“God wants us to restore our relationships because He knows that our rusty relationships are plaguing our souls.”
Rev Chance McMullin
This is the first sermon in a 3 week sermon series titled “Restore My Soul”. The first week’s text is from Genesis 32:22-32.
That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two female servants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”
But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”
The man asked him, “What is your name?”
“Jacob,” he answered.
Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.”
Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.”
But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him there.
So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”
The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip. Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob’s hip was touched near the tendon.
“Funerals have a way of uplifting you”, Rev Chance McMullin begins the sermon.
Psalm 23 is a familiar psalm most often read at funerals. Rev Chance goes on to ask the congregation to help recite part of it.
How, though, could the author of this psalm, David, speak of such peace? He has been harassed by the king who also attempted to kill him. He was forced to flee and lived in caves. David buried some of his own children. Yet, he writes that the Lord restores his soul.
“Needing to be restored means you are not as good as you once were”, states Rev Chance. He goes on to say that bad relationships are something that plagues many of us. “Some of us have rusty relationships that need to be restored.”
This story of Jacob and Esau is just that. The twin brothers’ relationship was tense from birth as Jacob held on to Esau’s heal as they left the womb. The straw that broke the relationship completely was a meticulous deception to gain the blessing and birthright of their dying father.
After many years apart due to the deception and rusty relationship, we receive clarity about who God is when we read Genesis 32:9. God told Jacob to go back to his brother.
The sermon text begins just after the charge to return and just before the two brothers reunite.
Rev Chance says, “The conclusion of the wrestling match leaves him with a broken hip and a new name.” He points out that the name change is important. It is no longer a name of negative connotation. He also points out that the wrestling with God restored him.
“God wants us to restore our relationships because He knows that our rusty relationships are plaguing our souls.”
So you are charged with this: “Go and restore your relationships. Go and have your soul restored.”