SCRIPTURE: Genesis 45:1-15
TEXT:15And he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them; and after that his brothers talked with him. THEME: God works through our circumstance to bring about God’s good. INTRODUCTION In the ‘good’ Garden of Eden, the fruit had been picked, bites have been taken and the dynamics of our relationship with God, the dynamics of our relationship with each other and the dynamics of our relationship with creation had been changed. The devastation happened so quickly and now, in our humanity, we are looking for someone to blame. Just like in the garden, “I wasn’t me, it was my partner,” “it wasn’t me it was the serpent.” No one fessed up and took responsibility for how they might have contributed towards the destruction. Blame will not stop the hurt, blame will not stop the displacement, the sorrow, or bring the dead back to life. Why do we think that if we can blame someone (other than ourselves) that we will feel better? To absolve ourselves from guilt. To find an enemy to bring down and destroy. To funnel our energy and focus away from our sorrow, grief, and the feelings we harbor. We do this over and over again, we look for blame, then move towards efforts of revenge. We fail to do the contemplative work of grieving, or figuring out what we are feeling, or admit responsibility of how we may have contributed to this situation. Relationships are destroyed in the process. SCRIPTURE When last we saw Joseph, his dreams were shattered. Sold by his brothers into slavery, an Egyptian official, Potiphar, buys him. Joseph is successful in the house of his master, a Captain of the guard, head of Pharaoh’s ‘secret service.’ Joseph is a system thinker. When he sees things, he immediately is able to see systems of how things work in relationship with each other. He is an organizer and knows how to get along with others. When he communicates his ideas, others appreciate his insights and values his observations. He lacks wisdom and is a bit naive, but he will learn with experience and God’s help. His dad Jacob saw this in him and favored him over his brothers. Potiphar’s wife saw this in Joseph, and found this attractive in this handsome young man. This landed Joseph in jail, being falsely accused. Isn’t it interesting when the perpetrator accuses someone else, of the exact crime they should be accused of, as a deflection? Our focus is diverted away from what we really should be paying attention to and this diversion has Joseph end up in jail. While in Jail, he organizes things there, interprets a few dreams and has developed quite a few trusted relationships. Long story short, Joseph ends up second to Pharaoh and manages Egypt through a terrible drought and famine. This famine is also affecting his family as they have traveled to Egypt to see if they can buy food here. This brings us up to speed with the passage for today, where after toying with his brothers, Joseph finally takes off his Egyptian mask to reveal who he really is. 3b “I am Joseph. Is my father still alive?” There is dismay, distress, and the hand of God, that preserves, persists, and calls us to participate in God’s mission of salvation. We can use who we are, our position, what resources we available to us, in a time such as this. But this is only this part of the story, the next part is to get his father Jacob to Egypt, and reconcile the brothers with kisses, weeping and talking. APPLICATION When we look back with eyes of faith, we can see the hand of God. That although we think we were on our own, God helped us navigate where we are. This is important because the story is not finished yet. This is for assurances so we can call and depend upon God in the situation we are currently in and benefit from God’s help and guidance as we move along the journey into the future. We don’t have to wait until later to appreciate God’s guidance, leading, wisdom, protection, provision as we activity live our lives. How does God help us to reconcile and reunite with those we have been estranged from? God is all about relationships. We must always move towards reconciliation and never revenge because how we treat each other is important to God. We are protecting ourselves from feeling grief and lost right now because there is so much to do. Navigating through the maze of paperwork and services takes persistent vigilance, but when we feel safe enough to let our guard down, we may find space enough to feel our sorrow and cry. Who is to blame for the fire in Lahaina? Is the electric company to blame for the freakishly strong winds? Is the homeless encampment to blame for power lines that swayed in the force of those winds and broke off. Is an arson to blame for the brush that grew in the place of groomed fields of sugar cane or pineapple? Who do we sue and for what? Higher electricity bills for everyone? We need to move away from a culture that punishes and move towards a culture that takes responsibility for our part for how we got to where we are, and build relationships, forgive offenses, and