Homily from service on February 20, 2022 – Seventh Sunday after the Epiphany
Sermon preached by The Rev. Dr. Richard Burden
Sermon preached by The Rev. Dr. Richard Burden
Below is a DRAFT text of the homily. It may vary considerably from the recorded version. Please excuse typos and grammatical errors, and do not cite without permission.
And he said to his brothers, ”I am Joseph.” This is the big reveal…This is the big climatic scene—not only of the story of Joseph and his brothers, but of the entire book of Genesis. The book that starts with the creation of everything quickly descends into a family drama of broken relationships and sibling rivalry—Adam, Eve, and the serpent, Cain and Able, Noah and his sons, Sarah and Hagar, Isaac and Ishmael, Jacob and Esau, Joseph and all of his brothers—well, all but one.
And today, this whole narrative is getting wrapped up with this big reveal…”I am Joseph. Your brother. Whom you sold into Egypt…into slavery.”…This is a high point of biblical reconciliation…And it all seems so neat. So easy. As easy as Jesus saying, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you.” We all know that’s the right thing to do…and we also know…it’s never that easy. The bible doesn’t think it’s easy either…Scripture knows that reconciliation is a process…sometimes a very long process…and Joseph’s story shows this…but we only get the end of that process today. But, this is not a sudden change of heart. This scene of reconciliation today is years in the making. So let’s go back a bit.
Remember that Jacob is Joseph’s father… (Ok, let’s go back quite a ways). And when he is young Jacob falls in love with Rachel…but Rachel’s dad tricks Jacob into working for him for decades and marrying Leah first. All of Joseph’s older brothers are all Leah’s sons or the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, Leah and Rachel’s slavegirls. Jacob and Rachel have two sons, Joseph and Benjamin. And because he is Rachel’s first born Joseph is Jacob’s favorite, and kind of obnoxious as a kid…He constantly going on about his dreams, he’s got this fancy coat…And one day the brothers have had it…and they fling in him into a pit, and then sell him to some passing slavers, and tell Jacob that Joseph was killed by wild animals. And Joseph is taken as a slave to Egypt.
And, what with one thing and another many year pass, and Joseph is no longer enslaved, in fact he becomes fabulously wealthy and powerful, while Jacob and the brothers fall onto very hard times. So hard that Jacob sends all the older ones down into Egypt for help. Jospeh is now in charge of all the grain, and his older brothers come to him—they don’t recognize him—but he recognizes them. And he “plays the stranger to them.” He speaks harshly. He accuses them of being spies, and detains them. He demands that one brother remain imprisoned in Egypt while the others take provisions back to Jacob and return with Benjamin. He wants to make sure that Benjamin—his younger brother…born of Rachel—is OK. While in prison, the brothers reflect saying, “Alas, we are guilty for our brother (Joseph), whose mortal distress we saw…[but] we did not listen.” [Genesis 42:21, Alter trans.] We saw his distress…but we did not listen…instead we sold him into Egypt…That’s why this is happening. Joseph overhears this…and “turns away from them and weeps.” He’s touched…but he’s not ready to reconcile…none of them are. Joseph packs their bags with provisions, and sends them home, except for Simeon who remains in prison.
The famine grows worse, and again Jacob is forced to send the remaining brothers back down into Egypt…this time with Benjamin along. When Joseph sees Benjamin, he orders a meal to be prepared and invites all of the brothers into his house. When Benjamin comes in, Joseph can barely keep it together; he excuses himself, goes into another room and weeps. Seeing Benjamin, the one brother who had no part in selling him into slavery, touches something deep in him…but he’s still not ready to reconcile.
Because after he pulls himself together, he creates a trap for the brothers to be ensnared in. He instructs his servants to secretly pack his brother’s bags with silver, and for his own goblet to be hidden in Benjamin’s bags. In the morning his sends his brothers off, and a little while later sends his own armed guards after them. They accuse the brothers of stealing silver and the goblet. The brothers deny it, and even declare that if any of us have the goblet that one will be made the slave of Joseph. Joseph has reconstructed the conditions of his own enslavement. The brothers are taking silver for the life of their youngest brother. Of course, the silver is discovered, and the goblet is found in Benjamin’s bag, and they are hauled back to Joseph who says, “What do you have to say for yourselves?”
And here they are…having sold Joseph into slavery for a load of silver, now find themselves with another load of sliver, and Benjamin’s life on the line. And it’s at this point that Judah (still not recognizing Joseph) confesses to everything…And then makes a new decision. He says, “Don’t take Benjamin…Let me stay as your slave in his place, because leaving Benjamin here would kill our father.” And this is the third time that Jospeh weeps…but this time he doesn’t hide it. The text says, “he could no longer hold himself in check.” And he demands that everyone but his brothers clear out, and he weeps so loudly that “the Egyptians heard and the house of Pharaoh heard.” And that’s when today’s reading starts. Today’s reading is when he is finally able to speak, and say to his brothers, “I am Joseph.”
This is not a sudden change of heart. This is not a simple formula of turning the other cheek…This is a long story of a very difficult reconciliation. The story of Joseph and his brothers lies behind today’s Gospel reading. Jesus knows this story…the people he is talking to know this story. They know that when Jesus tells them to love their enemies, he’s not saying that it will be easy. Joseph’s story doesn’t say that reconciliation is easy…it tells us that it is possible, even in very difficult circumstances.
Our work as Christians is to carry out God’s work of reconciliation in the world [BCP. p.855].* That is often hard, frustrating, time-consuming work. Because, as a couple of contemporary writers put it reconciliation, “is not simply a cessation of hostilities or the willingness to coexist. It rather about the cultivation of friendship and the creation of a community that bears witness to the reality of life beyond estrangement.” That’s what the story of Joseph points to…the possibility—the reality—of life beyond estrangement. They go on to say, “From the earliest days of the Christian church, the law of love has required Christians not simply to repent of their personal prejudices but also to labor toward relational reconciliation—to live lives not of exclusion but of embrace.” [Kwon and Thompson, Reparations: Reparations: A Christian Call for Repentance and Repair p.36]
That’s what we see in Joseph’s story…a trajectory from exclusion to embrace. May we hold fast to the possibility of that, as we continue to labor for reconciliation in our time. Amen.
*”The ministry of lay persons is to represent Christ and his Church; to bear witness to him wherever they may be; and, according to the gifts given them, to carry on Christ’s work of reconciliation in the world; and to take their place in the life, worship, and governance of the “Church.”