Standing on the Promises: Wisdom's Child has a Listening Heart

This week's readings:  1 Kings 3:4-28. Psalm 119:126-136, Matthew 6: 9-10

What would you ask for if God asked you, as God asked Solomon, “What do you want?  Ask me anything and I will give it to you”.

What would you say?

Solomon asks for wisdom - our translation says a “discerning mind.”  The Hebrew is literally a “listening heart.”

Solomon asked for  wisdom, not so he will have the prestige of being known as a wise man, but so he can govern his people with justice. He asks for the wisdom to have the heart of God, to love those that God loves.

Solomon asked for a listening heart. A heart that listens to God's own heart.

It's my prayer too.  God, please give me a listening heart.

A listening heart....

A listening heart so I can listen to all sides of an argument

• To hear those places where we are in agreement,
• That sometimes our goals are the same, but the way we go about reaching those goals are different,
• and coming to compromise.

A listening heart enables us to come to comprise

A listening heart to hear beyond those who are unwilling to compromise, unable to let go of their hate,

• to hear the fear hidden underneath,
• Or to hear the alignment with the gods of greed and power and one’s own good laying underneath the hate.

A listening heart to stand up for justice when it's being denied.

A listening heart to hear beyond my own experience

• to hear the experiences of others who do not experience events the same way I do,
• to recognize that they often experience my blessing as oppression,
• and to come to the knowledge that all too often, instead seeing myself blessed to be a blessing, I fight to keep those blessings to myself.

 A listening heart to align with the marginalized and vulnerable, the ones that God loves so dearly.

A listening heart that can hear

• those times that the things I want are in line with what God wants,
• and those times when I want things that are not in line with God’s will,

A listening heart that re-aligns my heart with the heart of God, instead of spinning the truth to make my wants seem like what God wants.

God, please give me a listening heart.  Amen.

Solomon, out of all the gifts he could have asked of God, asked for wisdom. 

What would you ask of God?

A Modern Leader: David’s Story (2 Samuel, chapters 11 and 12, part two)

The readings for this Sunday are 2 Samuel 11:1-5, 26-27; 12:1-9; Psalm 51:1-9

This Sunday’s reading is one of the more difficult ones of the Bible (and there are lots of difficult texts in the Bible for lots of different readings!).  Yet it’s an important text because it relates to us today.  Again, this could have been ripped from the headlines, a story of misuse of power, sex, and coverups. 

Yet it’s a story full of God’s mercy and forgiveness.

I’ve decided to tackle this story in three parts: 

• Part One: Bathsheba’s story – often overlooked when it’s not being romantically embellished or whitewashed (covered in the previous post). 
• Part Two: David’s story, a story of entitlement and abuse of power.  
• Part Three:  the story of Nathan confronting David, which reveals why David is called a “person after God’s own heart” – which is this Sunday’s sermon (and the next post in this series).

Our story begins:

In the spring, when kings go off to war,

David sent

Joab, along with his servants and all the Israelites 

                                                                       (2 Samuel 11:1a)

This is the story of a man who sends others to do what he should be doing.  At that time, kings led their armies into battle.  It sounds strange to us – how can a king govern if he’s out fighting a battle.  There was literally a “time for war” (Ecclesiastes 3:8), the time between harvest of one year’s crops and planting of the next year’s.  Wars were waged, not year-round, but in those few months. 

This season of war, David stayed at the palace, preferring to let others do his dirty work.

And with time on his hands, he found other things to do.

Restless with inactivity, he took a stroll on palace roof, enjoying the fine view of the city below.  An especially fine view that night, as he saw a woman bathing on her roof top.

David was not where he was supposed to be and doing something he shouldn’t have been doing.  Rooftops were part of one’s private living space – staring at the woman bathing was the equivalent of standing at someone’s window watching them. You were supposed to politely look away and pretend you didn’t see anything.  Just like well mannered people do when they accidently catch a glimpse through the window of their neighbor’s house.

One simply does not stand there and stare.

Yup, King David was essentially a creepy peeping Tom.

And he REALLY liked what he saw.

He asked around. Turns out she was the wife of Uriah the Hittite.  He was a member of David’s army.  We don’t know his rank, but we do know that he had been with David from the earliest days (2 Samuel 23:39, listed as one of David’s thirty Mighty Warriors).  Which begs the question – how did David not know this was one of his top warriors’ wife?  Did he not know where Uriah lived? Had he not met Uriah’s wife?  Maybe they were newly married? 

