| “Losing
It to Live in Faith” |
| Then Joseph could no longer control
himself before all those who stood by him, and he cried
out, "Send everyone away from me." So no one
stayed with him when Joseph made himself known to his
brothers. And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard
it, and the household of Pharaoh heard it. Joseph said
to his brothers, "I am Joseph. Is my father still
alive?" But his brothers could not answer him, so
dismayed were they at his presence. |
| Then Joseph said to his brothers,
"Come closer to me." And they came closer. He
said, "I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into
Egypt. 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 five more years in which there
will be neither plowing nor harvest. God sent me before
you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep
alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent
me here, but God; he has made me a father to Pharaoh,
and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land
of Egypt. Hurry and go up to my father and say to him,
'Thus says your son Joseph, God has made me lord of all
Egypt; come down to me, do not delay. You shall settle
in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near me, you and
your children and your children’s children, as well
as your flocks, your herds, and all that you have. I will
provide for you there—since there are five more
years of famine to come—so that you and your household,
and all that you have, will not come to poverty.' And
now your eyes and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see
that it is my own mouth that speaks to you. You must tell
my father how greatly I am honored in Egypt, and all that
you have seen. Hurry and bring my father down here."
Then he fell upon his brother Benjamin’s neck and
wept, while Benjamin wept upon his neck. And he kissed
all his brothers and wept upon them; and after that his
brothers talked with him. |
|
| Genesis 45:1-15 |
| Jesus left that place and went
away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. Just then a Canaanite
woman from that region came out and started shouting,
"Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter
is tormented by a demon." But he did not answer her
at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying,
"Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us."
He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of
the house of Israel." But she came and knelt before
him, saying, "Lord, help me." He answered, "It
is not fair to take the children’s food and throw
it to the dogs." She said, "Yes, Lord, yet even
the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’
table." Then Jesus answered her, "Woman, great
is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish."
And her daughter was healed instantly. |
|
| Matthew 15:21-28 |
| The reformed churches have always emphasized that we live
by faith. Faith is so important to us that we claim our justification
before God by faith through the grace of Jesus Christ alone.
There is nothing else, nada, zilch, left for us to do regarding
our salvation. One of the most helpful definitions of faith
I know is John Calvin’s. The first part goes like this,
“Faith is the firm and certain knowledge of God’s
benevolence towards us.” Faith is our belief that God
always has been and always will be kind, good, and generous
towards us. Faith involves trust in what God has done, what
God is doing, and what God has promised to do in the future.
Faith leads us to believe that God loves us and all of creation.
Our shared faith empowered your call to me as your ordained
staff minister. In faith you elected and empowered your Pastoral
Nominating Committee, trusting them when they extended a call
to me. I believe they shared with me the truth about the life
of Central Presbyterian Church. Well, time will tell! Our continued
trust in God will provide grace as we learn about one another
and discern our common calling as the body of Christ. |
| It is one thing to have faith in God, and another thing altogether
to live out this belief, through our actions. Each day we are
faced with decisions about our vocations and our home life,
our relationships, and how we decided to treat our own minds
and bodies. We make these decisions with the healed and wounded
parts of our past, our present joys and struggles, and future
expectations all floating about in our brains at once. To the
center our self-understandings enters our faith in God forming
the center around which we draw strength for how we will live. |
| It may seem someone of no faith that possessing faith should
simplify our decision-making. But it hardly ever works out this
way as faith requires us to do a great deal of individual interpretive
work and communal reflection. |
| Faith leads some to make decisions that leave most other people
scratching their heads. People of faith often take the road
less traveled. They have this weird bent toward following God
no matter what others think about how they live their lives.
We could say some of us “lose it” altogether, living
lives far away from society’s norms. All because of faith.
You know the type. Mostly modern prophets, hermits or cloistered
folks. Radicals. People set apart calling us mainstreamers out
like John in the desert-wilderness. |
| Then there are the rest of us. Don’t get me wrong. Prophets
are no better than the rest of us, in fact, being on the edge
may sometimes be easier then living in the midst of the mainstream.
What about our decision-making? How are we to live our lives
grounded in the midst of this particular society, while also
holding to our belief in God and our call to live out our faith?
We are called to live transformed lives down on Main Street,
at the factory, in the school system, during the Gardening Club
Meeting, at a family reunion with our most annoying in-law!
