29th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Proper 24), Year C

But Jacob said, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.”
~Genesis 32:26

And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
~Luke 18:6-8
 
Along many shallow tributaries and streams of Pacific Northwest rivers you can smell the stench of death and rot these days. It is a perfectly natural, and extraordinary thing—even if you don’t ever get used to the smell. On a small, unnamed tributary of the Nooksack, below Mount Baker all five species of Salmon return to the same small stream they have for millenia to spawn the next generation and die.
 
The takeaway, though, is not the death, but the amount of life energy that persists long past a casual observers expectations. A discolored, rotting Pink forces his way through three inches of water, his powerful strokes propelling him completely out of the water as he makes his way to the next redd—a depression made by the female that acts as a nest for her eggs. A female Chinook lies sideways, half out of the water, gasping for oxygen. This goes on forever, it seems. She persists.
 
The biblical stories this week speak to the persistance and forcefulness of life, of its insistence on getting what it wants, what it needs. Jacob wrestles with God, and he is blessed with a promise and with a wound to remind him of the blessing. A widow with no resources batters, like a boxer, a judge who just doesn’t care about her, until he relents and does what is right by her.
 
And the question Jesus leaves for those with ears to hear is this: will this generation have such faith? Will we recognize the power of life to reproduce goodness and mercy and justice and lovingkindness?
 
Enter into worship.
 
Readings: Genesis 32:22–31 † Psalm 121 † 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5 † Luke 18:1-8
 
About the Art: Moyers, Mike. Israel, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=57141 [retrieved October 6, 2025]. Original source: Mike Moyers, https://www.mikemoyersfineart.com/.
 
Background: “A Painting depicting the night when Jacob wrestled with God. After the match was over, Jacob was given the name “Israel,” which means “God Wrestler.” This painting is intended to remind us of our tendency to struggle and wrestle with God’s calling, mystery, and sovereignty.” [from: https://www.mikemoyersfineart.com/about].

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