Living into Forgiveness
Sermon preached by the Rev. John Elliott Lein at St. Thomas à Becket Episcopal Church on August 16, 2020, on the following texts: Genesis 45:1-15, Psalm 133, Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32, and Matthew 15: (10-20), 21-28.
Good morning!
Today’s Scripture readings provide a number of avenues we could explore together. But it’s the story of Joseph that connected most with me this week, so that’s what we’ll be looking at together this morning.
Before we dive into that, I believe it’s worth acknowledging that the Gospel narrative of Jesus’ encounter with the Canaanite woman can be a challenging reading. The Rev. Ken Kesselus has provided an excellent reflection on this story over on the Episcopal Church website , so I encourage you to find and read that resource if you are left unsatisfied with us passing over this story today.
We recently spent four weeks working through the story of Jacob in the book of Genesis. Joseph and his brothers from our reading today are his sons, and their story and struggles are inseparable from his.
Most of us who have grown up in the Christian church are familiar with the broad strokes of this story. It begins with twelve brothers from four women, favoritism directed at two among them from their father, some dreams, and the older favored son sold into distant slavery in Egypt by his brothers and presumed dead by their father. After a dramatic series of events, what we find in our reading today is the grand reveal of the long-lost Joseph as the powerful right-hand of Pharaoh who holds the power of life and death over his brothers.
The narrator gives a classically understated description of the reaction of the brothers to Joseph’s reveal:
“But his brothers could not answer him, so dismayed were they at his presence.”
Why would they be “so dismayed”?
First, they would immediately realize why this man of power had singled them out for harsh and unjust treatment, using trickery to accuse them of theft and leave one brother in prison for a year as pressure to bring the youngest, Joseph’s full brother Benjamin, to visit. All their suspicions of these events as crafted and directed against them due to a personal vendetta were confirmed.
And second, in recognizing the source of that anger, they would realize that justice would call for their own imprisonment or execution for what they had done to their younger brother when he was in their control. And that this man now possessed the power and authority to make it happen with a single word.
In a way, this story didn’t start a few chapters back and years back, but instead centuries earlier at the very beginning of the book of Genesis.
The rivalry between brothers begins in the 4th chapter with Cain and Abel. The elder became angry at the younger over a perceived injustice. God’s appeal to care for his brother is cast aside in the first murder. Cain famously asks, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” and we all know the answer should be “Yes!” when it is so often “no.”
And so brothers, nephews, co-wives, fathers-in-law, and many other relationships continue to be tested and struggle with injustice, anger, and rivalry from these first two all the way through Joseph’s story.
As the conclusion of the story of Joseph’s father and uncle two weeks ago showed, despite Jacob’s growth, he was unable to trust Esau’s open-hearted forgiveness, and it was Jacob’s fear, shame and guilt that ultimately kept their reunion short-lived.
Now Joseph reacts to seeing his brothers’ consternation, continuing on:
“And now do not be distressed, or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life.”
He can see that the brothers are hesitant to accept seeming forgiveness, and he reassures them that his heart has changed as he weeps with them in release of pain and recovery of joy.
The story doesn’t end here though. Turning to the fiftieth and final chapter of Genesis, we see a return to this thread.
By this point, the entire household of Jacob and sons has relocated to Egypt, and all has been well for a number of years. Jacob passes away in peace and honor, and a family road trip and funeral is held back in Canaan.
Our narrator then tells us:
[After returning] Joseph’s brothers...said, “What if Joseph still bears a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrong that we did him!" So they sent this message to Joseph, “Before his death your father left this instruction: So shall you say to Joseph, ‘Forgive, I urge you, the offense and guilt of your brothers who treated you so harshly.' Therefore, please forgive the offense of the servants of the God of your father.”
And Joseph wept...
These last words strike my heart every time I read them.
Joseph.
Wept.
He realizes that his brothers have not accepted his forgiveness. They believe he had only postponed their punishment until their father was gone. They are fully prepared to be his slaves, if not worse.
There’s a story in the children’s fantasy series written by the Anglican C.S. Lewis that I’m reminded of. In The Last Battle between the loyal remnent of overwhelmed Narnians and a foreign army of conquest, a small band of local dwarves feels themselves betrayed by all and retreats into war against both sides. When all the Narnians, including the dwarves, are thrust within what seems to be a stable inhabited by a demon, they are amazed to find themselves in a broad and beautiful land.
But this group of dwarves who refused to trust their own people are locked within a prison of their own minds. While all is sunlight and fresh air, they stumble around in seeming darkness complaining of musty straw. Try as they might, the others cannot convince the dwarves of reality.
Joseph’s brothers are in the same space.
Yes, Joseph struggled mightily with anger before finally setting aside the past and being released from an inner prison of recrimination and division through forgiveness. But his brothers have been stuck in that prison this whole time because they cannot trust in that forgiveness. They have been unable to accept a new narrative about undeserved grace, and inside they still see themselves as slaves and wretches.
How many of us can relate to this story?
It’s one journey to offer forgiveness; and it’s another to accept forgiveness. No matter how generously we may be offered forgiveness, it does us no good unless we can trust and receive. It is only in the full exchange that grace is fully known.
The figure of Joseph, and his weeping here, remind me of Jesus.
The forgiveness Jesus offered, that which he promised from his Father, and that which he commanded his followers to continue in offering without end, is hard for many of his contemporaries to accept as it has been for believers throughout the centuries since. We get caught up in our narratives about guilt and shame that we are convinced are unforgivable, beyond release.
Just as Joseph’s brothers cannot accept forgiveness, so too we smile and nod when told of God’s forgiveness but deep down in our hearts we refuse to believe it’s possible. And that lack of trust and acceptance keeps us huddled in our prisons even as the door stands open.
So Joseph weeps, because he is cut to the heart that his brothers have not been living in the forgiveness he already gave them years before. He begs them to finally trust, to trust that he loves them and will provide all good things for them and their families. The narrator says,
And [Joseph] comforted them and spoke to their hearts.
Finally the brothers were able to receive into their hearts the forgiveness that at first only reached their eardrums. Finally the sons of Jacob were fully reconciled. And it is on this note of the reconciliation of brothers that the book of Genesis ends.
Let this story remind us that receiving forgiveness is as important as offering it. To live in reconciled unity of mind and heart requires this mutual work, so that we might come to celebrate with the Psalmist for today:
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is
for brethren to dwell together in unity!It is like the precious ointment upon the head,
that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard:
that went down to the skirts of his garments;As the dew of Hermon,
and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion:
for there the Lord commanded the blessing,
even life for evermore.
May we truly receive that ever-present divine forgiveness as holy oil,
pouring out from heaven in eternal extravagant abundance
while Jesus stands weeping for our acceptance
that we might fully live into the freedom and joy of the spirit.
AMEN.
