Genesis 45: Then Joseph said to his brothers, Come closer to me. And they came closer. He

Transcription

1 Genesis 45:1-15 Then Joseph could no longer control himself before all those who stood by him, and he cried out, Send everyone away from me. So no one stayed with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers. 2 And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard it. 3 Joseph said to his brothers, I am Joseph. Is my father still alive? But his brothers could not answer him, so dismayed were they at his presence. 4 Then Joseph said to his brothers, Come closer to me. And they came closer. He said, I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. 5 And now do not be distressed, or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life. 6 For the famine has been in the land these two years; and there are five more years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. 7 God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. 8 So it was not you who sent me here, but God; he has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt. 9 Hurry and go up to my father and say to him, Thus says your son Joseph, God has made me lord of all Egypt; come down to me, do not delay. 10 You shall settle in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near me, you and your children and your children s children, as well as your flocks, your herds, and all that you have. 11 I will provide for you there since there are five more years of famine to come so that you and your household, and all that you have, will not come to poverty. 12 And now your eyes and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see that it is my own mouth that speaks to you. 13 You must tell my father how greatly I am honored in Egypt, and all that you have seen. Hurry and bring my father down here. 14 Then he fell upon his brother Benjamin s neck and wept, while Benjamin wept upon his neck. 15 And he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them; and after that his brothers talked with him. 1

2 Potential and Kinetic Grace Perhaps you may have heard our summer English camp took place these last two weeks. By most everyone s estimation, the camp was a raging success. No doubt it was a lot of work, as all of our staff and volunteers can attest, but it was also a lot of fun. One of my favorite things to do during the camp was to sit in on the classes. Throughout the two weeks I visited every class at least once: English, science, art and crafts, cooking and culture, and recreation. The class that was the most fun to watch was recreation. Actually, the name of the class was American Games and Recreation. In one of the first classes I watched, the children were learning to play horseshoes which is about as American a game as there is. If you re not familiar with horseshoes, it involves throwing a real horseshoe at a post that s hammered into the ground. The object is to have the shoe wrap around the post. When this happens it s called a ringer. Of course, the children played indoors with plastic horseshoes. But they learned some authentic horseshoe vocabulary. Their teacher, Charlie, even taught them to shout yee-haw when they scored a ringer. Hearing a classroom of Korean children shout yee-haw is something I hope to remember for a long time. During recreation class on another day the children were playing a game that was also teaching them a science lesson. The lesson was about potential and kinetic energy. I m sure you all remember your science class from elementary school. Potential energy is the energy contained within an object. It is dormant. It needs to be activated. Thus, it is potential energy. Kinetic energy is energy in motion. [Stand on at edge of stage and demonstrate.] 2

3 The children s teacher, Andrew, made a game of the lesson. The children were divided into two teams. They sat on the floor in two lines, with each child holding the hand of the child in front of them. All the children faced forward except for the last child in each line. The last child in would watch as Andrew flipped a coin. One side of the coin represented potential energy, while the other represented kinetic energy. If the coin landed on the side that represented potential energy, then nothing happened. But if the coin landed on the side of kinetic energy, the last child in line would then squeeze the hand of the child in front of him, who would then squeeze the hand of the child in front of her, and so on up the line. When the child in the front of the line felt the squeeze of his hand, he would race toward a ball that was placed about 30 meters in the distance. The first team to grab the ball would win. I was impressed by the game because it was so simple and yet it did a great job of teaching the lesson on potential and kinetic energy. And the children loved playing it. I don t think it s that much of a stretch to jump from a lesson in potential and kinetic energy to a lesson in potential and kinetic grace. The story of Joseph how he suffers evil at the hands of his brothers and how God uses that evil for God s good purposes is a lesson in potential and kinetic grace. To see how, we first have to back up a bit, because the story of Joseph takes up most of the final fourteen chapters of Genesis. Today s reading picks up about three-quarters of the way into the story [SLIDE]. To briefly summarize, Joseph was the eleventh of Jacob s twelve children. His ten older brothers were the sons of Jacob and his wife Leah. Joseph and his younger brother Benjamin were the sons of Jacob and his wife Rachel. Because they were born to him late in life, and the fact that they were born of Jacob s favored wife, Rachel, Joseph and Benjamin occupied a special place in Jacob s heart. Joseph seems to have known from an early age that he was set apart from his brothers in the eyes of his father. He even tells them of his dreams in which all of his 3

4 brothers, and even his parents, bow down in homage to him. It should go without saying, especially for those of us who have older siblings, that this does not go over well with Joseph s brothers. In fact, they re so upset that they conspire to kill him. They throw Joseph into a pit with no food and water. But at the last minute they have a change of heart. When a caravan of merchants on its way to Egypt passes by, the brothers lift Joseph from the pit and sell him to the merchants. The merchants, in turn, sell Joseph to a man named Potiphar, who is the captain of the guard of Pharaoh s palace guard. In Egypt, Joseph undergoes a miraculous transformation. He rises from a slave to become the second most powerful man in all Egypt, second only to Pharaoh. His ascension, however, is not a direct one. While he is in charge of Potiphar s house, Joseph is falsely accused of attempted rape by Potiphar s wife. Joseph is imprisoned, but even in prison the Lord s favor rests on Joseph. The chief jailer places him in charge of the other prisoners. While in prison, Joseph demonstrates a talent for interpreting the dreams of his fellow prisoners. He is brought to the attention of Pharaoh when Pharaoh has a dream that no one can interpret. Joseph correctly interprets the dream, telling Pharaoh that there will be seven years of bountiful harvest followed by seven years of famine. Joseph advises Pharaoh to set aside the surplus harvest from the seven bountiful years so that there will be enough grain to feed the people during the famine. Pharaoh places Joseph in charge of the food supply, which Joseph administers wisely. When the famine arrives after the seven years of plenty, the Egyptians have enough grain to survive. They have enough that even the surrounding nations come to Egypt to buy grain. Among those who come to Egypt to purchase grain are Joseph s older brothers. Joseph s younger brother Benjamin is not with them. Although Joseph recognizes his brothers, they do not recognize him. He no longer looks like a Hebrew but like Egyptian royalty. As far as Joseph s brothers know, their brother is either a slave or 4

