The reading from Genesis where Jacob wrestles with God was always read at the beginning of each year that I was at Theological College in Chichester. Initially, I was rather foxed as to why two men wrestling was the ‘College Scripture’ until it suddenly in my final year it dawned upon me that it was a metaphor for my own wrestling with Scripture, doctrine and God throughout my three years at seminary. Having fallen down the chapel steps and sprained my ankle and put my hip out, I think the reading had more relevance to me when I heard it at the beginning of that final Michaelmas term.
We all wrestle with God in some way as we try to understand the meaning behind our Scriptures and in our interactions with others when we perhaps glimpse the image of God in them and they in us. Faith is never a straight forward thing and certainty, understanding and questioning all jostle for dominance at anyone time. I realise now decades on way that reading was such a good one for my college and my own theological journey. I still wrestle with God and if you do too I hope you don’t get your hip put out of joint!