Sermons for the Month

Scarless Healing!
DATE: February 18, 2001
SERVICE: Epiphany VII
TEXT: Genesis 45:3-11, 15
“To all of you Saints here this morning, grace and peace to you from God our Father, from His Son, Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit. AMEN

The topic would be perfect for Jerry Springer: Siblings who sell each other into slavery.
Picture the sons of Jacob on stage, a line-up of coarse and questionable characters who openly admit to selling their teenage brother Joseph down the river. No doubt they'd bluster about why they did it:
"I hated him."
"Dad loved him best."
"He had the fancy robe, and wouldn't get his hands dirty."
"The kid drove me crazy with his dreams"
"Thought he was the king of us!"
And then they'd explain just how they pulled it off:
"We thought about killing him."
"Wanted to throw dream-boy into a pit."
"Yeah, kill him and throw him in a pit."
"Say that the wild animals ate him."
"But Reuben said no - said we shouldn't kill him."
"So we stripped him and we sold him."
"Yeah - sold him to some Ishmaelites."
"Got 20 pieces of silver for him."
"Pretty good money."

Finally, Springer would bring out the surprise guest: Their long-lost brother Joseph, who ended up as chief minister in Egypt. "I am your brother," he'd reveal. "And now do not be distressed, or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life" (Genesis 45:5). Joseph would promise to feed the brothers in their time of famine, and all would be amazed at his generosity.
But what about the scars? You know there would have to be scars. All those years of hatred and jealousy, abuse and violence ... there would HAVE to be scars.
Liana Gedz knows all about scars. She went into the hospital for the birth of a child which was delivered C-section. Later, she noticed that the physician who had performed the surgery had carved his initials - "AZ" - into her belly.
Bizarre. Jerry Springer stuff.
But how do you get rid of a scar like that? The answer for Liana was a tummy tuck which would hide even the C-section scar. Both the AZ and the C-scar disappeared with one additional surgical procedure, while the surgeon was hauled into court and thrown into the slammer.
Unfortunately, there are times when you can't hide your scar with a tummy tuck. If a large area of skin has been lost - as with burn victims - a surgeon will have to remove the entire scar and shift a piece of healthy skin, complete with fat, blood vessels and muscles, to the injured site.
Even better, scientists have come up with recipes for advanced bandages that jump-start the repair of injured skin, but then break down - leaving behind only healed tissue. These bandages are "biodegradable scaffolds" that improve the odds of scarless healing - bandages made of synthetic polymers, crab shells, pig intestines and foreskins from circumcised newborns. Other treatments include silicone gel sheets, mineral oils and steroid creams, as well as a surgical sanding technique known as dermabrasion.
But injuries are everywhere, and not every scar can be treated with surgery. Some five million wounds - many of them chronic - will occur this year in the United States alone. And this doesn't even count the wounds that are psychological, emotional and spiritual - wounds that ache and fester for so many years after an injury.
Think of the deep and numerous scars in the life of Joseph and his brothers. The constant taunting when he was a child. The plot to murder him. The heartless sale into slavery.
How do you heal these wounds? A tummy tuck's not going to do it.
The text tells us that Joseph and his brothers reconcile, and they kiss and weep and talk (v. 15). But the scars that this family bear are not easily sanded away through dermabrasion - in fact, their story illustrates well the medical axiom "once scarred, always scarred." As one doctor has observed, "You can't airbrush out a scar, but you can create great camouflage."
Every year we have a Sneeringer reunion. It has been going on for quite some time. For years, however, there were two cousins who would take turns coming to the reunion. When one came the other didn't and vice versa. I asked about this one year and I was told neither could abide the other. Long ago they refused to speak to one another for something which had left in each a permanent scar. From then on they refused to be seen at a Sneeringer reunion when the other was present.
Joseph knew his scar wouldn't go away either. Nor does he pretend it would. In fact, he points to his scar and reminds his brothers that they sold him into slavery (v. 5). He makes no attempt to airbrush the fact that something terrible was done to him, but in spite of this history, Joseph is somehow able to heal and move toward reconciliation with his brothers.
How does he do it? Simple: By seeing that a spiritual scaffold has been erected by God.
Joseph discovers that a divine scaffold has been built over his wound - a scaffold that will prove to be much more healing than any modern biodegradable scaffolds made of clam shells or pig intestines. Looking back over his life, he sees that God has managed in a truly mysterious way to bring good out of evil, using even the dastardly act of his jealous brothers to put him in an important position in the land of Egypt. "God sent me before you to preserve life," Joseph explains to them all. "God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors" (vv. 5, 7).
The spiritual scaffold doesn't remove the scar, but changes its appearance. You might say that it "camouflages" it, and makes it look like something else. But it does more than simply provide cosmetic reassurance. What first looked like a cruel, heartless and hateful act on the part of Joseph's brothers now looks like a graceful, heartfelt and loving act on the part of a God who wanted Joseph to prosper and save his family from famine. God brings healing. "Even though you intended to do harm to me," Joseph tells his brothers, "God intended it for good" (Genesis 50:20).
The scar is still there. But now it looks beautiful, instead of ugly. God's spiritual scaffold has changed its appearance forever.
Does this mean that every tragedy we experience has a silver lining? That all evil is really good, and that all our suffering is somehow being orchestrated by God?
Not at all.
The world is full of senseless violence, horrifying hatred and a whole range of actions and attitudes that attempt to thwart the will of God. Just turn on daytime television.
It would be absurd to assert that the Lord is orchestrating all this evil, as the tension of life builds toward some grand and glorious ending. But one thing that both the Old and the New Testaments teach us is that God has the power to transform human evil into divine good. He used the slavery of Joseph to save a family, and he transformed the death of Jesus into the salvation of the world.
Never should we ask for a scar to be removed. Joseph didn't, Jesus didn't, and neither should we. But God can create a life in which our wound is transformed into something good, and we are propelled toward new and abundant life.
The question is: HOW? In his classic book The Wounded Healer, Henri Nouwen reflects on what it means to minister in a hurting and alienated society. He recommends prayer, not as a "decoration of life," but as the breath of human existence. A Christian community is a healing community, says Nouwen, not because wounds are cured and pains are alleviated, but because wounds and pains become openings or occasions for a new vision.
Take a look at your scars: physical, emotional, psychological, spiritual. How can they be openings or occasions for new visions? Joseph looked at the scar of his sale into slavery, and saw that God had a saving plan for his life. Perhaps some abuse you have suffered will enable you to serve people who have been abused; maybe some hurt you have endured will equip you to ease the pain of another; it could be that some loss you have experienced will put you in a powerful position to assist those who are grieving.
By prayerfully reflecting on human scars - instead of ignoring them or wishing them to disappear - we can discover new opportunities for Christian service. Like the plastic surgeon who volunteers his time to help battered women whose faces and bodies have been scarred by abuse. He works hard to restore each woman's beauty. Even if he falls short, he transforms the scar and renders some emotional healing. Not all scars can go away, but most can be transformed.
The greatest transformer of scars is, of course, the Divine Physician, Jesus the Christ. It is by his wounds that we are healed, and by his sacrificial death that we experience everlasting life. He does not remove our wounds, but builds a spiritual scaffold over them - one that shows us that healing is always a possibility, even when it comes in surprising ways.
Our scars need not be embarrassing. Jesus built a scaffold over our scars. It's called the cross.
AMEN