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"What Knowing Our Purpose Provides” Sermon Delivered By Reverend Richard E. Stetler – August 14, 2011 Centenary United Genesis 45:1-15; Matthew 15:21-28 As I mentioned last Sunday, the Joseph story in Genesis provides
one of the most provocative images in the Bible of what can happen to
people when their purpose for living is defined by their faith.
The quality of our lives
truly does depend on our interpretation of events.
When
we see our lives through the
lenses of our faith, we look at every experience either as a
blessing or as a tool for refinement.
Pastors could spend a month of Sundays on the Joseph story and
never exhaust the potential themes that are present in each facet of
this drama. Last week we touched on how Joseph dealt with a number of
life-challenges, and this morning we are going to conclude our visit
with him by considering the driving purpose that allowed him to be so
generous and compassionate with his brothers who had betrayed him. As Joseph had
predicted while interpreting Pharaoh’s dreams, the entire region was now
in the second year of a seven-year famine.
Word had quickly spread throughout the region that The moment came when
his brothers were standing before Joseph.
All they saw were the trappings of the most powerful man in Joseph could no
longer stand the suspense of keeping his identity a secret from them.
His love for his brothers was too overwhelming.
He sent his servants away.
As soon as Joseph was alone with his brothers, he burst into
tears. In fact, he cried
with such loud sobs that his entire household heard him. News of this
emotional outburst quickly reached Pharaoh. He said to his
brothers, “I am Joseph!”
When his brothers heard that name, they were so horrified and shocked
that they were immobilized by fear.
Joseph said again, “Come closer.
I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold to that passing caravan
when I was 17.” Imagine having the
power to let go of every incident that had the potential to hurt you and
every word spoken with the intent of criticizing and belittling you.
Imagine being able emotionally to
rise above everything in this world that had attempted to define you.
Remember Joseph had been a slave and now he was the most powerful
man in
All of us have been endowed with this
magnificent, remarkable ability to rise above and overcome everything
even when the patterns of change appear threatening.
Being created a little
lower than the angels is no chump
change. Our problem is
that we do not access this ability.
What we do not use within us remains dormant.
In an adult Sunday school class in my past, I remember someone
saying, “When you are the most powerful man in
There is an
excellent example of this kind of purpose-driven life that found its way
into print a number of years ago.
A man was killed by a hit and run driver.
He left behind a widow and five children.
Since he had been the bread
winner, his wife had to become very frugal and resourceful with the
proceeds from his two life insurance policies.
Her purpose was to launch five children into the world so that each would become a
contributor to society. She never once felt
sorry for herself or lamented even for a moment that her skin was not
the same color as countless successful people with whom she was
surrounded. She took
in the laundry of her neighbors including the ironing of shirts,
blouses, skirts and dresses, became a skilled seamstress, and even
learned how to work on her husband’s car, i.e., changing the oil and
rotating the tires. Routinely, she took
her three boys and two girls to art galleries, museums, concerts and to
baseball games. She gave
each child their own individual
moments with mom as she used to call it.
The television was on one hour after supper if all of them
completed their homework.
They watched the news and discussed current events.
Television was never used as an escape or for entertainment. She reached her
goal. Today she has no idea
where she found the energy or the finances to pack into her children’s
lives all that they accomplished as a family.
One of her children became a practicing physician, one is an
architect, another is a machinist, a fourth is the manager of a major
department store and the last one became the director of a pre-school
for an industrial complex with 460 students and 52 staff.
She ended her
article with these words:
I suspect that I
ignored every barrier that tried its best to discourage me from being
the formidable mother I wanted to be. I was determined to awaken within
each of my children the awe, mystery and beauty that our wonderful world
inspires in us. Each of them
developed the desire to learn everything they could from study, reading
and using their imaginations. They also learned that attitude creates
the quality of everyone’s journey. I
am very proud of them. Anyone can place the
purpose Joseph used for guidance right in the middle of his or her own
life-issues. That mother
was right -- attitude is everything.
Nothing stood in the way of her purpose of directing the lives of
her five children, stimulating their minds to remain hungry to learn and
helping them to experience culture from visiting museums to becoming
fond of opera. Last week a friend
of ours sent me a short video-clip about Hazel McCallion, the Mayor of
Mississauga. She is mayor of
the third largest city in She was asked how
she has lasted that long in office and she described her driving purpose
as a political leader: “Care
for your people, keep taxes low and attract companies to do business in
your city. Companies create
jobs! Our city is debt free
and has 700 million in reserves.”
