August 17, 2008
Genesis 45: 1-15

Hindsight
Rev. David A. Davis

   They called him “the dreamer”. That’s Joseph, the son of Jacob; “the dreamer”? When it is the tradition that refers to him as “the dreamer,” well, that’s a good thing. Son of his father’s old age. Coat of many colors. Man of integrity who escaped the pursuit of Potiphar’s wife. Prison-mate of both the cup bearer and the baker to the king. Interpreter of Pharoah’s dreams. Ancient FEMA director who prepared for natural disasters and stored up food and distributed food and helped preserve life. Joseph dreamed of his life in God and in others dreams he could affirm the work, the presence, the very plan of God. “the dreamer.”
            When one of Joseph’s brothers referred to him as “the dreamer”, it wasn’t such a good thing. For the brothers he was their father’s favorite. He was a bit of tattle tale, if truth be told. He dreamed that the sun and the moon and eleven stars would all bow down to him. He dreamed that his work would rise above that of his brothers, that out there in the field his sheaf would rise above the ones made by his brothers. Not only did he dream it, Joseph did. He didn’t hesitate to tell them about it. To tell his brothers about his dream. “So you think that we are supposed to bow down and worship you?” was their response. “Yeah, that’s not going to work. Not now. Not here. Not ever. You think you are supposed to be in charge of us? In your dreams!”
            You will remember that they conspired to kill him. They threw him into a pit. Then they threw him into the arms of the Ismaelites. They sold him into slavery. He was taken off to Egypt. Joseph was then sold to Potiphar, an officer of Pharoah. Joseph actually started to flourish there in Potiphar’s house. Everything he did went well. Life in the house was good. Potiphar was so pleased with Joseph that he put him in charge of everything. Potiphar didn’t have to worry about a thing; except that his wife had the hots for Joseph, who according to the bible, “was handsome and good looking.”
            Potiphar’s wife tried day after day to lure Joseph into trouble, but he refused. One time he even had to drop his coat or his shirt or some article of clothing because she wouldn’t let go. Well, that didn’t turn out so well. Potiphar’s wife didn’t appreciate Joseph’s ethical standard and she turned the whole story back on him using that part of his wardrobe against him. Potiphar believed every word and he threw Joseph in prison. Like when his brothers threw him into the pit, like when they threw him into slavery, Potiphar threw him in jail.
            That’s when he met up with the cup bearer and the baker who had apparently done something to upset Pharaoh. The three prisoners found themselves talking about their dreams. Joseph was doing some dream analysis. It worked out pretty well for the cupbearer. For the baker, not so much. And for Joseph, well, he had hoped that the cupbearer would remember him to Pharaoh, but the chief cupbearer forgot all about Joseph and two years later he was still sitting in prison. Everyone forgot about “the dreamer” until Pharaoh had a dream. This one was the one about seven healthy cows and seven sick ones, and seven full ears of grain and seven withered ones. This was the one Joseph said was about seven prosperous years and then seven years of famine. So Joseph told Pharaoh it was time to plan accordingly.
            Joseph was thirty years old when he was elevated to Pharaoh’s court. And the next seven years? It was a great run. Joseph was in charge of the savings plans. Storehouses of grain were built and filled in every city. In the 8th year, the down turn hit. The bible doesn’t say when people started to notice; second quarter, or the third quarter. But when the need came, when the people cried out, Pharaoh sent them to Joseph, who, by all reports, was doing “a heck of a job.” He was doing so well, according to the Old Testament narrative, that “the whole world came to Joseph in Egypt to buy grain, because the famine became severe throughout the world.”
            The whole world came to Joseph, including his brothers. When those brothers arrived and bowed before the dreamer in charge of food, Joseph recognized them right away. Of course, they had no idea that it was Joseph who had the power to give them all the food they would need. Joseph accused them of being spies, treated them like strangers and launched a rather complex scheme to see his full and youngest brother Benjamin and to see if the others could do any better at protecting the now younger and honoring their father. At one point when Benjamin arrives, Joseph is overcome with emotion and has to leave the room and cry and then splash water on his face so no one would notice that he was upset. At another point, Joseph hides his own silver cup in Benjamin’s sack and then accuses him of stealing it and announces that this youngest one will have to stay now as a slave. But Judah, knowing that losing one more son, especially the younger, would crush his father Jacob, Judah offers himself to Joseph as a servant, asking that he spare the younger brother Benjamin. “I can’t go back to my father if the boy is not with me” Judah says.

