Prayer: Continue to be with us, O God, now, at this hour. Continue to pour out you spirit upon like soothing, life-giving rain. Let us bask in your love for us soaking it in like the air we breathe. God of all hope and healing, we thank you that you are here with us. Bless us now, O God, through our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Last week, when we left Joseph, he was on his way to Egypt, having angered at least 10 of his 11 brothers (we are not sure where the youngest brother, the one who shared both a mother and father with Joseph is) by wearing the beautiful coat his father had given to him everyday, and by sharing his dreams with his brothers, dreams that had his brothers bowing before him as if they were his servants. Their anger was such that they sold him to some vendors who happened by the place where they were.

We join the story today as a family badly broken, begins to be restored. Joseph is the second most powerful man in Egypt. How did that happen?

It happened like this. The peddlers who bought Joseph for twenty pieces of silver sold him to Potiphar, an official in Pharaoh’s government. Joseph did well and was given great responsibility. He grew into a handsome man and soon attracted the attention of Mrs. Potiphar. When he resists her advances, she accused him of trying to seduce her. He was thrown in jail.

While Joseph is in jail, Pharaoh has a dream, really a nightmare and he can’t figure it out. It seems that Pharaoh dreams that there were thin cows devouring fat cows. Neither he nor his many magicians can interpret the dream means. But Pharaoh’s butler, whose dreams Joseph interpreted while they were both in jail, remembers that Joseph interpreted his own dream once. Joseph interprets Pharaoh’s dream and tells Pharaoh that the dream means that the land will experience seven years of plenty and prosperity and seven years of famine. And he gives Pharaoh some advice. Make sure that in the seven good years, food is put in reserve so that when the lean years come, there will be food to feed the people. Pharaoh is so impressed with Joseph, that he gives Joseph the job, and says to him, “only I will have more authority in Egypt.” The boy who had his beautiful coat stolen and torn now has new royal robes, a new royal ring, a new Egyptian name, Zaphenath-paneah, and arranged a marriage for him. Joseph has it made.

Meanwhile, the famine in Egypt has reached Canaan. Jacob, the father of Joseph sends ten of his sons to Egypt to buy food. Benjamin stays home. It comes to be that the brothers find themselves face to face with the young brother they sold away to slavery. He knows who they are, even after all these years. But they do not recognize him. All they know is that he is the official who will sell them food, and Joseph chooses this moment to toy with them a little.

“Do you have any brothers? One more? Where is he? He’s back with your father? Bring him to me.” They do not want to. Then he accuses them of being spies, and says to them that the only way they can prove that they are not will be to bring their brother Benjamin to Egypt.

Eventually, they brothers make the round trip to Canaan and they bring Benjamin back. Then Joseph sends them back to Canaan with money and food. But there is one more bit of trickery from Joseph. He has a silver cup put in Benjamin’s bag. He then has Benjamin arrested and charged with theft. The brothers begin to wonder if all of this trouble is because of what they did to Joseph all those years ago.

Joseph announces that Benjamin’s punishment will be slavery in Egypt. The older brothers know that if they return home with out him, Jacob’s heart will surely break. Besides Judah has promised his father his own life for Benjamin’s. Who is this man, they wonder? He speaks for Pharaoh, he can create policy, he has armies and servants at this command. He has he brothers where he wants them. They are scared and vulnerable, and a little desperate to get home with their food and their brother Benjamin. They cannot lose another brother. They plead to the one they know as Zaphenath-paneah for their brother’s release.

Don’t you wish some time you had Joseph’s power? He had the power of life and death, freedom and imprisonment, retribution or reconciliation. If you had that kind of power, what would you do? You recognize the ones who hurt you, they don’t have a clue. You are Joseph and you have been sold into slavery for pocket change, and your sellers, who do not know who you really are, are bowing before you. This is a dream come true.

Perhaps we would do something to show these brothers who was in charge. We can imagine if we were Joseph, we would be doing a victory dance. His Egyptian aids are in the room, he could have taken advantage of this audience and really gotten back at his brothers. What will Joseph do?

He is not about payback, Joseph is about the possibilities he sees for his brothers and himself, and he can feel his emotions rise up in his heart. Joseph sends all the Egyptians from the room, and he cries. Joseph’s is not a slightly teary eyed cry. It is more than a lump in the throat, cracking voice cry. These are not silent tears. He cries as he remembers that he is in a relationship with these men. For all the harm they did, all the pain they caused Joseph, Jacob, and themselves, he cannot not be in relationship with them. Joseph is sobbing so loudly that the Egyptians in the next room can hear him. There are times in our lives when the deep feeling of all that we feel, be it regret, sorrow, joy, or relief will not express ourselves in words. Only cleansing, cathartic tears will do.

So Joseph weeps. He cries as we do sometimes for lost years and lost opportunities. He cries for what might have been, and for what is now. He cries because he is a powerful man in the most powerful nation in the world at that time, but he does not have what his heart longs to hold.

