Proper 15 / Pentecost 13 / Ordinary Time 20
Preaching
Lectionary Preaching Workbook
Series VIII, Cycle A
Object:
Theme For The Day
God's guidance over our lives is constant, even though we often fail to realize it until after the fact.
Old Testament Lesson
Genesis 45:1-15
Joseph Reveals Himself To His Brothers
Much has happened in the story of Joseph between last week's Old Testament lesson and this one. He has gone down to Egypt in slavery, entered the service of Potiphar, been jailed for alleged adultery, been pardoned because of his dream-interpretation skills, and been elevated to the position of prime minister. Now, his brothers have come to the royal court to beg for famine-relief rations, and Joseph has the opportunity he has been waiting for all his life. It is a moment of high drama. Which will he choose: revenge or reconciliation? He chooses reconciliation -- but not without putting his errant brothers through some moments of high anxiety first, as he charges them with theft of a precious goblet and has them hauled back into his presence. As this passage opens, Joseph sends all the court retainers away, leaving him alone with his brothers. It is only then, in private, that Joseph reveals himself to them (v. 1). Loud is the wailing of the sons of Jacob, as they hear this news (one can wonder whether they are wailing in remorse, or because they fear they are about to lose their lives). Joseph's first thought is of his father, Jacob. He asks if he is still alive (v. 3). Then, he assures his brothers he means them no harm, claiming to have discerned a divine purpose in all his sufferings: "God sent me before you to preserve life" (v. 5). Joseph is the agent of God's covenant. Because of his remarkable, riches-to-rags-to-riches life story, God's covenant people will be saved. Joseph insists that Jacob and his entire clan join him in Egypt, where they will wait out the coming years of famine, enjoying the plenty of Egypt (verses 9-13). In the closing scene, Joseph and his full brother, Benjamin (the one he had framed for the theft of the goblet), enjoy a tearful reunion (verses 14-15). The saga of Joseph is a case-study of the Lord's providence and covenant-faithfulness.
New Testament Lesson
Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32
God Is Merciful To All
This lesson is in two sections. The first is a brief introduction, in which Paul insists -- speaking of the Jews -- that "God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew" (v. 2). Verses 17 and 18, omitted from this lection, are helpful to cite, anyway, because they warn against anti-Semitism. Paul likens the Gentiles to a branch grafted onto an existing tree; then warns them against thinking of themselves, a branch, as of greater importance than the root. Although some Jews may have severed their own branches from God's tree, they can be easily grafted back in -- more easily than the Gentiles, as it happens (v. 24). In the second part of today's lection, Paul reminds the Gentiles that "the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable" (v. 29). This is an extremely important passage to cite in any discussion of the relations between Christians and Jews. God's covenant with Israel has not been revoked. God's earnest desire is that all people, Jews and Gentiles alike, "may now receive mercy" (v. 31). "God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may be merciful to all" -- all people, Jews and Gentiles are equally in need of grace (v. 32). As with last week's selection, Paul's argument is intricate and hard to follow. It is important to stress the all-encompassing grace and generosity of God, rather than engaging in idle speculation about something we can never know in this life: the question of whom God has chosen to save.
The Gospel
Matthew 15:(10-20) 21-28
Jesus And The Canaanite Woman
The heart of today's passage is the story of Jesus' encounter with a Canaanite woman -- although verses 10-20 are included as an optional prologue. Taking issue with Pharisaical types who are overly obsessed with the details of dietary laws, Jesus teaches that it is not what goes into the mouth, but what comes out of it, that is important to God (v. 11). It is words that issue in unrighteous deeds that truly defile a person, not food consumed with unwashed hands. The story of Jesus' conversation with the Canaanite woman -- a person considered ritually unclean -- serves as a practical illustration of this teaching. As Jesus passes through the Canaanite region of Tyre and Sidon, a woman calls out to him in desperation, begging him to heal her daughter. Jesus' initial response is one that would have been understandable to any devout Jew of the time: an utter refusal to interact with such a woman. "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel," Jesus explains, turning away (v. 24). The desperate woman persists, so he replies again, with an even more exclusionary comment: "It is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs" (v. 26). This plucky woman, bucking all convention, responds with a snappy comeback: "Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table" (v. 27). Jesus then commends the woman for her faith and declares that her daughter has been healed. Jesus' harsh words to the Canaanite woman are among the most difficult of all his many sayings. He appears to be excluding her on racial grounds -- breaking his pattern that we see, elsewhere, of radical openness to all people. Were it not for this long record of inclusiveness, we might be tempted to brand Jesus a racist. It is therefore likely, instead, that he is engaging her in a conversational gambit, knowing full well that here is a woman with the courage to persist in speaking up for herself.
