Day 2: Wrestling with Angels & We Are All Called to Be Saints

OPENING PRAYER
We pray this morning for those times when we are called to wrestle with an angel, sometimes in a dream, sometimes through a life challenge. Help us to discern when the Holy One is moving us beyond our comforts and patterns to enlarge us so that we might ask for the blessing and new name we desire.

OPENING SONG: A New Name (Jacob’s Round)
Alone and afraid through the dark night
Wrestling with strength that won’t let go.
As long as it takes, ’til morning breaks: a new name.

FIRST READING: Rainer Maria Rilke
The One Who Beholds
What we defeat are small things,
and this success makes us small.
The eternal and immense
does not want to be bent by us.
This is the Angel who appeared
to the wrestlers of the Hebrew Scriptures:
when his adversaries’ sinews
stretched long like steel in battle,
he felt them beneath his fingers
like the strings of low melodies.

Whoever was overcome by this Angel,
who so often refrains from fighting,
they walk away upright and lifted
made great by that hard hand,
nestling and shaping them.
Victories do not tempt them.
Their way to grow: being utterly defeated
by the eternally greater being.

SUNG PSALM OPENING
O Grace, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. (Repeat)

PSALM 130: From the Depths I Cry to You
From the depths I cry to you, O God
Lord, listen to my voice
From the depths I cry to you, O God
Please listen to my prayer
For if you should mark iniquity
O Lord, who could stand?
But with God, forgiveness can be found
I wait in stillness for the Lord
And in God’s word do I hope
More than those who watch for morning’s light
More than those who watch for morning’s light
Trust in God, you people, Israel
Who redeems you from sin
For with God, forgiveness can be found
My heart’s not lifted up, O Lord
Nor my eyes raised too high
I do not think on things too great
I have calmed and quieted my soul
Like a child with mother quieted
My soul is at rest
For with God, forgiveness can be found

SUNG DOXOLOGY
Glory to the Maker, Lover, and Keeper; as ago, in this breath, and will be ever. Amen, Amen.

SECOND READING: Genesis 32:22-28
The same night he got up and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. He took them and sent them across the stream, and likewise everything that he had. Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the 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 is breaking.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.” So he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” Then the man said, “You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans and have prevailed.”

SILENT CONTEMPLATION

PRAYERS OF CONCERN
Holy One, the night is so long and the trials full of pain. Bless us during these times of struggle so we may prevail knowing that your Grace is with us all the while and we are not alone. The trials of life have shaped us as surely as the triumphs and joys. Help us forgive those who have wounded us. Help us forgive ourselves when we have wounded others. And open your arms wide so we may run to the shimmering presence of your love.

Sung Response O God of Love, walk with us through all things.

Godde of Outcasts, you call us to love all who live on the margins, just as Jesus did. Open our minds and our hearts to the stories, struggles, and triumphs of those we call “other” and recognize them as beloved by You. We know this work of facing our wounded and wounding places is like wrestling with angels – those beings who know our full capacity for love. Strike open our hearts so we may stand with people of all colors and creeds, amplifying the voices of those who have been silenced and ignored. Give us the grace to live in love.

Sung Response O God of Love, walk with us through all things.

Godde of Loving Care, this is not fair. Countries are at war, families ripped apart, children left orphans and parents left without their children. Famine, oppression, ecological disaster, abuse, and derision. We wrestle with these realities just as surely as we wrestle with the Love that holds it all. Soften us so we may respond with compassion. Give our hurting world a new name, and may that name be the fulfillment of Hope Everlasting.

Sung Response O God of Love, walk with us through all things.

Please add the prayers you are longing to express.

Sung Response O God of Love, walk with us through all things.

CLOSING SONG: Calling All Angels
Calling all angels here to guide you.
Calling all angels to surround you.
Calling all angels to walk beside you.
Love, may you walk on solid ground.

CLOSING BLESSING
A Blessing for Wrestling with Angels
You have known
the long nights of wrestling
with mysterious beings,
your breath hard and fast,
your heart pounding
like furious wings.

The dark seems to stretch forever
and you wonder how long
you will be in the grip
of this powerful stranger,
how long you will have to hold on.

Then slowly the black pool above you
gives way to violet, fuchsia, tangerine
and you feel your hip wounded,
throbbing, pulsing with pain,
know you will be limping
for many years to come,
but before letting go
you make your demand:

Bless me, your voice thunders
and the being erupts into golden light
so glad that you had finally asked.
A new name sings out through the ether
like the most exquisite melody,
a chant for the new season ahead,
a name which reminds you of the long night
and how you would not relent,
how courage and hope and stubbornness
carried you through.

May you find endurance
when you are lost and disoriented,
may your wounds be reminders
of your willingness to struggle,
may you demand a blessing
as light begins its breaking,
and may your new name
call forth the gifts already inside you,
an offering of love to others
still wrestling in the dark.

SUNG AMEN