4th Sunday of Advent
Isaiah 7:10-16
Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19
Romans 1:1-7
Matthew 1:18-25

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
grace and peace to you
from the one who comes to us in unexpected ways. Amen
 
Have you ever wondered about Joseph’s role in the Christmas story?
 I mean it seems peripheral at most.
 
Given that the Holy Spirit is so active,
 is Joseph even necessary?
Today Matthew answers that question with an emphatic yes! 
 
As Matthew tells it
 the story of Jesus
is all about God fulfilling God’s own promises
 but in radically different ways than people expect
 
especially since along the way
 ordinary people of faith
are called to take part in the fulfillment of promises,
 people like Mary and Joseph.
 
Luke is the one who tells us
 more about Mary’s faithful response to God’s call
but Matthew is where Joseph shines.
 
Mary and Joseph are engaged
 which back then was a more solid legal agreement than today
but before they actually get married
Mary is found to be with child from the Holy Spirit
 
and this presents a dilemma for Joseph
who we are told is righteous,
meaning that he is a follower of the law
 
 and the law says in instances like this
 that it is legal for the man to dismiss or divorce the woman
with varying degrees of potential punishment,
 
Deuteronomy allows for a public stoning,
not that stonings were common in the day of Mary and Joseph
but a very public dismissal
would have brought great shame on Mary and her reputation.
 
 But even as Joseph wants to follow the law
we are told he is unwilling to expose Mary to public disgrace,
he tries to find a way to be kind and follow the law.
 
 So he plans to dismiss her quietly,
 meaning he wouldn’t expose her supposed infidelity
and thereby take the brunt of the shame on himself
 since it would look like he’d gotten a young woman pregnant
then decided to divorce her for no apparent reason.
Which is quite a remarkable decision when you think about it.
 
“But just when he had resolved to do this” Matthew tells us,
an angel of the Lord appears to Joseph in a dream
 and tells him not to be afraid to take Mary as his wife,
 that the child is from the Holy Spirit
 
and this is how it’s going to play out the angel says:
“She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet.” and the angel quotes Isaiah. 
 
This is classic Matthew,
remember Matthew is intensely interested
in showing that Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s past promises
 and the angel’s announcement
shows that Jesus fulfills two,
 
 the promise in Isaiah of a child born to a young woman,
 and the promise that the messiah will be a descendant of King David,
 
 and this second part is where Joseph becomes crucial,
Joseph is a descendant of King David
as Matthew has established with the genealogy of Jesus
 at the very beginning of his gospel.
 
 By naming Jesus,
 as the angel instructs,
Joseph acknowledges Jesus as his son
and as his son Jesus too is a descendant of King David.
 
But Joseph is more than the connection to the family of David,
he is a faithful person,
who encountering the unexpectedness of God
 remains faithful
 even as what is required of him
 goes against the prevailing teaching of the day.
 
When faced with a choice between following the law
 and acting faithfully
Joseph choses faith
and his faith cares for and nurtures Jesus
 as he comes into the world and grows up.
 
Joseph shows from the very beginning
 the truth that “the faithful thing to do and the faithful way to be are sometimes at odds with social convention” (Feasting on the Word Year A volume 1 pge 94)
even in our religious communities.
 
We look to our systems of religion,
 the rules and rituals,
to guide us through life
 and they are generally helpful
until we pay more attention to them than to God,
 
 because God continually does new things,
calling us outside of the comfortably established rules and rituals.
 
Joseph shows us that it is possible to remain faithful to God
even as God’s work falls outside the established definition of acting faithfully,
and actually, while it may seem wildly different to us
God’s actions are always consistent with God’s priorities.
 
Later in the gospel in the sermon on the Mount,
Jesus will say “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.” Matthew 5:17
 and then he goes on to interpret the law
 to protect those without power under the law,
‘yes murder is against the law’ Jesus says
 ‘but I say that even anger should be judged
because it is anger that precedes murder’
 
later he continues (Matthew 5:43-47) 
"You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?”
 
Jesus’ fulfillment of the law is based on the love of God
 the love that led to creation,
the love of God for that creation
 made manifest in Jesus himself,
the love Jesus showed to the poor, needy and outcast he encountered,
love that took him all the way to the cross,
love that burst out again three days later. 
 
All of this love flew in the face of social convention,
God was not supposed to be human,
 the poor, needy and outcast were not supposed to be noticed,
 the messiah was not supposed to be crucified,
people who are dead are not supposed to rise again.
 
 And yet that’s how God chose to work to save the world,
doing the unexpected through ordinary people
who when faced with the dilemma of following social convention
 or following the call of God,
chose to follow God.
 
That’s what Joseph did,
 and Mary and the disciples,
 and that is what we are called to do,
 
 to listen for God’s call in the unexpected
and when faced with a choice between doing what is expected
 or unconventionally acting out of love,
we are to choose love,
 and we do so trusting that God will be with us
because we are following Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us. Amen
 

Second Sunday in Advent
Isaiah 11:1-10
Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19
Romans 15:4-13
Matthew 3:1-12
 
Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
 grace and peace to you from the one who comes to transform the world. Amen
 
So we’ve got trees all over our advent readings for today,
images of trees
and talk of preparing for the coming of the Lord,
 
and while the images seem to be contrasting
they both point to the promise
 that God will come,
judge the world
and that God’s judgment
will transform the world in ways human judgement cannot.
 
First we have Isaiah,
and the image of a shoot coming out of the stump of a tree
 and a branch growing out of its roots.
 
This is an image of hope
for a people who feel like they’ve been cut down
and all that’s left is a stump,
yet new life is possible from that stump. 
 
Appearances can be deceiving says the prophet Isaiah,
 the people of Israel
may look like a stump
but God will make sure that new life appears,
 
 in the form of a leader,
 one anointed by God
 
“The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.”
 
As Christians,
 we understand this passage
 to be referring to Jesus,
 
and the prophet continues,
this is what this leader will be like:
 “He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear; but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth” 
 
Now this is a very different way of judging
than we’re used to as humans,
 our system of justice is based on proof,
what eyes have seen and what ears have heard
 
and this organized system
 is a step up from the initial way we judge
which is based on our gut instinct and prejudices,
 
 but whether we’re judging based on intuition or on evidence
as humans we only have the smallest amount of understanding
of the people and situations about which we are making judgments.
 
