Memorial of Saint Benedict, Abbot

 Lectionary: 384

Then some man wrestled with him until the break of dawn. When the man saw that he could not prevail over him, he struck Jacob's hip at its socket, so that the hip socket was wrenched as they wrestled.
The man then said, "Let me go, for it is daybreak."
But Jacob said, "I will not let you go until you bless me."
The man asked, "What is your name?"
He answered, "Jacob."
Then the man said,
"You shall no longer be spoken of as Jacob, but as Israel, because you have contended with divine and human beings
and have prevailed."

Footnotes in the "New American Bible revised edition" explain that the name Israel combines two Hebrews words. "El" means "god," a generic word for any god; and "isra-" suggests saritha, meaning “you contended." Or, "you struggled with god." 

Walter Brueggemann, in his two volume commentary on Isaiah, writes: 

[Jerusalem] is regarded as the center of Yahweh's peculiar attentiveness, as the seat of the world's best hopes for well-being, and as the site of the most profound disobedience and recalcitrance. Jerusalem is taken in this tradition as an epitome of Yahweh's creation, which owes its life to Yahweh, and which seeks with great resourcefulness to have a life other than the one Yahweh would give. 

Israel, then, is the right name for Jews and Christians, for everyone who claims to know the Lord engages in that endless struggle with God and ourselves.  

The struggle begins with our own bodies as we know we should be more attentive to our physical need for discipline. I should take better care of myself, and yet I don't. Everything from my posture to my periodic checkups is slack. I eat the wrong foods and drink the wrong drinks; I neglect exercise, stay up too late, and stay abed too long. And the older I get the more attention I should pay to my long-suffering, rebellious body. 

Secondly. the mind also needs discipline or it grows slack. I need less entertainment and more study if I would understand my complex, bewildering world. I should know my faith tradition so much better. When I finished school, the commencement speaker told us we should spend the rest of our lives making up for what we had failed to learn. Commencement, we were told, signals the beginning of your education, not its conclusion.  

Finally, the Spirit, Jesus remarked, "is willing but the flesh is weak." We may hope for salvation but we're very particular as to how we should be saved, when, and at what price. It's my way or no way! We wish the Lord would come rescue us but are unwilling to get in the boats he sends us. 

Abraham saw the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. I think that apparent footnote in Genesis is really important. He saw that, if he were to be the elect of God, he must do more than comply. He must love and obey the Lord; he must accept -- and more than accept, welcome! -- the friendship of God. He must be the spouse who honors and obeys. Perhaps this willingness came more easily to the sanguine Abraham, and perhaps Jacob/Israel was truculent by nature. He would grow more docile in his old age as, weakened by disappointment and grief, he would allow himself to be carried into Egypt. 

When morning came, the unnamed stranger admitted he could not defeat Jacob. Though overpowered and clearly bested the Patriarch would not surrender. He would limp with sciatic pain the rest of his life but would not be defeated. His only concession was to be called by a new name, one which recognized his unending contest with the LORD. 

We also keep up the struggle, and especially with ourselves. Though wisdom encourages us and common sense insists, we still wrestle with God. And the LORD understands.