Whosoever Will

 Read Genesis 49

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.  Welcome to tonight’s game.  Let’s begin by welcoming the home team Chosen People.

Playing first base, number 1 in your programs but maybe not in your hearts is Reuben.  Reuben is Jacob’s firstborn.  He is the pride of the team.  He is strong and the natural leader.  He is the team’s leading scorer, though that was his downfall.  He scored with one of his father’s wives.

He is probably not making the Hall of Fame.  You thought steroid use was bad, you should try Thanksgiving dinner with the family after you slept with the mother of some of your brothers.

At pitcher and catcher are Simeon and Levi.  They can throw some heat.  Anger has ruled them before.  Do you remember when their sister Dinah was raped?  It looked like everything would get worked out with the Shechemites as Shechem the son of the king and the man who raped Dinah really wanted to marry her and was willing to go as far as having all the men in his tribe circumcised so they could take wives from Jacob’s family.

They all got circumcised and while they were still in pain, Simeon and Levi killed them all.  Those Shechemites wouldn’t rape anyone again.  That’s for sure.

I don’t think that Simeon and Levi are headed to the Hall of Fame either.

Then we come to Judah.  Through Judah will come David and the Messiah.  Judah is the epitome of perfection, well, except for that whole thing that his line would continue through the children that he had with his daughter-in-law.

He didn’t plan it that way.  Judah’s wife had died and he thought he was just making a quick stop with a prostitute on his way to see how the sheep shearing was going.

I think that we have to put Judah in the Hall of Fame because both David and the Messiah come through his line, but they aren’t putting his stats on the back of his baseball card.

Let’s do a quick catch-all here.  All the kids pitched in to loot the Shechemites after Simeon and Levi had killed all of their men. Everyone earned some shame and disgust in that endeavor.

Jacob continued with his blessings and filled the entire lineup card.  Some blessings that were a mix of history and prophecy were less remarkable than others, but we should realize that these are the original heads of the 12 Tribes of Israel that one day would enter and claim possession of the Promised Land.

Remember, Levi’s descendants would not receive a territory but would be distributed among the other tribes as priests.

As I consider this montage of blessings that Jacob pronounced, I am reminded of some rather dubious comments that have surfaced on fitness reports and performance evaluations over the years. Some are legit.  Others might be embellished a bit.

This officer is depriving a village somewhere of its idiot.

Of all the people I have ever known, he is one of them.

This officer is single-handedly responsible for 5 of the last 6 safety standdowns.

His men would follow him anywhere, mostly out of curiosity.

She sets low personal standards and then fails to achieve them.

When his IQ reaches 50, he should sell.

She has the wisdom of youth and the energy of old age.

He has a photographic memory but the lens cover is glued on.

I’m thinking if it was my turn to hear Dad’s blessing for me, I might just say pass.

Are these really the heads of the tribes that would produce God’s Chosen People?  The answer is yes and we should not be surprised. 

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob might be the patriarchs but they were not performance Allstars.  It seems that Jacob’s kids carried on the family tradition.

God chooses people. He is sovereign. He can see the heart. Your GPA, advanced degrees, good looks, the car you drive, and the clothes that you wear don’t sway him one iota.

When God chooses you, you are chosen and that’s that.  He chose you. It’s a done deal and there is no appeal.

Done deal.

No Appeal.

He might have chosen you to do great things or to reveal just how vulnerable we all are.  He might call you to lead in battle or to kneel in prayer. He might call you to teach the wisest of the wise or to bless the most broken among us.

We can make no argument that will sway God. Sound human reasoning didn’t work for Jonah or Moses. Why do you think that your own understanding will convince God of anything, especially of not choosing you?

We all fall short of the glory of God.  God calls us anyway. God chooses us anyway.

Done deal.

No Appeal.

It’s time to get Cumberland. It’s time to use some Cumberland Presbyterian language.  It’s not that prevalent in western Oklahoma, but as you have found your way into this denomination, you should understand a bit about who we are.

We are the denomination that said, we are going to the frontier with the gospel. The rest of those in the Reformed Tradition said, not so fast. You need a good education in Europe.

We said, we are partial to the centers of education in our own country.  We are going west and the gospel is coming with us.

We are going to take the good news to the wild west.  We are going to take the gospel where it is needed the most.

And conventional wisdom said, there’s nobody worthy of receiving it out there. Those seeds will not fall upon fertile soil. It’s a waste of time and effort.

