Sunday Stretch: Vol. 5

Start off your week with a grounded take on Bible, prayer, the world, and your life ...

Thanks for joining in for Week 5 of the Sunday Stretch: where I’ll break down some weekly Bible passages, share prayer and prayer requests with you and for this community as well as the broader world.

I love this week’s reading from the Hebrew Bible, where Jacob wrestles with God. I remember first reading it, and it always felt so real - so visceral. It hit my angsty 90s teen soul hard - and admittedly, angst is still not far from my state of mind today, either.

This story captured for me what the life of faith is really like. You’re begging God - literally wrestling and fighting - to find some kind of peace or contentment or love. You want to follow God, but getting there feels like a destination to which you’ll never arrive; the end result seems likely to be bleak and ruinous.

Remember, Jacob dislocates his hip. He receives a blessing and a new name. He doesn’t give up. And with his new name of Israel, he limps forward toward the Promised Land, holding the Promise within his own wounded identity.

Artwork by Jack Baumgartner

Bible Stories

Here are some weekly readings (from the Revised Common Lectionary), and some reflection thoughts/questions:

Genesis 32:22-31

Gen. 32:22   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.  23 He took them and sent them across the stream, and likewise everything that he had.  24 Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak.  25 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.  26 Then he said, “Let me go, for the day is breaking.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.”  27 So he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.”  28 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.”  29 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.  30 So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved.”  31 The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip.

My oldest son is named Jacob, a name my husband and I chose long before he was born, long before we were married, even. His middle name is Jordan, after both the River and Michael Jordan, a nod to our chance meeting on the pick-up basketball courts.

To me, the name Jacob has always connoted both strength and sensitivity and courage and persistence, words this story bring to mind in powerful ways. I don’t think many of us, if we’re honest, can claim a relationship with God that does not sometimes feel like the pain and struggle of wrestling. Today, perhaps, my prayer is one long “WHYYYYYYYYYY?” Or just a guttural yell, like the one released by athletes in singlets, feet pointed apart in a squatting stance.

Wrestling is not a glamorous sport, but it is intimate and intense. There are no complicated apparatuses, no expensive gear. Just a sweaty, germ-filled mat and two individuals squaring off against each other. What seems simple is deceptively complex: they have gotten here only after extensive training and discipline. Their minds must be as strong or stronger than their bodies.

I don’t know. I know sometimes God leads us into beauty and reconciliation and placidity and love. I love those moments. And this passage reminds me that sometimes what leads us there requires us to stick in and fight, to wrestle, to not give up.

Questions to Ponder

Who is the victor in this fight? Is that surprising?

Who else in Genesis asks for God’s name? What is the significance of names in Genesis?

Why is it important to know that Jacob returned to the road still limping?

2 Timothy 3:14-4:5

2Tim. 3:14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it,  15 and how from childhood you have known the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.  16 All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,  17 so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.

2Tim. 4:1   In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I solemnly urge you:  2 proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable; convince, rebuke, and encourage, with the utmost patience in teaching.  3 For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires,  4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths.  5 As for you, always be sober, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, carry out your ministry fully.

Our selection begins with these words: “But as for you …” Before these words, Paul writes to Timothy first about the “distressing times” of the days ahead, and warns Timothy to avoid people who are “lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, inhuman, impeccable, slandered, profligates, brutes, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to the outward form of godliness but denying its power. Avoid them!”

Whew! That’s quite a list. And yet it’s refreshing in some ways to read. Because we know we’ve experienced these words in our lives, in our modern times as well. Maybe you see yourself in these words as well as others. It’s so honest. Paul writes honestly of our worldly, human condition, and how can he not? Indeed, he writes this letter under threat of persecution, alternately in chains himself. He knows that to do God’s will, there is much that Timothy must avoid - much that we must see as needful of avoiding as well.

Still, after these words, and after lamenting of his own suffering and struggle, Paul returns to his love and care for Timothy, reminding him that God has set him apart. And there is work to be done. Maybe we too can hear these words for ourselves. “But as for you …” You too have been set apart by God to do God’s work. Continue in it. Endure. You are not alone.

Questions to Ponder

2 Timothy 3:16 is a popular “proof text” for fundamentalist Christians who support the “inerrancy of the Bible.” What does it mean to you that “all Scripture is inspired by God?”

Paul gives Timothy a warning in this passage. What is it?

How does Paul’s own experience of suffering and persecution inform his advice and mentorship of Timothy?

If you are a pastor or a church leader, how do these words encourage you in your work in the church? If you are a lay person, how do these words make you think about the work of church leaders?