The judgment of the anointed of God
 is judgment through God’s perspective,
 a perspective ruled by righteousness,
 
which means
with the full picture of all that is going on,
all the contributing factors
 including God’s belief in the goodness of creation.
 
And the effects on the world will be astounding,
 former predators and pray living side by side
 without anyone getting eaten,
 
children playing with deadly snakes without harm coming to them,
 knowledge of the Lord filling the earth
 and the shoot that has become a strong branch
signaling to the rest of the nations that God is the true God.
 
The one who will bring this vision to reality
 is the one for whom John the Baptist is preparing,
and he too uses a tree image
but from a very different angle,
 he is recommending some logging take place:
 
“But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for Baptism he said to them ‘ you brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit worthy of repentance. Do not presume to say to yourselves ‘we have Abraham as an ancestor; for I tell you God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the ax is laying at the root of the trees; every three therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”
 
Where the people Isaiah was preaching to needed comfort,
the people John is speaking to
are people who need some shaking up,
 
there hasn’t been a prophet for a long time
 and then John comes onto the scene
 with the very prophetic message of: Repent! Turn back to God!
 
 And the people come flocking to him,
 they are ready for God to do something new,
they are ready for God to judge the injustices of the world
and make them right
 
but then the leaders come out,
leaders who tend to be more cautious
 about prophetic change
preached from the mouth of a guy dressed in camel’s hair
 dunking people in the river,
 
 and John has a special message for them
 “don’t think God’s done working and that you have it all figured out” he tells them
‘something new is coming
and that means change,
 and to get ready for that change
we need to clear out some of the old ways
 that aren’t working anymore
 actually that’s what God is coming to do,
 to cut off the branches that don’t make for justice or righteousness anymore
 
And It’s my job to get you ready John says
 “but I can only get you clean on the outside,
the one who is coming will clean you up on the inside
 he will baptize you with the holy spirit and fire.”
 
Now we tend to associate fire with punishment
 but it can also be an image of purification, cleansing.
 
 The purest gold comes from melting it down
 and getting it so hot that the things that aren’t gold burn away.
 If we want to clear a section of land for farming or building a house
we make a pile of the trees and branches
 which we burn to get rid of,
we have judged those trees and branches unnecessary
and we clear them out of the way to create room for something new.
 
This is what Jesus is going to do John says,
 judge what needs to be cleared out in each of us
 to create space for new life in God.
 
This is the image of separating the wheat from the chaff,
both are part of the same plant
but the chaff gets in the way of using the wheat.
 
There is wheat and chaff in each of us,
Jesus will judge what needs to go
and what needs to stay
 and will create space for new life in each of us,
 in a word save us.
 
To meet Jesus
is to be judged and saved at the same time,
to be seen fully with the eyes of God
 that see both the sins and imperfections
and the worth inherent in all creation,
worth so great that Jesus went to the cross
 to bring Isaiah’s vision to reality
 
and with his resurrection the turning of the ages began
 but it is not yet complete,
Lions still munch on antelope
and I don’t intend on going near any rattle snakes any time soon,
 
but our call is to live into the vision
 that has already begun,
this is the work of advent,
anticipatory waiting
during which we are called to repent,
 turn toward God and face the judgment and salvation found there,
 purifying and creating,
 
and then we are sent back into this world in transition
 to live out the new life we have been given
 
 this is the baptismal life,
 the daily dying to sin and rising to Christ,
the continual pruning of our branches
 so that fruit might grow
 
and the reassurance that fruit will grow,
 fruit that will turn enemies into friends,
violence into peace,
 fruit that will transform the world
 in the image of God. Amen
 

Isaiah 2:1-5
Psalm 122
Romans 13:11-14
Matthew 24:36-44

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
grace and peace to you from the one who draws us to God. Amen
 
Welcome to the beginning of a new church year,
 as always we start off with Advent and waiting.
 For what do we wait?
 We wait for the day of the Lord,
 Jesus’ return that will fulfill God’s will on earth as in heaven.
 
 When will this come?
 We don’t know,
 
not even Jesus knows
 he tells the disciples in our gospel from Matthew today,
the time is unexpected
be prepared.
 
 Jesus uses the example of the homeowner
who, if he knew his house was going to be broken into
 would have stayed up all night
 to prevent the thief from breaking in,
 
 which while true
 is an unrealistic way of preparing
for an event occurring at an unknown time.
 
This is the way we usually think of preparation,
that last minute house cleaning
for the guests arriving in the next few days,
the bustle of preparations made
when we know that the time of the special occasion is at hand. 
 
But that kind of preparation
 is not possible when we don’t know when it’s going to happen.
Yet Jesus still tells the disciples
 to be ready for the coming of the Lord,
 
 and the readiness he is talking about
 is more a way of life
than a last minute shoving of things into closets.
 It’s living as if the Lord were coming tomorrow
all the time.
 
Paul in Romans
 uses the image of clothing,
 “put on the Lord Jesus Christ”
 he tells the waiting community,
 
clothing is something separate from us
 that becomes a part of who we are
 since we generally speaking wear clothing all the time.
and it impacts how we live our lives
choosing to put on sweatpants
leads to something very different
 than donning a three piece suit. 
 
And sure sometimes a new pair of pants feel uncomfortable
but the more we wear them
the more comfortable they become
and soon we don’t even notice them.
 
 Putting on Christ is similar,
at first it may seem strange and uncomfortable
 but like with many things,
 the more we do it
the easier or more natural it becomes
 like putting on a comfortable sweater. 
 
Much like the sweater Mr. Rogers puts on
 at the beginning of his show.
Fred Rogers, is someone who lived a life
prepared to meet Jesus in everyone he met.
 
There’s a movie based on his life out now
 so there’s been a lot of talk about him again,
 how he genuinely loved people
 in a way that people didn’t expect,
 
that love was the love of Christ,
an ordained Presbyterian minister
Fred Rogers clothed himself in Christ,
and lived the love of neighbor taught by Jesus.
 
