Pentecost 10
Psalm 105:16-22
Genesis 45:1-15
(prayer)
When we last left the story of Jacob’s son, Joseph, his brothers had just sold him to Midianite slave traders and Joseph was in the process of being carted off to Egypt for a life of indentured servant. His father, Jacob, was told that a wild animal had attacked and killed his second youngest child.
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The biblical account of Joseph is a difficult story filled with deceit and dysfunction. Perhaps that is why it was a natural libretto for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical. I wonder why it is that dysfunction and deceit peeks our attention and invites us to watch further to see how messy things will get?
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When I get the chance to watch TV, I tend to gravitate to three kinds of programs (football games, news or - I confess - the reality shows: Survivor and Big Brother. I admit that I have been hooked on these two shows since they first started airing in the year 2000. And I think it is that ‘on-looker curiosity’ that makes that genre enjoyable for me.
I mean like this past week, when Frankie told everyone that he had been lying about what he does for a living and that he as a famous popstar as a sister - it was riveting.
One thing that I have noticed that is consistent in these group-self-eliminating kind of reality shows is that successful players seldom tell the ‘whole truth’, but getting caught in a lie is seen as almost unforgivable by the other players. People get genuinely ‘upset’ when they realize that they have been lied to.
That’s part of what makes it interesting to watch.
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Once in Egypt, Joseph, the son of Jacob of Canaan, is sold as a household servant to a high-ranking official in the Pharaoh’s court: Potiphar, the captain of the guard.
Joseph, the story goes, was good at what he did - soon, he was Potiphar’s chief servant, managing all of the details of ways of the household and of all that belonged to Potiphar.
It seems that there was someone in the house that wanted Joseph to expand the things he looked after - Potiphar’s wife found this good-looking servant from Canaan very attractive and made several ‘passes’ at Joseph. According to the text, Joseph refused all of her advances - even when she got close enough to grab him by the coat: “lie with me!!”. Joseph slipped out of the coat and left her just holding it as he refused her advances once again.
That was enough for Potiphar’s wife. If Joseph wasn’t going to play along, she didn’t want him around at all. She showed the coat to her husband and made up a story that Joseph had treated her harshly and insultingly. Based on her report, Potiphar had Joseph sent to prison.
Even in jail, Joseph excelled - soon the chief-jailor had Joseph looking after the management of the prison population.
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Joseph was in prison for a long time and had dealings with all other prisoners as they came and went.
One day, two of the Pharaoh’s chief servants arrived in the jail. Genesis doesn’t tell us what they did other than to say that Pharaoh’s cupbearer and baker had offended the king of Egypt in some way. These two new prisoners began having strange recurring dreams:
One day, two of the Pharaoh’s chief servants arrived in the jail. Genesis doesn’t tell us what they did other than to say that Pharaoh’s cupbearer and baker had offended the king of Egypt in some way. These two new prisoners began having strange recurring dreams:
The cupbearer dreamed of three vines of grapes - from which he made wine and gave it to the Pharaoh. The baker’s dream had him carrying on his head three baskets of baked goods for the Pharaoh - but on the way, birds were swooping down and eating the cakes from the top basket.
Joseph offered his
interpretation of the dreams: the three vines and three baskets referred to
three days. At which time, both of these
prisoners would be brought before the Pharaoh.
Joseph said that that the cupbearer would be restored to his position
(like the wine being accepted by Pharaoh in the dream), but that the baker
would executed and his head left out in the public square for the birds to peck
at (like the cakes in the dream).
Joseph asked one favour of
the cupbearer: “when you are restored,
please plead my case to pharaoh to get me out of prison”.
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Three days later, things happened just as Joseph had said. However, the cupbearer forgot to mention anything to the king: he didn’t intentionally break his promise to Joseph, he just forgot.
Until two years had passed and...
Word spread around all of Pharaoh’s household that the king had been having some very curious dreams that no one could figure out:
1. Out of the Nile River, Pharaoh dreamed of seeing 14 cows coming out of the water - seven were healthy and fat; seven were sickly and thin. But (in a true scary dream plot twist) the
fat cows were devoured up by the thin ones.
fat cows were devoured up by the thin ones.
2. Pharaoh also dreamed of a harvest-ready stock of grain that held seven plump ears and another seven ears that were wind and sun ravaged. Like the cows, the drought-ridden grain devoured the bumper crop.
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Based on the better-late-than-never report of the cupbearer the Pharaoh sent for Joseph to interpret the dreams.
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Joseph told the king that these two dreams both meant the same thing: there would be seven years of highly successful crops in the land of Egypt, but they would be followed by seven years of devastating drought. Joseph suggested that 20% of the harvests in the first seven years be stored away for the Pharaoh to distribute in the coming lean years.
Joseph was given the job of overseeing this massive project. It had been 13 years since his brothers had sold him into slavery and lied about his death to Jacob.
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The famine was, indeed, as grievous as Joseph had predicted - it affected not only Egypt but the whole region, including Canaan.
People from many lands came to Egypt to buy grain - and when they did, it was Joseph they dealt with.
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You know where this is going... Jacob sent ten of his sons to by grain - after Joseph’s death, he could not bring himself to risk any harm to Benjamin, his youngest son (Joseph’s full-brother born to Jacob’s beloved wife, Rachael).
