"Good out of Evil" - Sermon For Aug 20, 2017

Sermon:

Text:

Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ who brings good out of evil.

It’s been a week for us, but it’s been many, many years for Joseph. Our text has him seeing his brothers again after those many years of hardship and distress. The last time that Joseph laid eyes on his brothers, they had just beaten him to a bloody pulp, thrown him into a pit, and then sold him off as a slave to some passing Ishmaelites. After he arrives in Egypt, a nobleman’s wife attempts to seduce him, and because he said no, she has him sent to prison, while there he interprets the dreams of two prisoners, one is freed as the servant of the Pharaoh, and when the Pharaoh has dreams, the servant remembers Joseph. So through this Joseph becomes one of the most important people in all of Egypt, save for Pharaoh himself. But, it was a journey.

Like I’ve said a few times when looking through these stories they are stories of real people who have real emotions and reactions. We so often want to mythologize the people of the bible, treat them as if they were perfect individuals. But, they are people just like us, people with emotions, with anger, hatred, grief, sorrow, laughter, and love. This whole story of Joseph’s journey is a supreme example that families are dysfunctional. A favorite professor of mine from Seminary, Craig Nessan, used the phrase, All God’s children have FOOI. F O O I. Family of origin issues. We all have issues within our families, there is no such thing as a perfect family. Joseph’s brothers sell him to slavery. That’s not a perfect family.

But, God is always at work. It keeps coming up in these texts, but God works no matter who we are, who your family is.  God has plans for you.

Plans, plural, God puts plans before us, and we often, through our own action, through our FOOI, through the sin of life, ignore the plan. But, God does not give up, through bad, God always seeks to bring about good. The story begins with the horrific act of Joseph being sold into slavery. It results in the destruction of a family for a time.  When Joseph’s family returns and he looks on his brothers, now he has the power, he could treat them as they treated him, he could crush them, kill them, simply send them away empty. He could teach them a lesson. But, instead, he tells them not to worry, it wasn’t them who did all that to him, it was God sending him to Egypt.

That’s how the story ends, the story of the Israelite people will continue and again goes into slavery, but for now, God has reunited a family. Saved a people from famine.

In many ways I really, really like how it ends, God reunites a family, forgiveness is there, and reconciliation is there. But, it really asks a big question.

Does God cause the bad/evil things to happen to bring good out of them? Did God cause Joseph’s brothers to beat him and sell him to slavery?

In many ways it’s the biggest question of all. I asked it following my friend Ben’s death in Haiti. His cousin Jon and wife Renee have since married to each other, and have two beautiful Sons, Gabriel and Elias. Did God cause Ben to die to bring Gabriel and Elias into this world and sprout the love between Jon and Renee?

Now, I definitely think God was at work here, I know God brings about life and love. Was God in action as Jon and Renee comforted each other and brought them together, of course! God’s creative work was involved as Gabriel and Elias were brought into this world, as with any child. But, did God cause Ben’s death? I have a hard time thinking that. I think instead that God works within the midst of death, pain, badness and evil.

Joseph thinks that it’s God who caused his brothers to sell him into slavery, but I think I disagree with him, his brothers did that in sin, in anger, in jealousy, in human actions. God then, worked to bring good out of evil, the evil happened, and God worked in the midst of it, but didn’t cause it. At least that’s what I think. We can talk about all the ways evil may be, the devil, sin, human fault, natural forces, and maybe even God. I have to admit I don’t understand how it works, I don’t know the full mysteries of God. I don’t know if God is involved in causing the bad. But… I do know God is at work. I know that God is with us in the midst of evil. From Psalm 30, you have turned my mourning into dancing. God works in grief to bring about joy. Does God cause the grief? The pain? Again, I certainly think God does not, but I can’t know for certain, but I know that God causes the joy that follows. Now that itself results in a hard question.

The question is Can you see God creating good in the midst of evil?

It’s hard, if you are the one going through the badness. One, we want things to happen now. But, God moves at God’s pace. Joseph is not immediately freed and raised to power in Egypt, it takes many years of slavery, imprisonment, and fear of death, and yet God worked. And we often don’t see how God is at work, we don’t see the steps and stages that God puts in front of us, the people and things who push us towards that plan of good conquering evil. And that’s why it’s so hard.

I leave you with this. You are part of God’s plan to bring goodness out of evil. For yourself, and for others. God wants you to confront evil, stand up to oppression, lift up the lowly and bring peace to the fearful. We talked about racism last week, a simple thing is talking to your kids or others about the evil within that thought. Think about the ways you contribute without even knowing it. What we work on may not happen now, it may not solve the problems, but it is a step. We cannot expect racist thought to be gone tomorrow, but if we work to address it within ourselves and the next generation, slowly we may overcome this deep seeded human sin. Slowly we are part of God’s plan for peace, justice, and freedom for the widow and orphan, the outcast and the sinner, the poor and hungry.

Let us pray,

Oh, God, it can be hard to see the evil we cause, the things we set in motion, help us to change our ways, overcome fear, and work to bring goodness out of evil. Amen.