Surprising Grace

Focus Statement

It is true that God has a plan.

It is also true that we have free will and often times work against God’s plan.

None of that is surprising...

But what is surprising is that despite our sinful ways, God’s grace abounds, surrounds, and turns us around!

Point of Relation

I want to tell you a rather bizarre story...

that is a bit unsettling, but certainly worth your listen as it will add context to today’s Scripture reading.

There once was this kid Joe who was the second youngest son in a rather large family.

He had eleven elder brothers and 1 younger brother.

That’s right, Joey’s parents were quite busy...

And I will never…EVER…complain about having two daughters again..

I mean WOW…13 kids…13 energetic, competitive, hangry kids.

God bless them.

Anyway, Joey was really his father’s favorite...

And over time, it grew more and more annoying to his older brothers.

They had worked their butts off for their father...

They had put their hours in the family business…had been loyal, hard working, and responsible.

Yet their brother hadn’t put in his hours…God forbid if Dad has him do any chores or actually CHIP in and help out at work.

Yet, their father kept showering praises on Joey and even went out of his way to have a special, stylin’ jacket made for him!

So, these brothers were frustrated to say the least...

However, that wasn’t the deal closer...

No…not at all.

What closed the deal, what became the final straw so-to-speak,

was when their brother told him that he had a dream that he would one day be all their bosses

and that they would one day be on their knees begging him for support…even worshiping him.

All of this, Joey claimed, was going to come true because God gave him the dream.

THE AUDACITY…who the heck was this kid anyway.

And while they all believed in and worshiped God, Joey was certainly know priest or prophet!

He was just a lazy, pampered, spoiled brat of a kid.

What’s more, while their dad was upset initially by Joey’s ridiculous predictions…

he actually did nothing but wonder what Joey could have meant by all of that.

Yes, you heard me right, WONDER…as in ponder the profundity of Joseph’s words…WONDER...

as opposed to being enraged and disowning him for his insolent, blasphemous and disgraceful words.

Joey’s older brothers had had enough...

And they plotted to kill their brother.

When he was alone, the brothers jumped him and threw him into a hole he couldn’t get out of…

The plan was to leave him their alone…to die.

But, instead, they knew they could make money off of human trafficking him out of the country into slavery.

So, that what they did. They sold him into slavery...

They took his nifty jacket and tore it up and smeared it with animals blood...

and they covered up their crime by bringing that jacket home and telling their dad a HUGE LIE...

Joey had never reached his destination and was seemingly killed by a wild animal.

Sadly, Joey was never seen or heard from again. The family of 13 was cut down to twelve…the murderers inherited their father’s trust and estate…and injustice and evil one the day.

Things to Consider

Now, before we move forward together into today’s passage,

I want to you to consider this:

There is a lot that happened in this story that God did NOT plan...

Things that did not FIT into God’s plan...

Things like the fact that Joey’s dad always him favortism.

That was unjust to his other brothers...

and Joey had undue power and privilege over them because of that.

A parent’s love should always be impartial…just as God’s love is impartial…that IS God’s plan.

Consider also how Joey getting sold into slavery was NOT God’s plan.

Slavery is NOT a GODLY thing…and GOD is NOT cool with it...

Rather, God created us all equally in his glorious image...

and wants us to love each other, even our enemies, as God first loved us....THAT IS GOD’s PLAN.

Yet, as we will soon discover, just because things don’t go according to God’s plan…does mean God’s plan is thwarted.

What we will hopefully see is that God’s response to our sin is not only GRACE…it is AMAZING, SURPRISING GRACE.

What Scripture Says

Of course, the story I just shared is the context of of our Scripture passage today...

Joey…or Joseph rather, was sold into slavery by his eleven older brothers…

who went home and lied to their father about what had happened.

But that was not the end of the story for Joseph, was it?

Nope. Instead, his ability to dream visions and to interpret dreams caused him to become a valued by his masters...

Eventually landing him in the court of the Pharaoh, who also took a liking to him...

So, much so that he ended up being placed second in charge of all of Egypt…under the Pharaoh.

LUCKY BREAK, RIGHT?

Wrong! This wasn’t luck, this was the GRACE OF GOD protecting Joseph and softening up the heart of the Pharaoh

And this is where our part of the account picks up...

You see, all those years back...

God was showing Joseph the future of what was going to happen.

That there was going to be a famine…and that somehow Joseph would save his family and get them all through it.

As a young kid brother, Jospeh’s approach to his brothers came off arrogant and egotistical…and it probably was.

We were all young once, right?

But still, those dreams were both warnings and insights into what was to come…

and Joseph was going to be intricately connected to it.

That could have happened any way…it did not HAVE to turn out the way it did.

But the FREE WILL of his brothers forced this way upon him.

Well, needless to say, the dreams came true and a great and long famine hit the area…

and Joseph’s father, mother, and brothers were on the verge of starving.

IRONIC, no, that his family came groveling in on their knees seeking food and shelter from the Egyptians...

And that the very one overseeing the grain distribution was none other than their pesky brother Joseph.

Well…ironic or not...

It’s the very SURPRISING GRACE of God, who turns our faux pas into victories.

What’s more, that surprising GRACE did not stop with God...

that surprising Grace had been given to Joseph…and had transformed him too.

Joseph, filled with the SURPRISING GRACE of God...

Ultimately, surprised his family by revealing who he was and TOTALLY forgiving them...

giving them both food as well as a safe land to dwell in while the famine ravaged everything else.

What This Means for You

Of course, the FREE WILL of humanity would come in again and work against God’s plan…many many more times...

But as you can see…God’s plan is NEVER thwarted by us, by death, by SIN, or by EVIL.

Rather, God surprises us with GRACE…with LOVE…with PRESENCE...

And calls us to do the same in the lives of OTHERS.

The question is this, how have you been SURPRISED by God’s Grace in your life?

In what ways has God surprised you and how has that transformed you into who you are now?

What’s more, how is God challenging you to share that surprising Grace with others?

In what ways could you grow more receptive to God’s grace, as well as more giving of it?

What This Means for Us

We as a congregation has been blessed with God’s surprising grace too!

We lived through mutliple generations… a couple centuries worth even…

We’ve had our ups and our downs…we’ve had our highs and our lows...

We’ve moved locations a couple a couple of times...

Endured through wars, through nuclear threats, through religious-motivated attacks...

And we’ve lived through to pandemics…the FLU and the COVID-19 pandemics.

Yet, here we are…serving God and today’s world...

and by the surprising Grace of God

we have not only remained open for worship (whether online or in-person)...

but we remained a beacon of

LIGHT,

GRACE,

LOVE,

PEACE,

HOPE,

HEALING,

AND WHOLENESS

Through our Treasures of Hope ministry, through our support of the Weekend Bag Program, through our support of the frontline workers in our hospitals and nursing homes...

through our support and participation in Manna House, and through our advocating for socio-economic justice and equity for all people in our community.

Friends, we have done so much together during incredibly challenging times...

And I know that things can sometimes seem bleak and out of reach...

But take it from our friend Joey…that God is full of SURPRISES...

And that as a people of FAITH...

We KNOW that, as God’s surprising Grace has sustained and empowered us in the past...

God’s GRACE will abound, sustain, empower and carry us through to the VERY gates of God’s Kingdom.

Amen? Then’s let’s back our faith up with action and get to work! Amen!