The Neighborhood Podcast

"What Disciples Do: Disciples Wrestle with God" (October 19, 2025 Sermon)

• Rev. Dr. Stephen M. Fearing

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Preaching: Rev. Dr. Stephen M. Fearing

Text: Genesis 32:22-31

Darkness, a riverbank, and a stubborn grip that wouldn’t let go—Jacob’s night at the Jabbok shows how real transformation often starts where our strength runs out. We walk through the tense family history that set the stage for this showdown, from a birth marked by rivalry to years of trickery and distance. Then we slow down inside the struggle itself: the mystery of Jacob’s opponent, the wound that won’t heal by morning, and the audacious demand for a blessing before daybreak.

What happens next reframes identity. Jacob receives a new name—Israel, one who wrestles with God—and rises with a limp that tells the truth about growth. We talk about why faithful people should not fear hard questions, why perseverance in prayer matters, and how a sacred struggle can unmask us and make us whole. The story doesn’t end with private spirituality; it moves toward repair. We trace the path from the wrestling mat to reconciliation with Esau and explore how honest encounters with God equip us for courageous apologies, rebuilt trust, and restored relationships.

This conversation blends biblical storytelling, practical theology, and pastoral wisdom for anyone carrying heavy questions about family, work, community, or the state of the world. If you’re in a season where hope feels like holding on through the night, you’re not alone. Stay with the fight, ask boldly for a blessing, and let the limp become your witness to grace. If this resonates, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs courage tonight, and leave a review to help others find these stories of struggle and renewal.

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SPEAKER_00:

Our second lesson is Genesis chapter 32, verse 22 to 31. The same night he got up and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children and crossed the ford of the Jebok. He took them and sent them across the stream. And likewise everything that he had. 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 joy as he wrestled with him. Then he said, Let me go, for the day is breaking. But Jacob said, I will not let you go unless you bless me. So he said to him, What is your name? And he said, Jacob. 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. Then Jacob asked him, Please tell me your name, but he said, Why is it that you asked my name? And there he blessed him. So Jacob called the place Pental, saying, For I have seen God face to face, yet my life is preserved. The sun rose upon him as he passed the Pendule of Limbing because of his hip. The word of God for the people of God. Be to God.

SPEAKER_01:

Alright, friends. A quick reminder that I neglected to remember to announce during the announcements this day is that this Thursday at 7 o'clock, the Inner Rhythm Choir is going to be giving another concert right here in our sanctuary. Jordan Hart has been leading this choir for quite some time, and they uh have existed for decades at another church, but recently they have started to make um Guilford Park um their home. So they rehearse here and they gave a concert back in April, back in sometime back in the spring. And for those of you who were here for that uh concert, the joy in the room was was tangible. They are a very inclusive choir of all different uh kinds of folks with different abilities, and they just love to sing and make a joyful noise. So we invite all of you to come Thursday at 7 p.m. Friends, let us pray. O Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable and pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen. All right, friends, this is one of my favorite stories in Genesis, and I'm also only allowed to talk about it for five minutes. So this should be fun. So this is just a really great story because I think that who among us doesn't know what it feels like to wrestle with God? Who among us don't know what it feels like to wrestle with God and maybe like Jacob to walk away with a little bit of a limp, but also a blessing? I could preach dozens of sermons just on that one question, but just kind of remind ourselves of what was going on in this passage. This is my uh Sarah and Abraham stall. Um, and uh Sarah and Abraham had a son named Isaac. You may remember that he was named Isaac because that was the Hebrew word for laughter. And uh Sarah famously laughed when she was told that she was going to have a child, and therefore that child's name was Isaac. Well then Isaac went off and married a woman named Rebekah, and Isaac and Rebekah had two sons named Jacob and who can tell me the other one? Esau. Yep, y'all know it. Jacob and Esau, and they were twins and were kind of at each other's throats or heels as it might be from birth. They were twins, and Esau came out first, and famously Jacob came out grabbing what? Esau's heel, which is where he gets that Greek, uh Hebrew name Yaqob. Um, and so from the very get-go, Jacob and Esau are kind of rivals. So rivalry among siblings is a very common motif in the Bible, and it always helps when one parent favors one child and the other another, right? So that's exactly what happens is uh Isaac favors the firstborn, Esau, and Rebecca favors the younger by at least a few minutes or seconds, Jacob. So from the get-go, they don't get along very well, and you may know some stories about how Jacob famously cheated Esau out of his birthright as the firstborn, both with a cup of soup and also by pretending it to be Esau, because Isaac was famously uh blind. So Jacob put on a sheepskin at his mother's insistence to go pretend to be hairy like his brother. And so Jacob cheated Esau out of his birthright, not once, but twice, and understandably so. Esau was not the happiest camper in the world, so much so that he was going to kill his brother Jacob. If this starts sounding like a soap opera, it's because it really is. Long before there were ever General Hospital or the Edge of Night or any other of your favorite uh soap operas, there was this soap opera known as the Book of Genesis. So this all goes down, and eventually, because of the enmity that exists between Jacob and Esau, Jacob decides that he needs to lay low for a while until Esau cools off. So Jacob goes away to a far land and he falls in love with this beautiful woman named Rachel, and goes to Rachel's father Laban and gets tricked into marrying the wrong sister, and he marries Rachel's sister Leah, which is this great ironic moment because Jacob is kind of known as a trickster himself. He's sometimes referred to as the trickster of the Old Testament. So this is a very sharp turn of fate. The trickster becomes the tricked. And so he has to basically be an indenturge servant for Laban for a while. And long story short, things turn out pretty well for him. And he marries both Leah and Rachel, becomes pretty wealthy, builds a family for himself. And enough time passes that he figures that maybe Esau has chilled out, and he decides to go back to try to reconcile with the brother who he has wronged. So he's on his way back to his family. When all this goes down, that Grace read for us in the 32nd chapter of Genesis. Jacob sends the women and the children and the livestock in front of him, maybe as a bit of a buffer, should Esau still be a little grumpy. And he stays behind, and this is when this divine wrestling match happens. We don't know what prompted it. The text is frustratingly light on details. But this man, this angel, this presence wrestles Jacob overnight, and we don't know who it is until the next morning when Jacob comes to this realization that Jacob has been wrestling with God. And interestingly enough, God, it is not Jacob who tires first. It's not Jacob that says, Uncle. It's God that eventually says, okay, okay, I'm done. So that's another topic for a sermon is what does it mean to wrestle with God and have God be the one to say enough? But that's another sermon. And then God says, release me, and Jacob, ever the stubborn person, right? This is very characteristic of Jacob. Jacob says to God, No, I will not let you go unless you give me what? A blessing, right? He says, I'm not going to walk away with this without something to show for it. And that's exactly what God gives Jacob. God gives Jacob a blessing. He also gives Jacob a new name. He gives Jacob a new name. Anybody want to say what that name was? Israel. Does anybody know what the word Israel means? I heard somebody say it. It means he or they who wrestle with God. It comes from the Hebrew verb to wrestle. So the Israelites are God wrestlers. Us, by extension, are God wrestlers. That's what disciples do. They wrestle with God. So I don't know what you're wrestling with at the moment. I have had enough pastoral conversations with you all over the past several months to know that we are all wrestling with a lot. A lot with what's going on in the world. A lot that's going on in our families, in our workplaces, and perhaps even in our churches and our other communities that we have. So if you are feeling frustrated or feel that you are lacking in faith because you are wrestling, I have good news for you. If you are wrestling with God or with anything at the moment, you're in good company. In fact, wrestling is how we grow. Wrestling means receiving God's blessing, yes, and sometimes walking away with a limp. But the good news is, at least in the context of this story, on the other side of wrestling is reconciliation. I don't know what was going through Jacob's mind as he was wrestling with God, but I do know that after he received this blessing from God and walked away with that limp, the next part of the story is he goes to Esau and he tells Esau that he's done him wrong. And he asks for Esau's forgiveness, and Esau forgives him. So I hope that as you all wrestle, as we wrestle with all the things that's going on in the world and in our lives, that we may be reminded of the promise of reconciliation. And may we always hold on to the truth that in whatever we wrestle with, that we worship a God that welcomes us to say rather defiantly to God, I'm not walking away from this wrestling match without your blessing. So find ways to remember that with whatever you're struggling with. The verse right after where grace ended tells that the Israelites to this day do not eat the meat of the muscle of the thigh bone to remember this divine wrestling match. So friends, fellow God wrestlers, you're in good company. We are in good company, and there is reconciliation and growth through our wrestling with God and of our faith. And I just wanted to close with this quote from Mr. Rogers, as you all know, stays up here in the pulpit with me. He once said, there is no normal life that is free of pain. It's the very wrestling with our problems that can be the impetus for our growth. Friends, in the name of God, the Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer, may all of us, God wrestlers, say. Amen.