Maybe David hoped she wasn’t who he thought she was. Maybe he hoped she was another woman, who looked quite a bit like Uriah’s wife. 

It didn’t matter. She was married…he moved on her anyway. After all, when you're a king, they let you do it. You can do anything.

Somethings never change. smh.

David had her brought to the palace and forced her to have sex with him. Then he sent her home.

That would have been the end of it, but Bathsheba got pregnant.  David is in a fix.  Uriah is at war and everyone will know Uriah can’t be the father.  What if Bathsheba talks?

“I’ll fix this.”

David proves to be the king of cover-ups.  He brings Uriah home from war, hoping he will do the natural thing a man does who’s been away from his wife for a while.  Unfortunately for David, Uriah is a man of integrity, loyal to the king and to his comrades in arms.  He stays at the palace barracks.  Even getting Uriah drunk doesn’t change his commitment.  Plan one fails.

David doesn’t look very good in this story so far. If you’re counting, David has broken the commandment against coveting, and adultery, and bearing false witness (what is a cover up if not a huge lie), theft, it gets worse.

The cover-up foiled, David gets angry.  Murderously angry.  He sends Uriah back to the front carrying a note to the commander at the front.  A note instructing the commander to put Uriah at the hottest part of the battle, the weakest point in the line, and. Then. Fall. Back.

Leaving Uriah to be slaughtered.

Once again, David sends someone else to do his dirty work. Uriah carries his own death sentence.  Joab, the commander sets up the scene for murder. And the opposing army are the unwitting hitmen.  Remember, Uriah is one of David’s trusted Mighty Warriors.  I shudder to think of what he would have done to an enemy (actually he did worse stuff to his enemies, but somehow that was ok, cause they were enemies)!

Fortunes of war, huh?

Up the count of broken commdments to include murder and theft. You know the saying “Murder is theft of a life, Adultery is theft of a wife….”

After a suitable time of mourning, David puts the final spin on the sordid story:  he marries the poor pregnant war widow.

Way to come out looking like the hero, David!

God wasn’t fooled by David’s machinations.  While David was busy breaking the second half of the 10 commandments, he was also breaking the first half.

It’s interesting that one of the possible meanings of Bathsheba’s name is “daughter of the oath” and Uriah’s name means “YHWH is my light.”  David violates the oath – God’s covenant at Mt Sinai, breaking pretty much all of 10 Commandments (words of life).  The darkness of David’s actions is in direct opposition to the light of YHWH.  There’s more going on here than meets the eye – David’s sins are sins against Bathsheba and Uriah. His sins are also a violation of the trust he has as God’s chosen king.  And most of all, they are sins against God.

This is the story of power.  It has been said that power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely (John Dalburg-Acton, 1^st Barron of Acton).  This is a story of a powerful man who feels entitled.  Entitled to send others to do the work he prefers not to do.  Entitled to anything and anyone he wants.  Entitled to do what ever he thinks is necessary to maintain his reputation and power.

David is acting like a king.  Way back when the people of Israel first cried out for a king, Samuel warned them about the entitlement that goes with power.  David fit that bill to a T.

David's story sounds so much like the stories of modern leaders.  There are so many stories of power being abused.  Of scandal and cover-up.  It’s easy to point the finger and say, “yes, (so-and-so) is doing exactly that!”  These charges can be leveled on both sides of the political aisle, in the higher echelons of religions, against CEO’s…against anyone with massive power.

Let's look closer to home. What about you and me?  How do we use our power?

“Oh,” you say, “I don’t have any power.”

Yes, you do.  We live in one of the wealthiest countries in the world.  Money gives options. Education gives options. Choices are power. You have power.  How will you use it?

Jesus lays down his power (Philippians 2:5-11) and sides with the marginalized and vulnerable.  The promised Son of David, Jesus becomes the type of King God wants – one that uses power to lift up the oppressed, and care for the poor and vulnerable.

As followers of Jesus, we are called to do the same.

