Esau is coming and Jacob has made preparations to appease him and protect his family.

Now at the Jabbok, at night, Jacob wrestles with a stranger. The Jabbok is an intermittent stream, a border area. One could discuss this as a liminal experience. The place plays on his name, so does the struggle (abeq). And his hip is displaced/dislocated (yqa) Like other strangers in Genesis is floats between human and divine.

I like making it an internal psychological struggle as Jacob is reforging his identity to fit a new name. Janzen (130) even wonders if it is a born again experience. What in Jacob has been displaced as he limps into his future, a scar that reminds me of the scars of Jesus for Thomas? Is Jacob a new person; has he discovered his inner Esau, a hidden Jacob? In what sense does Jacob prevail? What do you make of his demand to be blessed before releasing the stranger, who has a vampire’s dislike of sunlight apparently? Why be blessed after combat when his father was deceived into blessing him? In what sense (v. 30) has he seen God’s face? Notice what he will say to Esau when he meets him in the next chapter. Israel here seems to be God strives. We have some etiology here, as the area of dislocation was not to be eaten. What does this portend for a people who will receive this name? The wrestling idea could be wrestling with inner demons or doubts or vocation. When do we wrestle with God?

Most of us have grown up in families with brothers or sisters, or we’ve seen our parents’ families, and maybe seen the siblings of our own children and grandchildren. Those are crucial relationships, filled with heightened emotions often. They are our longest-standing relationships. They know so much about us, good and bad. Our well-constructed images don’t often sit well with people who know us so well. So, it is appropriate that we get a good picture of two brothers in this section of Genesis.

Jacob and Esau are in conflict even within the womb, destined for trouble, it would seem for primacy. Each parent has chosen sides, but I would bet that they said that they loved each child equally. We can look at Jacob and Esau as sides of our own personality. Esau is the impulsive, childish side. Unable to look into the future, he lives for immediate sensation. Like many of us, he is unable to be grateful for the gift, the birthright that he has been given. Jacob, the planner, is the manipulative part of us. Unable to get his mind from what he does not have, he plots for it. We often have impulses for what we do not have, and it blinds us to what we do have. Consumed by his envy, he is heedless of the personal consequences to the relationship with his brother. We speak of forgiveness, but sisters and brothers can hold grudges forever.

God does not work with perfection. God sees immense potential and many virtues and works with those to fight vices and obstacles. That gives every one of us hope in families. It is remarkable that Israel would tell stories of its founding patriarch in less than glowing terms. As Paul notes, all of us are threatened by a life that focuses on only material things, a bowl of red beans or a birthright. All of our relationships are damaged by the vices we all share within. Paul is convinced that only the intervention of the life of the spirit, not self-help, not determination, can change us. The spirit breathes new life into our relationships, even those between brothers and sisters.

We love our brothers and sisters, but those loves are often tangled and confused, filled with envy and regrets, and books of memories. I asked a lot of people this week how they are like and unlike their siblings. Mostly differences came out, as if someone so close could engulf us and erase our individuality. Through the Spirit, we are made into brothers and sisters in the faith. It’s odd that the phrase the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man became popular not long after the Civil War had brother killing brother. So often we say terrible things within our families, words of condemnation and judgment. Hear Paul again, ‘no condemnation for those in Christ.” The power of the Spirit can help heal families.

An old country song said, if Jesus could forgive me, then why can’t you.” Since we have no condemnation in Christ, it may be high time to ask forgiveness from or offer it to a brother and sister. Even if they have died, it is not too late to offer it to their life in the spirit. The same applies to our brothers and sisters in church. Forgiveness is a gift. Forgiveness is envy’s opposite, because it allows us to let go instead of holding on so tightly. In a world of difference, we have no right to insist that we are all Jacobs or Esaus.

We do well when we acknowledge and regulate the conflicting parts of our own personalities. It does not have to be a war within, as the Spirit leads us toward integrated personalities, with the strength to forgive and be forgiven, even by sisters and brothers.

The concept of the TV show My Name Is Earl and karma seem to inhabit this passage. The seven years seemed a few days could be a similarity in Hebrew so seven years seemed like seven days. Any6way, isn’t it a beautiful way to speak of time’s passage when in love? Since it seems quick, I don’t know if this is an exercise fo patience or not.

