When Joseph had been taken down to Egypt, Potiphar, Pharaoh’s chief officer, the commander of the royal guard and an Egyptian, purchased him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him down there. The Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man and served in his Egyptian master’s household. His master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord made everything he did successful. Potiphar thought highly of Joseph, and Joseph became his assistant; he appointed Joseph head of his household and put everything he had under Joseph’s supervision. From the time he appointed Joseph head of his household and of everything he had, the Lord blessed the Egyptian’s household because of Joseph. The Lord blessed everything he had, both in the household and in the field. So he handed over everything he had to Joseph and didn’t pay attention to anything except the food he ate.
Now Joseph was well-built and handsome.
Some time later, his master’s wife became attracted to Joseph and said, “Sleep with me.”
He refused and said to his master’s wife, “With me here, my master doesn’t pay attention to anything in his household; he’s put everything he has under my supervision. No one is greater than I am in this household, and he hasn’t denied me anything except you, since you are his wife. How could I do this terrible thing and sin against God?” Every single day she tried to convince him, but he wouldn’t agree to sleep with her or even to be with her.
One day when Joseph arrived at the house to do his work, none of the household’s men were there. She grabbed his garment, saying, “Lie down with me.” But he left his garment in her hands and ran outside. When she realized that he had left his garment in her hands and run outside, she summoned the men of her house and said to them, “Look, my husband brought us a Hebrew to ridicule us. He came to me to lie down with me, but I screamed. When he heard me raise my voice and scream, he left his garment with me and ran outside.” She kept his garment with her until Joseph’s master came home, and she told him the same thing: “The Hebrew slave whom you brought to us, to ridicule me, came to me; but when I raised my voice and screamed, he left his garment with me and ran outside.”
When Joseph’s master heard the thing that his wife told him, “This is what your servant did to me,” he was incensed. Joseph’s master took him and threw him in jail, the place where the king’s prisoners were held. While he was in jail, the Lord was with Joseph and remained loyal to him. He caused the jail’s commander to think highly of Joseph. The jail’s commander put all of the prisoners in the jail under Joseph’s supervision, and he was the one who determined everything that happened there. The jail’s commander paid no attention to anything under Joseph’s supervision, because the Lord was with him and made everything he did successful. Gen. 39:1-23 CEB
Grace and peace to you from God, our Creator, and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Over these past few weeks, as we’ve heard the stories of people from the Bible in worship, we’ve reflected upon our own stories. We’ve thought about how God might be at work in our own stories, just as God was at work in the biblical narrative. We’ve seen how God was with Noah and his family when the rest of the world had turned away from God. Last week, we walked with Abraham, as God promised him and Sarah generations of heirs and a new land. Today we hear a story about their great-grandson, Joseph. One of those heirs. It is a story of challenge and joy.
Now Joseph, if you remember, was the youngest of Jacob’s sons. The family line begins with Abraham. Then Isaac, then Jacob, finally Joseph, the youngest of Jacob’s twelve sons. If you remember the entire story of Joseph, you might recall that he was a little arrogant. Because of this and because Jacob doted on him more than his brothers, they hated him. In fact, they hated him so much that they sold him into slavery.
As our story opens today, we learn that Joseph is now in Egypt. He has been sold once again by his human traffickers to be a slave in the home of Potiphar. Potiphar is the chief officer to the pharaoh - a pharaoh is like a king. He is also the commander of the royal guard, the soldiers who protect the pharaoh. So, as you can imagine, Potiphar is trusted, and a pretty important person in Egypt. Probably the second-most important person after the pharaoh.
Our story tells us that Joseph quickly becomes important in Potiphar’s house. In verse 2, we read that “The Lord was with Joseph and he become a successful man and served in his Egyptian master’s household.” In fact, Joseph was so indispensable and trusted, that Potiphar handed everything over to Joseph. Potiphar didn’t pay attention to or worry about anything except the food he ate. Except for that food, Joseph handled everything else in Potiphar’s household. In verse 3, we hear that even Potiphar noticed right away that the “Lord was with Joseph,” because everything that he touched was successful. We also hear that the Lord blessed Potiphar’s household because of Joseph.
Then, at the end of verse 6, we read this short, but intriguing, sentence. “Now Joseph was well-built and handsome.” It’s an interesting verse, isn’t it? A verse that cleverly sets up what is about to happen next. "Joseph was well-built and handsome.”
