Sermon – 08-25-24 – Pastor Bob’s Last Sunday
Scriptures: Genesis 45:1-8, I John 4:7-19, Mark 12:28-34
Sermon Title: “The Burning Question”

The Burning Question is which one of us will come the closest to being a Joseph? Which one of us can match the Father and Jesus in the quality and quantity of their love? Our gospel lesson says we should love our neighbor as much as we love ourselves. That is dificult. For one thing, we probably do not love ourselves as much as we should. Are we always proud of ourselves or do we wish we could re-do some moments and decisions of our lives differently?

Then there is this long prayer that Jesus says for his disciples, and therefore us, on that night in the Upper Room before he dies.. Jesus challenges the disciples and us to love each other as much as Jesus loves us. Impossible, but it is a goal.

Well, Pastor Bob is like a second Jesus. Every time I open an email from Pastor Bob, I am faced with these words:

“And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is Love.” I Corinthians 13:13 (NKJV)

Pastor Bob is fixated on Holy Love. Love straight from Joseph, in the land of Canaan, who forgave his 9 brothers for wanting to kill him and the 10 brothers for selling him to a caravan heading for Egypt. You are probably wondering why I am using 9 and 10 for brothers that totaled 12 all together. Well, seeing that Joseph would not vote to have himself killed or sold to Egypt that brings the number down to 11. Then there is Benjamin, the youngest brother who is not present with this crowd of a family when their anger toward Joseph is so high. That understandably brings the number down to 10. There was one brother who did not want to kill Joseph. Judah is the one who coaxed the other brothers to just sell Joseph instead of killing him. Now we are down to the 9. But, 10 brothers did agree to sell Joseph to this caravan.

Now I must say that the brothers had a good reason for wanting to kill Joseph but I am not telling. You will need to read the story for yourself. It is quite exciting, especially so because God has this long episode planned from the beginning.

At any rate, the brothers are jealous. They send Joseph to Egypt and think that is the end of that. We don’t need to endure Joseph and his dreams any longer. But this is not the end of Joseph. Really this sermon could go on for an hour or more. So we have jealousy, attempted murder, and kidnapping. Don’t forget to find this story – Chapter 37 in Genesis and I dare you to stop before the end.

Here we are today – guilty brothers coming to Joseph who certainly could be feeling angry at the brothers. But the brothers need the food that Joseph has on hand big-time. At first Joseph does not reveal that hs is their brother. The amazing thing is that Joseph is very glad to see them. He forgives them. He gives them sacks of grain to take home. The story is not ended. God had this all planned.
God has plans for our lives also. We can be very thankful that God planned for Robert G. Masenheimer to become a musician, than a pastor, and then both. Did God plan for Bob to come to this church, this very church so that all of us could love Bob – and Sue? You probably noticed that Sue and Bob are a team. I say that God did plan this. We consider these past years as precious when Bob could be with us sharing his cute jokes along the way and the beautiful music that he gently coaxed from the piano – the loving touch.

Does God lead YOU into his plans for the good of all? Thanks for thinking about that! Amen