Sermon for September 22, 1996

Pastor Gunnar L. Anderson

"Company on the Journey"

Aren't our Lutheran Men in Mission terrific? Yes, the bus trip had to be postponed, but they thought of it; and they'll bring it back before us next year. They arranged for us to go to a minor league ball game in July, and we have the Dinner Theater to look forward to in November! And, of course, these fellows are meeting on the first Tuesday of each month. Lutheran Men in Mission is a group of this church that is up and active; but a year ago today, it didn't exist!

One year ago, I suggested to you the idea of small group ministry, which we would call Covenant Groups. Such groups would be 8-10 persons meeting regularly, grounded as a church group by at least a prayer at each meeting. I threw out to you a laundry list of many possible group topics. And today we have two groups: our Lutheran Men in Mission and an active Bible Study Group. Maybe this year we could add another Covenant Group or two. However, this time, I'm going to ask you to come up with the ideas. What focus for a small group might be of interest to you? Let me know. I'll help you organize.

In his last two newsletters, my friend, Pastor Jim Egan, has mentioned this idea: "Parents of Teens? I am one. Many of you ... are too. Some of you have shared parenting concerns with me over the last several months. Having just survived one teen graduating from high school ... having a 12 year old on the cusp of teenager-dom ...having a third warming up in the bullpen .. and now being married to a woman who has lived through the teenage years twice, I feel like I've learned something and know nothing. I need help. We all do! If you are interested in getting together to share concerns, fears, anxieties, hopes, and joys, please speak to me," he writes. And then in the next issue, he continues, "I have many miles to go before I pass through the trauma of teenager-dom. I would welcome some company on the journey."

And wouldn't we all - through the trauma, the struggle, the confusion, the pain, and the joy of life? Well, I'd say this morning, "we are in good company," the good company of holy scripture and the valuable insights offered for the living of life and for the living of better life!

For this morning we have before us the old Bible story - that of Joseph and his brothers. And maybe you will remember that Joseph was the youngest of Jacob's twelve sons, and his father's favorite; Jacob giving Joseph a beautiful coat of many colors, causing all the brothers to be very jealous. So they dug a deep pit, threw Joseph in, took the coat away, and sold their brother into slavery in Egypt.

Joseph, though, became a slave to the Pharaoh or king, and because of his uncanny ability to interpret dreams, Joseph was able to advise the Pharaoh to store up food for his people to guard against a coming famine. Saving many lives and regarded as a hero, Joseph was promoted from slavery becoming one of the Pharaoh's trusted ministers.

And when the famine reached Israel, Joseph's brothers, their father having since died, decided to go ask their now powerful brother for help and food. But worried that Joseph would hate them for what they had done to him years before, they invented a story that their father's dying wish was that Joseph would forgive them.

Would you forgive such brothers? The brothers probably knew that if the tables were turned, they wouldn't have forgiven Joseph. So they come to him under the guise of their father's last wish.

All week long I have been watching on Channel 13, Ken Burn's film, "The West." And if you have watched, I'm sure you come away, as I do, with the disconcerting, repugnant impression that, among other things, the history of our nation is littered with acts of hatred and brutality: Christian against non-Christian, settlers and army against Native Americans, slave holders verses abolitionists, north against south, white against black, rich against poor, former immigrant verses newer immigrant. It seems our nation's nature. It seems our human nature!

Indeed, I heard this week, on a television drama, "Hatred is like poison in my blood ... hatred is like a bacteria that spreads from one person to another ... When I get mad, it fills my whole heart. It controls and dominates and sickens life!" Last week, my aunt had words with an old friend at church. She called me about it. It was gnawing at her.

"Then Peter came up and said to Jesus, 'Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?" thinking he was being ever so generous, for in biblical times it was more like today's current climate of, "three strikes and you're out." Three times! So seven, that's pretty good! But Jesus answers, " I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven," or infinity, meaning we are always to forgive!

And then Jesus tells a story about a servant who begs of his king to forgive him an insurmountable debt equivalent to his wages for 150,000 years! And Amazingly, unbelievably, wonderfully, the king does! Yet that same servant went out and grabbed a fellow servant who owed him a small debt and refused to forgive it, demanding payment. And the king said, "You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you besought me: and should you not have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?"

God is the king who has forgiven us all the insurmountable debt of our sin, amazingly, unbelievably, wonderfully through Jesus on the cross. And we are always pleased and grateful to be the object of God's mercy. But the point of Jesus' story is that we are also to be the subject of Mercy. We are to say to our brother or sister, "I forgive." "I feel free and happy again," said the man who finally let go of his hatred. It is the Lord's Prayer springing to life: "Our Father who art in heaven ... forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us." And such is a valuable insight. It is "Company on the Journey."

Now, we are never told that Joseph forgives his brothers as Jesus teaches us this morning, but we can assume his generous, forgiving heart because Joseph does say to his brother who had beat him, and robbed him, and sold him into slavery, "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." "It's quite likely that when his brothers first sold him into slavery, Joseph was possessed by the impulse for revenge. At first, it is quite unlikely that he viewed God's design,"in all that happened. Yet the Bible promises that God can work for good in all things!

This week I had lunch with Pastor Bill Walling, who is retiring today, for he has been ill for some time. "I can now see the hand of God in all this. Things are working out for the best!"

During his recent stay in the hospital due to Lyme Disease, Wes O'Rourke showed me a drawerful of handmade get well cards from his grandchildren. So through his hard time, he became even more aware that he is loved!

During much of the past year, I have found myself wondering more deeply, than ever about the hand life has dealt me, even feeling at times quite desperate about what is to come. So here then this morning is an insight, "Company on the Journey." "When we believe God's spirit is working to accomplish a greater good through all the circumstances of life, then bitterness and resentment drop away. With that kind of faith, a person can steer confidently into the future."

And the insight for living becomes more profound and the "Company on the Journey." becomes even more welcome when we hear the Apostle Paul say this morning, "If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's." I have said it often, and I will say it often, that always and not matter what we live our lives in God's care, that God takes care of even death, turning it into eternal life; and that, if we can ever come to have such faith, we shall truly live in peace!

So God's word of faith and compassion to us this morning seems to be what Joseph ultimately said to his frightened, shameful, hungry brothers: "'So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.' thus he reassured them and comforted them."

AMEN

Copyright © 1997 Gunnar L. Anderson. All Rights Reserved.

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