Title: Wrestling with Immanuel
Text: Gen 28:13-15; Gen 33:22-32
MP: Don’t be indifferent to Christ.
Intro:
About this time of year, we tend to sing a lot of Christmas carols too lightly. There are radical claims and contradictions we sometimes pass right over, without a moment’s thought.
This Christmas, I’ve been thinking about one in particular. We just sang, “O Come, O Come Immanuel / and ransom captive Israel.” In doing that, we pass over a contradiction that is itself a great claim of what Christmas really is. In order to really catch it, however, I need to teach you two Hebrew words, both of which we use in English today.
The first is one I bet you already know. I remember was sitting in Hebrew class, conjugating prepositions. Imi – With Me, Imcah – With you, Imah – With Him, Immanu. With Us. Immanuel – God is with us! Maybe we only think about at Christmas, but we know that Jesus’ birth means that God is with us. God himself took on human form and dwelt with us.
Even as far back as the first book of the Bible – Genesis, we saw that God wanted to be with us. There was a guy named Jacob who had a vision of God one night. He saw a giant stairway leading up to heaven. Mind you, this was 4000 years before anyone had even heard of Led Zepplin. Jacob sees this stairway – but he doesn’t need to climb it. God himself comes down the stairs to give Jacob a message. “I love you. I’m going to bless you. I’m with you wherever you go. [Gen 28:13-15]” Immanu. And my name is El.
This is a Christmas message, 2000 years before Christ was born. I love you. I’m going to bless you. I’m with you wherever you go.
But Christmas isn’t every day, and so maybe Jacob forgot.
This Jacob guy knows that God is with him, but life intervenes. He knows God is going bless him. But he still tricks his brother – his big hairy brother Esau out of their Dad’s inheritance. And now, after being tricked into working 14 years for his wife, Jacob knows its time to ask forgiveness. He’s scared.
And if you’re God, you probably have to be asking, “So what do I do now?” How do I tell Jacob I love him? Another beautiful vision isn’t going to cut it. He’s questioning everything. It would just be another fact to store up there along with the kids’ birthdays and Uncle Laban’s recipe for hummus. Jacob wouldn’t settle for a vision. He needed an encounter.
So you know what God does? He comes to Jacob again. But this time, he doesn’t say anything. He and Jacob just get into a wrestling match.
Now, I don’t know about you, but when I think about spending quality time with God, my first impulse isn’t wrestling. But God loves Jacob. He’s going to spend time with him no matter what they’re doing. So, they wrestle.
All night long, they do nothing but wrestle. Some times, Jacob is up on top, sometimes God. Back and forth, all night long they just wrestle. When morning comes, God tries to leave. Jacob says – I need your blessing! It’s an honest cry. God, I can’t do this! Bless me.
So God says, “I’ll tell you what. You need a new name. You won’t forget this one – I’m going to call you ‘Israel.’” Yisra – He wrestles. El – God. He wrestles with God.
I know when I say “Israel,” you’re thinking of a place. You’re probably thinking of a peaceful Rembrandt painting or else a place where suicide bombers are blowing up shopping malls every day. Of the two, the bomber is probably a little closer to the original. But, when we say Israel, we’re actually talking about a person. We’re saying “Here’s a guy - He struggles with God. He’s wrestling with God.”
Now, isn’t that a little bit strange? Immanuel - God is with us. But what are we doing, Israel? We’re wrestling with him! We’re in a knock-down drag out fight with this God who wants nothing less than to bless us.
Why? Because life intervenes. Visions come and go. Beautiful paintings fade. Nice words are quickly forgotten. Sometimes, the only way you can say “I love you,” to get right in their face. It may not seem lovely, but it is love.
You know this. The girl who is screaming and shaking her fist at her boyfriend is still more in love with him than the dutiful husband who passes by his wife without so much as a second glance. The opposite of love isn’t hate – it’s indifference.
