Then Jacob blessed Pharaoh and went out from his presence. – Genesis 47:10

Today’s Scripture Reading (May 16, 2012): Genesis 47

Maybe the one thing that bothers me the most about the contemporary church is its egocentric nature. We sing the songs, we say the words, we seem to know that it is not about us – but our actions say something completely different. Our actions say that it is all about us.

One of the constant struggles inside the church is the march to be recognized. We want to come and be served. Our worship, instead of being a chance for us to come and wash each other’s feet, seems to be dominated by the need to be entertained. But if entertainment is our main concern, then Jesus will always be absent. He will be the missing element in our worship – and an element that no one else can infuse into our times of devotion.

In the upper room just before Jesus was arrested and crucified, Jesus knelt in front of his disciples and washed their feet. His message was that even though he had every right to expect to be served, that had never been his purpose. He had come to serve. And his direct message to us was – do this – serve wherever it is that you find yourselves. As we gather for worship, our instruction is that we need to be a blessing to those that gather around us. It is the reason why I believe that church attendance is so important for us. We need it as an outlet of our service and our blessing.

I love this passage in the Jacob story. Famine has struck the home of Jacob. He has lost everything. He finds his son in Egypt, and Joseph invites him to come to Egypt to live. Jacob, in a matter of days, transitions from being a land owner in a place that God had promised to him to being a foreigner in a land that belonged to someone else. And because of Joseph’s position in the Egyptian government, he is greeted on his arrival by the Pharaoh – the powerful king of the new home of Jacob. And the conversation between the two men is kind of exactly what we would expect if the situation had arisen today. It is dominated by the normal questions of age and occupation until we reach the end of interview. But at that moment, when we would expect that the reigning king would bless the newcomer, we find the reverse. Jacob blesses Pharaoh.

It doesn’t matter where we are or what we are doing. Our purpose is not to be entertained and served. It is not about us. And our purpose is always to serve and to bless those that we come in contact with. We bless inside the church – and everywhere else our feet might take us.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Genesis 48