September 27, 2020
Genesis 37: 3-8, 17b-22, 26-34; 50: 15-21

I have to admit that, being an only child, I have trouble relating to the family dynamics when brothers are involved.

My father, on the other hand, came from a farming family with 13 brothers and sisters. Back then, large families meant a reliable labour pool for the farm. Oddly enough, none of them remained on the family farm.

My father left the farm when he was around 20 and never looked back. After my father relocated to Winnipeg, it was 15 years before he saw one of his siblings again and about 20 before he saw the rest of remaining brothers and sisters.

 By the time my father was a pre-teen, only he and his younger brother remained on the farm.

He once told me that his mother and his brother would pray together each day, while his father took him out to work in the fields.

I can’t be sure, but I always sensed that he was a bit jealous of the relationship his brother had with his mom … wondering why his brother got the privilege to stay inside.

Maybe that’s why they rarely spoke or corresponded over the years and when they did try to connect near the end of their lives … the two of them found that they couldn’t even speak the same language.

The family dynamics are abysmal in Joseph’s story today.

Joseph … according to some biblical scholars … was a snot-nosed kid and a bit of a jerk.

He serves as a helper for his brothers, but also spies on them for his father … Jacob … and tattles on them when he sees them do something wrong.

Joseph is his father’s favourite because he was a child of his old age … an unexpected blessing. The passage even says that he loved Joseph more than the rest. His brothers were jealous and couldn’t speak to him without their words being steeped in hatred and anger.

Jacob gives his son a robe … we aren’t given a description of the robe … but it must have been something special since the brothers were all jealous.

Then, God sends Joseph a dream.

Joseph … who has the ability to understand dreams … and shares it with his brothers.

In the dream, a sheave he has bound stands upright and his brothers’ sheaves all gather around it and bow down.

The brothers don’t like where this is going.

They understand the dream as a prediction that Joseph will be placed before them in the brotherly pecking order and that they will answer to this snot-nosed kid. That’s not the way things are supposed to work.

Their father had acquired a lot of land and wealth as the result of God’s blessings. So, there was a sizeable inheritance at stake.

During these ancient times, there was a pecking order to be followed … the elder sons had the most clout and were first in the line for any inheritance. The youngest were the last to receive anything … if they received anything at all. Being the eleventh son should mean slim pickings for Joseph.

But this dream meant the last could be first.

Perhaps out of jealousy … perhaps out of fear, the brothers plot to kill their jerky little brother and conspire to leave him in a pit, before finally selling him into slavery and getting him bundled off to Egypt.

But, God was still with him.

Joseph actually prospered under his Egyptian master. … until the woman of the house lied and got Joseph tossed into prison. But despite the setback, circumstances resulted in Joseph becoming an official for the pharaoh – handling planning and economic development.

Again, Joseph … and the pharaoh … prosper during a time of famine.  In recognition of his service, Joseph is given a new name … Zaphenath-paneah.

This same famine led his brothers to go to Egypt in search of help for their family and holdings. They meet with this Zaphenath-paneah person.

Since it has been 16 years, they don’t recognize their brother until he speaks up.

The brothers are worried that this wealthy and powerful man bears a grudge against them. They bow down and ask for forgiveness.

The brothers all weep … Joseph offers his forgiveness and promises to care for his brothers’ families. God kept his promise, Joseph tells them.

For some, the lesson here is to endure all the pain and punishment the world heaps on you because God will keep the promise that has been made … somewhere down the road, you’ll be blessed.

I’m not sure how much comfort this offers to someone who is in the midst of being persecuted or abused.

But I think it’s worth noting that … at the end of this passage … Joseph instructs his brothers “Do not be afraid.”

“Do not be afraid.”…

Throughout the passage, fear led to some poor decisions.

The brothers were fearful that Jacob’s favouring of Joseph would mean less for them … less wealth … less land … fewer possessions … perhaps even less love.

When Ruben went to save Joseph, only to discover he was gone, he was fearful of how he lost the chance to be a hero to his father.

When the brothers went to ask for help, they were likely fearful of the answer and later of Joseph’s response to their betrayal.

The fear that set events in motion were all based in a sense of scarcity … a sense that there isn’t an abundance of love … of food … or other necessities. The consumer-driven world we live in functions best when the sense of scarcity is present.

Just think of the run on toilet paper when the pandemic began and you get the idea.

Rather than act out of faith in God’s abundant love, we act out of fear of loss … fear of uncertainty … or even fear of the stranger.

Perhaps in those moments we can remember Joseph’s instructions:

“Do not be afraid… God is with you.”

Joseph’s story offers a narrative of blessings … by acting out of sense of abundance … we can share in that narrative rather than the world’s narrative of scarcity.

If we anchor our actions in God’s abundant love … in God’s gift of grace … we can act boldly … decisively … allowing the Spirit to move us to minister to others … comforting them … healing them … standing with them … we bring blessings to the world.

AMEN