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Joseph Part 5: Genesis 40
Sermons from Commons Church. Intellectually honest. Spiritually passionate. Jesus at the centre. Since 2014.
There's going to be a happy ending, and I hope you find strength and encouragement in that when we get there. But for now, it's important to notice the ways in which the Bible creates room and space for our despair. Welcome to the commons cast. We're glad to have you here. We hope you find something meaningful in our teaching this week.
Speaker 1:Head to commons.church for more information. Welcome today. If we haven't met in real life, my name is Jeremy, and I'm one of the people who hang out here at Commons. It's great to have you here this weekend, particularly on a weekend where we all got an extra hour of sleep last night. But before we get going, I just wanna say thank you to all of those who filled out a survey last week.
Speaker 1:It's really important for us to continue to hear from the community, and this is just one of the ways that we do that. If you left a name and an email on your survey last week, then I think I got back to you this week. I think I was able to email everyone. So thank you for that. We really do want to hear from you.
Speaker 1:Also, it was All Saints Day this week. And as we mentioned today during the Eucharist meal, this is where we remember those who have passed on before us. And so if you have lost someone dear, may your memories and your grief remind you of that deep and sacred love. Lord have mercy on us. Christ have mercy on us.
Speaker 1:Christ graciously hear us this day. Now, we are on the home stretch of our series on the character of Joseph, and we're just working our way through this story verse by verse, looking at those points of connection between this ancient tale and our contemporary reality. And last week, we found ourselves in an ancient story that actually had a lot to say to our present moment today if in a somewhat secretive way. Because last week, we found Joseph, a handsome and well built young man being falsely accused by a duplicitous woman. And as I said last week, that is a delicate story to be talking about in 2018.
Speaker 1:But the truth is, it's really only a problem if we read the story poorly. Because the whole point of this story and the intent of this story that has been building ever since we started with Joseph five weeks ago is to get us to notice the voices that we normally don't listen to. And by taking the character that starts with the most privilege and the most honored place and the character who is handed everything to begin with, and then flipping the script upside down so that that character becomes the one who is picked on and depressed and dehumanized and then accused. We are forced to recognize and identify with all of the people who we regularly deny a voice to in our experience of the world. And so as we said last week, Joseph becomes the stand in for anyone and everyone who has ever been victimized by power.
Speaker 1:Now, what we didn't have time to talk about last week was a fascinating example of intersectionality that we have in this story. And intersectionality is a bit of a buzzword these days, but basically, it just means all of the ways the different aspects of our identity and our experience come together to create our perspective on the world. So a woman might have a different experience than a man. A person of color might have a different experience than someone who's white, Someone who identifies as part of the LGBTQ community is going to have a different perspective on the world. When those experiences intersect, they create even more nuance and even more depth that we have to wrestle with.
Speaker 1:Well, last week, we had this really neat example of it in the story because we have a woman in Potiphar's wife who would otherwise be at a huge disadvantage in the ancient world when compared to a man. Let's be honest here, she doesn't even get a name in the story. So she is in some sense victim and victimizer. She belongs to her husband. Her power is not her own, and yet when she's compared to a slave, her word becomes gospel.
Speaker 1:So it's a good reminder for us to think about all of the ways in which someone's story might be elevated and given more credibility or discounted and ignored based on the intersection of different parts of their story. And I know that we might tend to think of that as a very modern conversation, but the truth is, what we're seeing here in Genesis is that this is actually a very ancient story, a very human dilemma that we've always had to wrestle with. And so as we said last week, it really comes down to our ability to hear each other well. And it takes time, and it takes work, and maybe even more importantly, it takes an embodied grace to listen well to the stories that surround us every day. Now, today, let's pray, and then we'll jump right back in where we left off last week.
Speaker 1:Amazing God, We rejoice today that none of the story has lost its edge. The great words and realities of grace, the gospel of freedom, light, and love, of cross and crown and throne still continues to enliven us to life around us and confronts us with the ways in which we are being challenged and changed. May we hear each other well. May we listen to each other's stories with compassion. May we recognize the beauty in our difference, and may we learn to incorporate the lessons of our neighbors into our experience of the world.
Speaker 1:By your spirit, make us bold and courageous. Make us graceful and peaceful. Also that we might see you bring your light to the world. In the strong name of the risen Christ, we pray. Amen.
