02/18/01 - The Will of God

The Will of God
February 18, 2001
St. John United Methodist Church
Rose McLean

Today’s lectionary scriptures are two of the most familiar in the Bible. The Gospel lesson includes what is commonly known as the Golden Rule: Do to others as you would have them do to you. The Old Testament lesson from Genesis is the conclusion of the Joseph stories. I believe these two stories give good illustrations of God’s will for our lives and how that is played out. In addition to the scriptures, one of my primary resources for this sermon is this classic book by Leslie Weatherhead, THE WILL OF GOD. This little book was written the same year that I was born—1944—a great year for classics!

You may be familiar with the Joseph stories, but that won’t deter me from reminding you of them. The are found in Genesis chapters 37-45. You remember Joseph was the great-grandson of Abraham. His grandfather was Isaac and his father was Jacob. Jacob had two wives, two concubines, twelve sons, and at least one daughter, Dinah, who is the subject of the popular novel, THE RED TENT. Joseph was his father’s favorite son, not only because he was born to him in his old age, but also because his mother, Rachel, what his father’s favored wife.

This part of the family saga begins when Joseph was seventeen. Everything we learn about Joseph in these first few verses help us understand why his brothers hated him. First, he took every opportunity to bring bad reports to Jacob about his brother’s behavior. He was a tattletale. Next, his father showed his favoritism by giving him a specially made robe—one with long sleeves. I suppose the brothers just had to make do with the basic vest type style, while Joseph no doubt pranced around flaunting his fancy duds and therefore his father’s indulgence toward him. Oh, those brothers hated him. The Scripture says they never had a kind word to speak to him. But this was not a problem to young Joseph. No sir. He just couldn’t wait to tell them about the dreams he had. "See," he said, "we were all out in the field harvesting the wheat and tying it up in sheaves and all of a sudden MY sheaf stood up and yours all formed a circle around it and bowed down." "And then I dreamed that the sun, moon, and eleven stars were all bowing to me."

So the brothers hated him even more because of his arrogance.

One day, the brothers were all out tending Jacob’s flock, and Joseph went to check on them for his father. No doubt hoping to find them doing something foolish so he could tell Jacob. When the brothers saw him coming, they plotted to kill him, throw his body in a dry well, cover his robe with blood, and tell Jacob that he had been killed by a wild animal. The oldest son, Reuben, persuaded them to just throw him in the well but not kill him and planned to go back later to save him. But before he could carry out the rescue a caravan of traders on their way to Egypt came through and the brothers reasoned that they could sell Joseph into slavery. They would be rid of him and make a tidy profit at the same time! They took the bloody robe to Jacob, breaking his heart, and hardening their own.

In the meantime, Joseph ends up in Egypt and becomes a servant in the house of Potiphar, who was captain of the palace guard. The scripture says, "The Lord was with Joseph and made him successful." He gained the trust of his master and all was going well, until Potiphar’s wife tried to seduce Joseph. When Joseph humiliated her by rebuffing her advances, she trumped up a charge of attempted rape and he was sent to prison. While in prison, he had opportunity to interpret a couple of dreams correctly and eventually was remembered when the King had some troubling dreams that needed interpretation. The next thing we know, Joseph is predicting the seven years of plenty and the seven years of famine and is put in charge of storing up enough food to see the country through the famine and in the meantime becoming a very powerful ruler in Egypt--second only to the Pharoah.

The famine effected not only Egypt, but the surrounding areas as well, and Jacob’s family began to suffer. Word had spread that there was food in Egypt so everyone was going there to buy food

The brothers had not yet recognized Joseph and after a second trip to settle some business, Joseph finally revealed his true identity to them. One can only imagine how frightened they were at this point. After all, they plotted to kill him and finally sold him into slavery. In that part of the world, vengeance was the law.

But Joseph not only didn’t seem to hold their actions against them. He forgave them because, he explained, he believed what they had done was the will of God. He seemed to believe that God knew there would be a famine in the future and in order for the family to survive someone had to be in Egypt to save them all. I suggest to you that whereas Joseph may have been a great governor and a forgiving brother, he wasn’t a very good theologian.