He didn’t advertise his show as ministry
 (though for him it was)
 and people weren’t drawn to him
 because of a title of position,
 
 they were drawn to him
because of his love for people,
and his love changed the lives of the children who watched his show
and the people with whom he came in contact. 
 
It’s that kind of love and lifestyle
that we are to put on,
to live in a way that draws people to God
because they want to experience the life we have in God.
 
 This is the image in Isaiah,
 the purpose for the chosen people,
 they are to live with God
and it will change their lives in such a way
 that the rest of the nations will say:
“we want to live like that! Let’s go to the house of the Lord,
 let’s learn what the secret to that life is”
 
 and the result will be peace,
not just the absence of war
but harmony that erases even the need for the tools of war. 
 
And yes that may sound too good to be true,
 in the same way many people thought that Mr. Rogers
 was too good to be true,
 that he was playing a character
 
when in reality the gentle, curious, brave, loving man seen on tv
was the same one that people met in real life,
and they were transformed by knowing him.
 Even now after his passing
 people are still drawn to him and his message of love.
 
Put on Christ,
This is how we are to wait and be ready
 and in the process spread the good news of God,
 something we are also called by Jesus to do.
 
And the best way is not by focusing on the church
or advertising or having the hippest music
or the coolest pastor
 
but by living lives oriented toward God,
 lives that have been transformed by God
and transform the lives of those around us. 
 
We have all have these people in our lives
 whether we’ve been aware of them or not,
 who have shared their faith with us
 by way that they lived out their faith,
 
 and when they invited us deeper into faith
 we were glad,
as the psalm says “I was glad when they said to me let us go to the house of the Lord”
 
 at text study this week
we there were talking about how hesitant Lutheran Christians are
 to invite someone to church,
 mostly because we don’t anticipate
that invitation being me with joy.
 
But if we are glad to go to the house of the Lord,
 to be in relationship with God
why wouldn’t others?
 
they need the peace that a relationship with God brings
and they might just realize it by watching us,
 we might be the one
whose life the holy spirit uses
to draw them to God
 
and when we live like this,
we are prepared for the day of the Lord
whenever that comes,
 we won’t need to hide things in closets
 because we have nothing to hide.
 
Now this lifestyle of advent preparedness
is not perfected overnight
 but over the course of a lifetime,
 
washed in the waters of baptism
we are called to daily put on Christ,
 
and sure sometimes it will feel like a new pair of pants
that need breaking in,
 or like that coat that we are really tired of wearing come April,
 
 but Christ keeps reaching out to us,
through the holy spirit and those around us
with love and forgiveness,
 drawing us to himself,
sustaining us with his body and blood at the table
 
and every advent
calling us to wake up,
to renew the practice of preparation,
 to be ready by being clothed in Christ. Amen

Ash Wednesday
Joel 2:1-2, 12-17
Psalm 51:1-17
2 Corinthians 5:20-6:10
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
 
In the play of life,
what role are you playing?
What character do you act out for the world?
 
Perhaps it’s the role of dutiful worker
 that you bring to life
 or enthusiastic student
 or maybe you’re trying to play that fictional character
the one who can do everything effortlessly and to perfection.
 
You have multiple roles in life,
facades that you put on and take off like masks
and you’ve been doing it for so long
that it seems to be a part of who you are,
you’ve become so good at playing these characters
that you have trouble distinguishing
where the character stops and you begin
 
we all do it,
 we get so caught up in the expectations and fantasies of a society
that tells us we have to act a certain way
 and buy certain products
so that our lives will be better,
we’ll feel younger, live longer,
be one of the attractive people without worries,
 that if we make smart decisions or vote for this party or that party
that everything will be okay
 and if we don’t everything will be horrible.
 
Into this whirlwind steps Ash Wednesday and says
 ‘Stop. Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.’
 
and with those words
 and a smear of ash on our foreheads,
we are brought back to the fundamental truth of life
 that we all started as dust
 and will end as dust
 
and nothing we do,
no role we play
will change that fact.
It’s a sobering moment
and it serves as an invitation,
 an invitation to return to God,
who molded us at the beginning,
who breathed life into us
and who knows exactly who we are,
no matter what we tell ourselves or others,
and who loves us as we are.
 
The invitation of Lent
is an invitation to return to authenticity,
it’s an invitation to see ourselves as we are
without the masks and characters
 because that is who God loves,
that is who God goes to the cross for.
 
Jesus teaching his disciples tonight
points out the hypocrites,
 I think our general definition of hypocrite
is someone who says one thing and does another
 
and that’s relatively easy to disassociate ourselves from,
we generally see ourselves as consistent in what we say and do,
it’s easier to see hypocrisy in someone else
 than in our own lives,
 
but what Jesus is pointing to
 has more to do with the intent behind actions
 than the consistency of word and deed,
 
 In the Greek language, a hypocrite is one who plays a part,
especially on the stage,
 a hypocrite is an actor who changes masks with the change of a character.
 
The flaw that Jesus points out in the hypocrites
 is not their actions,
giving alms, praying and fasting
 are all good honorable actions in and of themselves,
 
what Jesus is critiquing
 is the reason the hypocrites are giving alms and praying and fasting,
they want to be seen by others.
 
 They are playing the role of a pious person,
it’s a character acted out on a stage
so that others will honor them as a pious person,
 rather than actions that are intended to care for the poor,
 build a genuine relationship with God
 and heighten spiritual awareness.
 
Rend your hearts and not your clothing
says the Lord in our first reading
 
and when we look at it this way
we begin to see ourselves in the people Jesus is pointing to,
 we think of the time when we went to church
because we wanted people to see that we went to church,
or the time when we smiled and said ‘I’ll pray for you’
and then did no such thing,
 or when we went and did a service project
and made sure that pictures of us working were pasted all over social media.
 
 Beware of practicing your piety before others
in order to be seen by them;
 
Stop. Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.
 
