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Joseph Part 7: Genesis 41:32-57
Sermons from Commons Church. Intellectually honest. Spiritually passionate. Jesus at the centre. Since 2014.
Trust me. You are strong enough to endure seven years of famine. But you will need to remember your joy if you're going to do it. Welcome to the Commons cast. We're glad to have you here.
Speaker 1:We hope you find something meaningful in our teaching this week. Head to commons.church for more information. Good morning, and welcome to Commons. As always, we are super glad that you are here. We really don't take it for granted that you spend part of your weekend to worship with us, especially on a weekend where we have been able to celebrate and participate alongside those who are being baptized.
Speaker 1:This is always such an incredible privilege for us as a community. Now, my name is Jeremy. I'm part of the team here, I get the opportunity to teach most Sundays like today. But before we jump in, I also want to take a quick minute here to say thank you to everyone who participated in the Olympic plebiscite this week. There was a lot of thoughtful work that went into the YES campaign and a lot of thoughtful deliberation that came from those who voted no.
Speaker 1:And I think this is a really good reminder for us that municipal politics are a really accessible way for us to contribute to the greater good. Sometimes federal politics, and let's be honest here, American politics gets a lot of our attention. But what happens here in our city? This deeply affects our neighbors and our neighborhoods, and the more engaged we are, the better. We will all be better off when we do that.
Speaker 1:So in honor of that, I will leave you with my son's comments from Wednesday night when I got home. He said to me, daddy, did you know that all of the adults have to go to a place and write a note to say if they want to have an Olympics? And I really want to have an Olympics, but also it takes a lot of money to have an Olympics. And if we have an Olympics, we might not be able to have other things that we want. And I thought, hey, if we were all that deeply engaged with civic politics as my son, my five year old, we might do pretty well.
Speaker 1:Alright. Last week, we turned a corner in the Joseph story. And he has been sold into slavery and falsely accused and tossed into prison. But last week, we saw as he was now summoned before the pharaoh to interpret pharaoh's dreams. And so last week, we talked about the difference between being smart and wise.
Speaker 1:And how sometimes smart is knowing what a dream means. Wise is knowing what needs to be said about it. This week, we have a lot of ground to cover, and so we are going to jump right back into the conversation where we left off as we now move from smart to wise to strategy. But first, let's pray. God of grace, help us this day to know what it means to trust.
Speaker 1:We talk about faith and belief and all kinds of religious language. But when it comes down to it, in the daily experience of what it means to walk through life with you, it is trust that divines our relationship to the divine. Help us to know you as father, as mother, a source of all that we need right now in this moment. Where there is peace, may we figure out how to share it with those near us. And where we are fearful or anxious, where peace seems to elude us right now, May we learn to face tomorrow with a deep sense of your nearness and the comfort that brings in the face of hard choices.
Speaker 1:We trust that you are invested in our tomorrow. We believe that you are shaping us for a future you have in mind. We are confident that you are always ahead of us inviting us forward. And so may we follow with a sense of wholeness and completeness and peace about what lies ahead. In the strong name of the risen Christ we pray.
Speaker 1:Amen. Alright. Today is practical plans for big problems, and on the agenda is joy as a skill, planning and participating, and becoming everything that you need to be. But, we're gonna jump back in at the interpretation that Joseph gave to Pharaoh last week. Because there are a few things there that I wanna pick up that we didn't have time for last Sunday.
Speaker 1:And so this is starting in Genesis 41 verse 28 where we read that it is just as I said to Pharaoh. God has shown Pharaoh what God is about to do. Seven years of great abundance are coming throughout the land of Egypt, but seven years of famine will follow. And all the abundance in Egypt will be forgotten, and famine will ravage the land. The abundance in the land will not be remembered because the famine that follows will be so severe.
Speaker 1:The reason the dream was given to pharaoh in two forms is that the matter has been firmly decided by God and God will do it soon. Now, couple important things here, but let's start at the end. Joseph says, the reason the dream was given to pharaoh in two forms is that the matter has been firmly decided. And as a parent with a five year old living in my house, that seems eminently reasonable. I mean, I don't know about you, but I almost never get to say anything once and have that acknowledged immediately.
