Today’s scripture: Genesis 47 (NRSV) (The Message) (KJV) What might God be saying to me?
My thoughts (Alex Pittaway):
Have you ever gone to a party where you know barely anyone? What did it feel like?
I went to a party one time in a trendy part of town with trendy-looking hosts. I was visiting a big new city, and a dear friend of mine wanted to introduce me to his friends. When we arrived at the apartment, the couple whose place it was greeted us. One partner was very welcoming and kind, showing all due politeness to me — and he was good friends with my friend, for whom I was the plus one. Then I met the other partner.
It was a short and curt greeting: “Oh, hi.”
The partner then moved on to other guests, to whom he gave much more time and attention — which is fair enough. It was his party, and it was his place — and they were his friends. I was the visitor.
But the way he greeted me set the tone for the rest of the night. People would say hello out of politeness, but I got an overwhelming feeling that I was the fifth wheel that night, the person nobody was really interested in talking to. I felt like an outsider. Worse than being disliked, I was being ignored. Every attempt at striking up a friendly conversation was like walking over broken glass — brief and painful.
I’m sure we’ve all felt what it is like to be ignored in social settings, and, if we are honest with ourselves, at one point in our lives we’ve probably been one of the people doing the ignoring as well as the one being ignored. Being ignored means feeling like who you are as a person doesn’t matter. Being ignored feels like you have no power.
Imagine what Joseph’s family felt like when they were the aliens in the land of Egypt. After desperately fleeing the land of Canaan, leaving behind death and famine, they find the brother they once rejected and sold into slavery sitting in a position of tremendous power, nearly equaling Pharaoh himself.
Imagine what was going through his head: “Now they’re the outsiders and I’m the one who owns things around here. At last I can get even and make them feel like how I felt.”
This is a understandable human response.
But what if God called us to something bigger? What if salvation for the Israelites looked like both being God’s children and being rescued from starvation? Salvation is the ultimate expression of inclusion, of not feeling left out. What if the job of us Christians was to save people not only from sin, but from the ravages that follow not being included — poverty, isolation, injustice, etc. What if saving the soul was the same thing as saving the body? Because surely God is present and blesses both our souls and our bodies. What if salvation of the soul and welcome for the stranger (we’ve all been one of those in our lifetime at least once) was the same thing?
Thought for the day: Think about someone in your work, family, or social circle with whom nobody talks. How can you make that person feel included? Maybe that one conversation could be this person’s salvation.
We encourage you to include a time of prayer with this reading. If you need a place to get started, consider the suggestions on the How to Pray page.