Forgiveness and Reconciliation

 

 

Then Joseph could no longer control himself before all those who stood by him, and he cried out, "Send everyone away from me." So no one stayed with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers. And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard it. Joseph said to his brothers, "I am Joseph. Is my father still alive?" But his brothers could not answer him, so dismayed were they at his presence.

Then Joseph said to his brothers, "Come closer to me." And they came closer. He said, "I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. And now do not be distressed, or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years; and there are five more years in which there will be neither ploughing nor harvest. God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God; he has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt. Hurry and go up to my father and say to him, 'Thus says your son Joseph, God has made me lord of all Egypt; come down to me, do not delay. You shall settle in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near me, you and your children and your children's children, as well as your flocks, your herds, and all that you have. I will provide for you there — since there are five more years of famine to come — so that you and your household, and all that you have, will not come to poverty.' And now your eyes and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see that it is my own mouth that speaks to you. You must tell my father how greatly I am honored in Egypt, and all that you have seen. Hurry and bring my father down here." Then he fell upon his brother Benjamin's neck and wept, while Benjamin wept upon his neck. And he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them; and after that his brothers talked with him.

Genesis 45:1-15

 

The Reconciliation of Joseph and His Brothers

CORNELIUS, Peter

1816-1817

Nationalgalerie 

Berlin

Germany

 

This fresco was originally part of a cycle of paintings in the former reception room of the Casa Bartholdy in Rome. They were painted in 1815-17. At the end of the 19th century the frescoes were taken down and moved to Berlin. Jacob's Lament is by Schadow, while Philipp Veit (1793-1877) painted the lunette above it, The Fat Years, and the large-scale Joseph and Potiphar's Wife. Cornelius painted the Joseph Interpreting Pharaoh's Dream - also crowned by a lunette, The Lean Years by Overbeck - and The Recognition of Joseph by his Brothers. The artists regarded the cycle as their main work and they all made watercolour versions on a small scale, which were shown in the Berlin Academy exhibition in the autumn of 1818, framed with architectural divisions.

 

http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/c/corneliu/fresco2.html

 

http://www.rossettiarchive.org/docs/op148.rap.html

 

 

 

 

It is not “forgive and forget” as if nothing wrong had ever happened,

but “forgive and go forward,”

building on the mistakes of the past

and the energy generated by reconciliation

to create a new future.

~ Alan Paton

 

 

 

Reconciliation should be accompanied by justice,

otherwise it will not last.

While we all hope for peace

it shouldn’t be peace at any cost

but peace based on principle, on justice.

~ Corazon Aquin

 

 

 

 

 

Pat Foster celebrated her 80th birthday with a host of people

in their lovely back yard in Denver.

 

Pat Foster, Cheryl Thomas

 

The food was catered by two Afghan families who have now been here for two years.

 

Birthday Lunch at Creekside

Carolyn Alexander, Bob and Brenda Hagermann, Marcia Walsh, Adrian Stone

 

Birthday Lunch at Parkside

Cindy Sahli and I talked on and on!

 

Rotary Peak Climb

Friday, August 18, 2023

 

The hikers left from the top of Loveland Pass.

Brenda Jansen and I followed their ascent from comfortable

(but chilly) chairs at the top of the pass.

(Elevation 11,991 feet)

 

 

 

Fort Logan National Cemetery

 

A military ceremony was held for Michael Woodside, age 52.

Mike is Linda Kirkpatrick’s son.

 

Linda Kirkpatrick with her 16-year-old grandson, Ryan, and family members.

Ryan accepted the ceremonial flag.

 

Dine-Around with the Moores

Entrance to their gorgeous adobe home.

 

(Above photos by Kimra)

 

Ted Ning, Ann Moore, Dr. Marsha Manning

 

Thank you, Ann and Mike Moore!

 

 

 

 

If we do not transform our pain,

we will transmit it.

~ Richard Rohr

 

 

 

 

 

August 20, 2023  Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost: Proper 15 Year A

 

Previous OPQs may be found at:

 

 

(Then he called the crowd to him and said to them, "Listen and understand: it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles." Then the disciples approached and said to him, "Do you know that the Pharisees took offense when they heard what you said?" He answered, "Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if one blind person guides another, both will fall into a pit." But Peter said to him, "Explain this parable to us." Then he said, "Are you also still without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach, and goes out into the sewer? But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles. For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile.")

Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, "Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon." But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, "Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us." He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." But she came and knelt before him, saying, "Lord, help me." He answered, "It is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs." She said, "Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table." Then Jesus answered her, "Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish." And her daughter was healed instantly.

Matthew 15:(10-20), 21-28

 

Agnus Day, by James Wetzstein

Agnus Day appears with the permission of www.agnusday.org

 

 

 

 

LECTIONARY

Genesis 45:1–15 

Psalm 133 

Romans 11:1–2a, 29–32 

Matthew 15:[10–20] 21–28

 

Summary

The Canaanite woman (the “Syrophoenician woman” in Mark) is among the most frequently abused biblical stories today. Jesus’ nativist prejudices are not challenged by a woman’s sarcastic advocacy for herself. Rather, Jesus intentionally puts her radical humility on display to instruct the Jews about the meaning of saving faith. However, modern preoccupations with intersectional status notwithstanding, the woman’s ethnic status is a critical detail in the story, so the preacher must walk a careful rhetorical line, straying neither to the “colorblind” right or the social grievance-obsessed left.

