ALL IN THE FAMILY

February 20, 2022
7^th Sunday after Epiphany
Gen. 45:3-11, 15; Ps. 37; 1 Cor. 15:35-38, 42-50; Lk. 6:27-38
Rev. Denise Clark-Jones

Of all the commands Jesus made of his disciples, these are the ones we find the hardest to obey. “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.” (Luke 6: 27-28) I wonder how many Ukrainians are praying for Vladimir Putin today. That’s a tough one!

I first learned about the modern conflicts between Ukraine and Russia from my younger daughter’s Ukrainian violin teacher. Our education about the modern history of Ukraine began with my daughter’s simple question: “How many languages so you speak” Irene named 5 languages, including Russian. Then her face clouded, and she said: “But I refuse to ever speak Russian.” This led to the story of her life during World War 2. Ukraine was invaded by both the Russians and the Germans, but as Irene tells the story, “The Russians were far more cruel.” When she was 16, she and many other girls from her village were rounded up by the Russian soldiers to test the fields for mines, so they could move their vehicles and troops over the area safely. The girls were forced to march through the fields, spread out at arm’s length from one another. If they made it across a field without being blown up, they lived another day. When the Germans came through, her father convinced a German officer that Irene would be much more valuable as a violinist than as a worker in a labor camp. She played in an ensemble at an officer’s club for the rest of the war. It wasn’t an easy gig, but to borrow Joseph’s phrase in our Old Testament reading, what was evil God used for good and her life was preserved.’ Because a German officer demonstrated either mercy or practical sense and self-interest, she lived a long life filled with the music she loved and shared with concert audiences and students.

The point at which we enter the Joseph saga is at the climax and resolution of the major plot line in this story. Joseph’s story begins in chapter 37 and ends in chapter 50, Genesis’ last chapter. The story of God’s human family begins in Genesis. In this first book of the bible, one reads stories of murder, rape and incest. If the Bible were to be used with school age children, Genesis would definitely need to be expunged. In fact, given the current suspicion that teachers are promoting poor family values, parents of children enrolled in Sunday school or a “Christian” school should go through the bible book by book and chapter by chapter to determine what their children should not be allowed to read.

Now back to Joseph’s family. Just to bring us up to speed: Jacob’s favored son, Joseph, the one that was given that special coat, has gone from barely escaping death at the hands of his jealous older brothers, then being sold as a slave to some traveling salesmen, to holding an exalted position in Egypt. His role is believed to have been akin to that of a prime minister. There is a short break in the Joseph story to tell us about Judah, one of Joseph’s older brothers, and his relationship with Tamar, his son’s widow. This is another biblical story Sunday School teachers are advised to skip.

Joseph had ample cause to be bitter and vengeful about his brother’s mistreatment of him; but instead, he did the best he could to make a productive life in a foreign land. To be honest, although Joseph was the favored son, he was no angel. As a child he showed remarkable insensitivity to his older brothers by taunting them with a dream he had in which they were bowing down to him. You can imagine him strutting around in the grand coat his father gave him. If you want to get a more complete picture of Joseph, you need to read the whole story.

Eventually, Joseph’s talent for interpreting dreams saved Egypt from the consequences of a widespread famine. He achieved both power and popularity in the country where he had been brought to be a slave. He also grew in maturity and wisdom after making some miscalculations in his dealing with people. We are led to believe that God did have a plan to use Joseph for a good purpose, because his dream about his brothers, those many years ago, did come true. When the brothers come to him to seek food to take back to their families in Canaan, they do bow down to him as in his childhood dream.

Reading before today’s lectionary passage, one can see this is a critical time when the happy ending still weighs in the balance. When Joseph first encounters his older brothers, he has a choice. He can turn them away empty-handed. Or, he can exact vengeance for his mistreatment by humiliating them, or even throwing them in jail. He could have rubbed his success in their faces. Joseph does toy with them for a while, which makes his brothers fearful and discouraged.  Joseph even plants the palace silver in one of their bags and has them captured and brought back to him to face the consequences.  But at the climactic point when he decides to reveal himself, he puts aside any notion of revenge to reunite his family.

