Joseph part two

The trouble with belonging to the revgalblogpals group (which is just what it sounds like - a group for ordained women from all traditions over the world) is that I read their thoughtful, learned, beautifully crafted sermons and I feel hopelessly inadequate! As I said to my Spiritual Director a few weeks ago, I want to be a Priest of 15 years experience... right now.

God, grant me patience :)

Sermon 17-8-14

Joseph 2

Everyone likes a happy ending, right? And it seems as if that is what we are given today. Joseph’s brothers have repented, Joseph is restored to his father, Egypt is saved from the famine and all is well with the world.

The trouble is, when we skip to the happy ending we miss all of the messiness in the middle. And it is in this messiness that the true nature of humanity and God becomes clear.

We saw in last week’s reading that Genesis 37 presents no virtues for Joseph that should win our admiration or our sympathy for his character. He is a tattle-tale and a braggart, and he is clearly the favourite of his father Jacob. We may not describe him as a bad guy, but he doesn’t quite come across as a good guy, either. We initially root for him because he is the one the camera lens -- i.e., the narrative’s point of view -- follows. The camera follows him because of who he is: the favourite son of Jacob, i.e., Israel, and Israel has been chosen by God. In the Joseph story, everybody plays favorites, even (dare I say it) God.

As we read through the Joseph cycle, Joseph’s character becomes more complex. We discover in Genesis 39 that Joseph is handsome and successful, rising to the position of overseer over his fellow slaves. We hear Joseph’s piety shine through when he refuses Potiphar’s wife’s advances and, as a consequence, is imprisoned on false charges of sexual assault.

In chapters 40 and 41 we learn that Joseph is skilled in dream interpretation, and, upon interpreting Pharaoh’s dream, he advises Pharaoh to store up 20% of the harvest in seven years of abundance to feed the land in seven years of famine. He becomes Pharaoh’s second-in-command: “Thus Joseph gained authority over the land of Egypt” (Genesis 41:45).

In chapter 42, Joseph’s family life and his work life collide. Facing starvation in Canaan, Jacob sends his sons to Egypt to buy some of the grain hoarded there. It should not surprise us that Joseph can recognize his brothers even though they do not recognize him; his ability to interpret dreams has already demonstrated his perspicacity.

Here is his big chance. We know now that Joseph seems to have a ‘hotline’ to God, and he is, after all, the hero of this tale. As his brothers come to him in  the deepest of need, begging him for food to save his own family, surely he will seize the chance for forgiveness and show God’s love and mercy to his wayward family?

Well, no. 

Instead of reconciliation, Joseph meets his brothers with manipulation. He pretends not to know them, accuses them of spying, throws them all in jail for three days, and demands that after they take their grain home, they return to Egypt with Benjamin, their youngest brother. He even has Simeon bound and held in Egypt to guarantee their return. He sneaks the money they paid for the grain back into their sacks, surely a gesture of generosity but understood by the brothers, terrified of the powerful governor and racked with guilt, as a sure indication that stealing will be added to their spying charges.

Citing the loss of both Joseph and Simeon, Jacob refuses to allow Benjamin to return with the brothers to Egypt (playing favourites again!) until the family is out of food again and left with no other choice. The emotional roller coaster continues for the brothers in chapters 43 and 44, when Joseph feasts with his family, including the newly favorite son Benjamin.

Rather than reveal his identity now, Joseph has his own silver cup slipped into Benjamin’s sack, setting him up for a charge of stealing. Judah, who, at Genesis 37:26 lobbied for selling Joseph rather than killing him, steps in to plead for Benjamin’s release for the sake of their father Jacob, whose “life is bound up in the boy’s life” . It is at this point, with Jacob’s life on the line, that Joseph makes himself known to his brothers.

It seems clear that Joseph had always intended to assist his family in their time of need, so why the manipulation? It is clear in the text that Joseph knows exactly what he is doing at all times, turning away to hide his tears, so why did he continue to punish his brothers and his father in such a way? What does this story have to tell us of the nature of God?

Or is this the wrong question? Should we instead be asking what this tells us of the nature of those through whom God works?

Joseph was far from a perfect person. He was no saint. He was in many ways the complete opposite of the powerless, humble and hungry people Jesus says will inherit the kingdom of God. And yet, within his brokenness, and through the tatters of his family (unrepentant favouritist Israel included), God works so save God’s people.  The situation is still not perfect – despite his status Joseph is still a slave and seems to have no heart for others who are not so lucky as him – but somehow, God is able to start to make things right.

Joseph assures his brothers that his imprisonment and enslavement where not through their actions, but through the power of God. I disagree. As I said last week, there is no room in God’s kingdom for ‘the end justifies the means’ or cruelty disguised as necessity. Our thoughts, words and actions are our own – that is part of the great gift of freedom God has given us. And we can use this freedom to hurt or to heal – often both. The good news is that God fills our cracks and uses our brokenness – even when we can’t see it at the time.

The concept of ‘brokenness’ is not one we would normal associate with Jesus. Neither is that of change - the mere thought of a God who is capable of change can seem to some unspeakably unsettling. But today, in the Canaanite woman’s intense experience with Jesus, we see evidence of both of these states.

Jesus doesn’t want to hear this woman, shouting in the streets the way only prostitutes of the time were allowed to do… but he stops. He doesn’t want to listen, but he does. Perhaps this is evidence of the divine – that when confronted with evidence of his own short sightedness, he does not dismiss but embraces and celebrates the person who brings them to him. Jesus was human. Jesus had the potential to close the boundaries of God’s love – but chose instead to engage with one counted lower than the dogs – a foreigner, a woman – and in this engagement experienced a new way of seeing himself and his ministry. It is interesting to note that Joseph’s brothers came from the land of Canaan as well – is there significance in this as a place of isolation from God and God’s mission? The land of Canaan in the time of Jacob and Joseph was reliant of Joseph’s stewardship so as not to starve, now the Canaanite woman is reliant on Jesus for the life of her daughter. God’s kingdom is widened, in and through the work of God’s servants.

Perhaps as we journey through the weeks to come, as we hear and learn more of the persecution and fear so many of God’s children are living and dying with, we can remember how far and wide the boundaries of God’s kingdom really go. Joseph was so very human, unable to forgive his family without retaliation. Jesus, too, human yet divine, able to hear a woman’s cry for her daughter and to embrace new knowledge of his mission beyond the Jewish people.

May we too be able to stop, hear and love.