#MeToo: Bathsheba’s Story (2 Samuel, chapters 11 and 12, part one)

The readings for this Sunday are 2 Samuel 11:1-5, 26-27; 12:1-9; Psalm 51:1-9

This Sunday’s reading is one of the more difficult ones of the Bible (and there are lots of difficult texts in the Bible for lots of different readings!).  Yet it’s an important text because it relates to us today.  Again, this could have been ripped from the headlines, a story of misuse of power, sex, and coverups. 

Yet it’s a story full of God’s mercy and forgiveness.

I’ve decided to tackle this story in three parts: 

• Part One: Bathsheba’s story – often overlooked when it’s not being romantically embellished or whitewashed.  
• Part Two: David’s story, a story of entitlement and abuse of power (told in the next post).  
• Part Three:  the story of Nathan confronting David, which reveals why David is called a “person after God’s own heart” – which is this Sunday’s sermon (and post three in this series).

Bathsheba’s reputation has been sullied by Hollywood and, sad to say, centuries of preaching that routinely casts women in the role of seductress, sexual provocateur, and adulteress. 

Sebastiano Ricci, Bathsheba at the Bath, 1720. Szepmuvesti Muzeum, Budapest, Hungary

Her relationship with David has been cast as a torrid love affair.  It's been scripted as a romance and she has been cast as a willing partner in this relationship with David. Or she is painted as a political operator, using her physical charms to wiggle her way to power.

Seductress? Political schemer? A woman in love?  

Maybe...

Or more likely, a victim of sexual abuse by a man in power.

What is the truth of her-story?

Bathsheba (daughter of the oath, or daughter of seven) was married to Uriah the Hittite, (whose name means” YHWH is my light”).  Please note that both Bathsheba and Uriah are Hebrew names, even thought Uriah is clearly identified as a Hittite.  It’s usually assumed that Bathsheba was a Jewish woman married to a Hittite.  Her nationality is not identified, which supports the assumption that she is Jewish – foreigner typically have their nationality as part of their identification (Ruth the Moabite, Uriah the Hittite).  However, there is speculation that her father may have been Hittite (or perhaps he married a foreign woman).  

Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah, even though a Hittite, was a member of David’s army.  We don’t know his rank, but we do know that he had been with David from the earliest days (2 Samuel 23:39, listed as one of David’s thirty Mighty Warriors).  I hadn’t realized how close he was to David, yet David did him dirty (more about that next time!). 

Much has been made of Bathsheba’s bathing on the roof.  Surely a modest woman wouldn’t bath so publicly, right?  It means she was flaunting herself, right?  Victim blaming at it’s finest.  Bathsheba was simply doing what she was supposed to do: purify herself after her period.  Bathing often took place on the roof, which was used as additional living space (there is speculation that she may have been bathing in the interior courtyard of her house, open to the air).  There was a parapet to prevent people from falling off the roof, which would also have given privacy to the people on the roof.  Bathsheba was simply doing what she was supposed to do.

David, however, wasn’t.  Social customs were to avert your eyes if you could see into your neighbor’s roof.  David should have looked away, preserving Bathsheba’s privacy.

Can you imagine Bathsheba’s reaction when she was summoned to David?  What on earth could he want?  There's no question but to obey the summons.  You didn't say no to the king.

Once in David’s chambers, she is raped. 

Yes. Raped.  This is not the start of a beautiful love affair, or the first blush of a romance that budded into marriage. To paint what happened to her any other way is to whitewash David’s actions.  She HAD to consent.  And forced consent is not consent – it’s rape. 

Once done with her, David discards her.  Until…

Bathsheba discovers she’s pregnant. By the way, the timing of the rites of purification after menstruation coincide with the most fertile time in a woman’s cycle. So, yeah, she got pregnant.  And she’s in trouble.  Her husband is at war.  There’s no way to explain the pregnancy, except…

She sends a message to David.  She has no where else to turn but to the man who raped her and discarded her.  She is forced to seek help from the very person who has put her in the situation of being labeled an adulteress (and subject to death).  She is literally afraid for her life.

David, after a series of unsuccessful maneuvers to cover up the affair, has Uriah murdered.  It’s staged as a battlefield accident, but it’s murder, pure and simple.  After her time of mourning, David calls Bathsheba once more – from the text, it appears this is only the second time he requests her presence – and marries her.

She. Marries, Her. Rapist.

She marries her husband’s murderer.