Leah’s eyes could be weak, nearsighted, or maybe light in color or delicate. It is clear Rachel is a babe. The whole deception with Leah is confusing, but I take it that Jacob is being paid back for deceiving his father, but it is not clear tome how much either ofthem is being deceived. Now Laban will not allow the younger to less in status than the elder, although that is Jacob’s destiny. Jacob hasn’t learned about favoritism in his own family, as he favors Rachel God uses fertility as a possible weapon now. All the births will not melt Jacob’s heart, as the names attest. This is a great example of hwo we may use children for ulterior reasons, or vicarious ones. It is a good example fo drawing others into alliance when we are displeased with the treatment we receive but don’t go to face to face resolution.

Reuben=see, a son but she links it to Jacob

Simeon=being heard (shema) linked to being hated

Levi=has a sense of joining (lawah) her husband, no relation to God

Judah’s name is for praising God, but it has no mention of the husband

Last week we just touched on the sower and the seed falling into different types of soil. Weeds, the cares of the world, choked off one batch of seed. Jesus now continues the image a field assaulted by a seeding of weeds. Who would plant weeds in someone’s field? In our time, weeds could be a computer virus from outside. Weeds planted from within will sometimes ruin all of the information on a computer. This time, Jesus sees the weeds as evil people.

Weeds grow well when so many other things struggle. Some weeds are incredibly productive. One weed, witchweed, can produce ½ million seeds. The roots on a dandelion always impressed me as so sturdy compared to many vegetables.

Paul sees the whole creation subjected to futility and decay, in another word, weeds.. Christian would say we live in a fallen world. Today we continue to have to deal with all sorts of weeds. Creation itself waits for a world without weeds, labor pains for a new age

In the meantime, plowing buries the weeds. Would this be repression or forgetting for our souls? It could follow the AA pattern of burying the action one day at a time. Herbicides are part of modern agriculture. Pre-emergent would be trying to stop before becoming an issue. It could be never starting a bad habit, never putting yourself in a situation where danger would lurk. Post- emergent: Another way would be for the weeds to be countered by virtues, so gambling could be countered by moderation. Would the solution be to nip it in the bud, as Don Knotts used to say? Rotation uses variety to undercut a staging area for weeds year in and year out. One crop farming saps the ground, but the weeds still seem to flourish. Here, I’d suggest keeping an eye open for different spiritual practices for a more robust spiritual life.

Weeds and wheat grow up together in the story of Jesus. I don’t think any person is all wheat or all weeds. All of us are a mixture of wheat and weeds internally. No, we are not weeds; we are children of God. I don’t think any human group can be all weeds or all wheat. With that, it seems to be particularly difficult to judge any one else as all wheat or weeds. To some degree the difference between wheat and weeds is arbitrary. Little kids think a dandelion is a flower when they give it to their mothers. When we discover some utility in a weed and cultivate it, then it is no longer a weed. For Paul, the better idea is to look for the wheat in everyone, as a child of God. We can’t go looking for a perfect church. The wheat and weeds grow up together to protect the wheat from injury. In some ways, maybe they need each other.

The Christian walk could be called raising souls instead of crops. For the foreseeable future, we will have to deal with weeds in life. The harvest and sorting out will come some day. We deal with the fruit of the Spirit, those virtues for happiness. They’ll help us manage the weeds in life, even as we will not eradicate them. They seem to be perennial. Already we are growing into God’s victory garden, God’s liberty garden. No matter how carefully we tend the soil, plant good seed, and fertilize, weeds will erupt. God, that great gardener, will not allow the weeds to win out in the end, not for a person, not for the church. We may struggle to manage weeds, but god can change a weed into something good. God is at work so our lives will be fruitful, resilient, and strong.

Gen. 28:10-22

Jacob is on the run. He has a cover story for seeking a bride, but he is fleeing the wrath of his brother for grabbing his birthright and blessing by manipulation and deception. Even though he flees the land of promise, God tells Jacob that he is accompanied by the promise. Breuggemann (Genesis, Interpr. Comm) sees the vision as direct, a slap at Bethel as a shrine. I doubt it, as the word from God parallels the ascent and descent motif of messengers on the ramp. Jacob is clearly no wimp, as he uses a stone for a pillow. Janzen (p.108) wonders if it is to induce a vision. God’s promise amplifies the stolen blessing from Isaac. Then, God seems to work with Jacob in particular (v.15) Upon waking Jacob makes a worshipful action. The name, Bethel, means house of god. I do note that Jacob’s response is a conditional one at v. 20. A tithe seems to be the price. It echoes the prayer of Abraham’s servant looking for the woman who will become his mother.