What Joseph longs for is a restored relationship with his family. I know that it is true for some of us that there may come a time in our lives when relationships are so badly damaged that repair seems impossible. Bridges are not only burned, but blown up. Words and actions are so harsh that fixing the situation is difficult. You may know of situations in your own life that are so damaged that the best that can be done is to walk away and not look back. That day has not yet come for Joseph. Even with all that his brothers have done, he cannot, not be in relationship with them. He is their brother, they are sons of the same father, and there is nothing they can do about it.

If you have ever been wronged, you know the thoughts and retribution that dance in your heads. You want to get them back and the feeling is strong.

So, I am astounded by what he says to them, and by what he did not say. Joseph does not say, look what you did to me. He does not say, “how dare you come to me for food. He does not say, I am in charge now. I told you that one day you would bow down before me, well that day is here.” If he had said those things, we would understand.

But when he speaks to his brothers, Joseph says two things that speak to his desire for a relationship with them. First he tells them who he is. They may know him by an Egyptian name, but he says simply, “I am Joseph. I am the son of Jacob and Rachel, grandson of Isaac and Rebekah, and the great grandson of Abraham and Sarah. I am your brother.” Then he asks a question. “is my father still alive?” According to Walter Bruggemann “the family bond is deep for Joseph, deeper than Egyptian success. Clearly, Joseph cannot resolve the family brokenness by a regal Egyptian act of sovereignty. It requires an act of Israelite passion, an act of salvation” (Walter Brueggemann, Interpretation series, Genesis, WJKP, 1982, p.345).

While his brothers stand in stunned silence, not knowing what to do, Joseph calls them closer. “I am Joseph. I am the one you sold into slavery.” I can almost hear their hearts pounding, I can almost see their minds racing, “what will he do to us?” Joseph says, “don’t worry, don’t be angry.” Remember when I was younger back in Canaan? You thought I was arrogant. But what I want you to know is that it was not arrogance that has brought me to this place, it was blessing. It was God’s favor working in my life. I dreamed you would bow before me and here you are. But it’s not me. I know I don’t talk about God too much, but it was the God of our ancestors that kept me, who was in place all along. God sent me here to be here when you came looking for food. You may have meant it for evil purposes, but God brought good things out of your act. I am here and I will make sure you survive the next five years of this famine.

“You were just the agent. You were the means to get me to this place where God’s plan for us could be fulfilled. We are a family living with a promise. Remember the story, of how first to Abraham, then to Isaac, then to our father Jacob, and now to us, we would be a great nation. We will live because the promise will be fulfilled in us.”

We have witnessed Joseph’s revelation of himself to his brothers. This could be the moment when the full weight of the Egyptian government and a wronged brother is brought down on the remaining sons of Jacob. But Joseph is not interested in revenge or retribution. Joseph is about reconciliation with his brothers. Through his tears, Joseph sends them to go back to Canaan one more time, this time to return to bring Jacob and all their households to Egypt with them. He has one other instruction, “And tell our father that I am alive and dong well.” Then Joseph and his brother’s weep in each others arms. They do not yet fully trust that they have Joseph’s forgiveness, but they will.

Pharaoh will give them provision for their journey. Jacob will learn that his beloved son is alive and well. They will have their reunion and God’s promises will be kept in the twelve sons of Jacob, who will in turn give their names to the twelve tribes of the nation of Israel.

They still have some things to work out, but they will be OK. The sons of Jacob will survive. The story has one more piece, come back next week and see how they do it.

What has this story to do with our faith family? Genesis 39.21 says, “but the Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love.” God was with Joseph, through all of h is ordeal and triumphs, and God will be with us. “In the Joseph stories, Joseph is a model of what the grace of God can do in human life: transform a curse into a blessing. But Joseph is himself a metaphor for God: the One who has every reason to reject a wayward human family, but who instead loves them even to the point of One’s own participation in their suffering (Texts for Preaching - year A. JKP, p.445).

In our story we find our way to restoration and deep spirituality when we remember that we live and act in the Spirit of God shown to us in Jesus Christ, who loved us enough to suffer on behalf of us all. Surely Jesus modeled for us revelation as we see in him the Son of God our Messiah.

Jesus was all about relationships with those who were well connected and those who severely disconnected. Jesus says to them all, as he says to all of us, “come, follow me.” In Jesus, we find reconciliation, a bringing together in mutual benefit parties that were divided and fighting. “You cannot undo the past”, he says to us, “but you can start over today.”

Today, when we trust God as Joseph did, as Jesus did, as we are called to do, we will find ourselves restored - made new, and put in right relationship with God and with our neighbors. Joseph is a great example of how restoration occurs. God’s grace and mercy are amazing and are held out to us every day. What is broken can be restored, God did in Joseph’s family, and God wants to do it for us, our families, and our church. Receive the gifts of restoration and healing and praise the giver of the gifts as you do.

Thanks to God. Amen.

Dr. LaTaunya M. Bynum
Senior Pastor