Sermon preached by Rev. Margie Quinn on Sunday, August 2, 2026
Is anyone here a twin? Okay. Two. Oh, right. Okay. Two twins in the building. I was curious. This is a really interesting passage to me and maybe to you. And before we talk about this wrestling match, I want to take us very back to the beginning of this story of a set of twin brothers. So, Isaac and Rebecca have two twin boys. The first one to come out of the womb is Esau. And we learn that Esau is red in complexion. He's very hairy and he is going to be strong in might. This is kind of foreshadowing to the fact that Esau will be this skilled hunter and will be kind of a nature man. And then grabbing onto his heel as he exits Rebecca's womb is Jacob. Jacob literally means to take by the heel. And what we learn about Jacob is that he has softer skin. He's a quieter baby, meaning that he becomes a quiet man. And so, we start to see the difference in these twins. Y'all are very different as twins, right? That's usually the case. And then we learn later in this story that Jacob, the younger brother, steals his older twin's birthright and his blessing. And the Hebrew in this moment is really cool. This play on words. Jacob steals Esau's birthright, Becker, and has his dad grant him a blessing bar of the firstborn son. So what happens? Esau hates Jacob for tricking him, for stealing the blessing and the birthright for him. And we learn that Esau wants to kill his twin.
Jacob in this moment has his mother approach him, Rebecca. Rebecca favored Jacob, and Isaac favored Esau. And Rebecca says, "You have got to flee from Canaan. You got to get out of here. Let Esau cool off. Let him calm down a little bit. And when that happens, when he doesn't really want to kill you anymore, I will send for you and you can come back home." But Rebecca never calls for her son. 20 years go by and Jacob is living with his uncle Laban in Haran, Rebecca's brother, and she never calls for him. And at this point in the story, Jacob hears from God. And God says, "It's time to go home. It's time to go home to the land of Canaan. But in order to do so, you're going to have to pass through Edom." Anybody want to guess who lives in Edom? Esau, who last time we checked in with Esau, wanted to kill him. So, Jacob in his sort of trickster younger twin way sends a messenger, sends a messenger to his older twin and he says, "Listen, Esau, I've been a foreigner for a very long time in my uncle's house and I've had my struggles and y'all can read the couple chapters before 32 to get a sense for that." He says, "I'm going to send some things ahead for you, some presents, so that maybe you find favor with me, your servant again." So Jacob sends ahead of him an oxen, donkey, male and female slaves. He says, "They're all yours." He tells this to the messenger to tell to Esau. And Esau tells the messenger to say to Jacob, "I will come and meet you. I'm going to bring 400 men." So, I'll be there and I'm gonna come with 400 of my buddies. Obviously, this might not incentivize Jacob to come and meet his brother.
So, Jacob has another idea at this point because he's very, as scripture tells us, distressed and afraid, as many of us would be. He separates his people, his animals into two companies. He says, "Okay, I'm going to send one company ahead, and that's going to be a lot of animals and some family and possessions, and then I'm going to have another company follow behind so that even if Esau and his 400 men kill the first company, we got a backup company who can escape." So, Jacob first petitions to God and says, "Will you just deliver me from the hand of Esau? Like I've had it pretty rough. I had to flee my home. I had to live with my uncle who wasn't really fun to live with. I just want to go home. Can you spare me that?" So, he takes these presents. And I want to read you everything he takes. 200 female goats, 20 male goats, 200 ewes, 20 rams, 30 camels, 30 colts, 40 cows and bulls, 20 female donkeys, and 10 male donkeys. He's laying it on thick, church, is he not?
If Esau asks whose, therefore, he says again, therefore, his servant Jacob. He's laying it on real thick, isn't he? Jacob says, "I'm going to come behind y'all. Okay, y'all go ahead with all these animals, with all these presents. I'm going to come behind y'all so that maybe I can appease him with these gifts." And when he sees my face after receiving all that I want to give him, maybe he will accept me. The presents pass on ahead of him. And he decides to spend a night in this camp with his wives and maids and 11 children. And then he thinks, actually, I think we should cross this ford of Jabbok, and I'm actually going to send all my family across a stream. And so he does. And then scripture says this, Jacob was left alone. Hundreds and hundreds of animals, possessions, family. He sends them ahead of him. And Jacob was left alone.