Speaker 1:So twice seems downright pleasant. I don't know. I went on a field trip this week with my son's kindergarten class, and I was assigned five five year old children to wrangle as we walked through Downtown Calgary, and it wasn't five minutes before I had lost count of how many times I had to repeat myself. And I will say this, I don't care what kindergarten teachers are paid, it's not enough, and if it helps, I'll say it twice. But, there's more than just inattentiveness going on in the story here.
Speaker 1:The language here in Hebrew is the word nikon. And it means to be firm or fixed, established or complete. And for comparison, it gets used in first Kings where Solomon says that or sorry, that David sits on Solomon's throne and says his rule was firmly established. In Psalm 93 it says that God's throne was fixed long ago from eternity. And there's an interesting one in Psalm one nineteen where the writer says, oh, that my ways would be firm in obeying your decrees.
Speaker 1:So there's a sense of completeness, but also a sense of conviction here. This is gonna happen. And essentially, Joseph is saying, God has made up God's mind. There's no going back, and this is a really important idea for Joseph. Because Joseph has come to believe through his story that God is invested in him.
Speaker 1:Even when things look desperate, God is there for him. And Joseph's conviction is that somehow against all odds, God is in control even in the hard parts of his story. And I like this because as much as Joseph is talking to Pharaoh here, I wonder if maybe there isn't a sense that he's talking to himself as well. Because where else have we seen two of the same dreams in this story? Well, it was back at the start of the story when Joseph dreamed about his family coming before him twice.
Speaker 1:And so, every time I read this, I keep seeing Joseph speaking to Pharaoh, but I hear him speaking to himself, reminding himself that God's eyes are still on him, reminding himself that the divine has not looked away from him, reminding himself that the universe still has plans for Joseph. And sometimes, I think we need to remind ourselves of such things as well. And so when you speak good words to those around you, words of hope, and truth, and peace, and light, because I know you speak those words to those who need them. Sometimes it's okay to remember to hold some of those words for yourself as well. It's whatever generosity you muster to speak to those near you, that should be the generosity that you hold onto when you speak to yourself as well.
Speaker 1:So Joseph says to Pharaoh, it's firm, it will happen, and maybe he's saying to him himself, you're not forgotten either. Now, at the same time, there's this really interesting dynamic at play in the language here. Because I think we tend to assume that God has always made up God's mind and everything is firmly fixed in God's imagination. And yet, Joseph seems to think that sometimes the future is firm and sometimes it's a little bit up for grabs. In fact, all throughout the Hebrew scriptures, God seems far more malleable than we often recognize.
Speaker 1:In the Hebrew scriptures, people argue with God. People appear to change God's mind from time to time. People seem to convince God to alter God's plans at times. Now, for example, a couple years ago, we looked at the story of Abraham, and we saw him negotiate with God over the fate of his friends in Sodom and Gomorrah. And Walter Brueggemann, writes that the big idea of the Old Testament is that the God of ancient Israel, who is the creator of heaven and earth and everything else, is a God in relationship.
Speaker 1:A God who is ready and able to make commitments and who is impinged upon by a variety of partners who make a difference in the life of God. The Old Testament is an invitation then to reimagine our life and faith as an ongoing dialogic transaction in which all parties are variously summoned to risk and change. And for me, this is a really compelling image of the divine. Not a God who is dependent on me and my choices, but a God who chooses to be in relationship with me and my choices. And there's a couple things I think we could say about this.
Speaker 1:First, that perhaps we should be careful not to let our theological presuppositions about God remove God from a meaningful relational dynamic in our lives. In other words, sometimes I think we run the risk of thinking about God as so transcendent and so fixed and so firm that we suddenly begin to feel like any dialogue, any conversation, any prayer that we might offer to God is ultimately meaningless anyway. And that is not God, Because the divine is interested in you. And that involves a give and a take on both sides of a very sacred relationship. And yet at the same time, we also have to recognize here that sometimes, some things are just fixed.
Speaker 1:Sometimes, no matter how much we pray, or no matter how hard we pray, whether we use the right words when we pray, whether we pray on our knees or at church, on a boat with a goat, sometimes some things simply don't happen the way that we hope. And that is incredibly hard. There is nothing that I can do to make those moments easier for you, except to remember that Joseph shows me. And the truth is, sometimes I'm not sure I even believe it. But the story shows me that even in those moments I don't want to go through, that I would pray never to experience, somehow all of this is part of how God is moving me to where God sees me.