Our story continues that some time later, Potiphar’s wife (Do you notice that she is not even named in this story?)...some time later, she came to Joseph and tried to entice him. Joseph knew that this was wrong. He knew that to do what she wanted him to do would not only be disloyal to his master, her husband, Potiphar, but that it would also be disloyal--a sin--before God. And so, Joseph refused her. And he ran away. And she was left there. Holding onto his outer garment, which he had left behind in his haste to get out of the situation.
It is then that Potiphar’s wife reacted and acted in a way that I’m thinking every one of us has done. I know I have. When I’ve been rejected. Or someone has said “no” to something I wanted. So, whether out of embarrassment, or shame, or humiliation or for whatever reason, Potiphar’s wife gets angry. At Joseph. Then, out of spite, she accuses Joseph of assault. That it was Joseph who attacked her.
But, it’s not only that she gets angry at him and accuses him. Did you hear her words? What she said in verse 14? What she spoke to the men of the house who she had summoned after Joseph left? Knowing that this would eventually get back to her husband. “Look,” she said to them. “Look, my husband brought us a Hebrew to ridicule me…” A Hebrew. Not “a man.” Not “a servant.” Not even “a slave.” But, this Hebrew. Going immediately to Joseph’s ethnicity. This Hebrew. This Jew. This Muslim. This African-American. This immigrant.
Potiphar’s wife knows this a sure way to rile her husband. To make him angry at Joseph. To punish Joseph. It’s what people in power frequently do. Using ethnicity or other slurs or epithets to rile people up against other people. And often not for reasons that are true. But for their own purposes. As a wedge to divide people. To rile people up against each other. Why? Because it works.
It works with us. It worked with Potiphar. When he heard the rumors and the lie his wife told him, he got angry. At Joseph. Even though he knew Joseph so well. Even though he trusted Joseph so much. He didn’t even hesitate. To take a step back and to look at the entire situation. Perhaps, even to step into Joseph’s shoes and understand what might have happened, from Joseph’s perspective.
I think I’ve mentioned to you before how much I love both the book and the movie, “To Kill A Mockingbird.” This week, I watched a program on PBS about Harper Lee, the woman who wrote this story. In 1960. In the midst of the civil rights movement. A woman from the deep South--from Alabama--who wrote a fictionalized story about a black man falsely accused by a white woman and about the attorney who defended him. Who, through her story, bravely held up a mirror to our society for us to see, to witness what we had become.
There’s a scene in the movie that I especially like. And that has always stayed with me. It’s a scene between the attorney, Atticus Finch, and his young daughter, Scout, after her first day at school with a new teacher. Let’s watch.
“Climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.” Consider something from someone else’s point of view. Hear another side of the story. Get another perspective.
How often we fail to do this! Just like Potiphar. To step back and take a second look. To look at the situation from another perspective. To challenge our own perceptions. Or to see through something or someone and find the truth. How often we are just like Potiphar!
Because, if he only had. If Potiphar had challenged his initial perception, perhaps he would have taken the time to hear the whole story. Both sides of the story. Perhaps he wouldn’t have become angry at Joseph or thrown him in jail. Wouldn’t have punished him. Perhaps, instead, he might have rewarded Joseph for his loyalty.
But, he didn’t. Yet, even after he threw Joseph into jail, our story reads, “The Lord was with Joseph and remained loyal to him.” Even when the rest of the world wasn’t.
And, we know, by the end of the story, that Joseph, once again, had become successful and trusted. Even in prison.
That’s the message for us today. That, even when we have messed everything up. When we’ve falsely accused someone. Or when we’ve been on the other side and have been falsely accused ourselves. Or even when something bad just happens to us, we have this promise. That in the midst of the dark, and the blue places of our lives, God is present with us. Just as with Joseph. And that God is working there, in those places to create new, golden possibilities. Just as God did on that Easter morning so long ago. And as God does, each week, for us in the bread and the wine--the body and the blood of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
Presence and possibility. This is God’s promise to us. God’s promise that brings us hope. Amen.
Preached Sunday, September 23, 2018, at Grace & Glory Lutheran Church, Goshen, KY.
