Loading...Sermon August 20, 2017
The Rev. Rebecca S. Myers, LSW
The Church of the Nativity and St. Stephen, Newport, PA
Eleventh Sunday After Pentecost, Track 1 Year A, Proper 15
//lectionarypage.net/YearA_RCL/Pentecost/AProp15_RCL.html
And he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them; and after that his brothers talked with him. Genesis 45:15
Please be seated.
At Christmas 2009, the woman I worked for gave me a gift from The National Geographic Genographic Project. I received a small box with directions for giving a saliva sample and having it analyzed to let me know the long-ago migration pattern of my maternal ancestors. Women carry the mitochondrial DNA, which while passed on to each child, is only transmitted from generation to generation through the women of the family.
The National Geographic Project started in 2005 and was hoping to capture the DNA from as many people as possible to further study human migration patterns. One of the most interesting things I learned was that everyone alive today can trace their maternal roots back 160,000-170,000 years to one woman. She’s known as mitochondrial Eve.
In other words, we are all family.
In our reading from Genesis today, we continue with the story of Joseph and his brothers – the children of Jacob. I love this story of Joseph and his brothers. And in my limited time of studying Biblical Hebrew, this was one of the stories we read. It’s even better in the original!
As you may remember, Joseph is the youngest and favored son of Jacob. His mother was Rachel, whom Jacob loved the most of all of his wives. Jacob’s brothers didn’t really like him all that much. We hear he gave a bad report to his father about two of his brothers, so we know he was a tattle tale. Then Jacob made a beautiful coat for Joseph. The sleeves came down to the middle of the palms of his hands. The coat was symbolic of coats worn by Kings. Joseph proudly wore the coat and we can imagine that he might have taunted his brothers with it.
Then there were Joseph’s dreams and his interpretations. Now maybe if Joseph had kept his dreams to himself, he would have been in less trouble, but Joseph had to blab about the dreams. The dreams suggested that Joseph’s brothers and parents would bow down to him one day; that Joseph would rule over them. That’s not necessarily the best way to maintain family harmony.
One day as the brothers are out tending the flocks in the fields away from the family home, they see Joseph approaching from afar. They decide they’ve had enough and agree to kill him and place his body in a nearby cistern. They’ll tell their father that he was devoured by a wild animal. As Joseph gets closer, they decide they shouldn’t kill him, but rather sell him. They didn’t want Joseph’s blood to be upon their hands.
When Joseph finally arrives, the brothers take off the wonderful coat, throw Joseph into the nearby cistern and then sell him for 20 pieces of silver to some Ishmaelites whom they saw coming from a distance.
The Ishmaelites then sell Joseph to Potiphar, the Egyptian Pharaoh’s Captain of the Guard. While Joseph has some difficulties, Pharaoh eventually puts him in charge over all of the land of Egypt. You see, Joseph was able to interpret Pharaoh’s dreams that foretold a coming famine and how to prepare for it.
Sure enough, the famine comes and suddenly Joseph’s family is near starvation. They hear there’s food in Egypt, so travel there. They end up meeting with Joseph, but they don’t recognize him. Joseph recognizes them, however, but says nothing to them. A number of events occur before our reading today where Joseph finally reveals himself to them.
In Seminary we used a book called, The Bible As It Was by James Kugel. The book details how early scholars understood the stories and messages in The Torah, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible. Some of the traditions are funny to me. Like, what did Joseph’s brothers do with the 20 pieces of silver? Did you ever think about that? Well, some early scholars decided that the brothers bought shoes with the money.
I find the book interesting, because of the interpretations that still resonate today. For instance, the Jewish Philosopher Philo who lived from 20-50 BCE, says this about Joseph:
“Promoted to so high a command, invested with the first office after the king, looked up to by east and west, flushed with the vigor of his prime and the greatness of his power, with the opportunity of revenge in his hands, he might have shown vindictiveness; he did not do so.
[Later, Joseph’s brothers] recalled how he saw them straightaway on their first trip [to Egypt], when he certainly could have put them to death or, at the very least, refused to provide them with food against the famine, so, far from taking vengeance, he treated them as worthy of his favor, and indeed, he gave them food for nothing [by later ordering that their money be returned to them.]” p. 268
Now Joseph went through some pretty terrible times and while he was nearly ruling Egypt, he had been separated from his family for at least 20 years. He had a wife and children who did not know their grandparents or cousins or aunts or uncles. That had to be hard. Yet, his first response was not revenge. It was only love and reconciliation. He only wanted to be reunited with his family. He only wanted them to all live together.
Throughout human history there is a continual need for reconciliation rather than for revenge. Once again, during this past week, we’ve seen the aftermath of last week’s white supremacist gathering in Charlottesville, VA.
It’s confusing sometimes. I mean, we are good people. We don’t intentionally hurt others. We try hard to treat people equally. We didn’t choose our skin color and we certainly weren’t part of creating the structure that has labeled people by the color of their skin. We are heartbroken and horrified that people are treated differently just because of their outward appearance. Yet, we are told that by being labeled or perceived as white, we receive benefits not available to other people who are not perceived as white. We long for equality and justice and don’t always know what to do to get there. We long for racial reconciliation, just like Joseph who longed to be reconciled to his family who had treated him so poorly.
What can we do, then?
I suggest that those of you who have access to a computer can visit The Episcopal Church website to find resources about racial reconciliation. There is a video message from Michael Curry, The Presiding Bishop, who has made Racial Reconciliation one of his primary goals. I have printed out copies of his message and they are available at the back of the church. One of the resources I found uses our baptismal covenant to guide us through questions, discussions and actions for racial reconciliation. I suggest we use this for a few sessions of parlor people.
In working towards racial reconciliation…reconciliation of our human family, let us be inspired and encouraged by the love, joy and urgency of Joseph, who could have sought destruction, violence and revenge, but instead sought to be reunited in love.
Amen
National Geographic Genographic Project: https://shop.nationalgeographic.com/category/geno-dna/united-states?code=SR90002&gclid=CjwKCAjww9_MBRAWEiwAlaMJZoGzdieenyfdnXKF7XBC2FSTZfKJu4r2fLqBN-T3mCn0n_hEuwXT5RoCPXoQAvD_BwE
The Bible As It Was by James Kugel: https://www.amazon.com/Bible-As-Was-James-Kugel/dp/0674069412
Episcopal Church website for racial reconciliation: https://www.episcopalchurch.org/updated-resources
