—————————————
Genesis 42:6-17
6 Now Joseph was governor over the land; it was he who sold to all the people of the land. And Joseph’s brothers came and bowed themselves before him with their faces to the ground. 7 When Joseph saw his brothers, he recognized them, but he treated them like strangers and spoke harshly to them. “Where do you come from?” he said. They said, “From the land of Canaan, to buy food.” 8 Although Joseph had recognized his brothers, they did not recognize him. 9 Joseph also remembered the dreams that he had dreamed about them. He said to them, “You are spies; you have come to see the nakedness of the land!” 10 They said to him, “No, my lord; your servants have come to buy food. 11 We are all sons of one man; we are honest men; your servants have never been spies.” 12 But he said to them, “No, you have come to see the nakedness of the land!” 13 They said, “We, your servants, are twelve brothers, the sons of a certain man in the land of Canaan; the youngest, however, is now with our father, and one is no more.” 14 But Joseph said to them, “It is just as I have said to you; you are spies! 15 Here is how you shall be tested: as Pharaoh lives, you shall not leave this place unless your youngest brother comes here! 16 Let one of you go and bring your brother, while the rest of you remain in prison, in order that your words may be tested, whether there is truth in you; or else, as Pharaoh lives, surely you are spies.” 17 And he put them all together in prison for three days.
—————————————
Genesis 45:1-15
1Then Joseph could no longer control himself before all those who stood by him, and he cried out, “Send everyone away from me.” So no one stayed with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers. 2 And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard it. 3 Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph. Is my father still alive?” But his brothers could not answer him, so dismayed were they at his presence.
4 Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come closer to me.” And they came closer. He said, “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. 5 And now do not be distressed, or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life. 6 For the famine has been in the land these two years; and there are five more years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. 7 God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. 8 So it was not you who sent me here, but God; he has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt. 9 Hurry and go up to my father and say to him, ‘Thus says your son Joseph, God has made me lord of all Egypt; come down to me, do not delay. 10 You shall settle in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near me, you and your children and your children’s children, as well as your flocks, your herds, and all that you have. 11 I will provide for you there—since there are five more years of famine to come—so that you and your household, and all that you have, will not come to poverty.’ 12 And now your eyes and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see that it is my own mouth that speaks to you. 13 You must tell my father how greatly I am honored in Egypt, and all that you have seen. Hurry and bring my father down here.” 14 Then he fell upon his brother Benjamin’s neck and wept, while Benjamin wept upon his neck. 15 And he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them; and after that his brothers talked with him.
—————————————
Why did Joseph forgive his brothers?
Friends, this is an easy one. We already know the answer. We say it every week in the Lord’s Prayer: “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.”
Just as God forgives us, we are called to forgive our neighbors. This includes Joseph. This includes me. This includes you. We are all called to forgive.
Which makes me think that Joseph knew all along that he was called to forgive his brothers. That one day he would. He knew this is what he was supposed to do.
But it’s also important to note, Joseph didn’t forgive his brothers right away. From a position of power over them, he initially controlled and manipulated his brothers. And that’s what I want to talk about: what Joseph did before he forgave his brothers.
Rewinding to last week’s service: Jacob, now named Israel, fathers 12 sons. The second youngest was Israel’s favorite: Joseph. This was back in Genesis 37.
Jumping ahead, we just heard the story of Joseph found in Genesis 42 and Genesis 45. There’s a lot that happens in those eight chapters, from 37 to 45, and I want us to walk through those chapters together.
When we first meet Joseph in Genesis 37, he is seventeen years old. His is the obvious favorite son of Israel, and he seen as both a braggart and a tattle-tale by his brothers. This makes his brothers plot against him, and they discuss whether they should kill Joseph or sell him, all while Joseph is trapped at the bottom of a pit in which he was thrown by his brothers.
The brothers, when seeing a caravan of Ishmaelites, decide to profit off their brother by selling him into slavery. The brothers return home to tell Jacob of Joseph’s “death” as Joseph himself is now taken to Egypt. But when Joseph is a slave in Egypt, things take a seemingly better turn of events. Scripture tells us that Joseph is handsome, successful, and skilled at dream interpretation. He soon becomes overseer to all the other slaves and gains the attention of the Pharaoh. After interpreting Pharaoh’s dream and prophesying an upcoming famine, Joseph “gained authority over the land of Egypt” and becomes Pharaoh’s second-in-command. This is found in Genesis 41.
