Faith and Trust
Epiphany 7
Fr. Tim Nunez
May my spoken word be true to God’s written word and bring us all closer to the living word, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
The story of Joseph is most compelling. A quick recap is in order. He is one of Jacob’s sons. He is the “golden child” among many siblings. He’s very smart, very talented and very confident. His brothers grow to resent him. They seize him with the idea of killing him and blaming a wild animal, but relent and decide to sell him into slavery and tell their father he was killed by a wild animal, showing him his torn and bloodied technicolor dream coat.
Joseph winds up as a slave to the pharaoh of Egypt. He winds up interpreting pharaoh’s dreams and eventually rises to become pharaoh’s chief executive officer, overseeing his entire kingdom.
Eventually a great famine afflicts the whole region. Joseph’s brothers come to Egypt to beg for food, not knowing he is alive, never mind the person to whom they must beg. How outrageous is that? They sold him to passing Midianites, never heard from him again, and now he’s pharaoh’s right-hand man? They don’t even recognize him until this moment.
Joseph has every reason to have held a terrible grudge all this time. He has every reason to justify a boiling resentment toward them. He might have given them food, it was the right thing to do regardless, but told them off and sent them away. He could have done a lot of things; had them arrested and imprisoned. He could have had them killed.
And they knew it. Their fear is apparent as the story continues despite Jospeh’s initial gentleness. They are so busted, so guilty.
Instead, Joseph responds out of pure love, the love that God has poured into him throughout his time as a slave, which included being wrongfully imprisoned and undermined by his fellow slaves and prisoners. Joseph trusted God entirely. Remaining true and faithful to God has brought him through all of his challenges to great success, and put him into position to save his entire extended family including their livestock.
Joseph sums it up this way:
As for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. (Genesis 50:20)
Paul shares an echo of that same spirit in his letter to the Romans. He also suffered a great deal yet never wavered on his mission to spread the Good News and to plant and nurture churches wherever God sent him. He wrote, “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28)
All things work together. Each of those verses is rooted in the very same issue. How much do we trust God? How much do we trust God’s love for us?
Those questions ring out with each of these challenges Jesus sets before this crowd of disciples and curious onlookers, among whom he has just healed many infirmities and cast out demons. Let’s revisit them with that in mind.
Do you trust Jesus and trust his love for you such that you can actually love your enemies? Do you trust Jesus and trust his love for you such that you can actually do good to those who hate you, to bless those who curse you and to pray for those who abuse you?
These are terribly hard questions. Flippant, shallow answers won’t suffice. When people hate you or curse you or abuse you, they leave deep wounds and scars. It takes a lot of trust in Jesus and in his love to move past that. It is even harder to get our minds around why God allowed the wound in the first place.
Let’s keep that in mind as we turn back to Jesus. Do you trust Jesus and his love for you enough that when someone strikes you on the cheek you can offer the other, or to “give to those who take stuff from you?”
“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
We call that the Golden rule. I remember as a child and teenager that was very prevalent, talked about all the time. It was a very shorthand way to straighten yourself out. I wonder if that is a familiar phrase to young people today. I’m sure it is with our children here at Church of the Good Shepherd and perhaps in Lake Wales, generally. But looking at the state of the general culture, there seems to be very little grace and mercy. If that is true, then we have something very precious to share.
Jesus goes on to call us to a much higher standard than the world expects. He doesn’t want us to be above average, or a little better than we were. He wants us to be children of the “Most High.” What does that tell us? “Most High” calls us to the very highest standard of God’s perfection. And he is “kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.” Jesus calls us to be merciful as he is merciful. This is the very same idea that undergirds the part of the Lord’s prayer that says, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
Don’t judge and you won’t be judged. Don’t condemn and you won’t be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Give and it will be given to you.
These seemingly impossible demands come with an ultimate promise, in heaven, and in this life. Jesus says your reward will be great in heaven. And he also says that if we will do these things, when we live this way, we will see blessing in ways that we cannot anticipate.
“A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.”
When we live this way, it has a tremendous impact on the people around us. One example would be the attitude of a patient in the hospital. If that patient is mean to the nurses and hospital staff, the nurses and hospital staff will do their jobs as best they can. If that person is kind and gracious, especially when something’s gone wrong, or isn’t to their comfort or liking, that will generally cause the nurses and hospital staff to make an extra effort in their care of that person.
And it appears that Jesus is daring us to test him on this. The next time you run into an unpleasant person or situation, try this. See what happens if you show some kindness and compassion despite the rudeness that you are receiving. Be safe, of course. But give it a try and see what happens. It doesn’t always work, but that’s not the point. This isn’t about what you can get out of it. It’s about sharing the kingdom of God. That is who you are and this is how you do it.
AMEN