Speaker 1:And there is goodness hidden all around me even when I struggle to see it in the moment. Now, there's one more piece here that I want to look at before we move to Joseph's plan. And it's buried in the way he describes this pair of seven year periods that are coming. He says, when the famine comes, all the abundance in Egypt will be forgotten. The abundance in the land will not be remembered because the famine that follows will be so severe.
Speaker 1:And what's interesting here is how intense this passage is in Hebrew. A couple weeks ago, we talked about this word zakar, to remember. There, it came in a devastating line at the end of chapter 40 that the cup bearer did not remember Joseph, he forgot him. Well, the intensity here has been ratcheted up even higher. Because when the text says that the abundance will be forgotten, the word is the same as when the cup bearer forgot Joseph.
Speaker 1:But when it says the abundance will not be remembered, it's actually not zakar to remember. It's the Hebrew, to know. The implication being that this forgetting will be so deep and so painful that they won't even know about the good times anymore. They they haven't just forgotten. It's as if all of the good has been sucked out and wiped away.
Speaker 1:And this is more real than we realize sometimes, isn't it? I talked a couple weeks ago about universalizing the particular. That space where we get so caught up in the present moment that we lose sight of the bigger story that surrounds us. Either things are going well, therefore things will always go well and I don't need God. Or things are tough, so things will always be tough and it must be that God has abandoned me.
Speaker 1:And here, Joseph reminds us that we can experience seven years of nothing but glorious goodness, abundance and wealth and everything else, and we can completely forget all of it if we're not careful. Look, I'm not telling you to look on the bright side. Sometimes there is no bright side, I get it. What I am saying is don't let your grief today steal from you memories of joy past and hope for celebration returned. Grieve, mourn, hurt, do it all because it's important, but also look back.
Speaker 1:Recapture, tell stories, celebrate, preserve the best, remember well, find the joy and hold on to it. Because trust me, you are strong enough to endure seven years of famine, But you will need to remember your joy if you're going to do it. And the tough thing is that evolutionarily we are wired to hold on to difficult experiences far more tightly than joyful ones. Our brains, they grab a hold of pain and discomfort. They hang on to anxiety really well, and that's part of how we learn to protect ourselves in the world.
Speaker 1:You know, millions, thousands of years ago, our ancestors who forgot about danger didn't fare well, and that's why they're not our ancestors. But what that means is that when joy invades your space, and goodness and grace and blessings surround you, you need to dive into that with everything that you have. And you need to pay attention to it, and you need to revel in it. You need to learn to dance and sing, and you need to write it down and fix ate on it. Because you need to sink joy somewhere deep in your bones for later, because your brain won't do that for you if you don't choose to do it intentionally.
Speaker 1:And this is why one of the very early Christian leaders, a man named Paul says, whatever is good, whatever is pure, if anything is lovely and true and admirable, think on these things. Meditate on them, draw them in, and hold them close until you're sure that no famine can ever take that joy away from you. Now, that said, sometimes we still have to deal with a famine. And so in verse 33, Joseph continues. And he says to Pharaoh, now let Pharaoh look for a discerning and wise man and put him in charge of the land of Egypt.
Speaker 1:Let Pharaoh appoint commissioners over the land to take a fifth of the harvest of Egypt during these seven years of abundance. And they should collect all the food of the good years that are coming and store up that grain under the authority of pharaoh to be kept in the cities for food. This food should be held in reserve for the country, to be used during seven years of famine that will come through Egypt so that the country may not be ruined by them. Last week, we talked about the boldness of Joseph when he stands before Pharaoh and says to him, I can't speak peace to you, but God can. Well this is really over the top here.
Speaker 1:I mean, let's remember, Pharaoh is literally a God incarnate in Egyptian theology, and yes, he did ask this imprisoned slave for an interpretation of his dreams, but he certainly did not ask for advice on how to run his empire. Joseph, however, says, well, here's what's gonna happen and here's what I would do, and that takes some chutzpah, which, by the way, is actually the Hebrew word for audacity. But, let's take a look at this. Because, yes, Joseph does show some impudence here, but it's a very different Joseph from the one we encountered seven weeks ago, isn't it? In the beginning, we met a Joseph who says to his brothers, hey guys, I had a dream where all of you came and bowed down before me.
