The Mouth Speaks the Heart

Let us pray:

“Give me a clean heart
So I may serve Thee
Lord fix my heart
So that I may be used by Thee
For I’m not worthy
Of all these blessings
Give me a clean heart
And I’ll follow Thee”

May I speak in the name of the Loving, Liberating Life-giving God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Good morning saints!

Last week we journeyed with Joseph and his brothers through their family drama.

His own brothers hated him, (Genesis 37:4), and kidnapped him, (Genesis 37:23).

They had even planned to murder him, (Genesis 37: 18ff).

They “settled” for selling him into slavery, (Genesis 37:28), a possible if not likely death sentence.

And now, in today’s lesson Joseph is in a position to get revenge on them.

They need him.

He does not need them.

The famine that the Pharaoh has dreamed about has come to pass, (Genesis 41:17ff); Egypt has grain in abundance because of Joseph’s interpretation of the Pharaoh’s dream and their mutual stewardship in preparation, (Genesis 41:49).

Yet Joseph does not take revenge on his brothers.

He provides for them and their families.

He receives them as his brothers.

He embraces and forgives them.

The lesson of forgiveness in this passage is particularly poignant; combined with Joseph’s rags-to-riches story, it is something like a fairy tale.

This morning we meet Joseph and his brothers again, 22 years later.

As Dr Wil Gafney reminds us: “Joseph’s complicated family history teaches us that Israelite identity was a cultural and religious one and not an ethnic or even national one in his time — and for some time to come.

In Joseph’s story the Israelites and Egyptians are not pitted against one another.

There will be enough food for all because of his stewardship. Indeed the later oppressive relationship between the Egyptians and the Israelites will develop because of the ascension of a Pharaoh who does not remember Joseph, who does not know anything about him or what he did for both of their peoples, (Exodus 1:8).

Remembering Joseph, telling his story, means remembering that some family relationships are deeply troubled, even violent.

Remembering Joseph means reminding ourselves that even in the most deeply troubled family that has experienced unimaginable rupture, that forgiveness and healing are possible.

Remembering Joseph and telling his story through this lessen provides an opportunity to reflect on our stewardship, generosity and relationships with others, neighbors and strangers.

And lastly, today’s lesson with its focus on Joseph reminds us that our actions have consequences that we may not be able to foresee.

In those 22 years of reflection and good stewardship of resources, Joseph could have become a bitter man.

If he had not remained steadfast in the blessing of God he could have blamed an the unforgiving soul on his brothers.

So often we want to blame the source of our action and reaction on outsiders.

This morning’s gospel is so challenging because it invites us into an introspective come to Jesus moment.

The Pharisees were concerned about Jews and Gentiles eating together.

The Gentiles were excluded becasue of food regulations.

They are reminded that food regulations, or washing hands, or ethnicities, or identity or place of origin, rituals or any other potential dividing issue don’t matter.

Those are all external realities.

Eating with unwashed hands does not defile —you remember during COVID’s we were to wash our hands while singing Happy Birthday.

If you didnt wash your hands before eating even before Covid, you could get sick.

What matters is what comes out of you.

What comes out of your mouth and spirit.

What comes out of your mouth comes from your heart.

When it comes to the cleanliness or cleanness of your heart, it is important to examine your relationship with yourself.

Jesus was actually taking the Pharisees and the disciples into a relationship with God that begins with a connection with self.

The blind cannot lead the sightless.

God who renews and forms us and calls us invites us to have a relationship with self.

It has been said: be careful of how you think.

Watch your thoughts, they become words. 

Watch your words, they become your actions.

Watch your actions, they become habits.

Watch your habits, they become character.

Watch your character, it becomes your destiny.

Joseph spoke to his brothers after all those years and said “I am Joseph. I am your brother. Do not feel bad; no matter what has happened, we are brothers. We are family. You did not bring me here, God did. This was my destiny.”

From his heart came words of forgiveness and reconciliation.

Joseph had to say twice to his brothers, “I am your brother,” before they heard it.

The barrier of exclusion and malice against his brothers is taken away.

For Joseph this is where human conflict and divine grace converge.

Jospeh had confidence in God’s grace and care to forgive his brothers who had done the harm to him.

What is in your heart?

The power of the relationship Joseph has with God becomes clear as he says it is God who sent him three different times.

“You I meant it for bad but God meant it for good.”

You were a part of God’s plan.

Jeremiah 29:11 reminds us, “ For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.”

Human conflict and God’s grace.

God’s grace is always sufficient.

What is in your heart?

How does what’s in your heart come out of your lips?

Are there family squabbles that need to be fixed?

Are there people from whom you have been estranged for 22 years or 22 months or 22 days?

A response to this moving story of family reconciliation that emphasizes the harmonious nature of family loving together can be found in our psalm today.

The heart of Jesus and our hearts of Jesus in this world require that we be in the business of bringing back together that which is broken, which is the definition of reconciliation.

We are all in need of a heart transplant so that our hearts can be life-giving and not llife defying.

In a society of judgement, blaming and shaming, we have a God whose heart of love invites us to move beyond the petri dish of silence, secrets and judgement that keep shame alive.

And in these actions, God calls us into relationship with self so as to be in right relationship with God and others.

When we have no relationship with self, it is impossible to be in relationship with others.

Being out of right relationships ith self, others and God is called sin.

In Egyptian mythology when you are standing at the end of your life, there is a picture they have of your heart on one side of a scale and a feather on the other side.

If your heart weighs more than that feather, you are doomed.

Hardened hearts weigh a lot( jealousy, pride, arrogance, gluttony, addiction) and all these are heavy things.

Heartless hearts are heavy.

We may need Jesus to be our cardiologist, to check on the state of our hearts.

We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

No one can say “I have never had a bad thought,“ but you do not linger there.

The more you focus on it, the more real it becomes. When we die we are pronounced dead because our heart stops beating.

The heart is the soul, the life force, the source of God.

So we leave to God those who have betrayed us.

To hold onto grudges is to carry them around on our backs and eventually to be people who drink a bottle of poison hoping the other person will die.

The grace of God, the truth telling relationship with self, and the ability to let go of blame and shame and the gift of forgiveness allows us to stand for justice in this world with compassion, mercy and grace.

How do we relate to people that we do know, people that we don’t know, people that we don’t like or respect?

Who really are you and how is that shown to the rest of the world on a daily basis?

It is not your clothes or your possessions or your degrees or your experiences that tell who you really are.

St Paul in his letter to the Ephesians reminds us that “Speaking the truth in love we are to grow up in every way into Christ who is the head.”

There is no love without truth and truth spoken without love can be abusive.

Words from the heart will always be loving if you and God have a relationship.

Reinhold Niebuhr in his book The Irony of American History, reminds us:

“Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope. Nothing which is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore we must be saved by love. No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as it is from our standpoint. Therefore we must be saved by the final form of love which is forgiveness.”

Michael Jackson challenges us to:

There’s a place in your heart
And I know that it is love
And this place it was brighter than tomorrow
And if you really try
You’ll find there’s no need to cry
In this place you’ll feel there’s no hurt or sorrow
There are ways to get there
If you care enough for the living
Make a little space
Make a better place
Heal the world
Make it a better place
For you and for me, and the entire human race
There are people dying
If you care enough for the living
Make a better place for you and for me

Ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven.

Joseph is reconciled to his brothers.

We too can be reconciled in the brokenness of our lives.

A simple suggestion: Before you speak from the heart, ask yourself if what you are about to say is true. Is it kind? Is it necessary?

If you cannot answer yes to each of those questions, swallow those words.

Amen.