In the end it doesn’t matter what other people think.
 What matters is your relationship with God
who formed you from dust,
who loves you so much
that Jesus, the Son of God
 died on the cross, for you,
 
 who in the waters of baptism
joined you to the death and resurrection of Jesus,
 marking you as God’s own
 in the shape of the cross on your forehead
 
claiming you
so that death will not have the last say,
so that freed from the fear of death
 we no longer need to try to escape from it
by playing a variety of characters
  
but instead we turn around,
 look death in the eye
we mark it on our foreheads
 
and then we walk through it
to the new life on the other side
because with God
death is always followed by new life. Amen
 

Christ the King Sunday
Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24
Psalm 95:1-7
Ephesians 1:15-23
Matthew 25:31-46

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
grace and peace to you from the one who is among the least of these. Amen
 
Today we are at the end of the church calendar,
 instead of ringing in the new year
with late night parties and champagne,
 new year’s resolutions and year end retrospectives,
 
we take time to consider who God is,
 what kind of God we have
and what the world will be like
 when the time of God comes to fullness,
when God’s kingdom comes and it is on earth as it is in heaven,
 something we pray for each time we say the Lord’s prayer.
 
We do this using the image of Christ as a King,
one who has the power to make all the decisions for his people.
 
In this system of government
who the king is
makes all the difference for how life will be.
 
And to help us in this task today
we are given the parable of the sheep and the goats
 
The Son of Man returns in glory surrounded by angels
and he gathers all the nations to him
and begins to sort them as a shepherd sorts the sheep from the goats.
 
This fits
because we also confess
that Jesus will come to judge the living and the dead
 
The sheep go to the right hand- the place of honor
while the goats go to the left hand.
 
The sheep he invites into the kingdom
and the goats he sends away from himself.
 
The sheep, are confused
when they are welcomed into the kingdom
because they fed the king when he was hungry
and gave him something to drink when he was thirsty,
put clothes on him,
visited him, took care of him, welcomed him.
 
When did we ever do this for you? They ask.
The king responds,
Just as you did it to one of the least of these
who are members of my family, you did it to me.
 
the king calls the least
members of his family,
he has gathered all the nations around the throne
and calls all the people members of his family,
 
Jesus is an inclusive
rather than an exclusive king.
 
In this sentence he affirms that we are all children of God,
everyone, all the nations.
 
Now the goats,
they are surprised too
at where they ended up in the sorting.
 
They ask
“Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty
or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?”
 
And the answer comes
“just as you did not do it to one of the least of these you did not do it to me.”
 
The goats, the unrighteous
I think are like the fat sheep from Ezekiel,
where we have another sorting scene.
 
In Ezekiel the Lord is envisioned as a shepherd
caring for the whole flock,
not just the sheep that are doing well,
 
in fact the fat sheep are the ones that are judged and separated out
because they pushed with flank and shoulder,
and butted at all the weak animals with their horns
until the weak sheep were scattered.
The fat sheep got fat at the expense of the others in their flock
and this is not acceptable to God our shepherd.
 
The unrighteous were so focused on getting ahead,
doing well,
that they did so at the expense of others.
 
They are surprised
when the King says that they didn’t feed him,
Surely, they,
focused on power and getting ahead
would have noticed if the most powerful needed something.
 
And that is where they fall short,
where they miss the most powerful one
who surrenders that power for the powerless.
 
That is the kind of God we have
One who becomes one of us
One of the least of us
 
We have a God that is like a King
who considers all his subjects family,
 
who is concerned about every last one,
especially the weak and lowly subjects who,
are traditionally not paid attention to by a ruler.
 
We have a God that is like a shepherd
concerned with the health of the whole flock,
where all the sheep must be healthy not just a few.
 
We have a God
that has promised to come in the fullness of time
and make the vision a reality,
to sort out those
who stand in the way of justice, mercy and abundant life for all
 
We believe this
We proclaim it as good news
But sometimes we wonder
Are we sheep or are we really goats?
 
And here we have an advantage,
unlike the sheep and the goats
who were unaware of who would judge them,
we know who will judge us
as well as the standards to be used,
 
we know that our king, our God
 identifies with the last and the least,
 those who are hungry, weak, and outcast,
the sick and imprisoned,
 
looking back through the empty tomb
we know that Christ is found at the cross,
the times of intense suffering
whether in our lives or the lives of others.
 
As one commentator I read (Karoline Lewis) said,
 “If you have to ask Jesus, when was it? You are not paying attention.”
We know where Christ is found
We know what Christ expects of us.
 
 Not noticing is no longer an excuse
 actually it was never an excuse that we could use.
It seems like all around us things in the world are being uncovered
and people are being asked to account for their past actions,
some are responding with the equivalent to the question when was it?
 
And the answer is always,
God was with the powerless,
the least of these.
That is the kind of God we have.
 
In the end we don’t need to try to figure out whether we are sheep or goats,
 or whether the person sitting next to us is a sheep or a goat
because what we really are,
are children of God.
What happens to us matters to God.
 
Our neighbors are children of God,
what happens to them matters to God.
 
Our enemies are children of God,
what happens to them matters to God.
The world is Gods,
what happens to the earth matters to God.
 
Our God is one
for whom the health and well being of all
 are of great concern,
 
 and when God reigns as king
 all will have everything they need.
 
 And until God returns,
 God expects us who know this
 to begin to live this way,
 
 the begin to bring about the reign of God,
to look for and see God in all things
 so that in the end,
when we come before God
we will not have to ask ‘when was it?’
 
 because we will have seen the Lord. Amen
 

24th Sunday After Pentecost
Zephaniah 1:7, 12-18
Psalm 90:1-12
1 Thessalonians 5:1-11
Matthew 25:14-30

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
 grace and peace to you from the one who trusts us in the meantime. Amen
 
Well, here we are,
 nearing the end of the church year,
and we have another set of readings about the coming of the Lord after a long delay,
 and again this ends in weeping and gnashing of teeth and outer darkness,
the word of the lord thanks be to God?  
 
