“Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful” –1 Corinthians 4:2

The word ecclesial means that which belongs to the church. 

Joseph of the Old Testament demonstrated a rare virtue: the capacity for ecclesial reordering. Anne Chester, Clinical Social Worker, of Texas, described this recently in the Anglican Compass, ” (Ecclesial) Reordering describes the work of addressing something that has been disordered so that it may once again be rightly oriented toward God.”  

Joseph’s life externally is radically disordered and the reader is taken on a journey through family betrayal, unjust servitude, false accusations and delayed acquittal.  Joseph does not just endure, but orders his life as through God’s lens. He lives as though he belongs to God’s people even when cut off from them. “Joseph does not surrender his interior life,” relates Chester.

When Joseph restrains anger, lust, and revenge, it is not weakness, it is worship. Ecclesial reordering is not the erasure of past harm or vindication. Christ heals not by undoing the harm, but by not letting the harm dictate obedience. Jesus died on the cross after Pontius Pilate washed his hands of his most dirty deed. This deed did not change Jesus’ reverence for His Father or change his compass to the Holy and in the same spirit, it calls us to go forth in resilience rather than demanding resolution. 

In the unseen places, God is at work. We are called to ecclesial reordering, just as Joseph was 4,000 years ago. Joseph lost his robe, but not his calling. When encountering disorder, our imagination for faithfulness responds to God’s Holiness. Imitate Joseph and… 

Pray: 

“How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?” -Genesis 39:9b