Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity
“Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. ”
Overview
Our readings this week focus on the effort involved in living a life of faith.
In Genesis 32:22-32 Jacob wrestles all night with the divine; in Luke 18:1-8 Jesus gives us a role model of persistent prayer. The story of Jacob wrestling the angel is one of my favourites: the life of faith is not without risks. At the end of the struggle Jacob is left with both a wound and a blessing. We might wonder whether the struggle is worth it. Jacob has everything he could have wanted in life: status, prosperity, family, yet he is restless and discontent. More than this, he is stuck, he cannot move forward. His night of wrestling with God provides him with direction and meaning and, finally, he can move on to a fuller life.
This morning we celebrate the long and devoted ministry of Mother Caroline. Someone who has never shied away from the struggle, and is persistent in her wrestling with the divine on behalf of a whole community.
FIRST READING
Genesis 32:22-32
The same night he 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.’ The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip. Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the thigh muscle that is on the hip socket, because he struck Jacob on the hip socket at the thigh muscle.
GOSPEL READING
Luke 18:1-8
Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. He said, ‘In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, “Grant me justice against my opponent.” For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, “Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.”’ And the Lord said, ‘Listen to what the unjust judge says. And 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. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?’
