Sermon - Epiphany 7 - Genesis 45:3-15

Genesis 45:3-15

Of all the bold claims that Jesus makes about himself, this one has to be near the top of the list.  He says to the Jews, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me,’ John 5:39

In other words, Jesus claims, the entire Old Testament is about him.  It bears witness to him.  Not just the parts that tell us that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, or that he would be born of a virgin.  Not just the parts that say he will be descended from David and Abraham and will be a blessing to all nations.  But the entirety of the Scriptures testify to Christ – bear witness to Christ – they show us Jesus.  That’s what they are for!  One way or another, that’s what they are all about.

And here in Genesis 45 we have yet another example.  Here we have a very poignant story of an unusual family reunion.  It is full of drama and suspense.  You could easily imagine it not ending on a happy note.  Today someone would probably make it into a reality TV show.  But here in the reunion of Joseph and his brothers in the land of Egypt, we see a witness to Christ, as well as an example of Christian love and forgiveness even when it seems least likely.

Joseph is our Christ figure.  Of course he’s not Jesus, but the events of his life remind us of Jesus.  They point us to Christ in sometimes not-so-subtle ways. 

Joseph is the favorite son of Jacob’s favorite wife.  Jesus as the Son of God is the only-begotten, but the bright jewel of the Father’s crown.  Joseph was clothed with a special garment, a gift from Jacob, to show his favor and approval of this special son.  Jesus is clothed in the glory of God the Father, and fully deserving of all the honors that are bestowed upon him – and more.

Joseph has the miraculous ability to both dream and interpret dreams.  He is, in this way, like a prophet who receives a special insight or message from the Lord.  Jesus, of course, is the ultimate prophet – who brings us the Word of the Father because he is the living word of the Father from eternity

Joseph’s dreams had his brothers bowing down before him in thinly veiled symbolism of 11 sheaves bowing before the one, or the stars and sun and moon bowing before the one star.  Though it would one day come true when Joseph ascended to power in Egypt and his family came bowing before him – they still didn’t like the idea much.  Their jealousy and resentment is easy to understand, sibling rivalry rooted in the preferential treatment that Jacob had given Joseph from his birth. 

Jesus too, would see all bow before him – though that hasn’t happened yet.  But at the end, on the day of his coming, at the name of Jesus every knee will bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth – and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.  When Christ returns in triumph all will acknowledge him as Lord – either in faith, or by force.

But also, like Joseph, Jesus faced jealousy and resentment.  The Jews who opposed him, particularly, had it in for Jesus.  Like Joseph’s brothers plotted his demise and sold him into slavery – Jesus, too, was betrayed and sold for 30 pieces of silver, and his disciples deserted him and left him to his enemies.  Joseph was unfairly accused and thrown into a dungeon to rot – as good as dead. Jesus was unfairly accused, and nailed to a Roman cross in a travesty of justice.  But Joseph would be remembered, restored, and eventually ascend to rule over all of Egypt save for Pharaoh himself.  Jesus, too, was remembered, and God raised him from the dead, exalted him to the very throne of heaven, and placed all things under his feet.

Joseph, like Jesus, shows us a riches-to-rags-to-riches story arc, in which God vindicates his righteous one after many trials and tribulations, and in Jesus’ case, even death.

But also, like Jesus, all this happened to Joseph for a purpose.  Joseph explains it: 

And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. 8 So it was not you who sent me here, but God.

Later, after their father Jacob died, Joseph would again forgive his brothers and reiterate, “You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good”.  And so again, like Christ, we see God working good out of evil – even as the greatest evil and injustice of the cross has become the greatest good for all men of all times and places.  For by the cross, God gives life to us who starve in the wilderness of sin.  By the cross, God brings forgiveness to bear on us who have wronged our brother and our Lord.  Through evil, God brings good as only he can, in Jesus Christ our Lord.

We can see ourselves in this story – first as the scheming and jealous brothers who couldn’t stand that someone else gained a favor we do not.  Their covetous hearts mirror our own.  We can’t stand to see others do well, receive blessings and adulations while our own supposed good deeds go unnoticed.  It burns us, or rather, it inflames our Old Adam, to see the supposed injustice of it all.  And all too often we seek that justice by our own hand.

We may not murder our brother or crucify him, throw him in the pit or sell him into slavery.  But we treat our brothers and sisters with contempt nonetheless.  We commit all manner of sins in heart and mind, even if we’ve learned not to let those things out in the open.  And yes, once in a while, it does slip, and we do outwardly sin against our neighbor – sometimes in spectacular and embarrassing fashion.  And sometimes we must even stand before the one we’ve wronged like Joseph’s brothers did before him. 

