Forgiveness in Community

 "Way way back many centuries ago, not long after the Bible began

Jacob lived in the land of Canaan, a fine example of a family man

Jacob - Jacob and sons - depended on farming to earn their keep

Jacob - Jacob and sons - spent all of their days in the fields with sheep

Jacob was the founder of a whole new nation

Thanks to the number of children he'd had

He was also known as Israel, but most of the time

His sons and his wives used to call him dad

Jacob, Jacob and sons, men of the soil, of the sheaf and crook

Jacob, Jacob and sons, a remarkable family in anyone's book

Reuben was the eldest of the children of Israel

With Simeon and Levi the next in line

Napthali and Isaachar with Asher and Dan

Zebulun and Gad took the total to nine

Jacob, Jacob and sons, Benjamin and Judah, which leaves only one

Jacob, Jacob and sons, Joseph -- Jacob's favorite son

Jacob, Jacob and sons!

When I was a child I learned the entire 1982 Broadway Musical recording of Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber by heart.

So much so that once on a drive to a friends house, I sang the entire recording straight through to myself in the back seat

in multiple voices and with sound effects.

My mother was quite impressed.

As you might imagine, the story of Joseph has stuck with me since then.

What we heard today in the passage from Genesis is the end of the story

many chapters and twists and turns from the beginning musical number.

As a recap, Joseph is the eleventh of twelve sons of Jacob.

Jacob favors Joseph and gives him a special multicolored coat.

Joseph's brothers don't like this.

Joseph has some dreams. His brothers don't like his dreams.

Many of his brothers attempt to kill Joseph, but their oldest brother relents and spares his life.

His brothers sell him to some foreigners who take him to Egypt as a slave.

Joseph works for a rich man with an unfaithful wife.

The wife tries to sleep with Joseph, he doesn't let her,

She blames him for her unfaithfulness, Joseph is thrown in jail.

In Jail, Joseph builds power and responsibility with his good behavior.

Others dream dreams and Joseph helps the chief cupbearer interpret his dream.

Eventually Pharaoh has some bad dreams.

The cupbearer remembers Joseph and tells Pharaoh, who hauls Joseph out of prison.

After Joseph explains the bad dreams, Pharaoh makes him chief steward.

Years pass. Drought and famine strike the Mesopotamian region.

Joseph's brothers come to Egypt to buy food from Joseph and don't realize its him.

Joseph plays tricks with them and then reveals himself.

Everyone plays nicely.

The extended family moves to Egypt, his father dies.

Then comes this passage, where Joseph's brothers aren't sure that Joseph has really forgiven them.

You know, for attempted murder.

So they try to trick Joseph into forgiving them,

but Joseph has already forgiven them.

Joseph has found the insight that God has overcome evil with good.

We could pull a lot of morality, good news, and God moments out of Joseph's story.

I could do a whole sermon series from the life of Joseph and the many many twists and turns of his story.

His story starts with the struggle over his birth in Genesis chapter 30, then picks up again,

in chapter 37 when Joseph is a teen.

The passage we heard this morning is part of chapter 50, the last chapter of Genesis,

as Genesis ends with Joseph dying in Egypt.

There are days I feel I could write sermons on single sentences of the Bible,

let alone fourteen chapters of a man's life.

If we think about the part of the story we heard today,

the forgiveness of Joseph towards his brothers,

in relationship to Paul asking the rhetorical question, who are you to pass judgement on others?

and Jesus answering Peter's question about how many times we must forgive with seventy seven times,

then we can see a theme start to emerge.

Forgiveness in the midst of community.

A difficult theme in a country

lacking both forgiveness and community.

Here in the church we hope to find both.

Community as the body of Christ, as the people of God in the midst of Morristown,

and God's forgiveness.

Joseph had plenty of reason to be upset with his brothers,

they tried to murder him, and then sold him into slavery.

Told their father he was dead so Jacob wouldn't try to look for him.

The brothers never straightforwardly admit that they committed multiple crimes.

Yet, Joseph has found belonging, community with God, and forgiveness through God

and he can offer those things to his brothers.

His words are a beautiful example,

“Do not be afraid! Am I in the place of God? Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good, in order to preserve a numerous people, as he is doing today. So have no fear; I myself will provide for you and your little ones.”

He offers them both forgiveness and community.

In the Gospel passage we see this joint theme of forgiveness and community come in the question and answer between Peter and Jesus.

Peter asks Jesus, "Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times."

Peter is told to forgive multiple times.

Jesus' answer implies staying in relationship with people.

Not an easy business.

If we only forgave people once, we would have to walk away from everyone.

Forgiveness is an important aspect of community.

Last week Rev. Anne talked about score keeping in relationship.

With what Jesus says today we would have to go down the lists of our grievances and forgive all of them.

One of the things about Joseph's story which gives me hope

is the fact that it takes more than ten chapters of Genesis, decades of time for Joseph and his brothers to get to this place of forgiveness and community.

Certainly there may be people who do things we struggle to forgive

or people who we take a long time to forgive.

Once he finds them again, Joseph stays in relationship with his family.

Although, I do think in Joseph's example,

part of the reason he is able to offer both forgiveness and community is the shift in power.

This is where the line of forgiveness and community needs accountability.

Because when someone in power is hurting others without accountability, it becomes abuse.

And then forgiveness can be offered without community.

One of the problems and joys of community is that there is a mix of people and power.

Some people are empowered in a community and others are not.

Churches are a perfect example.

It is supposed to be a community of believers, without power differences, so that people can find ways to talk to each other.

But with human complications, we do have different levels of power in our community.

And not everyone perceives those levels in the same way.

Speaking truth and hurt to power is difficult.

Forgiveness in community is hard work.

Both require being brave and vulnerable,

and letting God change our lives.

When I last preached, two weeks ago,

I said I wasn't preaching to myself.

Today, I am preaching to myself.

Welcome to my head.

Yes, it comes with big musical numbers.

I am struggling to forgive someone in our community.

I am struggling to stay in community with someone after I have felt hurt by their actions.

No need to speculate on who, 

I am calling myself out.

As one of your spiritual leaders, I want to be a good role model.

And I am struggling to forgive.

I am struggling to stay in community.

I ask for your prayers, as my community

To help me find forgiveness.

For the last two weeks,

I've been meditating on Peter and Jesus,

on the life story of Joseph,

knowing that I am struggling to forgive and stay in community.

I am right there with Peter wondering how many times to do I have to forgive them??

Depending on how you read the Greek its either 77 times or 490 times.

Either way, its enough to lose track of the number of times

and recognize that forgiveness is a habit.

A lifetime habit.

A spiritual practice of the highest degree.

While it is one of the first we have to learn, its also one of the practices we have to relearn over and over.

How to forgive, the patience needed to forgive, the separation of forgiveness and accountability

and learning when we have to remove ourselves from subsequent situations.

Its not forgive and forget.

Jesus knows and teaches forgiveness and rebuilding relationships

and also accountability and amendment of life.

Good news, we can keep working on this.

We can keep forgiving, struggling to forgive, learning to forgive,

learning how to stay in community and rebuild relationships

and learn to forgive all over again.

Joseph was given time to forgive his family.

Peter was given instruction on how to forgive and stay in community.

Even better news, or maybe even great news:

Jesus has already forgiven us.

God has already given us grace

for all our failures,

including our failures to forgive.

As we gather together today as a community

I hope you know the grace of God here.

Jesus forgives us all and welcomes us into his beloved community.