And God said…

And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.

Whosoever will may come!

Who are we to say that another is not worthy of the Spirit of God? Who are we to say no when God says yes?

Who are we to say who is qualified and who is not?

We all have our own histories. We have all fallen short. We by most standards don’t measure up to the right standing of God.

Those standards that do place us in right standing with God are called delusions. We all fall short.

Only in the free gift that comes from God through Christ Jesus that we have received by faith are we made right with God.  It is all his doing.

God is sovereign. God is just. God is merciful. God chose us in spite of ourselves.

God is sovereign.

We can look at Jacob’s sons and think, man those are some screwball blessings for some screwball kids or we can look in the mirror and say, whosoever will may come.

I have preached and will continue to preach that there is one church and Jesus is the head, but sometimes it’s okay to consider some of our uniqueness. It’s time to be a bit more Cumberland Presbyterian today.

“Whosoever heareth,” shout, shout the sound!

Spread the blessed tidings all the world around;

Spread the joyful news wherever man is found:

“Whosoever will may come.”

Refrain:

“Whosoever will, whosoever will,”

Send the proclamation over vale and hill;

’Tis a loving Father calls the wand’rer home:

“Whosoever will may come.”

Whosoever cometh need not delay,

Now the door is open, enter while you may;

Jesus is the true, the only Living Way:

“Whosoever will may come.”

“Whosoever will,” the promise  is secure,

“Whosoever will,” forever must endure;

“Whosoever will,” ’tis life forevermore:

“Whosoever will may come.”

The term that I use to describe Cumberland Presbyterians is unique.  It’s much kinder than saying oddballs or knuckleheads.

When the gospel was headed to the frontier, we were called—not necessarily in a complimentary way—those Whosoevers.

We need to be ok with who we are. We might be more like Jacob’s kids that we want to admit. We need to be who we are. We are those whosoevers who have already come.

If you went to a Billy Graham outdoor event, they would sing Just As I Am as the hymn of invitation.  It’s a good choice and people came out of the bleachers by the thousands.

When we worship or go to camp or finally get to have a bonfire—don’t rule that out.  There will probably be a day when the ground will be covered in snow and the wind is not too bad and you can roast dogs and do smores by a big fire, and we will sing Whosoever Will.

We will sing Whosoever Will here momentarily.  I will tell you that whatever tempo you are singing with, you need to pick it up a bit.  This is our song. It’s an upbeat song.  It’s a message that we should be able to sing with firsthand testimony and enthusiasm.

Whosoever will may come!

Amen.

Gathered to His People

 Read Genesis 49

In the previous chapter, Jacob blessed the two sons of Joseph as if they were his own.  Now he blesses the remaining sons. 

We might describe these blessings as a mixed bag.  There is some history, some prophecy, and some blessings, not all given in equal measure.

Once he had blessed them all, he curled up in his bed and died.

Then he gave them these instructions: “I am about to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave in the field of Ephron the Hittite, the cave in the field of Machpelah, near Mamre in Canaan, which Abraham bought along with the field as a burial place from Ephron the Hittite. There Abraham and his wife Sarah were buried, there Isaac and his wife Rebekah were buried, and there I buried Leah.  The field and the cave in it were bought from the Hittites”

When Jacob had finished giving instructions to his sons, he drew his feet up into the bed, breathed his last and was gathered to his people.

Who is the one true God?

He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  Now all 3 men have passed from this world.  Our syntax has changed from the Father of Many Nations to a Community of Peoples. 

The patriarchs have passed and this people-making business is underway.

All of the patriarchs were buried in the Promised Land.  The place where they were buried had to be purchased for the land was not yet the possession of Abraham’s descendants.

It was important that Jacob be buried in the Promised Land.  Egypt was not his home.  Egypt would be a temporary, 400-year home to the people who were now growing and prospering in Goshen, but it was not home.

It was not the Promised Land.

Jacob’s body would go to the Promised Land, but he would be gathered to his people.  Jacob had some idea about a life after this one. 

We don’t get any real details, but Jacob knew there was something more. Solomon would write that God placed eternity in the hearts of men.

We are promised that in our moment of professing and believing in Jesus, we have crossed over from death to life.

All that we know is based on our sensory existence. We have seen and touched and tasted and smelled and felt the world and we know what we know.  We read and we study. We theorize and calculate and speculate. We make estimates and guestimates, but our existence is bound by this physical world.

