I know God is with us all the time, everywhere. But I’m often amazed at all that goes on here, in this place, as we gather for worship. Last weekend we celebrated a wedding, Matt Bauman and Cassie Wayman. Great time.

Yesterday some of us gathered to say goodbye to our friend Kurt Kleeh, who died at age 53. In weeks to come we’ll stand right down here for baptisms, both babies and adults professing their faith. And then a little later today we’ll pray a couple families on their way to the next chapter God has for them, in places like Iowa and California. Amazing.

[Put on the communion table the one chalice and a basket with a loaf of bread]

This morning we continue to walk through the story of Joseph, the 11 th of the 12 sons of Jacob (re-named Israel). These two chapters, 40 and 41, are a long and seamless part in the Joseph narrative, a story that holds together quite well. Rather than try to read the whole thing, or just one small part of the text right now, I want to just walk us through the story. (light candle) Will you pray with me?

Lord, thank you for the many ways that you speak to us. Thank you for your scriptures, for the consistent way in which they have taught us about you down through generations and generations of people. Help us this morning to be good listeners, to be people whose hearts are open to you. Help us to join with all who have gone before us, with all who turn to you around the world in allowing your voice through scripture to shape us and change us. Use this story of our spiritual ancestors to point us to yourself. In Jesus name. Amen.

Forgotten. Surely Joseph felt this. A long time has passed. It has been eleven years, eleven years since Joseph’s brothers ripped him away from his father. Sold into slavery, taken to Egypt, falsely accused in his master’s household, thrown into prison. Eleven years have passed. Surely his family has forgotten him. Surely his brothers don’t think of him, surely his father Jacob has quit wondering if he is dead or not. Eleven years. Has not God Himself forgotten about Joseph?

While Joseph languishes in prison, the same thing happens to him that happened to him as a slave. Joseph is instantly recognized for his abilities in administration. Soon he is in charge of many things in the prison, though he himself is a prisoner. He makes two friends, part of the inner circle of the king of all Egypt, the Pharaoh, who ended up on the wrong side of his majesty and are in prison. The chief cupbearer (lift chalice) and the chief baker (lift loaf of bread).

Now, I’ve always thought of these two as a couple guys out of the kitchen who spilled the wine, or made a bad batch of bread. But I’ve learned that the chief cupbearer and chief baker were far more likely to have been high-up advisors to the Pharaoh, giving counsel, in charge of some of the affairs of state and court. This is who Joseph finds himself mingling with in prison.

One day, Joseph notices that the two of them have very sad faces. Duh. They’re in jail, for heaven’s sake! But Joseph compassionately asks what’s wrong, and the two explain that they’ve had sort of disturbing dreams. Disturbing in that there is no one to interpret what the dreams mean.

Now, we should perk up, shouldn’t we? Dreams have been very, very important in Genesis, one way that heaven breaks through to earth, a way God sometimes uses to communicate his will, or the meaning of events. In Egypt and many other ancient civilizations, dream interpretation was a downright science. People studied, there was a body of literature, there was an educated class of scholars who specialized in dreams. And as we know, dreams have been important for Joseph. In fact, it was his sharing the two dreams with his brothers, in which they are subservient to him, that started this eleven year slide.

So Joseph, in the middle of an unjust imprisonment, in the middle of a foreign culture, in the middle of eleven years of captivity, in the middle of a place where we, surely would say “God has forgotten all about me, ” here in this place, Joseph bears witness to God’s presence and activity in the world. “Do not interpretations belong to God?” he says. “Tell them to me.”

The cupbearer’s dream involved a grapevine with three branches, which bore buds and then ripened to grapes, and the cupbearer made wine in a cup and placed it in the Pharaoh’s hand. Joseph gives him the interpretation: “the three branches are three days, and in three days time you will be back in your old job.” But then Joseph adds an addendum: “when that happens, please remember me to the Pharaoh, and help me get out of here, for in fact I have done nothing that I should be here in the first place.”

The baker also tells Joseph his dream. In the dream, he has three baskets on his head with baked food for Pharaoh, but the birds were eating out of the baskets. And Joseph again interprets: “the three baskets are again three days. In three days time you will be dead, with birds eating your flesh.” Yecch.

Well, three days later on Pharaoh’s birthday, sure enough, he restores the cupbearer to his former job, and has the baker executed. BUT. The cupbearer forgets all about Joseph. Has God forgotten Joseph?