While it’s tempting to get caught up in the language of the end
and visions of judgment
 and whether or not we think it’s fair
 
the end is not really what these passage are about,
 rather they are about the middle, the meantime,
living life right now and what God expects of us,
 
They speak to where we are
 because we are living solidly in the middle,
our life and faith is lived out in between already and not yet,
 between Jesus came, lived, died, rose and ascend to the father
and Jesus will come to judge the living and the dead.
 
Which begs the question:
 what are we to do in the meantime?
 Which is where our parable comes in.
 
In the parable we have a master and three servants,
the master is going away
 and has quite a bit of property
which he entrusts to the servants to take care of while he is gone,
 
 he gives each what he thinks they can handle
and even the smallest amount is a large sum of money,
 a talent is equivalent to 15 years of wages for a day laborer.
 
It’s a big responsibility,
but the master hands it over with no instructions
 other than the understanding that the master will return
and reclaim the property at some point,
 this is a care taking situation not a gift
and the master leaves.
Two of the servants take the money and put it to work,
they invest it and trade with it
and by the time the master returns
they have doubled the original amount
 and are celebrated when they give it to their master.
 
The third servant,
the one with the least amount,
fearfully takes the one talent,
digs a hole and puts it in the ground.
 
 When the master returns he digs it up
 and fearfully gives it to the master
who berates him for mismanagement,
 at least you could’ve taken it to the bank the master says
as he takes away the talent from the third servant.
 
We who live in the meantime have a big responsibility
 because God has entrusted to us the world
and God’s message for the world,
the message sent through the good news of Jesus Christ.
 
God expects us to do something with what God has given us,
to live out the message, the good news,
to share it and by sharing it, growing it
so that even though we’re in the middle,
the world starts to look like God’s vision for the world,
where all are loved and fed and clothed,
 and there is no more war and creation flourishes.
 
We are entrusted with love,
the love of family and friends,
God expects that we work to make that love grow
 by sharing it with others.
 
We are entrusted with a community
 that shares good news with us,
God expects that we work to make that community grow
 by sharing the good news with others.
 
 We are entrusted with physical resources,
 God expects that we share those resources with those who lack them.
Because the way God created the world
There is more than enough for all
 
And when we live in this way
we share, not because we are fearful of judgment,
 the weeping and gnashing of teeth
but because we are grateful that God has trusted us in the meantime.
 
The actions of the first two servants
 are riskier than the third, it’s true,
 sharing is risky
 but only by sharing will the message spread and grow.
 
If we are overwhelmed by fear and take no risks
 there is no hope of anything spreading or growing.
 
And the tricky thing is that we in the meantime
are left to determine how much to risk.
How much of what God has given us do we give away?
We need some of it to take care of ourselves,
so how much is enough?
 
 These are the questions we find ourselves asking
 as we develop our congregational budget,
and we ask these questions when we consider our own giving
and resources of time and talents
and there are very few concrete instructions from God.
 
In some way this situation reminds me of one of my favorite professors in college,
I took several classes from him
and after the first class,
 it was always fun to watch people who hadn’t had him before
when the time came for the first essay,
 
because in assigning essays
Dr. Jodock simply assigned a topic
there was no required word count or number of pages,
 
Dr. Jodock told his students
that the essay should be as long as it took to thoroughly address the topic.
 
And people freaked out,
 because it meant that they would have to think hard
about the content of the essay,
and find the balance between what was too little and too much,
 
they couldn’t just write something
and then if it didn’t meet the required length add more,
or if it was too long cut things out.
 
 It was up to them
to decide how much was enough.
It really stressed people out
who were used to having these things spelled out for them
 whether it was so they could do enough to get by
 or because they wanted the best grade possible
 
there was no way to calculate your potential grade
and that struck fear into some students’ hearts.
 
But after you got to know Dr. Jodock a bit
you learned that he was a gracious grader of essays,
 and then it became fun to write for him,
because then it became about exploring the topic
 rather than trying to meet a word or page count.
 
Don’t get me wrong,
he still took off points for things
but you knew that as long as you honestly engaged the topic
to the best of your abilities
you would get a passing grade.
 
When we think about stewardship,
that big church word
 that means taking care of what God has given us
 I think it’s in some ways like writing an essay for Dr. Jodock,
 
we’ve been given a topic
 and it is up to us
 to figure out how much is too much or too little,
 
and when we get to know God more,
 we realize God’s a gracious grader
 which frees us to take some risks,
 explore what happens when we give love away freely
 and invite others in to share what God has entrusted to us.
 
Sure God is going to be honest with us
when we miss the mark
but if we know anything from scripture
it is that God is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
 
God wants us to succeed
and God will give us all the help we need
 including God’s own son.
 
The Thessalonians were worried about the end
Paul exhorts them to live according to the light
 to stay awake
but he concludes with these comforting words:
 
“For God has destined us not for wrath but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep we may live with him.”
 
So whether we are awake or asleep
We give thanks to God.  Amen

23rd Sunday After Pentecost
Amos 5:18-24
Psalm 70
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
Matthew 25:1-13

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
 grace and peace to you from the one who is coming. Amen
 
There was a bumper sticker I saw a few years ago
that I thought was pretty funny,
 it said “Jesus is coming, look busy”
 
the readings for this week
reminded me of that bumper sticker,
before I used it as a sermon illustration
 I looked it up online to make sure I wasn’t imagining things
and found that yes, I had remembered correctly
 and that it is still available in a wide variety of styles.
 
 Which surprised me at first
and then when I thought about it a little,
sadly made sense
because while it is supposed to be a tongue in cheek funny
 I think it actually reflects the view of most Christians these days,
 
The view where though we confess in the words of the apostle’s creed
that we believe that Jesus will come to judge the living and the dead,
we rarely think about it
 
 and if we do
our reaction is more like
realizing that family will arrive for thanksgiving in two weeks
 and we haven’t dusted for a while
 and if we don’t mom is going to spend part of her vacation dusting our house,
which let’s be honest,
 wouldn’t be all that bad in the grand scheme of things.
 
We have lost our sense of urgency over Jesus’ coming,
to be fair it has been over two thousand years,
 we are far removed from Paul and the early Christians
 who expected Jesus to come before the end of their lives.
 
