SUNDAY SERMON: The Reverse Bucket List

By Rev. Stephen Baldwin

OT: Genesis 45.1-15

Who’s got a bucket list? You know, the list of things you want to do while you’re still upright. Let’s hear ‘em! What is on your list?

I bet Joseph had a bucket list. He’d been through a lot, some of his own doing, much of it the doing of his brothers, and parts even instigated by his own father who treated him differently than he treated his other sons. 

We read the backstory last week. Joseph’s brothers wanted to be rid of him. Permanently. They thought about killing him or throwing him in a hole in the ground but eventually decided to sell him to traders who would take him to a far away land. It was actually the least violent option they considered, as one of their brothers, Reuben, advocated for. 

Why did they hate Joseph so much? He was the baby brother. Their dad loved him the most, and said so, openly. He gave Joseph a fancy coat to show the world how much more he loved him. And Joseph, well…he didn’t make it any better.

He wore that coat everywhere, especially around his brothers! He had dreams that his parents and his brothers would bow down to him one day, and he seemed to take pride in telling them that. He was one of those people you’d rather love from a distance, because he could be a little much sometimes, if you know what I mean? 

Imagine what Joseph’s bucket list looked like after all he went through. Do you think he dreamed of seeing his brothers again one day? Of returning to his father? Of making those dreams come true and having his family bow down to him, especially after they sold him into slavery? 

Then, the day comes when he faces his brothers again. Bucket list day. After all he’d been through! He’d been sold into slavery, and then he’s sold to someone else. The wife of a nobleman made advances on him, which he denied and got into major trouble for. He went to jail but gained the confidence of pharaoh because of his ability to interpret dreams. He was put in charge of all the grain in Egypt right before a famine hit. When it does hit, his brothers come to Egypt to try and find some grain…and who do they have to get it from? Joseph. It’s his bucket list day. His brothers, who think he’s dead, come and bow down to him in their moment of need. 

He’s not sure if he wants to tell them who he is or not. What would you have done? 

Eventually, he can’t hold it in any longer. He breaks down weeping and tells them who he is. He doesn’t take revenge. Or gloat. Or shame them. Or pull out that coat of many colors. Or even judge them. He rejoices, saying that because of what they did to him he is now in a position to help them. He was grateful for all he went through. 

What Joseph did was turn what could have been a bucket list moment into a reverse bucket list. Have you heard of a reverse bucket list? In short, instead of spending your life pursuing things you want to accomplish, you celebrate what you have already accomplished. 

Arthur Brooks, who teaches at Harvard, told the story of making a list of all the things he wanted to accomplish on his birthday each year—a bucket list. But when he was 50, he found his bucket list from when he was 40 and had an epiphany: “I looked at that list from when I was 40, and I’d checked everything off that list. And I was less happy at 50 than I was at 40.”

“I was making the mistake of thinking that my satisfaction would come from having more. And the truth of the matter is that lasting and stable satisfaction, which doesn’t wear off in a minute, comes when you understand that your satisfaction is your haves divided by your wants…You can increase your satisfaction temporarily and inefficiently by having more, or permanently and securely by wanting less.”

It reminds me of Joseph. Who was grateful for all he went through and found a more meaningful life with less. 

What if we were to try a reverse bucket list? Instead of writing down the things we want to do or accomplish, what if we write down what we’ve done? Specifically. Honestly. And then when we look at what we’ve done, instead of wanting to do more, we want less because we realize how grateful we are for all we’ve been able to do. 

Let me read you an example of a reverse bucket list by Katie Jeffcoat, a writer, who developed her own list: 

• I have a body that serves me. Hands that work, legs that allow me to walk.
• I have a mind that searches for positivity when life feels hard.
• I have a family that I am obsessed with and kids who are healthy. 
• I graduated from university with a degree I am passionate about
• I bought my first home and car
• I traveled to 10 countries
• I married the person that I love
• I got a job that I enjoy going to each day
• I started a business and a side hustle
• I learned to play an instrument
• I joined a gym and worked on my health
• I paid off my credit card debt

That’s an example of a reverse bucket list. Now, I’d like to invite you to make your own. Write down a list, not of the things you want to accomplish, but the things you’ve already accomplished in life…I’ll give you a few minutes to think and write…

This experience of writing your reverse bucket list is for you. So I’m not going to ask you to share it with us or with anyone. It’s for you, to see for yourself that you have accomplished more than you give yourself credit for. That you have more than you think you have. That God has given you all you need. This experience taught me to be grateful above all else, for all things. 

Joseph went through it. Condemned to death by his own brothers. Yet when he had the chance to see them again, he rejoiced, knowing that all he’d been through brought him to a place of gratitude where he could help those he loved. 

May we all grasp that kind of gratitude in our lives. Amen.