Being a Canaanite, one of the peoples originally driven out of the promised land, put this woman at the bottom in the eyes of the Jews, and she would have had every reason to be resentful. Nevertheless, she has left her country to seek Jesus out, addressing him with the messianic honorific “Son of David” and responds to an intentionally belittling remark from Jesus (“dogs” likely being a common anti-Gentile slur which Jesus repeats, possibly softening it to “little dogs”) by gladly accepting dishonor if only it would result in God’s salvation, manifested in the near term as the exorcism of her daughter.

Thus, it is the woman’s childlike forgetfulness of her status before men and the grievances of the past that exemplifies her faith–given the rare honor of great by the Lord, contrasting with the little faith commonly attributed to his disciples–and this is the polar opposite of the sort of fashionable grievance-mongering prescribed to everyone today, which is just the storing up of another kind of social currency of “victimhood.”

In the end, the Lord is not content to merely throw the woman a scrap, as the disciples would have done in verse 23, but instead uses the situation to honor her over and above the chosen people, giving her a foretaste of the blessing that will come to all the Gentiles through him. Because the Jews have presumed on God’s favor as “the chosen” they are at risk of being excluded from the kingdom altogether. The poor and marginalized are to be considered blessed because they are most frequently free of the many species of pride that come from of birth, wealth, and status, making them especially open to receiving God’s blessings. Woe then to the rich of high station who trust in worldly wealth which decays and glory in the honors that die with them. The last, indeed, will be first.

https://www.preachingtoday.com/lectionary/

 

 

THE WORD:

The story of the Canaanite woman was a marker for the Christians of the predominately Gentile Christian communities.  Jesus’ healing of the daughter of the persistent Canaanite mother became a prophetic model for the relationship between Jewish and Gentile Christians.  The woman is not only a Gentile but also a descendent of the Canaanites, one of Israel’s oldest and most despised enemies.  Despite Jesus’ rebuff of her (equating Gentiles with “dogs,” as Jews referred to anyone who was not a Jew), the woman has the presence of mind to point out that “even dogs are given crumbs and scraps from their masters’ tables.”  She displays both great faith in Jesus (addressing him by the Messianic title of “Son of David”) and great love for her daughter (subjecting herself to possible ridicule and recrimination for approaching Jesus) that should inspire both Jew and Gentile – and Christian.

 

 

 

Genesis 45:1-15

Then Joseph could no longer control himself before all those who stood by him, and he cried out, "Send everyone away from me." So no one stayed with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers. And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard it. Joseph said to his brothers, "I am Joseph. Is my father still alive?" But his brothers could not answer him, so dismayed were they at his presence.

Then Joseph said to his brothers, "Come closer to me." And they came closer. He said, "I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. And now do not be distressed, or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years; and there are five more years in which there will be neither ploughing nor harvest. God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God; he has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt. Hurry and go up to my father and say to him, 'Thus says your son Joseph, God has made me lord of all Egypt; come down to me, do not delay. You shall settle in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near me, you and your children and your children's children, as well as your flocks, your herds, and all that you have. I will provide for you there — since there are five more years of famine to come — so that you and your household, and all that you have, will not come to poverty.' And now your eyes and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see that it is my own mouth that speaks to you. You must tell my father how greatly I am honored in Egypt, and all that you have seen. Hurry and bring my father down here." Then he fell upon his brother Benjamin's neck and wept, while Benjamin wept upon his neck. And he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them; and after that his brothers talked with him.

Psalm 133

How very good
   and pleasant it is
when kindred live together
   in unity!

It is like the precious oil
   on the head,
running down
   upon the beard,
on the beard
   of Aaron,
running down over the collar
   of his robes.

It is like the dew
   of Hermon,
which falls on the mountains
of Zion.

For there God ordained
   the blessing,
the blessing of life
   forevermore.

 

Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32

I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel? for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. Just as you were once disobedient to God but have now received mercy because of their disobedience, so they have now been disobedient in order that, by the mercy shown to you, they too may now receive mercy. For God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may be merciful to all.

Matthew 15:(10-20), 21-28

(Then he called the crowd to him and said to them, "Listen and understand: it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles." Then the disciples approached and said to him, "Do you know that the Pharisees took offense when they heard what you said?" He answered, "Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if one blind person guides another, both will fall into a pit." But Peter said to him, "Explain this parable to us." Then he said, "Are you also still without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach, and goes out into the sewer? But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles. For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile.")

Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, "Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon." But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, "Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us." He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." But she came and knelt before him, saying, "Lord, help me." He answered, "It is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs." She said, "Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table." Then Jesus answered her, "Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish." And her daughter was healed instantly.