They thought about killing him, but one of the older brothers, “the reasonable one”, being reasonable, convinced the others, just to sell him into slavery to some traveling traders that came by. They told their parents he was killed by wild animals. Joseph went to Egypt and being an enterprising young man, who convinced the Pharaoh he could divine the meaning of dreams, made himself indispensible to the Pharaoh. A famine hit the land, a famine Joseph had predicted, and he put himself in charge of stocking up provisions so the people would not die, and passing out food to the people.
Joseph’s brothers traveled from their far away home. Long story short, they asked their brother for food, not knowing he was their brother. They didn’t initially recognize him, but he recognized them, and after playing with them a little, he revealed himself to them. When they realized he was their brother, they figured he would hold a grudge and let them starve to death.
But he did not. He had a kind place in his heart for his parents, and his baby brother, and he forgave his older brothers with these words: 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.”
You planned evil, but God used those plans for good, easy now, you have nothing to fear, I’ll take care of you. These are words to live by, by my friends. These are words that say simply: “I forgive you.” No matter what horrible, evil thing you have done to me, I have a choice. I can live my life being eaten up by hatred, caused by your evil actions, OR I can put my trust in God. I can leave you to God, and let my live be filled with love and forgiveness for you, and get on with my life, and that is what I choose. You see if we want healthy relationships we choose forgiveness. Now, this does not mean we allow ourselves to stay in relationships with people that walk all over us. But it does mean, that we do not allow ourselves to wallow in our anger. We move on. And we ask God to so fill us with love, that there is no room left for hatred and anger.
Because you see when people are truly evil, and they hurt us, it is really their problem. Something is wrong with them. They are hurting, and broken. Usually their actions are based in wrong thinking or ignorance, because they have been hurt themselves. They are to be pitied. But it is not our place to judge. We leave them to God.
Let me use this story, from history, as an example. Back in 1963, in Birmingham, Alabama, four white men, were enraged, because the world was changing around them. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his colleagues were using Birmingham as a major base of operations for the movement to end racial segregation. The integration of the schools had just begun. Birmingham had earned the name “Bombingham” because of the activity of the Ku Klux Klan there. Governor George Wallace was doing everything he could to block the integration of the schools. He told the “New York Times that a “few first-class funerals” would stop integration in his state, and the Klan apparently agreed with the governor.” (http://www.newsinhistory.com/blog/% E2%80%98oh-god- they-bombed-our-church%E2%80%99)
So on September 15, 1963, four Klan members placed a box of dynamite under the church steps of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church steps. That day, twenty-six children were attending Sunday school class in the basement at the church, centered on the day’s sermon: “The Love That Forgives.” Isn’t that ironic When the bomb exploded, four girls were killed: Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley, all 14, and Denise McNair, 11. It was the deadliest single act of terror of the civil rights movement. Two other young men lost their lives that day in related acts of violence to bring the total loss of lives to 6.
A news report from the day says that as soon as they started carrying the bodies of the girls out of the wreckage, predictably there was chaos, and people were angry, they started shouting words of hate. The Rev. Charles Billips and the church pastor, the Rev. John Cross, got on police megaphones. Cross began the Lord’s prayer: “Our Father, Who art in heaven…” “Go home and pray for the men who did this evil deed,” said Billips. “We must have love in our hearts for these men.” (http://www.newsinhistory.com/blog/%E2% 80%98oh-god-they-bombed-our-church%E2%80%99). Can you imagine having the peace of mind to say that?
Dr. King came right away from Atlanta. He urged the federal government to intervene to protect the people of Birmingham from further violence and as always, he called upon the people in his movement to work for justice using non-violent means. King was a follower of Jesus with deep convictions that we must work for justice, and do so with love in our hearts, even for those who hurt us. He was adamant that we must never use violence.
He preached at the funeral for three of the little girls, (one had a separate funeral service). In his eulogy, Dr. King was clear, as always, that followers of Jesus must take the higher ground in the face of hatred. He knew that it was only a matter of time before the laws of our nation would change, the schools would be integrated, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 would be passed. Of course, we still have a long way to go in dealing with systems of racism and oppression, but we gained some essential legal victories during those days, and the hearts and minds of many American people turned during that time.
But it was a hard fight, some of you remember it more clearly than the rest of us. And it took leaders and followers with a strong moral compass. And it took compassion and forgiveness. You see, in an argument, there ARE sometimes people who are right and people who are wrong. Sometimes we fight over things that are a matter of opinion, like whether or not a movie was good, right? Nobody is right or wrong. But some things really are evil, without question.