Except that it is not.

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.  We believe that there is more and that we will see it and live it and be with God forever.

We believe that we will have not only this life that we can touch and feel but one that currently exists only in our hearts and minds and faith.

Jacob had such faith.  We see him concerned mostly with the trials of his day, but he had faith in God.

He went where God sent him. Whether that was east where he found 4 wives or west to this land of Egypt or the many shorter moves in between. 

Jacob obeyed God and had faith in God. God had blessed Jacob and would continue to bless his children and their children, but Jacob knew there was something more for him.

He would be gathered to his people.    

But how do we know that Jacob lived beyond his days in the flesh?

Jesus was very direct about this when chastising the Sadducees. Remember, that the Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection.

Jesus replied, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.  At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.”

We have grown up with this whole resurrection thing as part of our faith.  I think that the patriarchs did as well, but it was not central to all that they did.  Pleasing God was central. Obeying God was central.  The life to come was just the cost of doing business with an eternal God.

We should rejoice that we have life after death but we should live this life in these bodies completely for God and to please God. We should live to the full and that fullness should bring glory to God.

Let’s end with a prayer of blessing and obedience.

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts.  Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

Amen.

Blessings and Blessed to be a Blessing

 Read Genesis 48

Israel was near death.  Joseph wanted to see his father and for his father to see and surely bless his sons.

Israel had to do some catching up with Joseph and tell him about losing his mother, even though Joseph knew that part.

The biggest thing that he had to say was that Joseph’s sons would be counted as his own sons, at least as much as those not born of his wife Rachael. Hundreds of years later, it would not be a tribe of Joseph being apportioned part of the Promised Land, it would be the tribes of his 2 sons Manasseh and Ephraim.

Why was this important? These children were born in Egypt to an Egyptian mother, but they belonged to Israel—both the man named Jacob and the nation that would emerge from Egypt—just as Reuben and Simeon were his sons.

They were part of God’s promise to become a community of peoples.  This whole Father of Many Nations business would be extended to these children of Joseph as if they were Joseph’s own brothers.

Manasseh and Ephraim would be among the 12 tribes to enter the Promised Land centuries down the road.

Israel blessed both boys the same.

Then he blessed Joseph and said,

“May the God before whom my fathers

    Abraham and Isaac walked faithfully,

the God who has been my shepherd

    all my life to this day,

the Angel who has delivered me from all harm

    —may he bless these boys.

May they be called by my name

    and the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac,

and may they increase greatly

    on the earth.”

This was like one blessing for Josepha and his 2 sons. Ephraim the younger would be greater than his older brother.  Jacob also gave a piece of land in Samaria to Joseph.  What land?

That around Sychar where much, much later Jesus would meet a Samaritan woman at a well he had dug.

There is a bunch of history and blessing and prophecy and some geography in this one chapter along with a little disagreement between Jacob and Joseph.

So, what do we take home from all this?

There are 10 more brothers to bless for one thing.  That’s coming.

Israel is near death.

Joseph’s brothers soon won’t have Dad around to protect them from any retaliation that Joseph might want to take again them.

Those are good but how about we turn back the clock to where this all began.  God blessed Abram to be a blessing.  Those blessings would come mostly to his descendants. 

These descendants would be given an identity with a sign in the flesh.  They would be given directives from God.  They would be given a land promised to them.

The Messiah would come through these descendants.

That’s the history and prophecy, but the lesson that we should think on this week is that as followers of Jesus, we too are blessed to be a blessing.

We as believers in Christ Jesus are grafted into not Moses but Abraham. We are blessed to be a blessing.

In the next service we will talk more about what that might involve, but for now, just think on these words.

Blessed to be a blessing.

This message is short and sweet, almost a mission statement in itself.

We are blessed to be a blessing!

And in keeping with what we started last week, let’s conclude with a blessing.

“The Lord bless you

    and keep you;

the Lord make his face shine on you

    and be gracious to you;

the Lord turn his face toward you

    and give you peace.”’

 

Amen.

God's Plan

Read Genesis 48

How many times do we talk about God’s plan?

We acknowledge it.  Sometimes we accept it.  We are trying to embrace it.

Sometimes our own understanding does a number on us and we resist God’s plan.

God’s plan will prevail, but will we get in step with it.

Articulating God’s plan is easy in the big concept arena, but perhaps more difficult in the details.

We know that it is God’s plan for us to spend eternity with him.

