Prayer: God, we thank you for the privilege of being here this morning. Continue now to open up our spirits so that we can be open to your word to us. Help us to hear and see, to touch and feel, to taste our God that you are good, and that you want good things for us. Keep us in your spirit’s tether. Amen.

You may know by now that there are family stories in the Bible that rival anything we can see on TV talk shows or TV soap operas. All the drama in the world is found in the pages of scripture, and stories of brothers and sisters at odds with each other are not uncommon. In fact, it seems sometime that many of these shows are variations on the themes found in the stories of Cain and Abel, David and Bathsheba, the prophets, the disciples, and Jesus as we all look for somebody to save us. But I also want you to know that there is much about biblical families that can teach us some things about our church family.

Last week we heard about David creating and expanding a family when he welcomed Mephibosheth to his table. Today, the series on family matters continues as we hear again the story of Joseph and his brothers, a story filled with drama, trauma, and sibling rivalry. The story is told from the point of view of eleven of Jacob’s sons, for them it is story filled with arrogance, anger, and anxiety. Their father Jacob is the son of Isaac, and the grandson of Abraham. He is the one who connived to steal his brother Esau’s birthright and blessing. This is the one who wrestled one night with an angel who changed his name to Israel. This is Jacob who loved Rachel but was tricked into first marrying her sister Leah. This is the Jacob who was the father of twelve sons and an unknown number of daughters with four different women, including Rachel and Leah and their maids Bilhah and Zilpah.

Leah’s sons were: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun. Zilpah’s sons were: Gad and Asher. Bilhah’s sons were: Dan and Naphtali. And the sons of Rachel were: Joseph and Benjamin. Rachel died soon after the birth of Benjamin. The twelve tribes of Israel are named for the sons of Jacob.

Joseph and Benjamin were born late in Jacob’s life and Joseph was really the preferred son of his father’s preferred wife. Walter Brueggemann describes the relationship this way. “Joseph and little Benjamin are a second family, fully spoiled and in turn scorned rivals. From the beginning, Joseph has been able to get by with everything which the older ones had not been permitted to do” (Interpretation Series, Genesis, Walter Brueggemann, JKP, p.299).

Are we really surprised that there would be tension in Jacob’s household? Can’t you hear the cracks in this family’s foundation? This is a family about to break, and for the brothers, the breaking point will come in the form of Joseph’s arrogance, what they consider to be his sense of entitlement and superiority. It will also come as they feel their own anger, and anxiety. Arrogance can convince us that we can do whatever we want, with no consequences, and it can make us speak and act without thinking.

When we join the story, Joseph is seventeen years old and is out in the field with Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. I do not know how different adolescence was then than it is now. But imagine that Joseph is not much different than other seventeen year olds. And for those of us for whom our seventeenth year is several decades in the past, way back in the last century, try to remember what it was like.

I have never known a seventeen-year-old, including me at that age, who didn’t know everything about everything. Few people who are too old to be children, but not yet old enough to be adults, see the world through any experience other than their own. It’s all about what I want, what I need, what I have. It’s all about me. I am not putting down any generation, if we think we were not self-absorbed, at that age, we just don’t remember. Every generation goes through this phase, it is part of what helps us to grow up.

The good news about being a seventeen year old is that the age often comes with an unmatched and marvelous sense of confidence. There are few things you can’t do, and the world is wide open and full of possibilities. The bad news is that most seventeen year olds do not yet have enough life experience to have a broad perspective on life. I am not suggesting that young people today have it too easy, or that they all need to suffer great loss and tragedy in their lives. Besides, sad truth is that some have already suffered greatly. I think of the siblings and friends of the children who have been abducted and murdered this year and of those who mourn people lost to other acts of violence, illness, and accidents.

Joseph does not yet know about brokenness, but he is about to learn. The first sign of brokenness comes with a coat given to Joseph by Jacob. Imagine it is Christmas morning. You and your brothers and sisters have gathered around the tree in eager anticipation of gifts to be opened and enjoyed. You know all the things you hinted about, the games, the clothes, the toys, the books, the latest cool thing that everybody has, except you. You wonder if the hint was received. The opening of the packages begins. There are few toys, some books, a game or two, and the inevitable underwear. It’s nice, but it’s not quite what you hoped to get.

You are startled by a squeal from across the room, you look and your jaw drops at the sight. Joseph is holding up the most gorgeous coat you have ever seen. This is the coat of many colors. It is the “Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.” It is to the rest of the coats in the family as cashmere is to vinyl. Your coats are really knee-length vests, and is designed to be worn while you work. Joseph’s coat on the other hand, is floor length, and has long flowing sleeves that cover the palm of the hand. This is no ordinary coat, suitable to wear every day. This is a coat made for luxury and leisure, it is royal, it is a coat for a king, not a kid. And Joseph wears it all the time. His brothers say to each other, could he be more arrogant?

