Genesis 45:1-15
I am not sure if it is the fact that one of my favorite classes at Columbia was an Old Testament exegesis class where the Joseph novella was our primary focus or that this story constantly draws me back, showing me something new, or opening my eyes to something I hadn’t seen before. Regardless of the reason, this story of one of the fathers of our faith is one that I love to return to time and time again. And this morning’s text is the dramatic conclusion to the long Joseph story.
The story of Joseph is pretty well known to most of us much to the thanks of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber and their masterpiece, Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. And yet the story we find in the Book of Genesis is considerably grittier and darker then its Broadway counterpart. In the Genesis account we don’t find many beautiful or funny songs sung to catchy tones. The Joseph story we find in Genesis is complex and messy. There is a very human and real feeling running throughout this long story. The Joseph story is a story that begins with betrayal and ends with an unexpected reconciliation. And between these two events are ups and downs, and twists and turns. That draws us in each time we hear it. The story captivates us because from time to time we can see ourselves in it.
In the story of Joseph we are brought into an already messy and dysfunctional family. A family where dysfunction has been the name of the game for generations going all the way back to its beginnings in Abraham and Sarah. It was Abraham and Sarah who after years of travel found themselves having to lie from time to time to protect themselves. And this elderly couple eventually had a son who Abraham nearly sacrificed, but that’s a better fate then being cast out with your mother as was the case for Ishmael and his mother Hagar. The trouble did not end their I am afraid, for when Isaac became an old man, his youngest son Jacob, Joseph’s father, stole his older brother Esau’s birthright with the help of his mother Rebekah. And Jacob the trickster was tricked by his father-in-law Laban into marring his daughter Leah, not Rachel as he had hoped to. But after seven more years of indentured servitude, Laban allowed Jacob to marry Rachel, Joseph’s mother.
And so it is not surprising that Joseph’s brothers, knowing their family’s story and being sick of playing second fiddle to their father Jacob’s favorite son, take matters into their own hands. And they throw the arrogant boy Joseph into a pit and plan to kill him. The brothers instead choose to make some money off this pain of brother by selling him into slavery. And it is this act that sets in motion a chain of events that takes Joseph from a pit of despair to head of house, back to a pit of despair to finally to a seat second only to Pharaoh in Egypt. A painful journey that makes the once arrogant boy Joseph unrecognizable to his brothers some years later.
In our text this morning, the brothers find themselves once more standing before Joseph unbeknownst to them. They had come to Egypt in search of grains to help them to survive a famine, only to be detained as spies. And Joseph taking advantage of his position of power sends all but one of the brothers back to Canaan to fetch their youngest brother Benjamin. And now exhausted from their journey all of the sons of Jacob are standing in the same place. Joseph clears the room of everyone but his brothers. A feeling of uncertainty hangs in the air. And he begins to weep; to weep so loudly that everyone who had been sent out could hear, as well as those in Pharaoh’s house. And in this long awaited moment, Joseph finally reveals to his brothers that it is he, their brother, standing before them. I am sure that the realization of this must have hit them like a ton of bricks, as one commentator put it . And as the realization washed over Joseph’s brothers they must have begun to tremble with fear as they remember their shameful act.
And yet their fear is met not with retribution but with an overwhelmingly powerful act of forgiveness. Joseph, having stepped back and taking a long look at his life must have seen something greater then himself and his suffering. And in his speech to his awe-struck brothers he reveals a profound faith. Joseph assures his brothers that God had been at work through his whole life saying, “for God sent me before you to preserve life.” And Joseph’s since of God’s divine hand in his life is so strong that he repeats this sentiment again and then frames his brothers shameful act of selling him into slavery in such a way that nearly removes any guilt from them. Joseph says to his brothers in verse eight, “So it was not you who sent me here, but God.” It is in Joseph’s threefold mention of God’s acts of working in, through and under the actions of the brothers that Walter Brueggemann sees as “the key speech in the entire Joseph narrative.” Brueggemann says, “This speech completely redefines the situation for all parties. Now the guilty fear of the brother is superseded. The grief of the father is resolved…The revengeful cunning of the successful brother is superseded… The guilt of the brothers, the grief of the father, and the revenge of Joseph are all used as means for this disclosure of the hidden call of God.” And it would be nice and tidy and neat to see the suffering of Joseph as simply the means for God to accomplish the saving of a whole people as well as God’s chosen family.
