2 Kings 5:1-15, November 25, 2018, Sermon

2 Kings 5:1-15 Common English Bible (CEB) Naaman, a general for the king of Aram, was a great man and highly regarded by his master, because through him the Lord had given victory to Aram. This man was a mighty warrior, but he had a skin disease. Now Aramean raiding parties had gone out and captured a young girl from the land of Israel. She served Naaman’s wife. She said to her mistress, “I wish that my master could come before the prophet who lives in Samaria. He would cure him of his skin disease.” So Naaman went and told his master what the young girl from the land of Israel had said. Then Aram’s king said, “Go ahead. I will send a letter to Israel’s king.” So Naaman left. He took along ten kikkars of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten changes of clothing. 6 He brought the letter to Israel’s king. It read, “Along with this letter I’m sending you my servant Naaman so you can cure him of his skin disease.” When the king of Israel read the letter, he ripped his clothes. He said, “What? Am I God to hand out death and life? But this king writes me, asking me to cure someone of his skin disease! You must realize that he wants to start a fight with me.” When Elisha the man of God heard that Israel’s king had ripped his clothes, he sent word to the king: “Why did you rip your clothes? Let the man come to me. Then he’ll know that there’s a prophet in Israel.” Naaman arrived with his horses and chariots. He stopped at the door of Elisha’s house. Elisha sent out a messenger who said, “Go and wash seven times in the Jordan River. Then your skin will be restored and become clean.” But Naaman went away in anger. He said, “I thought for sure that he’d come out, stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, wave his hand over the bad spot, and cure the skin disease. Aren’t the rivers in Damascus, the Abana and the Pharpar, better than all Israel’s waters? Couldn’t I wash in them and get clean?” So he turned away and proceeded to leave in anger. Naaman’s servants came up to him and spoke to him: “Our father, if the prophet had told you to do something difficult, wouldn’t you have done it? All he said to you was, ‘Wash and become clean.’” So Naaman went down and bathed in the Jordan seven times, just as the man of God had said. His skin was restored like that of a young boy, and he became clean. He returned to the man of God with all his attendants. He came and stood before Elisha, saying, “Now I know for certain that there’s no God anywhere on earth except in Israel. Please accept a gift from your servant.” SERMON (PASTOR) This scripture is bad game of telephone. It goes like this. An Israeli slave girl tells Naaman’s wife Naaman can be cured by a prophet in Samaria. Naaman’s wife tells Naaman. We don’t know if Naaman got the full story from the salve girl, and as far as we can tell, she doesn’t pass along the actual name of the prophet. Naaman tells the King of Aram what Naaman heard and the king says he will write a letter to Israel’s king and Naaman leaves, assuming, all the right information will be passed along. We don’t know if the King of Aram wrote immediately, or if he wrote it days later forgetting the details. It doesn’t say if Naaman, much less the wife, much less, the slave girl got to check it over. Maybe if they had, it might have said, the actual prophet’s name who was heal Naaman. Either way, Israel’s king receives the letter and gets mad because it comes with a contractual gift binding him to cure Naaman or else there is a threat of war from the of Aram. Therefore the King of Aram tears his clothes in anger. This is the point where from the outside, the reader wants to say, whoah, whoah, settle down, hold your horses, and put back on your torn clothes. How did a wish from a little slave girl suggesting healing become a threat of war? Miscommunication. Telephone. That’s how. And it makes the reader wish they could just connect the pieces for the individuals involved. And that is what Elisha tries to do. ““When Elisha the man of God heard that Israel’s king had ripped his clothes, he sent word to the king: “Why did you rip your clothes? Let the man come to me. Then he’ll know that there’s a prophet in Israel.”” Seems part of prophesy is being able to settle folks down and cut through the mire. The prophet Elisha, says, essentially, chill out, and send him my way. The prophet doesn’t say what he will suggest, or how it will be suggested, but Naaman, the successful general, is a little big for his britches. Naaman