August 28, 2011 | 4:00 p.m.

Sermon

Adam H. Fronczek
Associate Pastor, Fourth Presbyterian Church

Psalm 47
Genesis 42–46

Over the summer we’ve been following the story of the book of Genesis, and this week, as we near the book’s end, we look at the conclusion to the story of Joseph, one of the most dramatically composed narratives in all of the Bible and, admittedly, a favorite of mine. Last week, John Vest spent a good deal of time filling in some of the plotlines in this complicated and lengthy story, which consumes most of thirteen chapters at the end of Genesis. John guided you through the ups and downs of Joseph’s life: Joseph goes from being his father’s most favored son to being sold into slavery by his brothers; he finds himself enslaved in Egypt but works his way up to the head of a powerful household; he finds himself betrayed in that household and lands in prison and then rises again to be in charge of the household of Pharaoh himself: Joseph is the second-most powerful man in all of Egypt.

In his telling of the story, John lifted out a key theme in this story and the Bible as a whole. He called attention to the places in Joseph’s life where we see God at work—what we would call moments of God’s providence—and yet John pointed out that while these kinds of moments of providence can be easy to spot when you look back at the whole story, or even when you look back over the course of your own life, providence is surprisingly difficult to pin down when we are in the midst of life. When something good or bad happens to any one of us and we are in the middle of it, there are so many options of what might be going on. Is God blessing us with good fortune? We hope so. Is God cursing us with bad luck? We certainly hope not. In either case, it could just be luck. On the other hand, it could be God’s work, but maybe what is going on with us, in our life today, is not the most important part of God’s plan and there is some grander purpose being worked out that is too great for us to understand. And where do our choices fit into it all? These are huge questions, and they all appear in the nuances of the Joseph story. John, in his retelling of it, reminded us of an important fact: in many cases understanding all of this or stringing together the disparate dots of our lives may not be the most important thing and may not even be possible. “The most important thing is what we do with the situations in which we find ourselves.”

Near the end of the story, Joseph is reunited with his brothers. That’s where the story picks up this week. Having been sold into slavery by his brothers years ago, the tables are now turned: there is a famine in Canaan, and the brothers come to Egypt in search of food, unaware that their own baby brother is Pharaoh’s right-hand man and controls the food supply for the whole country.

At first Joseph’s brothers do not even recognize him, and Joseph himself does not know how to react to these brothers who betrayed him so many years ago. Calculating his advantage, he sells them some food but secretly sets them up as criminals, and they are chased down and brought back before him. Faced with them again, he is forced by his own calculations into either imprisoning them in revenge or revealing his identity. This is where we pick up the story today.

At the end of chapter 45, faced with this difficult decision and a whole range of emotions, Joseph makes a decision that we will see again and again in scripture as the model of faithful living: he forgives even where forgiveness is not deserved and has not even been asked for. Joseph’s forgiveness saves his family and reunites him with his father and brothers.

It’s a touching scene, but it’s also important to be realistic about it:

For me, the most challenging thing about this action is that, unfortunately, it doesn’t make everything better for the rest of eternity. Eventually the descendants of Joseph and his brothers will end up in slavery in Egypt and they will forget about God and all of the things God once did for a man named Joseph. And then God will have to forgive the children of Israel.

But look at where we are in the overall story: it’s the end of the book of Genesis, chapter 1! The story isn’t supposed to be over here or come to a neat and tidy finish, but what we do get is a setup for one of the most important ideas in the Bible: in the lives of individual people, forgiveness is so often the act that moves life forward.

Think about how many stories you have heard, movies you have seen, books you have read where a relationship stalls out because two people hold a grudge. Maybe they are siblings, lovers, a parent and a child, and even though one person wants nothing more than to be forgiven, the fact that forgiveness is never offered totally stalls the relationship. Then think of how many similar stories are given new life when in an act of great strength and risk, one person decides against the odds that it is time for forgiveness. When confronted by his brothers who sold him into slavery, this is the choice Joseph makes, and it sets the stage for the rest of the Bible in which forgiveness will always be vital to the progress of the story of God’s work with humankind.

Joseph’s act of forgiveness, given along with the story John told last week about the struggle between providence and free will, presents to us an important challenge. Forgiveness is absolutely something that is within our control. Whatever happens to us, we have the ability to forgive. And our acts of forgiveness, if they are anything like Joseph’s, will probably not change the course of human history, and they will not mean that forgiveness will not be needed again in the future, but be that as it may, acts of forgiveness can change your life and the life of others around you, just like they changed Joseph’s.

For this reason, forgiveness is introduced right here in Genesis and becomes one of the most important themes in the Bible. Throughout the Old Testament, the Israelites do their best, but they continue to fail, and God forgives them again and again. In the New Testament, the offer of forgiveness to people who do not deserve it becomes a key part of who Jesus is.

The Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper is the way we remember the centrality of Jesus’ forgiveness when we gather in worship each week. Here the story continues. Even though we know that we will probably mess up again sometime in the near future, we meet God here where we are forgiven and made new, so that we can go back into the world and show love and forgiveness to others.

As we come to the table together tonight, I ask you to be mindful of the places in your own life where you may need to ask for a sign of forgiveness from someone else or where you may need to offer forgiveness to someone. Perhaps that person is seated right next to you. Perhaps they could be. And the story goes on.

Amen.