Before we go any further into the story, I want to see if we’re all catching this reoccurring theme here in Joseph’s life. Just like before, Joseph is the favorite and his favoritism has given him a sense of privilege and power. First, favorite to Israel and now, favorite to Pharaoh. And if we remember correctly, the first time that Joseph was the favorite, he abused this privilege and his brothers despised him for it.
Unfortunately, the second time Joseph finds himself as the favorite, history repeats itself as we heard in Genesis 42. Facing starvation in Canaan (that is, the famine that Joseph earlier interpreted through Pharaoh’s dreams), Israel sends ten of his now eleven sons to Egypt to buy grain. When the brothers arrive in Egypt, they bow down before Joseph, not recognizing him as their brother they years earlier sold into slavery. However, Joseph, being the keen and aware man that he was, recognizes his brothers immediately. But instead of revealing this to them, Joseph plays a game of manipulation. He accuses his brothers to be spies and therefore, throws them into prison for three days.
After three days, Joseph releases them but with the command that once they arrive at home, they must return to Egypt with their youngest brother Benjamin. He even bounds his brother Simeon to guarantee his brothers return. Eventually the brothers arrive home, discuss with their father Israel all that happened, run out of food once again, and then they the brothers return to Egypt with Benjamin—now all eleven are there present with Joseph. Joseph then feasts with his brothers, them terrified of this authority figure who accused them of spying, still unaware that this figure is actually their brother.
Then in Genesis 44, through another act of manipulation and instead of revealing his identity, Joseph sneaks a silver cup into Benjamin’s bag, setting him up for the charge of stealing. Here, worried for Benjamin and worried for their father, the brothers plead for Joseph to let their youngest brother go. It is at this point, when his own father Israel’s life is on the line, Joseph makes himself known to his brothers as found in our second passage today: Genesis 45.
It would be near impossible to deny Joseph and the power he holds over others. Once his father’s favorite, he is now Pharaoh’s favorite. During this time of famine, anyone who wants to eat must come to Joseph. He is in charge of the grain; he decides who may purchase it; he sets the price. Joseph, once seemingly powerless at the bottom of the pit because he lorded himself over his brothers now has even more power as he gets to decide who will live and who will die.
We have two examples from our readings today where we can see how Joseph acts in his position of power, once where he responds with manipulation and superiority and once where he responds with mercy and forgiveness. And being in a position of power and privilege doesn’t necessarily make Joseph a bad guy, but how he uses that power to control those around him does.
My friends, the majority of us in the room today are like Joseph. We use power and privilege that we’ve been given from birth to benefit ourselves and not those around us, especially those in society that have been forced to be treated as lesser because of the color of their skin. Or their sexual orientation. Or their religious beliefs. And like Joseph, being in a position of privilege doesn’t necessarily make us the bad guys, but if we use this privilege to bring others down.... or to only lift ourselves up... or to even remain silent in the face of injustice, then we are. Then we are the bad guys.
If the racism experienced in our country has not yet shaken you to your core, let what happened in Charlottesville be your wake up call. And for those of us who don’t think that what happened in Charlottesville has anything to do with race; let me be explicitly clear, from God’s Word through my lips, it has everything to do with race. It also has to do with anti-Semitism, islamophobia, homophobia. The violence in Charlottesville was a clear example of racism and an abuse of privilege. Three people died: Heather Heyer, Jay Cullen, Berke Bates. And over 38 people were injured. Heyer was killed because a car purposely crashed through a march of peaceful protesters.
My friends, this is the truth. People of color, all over the globe but also here in the United States, have been treated as less. Less human; less of God’s good creation. For over a hundred years of our country’s beginnings, black people were kept as slaves. For over a hundred years after that, we had laws that made black people “separate but equal.” And now, there are white supremacists and neo-Nazis that believe our country would be a whole lot better if people of color as well as those who don’t identify as Christian were just erased from our history. That white history should be the only history. My friends, why have we fallen so far? For those of us who are white, we haven’t experienced the same systems of oppression that our neighbors of color have. And I don’t mean to lessen our experiences for those of us who are white, but I am asking us to consider the experiences of those who are not. Those who were not born into the same white privilege as some of us. The same privilege that was given to Joseph time and time again.