Speaker 1:Okay. We have holding on and letting go, choosing gratitude, good news and bad news, and the problem with being stuck in a pit. But there is a lot to move through today and this is one of those weeks. So we are gonna jump straight in. No jokes and we're gonna begin by reading right where we left off last week.
Speaker 1:This is Genesis 39 verse 20 where we read, Joseph's master took him and put him in prison. The place where the king's prisoners were confined. But while Joseph was there in prison, the Lord was with him. The Lord showed him kindness then granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph's care because the Lord was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did.
Speaker 1:And immediately, we should be thinking, well, all of this sounds pretty familiar. That's because this is exactly what happened last week when we saw Joseph sold to Potiphar, and the language is exactly the same. Joseph is put in charge. The warden pays no attention. The Lord was with him.
Speaker 1:But the similarities go even deeper here. And so it's important we trace the pattern all the way back to see this repetition. Because last week, we also saw a second reference in the story to Joseph losing his cloak. Now remember, Joseph starts with this famous technical dream code, his at the start of the story, and that is taken from him by his brothers. But last week, we read about Potiphar's wife grabs him by the cloak and Joseph runs away leaving the cloak in her hand and she uses that as proof that he tried to assault her.
Speaker 1:Now, this time it's not a it's a beget. And if a is this sort of beautiful conspicuous garment that's designed to bring attention to Joseph, A beget is the complete opposite. In fact, if a katonet is you might wear on the outside, it's your tunic. A beget is what you might wear under your clothes, essentially, it's your undergarment. And that makes sense if Joseph is a slave.
Speaker 1:He is given nothing more than just what he needs to cover himself. But it's interesting because if we take this idea of leaving your cloak and we follow it to the New Testament, we find a story where Jesus is talking and he says in Matthew five, if anyone wants to sue you to take your tunic, hand over your cloak as well. And the language that Jesus uses there maps directly onto these two references references here here in in Genesis. Genesis. Joseph's tunic is taken from him and he hands over his cloak.
Speaker 1:Now, what's compelling here is that in this passage, Jesus is talking about peaceful resistance to structural imbalance. This is where he says turn the other cheek, hand over your cloak. If someone forces you to go a mile, go to. And all of those are about nonviolent resistance. To be sued for your tunic in that culture was about someone who was so bent on revenge that they would sue you for every last dollar, literally the shirt off your back.
Speaker 1:And so to strip down and hand over your undergarment as well and to stand naked in front of your accuser, this was to demonstrate just how vindictive and twisted and cruel they had become in their pursuit of revenge. And it might be too much to say that Jesus has Joseph in mind when he uses this example. Although, I certainly wouldn't put it past him considering the almost encyclopedic knowledge of the Hebrew scriptures that Jesus seems to have. But it is interesting here that Joseph has his tunic forcibly taken from him and he willingly chooses to leave his cloak behind to do what he thinks is right. And remember, Joseph is a slave here in the story.
Speaker 1:He has no standing to refuse a request like this from Potiphar's wife. He has no autonomy over his body or sexuality. It's possible that Potiphar has told him, no sleeping with my wife. Remember that reference we had last week to Potiphar concerning himself with nothing but his wife, but all that does is put Joseph between a rock and a hard place. Because obeying one master now means refusing another.
Speaker 1:And here, Joseph has to know what this will cost him. And yet he chooses essentially to strip down, hand over his cloak, and run away. And whether we want to take our cues from Jesus or from Joseph, there is a sense here that resisting injustice will inevitably cost us something. That's a very naked place to be. And if we're going to stand with those who are oppressed, then sometimes we need to be ready to experience the weight of that stand everything that comes with it.
Speaker 1:Now, Joseph is in prison here, and he has been stripped literally and figuratively of any of the comforts that he had regained in Potiphar's house. And we read once again that even here the Lord was with him. And it's an interesting observation because it certainly leads us to notice the ways that God is subtly present in the story. Working for good, providing Joseph with opportunities, but at the same time, the text is not leading us here to assume that Joseph succeeds against his own efforts. And this is one of the significant parts of the story I think.
