Rom. 11: 1-2a, 29-32                                                                                                     Rev. Dr. Galen E. Russell III

Genesis 45: 1-15                                                                                                                               August 23, 2026

He said, “I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. And now do not be distressed, or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life.”

Song                     “Amazing Grace” (vss. 1-2)                No. 547

Prayer: Amazing God, please let your amazing grace lead us to practice reconciliation wherever it is needed. Amen.

These ancient stories from Genesis are an inspiration to many of us. Several of God’s truths and God’s ways, which are part of our Christian faith, have their genesis in these stories.

And what an amazing story we have about Joseph. In part 3 of this series, we heard about 17-year-old Joseph prancing around in his coat of many colors, telling his brothers that he dreamed they would bow down to him some day. And they got angry and threw him into a pit and then sold him to slave traders who took him to Egypt. But God was with him.

Let me share with you the next part of Joseph’s story (found Genesis 37, 39-44). He was taken to Potiphar’s house where he was falsely accused of sexual misconduct by Potiphar’s wife. And he was thrown into prison because of that. But in Jail he interpreted dreams, and eventually Pharaoh’s dreams, as well.

One dream Pharaoh had that Joseph interpreted was about a famine that was coming. Joseph gave them a strategy to store up food during seven years of abundance in preparation for seven years of famine. And Pharaoh was pleased and gave him authority. Joseph rose to power. He was thirty years old by now, and things were going well. And seven years later, the famine came as predicted. All the Egyptians flourished, but everyone else was starving.

Including Jacob (aka Israel) and his remaining sons in Canaan. When they heard there was food in Egypt, Jacob sent all his sons except Benjamin to go to Egypt to buy grain. When Joseph saw his brothers, he recognized them immediately, but they didn’t recognize him because he looked like Egyptian royalty, with all the makeup and clothing, a glitzy gold necklace and a signet ring And Joseph decided to treat them like strangers. He even spoke to them through an interpreter helping to conceal his real identity.

Joseph now toys with them. He accuses his brothers of being spies. He imprisons them. But his emotions start to get the best of him. He hast to step back. Then, he gathers himself and sends them all back to Jacob in Canann except Simeon whom he kept as a ransom, demanding that they come back with Benjamin this time.

When they return with Benjamin, Joseph gives them grain, but he plants a silver cup in Benjamin’s sack of grain so he could accuse Benjamin of stealing. Which was a passive-aggressive ploy designed to mess with his brothers, letting them squirm a bit. Joseph says he will keep Benjamin and make him his slave!

But Judah pleads with Joseph to let Benjamin go. Judah tells Joseph that their father Jacob would be heart-broken even more if he lost another son.  Because remember, Jacob already thinks he lost Joseph years ago, and now quite possibly he could lose Simeon, and maybe, Benjamin, too. When Joseph hears Judah’s pleas, his emotions are barely controllable. This is where our text starts:

Then Joseph could no longer control himself before all those who stood by him, and he cried out, “Send everyone away from me.” So no one stayed with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers. ² And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard it. ³ Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph. Is my father still alive?”

[GASP!] But his brothers could not answer him, so dismayed were they at his presence. ⁴Then 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. ⁵And 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; þ 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.

Song                   “Amazing Grace” (vss. 3-4)              No. 547



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.’ ¹² And now your eyes and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see that it is my own mouth that speaks to you. ¹³ You must tell my father how greatly I am honored in Egypt, and all that you have seen. Hurry and bring my father down here.” ¹⁴ Then he fell upon his brother Benjamin’s neck and wept, while Benjamin wept upon his neck. ¹⁵ And he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them; and after that his brothers talked with him. May God bless us as we hear these words.

You know, it took a long time for Joseph to get to this place of reconciliation. The story started when he was 17, when he dreamed of greatness over his brothers. And at 30, he came into power in Pharaoh’s household. Then there were 7 years of abundance, and at this point, when his brothers arrived, they were 2 years into famine. All told, 22 years had passed since his brothers first betrayed him until now when he revealed himself to them.

