This morning, we begin a new series together: Rooted in Gratitude and Growing in Christ. A little later, we will watch the first of 4 videos recounting the beginning of the 130 years as people called Methodist in this place called West Grove. We are celebrating 130 years of God’s faithfulness and our response. This project has been the collaboration of Scott Steele as a great local historian, Keith Schneider as video production and Vinny Ruscinski as tech support and myself as well as other who provided details and support, including Mel Leaman who will be featured in weeks to come. These videos will tell some of the stories of our congregation in beginning and formative years as well as rememberable past. All of the videos highlight a faithful group of believers rooted in gratitude for what God has done and what God’s people are doing as well as growing in Christ through grace. These are intentional choices at multiple points to choose gratitude.
Choosing gratitude and not just giving into the negative responses we find bubbling up in us is incredibly hard work. The kind of work that requires all night to hang onto and attitude of some sort. Not the kind of attitude made popular in reality shows and social media. Another kind of attitude. Space is big in our house these days, and I have been reading An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth by Chris Hadfield, Canadian astronaut, perhaps most famously known as the astronaut playing guitar on the International Space Station. He provided this insight: “In space flight, attitude refers to orientation. The position you are pointing relative to Sun, Earth, and other spacecraft. If you lose your orientation, two things happen, you begin to tumble and spin and you lose course.”1 Astronaut Hadfield goes onto to reflect that a similar thing is true on earth. It is where we are in reference to the weightiest body and how we are oriented. How do we find ourselves relating to God and how are we oriented?
Lest you and I begin to imagine that gratitude and attitude are overlays required of us regardless of our circumstances or theological pining’s, I what you to remember the story of Jacob. Jacob was traveling with his family, his wives, his children, his slaves, his whole household. He had been to see his brother, Esau, with whom you might remember he had deep conflict. He had traveled to offer gifts and peace with his brother. The stakes were high; lives were at stake; peace rested in the balance. Jacob was offering signs of peace to his brother. Almost, they were there. Almost, was the big day of peace and offering, but they camped the night before entering Esau’s camp. It was there at Peniel that Jacob wrestles out a blessing. The story almost begins without us. As we are hearing, we stumble upon Jacob wrestling with a man. An angel. The very presence of God. We get the sense quickly that Jacob doesn’t know for sure. Jacob just knows that he has to preserve, hang in and demand the blessing. Choose gratitude and demand this best even in the midst of this nighttime attack.
Wrestling in the middle of the nights with fears and anxieties, Jacob had no clear idea of who he was resisting or who he was engaging. Hours of wrestling; hours of back and forth; hours of the kind of exhaustion that comes from long, hard work. Jacob would not give in and would not let go. Jacob demanded a blessing. In being given a blessing, he was not yet content. He wanted to hear; he wanted to know – who had he come face to face with. With whom had he struggled? The heavenly visitor blessed him with the name of God. His life was forever changed.
His life was forever changed by encountering God and wrestling blessing from God. I wonder how many of us can imagine wrestling God through the night and demanding from God a blessing? I wonder how many of us have already encountered God in the longest part of the night. The parts of the night when the hours do not move evenly and 3:10 is not 5 minutes after 3:05 when we last looked at the clock, but rather hours and hours of worrying and wondering fearing and fretting. The parts of life when the answers are no longer easy and the solutions are not pat. The times when what we have always tried, no longer works. Wrestling with God is not only okay, but is the heart of today’s lesson. Wrestling with God over what we think we believe or how the circumstances of our lives or the lives of our loved ones are unfolding is more biblical than blind trust. Renita Weems, the great biblical scholar said it this way: “Faith is what you do between the last time you experienced God and the next time you experience God.”
You and I collectively are still trying to figure this out. We want to know why there is pain and disease. We want to know why we do the thing we don’t mean to do and don’t do the very thing we mean to do. We are mad at God and angry at humanity. We feel rejected and disappointed. We feel put down and alone. We are wrestling with God in the very details of lives. We are not sure that we should be and some of us feel badly about that, too!
Friends, hear the depth of the invitation from Paul, a man who struggled all of his life with a thorn in his side and knew wrestling with God, who blinded him to get his attention. The apostle Paul writes, I give thanks to God for you. Not tritely or off handedly. In fact, some of these would cause Paul great consternation and pain. Paul chose to give thanks for the coworker who told lies behind his back and did not let go of the struggle, until there was blessing. Paul chose to give thanks for the spouse who fought dirty, bringing up painful memories, until there was blessing. Paul chose to give thanks for God who had operated in ways he did not always understand, debating God, until there was blessing. We, too look for blessings in the midst of struggle.
We who are oriented towards God with gratitude in our hearts and invited to keep wrestling and chose to find blessings in each day. Gratitude grows our roots, extends the foundation that we live on, and allows for more to grow within us. Gratitude opens new ways for us to be fed. Gratitude changes our lives and points us with attitude and orientation back to God. Join me in this season of gratitude by strengthening your roots, hanging on for your blessing, and allowing God to grow through you.
This is the Gospel of Lord Jesus Christ, thanks be to God, Amen.
1Hadfield, Chris, Col. An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth. (Back Bay Book: New York: 2013) ,41.
New Testament Lesson: 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10
Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy,
To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:
Grace to you and peace. We always give thanks to God for all of you and mention you in our prayers, constantly remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. For we know, brothers and sisters beloved by God, that he has chosen you, because our message of the gospel came to you not in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction; just as you know what kind of persons we proved to be among you for your sake. And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for in spite of persecution you received the word with joy inspired by the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. For the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place your faith in God has become known, so that we have no need to speak about it. For the people of those regions report about us what kind of welcome we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols, to serve a living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath that is coming.
Old Testament Lesson: Genesis 32:22-31
The same night he got up and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. He took them and sent them across the stream, and likewise everything that he had. Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak.
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 joint 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 ask my name?” And there he blessed him. So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved.” The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip.
Meditations For Your Week
Sunday, October 16~ Saturday, October 22
Sunday: “Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. 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 joint 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.” Genesis 32: 24-26. Jacob chose to not let go of God until he was blessed. Where are you finding blessings in the midst of struggle?
Monday: “Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. Genesis 32: 29. Prayerfully meditate on the name of our God who blesses and redeems struggle.
Tuesday: “So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved.” Genesis 32: 30. Encountering God intimately is eye opening and heart changing. Where have you seen God face to face and still preserved?
Wednesday: “We always give thanks to God for all of you and mention you in our prayers, constantly” 1 Thessalonians 1:2. Giving thanks is not just for those moments you would preserve with pictures. Giving thanks in all circumstances is a muscle to be worked. Give thanks to God today, even when you might not preserve the moments with photographs.
Thursday: “For we know, brothers and sisters beloved by God, that he has chosen you, because our message of the gospel came to you not in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction; just as you know what kind of people we proved to be among you for your sake.” 1 Thessalonians 1:4-5. The presence of God is known in word and power. Give thanks to God for glimpses of God’s presence in word and power.
Friday: “And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for in spite of persecution you received the word with joy inspired by the Holy Spirit.” 1 Thessalonians 1:6. Joy is not happiness. Joy is a deep and abiding knowledge of God’s presence and faithfulness in all circumstances. Where have you found joy?
Saturday: “For the people of those regions report about us what kind of welcome we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols, to serve a living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath that is coming.” 1 Thessalonians 1:9-10. Giving thanks to God changes our lives. We transform from dead to living, from dying to born again. Praise God for God’s resurrecting power!