“How did you get here?” I was asked after my first communion service at San Leon United Methodist Church.  I was not new to communion.  I had taken it many times and even offered it to quite a few people as a chaplain.  But this was not a bedside, it was a church, and I was not in a pew, I was in a pulpit.  I lifted up the bread and said some things; then I lifted up the cup and said some things.  Then I prayed.  I had no idea that I was supposed to read the words on page 832 of the 1964 Book of Hymns.  I would’ve paid closer attention if I knew there was going to be a test.  After worship the Lay Leader came up to the newly appointed pastor, made a comment and asked a question.  The comment was, “You haven’t been Methodist all your life, have you?”  The question was, “How did you get here?”

That is seldom an easy question to answer.  Walter Brueggemann wrote about Joseph’s life in Genesis, “There is no straight line of plot…only a weaving together of accidents and fortuitous events…”

Today, we begin a summer series of sermons entitled, “Buried Treasures”.  We will have the chance to look at stories that are often overlooked in our search of the scriptures.  We will hear stories of a talking donkey, a princess, a warrior, and others – and, no, I am not introducing the movie Shrek, these are actual stories of the Bible.  Joseph’s story is a fascinating story, but we often end too soon in its telling.  I want us to look at the last chapter first and then answer the question, “How did you get here, Joseph?”  The passage is found in Genesis 50:15-21.  Before we read the scripture, I’d like for us to prepare for the Word, by acknowledging its power for our lives through this familiar line of Psalm 119:105.  Let’s sing it through twice, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.”  Hear now the Word of the Lord:

¹⁵Realizing that their father was dead, Joseph’s brothers said, ‘What if Joseph still bears a grudge against us and pays us back in full for all the wrong that we did to him?’ ¹⁶So they approached Joseph, saying, ‘Your father gave this instruction before he died, ¹⁷“Say to Joseph: I beg you, forgive the crime of your brothers and the wrong they did in harming you.” Now therefore please forgive the crime of the servants of the God of your father.’ Joseph wept when they spoke to him. ¹⁸Then his brothers also wept, fell down before him, and said, ‘We are here as your slaves.’ ¹⁹But Joseph said to them, ‘Do not be afraid! Am I in the place of God? ²⁰Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good, in order to preserve a numerous people, as he is doing today. ²¹So have no fear; I myself will provide for you and your little ones.’ In this way he reassured them, speaking kindly to them.

This is the word of God for the people of God.  In this passage the author of Genesis reminded his readers of the resilient providence of God.  

It’s an interesting episode of a fascinating story.  Joseph’s father, Jacob, had just died at the age of 147.  His children are still alive and the ten oldest boys are afraid that with Daddy out of the picture, Joseph might, as they put it, “pay us back in full for all the wrong that we did to him.” It kind of makes one wonder, “How did they get here?”

That’s a great story and begins as all great stories do, “Once upon a time…”  Once upon a time there was a man named Jacob, who was a determined and conniving man and almost always got what he wanted.  One day he took it too far by convincing his sightless father that he was his older brother and stole from him the irreversible blessing.  When his brother discovered the deceit he was angry enough to kill Jacob, who had to run for his life.  He ran right into the area where there was a beautiful shepherdess, named Rachel, and it was love at first sight.  Jacob agreed to work for Rachel’s daddy for seven years in exchange for her hand in marriage.  Those years, according to Genesis 29:20, “seemed to him but a few days because of the love he had for her.”  Then on his wedding night, when the veil was lifted, he discovered that his bride was actually Rachel’s sister, because (get this) she was the older sister and the older sister always married first.  Ironic isn’t it, that the trickster was tricked with the old elder sibling/younger sibling switcheroo?  Rachel’s daddy said, “Now that we have that settled, if you work for me another seven years, you can marry the younger one.  So he did, because back then it wasn’t odd to live 147 years or have more than one wife.  The older sister had six boys and a girl, while Rachel was childless and deeply grieved about that.  Finally, she had a boy of her own – Joseph.  He was actually Jacob’s eleventh son in all, but the first child born to the woman that always had his heart.  Any guesses as to which son was Jacob’s favorite?  Of course, it was Joseph, and Jacob did not even try to hide the fact. He had given Joseph a beautiful long sleeved robe, which became the symbol of Joseph’s status as favorite son.  The other brothers actually hated him.  Apparently, it is not easy being the favorite son.

One day Joseph awoke from a dream and for some reason that only seventeen year old boys might understand, he told the dream to his brothers.  It was a dream of sheaves of grain lying in a field and suddenly Joseph’s grain stood up while the others belonging to the brothers bowed down to his grain.  This is a dream you must remember.  It may have been this dream that Joseph kept in his heart through the weaving together of accidents and fortuitous events.

