I'm a Jerk. You're a Jerk. Now What?
March 30, 2025 Fourth Sunday in Lent
Ladue Chapel Presbyterian Church
Genesis 45:1-15
“I’m a Jerk. You’re a Jerk. Now What??
Douglas T. King
There is an old expression about sermon titles I used to share with the seminary students I supervised. “Will it get them off the bus?” It refers to the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church and its sign advertising the upcoming sermon. The idea was, did you have a sermon title that would be intriguing enough for people to hop off the Fifth Avenue bus on a Sunday morning and come to worship.
Now, I am not sure if today’s title would get people to hop off a bus to come to worship. More likely, it would convince people the last thing they wanted to do was wander into the sanctuary this morning. “I’m a Jerk, You’re a Jerk, Now What?” does not exactly sound like a great spiritual uplift from the pulpit.
That may be true, but sometimes you just have to go where the text leads you, and honestly, it is an accurate evaluation of this moment between Joseph and his brothers. Let’s take a moment to refresh ourselves on the backstory.
These boys, Jacob’s sons, do not play well together. We are told Joseph has bad things to say about his brothers to his father. Joseph is Jacob’s favorite and he makes it obvious by gifting him with a glorious robe to wear. Joseph has these dreams in which both his brothers and the sun, moon, and stars bow down before him. And he made sure to share these dreams with all of them. One might say that Joseph was a bit of a spoiled brat. So now we turn to the brothers. Their jealousy leads them to consider killing Joseph but then decide to merely sell him into slavery.
As we know this will all eventually lead to Joseph using his powerful dreams to save the nation of Egypt from famine. When years later, his brothers, who do not recognize Joseph, come looking for grain to feed their famished family he puts them through a series of trials. Joseph accuses them of being spies, imprisons them and plants evidence on them to suggest that young brother Benjamin is a thief.
When we join the story in our text this morning we experience this heartfelt moment of reconciliation. The family is reunited and saved from famine. But it has been a long and exceedingly cruel and winding journey to get there. And that is just this generation’s iteration of far from perfectly loving behavior. If you think your family has dysfunction, just remember what the family of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob put each other through with stolen blessings, threats of violence and all sorts of falderal. They could have been guests on a series of Jerry Springer episodes.
Some people speak of the Bible as a book about saints. I would say the Bible is a book about sinners. And thank God for that. I have not known too many folks who have achieved their sainthood on this side of mortality. But I have known a whole bunch of sinners. (Don’t worry, I will avoid making specific eye contact with any of you). Let’s face it, we are a motley lot of imperfect people. If the Bible were a book about saints it would not have much to offer us. But sinners, muddling their way through life, bumping into each other, making mistakes all the time, those are characters to which I can relate. Furthermore, seeing the ways in which God is present with them has something important to teach us.
Every actor in this drama is far from perfect. And yet, God finds a way to work through them, significant imperfections and all, to save countless lives and to reconcile a family. So what illumination does this story bring to our lives and how we choose to live them?
There are many ways we see ourselves. Sometimes we see ourselves as the heroes of our own stories. We believe that we are doing everything right and whenever we bump up against others and things go wrong it is obviously their fault. The biblical witness teaches us that none of us are as perfect as we sometimes convince ourselves we are. And there are other times when we see ourselves as hopeless and hapless. We believe we are such a mess that we can do nothing right. The biblical witness teaches us, that in the midst of our imperfections, God can make use of us to accomplish remarkable things.
We are neither perfect heroes nor irredeemable failures. We are children of God who are mortal and limited and beloved. We live in the grand in-between of possessing talent with limitations and muddled motivations. It would be a mistake for us to believe that we are always in the right and can single-handedly solve the problems of the world. And it would also be a mistake to believe they we are not worthy enough for God to make use of our abilities to solve the problems of the world.
It may be beyond our perceptiveness to perceive, but God is seeking to use each one of us, every day, to fulfill the divine’s intention for the world. This reality brings us no promise that our presence in the world will save a people from famine or change the world in major ways. But it does mean that our actions may be essential for God’s healing of this world. Our Jewish friends call this Tikkun Olam. It is our responsibility to be about seeking to participate in the divine’s repairing and restoring of all that is broken in creation.
Even in the midst of our significant imperfection, we have a responsibility to allow God’s Spirit to work upon us that we may be repaired and restored, that we may continue to grow into repairers and restorers of this world. The beginning of this story has Joseph as a bit of snot-nosed little brat. But through his adversity he grows into a man who is still far from perfect, but one who serves others and serves God. Joseph’s brothers begin the story as almost monsters with their treatment of Joseph. But when young Benjamin is held captive they do everything in their power to save him.
This story of God using the most imperfect of people to accomplish the greatest of things is both a blessing and frankly a challenge to us. It is a grand and glorious gift to learn just how valuable we are to the divine. But it also removes any of the excuses we whisper to ourselves about the limits of how we might live out our faith in the world. We are never too old or too young to serve God’s purposes. We are never too busy to serve God’s purposes. We are never too filled with doubt to serve God’s purposes. We are never too flawed to serve God’s purposes. We are never too anything to serve God’s purposes.