What a blessing to know the forgiveness of a Christian!  To know how it works, and that it is not only from God to us, but for us to our brothers and sisters in Christ.  What a joy it is, and I’ve seen it many times, when Christians can practice confession and forgiveness, repentance and mercy amongst ourselves.  You know we take it for granted that God forgives us in Christ – but we can always do better in applying that same forgiveness to each other.

Joseph and his brothers show us a wonderful example.  You can feel the tension as they fearfully stand before the one they’ve wronged, knowing he holds all the cards – and could have them destroyed.  But in tender mercy, he loves them, he forgives them, he even weeps tears of joy that they are before him.  The past is the past, the bygones are all gone.

So it is with Christ.  He who holds all the cards and could destroy you, who stands as judge over you and over all, whom you have offended by your sinful thoughts and words and deeds – he receives you as his brothers and sisters.  He welcomes you warmly, embraces you with his love and mercy.  And the former things – the sins of the past – are no more. 

The same Christ calls us to love our enemies, for so he does to us.  In his sermon on the plain from Luke’s gospel reading today – we hear the same kind of merciful love for our enemies, for the Father has shown such mercy to us.

Joseph does one more thing for his brothers – he promises to provide for them.  He sets them up in the land of Goshen, and makes sure they are well taken care of.  He gives them a home where they can weather the years of famine still to come.  And we know that in the ensuing years that family would grow into a great nation – and the stage for the book of Exodus is set.

Our Lord Jesus Christ provides for us – a place to weather the famine.  He gathers us by his Spirit to the Goshen of the Christian church.  Here he grows us into a mighty nation – though sometimes weak and feeble in number, but always strong in faith.  Here he feeds us with the bread of life – his very body – and the life-giving blood he shed for us on the cross.  Here we are safe and secure, not by the river Nile, but in the waters of Baptism.  Here he keeps us by his word, in his grace, and promises to be with us.

And just as Israel’s sojourn in Egypt would end, and out of Egypt God called his son – so too will the church one day be called forth to our promised land, our eternal home.  Then the Judge of All will once again hold court, and we who have sinned will stand before him – only to be declared not guilty for eternity.  Then we will enter into the final rest with no hunger or thirst, no scorching heat, no enemies to assail us, and not even a tear will moisten our eye.  For God himself will wipe them all way.

Sermon - Epiphany 4 - Jeremiah 1:4–10

Jeremiah 1:4–10

The Word of God in the Mouth of the Youth

National Lutheran Schools Week

January 30^th, 2002

Today we have a few different threads to weave together.  It is the Fourth Sunday in Epiphany, a season in which we continue to ponder the revelation of God’s Son, Jesus Christ, the Holy One of God, the Christ.  We see Jesus visit the synagogue of Capernaum, cast out a demon, heal the sick, and go off to preach in the towns of Judea.  He does all the things the Messiah, the Savior, is supposed to be doing.  And of course, we know it will lead to his ultimate saving act – his death on the cross and glorious resurrection.

We also recognize today “National Lutheran Schools Week”.  It’s our once-a-year celebration of not just our own school, but the Lutheran schools God has blessed throughout our country.  We have a rich tradition of teaching children not just the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic, but also the fear and love of the Lord.  We want them, especially, to know Christ – their savior from sin and death.  And we certainly seek to do that here at Messiah Lutheran Classical Academy.

In light of all this, I want to focus on our reading from Jeremiah today.  Here we read about the call of Jeremiah, to be a prophet of God.  It was a tough job that God was calling Jeremiah to do.  He lived in a time in which the people of God had in many ways turned away from the truth.  They blended together their worship of false gods with the true God.  They abused and took advantage of the poor.  And the religious leaders, especially, thought that no judgment of God would come upon them.  Nothing bad could happen to them.  They felt safe and secure, because, after all, Jerusalem had the temple – and no one was going to destroy God’s house!

Jeremiah was sent to warn them otherwise.  It was a false sense of security.  It was a lie.  If the people persisted in their ways, God would send them punishment and judgment.  He would not protect them from their enemies.  He would withdraw his presence from the temple and let the wicked nations have their way.  And that is just what happened.  The Babylonians came and destroyed Jerusalem, demolished the temple, and carried the Jews off into exile in Babylon.

Jeremiah is known as the “weeping prophet” because he lived to see all of this unfold.  His other book, the book of Lamentations, describes this judgment of God, too.

