Grace to you and peace from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
As we tell the Sacred Story this fall from Genesis to Jesus, we often make big jumps. Today we have leapt from Abraham and Sarah to their great-grandson’s story: Joseph. Israel, Joseph’s father and Abraham’s grandson, has become the namesake of the entire family. Israel, a man you may know better as Jacob, was the one who caused some serious family issues by stealing his brother’s birthright. He was loved more by his mother, his father loving more his brother. So it’s no surprise, really, that he continued those family “issues” with his own sons, loving a younger more than the older. In fact, reading this story, reminds us of the first story we heard about the first two people God made and the garden paradise from which they were evicted. When we humans gained the power of knowledge of not just good, but also evil, we learned destruction. We cannot unknow what we have known. The power Israel has to love is unevenly distributed. Now that we have learned to play favorites, now that we have learned to cheat, steal and lie… the story continues.
Scene 1
Joseph: Listen to this dream that I dreamed. There we were, binding sheaves in the field. Suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright; then your sheaves gathered around it, and bowed down to my sheaf.
Narrator: His brothers said to him,
Brothers: Are you indeed to reign over us? Are you indeed to have dominion over us?
Narrator: So they hated him even more because of his dreams and his words.
Just like all humanity, from the beginning of time: your parents mess you up. I can see it happening with my own kids: eek. When the words that come out of their mouths sound an awful lot like the ones that have fallen from my lips in my less-gracious moments. From the ad-am and the eve, through the faithfully doubtful like Abraham, through the broken family of Israel, comes what none of us can escape: original sin.
We have chosen the path of knowledge of both good and evil, for having just goodness is never enough for us. And so we live, in this hurting world, with the power to heal, and the power to break. And the dangerous destructive patterns in the human family leave no one innocent. Even Joseph, given a great power of knowledge through dreams, he had to learn to use it. To be a steward of the gifts God had given him. 17 year old Joseph is foolish and boastful. And, sadly, Joseph’s brothers had little patience for him to grow his power of knowledge into the full maturity of wisdom.
Scene 2
Israel: Go now, see if it is well with your brothers and with the flock; and bring word back to me. […]
Narrator: So Joseph went after his brothers, and found them at Dothan. They saw him from a distance, and before he came near to them, they conspired to kill him. They said to one another,
Brothers: Here comes this dreamer. Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits; then we shall say that a wild animal has devoured him, and we shall see what will become of his dreams.
Narrator: But when Reuben heard it, he delivered him out of their hands, saying,
Reuben: Let us not take his life.
Narrator: Reuben said to them,
Reuben: Shed no blood; throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but lay no hand on him —
Narrator: —that he, [Reuben] might rescue him out of their hand and restore him to his father.
I have to wonder what Israel was thinking, sending Joseph after his older, stronger, jealous brothers like that. Did he not see what was happening? Did he not see the hate that was brewing inside his own family? Sometimes it is harder to see in our own families... Where is God in this mess?
Joseph was not the only one given powerful gifts by God. Reuben has been given the gift of compassion, or maybe just the gift of self-preservation and maturity. Here is God’s power, in love. Reuben he sees that Joseph’s death does not solve the brother’s envy. Their violence will not be redemptive. The story tells us, from Cain and Able to Joseph and Rueben: violence is never redemptive. Whatever Joseph’s flaws, be he boastful, power-hungry or simply immature, he will not be of service to God if devoured by wild animals, or wild brothers.
Rueben, the eldest of 12 brothers, is about 33. While the others brothers are in their twenties. The elder Reuben cannot quite control the mob mentality of his desperate, fearful and frustrated brothers. They are a part of a wealthy family, relatively speaking, and there will be enough land for each of their tribes, but this is not enough. They long for the affection, or at least equity of their father. Reuben uses the moral compass he has been given and uses the power he does have stop the brothers from killing Joseph. He gives them all a second chance. A chance at a life where reconciliation is possible, with this brother they cannot see as worthy now.
Even this hurting and broken family, God works. And Reuben helps us to begin to ask the question this story shapes for us: How am I going to use my God-given power for good today?
Scene 3
Judah: What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and not lay our hands on him, for he is our brother, our own flesh.
Narrator: And his brothers agreed. When some Midianite traders passed by, they drew Joseph up, lifting him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. And they took Joseph to Egypt. When Reuben returned to the pit and saw that Joseph was not in the pit, he tore his clothes. He returned to his brothers, and said,
Reuben: The boy is gone; and I, where can I turn?
Narrator: Then they took Joseph’s robe, slaughtered a goat, and dipped the robe in the blood. They had the long robe with sleeves taken to their father, and they said,
Brothers: This we have found; see now whether it is your son’s robe or not.
Narrator: He recognized it, and said,
Israel: It is my son’s robe! A wild animal has devoured him; Joseph is without doubt torn to pieces.