Her child dies. 2 Samuel 12:14 says it was part of David’s punishment for his sin. Which certainly doesn't paint God in a very good light in this story! The best spin we can put on this is to say that the child's death was interpreted as punishment for David's sin.  Which is also problematic - this interpretation gives David's sin prominence over Bathsheba's suffering.  

Bathsheba is victimized by David and his actions again and again.

Bathsheba continues to be victimized over the centuries. People are ever ready to blame a woman for a man’s bad deeds.  Especially for the misdeeds of a powerful man:

• It can't have been David's fault - Bathsheba flaunted herself, enticing him.  
• She was a seductress, a willing partner in adultery.  
• She must have been a master in palace intrigue, maneuvering herself to a position of power.
• She was an operative of factions that wanted to bring David down.

Victim blaming at its best.  

Yes, Bathsheba makes the best of a bad situation.  But that doesn't erase the violation of her body and her dignity. 

Later in the story, Bathsheba gives birth to Solomon (2 Samuel 12:24 says "David comforted his wife," and that "God loved Solomon"), her "rainbow baby" who ultimately becomes king after David. 

Bathsheba is a fighter. A woman of valor who fights for her dignity.  A woman of strength who picks up the broken pieces of her life and weaves them into something beautifully indestructible. 

Where is God in Bathsheba’s story?  It somehow seems insufficient to say that God blessed her for her suffering by choosing her son Solomon to be king, making her mother of the king, and a powerful woman in her own right. 

Rather, I think God was the one who brought Bathsheba comfort in those days after the rape, who gave her strength to endure, who gave her healing.  God walked with her through the desert of marriage to her rapist/husband-murderer.  God cried with her at the death of her child. And the God who brings life from death, brought new life, and hope, to Bathsheba.

To Bathsheba, God is the God who cares for the victims of violence, hearing their cries of anguish, believing their stories, walking with them as they heal.

As children of this God, can we do any less for the victims of sexual assault and violence today?    

Gotta Serve Somebody: The God who is faithful (even when we're not!)

There's that one line from this Sunday's Hebrew Scripture Reading (we're only going to read Joshua 24:14-21 in worship).  The one that says"Choose this day whom you will serve...but for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." (Joshua 24:15)

Oh, if it were only that easy.

Let's look at the biblical record.  Moses gives a similar exhortation to the people (it take Moses the entire book of Deuteronomy to say what Joshua says in one chapter):  This is what God has done for you, and how God has told you to life.  Choose God instead of idols.  Joshua says basically the same thing:  This is what God has done for you.  Choose God instead of idols.

Should be so easy right?

God has been so faithful.  All through the wilderness, God takes care of the people - even when they whine and complain.  Even when they make a golden calf. Alright, Moses had to talk God down a bit after that one, but in the end, God remains faithful.

God has been faithful as the Israelites, under Joshua, settle in the land God promised their ancestors.  Spoiler alert:  That doesn't last long.  In the next book - Judges - we'll see that the people who promised so enthusiastically to serve God and only God quickly are distracted by other gods.  And they just don't learn - the whole book of Judges tells the repetitive story of the people worshiping other gods resulting in a foreign army coming against them. They cry out to God.  God raises up an judge to lead them into battle.  They win, and there is peace.  For awhile.  Until they start worshiping other gods again.

Rinse.  Repeat.

Why is it so hard to  choose each day to serve the Lord?

 Maybe you have artwork of Joshua 24:15 displayed somewhere in your house.  I have it in my office.  A daily reminder of whom I have chosen to serve.

And, boy, do I need that reminder daily!  It's pretty easy to walk out of my office (where the verse is displayed) and forget that I have chosen the Lord.  There are so many gods clamoring for my attention.  And they are often so attractive - promising fun, or leisure, or the easy way to my heart's desire.

You know what I mean.  Luther teaches that whatever you set your heart and put your trust in is your god (Large Catechism, first paragraph, especially the last sentence.) At Bible Coffee this morning, one of the participants said for two months each year, as the director of the school play, she worships the play.

Or as Bob Dylan put it way back in 1979, "you gotta serve somebody."

                                          (Yeah - sounds like it came from 1979, right!)
Down about the fourth or fifth verse, he writes:

You may be a preacher with your spiritual pride

You may be a city councilman taking bribes on the side

You may be workin' in a barbershop, you may know how to cut hair

You may be somebody's mistress, may be somebody's heir

But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes

You're gonna have to serve somebody

Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord

But you're gonna have to serve somebody

So, who do you serve?