Preaching Possibilities
Do you want to know how to make God laugh? Tell God your plans.
There's more than a little truth in that one-liner. Solemnly and painstakingly, you and I make our plans in life. From an early age, we page forward in our calendars, and pencil in the great events we know are coming. We assemble stockpiles of resources, decide on where we'd like to live, choose the people we'd like to be present with us. Then, we sit back and wait, watching our plans unfold -- nearly always, to see them turn out differently than we expected.
Some changes in the master-plan we've brought about ourselves through changing our minds, but others simply happen: pure accident! There's the college admission that doesn't come through, the "significant other" who turns out less than significant, the job offer that doesn't materialize, and the unexpected illness or the change in career. When, at last, we reach the age when looking back comes easily, and begin to survey the winding path we've followed, it all seems remarkable -- truly remarkable!
Last week, we heard the first part of another truly remarkable life-story: that of Joseph, son of Jacob. We left Joseph, at the end of last week's message, in chains being hauled off to Egypt and slavery. Nine of his eleven brothers -- offended with the preferential treatment their father, Jacob, always extended to Joseph -- have beaten their brother and sold him to some passing traders. They have dipped his elegant robe in goat's blood and carried it back to their father, insisting he was slain by wild animals.
The brothers sold Joseph into slavery because he was a dreamer. Somehow, Joseph displayed a vision for life that was bigger than their hardscrabble, day-to-day existence, and they couldn't deal with that.
There was one thing, though, the brothers hadn't counted on. The dreams Joseph had been having were not his own. His dreams came from God, and if there's one thing in this world you cannot kill, it's the dream of God.
Let's follow God's dream for Joseph into the next chapters of his story...
The slave-traders lead Joseph into Egypt and sell him to a man named Potiphar, captain of the royal guard. Potiphar is a highly important official -- in many ways, he's Pharaoh's right-hand man. Joseph quickly demonstrates, in the house of Potiphar, that his greatest talent is for making himself indispensable.
Potiphar realizes his young Hebrew slave has a knack for administration. He quickly promotes him up through the ranks until Joseph is managing Potiphar's entire household. So effective is Joseph at running Potiphar's affairs that, the Bible tells us, Potiphar has "no concern for anything but the food that he ate." With all the money Joseph's raking in for him, in other words, Potiphar's able to retire early.
But it's not always smooth sailing for Joseph on his journey to the top. Potiphar's wife brings false charges against Joseph -- he tried to seduce her, she claims -- and Potiphar has Joseph thrown into prison. You can't keep a good man down, though. Even in prison, Joseph's administrative talent proves useful. Before long, he's running the prison. The chief jailer has made Joseph his chief trustee. So reliable are Joseph's management skills that, the Bible tells us, "The chief jailer paid no heed to anything that was in Joseph's care...."
For a second time, Joseph has risen to the top of the heap, by dint of his God-given talents (and the presence of the Lord by his side) -- but, he's still in prison. He yearns for freedom.
Not long after, Pharaoh throws some high government officials into prison on suspicion of treason. Joseph proves adept at interpreting their dreams. Word of Joseph's dream-interpretation skill eventually makes its way to the marble halls of Pharaoh's palace.
When Pharaoh himself has a disturbing dream, it is Joseph he calls to his side. Joseph predicts an agricultural cycle of seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine. He then recommends to the Pharaoh a massive program of stockpiling grain reserves, a hedge against the famine that is to come. Then Joseph adds, in a wry suggestion, "Looks like you'd better find a manager skillful enough to implement this plan."
Well, of course Pharaoh appoints Joseph, forthwith -- probably what Joseph had hoped would happen all along. (He certainly wasn't the last outside consultant to finesse his way onto the payroll!)
In time, Joseph's predictions come true. Seven years of plenty give way to seven years of famine. Joseph's position at the very pinnacle of Pharaoh's organization chart is now secure. He's come a long way since the desperate day when first he entered Egypt chained to his fellow-slaves in the caravan of the Ishmaelites!
The stage is now set for this morning's scripture passage: Joseph's reunion with his brothers. The terrible famine has extended its skeletal fingers all the way to Canaan. Jacob is forced to swallow his pride and send his sons to far-off Egypt to buy food. Ten of Jacob's eleven remaining sons undertake the long journey. The youngest son, Benjamin, the only son of his beloved Rachel yet remaining to him, after Joseph's untimely disappearance, stays at home.