comes to Elisha with a grand entrance, horses and chariots, aka. Naaman thinks he is a big deal, and to this Big Deal, Elisha sends a messenger. The messenger tells Naaman, just go wash seven times in the Jordan. Naaman feels this is neither the way a message should apparently be sent to a general, nor the cure for which Naaman is prepared. Naaman overpacked. Maybe he thought he would have to go on a big quest, buy out the royalty, or achieve tremendous feats, but instead, he just has to wash seven times in a river that is less clean than the ones back home. This message is sent by Elisha, who doesn’t even come out of his home. Naaman says, “I thought for sure that he’d come out, stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, wave his hand over the bad spot, and cure the skin disease. Aren’t the rivers in Damascus, the Abana and the Pharpar, better than all Israel’s waters? Couldn’t I wash in them and get clean?” So he turned away and proceeded to leave in anger. But what we know about anger is that it is the top emotion to hurt or sadness. When someone is angry, there is actually a pain underneath it, a need that isn’t being met. Naaman is mad, not only because of the cure, and it’s delivery but I also imagine the feeling of being helpless to his disease and perceiving the prophet as not caring about him. This is the part anyone with an incurable disease or ailment probably gets. How many times have people told him, just wash it, just put this weird salve on it and it will heal, just do what my sister’s husband’s niece’s nephew did when he had something that was kind of the same but totally unrelated. Just go wash seven times in the River Jordan. Naaman wasn’t having it. It was below him and to him, it probably sounded like the prophet didn’t understand and didn’t really care. When you’re vulnerable and rejected, when you’re sick and told platitudes you end up turning away. Naaman wasn’t having it. Then somehow Naaman’s servants hear the cure and convince Naaman to at least try. There must have been something in the way they were able to speak to him, something that went beyond messages, and telephone, and hopelessness. Nothing that connected to the heart of Naaman’s feelings. “Naaman’s servants came up to him and spoke to him: “Our father, if the prophet had told you to do something difficult, wouldn’t you have done it? All he said to you was, ‘Wash and become clean.’” It sounds like something an encouraging parent or coach would say on the sidelines of a kids’ game. ‘It’s hard to have things be different than you imagined. But you have tried things much harder than this. You can do hard things.’ ‘You traveled this far, the message is from a prophet, and it is the Jordan River itself. Just try.’ They tell him and for some reason they can get through to him. There is something about what and how they say it that connects finally. It is like that moment where someone is in pain, and instead of platitudes and confusing games of telephone miscommunication, someone sits by them and says, “It’s okay to be sad, or scared, or angry at your unfair disease. This is really hard for you. I am here if you need me. Tell me about it. I am listening.” Whatever they said, there had to have been that moment where the heart connects beyond the words. “So Naaman went down and bathed in the Jordan seven times, just as the man of God had said. This is the part that I find impressive. Naaman had to turn it around. Perhaps literally. The scripture had said, Naaman had proceeded to walk away in anger, now he had to turn toward that which he had been angry. He had to physically go down to the river he insulted, and submerge himself in it and trust in the God of the prophet whom he had doubted. Naaman in turning around had to omit he might be wrong. He had to admit that he was in more discomfort from his disease than he was proud of his station. He had to essentially strip away all that had been in the way, and wash, and wash, and wash, and wash, and wash, and wash, and wash. Wash away the part of him that held himself up as a general, and wash away the part of him that put his own nation above others, and wash away the games of telephone that thwarted him, and wash away the anger at his own suffering, and wash away his previous attempts at healing, and wash away the hurt, and wash away himself so that he became like a child, a child of God. Like the same little little servant child who believed he could become healed in the first place. His skin was restored like that of a young boy, and he became clean.