And a man wrestled with him until daybreak. A man wrestled with Jacob until daybreak. Any guesses as to who this man is? People are undecided on this. Any guesses?
God. Great guess. Any other guesses? Who would be wrestling with him?
His twin. And that's another guess. Some people think that Jacob's wrestling partner was actually his twin. That Esau had come to meet him, gotten into the ring, and wanted to have it out. Some people think that this wrestling match actually didn't take place physically while Jacob was awake. It was like a nightmare where he wrestled with his twin in his dreams. And maybe you've experienced this, church, when you have these anxiety dreams when something is going to happen in the next day or week or month that scares you and anxiously you're wrestling in your sleep. Most theologians do think it's God, but it's unclear who Jacob meets in the night. And that's how it is with night, isn't it? It can be muddled who we are addressing and approaching and wrestling with when we wake up or are asleep. Walter Brueggemann writes, "What's interesting is during the day, Jacob has it all together. He manages and takes initiative. And then at night, as it is for all of us, Jacob turns out to be really vulnerable and things rush powerfully beyond his control. His night is peopled with someone who's uninvited and unwelcomed into his life. But they are the ones with whom he has to come to terms with before he can go home peaceably." Jacob has to wrestle with himself and with this wrestling partner before he can see his brother.
So God gets in the ring with Jacob. Let's say it's God. God gets in the ring with Jacob. And many people reading this story actually don't think that it's a nightmare or a dream or something psychological. I'm willing to play with the fact that it might be. It's fun to play with scripture, but a lot of people think that he was fully awake. Fully awake. And he wasn't flinching in the dark, but he was wrestling with this man, God, whoever this was. And what I love is that in this genuine encounter with God in which Jacob does leave physically affected, God doesn't prevail from the very jump. God wrestles back with Jacob. God wrestles back with Jacob. God wrestles through the night with him until he finally strikes Jacob on the hip, putting his hip socket out of joint.
And I wonder if in that moment their relationship changed. Both God and Jacob. Maybe their relationship changed because they hold fast to each other and neither of them will turn away. Neither of them turn away from each other in the wrestling match. Then God says, "You got to let me go cuz day is breaking." And what we know from that time is anyone who sees God face to face during the day dies. So maybe God wants to spare Jacob's life. Okay buddy, we just had this big old wrestling match. Maybe we've both come away from it changed and now you have to let me go. You've got to continue on. Actually want you to live to play out your story. And Jacob says, "No, I'm not letting you go. I'm not letting you go until you bless me." Jacob talks back to God. I'm not letting you go until you bless me. Maybe God smirks at this point. Maybe God is surprised by the boldness and courage of this demand for a blessing because God says, "What's your name?" Jacob. God says, "Not anymore. Your name is Israel." Which means he who strives to strive because you have wrestled against man and humans and God. And you have prevailed. Your name is changed. The name you had grabbing life by the heel doesn't reflect the story of your life anymore. And the wrestle that we just had a new name for you. Not that you struggle in the moment, but that you have striven and you have prevailed.
A changed name. And then Jacob says, "Okay, I told you my name. What's your name? Who are you? Who is this person who has met me and encountered me and not been too scared to meet me in my fears and anxieties, but has said, 'I'm with you. I'm engaging in this challenge with you.'" And God in such an annoying God way answers a question with a question. Do y'all know people who do that? I feel like three-year-olds do that. Why do I think that? It's like, why? Why? And then you start to like go down your own loophole and you're like, I don't even know why anymore. So God answers a question with a question. Why do you ask? Why does it matter? Why do you want to know? And before Jacob can answer, God cuts him off and God blesses him. This isn't a stolen blessing. This isn't Jacob tricking his father into blessing him. This is a willing blessing from a God who loves blessing people. Just read Genesis and you will see our God loves blessing us.
Oh, this is way down here. Have y'all been able to hear me? Why don't I start over? So, who's a twin? Raise your hand if you're a twin.
I'm going to grab the microphone if that's okay. I'm having my own wrestling match.
God blesses Jacob. And in doing so, he receives this divine blessing. It really validates who he is. It validates his life, what he's been through, not who he was born as. His old name doesn't fit anymore. And in this moment, here's what Jacob says. I've seen God face to face and I've lived. I've seen God face to face and I've lived.
