Sunday Stretch: Vol. 114

Start off your week with a grounded take on Bible, prayer, the world, and your life ...

Hi Readers,

Note to local readers: I’m preaching and sharing a forum this morning at Oak Grove Presbyterian Church in Bloomington, MN. Forum at 9 and worship at 10:30. Would love to see you there!

As usual - I’m sitting here writing to you, thinking, “Wow, I really needed to read these Bible texts this week.”

I’m also writing to you just two days after returning back from a quick little getaway with my husband. It has been a few years since we went away together without the kids: last time we did so, it was 2022, and we both ended up getting COVID for the first time.

We had really such an incredible trip. I think the most fun part was people asking if we were on our honeymoon. Nope, just almost 14 years later! But after experiencing some family grief and loss this year, celebrating our love and marriage together felt really important for these days ahead, that I know will be full of challenges anew.

A photo taken by Ben during our visit to the Mayan ruins in Tulum

Speaking of that - I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t feel the entire trip sort of, underneath it all, wow, this is a weird time to be going away for a vacation. It has barely been a month since Trump was inaugurated for the second time, and since then Americans have been deluged with chaos-inducing executive orders, extremist Cabinet appointments, including many of a Christian Nationalist flavor, and also intermittent attacks against federal workers, marginalized people, the poor, immigrants, and those who work to try and provide assistance.

I’m under no illusion that these groups are perfect, but I also know that it’s a critical part of my faith to try and care for the most vulnerable among us, rather than demonizing the poor and anyone who is in need.

So even as I cherished these days with my husband, I also felt that underlying sense of guilt and anxiety: how can you relax when the world is on fire? How can I receive joy when so many are experiencing intense fear, pain, and grief?

That’s right where this week’s texts entered in. They reminded me that the critical part of the story of Jesus is one of unmerited favor. Of receiving love and grace that we do not deserve. Accepting these gifts from God (even as we know we don’t deserve them) is a key part of faith, and doing so helps us to pass on those gifts, that grace, to others. Enabling us all to keep on going: day in and day out.

Let’s get to the texts!

Bible Stories

Genesis 45:3-11, 15

Gen. 45:3 Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph. Is my father still alive?” But his brothers could not answer him, so dismayed were they at his presence.

Gen. 45:4 Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come closer to me.” And they came closer. He said, “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. ⁵ And now do not be distressed, or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life. ⁶ For the famine has been in the land these two years; and there are five more years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. ⁷ God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. ⁸ So it was not you who sent me here, but God; he has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt. ⁹ Hurry and go up to my father and say to him, ‘Thus says your son Joseph, God has made me lord of all Egypt; come down to me, do not delay. ¹⁰ You shall settle in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near me, you and your children and your children’s children, as well as your flocks, your herds, and all that you have. ¹¹ I will provide for you there—since there are five more years of famine to come—so that you and your household, and all that you have, will not come to poverty.’

Gen. 45:15 And he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them; and after that his brothers talked with him.

One of my favorite memories of teaching Confirmation to a small group of students in Southwestern Minnesota, is the memory of dwelling with them slowly through the Book of Genesis, from Creation to the story of Joseph.

The book of Genesis is a writers’ dream, rich with imagery, illustration, allusion, depth. Genesis is full of stories, but perhaps the greatest (and most lengthy) narrative of Genesis is the story of Joseph, who goes on a recognizable “hero’s journey” from dreams, to family rejection, enslavement, to accusation and imprisonment, and then a rise to political power, famine, hiding his identity from his family, and finally: forgiveness and resolution. We could probably do a year-long study just on the story of Joseph itself.

But here in this passage we are given insight into Joseph’s incredible grace toward his brothers, who had formerly sold him into enslavement as a result of their jealousy toward him.

Joseph’s story is one of unmerited favor, of grace, forgiveness, and of God’s amazing transformation of sin and evil into love and reconciliation.

Questions to Ponder

What other Bible stories do you see parallels to in the story of Joseph we read here? Do you see similarities to the Prodigal Son? Why or why not?

Who do you relate to in this story? Why?

How do you think Jospeh arrived at this decision to be at peace with his brothers’ betrayal?

1 Corinthians 15:35-38, 42-50

1Cor. 15:35 But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” ³⁶ Fool! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. ³⁷ And as for what you sow, you do not sow the body that is to be, but a bare seed, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. ³⁸ But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body.

1Cor. 15:42 So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. ⁴³ It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. ⁴⁴ It is sown a physical body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body. ⁴⁵ Thus it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. ⁴⁶ But it is not the spiritual that is first, but the physical, and then the spiritual. ⁴⁷ The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is^a from heaven. ⁴⁸ As was the man of dust, so are those who are of the dust; and as is the man of heaven, so are those who are of heaven. ⁴⁹ Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we will^a also bear the image of the man of heaven.

1Cor. 15:50 What I am saying, brothers and sisters,^a is this: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.

We continue to read Paul’s explanation of the Gospel, from his initial narrative of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection in previous weeks, into Paul’s connection from Jesus’ resurrection to the promise of resurrection for all.

Important to Paul here in this text is this idea of connection: that Jesus is necessarily connected to humanity through his body: and because his body has been resurrected, then therefore we as embodied human beings are also granted access to resurrection. There’s an introduction here to Paul’s theological idea that Jesus somehow becomes a New Adam: that Adam’s sinfulness and mortality is redeemed in Jesus, from a man of dust to a man of heaven.

Revisit the end of 1 Corinthians 13: Paul writes there that we see our own image dimly, as if in a mirror. Does that mean it’s hard for us to see clearly what Paul envisions here, that we “bear the image of the man of heaven?” (verse 49)

Why does Paul suggest that the physical comes before the spiritual? Why is the body such an important part of Paul’s theology around resurrection?

Can you see/hear Paul working out his own theology as he writes these verses here? How might our own understanding impact how we hear Paul’s words?

Luke 6:27-38

Luke 6:27 “But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, ²⁸ bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. ²⁹ If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. ³⁰ Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone