We Wrestle with God

The name Israel means those who wrestle with God. Do you remember how Jacob got the name? He had left his wives’ homeland with their father hot on their trails. He was afraid he would force him to stay, but God commanded Laban not to touch Jacob. Then his brother Esau intercepted him on his journey home and Jacob feared for his life and the life of his family. The last time he saw Esau their father Isaac had died and Esau was plotting to kill Jacob. He put some space between his family and Esau.

[Jacob] took [his family] and sent them across the stream, and everything else that he had. And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his 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 has broken.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” And he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” Then he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.” Gen. 32:23-28

This angel of the Lord is the pre-incarnate Jesus Christ. The Father is not flesh and blood and so in the Old Testament the angel of the Lord, Jesus Christ, comes and often inserts himself in the story of Israel. This is an important moment for the church. Jacob is returning to the promised land. He is returning blessed by the Lord despite his sinfulness, despite his doubts, despite his fears. This community of faith is marked by its wrestling.

The New Testament church is a wild olive branch grafted into the root of Israel, and so we are those who wrestle with God as well. It’s always been a collective wrestling. We wrestle together as a community. We wrestle with the doubts and fears of our covenant family. We wrestle with our lack of faith. We wrestle for the fatherless and the widows. We wrestle for the weak and abused. We wrestle for our families.

During my most intense wrestling with the difficult questions about the faith, I recall that, although my faith seemed dangerously close to shipwrecking, the faith of my family, the faith of the Church, and, most foundational, the faith of Jesus Christ anchored me as it felt as though I was alone. The waves of doubt were billowing but my Anchor held fast.

Shortly after that experience, an immediate family member also had a similar struggle with doubt and depression. I regularly told them that, although their faith was weak, it didn’t need to be strong. I would believe the promises of God for them. I would call out to God on their behalf. I would plead with God that nothing would separate them from Him. He was faithful to me and He would be faithful to them. He was. And isn’t He always faithful? Without a doubt. That’s the strength found in a community of faith that wrestles with God together.

But the wrestling doesn’t begin or end with us now. Centuries of Christians have wrestled with God before us. They strove with God. They asked Him tough questions. They doubted. They feared. They felt alone. That’s the beauty of being grafted into this ancient olive tree called the Church. We do not wrestle alone. We do not wrestle just in the now. We wrestle with the saints of yesterday. We wrestle as a collective Church united with Jesus Christ.

Mathew Sims is the author of A Household Gospel Fulfilling the Great Commission in Our Homes and also writes for CBMW Men’s blog, Gospel Centered Discipleship, and Servants of Grace. He also works as the managing editor at Gospel Centered Discipleship. They attend Downtown Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Greenville, SC.

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Social Media Ain’t a Covenant Community (or Why Social Media Shouldn’t be a Spectator’s Sports)

Count me as a friend of technology and social media. In fact, I recently wrote a piece for the CBMW Manual blog argue for the God glorifying benefits of technology and social media. God created all things and said, “This is good.” As Christians, we start there. He also gave us the command to create, work, and have dominion. The good includes these endeavors, and, therefore, includes our work as sub-creators (a quip borrowed from J. R. R. Tolkien). Of course, many people take beautiful, good, God glorifying things and turn them into ugly, perverted orcs. We must use discernment anchored to Scripture. I say all that as a preface for my post today.

I want to now pushback on social media. Some use social media as a stand in for flesh and blood covenant community. Social media and technology can never replace the living Church. You see it’s easy to defriend, unfollow, block, or not pin someone who you disagree with on social media. It’s easy to anonymously criticize someone. It’s easy to sub-tweet. It’s easy to make generalizations. It’s easy to slander someone when you don’t have to look them in the face.

It’s much harder when you are committed, hands calloused, to a living, local church. You can’t defriend, unfollow, block, or ignore someone, when you’re face to face with them week in and week out. It’s much harder to take pot shots and snipe in this context. (Notice I didn’t say impossible. It happens. We’ve all seen it.)

There are some in the Christian blog-o-sphere who are known for being shall we say prickly. I’ve heard more than once though, “So and so is a great guy [or gal], when you talk to them face to face or on the phone.” God forbid that our online persona is different than our true life person.