We know that God has good plans for our lives.

We know that we are to be known as followers of Jesus by our love.

We know that we are to profess Jesus as Lord.

We know that we are to take the gospel to the world, or at least our part.

We know that if we want to be great, we must be the servant of all.

We know that we are to be generous.

We know that we are to be a blessing to others.

We know to practice humility.

We know that we are to be bold as we approach the throne of grace.

We know that God wants us to do things his way and for his way not to be a burden.

We know that he wants us to draw near to him.

We know that we are to forgive others.

We know that we are to receive God’s forgiveness with confidence. We are to live as forgiven people.

It’s hard to forgive and forget, but God forgives and forgets our sin.  We know that we should work towards that.

We know that we are to be wise.

We know that we are to make the most of every opportunity.

We know that we are to have purpose in our lives.

We know that we are not to be anxious or worry.

We know that we are to be grateful people.  We are to be a thankful people.

We know that we are to tithe.

We know that our giving must not be something that feels like we are under duress.

We know that the Lord loves a cheerful giver.

We know that we are to make joyful sounds to the Lord.

We know that we are to consider our trials and hardships as pure joy because if we keep the faith, we come out better for it.

We know that there is a crown of righteousness waiting for us in the life to come.

We know that to be away from the body is to be with the Lord.

We know that Jesus has a place already prepared for us.

We know that we are to take the gifts and talents entrusted to us and put them to work to produce a good return for our Master.

We know that we are to greet other believers in a special way and should include some blessings in our greetings with each other.

We know that we are to trust in the Lord with all of our heart.

We know that we are to seek justice but love mercy.

We know that God desires mercy more than sacrifice.

We know that love fulfills the law, and that raised the bar.

We know the answer to the question, who is my neighbor, is to be a neighbor.

We know that we are to keep the Sabbath and we know the Lord of the Sabbath.

We know that we may do good on the Sabbath.

We know that the Sabbath was made for us and not the other way around.

We know not to forsake the gathering together for worship.

We know that the word of God is living and active.

We know that whoever lives in love lives in God and God in them.

We know that perfect loves casts out fear.

We know that anyone who loves God must also love his brother and sister.

We know that sometimes the very best thing for us is to be still and just be in the presence of God.

We know that God will finish the good work that he began in us.

We know that we can have no other gods.  Nothing should come close.

We know to seek God and his kingdom and his righteousness before all things.

We know that God will give us things that the pagans have made into their gods.

We know that where our treasure is, that’s where our heart is as well.

We know we are supposed to love our enemies and pray for them.  That one is sometimes a tough one.

We know that we are not to judge—condemning judgment—others.

We know that we should not return evil for evil but we respond with good.

We know that God’s word will judge the thoughts and attitudes of our lives. They cut to the heart of the matter.

We know that our entire lives are to be a living sacrifice to God and that our lives should be our reasonable acts of worship and service.

We know that not all the seeds that we scatter will land good soil.

We know we are to make disciples, baptize, and teach.

We know that we are to honor our parents.

We know that coveting what others have just messes up everything.

We know that we are keep on praying.  Just because you say amen doesn’t mean you can’t say hello again a few minutes later.

We know that even though we are burdened, Christ will give us rest.

We know that we are to take the yoke of our Master and learn from him.

We know that tomorrow is not promised.

We know we have a promise of eternal life with God.

We know not to end the day angry.

We know quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger.

We know to run the good race, fight the good fight, and to keep the faith.

We know that faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.

We know what Jesus said eternal life was—that we know the one true God and Jesus Christ whom he sent.

We know that in our moment of belief in Jesus we have passed from death to life.

We know that we are part of a body of believers and that each part is no more or less important than the others. We all have our parts and roles to play.

We know that for us, God takes everything that happens to us and uses it for good as we believe in him and have been called according to his purpose.

For all of these broadminded and conceptual things that we know, for all of the specific tasks and examples, I have left out twice as many, surely more.

These are just the ones that came to mind when I was walking into my office.  Well, there was that one day, that it was just Bob Seger and me singing Against the Wind, but mostly these are just the ones that come readily to mind.

But do we know what God wants us to do on Tuesday at 10 am?

What about the following Wednesday at 7:30 am? That one’s too easy, you need to be praying because we are going to have students gathered at flagpoles to pray.  Join them from wherever you are.

