Sermon by Michael R. Martin
First United Methodist Church of Saranac Lake, NY
Our old testament reading begins the tale of Joseph as told by his father, Jacob. This is the start of the story of Joseph and the Coat of Many Colors. (Ref: Keith Kogut’s spectacular performance in the high school rendition of the play last year). Joseph was just 17 when the story begins – I imagine just about the age Keith was when he gave his performance.
Our reading says Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons (Remember Israel is Jacob, for God had given Jacob the name Israel after he had wrestled with God and returned to Bethel), “Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him at an old age; and he made a richly ornamented robe for him.” Joseph, you see, was the baby in the family, the last child, and its not hard to imagine how he was loved. We, too, sometimes lavish extra attention on the baby in the family, even as he or she grows up. We wouldn’t say we love them anymore than the others, but I think it is just a natural human tendency. Well, when Joseph’s brothers saw this, that their father loved Joseph more than any of them, they hated Joseph and could not speak a kind word. It pissed them off! To make matters worse, one day as our tale begins the brothers and Joseph were all out tending the flocks together and Joseph runs home with a “bad report” about them.
On another day, Israel sends Joseph back out to meet with his brothers who are tending the sheep. The brothers had moved the flocks from where they started, but when Joseph finally catches up to them, the brothers see him coming and make fun of him “Here comes that dreamer!” And the brothers plot to kill him and throw him into one of the cisterns, after which they will tell a story of a ferocious animal that devoured him.
I always thought a cistern was a large jar for holding water, but its much more than that. Up until fairly recent times, towns and villages in more arid regions such as the Middle East relied on surface water collected from the winter rains and stored in man-made reservoirs called cisterns. Communities constructed large cisterns and each home would typically have its own. Community and household cisterns were generally carved out of rock, below ground, with bell-shaped, pear-shaped, or bottle-shaped interiors. Some of them were quite large. Rainwater was collected from roofs and courtyards and directed into the cisterns. Sometimes the rainwater was directed through some form of sediment basin to settle out solid materials first. A 1921 census of Jerusalem found 7,000 cisterns in use. In recent times, cisterns have fallen out of use and become filled with sediment and debris, since it is far easier to open a faucet tap then haul buckets from the cistern. Some middle-eastern towns still require a cistern with each new house, although the owners would fill them now with a hose rather than rainwater.
So, anyway, the brothers are plotting to kill Joseph and throw him into a cistern. Yet one brother, Rueben, acted to spare his life by suggesting they just throw Joseph into one of the cisterns alive rather than to kill him first. (Rueben was planning to come back later and rescue Joseph and return him to his father.) So the brothers grabbed Joseph, stripped him of his richly ornamented robe, and threw him into an empty cistern. A bit later that day, a caravan of Ishmaelites approaches. The caravan was on its way to Egypt, the camels loaded with spices, balm and myrrh that they had acquired in Gilead. Joseph’s brother Judah suggests they sell Joseph to the Ishmaelites. The brothers agree, Joseph is sold for twenty shekels of silver, and he is taken along to Egypt with the other goods. Rueben, by the way, apparently did not take part in the sale of Joseph, for in the next passage following our reading Rueben returns to the cistern and finds Joseph gone and yells at his brothers, “The boy isn’t there! Where can I turn now?”
I wondered how much Joseph was worth as a slave. A shekel was not only a coin but a measure of weight, about 2/5 of an ounce. I have no idea what 20 shekels of silver might have been worth at the time of our story. But the twenty shekels paid by the Ishmaelites for Joseph was 8 ounces of silver, which would be worth about $100 at today’s depressed silver prices. In our time, silver prices peaked around 1980 at $25 an ounce, when Joseph would have cost us $500. And you can go on the internet and buy actual shekel coinage from 93 BC for between $315 to $415. So if you had to pay for Joseph today, using actual shekels, you would shell out $8,000.
