First Presbyterian Church, Ashland KY

Dear Friends,

This past Sunday as the adult Sunday School class discussed an unpronounceable German word used by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, we came across this sentence: “Christ is not a principle or a program; Christ does not teach an abstract ethic.” We paused. How true, thought we, for our­selves and for the church; for this congregation even—Christ is not a program or a principle. Christ is more than those things—and we all knew it. Jesus, it seems to me lived the ethic he presented, demonstrated his work ethic through his life and death and resurrection.

I love the soap opera dynamics of Jacob’s family in Genesis. Not only does he have issues with his family of origin, there’s a lot of drama with his father-in-law and wives, as well as his sons. Oh, those sons. He favors Joseph, the dreamer. Perhaps because of his blatant bias toward Joseph, Jacob’s other sons at first throw Joseph in a cistern, then sell him to slave traders, and tell their dad Joseph has been killed by a wild animal. The story then follows Joseph as he is accused of inappropriate behavior with his master’s wife then spends years in prison awaiting justice.