Do we know if we really are supposed to get up 30 minutes early each day for prayer and devotion? I’m really not getting enough sleep as it is.

Do we know what God wants us to put on our grocery list? Stuff for tacos is always a good choice, but is it time to do that Keto thing or not?

Do we know if God wants us to buy that new gun or fishing boat or extra bag of deer corn or…  Of course, he does. That one was too easy.

Do we know if we should sign up for three more school or sports commitments this week?

Do we know if we should buy the Blue and Gold fundraiser or the Roadhouse Rolls?

Does that kid who is just a total mess need a hug or a headlock, or both?

Do we know if we should check our Facebook during that song we don’t like or wait until the sermon?

Just how do we do the details of our lives as laid out by God’s plan?

Jacob—Israel—was near death.  Joseph brought his two sons to see him. Manasseh was the older and Ephraim the younger.  They were likely in their twenties.

Jacob gave them the same blessing but his right hand should have been on Manasseh.  That’s the way that Jacob set them before his father.

But Jacob crossed his hands giving preference to Ephraim.  Joseph must have thought that his father couldn’t tell them apart and it upset him a little, but Israel said, no, this is how it is supposed to be.

Remember that Jacob had deceived his own father, Isaac, to get the older son’s blessing.  His mother helped but God had revealed to her that the younger would be the greater.

God’s plan made Jacob the senior in the relationship.  That went over well with his brother, except for the part where Esau wanted to kill Jacob.

Jacob went east and found the woman of his dreams and worked 14 years to get her.  He picked up another wife and a couple of pseudo-wives along the way.

He did come home and he and his brother reconciled, but it was through Jacob’s line that most of the biggest part of the story of God’s Chosen People would be told.

Back to Egypt…

Somehow, Jacob knew who would be the greater. Jacob talked with God as we have noted along the way. He admitted that he had a tough life and sometimes made some mistakes, but somehow God must have told him that this part of the blessing was a part of God’s plan.

We don’t see Ephraim doing greater things later on.  In fact, we see them doing more sinful things.  Ephraim would not only be the name of the tribe Ephraim; it would sometimes reflect the entire Northern Kingdom after Solomon.

What was Ephraim’s greatness? Perhaps it was to show our human frailty.

How would you like God to say that was your mission for today?  Ouch!

But what if that is exactly what we are to do?  It’s not so much that you go do bad stuff or stupid things but that you are to reveal the love of your Heavenly Father in how he welcomed you home from each transgression.

Put that down for your ten o’clock appointment tomorrow!

When we follow Jesus, we are all headed the same way but sometimes God puts us on different paths. What do I mean?

It’s football season, well maybe not in Stillwater.  I don’t know if the Cowboys got the memo, but we will go with a football example.

Football is still a game of X’s and O’s.  You draw them up on the chalkboard which is now a whiteboard and then start drawing arrows.

This guy blocks this guy.  This guy pulls down the line and tries to influence a linebacker. This guy takes the handoff and runs to the number 3 hole.

That’s how it looks on the board.  That’s seldom how it plays out on the field.

Some people are wired to go from point A to point B and block the guy who is standing there whether he is still there or not.

Some people need the rote list of thou shall and thou shalt nots.

Some people see the mission and the intent.  There is nobody in the place where I am supposed to block somebody, so I will go find somebody else.  The runner is supposed to go to my left, so I will push somebody else to my right. 

Maybe I will knock him flat on his back and go block somebody else.

The play is supposed to go through the number three hole but it’s a little crowded.  It might be time for some broken field running.

My favorite illustration of broken-field running is Barry Sanders.  Barry was at OSU a few years after I graduated, but while I was stationed in Iowa training Marine Reservists, a friend was the MOI at Iowa State.

His wife was pregnant and so he had her ticket for me to go to the game.  It was a cold day. It was a close game.  OSU had the ball on their own 20.  Barry was set to the left of the quarterback.  He caught a quick pitch with a defender directly in front of him.

There was a step and a side step and something else and the next thing you knew, Barry was behind the defender with 80 yards of open field.  Barry wasn’t that fast. He was quick and elusive and changed directions 4 times in 3 seconds.

You can’t draw that on anyone’s whiteboard, but Barry knew that he got the ball to get the Cowboys closer to the end zone. He got all the way there on that one.

I’ve seen Barry run 80 yards for a 20-yard gain, but he moved the ball. He understood the intent.