Our passage from Romans speaks of righteousness, proclaiming and confessing of faith, and includes the wonderful passages: “For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved” and “For there is NO difference between Jew and Gentile – the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him.”
“It is with your heart that you believe and are justified.” Justification here does not refer to our common definition of the word, being proven right, but refers instead to God’s justifying grace. Justifying grace describes what God does when we come to faith – providing a lasting relationship between us and God.
There are generally considered to be three forms of God’s GRACE – God’s gift to humankind. God’s Prevenient Grace is with all of us from birth, preparing us for a new life in Christ. Prevenient means “coming before.” It is what guided each of us from birth on the path of life before we even knew we were on a path seeking God. Here is what John Wesley said about Prevenient Grace in his "Free Grace" sermon:
So we are all born into Prevenient Grace – God looking out for us if you will. But we are free to accept or reject God's justifying grace. When we experience or accept justifying grace, we come into a new life in Christ.
And in case you are wondering what comes after Justifying Grace, it is Sanctifying or sustaining Grace. It is the cycle of repentance and faith we continually repeat as we struggle to walk just a little closer with God.
We don’t often focus on the lectionary Psalm in our worship and meditations, other than our Act of Praise. Our Psalm for the day, Psalm 105, also recounts the story of Joseph sold to slavery, released by the king, and made master of the king’s household, ruler over all the king possessed, and free to teach the king’s princes as he pleased and teach wisdom to the king’s elders. More importantly, the Psalm opens by speaking of giving thanks to the Lord, calling on His name, and making known among the nations what He has done. Sing praises to him, tell all of his wonderful acts. Look to the Lord and his strength and seek His face always.
And then we have the reading from Matthew, Jesus Walks on the Water. The story takes place after Jesus had fed the multitudes – five thousand men, PLUS woman and children – with five loaves of bread and two fish. Following this, Jesus makes his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side of the lake, while he dismisses the crowed. At long last Jesus finds the solitude he so desperately sought, as he went up a mountainside to pray. By evening, Jesus is still alone on the mountainside, and the boat with the disciples is far from land, buffeted by the waves and the wind. During the fourth watch of the night (the morning watch, from 3AM to 6AM – some call it the darkest time of the night, but having risen early in the fourth watch many times myself, it could also be as the sky is beginning to lighten). During the fourth watch of the night, Jesus walks out to the boat, on the lake, and the disciples are afraid, thinking it is a ghost. Jesus tells them to not be afraid, but Peter replies, “Lord, if it is you, tell me to come to you on the water.” When Jesus says “Come” Peter walks on the water toward Jesus, but begins to sink when he becomes frightened by the wind. “Lord, save me!,” Peter cries, and Jesus reaches out his hand and catches him. Jesus, probably a bit disappointed, asks, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” The wind dies down as Jesus and Peter climb back into the boat, and the disciples worship Jesus, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”
So how does this all come together: Brothers hating brother, plotting to kill and selling one off into slavery; Romans reminding us that it is with our hearts that we believe and are justified, and it is with our mouths that we confess and are saved, and the Lord is the Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him; the Psalm calling us to give thanks and praise to the Lord and making His works known among the nations; and lastly Jesus walking on the water, calming the sea, but more importantly lifting up Peter as his faith falters and he begins to sink?
Taken apart, each reading has a story and a lesson to tell in its own right, but as the person in the pulpit I have tried to reflect on the meaning of the collective word. So here is what it says to me, and here is the message I offer to you. When I think about the story of Joseph and his brothers, I recall those times when I, too, like the brothers have been caught up in pride and fear and jealousy and all those things that must have motivated their actions. And I think of Joseph, who as near as I can tell was not particularly religious, and probably had no reason to suspect his brothers would go to such lengths to be rid of him. Joseph knew not of his fate but God had a plan for Joseph and God’s prevenient grace was at work to see it through. I only pray that those times in my life when I have acted as shamefully as the brothers that God was watching over those I wronged.
