Genesis 39:1-23 on September 27th, 2026
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Joseph and the Presence of God
I'll bet that this story is not one that many Sunday school teachers spent a lot of time teaching. This week we are with Joseph. Joseph, for a little refresher on his background, is Abraham's great grandson and was the guy who had the coat of many colors given by his father Jacob. We pick up in the middle of Joseph's narrative, seeing that he has been sold into slavery, which may have us ask, why is Joseph in slavery? And the short answer is because his brothers were unfaithful to him. They betrayed him, beat him, stripped him of his coat and sold him.
Joseph's brothers used that coat as evidence, telling their father that Joseph is dead. Not a very good start to Joseph's narrative, which leads us to our story for today. Joseph starts out as a slave and ends up in prison. Not really how we want the story to end, is it?
And why is Joseph in prison? The short answer is because Potaphar's wife has been unfaithful. She betrayed her husband's trust by trying to lie with Joseph and then she betrayed Joseph by lying about it. She uses Joseph's garment as evidence, telling her husband that Joseph tried to rape her. This guy does not have very good luck with his attire.
Now the immediate response from most of us, this pastor included, is to speed through this part of Joseph's story and just get to the good stuff. Get to him being freed from slavery, freed from jail and placed in Pharaoh's mansion, which in the end is what happens. There he has honor and power and prestige. Hooray, happy ending.
That is often how we do things. We avoid the painful, unpretty places in the world around us. Think of how our eyes move away from someone sitting at an intersection with a coffee can and a sign. We are just willing for that light to change green. We try to ignore or hide or rush through like what we do with Joseph's story. Skip the sad part, ignore it, push it away, throw hackneyed phrases of help upon it. Just get to the good stuff.
Yet pain and hurt and uncertainty are part of all of our lives. To deny that is to be unrealistic, unfaithful even about our reality. We have been in places where we are alone, dejected, unsure, short-sighted, suffering.
I've had conversations with people about this very thing and you probably have too. Things change. The good old days aren't around anymore, whatever those were. Our health isn't what it was. And that limits us from doing those things that we enjoy, travel, yard work, even living independently.
Our relationships are strained for various reasons. Some are even severed by divorce and difference or death. It's okay to feel it. It's okay to express it. It's okay to be in the moment of pain or hurt or loss.
And I want to be clear here that this is not God planning bad things or giving our faith a divine pop quiz through terrible news. Instead God is present in the midst of that really crummy, crummy stuff.
In the Joseph story we have that theme of terrible things happening to Joseph. Story after story of human unfaithfulness which Joseph bears the punishment and the pain. And yet there's also the theme of God's presence. Verse 2, the Lord was with Joseph. Verse 3, his master saw that the Lord was with him. Verse 21, the Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love. Verse 23, the chief jailor paid no heed to anything that was in Joseph's care because the Lord was with him.
God was present with Joseph even in his suffering, pain and loneliness. Nothing about those scenes makes it look like God is with him. And yet again and again we are told the Lord was with Joseph.
And that matters because the presence of God is more than just existence sitting there twiddling thumbs. God is there for a purpose and that purpose is promise. If you remember back to last week where we heard about God's covenant with Abraham, God's covenant still holds true even in terrible circumstances. I will make you a nation, I will bless you, through you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
God's faithfulness is not undone by human unfaithfulness. Joseph's brothers can betray him, Potiphar's wife can lie about him, Joseph can lose his freedom, his home, his family, even his reputation. But none of those things undo the promise of God.
God's promise means Joseph's circumstances cannot undo God's relationship with him, determine his ultimate future or prevent God's blessing from continuing. Even here God is with him, loving him, blessing him and continuing to move him forward.
That is what God promises us too. We are assured of God's presence with us. And in baptism we can touch and see that we are claimed as God's very own and that we are deeply, assuredly loved. Through water and the word God tells us who we are. We aren't a diagnosis. We are not a severed relationship. We are not a screw up, a mistake, a lost cause. And while the pain, the loss, the hurt of those are real, they do not ultimately define us. God defines us. We are more than what happens to us. We are children of God. Blessed with the promises of God and God calls us beloved.
God's blessing meets us where we are, but God does not leave us there. God enters in. God moves us forward and God's promise keeps working even when we cannot yet see where the story is going. Sometimes that movement leads to healing. Sometimes into changed circumstances. Sometimes into a new way of living with what cannot be changed. And even when death comes, God continues to move us as God promises more life out of death. And even in our hard times, God moves us along and God can use our lives, our experiences to help others move along.
There are people here who have survived cancer. Someone soon is going to be diagnosed for the first time. People here have had to bury parents, spouses, even children. Someone here knows they are going to do that soon. People here have had addictions, been abused, made poor decisions, been lonely. Nobody else is there too.
Some of us can look back on the difficult parts of our lives and now see where and how God was with us. But we are right in the middle of those places. We may not be able to see anything beyond where we are right now. But neither could Joseph.
We know where Joseph's story is going. We know that he will get out of prison, live in Pharaoh's house and that there are more chapters to come. But Joseph doesn't. At the end of this chapter, Joseph is still in prison. And maybe that is why we shouldn't rush through this part of the story.
Because sometimes we are still in the middle of the chapter too. We don't know what comes after the diagnosis. We don't know what life will look like after the funeral. We don't know whether the relationships will be repaired. We don't know when the darkness will lift. We can't fast forward the bad parts any more than we can rewind to the good ones.
But before anything gets fixed, before Joseph gets out of prison, before he knows what the next chapter holds, Scripture tells us what we need to know. The Lord was with Joseph. And God has made that promise to us too. You are mine. You are beloved. You are my child. And those things, whatever those things are in your life, they do not define you. God defines you. God is present with you. Wherever, whatever, now and forever.
Amen.