Speaker 1:It was an awesome dream. What do you think about it? Hope you like it. And certainly there's some audacity there. But here there's a different kind of fearlessness.
Speaker 1:There he was fearless to say whatever he wanted, whatever popped into his head. Here he's fearless to say what he thinks can help. And this is really important, because we all know people who are fearless. We all know less people who are courageously helpful. And there's a difference.
Speaker 1:And ironically, I think some of us need to learn both of these lessons. We need to be more careful about speaking carelessly, and we need to be more courageous about speaking intentionally. And sometimes it's important to realize that you have something that needs to be said. And sometimes when you don't say it, someone else suffers. Last week, I said that your wisdom, whatever you have, it is hard won and you earned it.
Speaker 1:And sometimes that means your burden is sharing it. Now, speaking too much is a problem. And listening is a skill that I am constantly working really hard on, not because I'm a good listener, because I'm a bad one and I know it. But seizing the moments where you do have something to say, even when it's risky, sometimes that makes all the difference for someone. And so Joseph, knowing that this might not be well received, and it might not turn out well for him, he goes for it.
Speaker 1:Maybe we could say it this way, that your wisdom is not just for you. God has us in community. God has us near each other. We are in each other's lives for a reason, and sometimes your brilliance is actually meant for the person beside you. Because, let's be honest here, Joseph is a slave.
Speaker 1:He's not an Egyptian. He's been treated pretty poorly in a strange land. And it's not hard to imagine a scenario where Joseph just knows exactly what's going on. He knows exactly to help, and he just says forget it. This is your problem.
Speaker 1:I wash my hands of it. I'll keep my mouth shut. And he says to himself, let pharaoh figure it out. Now, sure, he's a slave. That means that the famine is going to hurt him as well, but don't tell me you've never been willing to hurt yourself to hurt someone else.
Speaker 1:Like, it's crazy, but we all do it. And yet Joseph says, this isn't my problem. These aren't my people. They haven't been good to me. But I know I can help.
Speaker 1:And so here's Joseph's advice. He says, you got seven good years coming, take some of your surplus, save it away, and use that to get through the lean years. Now if you're into math, you know the problem already. He wants to take one fifth each year for seven years. That's going to give him one point four years of grain to survive seven years of famine.
Speaker 1:So in other words, this is still going to be hard. And no matter how well you plan, that can't negate every difficult season in your life. Right now, as a world, we are talking a lot about climate change and the adjustments that are needed in order for us to avoid the worst case scenarios that have been floated out there. And so we're talking about how we make changes and how we can shift economies and how we begin to move in better directions. But just like Egypt, the longer we wait, the harder it becomes.
Speaker 1:And sometimes we need to be honest with ourselves that no matter how well we plan, shifting patterns and economies and privileges in ways that address problems is still hard. Sometimes there is no such thing as a silver bullet. There's no magic way to avoid discomfort, and sometimes wisdom is facing directly into those uncomfortable realities. That's only amplified once we notice what else is going on in the text here. Because in his speech, Joseph has used this term, which means to do or to put into effect.
Speaker 1:He's used that four times in a very short order. Verse 25, God has revealed to Pharaoh what God is about to do. Verse 28, he repeats that. He says, God has shown Pharaoh what God is about to do. Verse 32, he says, it is fixed and God is going to do it.
Speaker 1:But now in verse 34, Joseph says, this is what you need to do. So, the story goes, God is gonna do this, God is gonna do this, God is gonna do this, now you need to do this. Part of what's going on here is an image of that interplay between the human and the divine that we talked about earlier. Bruggemann, in his commentary on Genesis, a different text than I cited earlier, says that the drama of God's future must now be embodied and implemented by human imaginations. That's pretty cool.
Speaker 1:God is gonna do this. It's the cone. It's firm and fixed, and we are the way that God is going to do it. And maybe what we could say about this is that history is not just what we watch from the sidelines. Because God's story is written with our lives.
Speaker 1:And if that doesn't make you feel important today, it should. Because it means that you are part of God's word to the world, and that is incredible. Think about it this way. God's promise to the poor, that's you. And God's investment in justice, that's us.
