God Intends Good for Us
We come to the final week of our fall sermon series “Healing Hurt in a Broken World” and even in today’s Scripture, we are reminded how broken we are. Joseph’s brothers, remember were jealous because he was daddy’s favorite, so they planned to kill him, but then they realized they could get something for him and sold him into slavery in Egypt. Then, 22 years later, they found themselves, unbeknownst to them, at his mercy. Joseph tests them and finds that they regret what they did and have learned from their mistakes. They struggle with the choices Joseph forces on them because they can’t stand to see their father grieve again like he did when they let him believe Joseph was dead. After Joseph reveals his identity to his brothers, he has his brothers and their households and his father Jacob move to Egypt and settles them with good land for their livestock and food even through the rest of the famine. They stayed after the famine was over and another 17 years passed before their father Jacob died. But when daddy died, the brothers were worried. Had Joseph really forgiven them, or was he still holding a grudge? Was he just keeping peace for their father’s sake?
They send word to Joseph that their father left special instructions to forgive his brothers the sins and the wrongs they committed in treating him so badly. When he gets their message, Joseph weeps. How could they not know him better than that? He calls them in and the minute they hit the door, they are groveling. They throw themselves down on their knees and bow and gesture, “We are your slaves.” Joseph responds in an extraordinary way, “Am I God? I am not the judge; you don’t have anything to be afraid of. Don’t you see, you planned evil against me but God used those same plans for my good, as you see all around you right now—life for many people. Easy now, you have nothing to fear; I’ll take care of you and your children.”
Joseph can see layers in what happened. On the surface, his brothers betrayed him, he became a slave and was imprisoned. Underneath, God was working, gave him the gift of interpreting dreams, brought him to the attention of Pharoah, stored up food before the famine, and now has saved thousands and thousands of people, including Joseph and his family.
The Bible confirms that God works in this way in the Wisdom literature Proverbs teaches that “The human mind may devise many plans, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will be established.”
And Paul’s makes the same point in his letter to the Romans that Chris read this morning, “We know that in all things God works together with those who love him to bring about what is good—according to God’s purpose and plan.” God can take even the meanest intention and make it work for good; God takes our brokenness and uses it to bring about God’s vision for us.
20th Century Reformed theologian Karl Barth explains that God works toward God’s vision for creation at the same time that God accompanies us and respects and affirms our choices. God does God’s work at the same time that God fully honors our decisions made of our own free will. Walter Bruggeman sums it up this way, “…the arena of human choice is exactly where God’s saving work is done.”
You may have heard “Everything happens for a reason” as an explanation like our suffering is part of some higher plan. That is not in the Bible. That is not Biblical. That is not who God has shown us God is. At every turn, with every encounter, Jesus had compassion. Jesus healed. Jesus forgave. Jesus never said, “You’ll be better for having experienced this.” Jesus never said, “Trust me. This hurts now, but in the bigger picture you’ll understand.” God didn’t create a broken world. God doesn’t break our world.
We break our world when we choose to let jealousy and envy and power struggles determine how we behave toward one another. We break our world when we choose to plot against one of God’s other children. As we look at the world, the divisions and wars and dehumanization, the story of Joseph gives us hope. Even in the midst of our evil, God is working and will use even our brokenness for good. Even when we fail to see God’s image in one another, and we break our world just a little bit more and a little bit more, time after time after time, God’s intent for creation is not thwarted. Even as our hearts grow less and less like Jesus as we justify and explain and rationalize and excuse the pain and hurt in our world, God’s plan for life abundant will triumph.
To be clear God’s desire for us is not for us to be jealous of each other and plot harm. God’s desire for us is to see differences as opportunities to gain a little more knowledge of God because we are all made in God’s image. God intends good for us; for all of us. And he showed it to us most clearly in Jesus, the one whom we remember at this Table.
As we celebrate World Communion Sunday, we gather at this Table remembering that Jesus invites all who love him, who seek to be more like him, to come. “There’s a place for you,” says Jesus, “I made it for you.” And that invitation is not just for the Farmington family sitting in this room, or at home on the livestream, or tuning in later. That invitation is not just for Presbyterians – the dividing lines of denomination are divisions that we made, brokenness in the Body of Christ that we perpetrated. That invitation is not just for Americans – the dividing lines of country are divisions that we established, brokenness in creation that we perpetrated.
Jesus invites all to love him. And Jesus invites all who love him, who seek to grow in his likeness, who seek to forgive and reconcile and show compassion and bring healing, to come to his Table. There’s a place for you.