Sermon for Sunday 8/14/11 “Reconciliation” Genesis 45:1-15
The text of the sermon delivered by Rev. Kirk Moore at Union Congregational United Church of Christ in Somonauk, IL on Sunday, August 14, 2011.
This morning’s Bible reading is from Genesis 45:1-15
In reverse
And so, in the end, Joseph forgave his brothers. They had conspired to kill him, but instead sold him as a slave. Joseph became a slave in Egypt, gained respect, was falsely maligned and thrown into prison, again gained respect, and helped all of Egypt survive a massive famine. He invited these brothers to come and live with him. He told them to bring their father that they all would be able to thrive during the time of famine in Egypt. Joseph told them that all of their actions were part of God’s plan to save them.
Last week I talked about Reuben – the brother who convinced the others not to sell Joseph, but rather to throw him in a pit. As I lifted up Reuben for his actions, I wrote this:
His cool head stopped his brothers from making a mistake that would cost them dearly.
And by that, I meant to introduce the idea that by selling Joseph as a slave, the brothers saved themselves and their families from dying of starvation years later. And it seems that’s what Joseph said, too.
It’s easy to look in reverse and see how one path led to another and then to another and how everything worked together to bring a person, a family, or an organization to the place they are now.
But who’s to say that it had to happen that way?
Did Joseph need to be sold as a slave for the brothers to be saved years later? What if the brothers had never conspired? What if they all got along and Joseph still dreamed about a famine? What if Jacob had never given Joseph the long robe with sleeves and made the other brothers exceedingly jealous? What if any of the parts of the story of the life of Joseph had been different? Would the brothers have survived?
I don’t know. No one knows. As much as I love to see stories of God’s path in folks lives and love to look back and see how God’s path has led me to wherever I am on life’s journey, I have no idea how different or the same things may have turned out if parts of the story had been changed.
It is wise to study history. It is wise to learn from the mistakes made throughout history so that we don’t repeat them.
But I’m not one to look at history and say, ‘It had to happen this way, otherwise it . . . couldn’t have happened” or something like that.
Why? Because when we look back at events and determine, “If this hadn’t happened, then of course that would not have happened, and that couldn’t have ever happened, and then, ultimately, this wonderful thing could not have happened,” we decide that there is only one way to get from point “A” to point “B.”
And if there is only one way to get from point “A” to point “B”, then we also open ourselves to the other side of that idea. “If only I hadn’t done this, then this would not have happened, and then this wouldn’t have happened, and then this awful thing would not have happened.”
Our actions matter. Our decisions matter. They affect no only us but also people and things all around us. They affect things locally and globally.
But we are not the only ones, ours is not the only church, this is not the only community, state, or nation that acts and decides.
And today’s reading isn’t about how every decision we make is life-altering. It isn’t even about how God can work all things together for good.
I think, really, that it is about one thing: Reconciliation.
The brothers hated Joseph. Joseph had a hard life and had every reason to hate them back.
But instead he reached out to them, wept with them, talked with them, and they were reconciled.
God isn’t about putting secret codes in books so that only the ones with secret knowledge can figure out how things are going to go in our world from this point forward. God isn’t about having us study the Bible so that we can see how everything that happened in there had to happen that way.
The codes and the predictions and the verifications are entertaining, but they are not what the Bible is about. They are not what God is about.
God is about . . . love.
God is about . . . justice.
God is about . . . forgiveness.
God is about . . . peace.
God is about . . . comforting those who mourn.
God is about . . . compassion.
God is about . . . mercy.
God is about . . . generosity.
God is about . . . caring for the poor.
God is about . . . healing.
God is about . . . reconciliation.
Amen.