 In our reading from 1 Thessalonians
 we hear Paul counseling the community
 over their anxiety that Jesus has not yet returned
 and believers have begun to die,
the Thessalonians are worried
that their loved ones will miss out on life everlasting with Jesus
because they died before Jesus’ coming.
 
Paul assures them
that for the one who died and rose
 death is not a problem
 and that when Jesus comes
 all believers both living and dead will be with the Lord forever.
 
This is the hope to which we cling,
 especially at the death of loved ones.
 That God is coming
and will reunite us with all the Saints
like those we remembered last week.
 
 But in the meantime, we wait.
 
Perhaps the bumper sticker should read:
“Jesus is coming, how are you waiting?”
 
because how we wait matters.
 
We often think of waiting as a passive time
and in some cases
 like when we are waiting for a doctor
 or in line at the post office
the outcome of our waiting
will be the same whether we are impatient or resigned during that time.
 
Then there is active waiting,
the kind of waiting the accompanies an expected event
 like the birth of a baby.
 There are things to do during this kind of waiting,
 a nursery to get ready, purchasing a car seat and little clothes,
 stocking up on diapers, packing the hospital bag,
so that when the time comes,
everything is ready,
or as ready as it can be for the expected baby.
 
This is the kind of waiting which God expects of us
 as we anticipate God’s coming,
waiting that includes preparation
 so that when the time comes,
 everything is ready,
 or as ready as it can be for our expected God.
 
But what if we’re not preparing?
Or we’ve decided to let the dust build up
because mom will take care of it when she comes?
 
 The prophet Amos points out to the people of his day,
 that the way they are acting,
the day of the Lord will not be pleasant for them
 because with the coming of God
 is the coming of a new order,
of justice and mercy,
 
and those who have ignored justice and mercy
will have a hard time adjusting
 even if they have longed for the day of the Lord.
 
 Through the prophet God says to the people
“I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals I will not look upon. Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an everflowing stream.”
 
God is tired of thoughts and prayers without accompanying action.
 
God is tired of being treated like a cosmic vending machine,
 you put the right amount of prayers and festivals in
and your desired godly treat will come out.
 
That’s not the point says God,
the point all along has been to build a relationship between me the God of the Universe
and you the people,
a relationship built on mercy and justice
 so that relationships among the people
 will be built on mercy and justice.
 
God is coming. How are you waiting?
 
Are you sitting back like there’s nothing you can do?
Are you preparing? Working for mercy and justice?
 Perhaps you’re getting tired and need some rest
 because it has already been a long wait.
 
In Matthew Jesus tells the parable of the ten bridesmaids
waiting to greet the groom.
 The groom is delayed and all the bridesmaids fall asleep.
 There is no judgment over this,
they are tired and the wait is long,
 
 the key to the parable comes when the groom finally arrives,
 half the bridesmaids prepared for a delay and brought extra oil,
 the other half did not
and are unable to fulfill their duties.
 
 It seems that Jesus is telling us to be prepared for a delay,
 and being prepared for a delay
 means being prepared to keep God’s vision alive,
 
the lamp lit as it were,
 shining light on the acts of justice, righteousness and peace that keep hope alive,
 hope in the promise that what we are doing in the way of preparation
 is only a fraction of what God will do in the way of justice, righteousness and peace
when God comes.
 
I think our prayer of the day sums all this up best, so let us pray it again.
O God of justice and love, you illumine our way through life with the words of your Son. Give us the light we need and awaken us to the needs of others, through Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord. Amen
 

19th Sunday after Pentecost
Isaiah 25:1-9
Psalm 23
Philippians 4:1-9
Matthew 22:1-14

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
 grace and peace to you
 from the one who invites us to the banquet. Amen
 
So, we’ve got another fun parable this week.
 It’s the third and final in this series of parables
that Matthew has Jesus tell
 about the kingdom of heaven
and it is all at once outrageous, unbelievable
and at first read presents a depiction of God
that we are unused to and I am at least a little uncomfortable with.
 
We have a king giving a wedding banquet for his son,
 he sends out an invitation early on,
 and then when the day arrives
 sends his servants out as was the custom
to call the people who had rsvp’d to come to the party.
 
 And these people don’t come.
 
So the King sends out another round of servants
to tell the guests that the banquet has been prepared,
it’s going to be a good party, everything is ready, come on.
 And this time some of the guests intentionally go to their places of business,
 while the rest attack the servants.
 
The makes the king mad,
so he sends his troops to destroy his former guests and their city
 and I suppose that makes him feel better
except that he has this lavish banquet all prepared
and no one to eat it,
 
so he tells his servants
 to go out into the streets
and invite anyone they can find,
 good or bad he doesn’t care
he just wants the banquet hall filled with guests.
 
And they do this,
 and the king comes in to make sure the hall is filled
and he spots a guy not wearing a wedding robe,
he questions him
 and when the man has no answer for why he is not dressed appropriately
has him thrown out into the outer darkness
where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
 
And that’s the end of the story
 except for the summary line.
 For many are called but few are chosen.
 
What is going on here?
 
Most scholars agree
 that the action in this story
 represents the history of God and the people.
 
The King is God,
the first people invited are the people of Israel,
 the first round of servants that go to invite them
are Israel’s prophets, who they ignore.
 
The second round of servants are Christian missionaries
who are also ignored.
 
 The odd bit about the king destroying the city
 represents the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in 70 CE.
 
 And the last part
is the expansion of the mission to gentiles
where everyone is invited to the party
 
and I think this all makes sense
but then we come to the last scene
 with the king and the man without the wedding robe,
 
which is Matthew’s particular addition to this parable
and is less realistic than most parables,
the man was pulled off the street,
he would not have been expected to have a wedding robe
but Matthew is not thinking realistically,
he’s thinking about the ultimate banquet in the kingdom of heaven.
 
In the early Church,
 the new identity that people assumed
when they converted to Christianity
was often represented by a new set of clothes,
 
accounts of early baptisms
tell of the newly baptized
 being clothed in new robes after they emerged from the font,
 
and of course this new identity
was accompanied by a new way of life,
one that followed the teachings of Jesus,
shared the good news
 and worked to make the kingdom of heaven a reality on earth.
 
