Forgiveness and Stewardship

Let us pray…Gracious and loving God, as we come before you today, may our hearts, minds, and spirits be open to your still speaking voice this day, Amen.

A Transition from Stewardship to Mission

As we come to the end of our study of Stewardship and topics related to stewardship, we move into a time of transition today. Today, we will cover two very important concepts, both of which are key to our life as a church going forward. Over the last few months, we have been speaking exclusively about stewardship. We have covered many different ways that we are to be stewards of what God has given to us but also how to steward the life we live. We have talked about how all aspects of our lives are tied to being good stewards of what God has placed into our care.

Forgiveness is a Gift from God

Today, as we prepare to baptize two young infants, we are also challenged to consider how we take what we have learned and use it for the glory of God, which will be what we will cover over the next couple of months. Next week, we will introduce the idea of mission and what we are called to do in this world, to be foolish enough to believe that we can make a difference, one life at a time. But there is a piece that connects these two topics to one another and that involves forgiveness.

The Link Between Forgiveness and Mission

In the past, I have covered forgiveness quite a bit and I am not going to delve very deeply into that concept, however, I do want us to consider a very poignant story in the Old Testament which teaches us much about forgiveness. Now, the reason that forgiveness connects these two topics, at least in my mind is that as a steward of all that we have been given, one of those gifts is forgiveness but it is also what Jesus instructed us to carry into the world. Remember, he told us that we are to teach others about God’s love and forgiveness, which is ultimately our mission in the world. In order to follow this line of thought, I want us to consider the story of Joseph, one of Jacob’s 12 sons and a person who learned a lot about forgiveness...

The Story of Joseph

In order to get us started this morning, I think a very brief recap of Joseph’s story is in order...

Joseph’s Beginnings

In order to tell Joseph’s story, we need to bear in mind that some of his story is difficult for many of us to comprehend because societal norms at that time were so much different from ours. With that caveat, here is his life in about 2 minutes...

Beginnings

Born to Jacob and Rachel…Rachel, like her grandmother-in-law, had Joseph late in life

Favored

Joseph, because he was born to Jacob’s chosen wife, was a favored son. Because Jacob loved his son Joseph so much, he gave him many things that his older brothers did not have. Now, Rachel did have another son as well but died in child birth. So, this made Joseph and Benjamin even more favored.

Jealousy and Intrigue

This is where Joseph’s story gets interesting. His family is not much different than many of ours…jealousy from brothers, gifts from father, the youngest two sons, and bitter internal fighting amongst the brothers. Joseph often reported to Jacob the things that his older brothers would do. This enraged Jacob and caused even more rifts in the family.

Joseph’s Dreams and “Death”

Because his brothers saw all that Jacob did for him, they devised a plan to get rid of him from the family. The precipice for this event is actually something that Joseph could do…he could interpret dreams. One of his own dreams, that he interpreted and told his brothers about, actually depicted Joseph being an overseer of his brothers and them bowing down to him. Because they were so jealous of him and thought he had this holier than thou attitude, they were going to kill him. However, one of his brothers convinced the other 9 to not kill him but rather sell him into slavery.

Joseph in Egypt

Which leads us into our story this morning…well mostly any way…there is so much more to his story that we do not have time to cover this morning but know this…Joseph was sold into slavery in Egypt, because of his ability to interpret dreams and the gifts he was given, the Pharaoh actually made him a steward over the entire nation of Egypt, essentially making him second in command only to the Pharaoh. He married, had children, and because of his status was able to store up enough food to feed all of the Egyptians and those in the surrounding lands for seven years, at a time when famine had struck and lasted that long.

Phew, that was about 40 years of someone’s life in about 2 minutes but you now have the gist of Joseph’s life and how we came to be at this point.

The Arrival of the Rest of the Family

The story we have before us today happens after all of what I have told you so far about Joseph. The famine struck the land and has been happening for about 2 years prior to our story. Because the people were starving and Jacobs family has not begun to starve as well, he sent Joseph’s brothers to Egypt to try to obtain favor and get enough food to feed the family for a while. Let’s stop here for a moment and consider what this means…the brothers have no idea that Joseph is even alive and when Joseph sees his brothers, he could have easily just turn them away. But he didn’t…he found forgiveness in his heart for them. He made them jump through some hoops to get the food they needed and devised some plans to get them to come back but he did not exact revenge. Yet, Joseph did not exact revenge as he could have. He did not tell them to go away, no, in today’s story, he found the love in his heart to reveal to them who he truly was and then to invite the entire family to come to Egypt where they would be safe and well fed for the duration of the famine, another 5 years. Ultimately, Joseph’s act of forgiveness kept the family and all of their descendants protected for well over 400 years...

Our Families and Retribution

Now, let me ask you to consider your own family…how many within your families would have or have done something similar to this? If your family is anything like mine, there has been anger, jealousy, and rage followed by some sort of act of revenge, in some cases, not all but I can probably list a few times in my family where I have witnessed someone doing something to get back at another family member.

We Always Hurt the Ones We Love

If you have never experienced this in your family, count yourself lucky. The saying is true, we always hurt the ones we love the most. Part of that is the word love. Because we love one another so deeply, the times when someone says or does something to hurt our feelings hurts more because our families are supposed to be places of comfort and safety, right? Unfortunately, we are human and sometimes we do not consider what our words and actions will do to another’s feelings until long after they have been said or done.

God’s Love for Us

Now imagine this story in terms of how God sees us today. We are all God’s children. We are all loved and given certain gifts by God. Our Stewardship series has taken us into different ways that we can show God how much we appreciate all of the gifts we have been given but the idea of forgiveness is hard for us. We like to hold onto our pain, we like to hold onto anger, we like to feel like we have gotten even for something that someone has done for us, and I could list so many more ways that we show a lack of love for others. This is what all of this boils down to any way...

God’s Ultimate Show of Love

Remember that God loves us unconditionally. God’s love knows no boundaries. All you have to do is look at the cross and remember that God showed us the ultimate gift of love in coming down from heaven in the form of an infant, grew up as a human, experienced all of the pain and sorrow that we can feel, and then gave up his life so that we do not have to suffer the punishment that we deserve for treating one another so poorly. God’s love knows no boundaries and no limits. One of the greatest things we can steward in our lives is God’s love. One of the greatest gifts we have received is forgiveness and we are called out from these four walls to show others that love and forgiveness, that is truly our mission in this world.

Mission to the World

And so, today, as we move from one really important aspect of our lives as Christians to another, I challenge each of us this week to find one way to offer another forgiveness and to show them the love that God first gave us…because sometimes, all it takes is showing one person forgiveness or God’s love and we can change the world...Amen.