I don’t know about you, but there are times when I have doubts, when my faith fails. Much like Peter walking out on the lake towards Christ, I have looked around, felt the wind of the world, and began to doubt. One of the strongest religious experiences I have had in my adult life came one night, in the back of a dimly lit church following an evening service. I was sitting towards the back of the church, watching flames flickering on the alter, and pondering all of my doubts in my head: What if there IS no God? What if Jesus was just a man, or worse just a story? What if it is just some strange biochemical reaction in our brains that makes us sometimes feel “strangely warmed” by Christ’s presence? Low blood sugar, who knows? And when I could take all this rattling around in my head no longer, I spoke to the one person in the pew in front of me, in fact the only other person in the back half of the church where I sat. I said, “What if it’s all a lie?” And I don’t recall her exact first response, but this woman, a visiting pastor from Vermont, essentially told me it was okay to doubt. In fact, having faith does not mean checking your mind at the door. God would want you to explore and question and come to believe on your own terms. And we only spoke briefly, but when I leaned back I found that my fears and doubts were gone, and my mind was finally quiet – something I had been seeking for a long long time.
And so, this is what I think it means to be a Christian: it means we strive recognize our faults and our failings, we understand that as humans we will fall, but try not to use that as an excuse. And most importantly, and I still need to work on this part, always turn to Christ for a return of strength in faith, and to do it better the next time. Christ knows we will have doubts and will reach out to us as we reach out to him, as he did there on that lake. And when we have returned to faith, we need to use that strength to help others to know that the Lord is the Lord of All and to bring that message forth in ministry and deed.
Michael R. Martin – August 11, 2002
First UMC of Saranac Lake, 9:00AM & 10:00AM
First United Methodist Church of Saranac Lake, NY
Genesis 37:1-5, 12-28 • Romans 10:5-15 • Psalm 105 • Matthew 14:22-33
Our old testament reading begins the tale of Joseph as told by his father, Jacob. This is the start of the story of Joseph and the Coat of Many Colors. (Ref: Keith Kogut’s spectacular performance in the high school rendition of the play last year). Joseph was just 17 when the story begins – I imagine just about the age Keith was when he gave his performance.
Our reading says Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons (Remember Israel is Jacob, for God had given Jacob the name Israel after he had wrestled with God and returned to Bethel), “Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him at an old age; and he made a richly ornamented robe for him.” Joseph, you see, was the baby in the family, the last child, and its not hard to imagine how he was loved. We, too, sometimes lavish extra attention on the baby in the family, even as he or she grows up. We wouldn’t say we love them anymore than the others, but I think it is just a natural human tendency. Well, when Joseph’s brothers saw this, that their father loved Joseph more than any of them, they hated Joseph and could not speak a kind word. It pissed them off! To make matters worse, one day as our tale begins the brothers and Joseph were all out tending the flocks together and Joseph runs home with a “bad report” about them.
On another day, Israel sends Joseph back out to meet with his brothers who are tending the sheep. The brothers had moved the flocks from where they started, but when Joseph finally catches up to them, the brothers see him coming and make fun of him “Here comes that dreamer!” And the brothers plot to kill him and throw him into one of the cisterns, after which they will tell a story of a ferocious animal that devoured him.
I always thought a cistern was a large jar for holding water, but its much more than that. Up until fairly recent times, towns and villages in more arid regions such as the Middle East relied on surface water collected from the winter rains and stored in man-made reservoirs called cisterns. Communities constructed large cisterns and each home would typically have its own. Community and household cisterns were generally carved out of rock, below ground, with bell-shaped, pear-shaped, or bottle-shaped interiors. Some of them were quite large. Rainwater was collected from roofs and courtyards and directed into the cisterns. Sometimes the rainwater was directed through some form of sediment basin to settle out solid materials first. A 1921 census of Jerusalem found 7,000 cisterns in use. In recent times, cisterns have fallen out of use and become filled with sediment and debris, since it is far easier to open a faucet tap then haul buckets from the cistern. Some middle-eastern towns still require a cistern with each new house, although the owners would fill them now with a hose rather than rainwater.
