Will you pray with me? Lord God, thank you for preserving this ancient story and for the ways it still speaks to us today. Open our hearts to hear your word and what you have for each of us this morning. Just as you were with Joseph in the hardest moments of his life, help us to recognize your presence with us in our joys, in our struggles, and in all that lies between. 

In Jesus name, amen. The story of Joseph is full of drama. There is sibling betrayal, attempted murder, human trafficking, prison, political intrigue, famine, and Jacob's seriously dysfunctional family. So in Sunday school, when we were little, we often learned Joseph's story in two parts. 

First, Joseph is Jacob's favorite, so much that he is given the coat of many colors. Joseph's brothers are jealous of him. They throw him into a pit and sell him into slavery. And then we skip ahead. Joseph has risen and interprets Pharaoh's dream. 

Rising to power in Egypt saves people from famine and eventually is reconciled with the very brothers who betrayed him. And today, nestled between those two parts, is this pretty strange, scandalous story that we don't probably for good reasons, usually tell in children's Sunday school. This part of Joseph's story forces us to wrestle with questions of power and betrayal and 

where God is in the midst of it all. Genesis 39 begins by reminding us exactly where Joseph is and who is with him. He is in Egypt and has been sold to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh. Joseph is enslaved, and the Lord was with Joseph right there. God was with Joseph there. 

Things are working out pretty well for Joseph. Potiphar sees that Joseph is capable and trustworthy. Joseph rises through ranks of Potiphar's household, and Potiphar puts everything he owns under Joseph's supervision. But we need to be careful here. Joseph is rising and he's supervising Potiphar's household. 

But Joseph is not the person with the power. He is still enslaved. Potiphar owns him. And this is an even more important distinction, particularly when we look at the power dynamics with Potiphar's wife and her manipulation. And I wonder, have you ever been in a situation where you felt powerless? 

And now. I know there are immensely more serious and oppressive and detrimental situations. But to keep it light for a moment, picture this. It's the spring of 1997. My sister and I are teenagers. 

It's the time of Spice Girls and Titanic, Austin Powers and NSYNC movies. And the newest CDs are all the rage for teenagers. And my sister desperately wants to go see the new Austin Powers movie. I was Saving up for the newest NSYNC album. So my sister comes to me and asks to borrow $7 to go to the movies. 

So, being the generous and innocent little sister that I was, at least that's how I remember the story. I loan it to her and she promises to pay it back. In fact, she reassures me that if she didn't pay it back in a week, she would add a dollar for every day she was late. We know how this sibling tale goes. A week goes by, she doesn't pay me, so she says, okay, tomorrow I'll pay you $8, then 9, then 

10, until eventually we get to $12 and $12. I could buy that newest CD, but my sister didn't pay up. At this point, I realized I was being strung along and she likely had no intention of paying me back. So naturally, I do what any younger sibling would do. I tell mom and dad. 

Except when we bring our case before the parental court, my sister has a very different story. According to her, I never gave her $7 at all. Instead, I was trying to con her into giving me $12 because I wanted to buy a CD and my parents believed her. My sister was off the hook. 

I was out $12 and I would not be listening to the sweet vocal harmonies of the latest boy band. I was indignant. In fact, telling the story, I feel a little angry right now. I remember being so angry because I knew what she had said, I knew what she had promised, and now somehow I was the one that looked like I had done something wrong. 

For me, there are few things quite as frustrating as knowing that you did the right thing and discovering that it doesn't matter. Because we believe that doing the right thing should lead to right outcomes. Tell the truth and people will believe you. Keep your word and other people will keep theirs. Do the right thing and eventually things will work out. 

But sometimes they don't. Now, obviously, losing $12 to my sister is nothing like what happened to Joseph. But just like Joseph in our passage today, I did not have the upper hand. My sister was older, she was stronger, and she knew which cards to play. And although my 13 year old self would disagree, for Joseph the stakes are infinitely higher. 