Pentecost 18
Readings: Matt. 5:11-12; Gen. 39:1-23
Showing posts with label possibilities. Show all posts
Showing posts with label possibilities. Show all posts
Sunday, October 14, 2018
Tuesday, April 17, 2018
Good News Spreads: Transforming
Meanwhile Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Now as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” He asked, “Who are you, Lord?” The reply came, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But get up and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.” The men who were traveling with him stood speechless because they heard the voice but saw no one. Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing; so they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. For three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.
Now there was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” He answered, “Here I am, Lord.” The Lord said to him, “Get up and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul. At this moment he is praying, and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.” But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints in Jerusalem; and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who invoke your name.” But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is an instrument whom I have chosen to bring my name before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel; I myself will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” So Ananias went and entered the house. He laid his hands on Saul and said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on your way here, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and his sight was restored. Then he got up and was baptized, and after taking some food, he regained his strength. Acts 9:1-19a (NRSV)
Grace and peace to you from our Lord and resurrected Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
In our reading last week, we heard the story of how the Good News was beginning to spread. From Mary Magdalene, word of Jesus’ resurrection had spread to Peter and John and, then, last week to the remaining followers, including Thomas. We heard last week how Jesus breathed on the disciples. That he breathed into them the Holy Spirit and commissioned them to continue to spread the Good News. The Good News of the complete reversal that God had performed in raising Jesus from the dead.
This week and for the next few weeks, we are in the book of Acts. This is the book in the Bible that gives us stories of the early church--stories of how this first community of believers lived together and, particularly, stories of how the Good News continued to spread.
In the chapters before today’s lesson, the news of Jesus’s resurrection has spread throughout Jerusalem and beyond. The number of believers has continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem. So much that, as their numbers have grown, so has opposition among the Jewish and Roman leadership. This growing tension reaches a climax with the arrest of Stephen, who gives testimony about Jesus’ death and resurrection and, particularly, about the complicity of the religious and political leadership in his crucifixion. It is this testimony--this truth--that results in Stephen’s stoning and death as the first Christian martyr. It is after his death that we are first introduced to Saul--one of two main characters in our lesson today. We know Saul better as Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles and prolific writer of letters to the various faith communities he helped found throughout the Mediterranean area.
But, before he became Paul, he was Saul. We first hear of him in Acts 7. “Then they (speaking of the people Stephen had angered with his testimony)--then they dragged Stephen out of the city and began to stone him: and the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul...And Saul approved of their killing him."
After Stephen died, a severe persecution began against the church in Jerusalem. All of the disciples except for the small group of apostles were scattered throughout the countryside of Judea and Samaria. In the third verse of chapter 8, we read that “Saul was ravaging the church by entering house after house; dragging off both men and women” and committing them to prison.
As the disciples were scattered, the Good News continued to spread. Not only throughout the countryside of Judea and Samaria, but also into other places. One of those places was Damascus in Syria. It’s the same Damascus, Syria, we know today. Saul was determined to destroy the new believers, those who belonged to “The Way,” which is what they called this movement. Wherever members of “The Way” went, Saul was determined to go after them and imprison or even kill them.
The city of Damascus, which was 135 miles away from Jerusalem, was one of his target cities. It was on Saul’s first journey to Damascus to hunt out the people of “The Way” that we witness a great reversal. These reversals are characteristic of the Good News. These moments when God completely disrupts expectations and unexpectedly reverses everything. Reversals that indicate to the early disciples that God is at work. That, when God’s intentions are realized, the normal state of affairs is turned completely upside down.
This is what happens with Saul. He experiences a series of reversals. Of great change. Of transformation. God disrupts his experience along the road to Damascus. He changes from seeing to being blind. From a confident and zealous persecutor to one who confesses ignorance about the “lord” he can’t recognize. From a man planning to lead captives back to Jerusalem in chains to one who must be led into Damascus by others. From having authority over others’ bodies to becoming completely dependent with his own. From a man on a mission to one who must now wait to learn what he is to do next. From a man exercising great power over the church to one who has been completely overpowered. Completely overpowered by Jesus.
Reversal. Transformation.
But, Saul is not the only one. As we move through our story, we are introduced to Ananias, one of Jesus’ disciples in Damascus. Ananias has heard about Saul and his reputation. So, when Jesus appears to Ananias and tells him to go meet Saul, he argues with Jesus. Unaware of the reversals that Saul has already experienced, Ananias is determined that he will not confront this arch-enemy of his and of all of the other believers of The Way. So, he argues with Jesus. But, Jesus responds. “Go, for he is an instrument who I have chosen to bring my name before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel.”