I saw Joe Washington do a bunch of that to my Cowboys too, but I’m going with the Barry Sanders example today.

Sometimes, we get the big picture but don’t know exactly how the details will fall into place day to day.

And that’s just fine.

Sometimes knowing the big picture is all that we need.  God gave us a sound mind.  He gave us the mind of Christ.  If our daily tasks involve leading people to do great things, then lead on.

If it involves revealing vulnerability in ourselves, then start revealing the love of God the Father that we know in Christ Jesus. Share with others how God welcomed you home from your trespasses.

Our human nature wants a text or an email from God with todays to do list. We would probably like to be able that list to take off what we don’t want to do. That’s probably not the way God will communicate, but check your inbox just in case.

Your efforts to seek God and his kingdom and his righteousness will go a long way to discerning the details of the day.

Your efforts to draw near to God will open your eyes to the opportunities of the occasion.

Your inclination to work at everything as if you are working for God and not for men will reveal the relevant steps in God’s plan in the moment.

James taught us not to get married to our own plan.  Planning is fine. In fact, planning is an excellent practice in sharpening our mind, so long as we don’t get anchored to our plan.

When we see God—not our own understanding—leading us somewhere else, we latch on to that direction with our full enthusiasm—as much as we were excited about our own plans.

Do you remember learning Proverbs 16:3?

Commit to the Lord whatever you do,

    and he will establish your plans.

If you are in tune with God and do your best to tune in to what he has already given us, you will have eyes to see the plan of the day for us. You will know God’s plan for us for this day.

We get a whole bunch of liberty in Christ Jesus as we attempt to please God.  Not everything that we can do is profitable, but we have some room for some broken field running.

Commit to the Lord whatever you do,

    and he will establish your plans.

When we can say, it’s all for you Lord, the plan of the day usually just falls into place. It unfolds before our very eyes.

Commit to the Lord whatever you do,

    and he will establish your plans.

Amen.

 

Greetings and Blessings

 Read Genesis 47

There is much protocol in the beginning of this chapter. Even though Joseph was the top dog in all of Egypt, the Pharoah was still the Pharoah.  He was to be accorded the honor and respect due to a head of state.

Joseph schooled his brothers and his father and presented them to the Pharoah.  Note that when Jacob—Israel—met the Pharoah, he blessed him.  When the conversation was over, Jacob blessed him again.

Some of your Bibles might say greet or greeted the Pharoah.  That’s ok and that’s what we will talk about. In formal settings, greetings are often blessings.  Within families, greetings take the form of blessings.

Jacob was deceitful when he received his own father’s blessing, but Jacob also gave blessings as well.  These are different sorts of blessings, but important all the same.

For now, let’s consider the blessing of the Pharoah by Jacob in terms of a greeting.  What happened to that? Where did those sorts of blessings go?

Today, our greetings go like this.

What’s up, Bru?

Dude!  There’s no other verbiage with that one.  It’s just dude.

I won’t even venture into the way that veterans greet each other.  I will only say those seemingly harsh words translate to nothin’ but love.

But where did our greetings of blessing go?

I’m going to jump to the New Testament for a moment, Ephesians 5.

Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.  Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

One of the ways that we can be wise is in how we greet others.  We should make the most of the opportunity.  We should greet with a blessing.  Our hearts should lead the blessings.  We can use psalms or hymns or just let the Spirit lead us.

Do you know who has this down pat?  The Muslims.  How do they greet?

Shalom aleichem are Hebrew words.  They mean peace be upon you.  The Arabic is as-salāmuʿalaikum. It means peace be upon you.

The response is Wa alaikumus-salaam. It means peace to you as well.

It used to be commonplace to say the peace of the Lord be with you, and to respond with and also with you.

We blessed each other in our greetings.

When did we stop greeting people in this way?

Perhaps that’s the wrong question.  When did our language start to sour in our culture?  It could be about the same time that our greetings withdrew from being godly for fear of offending someone.

You only get one chance to make a first impression.  I hope the impression that I make these days is one of being godly and kind and generous.

The Lord be with you.

May God bless you.

Peace to you.

May God bless you and keep you.

I started using May God bless you in the year to come instead of Happy Birthday on Facebook.  I didn’t remember your birthday, but Facebook did, so you might get that greeting.

I think that we all need to be conscious of the fact that there are numerous opportunities in our days to make godly greetings.  It doesn’t have to be a protracted conversation, just a God bless you, peace be with you or something along those lines.

