Some years ago Bill Cosby did one of his many great comedy
routines about his growing up years in Philadelphia.(1) He
recalled a snowy winter day, enough snow on the ground for a
really good snowball fight. So he and his friends had one.
Now, if you grew up in an area where snowball fights are a
common winter occurrence, you will know that there are certain
unwritten rules about what is allowed and what is not. For
example, you did not put a rock in the center of your snowball,
because that could kill somebody; you did not throw solid ice at
somebody for the same reason; and you did not throw slushballs at
people because that would make them all wet and force them to
quit playing and go home. Common rules anywhere in the world for
a kids' snowball fight. And those were the rules in effect on
this particular day in Cosby's neighborhood in Philadelphia.
Only somebody broke the rules...Junior Barnes. He came up
on Cos and got him right in the side of the face with a
slushball. It stung; it melted all down his clothes; it broke
the rules. Bill cried out, "Hey man, you hit me with a
slushball," but Junior Barnes just laughed and ran off.
Bill's friends gathered round and said, "Hey, now you've
gotta get HIM."
"Yeah...I'm gonna make me the biggest, wettest, sloppiest
slushball in the world and I'm gonna get Junior Barnes...gonna
get Junior Barnes. Oh, Junior BAR-R-R-NES...Junior
BAR-R-R-R-NES." But Junior Barnes didn't come back that day, so
Bill's avenging shushball had to wait...and wait...and wait...and
wait.
July! The hottest day of the summer. Ever since that day
of the slushball, Bill had done everything he could to make
Junior Barnes think that the two were the greatest of friends: he
played with him; he laughed at all his little jokes; all the
while plotting what he was going to do to get even. You see,
Bill had KEPT that slushball he had made and put it in his
mother's freezer to wait for the opportune moment.
Now it had arrived. He and Junior Barnes were sitting on
the Cosby's front steps and Bill said, "Junior, how'd you like to
have a nice orange soda? Heh, heh, heh!"
"Yeah, man, that'd be great."
So Bill went in. He opened up the freezer door, ready for
the glorious moment...but the slushball wasn't there...his mom
had thrown it out. Cos was crushed. His revenge was ruined. So
he went out and SPIT on Junior Barnes. Pay back time.
A fellow went to the hospital to visit his partner who had
been taken strangely ill and was near death. Suddenly the dying
man began to speak. "John," he said, "before I go I have got to
confess some things and get your forgiveness. I want you to know
that I robbed the firm of $100,000 several years ago. I sold our
secret formula to our competition, and John, I am the one who
supplied your wife with the evidence that got her the divorce and
cost you a small fortune. Will you forgive me?"
John murmured, "That's okay, old man. I am the one who gave
you the poison." Pay back time.
If there were ever anyone who had an excuse to look for a
pay back time, it is the man we read of in our Old Testament
lesson, Joseph. As you recall from your earliest Sunday School
days, young Joey was his father's favorite son, a bitter enough
pill for his brothers to swallow, but the boy did everything he
could to rub their faces in it, and the result was that his fed-up siblings took matters into their own hands and sold him into
slavery. (And you thought YOU had a dysfunctional family!)
The Midianites who bought the boy were on their way to Egypt
where they would soon sell Joseph once more, this time to a man
named Potiphar, the head of Pharoah's security force. Joseph did
well, under the circumstances, eventually being placed in charge
of Potiphar's entire household, an incredible honor for a slave.
But Potiphar's wife had her own ideas about honor - she tried to
seduce the young man, and when he refused her advances, she
yelled RAPE!!!
Now Joseph is in jail, once again the victim. But here
again he prospers, gaining the respect of fellow prisoners and
guards. Eventually two of the Pharaoh's servants find themselves
behind the same bars where they all become friends, a scenario
that (after a few dream interpretations) would eventually lead to
Joseph's release.
To make a long story short, the Pharaoh had an eye for
talent and made our Hebrew hero the Prime Minister of Egypt -
from the jail house to the penthouse. Not bad for a bratty kid
who had been sold into slavery by his brothers!
Now a famine settles on the Near East. Jacob tells his sons
to go to Egypt to buy some grain. They do and in the process
meet Joseph -- only they do not know it is Joseph. It happens
twice. Finally, Joseph reveals his true identity. The brothers
are shocked and rightly scared - PAYBACK time! But Joseph does
not do that. In fact, he stuns them with these words we heard a
moment ago:
"Do not be distressed and do not be angry with
yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save
lives that God sent me ahead of you. For two years now
there has been famine in the land, and for the next
five years there will not be plowing and reaping. But
God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant
on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.
So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God."
The story goes on. The brothers go back to Canaan and tell
their aged father that Joseph is still alive. He cannot believe
it, but eventually they convince him to come to Egypt with them.
He makes the trip and is reunited with the son he had given up
for dead so many years ago. Then he meets the Pharaoh who offers
to let Joseph's family settle in for as long as they like. The
family moves to Egypt and lives in peace there for many years.
Finally Jacob dies at the ripe old age of 147.
