Bible Text: Genesis 39:19-23 | Preacher: Pastor Dorry Newcomer | Series: Genesis | I have a pretty amazing glory sighting to share with you today.  Do you know that term, “Glory Sightings”?  They are times when you can see and feel God at work.  The news of what the corona virus is doing in our world, that news is coming at us non-stop.  Let’s take a few minutes to think about what God is doing, okay?

One of the things God seems to specialize in is advance planning.  Most of the glory sightings I can recall involved a component of God having done something in the past that is showing up in the present.  Take this week’s scripture for instance.  We’ve been working on the book of Genesis this winter and I picked the scriptures for every Sunday between January 1 and Palm Sunday in early December.  Here it is, in black and white—our winter worship plan.  Guess what scripture got chosen for this Sunday?  Way back in December before corona virus was even named—I scheduled Genesis chapter 39, the story of Joseph in jail, as our focus for today.

Now I know Methodists are not gambling people, but I gotta ask you:  what are the odds of that?  What are the odds that I would be preaching a sermon about Joseph in jail on a week when so many of us are feeling like we are in jail, or at least sentenced to house arrest???  When Pastor Karen and I looked at our worship plan a few days ago and realized, wow, it’s jail week, we got chills.  Amazing.  And listen to what I wrote about this week! I described the main idea for today, “Joseph is in jail for a crime he did not commit.  And yet, continues to show him steadfast love.  What does God’s steadfast love look like in scary situations that are beyond our control?”  I am not kidding.  In early December I had no idea we’d be in this situation today.  To me this is a glory sighting for sure.  A sign that God has been at work behind the scenes, preparing us for the challenge of the present moment, planting seeds that will bear fruit in the future.

Joseph is in an Egyptian jail for a crime he didn’t commit.  Locked up in a foreign land is on my list of things I absolutely do not want to experience!  But it’s not the first time he was in the pits.  Remember what happened when Joseph was 17 and had dreams about his family members bowing down to him?  His older brothers already hated him because he was their father’s favorite son.  Joseph and his coat of many colors, his richly ornamented robe. Honored more than even the first born should have been.  That was bad enough.  But when Joseph had two dreams that his brothers, and even his father would bow down to him?  His older brothers conspired to throw him into a deep pit and left him there while they had a picnic lunch and figured out what to do next.

Life in the pits.  Anybody feel like they’ve learned a little about that this week?  Stuck into a situation with no way out, no solid answers, all kinds of anxiety, with no idea when relief will come?  We could stop right there and commiserate with Joseph.  But his story goes from bad to worse.  His brothers, while eating their picnic lunch, figure out they can sell him into slavery for twenty coins.  While Joseph gets dragged off by a caravan of traders, the brothers head home to tell Jacob that his favorite son has been killed by a wild animal.

Joseph gets hauled down to Egypt and sold as a slave. Not good.  But Joseph adapts to his new reality, and for a while, things are looking up.  He’s a talented man and a hard worker, and he gets a job with a high-ranking Egyptian official named Potiphar.  He becomes Potiphar’s favorite slave just as he was Jacob’s favorite son.  But once again, being the favorite is not going to work out so well for Joseph.  Potiphar’s wife has taken a shine to him, too.  Joseph found himself between a rock and a hard place.  He knew it was wrong to be with another man’s wife, but growing up with four moms had taught him a thing or two about what rejection can do to a woman.  Still, he takes the high road, and it’s like his brothers all over again.  Potiphar’s wife hates Joseph for rejecting her advances.  She accuses him of the worst, and has him thrown in jail.

Twice now Joseph has gone from life in the fast lane—to life in the pits.  Twice now Joseph has gone from having it all—to having nothing.  He will go on to become a national hero, and save the Egyptian people from starvation.  He will go on to become an international hero, and save his family and the nation of Israel from starvation.   He will be the one God’s uses to preserve the covenant with Abraham, for Abraham’s lineage to continue and become more numerous than the stars in the heavens and the sand on the seashore.  Joseph will go on to triumph.  But for now he is in the pits.  What is it that helped him endure the hard times?  What is it that got him through?

The answer is found in Genesis chapter 39 verse 21.  I like this verse so much I had planned to print it on the front of our bulletins this week, but of course, we didn’t print any bulletins for this week.  So listen closely.  Later, look it up for yourself and commit it to memory, because this one is going to be a really important verse for us in the weeks ahead.  Joseph endured hardship and injustice and suffering.  “But” verse 21 says, “the Lord was with Joseph and showed him his steadfast love.”