Speaker 1:God's care for creation, God's commitment to thriving, God's guarantee to future generations, all of that is us together. And, that is both empowering and sobering all at once if we take it seriously. But, it leads us to the last thing that we need to recognize in the text today. After hearing this plan, Pharaoh turns to Joseph and says, since God has made all this known to you, and since there is no one so discerning and wise as you, you shall be in charge of my palace and all of my people are to submit to your orders. So essentially, this is pharaoh saying, alright, you want the job, it's yours.
Speaker 1:See what you got, kid. And I think this is a good reminder sometimes that if we're going to offer opinions, we should be ready to back them up. Tossing solutions over fences is not the same thing as rolling up our sleeves and helping our neighbors make them happen. So get ready for it. But let's look at this phrase wise and discerning.
Speaker 1:We talked pretty extensively last week about the wisdom in the Hebrew scriptures. That in Hebrew wisdom is not smarts. Wisdom is an ability to move through the world and live well. Joseph has always been smart. He has become wise.
Speaker 1:And now we've got this word, discerning, thrown into the mix here. In Hebrew, it's a very small word. It's the word bin. At its most basic it means to see and comprehend. Essentially it means to understand things.
Speaker 1:It's actually a very complex word. In certain contexts it can mean to pay attention. It can mean to consider and observe. It can mean to understand and take action. It can mean to teach and explain.
Speaker 1:It can mean to behave appropriately to the circumstances you face. And for all of these reasons, discerning is an excellent translation, but it's also why in the King James, the word is rendered discreet. It's trying to get at this idea of someone who has the wisdom to sit back and fully understand everything that's going on. Someone who can look at every angle and take their time to metabolize all of it before choosing a course of action. And I love how this is precisely, exactly the opposite of what we saw in Joseph when we met him at the start of the story.
Speaker 1:Remember that Joseph? Who had a dream and immediately blurted it out to everyone around him? Remember that Joseph who didn't even consider how his words might be perceived by his brothers? Remember that Joseph who references his deceased mother to his father without even a thought to how his dad might hear it. And now Joseph knows the need for discretion, and Pharaoh sees that wisdom in him.
Speaker 1:And I am endlessly intrigued by the idea that Joseph was absolutely not the person to save Egypt at the start of the story. But he is here at the end of it. Because what this tells me is that all of the moments where I wasn't the right person, those were part of my story, they're important parts of my journey, but they didn't limit where I could go. And it's possible that right now you aren't the right person. And it's possible that last week, you weren't the right person.
Speaker 1:Last year, you weren't the right person. The last time a promotion came up at work, you weren't the person. But none of that means that you aren't meant for more than where you are right now. Because sometimes, right now, where you are, you are learning discernment. And, you are gathering resources.
Speaker 1:You are becoming wise and discreet, all so that when the time is right, you will be who you need to be. Because the story of God is about the fact that there is always something on the horizon for all of us. And even when you're stuck in the pit and you're not the right person, God is never the source of your suffering. God didn't put you there. God doesn't want you there, but God is there with you, helping you, shaping you, preparing you for everything that comes after this.
Speaker 1:And so my prayer for you is that you may sense the divine presence in your life, making your today preparation for your tomorrow. And that your tomorrow may become every opportunity for you to step into everything you are becoming right now. Let's pray. God, there are times when we feel stuck and held back, and we recognize that we aren't the person we needed to be, and sometimes that throws us into a funk, and it deceives us into thinking that means our story has stopped, and that it has no future. And God, we trust that you are never the source of our suffering.
Speaker 1:You aren't into tough love, and you didn't get us into this place, but you are there with us. Shaping us and teaching us, preparing us, bringing wisdom that is hard won and earned to us. So that when the time is right, we will be able to speak with grace and peace, but also courage and truth. And so God, if we are there, and now is the time for us to step into everything we have been preparing for, Would your spirit grant us courageous passion to step forward, pursue our dreams, and find where you are leading us? And if we are still waiting, would we recognize that even in this moment, your spirit is new, shaping, guiding, preparing us for everything that will come after.
Speaker 1:May we be where we are boldly, knowing that our story is not finished yet. God, when the time is right, may each of us be exactly who you created us to be. In the strong name of the risen Christ we pray, amen.