Cause - make no mistake - you gotta serve somebody!

The good news is that God is faithful, even when we're not.  God is faithful even when we choose to serve another god.  Even when, despite our good intentions and the decorative reminder that "as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord," we follow the gods of security, wealth, leisure, sports, gaming, education, family, relationship, work, house, possessions, etc.  - you know, all those things that consume our time, our attention, that promise to provide security and the good life. 

Thank God that God's love and mercy is not dependent on me holding up my part of the covenant! Thank God that there's forgiveness and grace.  That each day (as Luther says) I can die to the sin of following false gods, and each morning rise again to new life in Christ - daily reliving my baptism, dying to sin and rising again in Christ. 

Each day is a new day.

So, today, who do you serve?

As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

At least we will try to...

God Births a Beloved Community: The Covenant at Mt Sinai

Yes, I misses last week's posting.  Since it was Mission Sunday, I didn't preach.

Rebel Hurd of Church on the Street talked about how God's strong hand and mighty arm reaches out to deliver the the unhoused people in Sioux Falls.  The scripture was how God saved the Israelites by parting the Red Sea. (we only read Exodus 14:5-7, 10-14, and 21-29 in worship). 

BTW - Our synod page has a great article on answering the why of Church on the Street - be sure to check it out.

This Sunday we join God's chosen people at the foot of Mt. Sinai.  God's class on living as free people of God is in session.  The former slaves need to learn a totally new way of life, and God have them covered with a covenant, the promise of relationship between God and the people, and with commandments.

We call them "commandments", and consider the ten of them (however you number them) rules for life.  Our Jewish siblings call them the "Words." Much life in the beginning when God spoke, there was life, these ten Words from God bring life.  I rather like that - not rules that we aren't supposed to break, but words that bring life. 

Another interesting difference between us and our Jewish siblings is the numbering of these ten words of life.  My then-7th-grade daughter was surprised to find that her Christian friend numbered the 10 Commandments differently than she had learned in confirmation class.  "Which is the right way?"  She was astounded to learn the Bible doesn't number them at all. Seriously - I had to get out a Bible and show her!

I used to wonder if perhaps there were actually 9 Commandments and in our human effort to make things neat and tidy we split one of the 9 into two so there would be 10 (you know how we love things in tens!).  The Lutherans combine "no other gods" and "graven images" into one commandment but split the "coveting" into two commandments - which my confirmation students says makes no sense since both essentially mean "be happy with what you have." The other numbering system combines the coveting, but splits "no other gods" and "no graven images," which would seem to be a subset of "no other gods."  And rather problematic in a world of ubiquitous selfies!  Then again, maybe they have a point....

Anyway, my system of 9 Commandments was elegant.  No messy divisions to arbitrarily come to a total of 10.  Besides, it made sense.  Three is the number of God, right?

3 x 3=9.  All good. 

Until...

I learned that the rabbis teach there are 10 "Words".  They don't split anything ("no coveting"  counts as one Word,  "no other gods" and "no graven images" combine to one Word).  So how do they come up with 10?

They include verse two:

Exodus 20:1 Then God spoke all these words: 

2 I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

These 10 Words of Life start with relationship.  "I am the Lord your God."  I am yours and you are mine.  We belong to one another.

These 10 Words of Life start with grace: "who brought you out of Egypt, our of the house of slavery,"
I came to you and rescued you because I love you." 

"I know that you don't know how to life as free people. You've been slaves for 400 years.  I know you don't know how to live as my people.  The forces that enslaved you have blinded you to what is true, and pure, and right.  So here you go, this is what the life I created you to have looks like....."

Relationship. Grace.

Love. Life.

That's what these 10 Words are all about.

I like how Jesus sums it all up later (Luke 10:27):
“You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.”

That's it.  The first 3 (or 4, depending on how you count them) commandments are what it looks like to love God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength.  The rest of the commandments are what it looks like to love your neighbor as yourself.

These 10 Words are a picture of what life in the Beloved Community of God looks like.

The community that God birthed through the waters of the Red Sea,

and the community that God birthed through the waters of baptism.

It's pure grace and loving relationship - parent to child, and between members of the family.

Words of Life.

Words of Love.

Relationship and Grace.