create productive solutions and communities. Joseph gave up his right to hurt his brothers as they hurt them and was able to see the works of God continuing the promise of Abraham, through Isaac, His dad Jacob and now through him. The community and the preservation of family was more important than getting even or destroying those who have hurt him in the past. CONCLUSION God is more about relationships than about righteousness. As humans we will always be in relationships of hurt, anger, discontent, frustration, and jealousy. If we can admit how we have contributed to this situation, then we can take responsibility for our actions and change what we did, our responses, our perception and apologize for that, to bring about some peace to our relations. Our Abrahamic family carried a lot of distress and dismay, because of how they treated each other. Sometimes even running for their lives from each other. But when they have the courage to have those uncomfortable conversations, they were able to talk and move on towards reconciliation, companionship, support, affection and caring in their relationship. Last week I went walking in the park. Around the field and the parking lot were 4 angry looking guys. We had to walk pass them to continue on our walk. One of the guys approached me about my walking sticks. I asked about the Lacrosse sticks the other guy had. Later he told me they had a run in because they wanted to exercise on the field but they did not have permission and was asked to leave. They were disappointed, angry, but were really nice guys. My first impression, just by how they were postering was “abunai!” Dangerous, as I watched one of our groups leave early through the parking lot. But after talking with them I understood why they were angry and my reaction towards them changed. We have to be willing to discover the hurt in people’s live so we can respond to them with understanding. And as people of faith, we will be able to help them see how God was a part of their story all along the way.
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SCRIPTURE: Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28
TEXT: 28b And they took Joseph to Egypt. THEME: God continues to allow us to dream. INTRODUCTION We are emotionally spent. We are physically tired. We are filled with unanswered questions that would not change the outcome of where we are today. When we think of the events of the fire in Lahaina we are overwhelmed. We don’t just feel one thing but legion for there are many. Starting this lectionary series focusing on food, table, and guest, it seems to have shifted as we turned from the Gospel of Matthew into Genesis. This week’s passage is about shattered dreams. Similarly, to the shattering of dreams we have experienced this week. Dreams are present in Genesis from the beginning with the unexpected guests who kept God’s dream alive in Abraham and made Sarah laugh. In the Feast of Tears, the Dream Sarah has for her son Isaac is threatened by Ishmael, but in the end God’s expansiveness is revealed through new dreams for Hagar and Ishmael. At Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac, the dream of our relationship with God becomes more defined with love over feats of devotion. God continues to break the Dreams of cultural convention as the second born gets birthrights and blessing because they want it. We mark those places where our dreams of God have been especially clear but realize that God is always present even when we are running from the consequences of our hurtful actions. SCRIPTURE The dream of God, passed on to Jacob is becoming realized through his many sons. Yet in his human ways, Jacob overtly favors one son over all of the rest. Joseph is the youngest yet is given a royal garment and does not have to work shepherding. In the passages leading up to this story God has also favored Joseph with dreams of what God will do, through Joseph. Being immature, Joseph is insensitive as he shares these dreams given by God with his brothers and uses them to brag or elevate his importance. Jealousy leads to hate and hate to bitterness and bitterness to violence. His dad asks Joseph to check on his brothers in the field and he goes, wearing his brightly colored show off clothes. As his brothers see him approach, blinded by jealousy and envy, they think that if they get rid of Joseph, then their father will be forced to love them more and plot to kill Joseph. “We shall see what will become of his dreams.” So, when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe…and threw him into a cistern, an empty well. Brothers and Cistern. Betrayed, incarcerated, stripped of status, Joseph is sold as a slave by his brothers to distant relatives on their way down from Midian to Egypt. These are relatives of Isaac’s half-brother Ishmael, that God uses to save Joseph. An ironic twist of fate where what was thought would take away from an inheritance from God, is used by God’s hand to preserve it. APPLICATION Instead of his brothers wanting the best