Two more years pass, now it’s thirteen since Joseph became a slave. He is now thirty years old.

More dreams appear, this time to Pharaoh. He first dreams that he is standing by the Nile River, and seven sleek, fat cows appear. Soon, seven other cows come up, ugly and thin and they eat up the fat ones. Pharaoh bolts awake. When he sleeps again, the second dream comes. Seven ears of good and plump grain are growing on one stock. Then seven more thin, sickly ears of grain sprout up and they swallow the fat, healthy ones. Pharaoh wakes up.

Pharaoh sends for the wisest men in Egypt, but they can do nothing with the dreams. No one can. Not the ones who make their living interpreting dreams, not the most educated.

Suddenly, the Pharaoh’s chief baker remembers Joseph from two years before. Joseph is sent for, given a shave and a haircut and a new robe and hustled into the presence of the Pharaoh. Pharaoh looks at him (dubiously?) and says “I hear that when you hear a dream you can interpret it.”

And Joseph, in the middle of an unjust imprisonment, in the middle of a foreign culture, in the middle of now 13 years of captivity, in the middle of a place where we, surely would say “God has forgotten all about me, “ here in this place, Joseph bears witness to God’s presence and activity in the world. “It is not I that can do this. But God will provide…”

Pharaoh tells Joseph the two dreams, the cattle and the grain. And God gives Joseph the interpretation. “The two dreams are one and the same. The seven good cows and seven good ears of grain are seven years. They mean that the next seven years will be years of plenty and abundance in Egypt. The seven sick cows and thin ears of grain are the seven years after that, and they mean that those years will be a time of grievous famine in the land. God has given you essentially the same dream twice, and it is happening now.”

Then Joseph goes out on a limb and stops interpreting and starts giving advice to Pharaoh: You need to find a discerning, wise man to be over the whole country. Tax the plentiful years heavily and store up the grain as a reserve against the years of famine.

Pharaoh is pleased. It rings true inside him. He wonders out loud: “Where can we find anyone like this, who has the spirit of God in him?” Then he answers his own question: “You, Joseph. No one is as wise or discerning as you. You’re hired. You’re in charge.” And Pharaoh gives Joseph a ring, a fine robe and a gold chain, a chariot and bodyguards, all signs of Joseph’s new status as second in authority only to the pharaoh himself. He also receives a new name, and a wife. He is thirty years old. And Joseph sets about carrying out the national plan of storing up food before the time of famine.

In that time of plenty, Joseph and his wife have two sons. Manasseh, whose name meant “forget,” because “God has made me forget all my hardship,” and Ephraim, which means fruitful, because “God has made me fruitful in the land of my misfortunes.”

Then the famine comes, but Egypt is ready, thanks to Joseph. And in fact, not only people from Egypt but from around the world come to Joseph to receive food and have their lives preserved.

What a turnaround. Amazing. Talk about your rags to riches tale. Joseph has won the lottery! It’s a great story. But what’s it have to do with us?

I think it’s important that we read this as Joseph’s story. It’s not an allegory. Joseph is not necessarily “Everyperson.” Not everyone’s misfortunes end in becoming rich and famous. Maybe in the movies. Not in real life. And even in this story, people die and years are “wasted.” So where is God? We’ve already said a couple of times that unlike earlier parts of Genesis where God appears more directly, in the Joseph story God seems present, yet in more subtle ways. What do we notice here? Let me suggest three things.

1) God doesn’t forget. Interesting, isn’t it? People all over the story forget. Brothers who forget they are in the same family. Forget to act with charity. Joseph’s former master who probably didn’t even believe the accusations against him throws Joseph into prison and forgets him. The cupbearer who, despite Joseph bringing him good news, forgets him for two years.

People forget. We forget about others around us. Sometimes we forget who we even are. I’ll always carry a picture in my mind of my grandma who died several years ago, slipping away with Alzheimer’s, slipping away to the point she forgot who she was. Thinking she was a little girl again, huddled up next to a doll. Soon she quit remembering how to speak at all.

And I remember picking up a book at the time on Alzheimer’s with the title “God Never Forgets.” As I recall, it was an okay book. But a great title. What a comfort to me, that even when someone I knew was ravaged by things that made her forget who she was, God didn’t forget. “I have called you by name,” Isaiah says, “And you are mine.”