And of course, then the sun begins to rise. That in that twilight, in that darkness, Jacob sees God not in the light, but in his darkest moment. That's when God chooses to reveal Godself to Jacob. Then the sun rises. Then the dawn breaks and in that moment, Jacob doesn't sit down and nurse his wounds. I mean, he has developed a limp because of this wrestling match. A limp that he'll have forever. A sign of what it means to be wounded and changed and given a new name because of this wrestling. Jacob doesn't sit down. Jacob doesn't turn back. Jacob isn't passive to his own life. Jacob doesn't turn back from what he has to do, which is go face his twin. We learn then that Jacob gets up and he goes on limping because of his hip.
I don't want to spoil the story for you. A lot of you know the story, but for those of you who don't, for those of you who have forgotten, I really encourage you to read Genesis 33 when you get home. Or you can pick it up right now and tune me out. The ending of this story is quite beautiful.
There's so many things in this passage that feel freeing to me. So many moments in this passage when I feel God's invitation. And I want to name a few. The first is that I feel like God is normalizing how much we feel anxiety, how much we feel scared, how much we feel alone when we wake up in the night with our thoughts racing, unable to go back to sleep for fear of what's coming, a difficult interaction, a really hard exam, a moment at work that we don't want to face, something going on in our own family unit. To wake up and be anxious and scared is pretty dang normal. It's helpful that in our most vulnerable moments, especially at our nighttime moments, God says that happens. That's okay. That's human.
And then what a beautiful, beautiful testament to who our God is. God doesn't exist far away from Jacob's moment of fear. God steps in the ring with Jacob. God chooses to engage with each of us personally because nothing is too scary. Nothing is too challenging. Nothing is too far beyond our God who meets us, who wrestles with us until daybreak. It means that you and I can pretty much bring anything to our maker. God will not sit away from it. God will engage with it.
I love that Jacob's given a new name. I love that he's changed from this experience. There's no way he's going to walk away and be the same man that he was. Maybe he lays down his tricks. No more putting presents and livestock and land and family ahead of himself in order to save his butt. Maybe he lays down this feeling of being an underdog of trickery and says mercy and says grace and says forgiveness and says honesty and says courage is not being brave. Courage is walking scared to meet my twin not knowing what will happen to me. Jacob is given a new name. And I love that Jacob demands a blessing. Sometimes this story reminds me of Hagar that sometimes I think it feels like we have to cower away from God. That we're not allowed to demand blessings from God. But here is a man who does who doesn't let go of God. Who doesn't let go of the challenge before saying, "You better bless me. If you're going to wound me, then transform me."
And finally, none of us are getting out of here without wounds. Nobody is exempt from a wounded life. Y'all remember a guy named Jesus and a guy named Thomas? Thomas who doubted that after the resurrection, it really was the risen savior until Jesus said, "I am wounded just like you. I carry these wounds and these scars from a life lived of struggle. I'm not exempt from that either." That none of us are getting out of here wounded. And I dare say none of us are getting out of here transformed.
And for some of you, it's quite literally physical wounds. I've actually met with a couple people this week who've had knee replacement surgeries and back issues and whose hips are very much in pain. Some who may have gone from walking upright to needing to limp. And for some of you who I meet with, it feels more like a mental wound, a broken brain, limping in a way that feels invisible, but is very much personal and acute.
God is a God of blessing and we will be wounded in this lifetime. But I dare say we will be transformed.
I think we're invited to hang on to God. I think we're invited to wrestle with God. I think we are invited to claim our promises. I think we are invited to demand our blessings. And I think we're invited to persist in a relationship with God.
And maybe the most freeing of all and what I feel here in this church is that we welcome the wounded. This life is not one of perfection but one of salvation. And so if you do not have it all together, if you identify with any part of this story, you are exactly where you are supposed to be. We welcome the wounded and we welcome the wrestlers. Those who are willing to get in the ring with a God who shows up with us and won't let go until we are ready. The wounded, the wrestler, the blessed, the changed name, the transformed. It is all in this rich story. A story for us today.
So, I don't know about you, but I'm hopeful for a God that sticks around. And as I wrestle with God in my woundedness, I feel comforted that God's not going anywhere. God says, "I'm coming into the ring with you in all of your wounds, and you are blessed."
Amen.