Genesis 32:22-31
Matthew 14:13-21

“To dream the impossible dream, to fight the unbeatable foe, to bear with unbearable sorrow, to run where the brave dare not go; to right the unrightable wrong, to love pure and chaste from afar, to try when your arms are too weary, to reach the unreachable star. This is my quest, to follow that star no matter how hopeless, no matter how far, to fight for the right without question or pause, to be willing to march into Hell for a heavenly cause….” Anyone who has heard this song from the Man of La Mancha can’t help but be touched by the pathos of the words. However, it makes even more sense when you put the song into context, just as it makes more sense when you put scripture into context.

It all comes from a seventeenth century play within a play Don Quixote written by Miguel de Cervantes and made into a 1965 tremendously successful Broadway production which won five Tony Awards.

The setting for the story is the Spanish Inquisition where the failed author-soldier-actor and tax collector, Miguel de Cervantes has been thrown into a dungeon along with his manservant. They have been charged with foreclosing on a monastery. The two have attacked by fellow prisoners to get all their worldly possessions which they had brought with them. The prisoners instantly set up a mock trial and Cervantes reluctantly agrees that if he is found guilty, he will have to hand over all his possessions. So Cervantes takes out a makeup kit and costumes as he and his manservant get ready.

So the play within the play begins with Cervantes playing the role of an old man named Alonzo who has lost his mind after spending his life reading books on chivalry and thinking about issues of injustice. He now believes that he should go forth as a knight and renames himself Don Quixote from the land of La Mancha along with his squire Sancho Panza. Other prisoners are chosen for other roles in the play. The song The Impossible Dream happens when Quixote, having asked the Innkeeper to dub him knight, agrees but only after he stands vigil all night over his armor. He would do so at the chapel but it is being repaired so he stands guard in the courtyard. When confronted by a local wench who he has treated kindly, he explains his strange behavior as he sings this song.

The parallels to today are numerous. Injustice is all around us and we question our being blessed by God while still doing nothing about those injustices. It always helps to add the humorous to get our point across. Don Quixote gets his imaginary knighthood and goes tilting at windmills believing they are the enemy. (To the day, there are many windmills in the central part of Spain called La Mancha, thanks to this play)

For Jacob, his blessing has been a problem. From his birth, we are told, he has been dogging his older twin brother. [The meaning of the name Jacob is supplanter: one who wrongfully or illegally seizes and holds the place of another; held by the heel]. He stole his brother’s birthright and subsequently had to run for his life. What does the blessing that he will continue the line of his father, Issac and grandfather, Abraham mean to him? So now, in his nineties, we learn that he simply wants to grab all he can get and inwardly can’t grasp the meaning or truth of his blessing. He has grabbed the belongings of his father-in-law whom he feels cheated him by making him first marry the older daughter. What Jacob doesn’t recognize is the responsibility that accompanies every blessing. What does it mean to be a Patriarch (a leader of a nation of people)?

When we look to those we believe have been great leaders, we recognize that sense of responsibility for the people – all of the people. We also recognize the problem when a leader is primarily out for self interest. So Jacob wrestles with the messenger of God. So we enter Jacob’s dream and find that he has struggled all night wrestling with that messenger/angel of God. Still Jacob doesn’t seem to understand the responsibility of his blessing. He is still more worried about the murderous threats of his brother with whom he is about to do battle. So the angel gives him a constant physical reminder of the struggle. He causes Jacob to have a dislocated hip and he will limp for the rest of his life remembering. But he refuses to let go of the angel just as he held on to the heel of his brother at birth. He wants a blessing. So the angel asks his name which means inquiring about his character. Jacob confesses to his name as one who takes advantage of others. Then the angel changes his name from Jacob to Israel which means “one who struggles with God”. It is in the struggle that we understand our true nature and the reality of our blessing.

Then we fast forward to the time of Jesus and find ourselves on a hillside with 5,000 people spread out on the ground intently listening to Jesus all day. The disciples know it is late and take the responsibility of urging Jesus to take a break and send the folks into town for dinner. But Jesus tells them to feed the people. You can imagine the puzzlement of the disciples as they don’t understand. So Jesus helps them out. He finds a youngster with several loaves and fishes. Obviously there are also others with food also. The message is let them share their food with one another. So they did and even had loads left over. The people and the disciples get the message that their blessing involves the responsibility of feeding one another. With the blessing goes responsibility.

So what about your blessings and responsibilities? Are you really aware of your blessings? Do you accept the responsibilities that go with them?

