Pictures from the Family Album: Joseph and His Brothers Richmond s First Baptist Church, August 20, 2017 The Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost Genesis 45:1-15 Then Joseph could no longer control himself before all those who stood by him, and he cried out, Send everyone away from me. So no one stayed with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers. And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard it. Joseph said to his brothers, I am Joseph. Is my father still alive? But his brothers could not answer him, so dismayed were they at his presence. It turns out my brother Ed has written a book: a memoir, actually, full of stories from his childhood. Ed is the oldest of the six Somerville boys, and he wrote the book for his grandchildren, who love to hear his stories from those days. It s called, When Granddaddy was Little Eddie. I ve enjoyed reading it because a lot of Ed s stories are my stories too, and it s interesting to compare his memory of how things happened with how they actually did. This one, for example, called Go Play Outside, which takes place shortly after my mother threw the TV set over the hill. I could tell you about that, but as Ed would say, That s a whole nother story. He writes: Now that the T.V. was gone, the boys decided to follow their mother's advice, Go play outside! One afternoon they ran inside to invite Eddie to come out and play a special game they'd prepared: Cowboy and Indians. Isn't that supposed to be Cowboys and Indians? Eddie asked. Not this time, they said. You're going to be the cowboy, and we're going to be the Indians. When he asked how to play, they led him outside to the edge of the yard and carefully tied him to a young sassafras tree. Then, when he was secured, they began to pile brushwood up around his feet. When it got to the height of his knees, they produced a box of matches and commenced lighting the fire. As the smoke started to rise, Eddie's brothers ran off laughing. 1
Eddie began to holler. Fortunately, his mother was standing at the kitchen sink, doing dishes. She had a good view of the back yard, and was accustomed to keeping vigil over her cubs from that vantage point. At that moment, she spotted a low cloud of smoke drifting across the yard. A second later, she heard Eddie shriek. Drying her hands, she stepped out the back door to see what was going on. There was her first born, tied to a burning stake, and somewhere from behind the bushes she could clearly make out the sound of stifled giggles. As she untied the knots, Eddie looked up into his mother's face. They may have had their differences at times, but at that moment, she was his favorite person in the world! i It s a good story, but it s not exactly the way I remember it. I remember that we tied Ed to a fence post, not a sassafras tree. And I remember that we fully intended to untie him before there was any real danger. But the thing he doesn t tell in his version, and the thing that may be most critical to the story, is what Little Eddie might have done to make his brothers want to burn him at the stake in the first place. Last week we looked at the picture of Joseph in the family album. You may recall that his brothers wanted to kill him, but settled for throwing him into a pit and then selling him into slavery. What would make them want to do such a thing? Jealousy! Joseph was their father s favorite and their father wasn t afraid to show it. He gave Joseph that fabulous coat to wear and Joseph must have paraded around in it in front of his brothers. It made each of them wonder: What about me? Why am I not the favorite? And then he had those dreams in which his brothers were bowing down to him, and he shared the details at breakfast the next morning. Who does he think he is? they must have wondered. What makes him so special? So, when they had an opportunity to get rid of him they took it, and when Joseph was clapped in chains and carried off to Egypt they must have felt that he was getting exactly what he deserved. 2
But like my brother Ed, Joseph couldn t imagine what he had done to make his brothers want to do such a thing. He stumbled along behind that camel caravan shaking his head, feeling the sting of injustice, and thinking about those dreams where his brothers were bowing down to him. In fact, it was those dreams that may have kept him going. In Egypt he was sold to a man named Potiphar, and Joseph proved himself so trustworthy that he was soon put in charge of the entire household. Potiphar would go off for days at a time leaving everything in Joseph s care, even his wife. Now Joseph was handsome and good-looking my Bible says, and Potiphar s wife noticed. She kept on noticing, and one day she said, Lie with me. But Joseph said, Oh, no! My master has trusted me with everything except you. I m not going to break his trust. But she kept on asking and one day she grabbed his robe and insisted, Lie with me! But Joseph wriggled out of the robe and ran away. Potiphar s wife screamed and when the other servants came running she said, That Hebrew tried to take advantage of me! and held up his robe as evidence. When Potiphar heard about it, he had no alternative but to put Joseph in jail. Joseph was there for a long time, but in that time he proved himself useful and soon became the jailer s right-hand man. When the Pharaoh s baker and cup bearer ended up in jail Joseph was the one who took care of them, and when they had troubling dreams he was the one they told. The cup bearer said, I dreamed that I squeezed three clusters of grapes into Pharaoh s cup, and Joseph said, In three three days time you will be restored to your previous position, but then he begged him, Please, remember me when you get out, and please tell Pharaoh about me, because I m here for something I didn t do. And the baker, encouraged by Joseph s interpretation, said, I dreamed I was 3
carrying three baskets of bread on my head, and the birds swooped down and ate it. Joseph told him that dream wasn t as favorable: that in three days time he would be hanged. And that s what happened: the baker was hanged and the cup bearer was restored to his previous position. But he forgot to tell Pharaoh about Joseph until Pharaoh had some dreams of his own. It was two whole years after the cup bearer had gotten out of jail. Pharaoh dreamed of seven fat cows and seven skinny cows, seven plump ears of corn and seven shriveled ones, and he asked all his magicians and wise men for an interpretation, but none of them could help him. That s when the cup bearer remembered Joseph and told Pharaoh, There was this young Hebrew I met in jail who had a knack for interpreting dreams. Maybe he could help you. The Pharaoh sent for him, and when Joseph stood before him he said, I ve had some troubling dreams. I ve heard you know how to interpret them. Joseph said, It s not me; it s God. But tell me your dreams. So, Pharaoh told him about seven fat cows coming up out of the Nile and being swallowed by seven skinny cows, about seven plump ears of corn being swallowed by seven shriveled ones. And Joseph said, Your dreams are one and the same, and it means that we re going to have seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine. What you should do is find some smart, good-looking young man, maybe a Hebrew, who can help you store up the surplus in the first seven years and dole it out during the famine. Pharaoh wondered who that might be until Joseph cleared his throat. The answer was standing right in front of him. He put Joseph in charge of everything, and made him second-in-command over all Egypt. He put a fine, gold ring on his finger, and fancy clothes on his back. He made 4
