can clearly see, but we just can’t give it a name. We may wrestle with a relationship, a feeling, a challenge, a situation, a condition that we just can’t overcome. For Jacob, it was all fo the above. The book of Genesis tells is Jacob’s whole life story. He was born on the heels of his twin brother. That is what he name Jacob means – grabber. The modern translation of the name Jacob, is John. Jacob had to fight for everytrhing in his life, his blessing, his wives, his children, his animals, his livelihood. And now he must face the fight of his life, reuniting with his twin brother. After living in exile for 14 years, on the night before his encounters his brother. He sends his family on ahead of him. He is all alone with his thoughts in the middle of the night. At least he thinks he is alone. But he ends up wrestling with all of his regrets, his misdeeds, his resentments. All of the things that stand in the way of reununting with his brother. The story says that he ends up wrestling with a man. But the story never tells us who the man is. Was it his conscious? An angel, God or even Jesus. The poet, James Thurber, once said, “All men must learn before they die, what they are running from and to and why.” Henri Nouwen, in one of his last writings, says, “I found myself in a hospital following a car accident. At first I thought it was nothing. Then I was told I was bleeding internally and might not live. Surprisingly, I found the threat of death to be peaceful beyond my understanding. It was when I woke up and discovered myself still alive in this world, that I became re Sometimes the struggle that makes for growth is simply a tension between an old idea and a new one. For years all sane and stable people knew that human beings could never fly. But when the Wright brothers flew their airplane, the world had to adjust its thinking – but not without a struggle. Centuries ago, some crazy people came along insisting that the world is round instead of flat. They were ridiculed and persecuted until someone sailed around the globe and reached the east by sailing west. We’ve had to change our way of thinking – but not without a struggle. In fact, some people haven’t given up yet. In England there is a group of people called “The Flat Earth Society,” still stubbornly insisting that the earth is flat! An old, false, or inaccurate idea will not be released until it is pushed out of our minds by a new and better idea. I may insist that the sum of two and two is three – I may invest myself emotionally in that contention – and I will stubbornly hold on to that until someone, in the battle of ideas, proves to my satisfaction that the correct sum is four. Without such a conflict of ideas there is no intellectual growth. Such growth is often difficult and painful. It does not come without the struggle of ideas. Now, as difficult and painful as that is, even more difficult is the growth occasioned by changes in our life situation. We lose a job, or we take on a new job. We experience divorce or difficulty in our family. We experience a terrorist attack or a natural disaster. A financial reversal comes to us. We or a loved one becomes ill. Someone close to us dies. Someone we care about betrays us or disappoints us. We are presented with an opportunity and our resources are inadequate. You could add to this list, but you know what I am talking about: something happens to shake us to our foundation. All of our trusted ways of coping are called into question and we are forced to grow. We have to think new thoughts, or try new things, or reach out for new resources. That’s all called growth! It’s frightening. It’s unsettling. Often it’s painful. But without such experiences we would not grow. I’m convinced of it. We would settle down and become comfortable with far less than our best efforts. The familiar and the safe would become good enough for us, and we would never become all that we can be. God has a way of coming to us in so many ways and forcing us to rethink, reform and move forward in a whole new way. For Jacob, before he could even think about forgiving his brother, he had to forgive himself. But that was a process, a struggle, a wrestling match. But when we wrestle, we learn 2 things. We learn to encounter God and we learn that there is always a blessing in the end. There is no way for us to grow without a struggle and without some pain. This story has a lot of meaning. But one important theme is the forgiveness with our sisters and brothers. The ten commandments gives us direction on the relationship with our parents. In Sunday School a teacher, was teaching about the ten commandments. She said the commandment for our relationship with our parents is honor your mother and father. She asked what is the one for sibling. One little boy said – Thou shalt not kill”. But this story is closest to what it means to deal with our siblings. We fight all of the time, but how do you move beyond that. We have brothers and sisters that we grew up with, but we also have brothers and sisters in church, in the groups that the live in, in the nation that we live in and even on the plane together. We have to learn to get along. There can be no continuing relationship without forgiveness and reconciliation. The story says that Jacob wrestled with his opponent all night, until daylight. No one won the fight, but the opponent was getting tired of fighting. He touched Jacob in the side wounding his hip socket, But Jacob said that he would not give up until he received a blessing. Once he got that blessing he was at peace with himself, so he could not seek peace with his brother. The reconciliation with Essau is not a part of our story – but I think it is one of the most important story in the bible. It gives us hope that reconciliation with our siblings can happen. First Jacob sends gifts to his brother, then he sends his family. At last he comes face to face with his brother. All is forgiven. They agree that they can live together in the same land and be civil with each other. Their parting words to one another becomes a beautiful Christian benediction. May the Lord watch between you and me, one another, while we are absent one from another. What a wonderful blessing. But it actually meant that reconciliation is tentative. They were twins, they knew each other. They still didn’t trust one another, but they both trusted God. And may that is how it should be with us all – we don’t know what will happen in the