“Good God!”
Pentecost 17B
September 23, 2012
Genesis 37.4-8, 26-34; 50.15-21
NCIS is a fictional TV show about a team of federal agents
working for the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, doing exactly what the name
implies, investigating crime in or against the Navy and Marine Corps. In a past
episode, two of the team, Tony and McGee, believe they have located another
member of their team, Ziva, who has been missing and believed to be in the
hands of a foreign terrorist in an unfriendly foreign country. Because the
government is unwilling to extract her without proof, Tony and McGee allow
themselves to be captured by the terrorists on the slim hope that the
government would rescue them.
Indeed, Ziva is there, beaten to a pulp and almost dead, but
Tony and McGee are also subjected to torture. During his interrogation, Tony repeatedly
asks the terrorist leader when he is going to surrender, warning the man that
he is about to die if he doesn’t do so. Understandably, the terrorist laughs. At
a critical time, the small window behind Tony shatters and a bullet kills the
terrorist. The bullet has been fired by their team leader, Gibbs, a former
sniper, from several hundred yards away. Against all odds, a squad of rescuers
overruns the terrorist compound and all three are rescued.
Today we enter the Joseph narrative and Jana did a nice job
summarizing what has happened since last week’s reading about Abraham and the
highlights of what is happening in our story today. On a literary level, the
Joseph story bridges the gap between promises God makes to the ancestors that
they would be a numerous people and story in Exodus of oppression and
liberation. On a theological level, the Joseph story asserts that—evidence to
the contrary—God is at work in, with, and under the circumstances of life and
the action of people working to make things good.
What Joseph and his brothers now realize at the end that
they were unable to see in the middle was that God was working both through
them and in spite of them to bring about God’s purposes. One significant lesson
from this story is the assurance that God is present in the most horrific and
ugly parts of our lives and the world even though it is not always possible to
see it. God is with us. There are two important dimensions lesson must be held
together on our journeys of faith if we are to make sense of this lesson.
First, we must have a healthy sense of realism about our
dangerous world and our human brokenness. Without a realistic view of the world,
we dissolve into a romantic piety about our life circumstances. Too many of us
have been on the receiving end of well-meaning but obnoxious platitudes such as,
“God doesn’t give us more than we can handled,” or “You can always have more children.”
Second, we also need a healthy sense of certainty that God is faithful and will
somehow bring some kind of good out of the direst of circumstances. Without
certainly, realism leads to despair.
There is another significant lesson that the Joseph
narrative has for us today that takes us beyond it. The assurance that God
works in, with, and through even the darkest places in the world gives us the
courage we need to enter those places intentionally as God’s partners in
healing and redemption. Tony and McGee had no delusions about the danger they
were entering in trying to rescue Ziva. And, although they had no guarantee,
they believed that Gibbs and others were working on their behalf. They didn’t
leave it all up to Gibbs, but neither did they think it all depended upon them.
We read the Joseph story through the lens of another story:
Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. The Romans, the civil authorities, and
some religious leaders intended to do great harm to Jesus. Yet, God was working
in, with, and through the most horrific death possible to bring new life. The
cross of Jesus gives us the assurance that we can enter any uncertain
circumstance with the assurance that God will be with us, often working in ways
we cannot see until much later. It is why the apostle Paul is able to say in Romans
8 that, “All things work together for good for those who love God and are the called
according to his purpose.”
Because of this assurance of God’s presence, we walk with
people who are facing terminal illness and death. We are able to join the world
of the poor and hungry even in the most overwhelming of circumstances. We enter
the worlds of people different from us, with different cultures and religious
beliefs, not to convert them, but simply to get to know them as fellow travelers
in this world. Had Tony and McGee not been rescued and died with Ziva, she still
would have known that there were people willing to enter her darkness and be with
her through it.
This week I invite you to look back over your life and see
where God has been working to bring about God’s good although you may not have
seen it at the time. I then invite you to look around to where God might be
calling you to enter, places of uncertainty and even frightening. God is
working in, with, and through us in the world so that all may know and live
God’s love. God is with you. Thanks be to our good and gracious God! Amen.
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