Joseph ride around town in a chariot with someone running before it shouting, Bow the knee! Bow the knee! so that wherever he went people bowed down to him. He gave him a new name Zaphenath Paneah and a beautiful bride Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera, the priest of On. He built Joseph a house right next to his own, and treated him like a favorite son, so that roughly ten years after being sold into slavery Joseph was the king of the world. And if you read closely the Bible will tell you why: because God was with him (39:2), God was with him (39:23), God was with him (41:52). Sure enough, there were seven years of plenty in Egypt, in which Joseph stored up so much grain that it couldn t be measured; it was like the sand of the sea. But then the seven years of famine came, and Joseph began to sell that same grain to the Egyptians, so they wouldn t starve, and not only to them, but to anyone who came looking for food. Joseph sold the grain at an enormous profit, and the Pharaoh was very pleased. And then one day Joseph s brothers showed up. Remember them? Joseph did. They may have forgotten about him but he could never forget what they had done. It had been nearly twenty years earlier, but when he saw them standing in line to buy food he recognized them at once. He could have called them by name: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, and Zebulun. He could remember the looks on their faces when they sold him into slavery so happy to be getting rid of him and making a little money to boot. It made his blood boil. He marched over to where his brothers were standing and spoke harshly to them. He accused them of being spies. But they didn t know it was him. He was wearing one 5
of those Egyptian headdresses and heavy eye makeup, just like you ve seen in the pictures. His brothers bowed down before him, trembling with fear, and for Joseph it was a dream come true, literally: his brothers were bowing down to him! This would have been the perfect time for Joseph to reveal himself to his brothers, to tell them that all was forgiven, and that what they had meant for evil God had turned into good. But that is not what Joseph did. He accused them of being spies three more times. He told them he would test the truth of their story by making them bring their little brother Benjamin back with them. And then, just for spite, he threw them into jail for three days. This picture is in our family album, this picture of Joseph making his brothers pay for what they did to him. It s a good reminder that those of us who are his descendants do not forgive quickly or easily. How many times have I counseled with someone who is still holding onto an ancient grudge? How many times have I heard someone say, I can forgive, but I can t forget? Forty-five years after my brothers and I pretended to burn him at the stake Little Eddie remembers. All those years after his brothers sold him into slavery Joseph could not forget. It may be one of the reasons we still have such a problem with racism in this country: it s hard to forget that your ancestors were sold into slavery; it s hard to forget that they were kept in that state by the bite of the whip and the weight of the chain. And if you were one of their descendants you might walk down the streets of your city free at last but still carrying some small measure of resentment for all those years your people were enslaved. You might pass someone on the street who smells that resentment and reacts with fear. And that may be the perfect recipe for racism: a little bit of resentment mixed with a little bit of fear. You wonder: what happens if it gets out of control; if 6
resentment turns to retaliation; if fear turns to anger and then violence? It s happened before in this country. I m certain it could happen again. And so I keep reading to see how Joseph s story turned out. He played this cat-and-mouse game with his brothers for weeks, maybe months, letting them out of jail but keeping one of them Simeon until they came back with his little brother. And then hosting a dinner party for them, plying them with food and wine, giving them special treats, before sending them on their way with his silver cup hidden in Benjamin s sack. And then accusing them of stealing it, threatening to keep Benjamin as a slave, until Judah the one whose idea it had been to sell him into slavery all those years before said, No, my lord. Don t take Benjamin. It will break my father s heart. And then Judah hung his head and said, Take me instead. And that s when it happened: that s when Joseph sent everyone out of the room except for his brothers and wept so loudly the Egyptians could hear it, the household of Pharaoh could hear it. And then he took off his headdress and wiped his eyes. He said, It s me! It s Joseph! And his brothers just stood there, shocked and speechless. Imagine having complete power over the people who have hurt you most in this world, and the freedom to do anything to them that you wanted. What would you do? Joseph could have locked his brothers up in an Egyptian jail; he could have made them his slaves forever; he could have used that opportunity to exact sweet revenge. But instead he said, What you did you intended for evil, but God has turned it into good. He has sent me before you to preserve life. Let s be honest: we could have all starved to death in this famine, but instead here we are, alive, with another chance to get it right. And then Joseph forgave his brothers. He hugged Benjamin and wept on his neck. And 7
then he hugged all the others and kissed them on both cheeks. And they stood there, speechless, hardly daring to believe it was true. This picture is in our family album, too, and it serves as a reminder that there is another way besides resentment and retaliation, another way besides fear, anger, and violence. There is Joseph s way, which is God s way the way of forgiveness. May it be our way, too. Jim Somerville 2017 i Edward Somerville, When Granddaddy was Little Eddie (2017). A self-published memoir, available as a document file by request at hnolalo@gmail.com 8