God with Us
Pentecost 15 – Narrative Lectionary 1
Genesis 39.1-23
Grace, Mankato, MN
September 21, 2014
…God was with [Joseph]…
We have three cats, Mystery and Shadow, who are sisters at 14.5 years old, and Blitzen, 11 years old. All came from the Humane Society, though Blitzen was a feral cat who took Cindy and our older daughter, Angela, a year to tame. We feed them at night but shut Blitzen in her room so she won’t eat the other cats’ food and get sick. When I go to bed it’s usually my job to put Mystery and Shadow in their room, which involves getting Shadow from our bed where I have to either pick her up or walk behind her. Along the way we get Mystery and it usually isn’t a straight line to the basement, but we get there eventually. So, I really understand the term “herding cats” as more than a metaphor. But I also think it might be a way to describe how God is with us.
A lot has happened since God promised Noah that he would never again destroy the earth with a flood, putting a rainbow in the sky as his reminder, and God’s promise to Abraham that he and Sarah would be the ancestors of a great nation in their own land. Since then, they have a son, Isaac, who has two sons Esau and Jacob, the latter whose name is changed to Israel and fathers 12 sons by four different women. The tenth son is named Joseph, the favored and the dreamer whose dreams enrage his brothers so much they fake his death and sell him off to traders going to Egypt.
As the story plays out, Joseph rises to power in Pharaoh’s household and saves his adopted country as well as his estranged family from starvation. Through this story the third promise emerges: God was with Joseph. One thing that also emerges from this text is that Joseph’s faith is different than Abraham’s radical trust to obey God immediately. Joseph will begin to develop an assurance that God is working in, with, and under his life and others’ lives in ways he can’t always see. The story vividly shows the intersection of the forces at work in our world and God’s presence in them. This is real life meeting real faith, asserting that God brings life where there is human brokenness.
When I returned to the life of faith after my cat-like meandering, my go-to Bible verse became Romans 8.28: “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.” Ignoring the space-time continuum, this could be Joseph’s go-to verse as well, though he and his brothers wouldn’t discover later. That’s the tricky thing about this kind of faith: we don’t always see God’s working until we have some distance on it.
I’ve been meeting with our Saved by Grace students who will be confirmed next Sunday, asking where they have seen God’s presence in their lives. Most recall events from many years earlier. I also ask them what they’d do differently if they could or what advice they’d give to others coming into the program. Of course, they don’t have a do-over, but they can use their experience going forward, assured that God is with them.
This is important as we are inundated with so much brokenness in our world, especially those powers and forces that wreak havoc in our lives. We hold onto God’s promise that he is indeed working even if we can’t see it. God invites us to join in that work though the way may not be clear. In a few minutes we’ll give thanks for someone who has answered that call in a particular way and is a visible sign of God’s presence, Meredith Fitch, as she retires from her call as Parish Nurse and Volunteer Ministries Coordinator. The message of the cross of Jesus Christ is that God brings life out of death even when we can’t see it. God was with Joseph and God is with us, guiding us like cats, loving and blessing us to love and bless others. God is with you, for which we say, “Thanks be to God!” Amen.
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