The Lord was with Joseph and showed him his steadfast love.  We might be asking these days, “Where is God in the midst of the corona virus pandemic?  Where is God in the midst suffering and chaos?”  We can picture Joseph asking similar questions.  God, I’ve been falsely accused and thrown in jail.  Where are you?  God, I am trapped and confined with no way out.  Where are you?  God, I am scared and alone.  Where are you?

While Joseph was in jail, while Joseph was in the pits, I imagine he had a lot of time to think about those dreams, of the sheaves bowing down to him, and his brothers and parents bowing down to him.  What happened to them?  They hadn’t come true. In fact the opposite happened.  His family members were all enjoying their freedom, while he was stuck in the pits.  But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him his steadfast love.  What that sounds like to me is, Joseph had some glory sightings.  Maybe it wasn’t anything he saw per se.  Maybe it was more like something he felt, or something he heard from deep within himself.  Somehow Joseph knew God was with him and had not forgotten him.

This week I was in the church conference room, which also serves as a library of sorts, and this book caught my eye.  It’s called, “You’ll Get Through This” by Max Lucado.  I thought, well that’s a good title.  I decided to take it home and read a chapter before bed every night, so I would have something uplifting before going to sleep.  Guess what the first chapter is about?  Joseph, being thrown into the cistern by his brothers.  I am not kidding.  Again, what are the odds?  There’s a lot of books on those shelves.  They have all been donated by random people, and our collection has not been curated or organized in any way.  Someone brought this book in and put it on the shelf, with no idea that I would find it and be able to use it this week.  They didn’t know.  But God did.  Glory sighting!

I love the title of the book, ‘You’ll Get Through This”, which is also the focus of the first chapter.  I think the second chapter is even better.  Max Lucado is a well-known author, but he is also a pastor.  Over the years he has heard a lot of Joseph like stories while in the ministry, stories of good people who have lost important things and sought out their pastor to help them with their anger and grief.  He got into the habit of asking each person, “What do you still have that you cannot lose?”  When a third or more of your retirement savings are taken away in the course of two weeks, what do you still have that you cannot lose?  When simple pleasures like going to movies and watching sports on television are taken away, what do you still have that you cannot lose?  When even going to worship is taken away, what do you still have that you cannot lose?  When your wedding reception is taken away, or your dream vacation, or your ability to visit with your family members—when the things we look forward to the most, and the things we hold most dear are taken away, what do you still have that you cannot lose?  When your workplace is closed and your income vanishes, what do you still have that you cannot lose?  And God forbid if you become ill, and your ability to breathe is compromised, what do you still have that you cannot lose?

What you have no matter what is God with you.  The apostle Paul, who knew a thing or two about being a prisoner in a foreign land, encouraged us to never forget that God is with us.  Romans 8:38-39 says, ““For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[a] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  It is our destiny to be with God forever.  It is our destiny that, no matter what else is taken away from us, we will always have life in Christ.

This has been a difficult week.  Next week might be even harder.  This is a very scary thought. But isolation is not our destiny.  Quarantine is not our destiny.  Our destiny is life with God forever.  Those dreams Joseph had angered his brothers, but belief in them is what kept Joseph alive.  They gave him a vision of the future.  They gave him his identity.  He knew he was a son of Israel.  He knew he was a child of Abraham.  He knew he was God’s covenant partner.  Nothing that happened to him—not being thrown into a pit, not being carted off and separated from his family, not even being thrown in jail for a crime his did not commit, could rob him of his destiny.

And it is the same for us.  When everyday routines and everyday pleasures are taken from us, we still have our freedom in Christ.  When life as we were used to it no longer exists, we still have eternal life in Christ.  We are the new Israel.  We are children of Abraham.  We are God’s covenant partners.  We are made like Christ, and like Christ we rise.

I stand before you today, as a minister of the gospel. That does not mean I am not afraid.  I have moments where panic grips me, and I have to get quiet and get my wits about me.  But standing before you, I am confident that like Joseph, we will go on to be victorious if we can hang onto our destiny.  There are things, the most important things, nothing in life can take away from us.  There is Something, Someone, we can never lose, and that is the steadfast love of God.  If you’re feeling today like you’ve lost more than you can bear in the past week, if you’re feeling afraid of the losses next week might bring, I hope you will consider this story from Genesis today as a Glory Sighting, a reminder that God is with us, and will show steadfast love to us today and always.  Amen.