These encounters between Joseph and his half-brothers are dripping with irony. All along, he knows perfectly well who they are. It is they who fail to recognize him.
Joseph has probably long since given up hope of seeing his brothers again. He's married to an Egyptian wife, who bore him two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. The name "Manasseh" means "making to forget" -- "For," as Joseph remarks, in choosing his firstborn son's name, "God has made me forget all my hardship and all my father's house." In a very real sense, he has left his old life behind.
Yet, when Joseph looks upon the faces of his long-lost brothers -- and when he hears news of his only full brother, Benjamin, still at home with their father -- Joseph is desperate to see him. He devises an elaborate ruse to bring Benjamin to his side, without revealing his true identity.
Joseph sends the brothers home, sacks bulging with grain, but declares he will dispense no future food aid unless all eleven of Jacob's sons come begging for it -- Benjamin included. When the sons of Jacob do return, and Joseph first casts his eye upon Benjamin, "his mother's son," he has to rush from the room because he's overcome with tears. Joseph thought he'd left his family of origin behind him, but -- as many of us have discovered -- his family of origin is always with him, no matter how far he may roam.
Joseph's next trick is to conceal his silver drinking-cup in Benjamin's grain-sack, just before sending his brothers home a second time. Now this may seem cruel and devious -- it is, after all, framing his own brother for burglary -- but there's another way to look at it. Joseph is still struggling with what he's going to do. He doesn't feel ready to reveal his true identity, but he's equally desperate not to lose track of Benjamin.
It's not unlike the situation of brothers and sisters separated at birth, who discover each other later in life. They don't immediately rush into each other's arms. The first encounter is awkward; they circle each other cautiously, getting used to this new reality. The silver cup in the grain-sack may be devious, but it's the only way Joseph can think of to buy himself a little time.
The Egyptian soldiers haul the sons of Jacob back into Joseph's presence. The brothers are crying out their innocence. The stage is now set for the grand reunion.
The first thing Joseph does is to send all the soldiers and palace officials away, leaving himself alone with these potentially dangerous prisoners. Joseph can now restrain his feelings no longer. It is then that he declares, through his tears, "I am Joseph. Is my father still alive?"
It has to be a terribly awkward scene for Joseph's half-brothers. For years they have had to live with the crushing guilt of what they've done. It never occurred to them that their brother might yet live and that he might exact vengeance. But now, as they look up at their long-lost brother, clad in the silks and golden jewelry of a high official of Pharaoh's court, vengeance seems a very real possibility.
Joseph, fortunately, is beyond that. Once upon a time he might have entertained dreams of revenge, but the passage of time has changed him. "Do not be distressed, or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here," Joseph reassures them, "for God sent me before you to preserve life."
That statement contains the key theological insight of this whole story, this grand epic that rolls on for chapter after chapter in this latter part of Genesis. When Joseph's brothers threw him down the well, he was but a brash teenager, fascinated with his own dreams. He passed through the crucible of experience. He gained wisdom from suffering. The mature Joseph is not so much interested in his own dreams, as he is in God's dream; in the wondrous, divine plan for the people Israel, expressed through the Lord's covenant with his ancestors.
"God sent me before you to preserve life," Joseph instructs his brothers. "I thought at the time, when you stripped me of my elegant coat and threw me down the well, that it was the greatest possible misfortune. Little did I know, it was all part of God's plan. For it was through my life, my incredible journeys from peak to valley and back again, that our family is now saved from starvation."
So it is with our lives, as well. We all have our own plans and dreams. Some of them we'll realize, some we won't. The journey of our lives reveals many twists and turns. Unexpected obstacles rise up. Some of them cause us to change course. Yet, through it all, we can be confident that God is watching over us, and that you and I are being led, inexorably, to the precise place where we are meant to be.
There are times, in life, when we realize we've come full-circle; that we, like Joseph, have been led on a long journey to the same place. That place to which we return is the loving care of God. We may have changed as a result of the journey. God has not.
Some theologian or other has remarked -- and very wisely, too -- "The tragedy of the twentieth century is that we expect so little of God." You and I receive plenty of encouragement from the culture around us to be self-sufficient. We feel perfectly entitled to count our lives our own. We feel entitled to make our own plans, to rely on our own resources. Maybe it's only in the crises of life, as unexpected trials come our way, that we sense another presence there beside us: One who is leading us on a long journey to the same place.
Prayer For The Day
God of our life, through all the circling years,
we trust in you;
in all the past, through all our hopes and fears,
your hand we see.
