Genesis 32:22-31 I Cor 13:8-13
July 31, 2011
The innocence of childhood brings a smile of recognition and peace to our faces. On vacation Katy was having a great time playing in the lake. Upon encountering this newfound source of pleasure she announced with satisfaction, “That settles it! I’m going to live here.” Oh, if it were that simple to find our place on this earth. She also made us smile at her fears. We had watched a sunset over the lake—that settled it for me, I wanted to live here—and then the girls had ice cream—that settled it for Elsa. By the time we had walked around the downtown area a little bit it was long past a reasonable bedtime, even without the time zone change. I realized it was eleven p.m. on the streets where we stood. We had to make the walk back to where we were staying. On the way down the unfamiliar streets, now dark, loomed all kinds of shadows. Shadows which caused a tightening grip as Katy held onto my hand. She and Elsa tried to offer reassurance to each other. Dianne suggested that they just were not used to being out in the dark. They agreed that we would walk back down this street in the daylight to see what had made all of these shadows. I smiled and remembered my own encounters with shadows. As a kid I walked where I wanted to go on the then safe streets of DeSoto. Often I wished for a hand to hold as the hair stood up on the back of my neck in response to shadows that seemed to slide around the corner of a house to meet me. Shadows are figures that seem to follow us throughout life. They startle us. They confuse us. They wear us out as we do battle with them. It is high time we revisit our shadows and see them for what they are. Only shadows, not the real thing. By coming face to face with what is real, we will not only overcome our fears but dispel the shadows altogether. We will see clearly where we stand and where we are going.
The text for this morning finds Jacob among the shadows. Alone in the dark he has a restless night. He can’t sleep. He wears himself out fighting with the shadows of his life. He awakens to realize that what he wrestles with are but shadows. He awakens to encounter his fears face to face. He sees God face to face for who God is rather than a shadow of who he thought God to be. He sees Esau face to face for who Esau is rather than a shadow of who he thought Esau to be. He sees his possessions not as he had thought them to be but for what they actually were. He sees himself, not the shadow side of his character, but who he was purposed and destined to become.
Come, let’s move through the shadows with Jacob and dispel our own delusions and dispel the shadows from our lives and from the lives of others.
First, Jacob dispels his shadow of God and comes to see God face to face. Jacob had already encountered God before this passage. Remember the story of Luz, stopping on a curve and encountering God, changing the name of the city of Luz to Bethel, the house of God. But, as is always the potential, he encounterd God with his own perceptions of who he thought God to be. For Jacob, God was someone with whom to bargain and strike a deal—you see, we often project onto God something of our own character. That is who Jacob was and he thought it was who God would be. Jacob did what we are prone to do. He dealt with God on his own terms and within his own comfort zone. At Bethel, Jacob had struck a bargain with God to accept God as his own God if God would be faithful and preserve his life and bless him. While God may be a lot of things, God is not a contestant in our own shabbily contrived game of “Let’s Make A Deal.” God had appeared at Bethel to make his presence with Jacob known. God had appeared at Bethel to announce his promise and covenant with Jacob. God had appeared at Bethel to bless Jacob. Jacob missed the face of God there because of the shadow concept he held of God. The good news is that God comes back. The good news is that God does not give up on Jacob, or us, in an attempt to reveal the nature of God and God’s intended agenda to be present in our lives and to bless us. It seems that God keeps coming to us in the curves of life, among the shadows of life, to meet us face to face.
What made the difference? Why was Jacob now able to see through the shadows and get a clear look at who God was? Obviously, a lot had happened to Jacob between Bethel and this encounter. He had lived a lot, he had learned a lot. He had changed. What had not changed was his persistence. The striking and noticeable part of this narrative is the all-night battle. Jacob fought all night, he refused to run away, he refused to let go until he had received a blessing. It is this kind of persistence that is the door through which we pass to have a face to face encounter with God. We must separate ourselves in isolation and spend as long as it takes to come to clear understanding of who God is. Otherwise, we may accidently stumble into the “house of God” and leave having mistaken God to be who we had previously thought God to be and never see God face to face.
The thing that had changed for Jacob that suggests to me a preparation to now see God face to face has to do with his relationship with his brother, Esau. The purpose of the trip in which Jacob encounters God face to face is the process of being reconciled to his brother, Esau. Jacob is not sure how that process will go. He is not even sure of how to pull it off. Should he send a gift? Should he employ a defensive strategy with an escape plan? He would do all of the above and hope for the best because he was now ready to be reconciled to Esau. I think it may be this issue which opened Jacob’s eyes and heart to see and understand God not as he thought God to be but as God is for real. This is supported by the teaching of Christ who says if we come to the altar to worship God and remember there is animosity between us and someone else that we are to leave the gift at the altar and first be reconciled and then come to worship God. I think this is the key for Jacob and may explain our shadow vision of who God is. Seeing God face to face depends on our desire to be reconciled—not to have pulled it off but at least to have the desire to be reconciled.
