May the words of
my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock
and my redeemer. Amen.
A
colleague of mine once likened the Book of Genesis to a TV drama and I think
she hit the nail on the head! The drama! The relationships! The action! All of
these lead to some exciting reading, even if we don’t necessarily understand it
all. So as they say, here are some scenes from last week’s episode.
Joseph,
shunned and hated by his brothers, is beaten and thrown into a dry well. The
brothers stand guard while deciding what to do with him. Will they murder him?
Will they leave him to die at nature’s hands? Along comes a caravan and they
have their answer! They will sell him to the Egyptians!
What
would you do if these were your brothers and you were the one first left to die
and then sold off like a piece of old unwanted furniture? Revenge seems sweet,
doesn’t it?
Previous
to today’s readings, Joseph did start to take revenge by doing some rotten
things like holding his brother Simeon hostage as well as their share of grain
in exchange for having the youngest, Benjamin, brought to him. And then framing
Benjamin for theft so that all the brothers travelling with Benjamin would be
forced to come back to him.
Finally,
Joseph couldn’t handle it any longer and he ordered all the Egyptians out of
the room, so he was alone with his brothers. He then revealed his true identity
to them, and what was his first question of them? “How is my father?” Joseph
was overwhelmed with emotion and wanted to know how his family had been doing.
Now,
Joseph is the most important person in all of Egypt, save for Pharaoh himself. He
could crush his brothers. He could torture them. He could really teach them a
lesson. Instead, he tells them not to worry, it wasn’t them who did all that to
him, it was God sending him to Egypt.
What
faith it takes to utter such words. I’m not sure I could muster it. What would
you do if you were in Joseph’s shoes, powerful enough to commit the most
heinous acts of revenge? Instead of crushing them like bugs, Joseph tells his
brothers that God has sent him ahead to ensure that his family, as well as
others, are saved from famine.
Joseph
is able to look upon the hardest days of his life and see the hand of God
working for Joseph and all of God’s people. He’s able to look upon the awful
experience of being forsaken by family, sold as a slave, and subsequently
exploited and plunged into jail as God moving mightily to save God’s people and
all the people of that corner of the world from famine.
Those
years which Joseph spent in slavery and prison could have been the occasion for
a slow burn that might have ignited into an explosion of anger at the sight of
his brothers. How angry Joseph could have been with God for getting him into
such a situation! But Joseph recognized that God was with him in his sufferings
and that these were from the loving hand of a sovereign God.
Joseph
could have been angry with his brothers, who had callously sold him into
slavery. Joseph had the right and the power to punish his ten half-brothers for
doing what they did to him. He could have gotten his pound of flesh from them,
his revenge on them, but in his mercy, Joseph forgave his brothers and wept
over them when they finally reconciled.
Joseph
forgives his brothers! Can you believe it?! Instead of committing vengeful
acts, Joseph commits saving acts. Not only does he forgive his brothers, but he
saves them from famine and poverty. He reunites his family and vows to take
care of them.
The
brothers, laden with treasures and food and wagonloads of gifts, were sent back
to land of Canaan to get their father Jacob and all their families. All of
them, all seventy of them, came to settle in the land of Goshen in Egypt where
Joseph took care of them. There was a new beginning for Joseph and his family,
and it was God that led them to the point where they could be reunited in love
and unity.
As
today’s psalm states “How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live
together in unity!”
And
how very good it is when God is the leader and the light down the path to new
beginnings. The lesson today, for Joseph and for all of us, is that God will
indeed lead us to new beginnings if we’re just willing to follow.
I’ll
admit, sometimes God’s instructions, signs, or whatever you’d like to call them
can sometimes be so subtle that you might not see them unless looked upon
retrospectively. Reflecting back over the almost-20 years since joining the
Anglican Church, I’ve come to recognize how God worked to get me to where I am
today. And it all started with new a beginning.
Many
years ago, I became friends with a woman named Lola who just happened to work
with someone I knew at a youth and family social services organization. Lola
decided to start a project and got all her friends involved, including me. As
the token accountant, I was of course asked to be the treasurer!
One
of the people joining the project was this motorcycle-riding co-worker of Lola’s
named Helen. Turned out she was an Anglican priest! By coincidence, I was
finding my way back to church after a devastating loss and a tumble into
darkness. I didn’t know how to go about picking a church, so I figured “why not
check out Helen’s church?” The motorcycle and the fact that she is a woman had
me intrigued.
I
attended services, I spoke with Helen, I decided to have my child baptized there,
and the rest, as they say, is history. And it all started with a new beginning.
God
led me to the people I needed at a time of darkness.
God
led me to the decision to baptize El when I hadn’t been a part of a church in more
than 20 years.
God
gave me my new beginning.
As
God has done, and will continue to do so, for us all.
Amen.
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