Genesis 50.15-21; Matthew 18.21-35
Have you given thought to God this week?
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I don’t know about you, but I know about me … it’s easy for me to go about my “god work” without thinking too much about God …
Such is the predicament of religious types …
On the outside, I look religious, and I am … but sometimes it’s appearance more than reality … and that’s ok, too … it’s what I am, and, maybe, what you are, as well.
Scripture prompts us to think about God … to look at God from another angle, to really think about God … and that means: to think about our life.
That’s the strange thing about religion, when religion takes hold of us, we think about God, and then, we think about our life …
“Who is God?” we might ask.
And then, we have to ask, “Who am I?”
"What does God want?" we might ask.
And then, we have to ask, “What do I want?”
And it can be reversed … to ask the deep questions of who we are, and what we want, pushes us, takes us, brings to the ultimate questions … of God
Thoughts about God, and questions about us, are directly linked … like ham and cheese, peanut butter and jelly, apple pie and ice cream …
To reach upward to God, is to reach inward to ourselves … we and God are intimately linked, forever linked … we are the image of God, and God is the image of who we are …
Of all the creatures that roam the face of the earth, swim in the sea, fly across the sky, we’re the strangest … we are the impossible fusion of dirt and divinity, mortality and eternity, spirit and flesh.
We, too, like God, are creators … we fashion our world … we probe the body, we scan the skies … we dream the dreams of Dr. King … we take up brush, canvass and paint and create the Mona Lisa … we build an instrument and Mozart writes his music … Lady GaGa sings with Tony Bennett, and we listen in rapt attention, and we weep with gratitude … from Burning Man in the desert to a Rolling Stones concert, we are creators, dreamers, creatures of hope and vision, creatures of courage and faith, creatures of love and peace.
In all of our grace, beauty, and goodness …
And with all of our destructive powers, too …
We can think, sometimes, in all the wrong ways …
We can live against life … we can, like the Psalmist says:
follow the advice of the wicked …
take the path that sinners tread …
sit in the seat of scoffers …
In other words, we forget who we are, because we have forgotten who God is … or the other way around - because we have forgotten who God is, we forget who we are.
Let’s face it.
The world of commerce and consumption would be more than happy if we would forget about God entirely … or, maybe, just turn God into a Hallmark Card ornament that we periodically bring out with our Christmas decorations …
Or worse, to bend our religious traditions, to serve the God of Mammon rather than the God of Sinai … and we end up with Christian Nationalism, or some other perversion - the God and Father of Jesus has been recast into something hideous and malevolent - a reverse image - all the pieces are there, but they’ve been rearranged into something that bears no resemblance to the orthodox image of Christ and the story of our salvation.
The world of commerce and consumption is not an easy world in which to live … yet, here we are. We are the people, and these are the times to which God has called.
We can’t live off grid … but maybe, just maybe, there are ways to live in this world and not succumb to its worst influences … to live in the world, as Jesus suggests: to be the light of the world, and the salt of the earth.
To be an influencer for enlightenment and peace, knowledge and education, science and faith … the great things of life, the highest values: truth, beauty, goodness, and love.
What we do here on Sundays, what churches do, or should do, and all houses of worship, is this:
- Remind the world that all that we are and all that we hope to be is of God.
- Love is the only way to live, to fulfill our humanness, to realize our goodness, our purpose, our power.
- None of this easy, but all of it is possible.
In the story of Joseph and his brothers, we have the perfect tale of redemption and hope …
As the story goes, Joseph is the apple of his father’s eye, he's smart, good looking, and seriously irritating … he’s too young to manage his gifts, and his gifts are enormous.
His brothers are jealous, and tired of him; they hate him … they sell Joseph into slavery … take his coat, spatter it with blood, to convince their father that Joseph has been set upon by a wild animal and killed.
Joseph has many adventures along the way, some good, some bad … spends time in an Egyptian jail .. eventually finds redemption … becomes a great leader in the land of Egypt.
Back in Canaan, meanwhile, a famine drives the family to Egypt in search of food …
The story is complicated and full of twists and turns - just like life - the brothers, at first don’t recognize Joseph, but he recognizes his brothers, and makes the right decision … summed up in the word, “forgiveness” … because Joseph is a man with a heart for God … he says to his brothers:
Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good.
Now we have to be careful how we use this text … because some have used it in terrible ways, saying to those in dire straits, those suffering the indignities of human cruelty and abuse, a child raped, a woman beaten, a man fired and forgotten … those with illness and sorrow - saying to such, “Oh, don’t worry - it’s all for the good.”
No … it’s not all for the good … there’s a lot of suffering and sorrow that has no purpose whatsoever … pain is pain, sorrow is sorrow, death is death … and we cannot slap a happy face on it - we need to weep with those who weep.
Our story this morning gives me hope … woven into the fabric of life is the golden thread of God’s love … not all is sweetness and light, but there is a pearl of great price, the power of forgiveness.
Again, intelligence is needed: those who owned the enslaved and chained them to their work, cannot ever say to them in their servitude, “Forgive me” … even as more chains are added, and more cruelty is done.
The powerful cannot say to the powerless, “forgive me!” And then go on their merry way …
Forgiveness is the currency of the religious life … forgiveness is given to us by God, and to seal the deal, to finish the work, we extend it to others …
Even as we change, and try to change, the way we live, what we believe, how we think, and the words we use.
Joseph might well chosen revenge … the sweet poison of life:
When seeking revenge, dig two graves - one for yourself.
In moments of pain, we seek revenge.
Revenge is a dish best served cold … carefully prepared, set aside, served only when all is ready.
Joseph chooses forgiveness …
How easily he might have damned his brothers … but he saves them instead.
Can we at this point think of Christ? … on the cross … Father, forgive them; they don’t know what they’re doing.
It’s not a matter of forgetting … even Jesus, on the other side of death, cannot forget; raised from the dead, his body still bears the scars … the nails driven into his hands and feet, the crown of thorns pressed upon his head, the Roman spear thrust upward into his body … the scars remain, but there is healing, and there is peace.
We don’t forget, but we can move on …
To say the words, “I forgive” … powerful medicine … Joseph says it to his brothers … when Peter asks, “How often?” Jesus replies: all the time, again and again, forever and a day.
We can’t always say it right away … the other person may not be ready to hear those words … Joseph’s brothers would not have been ready to hear the words of forgiveness earlier in the story … but now they are.
Maybe we’re not quite ready to say the words, either … but say them we must, and say them soon, lest bitterness take hold of our heart. The words of forgiveness work their own magic in our souls … the magic of redemption and grace.
A deep breath, a very deep breath, “I forgive.”
Amen and Amen!
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