Sixth Sunday after Trinity – evening
Sunday 28th July 2019
Trinity 6 – Proper 12 – evening
Gen. 42. 1-25
1 Cor 10. 1-24
Revd Preb Maureen Hobbs
Human beings are designed to be story-telling creatures. We like nothing better than a good yarn. But there are – so they say – only seven forms of story.
And the most common begins with a problem, introduces further complications, and ends in some form of resolution – either partial or complete.
The family saga of Jacob/Israel and his twelve sons is a typical example. Parental favouritism that leads to sibling rivalry and escalates into violence, pitting 11 of the brothers against the favoured son.
All elements that we know very well – both from the Bible and for many today, from the various stage versions of Joseph and his Technicolour Dreamcoat! (Thank you Messrs Rice and Webber!)
The story unfolds with the brothers plotting to get rid of their annoying sibling, who has the nerve to predict that one day they will all bow down to him!
Years pass. Joseph is transported off to Egypt. Where – by a series of improbable turns of fortune, some good and some bad, he rises to become second only to Pharoah in importance…. If someone pitched this as a programme or film idea today, I suspect they would be told it is too fanciful for words… but then look at who has risen to power in recent years, and maybe it stops being so unlikely!
Meanwhile, Jacob and the rest of the family are facing starvation. Hearing that there is plentiful grain available in Egypt, he sends most of his sons off to beg supplies, where they meet but do not recognise their brother – who now looks like an Egyptian lord, not a Hebrew herdsman.
How will Joseph react, having his former tormentors finally in his power? We still do not know for certain at the conclusion of tonight’s reading… The story finishes with a typical duh, duh, dudududududah, cliff-hanging moment.
Well I am sure it is not too much of a spoiler if I leap ahead a bit. We know of course that Joseph’s true identity will be revealed. The brothers will be forgiven and the whole family will be reconciled together as Joseph invites them all to come and set up home with him in Egypt. Which they will do – little thinking that this will sow the seeds for further problems for the tribe of Jacob far in the future.
But of course, it is all part of God’s plan to bring his chosen people back from the brink, back to inhabit their ancestral lands, and to forge a new identity as the Jewish nation.
Stories are good fun for us to read and to imagine – even when we have heard them numerous times before and know how things will turn out. Stories always invite us to occupy other shoes, and challenge our attitudes and actions in the light of other actors in the drama. Would we be as forgiving as Joseph eventually shows himself to be? Even though he does play some tricks on his brothers before we get to that point? It all poses some interesting questions about the exercise of power and the way of forgiveness and healing. With the current turmoil in our national life, they are questions that seem particularly relevant and apt.
So we must hold to the thought that Paul gives us in writing to the people of Corinth, that human beings, by their very nature, will find themselves sorely tested at times, but that God is faithful and – though it may seem hard to believe at times (!) he will not allow us to be tested beyond our strength.
Nothing else will be able to offer us the comfort and the salvation that God can. It is no good running after the false gods, the idols, of power and celebrity, of material possessions or of short-term fixes of whatever kind.
Maybe a good sentiment for all those recently elevated to positions of authority to consider? As you write the story of your own life drama, do not seek your own advantage, but rather that of others!
Amen