Narrator: Then Jacob tore his garments, and put sackcloth on his loins, and mourned for his son many days.
Reuben’s plan did not work out. He was not able to save Joseph the way he had hoped. But God uses his act of salvation for another good. A greater good the brothers cannot yet see, and certainly do not intend. The brothers who are saved from killing a man, are still enslaved to their sin. They sell him. Human trafficking. As an issue, it certainly has resonance for us today, when we hear about young men and women are kept against their will, often for cheap labor, sometimes for prostitution. We read articles online about how to spot human trafficking at truck stops, and awareness campaigns that encourage us to call the authorities if we see a person, usually a young girl, who is spoken for rather than speak. Who is kept hidden or isolated. Who is given a tattoo to mark her ownership.
From human trafficking in Joseph’s world to ours; from deception and envy that hurts and denies the full humanity of our brothers and sisters. We weep with Jacob, who is Israel. And we who know there is more to the story begin to wonder, “How am I going to use my God-given power for good today?”
Years pass and Joseph faces many adversities, then uses his God-given gift of dream interpretation to rise to be the right-hand man of the Egyptian pharaoh. Joseph is the steward of Egypt’s great resources, and when a famine hits the land, Joseph, warned by a dream, has prepared for it. Joseph now has more than knowledge given in dreams, this has given him great power, as he predicted, and he has grown into the wisdom to go with it. He is now giving away food to those who need it, and the brothers come see him, desperate to survive they leave the promised land for Egypt.
The family is reunited in Egypt, living together there to be able to eat and live – for Joseph saves them when they were on the brink of death. Not only the brothers, but their father, Israel, too. Jacob, sons, wives, children, all of them move to Egypt and are reunited with Joseph joyfully.
Joseph cares for them for many years before Israel dies. But the brothers still think about that day when they sold him into slavery. When they used their power for harm, overcome by the knowledge of evil that had enslaved them, the knowledge that leads to deceit, envy and malice.
Scene 4
Narrator: [Many years passed, and Israel died an old man.] Realizing that their father was dead, Joseph’s brothers said,
Brother: What if Joseph still bears a grudge against us and pays us back in full for all the wrong that we did to him?
Narrator: So they approached Joseph, saying,
Brothers: Your father gave this instruction before he died, ‘Say to Joseph: I beg you, forgive the crime of your brothers and the wrong they did in harming you.’ Now therefore please forgive the crime of the servants of the God of your father.
Narrator: Joseph wept when they spoke to him. Then his brothers also wept, fell down before him, and said,
Brothers: We are here as your slaves.
Narrator: But Joseph said to them,
Joseph: Do not be afraid! Am I in the place of God? Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good, in order to preserve a numerous people, as he is doing today. So have no fear; I myself will provide for you and your little ones.
Narrator: In this way he reassured them, speaking kindly to them.
They ask for his forgiveness. They are still trapped in the knowledge that cannot be unknown. They know they did him harm. Joseph, though he knows it too, though he can never unknow the pain it caused him to be sold into slavery by his brothers. He is not trapped by it. He has given up holding tight to what is evil, to hold tight to what is good.
Joseph hears their burdened hearts crying out. Crying out, even with a lie about their father! They ask for forgiveness even as they lie! In their brokenness, Joseph hears them. He asks, Am I in the place of God? And the question goes unanswered. Because the question can go both ways. IN one way, Yes. Yes, Joseph, you are in a place like God’s. You have the power to enslave the brothers as they did to you. You have the power they give you when they ask for forgiveness. Your response holds great power to free them or to keep them in bondage to sin. But also No, of course, Joseph knows he is not God, it is God who forgives, it is God who can release us from our bondage to sin and the burden of evil in our lives. It is God who brings redemption to the fallen, who redeems us for goodness and love.
Joseph knows this God well, for when Joseph found himself in the midst of the knowledge of evil, regardless of who was to blame for that, Joseph holds fast to the knowledge of good… God has redeemed. Even this. God has redeemed even the brother’s death wish. God has redeemed his brother’s selling him into slavery. God has redeemed the power they used for evil and out of it pulled good after good after good. For when God made this world, God said it was good. And when God’s creation suffers famine, God used Joseph’s powerful gifts to alleviate the suffering.
In this story, God is telling us, God is working all the power of the universe for good. And God is asking us, How would you like to come along? Ask yourself, How am I going to let God use my power for good today?
There is a little chant that is used in the church, often with youth and young adults. But will you try it with me? “God is good. All the time. All the time. God is good. “
From Paul’s letter to the Romans, and God’s Word for us:
28 We know that all things work together for good[d] for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family.[e]
Come, let us be conformed to the image of his Son, for we are called according to God’s purpose… that God might use all our power to work together for the good God is already doing.
Amen.
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