#271 From the Cutting Room Floor

Each week as I prepare my sermon I learn more than I put in my preaching. Things have to be cut for the sake of time and clarity. If I include everything, I will probably start to lose the congregation's attention, and the sermon will be in serious danger of becoming too complicated to follow. So some things I cut out of the sermon because I don't think they're important to the main idea(s) of the passage. Those normally aren't a huge loss. But sometimes there are things that I leave out simply because I can't find a way to fit them into the flow of the sermon. Including certain details ends up feeling like a distraction from my main points. Sometimes those are the more difficult cuts.

Two Sundays ago (Sep 11) I was preaching from Genesis 45, the story where Joseph reveals his identity to his brothers and is reunited with them more than twenty years after his ten older brothers sold him into slavery. My focus was on God's providence, how God is in control of all things and works out His good purposes even through and in spite of human evil. Joseph gives a beautiful speech about that, and the book of Genesis is directing our attention to God's activity. But there was one beautiful small detail that I didn't figure out a way to work into my sermon. When Joseph sends his brothers to get their father and move down to Egypt by Joseph, he gives them sets of clothing. It seems that these garments were not ordinary clothing but clothing for special occasions. The story of Joseph and his brothers began in Genesis 37 with Joseph's brothers hating him because their father gave Joseph a special robe, a clear sign that Joseph was the favorite son. Here, just past the climax of the story, all the brothers have special robes. It's a little piece of information, but it really shows how things are being made right among Joseph and his brothers.

Grace and peace,

BMH