Anne and I will be going to our 30th high school reunion this summer. Thirty years for people as young as us?! Last winter we ran into someone we went to high school with, a pretty wild guy. And after the two minute conversation we had, he pulled me aside and said “I wanted to tell you that I became a Christian two years ago!” He would be about 48 now. All of those years of living, wrestling, struggling, not believing. But God never forgot him. Kept working, putting people around him, putting him in situations. God doesn’t forget.

Thirteen years Joseph was “in transition.” Thirteen years. What has gone on in your life in the last thirteen years? I suspect a whole bunch. Yet, time after time Joseph acknowledges God’s presence in his life, in spite of, absolutely flying in the face of his outward situation. God didn’t forget Joseph.

I suspect that this morning, you have at least one situation in your life where you may be prone to feel: God has forgotten about me. No. God doesn’t forget.

2) God is more powerful…than the apparent powers of the day. God is sovereign. Somehow, someway, in the big picture, God is in control. There is no one in the world more powerful than the Pharaoh of Egypt. No one. Yet, a dream totally stymies him. And none of his educated, wisest advisors or scholars or priests can provide the solution. And here, a barely-out-of-jail foreigner is standing in front of him, his face clean-shaven for the first time in years, probably nicked in several places with little bits of Kleenex to stop the bleeding. And Pharaoh interviews him. Sort of.

When Jesus Christ stood before the authority of Rome in the form of Pontius Pilate centuries later, Pilate was looking for an answer that he couldn’t seem to get his hands on. And as he looked at Jesus, an itinerant rabbi, uneducated in the schools of the day or the politics of the region, and tried to intimidate or interrogate or even understand him…it suddenly becomes unclear. Is Jesus standing before Pilate? Or is Pilate standing before Jesus? Is Joseph standing before Pharaoh? Or is it Pharaoh standing before Joseph? Things have changed. God is more powerful than the apparent powers.

Walter Brueggemann once said “Pharaoh knows many things. He knows how to manage and administer and control…how to prosper and oppress. But he does not know how to discern the movement of God’s way within his realm.” The wisest, most educated in all of Egypt couldn’t help. But Joseph could. No, Joseph’s GOD could. God is more powerful than the apparent powers.

We have this almost comical picture of Joseph advising Pharaoh to find a wise and discerning man to administrate the storage program throughout the land…and Pharaoh choosing Joseph. Of course! It’s clear to us as we read that God has already chosen Joseph. Pharaoh, the most powerful person in the land, is merely bringing about what God has already decided on.

The theological word is “sovereignty.” Theologians and pastors throw it around like it isn’t worth much, but it is critically important. If God is sovereign, somehow, someway God is moving history in a direction. And here and there, now and then, we glimpse that direction in the specifics of history. In our day. In practical ways. It doesn’t eliminate hard things. It doesn’t protect us from every act of evil. It merely means that ultimately things move towards an end of God’s choosing. God is more powerful than the apparent powers.

3) God works in the middle of a messy world. You already know this. Joseph does not leave the secular Egyptian government because they are not believers. He in fact ends up at the top of that government. Joseph does not plunge in to try and get Egypt to look like a theocracy like Israel would one day become. Rather, he plunges in to work to preserve life. Joseph does not leave to become a pastor, a missionary or a full-time non-profit worker. No, he uses his apparently huge gifts in administration and government to save the lives of people. God is at work, through Joseph, in the middle of a very messy world.

I get concerned when we feel like we have to clean up the world so that God can work in it. No, I think God is already at work. More often, the question is…are we? It’s something we have to appreciate about Joseph. Once opportunity came, Joseph really got to work. And lo and behold, everything he has been through up to this point: hardship, managing a household, managing a prison seems to have miraculously prepared him to be involved in preserving life. God works in the middle of a messy, messy world.

Last week I said that Joseph so often serves as a wispy foreshadowing of how God will continue to work in the lives of his people. Think about these three observations:

• God does not forget.
• God is more powerful than apparent powers.
• God works in the middle of a messy world.

We see it in the Joseph story. It’s true for the later story of Moses and the Israelites, whom God remembered and saved from another chapter of slavery in Egypt. And it becomes much clearer in Jesus Christ. In Jesus, God definitively let’s us, each of us, know we are not forgotten. In the death and resurrection of Jesus there is nothing more powerful than the God of heaven and earth. And in Christ, God said yes not to ending the world but to entering right into the middle. God worked in a messy world. He still does.

Let us pray.