Epiphany
7C: Gen. 45:3-11, 15; Luke 6:27-38 St. Paul’s, 2/24/2019
Jim
Melnyk: “The Family Business”
“Who is closer to God,” the seeker asked,
“the saint or the sinner?” “Why the sinner, of course,” the elder said. “But
how can that be?” the seeker asked. “Because,” the elder said, “every time a
person sins they break the cord that binds them to God. But every time God
forgives them, the cord is knotted again. And so, thanks to the mercy of God,
the cord gets shorter and the sinner closer to God.”[1]
Joan Chittister,
who gives us this story of God’s mercy, tells us that “This Society is locked
in mortal combat between mercy and justice. On which side must we err,” she
asks, “if err we must? Which side do we want for ourselves when we cut corners,
bend the rules, break the codes, [and] succumb to needs not being met in other
places and ways?”[2] Most of
us, I suspect, would like to be treated mercifully – especially when we mess up
– especially when we deserve judgment – especially, I’m thinking, when the
response of justice would be to call us down on the carpet. Offering mercy to
someone else – offering mercy to someone who has wronged us – well, that’s a
tougher sell for most people.
Jesus certainly
points us time and again to the bond that unites us to God – and how when we’ve
broken that bond God’s forgiveness knots that bond back together. But Jesus
also speaks to us about the bond we share with one another as children of God.
Jesus knows so well that we often find those bonds that tie us together torn
asunder. He speaks to us about ways of seeking one another’s forgiveness and
finding ways of retying those broken bonds.
Jesus tells us,
“…love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you….
Do to others as you would have them do to you…. Your reward will be great, and
you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the
wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful….”[3]
Episcopal priest
and spiritual director Martin Smith sees our gospel lesson’s call to be
merciful and forgiving as a way of following in the footsteps of Jesus –
carrying out a ministry of reconciliation. He writes, “In today’s gospel
passage we are urged to be children of God by working, so to speak, in the
family business.” Smith explains, “In the society in which Jesus lived, most
production was domestic, in family businesses where even little children were
hard at work. It is still this way with many societies today…. And so it would
have been for Jesus, the little apprentice, alongside his sisters and brothers
in Joseph’s construction business.”[4]
But then we come
to the relationship Jesus shares with God, whom Luke tells us is the heavenly
father of Jesus. Smith builds upon his family business metaphor: “The Holy
One’s family business is reconciliation, risky solidarity, and love that is
unconditional and generous—a business that is indifferent to profit or even
breaking even. What a strange business model! But it is God’s—and if we are to
be part of the company…‘God and Family: Distributors of Unconditional Love,’
then we must get down to business, and demonstrate our resemblance to the
Creator.”[5]
We’re challenged
to ask ourselves, “What exactly does my family business look like?” Over the
past five weeks we’ve been taking a look at what it would mean for our world to
turn away from the false god of the Dominion Mandate in order to embrace a
model of tikkun olam – what is for
me, another way of describing the subversive nature of the kingdom of heaven –
where any dominion practiced is done so in the grace and mercy of God. Domination
and tikkun olam are two world views
that do not mix.
The Dominion
Mandate, at its worst interpretation from the early verses of Genesis, demands its
own form of justice on behalf of humankind; with mercy reserved only for those
at the top of the creation food chain. And all too often the Dominion Mandate
expounds a male-dominated theology, and a male-dominated cry for justice, believing
the needs and desires of certain groups to be vastly more important than either
other people or the environment around us. Proponents see themselves as the
pinnacle of God’s creation, and therefore the created world and any lesser
beings must bow to their needs – to their desires – to their hopes and dreams.
We see the
brokenness of the Dominion Mandate whenever we choose a healthy bottom-line
over care for our planet – whenever we let suspicion and fear overrule our love
for our neighbor – whenever we turn away the sojourner among us in an attempt
to insulate us from those whom we believe are different from us – whenever we
find ourselves denying others the very mercy we long for ourselves when our
lives take a hard turn.
Both Chittister and Jesus, however, speak to us about a
different sort of mandate – a divine mandate. Franciscan priest Joe Nangle sees
that mandate acted out in our faith stories more than one thousand years before
the birth of Christ: “God's Word today confronts us with [a] mysterious,
demanding, and, yes, elusive divine mandate,” writes Nangle. It is the “divine
mandate” of forgiveness. Nangle points us toward Joseph, whom we read about
this morning. Joseph, the one of “multicolored coat” fame. Joseph, who “receives
with open arms the very brothers who had plotted his death and sold him into
slavery.”[6]
Joseph has every right to demand justice from his
brothers who had betrayed him – and because of that they stand before Joseph in
Egypt fearful of their lives. They expect justice, as only betrayers might
understand, and instead Joseph bursts into tears at the sight of them. He is
different from his brothers. “Joseph no sooner reminds his brothers of their
great sin (v. 4) than he renounces retribution…. The last word [for Joseph and
for us] is a word of life, not death.”[7]
Later in the story Joseph will say to his brothers, “Have no fear! Am I a
substitute for God? Besides, although you intended me harm, God intended it for
good, so as to bring about…the survival of many people.”[8]
In other words, Joseph is merciful as God is merciful – something a Torah
Observant Jesus will call us to centuries later.
Had the phrase been around in the time of Joseph and his
brothers we might have said Joseph’s response to his brothers was an act of tikkun olam – an act of repairing their
broken and frightful world. Not only are the brothers forgiven for their
treatment of Joseph, but the whole of Israel – a small family clan at this
point – the whole of Israel is saved from starvation. This is tikkun olam – this is repairing the
breach – repairing the world – and it is God’s dream for not only each of us,
but for the whole of creation.
Isn’t that what Jesus is saying to us in today’s reading
from Luke? When faced with the actions of others, do we end up believing
ourselves to be substitutes for God, bringing some kind of divine retribution,
or do we find ourselves imitating the divine compassion of God –
embracing what Nangle calls a
divine mandate of forgiveness? Isn’t that precisely what Jesus is talking about
when he teaches, “Do to others as you would have them do to you,” and in
conjunction with that wisdom, “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”?[9]
The
elder in our opening story tells the seeker, “Every time a person sins they
break the cord that binds them to God. But every time God forgives them, the
cord is knotted again. And so, thanks to the mercy of God, the cord gets
shorter and the sinner closer to God.”[10]
If we, when we feel broken and lost, can seek out God and have the cord that
binds us together knotted again, could we really ask anything less for others?
For that reason – recalling the hope of God that the whole of creation find
peace – perhaps we can now imagine ourselves tying knots – strengthening the
bonds we share with one another as children of God.
[1] Joan
Chittister. 40 Stories to Stir the
Soul. (Erie, PA, Benetivision, 2010) 52
[2] Ibid
[3]
Luke 6:27-28a, 31, 35-36
[4]
Martin Smith, (Sojourners Online, Preaching the
Word,
2/24/2019) https://sojo.net/preaching-the-word/family-business?parent=227317.
Accessed on January 6, 2019
[5]
ibid
[6] Joe
Nangle, “An Elusive Mandate,” https://sojo.net/preaching-the-word/elusive-mandate?parent=227317.
Accessed January 9, 2019
[7] Gen.
45:4-8 n
[8]
Gen. 50:19-20
[9]
Lk. 6:31, 36
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