[Uucf-bible] Oct. 17 lectionary: Jacob wrestling; Jesus judging (or not) the judge

[RevRonRobinson at aol.com]

We resume our Bible discussion with one of the great stories from Genesis, 
and one of Jesus' great parables. What strikes you, moves you, puzzles you, 
etc.?

About the parable, Brandon Scott in his book on the parables labeled this one 
"You can't keep a good woman down" and points out how it is her audacious 
refusal to be turned away that is like the Kingdom of God, it is in how issues of 
justice and right and wrong and change of heart are not present or rewarded, 
only her persistence, the marginal breaking in again, begging to be paid 
attention. The kingdom metaphor isn't in the Judge, as people might have and still 
expect, but in the woman. Reminds me of one of my wife's favorite 
t-shirts---well-behaved woman don't make history. 

Jacob and Esau; Jacob and the "angel"; Jacob and the triumphant limp of 
humanity; what God blesses; what a great story, and I keep thinking of that famous 
picture and how it figured into the HBO movie of Angels in America, talk about 
a way a biblical allusion worked its way throughout the film. 
 
Genesis 32:3-31

3 Jacob sent messengers before him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, 
the country of Edom, 4instructing them, ‘Thus you shall say to my lord Esau: 
Thus says your servant Jacob, “I have lived with Laban as an alien, and stayed 
until now; 5and I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, male and female slaves; and I 
have sent to tell my lord, in order that I may find favor in your sight.”‘ 6The 
messengers returned to Jacob, saying, ‘We came to your brother Esau, and he is 
coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.’ 7Then Jacob was 
greatly afraid and distressed; and he divided the people that were with him, and 
the flocks and herds and camels, into two companies, 8thinking, ‘If Esau comes 
to the one company and destroys it, then the company that is left will escape.’ 


9 And Jacob said, ‘O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O 
LORD who said to me, “Return to your country and to your kindred, and I will do 
you good,” 10I am not worthy of the least of all the steadfast love and all 
the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant, for with only my staff I 
crossed this Jordan; and now I have become two companies. 11Deliver me, 
please, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I am afraid of him; 
he may come and kill us all, the mothers with the children. 12Yet you have 
said, “I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, 
which cannot be counted because of their number.”‘ 

13 So he spent that night there, and from what he had with him he took a 
present for his brother Esau, 14two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, 
two hundred ewes and twenty rams, 15thirty milch camels and their colts, forty 
cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. 16These he 
delivered into the hand of his servants, every drove by itself, and said to his 
servants, ‘Pass on ahead of me, and put a space between drove and drove.’ 17He 
instructed the foremost, ‘When Esau my brother meets you, and asks you, “To 
whom do you belong? Where are you going? And whose are these ahead of you?” 18
then you shall say, “They belong to your servant Jacob; they are a present sent 
to my lord Esau; and moreover he is behind us.”‘ 19He likewise instructed 
the second and the third and all who followed the droves, ‘You shall say the 
same thing to Esau when you meet him, 20and you shall say, “Moreover your servant 
Jacob is behind us.”‘ For he thought, ‘I may appease him with the present 
that goes ahead of me, and afterwards I shall see his face; perhaps he will 
accept me.’ 21So the present passed on ahead of him; and he himself spent that 
night in the camp. 22The same night he got up and took his two wives, his two 
maids, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23He took 
them and sent them across the stream, and likewise everything that he had. 

24 Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. 25When 
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 joint as he wrestled with him. 26Then he 
said, ‘Let me go, for the day is breaking.’ But Jacob said, ‘I will not let 
you go, unless you bless me.’ 27So he said to him, ‘What is your name?’ And he 
said, ‘Jacob.’ 28Then the man said, ‘You shall no longer be called Jacob, but 
Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed.’ 
29Then Jacob asked him, ‘Please tell me your name.’ But he said, ‘Why is it 
that you ask my name?’ And there he blessed him. 30So Jacob called the place 
Peniel, saying, ‘For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved.’
 31The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip.

Luke 18:1-8

18  
Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to 
lose heart. 2He said, ‘In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God 
nor had respect for people. 3In that city there was a widow who kept coming 
to him and saying, “Grant me justice against my opponent.” 4For a while he 
refused; but later he said to himself, “Though I have no fear of God and no 
respect for anyone, 5yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her 
justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.”’ 6And the Lord 
said, ‘Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7And will not God grant justice 
to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping 
them? 8I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the 
Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?’ 

blessings, Ron