7 Epiphany, Yr C (2025) The Rev. Karen C. Barfield
7 Epiphany, Yr C (2025) The Rev. Karen C. Barfield
Genesis 45:3-11, 15 St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church
Luke 6:27-38
In the name of the one, holy, and loving God:
in whom we live, and move, and have our being. Amen.
“Love your enemies,
do good to those who hate you,
bless those who curse you,
pray for those who abuse you….
“Do not judge,
and you will not be judged;
do not condemn,
and you will not be condemned.
“Forgive,
and you will be forgiven.” (Luke 6:27-28, 37)
If I were to take a poll,
I’d guess that most of us would agree
that these just might be the most difficult teachings of Jesus!
To love our enemies…
To do good to those who hate us…
To pray for those who abuse us.
That’s way beyond a tall order!
This is not only what Jesus does,
but it is what Jesus calls us to do as well.
To prepare for today’s sermon I went back and re-read the Joseph story.
I recommend it to you. It’s a great story!
…starting with Genesis Chapter 37.
Joseph appears as a 17-year-old, shepherding the flock with his brothers.
It seems like a nice family picture with all the boys out tending to the family business.
But, we learn quickly that Papa Jacob favored Joseph over all the others
since he was the son of his old age.
He was also the son of his beloved Rachel.
So, all the other brothers hated him and were jealous of him.
Not long after this, the brothers took the flock a little farther away to graze,
and Papa Jacob sent Joseph out to join them.
When Joseph showed up,
the brothers got it into their heads that they would be better off if he were dead,
so they threw him into a dry well to die.
Then, a group of traders came through the land,
and they began to rethink what they had done.
What would it profit them if Joseph simply died at the bottom of a well?
Instead, they could sell him to the traders,
make money off the deal,
and get rid of their brother, too.
So, that’s just what they did.
They hauled Joseph back out of the well and sold him off to be carried down to Egypt.
To top off the plan
they had stripped Joseph of his robe and dipped it in the blood of a goat
so that Jacob would think that a wild animal had eaten his son.
Dad would be none the wiser.
Now, a lot happens in the intervening years…
I’ll let you read about all those twists and turns.
In short, Joseph’s wisdom benefits Pharoah,
and he helps Egypt store grain for use when the famine comes,
making Egypt (and Pharoah) very wealthy.
Back home, Jacob and his sons and their families are hard hit by the famine,
so Jacob sends his sons to Egypt to find some food.
Today’s story is actually their second trip to see Joseph in Egypt to buy grain.
So many years have passed, and Joseph’s appearance has changed enough,
that his brothers do not recognize him.
Today’s story is the big reveal!
Joseph says to his brothers,
“I am Joseph. Is my father still alive?”
The brothers are speechless…
and dismayed, we are told.
I imagine that they are more like dumb-founded and scared to death!
Could this really be the brother that they had hated
and stripped of his clothing and thrown into a pit to die,
and then sold off into slavery in a foreign land?
Yep!
The biggest reveal is not Joseph’s identity but his response to all their hate and harm:
He forgives them.
He forgives them!
Joseph says, “do not be distressed, or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here.”
Not only is Joseph not seething with anger,
but he is tending to their well-being…
to their souls.
“Do not be distressed, for it was not you who sent me here, but God.”
How could he look upon them with anything other than hatred
and not want retaliation for the harm done to him at their hand?
And yet,
after naming the harm they had done him,
Joseph invites them to come and find life in Egypt with him.
After his invitation we hear that:
“he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them.”
Consider that for a moment:
after being left for dead and then sold into slavery,
Joseph kissed all his brothers and wept upon them.
How remarkable!
“After that,
his brothers talked with him!”
Joseph forgave his brothers,
and in forgiving them,
he set them free.
Now, he first had to find his own freedom through forgiving them.
And having found his freedom by forgiving them,
the bonds of evil had been broken.
“Love your enemies,
do good to those who hate you,
bless those who curse you,
pray for those who abuse you….
“Do not judge,
and you will not be judged;
do not condemn,
and you will not be condemned.
“Forgive,
and you will be forgiven.” (Luke 6:27-28, 37)
Be merciful, Jesus says,
just as God is merciful.
All too often our culture tells us to give people what’s coming to them:
An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.
If you attack me, then I’ll attack you.
And yet this response only compounds the harm – not only to the other
but to ourselves as well.
Our anger, fear, and resentment don’t free us at all...
they keep us chained.
When we hold on to our anger, fear, and resentment…
evil persists,
sin abounds,
and brokenness prevails.
So, as hard as it may be…
instead of responding to threat or harm with retaliation,
how might we respond with action that seeks the good of the other?
Is it possible to seek healing for the other instead of punishment,
recognizing that we are all broken people,
all in need of freedom from the bondage of sin and evil?
As Jesus (and Joseph) have shown us,
living in the kindom of God –
a kindom of mercy and forgiveness and love –
looks very different from a worldly kingdom of judgment and hatred and retaliation.
The work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa following Apartheid gives us one example of how living in the kindom of truth-telling and forgiveness may work.
Closer to home,
maybe we could acknowledge to another how we have harmed them
and ask forgiveness…
or even claim how someone has harmed us
and first offer our forgiveness to them as Joseph did to his brothers!
Joseph kissed his brothers and wept upon them.
After that, his brothers talked with him.
What an amazing act of generosity and love!
Richard Rohr is always asking:
What do we do with our anger and pain?
Do we transmit it to others?
Or do we transform it within ourselves?
Joseph transformed his pain within himself…
and offered forgiveness and love and welcome to those who had harmed him.
Jesus transformed his pain within himself…
and did not strike back when mocked, struck, and spit upon.
Jesus refused to transmit the harm done to him to others.
Instead, he died on a cross, praying:
Father, forgive them.
They don’t know what they are doing.
Forgive them.
Now, you may be saying:
“Doesn’t forgiving a sin against us,
or an evil done to many,
come perilously close to saying that what was done was okay?
“Isn’t forgiving over and over
just the thing that keeps abused and oppressed people abused and oppressed?
No.
Forgiveness doesn’t mean that there is no accountability for harm done;
forgiveness means that we are not bound to the harm by holding on to it.
Harm and abuse are not okay!
And that’s why we need to forgive.
We need to forgive so that we are not bound to evil,
lest the evil makes its home in our own hearts.
Anger and resentment and retaliation can be such natural reflexes…
and yet our refusal to forgive will eat us alive.
If forgiveness is God’s way of combating evil,
may God grant us the strength and courage to forgive
when we can’t find such strength within ourselves.
“Forgive,
and you will be forgiven;
give,
and it will be given to you.
“A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap;
for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.”
Amen.