When Life's Not Fair, God's Still There: Sermon on Genesis 39:1-23

    This is the sermon for Sunday, September 23, 2018 at Langford Lutheran Parish.

    Scripture readings are Genesis 39:1-23. Psalm 105:1-6, 16-22 and Matthew 5:11-12

When Life's Not Fair, God's Still There

Note: This is my first attempt at recording and posting a sermon, so any comments to let me know how the audio worked would be greatly appreciated!

#metoo #whyididntreport: Joseph and Potiphar's Wife

Trigger Waring:  sexual assault, abuse

If you are a victim of sexual assault, please call the National Sexual Assault Hotline 1-800-656-4673.  There is someone there waiting to hear your story, to believe you.


I'm wrestling with the readings for this Sunday's sermon.  How do I preach Potiphar's wife's sexual harassment of her servant, Joseph and her false accusation that lands him in jail? (You can read this part of Joseph's story here.)

It's a story that seems ripped from the headlines.

It's a story that is too close to home for too many of us.

One of the major concerns in the many online preacher discussions of this test is the specter of a woman giving false accusations against a man.  Will this story give fuel to the fire of those who insist Ms. Ford is giving false accusations against Supreme Court nominee Kavanagh?  Will this story only reinforce the ages old myth that women often falsely accuse men of sexual assault and rape? Doesn't this scrpture passage prove that all the #metoo stories are just that - stories made up to harm the accused in some way?

Using these false accusations against Joseph to promote this myth of the untrustworthiness of the female victim is to do violence not only to the victim but also to the scriptural text.  For Joseph is not the falsely accused alleged aggressor, but the falsely blamed victim.  It's easy at first glance to allow the gender roles to blind us to what is happening her:  a person with power harasses and then vilifies an underling. 

Make no mistake, this is NOT a story of a woman accusing a man (falsely or not) of attempted rape.  This is about a employer/slave owner repeatedly harassing a servant/slave and then blaming them when the abuse is discovered. 

Well, then, there's victim blaming for that too.  Why didn't Joseph tell #whyididntreport?

Seriously?  He was never even given the chance.  Potiphar believes his wife, who cleverly enlisted other slaves in the household to support her story.  Slaves who probably were well aware of her pursuit of Joseph. Could they have been jealous of the attention she gave him?  The favors of the mistress of the house were a way for a slave to better himself or herself. Slaves who probably didn't understand why Joseph didn't take the opportunity presented him.  Even if jealously didn't drive their ready agreement with her story, what other choice did they have?  She owned them - literally.  They also could be falsely accused. 

When you think about the extreme imbalance of power, it is amazing that Joseph didn't give in to her demands.  She owned him (through her husband of course). Joseph had control over the whole household, except her.  But he was hers to command. 

And he refused.

This is one story - one of the few - in the Bible where there is a male victim of sexual assault. The Bible is full of stories where women are sexually assaulted or raped, but do we believe them? 

No, our biblical foremothers are blamed or deemed complicit in their assaults.  In matters of sex, it seems, the sin is always the woman's.

It is a story ripped from the headlines.

Too many women are blamed for the sexual harassment and assault they have suffered.

Too many women are labeled as liars when they report the assault.  Labeled as complicit, “asking for it.”  Blamed for waiting “too long” to report. Assumed to have ulterior motives for coming forward later when they are (finally!) strong enough to talk about the assault.

Held responsible – “she should have known better.”

Held as guilty until they are proven innocent of making false charges, of trying to “ruin” a man’s life.

If we are uncomfortable with this story in our Bible, it’s because it is far too close to home for far too many of us:

For the victims who relive their nightmares in the words of this story

For the abusers who fear that the scriptural truth of this passage might just succeed in shining a light in the dark places of their own lives.

For the Potiphars who find it more comfortable and convenient to believe the powerful.


 If you are a victim of sexual assault, please call the National Sexual Assault Hotline 1-800-656-4673.  There is someone there waiting to hear your story, to believe you.

Promises You Can Count On: God will protect you

Whenever I read any part of the Joseph story from Genesis (starts in chapter 37 and goes to the end of Genesis, with a few asides regarding other members of the family), songs start playing in my head.

