Saved to Save: The Fourteenth Sunday After Trinity (September 10, 2023)

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be alway acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, our Strength and our Redeemer. Amen.

Introduction

I’ve been reading two books lately that are related. The first is The Great Divorce by CS Lewis in which characters who are stuck in hell can, at any moment they choose, take a bus out of hell and go to heaven. It’s like a rumspringa from hell. When they arrive in heaven, they are but shadowy, immaterial beings and everything about heaven hurts because it’s so solid. They’re not left alone in heaven, God sends different celestial residents to the visiting souls who try to get them to let go of whatever was keeping them from embracing God’s love. The other book I’ve been reading is The Divine Comedy by Dante, a work we’ve been studying at our Friday study. The great Comedy begins with Dante waking up in the middle of a dark wood, not quite sure how he got there, a commentary on the insidious nature of sin. And just when he seems lost and unable to continue his life’s journey, Virgil, the pagan poet appears to him as a guide to lead him through the circles of Hell to climb the mountain of Purgatory so he can reach Paradise. What I love about the story is that Virgil doesn’t come on his own accord. Rather, the Blessed Virgin Mary sends Lucy, another saint, to Beatrice, a woman who had great significance to Dante. And it’s Beatrice who sends Virgil to Dante. To some, the “chain of custody” by which God works in The Great Divorce and The Divine Comedy might seem unnecessary. Why doesn’t God himself just appear to the souls visiting heaven? Why can’t God just quickly equip Dante with what he needs rather than sending him some pagan poet? The answer is that God often works through causes. God likes to employ creatures to accomplish his will.

Think back to your own journey. Maybe your parents imparted a robust faith to you when you were still a child by teaching you to pray, go to church, and read Scripture. Maybe you had a minister, pastor, or priest who taught you about the faith in a way that opened your eyes. Maybe you picked up a book by someone like CS Lewis or Dante and their words made you realize how beautiful the Christian story is. God loves to use secondary causes. This doesn’t make God any less responsible…quite the opposite. In a world of billions and billions of people, he gave you those particular parents. In a world full of many different religions, denominations, and parishes, he gave you that particular minister. In a world full of countless books, he led you to pick up that particular volume. It’s not a zero-sum trade off: God uses creatures.

Today, we have a story from Genesis where God uses secondary causes to bring about the salvation of Egypt. I want us to reflect on that by asking ourselves “What are we saved for?”

Joseph’s Story

According to Aristotle, the best stories have reversals. The great tragedies, like Oedipus Rex, involve a good character to whom something bad happens and they are brought from high to low. But also, we love underdog stories, stories where a reversal brings a character who we consider down and out up so that they are raised high. As we have read the story of Joseph over the past few weeks, perhaps you’ve noticed that it is one of reversals. Elevated through the favoritism Jacob had for Joseph, his brothers tear him down by selling him into slavery. In slavery, Joseph flourishes and is lifted high to become the head of Potiphar’s household. But he is taken down again by Potiphar’s wife when she falsely accuses him of assaulting her and he gets thrown in prison. After languishing in prison for years, he is brought to Pharaoh because the royal baker remembered that Joseph had been given the gift of interpreting dreams from God. And so Joseph interprets Pharaoh’s dream, forecasting seven years of prosperity and seven years of famine so Pharaoh elevates Joseph to second-in-command with the special job of stockpiling a surplus during the years of plenty so the Egyptians could survive during the years of dearth. And now, in the middle of the famine, Joseph’s brothers have come to Egypt in search of food and the time for the great reveal is here.

Part of this process of revelation involves the question why. Why did God allow all this to happen? What was the point of these reversals? This is a question Joseph has no doubt been pondering for years at this point. And he has an answer. He tells us brothers “God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.” In chapter 50, Joseph expands the scope of God’s salvific evil: “But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.” So there are three consequences of this series of reversals in the Joseph story that have brought us to this point. First, God used Joseph to save the Egyptians. This is not doubt God’s faithfulness to the promise he made Abraham in chapter 12, that the descendents of Abraham would be a blessing to the whole world. Second, God used Joseph to save his brothers; foreseeing the famine, he makes a way for his chosen people to be preserved. Just like he gave Noah an ark, just like he called Abraham out of the land and protected him, so he cares for the descendants of Jacob. Third, and finally, by preserving Jacob’s sons through the famine, God ensures that the line of Abraham continues. And of course, it is this line that becomes the nation of Israel after the Exodus which is the vehicle whereby our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ comes to us.