future, but we put our people, relationships, situations, conditions, our unnamed opponents, into the hands of God and just leave them their. Throughout this process, God gives Jacob.a wound that all of his desendents carry on from generation to generation. But God also gives Jacob a new name. He was born the grabber. His new name Isra el. Isra means one who prevails. El means God. Life is a struggle for all of us. All of us are wrestling with things that we cant name. God is there for us. The good news is that in Jesus – we are all new people. We all receive God’s blessing. We all have to the power to prevail. The writer of Genesis closes this chapter in Jacob's life with a beautiful picture. It is a picture of a limping Jacob preparing to meet his brother Esau. He is no longer afraid of Esau. After all, he has wrestled all night with God. How can he fear a mere mortal? But now he is a new Jacob. He even has a new name, Israel. He will become a prince among men. Forevermore his descendants, millions of them, will be known as the children of Israel. As the sun rises over Peniel we see him standing there with a dislocated thigh indicating his brokenness. Yet, he is stronger than he has ever been before. His life is now aligned with the eternal purposes of God. How about you? Have you been wrestling with God? Isn't it time to let God be Sovereign over your life? There is a story about a man who had mis-spent most of his life. A friend was teasing him about it. "Say John," he asked mischievously, "You still spending a lot of time wrestling with the old Devil?" The fellow answered good-naturedly, "Nowadays, I spend most of my time wrestling with God." His friend asked incredulously, "Wrestling with God? How do you hope to win a wrestling match with God?" John smiled and answered, "Oh, you misunderstand. In this wrestling match, I'm hoping to lose." Dynamic Preaching, Collected Sermons, by King Duncan When our will loses, God wins. When God wins – everybody wins. Amen. Song Let us Break Bread Together UMH 618 Prayer As the crowds followed Jesus, eager to be filled with hope, we come this day to this place, seeking nourishments for our souls. We hunger and thirst for the word of hope and truth, but our lives are battered by anger and hostility. Our hearts are filled with concerns for family and friends, for our country and our world. We don’t see how we can be of help to others. Sit us down, as Jesus seated the multitude. Calm us down, as Jesus reassured the disciples that all would receive care. Lift us up, as Jesus encouraged others to reach out in compassion. Give us hearts of confident faith in your presence, O Lord. Place your hands of healing on the many situations which we name at this time with our voices and in our hearts. [Prayer concerns are lifted up here]. Lord, we ask your merciful goodness for these situations and these loved ones. It is in Jesus’ name that we pray. AMEN. (United Methodist Ministry Matters, Nancy Townley) Lord’s Prayer Stewardship Moment Perhaps some of you can sympathize with Jesus. He’d been working non-stop, healing, teaching, and responding to the demands of the crowds. When he heard of the murder of John the Baptist, he tried to break away for some time alone. Yet when he looked up from the boat he’d taken across to what he hoped would be a deserted place, a crowd had already gathered! Instead of turning around, or simply dropping anchor out on the water, Jesus came ashore, and “had compassion for them”. Even when we are exhausted, discouraged, uncertain or depressed, we have the model of Jesus standing before us. Jesus engaged, once more, with people who needed food in that deserted place. So he took what was available, gave thanks to God for the bread and fish, and gave the food to his disciples to pass to the crowds. Today, we have opportunity to demonstrate our compassion – our “pity with” others. Not the only way, but one way to respond to the needs of those without food, without shelter, without clothing, without hope, comes by sharing our morning offering. Will you put compassion to the forefront for this moment? Will you respond, knowing a portion of our offering goes to ____________________ (support the food pantry, provide new underwear for those coming to our free clothing shop, pay our minister as s/he counsels with disconsolate folks)? Let us present our gifts as signs and symbols of the compassion we know most clearly from the life of Jesus, the Christ. Prayer of Thanksgiving As one family we sing while these, our gifts, to God we bring; who in love has made us one in the church of Christ, God’s Son. Use us and use our gifts, good Lord, for holy service in the world. Hope to all your people give as to your glory we now live. AMEN (adapted from P. 126, Gifts of Many Cultures, Maren C. Tirabasi and Kathy Wonson Eddy, 1995, Pilgrim Press) Invitation to Communion (inspired by Matthew 14) Each time we come to this Table, we hear an invitation extended to all who will come. Here there are no tests to pass, no threshold of giving to exceed, no affirmation from some authority to present. Here we find the gifts of God for the people of God, presented in simple bread and juice. Counting on the compassion of Jesus Christ, we recognize our hunger and our thirst may be assuaged here even as we remember in a deserted place, long ago, Jesus took simple foods, blessed them, broke the bread and gave the bread and fish. So, today, knowing these gifts will not fill our stomachs, but can satisfy our soul hunger, we remember Jesus taking bread, blessing it, breaking it, giving it. With gratitude, come to receive the bread of life and the cup of salvation. Communion Announcements Closing Prayer for Facebook Go out into the world in peace; have courage; hold onto what is good; return no on evil for evil; send no one away; instead, feed all those who are hungry; support the weak; help the suffering; honor all people; love thy neighbor as thyself; love and serve the gracious and merciful Lord, rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen. (Presbyterian Outlook, Dana Mould) Community Time - Joys and Concerns Benediction Go today full of God’s love and ready to notice God in your neighbors’ hungers. Go today at rest in God and ready to struggle in loving service for your neighbors. And as you go, may you find the face of God in the hungering, feeding, wrestling, and resting. Amen. (United Methodist Discipleship Ministries) Additional Illustrations