Saturday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time

But Joseph replied to them:

“Have no fear. Can I take the place of God?
Even though you meant harm to me, God meant it for good,
to achieve his present end, the survival of many people.
Therefore have no fear.
I will provide for you and for your children.”
By thus speaking kindly to them, he reassured them.

Recently we heard Genesis 22, the Test of Abraham, and I noticed the word provide as if for the first time. We have all heard of Divine Providence and perhaps we’ve reflected on it, but I had never noticed it in that particular – and particularly critical – story.

So the two of them walked on together. Isaac said to his father Abraham, ‘Father!’ And he said, ‘Here I am, my son.’ He said, ‘The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for a burnt-offering?’ Abraham said, ‘God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt-offering, my son.’ So the two of them walked on together. (Genesis 22: 7-8)

So Abraham called that place ‘The Lord will provide’; as it is said to this day, ‘On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.’ (Genesis 22: 12 -- NRSV)

In today’s passage from Genesis, Joseph assures his brothers, “I will provide for you and for your children.” A promise he was able to keep for several centuries until, according to God's plan, “A new king came to Egypt who knew not Joseph.”

In my brief experience of life it seems the Church and its people do well when we have only the Lord to rely on. I grew up in what must, by today’s standards, be called poverty. My parents were thrifty and resourceful but we had little to spare. And, being thrifty, we thrived. But the ten percent we gave of our money to the Church left us wondering how we could make it.

As I recall the history of my community and the churches where I have lived, we did well enough in hard times; but good times we find hard to manage.

And I wonder, if you’re not struggling to make it, if you don’t wonder how the Lord will provide for you, why not? As much as we long for Easy Street, or Heaven on Earth, it is fraught with peril for our faith – not to mention hope and love.

Christian discipline teaches us to make sacrifices to the point of hurt. We should eat less than we want; that’s called fasting. We should give more than we can afford; that’s called alms giving. We should pray when we cannot spare the time; that’s called “praying always.”

We should be living on the edge of subsistence and the Providence of God.