Seeing God face to face also allows Jacob to see Esau more clearly. Before, Jacob had seen Esau as a “score,” a “target,” a “game” to be played. He did not know what to expect from Esau as he makes this journey. When he had last seen Esau, Esau wanted to kill Jacob in revenge for tricking him and their father out of the birthright and family blessing. Jacob knew he had changed but he could not imagine that Esau had. Jacob had the idea that everyone he encountered, including God, was out for a deal and to settle scores. Having seen a new “face” of God, one of forgiveness, mercy, grace and blessing, Jacob was now free to see Esau not through the shadows of who he thought Esau to be but who Esau really was. If we were to read ahead to the suspenseful encounter between Jacob and Esau, Jacob tells Esau that “to see his face was like seeing the face of God.” The shadows had fallen and now Jacob saw in Esau a “divine likeness.” He saw forgiveness and grace. He saw Esau as he was not as Jacob had imagined him to be through any shadow of greed or fear.
Seeing God face to face and recognizing God in the face of his brother also allowed Jacob to see his possessions more clearly. Before seeing God face to face, possessions to Jacob had been things to be sought, pursued and grasped at all cost, even the cost of trust and relationships. We see Jacob in the shadows before meeting God face to face, worrying and strategizing to protect his possessions from the wrath of Esau. After his encounter with God, face to face, after the shadows begin to fall, he sees his possessions for what they really are. Esau asked Jacob asked about the “droves” of people and flocks that accompanied him and listen to how Jacob sees and describes the “droves.” He says, “God has been gracious to me and I have all I need.” He begged Esau to accept the gift he offered, he wanted to share because now the “droves” were seen for what they really were, the gracious blessing and provision of God and they were to be shared. Jacob must have been startled as he heard the words fall from his lips, “I have all I need.” That would never have come from his mouth before he saw God face to face. Until we see and know God face to face we will assess what we have through the shadows as well. No matter what we have or acquire, we will never believe we have enough. We will never be able to see what we are given as the provisions and blessings of God’s graciousness. We will never be able to share when we stand in the fear of shadows.
We notice as well, that having stepped out of the shadows and seeing God face to face, Jacob also sees himself for who he is and what he is to become. His name and identity is changed to Israel, one who has strived and been blessed. He takes his place in the plan of God for his life. He stands with the faith of his fathers, Abraham and Isaac.
That is how Jacob moved beyond his shadows and saw clearly what he had misunderstood and feared. But what is the message for us? Sure, it is important to not have our own shadows and an unclear picture of God, others, ourselves and things. But the real urgency, the real call is for us to “GET REAL” for another reason. Because of another kind of shadow. Shadows with which we continue to wrestle. Shadows which never seem to go away. Shadows that have real teeth and produce real suffering and anguish. I am talking about the shadows of poverty, war, injustice, natural disaster, illness, conflict, guilt. Shadows with which so many wrestle night after night after night. These are our night-men, not angels but demons. They will continue to hold us in their grip until we “GET REAL.” As long as we fail to see God face to face, as long as we can look at the facelessness of poverty and the facelessness of conflict with others and not see the face of God, as long as we fail to see the resources we have as the gracious provisions of God that are meant to be shared, as long as we fail to see our assigned and appointed role in God’s plan of redemption of all creation the night-men will prevail. We stand in fear, guilt and estrangement from God, others and ourselves. It is time, for our sake and for the sake of others who linger in the lurches of real shadow-men, to GET REAL.
The Psalmist asks the question in Psalm four, “How long will you lust after lies? How long will you live crazed by illusion?” It is time to move out of the shadows and GET REAL. We have fought the illusions long enough. The Apostle Paul refused to fight with shadows, “I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air—or shadow boxing.” It is time for us to GET REAL and that begins with seeing God face to face, seeing God’s face in the face of others, and seeing clearly who we are and who we are to become in God’s plan. Then and only then will we be freed from fighting with shadows. Then and only then will the shadows be dispelled. Then and only then will we see God face to face. When we GET REAL we are ready to see not the shadows which terrorize us all through the night but the beauty of the tree lined streets where we stroll together in the presence of God’s good grace with the ones we love toward the peaceful rest that God knows we so desperately need and God longs to provide.
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