In his conversation with Ananias, Jesus has redefined Saul for him. Saul’s past or his reputation no longer fully express who he now is. Jesus has chosen Paul as his own “instrument” or, better, “vessel” through which to continue to spread the Good News among those who have not yet heard. And not by himself, but as a member of the community of disciples, as one of the The Way.
Reversal. Transformation.
As part of the process of becoming ordained, I was required to participate in CPE. CPE stands for Clinical Pastoral Experience. It consists of 400 hours of chaplaincy training in a hospital or other care situation, where trainees learn how to provide pastoral care for people who are sick or hospitalized, or in need of help to make meaning of a difficult time or situation in their lives.
In my CPE training at a hospital in Minneapolis, I was grouped with 4 other trainees. All of us came to the group with no or very little practical experience, other than a class or two we had taken in seminary. After one week of orientation, each of us was assigned as a chaplain to one or two of the medical units in the hospital.
I was terrified. We were all terrified. None of us felt ready to do this important work. Each week we would meet and process our experiences together and tell each other over and over that we were enough. That each one of us was enough. That God had chosen us as God’s instruments--as God’s vessels--and that, as broken and inexperienced as we were, we were enough.
By the end of our training, each one of us was transformed. Transformed with the understanding that we were enough and beginning to see all of the possibilities that God had in store for us.
Reversal. Transformation.
This is what God does. God dramatically re-orients our expectations and causes us to reassess what is possible. God did it with my CPE group. God does it with Saul. God does it with Ananias. God does it with you, too. You, a broken vessel. A chosen, broken vessel. Chosen by God to come into community here and together do the impossible.
This is the church that Acts imagines. A gathering of broken vessels chosen by God, coming together in a cooperative existence and building a community that lives into a future that completely defies human expectations. What if God continues to surprise and disrupt us as with the Acts church? To surprise us just as God surprised Saul and Ananias with promises of a different identity and an expanded future? To completely reverse and transform our expectation of what is possible? To nudge us to a new experience with new possibilities?
What if?
Amen.
Preached April 15, 2018, at Grace & Glory Lutheran Church, Goshen, KY.
Fourth Sunday of Easter
Readings: Matthew 6:24; Acts 9:1-19a.
Now there was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” He answered, “Here I am, Lord.” The Lord said to him, “Get up and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul. At this moment he is praying, and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.” But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints in Jerusalem; and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who invoke your name.” But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is an instrument whom I have chosen to bring my name before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel; I myself will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” So Ananias went and entered the house. He laid his hands on Saul and said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on your way here, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and his sight was restored. Then he got up and was baptized, and after taking some food, he regained his strength. Acts 9:1-19a (NRSV)
Grace and peace to you from our Lord and resurrected Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
In our reading last week, we heard the story of how the Good News was beginning to spread. From Mary Magdalene, word of Jesus’ resurrection had spread to Peter and John and, then, last week to the remaining followers, including Thomas. We heard last week how Jesus breathed on the disciples. That he breathed into them the Holy Spirit and commissioned them to continue to spread the Good News. The Good News of the complete reversal that God had performed in raising Jesus from the dead.
This week and for the next few weeks, we are in the book of Acts. This is the book in the Bible that gives us stories of the early church--stories of how this first community of believers lived together and, particularly, stories of how the Good News continued to spread.
In the chapters before today’s lesson, the news of Jesus’s resurrection has spread throughout Jerusalem and beyond. The number of believers has continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem. So much that, as their numbers have grown, so has opposition among the Jewish and Roman leadership. This growing tension reaches a climax with the arrest of Stephen, who gives testimony about Jesus’ death and resurrection and, particularly, about the complicity of the religious and political leadership in his crucifixion. It is this testimony--this truth--that results in Stephen’s stoning and death as the first Christian martyr. It is after his death that we are first introduced to Saul--one of two main characters in our lesson today. We know Saul better as Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles and prolific writer of letters to the various faith communities he helped found throughout the Mediterranean area.
But, before he became Paul, he was Saul. We first hear of him in Acts 7. “Then they (speaking of the people Stephen had angered with his testimony)--then they dragged Stephen out of the city and began to stone him: and the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul...And Saul approved of their killing him."