Christ’s Story

Maybe these reversals so prominent in the Joseph story are why the Early Church Fathers saw parallels between Joseph and Christ. Like Joseph, the story of Jesus is characterized by reversal. The eternal Word, the Son of God, condescends to be born of a virgin, taking on a human nature. Over his ministry, the crowds celebrated him but, ultimately, “his own received him not”: he was betrayed, and executed. But the ultimate reversal occured: he was vindicated by his resurrection and glorified in his ascension where he now reigns from the right hand of the Father.

And just like with the story of Joseph, we have to ask the question why. Why did God become human? Why did he die for us? Jesus lived and died to save us from ourselves, to liberate us from the chains of the devil, and to show us what it means to be human.“While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” We could not atone for our sins, but he is the perfect sacrifice, the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world. In Hebrews, we’re told “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” By his death, he destroys death, he is the victor over the devil. And, in accomplishing these things, he shows us what human nature was always meant to be; he’s the blueprint that we are to follow as we construct a temple for God in our hearts. Just like Joseph was saved not only for himself, Jesus comes not for himself, but for us: “he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.”

Our Story

Their story is Christ’s story which is our story. Baptism has initiated a great reversal in us. Our first parents were created with everything but they chose to sin and fell from paradise. Their choice has infected all of us who are their offspring with original sin, a disease we inherit that makes us run away from God and prevents us from reaching our full potential. But baptism transplants us into Christ, it turns us toward God, and it enables us to live as we were meant to be. And of course, those of us who have been Christians for any length of time know that the reversals don’t stop with baptism. Struggling with sin is a feature of the Christian life and so we oscillate: we sin, we confess, we sin, we confess, we sin again, and we confess again. Over time, we should see progress: hopefully we sin less and hopefully those sins become less serious. But still, we’re always living this life of reversal: I was saved, I am being saved, and I will be saved.

And what are we saved for? On the one hand, we’re saved because God is our ultimate end. On the other hand, one of the reasons we’re saved is because we become the hands and feed of Christ, tasked with spreading the Gospel to the world. In other words, we’re saved so others can be saved. In 2 Corinthians 5:20, St. Paul calls us Ambassadors of Christ. An ambassador is sent elsewhere as a representative of their country. Joseph was the means whereby salvation from the famine was brought to Egypt. The friends who lowered their crippled friend through the roof of the house to Jesus were the means whereby their friend was healed. The centurion who comes to Jesus is the means whereby his servant was healed. So we, the Church, are the means whereby the world might be saved. God sends us to the world to represent him, to bring the healing message of the Gospel to those who are dead in sin. Like Joseph, like Jesus, we are people for others.

Bringing Salvation to Others

How do we do that? How do we cooperate with God to bring salvation to others? Three ways.

First, we pray. I love that St. Paul’s is a praying church. We have our Prayer Warrior ministry made up of people committed to praying for those in our community and beyond in need. If you’ve ever prayed for someone, I mean really interceded on their behalf, you know it’s a grueling experience. It involves pouring yourself out for them. When we pray for others, we come alongside them and bear their burden to the throne of God. Part of our prayer life should emulate those friends who lowered their crippled friend through the roof: we should carry those people in our lives who haven’t been baptized or who aren’t living in light of their baptism to God.

Second, we practice a ministry of presence. Where was Jesus spending time that really rubbed the self-righteous Pharisees the wrong way? He was spending time with the tax collectors and prostitutes, the undesirables, those who weren’t living right. He recognized them as image bearers, he spent time with them, he knew them. He was loving them into being lovable. We sometimes have this mentality that we want people to figure it all out before they come to church but that’s never how it works; it’s been said that the Church is a hospital for sinners and that’s true. When we just go out of our ways to spend time with people and really embrace them for who they are, we never know what part we might play in their lives.

Third, and finally, is evangelism. That’s a word we Anglicans don’t like to use. In fact, the Church of Nice of the mid-to-late 20th century tells us that it’s impolite to talk about religion in public. But this is a lie from hell that tricks us into being respectable people rather than holy people. St. Peter tells us that we are to always be ready to give an answer when people ask us about the hope that we have. Of course, Evangelism has been done badly by some Christians who treat it like some sort of Multi-Level Marketing practice or who use corse language to shock, scare, or manipulate people into faith. This of course never works. But real Evangelism is relational; people don’t care how much we know until they know how much we care. And so this requires Wisdom but we also believe that the Gospel itself has power; that when we proclaim Christ crucified for the remission of sins, that this has power, that this can be the way the Holy Spirit works through us to plant a flag in the rebel soul.

By God’s grace, Joseph saved Egypt. By God’s grace, the friends lowered their friends through the roof and he was healed. By God’s grace, the centurion came to Jesus and his servant was saved from death. By God’s grace, we have been saved and, through that same power that breathed spiritual life into us, we are made participants in his mission to redeem the whole world.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.