October 19, 2025

“Night Wrestling”

“Night Wrestling” A sermon based on Genesis 32:22-31; Psalm 121 and 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5 delivered on October 19, 2025 by the Rev. Alison Andrea Young at The First Congregational UCC of Onekama, Michigan.

You know when you drive into almost any town in America there is a sign saying, “Home of So-in-So who won a Gold Medal at the Olympics for their sport in a certain year.” If night wrestling were an Olympic sport, then Jacob would have won the gold medal at the ford of the Jabbok River. Of course, he would also have made up his own rules, something for which his past life of trickery prepares us. For night wrestling by Jacob’s rules, you would have to wrestle with a man who you could not see and did not know, and someone who would not tell you their name. Also, instead of the gold medal the person that you were wrestling with would give you a new name AND a dislocated hip!. . .