Sermons from Mission Hills UCC San Diego, California Rev. Dr. David Bahr [email protected] August 13, 2023 “Little Brother and Big Dreams” Genesis 37: 1-4, 12-28 – The Message Meanwhile Jacob had settled down where his father had lived, the land of Canaan. 2 This is the story of Jacob. The story continues with Joseph, seventeen years old at the time, helping out his brothers in herding the flocks. These were his half brothers actually, the sons of his father’s wives Bilhah and Zilpah. And Joseph brought his father bad reports on them. 3-4 Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons because he was the child of his old age. And he made him an elaborately embroidered coat. When his brothers realized that their father loved him more than them, they grew to hate him—they wouldn’t even speak to him. 12-13 His brothers had gone off to Shechem where they were pasturing their father’s flocks. Israel said to Joseph, “Your brothers are with flocks in Shechem. Come, I want to send you to them.” Joseph said, “I’m ready.” 14 He said, “Go and see how your brothers and the flocks are doing and bring me back a report.” He sent him off from the valley of Hebron to Shechem. 15 A man met him as he was wandering through the fields and asked him, “What are you looking for?” 16 “I’m trying to find my brothers. Do you have any idea where they are grazing their flocks?” 17 The man said, “They’ve left here, but I overheard them say, ‘Let’s go to Dothan.’” So Joseph took off, tracked his brothers down, and found them in Dothan. 18-20 They spotted him off in the distance. By the time he got to them they had cooked up a plot to kill him. The brothers were saying, “Here comes that dreamer. Let’s kill him and throw him into one of these old cisterns; we can say that a vicious animal ate him up. We’ll see what his dreams amount to.” 21-22 Reuben heard the brothers talking and intervened to save him, “We’re not going to kill him. No murder. Go ahead and throw him in this cistern out here in the wild, but don’t hurt him.” Reuben planned to go back later and get him out and take him back to his father. 23-24 When Joseph reached his brothers, they ripped off the fancy coat he was wearing, grabbed him, and threw him into a cistern. The cistern was dry; there wasn’t any water in it. 25-27 Then they sat down to eat their supper. Looking up, they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites on their way from Gilead, their camels loaded with spices, ointments, and perfumes to sell in Egypt. Judah said, “Brothers, what are we going to get out of killing our brother and concealing the evidence? Let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites, but let’s not kill him—he is, after all, our brother, our own flesh and blood.” His brothers agreed. 28 By that time the Midianite traders were passing by. His brothers pulled Joseph out of the cistern and sold him for twenty pieces of silver to the Ishmaelites who took Joseph with them down to Egypt. Abraham and Sarah had Isaac. Then, Isaac and Rebekah had Esau and Jacob, twins feuding all the way back to the womb. We’ve been following the story of Jacob for a few weeks –
In today’s text, all that drama is behind them. No more drama and soap opera theatrics, right? Just brothers who love each and get along. And so, the story proceeds with Jacob’s 11 sons; Jacob, remember post-limp, is now known as Israel. But first, there’s also a story about their sister Dinah. The lectionary understandably skips over her because her story is dark and unpleasant and not generally something told in polite company, especially church. Sadly, churches are in the habit of keeping these kinds of secrets. Dinah is raped by the son of the king in the land where they are living as immigrants. When Jacob learned of this, he was angry but he also feared that when news reached his sons, they would feel honor-bound to retaliate, so he kept it a secret and, in the meantime, arranged with the king for Dinah’s and the son’s marriage, certainly without any say on the part of Dinah. Part of the marriage agreement between the fathers, the king agreed that all the males of Shechem would be circumcised, including the king, which would cancel out the need for revenge. But when the brothers learned this, they weren’t buying it. They waited and then, a few days after the circumcision, strategically while the men were still feeling the um…after-effects, they then killed every man in town, including the king and his son, looted all their valuables, livestock, and took the women and children. It is not a story with a silver lining in the end and it’s shocking that it wasn’t removed from the sacred canon of scripture, but it is the explanation why Jacob and company moved from Shechem to Bethel. More importantly, a story like this in the middle of scripture keeps us honest. So, today’s text begins the epic story of liberation and how it came to be that the people lived in, were enslaved by, and ultimately how they fled the same Egypt that had previously saved them from starvation – but that’s all to come. Today it starts with a 17-year-old twerp named Joseph, a total caricature of a bratty little brother. But first, you remember how Jacob was tricked into marrying Uncle Laban’s oldest daughter, Leah? So, Jacob never really came around to love her, not that that was the expectation of marriage. Leah was a plain Jane, while Rachel was a stunning beauty. However, unlike Rachel, Leah could produce sons – one right after the other. After the fourth son, Rachel, feeling humiliated, gave her slave Bilhah to Jacob. They had two sons who according to the custom would be considered Rachel’s children. But Leah wasn’t going to let this go unanswered, so she gave her slave Zilpah to Jacob and she had two more sons – for Leah. And then Leah conceived again and again and again – two more sons and at least one daughter named Dinah. Poor Rachel could only watch, even though she remained the love of Jacob’s life. Jacob absolutely adored her and one day to their surprise, Rachel conceived and bore a son. Jacob was over the moon! He loved that boy, too much for the taste of his brothers. Of course, Joseph made things worse by rubbing it in their faces. Sibling dynamics are fascinating, aren’t they? I’m the youngest of four – 17 years younger than my oldest sister and 15 from my brother and 10 from my other sister. The economics of farming from when they grew up to when I grew up were substantially different. One example is that they all had to wait until they were 12 years old to get a watch. I got a watch when I was 8 and