Audio recording Sermon manuscript: All three of our readings today deal with something that is important for us to understand. I have to warn you from the outset, though, that it is a hard thing to learn. Here is what we can learn: Although there is sadness in all three readings, that sadness was for the good. All the Christians involved ended up praising their God who laid these burdens on them. So first let’s look at the sadness in each of the readings. In our Old Testament reading Jacob is being put through the wringer. He’s so frightened of his brother Esau coming and slaughtering his family that he splits them into two groups. The thought is that while Esau and his men are slaughtering the one group the other group, would be given enough time to run away. Can you imagine the anguish involved with such a decision? He has already given up half his family as being as good as dead. Shouldn’t this be enough trouble for anyone? But we’re not done yet. Then this mysterious man shows up in the middle of the night who tries his darndest to kill Jacob. They wrestle with each other to the point of exhaustion. The man does what seems like a cheap shot. He touches Jacob’s hip and puts it out of joint. I don’t know what it feels like to have your hip bone pulled out of its socket, but I can’t imagine that if feels good. Still the wrestling goes on until it starts to grow light in the east. Then Jacob does something so wonderful. The man tells him to let him go. Jacob, who had to have been exhausted beyond words, refuses. He knew that he was not wrestling with just any ordinary man. He was going to demand a blessing from him before letting him go. And so the man gives Jacob a new name, a name that stuck. He was now going to be called Israel, for he wrestled with God and man and prevailed. Jacob, for his part, gave that location a new name. He called it “Peniel,” which means “face of God.” He knew that he had been in God’s presence and survived to tell the tale. Now you might be wondering, “What’s so sad about this story?” It’s only sad from a certain perspective. It’s sad if you understand that life is supposed to be about having fun, of minimizing pain and of maximizing pleasure. With that perspective what happened to Jacob is exhausting at best and probably more like torture. But this is eliminating from the consideration what gives Jacob joy—and that is the relationship that he has with God. He came to know his God better, to rely on him more, and to love him more. Let’s see what is sad in our epistle reading. Paul says something nonsensical to the pleasure seeker: “We rejoice in our sufferings.” The verb there is actually a little stronger in the Greek. Perhaps the translator was a little timid. The word that is translated as “rejoice” is normally translated with “to be proud of,” or even, “brag.” So then the sentence would read: “We boast in our sufferings…” We are not normally proud of the things that we have suffered. If anything, we tend to be ashamed of them. The sufferings that Paul has especially in mind are the things that he has lost for the sake of the Gospel. He lost friendships. He lost his good name. I’m sure that he lost business. He was beaten, stoned, left for dead. Are not these sad things? Are these things that you would want to have happen to you? At best they seem to be things that one should just grit his teeth and bear. They certainly do not seem to be things that one should brag about. And, again, if these things were considered just on their own, without reference to God, that would most certainly be true. But as Paul also says in our reading, he knows that he has peace with God, having been justified through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Just before he says that he boasts in his sufferings he says that he boasts in the hope of the glory of God that he has because of that relationship with God. He uses the same word. He boasts about his hope of glory. He boasts about his sufferings. They are connecte