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When the son’s of Jacob appeared before Joseph, they did not recognize him (it had been at least 20 years since they saw him as a teenager). Joseph knew immediately who they were, but didn’t let one.
“You are spies”, he accused them. They insisted that there were simply a hungry family of 12 brothers from Canaan. “But there is only 10 of you.” One brother is ‘no more’ and the youngest is at home with our father.
Joseph put them all in prison for three days and then proposed a test of their loyalty: “leave one brother here and the other nine can return home with grain, but with the promise to retrieve the youngest brother and return with him.”
Simeon stayed in Egypt while the others went home. Jacob did not let Benjamin leave. It wasn’t until they needed more grain that they returned to Egypt with Benjamin this time (hunger won out).
Joseph maintained the rouse when his brothers returned, but he invited them to a grand feast.
The next day, when their sacks were filled with grain, Joseph instructed his stewards to secretly place a silver cup in Benjamin’s bag.
It was another trick - when the sacks were searched, Benjamin was accused of stealing. Joseph detained his younger brother and let the others go.
This was their father’s greatest fear - that he would lose Benjamin too. The brothers bagged Joseph not to put their father through this grief.
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That’s where we picked up the story today. Joseph could no longer contain his secret; he was overwhelmed with emotion; he no longer wanted revenge, he wanted restoration - he revealed himself to his brothers and told them to go home and bring Jacob and all of their families and livestock to Egypt, where they will be sheltered from the remaining famine and they will live well - because Joseph was so well regarded in Egypt. The Pharaoh even gave them several carts to take with them to help with the move.
And so after many years, the family of Jacob prospered; and the people of Israel multiplied in the land of Egypt. Until... many, many years later, a Pharaoh came to power who did not know the story of Joseph.
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We’ll talk about that in a couple of weeks.
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Restoration can follow brokenness. But it requires a change in how we feel about the brokenness. To be able to reconcile what has been broken, often there needs to be a change of mind and/or a change of heart.
Mind: we need to understand things differently - that usually involves some level of a maturity that can lead to a new perspective. Heart: we need to feel differently about things - that usually involves some level of forgiveness.
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There is a story in the gospel of Matthew, where a foreign woman asks Jesus to heal her daughter who is sick, but he refuses because she is not Jewish. It is fair to say that the relationship between the Hebrew people and other peoples and cultures was one of brokenness and isolation. Jesus compares her to a dog who is trying to steal the children’s food. The mother wisely retorts that even the dogs can eat the crumbs off the floor.
And a restoration of cultures is possible because Jesus changes his mind. He offers a healing (that up to this point in the gospel has only been available to his own people) to a foreign girl from Phoenecia. Countless sermons have been preached on why Jesus did this - was he testing her faith with the initial reject or was Jesus actually convinced by her to break with cultural traditions. The reality is that - Jesus’ ministry did expand beyond Judea and Galilee; and this event may been the point of divergence.
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Restoration is deeply longed for. It is (I believe) naturally longed for. We are wired to seek peace and reconciliation - to not abide in anger, mistrust. In fact, situations have to be pretty bad for people to consciously resist the longing to reconcile and say “no, I will not ever change how I think and feel.”
But even so, when we make that hard decision to leave things broken, most of us accept a measure of regret that goes along with that decision.
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Joseph - at 17 - must have been very angry with his brothers. They openly considered murdering him; even their kinder option tore him away from everything he loved and knew. He was a favoured son of a self-made man. He had (what he had to have thought of as a good life); then he was forced to work for strangers as an indentured servant.
Genesis doesn’t tell us how much he thought of home during those first two decades in Egypt, but I have to imagine that the transition to this new life had to be aided by the fact that he was able to be so successful in the work he was given to do. Joseph excelled in Potiphar’s house, he was entrusted with great responsibilities in prison and he rose to become a top bureaucrat in the king’s court.
I have to think that Joseph’s ability to forgive was helped by his good life. I wonder how he would feel about his brother had his time in Egypt been filled with experiences of pain and hurt.
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The truth is (in spite of the ironic language) that real life is not like a reality TV show. When seldom get to simply watch dysfunction play out before us - if it is close enough to witness, we are probably living it in some way. And so, we want to move beyond the dysfunction and deceit.
The truth is (in spite of the ironic language) that real life is not like a reality TV show. When seldom get to simply watch dysfunction play out before us - if it is close enough to witness, we are probably living it in some way. And so, we want to move beyond the dysfunction and deceit.
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Yes, real-life reconciliation may come easier in some cases than in others. But, I would guess that the change of heart and/or mind that reconciliation needs is generally, not easy work.
Time may help; maturity may help, but reconciliation is not going to come easy for most of us.
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I can’t tell you that you have to forgive everyone and every situation that has brought brokenness into your life. I don’t know if I could do that in every circumstance.
But I know that changes of heart and mind are possible - especially given some time and maturity.
And this will be true on all sides of the brokenness.
When I have been the primary cause of the brokenness, it may require my recognition of the hurt and pain I have caused.
When the pain and hurt was thrust upon me, I may need to let go of my anger - my need to see the other person suffer out of a desire for revenge.
Reconciliation is hard work.
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May God be with us as we struggle to heal.
Let us pray:
Help us God, to be open to our own struggles as we learn about the struggles of others. In your love, invite us to change the brokenness in our lives. Amen.
#578VU (tune #374) “As a Fire is Meant for Burning”
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