5 perhaps dead. The man before them is to them a complete stranger. Their very survival depends on his kindness. Although Joseph knows that his brothers come with honest intentions, he accuses them of being spies. He demands that they prove their honesty by returning to their homeland and then bringing their younger brother back to Egypt with them. When the brothers do eventually return with Benjamin, at first Joseph treats him as a guest of honor. But as the brothers prepare to return to Canaan, their sacks filled with grain, Joseph frames his younger brother by placing one of his silver serving cups in Benjamin s sack. Joseph insists that whoever is found with the cup must become his slave. When the cup is found in Benjamin s possession, the brothers are mortified. Their father has already lost one son, Joseph so they believe and now it seems as though he is about to lose another son. Finally, one of the brothers, Judah, pleads with Joseph, telling him that if they return home without their youngest brother then their father will surely die. Hearing this, Joseph can no longer contain himself. This is where we pick up the story in today s reading. Joseph is so overcome with emotion that he sends away all of his attendants, leaving himself alone with his brothers. He breaks down and weeps. He does not sob or wipe away a few tears as some might do while watching a Korean drama. No, he weeps so loudly that the Egyptians, who are not even in the room with him, hear him. An interesting question to consider is, What is it that causes Joseph to break down [SLIDE]? Is it that he has finally been reunited with his brothers? Is he crying because he has been given an opportunity to reconcile with them after they left him for dead? Or is he overcome more so because he is reunited with his younger brother Benjamin his full-blooded brother, and one who had nothing to do with selling him into slavery? Joseph certainly treats Benjamin with greater honor than he 5

6 does his older brothers, serving him five times the amount of food that he serves his other brothers. I think a case can be made for any of these claims. Joseph has much to be emotional about. But I think that what is moving Joseph to tears is something even greater. He starts to tell his brothers what it is by revealing to them his true identity that he is not only governor of Egypt but also their long-lost brother. But they are confused, speechless. He draws them closer to him and tries again [SLIDE]: I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. And now do not be distressed, or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life (Gen. 45:4-5). I wonder when it was that Joseph came to this realization that it was not his brothers who had sent him to Egypt but God. My guess and it is only that, a guess is that it was when his brothers came to Egypt the first time. When they arrive, Joseph instantly recognizes them, but he pretends that he does not. His mind instantly kicks into gear. Upon seeing his brothers, who years ago years ago! had sold him into slavery, he immediately realizes that none of this the fact that they sold him, that he was taken to Egypt, that he was falsely accused and imprisoned, that he earned Pharaoh s trust by interpreting his dream, and that he is now governor of Egypt none of this has happened by chance, for God s fingerprints are all over these events, from the first to the last. And then when Joseph learns that his brothers have come looking to buy food, he knows that he has stockpiled surplus grain for the past seven years. Doing so has enabled the people to survive a two-year food shortage. He tells his brothers that God has prepared this very moment: For the famine has been in the land these two years; and there are five more years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. God 6

7 sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors (Gen. 45:6-7) Verses five to seven are the pivotal passage amid the fourteen chapters of the Joseph story. This is the crux of the story: what Joseph s brothers did in selling him into slavery which was clearly done with evil intent God used to bless and to preserve life in fact, to give life to generations that never would have been born had their ancestors not survived the great famine. This is the remarkable truth: that the evil action of the brothers created the very conditions that God would use to bless not only Joseph but even his brothers who had so mistreated him. This is what I mean by potential grace. Of course, Jacob s brothers did not foresee that God would redeem their sin by making of it a blessing. They were motivated solely by jealousy of their brother. And they are in no way excused for their malice toward Joseph. But God s grace is greater than their sin. What s more, there is no limit that God s grace cannot reach. There is no depth of sin to which God s grace cannot descend. There is no sin, no sickness, and no death that God cannot redeem [SLIDE]. This is the very point of the resurrection. The life of Jesus Christ ended in defeat in death. In Jesus Christ, God came to earth to be with us, to proclaim the kingdom of God, to bring good news to the poor, to show us the nature of forgiveness, to reconcile us to God and to one another, and yet his life ended in defeat in death on a cross. Faith, hope, love what meaning did they have if the very one who embodied them was crucified for them? But of course, Christ s death was not the end of his life it was only the beginning. In raising Christ from the dead God redeemed the very worst that humanity could inflict on itself and on God. This was grace in motion kinetic grace. God could take the worst of humanity and use it for God s good purposes. 7

8 I ll be honest with you the scene of Joseph revealing himself to his brothers is one of my favorite passages in the Bible. It s right up there with the end of the book of Job and Jesus protecting and forgiving the woman caught in adultery in John 8. I love it because I have lived it, as I suspect we all have. It s a story about God s grace redeeming sin and suffering. It s a story that we can all relate to because we are all subject to sin and suffering. It s been said that experience is the best teacher, so I am going to close by telling you of my experience with the power of God s grace in both its potential and kinetic forms 8