And we can end our conversations in much the same way.  I sometimes end my online chats with Blessings instead of Later Knucklehead.

Our godly greetings can set the tone for what follows or be an apt conclusion to what has transpired.

We should think more about bookending our conversations in person, online, or however they come these days with godly greetings. It’s a thing that we can do at no extra charge.

So, to wrap up this morning…

“The Lord bless you

    and keep you;

the Lord make his face shine on you

    and be gracious to you;

the Lord turn his face toward you

    and give you peace.”’

 

Amen.

 

Eyes to See the Abundance Given to Us

 Read Genesis 47

 

Sometimes, I have to work a little to connect the scripture to our present situation.  I am always on the lookout for where the good news is connected to both the scripture and our situation.  Sometimes—believe it or not—there is a little work involved.

Today is the exception.  This scripture has 21^st Century written all over it.

Joseph saw what was coming.  The Pharoah saw that Joseph was the only man for this monumental job of saving Egypt and bringing it through this time of imminent famine.

Joseph collected one-fifth of the crops for 7 years.  For the next 7, he sold these crops—mostly grain—to Egyptians and to others who came in search of food. The Pharoah was making a nice profit.  Joseph had a monopoly on food.

The problem for the people was that they were out of money. When there is no agriculture, there isn’t much of an economy.  The people were broke and needed food.

What to do?

How about we give you our livestock in exchange for food?  The animals were going to die anyway.  The people needed food for themselves and their livestock.  Grazing in times of famine was not good.

So the people sold all of their livestock to Joseph in exchange for food.  The government owned all of the livestock, except for a few owned by the pagan priests who were subsidized by Pharoah.

The next year the people were out of food again and out of livestock.  What did they have to barter with?

Their land and themselves.  They would become the servants or slaves of Pharoah.  Pharoah would own title to all of the land in Egypt, with a few exceptions.

Pharoah had become more powerful and the Egyptian people had been reduced to slaves who owned nothing. They relied completely upon the government.

They would receive seed to plant once again when the famine passed, but the land was not theirs.  They would pay one-fifth of what they grew to the Pharoah.  The rest they could keep.

This was the same amount that Joseph assessed during the 7 years of abundance, except there was no promise of abundance this time.

Joseph had planned well but the Egyptian people had not.  They were broke and now without property. They had sold themselves into servitude.

They were in a mess, but still alive.

I said earlier that this scripture had our current century written all over it.  How?

We live in a time of abundance.  While we think we don’t have much, we have plenty.  We see others with more and think we don’t have anything.  We covet and dismiss the blessing that we have.

We live in a time of abundance but we have no savings. We have no emergency fund. We have nothing set aside for a rainy day.

I do not think that the famine that was coming in Joseph’s time was a secret.  I’m sure that many dismissed it as a conspiracy theory.

I’m sure that people asked why they had to pay so much in the 7 years of abundance and likely dismissed the years of famine to come as an excuse for the Pharoah to gouge the people with higher taxes.

I do not think that the people were ignorant of the facts.  I think that they did not take prudent measures to provide for hard times.

Today, most families live paycheck to paycheck—direct deposit to direct deposit. Most have little or no savings.  Most are not provisioned for a big expense.

We are not ready for trouble, tribulation, and trials that involve our finances.  For while we live in abundant times, so many have been living as if we had 5 or 10 times the abundance that we really have.

Credit cards, payday loans, student loans, and other easy money traps have snared so many. The money came so easily but it was never really ours.  So many sold themselves into slavery—into indentured servitude to the lender.

Our government has surely set a terrible example.  I am not picking on any single administration.  Our government has overspent for decades. 

In Joseph’s time, the people could have looked to their government for an example. Something’s up.  I had better set aside twenty percent of my income for my rainy-day fund or my hadn’t seen rain for a few years fund.

But how can we do that?  The government already taxes me so I don’t have much left.

Joseph didn’t use a sliding scale. He didn’t say bring your W2 and we will make deductions from what you owe the Pharoah if you can’t afford it.  Twenty percent was twenty percent.

If anyone has eyes to see, you are likely seeing a time of abundance in our nation. There may be high prices and high taxes, but we still have much. We are blessed to have much.

What do we do?  First, we stop living in this fantasy abundance that says we can afford so much more than we can really afford. I can get a loan. I can get another credit card. Everybody’s doing it. 

