Loving God, just as with Abraham and Joseph, you have blessed us in order that we might be a blessing.  Help us to discover the blessing of your presence with us, especially during the difficult times in our lives; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

    Last week we heard some pretty amazing promises that were given to Abraham.  One of those promises was the promise of blessing.  Abraham would be blessed, and his descendants would be blessed, and through them, all the families of the earth would be blessed (Gen. 12:1-9).

    Well, this week, we are many years later with Abraham’s great grandson, Joseph.  You might have noticed in today’s reading that everything Joseph touches seems to have God’s blessing upon it.  Potiphar is blessed when Joseph is in charge of his estate, and the chief jailer and the other prisoners seem to be blessed when Joseph is put in charge of the prisoners and their care.  Several times it is stated that the Lord was with Joseph, and it is quite obvious that the blessing that was promised to Abraham rests on him.

    Yet, in Joseph’s life, as in the life of his father, Jacob, being blessed by God does not mean the absence of any trials and hardship.  In Joseph’s case, he was sold as a slave by his own brothers, carted off to Egypt, and then sold to Potiphar.  Then, after serving Potiphar well and bringing blessing to his estate, he is falsely accused of adultery and thrown into prison.  Joseph remains in the prison for quite some time until one of the other prisoners finally remembers him and gets him released.  Yet even there, we are told, God is with him.

    I have to wonder how many of us would believe that God is with us if we were falsely accused and thrown into prison.  Would we lament, “Why me, Lord?”, or would we seek to be a blessing to the others in the prison?  For many in our world today, this is not an unrealistic question.

    Gospel for Asia shares the story of Pastor Samuel, who was imprisoned in India for eight years for telling others about Jesus.  Throughout the eight years, he was separated from his wife and children, while others in the community of faith prayed for his release.  However, while Pastor Samuel was in prison, he began to share the good news about Jesus with the other prisoners.  Eventually there were enough believers in the prison that they began gathering together for prayer and Bible study.  As the number of believers in the prison continued to grow, Pastor Samuel trained others to lead the Bible study.  By the time that he was released, there were enough leaders in the prison that the community of faith there was able to continue to meet together.

    While I am certain that Pastor Samuel would not have wished to spend eight years in prison, God most certainly was with him during that time, and worked through him in order to share the love of Jesus with prisoners who had never heard of him before.  Of course, being imprisoned for doing what is right is only one of the things that can happen that might make us question if God is really with us or not.

    We could probably come up with quite a few different situations where it might be pretty hard to believe that we are blessed.  A number of different losses come to mind where we might be tempted to believe that God has abandoned us.  Loss of a loved one – loss of our home – losing our job – losing our independence or our mobility.  In each case, we can become fixated on “woe is me,” or we can come to the point where we say, “Okay, God.  What’s next?”

    The same is true when we receive a scary diagnosis – whether a terminal illness or an incurable disease.  Do we then believe that God has abandoned us, or do we seek to be a blessing to others, even in the midst of illness?  And what about Christians who currently are being kidnaped by terrorist groups and executed?  Has God abandoned them, or do they continue to be blessed?

    The thing is that we tend to think of God’s blessing in terms of prosperity and abundance and everything going well for us.  However, we soon discover in the Scriptures that many faithful people end up taking a pretty difficult path.  In fact, the verses that we heard from Matthew today describe exactly what happened to many of those who believed in Jesus.

Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you (Mt. 5:11-12).

    This pretty much describes what happened to Peter and Paul and Silas in the New Testament and to Jeremiah and Daniel in the Old Testament.  All of them ended up either falsely accused and imprisoned or simply imprisoned for doing what is right.  And yet, especially in the book of Acts, there are a number of different stories about how God shows up in the prisons and sets the prisoners free.

    The thing is that whether we have suffered a loss in our lives, or are dealing with illness or pain, or even have been falsely accused or maligned, Jesus has been there.  He has experienced pain and suffering and abandonment and false accusations and even torture.  And so, Jesus continues to be there with all those who suffer and with all those who are tempted to sink into despair.

    It is in the presence of Jesus during those dark times in our lives that the blessing is to be found.  For he is the one who carries us through, and who works through us in spite of ourselves.  And often it is not until we go through those difficult times that we discover how much we need God’s presence and power, and how much God is able to do in our lives when we turn things over to him.

    And so, do not be surprised if your life is not all sweetness and light.  If it were, you might never discover what God can do through you, even in your times of greatest need.  In Joseph’s case, God was with him for a greater purpose.  In spite of being sold as a slave and then thrown into prison, it turns out that Egypt was exactly where he needed to be.  Through Joseph, not only are the Egyptians saved from starvation, but all of the descendants of Jacob – the people of Israel.

    As we think about this, there is another question bubbling in the background: What is God wanting to do through us?  For we, too, have been blessed as children of God and inheritors of eternal life.  And as with Abraham and Joseph, that blessing is not intended to be kept to ourselves.  And so, keep listening and praying.  Keep watching and paying attention to what God is doing around us.  There is no telling what God can do through us when we allow the Holy Spirit to be at work.  Thanks be to God!  Amen.

Pentecost 15 (NL 1)                            Genesis 39:1-23
September 21, 2014                            Matthew 5:11-12
St. Luke’s Zion Lutheran Church
Pastor Lynne Hutchison

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