The scriptures read are Genesis 40-42, Psalm 14 and Matthew 14.
Genesis 40. I recommend the story of Joseph to the inmates I minister to. A major problem is the loss of hope. I ask them to imagine what it felt like to be Joseph. He's doing the right thing. He does the royal cupbearer a solid. Joseph tells him to remember him when he is back in with Pharoah. Everything works out with the cupbearer and he promptly forgets Joseph. I tell the inmates to imagine what it was like for Joseph--the waiting, the wondering, the questioning God. Later he will see things in a different light. But at this point, it looks all bad. He cannot understand why God is letting this happen. The time you need to trust God most is when it's hardest to do so. Hope is the future tense of faith. It's believing that you can trust God to fulfill his promise that he will make everything turn out right in the end. Hope's not easy; it's essential.
(BTW I hope Joseph broke it to the baker less abruptly than the text indicates. Otherwise, he still needs to work on telling people his dream interpretations.)
Genesis 41. 2 years later (Thanks a lot, royal cupbearer!) Pharoah has a couple of disturbing dreams. Only when no one can interpret them does the cupbearer remember poor Joseph languishing in prison. They clean him up, take him before Pharoah and he hears the disturbing dreams. Joseph gives God credit for sending Pharoah a warning and for sending Joseph the interpretation. After 7 years of bumper crops, 7 years of famine will wipe out all that prosperity. Joseph tells Pharoah to bank the surplus from the good years so Egypt can make it through the drought. Pharoah knows a smart young fellow when he sees one. He puts Joseph in charge of the project. Joseph doesn't blow it all on sub-prime mortgages, either. He does it right.
Genesis 42. Meanwhile, back at the ranch. The famine has hit Canaan. Israel sends his sons to Egypt to get some food. He sends 10 of his sons but not Benjamin, his youngest, the last living son of Rachel. He can't bear to let him out of his sight. He'd die if something happened to him.
Joseph's brothers show up at the grain silo and unknowingly fulfill his earlier dream by bowing to him. They don't recognize him (he's a lot older and probably wearing that Goth-eyeliner Egyptians favor). He toys with them a bit.
He accuses them of being spies and throws them in jail. A better man might not have done that. Joseph is not perfect. But, really, they deserve worse and they know it. When they start babbling about how this is karma for what they did to Joseph, the man himself, pretending to need an interpreter, turns his head and has to get control of himself. When he can speak, he orders Simeon taken prisoner and says not to come back without their younger brother. Is he worried about Benjamin? Or does he just want to see his only full-blooded brother, his baby brother, the only one that didn't want to kill and/or sell him into slavery?
Joseph isn't done with the mind-games. He puts their money back in their grain sacks. Once they stop on the road, they discover that now they really look like they've pulled a fast one. And when they get back, they have to tell their father they've lost another son. Plus if they ever go back they need to take Benjamin. Israel clings to the baby of the family. Over my dead body, you'll take him! You'll be the death of me yet!
Psalm 14. Moral pinheads think God doesn't care so they don't care whom they hurt in this dog-eat-dog world. Go ahead, pick on the little guy! Just wait till God gets through with you! A psalm that looks at the moral cesspit of the world and expresses hope for God's justice.
Matthew 14. Herod gets played by his wife and John the Baptist gets the axe. When he hears the fate of his cousin, Jesus tries to get away by himself in a boat. But he's too big a celebrity now. He gets spotted, people start shlepping their sick to him and, he can't help it, he heals them. So much for bereavement leave.
It's getting dark and it's quite a hike to the nearest town. The disciples tell Jesus to send the people packing so they can go hunt up dinner. Jesus says, "You give them what they need." I think he was serious. But the disciples simply do not know the power God has made available to them. "All we got is 5 loaves and 2 fish ourselves." Jesus is all "Never mind! I'll handle it!" He takes a meal not even adequate for the Twelve, prays, blesses, breaks the bread and gives it to the disciples to distribute. Imagine the measly crumbs their first few handouts consisted off until they realized they could not run out of this food. I imagine towards the end they were flinging it to all and sundry with wild abandon. "Want some food? Take as much as you want! There's more where that came from!"
With their heads and bellies full the people shuffle off. Jesus sends his students off in a boat. Finally, he climbs the local mountain and gets time to be with God alone, just talking, at least part of it about John.
Nothing worse than rowing your boat into the wind at 4 in the morning. Unless it's seeing someone you know just walking along the wave tops. "A ghost!" They scream like little girls. Then Peter decides, heck, if Jesus can do it, so can I! He asks Christ to call him out for a stroll on the sea. Jesus says, Sure. Peter hops out and , OMG, I am totally hanging ten in a radical new way. They he does a Wily Coyote, looks at what can't possibly be holding up his feet and starts sliding into Davy Jonah's locker. He yelps help and Jesus grabs him before the big fisherman is fish food. Weather winds down but nobody going to sleep tonight. Sure enough as soon as they land people start shlepping in the sick. Bleary-eyed Jesus, you're up!
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