The brothers hated the dream and they were furious with Joseph for telling it to them.  One day while they were out in the field tending sheep, they devised a plot to kill him and throw him in a pit when he came near them.  The oldest boy convinced them to just throw him in a pit.  Over lunch they saw a band of traders passing by and decided to make a buck by selling him into slavery to them.  They told their daddy that he had been killed by a wild animal.  Jacob bought the story and went into a despair that could not be comforted.

Meanwhile, Joseph had been taken to Egypt, where one of Pharaoh’s officers, bought him.  The officer, named Potiphar, discovered that Joseph was a very gifted manager and extremely trustworthy.  He was soon the favorite slave and was made the CEO of Potiphar’s business.  Potiphar’s wife discovered that Joseph was very handsome and had other plans for the CEO.  When Joseph chose integrity, ethics, and loyalty over a woman who was used to getting anything she wanted, she slandered him with charges of sexual assault.  Since Joseph was a slave, he was defenseless and was imprisoned for the accusations.

While in prison he became the guard’s favorite prisoner.  One day two of the Pharaoh’s personal attendants were thrown into prison for treason.  They both had dreams that troubled them and since Joseph was a dreamer himself, he asked them to tell him their dreams.  The first dreamer, the Pharaoh’s cupbearer, told Joseph the dream and Joseph assured him that the dream meant in three days, he would be restored by the Pharaoh.  He asked the cupbearer to remember him when all was well and get him out of that place.  The cupbearer forgot – until two years later when the Pharaoh had a couple of dreams that disturbed him.  Joseph was brought to Pharaoh and interpreted the two dreams with the same interpretation.  God was trying to tell the Pharaoh that there would be seven years of bumper crops, followed by seven years of famine.  They had better plan for the famine.  (Where was our Joseph about ten years ago?)

Soon Joseph was Pharaoh’s favorite Prime Minister, which is the position he received to oversee the famine preparation plan.  It was such a successful plan that people from all over came to Egypt to buy food during the Great Famine – including Joseph’s brothers, who had almost forgotten about their long lost brother, and later Joseph’s daddy, who was sure his favorite son had been killed by a wild animal.  After further weaving together of accidents and fortuitous events, Jacob and his entire family moved to Goshen, in the southeast region of Egypt, and lived there under the prime minister’s protective care.

Now, more than twenty years after the brothers’ terrible deed, Jacob died.  The brothers, who had been waiting for the other shoe to drop for quite some time, feared that it might be now.  Gerhardt Von Rad wrote, “Their question of guilt is not yet cleared up.”  It really hadn’t even been addressed.  So they send a messenger (probably Benjamin, who had not yet been born when they sold Joseph into slavery) to tell Joseph that their daddy’s last wish was for him to forgive his brothers.  That’s when two things happened, Joseph’s brothers bowed before him just like the dream of twenty years ago predicted, and Joseph spoke fourteen words that the 1,600 words leading up to this moment point to.  He said, “Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good.”  This is a tricky statement that balances the Providence of God and the free will of humans, the promise of God and the perils of life. 

God had a plan for Joseph and for his people.  There were several events that took place that threatened that plan – the brothers’ brutality, Potiphar’s wife prideful deceit, the cupbearer’s convenient amnesia, and so many others.  But God’s plan refused to be thwarted by the evil of others.  I do not believe that it was God’s will for the brothers to behave so badly, for Potiphar’s wife to act so atrociously, for the cupbearer to be so flippant in his disregard for the man who gave him hope.  But God’s will was not going to succumb to those expressions of brokenness.

One of the most misused verses in the Bible is Romans 8:28 which reads, “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.”  Often people use this verse to explain some calamity as God’s will.  This kind of comment upsets me on two counts: it misrepresents God as arbitrary and uncaring, and it minimizes the pain of others as just another move of the pawn in God’s game.  Romans 8:28 is saying the same thing as Genesis 50:20 – God’s plan will not be thwarted by the evil of others, expressions of brokenness, or even the calamities of life. 

I wonder what Jesus would have said when asked at the Table in the Upper Room, “How did you get here?”  I wonder if that’s what he was saying when he told the story of the tenant farmers in Luke 20 who killed the favorite son of the land owner in a violent act of greed.  Did he come to tend the vineyard of God?  Well, he did say, “I am the vine” and “this cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.”

How did you get here?  Was it, too, a weaving together of accidents and fortuitous events?  Can you see the resilient Providence of God at work in your life, refusing to yield to the pain and problems that you encounter?  Can you see that God is with you intending your life for good?  If so, then you have discovered the buried treasure of Providence in the Midst of Pain.  Amen.