for their brother, they become the destruction of his dreams. And yet the hand of the unseen God is at play, through these other descendants of Father Abraham, to further along God’s dream when Jacob’s children are behaving poorly. Where is God in the twist and turns of our lives? What has happened in Lahaina is a destruction of dreams. There is so much sorrow in all that has been lost. The devastation of an entire community. The loss of lives continues to grow. The hopes and dreams that have been betrayed. And yet there is no time to grieve our losses. We are in shock, but we have to move on because we need a place to stay, we need food, we need to recover what we need to survive, what we need to stay connected, to do what we need to prepare for the next steps. There has been a generous out pouring of generosity as displayed at the War Memorial Gym with the collection of food, water, clothing and the like. Volunteers just show up to stack, sort and deploy these needed necessities. Shelters are in schools, churches, homes, friends, and relatives. Accommodations are being made, driving in Kahului has heavier traffic. Shopping in the stores have crowds of stranger. Certain supplies are off the shelves in ‘good will’ efforts, leaving few for others who need these daily necessities too. I found myself a Kaahumanu Shopping Center with the parking lot full and every table, bench and chair filled as people gathered, to pick up some thing or service they needed, but stayed and found other refugees from Lahaina and shared their stories of escape, relocation, reconnection, grief and lost. Many with just the clothes on their back. Everything lost to fire. Loved ones lost to fire. This is not the hand of God punishing an evil people. This is how a captive people understood the situation they were in, but when we take responsibility for our actions, we can see how this was an unforeseen calamity. A convergence of freakish events caused by climate change, the perfect storm, high winds, fallen power lines, a runaway fire, drought conditions, and lots of dry fuel. There was no time, no warning, no respite, no escape for some. Lives were changed in an instant. Dreams cut short. And now we are looking for signs of God among the rubble. It could be in the distant Ishmaelite trader, who is a relative on my father’s side, and a half brother’s sibling’s children. CONCLUSION Shish Kebab is a dish of pieces of marinated meat and vegetables cooked and served on skewers. This comes from the Turkish word that means ‘a sword.’ A Middle Eastern/Mediterranean food, made of lamb (or other meats). I got this title because the boys were tending to their sheep. The pieces of meat are like unrelated events of dreams, broken dreams, families, broken families, betrayals, slavery, and the hand of God that is able to string us all together and hold us and work through the chaos. God holds us in our grief. Fuels us through the smoke, provides for us with gracious generosity, clears the clogged roads, and helps us to redefine our dreams for whatever God has in store next. We may not see God at this time, but God is there, even if it is in the form of a Midian, trader headed towards Egypt, willing to pick up a slave from some shepherds along the way. One of the things we can do, for each other right now, is listen to each other’s story, of how these stories of fire have affected their live Because when we listen to someone else, it helps them to process their grief, to let go of one dream and have the ability to discover a new one. And we need to tell our stories too, because when we tell our story, it helps us to process all of these changes in our lives and helps us see God in our midst, so we can begin to dream again. SCRIPTURE: Genesis 28: 10-19a
TEXT:15 Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you." THEME: God’s love is with us even when we are not perfect (selfish). INTRODUCTION So far in Genesis we have seen unexpected guest that have made Sarah (us) laugh at how absurd God can be. We have had Isaac’s baby luau where the after-party showed us the expansiveness of God’s love, extended to Hagar and Ishmael where more stories about God can be found. We will live in communities where practices and beliefs about God don’t match what we have discovered about God. Don’t sacrifice your children for a better life for yourself, but use the template of love we are developing about how God is, to understand the God of the Old Testament is the same described by the Apostle Paul. Last week we found that even if we are raised in the same household siblings, we can be very different from each other, in what they think and in what they prefer. That is okay, we don’t have to be the same, God loves diversity and God will always work with us. We inherit a lot of things from our parents, but one thing we don’t inherit is our faith or passion. The next meal that is our focus, was a repeat of the lost birthright stew, but this time, it featured a lovely venison stew, where more characters were involved, with