I wasn’t in Charlottesville; I wasn’t in the other nine white nationalist rallies that took place this weekend; I only had access through what I watched in the news or read about in articles, and trust me, that was enough to tear my heart in two. But I want to give you an example of this white privilege that may have been magnified and abused in Charlottesville but also seen in my own life here in South Bend.
At the beginning of summer, a few of my friends and I were hanging out. It was late at night, and being the twenty-somethings that we all are, we wanted to play a game we called kidnapped. This game is somewhat similar to tag & hide-go-seek but covers the entire town. We divide into two teams; two people from each team are blindfolded, put into a car, and dropped off somewhere randomly in the town. Teams must then find their two teammates, pick them up, and whoever is the first team to return to the starting location wins. It’s a great game; it’s a fun game! Like I said we play it late at night, around eleven or so, when it’s completely dark out. But that night, when we were going over the rules, one of my friends quietly asked, “Is it safe for me to be out there?”
The friend who asked this is black. And from the earliest of years, he was taught that a black man in a white neighborhood late at night looks suspicious. I was never taught that. I was raised in a mostly-white neighborhood, and I never had to worry about whether I’d be safe playing a game of tag late at night because of the color of my skin. The thought didn’t even occur to me that any of us might not be safe… that is, until my friend posed the question for all of us.
As I said about Joseph, being born into privilege doesn’t make us the bad guys; it what we do we this privilege. Let us not use our privilege to stop what God is trying to do in this world: to love, serve, and protect all. Everyone. Not only people who have the same color of skin as us but especially those who have been put on the margins because of the color of their skin. Or their sexual orientation. Or their religious beliefs.
What did Joseph do in a position of privilege? He eventually chose to forgive because he was called to forgive. What can we do in our position of privilege? Forgiveness is great… when there’s something to forgive… but right now, we don’t need to forgive. We need to take action. We are called to take action.
I found an article through a Christian online publication called Sojourners titled, “For Our White Friends Desiring to Be Allies.” They have a list of six things we can do.
One, listen more and talk less. It’s time that we let our neighbors of color share their stories instead of forcing them to always listen to ours.
That being said, number two is when a person of color shares their story, resist the need to respond with our own story. This adds to silencing their voices if we keep oversharing ours.
Number three: we can educate ourselves about systematic racism in our country. Pastor Susan has already started a list, for both kids and adults. I’m sure Pastor Jamie and I could also suggest a few resources.
Four—this one is important—believe that racism is alive in our country and admit that it always has been. This is a huge one. We can’t keep sweeping it under the rug or denying the truth. I’m sorry, my friends, racism does exist in our country. Not just in Charlottesville but all over.
Number five—put the work in; do something. Don’t do it because you want to make yourself feel better; do it because doing nothing makes us the bad guys! If we don’t use our privilege for good, then we are spreading the injustice.
Six—stop talking about colorblindness. By this, I mean, don’t say you don’t see race or the color of someone’s skin. Because we all do. We all can tell when a person is white and when a person is not. Don’t deny that; celebrate it! Celebrate identity and why God made that person into the person they are! This includes the color of their skin, their religious beliefs; their gender; their sexual orientation—all of who they are were made in the image of God.
And I’m going add one to this list. Number seven. Don’t be offended. Don’t take this any of this personally. Don’t be upset by this sermon; just consider it. Let’s admit it. We could all do a little better. We are all called to do better. And if a person of color or someone else who has been marginalized tells you how could do better; don’t deny it; don’t be offended; embrace it; do it; be better.
My friends, this is unlike any sermon I’ve given here at Sunnyside. I know that; I know you know it too. But we needed to walk through this together. My prayer is you all use this to continue conversation. My office is always open to all of you. I know Pastor Jamie and Pastor Susan feel the same way.
Joseph forgave his brothers because he was called to do so. And now we are called to do something. We can do something right because we too find ourselves in positions of power and privilege. Let’s not do it for the sake of ourselves; let’s do it because we know we are called to act for justice for everyone.
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
—————————————