Well, I am a pastor, so of course I am going to say that the
Bible gives us clues on how we are to live. But today’s
clues are through stories and we must do the interpretive work
to understand their meaning for our lives of faith. |
| In our Genesis reading we joined Joseph’s story of faith,
right where the rubber hit the road in his life of faith. His
brothers, who had sold him into slavery in Egypt years before,
had now come to him twice as counselor of Pharaoh. Joseph was
in charge of all of the food he had stockpiled in anticipation
of a seven-year drought and the ensuing famine. We know from
Joseph’s background in Genesis that his faith often influenced
his vocation and the decisions he made. Although he was a man
of power in Egypt, he achieved this position by being true to
the God of his ancestors. No amount of power ever took away
the fact he still had to eat alone because it was a disgrace
for an Egyptian to eat with a Hebrew. As an outsider rising
up from the bottom, he knew about the pressure to conform, but
he refused to toss his faith aside. His faith in God had kept
him through his tough times and now it has become the lens through
which he viewed the world. |
| Now standing before him were his half brothers who sold him
into slavery and his full blood brother Benjamin who he had
requested. Joseph lost it! If he had done what his society thought
he should do with his brothers, it would have been to take revenge
on his half brothers. Instead he sends the Egyptians out of
the room because what he is about to do will make no sense to
them if they know the full story. He put his position and status
aside and wept so loud that the Egyptians and Pharaoh heard
him. Joseph confessed what he believed God had done with his
brothers’ actions and said, “Do not be distressed,
or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here; for God
sent me before you to preserve life…to preserve for you
a remnant on earth…it was not you who sent me here, but
God.” Then he and Benjamin wept on each other and he kissed
all the rest of his brothers and wept and they talked. |
| Imagine the scene. Joseph was a very pragmatic man, faithful
to God, yet acculturated to his position in society. He loses
it bearing witness to his faith not his common sense. He lost
the anger that could have held him back from seeing God at work
redeeming his toughest, loneliest times. Through faith he has
learned to value reconciliation and life, even the lives of
those who have harmed him. Terence Fretheim a biblical scholar
says that for Joseph, “What God has done stands independent
of the brothers’ repentance…(the) brother’s
objectives were thwarted and brought into the larger orbit of
God’s purposes and used by God to bring life instead of
death.” This Joseph BELIEVES! Nothing excused his brothers’
criminal behavior towards him. But Joseph believed God was with
him always, in that pit they threw him into and during his years
of slavery. Joseph’s faith led him to lose all concern
about his status and let go of his anger. Eventually he was
reunited with his father Jacob and God’s promise to Jacob
of life through his ancestors, was possible again. |
| Our reading from Matthew tells of a very different story two
of people who lose it to live in faith. Each in their own way
the Canaanite woman and Jesus let go of what might have held
them apart forever if they followed their society’s standards
instead of faith. This story is not a typical miracle story.
A dialogue, which is painful to us regarding Jesus, becomes
just as important to our faith as the miracle that followed. |
| The person crying out to Jesus to heal a loved one is considered
an outsider to the disciples and to Jesus. Matthew tells us
this through these two words “Canaanite woman.”
There were no Canaanites alive in Jesus’ day. They had
all been assimilated into other cultures in the area. The Canaanites
were ancient enemies of Israel. Matthew tells us this person
is out of Jesus’ realm of concern, and this persistent
person is a woman too. She’s stepped out of her place.
Her faith has led her to believe that Jesus is the one who can
heal her daughter. The Canaanite woman professes belief through
the language of Christian worship. She knows Jesus as Lord and
Son of David and calls for mercy. Even at the third go around
she continues to profess Jesus as Lord, believing God was there
with her and that in Jesus there were crumbs enough for outsiders. |
| The woman’s faith is evident before Jesus who seems
to be struggling with his call, pondering its limits. One of
my seminary professors, Patrick Miller, said about this text,
“Here a cry for help arises out of a dogged trust that
persists even when Jesus himself appears to cut the ground out
from under it. From just such an example the church learns something
about what real faith in Jesus is—which is exactly the
point of Jesus’ final words.” Those words are, “Woman,
great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.”
Jesus ends up losing it too! What held him back from helping
her originally is no longer of any consequence. Her story is
considered a foreshadowing by Matthew of Jesus’ mission
extending to the entire world. We do well when reading this
text to remember that Jesus often tells his disciples “do
not fear” and also, “ask, seek, knock” encouraging
them to wrestle with their faith, to live out their beliefs
and possibly even challenge God. |
| What is the “it” we need to lose as a community
to live our life of faith together? What is “it”
for you as an individual? Is “it” right now your
status, or reputation or does “it” have to do with
a client, a family member, a friend, or even God? |
| Joseph lived in the mainstream, conscious of his actions and
of his place in Pharaoh’s court. We have every reason
to believe that the Canaanite woman returned to her hometown
and normal life too. But they both stepped out on a limb when
called upon by their faith. I want to share some modern day
examples to encourage our own endeavors to lose it and live
in faith. We need encouragement to break the bonds that hold
us back from living in Christ, taking the stands we need to
take in our every day lives. |
| During a recent trip I took with newly graduated high school
seniors at Second church the youth led the Devotionals on an
overnight ferry. One youth challenged the others to think about
a time when they let go of peer pressure and stopped worrying
about what others would think to follow their faith. Each story
in the group of young men I was with had to do with them reaching
out to a peer despite what others around them might think. One
stood up for what was right to his football team in regards
to a young man who was being taunted. One befriended a new kid
that tried to use his money to impress everyone but turned everyone
off. The last one talked about losing it to live in faith on
our current trip. He had made some mistakes, broken our group
covenant and admitted it before the whole group. He shared that
he had gone around to every youth on the trip and apologized
for his lack of judgment and for putting them through what he
had. He said he could have never have admitted he was wrong
to so many people before, but his faith freed him to put his
pride aside and seek reconciliation with all his peers. He lost
it and LIVED life more fully. His actions were a beautiful testimonial
to his peer and to the adults on the trip. He had a confidence
in himself I had never seen before. |
| Losing “it,” whatever “it” is for
us, is risky business. Let us pray we are up to the challenges
before us as individuals and as a community of believers united
around our common faith in Jesus Christ. |
| Amen |
| Beth E. Godfrey - August 14, 2005 |
| Central Presbyterian Church, Geneseo, New
York |
| i The Book of Genesis: Introduction,
Commentary, and Reflections. The New Interpreter’s
Bible, Vol. 1. Terence E. Fretheim. Abingdon Press: Nashville,
1994. Pp. 645-46. |
| ii Pentecost 2. Proclamation 3:
Aids for Interpreting the Lessons of the Church Year, Series
A. Patrick D. Miller. Fortress Press: Philadelphia, 1987. Pp.
28. |
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