Bible Text: Genesis 50:15-21 | Preacher: Pastor Dorry Newcomer | Series: Genesis | We got something cool in the church mailbox this week.  It’s a poster that says,

 

KEEP
CALM
AND
WASH
YOUR
HANDS

 

It’s printed in the style of the posters from England during World War II, with a solid color background and a simple, all-capital letter font.  It came, along with a few other hygiene related posters, from the Bayard Printing Company in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.  They mailed these posters for us to hang up in our workplace, but since there’s no one at church, I wasn’t really sure what to do with them.  So I put them in the stack of mail and figured I would deal with it later.  But do you remember that book I found in the conference room a couple weeks ago, “You’ll Get Through This”?  When I finished going through the mail, I sat down to finish that book.  Guess what Max Lucado wrote about in the next-to-the last chapter?   The Keep Calm and Carry On posters!  I am not kidding. I decided maybe God wanted me to pay a little more attention to that poster that came in the mail!

So I did some reading.  Turns out, the famous “Keep Calm and Carry On” poster was the third poster in a series designed by the British government to encourage its citizens during the hard days of World War II.  The first poster read,

 

YOUR COURAGE

YOUR CHEERFULNESS

YOUR RESOLUTION

WILL BRING

US VICTORY

 

The second poster was printed in the same block style, with the crown of King George VI at the top.  It read,

 

 

 

 

FREEDOM IS

IN PERIL
DEFEND IT
WITH ALL
YOUR MIGHT

 

The British government printed millions of these posters and put them in train stations, pubs, stores, everywhere.  They also printed 2.5 million copies of a third poster, the now infamous “Keep Calm and Carry On” poster.  But did you know they never released it to the public?  There was debate when it would be best, maybe it should be saved for a worst-case scenario, such as a German invasion into Britain.  Some officials also worried that perhaps the slogan was too patronizing or obvious. So the posters never got displayed, and instead, were destroyed.

At least, most of them were destroyed.  Sixty years later, a bookshop owner was going through used books he had just purchased, and found a box full of the Keep Calm and Carry On posters.  He put one on display, and before he knew it, he was getting requests from all over for them.  Turns out, instead of finding the message patronizing or obvious, people loved it.  There was something about its simplicity that rang true with people in England, and abroad.

Today is Palm Sunday, and it’s a day with a motto that also rings true.    “Hosanna!  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”  Hosanna means, “God saves.”  The word hosanna was originally a prayer for God to save us.  But with Jesus’ arrival, the people cheered because they knew salvation had come. They lined the streets and waved their palms to shouted, Hosanna! because the knew that in Jesus, their prayers had been answered. Today, I hope you will find something in your house or yard to wave as you shout Hosanna! Maybe you only shout it to yourself, or maybe you can stand at least six feet away and shout it to your neighbors. Like the Keep Calm and Carry On poster, Hosanna! is a message that people need to hear.  It rings as true today as it did generations before us.  God saves!  Jesus is here!  Thanks be to God.

This week we finish our series on the book of Genesis.  I had planned to focus on what Joseph says to his brothers in chapter 50, verse 20:  You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good.  Joseph was giving God the credit for saving them from the famine, using all the hard stuff Joseph went through for good in the end.  His brothers had no right to expect good from Joseph.  They threw him in cistern, pulling him out only to sell him into slavery.  Joseph could have sought revenge.  Instead he cooperated with the Spirit of God, made the best of things, and was able to look back on it all and conclude, “Brothers of mine, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.”  God used the worst of circumstances in Josephs’ life—slavery, jail, to bring about salvation and healing for God’s people.

The reason I picked this scripture for today is because the end of the book of Genesis is a foreshadowing to the end of the Gospels.  The people around Jesus did all kinds of bad stuff to him.  Jesus could have sought revenge.  But instead Jesus was able to look at it and say, “What you are doing to try to harm me, God will use for good.”  That is why we call Friday of Holy Week “Good Friday”.  God can and does use the worst to accomplish the best.

