“From Pits to Palaces, From Desperation to Restoration”
Genesis 45:1-15
“And he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them;
and after that his brothers talked to him” (Genesis 45:15)
I. Family Reunions
“And he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them;
and after that his brothers talked to him” (Genesis 45:15)
I. Family Reunions
In just a short time, in fact as we are later gathering for fellowship,
in a small Baptist church near Hendersonville, NC,
members of my mother’s family will be gathering
for its annual rite of summer – a family reunion.
They call themselves Lancasters and they shall come
from all over the Carolina Piedmont area and beyond.
They will gather around several wooden tables
filled with deviled eggs, fried chicken, casseroles of unknown origins –
secret “family” recipes. They will swap stories – laugh some –
they might even shed a tear or two.
A family separated for the last year, reunites.
When the last deviled egg begins to settle,
topped off with a pecan pie which, if truth be known, was probably bought at Ingles’ –
the smaller clans will scatter and return to their hometowns –
that is except for my mom and her sister.
THEY will travel from Hendersonville to Cherokee
where they will worship and make their offerings to the church of Harrah’s.
The rest are likely to share the stories of the day
with those who were not able to make the long trek to Hendersonville.
If you think about it, never again will this same group of people –
these Lancasters, as they are called –
gather in the same place at the same time.
When they gather on this weekend before Labor Day weekend of 2009,
some who are there today will have passed away –
new Lancasters will have been born –
some just unable to make the journey.
II. Psalm 133
“How very good and pleasant it is,” says the Psalmist,
“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.
The image of oil running down the beard of Moses’ brother
has always been odd to me; the simile often lost upon the listener.
Yet it is a powerful image of blessing
as Aaron and the other priests are ordained.
In short, for families to live together in unity, says the Psalmist,
is a sign of God’s blessing.
III. Joseph
When we last left Joseph,
he was probably wondering if the blessing of God would ever be known to him.
His own flesh and blood had betrayed him – selling him into slavery.
Hardly what the Psalmist had in mind.
He was at the time,17 – arrogant – a twit – a tattler.
He was spoiled; the apple of his father’s eye.
He was also being lifted out of a pit used for storing water
and sold off to a band of nomads for some 20 pieces of silver.
Lost forever was the beautiful – some say gaudy – robe his father had given to him.
The gift and his dreams of greatness served only to fuel the brother’s fire.
There were to be no more dreams by the way – none from Joseph anyway.
Over the 22 years that had passed
since he was first sold into slavery,
Joseph had learned that dreaming is risky business.
Rather, he branches out – franchises –
becomes an INTERPRETER of dreams.
He moves from sales to management –
It’s much safer behind a desk than on the sales floor.
When his brothers stood before him
every memory of that day near Dothan came gushing forth
along with every possible emotion.
He cried out so loud, the neighbors said to one another, “What WAS that?”
When Joseph revealed his identity, I bet his brothers were scared to death.
Here they were in a foreign land, starved by famine,
weary from traveling back and forth between Egypt and Canaan.
I bet knees buckled, stomachs churned.
“Boy, we’re gonna get it now,” Judah said.
“I TOLD you not to do anything to him,” Reuben said behind clinched teeth.
“We should have killed him when we had the chance,” Levi thought to himself.
But strange things happen when families are reunited; little surprises await.
Every now and then, human conflict and divine care converge.
Rather than animosity and hatred, we find restoration and grace.
No one seems to remember, let alone care
what great Aunt Martha did to crazy cousin Suzy –
so it is when reunions take place
That day, as Joseph and his brothers stood face to face,
An entire family was reunited – restored to one another.
IV. The Family of God Restored
It has been a very long time since I have been able to attend
one of the Lancaster reunions – perhaps as many as 25 years.
Back then they were held on Father’s Day weekend,
on Saturday afternoons at Tugaloo State Park up near Toccoa.
Back then, family reunions meant my grandmother’s banana pudding,
putt-putt, and later a second, smaller gathering of cousins,
aunts and uncles back at our house on Lake Rabun.
Every year my mother asks, “Pat, can you make it to the reunion this year?”
“No, Merry I can’t.”
I have called my mother by her given name
for as long as I can remember.
“Pat, are you sure you cannot get away –
I know the everyone would love to see you and your family.
You can even join me and Bobbie at Cherokee –
Harrah’s will comp us the extra room, I am sure.”
“I am sure they will, Merry.”
“It will be a lot of fun,” says Merry.
“I am sure it will be,” I say,
“But I have another reunion to attend.”
“Each week,” I explain to Merry, “a different family gathers and I need to be there;
a family also who comes from different places and different circumstances.
Some come having clawed their way up
from the pits of desperation or depression –
using all of their strength to just climb out of the bed.
“Others come, slaves to their job or their finances,
hoping to experience the liberation of God in Christ.
From their pits, they come to the Palaces of God,
some of which are adorned with brass and gold,
others, made of old whitewashed lumber –
they gather in these palaces because of famine.
Out of desperation they come for restoration.
In those palaces, human conflict and divine care once again converge.
“From time to time they come to the reunion with deviled eggs,
fried chicken, casseroles of unknown origin and,
if truth be known, pecan pies bought from Ingle’s.
Hopefully, though they come to experience the Kingdom of God.
“And for that to happen,” I tell Merry,
“we too will gather around a large wooden table.”
I will confess to you,
as much as I would enjoy being in Hendersonville right now
seeing people I have not seen in quite a long time,
ideally speaking, this is the kind of reunion I would rather attend –
where the family of God gathers –
sometimes in spite of and even sometimes because of
how we have treated one another in the past.
The family of God gathers perhaps not even recognizing
One another’s true identity as brothers and sisters –
children of the same faith and of the same God.
Yet by coming, strange things happen –
True identities ARE revealed.
Restoration, it is called – sometimes reconciliation.
It that act - unity - God’s blessing - is made known.
Let the feast begin.