With each new day, when morning lifts the veil,
we own your mercies, Lord, which never fail.
-- Hugh Thompson Kerr, hymn text, "God Of Our Life, Through All The Circling Years," 1916 (adapted)
To Illustrate
The story of the polar explorer, Ernest Shackleton, is a remarkable tale of survival against incredible odds. Shackleton's ship, the Endurance, was frozen in Antarctic ice, and the ice was slowly drifting away from the Pole. The explorers soon realized they had no hope of reaching their goal. The question then became how they would get back home.
When their ship was finally crushed by the huge, shifting plates of ice, Shackleton and his 27 men set up camp on the moving ice. They lived there for six months until the ice broke up. Then they launched their three small boats and rowed for seven days and nights until they reached the nearest land -- a tiny outcropping of rock, sea birds, and little else, called Elephant Island.
A fresh problem arose: How to communicate a cry for help that the world might hear. Elephant Island was far off the shipping lanes, and they had no radio. It was then that Ernest Shackleton decided to take five companions with him and sail one of the small boats over 800 miles to the whaling-station at South Georgia -- an isolated island in the middle of the South Atlantic. If they miscalculated their position, and missed that tiny island, the next landfall would be the Cape of Good Hope, an impossible 4,000 miles away.
Shackleton and his five companions did make it to South Georgia, but treacherous currents forced them to land on the wrong side of the island. Over the next 36 hours, he and two other desperate men engaged in a grueling trek up one side of the snowy mountain ridge at the island's center and back down the other. When they casually walked into that remote whaling-station, these three had just completed one of the most incredible survival-journeys of all time. And, yes, all their fellow crew-members, on Elephant Island and on the far side of South Georgia, were rescued, too. Not a single man of the Shackleton Expedition was lost.
As Sir Ernest Shackleton and his two hardy companions completed that last 36-hour trek, they never imagined they journeyed alone. As Shackleton retells the tale later on:
"When I look back on those days, I have no doubt that Providence guided us, not only across those snow-fields, but across the storm-white sea that separated Elephant Island from our landing place in South Georgia. I know that during that long and racking march of 36 hours over the unnamed mountains and glaciers of South Georgia, it seemed to me often that we were four, not three. I said nothing to my companions on the point, but afterward Worsely said to me: 'Boss, I had the curious feeling on the march that there was another person with us.' "
Maybe that's not so different from what Joseph feels, as he reveals himself to his brothers. The path Joseph's life has taken is not the one he's planned for himself, by any means -- but, somehow, that doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is that it is God's plan. Looking back, Joseph now understands that he did not undertake those adventures of his alone. Someone else was traveling with him -- someone who would make sure of the outcome.
***
This anonymous poem has long been circulated under the title, "Testimony of a Confederate Soldier":
I asked God for strength that I might achieve
I was made weak that I might learn humbly to obey.
I asked for health that I might do greater things
I was given infirmity that I might do better things.
I asked for riches that I might be happy
I was given poverty that I might be wise.
I asked for power that I might have the praise of men
I was given weakness that I might feel the need of God.
I asked for all things that I might enjoy life
I was given life that I might enjoy all things.
I got nothing that I asked for -- but everything I had hoped for.
Almost despite myself my unspoken prayers were answered.
I am among all men, most richly blessed.
***
Anna Warner, author of the hymn "Jesus Loves Me," constantly faced financial pressure. Her father had been a wealthy powerbroker in New York City, but the stock market crash of 1837 wiped out his finances. All her life, Anna faced overwhelming debt. But she learned to trust God with her needs.
A friend wrote this about her: "One day when sitting with Miss Anna in the old living room she took from one of the cases a (sea)shell so delicate that it looked like lace work and holding it in her hand, with eyes dimmed with tears, she said, 'There was a time when I was very perplexed, bills were unpaid, necessities must be had, and someone sent me this exquisite thing. As I held it, I realized that if God could make this beautiful home for a little creature, he would take care of me.' "
-- Turning Point daily devotional, August 27, 2004
***
Here are some moving words from a classic hymn text by William Cowper:
[Tomorrow] can bring with it nothing
But God will bear us through;
Who gives the lilies clothing
Will clothe the people too:
Beneath the spreading heavens
No creature but is fed;
And God who feeds the ravens
Will give his children bread.
Though vine nor fig tree neither
Their wonted fruit shall bear,
Though all the field should wither,
Nor flocks nor herds be there;
Yet God the same abiding,
His praise shall tune my voice,
For while in Him confiding
I cannot but rejoice.
