Wrestling the Reckoning - 19th Sunday after Pentecost
Author: Pastor Scott Schul
October 19, 2025
In every life, there are
moments of reckoning. These are
crossroads moments, times when you have to make a decision that will clearly
have major consequences for your life moving forward. Am I going to take this path, or that
one? Am I going to say “yes” or am I
going to say “no”?
For example, imagine
you’re a university professor with two job offers that are, on the whole, basically
equivalent. You can teach at the
University of Iowa or Penn State University. Your choice will impact the kind of home you live in, the friendships
you make, where you worship, where your kids go to school, and an innumerable
range of other things.
A couple weeks ago this
hit home for me while in Sweden. Some
friends drove us out into the countryside to Farhult Lutheran Church, the place
where my great-great grandfather was baptized and raised in the faith. His name was Carl Wilhelm Svensson, born in
1853. That was a hard time in rural
Sweden. Lots of poverty. Land was concentrated in the hands of the
few. Carl had few prospects there for
bettering himself. As he grew into
adulthood, he reached a moment of reckoning. Should he stay in Sweden and tough it out, like generations of his
family before him, or should he risk everything and make the long journey to
the United States, where at least he had a shot at something better? In 1878, at the age of 25, he made the
decision. He would pack up and move to
America.
When you reach a moment
of reckoning, whichever choice you make, there’s always a cost. That was certainly true for my great-great
grandfather. He would have to leave
behind everyone and everything he had known. He’d need to make new friends, learn a new language, and start from
scratch with absolutely no safety net and no guarantee of success. As it turns out, he’d even have to modify his
name; Carl Wilhelm Svensson was eventually Anglicized to Charles Wilhelm
Swanson. What went through his mind as
his ship left the dock in Sweden and sailed for the great unknown? How I wish I knew.
“Where will I
live? What will I do for work? Who will I marry?” Those are all moments of reckoning most of us
eventually face. But there’s a special
subcategory of these moments that carries eternal consequences. These are moments of spiritual reckoning. This is when you’re faced
with a crossroads decision about your faith. Will I believe in God? If so,
what religion, denomination, or pathway will I follow? Will I join a community of believers? If so, which one? How active will I be? How generous a giver will I be? How seriously will I take the teachings of
my spiritual pathway?
Those are heavy duty
questions, and each one represents a moment of spiritual reckoning that will
play a part in determining the future of your life and, I would argue,
the quality and wholeness of your life. And just as was the case with my great-great
grandfather’s decision to emigrate to the United States, your spiritual moment
of reckoning will carry a cost.
Consider Jacob in today’s
first lesson. He had such an ethically
corrupt past that in Hebrew his name means “he who acts crookedly.” Several chapters in Genesis are devoted to
the tangled tale of how he tricked and cheated his brother Esau out of his
blessing and birthright as eldest son. For
years since then, Jacob had been on the run from Esau, and with each passing day
his worries grew larger. Would Esau find
a way to get revenge? Well, we’d soon know,
because Esau was drawing closer, with 400 men. Jacob believed this was an army of retribution,
not the welcome wagon. Jacob’s moment of
reckoning was at hand.
In case Esau planned to
attack, Jacob attempted to mitigate his potential losses by splitting up his
livestock and sending them away in several different directions. Then he sent his family across the river into
hiding. Now it was night, and Jacob was
all alone, accompanied only by his fears and his regrets. For Jacob, there would be no sleep tonight.
You’ve had nights like
that, haven’t you? Nights when you toss
and turn with worry and regrets? I have,
and I’m sure you have too. At times
those worries and regrets feel so big and ominous that they almost seem alive, like
an attacker trying to wrestle you into submission. And indeed that night, our lesson from
Genesis tells us that Jacob started to wrestle.
But Jacob wasn’t just
wrestling his fears or his checkered past. Was it a man? No, this was no
mere man. Was it an angel? The text is ambiguous. It was something or someone divine. Personally, I think he was wrestling the
pre-incarnate Jesus. In any event, that
wrestling went on all night. To Jacob’s
credit, he would not let go until he was promised a blessing. And a blessing he got: a new name that
signified Jacob’s inner transformation. Now he would be known as Israel, a name which means “The one who strives
with God.” Jacob, the trickster, the
fraudster, was a new man. As Israel, he
would be the father of a great nation. But do you remember what I said earlier? In every reckoning, there’s a cost, and that’s especially true in a
spiritual reckoning like Jacob had. Jacob’s
hip was injured. Jacob’s walk would be
as changed as his name and his character.
So what happened when
Esau arrived? To Jacob’s surprise and
relief, Esau was gracious. There was
reconciliation. There was peace. For Jacob, it was a new day of opportunity, a
clean slate, and a fresh start. He
wasn’t the same man he once was. But for
that transformation to happen, he first had to wrestle with God. It’s no different for all of us.
Now friends, I’m going
to speak plainly and frankly with you. Most of us don’t give much thought to our spiritual lives. We don’t spend a lot of time wondering about
our relationship to Christ. For many,
daily prayer is a chore. Sunday worship
is an inconvenience. We’re just too
busy, too distracted, too caught up in other things to worry much about Jesus,
faith, and salvation. But eventually, we
all come to that moment of spiritual reckoning. Usually it's prompted by a crisis. It might be an illness, a job loss, economic worries, a world that seems
to be spinning and descending into utter madness, a deep emptiness we feel
inside, or a sense that our lives are drained of meaning. Only when that crisis becomes big enough to
wrestle us to the ground do we start to ask those big spiritual questions. Only then do we realize that we’ve been
spiritually starving ourselves
So let’s get
practical. What does Jacob’s story mean
for us? Well, read Jacob’s story alongside
today’s Gospel parable about the persistent widow. She and Jacob share something in common. When they faced a reckoning, they tenaciously
held on. But held on to what? Their principles? Their courage? Their determination to get justice? No. It’s not what they held onto that made the difference. It’s who they held onto.
You see, that’s our lesson from God’s Word today. In our moments of reckoning, it’s vital that we cling with all our might, mind, and
strength to Jesus Christ. Because our
only hope is in Jesus. Our only help is in Jesus. But you say, “Pastor, there’s
so much I don’t understand or know.” That’s OK. Faith and trust in
Jesus are enough. Just hold on to
him! Don’t dare let go until you receive
a blessing. Because you will! You will be transformed. But remember, there will be a cost. You won’t be the same person you were. And thank God for that. But don’t wait for a crisis. Tonight, go to Jesus in prayer. Tell him you’re not yet fully the person he
made you to be. It's OK; he knows. Then, just like Jacob, wrestle with that, as
long as it takes. Don’t let go. Be transformed. Be blessed. Amen.
© 2025 Rev. Scott E. Schul, all rights reserved
Sermon Text: Genesis 32:22-31
Gospel: Luke 18:1-8
1 Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and
not to lose heart. 2 He said, “In a certain city there was a
judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. 3 In
that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Grant me
justice against my accuser.’ 4 For a while he refused, but
later he said to himself, ‘Though I have no fear of God and no respect for
anyone, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will
grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually
coming.’ ” 6 And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust
judge says. 7 And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones
who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? 8 I
tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man
comes, will he find faith on earth?”
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