Trinity 4
Gen
50:15-21
7/13/14
When Amy and I were preparing to be
married, we did what every couple in that situation does – we went and
registered for wedding gifts. Now I had
told Amy that for the most part, I probably didn’t have any strong feelings
about the vast majority of choices that needed to be made. However, when I did have one I would let her
know. And I think she was a little surprised
to learn that I really did mean it. So when it came to the pattern for the
forks, spoons and knives that I was going to hold in my hand every day for
years to come, I really did want to be involved in making the final choice.
We were registering at the Target in
Bloomington, IN one day. We had been at
it for some time, when … let’s just say that nature called in a rather urgent
fashion. So I hurried off to the
restroom intent on getting back to registering with Amy as quickly as I could.
I was in the stall in the bathroom
when I heard the door to the restroom open as someone else was coming inside.
Immediately the sound of the shoes caught my attention because it sounded very
odd – something wasn’t right. Through a
small gap where the stall door hinged I caught a glimpse of the person who walked
in and was shocked to realize why the shoes sounded strange – they were women’s
shoes. A woman had walked in and the thought that flashed into my mind was:
“Oh my goodness! She’s in the wrong
restroom!”
I was beginning to collect my
thoughts about how exactly to handle the situation. Shortly thereafter the restroom door opened
again as a second person entered. A glimpse
of the person revealed that this was woman too.
And then in an instant, the thought formed in my head: “Oh my
goodness! I’m in the wrong restroom!!”
I realized that in my haste to get to
the restroom I had entered the wrong door.
And now my mind really began to spin.
I was engaged to this wonderful woman.
I was about to go out on vicarage as I prepared at seminary to be a
pastor – something I loved doing. What
was going to happen if I was arrested because they thought I was trying to spy
on women in their restroom?
So I waited, listening for the
second woman to leave the restroom. When
she had gone out, I waited a few moments.
And then I made a dash for it and left the women’s restroom thankful
that I didn’t encounter anyone who was just about to enter at that moment. And because
I don’t want the thought distracting you during the rest of the sermon … yes, I
did then go the men’s restroom and wash my hands.
My experience in the Target women’s
restroom illustrates the fact that sometimes perception and reality are not the
same thing. We see this in our Old
Testament lesson this morning as Joseph’s brothers come to him. Joseph looks back on events that at the time
could only have been perceived as God’s absence – his abandonment of Joseph. And yet now he is able to see the reality of
what was really going on – of what God was really doing. This text prompts us to ponder more deeply
perception and reality in our own lives.
The first time I really took a more
careful look at Genesis in an Introduction to the Old Testament class at
Concordia College, Ann Arbor led me to realize how big a role the account of
Joseph plays in the book. Genesis is long – fifty chapters. And of those one quarter tell the
story of Joseph. You can’t avoid the
conclusion that inspired by the Holy Spirit, Moses really thought that the
events of his life were important.
Now of course, they were important
because it is through the experiences of Joseph that Jacob and the descendants
of Abraham ended up in Egypt. It is
their presence in Egypt that sets the stage for their eventual enslavement by Pharaoh
and God’s saving action in the exodus.
But if he had wanted to, Moses
certainly could have narrated all of this with far more economy. And here in our text at the end of the book,
we learn that in addition to narrating Israel’s early history Moses has been
teaching us an important truth about the way God works.
You of course know the account about
Joseph well. It’s the story of Jacobs’s
dysfunctional family. He favors Joseph,
who is to be honest, really a brat. His
brothers are so angered that one day they sell him into slavery and convince
their father Jacob that Joseph has been killed by a wild animal.
Joseph is sold as a slave in
Egypt. And there he just can’t seem to
catch a break. Every time things begin to go well and start to look up, some
terrible circumstance wrecks everything.
I mean, Joseph fends off the sexual advances of his owner’s wife – he
doesn’t break the Sixth Commandment – and he gets thrown into prison as a result
of it.
Finally Joseph ends up as second in
charge of Egypt – helping Pharaoh to provision the nation during seven good
years of harvest as they prepare for seven years of famine to follow. The famine strikes the whole region and as a
result of this Joseph’s brothers come to Egypt to buy food for the family and
Joseph eventually reveals himself to them. And then he brings Jacob and all the
family to live in safety in Egypt.
