These biblical stories about our ancestors in the faith are meant to teach us - but also to inspire and sustain us in our own efforts to remain faithful.  Joseph’s story is a rich resource, indeed.

Many of us know the story of Joseph well, because this is the story often chosen for our youth musical here at North Broadway.  Let’s just briefly review the placement of this story in its context.  Our ancestors in the faith were charged with keeping the covenant between God and Abraham.  Abraham was the father of both Ishmael and Isaac.  Ishamel was sent away with his mother Hagar, when Sarah became jealous of them.  Isaac became the father of Esau and Jacob – the twins.  Esau sold his birthright to Jacob, so the story became Jacob’s story.  And Jacob became the father of many sons – the youngest of whom, Joseph, was sold by his brothers to Egyptian slave traders when they became jealous of him.  They convinced his father that Joseph had been killed by wild animals.  Jacob grieved.  And then one more son was born to him – Benjamin.  While it might appear that Joseph is out of the story, in fact, the text tells us in great detail about Joseph’s life in Egypt.  He is set up by a jealous rival and ends up imprisoned.  But from prison he interprets disturbing dreams that the Pharoah is having, and gains credibility and favor so that he becomes the second highest ranking official in Egypt.  His major contribution to the policy of Pharoah is the conservation of food in anticipation of a famine. 

When I review these stories of the beginnings of God’s working in and through the lives of God’s people, I am always struck by the messiness of all of it.  If there is anything that these ancient stories tell us, it is that people have always been people.  Jealousy, dishonesty, intrigue, betrayals, including seductions and unfaithfulness – all of these are woven thoroughly into the story.  But God never gives up on these people.  That inspires my faith that God will not give up on me. 

From time to time, there is a character that is a model of faithfulness.  Joseph is one of those.  He is through and through God’s man.  And that inspires my faithfulness to God. 

So when we come to today’s text, the descendants of Abraham – the offspring of Jacob are threatened with survival because there is a famine – not only in Egypt but in Palestine. 

Sent by their father to Egypt in search of food, the brothers come face to face with their brother whom they had years earlier sold into slavery.  And he has the advantage, because they do not recognize him – but he has not forgotten them.  While Joseph messes with them a bit before revealing his true character, it is in this revelation of the character of Joseph that we find sustenance for our own efforts to remain faithful in the midst of life’s challenges.

It is Joseph’s long-term thinking ability that captured my attention this time as I renewed my acquaintance with Joseph.  On one level, of course, Joseph has saved the day not only for Egypt but now for his whole extended family by having the foresight to save for a rainy day.  He has not lived day to day or moment to moment.  He has not given in to instant gratification.  He has stored grain during years of abundance and success so that when the years of drought and famine come, there are ample provisions for survival. 

So Joseph is a long term strategic thinker in terms of agricultural and economic policy.  That in and of itself makes him an incredible asset to the Pharaoh. 

But this is not primarily an Egyptian story.  This is the story of God and the descendants of Abraham.  And these sons of Jacob have not been so wise.  Not only have they failed to provide adequately for their growing community in time of famine – but they are living with the knowledge that they have sold their brother and lied to their father.  Such deceptions seldom go undiscovered.  Given enough time, the truth will always come out.

In the arc of the narrative, this is the point when Joseph says, “na, na, na, na, na, na… I’m your little brother whom you sold into slavery and I’ve got food and you don’t and that’s just too bad.  You should have thought of that when you separated me from my father, and my home and my family and sent me to this place as a child-slave.  Go home and starve.  You are not my brothers.”

Look – if you or I were in Joseph’s place, wouldn’t we be tempted to turn our backs on the brothers who so bitterly betrayed us?  Would that even be our worst temptation?  Wouldn’t some of us have to admit that we’d not only turn our backs, we’d seek revenge? 

