Pinned!
As you can probably tell from looking at me, I am NOT cut out for
wrestling. I dreaded it when it came around every year in gym class.
Everyone I had to wrestle pinned me almost immediately.
Until it was time to wrestle Danny. Sorry – I cannot remember his last
name after all these years. He and I were almost exactly the same
weight, with the same build and the same amount of muscle mass.
We started wrestling. Once we were down on the mat, he got the
advantage – but he couldn’t pin me. Then I got him down on the mat –
but I couldn’t pin him. We flipped back and forth like a couple of fish on
a dock. We kept switching places for several minutes. Our
exasperated gym teacher – who was trying to keep score – finally
yelled, “Somebody get me a calculator!”
Eventually, the teacher declared it a draw – because neither of us
could pin the other. Obviously, I haven’t wrestled since. But I do savor
the memory of the one wrestling match I didn’t lose …
Wrestling is a struggle – and it can be exhausting. And we come out
changed – whether we are pinned or we do the pinning.
Jacob – on the other hand – was a tough guy. We know that from our
Hebrew Bible reading today.
Genesis 32 tells us what happened right after Jacob swindled his
brother Esau out of his position as Isaac’s heir. Most of us remember
how he schemed with his mother Rebekah to trick Esau into trading all
that was his rightfully as the first-born son – for a bowl of stew.
Esau was furious with Jacob – so furious that he decided that he would
kill his brother – but not until their father Isaac was dead. Rebekah
heard about this and warned Jacob to run away to live with her brother
Laban in Haran.
As he was nearing the area now known as Jordan, Jacob sent his two
wives, his two maidservants, and his eleven sons (there may have also
been some daughters) across the Jabbok River. He stayed behind –
and Genesis tells us “a man wrestled with him until daybreak.”
Scholars over the centuries have disagreed about the identity of this
obviously very strong man. The ones who deny the supernatural will
say he was a local man who felt threatened by this stranger and his
caravan of wives, children, slaves, and animals. Others say he was an
angel – but Jacob named the place Peniel – which means “Face of
God.”
So it is safe to say the man was either God the Father Himself or the
Son of God taking the form of a man – long before He came to earth
as Jesus.
Regardless – this encounter changed Jacob forever. For one thing,
God touched the place where Jacob’s hip connected to the pelvis,
giving him a permanent limp. You could say that God finally pinned
His fugitive servant Jacob. Then – in a sacred preview of the Federal
Witness Protection Program – God gave Jacob a new name: Israel.
The rebel-turned-runaway was now going to be a patriarch in his own
right. All of Jacob’s descendants would be part of the great Hebrew
family that included Joseph and Moses and the kings of Israel and
Judah – and finally, brought about the fulfillment of God’s promises in
Jesus Christ.
God is still in the business of pinning people today. I always looked up
to my dad – who was a Presbyterian pastor for more than 40 years.
I idolized him – and wanted to follow in his footsteps.
I started preaching when I was in college. My dad came home from a
session meeting and told my mom how the elders of one of the two
congregations he served had reacted to the news he and my mom
were taking all of his four weeks of vacation and two weeks of study
leave at one time – going to some church conferences and the family
cottage in Maine.
The elders told him how hard it was to find people to fill the pulpit –
so they were just going to close the church for those weeks. When he
told me about that – I said, “I’ll preach for you.” So I wrote and
delivered my first sermons. I’m sure they were awful – since I was only
18 and believed myself to be wiser and far more talented than I was.
During my college years I found myself drawn to working in radio. I
was studying to be a High School French Teacher, but worked nights
and weekends doing news and spinning records for a bee-YOO-tee-full
music station in my college town of Grove City. I worked as a DJ one
summer for a station in nearby Greenville. But I enjoyed delivering the
news more than spinning the records – and, after doing a news
internship at a radio station in Buffalo, decided that would be my path.
