Sunday, September 20, 2026 - Beginnings and Endings
Beginnings and Endings
Many of the Bible's best stories about new beginnings often come from the end of
something. The end of Jesus’s life brings about his resurrection, a new beginning that came from
an abrupt end. A very popular scripture in the United Church is “Behold, I make all things new”
which is a line that is said by Jesus at the end of Revelations which is not only a book depicting
visions of the end times but also the final book of the bible. Both these stories of beginnings
emerging from endings are from the new testament but the story I want to focus on today is
ironically from the very first book of the bible, Genesis.
One thing I love about the old testament is how dramatic it is. Yes, Jesus gets points for
descending from the heavens and proclaiming that he makes all things new is dramatic, I don't
think it has anything on Jacob quite literally wrestling and making a divine being submit to him.
Jacob is just built different. But what does this story mean? The old testament is a very different
book from the new and I find it can be far more difficult to comprehend. You often have to sit
with the stories of the old testament and look at others interpretations to fully understand them
and in the case of today’s story, there's a beauty to it that you wouldn't expect from a story about
wrestling.
A bit of context first. This story happens 20 years after Jacob had tricked his brother Esau
and betrayed him. He is journeying with his large family to reunite with Esau after this long time
apart and expects to be killed for his crimes against his brother. The night before their meeting,
Jacob spends time alone to prepare for this reunion and is attacked, leading to the events of this
story.
I really see this as Jacob wrestling with his faith and past acts. I’m sure we’ve all had
moments like this where a great moment of change is upon us and we find ourselves questioning
our faith and beliefs. Someone you know passes away, your graduation day is coming up, or
maybe your community of faith has to move locations as we decide where to go from here. All
of these are endings in their own way that personally challenged my faith and belief in God as I
knew my life wouldn’t be the same. However, when we wrestle with those thoughts, I hope for
all of our sakes that we take it a little less literally than Jacob did. There's two major events in
this fight that I think are so interesting as we explore this idea of new things coming from the
ends of others and that's the blessing God gave Jacob and the injury Jacob walked away with.
Let's start with the blessing. At the end of the brawl, Jacob manages to make his
opponent submit to him, saying that he would only let go if he received a blessing. The blessing
seems quite small - changing his name from Jacob to Israel - but there is a symbolism to this that
can be very easily missed. The name Jacob comes from the Hebrew name Ya’akov or Ya’aqob
which means heel grabber. He was named this in the story as he was born grabbing onto the heel
of his twin brother Esau, however a heel grabber is also a term for someone who deceives or
trips others up. Jacob very much lives up to this name in his younger years, buying his brother's
birthright for a bowl of stew and tricking his blind and dying father into giving him his last
blessing which was intended for Esau. Esau promised to kill Jacob for that last slight which
caused him to flee which leads us nicely into the events of this story as Jacob is preparing to see
Esau for the first time after this event.
With this in mind, the changing of the name was not a simple name change. It was the
end of an era for Jacob. This was him battling with the sins he committed and the guilt he felt
towards what he did. This was Jacob battling with the idea that he was very likely to die in the
morning. This was a man in distress who after a long night, managed to come to the decision that
he isn’t who he used to be. That he was no longer Jacob the Heel Grabber but Israel, a leader of
his people and his family. He had grown in 20 years and was ready to start anew, regardless of
what happened in the morning.
The other consequence of this fight was Jacob's injury. During the fight, his attacker
dislocated his hip joint, an injury Jacob never recovers from. He walks away from the fight with
a new name and a limp. I think this is my favourite part of the story as I see it as a beautiful way
to represent the scars of Jacob’s past. Jacob has been reborn anew as Israel and now has God’s
blessing but will also always bear the mark of who he was. Just because we are able to change
and become something new does not mean that the past didn’t happen. It will always haunt us in
some ways and be a part of who we are.
In Jacob's case, the pain of guilt he feels for what he’s done, the pain he inflicted on his
brother, it all manifests as this injury on his leg, reminding him of these feelings he’s taking into
the future, not ruling him but changing him. Jacob’s way of life is going to change due to his
injury. How he rides an animal, how far he can travel, how much he can lift, etc.. he has to
change his life around the impact of his injury much like he and others had to change their lives
around the impact of his past decisions. How those past decisions still affect him, even as he
moves on from them. He is more than his past decisions but his past decisions will always be
part of him.
Now why do I love this story so much? Well, I see myself in it and I think a lot of us can
see ourselves in it as well. We’ve all been in situations where we reach an ending and aren’t sure
where to go from there. We fight with ourselves and do our best to move forward, but that’s what
makes us who we are. The choices of our past, the decision to move forward, the changes we
make to our lifestyle. It’s all a part of moving on when one part of our life comes to an end and I
think this story has such a beautiful way of telling it.
For those of you unfamiliar, Jacob doesn’t die in the morning. Esau approaches Jacob
with 400 men and Jacob prepares to beg for his life. However, Esau runs to his brother and
embraces him, both men weeping as they hold each other. After all this time running, Jacob was
forgiven. The Jacob of the past could never have hoped for this as he would never have faced his
brother or maybe have even come up with another scheme to further disrupt his brother.
However, the Jacob and Israel of now was able to meet with his brother again and face whatever
Esau had prepared for him.
We have moved from one building to another. Despite the fear of moving and the changes
we made, we’re ready for a new era of St Pauls. Much Like Jacob to Israel, we went from
Rebecca St to Speers Rd. However, despite the building being different and our services looking
a bit different, we still bring the past with us. We’re all still here, ready to worship, ready to be a
community. There is no St Pauls at Speers Rd without St Pauls at Rebecca St. We are at the
beginning of an ending and I am eager to see what we make of it.