OUTLINE OF RTHK BROADCAST
MESSAGE
Sermon of August 8, 1999
Lets talk about one of the most colorful characters in
the Book of Genesis: Joseph. Stories about Joseph take up the
l3 final chapters of Genesis. Charming though his story is, the
Joseph narrative serves as a bridge connecting the ancestral
narratives of promise, involving Abraham Isaac, and Jacob, to
the Exodus narrative of oppression and liberation which follows
as the second book of the Bible. The story of Joseph is not in
the Bible to entertain us; it has no independent life of its
own. I think we will see that all the Joseph stories are
functional, serving as a bridge between the God of promise to
Abraham and the fulfillment of that promise in the family of
Joseph.
To start things off Im asking our favorite
storyteller, Nury Vittachi, to tell us the earliest part of the
Joseph story; Joseph as a teenager and, Nury, I think this
Joseph sounds in several ways very much like adolescents of
today.
Nury reads Genesis 37.
*******
Pastor Gene: Our regular pianist Enrico Pineda will play a
medley of songs from the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical about
Joseph and his technicolored dream coat to put us in the mood
for some further exploration on the meaning of Joseph.
Two minute of piano interlude.
The image of a bridge comes to me when I think about Joseph.
A bridge leads from one point to another; it has to cross over
obstacles, otherwise there would be no need for the bridge. A
bridge allows humans to go across to the other side. A bridge
is held up by engineering. Joseph serves as a bridge in the
book of Genesis for Gods purpose is carrying the Hebrew
people forward to their destiny as the promised people, the
people of the covenant with God. But first Joseph himself has
to get out of that awful bondage to which his brothers
treachery sent him.
Mary Jane Elliott, please lead up further into the story of
Joseph by reading from 39:l-6 which tells us how this hapless
teenager, sold into slavery, came to occupy a position of great
influence in Egypt.
Mary Jane reads 39:l-6.
*******
Pastor: Joseph does very well in Egypt. His first patron is
Potiphar who respects and honors him until Potiphars wife
deceives her husband with a false charge of rape against
Joseph. Joseph spends several years in prison but even there he
finds a kindly Egyptian, the prison warden who entrusts
responsibility to Joseph. After Joseph is freed because he has
interpreted the dreams of Pharoah, the Egyptian ruler appoints
Joseph to be the second most powerful man in the kingdom. When
famine afflicts the Hebrews in Canaan as it has severely
afflicted the Egyptians; the Pharoah is generous in sending
grains back to Cannan. When Josephs father dies finally,
the Pharoah and the Egyptians weep and mourn the
patriarchs passing.
So in the story of Joseph we see ample evidence that the
goodness of God extends not only to the Hebrews but also to the
Egyptians and the whole world. And if we lift up the on going
hostility between modern Arabs and the Israelis, there is most
certainly a hopeful sign in this story.
It is at the second book, Exodus, when the Pharoah who knew
and honored Joseph has died, that a new king comes to the
throne and then the trouble begins with the Hebrews in Egypt
leading to their eventual enslavement. The story of Joseph thus
is prelude to explaining how the Israelites ended up in Egypt
and it sets the stage for Moses and the liberation and second
return of the Jews to Canaan land.
But first a drought afflicts Canaan as well as Egypt and
Josephs family left behind in Canaan is suffering. Conrad
So will give us more of the Joseph story from Genesis 42.
Conrad reads 42:l-6.
*******
Pastor: Conrad, Joseph is such a full blown character that
we tend to overlook that his stories are really stories about
his family, about his father Jacob, or Israel, to whom
Gods promise to the Jews passed and of the eleven
brothers of Joseph whose survival is essential if Gods
promise to the Hebrews is to be realized.
Its easy to overlook the collective meaning because
Joseph is such an engrossing character and his brothers are
usually presented as a collection of undifferentiated persons.
One chapter does give detail on Judah and probably because
later the promise of God is to take form in the Davidic
monarchy evolved from the house of Judah. Judah is important
for Christians because the messianic promise also is conveyed
through the descendants of Judah.
