Our first reading today comes from the Book of Genesis. It is part of the Joseph saga, which is a short novella within the Book of Genesis that takes up a little more than a quarter of the entire book. It is the longest story in Genesis. You may remember the Joseph story from the musical a few decades ago, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat. It is the story of Joseph, the great grandson of Sarah and Abraham, the grandson of Isaac and Rebekah, and the son of Rachel and Jacob. Joseph is by far Jacob’s favorite son. All the parents here know it is a terrible idea to have favorites, and the story of Jacob is a good example of why that is the case. It creates a lot of animosity among the brothers. Jacob makes it clear that Joseph is the favorite in many ways. One is that amazing technicolor dream coat, or sometimes translated as a coat with very long sleeves, or an ornamental robe. It is essentially a fancy outfit that Jacob only gives to one of his sons. There are other ways that Jacob favors Joseph. For instance, Joseph does not have to work as hard as his brothers. He gets to stay near dad while the other boys have to go out into the field to work. The only job we know that Joseph has is to be sent out by his dad to see what the other brothers are up to. He is sort of a tattletale, which also does not endear him to his brothers.
Along with that, Joseph has a really big ego, which might come from being the favorite, but he thinks he is the center of the world. He has dreams in which all of his brothers are bowing down to him, and when he has that dream he goes and tells his brothers all about it. How do you think that goes over? In one version of the dream, the entire family is bowing down to him, and that really upsets the brothers. One day they decide to kill him. At the last minute they change their minds, and Joseph simply gets sold off into slavery. The brothers take that coat of many colors, rip it up, smear it with animal blood and take it to their dad. They tell him your son, Joseph, was killed by a wild animal. This breaks Jacob’s heart.
Joseph goes off to Egypt, and in order to keep this sermon not too long, we will skip some details. But know that Jacob is falsely accused of a crime and he goes to prison. From there, through a whole series of twists and turns, he becomes second in charge of the entire country. The way that happens is that he is really good at interpreting dreams, or as he likes to put it, God interprets the dream, he tells me, and I tell you. When he is in prison he interprets dreams of a couple of Pharoah’s former employees who were in prison. He interprets that one of them is going to be killed, and the other is going to be spared and will return to his position at the palace. This is what comes to pass. Several years later, Pharoah has some dreams that are very much disturbing him, and he asks his advisors what the dreams mean. None of them know, so Pharoah says go and ask all the wise folks around, but none of them can say what the dream is about. Finally, the one guy in the palace who was in prison with Joseph said, I know somebody who might be able to help. They get Joseph, and he correctly interprets the dream: seven years of plenty are coming, followed by seven years of famine. You need to collect everything extra you can during that time of plenty so that you have enough to get through the famine. Pharoah is so impressed by this that he makes Joseph in charge of this task. He put him as second in charge of the entire country in order to do this task, second only to the Pharoah.
It comes to pass there are seven years of plenty, and Joseph starts collecting extra grain. When those years of plenty are over, he starts giving it back to the people. There is so much they can actually give it to people in other countries who are also experiencing the famine. The famine reaches Jacob and Joseph’s brothers, and they hear that in Egypt they will sell you grain. So Jacob sends almost all of his sons. He keeps one back, his 2nd favorite, and sends the others to go buy the grain.
Again, to keep this sermon not too long, I will not go into the more exciting twists and turns that are Joseph’s revenge story. But towards the end of it, Joseph changes his mind and decides to forgive his brothers. His brothers do not recognize him, so he says, I am Joseph who you sold into slavery. How is dad? There is much weeping, and a wonderful moment when they go and get dad and all their families and go to Egypt, living there on great land. All is well. They are very happy, and then Jacob dies.
This is where our story picks up today. Jacob dies, and the brothers are afraid. They are concerned that the only reason that Joseph did not fulfill that revenge fantasy was because of their dad. Now that he is gone, there is nothing to get in the way of Joseph meting out punishment to his brothers. They go to Joseph and beg him to spare them. They say, dad wouldn’t like this—they still bring in dad to protect them—and Joseph says, do not be afraid. What you intended for evil, God intended for good. All is well. It is a beautiful story of reconciliation.
It is also a story of a clash of two different world views or mindsets, imaginations of how this world should operate. One mindset is the one of the brothers, who are afraid. It is a mindset of punishment, revenge, vengeance, an eye for an eye justice. They know they did wrong, they know they should be punished for it, and are afraid of what that punishment is going to look like. That is their view of how things are probably going to go.
The other mindset is the one that Joseph has, which is the imagination of forgiveness, of mercy, of grace, of reconciliation. I think the brothers’ mindset is probably where most of the world is. A lot of the time, most of us feel that same way, too. The feeling bubbles up inside of us expecting punishment or some type of revenge. Joseph’s mindset is the way of God. We hear it in our Psalm today: He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our wickedness. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our sins from us. This is God’s dream for the world. A dream of grace and mercy, a dream that looks to the future and sees us reconciled to each other and to God.
I don’t think Joseph has always been in the order of forgiveness or reconciliation. I think when he was having his revenge fantasies and creating twists and turns for his brothers, he was in the other order of punishment and vengeance. But somehow he eventually ends up on the side of reconciliation, where God wants us to be.
I think there is a way to read the entire Book of Genesis as a journey to reconciliation. At the end we have this reconciliation of Joseph and his brothers, but before that there was a rupture. This is not the only time ruptures occur in Genesis. Before this, Jacob and Esau had a great rupture and reconciliation. Before that, Abraham and Isaac. I would also argue Abraham and Sarah have a rupture in the binding of Isaac story. I’m not sure there was much reconciliation after that event. In that story, they go up the mountain together, but they do not come down the mountain together. Genesis also has the story of Babel, the story of the flood, the story of the Garden of Eden. There is a lot of rupture and not much reconciliation, except the rainbow in the flood story. It is generally stories of rupture and more rupture before we start getting some reconciliation. The Book of Genesis is the journey of faith to move from that place that is so natural for us, to move to the place of grace and mercy that God desires for this world.
We see Jesus talking about this in the Gospel in the past few weeks, and in all his stories about forgiveness and the need to forgive. We have been hearing Paul talk about it in his Epistle to the Romans. There was a great passage a few weeks ago when he says, do not return evil for evil, but return good for evil, which is like pouring burning coals on their head. It is all about trying to move to that place of grace, of mercy, of forgiveness, that dream that God has for this world.
My friends in Christ, I encourage you to try and walk this journey. When you feel that sense bubbling up inside of you seeking revenge, vengeance, and punishment, try to look towards that Kingdom of God, that Kingdom of grace and mercy. It is not going to be easy. It is not easy, but try and move in that direction. You have heard me say many times that the central message of the Gospel is love. Reconciliation, forgiveness, grace and mercy are all manifestations and embodiments of that very love. Try, try, and try again to walk towards that Kingdom, that dream. Try and walk along the way of love.
AMEN.