Leslie Weatherhead’s premise is that understanding the will of God isn’t only a head trip, but a necessary head trip because when tragedy strikes, and it will, to have already done some of the theologizing helps us through those times of suffering. It’s like talking to your kids about sex before they become interested in dating. Doing some of the head work now, may help us with the heart work later.

Let’s look now at Weatherhead’s theology. Weatherhead believes it is helpful to understand the will of God in three parts: the INTENTIONAL will of God, the CIRCUMSTANTIAL will of God, and the ULTIMATE will of God.

The intentional will of God is God’s ideal plan for us and the planet. God plans for us to be followers and believers and to act in accordance to God’s will. That would include the Golden Rule and the other teachings of Jesus. When everyone acts according to those teachings, God’s intentions, God’s ideal plans are more likely to be realized.

However, in real life, there are always circumstances. Circumstances caused by weather, disease and illness, and most often by humanity not living according to God’s plan. It is during these times, during these circumstances, that God’s circumstantial will comes into play. It’s as if these bad things happen, things that God neither planned nor wanted to happen, but when they do, God redeems them.

Let’s think of some examples: perhaps someone has a family member who died of a particular disease. Someone close to that family, perhaps a son or daughter was so affected by that that they went to medical school and were involved in research to find a cure for the illness. Do we say that it was God’s will that a particular person suffer and die from an illness so that a cure could be found. No. It is never God’s will for bad things to happen. I don’t believe that God is not capable of evil. But God can redeem a bad situation, a circumstance, by challenging someone to respond in such a way to bring healing and wholeness to others. God’s intervention into a circumstance can bring about God’s ultimate will.

Let’s look again to the Joseph story. Was it God’s will that Joseph be an arrogant brat who antagonized his brothers to the point that they gave in to greedy, selfish, unforgiving actions. I don’t think so. I think Joseph was a spoiled younger brother. Probably not the way God would have wanted him to be. I think the brothers were jealous, again, not a part of God’s plan. I think the brothers over-reacted when they planned to kill and finally sold Joseph. I don’t think it was God’s plan for them to hurt their father in this way nor to jeopardize their brother’s safety.

But all of these things happened because we have free will. We can choose to act in ways that are not pleasing to God nor part of God’s plan. But that’s not the end of the story. Otherwise, evil wins out over good. Weatherhead believes that God’s will will ultimately prevail. Do you? Do you believe that in the final analysis good will overcome evil? Do you live in hope?

But in the meantime, there is no doubt that we see the appearance of evil winning out over good. Such was the case in the Joseph story. All of the brothers, including Joseph, were at fault to some degree. But God’s circumstantial will was at play here. They just weren’t evil enough to overpower God. Few of us are no matter how hard we try. God was able to use the consequences of their evil decisions and turn it into good. That is, God redeemed their actions. Using the gifts of Joseph’s leadership skills and his ability to interpret dreams gave life not only to Egypt, but also to Joseph’s family.

What can we learn from this story? I think there are at least two lessons. First, although we aren’t as insightful and creative as God, we are created in God’s image. I hope that when we find ourselves in circumstances that are hurtful or painful, you know, when bad things happen to us good people, that we will think creatively and try to redeem some good from a bad situation. That we do to others as we would have them do to us.

And if we don’t have the energy or wisdom to do that, the second lesson we can learn is to be open to God’s creative redemptive acts. Asking ourselves where do we see God at work in a particular situation? Always reminding ourselves that God doesn’t create bad situations so that God’s redemption can take place, but that God acts within unfortunate circumstances to assure that evil does not overcome good.

The cross, of course, is the best example of God’s redemptive acts. God’s plan was for people to follow Jesus, not kill him. For awhile there, evil had the upper hand, but not for long. While Jesus was on the cross, he didn’t just give up and die, he gave forgiveness to the Roman soldiers, assurance to the thief, and entrusted the care of his mother to John. He died teaching that death didn’t have the final victory. Life and love did. An abundant life of forgiveness, assurance, and trust. All of that is still alive today. We experience the presence of Christ in our midst.

I don’t know God’s specific will for you and I’m not always sure of God’s specific will for me. But I do know that God is good all the time, that God’s cares for each of us, and that God wants us to practice the Golden Rule so that God’s ultimate will will be realized.

The St. John Web Site needs your input! Click here to leave feedback

Site statistics.