Come Closer

pneumatizing

Aug 28

A Sermon Preached at Salem United Church of Christ

Higginsville, Missouri

20 August 2023

I. Joseph and His Brothers

There are dysfunctional families and then there is the family of Jacob – Jacob cheated his own brother out of his birthright and their father's blessing – Jacob lied and cheated and schemed for most of his life, it seems – given the example of Jacob, and that the family must have repeated the stories at least occasionally, should we be even a little surprised at the Joseph stories? – probably not
You might think that Jacob would have known better, but he played favorites with his twelve sons – Joseph is special to Jacob – Joseph is the oldest son of Jacob's favorite wife, Rachel – and Joseph is the son of Jacob's old age (Genesis 37.3) – Jacob shows his favoritism by giving Joseph a fancy robe with long sleeves
For his part, Joseph is sometimes not too smart – he would tattle tale on his brothers and get them in trouble (Genesis 37.2) – he had dreams that he believed showed that his brothers would bow down to him in the future – if being their father's favorite were not enough, his actions angered his older brothers even further, until things reach a breaking point
Jacob sends Joseph out to his brothers who are tending the family flocks, to see how they are faring – what Joseph does not know is that as he goes to his brothers, they are planning to kill him – only one of his brothers opposes doing away with him – Reuben wants to sell Joseph into slavery instead of killing him – which is what they do – they sell Joseph to some traveling Ishmaelites, who take him to Egypt and sell him off there
You all know the stories – Joseph gets into trouble with Potiphar's wife and ends up in prison, where he gains a reputation as an interpreter of dreams – when Pharaoh has some dreams that his wise men cannot interpret, he hears about the prisoner who is good at dream interpretation – he calls Joseph to have him tell him what the dreams mean
What God reveals to Joseph is that there is a famine coming and it is time to begin preparing – and thus begins Joseph's rise into the Egyptian elite – by the time the famine hits and begins to affect many nations and families, including his own, Joseph is the second most powerful man in Egypt, second only to Pharaoh himself
Our story for today is not the first time Joseph's brothers have come to Egypt for help during the famine, but the first time they did not recognize Joseph
And why would they recognize him? – they sold their brother into slavery years earlier, when he was still a youth – now he is a mature man and a powerful man in Egypt – he probably was not well dressed before, and now he is in the robes of royalty – and even in a famine, he is obviously well fed – it is no wonder that they have no idea who he is the first time they come to Egypt
This time, however, Joseph cannot contain himself – he has to reveal his identity to his brothers – he has to let them know that even if they planned and perpetrated ill for him, God used their foolishness for a good thing – had he not been sold into slavery he would not have ended up in Egypt – he would not have been in a position of power to be able to take care of his family
His brothers did intend to rid themselves of a troublesome younger brother – they did intend to get him as far away as possible – they did intend to deceive their father into believing that his favorite was dead – they did intend to make their lives better by getting Joseph out of them
But God had other plans
So they are confused when Joseph sends the Egyptians out of the room where he meets his brothers – but once the Egyptians are gone, Joseph is free to reveal himself to his brothers – and, not surprisingly, his first question is about how his father is doing – also not surprisingly, his brothers are so thunderstruck that they cannot even speak – they may also be wondering what he is going to do to them – they did try to get rid of him, after all
What they might not expect is for Joseph to call them to come closer to him, unless it is to beat them up a bit – but that is not what he does – he has an amazingly forgiving and conciliatory attitude toward his brothers and what they did to him – he tells them that what they did is all for the best, that God has plans and they include Joseph taking care of his family so that all will live through the famine – and it is hugs and kisses and tears all around
Come closer, indeed

II. Come Closer

Few of us have to deal today with famine – there are places in the world where famines do come, but not here
Few of us ever have to deal with family members who decide that rather than kill us they are going to sell us into slavery
So what would any of this story have to say to us?
I think at its heart, this story has much to say to us about who God is and how God works in our lives and in our world – it says that God loves us even when we do foolish things – and we do many foolish things in our lives – we do all sorts of things that lead us away from the ways of God for us – we make all sorts of decisions and choices that do not easily fit with God's Vision for us – even so, God never gives up on us
The most wondrous and amazing thing about God's working in our lives is that God takes even our mistakes and foolishness, which play a part in making us who we are, and works them into the tapestry of the Vision – God has a plan for the universe and God will use even our wrongheaded choices to move the Vision forward
In the life and work of Jesus, God is saying to all of us, "Come closer" – like Joseph, God wants to forgive us, God wants to reconcile us to God's self – this is part of God's plan and Vision

III. Conclusion

God tells us all to come closer – there is work for us to do – there is love and grace for us to share – there is hope to impart to everyone – there is unity to create and make manifest in the world
Come closer, sisters, brothers, and friends – come closer and see what God is doing for the world