The man at the banquet without a robe
represents those who take the name Christian
but do not accompany that with the corresponding way of life.
 
Matthew’s ultimate point
 is that it is not enough
to merely accept the invitation and show up
something more is called for,
 the living of a new way of life covered in the mercy of Christ.
 
Matthew envisions that at the last judgment
those who just showed up
 will be questioned
and when they have no answer
they will be thrown out
because while many are invited
only a few will respond by living out their faith in deeds of love and justice.
 
Just showing up isn’t good enough.
 
In Matthew’s understanding,
accepting the invitation to Jesus’ banquet
is a call to action,
there’s more that needs to happen
 
This reminds me of the distinction
that theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer made
between cheap grace and costly grace.
In his book The Cost of Discipleship Bonhoeffer says this: “Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.
 
Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will go and sell all that he has. It is the pearl of great price to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods. It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble; it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him.
 
Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock.
 
Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: "ye were bought at a price," and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.”
 
Just showing up isn’t good enough
 
Thoughts and prayers alone aren’t good enough anymore,
they have to be paired with action, a way of life
so that in the end when we are questioned we will have an answer for God.
 
And if this is hard to hear,
 it means it is exactly the message we need to hear.
 
If we find ourselves making excuses
 for the man without a robe,
perhaps what we are doing
is making excuses for ourselves,
for all the reasons we have for showing up without putting on the robe,
without putting on Christ.
 
And it is at this point
that we need to remember one more outrageous aspect of this parable,
the sheer number of invitations that are extended to the banquet,
 
again and again
even after being harshly rebuffed
the king sends out his servants
to bring the guests in,
 
giving them chance after chance
 to accept the invitation,
calling all to fill the banquet hall,
both good and bad are invited and given a seat at the table.
 
Again and again in life
God extends to us an invitation to come to the banquet
 even as God has already claimed us
 as God’s own in the waters of baptism.
 
The baptismal life,
 Luther said,
is a daily dying to sin and rising to Christ.
 
Each new day is another invitation from God,
another chance to put on the wedding robe,
 to live into the costly grace of the gift of God, Jesus Christ. Amen
 

16th Sunday after Pentecost
Jonah 3:10-4:11
Psalm 145:1-8
Philippians 1:21-30
Matthew 20:1-16

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
 grace and peace to you
 from the one who gives us what we need rather than what we deserve. Amen.
 
It always astounds me
how we as humans can make anything into a complaint,
even the most positive of things.
 
Take our friend Jonah for instance,
out of his mouth comes a formula of praise
we find in the psalms
 
he says to God:
“For I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing.”
 
All of these things
seem like something we would want in a God
and yet for Jonah,
these are lamentable characteristics.
 
It is not satisfying to him
that God is gracious and ready to relent from punishing.
Jonah, the reluctant prophet
wanted to see Nineveh,
the original Sin City,
fry.
 
He wanted them held accountable for their wrong doings
to see the fruits of his prophesy,
the destruction of a great city.
 
To him it’s not fair
that God would just let all that go.
 
How quickly the man so recently tossed into the sea
and swallowed by a big fish
forgets the grace of God.
 
Likewise in Matthew
we have some vineyard workers
who are fortunate enough to be hired at the beginning of the day.
For their work they will receive the common daily wage
and they agree to this before they start.
 
As the day progresses
the vineyard owner hires more and more people
who agree to work for what is right,
there is plenty of work for all to do.
 
The end of the day comes
and those hired last are paid first.
 
The workers who started at the very beginning
see them get the common daily wage,
as do the next to last hired
and they start to get excited,
what will they get for doing eight times the work?
 
When it’s their turn,
they get what they agreed to,
the common daily wage.
 
But, but, that’s not fair they complain
we worked all day in the heat
and we don’t get more than the guys that only worked an hour?
 
How quickly workers who might not have had a job
forget they were hired for the day.
 
In the kingdom of heaven
 people get what they need
rather than what they think they deserve
 
As we listen to these stories
it is easy to see the foolishness of Jonah and the workers
who presume to be entitled
to what are ultimately gifts from God
 
Jonah is a laughable character,
his preaching achieves what most prophets only dream of,
people paying attention to their message and changing their ways
 
 and the workers,
they shook on a contract,
why would they expect more than what they agreed on with their employer?
That’s just silly
 
And yet, if I am honest with myself
If I place myself in the shoes of the workers (Jonah is a little more difficult to imagine)
I am actually no different than the workers.
 
How many times
have I thought that I would receive more than what I agreed to
just because I was fortunate enough to be hired at the beginning of the day
or became jealous
when others seem to accomplish more with less work
or are compensated in a way that doesn’t seem fair.
 
And that’s the whole point
Grace isn’t fair
We don’t deserve grace
 
The key to this whole discussion
I think comes out of the mouth of the vineyard owner.
To the grumbling workers he says
“Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?”
 
In the vineyard of this world
all belongs to God
And God is generous,
gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
 
Everything we have is from God,
given as a generous gift.
and those hired first
 
again If I am really honest with myself
I am more like the people of Ninevah than Jonah,
in need of repentance and the mercy of God
  
and I am really more like those hired last,
who are grateful for just an hour’s work
and astounded at the generosity of a whole days pay
than I am like the ones hired first.
 
Martin Luther, the great reformer
was one who was well aware of his failings and the grace of God
on his death bed it is reported that his last words were
“We are beggars, this is true.”
 
We are beggars
but we are beggars with a God who is generous beyond reason,
gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love
 
who gives us everything that we need and more
and calls us to share what we have been given
with those who hunger and thirst for food and water, grace and mercy.
 
 And God’s actions are not fair,
if the vineyard owner were concerned with equal treatment of his employees
the last hired would have been paid less than the first hired.
 