more trickery, a slight of hand and conspiracy that bestowed the blessing of the future the family, upon the child impersonating the other. God can even work with that. SCRIPTURE Jacob is on the run afraid of his brother’s anger after impersonating him and getting their father to bless him instead of his brother. Jacob is running away as far and as fast as he possibly can. When darkness falls and he lays low, using the available stones as a pillow. Desperate, alone, in the dark, out in the wilderness, (remember Jacob is the twin that doesn’t like being outdoors in nature), exhausted, fearful, this is a thin place, where the separation between heaven and earth is permeable. Jacob has a dream of a ladder with angels ascending into Heaven while other angels were descending to Earth. Then God confirms the blessing Jacob acquired through unscrupulous means, by standing next to him and speaks. Jacob must have thought, “This is real. God is real. Grandpa Abe’s God is real, Daddy Isaac’s God is real. And now this God who is real is My God too. The promise made to Grandpa, to Dad, is now passed down to me. God will be with me, where ever I go and bring me back-to-back to this land. “ Jacob thinks it is the place that is special so he takes the stone pillow he had his dream on, and anointed it with oil. He marked the spot to remember it. Maybe he could reduplicate the experience again when he needed it. But if he listened a little closer, we would realize that it is not the place that is special, but God who has been through several generations, is committed to work with him in fulfilling God’s purposes. This is the beginning of a faith relation and a faith adventure for Jacob. APPLICATION The characters of this family are deeply flawed but God makes promises to them and travels with them. God confirms that their trickery, manipulation, favoritism, and deception does not disqualify them from God’s grace or love. No matter where they are in life’s journey, they are welcomed by God. What are the markers in our lives that indicate we are headed in the right direction with God? Humans were not created to be perfect. But when we aspire to such heights it is amazing. A ’10’ on the gymnastic floor exercise, free style snowboarding perfection, and hole in one. A flawless performance on the piano, we are on nerve because anything could go wrong and yet mesmerized as we witness what this person is accomplishing through hours of practice, natural talent, determinism, and drive. God wants us to do our best but does not expect perfection in our lives, except when it comes to relationships, and the only way we can achieve this is through grace, love, and forgiveness. We do not have to earn favor with God. We are people on a journey with God. This is real people, good, broken, ambitious, competitive people who love God and don’t love God who have a realization of God and live with this reality. Some with passion, some for their own advantage, some to get ahead, some just following the rules, some just because…and God, just because God loves us. No matter where we are on life’s journey God confirms that we are welcomed. confirms that God is in our lives. We have misconceptions about God and what it means to follow God. Last week a woman and her son knocked on my door. She wanted to share a verse from Isaiah with me about the evil world we live in with lies, deceptions, greed, and destruction. I asked if she was referring to Trump’s indictments, which made her laugh off script. She excused herself abruptly promising to come back. Clearly in control of our conversation and when they would show up again. If she had stayed, I would have talked about the good at creation and the incarnation. About how ‘we are not a problem that needs to be fixed.’ About God’s love for us not expecting us to be perfect but to take responsibility for our action and deepen in our relationship with God through the love of Jesus. These conversations always go better in my mind after they leave and never while they are firing scripture at me, rapid fire like ammunition, jumping from one context to another. CONCLUSION Our relationship with God can be seen as a journey. Wherever we go, whatever we do, there will be those time when we lay down and God will minister to us in our sleep. Those pillows will be markers of things we have learned, figured out, put in order, or rested for whatever may come our way. We could erect monuments to those encounters with God that indicate when we had felt especially close to God. The starting point of our journey of faith with God. The times when we were in trouble the most, those times when we had no answers for our behavior but just held by God. Whether passionate for God, not first in line, clever, God’s adventures are written in our lives and in the relationships, we foster around us. The communities we leave in our wake, are the markers of the presence of God. |
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April 2024
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