So, anyway, the brothers are plotting to kill Joseph and throw him into a cistern. Yet one brother, Rueben, acted to spare his life by suggesting they just throw Joseph into one of the cisterns alive rather than to kill him first. (Rueben was planning to come back later and rescue Joseph and return him to his father.) So the brothers grabbed Joseph, stripped him of his richly ornamented robe, and threw him into an empty cistern. A bit later that day, a caravan of Ishmaelites approaches. The caravan was on its way to Egypt, the camels loaded with spices, balm and myrrh that they had acquired in Gilead. Joseph’s brother Judah suggests they sell Joseph to the Ishmaelites. The brothers agree, Joseph is sold for twenty shekels of silver, and he is taken along to Egypt with the other goods. Rueben, by the way, apparently did not take part in the sale of Joseph, for in the next passage following our reading Rueben returns to the cistern and finds Joseph gone and yells at his brothers, “The boy isn’t there! Where can I turn now?”
I wondered how much Joseph was worth as a slave. A shekel was not only a coin but a measure of weight, about 2/5 of an ounce. I have no idea what 20 shekels of silver might have been worth at the time of our story. But the twenty shekels paid by the Ishmaelites for Joseph was 8 ounces of silver, which would be worth about $100 at today’s depressed silver prices. In our time, silver prices peaked around 1980 at $25 an ounce, when Joseph would have cost us $500. And you can go on the internet and buy actual shekel coinage from 93 BC for between $315 to $415. So if you had to pay for Joseph today, using actual shekels, you would shell out $8,000.
Our passage from Romans speaks of righteousness, proclaiming and confessing of faith, and includes the wonderful passages: “For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved” and “For there is NO difference between Jew and Gentile – the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him.”
“It is with your heart that you believe and are justified.” Justification here does not refer to our common definition of the word, being proven right, but refers instead to God’s justifying grace. Justifying grace describes what God does when we come to faith – providing a lasting relationship between us and God.
There are generally considered to be three forms of God’s GRACE – God’s gift to humankind. God’s Prevenient Grace is with all of us from birth, preparing us for a new life in Christ. Prevenient means “coming before.” It is what guided each of us from birth on the path of life before we even knew we were on a path seeking God. Here is what John Wesley said about Prevenient Grace in his "Free Grace" sermon:
The grace or love of God, whence cometh our salvation, is FREE IN ALL, and FREE FOR ALL.... It is free in all to whom it is given. It does not depend on any power or merit in man; no, not in any degree, neither in whole, nor in part. It does not in anywise depend either on the good works or righteousness of the receiver; not on anything he has done, or anything he is. It does not depend on his endeavors. It does not depend on his good tempers, or good desires, or good purposes and intentions; for all these flow from the free grace of God; they are the streams only, not the fountain. They are the fruits of free grace, and not the root. They are not the cause, but the effects of it.
So we are all born into Prevenient Grace – God looking out for us if you will. But we are free to accept or reject God's justifying grace. When we experience or accept justifying grace, we come into a new life in Christ.
And in case you are wondering what comes after Justifying Grace, it is Sanctifying or sustaining Grace. It is the cycle of repentance and faith we continually repeat as we struggle to walk just a little closer with God.
We don’t often focus on the lectionary Psalm in our worship and meditations, other than our Act of Praise. Our Psalm for the day, Psalm 105, also recounts the story of Joseph sold to slavery, released by the king, and made master of the king’s household, ruler over all the king possessed, and free to teach the king’s princes as he pleased and teach wisdom to the king’s elders. More importantly, the Psalm opens by speaking of giving thanks to the Lord, calling on His name, and making known among the nations what He has done. Sing praises to him, tell all of his wonderful acts. Look to the Lord and his strength and seek His face always.