But God’s concern is justice,
what is right.
God gives us what we need rather than what we deserve
 
The vineyard owner agrees to pay what is right to those hired later,
for God what is right
what is just
is that all have enough to eat,
a place to live.
Fulfilling labor
Medical care
 
And the way God does this
is through God’s people
who are called to work for God’s justice in the world,
to be generous with what they have been first given
to give people what they need rather than what they deserve
  
We are called by God to start living out the kingdom of heaven now
And that means at all levels of our lives
On an individual level, in our local communities, in our country and in the world
We are called by God
to make sure that people get what they need rather than what they deserve
 
And if it doesn’t seem fair
Remember,
It’s not
It’s grace
 
The grace of God, the creator of the universe
Who is merciful, slow to anger,
and abounding in steadfast love. Amen
 
           
 

15th Sunday after Pentecost
Genesis 50:15-21
Psalm 103:1-13
Romans 14:1-12
Matthew 18:21-35

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
grace and peace to you from the one who forgives and calls us to forgive. Amen
 
Our lessons for today
deal with forgiveness,
 this complex action that rests at the heart of Jesus’ ministry
and the way of life to which he calls his disciples.
 
all throughout his teachings
he has reinforced the idea
that forgiveness is key,
even to the point of teaching them to pray,
 “forgive us our debts as we forgive the debts of others.”
 
now Jesus and the disciples
are talking about what happens when relationships in community are broken,
earlier in the conversation
Jesus has detailed a path to reconciliation with specific steps
So now seems like a good time to clarify
 once and for all
what Jesus expects
 and our friend Peter jumps into the breach.
 “Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?”
 
Once again
by opening his mouth
 Peter shows that he has missed the point,
 
 Jesus responds “Not seven times, but I tell you, seventy-seven times.”
 Forgiveness is not always a one and done thing,
it is a continual action, a process,
a way of life
and often has more to do with the one doing the forgiving
 than the one being forgiven.
 
The best definition of forgiveness that I have come across
came from a speaker I heard when I went to Israel/ Palestine in seminary,
 she was a part of a group of families
 who had lost loved ones to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict,
 
families from both sides
came together to share their grief and to work for peace,
so for this presentation there were two speakers,
 a Palestinian woman whose husband had been killed by Israeli defense forces
during a random traffic stop
and an Israeli woman whose son had been killed by a Palestinian sniper
 while he was on patrol as part of his monthly army service.
 
It was the Israeli mother
 who tried to define forgiveness,
and while I’m sure it is not original to her,
I always associate it with her.
 She said that for her,
 her working definition of forgiveness
 was giving up the right to revenge.
 
This definition rings true to me for a couple of reasons,
 first it is from the perspective of the one who has been wronged,
and it acknowledges that in many cases
the wrong would understandably be cause to seek revenge,
 
 the old an eye for an eye justice,
which according to Jesus
makes the whole world blind
 
and Revenge has a way of consuming the individual seeking it.
 In the movie the Princess Bride,
 the character Inigo Montoya
 has spent his whole life seeking the six fingered man who killed his father.
 
His waking hours have been practicing sword fighting
and he knows exactly what he will say when he meets the man
“Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die.”
 
 In the course of the movie the six fingered man is killed
 and then Inigo reflects
 “I have been in the revenge business so long, now that it’s over, I do not know what to do with the rest of my life.”
 
In seeking revenge
 Inigo allowed the six finger man
to take his life as well as the life of his father.
Forgiveness as giving up the right to revenge
 also allows space for anger,
often the words forgive and forget are paired together,
 
but more often
 that is not possible, nor is it practical
and it is right for the one wronged to be angry.
 
Forgiveness does not mean that the wrong done to a person is okay,
it means that the person who has been wronged
 has chosen to stop the cycle of violence,
and to move forward with their life
 
 and this takes time,
not seven times but seventy-seven times,
committing again and again
to moving forward with life,
working for peace in community
 
and sometimes
when the one who has sinned is repentant,
relationships are able to be repaired.
 
Our reading from Genesis is one such example,
the scene is the culmination of a long and tumultuous relationship
between Joseph and his brothers.
 
 Remember Joseph is the youngest brother,
the favorite Daddy’s boy
who gets the fancy coat.
 
His brothers are jealous
so they sell him into slavery
and fake his death to their father to cover their tracks.
 
 Joseph ends up in Egypt
and after much hardship rises high in the ranks of advisors of the pharaoh.
When the brothers come to Egypt seeking food during a famine
 Joseph recognizes them and pulls a couple of tricks on them
before revealing who he is,
forgiving his brother’s and sending them home with food.
 
Now we have another forgiveness scene,
 Much time has passed and Jacob dies,
 
Now Joseph’s brothers are worried
that Joseph only forgave them
 while their father was alive
 and now that he is gone
 he will take revenge on them,
 
 so they plot to secure their safety,
through inventing a final wish of their father,
 that Joseph forgive his brothers
and once again they fall before their brother weeping
and seeking forgiveness
 
Joseph’s response is remarkable
he says “Do not be afraid! Am I in the place of God? Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good, in order to preserve a numerous people, as he is doing today.”
 
Over the long arc of his life
 Joseph has not only given up the right to revenge
 but he has been able to see how God
was able to make the best of a bad situation,
to bring good out of evil,
 
Joseph has made it to a place
 where he and his brothers can be in relationship,
 even without their father.
This didn’t happen overnight,
 it took a lifetime.
 
When Peter asks Jesus
 how many times he must forgive
 he’s missing the point of forgiveness,
 
he’s looking to see how many boxes he must check off
 to be right with God before moving on.
 
 Jesus’ reply shows
that forgiveness is a way of life
and that God expects us to be changed
 by both the giving and receiving of forgiveness.
 
And Jesus practices what he preaches,
making forgiveness a way of life,
 constantly offering us grace and mercy,
setting us free in our relationship with God
 and turning us back out to the world to forgive others,
 
 and Jesus knows this is not easy,
that we will need some encouragement and strength along the way,
which is why at the last supper with his disciples
 he promised to come to us
in bread and wine, body and blood,
 forgiveness tangible in the crumbs between our teeth
and the wine sliding down our throats,
forgiveness becoming a part of who we are,
all because of the grace and mercy of God. Amen