-- "Joy And Peace In Believing," #48, Olney Hymns (Glasgow: Collins, 1843), p. 332
God's guidance over our lives is constant, even though we often fail to realize it until after the fact.
Old Testament Lesson
Genesis 45:1-15
Joseph Reveals Himself To His Brothers
Much has happened in the story of Joseph between last week's Old Testament lesson and this one. He has gone down to Egypt in slavery, entered the service of Potiphar, been jailed for alleged adultery, been pardoned because of his dream-interpretation skills, and been elevated to the position of prime minister. Now, his brothers have come to the royal court to beg for famine-relief rations, and Joseph has the opportunity he has been waiting for all his life. It is a moment of high drama. Which will he choose: revenge or reconciliation? He chooses reconciliation -- but not without putting his errant brothers through some moments of high anxiety first, as he charges them with theft of a precious goblet and has them hauled back into his presence. As this passage opens, Joseph sends all the court retainers away, leaving him alone with his brothers. It is only then, in private, that Joseph reveals himself to them (v. 1). Loud is the wailing of the sons of Jacob, as they hear this news (one can wonder whether they are wailing in remorse, or because they fear they are about to lose their lives). Joseph's first thought is of his father, Jacob. He asks if he is still alive (v. 3). Then, he assures his brothers he means them no harm, claiming to have discerned a divine purpose in all his sufferings: "God sent me before you to preserve life" (v. 5). Joseph is the agent of God's covenant. Because of his remarkable, riches-to-rags-to-riches life story, God's covenant people will be saved. Joseph insists that Jacob and his entire clan join him in Egypt, where they will wait out the coming years of famine, enjoying the plenty of Egypt (verses 9-13). In the closing scene, Joseph and his full brother, Benjamin (the one he had framed for the theft of the goblet), enjoy a tearful reunion (verses 14-15). The saga of Joseph is a case-study of the Lord's providence and covenant-faithfulness.
New Testament Lesson
Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32
God Is Merciful To All
This lesson is in two sections. The first is a brief introduction, in which Paul insists -- speaking of the Jews -- that "God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew" (v. 2). Verses 17 and 18, omitted from this lection, are helpful to cite, anyway, because they warn against anti-Semitism. Paul likens the Gentiles to a branch grafted onto an existing tree; then warns them against thinking of themselves, a branch, as of greater importance than the root. Although some Jews may have severed their own branches from God's tree, they can be easily grafted back in -- more easily than the Gentiles, as it happens (v. 24). In the second part of today's lection, Paul reminds the Gentiles that "the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable" (v. 29). This is an extremely important passage to cite in any discussion of the relations between Christians and Jews. God's covenant with Israel has not been revoked. God's earnest desire is that all people, Jews and Gentiles alike, "may now receive mercy" (v. 31). "God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may be merciful to all" -- all people, Jews and Gentiles are equally in need of grace (v. 32). As with last week's selection, Paul's argument is intricate and hard to follow. It is important to stress the all-encompassing grace and generosity of God, rather than engaging in idle speculation about something we can never know in this life: the question of whom God has chosen to save.
The Gospel
Matthew 15:(10-20) 21-28
Jesus And The Canaanite Woman
The heart of today's passage is the story of Jesus' encounter with a Canaanite woman -- although verses 10-20 are included as an optional prologue. Taking issue with Pharisaical types who are overly obsessed with the details of dietary laws, Jesus teaches that it is not what goes into the mouth, but what comes out of it, that is important to God (v. 11). It is words that issue in unrighteous deeds that truly defile a person, not food consumed with unwashed hands. The story of Jesus' conversation with the Canaanite woman -- a person considered ritually unclean -- serves as a practical illustration of this teaching. As Jesus passes through the Canaanite region of Tyre and Sidon, a woman calls out to him in desperation, begging him to heal her daughter. Jesus' initial response is one that would have been understandable to any devout Jew of the time: an utter refusal to interact with such a woman. "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel," Jesus explains, turning away (v. 24). The desperate woman persists, so he replies again, with an even more exclusionary comment: "It is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs" (v. 26). This plucky woman, bucking all convention, responds with a snappy comeback: "Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table" (v. 27). Jesus then commends the woman for her faith and declares that her daughter has been healed. Jesus' harsh words to the Canaanite woman are among the most difficult of all his many sayings. He appears to be excluding her on racial grounds -- breaking his pattern that we see, elsewhere, of radical openness to all people. Were it not for this long record of inclusiveness, we might be tempted to brand Jesus a racist. It is therefore likely, instead, that he is engaging her in a conversational gambit, knowing full well that here is a woman with the courage to persist in speaking up for herself.