It is because of Joseph that the evolving history of the
Isarelites, laid out in the stories of Isaac/Ishmael and of
Jacob/Esau, now find a happy completion. In these stories of
Genesis God has chosen to work with rather dysfunctional
families, and that dysfunction is seen in the irrational
jealousies and meanness of the brothers of Joseph. But now
finally in Josephs attitudes of reconciliation and
forgiveness to his brothers, the dysfunction of these early
prototypes is overcome and the basis is laid for a unified
Hebrew family .
(Either the pastor or another could add): The story lifts up
the importance of individual responsibility in that Joseph
breaks the dysfunction of his family, a dysfunction of which he
himself is a product. Joseph rejects revenge and pettiness.
Joseph shows that individuals make a difference in evolving
Gods kingdom.
I suppose God always uses some persons to advance his
kingdom of justice and reconciliation. I think of Nelson
Mandela, just retired President of South Africa, as a modern
Joseph. Mandela rejected revenge and racism, even after 30
years in prison, and has set South Africa on a hopeful course
of cooperation between the white and black races in his
country.
Let me read a bit more in the Joseph story from chapter 45
when Joseph finally reveals his identity to his brother:
(Genesis 45:l-5).
There are several theological interests in Josephs
story. It speaks to the proper exercise of power in the person
of Joseph who meets the needs both of his own family and of the
Egyptians. There are examples of the good use of authority, as
well as its abuse, in Jacob and how he treats his family,
and in the brothers ill treatment of Joseph, the
youngest, and in Josephs later special interest in the
remaining youngest sibling, Benjamin.
Ultimately the stories of Joseph are the story of God and
Gods providential blessing of all peoples through Joseph.
However, the God in these stories is quite different from the
God in the earlier Genesis stories where there are miracles and
warnings and other intrusive divine manifestations. The God in
the Joseph narrative hovers quietly in the background. We are
told several times that Joseph felt himself blessed, but there
is no dialogue with God to establish the blessing.
Scholars believe this is so because the Joseph stories
probably originated in the court of King Solomon in the l0th
Century BC in a period when the Jewish people were very
self-confident and living quite well without constant need to
reference to God.
If this story arose in Solomonic times, that period is
rather like our own era when most people believe in their own
plans and ambitions and when Gods plan, if acknowledged
at all, is way in the background of our daily experience. The
fact is we never read the name God in our newspapers and
magazines; and if mentioned in entertainment of TV or movies
Gods name is either taken in vain or as a joke. Does that
mean that God is not in control of our human affairs? That we
are not subject to Gods rules and standards? That we have
lapsed beyond the care of God? Of course, not!
The story of Joseph picks up on key themes introduced
earlier in Genesis and continued in the next book Exodus. The
primary issues are basic, creational ones from issues of family
order to natural disaster, from socioeconomic crisis to
national structures. Gods purposes throughout are to
preserve life and well being, which in 45:5-8 includes the
Egyptians and the world community. The author of this brilliant
narrative focuses on divine blessing, blessings of the land, of
wise leadership, of family growth, fulfilling the creational
words of l:28 AND GOD BLESSED THEM AND GOD SAID TO THEM,
BE FRUITFUL AND MUTIPLY AND FILL THE EARTH (And in
Genesis 47, Josephs father, Jacob, extends Gods
blessing upon the Egyptians (47:l3-26).
Gods choosing to work through this weak, conflicted
family constitutes a divine irony, using the weak to bless the
strong, which leads into important themes in Exodus which
eventually lap over into our Christian understanding of who we
are and what God calls us to do with our lives.
A bridge must be held up by engineering principles, which
appear to me as a lay person as a form of miracle. Joseph is a
bridge between God's promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and
the subsequent three millennia or so of spiritual history. It
may seem odd that Josephs name was not added to that
trinity of names. But that is because Joseph, as Gods
bridge, allows us to add all our names to honor the God of
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and ourselves.
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