It’s not uncommon to feel “out of joint” with God. What to do then? Hang on.
Here’s a transcript:
I’m thinking about the thirty-second chapter of Genesis (Genesis 32:22-31), the well-known story of Jacob wrestling with an angel — or perhaps with God.
I’ve read this story many times. I’ve preached on it many times. I’ve probably thought about it many more times. What strikes me on this reading is, in fact, that portion where the man struck Jacob. The text simply refers to Jacob’s wrestling opponent as “a man,” at least until the end of the story when it’s Jacob who concludes that he had been wrestling with God.
At one point in the wrestling “the man” concluded that he was not winning and so he struck Jacob on the hip and put it out of joint. At that point, Jacob was beaten, but he wouldn’t let go until the victor blessed him.
I am also, I think I’d have to say, accustomed to wrestling with God. Most pastors will tell some story about wrestling with their call, and any of us, clergy or lay, at some point in our lives, we found ourselves in a place where we believed that God might have something in mind for us, and it wasn’t necessarily what we had in mind for ourselves.
And so we wrestled with God.
I think that metaphor of a hip out of joint is an apt one. Jacob was already out of the joint. He had been out of joint with his family. He had been out with joint with the family into which he married. He had been out of joint with God. He had been out of a joint with himself. In this wrestling match, that blow from God was a symbol that matched everything that he had been through and everything that he had done, and there he was out of joint with others, with himself, with God.
You know, I can’t think of any better advice than to follow Jacob’s example at that moment, when he realized how out of joint he was, and that there had come a time when he would not prevail: not with all of the trickery, not with all of the falsehoods, not with all of his con man skills. He would not prevail, so he held on.
He held on to God and asked for a blessing.
His blessing was to get a new name, one that meant “the one who strives with God;” and he named the place with the Hebrew phrase that means “the face of God.”
“Israel:” “the one who strives with God.” “Peniel:” “the face of God.”
When you’re in that wrestling match with God and you have realized that you are, in fact, out of joint, hold on. Not to “win,” but to receive God’s blessing for that moment. And in that blessing and in the light of that face, you can go on to follow God’s way… even if you might find yourself moving awkwardly as you do.
That’s what I’m thinking. I’m curious to hear what you’re thinking. Leave me your thoughts in the comment section below. I’d love to hear from you.