In our text we hear about what
happened after Jacob died. The brothers
feared that with their father gone, Joseph would now seek revenge against them. And so “they sent a message to Joseph,
saying, ‘Your father gave this command before he died: ‘Say to Joseph, “’Please
forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil
to you.’’ And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God
of your father.’”
Now we don’t know whether Jacob had
really said this. But we do know
Joseph’s reaction. He said to them, “Do
not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me,
but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept
alive, as they are today. So do not fear; I will provide for you and your
little ones.” And he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.
Joseph forgave his brothers. He acknowledged the evil they had done to
him. But he didn’t take up the
opportunity to get pay back. Instead he
focused upon what God had been doing in the midst of all his experiences. It was the same thing he had said to them
when he first revealed himself. Then he had said, “And now do not be distressed
or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you
to preserve life.” He talked about the
famine and added, “And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on
earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me
here, but God.”
Joseph looked back on his life and
he could see that perception and reality had not been the same thing. He had experienced evil. He had been wronged. Time after time he had
experienced what the world would describe as terrible luck. It appeared that God was nowhere to be found;
that God had abandoned him; that God was in fact against him.
But the reality was that nothing
could be father from the truth. In fact
God was at work all the time. He
was using the sin of others and evil in order to weave it into his own purpose. He was active working good not only for
Joseph, but also for his family and many others besides.
Now in a story that has a “and they
lived happily ever after” kind of ending it’s easy to say that God is working
for good even when it didn’t seem like it.
We have these experiences in life too that look a lot like Joseph’s. We
go through hardships and things turn out different than we expected. And yet, when it is all said and done we see
that God has been at work for our good.
But what about when you are in the
midst of it? What about when life is
being crushed by the darkness of anxiety and depression? What about when physical ailments take the
joy out of life and there is no reason to expect any change in the future? And
what about when there are wrenching tragedies that defy any explanation – like
when Christians are exterminated in Iraq and Nigeria; like when a mother is
killed and a child experiences terrible injuries just because they were at the
wrong place at the wrong time recently on Route 13?
In the face of those circumstances
the notion that “God is working something good” sounds hollow and trite. It is then that we are tempted to doubt God;
to be angry with God. And you know there have been times when you have given in
to that temptation. Perhaps it’s
happening right now.
God doesn’t promise that your story
will have what you consider to be a happy ending. He doesn’t promise an ending that makes sense
to you. What he does promise is that you
are his child and that he is present and at work in the midst of your life and
circumstances no matter what things may look like to you. He calls you to believe in him; to trust in
him no matter what happens. And he has done one thing that gives you the
ability and confidence to do so.
In our text this morning Joseph says
to his brothers, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for
good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are
today.” This is of course, part of the
story of Israel. It is the story of God keeping his promise to Abraham: “In you
all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
It is in the fulfillment of that
promise through the seed of Abraham, Jesus the Christ, that we find the ability
and confidence to believe and trust in God.
Through the evil of men looking to protect their own insignificant turf
God subjected his Son to torture and death on the cross. Through the evil
action of those men God sent his innocent Son to die in your place as the
sacrifice that takes away your sin.
But where on Good Friday nothing but
powerlessness and meaninglessness was perceived, on Easter morning the reality
became clear. God had indeed been at
work through that evil. He had removed
the barrier of sin and now in the resurrected flesh of Jesus Christ he had
defeated death. He had worked
forgiveness and immortality for you.
This is what God had done for you in
Jesus Christ. And because he has done
this, through the work of the Spirit he gives you the ability and confidence to
trust in him no matter what is happening.
Because you have seen him work in this way in Christ, you know
that you can trust that he is present and at work in your life no matter how circumstances
appear.
The death and resurrection of
Christ, and your share in those events through baptism, becomes both the engine
and the guidance by which you move through life. Nourished by the Word and fed
with Christ’s body and blood, God enables you to trust in his presence and good
purposes for you.
You can do this no matter what the
circumstances because you have seen what God did in Christ and how he did
it. You can do this because each one of
you knows for sure how the story ends.
You can do this because you know that the final outcome for you will be
resurrection and eternal life with Jesus Christ.
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