Where it has, social media devolves into a spectator sport on the level of WWE’s Monday Night Raw. We all have our favorite Christian wrestler...errrr I mean blogger, pastor, ministry leader. They don their two size too small spandex costume and strut out to their rockin’ theme song to the tune of three weekly blog posts. Many of us sit in the stands and cheer them on. We jeer their opponents. We mock and slur the other side. We are entertained.

All of this is just sad. This kind of social media spectacle only survives where anemic ecclesiology thrives. Where a robust eccelsiology is alive and well. This kind of spectacle will be on the fringe and shortly extinct. Where churches are rehearsing the gospel weekly and sending the Church out to rehearse the gospel in their daily lives, social media becomes an opportunity to rehearse the gospel in a small sliver of life. It doesn’t become the Monday night main event.

So let’s use technology and social media for the glory of God, but let’s not make it a spectator sport. Let’s always prioritize our local covenant communities. Let’s always prioritize our families. Let’s always prioritize soaking our lives in the gospel over watching our favorite online persona drop their finishing move on the opposition.

Servants of Grace Guest Post: “God So Loved”

Today I’m contributing at Servants of Grace, a blog collective run by Dave Jenkins. SOG has a series on love running and I tackle God’s covenant love and its implications in a fallen world.

In December, my third daughter was born. The birth of a child is such a surreal experience. I’m amazed every time I witness the birth of one of my children. You would think it might become ordinary, but it never has for me. On the one hand, I know what to expect, but, on the other hand, the exertion required to care for a new baby always feels like joining the Polar Bear Club. What makes it all worth it–the late nights, the crying, the potty training, the exhaustion–is the love between father and child. It’s a love that children grow to understand more as they marry and have their own children.

As a first time father, I wondered what having two children would be like. How could this expansive, deep love I felt for this child be duplicated toward another child? My heart felt so full. It felt like there was no room to grow. But now onto my third and inexplicably I feel that same love for each of my children. The heart it seems is a flexible muscle.

Read the entire article here.

The Church with Sandals On

The Passover

In Exodus 12:7-13, Moses says,

“Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it. Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted, its head with its legs and its inner parts. And you shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. In this manner you shall eat it: with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover. For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.

Moses here is describing the Lord’s instructions to Israel on the eve of their redemption from slavery. The Lord had worked miracles in Egypt which had hardened Pharaoh’s heart. Pharaoh refused to let Israel go. So God had one final judgement. He would kill all the first born from least to greatest in the land of Egypt except where blood was on the doorpost. This blood servers as a substitute for the first born inside each home where it was painted onto the door frame.

To the Romans, Paul says,

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. (3:21-26)

Notice verse twenty-five, “[Jesus] whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.” In the new covenant, God put forth Jesus as the propitiation for the sins of his people and where his blood is painted onto our hearts, there is no final death. The old covenant meal is replaced with the new covenant meal, the body and blood of Jesus Christ. All of that sets the stage for my main point.

On Mission

During this judgement in Exodus twelve, families were instructed to cook and eat the sacrifice with their bags packed and sandals on. An odd detail to include. An odd detail to command. Why would they need to pack their bags and have their sandals on? The judgement and meal prepared them to be redeemed. It was after they had eaten they were brought from death to life.

How does this fit within the liturgy of our church? When we eat the covenant meal at my church, we end with a hymn, a benediction (a blessing from God), and our pastor sends out into our city on mission. We see from the earliest rehearsals of the gospel, God redeems us to send us out on mission. We, like the church before us, eat and drink with our sandals on and bags packed. We are ready to go into the world. We are sent out in the name of Jesus Christ--the one who has authority to rule all nations.

It’s interesting to note that Paul describing the armor of God includes this: “Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace” (Eph 6:14-15). We are commanded to have our shoes ready with the gospel of peace.

Where there is no mission, there is no church. Where we are not foot soldiers for the gospel of peace, there is no church. The church is always ready and prepared for mission. We eat and drink in our churches in preparation for this. We taste and see then we hear the marching orders--a blessing from God and a sending out into our community.