August 2, 2026 - “The Blessed Limp”

August 2, 2026-OVUMC 10:30 Spirited Traditional Worship

Pastor Sang Park 

The Scriptures are Genesis 32:22-31.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 2:55

You all no longer my heart. Desire and I love the shall be.

SPEAKER_00 3:19

The Lord be with you. Welcome everyone to this house of the Lord in this time of worship. We welcome our new visitors and friends who come to this community to spend good time with your family. We welcome you all. Trust me, this is the place often for you all. We have this service, especially today, with a communion which will restore our spirit and nurture our future journey onward. My name is Sam Park the Reduc Pastor here at Ocean View United Method Church. And I also welcome those who join us through online live stream at this time. Please take a moment, if you were, to find the friendship register of you so that we may know your presence with us. So thank you again for your presence with us. And I now introduce our worship.

SPEAKER_03 5:26

Bringing us to worship this new day. Let your spirit move in, around, and among us as we worship. And in Jesus' name we pray. And all God's children said, Amen. I invite you to stand for the enjoy in the call to worship. Join me now in the call of worship. You'll find that in your bulletins and on the screen. In the morning when the sun rises, we shall praise you, O Lord. The darkness is past. The light has come. Hallelujah. Join me now in singing, Holy God, we praise thy name. You'll find that on your in your hymnals on page seventy-nine and on the screen. Pass the peace of Christ. Our Father. Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, and thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses. As we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation. But deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Before the users come forward, let me just say a word about our scripture reading this morning. It's about Jacob who wrestles and struggles with God. And you know when you wrestle and struggle with God, God wins. Always. So with that, I hope none of us wrestle or struggle with our offering. God always wins. We thank you, Father God, that you have given us gifts so that we can participate in your mission and ministry. Bless this offering and use it to bless others so that all may come to know your love and your mercy. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Join me now in singing. No? You may be seated. I should have read the whole thing. The scripture reading for this morning is from Genesis 32, verses 22 to 31. The same night he got up and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabok. He took them and sent them across the stream, and likewise everything that he had. Jacob was left alone. 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 until you bless me. So he said unto him, What is your name? And he said, Jacob. And the man said, You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel. For you have striven with God and with humans and have prevailed. And then Jacob asked him, Please tell me your name. But he said, Why is it that you ask my name? And there he blessed him. So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, For I have seen God face to face, yet my life is preserved. The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip. The word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God.