Preaching Possibilities
Do you want to know how to make God laugh? Tell God your plans.
There's more than a little truth in that one-liner. Solemnly and painstakingly, you and I make our plans in life. From an early age, we page forward in our calendars, and pencil in the great events we know are coming. We assemble stockpiles of resources, decide on where we'd like to live, choose the people we'd like to be present with us. Then, we sit back and wait, watching our plans unfold -- nearly always, to see them turn out differently than we expected.
Some changes in the master-plan we've brought about ourselves through changing our minds, but others simply happen: pure accident! There's the college admission that doesn't come through, the "significant other" who turns out less than significant, the job offer that doesn't materialize, and the unexpected illness or the change in career. When, at last, we reach the age when looking back comes easily, and begin to survey the winding path we've followed, it all seems remarkable -- truly remarkable!
Last week, we heard the first part of another truly remarkable life-story: that of Joseph, son of Jacob. We left Joseph, at the end of last week's message, in chains being hauled off to Egypt and slavery. Nine of his eleven brothers -- offended with the preferential treatment their father, Jacob, always extended to Joseph -- have beaten their brother and sold him to some passing traders. They have dipped his elegant robe in goat's blood and carried it back to their father, insisting he was slain by wild animals.
The brothers sold Joseph into slavery because he was a dreamer. Somehow, Joseph displayed a vision for life that was bigger than their hardscrabble, day-to-day existence, and they couldn't deal with that.
There was one thing, though, the brothers hadn't counted on. The dreams Joseph had been having were not his own. His dreams came from God, and if there's one thing in this world you cannot kill, it's the dream of God.
Let's follow God's dream for Joseph into the next chapters of his story...
The slave-traders lead Joseph into Egypt and sell him to a man named Potiphar, captain of the royal guard. Potiphar is a highly important official -- in many ways, he's Pharaoh's right-hand man. Joseph quickly demonstrates, in the house of Potiphar, that his greatest talent is for making himself indispensable.
Potiphar realizes his young Hebrew slave has a knack for administration. He quickly promotes him up through the ranks until Joseph is managing Potiphar's entire household. So effective is Joseph at running Potiphar's affairs that, the Bible tells us, Potiphar has "no concern for anything but the food that he ate." With all the money Joseph's raking in for him, in other words, Potiphar's able to retire early.
But it's not always smooth sailing for Joseph on his journey to the top. Potiphar's wife brings false charges against Joseph -- he tried to seduce her, she claims -- and Potiphar has Joseph thrown into prison. You can't keep a good man down, though. Even in prison, Joseph's administrative talent proves useful. Before long, he's running the prison. The chief jailer has made Joseph his chief trustee. So reliable are Joseph's management skills that, the Bible tells us, "The chief jailer paid no heed to anything that was in Joseph's care...."
For a second time, Joseph has risen to the top of the heap, by dint of his God-given talents (and the presence of the Lord by his side) -- but, he's still in prison. He yearns for freedom.
Not long after, Pharaoh throws some high government officials into prison on suspicion of treason. Joseph proves adept at interpreting their dreams. Word of Joseph's dream-interpretation skill eventually makes its way to the marble halls of Pharaoh's palace.
When Pharaoh himself has a disturbing dream, it is Joseph he calls to his side. Joseph predicts an agricultural cycle of seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine. He then recommends to the Pharaoh a massive program of stockpiling grain reserves, a hedge against the famine that is to come. Then Joseph adds, in a wry suggestion, "Looks like you'd better find a manager skillful enough to implement this plan."
Well, of course Pharaoh appoints Joseph, forthwith -- probably what Joseph had hoped would happen all along. (He certainly wasn't the last outside consultant to finesse his way onto the payroll!)
In time, Joseph's predictions come true. Seven years of plenty give way to seven years of famine. Joseph's position at the very pinnacle of Pharaoh's organization chart is now secure. He's come a long way since the desperate day when first he entered Egypt chained to his fellow-slaves in the caravan of the Ishmaelites!
The stage is now set for this morning's scripture passage: Joseph's reunion with his brothers. The terrible famine has extended its skeletal fingers all the way to Canaan. Jacob is forced to swallow his pride and send his sons to far-off Egypt to buy food. Ten of Jacob's eleven remaining sons undertake the long journey. The youngest son, Benjamin, the only son of his beloved Rachel yet remaining to him, after Joseph's untimely disappearance, stays at home.