Then the second sign comes when Joseph shares his dreams. In that world, dreams were understood to come from God. They were not thought of as we think of dreams. Now we think of them as one of the ways we do the psychological work of dealing with our hopes and fears. Then dreams were considered prophetic, and a gift from God. But the brothers with whom the dreams were shared assumed that Joseph was talking for himself and about himself and their resentment grew.

What are these dreams? They are of Joseph and the power he has over his brothers. First he tells them that in his dream, he saw their wheat bow down to him. Then he tells them of another dream in which the sources of life and light, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars also bowed down to him. It seems to the brothers and even to Jacob, that he is saying that one day they will all worship him.

How do they respond to such arrogance? They get angry and as we know, anger can make us do foolish things. Their anger rose up that day when Jacob sent Joseph out to find his brothers. They see him in the distance and all of the hostility, hatred, and jealousy in them reared up and grabbed them by their souls. Their anger led to total irrationality. In their red hot anger, the eleven sons of Jacob began to talk of killing Joseph. They plan the crime and the cover up.

“Here comes the dreamer. We will kill him, throw him in a pit, and tell people that he was killed by animals. Then we will see what happens to his dreams” (v.19-20). Kill the dream and see what happens to the dream. Robert Kennedy quoted these words at the death of Martin Luther King, Jr. Kennedy meant them as a tribute and challenge for the nation. Joseph’s brothers used them as the way they would take care of Joseph, his coat and his dreams once and for all.

Anger leads to anxiety and anxiety causes our moods to swing all over the place. Reuben and Judah convince the rest not to kill Joseph, but just to rough him up a little. They take his coat, and throw him into a pit where they intend to leave him till someone else rescues him. It is hot, and Joseph has no water, no coat, and no protection. Listen to them, “Let’s kill the little dreamer, no let’s just throw him a pit and leave him, no let’s sell him for 20 pieces of silver to people on their way to Egypt.” And off he goes.

Now, since we are dealing with a biblical story, you may find it odd that throughout these verses, the name of God has not been mentioned. There are no prayers here, none for forgiveness and none for mercy and justice. What is happening here? I want you to know that God is present, but hidden, not yet ready to be revealed. There are divine hands at work, but as is true with so much in our own lives, we may have to get to the end, look back, and then see how God has been at work. That is not easy to do, but we will see the hand of God in Joseph’s life, and in the life of his family before too long. Be patient, this is part one of a two-part story. There is good news for us in this story.

In the meantime, find your own place, and our church’s place in this story. We can find ourselves in the story because, our church family like Jacob’s family is sometimes filled with arrogance, like when we insist on our own way no matter how it affects others, or anger when we feel wronged. We know anxiety when we do not know what to do, or when we can’t be sure what is going to happen to us. When we feel broken and beat up, what can we do to find peace of mind? We can become arrogant like Joseph, and assume that we are being picked on because of our own superiority and goodness. If we weren’t so smart, so good, so progressive, so ahead of the curve, so much better than others, none of this would be happening to us.

We can become angry and overwhelmed by our feelings of displeasure and unhappiness. Joseph got way too much attention, other churches get good press for their ministries and we feel ignored when no one notices all the good things we do. We can get anxious and we worry that if no one knows we are here, we will disappear. And if we disappear, we may as well have been shipped off in a merchant’s cart to Egypt, for all the impact we have. If no one notices us, how will we survive? We may even wonder where God is. Or, we can simply remember the one who not with arrogance, anger, or anxiety, but with love, compassion, and justice faced down his enemies and gave his life for ours. I know that this is an Old Testament lesson, but I also know that our story continues and it is Jesus, our Christ who will replace our arrogance with helpfulness, anger with healing, and anxiety with hope.

We are no more abandoned than Joseph was. Rest assured, God has noticed us, and we can thank God whose hand covers Joseph and his brothers that our stories are not over yet either. We are still here doing ministry, welcoming new folks into this family with joy and thanksgiving. We are praying and studying, changing and growing. Like Joseph and his brothers, there is more for us to learn and experience. When we realize that we are here for a reason, to do what our mission statement says, to be an “inviting and welcoming household of faith that supports and serves the community in our neighborhood and around the world that we will find ourselves transformed.

In the meantime know that Joseph’s story is not over and neither is ours. Even “as Joseph sets out for Egypt, God has not abandoned the dream” (Genesis, p.307).

Jacob’s family is broken, but God has a plan to put it back together. Come back next week and see how this story of a man and his twelve sons concludes next Sunday. In the meantime, know that God is here with us.

Thanks be to God. Amen.