SERMON 17 September 2023 “But God…”

Taking a break from the Exodus story we’ve been sharing for the past few Sundays, today we’re going to focus on the last chapter of Genesis, the story of forgiveness and reconciliation between Joseph and his brothers, and on Matthew 18, where Peter asks Jesus how far mercy should extend and whether he should forgive a fellow community member up to seven times. In response, we hear Jesus call for thorough forgiveness – seventy times seven. In other words, forgiveness is not a matter of the score. I’d like to share an illustration I shared briefly at Baradine Aged Care last Thursday.

There lived a Korean minister who was martyred during the Korean War, and his biography is known to the Korean Christians with the famous title of “The Atomic Bomb of Love.” Rev. Yang Won Sohn was a man of God’s love who deeply touched everyone’s soul.

Going back in time, Helen and Catherine Mackenzie were the daughters of missionary James Noble Mackenzie, an Australian missionary sent to Korea by the Presbyterian Church, called the “Friend of the Lepers of Korea”. They had followed in the footsteps of his father, who had established the first Hansen Hospital in Korea in 1911. At that time, while Helen and Catherine were working at the hospital, Rev Sohn joined them because he saw in them and in their father, missionary Mackenzie the sacrifice, love, and commitment of Christ, which greatly influenced his life. While he was working in his ministry for the abandoned lepers,

Rev. Sohn lost his first and second sons in a single-day attack in 1948. They were brutishly killed by a young Communist soldier, but Rev. Sohn did not try to take revenge. That communist soldier had brutally murdered his two sons, but he practised love by forgiving and adopting the young man as his own son, even though he was the enemy who had taken the lives of his two sons. What Rev. Sohn did to that young communist was beyond our common sense and imagination. Rather, he demonstrated the unconditional love of God by adopting his enemy as his firstborn! Indeed, it was the atomic bomb of Agape. He demonstrated Christ-like love. This is not forgiveness in the quantitative sense that Jesus spoke of. The rest of the story is even more remarkable: the adopted son later became an ordained minister and followed Rev. Sohn’s footsteps into the ministry, and this statue, called “Love and Forgiveness” shows Rev. Sohn and his adopted son.

Forgiveness is the creative heart of the Gospel. It bulldozes down the walls we build that keep us at a distance from each other and enters the backyard of our hearts to flood them with mercy and forgiveness for others. Forgiveness is a stream of grace. On the cross, the nail marks on Jesus’ hands, feet, and side made so real, concrete forgiveness and love, and the wound of the Cross became the very epitome of love; the new start and new hope that would come into human lives.

“BUT GOD….”

Today’s Genesis reading can be read as a sort of good luck/bad luck story. Joseph, a brash spoilt boy, was given a gorgeous, brightly coloured coat by his father Jacob. It was bad luck for his older brothers that this little kid was their father’s favourite. His jealous brothers wanted to do away with the lad, but it was just luck that one of his brothers felt bad about killing him, and so Joseph was sold into slavery. Joseph ended up in Egypt, where he was lucky enough to live in a rich man’s house. Through bad luck, he was thrown in prison on trumped-up charges of rape. Then, through a series of events that could be interpreted as just plain good luck, he eventually became the prime minister of the Egyptian Pharaoh.

In the meantime, bad luck came to the brothers because famine wiped out all their crops and so they had to go Egypt to find food. Long story to short; the brothers realised that the ruler of Egypt, with whom they were trading, was the brother they had tried to kill; they really believed their luck had run out. This ruler had complete control over them and this would be the end of them.

However, Joseph explained that he had no intention of reacting against his brothers for what they had done to him. His brothers expected the worst, but Joseph saw things differently. Joseph saw God’s hand behind everything that had happened. He explained to his brothers: “God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt.” (Genesis 45:7-8). It was not by chance that Joseph was able to rise to a position of power and help his brothers and their families. God used all of the hatred for his brothers to save them in the end. Joseph explains it this way “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.”(NRSV. Genesis 50:20)

Joseph would have wondered, as any of us would, “Why it this happening to me? Or even asked, “Why are you allowing these things to happen?” Later, when he looked in the rear-view mirror and saw where he had gone, he could say, “But God.” All these bad things happened to him and God allowed them to happen, but God used them to save his family, their children, and the next generation. God was working behind the scenes to bring good to their evil purposes.

There’s no doubt that some terrible things happen in our lives like Joseph. Some are things we create and others seem to come out of nowhere. It’s not a matter of being lucky or unlucky; by faith, we trust that God is always by our side, even in dark times or when we are travelling on unfamiliar roads.  Joseph didn’t know why things were unfolding the way they were, and he didn’t have a crystal ball to see that every event in his life would eventually bring blessings to his family, but one thing he was sure of was that God was travelling with him.

Like Abraham, who in obedience to God packed up everything and left for an unknown destination; like David, who stood up to the giant Goliath; like Daniel, whose obedience to God meant persecution; like Peter and the other disciples, whose loyalty to Jesus made life difficult and eventually cost them their lives; like Joseph, who must have often wondered where life was taking him, we too are travelling and while we don’t know what’s around the corner, we do know who is travelling with us.

We must not rely on luck to get us through, but on the sure and certain love of God that we know through Jesus. It is the kind of love that is persistent, committed, and never gives up, the love that gives us peace and contentment even when we are completely confused about the events of our lives. May you have a week of deep reflection on forgiveness, and may you be at peace in God’s love, in Jesus’ name.