March 13/Second Friday of Lent
When the LORD called down a famine on the land and ruined the crop that sustained them,
He sent a man before them, Joseph, sold as a slave. ~ Ps 105.16-17
The book assigned for the high school Bible History course I took was The Book of the Acts of God (or as we referred to it, BAGS). The book is long out of print and its theology probably out of fashion, but its underlying premise still resonates: God breaks into time to work in the lives of his people. Our psalm today, excerpted from a longer recital of the wondrous deeds of God in the history of Israel, focuses on the story of Joseph. Most of us remember this riches-to-rags-to-riches narrative from Sunday school: the jealous brothers who sell the favorite son into slavery; Joseph’s success in Egypt, his betrayal by his master Potiphar’s wife, whose sexual advances he spurns, and his imprisonment; his subsequent ascent to become head of Pharaoh’s household due to his ability to interpret dreams. Joseph hardly experienced a straightforward or uncomplicated path: he was betrayed by those closest to him, he was falsely accused and deprived of his freedom, he was neglected by the powers-that-be who could have helped him. We, too, encounter people who ignore us or let us down, problems that hamstring us, dilemmas whose resolution is uncertain. But even when things seem at a standstill, God is at work in our lives. The British Romantic poet William Wordsworth referred in his poem The Prelude to the “dark inscrutable workmanship” that “reconciles discordant elements” even when it cannot be seen or sensed. Even when we are unaware of the acts of God, or convinced that God has abandoned us to languish in suffering, He continues to operate in our lives with the ineffable, inscrutable power of his love.
Lord God, whose mystery will always be beyond human reach, May I sense your hand at work in my life even when it seems most absent. Amen.
To hear “Close Every Door to Me” from the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-b3rSWdxwk
For today’s readings, click here: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/031320.cfm