Speaker 1:Joseph gets sold into slavery and he somehow picks himself off and dusts himself off and he works hard and God is with him and he makes something of himself in that situation. Then he gets falsely accused and thrown into prison and somehow he picks himself off and he dust himself off and he works hard and God is with him and he makes something of himself in that situation. And let's be honest, based on Joseph's introduction at the start of the story, this is probably not what we expect from him. In fact, I think in a lot of ways, we would expect Joseph to crumple under this kind of pressure. And maybe what we could take from that is the reminder that you and I, we are not defined by one heroic choice nor one awful mistake.
Speaker 1:We are defined by the patterns that we learn to inhabit. And I think one of the questions that we can ask ourselves coming out of a story like Joseph's as we see him keep getting up and keep trying again is which pattern are we going to choose for ourselves? The one that says, bad things happen to me, therefore, universe is against me. Or the one that says, will get back up and try again because I trust that goodness surrounds me. Look, I'm not saying that a positive attitude is going to fix the world.
Speaker 1:It won't. But I am saying that how you narrate your story for yourself will radically shape your experience of the world. One of the best, most transformative practices I have ever undertaken was a six month project to journal for myself three very specific things that I was grateful for every single day. Now, I'm a little embarrassed to say that after that six months was up, I stopped and I gave myself a break and I never really went back to it with the same kind of discipline, but I still find myself in moments where I lose sight of the goodness that surrounds me always. Coming back to that practice of intentional conscious gratitude.
Speaker 1:And this is one of the most fascinating pieces about Joseph Forme, his continual refusal to define himself by what happens to him. Now we're gonna see him at some pretty low points later in the story today, but for now, he gets thrown into a cistern. He gets thrown in jail, and yet Joseph for Joseph is defined not by what happens to Joseph. Joseph is defined for Joseph by how Joseph responds because Joseph seems to remember the best parts of himself. And I want, maybe even sometimes I need more of that in my life at times.
Speaker 1:But here's the thing. Those best parts of ourselves are shaped both by what we grab hold of and what we are willing to let go of. And there's this phrase that's repeated three times in chapter 39. Potiphar leaves his house in Joseph's hand. Joseph leaves his cloak in Potiphar's wife's hand.
Speaker 1:And now the warden leaves everything in Joseph's hand. And part of choosing how we respond to life, part of choosing the narrative that will define our lives is choosing what we're gonna hold on to and what we are willing to let go of. And my conviction is that gratitude is one of the keys to unlocking the wisdom to know when to hold tight and when to realize you don't need to carry that with you anymore. Now, let's keep reading here. Because in chapter 40 verse one, we read that sometime later, the cup bearer and the baker of the king of Egypt offered offended, sorry, their master, the king of Egypt.
Speaker 1:And Pharaoh was angry with his two officials and put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard in the same prison where Joseph was confined. The captain of the guard assigned them to Joseph and he attended to them. That's interesting because the captain of the guard is Potiphar. Right? So even as Joseph is in prison and gaining favor with the warden, it seems like his reputation is rising all the way back up to Potiphar again.
Speaker 1:But here's Joseph in jail now with new responsibilities and two new prisoners that he's in charge of. And we read that after they had been in custody for some time, each of the two men, the cup bearer and the baker of the king of Egypt had a dream the same night. And each dream had a meaning of its own. When Joseph came to them the next morning, he saw that they were dejected and so he asked them, why do you look so sad today? And this is a really small little thing here, but it's significant.
Speaker 1:Joseph is a slave. Joseph is in prison, and Joseph still somehow finds it within himself somewhere to notice how others are doing. And maybe if I could say it this way, there is more depth in you than you realize at times. And in those moments where that depth rises to the surface and you notice someone else and your heart extends out from you toward them, then pay attention to that because it's holy. And so Joseph asked them what's wrong and they answer, well we both had dreams but there's no one to interpret them.
Speaker 1:So Joseph said, do not interpretations belong to God. Tell me your dreams. Now, we already know that Joseph has some kind of relationship with dreams. Right? And so far in the story, he has been the one having the dreams, but now he's going to try to interpret them.
Speaker 1:And yet notice here that Joseph says, does not interpretation belong to God? Or more literally in Hebrew, what it says is does not meaning belong to God? And I like this here because Joseph is gonna hear the dreams and tell the men what they mean, but at the same time, he attributes that meaning to God. And this is one of those spots where we have to recognize the nuance with which the scriptures will move back and forth between the human and divine incredibly freely. I think sometimes we fall into this trap of imagining that if the voice of God is gonna come to us, it has to come out of nowhere with no explanation if it's gonna be divine.