Are you working out your salvation with fear and trembling? Or are you just working out what to have for dinner tonight? It doesn’t really matter. No matter where you are, God is in love with you, even if he has to be in your face to show it.
And so that makes me ask. On this Christmas Eve, when we celebrate God himself becoming one of us, what does that do for you? Are you in love? Are you in hate? Are you in indifference? It’s okay to struggle. The question is, are you struggling, or just giving up?
It’s Okay to struggle – to wrestle with God. I’d even encourage you – don’t let him go! You can have an encounter with him if you’ll only let him bless you. But you have to want it! Ask and it will be given you, Seek and you will find. Knock! That door will be opened.
So this Christmas, I hope it is your payer that you really would sing, “Come, Come Immanuel. Ransom the captive – even the one who will wrestle with you - Ransom me, your Israel.”
Would you pray with me?
Long Branch Baptist Church
Saturday, December 24, 2005
About that time Caesar Augustus ordered a census to be taken throughout the Empire. Everyone had to travel to his own ancestral hometown to be counted. So Joseph went from the Galilean town of Nazareth up to Bethlehem in Judah, David’s town, for the census. As a descendant of David, he had to go there. He went with Mary, his fiancée, who was pregnant. While they were there, the time came for her to give birth. She gave birth to a son, her firstborn. She wrapped him in a blanket and laid him in a manger, because there was no room in the inn.
There were shepherds camping in the neighborhood. They had set night watches over their sheep. Suddenly, God’s angel stood among them and God’s glory blazed around them. They were terrified. The angel said, “Don’t be afraid. I’m here to announce a great and joyful event that is meant for everybody, worldwide: A Savior has just been born in David’s town, a Savior who is Messiah and Master. This is what you’re to look for: a baby wrapped in a blanket and lying in a manger.” At once the angel was joined by a huge choir singing God’s praises:
“Glory to God in the heavenly heights, Peace and goodwill to all men.”
As the angel choir withdrew into heaven, the shepherds talked it over. “Let’s get over to Bethlehem as fast as we can and see for ourselves what God has revealed to us.” They left, running, and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in the manger. They told everyone they met what the angels had said about this child. All who heard the shepherds were impressed. Mary kept all these things to herself, holding them dear, deep within herself. The shepherds returned and let loose, glorifying and praising God for everything they had heard and seen. Everything was exactly the way they’d been told! (Luke 2:1-20)
“I have loved you,” says the LORD. “But you ask, ‘How have you loved us?’
"This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us." (1 John 4:9-12)
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosever should believe in him should not perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:16)
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6)
The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)
O Come, O Come Emmanuel
Prelude David Witt
Welcome & Invocation Michael Hollinger
*Hymn: Good Christian men, Rejoice! #90
All: Tonight, we light the first candle in remembrance of the hope Christ gives to us.
Lighting of the Hope Candle
*Hymn: Come Thou Long Expected Jesus #79
Luke 2:1-7
All: Tonight, we light the second candle in remembrance of peace that Christ brought into the world.
Lighting of the Peace Candle
Luke 2:8-12
All: Tonight, we light the third, rejoicing because of the joy that Jesus brings us in the here and now.
Lighting of the Joy Candle
*Hymn: Hark the Herald Angels Sing #83
Luke 2:13-20
All: Tonight, we light the fourth candle to remember the love that Jesus revealed in His coming and in His dying for each of us.
Lighting of the Love Candle
Malachi 1:2
1 John 4:9-12
John 3:16
*Hymn: O Come, O Come Emmanuel #78
Homily – Wrestling with Immanuel
*Hymn “O Little Town of Bethlehem” #85
Isaiah 9:6
All: Tonight, we light the Christ Candle, because in our Lord is Light, and he is the light of all men.
Lighting of the Christ Candle
Passing of the Light
*Hymn: It Came Upon the Midnight Clear #86
John 1:14
Benediction
And Ransom Captive Israel
