Our readings give us a vivid collision between two wildly different world views: One, being a faithful follower of Jesus. Humble, self-effacing, meek, accepting, supportive of others, sacrificing, surrendering, seeking and taking the lower place, forgiving wrongs, being merciful, compassionate to our enemies, not hitting back.
The other, our daily work-a-day social world which asks us to trust in ourselves, believe in ourselves, be self-reliant, sacrifice for success, be all we can be; to assert ourselves, put ourselves forward, be heard, be seen, be a brand, an influencer, an individual success on our own.
We’re here worshiping together as Christians. I bet we recognize the chasm between these two life views. We probably feel squeezed between them. How do these two contradictory worlds get resolved? Can they be? Why aren’t more people living as Jesus taught us to live? Does ANYone live as Jesus taught us? What Jesus taught is so illogical most people haven’t even tried it. I don’t mean joining a church. Lots have done that. I mean doing Christianity, acting on that incredible, crazy-sounding set of instructions Jesus gave.
We just heard Jesus speaking to us in Luke’s Gospel. What did Jesus ask us to do? Love your enemies. Do favors for those who pour out hatred on you. Call blessings down on those who swear dark curses on you, pray for goodness to happen to the mob punching you, then get up and ask for another beating please. This is nuts!
I understand these Beatitudes as a call to stop the hate, not an acceptance of humiliation or violence, but an active choice to break the cycle of revenge. But even so, how can anybody do this? It’s inhuman! And Un-human. No wonder so few live by the Beatitudes.
Well, most don’t. Not yet. But, oddly enough today we have an example of somebody doing exactly this set of unnatural behaviors. Someone who found the strength and guidance to do the unnatural. The protagonist of this story is not even a Christian. Actually not even a Jew – because neither Judaism nor Christianity existed as religions at the time of this story. All this person, Joseph, had going for him was a strange new faith in an invisible God, a God he learned about from his mother Rachel and his father Jacob.
You remember, Rachel was the girl Jacob really wanted to marry, but he was tricked by the girl’s father into first marrying her older sister. Jacob had to work another seven years to earn Rachel, the bride he really loved. Joseph was the first child Rachel bore to Jacob. Joseph had ten older half-brothers, all born to Leah, Rachel’s older sister or to maid servants. These older brothers were a rough crowd. A very rough crowd.
Rachel finally had a child of her own, Joseph. His father, Jacob loved Joseph more than his other ten sons. And Jacob didn’t hide his feelings. Now Joseph didn’t have a religion. He didn’t have a minister or priest or rabbi to talk to. He didn’t have prayers or rituals, but he believed and listened to God, the god who spoke with his father Jacob, grandfather Isaac and great-grandfather Abraham. More than a belief in God, Joseph knew that God was reaching out to him, showing Joseph how he would be used by God. Joseph told his family about these visions and dreams. His older brothers already had a knife out for this favored daddy’s boy, so when Joseph described the vision of his brothers bowing to him this really set them off. The brothers plotted to kill Joseph, and first chance they got, they threw him into a pit while they argued it out over lunch.
Along the trail comes a camel train headed for Egypt, and the brothers decide to sell teen-aged Joseph as a slave. Normal family life.
But all through the terrible things that Joseph then experienced in Egypt, Joseph believed in God and communicated with the God of his father. His ears and his heart were open. Whether thrown into the pit by his brothers, sold to traders, sold again into slavery in Egypt, working as a slave for Potiphar or thrown into a dungeon because he wouldn't sleep with Potiphar’s wife, Joseph had faith that God knew him and was with him and that God cared about him. Joseph acted as he believed God would have him act in every situation. Joseph didn’t act in bitterness or rage, or self-incrimination or in self-doubt. Joseph continued listening to God in faith. When Pharaoh later had his own troubling dreams, Joseph the dreamer was summoned, and interpreted Pharaoh's dreams as predicting a great famine to come. At this his fortunes changed.
Joseph went from immigrant slave to Governor of all Egypt, second only to Pharaoh himself. All through this Joseph relied on God. He didn’t go it alone; this wasn’t an individual success story. In time, Joseph’s ten older brothers show up in Egypt to buy grain to survive the famine. Hmm, how would we have reacted? What would we have done in Joseph’s place? Let them know what idiots they were? Give them a taste of what we’d been through? Toss them into the clink? I certainly would have thought out some pretty nasty plans for them.