I’m a jerk. You’re a jerk. Now what? Now we serve God together, perhaps in the most surprising of ways. It is well worth getting off the bus for that.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Ladue Chapel Presbyterian Church
Genesis 45:1-15
“I’m a Jerk. You’re a Jerk. Now What??
Douglas T. King
There is an old expression about sermon titles I used to share with the seminary students I supervised. “Will it get them off the bus?” It refers to the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church and its sign advertising the upcoming sermon. The idea was, did you have a sermon title that would be intriguing enough for people to hop off the Fifth Avenue bus on a Sunday morning and come to worship.
Now, I am not sure if today’s title would get people to hop off a bus to come to worship. More likely, it would convince people the last thing they wanted to do was wander into the sanctuary this morning. “I’m a Jerk, You’re a Jerk, Now What?” does not exactly sound like a great spiritual uplift from the pulpit.
That may be true, but sometimes you just have to go where the text leads you, and honestly, it is an accurate evaluation of this moment between Joseph and his brothers. Let’s take a moment to refresh ourselves on the backstory.
These boys, Jacob’s sons, do not play well together. We are told Joseph has bad things to say about his brothers to his father. Joseph is Jacob’s favorite and he makes it obvious by gifting him with a glorious robe to wear. Joseph has these dreams in which both his brothers and the sun, moon, and stars bow down before him. And he made sure to share these dreams with all of them. One might say that Joseph was a bit of a spoiled brat. So now we turn to the brothers. Their jealousy leads them to consider killing Joseph but then decide to merely sell him into slavery.
As we know this will all eventually lead to Joseph using his powerful dreams to save the nation of Egypt from famine. When years later, his brothers, who do not recognize Joseph, come looking for grain to feed their famished family he puts them through a series of trials. Joseph accuses them of being spies, imprisons them and plants evidence on them to suggest that young brother Benjamin is a thief.
When we join the story in our text this morning we experience this heartfelt moment of reconciliation. The family is reunited and saved from famine. But it has been a long and exceedingly cruel and winding journey to get there. And that is just this generation’s iteration of far from perfectly loving behavior. If you think your family has dysfunction, just remember what the family of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob put each other through with stolen blessings, threats of violence and all sorts of falderal. They could have been guests on a series of Jerry Springer episodes.
Some people speak of the Bible as a book about saints. I would say the Bible is a book about sinners. And thank God for that. I have not known too many folks who have achieved their sainthood on this side of mortality. But I have known a whole bunch of sinners. (Don’t worry, I will avoid making specific eye contact with any of you). Let’s face it, we are a motley lot of imperfect people. If the Bible were a book about saints it would not have much to offer us. But sinners, muddling their way through life, bumping into each other, making mistakes all the time, those are characters to which I can relate. Furthermore, seeing the ways in which God is present with them has something important to teach us.
Every actor in this drama is far from perfect. And yet, God finds a way to work through them, significant imperfections and all, to save countless lives and to reconcile a family. So what illumination does this story bring to our lives and how we choose to live them?
There are many ways we see ourselves. Sometimes we see ourselves as the heroes of our own stories. We believe that we are doing everything right and whenever we bump up against others and things go wrong it is obviously their fault. The biblical witness teaches us that none of us are as perfect as we sometimes convince ourselves we are. And there are other times when we see ourselves as hopeless and hapless. We believe we are such a mess that we can do nothing right. The biblical witness teaches us, that in the midst of our imperfections, God can make use of us to accomplish remarkable things.
We are neither perfect heroes nor irredeemable failures. We are children of God who are mortal and limited and beloved. We live in the grand in-between of possessing talent with limitations and muddled motivations. It would be a mistake for us to believe that we are always in the right and can single-handedly solve the problems of the world. And it would also be a mistake to believe they we are not worthy enough for God to make use of our abilities to solve the problems of the world.
It may be beyond our perceptiveness to perceive, but God is seeking to use each one of us, every day, to fulfill the divine’s intention for the world. This reality brings us no promise that our presence in the world will save a people from famine or change the world in major ways. But it does mean that our actions may be essential for God’s healing of this world. Our Jewish friends call this Tikkun Olam. It is our responsibility to be about seeking to participate in the divine’s repairing and restoring of all that is broken in creation.
Even in the midst of our significant imperfection, we have a responsibility to allow God’s Spirit to work upon us that we may be repaired and restored, that we may continue to grow into repairers and restorers of this world. The beginning of this story has Joseph as a bit of snot-nosed little brat. But through his adversity he grows into a man who is still far from perfect, but one who serves others and serves God. Joseph’s brothers begin the story as almost monsters with their treatment of Joseph. But when young Benjamin is held captive they do everything in their power to save him.
This story of God using the most imperfect of people to accomplish the greatest of things is both a blessing and frankly a challenge to us. It is a grand and glorious gift to learn just how valuable we are to the divine. But it also removes any of the excuses we whisper to ourselves about the limits of how we might live out our faith in the world. We are never too old or too young to serve God’s purposes. We are never too busy to serve God’s purposes. We are never too filled with doubt to serve God’s purposes. We are never too flawed to serve God’s purposes. We are never too anything to serve God’s purposes.
I’m a jerk. You’re a jerk. Now what? Now we serve God together, perhaps in the most surprising of ways. It is well worth getting off the bus for that.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
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