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O Brother, Where Art Thou?; (sermon 8/10/08)
Topic Started: Aug 6 2008, 03:33 PM (84 Views)
Dewey
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HOLY CARP!!!
(This coming Sunday, assuming the Session approves it tomorrow evening, I will be baptizing "Bob," the mentally disabled, convicted sex offender I mentioned in a thread a while back, and making him a member of the church through his profession of faith. Here's the sermon that will proceed that.)


Jacob settled in the land where his father had lived as an alien, the land of Canaan. This is the story of the family of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was shepherding the flock with his brothers; he was a helper to the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives; and Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father. Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his children, because he was the son of his old age; and he had made him a long robe with sleeves. But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably to him. ....

Now his brothers went to pasture their father’s flock near Shechem. And Israel said to Joseph, “Are not your brothers pasturing the flock at Shechem? Come, I will send you to them.” He answered, “Here I am.” So he said to him, “Go now, see if it is well with your brothers and with the flock; and bring word back to me.” So he sent him from the valley of Hebron. He came to Shechem, and a man found him wandering in the fields; the man asked him, “What are you seeking?” “I am seeking my brothers,” he said; “tell me, please, where they are pasturing the flock.” The man said, “They have gone away, for I heard them say, ‘Let us go to Dothan.’“ So Joseph went after his brothers, and found them at Dothan. They saw him from a distance, and before he came near to them, they conspired to kill him. They said to one another, “Here comes this dreamer. Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits; then we shall say that a wild animal has devoured him, and we shall see what will become of his dreams.” But when Reuben heard it, he delivered him out of their hands, saying, “Let us not take his life.” Reuben said to them, “Shed no blood; throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but lay no hand on him” —that he might rescue him out of their hand and restore him to his father.
So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the long robe with sleeves that he wore; and they took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it. Then they sat down to eat; and looking up they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with their camels carrying gum, balm, and resin, on their way to carry it down to Egypt. Then Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and not lay our hands on him, for he is our brother, our own flesh.” And his brothers agreed. When some Midianite traders passed by, they drew Joseph up, lifting him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. And they took Joseph to Egypt. - Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28


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Families are interesting things, especially the relationships among brothers and sisters. The whole business about differing personalities, different goals and priorities, dealing with, and often even manipulating parents’ shortcomings – I’m sure that any of us who have ever had brothers or sisters, or raised brothers or sisters, can come up with any number of stories about the love-hate relationship that you find in most sibling relationships. II was the oldest of three boys myself, and I enjoyed the perks of being in that position, but I also had it the hardest of the three of us from our parents. By the time they got to my baby brother, their willpower was worn down to the point that he got away with murder, compared to what I’d gotten away with when I was his age. And maybe because of that, and maybe just out of orneryness, sometimes I’d torment my kid brother. I remember once, when I was only about nine, and he was only three, taking the skeleton key that locked all the doors in the house, locking him in our cellar, and telling him the cellar was full of spiders. He hated spiders. I remember hearing him, standing on the stairs just on the other side of the door, banging on the door and screaming bloody murder.

I remember that incident, and so does my brother. In fact, I think it’s the very earliest childhood memory he’s retained. I know he remembers it, because now, my baby brother is a 42-year old chiropractor, and every time I lie down on his bench, just before he starts twisting and manipulating the bones in my neck and back, he reminds me about that story.

Actually, my brother and I are on very good terms; we love each other very much. But most sibling relationships do carry some baggage within them. And it would be putting it mildly to say that that was the case with Jacob’s son Joseph, and the rest of his brothers.

As you read this beginning of the story of Joseph’s life, you can see that the seeds of trouble are there from the beginning. Joseph was the son of Rachel, Jacob’s favorite wife, so there was probably already some favoritism coming from that. He was Jacob’s next-to-youngest child, born in Jacob’s old age, and being a younger brother himself, Jacob probably favored him for that, too. So Joseph’s brothers already had some resentment for him. But then look at Joseph’s own actions. He got some of his brothers in trouble by running to Jacob and giving a bad report about them. The Scriptures don’t really say if the report was true or not, but even if it was, most of us remember how we felt when a brother or sister ran to our parents and ratted us out about something. Then, in a part of the story that we didn’t read this morning, Joseph shares with his family that he’d had two dreams. And the meaning of the dreams that he describes is pretty transparent, that Joseph would become powerful, and all of his brothers and even his parents, would bow down before him.

You can imagine how popular this made Joseph with his brothers. Just imagine in your own family life, how it would go over if you told everyone that you told everyone else, “No, really, I had this dream, and it said that I’m the one who’s supposed to rule over the rest of you, and you all are supposed to bow down and obey me.” Heh.

So Joseph really didn’t help himself much with his brothers. And as we read, when his brothers were out tending the flocks, far from home and not even in the town where Jacob thought they were – when they got the chance, they plotted to kill Joseph, and put an end to this constant pain in the neck. Finally, the brothers figure out a way to kill two birds with one stone, without really killing anyone. They sell Joseph into slavery, to a caravan of traders heading to Egypt, for 20 shekels – about 8 ounces of silver, something like $130 in today’s money. Of course, most of us know the story of Joseph that follows. He rises to power in Egypt, and actually ends up saving his family during years of famine in Canaan, where they lived.

This is actually a major turning point in the Bible. It’s where the focus of God’s promise changes form being given to specific individuals who God chooses to work through, to now, the beginning of the formation of an entire people, the nation of Israel, who will be God’s chosen people. Here’s the origin of the twelve tribes of Israel, each headed by one of Jacob’s twelve children. The Scriptures go on to detail how all of the brothers will become heirs of God’s covenant.

They may not even have realized it at the time, but they were all twelve chosen by God – called by God to be a single, united people of God, through whom God would work, and be revealed, to all the people of the world.

And who were these people that God chose, and called? They had conspired to commit the murder of their own brother, and actually sold him into slavery. They were criminals. They had done things that we would have thrown them in jail for. In writing about this passage, John Calvin called the brothers’ actions “abominable wickedness.” And even though he was the victim in this story, Joseph wasn’t any prize himself. He certainly added fuel to the fire in this dispute among him and his brothers.

It was this group of twelve brothers that God called, and that God used to change the history of the world. To achieve God’s will. None of them with clean hands. All of them capable of having done wrong in their lives. But all of them called, and chosen by God. And all of them forgiven, and reconciled to God. All of them, and all of us who have heard God’s same call. We’re all brothers, and sisters, in unity, in the one faith given us all through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Where do we find our brother, our sister, in the faith? In the places of the powerful? In the places of the lowly? In small country churches and great cathedrals? In the underground house church movement in China, hiding from the authorities? In a hospital, or a homeless shelter? In a prison, maybe put away for something like Joseph’s brothers had done?

O brother, where art thou? All these places and more. Wherever Christ’s healing hand has reached and touched a person, and has called that person to a life of faith. There is no exclusivity in Christ. We all stand equally unworthy of God’s forgiveness. We all stand equally grateful that he forgives us anyway. We all stand equally as God’s beloved.

Thanks be to God.

"By nature, i prefer brevity." - John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, p. 685.

"Never waste your time trying to explain yourself to people who are committed to misunderstanding you." - Anonymous

"Oh sure, every once in a while a turd floated by, but other than that it was just fine." - Joe A., 2011

I'll answer your other comments later, but my primary priority for the rest of the evening is to get drunk." - Klaus, 12/31/14
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Frank_W
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Resident Misanthrope
Another good one, Pastor. :thumb: Thank you. :)
Anatomy Prof: "The human body has about 20 sq. meters of skin."
Me: "Man, that's a lot of lampshades!"
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