Like his parents, Isaac had a childless marriage for a good while, but his prayer is answered more quickly.

The infants are kicking so hard, it seems that they are fighting within the womb, so she crises, hwo can things be all right when I feel like this inside?

Even in the womb conflict ensues here.

Jacob means grabby, for being the firstborn yaquob grabs at the eqeb, heel

Easu=hairy (se-ar) we ar enot sure what Easu means, but in the region another story mentioned a similar name as a great hunter (Int. Bible)

Like so many brothers and sisters, even twins, they are different .

Jacob is tam, In Job it means integrity, but here it is thought to be quiet, plain,

Janzen (p. 97 ITC Comm) thinks it means that he is a mature human being, a more cultivated breed. Esau is an outdoorsman, a “natural person”. thin of the ego v. the id.

As in many families father and mother have different favorites. Something has happened in their choice of different favorites.

Notice that for the mess of red stuff he gets a name as the father of rival Edom (red)

What a remarkable introduction to the father of the nation, he is not painted in gloiwing, idealistic terms at all. We don’t know exactly what rights the firstborn would have at this time; it could be a double share, or more of the estate.

Spiritual practices are in vogue. In the recent collection by Dorothy Bass, honoring the body is a primary spiritual practice. That sounds odd, as the church is about life in the spirit, no? We do speak about the body a lot in church, but it is mostly limited to illness. This is unfortunate, as we are not people who only claim some spiritual portion of our lives apart from the rest of life. Our faith seeks to keep body and soul together; it is an unbalanced spirituality that lifts one above the other, in attention or importance. We would do well to celebrate our body in good health. We can take the time to marvel at the intricacy of its systems.

Of course honoring the body can turn us toward vices too. When Laban spies the jewelry of his sister, he is suddenly hit by desire for wealth. In the sixties, birth control removed the great impediment to pre-marital physicality or shotgun marriages. Later, we made war against all sort of perceived impediments to our liberty. Now called hooking up, we disentangled sexual activity from relationship a de-emphasized technique above all. We lift it out of all proportion to other elements in love, so all we did was swing the pendulum too far in the other direction. Years ago, the Confession of 1967 worried about anarchy in sexuality. Yes, human intimacy is more than procreation but pleasure and bonding for the couple. On the other hand, we hasten its arrival in the outfits of pre-teen girls, obsessions about body image, and billions and billions spent on plastic surgery and its botox offshoots. I love that the same people who worry about any chemicals in their food willingly inject themselves with botulism to ease worry lines caused by worrying too much about where to find organic food.

Honoring desire is made clear in the Song of Songs. Over the years, the church has spiritualized its talk of love. Bernard did sermon after sermon on it comparing it to the love of Christ and our love for God. At its core, it is a song of young love.

I love the end of the Genesis passage. Marriage helps assuage the grief of Isaac over the loss of his mother. With the embrace of his new bride, he finds some healing. In marriage, in the embraces of his bride, in the filling of his mother’s tent, some hole within him is healed.

The Song is about young lovers, its yearning and infatuation. When we get older, it seems less natural to honor our bodies. Still, we can marvel at what we are capable of doing. We can honor our bodies by taking care of them, from going to the doctor, to eating right, to getting our exercise. A simple thing like taking a shower can be a reminder of our baptism and a time of gratitude for this embodied life. We can turn them into spiritual moments in seeing the intricacy of our creation. On vacation, the girls got a kick out of one of the books I was reading, Your Inner Fish, about the traces of evolution in all of us. Not only are we connected by our genes to one another; the history of life itself is encoded in our cells and our bodies. One more idea would be to take each of our senses, as does the love poem in Song of Songs and make it an instrument of forms of prayer. Monday through Friday, take one sense and celebrate it, lament its problems, praise god for what it leads us. What connects us to life more than our senses? No wonder the Song of Songs celebrates them within the passion of love. Praise the one you love with every one of your senses. Praise the God who made them and you with every one of your senses.