A meditation on Jacob wrestling with God

This evening I would like to invite us to meditate on the story of Jacob wrestling with God and to explore those areas in our own lives where we too might be wrestling with God. I will begin by re-reading the story. I will then guide us through a brief meditation using statements, questions and silence for reflection. We will end with a short prayer. So as we begin, feel free to put down your books, relax, close your eyes and make yourself comfortable.

“Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. He took them and sent them across the stream, and likewise everything that he had. Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket; and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. Then he said, ‘Let me go, for the day is breaking.’ But Jacob said, ‘I will not let you go, unless you bless me.’

So he said to him, ‘What is your name?’ And he said, ‘Jacob.’ Then the man said, ‘You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed.’ Then Jacob asked him, ‘Please tell me your name.’ But he said, ‘Why is it that you ask my name?’ And there he blessed him. So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, ‘For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved.’”

I am alone in a desert. I have left my family and possessions. I am beside a ford in a river. Ahead of me is God’s promised land. What can I see? What can I hear? What can I smell?

What is the promised land to which God calls me?

I wrestle with things in my life; with myself, my relationships and the decisions that I make. Where is God in my wrestling?

God calls me, he challenges me, God demands things of me that scare me. He wrestles with me. I wrestle with him. What does God want of me?

This is no man, nor angel but God. I will not let him go and he has blessed me and will continue to bless me. How can my life be a blessing to others?

And so, changed by my struggle, I cross the river and walk on into God’s promised land. Back to my life here, to this Church, to one another and to Wimbledon.

Let us pray:
O God, with whom we wrestle until the break of day,
Make us long to see your face
Beyond the limits of our strength;
That in our wounds we may remember you,
And in your blessing
We may find ourselves,
Through Jesus Christ,
Amen.

Prayer from 'All Desires Known' by Janet Morley

World travels

Feast of the Visitation (BCP)

Tonight we celebrate the Feast of the Visitation when the unborn John the Baptist leaps and rejoices as he recognises the nearness of Christ. This is one of several festivals marking the special place of Mary in the life of the church. A very special woman, in an institution that can at times seem to be dominated by men.

The role of women in another male dominated institution was a hot news topic last week with the appointment of Jaqui Smith as Home Secretary. Does this mark an important new development for women in government and will a woman Home Secretary act any differently from a man? We shall see.

Mary is portrayed by Luke as the mother of Christ, the first believer and as a representative of the Church. Popular Christian piety built upon the biblical accounts and by the fourth century Mary had been given the important title ‘Theotokos’, Mother of God. The middle ages were the high water mark of devotion to Mary as a merciful, Queen of heaven, pleading for sinners to a distant and judgemental Christ.

European travellers to pre-reformation England noted how many Churches were named after her and spoke of England as, ‘Mary’s dowry’. But it was not to last. The reformation focus on salvation by faith alone and the growing trend across Europe to doubt any fanciful beliefs brought an end to much Marian devotion. Interestingly, recent Roman Catholic teaching on Mary has returned to scripture and the earliest traditions of the church.

So what, if anything, can Mary offer to our own prayer life?

Essentially, I think that we should get over our inherited suspicions of Mary and need to rediscover her for ourselves.

As a peasant girl who opened herself up to the implications of God’s love, who rejected male power structures and risked being abandoned by those closest to her, who became a refugee, who suffered pain and tragic loss in her life and yet through all this- was woman of faith.

We see this most starkly in the Magnificat that we have said together tonight. A radical prophecy that we rarely take seriously. In it Mary proclaims God’s revolutionary love for the world. Perhaps most striking of all is Mary’s faith in what God has already achieved in Christ, even before he is born. “He hath shewed strength with his arm”, “He hath filled the hungry with good things”. It is a faith we would do well to imitate.

Listening to Woman’s hour last week, the conclusion was that we should not wait for Jacqui Smith to single-handedly rebuild our communities. To create such a superwoman is merely to await her fall from grace- and office. There is a similar danger with Marian devotion. A form of cosmic projection with which Freud would have a field day.

So let’s not put Mary on a divine pedestal, however, we would do well to meditate upon her faith and the Magnificat in particular and, like her, to treasure in our hearts God’s radical promises.

Amen.