These encounters between Joseph and his half-brothers are dripping with irony. All along, he knows perfectly well who they are. It is they who fail to recognize him.
Joseph has probably long since given up hope of seeing his brothers again. He's married to an Egyptian wife, who bore him two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. The name "Manasseh" means "making to forget" -- "For," as Joseph remarks, in choosing his firstborn son's name, "God has made me forget all my hardship and all my father's house." In a very real sense, he has left his old life behind.
Yet, when Joseph looks upon the faces of his long-lost brothers -- and when he hears news of his only full brother, Benjamin, still at home with their father -- Joseph is desperate to see him. He devises an elaborate ruse to bring Benjamin to his side, without revealing his true identity.
Joseph sends the brothers home, sacks bulging with grain, but declares he will dispense no future food aid unless all eleven of Jacob's sons come begging for it -- Benjamin included. When the sons of Jacob do return, and Joseph first casts his eye upon Benjamin, "his mother's son," he has to rush from the room because he's overcome with tears. Joseph thought he'd left his family of origin behind him, but -- as many of us have discovered -- his family of origin is always with him, no matter how far he may roam.
Joseph's next trick is to conceal his silver drinking-cup in Benjamin's grain-sack, just before sending his brothers home a second time. Now this may seem cruel and devious -- it is, after all, framing his own brother for burglary -- but there's another way to look at it. Joseph is still struggling with what he's going to do. He doesn't feel ready to reveal his true identity, but he's equally desperate not to lose track of Benjamin.
It's not unlike the situation of brothers and sisters separated at birth, who discover each other later in life. They don't immediately rush into each other's arms. The first encounter is awkward; they circle each other cautiously, getting used to this new reality. The silver cup in the grain-sack may be devious, but it's the only way Joseph can think of to buy himself a little time.
The Egyptian soldiers haul the sons of Jacob back into Joseph's presence. The brothers are crying out their innocence. The stage is now set for the grand reunion.
The first thing Joseph does is to send all the soldiers and palace officials away, leaving himself alone with these potentially dangerous prisoners. Joseph can now restrain his feelings no longer. It is then that he declares, through his tears, "I am Joseph. Is my father still alive?"
It has to be a terribly awkward scene for Joseph's half-brothers. For years they have had to live with the crushing guilt of what they've done. It never occurred to them that their brother might yet live and that he might exact vengeance. But now, as they look up at their long-lost brother, clad in the silks and golden jewelry of a high official of Pharaoh's court, vengeance seems a very real possibility.
Joseph, fortunately, is beyond that. Once upon a time he might have entertained dreams of revenge, but the passage of time has changed him. "Do not be distressed, or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here," Joseph reassures them, "for God sent me before you to preserve life."
That statement contains the key theological insight of this whole story, this grand epic that rolls on for chapter after chapter in this latter part of Genesis. When Joseph's brothers threw him down the well, he was but a brash teenager, fascinated with his own dreams. He passed through the crucible of experience. He gained wisdom from suffering. The mature Joseph is not so much interested in his own dreams, as he is in God's dream; in the wondrous, divine plan for the people Israel, expressed through the Lord's covenant with his ancestors.
"God sent me before you to preserve life," Joseph instructs his brothers. "I thought at the time, when you stripped me of my elegant coat and threw me down the well, that it was the greatest possible misfortune. Little did I know, it was all part of God's plan. For it was through my life, my incredible journeys from peak to valley and back again, that our family is now saved from starvation."
So it is with our lives, as well. We all have our own plans and dreams. Some of them we'll realize, some we won't. The journey of our lives reveals many twists and turns. Unexpected obstacles rise up. Some of them cause us to change course. Yet, through it all, we can be confident that God is watching over us, and that you and I are being led, inexorably, to the precise place where we are meant to be.
There are times, in life, when we realize we've come full-circle; that we, like Joseph, have been led on a long journey to the same place. That place to which we return is the loving care of God. We may have changed as a result of the journey. God has not.
Some theologian or other has remarked -- and very wisely, too -- "The tragedy of the twentieth century is that we expect so little of God." You and I receive plenty of encouragement from the culture around us to be self-sufficient. We feel perfectly entitled to count our lives our own. We feel entitled to make our own plans, to rely on our own resources. Maybe it's only in the crises of life, as unexpected trials come our way, that we sense another presence there beside us: One who is leading us on a long journey to the same place.
Prayer For The Day
God of our life, through all the circling years,
we trust in you;
in all the past, through all our hopes and fears,
your hand we see.
With each new day, when morning lifts the veil,
we own your mercies, Lord, which never fail.