We might want to set aside twenty percent of our income for those rainy days or those rainless days. That would be our tithe and an additional ten percent for we must not only consider ourselves but the least of these among us.

When you think of Malachi 3:10, consider the image of Joseph’s storehouses full of grain.  Do you remember that Joseph’s managers took in so much grain that they stopped keeping records?

Most of you did not know that for the past 2 years, we have maintained some emergency food beyond that which we keep in our pantry to give away.  This was in case the supply chains were disrupted beyond the inconvenience level.  We never hit that point and now that food is migrating to food baskets so it is put to use before it goes bad.

Most of you did not know this. The few that did, didn’t really pay much attention to it. As I migrate the food into current use, we will decide whether to replenish the storehouse.  It was never enough to feed everyone for every day, but it was enough to provide 2 or 3 meals each week to the community while people figured out how to survive in austere circumstances.

I bring this up now because I want you to ask yourself, did I have to pay extra for this? Were there special offerings for this? Did I have to give money on top of my tithe for this?

The answer is no.  Nothing extra was sought or required.  We made do out of what we had. We are blessed that we didn’t have to go through tough times as did the Egyptians of long ago, but if the church could do this out of a modest budget, couldn’t you do something that would prepare you for hard times?

What sort of preacher would say this?  I don’t need to do this.  Do you know why?

The Lord will provide!

I will tell you that you are absolutely correct. The Lord will provide. The problem is that we are too often blinded to the fact that he has already provided. Consider what he has already provided to us:

·       A sound mind.

·       The Mind of Christ

·       Knowledge, skills, and abilities.

·       For the believer, Spiritual Gifts.

·       Other gifts and talents.

We should be acquiring through our faith and practice:

·       Wisdom.

·       Maturity.

·       Patience.

·       Endurance.

We should be able to handle:

·       Trouble.

·       Adversity.

·       Trials.

·       Tribulation.

Our salvation comes completely as the gift of God but we are full participants in our discipleship. We are fully vested in our discipleship. Our discipleship demands that we put the words of our Master into practice.

We should have a heart to take care of not only our own families but the least of these among us as well.

We should have the wisdom to put our gifts and Spiritual Gifts, our knowledge, skills, and abilities, as well as our experience to work to produce good returns for the body of Christ.  In so doing we bring glory to God.

We should not be deceived by the ways of the world that call us to sell ourselves into slavery by our debt.

We should see that we have abundance now but we must not live in opulence.

We are not too far away from our annual journey down the Parable of the Talents, so I won’t talk too much now about taking that which has been entrusted to us and putting it to work to produce a good return for our Master.

We have been following the story of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—Israel.  We know that a time of slavery and hardship is coming for them, but along the way, note that the Egyptian people brought hardship and slavery upon themselves by living above their means and having nothing to sustain them in times of hardship.

They did this willingly.  It all seemed so natural to them.

Do not leave this place thinking that I have said, we can face any trial on our own.  We have our part to play as part of our discipleship. We also trust in the Lord completely and that trust in him is what should give us eyes to see what we have already been given.

Sometimes that trust means setting aside something in times of abundance for times of hardship. We don’t set it aside because we don’t trust God but because we do.  We see what God is trusting us with now.

Sometimes, living life to the full doesn’t mean getting all of the worldly stuff that we can but applying all of the gody wisdom that we have acquired.

Sometimes living the abundant life involves putting into practice those things that God has been teaching us. Who’d a thunk it?

Yes, the Lord will provide for you but we should have eyes to see where he has already done that and put what he has given us to work.

So there is your pump me up to do great things based on a lesson we hope we learn from ancient Egypt instead of our own mistakes, but it seldom works that way.

We know what to do and yet we struggle. Academically, we learn the lesson but in practice, we have built our houses upon the sand.

We must pray that God grants us eyes to see the abundance that we have.  If we can see it, we will act upon it.

If we remain myopic in our human vision—our ever-so-natural state—we will only see what gratifies us in the moment.

Lord, grant us eyes to see the abundance you have provided.

For most of a year now we have been in the book of Genesis.  Much of that time has been following the story of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 

Today, your main lesson comes from the Egyptians. They had no real god and they sold themselves into slavery.

Our country seems to be headed down the same road. We must let the Lord direct our steps. We must seek the Lord, draw near to him, and have eyes to see what he is giving us right now to provision us in the days ahead.

We must have eyes to see the abundance that he has given us and be wise in putting it to work.

Amen.