Sermon: The Eighth Sunday after Pentecost August 3, 2014

The Lessons:

The First Lesson: Genesis 32:22-31
The Response: Isaiah 55:1-3
The Second Lesson: Romans 9:1-5
The Gospel: Matthew 14:13-21

The Sermon: The Reverend David Gunderson

The Man Watching

…What we choose to fight is so tiny!
What fights with us is so great.
If only we would let ourselves be dominated

as things do by some immense storm,
we would become strong too, and not need names.

When we win it’s with small things,
and the triumph itself makes us small.
What is extraordinary and eternal does not want to be bent by us.
I mean the Angel who appeared to the wrestlers of the Old Testament:
when the wrestlers’ sinews
grew long like metal strings,
he felt them under his fingers
like chords of deep music.

Whoever was beaten by this Angel
(who often simply declined the fight)
went away proud and strengthened
and great from that harsh hand,
that kneaded him as if to change his shape.
Winning does not tempt that man.
This is how he grows: by being defeated, decisively,
by constantly greater beings.

-Rainier Maria Rilke