I read the list of Jacob's sons in Genesis 35 and my mind starts right in

Reuben was the eldest of the children of Israel
With Simeon and Levi the next in line
Naphtali and Isaachar with Asher and Dan
Zebulun and Gad took the total to nine
Jacob, Jacob and sons,
Benjamin and Judah, which leaves only one 
Jacob, Jacob and sons,
Joseph - Jacob's favorite son

I read about the beautiful coat Jacob gives his favorite son, and suddenly, 

It was red and yellow and green and brown
And scarlet and black and ochre and peach
And ruby and olive and violet and fawn
And lilac and gold and chocolate and mauve
And cream and crimson and silver and rose...

I blame it on my daughter appearing not once, but twice (and I was also in it the second time) in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.  Part of the reason that these songs come back so easily is that she still knows ALL. THE. WORDS and tends to randomly burst into song.

Back to Joseph...

When I read the story of Joseph in Potiphar's house, Genesis 39:1-23, the song that comes to mind is not the fun, riotous, and a bit naughty Potiphar, but the song from when Joseph is in prison.  Close Every Door had a wistful, haunting melody combined with words of pure faith:

Close every door to me,
Hide all the world from me
Bar all the windows
And shut out the light
Do what you want with me,
Hate me and laugh at me
Darken my daytime
And torture my night
If my life were important I
Would ask will I live or die
But I know the answers lie
Far from this world 

Close every door to me,
Keep those I love from me
Children of Israel
Are never alone
For I know I shall find
My own peace of mind
For I have been promised
A land of my own 

Joseph relies fully on God's promises - God's promise to Abraham to go with him everywhere he goes (last week's promise), God's promise to remember God's people.  He believes so completely in the covenant promise of land, descendants, and blessings that overflow to bless all the families of the world that he sings of his own unimportance in God's great plan.  It's enough that God is with him.

And it's true - God has not forgotten Joseph.  God is with Joseph and God is protecting Joseph.

Wait - you say - some kind of protection that is! Joseph is in prison - unfairly accused of a crime he didn't commit! And he's far from his family in Egypt, sold as a slave, by HIS OWN brothers!  

True.  Joseph has had some pretty tough times lately.  But look at verse 2:

The Lord was with Joseph, 

and he became a successful man 

and served in his Egyptian master’s household. 

In fact, Joseph was so successful, that Potiphar turned everything over to Joseph to handle.  Every. Single, Thing.   

Just like with his brothers and their jealously of his father's favor, jealously rears it's ugly head.  Some scholars believe that the motivation behind Potiphar's wife's seduction of Joseph was that she  resented Joseph because he was in charge of everything - even the things she would have been in charge over.  Successfully seducing him was a sure fire way to get rid of him - and get her power back.

She wasn't successful.  Joseph was to loyal to Potiphar, and to God.  But it didn't matter.  She had staged the scene so skillfully that she was able to make everyone believe that Joseph tried to seduce her.  (I would be remiss if I didn't point out that this text is problematic in today's #metoo culture.  True, Potiphar's wife made a false accusation against Joseph, but then, as now, false accusations are the exception.  There are many, many more accounts in the Bible of sexual abuse and violence against women, than there are false accusations made about men by a woman. Update:  I have since read a blogger who discusses in depth Josesph as a male survivor of sexual assualt  against other biblical stories of sexual assualt and accusations.)

Joseph goes to prison, where he again prospers. Look at verse 21

the Lord was with Joseph and remained loyal to him. 

He caused the jail’s commander to think highly of Joseph.

Once again Joseph is put in charge of everything.  

Later on in chapter 41, Joseph is brought from prison to interpret Pharaoh's dream.  God is with Joseph, and he successfully interprets the dream, advising Pharaoh what to do to prepare for the upcoming crisis.  Gratefully, Pharaoh puts Joseph (you guessed it) in charge of everything.

God protected Joseph, turning the bad (evil) that Joseph encountered to good.  In chapter 50 (verse 20), Joseph reassures his brothers that he won't seek revenge on them for selling him into slavery:

You planned something bad for me, 

but God produced something good from it, 

in order to save the lives of many people, 

just as he’s doing today.

Joseph's story reminds me that no matter what happens to me, God's got my back. Bad things happen - to good people, and to flawed people.  Yet, God's plans always prevail.  As St. Athanasius once said, "God writes straight with crooked lines."  God is in the business of bringing life out of death, of creating beauty out of brokenness, of turning chaos into order.  

Believing in God doesn't we're exempt from pain and sorrow - in fact Jesus promises that we will face trials and troubles - but God is with us in those times, blessing us again to bless those around us.  

