"The Face of God" - Sermon for Aug 6th, 2017 Lectionary 18

Sermon:

Text: Genesis 32, Matthew 14:13-21

Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ who runs to meet us.

            I want to read just a little bit more after our Genesis reading today, from the beginning of Chapter 33.

Now Jacob looked up and saw Esau coming, and four hundred men with him. So he divided the children among Leah and Rachel and the two maids. 2 He put the maids with their children in front, then Leah with her children, and Rachel and Joseph last of all. 3 He himself went on ahead of them, bowing himself to the ground seven times, until he came near his brother. But Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept.

  

            We read this because it finishes Jacob’s journey, he has returned home. In our lesson this week he’s faced with another situation, he’s in trouble again, and it’s a doozy of a situation. Since last week, Jacob has had many children with Leah and Rachel, and also their two slaves, Zilpah and Bilhah, 11 sons at this point and one daughter. He has done some more cheating and trickery. This time to his father-in-law, Laban. He had made an agreement with his Father in law that he could keep all the sheep with spots while his Father in law would keep the solid colored sheep. And then while he was shepherding he made sure that only the spotted sheep would mate and produce more spotted sheep. So, his flock grew large while his father in law’s stayed small. Eventually his Father in Law’s other sons all start thinking, maybe Jacob’s not so great, and Laban is starting to get annoyed at him as well. And he sort of tells him, maybe it’s time for you to move on. So, Jacob takes his wives, his children and his flocks and starts to head back home to his own father, Isaac. But, something starts to bother him, what happens when he gets back and Esau is there. Jacob’s name means the Trickster, or supplanter, heel, grabber, and he’s lived up to his name. And so he gets scared at having to face what he caused. He sends some gifts on ahead of himself, and then he decides to take his wives, kids, and flocks and split them in groups so that if Esau does attack at least one group could escape. Then as the scene starts in our reading he gets into his normal state and wants to flee, sends them over the river, and he’s left by himself. One of the only times in his life that he’s been alone, the only real other time we’re told about is at the beginning of this whole journey, at Bethel as he dreams of angels and God right there with him.

Now, another scene comes up, some scholars wonder if it’s another dream, a man wrestles with him, the text doesn’t say who, people think an angel, some think maybe it’s Esau sneaking on him, or Laban caught up to him, or it could be God, as is somewhat implied, but not ever directly stated. Honestly, I don’t know, they all work. The idea I hold most is that it is God, but it’s God as Jacob, God forcing Jacob to confront himself. Jacob spends this night wrestling with his own fears and his own nature, the trickster in him calls for flight, calls to sneak his way out again. This is Jacob having to confront who he is, a trickster, a grabber, a supplanter, and he wants to again flee, but God wrestles with him. And in the text, Jacob prevails, or at least goes to a draw. And as daybreak comes, the man asks Jacob, what’s your name, even though God certainly knows, but God makes Jacob say, my name is Jacob, my name is supplanter, trickster, grabber, and then the man tells Jacob, no longer are you called Jacob, but now you are called Israel, the one who strives with God, for you have striven with God and humans and have prevailed. Jacob leaves and called the place Peniel or Penuel, both spellings work, which means the face of God, for as Jacob says, I have seen God face to face.

            Here’s the thing, I don’t think Jacob has seen God yet, or at least seen the true face of God, in his striving, his wrestling there, it was dark, he couldn’t see. But, in the morning, in the new light, he finally looks up, and he sees. He sees his brother, in the place called the face of God, he looks into his brother’s face for the first time in a very long time. A face Jacob had been dreading to see, one that he “knew” would be full of anger and hatred, ready for vengeance and violence. He looked into his brother’s face thinking that death would be seen there. Jacob falls to his knees and crawls forward, bowing, fearful, begging for life. And his brother runs to him, embraces him, and in tears of joy kisses him.

            That is the face of God.

 That is the face of God.

            It’s the face of the Father in the Prodigal Son, who looks upon his son returned and runs to meet him on the path home.

            God asks us to wrestle with our sin, wrestle with all that we do wrong, the things we’ve done to harm others, the racism, the sexism, the cheating, the violence. Wrestles us to actually face our sins, and see our wrongs. And when we see what we’ve done, when we return, God runs to meet us.

            God is the face of Christ in our Gospel, looking with compassion upon the crowd, who hearing about the death of John the Baptist are fearful, scared, unknowing of their future, and God feeds them, God feeds their souls and bodies. God makes them whole. God nourishes them in ways they don’t know.

God is the face of Christ in the last supper, giving himself to the disciples and to us, God feeds us in the body and blood of Christ, God nourishes us, God looks upon us in compassion, looks upon us in love, God’s face shines upon us and gives us peace, gives us strength, gives us what we need, God’s presence in all that we do.

Know that when you are fearful about what God thinks of you, God is already running to meet you. Know that you are loved, know that you are claimed, know that you are beloved children of God, who will never be thrown aside.

Amen.