it’s been grist for the mill for 50 years! However, I didn’t go around twirling and waving my arm in the air and saying nehya, nehya, nehya. At least I don’t think I did. Well, Joseph didn’t show such restraint, especially when his father gave him an absolutely beautiful coat. Plus, you heard how Joseph was a little tattle-tale. There’s also a story the lectionary skipped over about a dream that Joseph told his brothers. “We were out in the fields gathering bundles of wheat and all of a sudden my bundle stood straight up and your bundles circled around and bowed down to mine.” (Why would he tell them that!?) Not surprisingly, the story concludes, “the brothers hated him even more.” Even Joseph’s beloved father reprimanded him for that one. One day while all 10 of his brothers were out in the fields working and Joseph was hanging out at home – now wait, he’s 17 years old, so why isn’t he out working in the fields too? Anyway, one day, Jacob sent Joseph out to the fields to bring back a report on what his brothers were doing. Joseph had previously ratted them out so how do you imagine the brothers were supposed to feel when they saw Mr. Lazy-Pants little twerp of a brat brother with his big dreams coming in the distance? And yet it’s still shocking to think they began discussing how to murder him and get away with it. It’s a fascinating, detailed conversation straight out of Shonda Rhimes. As the text reports, fortunately, cooler heads prevailed and instead of murder they decided to sell him to some traders passing by. And the moral of the story: sell your brother, don’t kill him. Amen. The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. But wait. They didn’t kill him and only sold him into slavery…? A couple of details to share: There have been a lot of unfamiliar names this summer that keep coming around. Each week I’ve tried to repeat them just enough in order connect what has been happening with who. And all the way back, nearly two months ago, I told the story of Hagar, Sarah’s slave with whom Sarah suggested, given her advanced age, Abraham sleep in order to provide him with an heir. Same idea Rachel had with her slave. Hagar’s son was Ishmael and when surprise, surprise, Sarah gave birth to Isaac, it created a lot of conflict and nearly led to their death. But their lives were spared. There’s a little detail you might not have noticed in verse 25 today. It was the Ishmaelites who bought Joseph and took him to Egypt. As in, the ancestors of Ishmael, son of Hagar. Except, in verse 28, the same people are called Midianites. You can use this in Bible trivia one day. But did you also notice that the name Jacob and Israel kept going back and forth in our reading today? Well, it’s an example of the differing versions of the same story woven together. One school of thought continues to call him Jacob and the other Israel. And one calls the same people Ishmaelites and the other Midianites. These two schools of thought also call God different names – one uses Elohim and the other Yahweh. The Elohists think that the reason Joseph’s brothers hate him so much is that he is a little brat. And the Yahwist tradition, or was it the Elohist? Anyway, the second thinks his brothers hate him because of his outrageous dreams. Oh, and you missed one of the dreams recorded in Genesis. I told you about the bundles of wheat bowing down. Joseph also told them a dream that the sun and moon and 11 stars bow down to him. Not that it really matters which is more upsetting, his bad behavior or his big dreams, do you see why the brothers might have thought about cooking up his disappearance? It’s not an excuse but certainly an explanation. But OK, what’s the point of all this? We can tell the story of Joseph and think it’s cute and isn’t it funny how family dynamics can be so similar 4,000 years later? But these family stories also might be quite painful for some of us. Steve Garnaas-Holmes made a powerful observation: Robert Frost is mostly right that home is where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in. Mostly. But biblical families aren't havens of belonging, places of safety or unconditional acceptance. Nor sometimes are ours. Family is sometimes where we treat loved ones like we would never treat strangers. Home might be where monsters live under our beds, and in our closets, and maybe in our parents' room. The monster of who we are supposed to be, expected to be, made to be. Sooner or later we have to come home and reckon with family. Face to face or elsewhere; whether dead or alive. It's the final frontier: our deepest wounds, our greatest fears, our heaviest failures, the sneakiest neuroses we have to wrestle with. It’s Jacob and his angel. One day we have to go back into that literal or metaphorical house and take what's true and flush the rest. Honor the child of us, the one who protected and sustained us — and thank that child. Forgive ourselves, and say goodbye and let the others go too. Let them stay while we move on. It's how we get free. I pray for your courage to go there. I pray that, alive or dead, they will help you. But remember nothing depends on them. It's your work. Do it, and with even those who sold you into slavery, you will be ready to act with grace and honor and generosity. Next week we’ll see what Joseph ultimately does when confronted by, and shocked by, the reappearance of his brothers years later. But before I end, I have one last big question. Where was God in this story? God is never mentioned. Well, I think it’s not always necessary to say God’s name because God is always present, always near. I think like the biblical writers, we also often live with an assumption of God’s presence. And yet, when it comes to family pain, sometimes that’s still our biggest question. Where is God? Where is God? God is the strength we rely on, God is the comfort which holds us, God is the hope for another day and the dream of reconciliation to come. Joseph’s and ours. Today’s story is not done. And neither is ours. As unthinkable as it may be, one day we will reconcile with those we have mistreated and those who have mistreated us. But as we will see next week, Joseph did it on his own terms. And neither should reconciliation be demanded from us. But when the opportunity arises, sometimes confronts us, remember that though reconciliation can be frightening, strength, comfort, and hope are very real. And we don’t even need to say their names to know they are near to our heart – providing us a very present help in times of trouble.
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