Diane and I got married right out of college and I went to work for
WWVA shortly after that. I loved the thrill of news reporting – focusing
on labor and industry – cutting my teeth on the Wheeling-Pittsburgh
Steel bankruptcy, the subsequent United Steelworkers strike, and the
resolution of that strike.
I eventually became News Director and then Operations Manager for
the station. I left to try Television as Assignments Editor at Channel 7,
but missed being where the action was. So I went back to WWVA.
But God kept bringing me back to the pulpit. My dad was hospitalized
with pneumonia one summer and spent about two months recovering –
so I covered the Ridge and Scio Churches in Harrison County while he
was out of commission. Once he returned, I started getting calls from
other churches who needed someone to lead worship. That led to
taking classes from the Presbytery so I could serve as a Lay Preacher.
Soon, I was preaching many – if not most – Sundays.
The Coalbrook Church in Neffs eventually nailed me down for 9:30
every Sunday – allowing me to fill in occasionally at Kirkwood at 11:00.
The Reverend Susan Finck-Lockhart was a key figure in my spiritual
growth – and then Sam Gibb came to Kirkwood. The church was
flourishing during their pastorates.
About that time, I started getting a feeling that maybe – just maybe –
I should get serious and go to seminary. That led to mental
conversations with myself – trying to figure out how I could go to
seminary and still provide for my family. I came up with some possible
solutions – which led to a challenge for God. I don’t recommend you
do this …
“If I could get Coalbrook and Kirkwood each to agree to hire me half-
time, at the Presbytery’s minimum salary with benefits – and they
would be flexible with hours so I could attend seminary and go through
the ordination process – I could continue to serve both churches.”
That was a tall order. But what made it all the more unlikely was that
Sam had just told me after the most recent Kirkwood Session meeting
that he was so happy at Kirkwood that he could stay there until he
retired. I told God that – although I’m sure He already knew – and
added, “You and I both know that this full-time ministry thing can never
happen, so let’s drop it.”
I’m surprised lightning didn’t hit me.
Fast forward about a month. It’s time for the next Session meeting,
and Sam had arranged for us to meet at lunchtime at the Subway –
just up National Road from Vance Presbyterian Church. We had an
exciting meeting – filled with vision and planning for the future.
As it was winding down – Sam said, “I have one more item of business
for you – and this one involves David. Can I take next Sunday off?
And David, could you fill in for me?”
“Sure Sam. No problem. Taking some vacation time?
“I’m candidating at a church in Hudson, Ohio, near Cincinnati.”
That’s Presbyterian for “I’m probably going to be leaving you folks for
another church.”
The other elders all started to protest:
“No! Sam – things are really taking off here.”
“We’re doing good stuff at KPC.”
“You can’t leave us – you’ve only been here four years.”
“We were just getting going.”
Hard as this may be to believe, I just sat there – unable to speak.
I could not process what he was saying. And what that meant.
Then – as everyone is buzzing around me, I felt more than heard
God’s saying, “I have arranged this exactly as you asked. You make
the next move.”
God had finally pinned me. Maybe it shouldn’t have taken that long –
or maybe God knew I had to get the news business out of my blood so
I could serve Him with a whole heart.
Francis Thompson wrote a poem entitled “The Hound of Heaven” –
which was published in 1893. At the time he was running from his
father, from his failure as a medical student, and from God:
I fled Him down the nights and down the days
I fled Him down the arches of the years
I fled Him down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind, and in the mist of tears
I hid from Him, and under running laughter.
Up vistaed hopes I sped and shot precipitated
Adown titanic glooms of chasm-ed fears
From those strong Feet that followed, followed after.
We can call God “The Hound of Heaven” or any other name that
describes how He will keep after us until we surrender to His will.
But please, if you sense God wants you to do or to be something for
His glory – don’t run away from Him and don’t fight Him. You cannot
win. You are too important to God. He will keep pursuing and
wrestling with you until you’re pinned. Amen.