Good Shepherd Lutheran church

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Saturday, March 31, 2012

Dreamer, nothing but a dreamer. Part 2


Last week we started looking at Joseph. If you’re anything like me you went back and looked again and again.

It’s a nice visual, that’s all I’m saying.

By the end of the post last week I was feeling just awful for poor Joseph. He had been thrown in a pit by his brothers, hit on by some married old lady, thrown in jail for standing up for what he believed in and had been separated from his family for years. That poor kid! It’s a rough life, even if you are ridiculously good looking.

This week as we continue on with the story of Joseph, things become a bit clearer. It suddenly makes sense why he had to go through so much to get to a place where he could be used by God.

We were starting to see little clues of the way that God was going to be using Joseph for his ministry. The fact that he went on this crazy rollercoaster ride of responsibility was one of the major ways we saw God’s influence; there was no way that on his own Joseph could continually rise higher and higher after falling so low every time. In Genesis 41 it becomes glaringly obvious that this was all part of God’s plan to call Joseph into his service.

We don’t see the glaring white light like Paul (Saul) saw on the road to Damascus; Joseph doesn’t have his lips purified by seraphs like Isaiah; there isn’t even any “and the word of the Lord came upon him.” Joseph and God never have this tête-à-tête where they discuss what path Joseph’s ministry is going to take. Instead, Joseph’s call just happens as an inevitable result of the circumstances of his life. As I stated eearlier, by the end of last week I was feeling bad for poor Joseph. This week, however, it made sense.

Let’s pretend for a moment that Joseph’s brothers had not sold him to the Ishmaelites. This would mean that Joseph would never have made it to Egypt and definitely wouldn’t have made his way to be right-hand man to the Pharaoh. If he hadn’t been thrown in jail he wouldn’t have been made known to the Pharaoh. Even his time serving in a position of authority for both Potiphar and in the jail made him and ideal candidate to, in essence, rule alongside the Pharaoh.

One of the greatest lines comes up in Genesis 41:15-16, where Pharaoh is all like “Mmmm, hey there, can you interpret my dream?” And then Joseph is all like, “Actually, I can’t do that, yep, I have no interpreting ability at all!” I can only imagine the atmosphere all around with him saying that. The cupbearer is fearing for his life, he was the one who made the recommendation. The bystanders are wondering why he wouldn’t just make something up! The Pharaoh is steamed because nobody, that’s right, NOBODY, says no to Pharaoh!!! And following that split second of tension, Joseph follows up by saying “But I’m sure God can give you the answer you’re looking for.”

And this becomes Joseph’s standard response. He avoids taking credit for the things that are done because he realizes that all of this is coming from God. When he tells Pharaoh to appoint a wise and discerning man to essentially rule over the land, he never suggests himself as that man. Instead Pharaoh sees Joseph’s wisdom through the faith that he has in God. Joseph does not seek out Pharaoh to show how astute he is. He never says more than he needs to in order to seem wiser. Instead, he says what needs to be said and gives all credit to God. This is in essence his call; to believe in God and to give God the credit for these amazing acts of faith.

Too bad we’re not called to do the same.

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Joseph and the technicolor dream-call

What better way to start your day off than with a little bit of Donny Osmond? Isn’t he handsome in form and appearance?


And for your listening pleasures (this is dedicated to my sister, it’s her birthday today)

I hope you realize that I’m not just getting my kicks from a young Donny Osmond, but that we’re looking at the story of Joseph.

Joseph seems to suffer from a condition that I have diagnosed as YSS- Younger Sibling Syndrome. He is your typical younger sibling, you know, needing attention all the time and getting all the best stuff and being loved most by his dad, ermm, not that I’m an older sibling who is bitter or anything!

But let’s be honest here, in Genesis 37 Joseph comes off as a bit of a brat. He’s tattling on his brothers, trying to make himself seem more important than them (Hey look guys, I had this dream where I was greater than you and you all bowed down to me, isn’t that weird? Heh, I guess dreams mimic real life don’t they?). I mean surely he knew that his brothers were not very fond of him, why poke the bear?

I suppose the short and easy answer is because that’s what was supposed to happen.

When I have a dream (not the Martin Luther King Jr. variety) and I actually remember it in the morning, I’m pretty quick to share it with everyone who I think might be interested. Now usually it elicits nothing more than a “what did you eat before you went to bed???” but every once in a while someone might try and interpret it, to see what is going on in my life that might have produced such a weird dream.

Joseph’s dream was meant to be interpreted. Whether he knew it or not as he was sharing it with his family, it had significant meaning and was the beginning of his call from God.

Unfortunately, even though these dreams were signaling the beginning of his call, it wasn’t necessarily a happy beginning. These dreams had him hated even more fiercely by his brothers to the point where murder was a very real possibility. But luckily all they did was steal his coat, dump him in a cistern, sell him into slavery and then tell his dad that he was murdered and his body eaten so that said father wouldn’t go looking for him.

Oh boy is it fun to receive a call from God!

And really this is where we get stuck too, right? There’s all this crap that comes at us, usually all at the same time, and it gets us down. We get depressed and are sure that God has completely forgotten that we exist. There’s no way he would let all of this horrible stuff happen to us if he knew what was actually going on. Or maybe if I just stop what I’m doing, this horrible stuff will stop too. I mean, if God wanted me to follow him he would have made it easier.