What makes this story so compelling is that Hazel is 88 years old
and still maintains a deadly
accurate stick when she plays ice hockey. She has no plans for
retiring.
Purpose drives us to
say, “Please be patient with me, God is not finished with me yet.”
Knowing his purpose drove Joseph to say, “Do not be upset or blame
yourselves because you sold me to that passing caravan.
It was God who sent me ahead of you to save people’s lives from
starvation. God has made me Pharaoh’s highest official.
I am the ruler of Our purpose,
however, may not have any similarities to the one that kept Joseph’s
emotions in check and his spirit open to what God may be doing.
Societies need purpose-driven people at every level from trash
collecting to Members of Parliament.
It is the spirit by which
we live that makes the difference in every vocational category.
One day a district
manager of a large chain of grocery stores was standing with one of his
managers in his store. They
both were observing the checkout process for the store’s customers. The
district manager said, “Look at that young man bagging groceries for
registers 5, 6 and 7.” The young man was
running back and forth bagging groceries for three cashiers.
Many of the other baggers were slowly picking up grocery items
and looking at them before putting them into the bag.
Sometimes cashiers had to stop what they were doing to help with
the bagging process. During a slow period
in the store the district manager approached that young man and asked
him what his motivation was for keeping three lines going.
The young man said, “Today’s customers want to get in and out of
our store as quickly as possible, sir.
There is a science to
packing a grocery bag. Bags
can’t be too heavy for customers and you can’t put bread, eggs and
potato chips on the bottom. Everything
has its place in that bag and baggers have to understand that. My goal
is to keep four lines going at once and I am almost there.”
The GM said, “Son,
with motivation like that, one day you will own your own grocery store.
Here is my card. When
you are finished with your education, give me a call.”
Purpose-driven people stand head and shoulders above the rest.
They
do not look at their vocation as a job, they look at what they do as an
extension of how they live -- their value system, their beliefs and
their character strengths are always on display. Potifer immediately
noticed Joseph’s ability.
The jailer recognized that Joseph had management skills.
Pharaoh learned that Joseph had a plan for his nation. There are
no perfect jobs.
However, highly energized people that are eager to do anything to
get a job done well are purpose-driven.
It is interesting that companies everywhere cannot find enough
people to hire who have the spirit of that young grocery store worker. The program
60 Minutes once produced a
segment on a thriving business in a community filled with elderly
people. The cause for the visit was that the owner, Charlie Graham,
hired only retirees. For example, the
average age of the 12 women that were making boxes by hand was 84.
People in the shipping department ranged in ages from 76 to 91.
There were two machinists that were in their early 90s doing very
close work with their milling machines. Charlie’s business manager had
run the numbers for a branch
of IBM for 42 years. The workers still
had very marketable skills and years of work experience.
An added benefit for Charlie was that he did not have to pay them
high wages or offer a benefit package. Everyone already had adequate
coverage. Camera crews went
into the facility to interview the owner and workers.
Everyone interviewed said about
the same thing.
None of us needs to
work, but we absolutely love it here. We are not worried about wages.
If for some reason Charlie couldn’t pay us, we would come to work
anyway. We are family. The
women fold boxes and gossip all day long about everyone else’s business.
Some of us came here suffering from depression.
Working together made that condition disappear. For the most
part, our aches and pains are gone too.
We bring experience to what we do while having fun being
productive again. The best part about working for Charlie is that we
work in an environment where we laugh constantly. This is great therapy
for us seniors. Charlie has given us a new purpose for living.
It is great to feel needed again. Joseph’s spirit made
him a quality servant, a model prisoner, a remarkable administrator for
Pharaoh and finally, the best brother anyone could have.
He had few answers along the way.
He experienced challenging outcomes.
Joseph’s spirit, however, communicated, “God is in charge of my
destiny and all I ever had to do during my life was show up
enthusiastically and do the very best I can with what is being asked of
me.”
The world might be a
different place if more of us looked at our lives as
bristles in God’s
paint brush.
God makes the brush strokes on the canvas
while we add texture with
our unique
colors. |