We would expect Joseph to harbor a great deal of resentment. The wounds inflicted on us as children, intentional or not, become a part of the adult we have become. It seems in every family, there is someone who goes to their grave, unforgiving or unforgiven. Writer, Anne Lamott, defined forgiveness this way: “Forgiveness is giving up all hope of having had a better past.” That unrealistic hope is hard to let go. She also put her finger on how failing to forgive restricts our own peace and enjoyment of life with this blunt warning: “Not forgiving is like drinking rat poison and then waiting for the rat to die.” Conflicts within families are inevitable and soul-searing. We expect members of our family to want good for us and when they fail, we feel a deep betrayal. Mercy, compassion and forgiveness are the only means of healing.

In a scene worthy of a Hallmark movie, Joseph embraces his brothers, gives them far more than they asked and invites the whole family to move to Egypt. Joseph saw the hand of God in the unexpected circumstances that led to this moment. Joseph gifts his brothers with the assurance that no harm has been caused by their actions. With these words Joseph provides a theological argument for the circumstances that led to this moment of reconciliation:

“…do not be distressed, or angry with yourselves, because you sold
me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life. ⁷God sent me
before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive
for you many survivors. ⁸So it was not you who sent me here, but God.”
(v. 5,7-8)

Not only did God take the evil these young men had done and use it for good, but God also fit this betrayal and mistreatment into his grand plan for the Jewish people to lead the whole world to God. In theological terms, this concept of God’s plans being fulfilled with, and often in spite of, human action is called providence. Joseph’s trust in God gave him the comfort of knowing God would provide, even if it was not the way Joseph could have imagined. Joseph had come to believe in God’s ultimate wisdom, truth, and goodness.

But as a note of caution, the final family reconciliation does not come until chapter 50, when the word, “forgiveness,” is finally uttered. Before he died, Jacob asked that his sons take his body back to their original home in Canaan for burial. Together, the sons take the long trek home. After the burial, it is apparent the one big happy family scene has some cracks below the surface. The older brothers suspect Joseph’s magnanimous acceptance might have been a show for their father’s benefit and, now that Jacob is dead, Joseph will exact his revenge. But Joseph has come to a better understanding of God’s mercy. Joseph said to them, “Do not be afraid! Am I in the place of God? ²⁰Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good, in order to preserve numerous people, as he is doing today.”

Joseph did well for the brothers who had once done evil to him. He serves as an example for Jesus’ words to his disciples in his Sermon on the Plain. Jesus gives his disciples an almost impossible task: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, ²⁸bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. ²⁹If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also.” Now that sounds like being passive, but Jesus was not saying you should let others abuse you. In the Middle Eastern culture of that time, slapping someone on the cheek was a symbolic action that showed contempt. One either slapped back or skulked away if he deemed himself deserving of such contempt.  Or in the case of a person of lesser status, such as a servant or slave, it was a symbol that he had too little value to dare respond. Not to strike back, but to stand, without walking away was not a passive action. To stand and turn the other cheek was an act of non-violent protest. It was to say: Here I stand, I have value. You may do evil to me. I will not return evil for evil, but I will not deny my God-given value by walking away.

What Jesus was telling his disciples, and us, is simply that God wants us to do what is good for others and not do evil. Evil is doing harm with intention, to let our hearts and minds be corrupted with the love of evil. It’s a difficult and messy process to discern our intentions, but this is how we learn to walk with God.

Jesus challenges us to ask ourselves the question Joseph posed to his brothers: ‘Am I in the place of God?’ Jesus told his disciples: ³⁷“Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; ³⁸give, and it will be given to you.” (Luke 6: 37-38)

God created us to live a better way, a way that is merciful, generous and compassionate. This is God’s plan for humanity — living in the abundance of what we need to live joyful, productive, meaningful lives. This is the gift Jesus tells us we will receive if we follow his lead. The lives we diminish with fear and selfishness enslave us to worldly treasures that do not last and separate us from our neighbors, the other children in God’s family. This is what the bible tells us is spiritual death.

Jesus invites his disciples to follow him in God’s better way. He revealed God’s nature by giving, forgiving, welcoming and serving. Ultimately, Jesus modeled a generosity we can never repay. He gave up his own life on the cross that we might live as forgiven people, free to live as God intended. May we take hold of this forgiveness, this extravagant generosity, to live and let others live the abundant life meant for all God’s family.

Amen. May it be so!

© Rev. Denise Clark-Jones, 2022, All Rights Reserved
Westminster Presbyterian Church | 1420 W. Moss Ave. | Peoria, Illinois 61606
WestminsterPeoria.org  | 309.673.8501

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