After Stephen died, a severe persecution began against the church in Jerusalem. All of the disciples except for the small group of apostles were scattered throughout the countryside of Judea and Samaria. In the third verse of chapter 8, we read that “Saul was ravaging the church by entering house after house; dragging off both men and women” and committing them to prison.
As the disciples were scattered, the Good News continued to spread. Not only throughout the countryside of Judea and Samaria, but also into other places. One of those places was Damascus in Syria. It’s the same Damascus, Syria, we know today. Saul was determined to destroy the new believers, those who belonged to “The Way,” which is what they called this movement. Wherever members of “The Way” went, Saul was determined to go after them and imprison or even kill them.
The city of Damascus, which was 135 miles away from Jerusalem, was one of his target cities. It was on Saul’s first journey to Damascus to hunt out the people of “The Way” that we witness a great reversal. These reversals are characteristic of the Good News. These moments when God completely disrupts expectations and unexpectedly reverses everything. Reversals that indicate to the early disciples that God is at work. That, when God’s intentions are realized, the normal state of affairs is turned completely upside down.
This is what happens with Saul. He experiences a series of reversals. Of great change. Of transformation. God disrupts his experience along the road to Damascus. He changes from seeing to being blind. From a confident and zealous persecutor to one who confesses ignorance about the “lord” he can’t recognize. From a man planning to lead captives back to Jerusalem in chains to one who must be led into Damascus by others. From having authority over others’ bodies to becoming completely dependent with his own. From a man on a mission to one who must now wait to learn what he is to do next. From a man exercising great power over the church to one who has been completely overpowered. Completely overpowered by Jesus.
Reversal. Transformation.
But, Saul is not the only one. As we move through our story, we are introduced to Ananias, one of Jesus’ disciples in Damascus. Ananias has heard about Saul and his reputation. So, when Jesus appears to Ananias and tells him to go meet Saul, he argues with Jesus. Unaware of the reversals that Saul has already experienced, Ananias is determined that he will not confront this arch-enemy of his and of all of the other believers of The Way. So, he argues with Jesus. But, Jesus responds. “Go, for he is an instrument who I have chosen to bring my name before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel.”
In his conversation with Ananias, Jesus has redefined Saul for him. Saul’s past or his reputation no longer fully express who he now is. Jesus has chosen Paul as his own “instrument” or, better, “vessel” through which to continue to spread the Good News among those who have not yet heard. And not by himself, but as a member of the community of disciples, as one of the The Way.
Reversal. Transformation.
As part of the process of becoming ordained, I was required to participate in CPE. CPE stands for Clinical Pastoral Experience. It consists of 400 hours of chaplaincy training in a hospital or other care situation, where trainees learn how to provide pastoral care for people who are sick or hospitalized, or in need of help to make meaning of a difficult time or situation in their lives.
In my CPE training at a hospital in Minneapolis, I was grouped with 4 other trainees. All of us came to the group with no or very little practical experience, other than a class or two we had taken in seminary. After one week of orientation, each of us was assigned as a chaplain to one or two of the medical units in the hospital.
I was terrified. We were all terrified. None of us felt ready to do this important work. Each week we would meet and process our experiences together and tell each other over and over that we were enough. That each one of us was enough. That God had chosen us as God’s instruments--as God’s vessels--and that, as broken and inexperienced as we were, we were enough.
By the end of our training, each one of us was transformed. Transformed with the understanding that we were enough and beginning to see all of the possibilities that God had in store for us.
Reversal. Transformation.
This is what God does. God dramatically re-orients our expectations and causes us to reassess what is possible. God did it with my CPE group. God does it with Saul. God does it with Ananias. God does it with you, too. You, a broken vessel. A chosen, broken vessel. Chosen by God to come into community here and together do the impossible.
This is the church that Acts imagines. A gathering of broken vessels chosen by God, coming together in a cooperative existence and building a community that lives into a future that completely defies human expectations. What if God continues to surprise and disrupt us as with the Acts church? To surprise us just as God surprised Saul and Ananias with promises of a different identity and an expanded future? To completely reverse and transform our expectation of what is possible? To nudge us to a new experience with new possibilities?
What if?
Amen.
Preached April 15, 2018, at Grace & Glory Lutheran Church, Goshen, KY.
Fourth Sunday of Easter
Readings: Matthew 6:24; Acts 9:1-19a.
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