Speaker 1:And yet in the Bible, the divine voice seems to speak very comfortably in and through each other all of the time. And do you believe that God wants to speak to you? Do you believe that God is interested in you? Well, maybe part of hearing that voice is simply about opening yourself to the wisdom that surrounds you right now. Now, Arthur Holmes said it this way, that all truth is God's truth, and that's something that I hold on to very tightly.
Speaker 1:So whether it's a dream or an encouraging word or talking to a friend or reading a textbook, sometimes what we need is less about asking god to speak and more about listening for when god does in all kinds of different ways all the time. And yet here, when God speaks, the news is not all good. Joseph listens to the two dreams and he has good news for the cup bearer but he has very bad news for the baker. One is gonna be forgiven and restored. He says the other is going to be impaled on a pole and eaten by birds which is just not nearly as cheery.
Speaker 1:Even here though, there is a certain grotesque poetry in the writing. Joseph says to the cup bearer, pharaoh will lift your head to restore you. And then to the baker, he says, pharaoh will lift your head from off of your shoulders. It's kind of a terrible exchange. But buried in this conversation here, there is this small moment of self disclosure that I think sort of really anchors this season for Joseph.
Speaker 1:And it helps us as readers to see something of what he's experiencing right now. At one point, he says to the cup bearer who receives the good news, when all goes well with you, remember me and show me kindness. Mention me to pharaoh and get me out of this prison. For I was forcibly carried off from the land of the Hebrews and even here I have done nothing to deserve being put in a dungeon. And this is one of those moments where you really have to be paying attention to the language to see the depth of what's happening.
Speaker 1:Because in the English, at least in the NIV, what's happening here is being obscured by choosing technical detail over literary intent. You see what we're seeing here is a repetition of Hebrew words that carry multiple meanings. But the problem is we're seeing those words translated in literal ways that kinda hides their literary meaning from us. So let me show you what I'm talking about. By it is the word here for prison.
Speaker 1:And it's the word that's placed in Potiphar's mouth when he places Joseph into prison. And here Joseph repeats it when he says, get me out of this prison. Boar on the other hand is the word for a hole in the ground. And it's the word that Joseph uses when he says, I've done nothing to deserve being put in a dungeon. Now dungeon kind of works here because Joseph is technically not in a hole in the ground.
Speaker 1:Baia is just sort of a round house. And that means that Joseph has basically been under house arrest all this time. So not in a literal dungeon, but dungeon works because Joseph is talking about feeling like he's been abandoned and discarded. He's been left for bed as if he's been in a hole in the ground. So when Joseph calls this biot a boar, he's speaking emotively not technically.
Speaker 1:Except that we should realize that boar has already been used very prominently in the story earlier. It's just that earlier it was translated into English as a cistern. And again, that's fine too because technically what Joseph's older brothers threw him down into was a hole in the ground used to collect water, and in English, we call that a cistern. But when we take boar and we translate it cistern there and dungeon here, that might be right from a technical standpoint, but it threatens to obscure the emotive meaning in the language here. Because what we're reading here requires us to remember what we read there.
Speaker 1:And it wants us to make the connections with the story that we read earlier. Because essentially, this is Joseph saying, how did I end up here all over again? This is Joseph saying, why does this keep happening to me? Like, I don't deserve this. I didn't bring this on myself.
Speaker 1:It's not my fault. It's not fair. Someone get me out of this pit. Joseph is not talking about his housing arrangement right now. He's talking about a very real psychological place that he finds himself stuck in.
Speaker 1:And maybe you can relate. Now, certainly, we don't have enough in this story to diagnose Joseph with something like depression. It's really important to notice that as much ability as Joseph has shown to pick himself up and dust himself off and try again and again, and as much as that can be an encouragement for us, there's also a point where all of us like Joseph begin to lose sight of hope. And all of that is compounded because when Joseph does hit bottom and he does reach out and he does ask for help, he says to the cup bearer, remember me and show me kindness. Tell my story to someone who can help.