That’s a long time. And you know how people are sometimes. Old wounds can turn into grudges that just don’t heal. Baggage that we carry around can become our dark sides. Because Joseph knew that his brothers did him dirty. And in his position of power, he could have exacted his revenge. He could have made them pay, big time!  I mean yeah, he did mess with them for a bit. His actions and emotions seem to have bubbled up to the surface after maybe being repressed for years and years.

But, Joseph, it seems to me, was able to grow out of the less mature place of holding grudges and grow into a deeper, more evolved, healthier place of forgiveness and grace, leading to new possibilities and creative opportunities for new directions.

Instead of keeping grudges and letting old wounds fester, Joseph used the time to grow and mature. To do some inner work through the trauma.  Instead of revenge and retribution, he modeled the God-characteristic of reconciliation.

Reconciliation is a God-thing that I think takes a few ingredients. I think it takes faith, time and love.

Faith. Faith to believe that God is at work behind the scenes in our lives. Especially when things are tough. Like Joseph I am going to share personally here. When I was going through my divorce, it was the most painful thing I’ve ever experienced. And for the life of me, in the beginning, I couldn’t see the end of the process. I didn’t know how reconciliation would take place, if it ever could. It was a messy, difficult time.

Time. Time enough for God’s healing to occur. For maturation to take place. I came to believe and then later found out that going through a divorce was sacred time. Because God was asking me to sacrifice the feeling of being unloved. Move beyond petty differences. Grow past the desire to get even. Even to mature past what felt like was disobedience to God’s word. Because it’s right there in the bible that God hates divorce (see Malachi 2: 16) and Jesus said it occurs because of hard-heartedness (see Matthew 19: 6-9).

God was in those painful circumstances, and yet, I see now, 26 years later, that the God-attribute of reconciliation occurred. That healing took place between Barb’s spouse and my former spouse and us. Between our five children and us. As former relationships ended, new relationships were born.

And love. Love because all of us had to do some inner hard, emotional, and spiritual work through the trauma, while carrying the seeds of love in our hearts for everyone involved, especially for our children. Love. Because we’re filled with it. Love that supersedes words in the Bible. Love because it creates new chapters in the face of humans struggles. Grace in the face of pain. Love. Because now we’re enjoying the 8 and soon to be 9 grandchildren that we have. And each of them is blessed with multiple grandparents, who have found ways to have healthy love with each other.

The powerful good news for us I think is that even in our fractured relationships, we have the seeds of faith growing in us that God still is at work. The time for God’s purposes are still being worked out. I think God sometimes has to work around our poor and sometimes selfish decisions and actions, but with love God always desires reconciliation for us. Healthy new life. Always leading toward God’s purposes.

Reconciliation does not always mean that old relationships are restored.  Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes it means the discontinuation of former relationships and the growth of the new.

But at the end of the day, I believe God desires reconciliation for everyone, sharing love and mercy, grace and forgiveness, no matter our frailties and tendency to disobey God’s word.

Why? Because it is a God thing. Because reconciliation ultimately reflects what Jesus did, and what he died for. He died believing in God’s intense love for every single person alive, and that a new, beautiful, reconciled relationship with God is possible. That death itself cannot stop that love of God for us. And God proved it by giving Jesus back his life and promising it to us.

I invite you to search your heart now. Where are your fractured relationships? Where are the broken parts of your life that may be front and center right now, or may be so far back that you don’t feel them anymore? It could be between you and another person. It could be in your work setting. It could be between you and God. No matter. Wherever it is, come unto to God and ask, “Holy One, will you please help me deepen my faith that you are in, with, and under all my relationships, all my circumstances moving me toward your God-attribute of reconciliation?”

And God will move heaven and earth just so that you can find faith, time, and love to help reconciliation, and new life, and joy come into your life and inner spirit. May it be so. Thanks be to God. Amen.