Where the story is going. February 24, 2019 The Rev. David M. Stoddart

Genesis 45:3-11, 15

There is an old Chinese story about a poor farmer. He lived a very simple life, working a small plot of land and earning just enough money to feed his family. One day a herd of wild horses ran through his field and got stuck in the mud of his rice paddies. They couldn’t get away, and so these horses, worth a lot of money, were suddenly his. His neighbor came to see him and said, “This is such good news! Now you’re rich! Congratulations!” But the farmer replied, “Good news, bad news, who knows?”

A few weeks later, his oldest child, a twelve-year-old boy, mounted one of the horses and tried to ride it, but the wild horse quickly threw him off and the boy broke his leg. His neighbor came by and said, “Oh, no, this is such bad news! Now your son can’t help out on the farm!” And the farmer replied, “Good news, bad news, who knows?”

The very next week, a general came to the village and forced all healthy boys over the age of ten to join his army. He took them all away to war, except for the farmer’s son, because he had a broken leg. His neighbor yet again came by and said, “That is such good news that your son didn’t have to join the army. How lucky you are!” And the farmer said, “Good news, bad news . . . who knows?”

We think we know, but life often surprises us. Look at the story of Joseph, the spoiled brat hated by his older brothers. They sell him into slavery, and tell their father Jacob that he’s dead, which crushes him. Bad news. But Joseph ends up in the house of Potiphar, captain of the Egyptian guard, and he becomes Potiphar’s fabulously successful right-hand man. Good news. But Potiphar’s wife tries to seduce Joseph, and when he refuses her advances, she claims that Joseph assaulted her and he is thrown into prison. Bad news. But in prison he correctly interprets the dream of Pharaoh’s butler, who then commends him to Pharaoh, who eventually makes Joseph his premier servant, who basically rules Egypt on Pharaoh’s behalf. Good news. Meanwhile, famine devastates the land of Israel. Bad news. But when Jacob’s sons come to Egypt desperately looking for food, Joseph is in a position to help them, and he invites his whole family to live in Egypt. Good news. With all its ups and downs, with its moments of heartbreak and stunning grace, the story of Joseph is a story of divine providence. And the end of it is breathtaking. Jacob gets to see his beloved son Joseph again, and they weep long and hard. Jacob dies shortly after that. And then Joseph, the Master of Egypt, can wreak a terrible revenge on his brothers for what they did to him. But he doesn’t. For all his flaws, Joseph is spiritually alive and he sees the truth. Right at the end of the book of Genesis he says one of the most important things anyone ever says in Scripture. Chapter 50, verse 20: Joseph, speaking to his frightened brothers, says Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good. You meant it for evil, God used it for good. The Bible in a nutshell. Joseph forgives his brothers. How can he do any less? Even they are instruments of God’s mercy.

Time and time and time again God takes what is evil and transforms it into something good. We humans seem to have a limitless ability to screw things up and cause horrendous damage, but we just can’t outplay God here: God’s ability to redeem anything and everything is infinite. As the prophet Jeremiah said at a particularly bleak moment in Israel’s history: The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning (Lam. 3:22-23). This is what we mean by saying that God is almighty. And that almighty power at work in Genesis finds its ultimate expression centuries later when an innocent young man, the human face of God, is tortured to death on a cross, only to be raised to a new life which he freely shares with everyone: the worst possible news being transformed into the best news ever.

And, yes that means there is no sickness, no loss, no disappointment, no disaster in our own lives that God cannot and will not redeem. But, beyond even that comfort, I think all this sheds light on the Gospel we heard today, the hard Gospel where Jesus says, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.

Joseph does not forgive his brothers begrudgingly: he doesn’t grit his teeth and do it because he has to. He forgives them easily and freely because he sees the big picture: God has been moving through every moment of the story; the whole arc of the story bends towards love and mercy. Joseph literally goes with the flow of that love and mercy, and forgives naturally. In the same way, to live in Christ, to have the Holy Spirit flow through us, is to enter into the Great Story of God’s love affair with the world. Despite all the horrors that people have committed, God moves ceaselessly to bring forth good. The arc of human history and the arcs of our individual lives all bend towards love and mercy. To love those who hate us and forgive those who wrong us is actually the most natural thing for us to do, because that is how God moves in this world. When Paul is converted on the road to Damascus, the Risen Christ says to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It hurts you to kick against the goads (Acts 26:14). It hurts you to fight against love. Stop it! During the civil rights movement, some people espoused hatred and violence as the only way to make progress, but Martin Luther King, Jr. rejected that. He saw that God always moves towards greater love and mercy, and he was going to go with that and not fight against it. So he said, “I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.”

We can and should defend those who are weak and oppressed; we should care for the sick; we should stand for racial reconciliation and justice; we should work towards a world where everyone is equally valued and the whole of creation is honored and protected; we should show kindness to the people around us. And we can and should do all of these things without hatred or anger, even towards those we most disagree with, even towards those who have hurt us, because we know that’s where the story is going. We know we are heading towards greater love and greater life. That’s what God is doing in the world. Why fight against it by clinging to hatred? Why try to swim upstream by refusing to forgive? Our job and our joy is to go with the flow of God’s love and mercy, trusting that in the end the good news of love and mercy will triumph over everything.

One of the people who saw this most clearly was Francis of Assisi. Let me close by inviting you to join in his great prayer:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy;

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Past our comfort zone. February 3, 2019 The Rev. Kathleen M. Sturges

1 Corinthians 12:31b-13:13, Luke 4:21-30

Love is patient, love is kind...beautiful words written by the apostle Paul to the church in Corinth.  And because these words about love are, indeed, so lovely in this 13th chapter of 1 Corinthians, it’s probably the most popular scripture read at Christian weddings.  Given that context, it’s easy to think that what Paul is doing here is praising the value of romantic love, but actually that’s far from the truth.  Rather than romanticizing love with abstract language, Paul speaks about love in concrete terms of what love does and does not do.  Love shows patience.  Love acts with kindness.  Love doesn’t let the ego get caught up in envy or boasting.  Love does not act out of selfishness.  Bottom line: love pursues the good of others. 

And if we have any questions about what this actually looks like, well, Jesus is always a good person to turn to.  Our gospel reading today picks up mid-story where last week’s reading left off.  Jesus is back home in Nazareth attending a service in the synagogue where he reads from the prophet Isaiah.  “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”  The love that we hear about in 1 Corinthians is the message that Jesus proclaims in both word and deed - good news, release, sight, freedom, and God’s favor for all. 

And initially Jesus’ neighbors, the folks from Nazareth, like what they hear.  The gospel of Luke tells us that, “All spoke well of [Jesus] and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth.”   The hometown crowd was happy and everyone was feeling the love.  But Jesus, it seems, just can’t leave well enough alone.  He pushes his listeners by highlighting for them that God’s love and good news doesn’t just apply to their group, their people, the ones they deem as deserving, but to everyone - which specifically includes outsiders, foreigners, the unclean, and even out right enemies of Israel.  And when the people let these words sink in and really hear them their awe turns into rage.  How dare he!  Incensed, the crowd gets up, drives Jesus out of town, pushes him toward a cliff with the intent of throwing him over.  Their efforts fail though as Jesus is able to pass through the angry mob and continue on his way. 

Now it may be hard for us to really get why this crowd got so riled up.  I mean, the message of God’s love for all doesn’t sound so offensive to us - that is until, God’s love goes too far.  Too far by bestowing the good news of release, sight, freedom, and favor on those who we don’t think deserve it or have in no way have earned it.  For first century Palestinian Jews, that group included a starving foreign widow and a leprous Syrian commander.  For twenty-first century white American Christians, what people do you think might Jesus challenge us with?  Who might push the boundaries of God’s love?  Muslims?  Immigrants?  African Americans?   Sadly, these the beloved people who make up these groups have been transformed into issues - hot button political issues that are used to divide us one from another.  And in order to keep the peace, in at least one sphere of our lives, the temptation is to ignore such topics when we come to church.  But as much as I’d like to just keep the message of God’s love as generic and inoffensive as possible, doing so would not be a faithful hearing or preaching of the text today.  For Jesus is just not willing to leave well enough alone.  He intentionally confronts and challenges his listeners to hear that God’s good news is radical good news.  If we want to follow him that means we are to love in ways that genuinely and actively seek the good of all.   And those ways of love will push us past our comfort zones.  So if you, like I, are feeling a bit uneasy right now that probably means that we are beginning to get a better sense of what Jesus is trying to tell us.

  

Now don’t get me wrong.  I don’t think anyone here would argue that God’s love is for everyone.  Nonetheless, I am quite sure that there are honest, sincere, and faithful differences of opinions about how we, as individuals, and we, as a Christian community, are called to live out our mission of sharing Christ’s love with the world. 

So what do we do when we don’t all agree?  Well, depending on your point of view this may be heartening or horrifying to know that almost since the very beginning followers of Jesus have struggled with how to live together as one.  It’s actually what prompted Paul to write about love in the first place because the Corinthian church was fraught with disagreements.  If they weren’t arguing over what type of food to eat then they were bickering over who had the superior spiritual gift.  With this in mind Paul calls them to love.  To love in such a way that enables individuals to come together where unity and difference coexist.  And not just coexist politely because differences are ignored, but where unity and difference are acknowledged, respected, and even celebrated. 

Living out this kind of love is no easy task.  In fact, it’s so remarkable that in the gospel of John Jesus says that one of the primary ways others will know God’s truth is by seeing the love we have for one another even when we differ.  Thank God, though, that we are not left to our own devices and capacity for love.  We are only able to love this way because, as Paul tells us, we are already fully known and loved by God.  And that love has no limits.  It never, ever ends.  It is this eternal, divine love that we here at Church of Our Saviour are drawn into.  It is this love that fills us and forms us, sometimes pushing us and challenging us, so that we all might become better lovers - lovers for God’s sake, for the sake of one another, and ultimately for the sake of the world.