Speaker 1:And yet we read in the very last verse of the chapter that the cup bearer did not remember Joseph. He forgot him in the pit. And look, this story is gonna turn around. And there's going to be a happy ending, and I hope you find strength and encouragement in that when we get there. But for now, it's important to notice the ways in which the bible creates room and space for our despair.
Speaker 1:Of course, God hasn't forgotten Joseph. That's the ultimate point of the story, but God doesn't rush Joseph there either. And sometimes, we need time before we can know that we are remembered as well. Like the language is structured here in a really interesting way because we get this repetition in the chapter of this word zakar, which is to remember. And so far in Genesis, this word has been used very selectively.
Speaker 1:In fact, it's actually only been used four times in Genesis so far. In Genesis eight, God remembers Noah. In Genesis nine, God remembers God's promises. In Genesis 19, God remembers Abraham. And in Genesis 30, God remembers Joseph's mother, Rachel.
Speaker 1:And here, Joseph asked the cup bearer to remember him, but the cup bearer does not remember him. And it seems to me, at least part of what the writers want us to realize here is that there are very real seasons where we have been forgotten by those around us who should have journeyed with us. And we were left alone in the pit. And that's real and it hurts and we should not pretend that it doesn't. And yet, we are surrounded still by divine remembrance always.
Speaker 1:Because no matter how we lose sight of God, the divine has not lost sight of us. Nick Cave is a singer, songwriter, a filmmaker, actor, artist, extraordinaire. And he and his wife lost their teenage son in an accident a few years ago. And he was asked recently by a fan about how they were doing with that loss and that grief and whether they felt abandoned and alone right now. And he responded publicly, and I just wanna read a couple excerpts from what he wrote because it's incredibly beautiful.
Speaker 1:He says, first, I'm grateful for your question because it seems to me that if we love, we grieve. That's the deal. That's the pact. Grief and love are forever intertwined, and grief is the terrible reminder of the depths of our love and like love, grief is non negotiable. There is a vastness to grief that overwhelms our miniscule selves.
Speaker 1:We are tiny trembling clusters of atoms subsumed within grief's awesome presence. It occupies the core of our being and extends through our fingertips out the limits of the universe and within that whirling guy, our own manner of madness exists. Ghosts and spirits, green visitations, and everything else that we in our anguish will into existence. These are precious gifts that are as valid and real as we need them to be. For this is spirit that guides and leads us out of the darkness.
Speaker 1:Dread grief trails bright phantoms in its wake. Our stunned imaginations reawakening after calamity, but on the other side is change and growth and redemption. As impossible ghostly hands draw us back to the world from which we were jettisoned better now and unimaginably changed. And I found myself struck this week by the parallel between caves, desperate search to find grace in the midst of his pit. And the bible's invitation that we notice Joseph here in his pit surrounded by nothing but the whisper of his remembrance.
Speaker 1:He's hurting and mourning and feeling forgotten and being abandoned. This is very deep pain. But you see the very fact that we read this story, thousands of years after the fact, a story that takes us into the depths of Joseph's despair and it holds us there even for a moment before we get to watch him climb out. This is the reminder that the divine presence sees our stories always. Spirit that feels with us and grieves with us, spirit that remembers us, spirit that gives our stories new meaning and life even when we are stuck in the pit.
Speaker 1:And my prayer is that somehow in the divine mystery of God's grace, a story about being forgotten might become the reminder that you are remembered today And that God is never waiting for you to claw yourself out of the pit and find your way to grace. That God is always present wherever you are even when you forget that. So may you have grace for yourself when you need it. And may that become compassion for those near you who desperately do. Let's pray.
Speaker 1:God, some of us today find ourselves stuck in the pit. And we have tried to claw ourselves back to the surface, but we just haven't been able to make it. And we feel forgotten or maybe we have been abandoned by those who should have walked with us. But might we be reminded today that you are near, that your eyes are on us, and that we are remembered even where we are. God, if we need to be here longer, then would you sit with us and mourn with us and begin to heal us?
Speaker 1:And if it's time for us to get up, when would you give us courage and strength? Would you move us forward into the world in ways in which your grace could become our compassion and our care, our empathy for those who still grieve. And as we move with grace and peace to the world, might we bring your kingdom closer to those who hurt. In the strong name of the risen Christ, pray. Amen.