A Schmuck Prays

(Genesis 32.9-12 NIV) - 01.13.13

Schmuck: a Yiddish word, has a range of meaning depending on context. In its most innocuous use, a schmuck is a person who does a stupid thing, in which case "dumb schmuck" is the appropriate expression. A schmuck's behavior ranges from pesky and inconsiderate, to obnoxious and manipulative. A schmuck's personality type ranges from jerk to bastard. Schmucky behavior also falls within a range of intentionality. Some schmucks carefully plan their bad behavior, some only a little, and some not at all. Schmucks – our world is full of them.

You and I, because of our sin nature, are schmucks: we do a wide range of stupid things. Most of all, we plan and connive to control our lives (or the outcome thereof) and do our best to keep God at bay lest He come along and ruin our plans with His righteous plan for our days.

Now, I certainly don’t mean to be nasty or crude or inconsiderate but this sin nature is a big, big deal; and as we read through the narrative of Genesis (and the rest of Scripture) we see, up close and personal, the lives of people who were schmucks and yet somehow, someway God seemed pleased to touch their lives in some manner or other, and introduce them to freedom from schmuckery. God wants all people everywhere to be free from schmuckery.

One day a long, long time ago, a schmuck named Jacob began a series of actions that derailed his life a bit. He cheated his older (and stronger) brother out of his birthright and the blessing which was only to be given (culturally) to the firstborn. He then flees the revenge of his brother and escapes to the land of his father’s relatives and finds himself caught up under the schmuckery of an uncle named Laban. If Jacob’s actions were schmuckish, Laban’s were five-star. And for twenty years Jacob puts up with Laban. And one day Jacob decides he’s had enough, so he gathers his wives, and children and flocks and herds and flees (he’s good at fleeing) from the schmuck, Laban.

So Jacobs is apprehended by Laban and accused of schmuckery in his fleeing without so much as a good-bye. The two decide they are both schmucks and it’s better that they separate and keep their distance and they part somewhat amicably. And then Jacob hears his older brother Esau is coming to meet him…with four hundred men. So Jacob prays… (Schmuck or not, it is good to pray. It’s also good to believe that God wants to make us schmucks into saint and cure us eternally of schmuckishness.) A schmuck prayed this prayer:

“O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, Lord, you who said to me, ‘Go back to your country and your relatives, and I will make you prosper,’ I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two camps. Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, and also the mothers with their children. But you have said, ‘I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.’” (Genesis 32.9-12 NIV)

Today, is it time to pray? Today, is it time to face the schmuckery that has led us to where we are and repent? Today, is it time to quit being a schmuck and become a saint? The door is open and the invitation has been offered. Let’s give ourselves to this God who promises to cure us eternally and free us to be the people He’s always desired for us to be: righteous and good, and schmuck-free. God help us – amen.