Leaving tomorrow for a week away in the Chicago area. It’s my ten year Wheaton College reunion this weekend, and I decided to make a week of it. I haven’t been back to that neck of the woods since my graduation. I’ve some old friends to meet, some conversations with God to finish, some pondering to do, some reminiscing to get done.

Seagulls love Doritos.

Congratulations: your paper “An Emerging Pneumatology: Jurgen Moltmann and the Emerging Church in Conversation” proposed to the theology group of the SPS has been accepted; please make plans on attending the meeting…

I’m giving a presentation at the Society of Pentecostal Studies conference at Duke this next March.

In 2003 I stepped away from ministry and stepped away from academia. Moved to the mountains to read and ponder and write.

I have a book on ministry/theology written for a popular audience coming out this November and I’ve been invited to participate in an academic conference this March.

Sometimes I guess stepping back is stepping forward. Especially when God is at work.

Regularly retiring to the dark cave, to the fearful quiet of silent prayer and mediation, to listen to the whisper is the first step in breaking free from addiction to religious spectacle. It is the first step on the path to unknowing. I grew up reading bumper stickers that described conversion with the phrase, “I found it.” This should be matched by another many miles down the spiritual road: “I lost it.” That darkness opens up whole new vistas for us, and gives us the ears to hear the whisper.

Mark Galli writes on Listening for the Whisper

Friday

Slight chance of showers in the morning…then showers likely and slight chance of thunderstorms in the afternoon. Snow level 6500 feet. Highs 48 to 58. Winds west 15 to 25 mph. Gusts to 40 mph in the morning. Chance of measurable precipitation 70 percent.l

Friday Night

Showers likely and slight chance of thunderstorms. Snow level 6500 feet…becoming 6000 feet after midnight. Lows 32 to 42. Winds southwest 15 to 20 mph with gusts to 35 mph. Chance of measurable precipitation 70 percent.

Friday is the first day of Fall.

For a long while I’ve really liked the story of Joseph in Genesis. I think it might even be among my favorite stories in the Bible for it is such a model of God’s work in the lives of those he calls.

Joseph had dreams when he was young. Big dreams. Powerful dreams. He was well loved by his father, favored even. Young Joseph liked to tell people his dreams. We’re not told why, but there’s the flavor of pride in that. I get the feeling he saw his dreams as being from God and so shared them so that people would give him the respect he felt he deserved. He saw his gifts from God, maybe, as just another coat of many colors, displaying to the world his qualities.

Not everyone appreciated that. His brothers got fed up and decided to get rid of him. They bound him, threw him into a pit, and sold him to a passing caravan. Not only did they take his coat, they seemingly took his dreams. His dreams were not the dreams of a slave but of a master. Now Joseph was the one forced to bow down to all around him. He lost everything. All was taken and stolen.

Years passed. Joseph was a smart guy and talented still. He was a hard worker. And somehow, in the midst of all of this, he didn’t let go of God. Which means he was not only smart but wise. Maybe he realized his past mistakes of pride and arrogance. Maybe he realized there was something God was going to do still. Although still a slave he became a success.

He was a leader, and a trusted aide. Once again he started getting a lot of attention. First from Potiphar. Then from Potiphar’s wife.

Once again the favor Joseph was shown became a temptation. Embrace the favor, the temptation said. To do so would have been to forsake God’s favor, however, for human favor. Showing he was no longer the boy who sought human praise, Joseph fled the temptation.

Potiphar’s wife was not a good woman, and she felt scorned. She lied about Joseph. Potiphar believed her. The sin of Potiphar’s wife was placed on Joseph’s head. And Joseph was thrown into prison.

If we stop there it’s easy to think he should have just done the deed. Potiphar would likely have never known, and Joseph would have found even more favor and privilege. At lest more than what he found in a dark dungeon.

Once again Joseph lost favor. The favor of people. But this time he kept the favor of God. And God remembers those who choose him above all.

God gave Joseph dreams while in prison. Not his own dreams this time. He gave him the ability to see and explain the dreams of others. Though a gift, this was also a disappointment as it seemingly meant nothing. The baker died as was predicted. The cup-bearer forgot, contrary to what was promised. At least for a while. When the time was ripe he remembered Joseph and his gifts. He told Pharaoh, who was in need of someone who could know dreams. Pharaoh called Joseph out of the dungeon. Because Joseph had chosen God the moment came and God worked in the moment.

Joseph was raised up to become the second in charge of all of Egypt. About fifteen years of slavery, with years of that spent in a dungeon. The pride was removed. Joseph was given power after being beaten and broken. He no longer used his gifts for his own honor, to make him seem god-like. Instead he became a servant, and as a servant was raised up. The model of Jesus we read about in Philippians 2.

We’re told how he responded to his desperate brothers when they came for food. He wasn’t sure if he could trust them, even though he forgave them. Eventually they were reconciled and the family of Jacob saved. Joseph’s youthful dreams came true, though it took a recreated of Joseph along the way for that to happen.

We’re not told about others in the story. I imagine the cup-bearer was a friend of Joseph’s. The forgotten made up for in a moment by the remembering. Probably not the same for Potiphar. I wonder if he found out the real story. Potiphar’s wife likely ended up in shame. She was wrong to press, Joseph was right to run, and God works out right for those who do what is right. Though sometimes it takes a bit of time to see this fulfilled.

I like Joseph’s story because the images of power are mixed up and confused. From a human perspective we see power in young Joseph, in the brothers, in Jacob, in Potiphar’s wife. In God’s perspective we see those who thought they had power actually having nothing. Instead, it was Joseph in prison who had the most power. And that power saved a kingdom.

ASBO Jesus

Echoes from a past life? Visitors from an unknown beyond. It is hard to say.

But it does seem now there is definitive proof they exist.

The art of loving has to be learnt. We learn it through joy in each other, through the forgiveness of guilt we experience, and through the continually astonishing miracle of the new beginning. In that ‘wide space where there is no cramping’ we accept one another, grow with one another and unfold from one another.

Part of love is friendship, which knows how to combine affection with respect for the other person’s liberty. That means respect for the mystery of the other, and his or her still latent and unrealized potentialities. If love stops, we make a fixed image of each other. We judge and pin each other down. That is death.

But love liberates us from these images and keeps the future open for the other person. We have hope for each other, so we wait for one another.

~Jürgen Moltmann, Jesus Christ for Today’s World