It happened one Sunday in church. I had just finished the announcements when a voice came over the sound system. “THIS IS GOD.” I stood there, dumbfounded. I was just about to say the offertory sentence. It was just three words, but clear as a bell. “THIS IS GOD.” Was it really God? I had prayed for years for God to be present with us in worship. If it was God, I was not so sure that I wanted Him to be so vocal. He didn’t have a place in the liturgy. And, sadly, I found myself doubting that it actually was God. My first thought was that a drunk man had grabbed a mic. “Lord, please help me,” I thought in that one moment of dumbstruck silence. The congregation was looking at me as if to see what I was going to do.
“I’m glad you’re here,” I said. And I turned around and walked to the altar. I was sure that God would speak again, but he didn’t. Turns out one of the Senior High youth was playing with the sound system in the fellowship hall. “THIS IS GOD,” is what he chose to say into the mic before a usher raced down the hall to turn it off.
I have thought about that incident a lot mainly because I am ashamed. It turned out that I didn’t want God to distrupt the liturgy or alter my life. I said that I wanted God there, I told him that I wanted him here, but in reality, my first response was panic. Because in that moment, I understood that God might mean messiness and even disruption and I was not sure that I wanted that. Not a struggle, not a surprise. I only wanted God if he brought me joy and comfort, prosperity as I understood it. I did not want God to interrupt things or make things hard.
The Scripture says that the Lord was with Joseph. The Lord was with Joseph, it reads plainly. But instead of prosperity and success, the Lord’s presence means that Joseph gets into a mess. First, he is sold into slavery by his jealous brothers and then, in today’s reading, he is framed by the wife of his master. She desires him and pursues him, but when he rightfully refuses, she frames him, lies and has him thrown in prison. For someone who had the Lord on his side, life sure didn’t seem to be so good for Joseph. He was listening. He was faithful. He does not lie or cheat and yet, he suffers and is treated unfairly. Life with God is no picnic for Joseph.
A few days ago, I was walking through our bookstore when I glanced up and saw two copies of The Prayer of Jabez. The Prayer of Jabez is one of my least favorite books. I considered buying both copies and throwing them away, but then my conscience got the best of me. Who am I to censure books? Could I put up a sign that said Dean’s LEAST favorite book, read at your own risk!? In the end, I decided that, as Episcopalians, I should encourage you to think for yourselves and read even that which I find wrong, for God gave you all minds and I am not your pope but rather your advisor and your guide in your relationships with God. So the book stayed on the shelf. But here is why I dislike it so much.
The Prayer of Jabez is a best-selling book about how to become rich. Basically, the premise of the book is this: if you pray hard enough and invite God into your life, you will be successful and happy. And of course, if you are unhappy or unsuccessful, you must not have invited God in. So God’s presence is equated with comfort, wealth and abundance. And that must mean that all who suffer don’t know God.
It’s rubbish! God was with joseph and he suffered! God was with Jesus and he gave himself up to the greatest agony known to man. The presence of God does not automatically bring joy and peace and wealth and prosperity. In fact, I call that kind of thinking The Prosperity Gospel. It is a lie. God does not bring success or comfort or money to those who he loves. Sometimes, those who God loves suffer even more than those who do not love God. Listen to Jesus today. Does Jesus say that it is easy to follow him? Does he talk about getting wealthy or having a good time? He talks about ripping us apart! He talks about swords and parents being ripped from their children. There is nothing nice or comfortable or successful about what Jesus says. He talks about hardship and pain! Why is it that we can’t listen?!
Sometimes God asks things of us that are hard and painful. Sometimes, people become ill or are involved in accidents and it is not God’s doing at all, but the result of the fallen nature of our world. Those who love God and invite God into their lives are not rewarded with prosperity. But what we are rewarded with is God’s presence itself, and strength to make it through the days ahead. And deep down inside your heart, no matter how hard your life may be, to serve God is to know a great and profound joy. To be used for God’s purposes may be painful, but it is also the greatest joy known to humankind.
When Joseph is framed and thrown in prison, most people would have asked themselves why God abandoned them. Joseph did not ask such a question. Instead he walked the path that lay before him, a path that took him from favor and the love of his father to slavery and prison. He walked the path that lay before him, continuing to listen and pray, even in the midst of great failure and injustice. For he seemed to know that God had a larger plan.
When you and I are children, we dream of doing great and powerful things. We dream of becoming President of the United States or curing cancer. But when the reality of life begins to roll upon us, we realize that we are lucky to pay all the bills and live to a ripe old age. We find that our loved ones die or suffer and we do not have the kind of job we once dreamed of. Some of us are unemployed, some never quite found their passion in life. Some struggle to be perfect parents and find that they are always failing. And we realize how insignificant our lives have become, that we have not changed the world, but we are just trying our best. And we wonder if we went wrong somewhere along the line.
But God is present in the insignificant details, in the smallest of moments when we say a kind word to someone. And God is present in our wanderings and even in our failures, especially in our failures. God does wonders with us when we struggle.
God needed Joseph to fail and remain faithful. That was part of the plan. Not greatness, not at least right now, but just faithfulness in the midst of a cruel and unfair world.
A few years ago, a television series ran that had great implications about faith and our relationships with God. It was called Joan of Arcadia. The show was about a teenage girl who is struggling with high school when God shows up and starts talking to her. God appears to speak to her through people that surround her. Sometimes God is a cleaning lady, sometimes a mailman or a fellow kid at school. At first, she thinks she has gone crazy, then she realizes that it really is God and that when she follows God’s advice, she helps people.
The prom is approaching at her high school and Joan is hoping that the guy she likes will ask her. God appears as a punk-rock senior and tells her that she is to ask a boy to the prom. “Do you have to meddle in my love life?” she says. (Joan has this way of talking back to God that is both bold and kind of stubborn but it makes for great scenes and she always ends up doing what God asks of her.) Joan asks who the guy is that she is supposed to take. God points to a young guy named Russell. He is overweight and a complete loser. He has no friends and seems to be always angry. He wears a black leather jacket. Joan is appalled. She yells at God and complains, but she does it. She walks up to Russell in the middle of the hallway and asks him to the prom. He seems startled, but he says yes.
The prom with Russell is a nightmare. He sneaks in booze and tries to get her to drink, then they leave the dance and drive to an abandoned parking lot where Russell pulls out a gun and begins to shoot cans. Joan is terrified and demands that he take her home when the cops pull up and Russell is arrested for disturbing the peace.
The next day at school, God shows up as the punk rocker again and Joan is furious! ‘Why did you make me take him!” she yells. ‘I had a horrible time. It was a nightmare. It was dangerous and he seemed miserable too. I completely failed.” No, says God, you did exactly what I asked of you. Let me show you what would have happened if you hadn’t asked Russell to the prom. God then takes her back to the day when she asked Russell. When she walked up to him in the hall, Russell was carrying a gun. He was planning to shoot two of the football players, a teacher and then himself. All this was averted simply because Joan asked him to the dance. She gave him something to hope for.
I did not ask you to be perfect, just to be there for him, God says.
Sometimes, when we listen to God and allow God into our lives, we expect to do great things, to make a huge impact on the world and be successful in some way. But we do not see what God sees and sometimes just our faithful presence in the midst of suffering is all that God wants of us. Sometimes we are called to walk the walk, or as it says in the book of Hebrews, to run the race that is set before us. And we will not know what God had in mind until the finish line.
We forget that Joseph was a complete failure before he was ever great. But for better or worse, his response was always faithfulness and obedience, and that is why we remember him.