Joseph does not have the upper hand. Potiphar's wife repeatedly propositions Joseph. Joseph refuses. We sometimes read this as a story about sexual morality, but we miss something important if we don't pay attention to those power dynamics in the room. 

He initially refuses because of his loyalty to Potiphar, but ultimately he connects his refusal to his faithfulness to God. How then could I do this wickedness and sin against God? Joseph does what is right, and his life still gets worse. Potiphar's wife grabs Joseph by his garment. 

Joseph escapes, leaving the garment behind. She uses it as evidence against him. The garment becomes part of a lie. And we've heard that story before, too. Something familiar about that in Joseph's story. 

Once before, Joseph's brother took his garment and used it to deceive their father. Now another garment is used to tell another lie about Joseph. And Joseph is powerful here, too. Potiphar's wife has status. Potiphar has authority, and Joseph does not. 

Even though Joseph does the right thing, he still lands in prison. Joseph's story doesn't say faithfulness immediately produces a reward. It does not promise us that everything will turn out the way we want. And then in prison, we hear it again. The Lord was with Joseph. 

The Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love. Other translations say, and gave him favor and remained loyal to him or shows him his faithful love. In the Message Bible, Eugene Patterson says he reached out in kindness to him. The Hebrew word behind that idea of steadfast love is hesed. It is a Hebrew word that is so rich that no single English word quite captures it. 

It's loyal, enduring. It's that never let go kind of love. Sometimes it is translated steadfast love, sometimes faithful love, mercy, loyalty, loving, kindness. Hesed is love that is rooted in relationship and faithfulness. God acts with chesed. 

God remains faithful to God's promises. God pays attention to those who are vulnerable or powerless, like Joseph. It's the kind of love that says, you will not get the last word. God will. God acts with mercy, compassion, generosity, steadfast love. 

God is there. Joseph experiences it in a hole in slavery, in prison. God's chesed does not mean Joseph never enters the pit. Instead, Scripture says the Lord was with Joseph. Look at where Joseph has been. 

From his father's house to the pit, to slavery, to temptation, to false accusation, to prison. And the story moves on. We end almost exactly where we begin. The Lord was with Joseph. That's God's promise. 

Not that everything works out in that moment. Not that doing the right thing will produce the right outcome initially, but that there is nowhere our story can take us where God will not be with us. God is with us when we prosper and God is with us when we are betrayed. God is with us in the pit. 

God is with us in the prison. God is with us in our guilt and shame. God is with us in the waiting room, God is with us in those places where someone else seems to hold all the power. The Lord was with Joseph. 

In his sermon Human Life a Dream, John Wesley ponders what is the very root of this religion. It is Emmanuel. God with us. Emmanuel God with us is a foundational understanding of Christian theology. It is a gift that God is with us. 

No matter how small or insignificant we may seem. We are loved by God. And what about our power? Let's not just ask, where is God when I am powerless? Because sometimes we aren't Joseph. 

Sometimes we're Potiphar, sometimes we're Potiphar's wife. Sometimes we are the people in this story who have power, influence, resources, authority. We have voices that other people will listen to. We have the ability to speak, to believe someone or dismiss them, to protect someone or protect ourselves, to speak or remain silent. 

We have the responsibility to ask, what power do we have? Or how are we using it? If God's response to vulnerable people is chesed, steadfast love, mercy, faithfulness, compassion, then chesed is also how we are called to show up in the world. We may not know the end of the story in that one specific space, but 

we can have hindsight knowing that after Good Friday is Easter, we can have faith in eternal life. We can have faith in the way the kingdom is being built. Every day we show up. We show up for baby showers and weddings, for funerals. We sit down like Jesus and weep with a friend. 

We listen, pay attention to people whose voice are ignored. We believe that every person is made in the image of God. We use whatever power has been entrusted to us, not simply for ourselves, but for the good of our neighbor. Even when the road leads somewhere we never intended to go. God is there when we are in change, chains, when others do us wrong in our prison and bondage. 

God's love does not let us go. The Lord is with us. Thanks be to God. Amen.