Now it is just Joseph and his brothers. Again they fear pay
back time - with Jacob gone, brother Joe will be free to take his
revenge. So they tell Joseph, "Oh, by the way, before Dad died
he told us to tell you to treat us kindly." Uh huh.
Listen to Joseph's gracious response: "Don't be afraid. Am
I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended
it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of
many lives. So then, don't be afraid. I will provide for you
and your children." And he reassured them and spoke kindly to
them.(2)
The world could use a few more Josephs, couldn't it? It is
pretty mean out there, and people can be incredible.
Down in the part of the country in which I lived for years,
millions of people are tuning in for the NASCAR race from Daytona
today - the Super Bowl of racing, they call it, and one of the
sport's most coveted crowns. Richard Petty, probably the best
known stock car racer of all time, holds the record for the most
victories in the Daytona 500 - seven times he has won that race,
and one came with the most bizarre finish imaginable. Going into
the last lap, Richard was running 30 seconds behind the two
leaders. All at once the car in second place tried to pass the
No. 1 man on the final stretch. This caused the first car to
drift inside and force the challenger onto the infield grass, and
slightly out of control. The offended driver pulled his car back
onto the track, caught up with the leader, and forced him into
the outside wall. Both vehicles came to a screeching halt. The
two drivers jumped out and quickly got into an old-fashioned
slugging match. In the meantime, third-place Petty cruised by
for the win.(3) As I say, it is quite a world out there.
Suddenly that world hears a familiar voice: "Love your
enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse
you, pray for those who mistreat you." Are you listening,
Joseph? "If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the
other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from
taking your tunic. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone
takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others
as you would have them do to you."
As one commentator has it: "Jesus' teaching is not a
scolding. And it is not a little romantic lesson in feeling good
about everybody and acting silly. It is rather a rich,
evangelical statement that there is more to life than our
capacity to contain it all in our little moral categories,
whereby life is reduced to a simple set of black/white, yes/no
moral choices. For, says Jesus, if you reduce your life to the
simple practice of loving your friends and hating your enemies,
of being generous only to those you like and trust, and resistant
whenever there is a risk, what's the big deal? Anybody can do
that. Any thief, any sinner, any atheist, any deal cutter,
anybody who can count and remember and keep score can do that.
But you, says Jesus, are not part of that pitiful bunch of
frightened people. You know more and you know differently, and
you have freedom to act differently. You know about the larger
purposes of God [just like Joseph], and you are called to act
concretely as though the purposes of God really did make a
difference in your life..."(4)
The last words of that lesson from Luke bring it all
together: "Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Do not
judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will
not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven."
Nice words. Hard job. We would rather NOT forgive the
drug-crazed thugs who mugged our grandmother on the way home from
the market. We would rather not forgive the drunk driver who ran
over our little boy. Sigmund Freud understood - he said, "One
must forgive one's enemies, but not before they have been
hanged."(5) It is a dog-eat-dog world out there, not a dog-forgive-dog world. Pay back time!
Someone has suggested that these sermons from Christian
pulpits about forgiveness should include some instruction as to
how to go about it. Good idea. Here are some points from the
literature of one of the Twelve-step programs:
1) Write down in black and white the reasons why we are
angry with (someone)...Writing clarifies emotions which have been
confused and buried in us, sometimes for years. Also by setting
down our grievances in black and white, we place a boundary
around them. Our grievances are only so big and no bigger. The
hurt had a beginning and it can have an end.
2) Consider "giving away" (telling) what we have written to
some trusted person. Consider symbolically releasing the hurt,
such as by burning or tearing up the paper.
3) Pray. Pray for willingness to forgive. And pray for
the person who has wronged us, daily, asking God to bless them
with good things we want for ourselves. If we keep praying for
them faithfully, sooner or later our feelings will change. When
our feelings change, when we find ourselves being sincere in
asking God to bless our former enemies, then we will know we have
forgiven them.
Pay back time. Yes, our first reaction when someone has
done us wrong is probably that of Bill Cosby to Junior Barnes.
As a flesh-and-blood victim of a horrible crime, Joseph had all
the reason in the world to look for his chance. But there is a
better way. Joseph knew it. And we know it.
Do you need to forgive someone? "To forgive is to put down
your 50-pound pack after a 10-mile climb up a mountain. To
forgive is to fall into a chair after running a marathon. To
forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that prisoner is
you. To forgive is to reach back into your hurting past and
recreate it in your memory so that you can begin again."(6) Then
that ancient spiritual takes on a wonderful new meaning: "Free at
last, Free at last. Thank God Almighty, I'm free at last."
Amen!
1. Bill Cosby, Revenge, Sound Recording, (Burbank, CA : Warner Bros. Records W1691,
1960)
2. Gen 50:20-21
3. Source Unknown, ChristianGlobe Network, Inc, 2001, www.esermons.com
4. From a sermon by Walter Brueggemann quoted by Jim Gorman, via Ecunet,
"Sermonshop 02 18 01," #27, 2/14/01
5. Quoted by Philip Yancey, "An Unnatural Act," Christianity Today, 4/8/91, p. 36
6. Lewis Smedes, "Forgiveness: The Power to Change the Past," Christianity Today,
1/7/83, p. 26
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