Change often requires wrestling with God. The Dragon* tells George a parable about an up-to-date Jacob. Jake and God wrestle about all sorts of modern issues. At the end, “Jake limped away wounded…but not the loser; for like his namesake of old, he had “contended and prevailed.” And God? Well, God did not limp away from the contest, but skipped happily away into the sunrise.” The Dragon then explains that those on a quest “need to wrestle with the important questions in your life...with the self you see…and you must wrestle with God as well…You can’t wrestle God or confront the way you live with what you believe without being wounded.” The result of the wrestling, however, is to “hear the voice within that calls you to truth.” (This image of Jacob Wrestling is by Delacroix)
Barbara Brown Taylor* calls us to remember the many times God has come close to humankind with promises of grace. Taylor says, “The rainbow is God’s pure gift to us, a colorful corrective for anyone who believes that all the grace in the Bible is in the New Testament. It is not. The sacred story is full of grace from the very beginning, although we have always had a perverse way of fighting it off. It is almost as if we cannot stand so much good news.”
The rainbow is only the first of many promises of Grace. Some Bible promises come with name changes, signifying a transformed life. Abram is promised descendents as the stars. His name is changed to Abraham (father of a multitude) to foreshadow his transformed life even before Isaac is born. Jacob wrestles with God. His name is changed from Jacob (Supplanter) to Israel (Strives with God).
Many Bible promises of grace follow God’s actions on behalf of the people. After the Children of Israel leave Egypt, God reminds them, “You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples. Indeed, the whole earth is mine, but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation.” (Exodus 19:4-5) The people do not have to do anything except keep the covenant and they (and you and I) are as the KJV says “a peculiar treasure unto [God] above all people.”
That’s a pretty big transformation-from slaves to God’s own treasure! And we are heirs of that promise. There is an even greater Grace found in the New Testament that we are recipients of. “’Here,’ God said with the gift of a son-the one thing God had to give that was more precious to him than himself. ‘You don’t have to come to me where I am anymore. I will come all the way to you where you are, through this beloved child’…It is God’s promise from before time and forever, spelled out this time in flesh and blood.” [Taylor]
In the New Covenant, we come full circle. Paul claims we have “this ministry by the mercy (grace) of God…for what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.” (I Corinthians 4:1-5) As God’s treasured possession through Grace, we are to become servants to one another.
The question before us is; are we willing to accept the grace offered and be transformed? Am I willing to wrestle with God to hear the truth, which may change me and make me into a servant?
*quotes from Gospel Medicine by Barbara Brown Taylor and St. George and the Dragon and the Quest for the Holy Grail by Edward Hays.
