WEEK ONE
March 1 - March 4
THE STRUGGLE
The New Testament is full of athletic references regarding the Christian life and how to live it. We know that for Olympic athletes to be prepared, years of rigorous training, competition, and sacrifice are needed. Yet, the idea that Christianity involves struggle, effort and determination often seems foreign to our lifestyles and ways of thinking. Author Robin Phillips writes,”When struggle is perceived to be a bad thing, we will naturally gravitate toward those expressions of the faith that require minimal effort. On the other hand, if we realign our thinking with Scripture, then we can recognize that struggle is an integral part of the sanctified life. We are then liberated to grow in, and work through, struggle, frustration, confusion, pain, and even failure, rather than trying to find shortcuts to sanctification that eliminate struggle from the spiritual calculus.” Saint Paul writes eloquently about this in the book of Hebrews, “Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance that race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12: 1-2).”

Day 1 - Wednesday, March 1
Jacob Wrestles with the Angel
Scripture: Genesis 32:24-32
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.” Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.” The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip. Therefore to this day the people of Israel do not eat the sinew of the thigh that is on the hip socket, because he touched the socket of Jacob's hip on the sinew of the thigh.

Poetry:
"Jacob"
by Clarence Walhout
I was a deceiver, yes, my son,
But let me tell you this:
That night I wrestled with God
He touched my side and lamed me.
That night I dreamed of heaven
I woke with a crook in my neck.
My weakness let me see
The beauty of the well-proportioned body.
I admired the buoyant limbs of my children,
The gracefulness of my lovely Rachel;
I saw the date palm sway in the wind
And the swallow dance in the sky,
The fig tree grow in the springtime
And the waters of Elah ripple under
The blue of the heavens.

No, I have not forgotten the white angels’ wings
And the touch of angel flesh on mine,
But I see around me the touches
Of the hands of God that cripple the dreams of men
And turn them to the earth.
I did not betray you, my son.
You, too, shall come to know the love of wife and sons.
You, too, shall discover your dreams
Wrapped in the folds of a many-colored coat.

THE VICTORY OF DEFEAT
Not a major sports fan, I still enjoy the Big Game, and this year was no different. Wanting to see an upset, I rooted for the underdogs, because the other side seemed destined for victory. If the game had concluded at the half, a shake-up would have occurred, and the designated underdogs would have reigned triumphant. But there is always a second half, another side to the story. The struggle of competition brings out both the best, and the worst, in people. Whether one is speaking of national elections, or the outcome of the Super Bowl, certain people feel cheated by the results, while others boast about America's team winning its rightful crown.

In today's Lenten passage, a mortal being, Jacob, is challenged to wrestle by an "angel," who many believe to be a theophany of Christ. First off, we should acknowledge the audacity of Jacob. He clearly knows his opponent is not merely human, and yet he continues to strive with him. In fact, Peniel, the place where this all transpires, translates as the "face of El," or God. Surely the Man who knew every sinew of the person he was in combat with could have ended the fight without a struggle, but it is precisely in the struggle that we learn the greatest lessons. The stubbornness and hard heartedness of the mortal Jacob resulted in a change of identity and purpose. He fights through the night as Jacob, and before sunrise, bears the name Israel. As Clarence Walhout's poem views it, Jacob was "touched" and "lamed" in his nocturnal struggle, causing a "weakness" which allowed him to appreciate the beauty and symmetry of all God has created; in this crippling lesson Jacob learns that in disability we find His ability.

The off-putting, viscerally challenging work of Flemish artist Belinde De Bruyckere, We Are All Flesh, brings this point home. Intentionally destabilizing, this installation puts De Bruyckere's sculpture in dialogue with the religious and mythical paintings of Luca Giordano. Giordano's Saint Bartholomew and Prometheus Bound (both c.1660) depict the agonies of a martyred saint, and a punished Titan, in chiaroscuro lighting that humanizes their torturous, fleshly struggle. De Bruyckere's sculptures by contrast, here composed of wax, but often using wood, iron, wool, hair and the hides of horses, gleam with an eerie sense of familiarity that is not quite familiar. A viewer might be perplexed, trying to unravel the headless bodies joined at impossible angles, but unable to turn away from a struggle of flesh that, to invoke T. S. Eliot, presents "Paralyzed force, gesture without motion" ("The Hollow Men"). In a life where predictions often falter, and change is as unexpected as it is certain, we would do well to put our hopes in unchanging Elohim, the Lord who wrestles with people in order to bless them. The paralysis of defeat is sometimes the only way God can get our attention, and the crown of victory in its purist form looks a lot like a crown of thorns.

PRAYER:
Lord, teach us the power of genuine humility, the wisdom of patience, and the long lasting beauty of purity and self-denial. Put on our hearts the burdens that burden you, and allow us to confront the sin that so easily ensnares us. Let us not condemn our brothers and sisters, but help us acknowledge that you are the only just and perfect Judge. Teach us to be more like You in both our triumphs and defeats. Amen.

Marc Malandra
Associate Professor of English