But I wonder if that is what Joseph is really saying here. Does Joseph believe that God had simply planned out all of these events with the end result being the saving of many people and a joyous reunion where Joseph would be the one who saves the whole family? Commentator Kathryn Huey urges us to stop here for a moment and reflect, saying, “As much as we appreciate Joseph's deep and positive faith, and as much as we see the purpose of the long Joseph story as explaining how the Israelites went to Egypt, we might want to linger a bit on his theological reflection on God's will.” And I believe it would be a mistake to read into this text a God who had planned this from the very beginning, making Joseph’s brothers sell him into slavery so that God may accomplish the saving of God chosen family and thousands of others through the painful journey of one. Reading the text this way removes human freedom and we become nothing more then puppets. And Joseph’s powerful outpouring of love and forgiveness looses its edge and becomes less meaningful.
No, I believe Joseph’s claim about God in his speech to his brothers goes much deeper then saying that God has been manipulating the events of his whole life. Joseph’s claim about God is a claim about God’s actions and presence in his life. A claim that is far more mysterious and complex then can be reduced to a simple formula. It is a claim that acknowledges the messiness of Joseph’s life and that God has been, is, and will be present with him in the messiness of his life. Joseph’s words show God not to be a puppeteer, controlling all the events but instead describe an artist whose sees a bigger picture then we are able. An artist who, as Barbara Brown Taylor says, “Nothing is too bent to be used – not even tragedies, not even bad decisions, not even plain human meanness.”
“I think that's why I'm attracted to this image of God as master artist who continues to paint with the colors she is given, to mold and to shape even when he doesn't have all the right tools” my friend Carrie said me this week as we talked about this text. She continued by saying, “The most beautiful part though is that if we're made in the image of God we are artists too, and have the same ability to create with what we are given. Which means we have the choice to dump black paint all over the canvas and walk away if we want. Yet Joseph doesn't.”
Joseph in an act of overwhelming tenderness and love begins to make beauty out of an ugly act committed against him so many years ago. He chooses to pick the paintbrush and paint with the colors he has. Here before our eyes is Joseph, who was shown no mercy by his brothers, forgiving them, loving them, and now making plans to provide for them. For him or our God nothing was to bent or broken to be used.
This act of forgiveness could not have been easy for Joseph. As we look back through this story, we know that Joseph has had his chances to get retribution on his brothers. And yet Joseph, in this moment, sets aside his desire for retribution in favor of reconciliation. And I believe that Joseph’s choice to seek this path overwhelms and surprises even him, because he breaks down in tears, and he becomes overwhelmed by the chance to start again with his brothers, to be reunited with his father, and to share the good fortune he has experienced in Egypt with his long lost family. It is this realization that hits Joseph like a ton of brinks and brings him to tears. The possibility of creating a more beautiful masterpiece with his brothers could not be contained and came bursting forth, pouring out of Joseph as tears of joy.
I believe coming back to this text time and time again will always challenge us. Because Joseph’s outpouring of love is so grand on his brothers who were so easily willing to give him up into slavery that it unsettles us. We wonder if we could act as Joseph did, seeking reconciliation over retribution, forgiveness over vengeance, love over hate. And would we be able to see the masterpiece that is being created before our eyes and assist our master artist? Or would throw black pain on the canvas and walk away?
Creating works of art gets messy be it painting, sculpting or throwing clay. Paint gets spilled, clay gets on us, and before we know it we are covered with the stains of creating. And as we create, the clay or paint, metal or wood doesn’t always do what we want it to do, or take the shape we had hoped for. So we as the artist work with it, continuing to mold it, to shape it, to change color or brush stroke until it takes a form we want. And there are times when our soon to be masterpiece doesn’t take the shape we had hoped for, or what was in our mind’s eye is not what we see on the canvas before us. So we change our vision and go in a new direction, creating something brand new.
Our lives are much like this. As hard as we may try to keep our lives tidy and organized, we quickly find that our lives despite our best efforts become messy. We find that things don’t always work out the way we had hoped they would, or loved ones plans take precedent over ours. But we continue to work with what we have, molding and shaping, mixing colors and shapes until we step back and see the masterpiece that has become our life. And as we look closer at those places that we thought were twisted and mangled beyond use, we find divine fingerprints covering them. Because we chose not to throw those pieces out or cover them with black paint and walk away but hand them over to the divine master artist who transforms all of our ugly and broken pieces into something beautiful.
Hallelujah and Amen.
Citations -
- Brueggemann, Walter. Genesis . (Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1982.) p346.
- Matthews Huey, Kathryn . "August 14, 2011 | Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A (Ninth Sunday after Pentecost - Proper 15)." The United Church of Christ | No Matter Who You Are Or Where You Are On Life's Journey, You're Welcome Here . N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Aug. 2011.
- Taylor, Barbara Brown. "Listening to Your Life." Gospel Medicine. Cambridge, Mass.: Cowley Publications, 1995.
