Song: Give to our God immortal praise
Give To Our God Immortal Praise - YouTube
Prayer:
We come before you, humbly and broken, for our spirits are heavy and our souls can find no rest outside of your Presence.
We need you Lord to show up strong on our behalf right now. We’re tired of wrestling, we’re weary in the struggle of it all.
We don’t understand what you’re doing, we can’t fully wrap our minds around your ways, but our hearts cry out to you for help and peace in our time of desperate need.
We proclaim again, that no matter what we face, we trust you, Father God.
We know that your plans for us are good and filled with hope. We know that you have the best in store for us, even though our circumstances seem too hard to bear right now.
We believe that this storm won’t last forever.
We know that light will break through the dark. And we have confidence in you to bring us through.
God, we confess to you that sometimes our worries seem too big.
We don’t see a way out of our current situation, and your timing seems different than what we would have chosen. But we know and believe that no matter how much we’ve struggled, you alone can see the big picture. And we praise you, that you are with us in it all.
Help us to hear your voice through the difficult days. Help us to set our eyes on you alone. Help us to keep moving in the direction you are leading us. Thank you for your reminders that through every weakness and hard place, your strength is displayed in beautiful ways through our lives. We can’t do it on our own Lord. We’re so freshly aware of that. But you can work your great miracles in us, and through us.
Thank you that this battle will never have the final say over our lives. And because of your power and compassion, we will come through to the other side, with greater perseverance, stronger faith, and deeper awareness of your presence with us. Thank you that you are fighting for us, and will bring us out as gold.
In Jesus’ Name,
Amen.
From www.ibelieve.com
Song: Fight the good fight
Reading: Genesis, chapter 32, verses 22 to 31
Reading: Matthew’s gospel, Chapter 14, verses 13 to 21
Song: Come O thou traveller unknown
Come, O Thou Traveler Unknown - YouTube
The story of Jacob strikes different people in different ways. It is a complex story with various aspects and understandings. There is a possibility of word play with Jacob and Jabbok, the consonants are the same in Hebrew. Jacob is expecting to meet with Esau, but here, whilst he is on his own, at night this mystery figure appears. Whether or not it is God depends on the understanding of the reader; it could be, or it might be Esau, or even a River “god” of ancient stories which could only exist in the dark, it cannot stand light, and the figure disappears at dawn.
After the encounter Jacob is given a new name, “Israel”. The name means He struggles/strives/wrestles with God. Whether it means with God in the sense that someone might say that they struggle with mathematics, or in the sense of struggling alongside depends on one’s understanding.
The figure says nothing, they are a shadowy figure, and the winner of the struggle is uncertain. There is a mention of a thigh injury, which is used as an explanation of why Jews do not eat that part of a joint. Perhaps this prohibition is in memory of Jacob’s struggle?
The name Peniel means “face of God”. The figure asks his name, and this could be a reference to him giving the wrong name (Esau) to his father. There are a number of other passages in scripture which tell of the prohibition on seeing God.
Alan Boesak, the south African anti-apartheid campaigner, and church cleric, preacher on this passage. He exp0lained that Jacob got to meet his brother, but first he had to meet God. This asks the question, what sort of God wrestles with humans? The sort that doesn’t need to win! He doesn’t need power or strength to oppress, and because of this, a new future opens. We need to ask the question “How can we leave our tarnished past behind and then go to our brothers and sisters.
Matthew’s account of the feeding of the 5000 parallels the accounts in the other three gospels. At first reading, most of us wonder what has happened to the small boy who’s lunch was used. In fact, the boy is only mentioned in John’s account.
As in many situations, Jesus was teaching from a boat. He had withdrawn, but the crowd had followed him. Then what? Should the crowd be sent away? “You feed them.” the disciples were told. The cost would be enormous, about 200 days wages. What was available was blessed, and everyone got a meal, even to the extent that there were leftovers. A miracle, but it would be futile to try to explain the mean by which it was done. Putting what was available into God’s hands was all that was necessary.
There are parallels with other stories, Elijah feeding the widow, God feeding the people with Mannah in the desert, after the resurrection, Jesus feeding the disciples by the lakeside.
Both stories tell us something of the nature of God. And the need to take action when there is a calling to do something. Both the disciples and Jacob were challenged to do something by their circumstances, the rest is history.
Song: Now thank we all our God
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