SPEAKER_00 30:43

We see your presence with us. As we sit around with old and new friends, tell us your story once again. Almighty God, unto you all hearts are open, all desires are known, and from you no secrets are hidden. Cleanse our hearts and minds by your Holy Spirit. Amen. As many of us know that Jacob is famous with two things. His letter, the dream, and Jacob's wrestling match. From the day of his birth, Jacob was known for his unfamous character. Trickster, stealer, heal grabbers of somebody else, especially his brother. And run away. That God will bless him and keep him wherever he goes. And finally will bring him back to home. And now he is on the way home. The good news is he is any longer by himself. His life is extended. With two wives, two maids, from whom he got all his twelve children, eleven boys and one girl. Even though the verse just says eleven children, I think it's not fair to miss his precious girl, Dinah. He also built up a quite good fortune with large flocks of sheep, goats, cameras, donkeys, and camera. And cattle. But he had one thing, yet unreserved. He had to face his strong estranged brother Esau. And now he got a bad news from his own servant sent to his brother with that gift, with the hope he may appease his brother. The news they brought was this. And four hundred men are with him. And Jacob felt total, terrifying. As he remembered what he had done to his brother 20 years ago. And the Bible describes this defining moment of his life in verse 24. Jacob was left alone. Jacob is left alone. Like he was 20 years ago. And again, this moment of being alone for us is the moment for God to come and meet us. That's what today's Bible tells us. Out of nowhere, Jacob is jumped by a man who wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. Interesting thing in here is in its original word of Hebrews, it clearly leads a man, not angel, not God. And also, there is a kind of typical wordplay that the Hebrew authors love to enjoy, employ. As the Hebrew word raser has a similar constant with the word Jacob. I learned that in Hebrews it often leaves to the readers what kind of vowels you will employ to read that word. While you keep the same constant, you can choose the vowel depending on the context, and it would sound differently. So this story can be read as Jacob Razer or Jacob Jacob. Like sometimes I introduce myself, sang sings a song. You know, that's the way some biblical scholars are intrigued with a question that with whom was Jacob really wrestling that night? You know, throughout his life there are three pastoral names of men. His brother Esau, father Isaac, and Uncle Ravan. But the Bible indicates that Jacob has already wrestled with each of them, and somehow he won all of them. So now he's possibly a wrestler with whom Jacob himself. Jacob was wrestling all night long. Maybe to overcome his own character. As he bring himself before God. It was a tough match. Sometimes we experience the most difficult match to confront in our lives is the match with ourselves. Don't we? But let's move on to what the Bible develops in this story. In verse 25, it is, when the man saw he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck Jacob on the hip socket, and Jacob's hip was put out of joint. Then the man said, Let me go, for the day is breaking. Now you may think this unknown man is the one like a Dracula or Wolfman whose exposure to the sun will bring their end. Yes, we have the same story in Korean folk tale. Some ghosts come to our life and they had to leave before the sun arise. But whoever he is, Jacob shows here once again his peculiar character. He refused to let the one go. Even though he was in such a critical injury with severe pain, he never ever let him go. Unless he blessed him. This is his character of tenacity. And we read that the one has no other choice but a blessing. And in that blessing includes a name change. From the name we know Jacob to the new name, Israel, the one strives with God. Or God strives with him. You know, Israel is certainly an honorable name for all who follow Jacob. Yet it recurs to us a lengthy struggle in the darkness, a struggle that has left Jacob rain, permanently limping. And this story somehow sounds very familiar with our own life story. Like Jacob, for many of us, has a night of wrestling with God. It was a hard fight. So ridiculous, so unforgiving. Yet there is a hard lesson. We all get from that struggle with God all my life. Am I summed up like this? To bless us, God may have to disable us first. I'm not talking about simply any limping legs with your physical body. But there is some part in our life limping in our soul. There are scars, there are wounds that make us creep. Recently I had the opportunity to watch many different people who are creeping, yet eager to come to take that therapy in hope to recover their strength of muscle. With that hope that someday they will walk again. Go, go, go, go. You can do it. You can make it. And people are determined to push themselves to the strengths. Even sometimes it brings us out. Friends, at some point in our own journey of life, we all experience. The point of limping ourselves, either in our body or in our soul. But know this. God will touch you. Yes, God will disable us in some part of our life. Without touching disfigured heart and wounds. At the end of the day, God will hear us all and brings us the joy of reconciliation. With ourselves, with the ones with very difficulty. Like Jacob's twin brother Esau, with whom we share the same DNA of our father and mother, who is our God. Yet we have such difficulty to get along with our own brothers and sisters. I mean our neighbors. A prominent Jewish scholar and rabbi, Jonathan Sachs, wrote this. The moment at which Jacob became easier contains the clue to who we are as God's people. But God knows. Yet one thing we know here is that we are the ones who receive God's grace despite our total unworthiness. God chose Jacob to become easier for reasons we can never ever fathom. That's what Jacob had rightly prayed just before this midnight match in verse 10 in the same chapter. He prayed, Lord, I am one worthy of the steadfast love and all the faithfulness you have shown to me. I believe we have the same prayer this morning. So it is, we come here in this place with earnest confession, yes Lord. I am unworthy of all the steadfast love and all the faithfulness you are about to show us through the communion table open to us or sisters and brothers. In our lives, struggle leaves its mark. Whether it is from aging body or our personal trauma or memories. But it leads us to the blessing of transformation. And these marks will serve you as a good reminder of your resilience, your growth, and most of our God's faithful presence in the midst of our journey. Because Jacob's limb embodies a profound Christian paradox, that the wounds of our struggling are the very evidence of God's saving grace. And through trials and tribulation, we discover our true identity, who we are, through the limp on our body or on our soul. We see also the scars of our Lord Jesus Christ. And we come to understand how precious the cost of our salvation. Certainly he is that lower because of that injury. But we know that his confidence is renewed through the night. That's what the Bible reads in verse 31. In the morning, when the sun rose upon him, as he passed upon you, he was wimping, yet he was moving on. As in our journey of faith, our scars may become the symbols of God's faithfulness, reminding us that even in the hardest trouble we may carry on, God is with us. That's the story we hear this morning once again. The story of redemption, the story of reconciliation, the story of new star. Make us a new creation with a new name, with a new identity, as we encounter God and see His mysterious presence and we reign. Yes, I in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. And now I invite you to prepare your hearts and minds to receive this unconditional love from God. As we practice as a Methodist, we practice the open table, which means that to this table you are all invited. Even whether you are baptized or not. As you earnestly repent and longing for God's grace for your life, come and join us. We have three different stations prepared for you. One is with common cup, our communion stewards will hold, and there are individual cups in the back of the sanctuary that you may need for your personal need. And we have also gluten-free bread with the communion, which Pastor Justin and I will hold in the place here. So please join me for the great thanksgiving for this morning. The Lord be with you.

SPEAKER_01 53:26

Also with you.

SPEAKER_00 53:27

Lift up your heart.

SPEAKER_01 53:29

Lift them up to the Lord.

SPEAKER_00 53:30

Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

SPEAKER_01 53:33

It is right to give our thanks and praise.

SPEAKER_00 53:36

It is right and a good and joyful thing always and everywhere to give thanks to you, Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth. You formed us in your image and breathed into us the breath of life. When we turned away and our love failed, your love remained steadfast. And so, with your people on earth and all the company of heaven, we praised your name and joined their unending him. Holy, holy, holy Lord, God and mighty, heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. Holy are you, and blessed is your Son Jesus Christ. By the baptism of his suffering, death and resurrection, you gave birth to your church, delivered us from the slavery to sin and death, and made with us a new covenant by water and the spirit. On the night in which he gave himself for us, he took the bread, gave thanks to you, broke the bread, and gave it to his disciples and said, Take it. This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. When the suffer was over, he took the cup and gave thanks to you. And gave it to his disciples and said, Drink from this all of you. This is my blood of the new covenant called out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sin. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. And so, in remembrance of these almighty acts in Jesus Christ, we offer ourselves in praise and thanksgiving as a holy and living sacrifice in union with Christ's offering for us as we proclaim the mystery of faith. Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ's work come again. Pour out your Holy Spirit on us gathered here and on these gifts of bread and wine. Make them before us the body and blood of Christ, that we may be for the word the body of Christ redeemed by his blood. By your spirit, make us one with Christ, one with each other, and one with the ministry to all the word until Christ comes in his final victory and we feast at his heavenly banquet. Through your Son Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit in your holy church, all honor and glory is yours, Almighty Father, now and forever. Amen. And now I invite our communion stewards to come forward, and you prepare to come in. So calm. Grant that we may go into the world in the strength of your Holy Spirit to give ourselves for others. In the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:02

God be wanted to we meet again we beat it with me that we be doing all be with you till we beat up again with you till we be each again we hold you the weather again with you we'll get with you we'll okay some part of our life in some point of our life