Luckily, Joseph doesn’t follow this same thought process. Even though this all happens he keeps going and as it says several times throughout Genesis 39 the Lord was with him. It was something that even those who didn’t believe in God noticed about him. It was this faith in God, the way that God worked in his life that caused him to rise up higher again. He had it even better than before: he was in charge, had lots of respect and authority; what a great life!

Of course you know the story as well as I do and you know that it wasn’t meant to be. The respect and authority didn’t last for too long. Potiphar’s wife had other plans for Joseph, plans that my innocent little mind can’t even begin to comprehend. And as soon as he had begun to climb up that ladder again, he was punished for something else that he didn’t do.

His father spoils him; his brothers sell him into slavery. Potiphar gives him a big promotion; Potiphar’s wife is upset with Joseph’s morals and has him sent to jail. As soon as he makes progress he’s sent down even further than he was before. With all of this yo-yoing up and down, you’d think that Joseph would lose faith, give into the temptations that are surrounding him and really stop trying to please God.

Obviously, Joseph isn’t us. God had big plans for him and even when he was at his lowest; God used him to do good. His call wasn’t limited to one event, it wasn’t even really vocalized. By the end of chapter 39 we’ve only started to get a bit of background on how God is preparing Joseph to really carry out his call. There’s still a few more ups and downs before Joseph gets to the point where God wants him to be.

Yep, this far in and it’s only just beginning. As Beyonce would say “I don’t think you can handle this.”

Stayed tuned next week for part 2 of Joseph and his unusual call from God!

Friday, March 9, 2012

Be Strong and Courageous

Easier said than done, right?

The narrative about Joshua and his call to ministry is a little different than what we are used to seeing. Typically in the people that we’ve looked at so far there has been a very clear circumstance in which the word of God came upon them in some form or another. With Moses we see a burning bush; with Mary there is an angel sent to proclaim her impending role as mother of God; with Isaiah there were seraphim with burning coals; with Joshua, he isn’t even consulted until the matter has been decided. Yep, I would say that would take a heck of a lot of strength and courage to live out a call that someone accepted on your behalf.

One of the things that I like best about my job is that I have a lot of flexibility with the way in which I do things. There are certain things that I have to do, but I get to make a lot of decisions about when and how they get done, and I like that. I like the feeling that I am in charge and can choose a lot of what I do. I think this is the part that throws me for a loop with Joshua is that he really didn’t have any choice.

Numbers 27 outlines the call of Joshua. Now, what you may find weird is the fact that Joshua is not involved in the process at all. The section that you read is essentially a conversation between God and Moses where Moses expresses his concern and God gives Joshua as a solution. In my humble opinion, if I were called to be the leader of the Israelite people and expected to lead them in the fulfillment of God’s promise, I’d kinda like to be involved in the decision process.

It’s ok though because later on in Deuteronomy Moses took Joshua to tell him all about what he and God had decided. Oh right, he told him in front of all the people of Israel. It’s really easy to decline or dispute this appointment with all of these people who are now expectantly waiting for you to lead them. Again, this is a situation in which I, myself, would be pretty dang ticked; but I guess that’s why I wasn’t chosen to be in this situation.

Joshua really seems to take it all in stride, rather than feeling angry about the fact that he wasn’t consulted in the huge turn that his life was now taking, he understood it as the will of God and recognized the importance of God choosing him for that task. And let’s be honest here, that takes an awful lot of strength and courage. But really this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what he will face in the days to come.

Joshua’s ministry is not easy. He is called to fill some very big shoes…errr…sandals. Following after such an influential and well-known leader as Moses would not be easy for anyone to endeavor to take on. Although we look at it now and see the difficulty that was inherent in this calling, the one thing that we need to focus on is the promise that God makes in saying “Be strong and courageous.”

It doesn’t really seem like much of a promise, does it? You’re all probably thinking that with the coming of the end of the week I’ve lost my head a little and forgotten the proper grammatical term here; you’re drifting over to the comments section and your fingers are longing to type out, “It’s a command!” “That’s the imperative, you dummy!” “Bleearggghh! I’m angry!”

It does seem an awful lot like an instruction; as though God is commanding Joshua to take on this task of remaining strong and filled with courage no matter what the circumstance may be. The promise comes into play in Joshua 1 where God promises that just as he was with Moses, he will also be with Joshua. The reason that Joshua can remain strong and confident is not because he is superhuman and can deflect any troubles that threaten him but rather because God has promised to be with him. God gives him the strength and courage that he needs in order to take on this massive mission.

This calling of Joshua reminds us of one of the greatest failings that we find in our own lives: our dependence upon ourselves. We want so badly to prove to those around us that we are good enough to undertake anything thrown our way that we forget about God’s promise to be with us as well. We look inwardly for that strength and courage that God has told us comes from Him. We try so hard to do it on our own that we are shocked when we fail; shocked when it’s so difficult; shocked when it has drained us of all energy and all confidence.

When we look at the call of Joshua and the call to be strong and courageous, what we are really looking at is the call to believe in God. We are called to believe that God is there to give us the strength that we need in order to overcome the difficult situations in our lives. Joshua was never promised a life of comfort and ease. From the beginning he was told that he would encounter several difficult situations, whether from the people that he was leading or the very task of fulfilling God’s promise to his people. The difference is that he was never told that he had to do it on his own. As ludicrous as God’s plans seemed and as impossible as the Israelite people acted, Joshua was able to remain strong and courageous because of God’s promise that He was (and still is) always there.