And then we have the reading from Matthew, Jesus Walks on the Water. The story takes place after Jesus had fed the multitudes – five thousand men, PLUS woman and children – with five loaves of bread and two fish. Following this, Jesus makes his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side of the lake, while he dismisses the crowed. At long last Jesus finds the solitude he so desperately sought, as he went up a mountainside to pray. By evening, Jesus is still alone on the mountainside, and the boat with the disciples is far from land, buffeted by the waves and the wind. During the fourth watch of the night (the morning watch, from 3AM to 6AM – some call it the darkest time of the night, but having risen early in the fourth watch many times myself, it could also be as the sky is beginning to lighten). During the fourth watch of the night, Jesus walks out to the boat, on the lake, and the disciples are afraid, thinking it is a ghost. Jesus tells them to not be afraid, but Peter replies, “Lord, if it is you, tell me to come to you on the water.” When Jesus says “Come” Peter walks on the water toward Jesus, but begins to sink when he becomes frightened by the wind. “Lord, save me!,” Peter cries, and Jesus reaches out his hand and catches him. Jesus, probably a bit disappointed, asks, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” The wind dies down as Jesus and Peter climb back into the boat, and the disciples worship Jesus, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”
So how does this all come together: Brothers hating brother, plotting to kill and selling one off into slavery; Romans reminding us that it is with our hearts that we believe and are justified, and it is with our mouths that we confess and are saved, and the Lord is the Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him; the Psalm calling us to give thanks and praise to the Lord and making His works known among the nations; and lastly Jesus walking on the water, calming the sea, but more importantly lifting up Peter as his faith falters and he begins to sink?
Taken apart, each reading has a story and a lesson to tell in its own right, but as the person in the pulpit I have tried to reflect on the meaning of the collective word. So here is what it says to me, and here is the message I offer to you. When I think about the story of Joseph and his brothers, I recall those times when I, too, like the brothers have been caught up in pride and fear and jealousy and all those things that must have motivated their actions. And I think of Joseph, who as near as I can tell was not particularly religious, and probably had no reason to suspect his brothers would go to such lengths to be rid of him. Joseph knew not of his fate but God had a plan for Joseph and God’s prevenient grace was at work to see it through. I only pray that those times in my life when I have acted as shamefully as the brothers that God was watching over those I wronged.
I don’t know about you, but there are times when I have doubts, when my faith fails. Much like Peter walking out on the lake towards Christ, I have looked around, felt the wind of the world, and began to doubt. One of the strongest religious experiences I have had in my adult life came one night, in the back of a dimly lit church following an evening service. I was sitting towards the back of the church, watching flames flickering on the alter, and pondering all of my doubts in my head: What if there IS no God? What if Jesus was just a man, or worse just a story? What if it is just some strange biochemical reaction in our brains that makes us sometimes feel “strangely warmed” by Christ’s presence? Low blood sugar, who knows? And when I could take all this rattling around in my head no longer, I spoke to the one person in the pew in front of me, in fact the only other person in the back half of the church where I sat. I said, “What if it’s all a lie?” And I don’t recall her exact first response, but this woman, a visiting pastor from Vermont, essentially told me it was okay to doubt. In fact, having faith does not mean checking your mind at the door. God would want you to explore and question and come to believe on your own terms. And we only spoke briefly, but when I leaned back I found that my fears and doubts were gone, and my mind was finally quiet – something I had been seeking for a long long time.
And so, this is what I think it means to be a Christian: it means we strive recognize our faults and our failings, we understand that as humans we will fall, but try not to use that as an excuse. And most importantly, and I still need to work on this part, always turn to Christ for a return of strength in faith, and to do it better the next time. Christ knows we will have doubts and will reach out to us as we reach out to him, as he did there on that lake. And when we have returned to faith, we need to use that strength to help others to know that the Lord is the Lord of All and to bring that message forth in ministry and deed.
Michael R. Martin – August 11, 2002
First UMC of Saranac Lake, 9:00AM & 10:00AM
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