And so we take it on faith that, even during the corona virus pandemic, God is at work to accomplish something good even though things are so bad.  That is at the heart of our faith.  But that doesn’t mean we aren’t suffering.  We call Good Friday good even though we know it involved a lot of suffering for Jesus and his disciples.  Same is true now.  Last week I said in my sermon, it’s okay to feel sad.  And I guess this week, I want to say, it’s okay to feel angry.  It better be okay, because I have been feeling a lot of anger this week!  That’s really unlike me, I’m much more prone to getting sad than angry.  But this week I’ve been angry, and I’ve found myself thinking a lot about Joseph.  He was by no means perfect.  He does the right thing in the end, but did you read the shenanigans in Genesis chapters 45 through 50?  Joseph forgave his brothers and was generous with them.  He gave credit to God and was humbled to be part of God’s saving plan.  But he also lied, tricked, and toyed with his brothers, too!

So what I want to tell you, and mostly what I need to remind myself is, that it is okay to be angry.  But in our anger, we have to guard against sin.  The corona virus is not inherently evil. It’s not capable of any thought or mal intent.  It’s just a virus.  But what it can do to me, what it can do to us, that’s where the evil comes.  It can turn people who are otherwise committed to holiness into people who are brittle, bitter, selfish, rude.  I know this because I see it in myself.  But God offers us an antidote to evil—God’s very presence.  When Jesus calls us to take up our crosses and follow him, that means we need to be willing to let God enter our pain.  We need to let God refine and purify our anger.  We have to submit our wills to God’s, and allow God to do the work God wants to do in and through us, so that God can redeem this bad time and use it for good.

And that is not any different from what we’re always supposed to do as Christians.  Keep Calm and Carry On.  The British government designed that poster in case of an invasion by Germany.  They wanted people to do their best even if the worst happened.  We’re dealing with our own worst-case scenario—we’ve been invaded by the corona virus.  God wants us to do our best, despite the bad that’s happening.

This Keep Calm and Wash Your Hands poster seems so fitting, I’ve decided to hang it up on my office door.  Hardly anyone will see it, except me and the two or three other people who are in our church building these days.  I’m not hanging it because I need another reminder to wash my hands.  I’m going to hang it as a reminder to keep calm and carry on.  Obviously we’re not carrying on as usual in many ways.  But those three simple rules?  Do no harm, do all the good you can, and stay in love with God?  Those are our general rules all the time.  Nothing about our current situation makes those rules less applicable to our lives.  We need to carry on as Jesus’ disciples and do our best even in the midst of the worst.  First and foremost, do no harm.  Be angry, but do not sin.  Second, do all the good you can.  Love your neighbor as yourself.  And most importantly, stay in love with God.  Whether we are sad, angry, scared, frustrated, confused, or all of the above, we can trust that God has been and continues to be at work, preparing us for the future, shaping us for the present moment, making us stronger and more resilient and more compassionate.  God has been and continues to be at work, saving us.

Which brings me back to the word Hosanna.  This week I was walking around the church, making sure the heat was turned down in all the rooms, and I noticed that in Habbersett Hall, one of the stained-glass windows says, “Hosanna!’  I took a picture of it and printed it out, and I’m going to hang it in my office above my calendar, so that as we make our way through these pandemic days, I will remember to look to God, who saves.  That first poster the British government made said,

 

YOUR COURAGE

YOUR CHEERFULNESS

YOUR RESOLUTION

WILL BRING

US VICTORY

 

And in some ways, that is as true during the Corona Virus pandemic as it was during the Second World War.  Our efforts matter.  But the beauty of a Palm Sunday poster is, it reminds us that we don’t have to rely on our courage.  We don’t always have to be cheerful.  It is not our resolution that will ultimately bring us victory.  It is the resolution of God that will ultimately save us.

You intended to do harm to me, but God intended it for good.  This is Joseph’s firm conviction.  It’s also the firm conviction of the whole book of Genesis.  God means it for good.  Out of chaos, God forms the universe.  Out of sinful people, God makes a covenant. Against adverse conditions, God gives life.  Darkness, chaos, evil—these are no match for God!  God triumphs over all these circumstances.  And God can triumph over ours.  So keep calm and carry on, and keep shouting those hosannas.  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.  Amen.