Our Psalm exactly captures how Joseph was able to make it through his trials. Joseph talked with God, listened to God and trusted God through the difficult trials his brothers heaped on him. The psalmist says: “Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act.” Living through these terrible experiences and relying on God to help him may have been spiritual training for Joseph. He didn’t have to go it alone. We see the fruit of this in how he met his brothers with confidence, compassion and mercy. Joseph responded with all the graces described in today’s gospel.
How did Joseph do it? In the dreadful circumstances Joseph found himself in, Joseph was still and quiet before the LORD. He did not fret over those who prospered or did evil. Joseph kept himself from being angry and completely avoided wrath. Joseph waited for the LORD and he inherited the land, quite literally, he inherited Egypt.
Today’s psalm could have been written for Joseph. We forget that Joseph didn’t have the benefit of the psalms or wisdom or the stories of scripture. These were yet to be lived and written. But Joseph had a pure faith in God learned from his parents. Joseph had no Law, no rules, no creeds. Also no smartphone, no career coaches, no video games, no Netflix. But Joseph had a constant companion. Joseph listened to God and I suspect talked with God regularly. This gave Joseph enormous confidence, the confidence to act with humility.
The illogical lessons Jesus taught his disciples about how to react, how to act, how to feel and how to respond, that’s how Joseph acted. This was how Joseph lived in and through his troubles, and how he handled his staggering success. Joseph listened to God, he believed God, he relied on God, Joseph acted in response to God, and God acted with Joseph. As Joseph told his brothers, “God sent me before you to preserve life …”
We are very much in the same pickle as Joseph. We all struggle to deal with two sets of demands. There’s the daily world of our culture which asks us to be self-reliant, to trust in ourselves, to sacrifice for success, to be all we can be. It’s up to you to build your brand and your life.
Then there’s Jesus showing us that God is in fact with us and wants something different from us. God burst into history to show us all what the Old Testament prophets and men and women of God experienced in their lives. That the ever-presence, guidance and support of God will help you – if you commit your path to God.
I think the closest experience of the love and presence of God, the peace and joy we can have on this side of heaven is dialogue with God. The conversation is ready and waiting for us. We hear about the ecstatic experience of the mystics. Mystics like Abraham, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Joseph, Julian of Norwich, Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, as well as Mary and Peter and Paul themselves. But we hear less about the quiet relationship everyday people build and sustain with God.
We are wired for the experience of speaking with God. It feels good, very good. It’s not about new age woo-woo or LSD trips or magic mushrooms. It may feel like shalom rather than ecstasy. We thirst for this experience because God wired us for it.
God Immanuel, God with us is exactly that. God with each of us individually. Theology, church rituals and orthodox discursive prayer support us. These are time and expert-tested tools to keep us from wandering off into our own fantasy and error. But they’re not a substitute for experiencing God’s presence. They’re a prelude and safe space for experiencing God within. We can recite the Lord’s Prayer by habit, a familiar tune that we chirp through by rote. Or we can listen to it afresh, sit with each phrase or sentence and listen to God’s voice for us. Or sit in quiet contemplation - not study, but contemplation - with scripture as a way to begin. No magic, just conversation. Like Joseph, we can be in dialogue with God. Anytime. God is there with us to help us through our lives.
Our culture, like Freud, too often teaches us that any voice of discernment, of listening, is a barrier to our “self-realization.” So we lean into the many distractions and activities available to keep from hearing and responding to this voice. We don’t set aside time to sit quietly and listen to the interior voice of the immanent God who loves us, lives within us and reaches out to us.
It takes effort. Many of us have not exercised our spiritual listening muscles. It takes practice. Deeply entering into the experience of our traditional rituals and prayers is a good practical way to begin. And here is the good news. God is accompanying each one of us here today. To God, you are the most valued and important person in the state of New York, maybe the world. Remember this as you pray and as you play. Whether you pray aloud or in silence. Listen. God is here, closer than your phone. And always on.