August 20, 2006 Sermon

The Plot Thickens
Genesis 43:1-10

We left Joseph on top of the rollercoaster. He has gone from being his father’s favorite son to betrayal by his brothers to becoming a favorite servant in a rich man’s house to prison to becoming Number Two in all Egypt . He has correctly interpreted Pharaoh’s dreams as predictions of a coming famine. He has led Egypt ’s successful preparations for that famine. His brothers, forced to grovel for food, appear before him. They do not recognize him, but he knows them. They beg him for the privilege of buying food. He agrees, but on one condition: one of them must stay behind in prison as a surety, then they must return to Egypt with their youngest brother, Benjamin. To complicate their lives even further, Joseph arranges to have the money with which they bought the grain secretly returned to them. They find it when they get home.

The brothers have become hopelessly indebted to Joseph. He has them hooked financially and relationally. They still owe him for the food that has saved their lives. One of their brothers languishes in an Egyptian jail. He has demanded they bring their youngest brother back to him. He says he just wants to meet the lad. If they do what he says, he will release the other brother and they can all go home. But how can they trust him? They have not recognized him as their brother. And he has his own agenda, one they cannot quite see.

Far too often, churches get bogged down in monetary and relational issues. We struggle to trust each other. We fail to recognize each other as brothers and sisters in Christ. We stumble over our competing agendas. We live the Joseph story today because it is the story of flawed, sinful humanity. But it is also the story of God working through humanity.

We pick up the story with the famine growing worse. The food the brothers bought in Egypt has gone. Jacob tells them to go buy more. They remind him that “the man” there demanded they return with their youngest brother, Benjamin. Otherwise he will not deal with them. Joseph knows what he is doing. He has eleven brothers, but only Joseph and Benjamin came from Rachel, their father Jacob’s favorite, the wife for whom he had worked fourteen years. As Rachel’s only sons, they were their father’s favorites. Joseph knows that by demanding to see Benjamin, he can control his father and all his brothers.

Control. We received a surprise visit this week from a pastor friend who had served a Church of God in the Indiana city where we used to live. He now pastors a church in St. John , Michigan , but ten years ago he was selling real estate and had no intention of returning to the ministry. For the better part of 1995 he told me that he really wanted to take a vacation but did not dare. If he left town, he feared the leaders of his church would call a meeting and vote him out. I scoffed. That sort of coup could not happen in a Presbyterian Church. Our congregations cannot even meet without their pastors. Plus, the contract a pastor has with a congregation has a third party: the Presbytery, or regional governing body. Unless all three parties agree a church cannot change pastors. But my friend served a church that could vote him out. When he and his family finally took a four-day vacation to a lake cottage in northern Indiana , they did just that.

I never knew the specific issues that haunted that church. I do know, however, that they boiled down to a common problem: control. The pastor wanted to change things. Some folks in the church agreed, others vehemently disagreed. Convinced that God willed the changes, the pastor kept trying to lead the church. Over time the problem in that church changed from specific changes to the one question that bedevils (literally) many congregations: Hey! Who’s in charge here?!?

Joseph was in charge in Egypt . Only Pharaoh had more power. Due to the famine, Joseph’s tremendous power extended far beyond Egypt ’s borders, even over his family in Canaan . Next week we will learn more about how he used that power. Today we focus on how churches and families must learn to deal with power issues. We will get at these issues through the two most common ways power issues appear, the ways they appear in Joseph’s story: money and relationships.

Basic Counseling Training 101 always includes the warning that many issues hide under the cover of money. People rarely fight over “just” money. Money usually serves as a symbol of deeper problems. Churches often argue over it. Or so they think. In reality, when churches argue over money they actually argue over the purpose of the church. How we spend money reflects our values. I once served a church that had nearly half a million dollars in an endowment fund. The leaders there would cheerfully spend tremendous sums to spruce up the building. Funding programs for people always caused an argument. The building sits near downtown. A somewhat poor neighborhood surrounds it on three sides. We could not persuade the leaders to do anything meaningful to reach out to the people who lived there. But we sure had a nice building.

We spent endless hours in meetings arguing over how to spend money. But we were not fighting over the money itself. We were fighting over what sort of church we were to be. Would we use money to try to preserve the past or to bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ to people different from ourselves? The answer, sadly, was to try to preserve the past. That is the church they wished to be. But their focus on themselves and their past has ruined their future. During a recent visit we found they had made their building into a palace. But less than half as many people worship there today as did ten years ago.

Power issues surface just as often in relationships. Churches are not immune. Church staffs line up like football teams ready to slam into each other. Factions form in congregations. People stop speaking—or they yell. But as with money, often these relationship issues stand in for deeper arguments over what sort of church we are to be. A Presbyterian Church not far from here recently changed pastors for the third time in 40 months. The congregation has divided into supporters of each pastor. As recently as 2003 this congregation appeared poised to become a leading force in all of northern Michigan . Now it must fight to survive.

Money and relationships. Each can present the church with real and important issues. But each also can camouflage deeper problems. The Joseph story illustrates one of the most powerful: Who’s in charge here? Or to put it another way: What kind of church are we going to be?

Joseph was no fool. He knew how to control his family. He used money and relationship issues to push them into doing what he wanted. People in all times and places have known how to play this game. Joseph played it to get God’s way. We need to take extreme care we do, too. The Northern Lakes Community Church has thus far blessedly avoided destructive control fights. We do, however, spend a great deal of time talking about money and relational issues. We need to cut to the bone. We need to address the real issues openly and honestly. Who’s in charge here? What kind of church do we want to be?

Last week we covered the “Who’s in charge?” question. Elders have control over Northern Lakes , as they should in any Presbyterian Church. But what sort of church do we want to be? We have the answer to that, too: the Northern Lakes Community Church exists to make disciples and send apostles. As we discuss money and relationships we absolutely must remember this. However we spend money, however we treat each other: we are here to bring people to Jesus Christ. Joseph may not have known the name of Jesus, but he would have recognized the hand of God in the game plan. We serve Jesus, not money and not each other.

God has created this church. May we never forget why: always to reach out beyond our circle in the name of Jesus Christ.