Recreate Church, Pastor Michael Shockley—Service, Sunday, September 26, 2021

That’s Not Fair!

Today Pastor Michael is asking the question, “Is life fair?”.  What is one of the first phrases kids learn?  “That’s not fair!”.  

Life can feel unfair, except when things are going our way.  Then, life is fair.  It’s all a matter of perspective.   

How do we define fairness?  Fairness is freedom from bias, dishonesty or injustice.  When we’re fair, we’re guided by truth, reason and justice.

Unfortunately, as much as we try, we cannot make everything fair.  We have to live in a world where unfairness does happen.  So we’re heading to the Old Testament in Genesis to look at Joseph and his brothers.  The story of Jacob and his numerous wives and concubines is strange enough but the net result is a fractious family of epic proportions.  Four moms, thirteen kids and that’s just the summary!

In that mix comes jealousy and rivalry over Joseph.  Joseph is the favorite kid and everybody knows it.  The first son of Rachael, the only wife that Jacob loved, creating jealousy amongst the brothers.  Add to it, Joseph snitches on his brothers, a reason not really given in the Bible, and this went over about as well as you think!  Now, the other brothers literally hate Joseph! 

Jacob further contributes to this controversy by giving Joseph a really colorful tunic, just adding fuel to the fire!

Thats Not FAIR!  

So, at this point, even though Joseph will ultimately be the hero of this story, it’s far easier to relate and empathize with his brothers! 

Our main theme of all of this is, life will always be a little unfair.  What can we do about that?  How are we going to respond?

1. When unfairness makes our life harder, let’s use the opportunity to grow in resilience and wisdom.
2. When unfairness actually makes our life easier, let’s use it to grow in gratitude and awareness of our blessings.

Next week, we’ll continue the story on Joseph, so stay tuned!

Today’s verses are found in Genesis 37: 1-4.