So what does the weeping prophet have to do with Lutheran Schools, or more importantly, our Epiphany season revealing of Christ?

In each of these cases, we see the Word of God being spoken – for the good of God’s people.

With Jeremiah, you have a young man called and appointed as a prophet.  But Jeremiah was hesitant.  He was timid, because he was young.  He didn’t know how to speak.  Perhaps he wasn’t well educated and well-polished in the art of rhetoric.  Maybe it was just a scary task that he’d never undertaken.

And furthermore, the people he was to preach to – they were a tough crowd.  They were hard-hearted and hard-headed.  They weren’t likely to receive Jeremiah well.  Any student of the Old Testament knows how people treat the prophets who come with an unwelcome message.  They often kill the messenger.  So there was plenty of reason for Jeremiah to be afraid.

But God sends him anyway.  He tells him not to be afraid.  He tells him not to say “I’m too young”.  He doesn’t accept excuses and fear, but instead provides exactly what Jeremiah needs.  God gives him his word.  He puts his words in Jeremiah’s mouth.

And so it is for our children, and for us.  Though we are not prophets like Jeremiah was, God calls us to be his disciples.  Students of his word. Though we are not given to preach and foretell of doom and gloom, we are witnesses to Christ always ready to give an answer to the hope within us. 

Though, like Jeremiah, we may feel ourselves unqualified.  First of all, we are sinners.  We get things wrong.  We are unworthy.  No good works or good intentions we have measure up before God.  But he does not call us on our merits any more than he did Jeremiah.  Our God operates by grace.

And so he puts his word in our ears.  Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.  He sends pastors and teachers and Christian friends and parents and grandparents to teach us the faith, to train us up in righteousness.  To thoroughly equip us for righteousness.

And this is a huge part of what we do at our Lutheran school.  Every day our students hear the word of God, the good news of Jesus Christ.  Every day we sing and pray and hear the Scriptures.  Every day in chapel, in the classroom, and in many other ways – God’s word is set forth, taught, and cherished. But of course it starts at home with Christian parents teaching their children God’s Word.

And this is what matters.  So when we say, “I don’t know what to say”, God has already spoken.  He has put his word in your ear, your heart, and yes also your mouth.

One of the blessings of our school is that the children take to heart and recite God’s word.  They speak it, and through repetition, make it their own.  Each week our catechesis – questions and answers – our children learn key passages from Scripture and important explanations of it from Luther’s Small Catechism.  (For Example, “What is John 8:31-32?” Jesus said… “If you abide in my word you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free”) These treasures and blessings are truly some of the best gifts we parents can afford our children. 

Ah, but we can’t forget about Jesus, either.  He’s the one who God’s Word is all about.  We keep seeing more, learning more about Jesus in the Epiphany season.  Who he is, and what he has come to do.  More and more, the gospels reveal him to us.  We’ve seen him as God’s beloved Son at his baptism, as the one who amazes the teachers of Israel in the temple as a boy.  He shows himself as the True Bridegroom at the wedding at Cana.  Even the demons confess him as the Holy one of God, the Son of God, the Christ.  And today our reading from Luke shows further who Jesus is – he’s the Messiah.  For he drops all the important calling cards.  He heals the sick.  He casts out demons.  But most importantly of all – he preaches God’s word.

Now, Jesus isn’t just any ordinary preacher.  He preaches with authority.  He doesn’t need to defer to anyone.  He doesn’t wait for God to put his words in his mouth – he is the very word made flesh who dwells among us.  He is no mere prophet, just a mouthpiece and representative of God.  He is the Son of God, the very God of very God, begotten, not made.  He is the way, the truth and the life.  His words are spirit and life. 

And his message is like no other message.  He’s not just another among the many religious leaders who tell you how to do the right things, say the right prayers, work the right works to get yourself right with God.  He doesn’t bring a to-do list for salvation, a hidden secret to spiritual success, a recipe for the good life.  Jesus preaches the kingdom of God.

And what is the kingdom of God?  It’s God’s gracious activity as our king.  It’s his work in our midst.  And most especially it’s the cross. 

Jesus died for you. This simple message of salvation in Christ crucified is the greatest gift of all.  It is the truth that sets us free.  It is the word of God that he places even in the mouths of babes, of youth, of those who are unqualified and rough-around-the-edges.    It is the salvation of sinners, and of you and me.

Friends, let nothing ever sever you from the Word of God.  For that word is about Jesus Christ crucified for you.

Do not be afraid of them,

for I am with you to deliver you,

declares the Lord.”

 

Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.