But Joseph does none of this.  Why not?  Why does Joseph not seek revenge for this terrible wrong?  What kind of biblical soap opera can keep you tuned in if more revenge isn’t coming in tomorrow’s episode? 

What is it about Joseph that makes him so quickly able to forgive, and gives us one of the most emotionally powerful images of reconciliation in all of scripture, as Joseph and his brothers fall over one another, speechless and with tears of joy? 

Joseph is a long-term thinker – and not just about public policy. 

“God sent me before you to preserve life,” Joseph tells his brothers.  In fact, Joseph tells his brothers, verse after verse after verse, not about what they have done, or he has done, but about what God has done. 

Later, toward the conclusion of the Joseph story, one of my favorite verses of scripture is uttered by Joseph in relationship to this situation, “Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good…” I often paraphrase that text this way: “what is meant for evil, God can use for good.”

Joseph looks backward, and sees that all the suffering he has endured, all the pain, all the sorrow, all the success and rise in influence in Egypt, has placed him in the position of having the resources to do good.  There is no need for revenge, bitterness and betrayal to continue.

God has intended all of this to preserve life.  The brothers something that should have ended badly, and step by step, piece by piece, God kept working to put it together for good. 

Now there is a really important distinction here.  The text doesn’t suggest that God caused evil in order to work good.  The evil was purely the idea of Joseph’s brothers.  But Joseph sees that over years – decades even – God was always at work in the circumstances of their lives so that the evil work of the brothers could ultimately be used by God to work good.

Reconciliation is possible for Joseph – is the only option for Joseph – because he and he alone sees that over the long term, something very, very good has been worked out because God has remained faithful.  Life will be preserved.  All should rejoice.

Joseph is not just aware of God’s grace here – Joseph reveals to us the character of God.  Joseph’s reconciliation with his brothers is not unlike the possibility of our own reconciliation with God.  How often, when we have betrayed God with our unfaithfulness, with our lack of attention to God’s word, to our prayers, to God’s demands for justice, do we resist turning back to God out of fear? 

But this story shows us what we can really anticipate when we turn back to God.  We can anticipate God to fall all over us in tears, rejoicing at the reunion and saying to us – “what you meant for evil, I use for good.”

How often have we turned away from God when others have betrayed us, believing that God should not have let that happen to us?  But when we are finally driven by the pain of the betrayal back to God, by starvation for love, back to God, what can we expect?  We can expect God to embrace us, to feed us out of God’s abundance, and to say to us, “it was meant for evil, but I am using it for good.”

Joseph sees that God is always using the present to work out the future.  Joseph sees the events of his own life in the context of God’s bigger, larger, longer term point of view.  And in reconciliation, this aim of God to preserve life and work good is brought to fruition. 

There is one more thing about Joseph that I notice in this story.  Joseph has stored up more than is needed for Egypt, and is more than willing to share with those who have no economic safety net. 

Joseph’s long term trust in God can become for us an invitation not just to reconciliation, but also to generosity. 

As we seek to live faithfully, this story gives us resources for prayer and reflection. 

We can look at our own lives, recall the broken relationships and bitter betrayals and our fears about our economic well being and financial security and ask ourselves –

What good might God work from this situation? 

How can I make myself available to God for the goodness that may come from this? 

What will I think about this a decade from now? 

What happened in my life in the past to bring me to where I am now? 

What is God doing in my family, my work place, my community – with my nation, with the global community, in the human family? 

Make no mistake – God does not desire that we go to war with each other, between brothers or nations.  God does not desire that children be sold into slavery.  God does not desire imbalances in economic policy that create famine.  Quite the opposite – God desires well being – shalom- for the whole of creation.

But God’s got us.  And we are people whose stories involve jealousy, and betrayal, and selfishness, and greed and all manner of sin. 

And God is in it for the long term.  Working good out of whatever God’s got to work with.

Friends, we got up this morning to worship this God: the God of Joseph.  Our God who is that reliably good, that deeply invested, that faithfully loving.