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1. Why do Christians hold the Bible in such high esteem?

The answer is in todays reading from the second letter to Timothy All Scripture is inspired by God and
useful for teaching This is the basis for the doctrine of inspiration
The authors of the books of the Bible wrote thousands of years ago and were concerned with teaching
the people of their time. But their writings contain perennial truths that are still valuable and applicable
to our lives today.
The Bible is the cornerstone of what the Church has believed for centuries and of what we still believe
today, and, as a priest, it is my duty and my privilege to preach the Bible and teach the Bible.

2. The Old Testament reading from Genesis is one episode in the story of Jacob, the son of
Isaac and Rebecca, and the grandson of Abraham and Sarah.
Isaac and Rebecca had twin boys and named them Esau and Jacob. Esau was the first to be born. The
local tradition was that by birthright Esau was entitled to a double share of the inheritance.
Jacob, born right after after Esau, was cleverer, but was also a liar and a cheater. One day Esau came
home very hungry, and Jacob got him to agree to yield his birthright in exchange for a bowl of soup.
Then, with the help of Rebecca, he pretended to be Esau, took advantage of the fact that his father was
blind, and and also stole his fathers blessings that were due to the first born.
Not surprisingly, Esau was furious about being dispossessed, and planned to kill Jacob, who decided to
leave town and went to stay with Laban, his mothers brother in Iraq. There he fell in love with his
cousins Rachel. Her father Laban agree to let Jacob marry her if Jacob agreed to work 7 years for him.
After the 7 years there was a wedding. During the ceremony, the bride was veiled, and when Jacob
removed her veil, he realized that he had not married Rachel, but her older sister Leah.
The cheater had been cheated. Laban told Jacob that since Leah was the oldest, she had to be married
first, but the Jacob was welcome to marry also Rachel, if he agreed to work another 7 years for Laban.
He did, and then worked 6 more years to secure a share of Labans flocks. Jacob had children from both
his wives as well as from a couple of servant girls. After 20 years, Jacob left Laban, took his wives,
children and possessions, and traveled back to his fathers house in Canaan.
But, before returning home, he had to make peace with his brother Esau, so he sent presents to Esau to
appease him. All of this took place before the events in todays readings

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3. In todays readings we find Jacob is at the river Jabbok, a tributary of the Jordan, which
was the border with the land of Canaan. He sent his family ahead and was getting
ready to cross and meet his brother Esau.
During the night a stranger challenged him, and they wrestled all night. Then the stranger, who was
God who dislocated Jacobs hip, blessed him, and changed his name to Isra-El, meaning he who
wrestles with God.
In the morning, Jacob crossed the river Jabbok, and reconciled himself with his brother Esau, who
turned out to be very gracious to Jacob and to his family.
The descendents of Jacobs 12 children became the 12 tribes of Israel, and Jesus himself was a
descendent of Jacobs son Judah.
Jacobs wrestling match with God is symbolic of our relationship with God: we too wrestle with God.
Jacob, as we have seen was not a saint by any stretch of the imagination: he was a trickster who
cheated his brother, lied to his father, and had children from 4 different women. We could say that
he had a few character flaws. But God selected him, over his more deserving brother for his plan to
create the people of Israel. The Jews were might not have been the most deserving or faithful nation
on earth, but God selected them. We are not the best people in the world, but God has selected us
anyway.

4. Why would God do that?

A few years ago, at a time when all the scandals of pedophile priests were coming out, we had a
lively debate about priests who are the ministers of the Eucharist. As I recall, someone wondered
how could God use unworthy human beings (priests), some of whom were guilty of horrible
things, to bring people his grace.
Good question! I remember that exchange as I was preparing todays sermon. There is a pattern
here God picked Jacob a man with obvious character flaws. Jacob was a scrappy guy who did lied
and cheated to get his way. Jesus selected Peter to lead his disciples. He was the guy who soon
after denied even knowing Jesus on the night when Jesus was arrested. Jesus also selected Paul a
fanatic Pharisee who was on his way to Damascus to arrest Christians.

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We are not God, but thats not how we would do things. When I was still working at the WPC Library, I
was appointed to search committees to hire people. We would get the resumes of the candidates,
their references, look at their experiences, interview them and if we discovered a candidate with
any kind of flaw, we would immediately eliminate them, and focus on the most promising candidates.
But God doesnt seem to operate that way: he seems to have fun accomplishing his plans by using
mediocre, and sometimes even some pretty bad people .
So, I guess, the answer to the question, how can the grace of God come to us from such worthless
people? may be to let us know that grace comes from God, and not from the people who serve as
his ministers.

5. The story of Jacob and the Gospel of Luke have deeper messages for all of us.
a. We are all sinners, we all have character flows, we are all like Jacob in some ways, we dont like to
obey Gods will. We wrestle with God. We keep thinking that God is not managing the world as he
should, down deep we believe that if we were God, we would straighten out the world in no time.
b. God calls us and uses us for his plan in spite of all our faults and our presumption, not because we
deserve it, but because God is good. Jacob, Peter, and Paul did not deserve to be selected by God.
But God chose them because God loved them, and loves us, in spite of our shortcomings.
c. The final thought comes from today's Gospel, the parable of the corrupt judge and of the persistent
widow. An old woman kept petitioning a corrupt judge to give her justice. But, probably because she
was too poor to bribe him, the judge kept ignoring her. She kept bugging him, and eventually he
decided to hear her case. Jesus message is that persistence pays: the corrupt judge finally decided
to do his job because this woman was persistent. God is not a corrupt judge, but a loving father.
d. We need to persevere in our prayers, wrestle God, and trust that God hears us. Ultimately God will
do what is best for us, even though He may not agree with our ideas of what is best for us.