Like the experience during the Spanish Inquisition, we possibly have a modern day Inquisition within the church? Those who take the gospel of Christ seriously often seek out and brand those they consider the evil ones and demand that they change. Yet you can go crazy trying to get people to deny their own truth whether that truth has to do with sexuality or with giving lip service to the good news of Christ. Often we don’t want their sins to be forgiven without appropriate penance. We demand that their behaviors meet our standards. We ignore the inequities of life’s circumstances as long as we are doing ok! After all what can we do about the injustice of poverty? We like to blame the victim instead of helping the victim become the victor! Simply put, we are like sailors in training on a calm sea. They are rarely ready to deal with the power of an angry sea without sufficient training. We are rarely ready to deal with the power of Holy Spirit without sufficient training.

Dare we imagine the crises that befall others whom we either speak of as less fortunate than ourselves or whom we see as potential enemies because of their difficult behavior? Our best plan is to safely distance ourselves not recognizing that in doing so we too tilt at windmills. Unlike Cervantes, our possessions are not at risk, at least not yet!

The New York Times this week told us that “The unemployment rate climbed to 5.7 percent in July, a four-year high, as 51,000 jobs were lost and the credit crisis stunted business expansion. The economy has now shed jobs for seven straight months.”
BEAUFORT, LA July 28,2008- A compound on county-owned property complete with razor wire, chain-link fencing, canvas tents and portable showers and toilets dubbed "Camp Beaufort" may be the county's best chance to alleviate crowding in the Beaufort County Detention Center, Sheriff P.J. Tanner said.
New immigration-related legislation from the state and Beaufort County, coupled with the promise of additional immigration enforcement from the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office, stands to put more pressure on a jail already exceeding its capacity by more than 150 inmates.

With countywide audits under way to verify federally required employee records, a state law cracking down on businesses that willingly hire illegal immigrants, and five new Sheriff's Office Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents expected to generate "hundreds" of immigration cases weekly, the number of inmates is expected to soar.

Jails are often in the news because of overcrowding. Why is it that in 2006 there were over 7.2 million people on probation or parole, in jail or in prison. That is 1 in every 31 adults in the US. We lead the world by being ten times ahead of every other nation and have more every other nation combined. No wonder so many ex-offenders show up at the church door with no hope of getting a job or a place to live.

What has this to do with us? Are we prepared to offer good news to those in crises or is that not the business of the Christ? The government and the church often feel hopeless to deal with such enormous bad news. So we either file it away in the recesses of our minds or go crazy. Perhaps we might ask what Jesus would do!!

In pondering this challenge and many others, I want to close with three possibilities:

First, we might challenge ourselves to seriously examine our blessings! God continues to bless each of us with promises too large to completely fathom. What responsibility accompanies those blessings? Do we avoid people God sends to us by assuming that it is not our responsibility or we are unqualified to deal with it? If there was an earthquake tomorrow and the streets were crawling with people would we simply escape and let the Red Cross handle it? For many there is no escape. We are indeed a people of privilege, not only in this community but also in the world compared to the circumstances of others.

Second, we might challenge ourselves to personally get to know some folks that we would otherwise ignore. I believe God intentionally places in our path opportunities to do this but our cultural mandates, place blinders on us. For instance, people wander into our churches who obviously are not the kind of persons we seek for membership. Do we waste time with them or call the police to deal with them? How much is their lives our responsibility? Like Cain, do we cry out to God that they are not our responsibility? We have created all kinds of insulation from problems. We have gated communities. We have jails. We have ghettos. We have bulging youth detention centers. Is it enough to send money or does God expect more from us?

Finally, we might challenge ourselves about our own spiritual growth. How seriously do we take the Bible, our prayer life, our ministries? How seriously do we address the problems of the community and the world? We are so overloaded with information that it numbs the mind. we feel helpless or hopeless to address them. Isn’t that where Jacob was and the disciples were?

God intends that we struggle. God intends that we get blessings upon blessings. God intends that we come to grips with our name and whose we are? Perhaps you have experienced a physical, mental or spiritual deformity due to your wrestling? Yet God still seeks to bless you! Beware that with the blessing comes a new name and new responsibilities.

Genesis 32:22-31
Jacob Wrestles With God

22 That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23 After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. 24 So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. 25 When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob's hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. 26 Then the man said, "Let me go, for it is daybreak." But Jacob replied, "I will not let you go unless you bless me." 27 The man asked him, "What is your name?" "Jacob," he answered. 28 Then the man said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, [a] because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome." 29 Jacob said, "Please tell me your name." But he replied, "Why do you ask my name?" Then he blessed him there. 30 So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, "It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared." 31 The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, [c] and he was limping because of his hip.

Footnotes:
Genesis 32:28 Israel means he struggles with God.
Genesis 32:30 Peniel means face of God.

Matthew 14:13-21
Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand

13When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns. 14When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.

15As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, "This is a remote place, and it's already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food." 16Jesus replied, "They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat." 17"We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish," they answered. 18"Bring them here to me," he said. 19And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. 20They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. 21The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children.