-- Hugh Thompson Kerr, hymn text, "God Of Our Life, Through All The Circling Years," 1916 (adapted)
To Illustrate
The story of the polar explorer, Ernest Shackleton, is a remarkable tale of survival against incredible odds. Shackleton's ship, the Endurance, was frozen in Antarctic ice, and the ice was slowly drifting away from the Pole. The explorers soon realized they had no hope of reaching their goal. The question then became how they would get back home.
When their ship was finally crushed by the huge, shifting plates of ice, Shackleton and his 27 men set up camp on the moving ice. They lived there for six months until the ice broke up. Then they launched their three small boats and rowed for seven days and nights until they reached the nearest land -- a tiny outcropping of rock, sea birds, and little else, called Elephant Island.
A fresh problem arose: How to communicate a cry for help that the world might hear. Elephant Island was far off the shipping lanes, and they had no radio. It was then that Ernest Shackleton decided to take five companions with him and sail one of the small boats over 800 miles to the whaling-station at South Georgia -- an isolated island in the middle of the South Atlantic. If they miscalculated their position, and missed that tiny island, the next landfall would be the Cape of Good Hope, an impossible 4,000 miles away.
Shackleton and his five companions did make it to South Georgia, but treacherous currents forced them to land on the wrong side of the island. Over the next 36 hours, he and two other desperate men engaged in a grueling trek up one side of the snowy mountain ridge at the island's center and back down the other. When they casually walked into that remote whaling-station, these three had just completed one of the most incredible survival-journeys of all time. And, yes, all their fellow crew-members, on Elephant Island and on the far side of South Georgia, were rescued, too. Not a single man of the Shackleton Expedition was lost.
As Sir Ernest Shackleton and his two hardy companions completed that last 36-hour trek, they never imagined they journeyed alone. As Shackleton retells the tale later on:
"When I look back on those days, I have no doubt that Providence guided us, not only across those snow-fields, but across the storm-white sea that separated Elephant Island from our landing place in South Georgia. I know that during that long and racking march of 36 hours over the unnamed mountains and glaciers of South Georgia, it seemed to me often that we were four, not three. I said nothing to my companions on the point, but afterward Worsely said to me: 'Boss, I had the curious feeling on the march that there was another person with us.' "
Maybe that's not so different from what Joseph feels, as he reveals himself to his brothers. The path Joseph's life has taken is not the one he's planned for himself, by any means -- but, somehow, that doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is that it is God's plan. Looking back, Joseph now understands that he did not undertake those adventures of his alone. Someone else was traveling with him -- someone who would make sure of the outcome.
***
This anonymous poem has long been circulated under the title, "Testimony of a Confederate Soldier":
I asked God for strength that I might achieve
I was made weak that I might learn humbly to obey.
I asked for health that I might do greater things
I was given infirmity that I might do better things.
I asked for riches that I might be happy
I was given poverty that I might be wise.
I asked for power that I might have the praise of men
I was given weakness that I might feel the need of God.
I asked for all things that I might enjoy life
I was given life that I might enjoy all things.
I got nothing that I asked for -- but everything I had hoped for.
Almost despite myself my unspoken prayers were answered.
I am among all men, most richly blessed.
***
Anna Warner, author of the hymn "Jesus Loves Me," constantly faced financial pressure. Her father had been a wealthy powerbroker in New York City, but the stock market crash of 1837 wiped out his finances. All her life, Anna faced overwhelming debt. But she learned to trust God with her needs.
A friend wrote this about her: "One day when sitting with Miss Anna in the old living room she took from one of the cases a (sea)shell so delicate that it looked like lace work and holding it in her hand, with eyes dimmed with tears, she said, 'There was a time when I was very perplexed, bills were unpaid, necessities must be had, and someone sent me this exquisite thing. As I held it, I realized that if God could make this beautiful home for a little creature, he would take care of me.' "
-- Turning Point daily devotional, August 27, 2004
***
Here are some moving words from a classic hymn text by William Cowper:
[Tomorrow] can bring with it nothing
But God will bear us through;
Who gives the lilies clothing
Will clothe the people too:
Beneath the spreading heavens
No creature but is fed;
And God who feeds the ravens
Will give his children bread.
Though vine nor fig tree neither
Their wonted fruit shall bear,
Though all the field should wither,
Nor flocks nor herds be there;
Yet God the same abiding,
His praise shall tune my voice,
For while in Him confiding
I cannot but rejoice.
-- "Joy And Peace In Believing," #48, Olney Hymns (Glasgow: Collins, 1843), p. 332