                                                            Genesis 45:1-15
            Joseph told his brothers to come closer and they gathered around. It was just him and them. “I am your brother Joseph whom you sold into Egypt. Don’t be angry with yourselves because you threw me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. God sent me here to preserve for you a remnant. It was not you who sent me here, but God. Three times Joseph told them it was God who sent him. Remember it was three times that Joseph was tossed away; into the pit, into slavery, into prison. Three times his life went to hell. And three times here in a huddle with his brothers, three times, he tells them, it’s not about you, it’s about God. God sent me. God sent me to preserve life. God sent me to preserve a remnant. God sent me, not you.
             They say that hindsight is 20-20. But I’m not sure it always comes with rose-colored glasses. The story of the highs and lows of Joseph’s life unfolds in ten chapters or so here in Genesis. A few verses of reconciliation doesn’t quite wipe it all away. Any resonance with your life and mine comes in the complexity of it all. This isn’t Joseph offering a pat on the back and wiping his hands; “Forget it, it was nothing.” This isn’t Joseph acting the role of some arm chair theologian who offers empty platitudes and a shallow religiosity and a very weak effort at giving comfort amid suffering. “It must have been God’s will.”
Joseph tells his brothers not to be distressed or angry, but he doesn’t just let them off the hook. “I am your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. Don’t be angry because you sold me here (which by the way you did, you really did). Joseph doesn’t just give his brothers a pass, instead he points to the greater providence of God. “This life of mine, from the depth of the pit to the pinnacle of power in Pharaoh’s court, your actions, my actions, the actions of these other characters, through it all, in it all, above it all, God is at work to preserve life. God is at work.”
            Actually, I’m not sure this neck-grabbing embrace, this tear-filled reunion of Joseph and his brothers, I’m not at all sure it is about hindsight. Hindsight that is 20-20 or hindsight that comes through rose colored glasses. Hindsight that oozes into nostalgia. After all, hindsight implies full understanding, all questions answered, all mysteries solved. Joseph’s tri-fold reference to God doesn’t explain his brothers’ behavior. It isn’t meant to justify Potiphar’s wife. It doesn’t provide an excuse for the cup-bearer whose failing memory resulted in two more years of prison for “the dreamer”.  It isn’t hindsight. It isn’t explanation. It’s affirmation. “My brothers, comes closer….all that we’ve been through, you’ve been through, I’ve been through, all of this, all these years, and God is faithful, still.” The tears, they flowed. Joseph hung on and wept. Benjamin wept. All the brothers kissing and weeping. Reunion. Reconciliation. Relief. Rejoicing. And at least some of the tears coming from the affirmation, the belief, the gut level affirmation that is so beyond words, that “yes…God is with us.”
            Evening worship at the Montreat Youth Conference actually begins with kids start lining up 45 minutes early to get into the auditorium. Worship begins as the 900-1000 youth and their leaders enter and listen to music and watch pictures from the day projected up on the screen. Worship begins with some wonderful singing as the sun begins to set. It can be an incredibly happy place, Montreat. Then there is a shift that happens, right as the service is about to begin, from exuberance to reflective preparation. It is dark now and the worship leaders take their place. Symbols for worship are processed down the long aisles by volunteers from youth groups all around. Cross. Bible. Chalice. Pitcher of water to fill the fount.
             One night, the cross was being carried in by a young woman. She was going slow, but she held the cross up pretty high. Then I noticed she was walking with a limp (kind of like Jacob after wrestling with the angel). At the front of the aisle, there were a handful of steps to negotiate to get up to the stage. She took her time and labored up one step at a time. That’s when I saw the leg brace, from ankle to upper thigh. The kind you have to wear after you tear your ACL. She hobbled over to the communion table and placed the cross.
            I never met her. Don’t know her story. But I bet she has had one eventful summer. Maybe she’s a swimmer and soared in the state finals only to find out later she had been injured. Maybe she got hurt playing soccer at camp and her scholarship is now at risk. Maybe she’s not an athlete at all, and the lingering injury had to finally be taken care of this summer. Maybe she was in a car accident, or she could have been hurt on her bike. Who knows? She’s clearly had a complicated summer. But that image, of carrying the cross of Christ, limping it up front, as all of us prepared to worship God. Her summer, her life, all of our lives, and the affirmation that God is with us.
            Late that same night, back the house, the thirty of us from Nassau gathered to close the day. One of the scripture lessons for the day was the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. Lazarus came out of the tomb with these bandages wrapped around him. Jesus said to Mary and to Martha “Unbind him, and let him go.” We were working with the image of these bandages as symbols for the brokenness of our lives. Not just brokenness, but the complexity, the fullness, highs and lows of our lives. Everyone that night took a bandage and wrote on it some part of our lives or life in the world, something that we wanted to give over to God. We had made a cross from some wood there in a pile at the house. After our bandages were prepared, bearing witness to our own lives and our own hearts, we took turns placing them on the cross. One at time, we would unwrap, unbind, our symbolic bandages, wrapped around the head, wound up an arm, tied at the knee, we would take them off and the place them on the cross. Each one held the cross for the next, until all had approached.
            You can see, there at the cross, some of bandages are draped, some are wrapped, some are neatly tied, and some even came with a bow. The messages, the prayers, the part of life we handed over, sort of all become one. The bandages themselves became a symbol of our lives. The assortment, the complexity, the fullness of life, the highs, the lows, the mishmash….where everything can’t be explained, where the mysteries remain, where questions go answered, where doubts cling so close.
            And yet, our lives, what we’ve been through, what we have yet to go through, all of this, and all that is yet to come……and God is faithful still.
            It’s not hindsight. It’s not foresight. It’s affirmation.
            God is with us.

 

 

© 2008, Property of Nassau Presbyterian Church
Contact the church to obtain reprint permission