BIBLICAL BIG BROTHER Genesis 37: 12-28

The book of Genesis contains a colourful collection of stories about the Patriarchs. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob all emerge as fascinating yet flawed characters. None of them, however, grabs the imagination quite as powerfully as the story of Joseph. Even if the story were not immortalised by Andrew Lloyd Webber’s ‘Joseph and his Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat,’ his is a story that catches our imagination.

This evening’s reading shows us great flaws in all the characters. Jacob, raised in what has long been a dysfunctional family, is an absolutely terrible father. Not only does he prize one son above the others, just as he himself was prized above his twin Esau by his mother, but he makes it obvious to the other sons. He keeps Joseph close to himself away from the grime of hard work and spoils him both emotionally and materially as shown through the special robe he makes him.

Not surprisingly, his actions leave sharp divisions among his sons.

As for Joseph, he seems to have behaved as a spoilt brat. From the reading we have heard this evening, we find that Joseph behaves like what at school we used to describe as a sneak or perhaps what some today would call a ‘grass.’ He can’t resist bringing his father bad reports about his brothers. But more than that! Joseph seems from the beginning to have experienced remarkable dreams, dreams which later with his interpretations transform his condition in a positive way. However, as a young man, he exhibits the level of sensitivity of a Big Brother housemate. He just cannot resist telling his brothers about the dreams which imply that he is going to be on a much higher plain than them. In Joseph, the worst of adolescent precociousness is revealed. One cannot help feeling that the young man could do with a trip to a good Finishing School to learn a few social graces.

But then there is the brothers. They were in the first case the victims of injustice. Their father’s preference for brother Joseph over them, was clear for all to see. It is not difficult to appreciate the pain they must have felt. But in their rebellion against injustice, they actually accelerated a cycle of injustice. One injustice was confronted by creating another one. You see, ultimately, Joseph was not the prime architect of the situation but such was their anger at the favouritism bestowed on him by their shared father, that most of them were prepared to kill him. Does this not speak into our world today where cycles of violence go on with ever increasing circles?
But of course, not all the brothers wish to do something as dramatic as fratricide. Reuben tries to defuse the situation. His idea is to throw Joseph into a cistern so that he might later rescue him. But when the idea of selling Joseph into slavery with the passing Midianite traders arises, enabling a hated brother to be got rid of and a handy profit made, he is not on the scene and ultimately does nothing to right the wrong. In a sense, Reuben symbolises the times when we fail to make a stand against what is wrong, preferring instead to remain in our comfort zone. In a sense his paralysing compromise with evil reminds me of the words of James Russell Lowell;

“They are slaves who fear to be in the right with two or three.”

And I suspect that there is a bit of the Reuben in most of us.

But what does this ancient story have to say to us today? In a strange way, I think this story is uncomfortably close to modern life.

Parenting is as hard today as it was then as I for one know. We, too, can be somewhat overindulgent just like Jacob. For the sake of ease, we can throw things at our young rather than our time. Certainly the challenging child needs time and patience with even handedness between competing children. Perhaps like Jacob, we can sense special ness in one of our children and elevate that one often unconsciously above the others, leaving behind pressures on the chosen and resentment on the part of the siblings. We need to be contra Jacob, in seeking the value of all our children including those whose gifts are less apparent.

But there is also something here about how we confront injustice. The brothers see injustice as being most effectively confronted by violence. I guess that this is often the dominant viewpoint in our world today. The problem is that when violence is seen as the answer, all too often we see new injustices emerging. Is not our history littered with examples of those who in their fight against injustice have ultimately brought about new injustices? So often the one time victim creates their own victims. This does not mean that we should be unconcerned about injustice. Indeed, the future for our world is grim if we do not look to correct injustice for injustice is often the first step in the circle of violence. However, it does mean that we need to be discriminating in how we confront the injustices around us so that the cycle be brought to an end. Increasingly, I think that the two outstanding figures of the twentieth century were Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King who stood against injustice in a way that refused to be contaminated by hatred and violence.

And this finds its roots in a belief that all people have value. You know, in our world we are so aware that we unthinkingly dispose of our planet’s precious resources. It is a scandal which needs to be confronted. Yet worse still is the fact that we are prepared to throw away people. Some people especially far off or other than, are too easily regarded as of less significance than we ourselves and those we see as being like us. Perhaps one of our needs is to discover afresh a sense of shared value as children of God.

And our being children of God, serves to remind us just as God was present in this story, so too is God present in our lives. God may not be jumping in and intervening in a way that we recognise but God cannot be dismissed as a mere spectator. In times of joy and times of suffering God is present weaving God’s future. In the story of Joseph, the darkness of our reading is not the end for through these happenings Joseph matures and is able to be God’s man in addressing the calamity of famine. Ultimately all the participants learn valuable lessons.

For us, God is involved in our lives and whilst nothing in tonight’s scripture readings promise us lives of ease and comfort, God is the reference point by whom we should live our lives. For stories such as these are in the Scriptures as important guideposts to help us in the decisions we face in our journey of life.

This sermon was preached at Northam on Sunday August 7th