But it takes time for a group of people, a community, or a nation, to come upon an agreement over that. And still there will always be some who disagree. And so Dr. King and others like him had to step forward, 50 years ago, had to be the leaders who will say: “we must stand by our principles and fight for justice, but we must not be swallowed up by our anger.”
We are followers of Jesus. We are people of love. And people of love find the strength to forgive. We understand that our enemies are ignorant. They are wrong, but they will come to see that they are wrong, one by one, family by family, as we pass laws, as we change hearts and minds, and as we take the higher ground, they will see the error of their ways, they will see the error of their ways.
At the funeral for those little girls Dr. King said this: “They did not die in vain. God still has a way of wringing good out of evil. . . . “The spilled blood of these innocent girls may cause the whole citizenry of Birmingham to transform the negative extremes of a dark past into the positive extremes of a bright future. Indeed this tragic event may cause the white South to come to terms with its conscience. . . .“In spite of the darkness of this hour, we must not despair. We must not become bitter, nor must we harbor the desire to retaliate with violence. No, we must not lose faith in our white brothers. Somehow we must believe that the most misguided among them can learn to respect the dignity and the worth of all human personality.” (http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/m_r/randall/ birmingham.htm)
If you had been a black person living in the South back in September 1963, would you have been able to forgive, and keep working peacefully for justice? I won’t ask you to put yourself in the shoes of the family of those four little girls; that would be too hard. Just imagine that you lived in Birmingham. Could you be like Jesus and have enough love in your heart, to have pity on those bigoted, Ku Klux Klan members, who really did not know any better? Could you forgive them? It’s hard; I know. But having hate in our hearts does not help anyone. Those men were criminals and they deserved to go to prison, but they were also caught up in a system that was way bigger than them. And loving Christian people understand that God can take a horrible, tragic, evil situation, and use it for good.
That awful, awful tragedy in Birmingham was a turning point. It was a day that shocked the world. It uncovered the ugliness of racism, and segregation, and the remnants of slavery that we thought we had overcome with the Civil War but, my friends those remnants were still with us in 1963, and they are still with us today. And no one believes it was a good thing that those little girls died, but we can be bold to forgive the men who set that bomb because it is the way of Jesus to forgive.
This week, a billboard went up, actually 9 of them, by a local mega church, that says: “Being gay is NOT a gift from God, Forgiveness, Love and Eternal Life are.” A mega church put these up in response to one billboard put up by our sister church, Central United Methodist Church, that said, “we believe being gay is a gift from God.” They were trying to make the point people are created gay and that creation is a gift and so whether we are created gay or straight it’s all part of God’s good creation. Creation is a blessing from God.
The pastor of the mega church thinks this message is not the truth so his church put up the other billboard. He wrote on his blog that he has never met gay person who could look him in the eye and say they were happy to be gay. So now the debate is going on the internet, the TV news, etc. A bunch of folks planned to get dressed up in their Sunday best clothes and go hold up signs near the entrance of the mega church today that said: “I’m gay and happy to be gay!” They wanted him to know they are happy and healthy and Christian and Gay.
Now it would be easy for us to get angry. It would be easy for that protest today to have gotten ugly. That was not the plan, and so I pray that did not happen. But there was a time in this world, when well-intentioned Christian people were on the wrong side of the argument of whether or not black people are of the same value to God as white people. Well intentioned people were on the wrong side of that argument.
Today, some people think that gay people are going to Hell, unless they change their ways. I am sad for those people, because they are misguided and ignorant. The world is changing around them. They grew up in another time and now they must adjust. We used to think gay folks were deviant. And now we know you are beloved children of God just like the rest of us. We know that to be true, I know that to be true.
And by the way the bigots are beloved children of God too. So as followers of Jesus, we are called to forgive them, and love them, and to pray that one day, they will get this one right. Not to just be eaten up by hate. We can pray to God for them to be changed, to be on the right side of this, or to judge them.
Joseph said to his brothers: You threw me into a well. You meant it for evil. But now my people are starving and I am in a position to feed all of you. You meant it for evil, but the joke’s on you. God has turned your evil into good. I forgive you.
May God fill us with love, so that we are bold to forgive, so there is no more room to hate, and so that they can be in a position to love some day too. Amen.
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