I call that real protection!

You can count on it!

Close every door to me,
Keep those I love from me
Children of Israel
Are never alone
For we know we shall find
Our own peace of mind 
For we have been promised
A land of our own

Promises you can count on: God goes with you

Let's catch up on the promises: 

In last week's reading, God promised Noah that whenever God saw the rain-bow in the sky, God would remember how much God loves humans and all of creation and not destroy it with a flood again.  I think of a parent looking a the mess the teenager just made and remembering how cute he or she was as a toddler so while the parent might punish the teen, the parent doesn’t give up on the teen.

God doesn’t give up on us either.  God remembers us.

This Sunday we hear what is usually described as God’s call to Abraham.  Except Abraham is not Abraham yet, he is Abram – God changes his name later in the story.  And this is the first of three times God makes a promise to Abraham ( See Genesis 15:1-15 and 17).  Ok, the second and third promises are really restatements of the first:

 I will make of you a great nation and will bless you. I will make your name respected, and you will be a blessing.

 I will bless those who bless you,
    those who curse you I will curse;
        all the families of the earth
            will be blessed because of you.” (Genesis 12:2-3, CEB)

You see, while God always fulfills God's promises, it's not always on our time table.  And this promise takes a looooong time to fill.

A very long time:

             - Abraham is 100 and Sarah is 90 when Isaac is born

             - It takes basically 25 years for Abraham to get to the land God promises.

Abraham never sees the promise completely fulfilled.

Yet Abraham stakes his life and that of his family on God's promise and moves out, going to a land God will show them.  He doesn't even know where they are going, or how long it will take!

This promise God makes is one of the Big Five - the covenants with Noah, with Moses and Hebrew-slaves-turned-free, with David, and the new covenant Jeremiah proclaims.  So it's a really big deal.  

But I'm thinking about the promise under the promises.  The unspoken promise that Abram relies on when he tells Sarai (Sarah's name gets changed later too) to pack up everything to move to a place God will show them.  

The promise of God's presence.

I think that Abraham trusted that God would be with him, every step of the way.  And even though the fulfillment of the grand promise was slow in coming, Abram/Abraham knew that he was never alone.

God was with him.  

That promise is for you and me too.  God never leaves us.  

God goes with us.

Even when we have no idea where we are going.

Promises you can count on: God remembers!

In the good times and in the bad, what do you count on?

This fall we’re exploring the promises God makes in the Bible to Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Moses and the Israelites.  God makes a lot of promises, and God always keeps them.

God’s promises are promises you can count on.

Last Sunday, we missed talking about the promise God made to Noah and all creation.  Let me catch you up.

You remember the story? Genesis 6:5-9:17 tells the whole story, or you can skip to chapter ( to read about God's promise to Noah.  Let me summarize for you:  

The earth was full of wickedness and God decided to start over.  So, God washed the world clean with a flood.  

Except – Noah finds favor in God’s sight.  

So, God tells Noah to build an ark and put two of every animal in it (or two of every wild animal and seven pairs of the domestic animals, check out Genesis 6:20 and 7:1-3) along with Noah’s family.  After Noah and his family and animals are safe on the ark, God sends a flood and kills everyone else (yeah- pretty gruesome for a story that is used as a nursery backdrop!).

God sees the damage done to the creation God loves and decides that this is not the way to go.  No more.  No matter how bad humans get, not matter how much we mess things up, God’s not going to cover the earth with a flood again. 

And God sets the rainbow in the sky to remind God to remember this promise.  This is a reminder to God, not to us.  While rainbows are cool, and pretty, and I usually think of this promise God made when I see one, the rainbow is not for us.  It’s for God.  To remember.

The word for “bow” is the weapon, not the pretty ribbon we put on packages.  And I think that’s pretty significant.  The warrior hangs up his bow, and God hung God’s bow up in the sky.  And in doing so, God promises to remember

-          To remember the promise God made to Noah and all creation to not destroy it with flood

But also

-          To remember the humans that God created, to remember who we are in all our failings and brokenness. 

This is the story that the Hebrew scriptures (Old Testament) tell:  how God’s promise to remember humans and our need to be reconciled with God moves God to select a particular man and woman to bless so that through them God’s blessing flows to the whole world.

But that’s  another story and another promise!