Isaiah 36:1-3, 13-20, 37:1-7, November 11, 2018, Sermon

 Isaiah 36:1-3, 13-20, 37:1-7 Common English Bible (CEB)

Background: Isaiah 36-37 is permeated with brute power and force. There is an imperial invasion, by the King of Assyria, who swept through the countryside and attacked one city after another.  In the following text, the king sends his emissary, together with a great army, to Jerusalem, to go and meet with Hezekiah, the king of Jerusalem. Hezekiah, in turn, sends his own officials to meet with this imperial delegation. 

Isaiah 36:1-3

36 Assyria’s King Sennacherib, marched against all of Judah’s fortified cities and captured them in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah. 2 Assyria’s king sent his field commander from Lachish, together with a large army, to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. He stood at the water channel of the Upper Pool, which is on the road to the field where clothes are washed. 3 Hilkiah’s son Eliakim, who was the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and Asaph’s son Joah the recorder went out to them.

Isaiah 36: 13-20

13 Then the field commander stood up and shouted in Hebrew at the top of his voice:

 “Listen to the message of the great king, Assyria’s king. 14 The king says this: Don’t let Hezekiah lie to you. He won’t be able to rescue you. 15 Don’t let Hezekiah persuade you to trust the Lord by saying, 

‘The Lord will certainly rescue us. This city won’t be handed over to Assyria’s king.’ 16 “Don’t listen to Hezekiah, because this is what Assyria’s king says: Surrender to me and come out. Then each of you will eat from your own vine and fig tree and drink water from your own well 17 until I come to take you to a land just like your land. It will be a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards. 18 Don’t let Hezekiah fool you by saying, ‘The Lord will rescue us.’ Did any of the other gods of the nations save their lands from the power of Assyria’s king? 19 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sephar-vaim? Did they rescue Samaria from my power? 20 Which one of the gods from those countries has rescued their land from my power? Will the Lord save Jerusalem from my power?”

Commentary: The general tone of this speech is an overt display of imperial Assyrian power, with the sole purpose being to intimidate and to instill fear in Hezekiah’s people. His people are encouraged to revolt against their king, forsake their God, and bow before the Emperor. The effect of these attempts to dominate and to control is quite fierce, as evident in Hezekiah’s reaction, who frantically engages in mourning rituals, tearing his clothes, covering himself in sackcloth, most likely weeping and crying, and finding solace in the house of the Lord (Isaiah 37:1). The scripture reads,

Isaiah 37:1-7

37 When King Hezekiah heard this, he ripped his clothes, covered himself with mourning clothes, and went to the Lord’s temple. 2 He sent Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and the senior priests to the prophet Isaiah, Amoz’s son. They were all wearing mourning clothes. 3 They said to Isaiah, “Hezekiah says this: Today is a day of distress, punishment, and humiliation. It’s as if children are ready to be born, but there’s no strength to see it through. 4 Perhaps the Lord your God heard all the words of the field commander who was sent by his master, Assyria’s king. He insulted the living God! Perhaps God will punish him for the words that the Lord your God has heard. Offer up a prayer for those few people who still survive.”

5 When King Hezekiah’s servants got to Isaiah, 6 Isaiah said to them, 

“Say this to your master: The Lord says this: Don’t be afraid at the words you heard, which the officers of Assyria’s king have used to insult me. 7 I’m about to mislead him, so when he hears a rumor, he’ll go back to his own country. Then I’ll have him cut down by the sword in his own land.”

Commentary: The wise old prophet Isaiah sends words of comfort to King Hezekiah,“Do not be afraid” (Isaiah 37:5): Isaiah is telling him, Do not fear the words whose sole purpose is to intimidate, to instill fear in those who hear them. Do not fear the words that seek to usurp the authority of the king. Do not fear the words that mock and attack the integrity of your deepest religious beliefs.

Isaiah furthermore, promises that God will cause the ferocious emperor to retreat, by instilling a spirit in him so that he shall hear a rumor, and hence return to his own land. The prophet prophesies that this emperor will fall by the sword in his own land, suggesting what we know all too well: “You live by the sword, you die by the sword.”

Isaiah 36-37 is so deeply steeped in violence and war that it almost seems as if the creators of the lectionary could not let the text stand on its own. The lectionary reading for this week thus draws our attention to some other words by the prophet Isaiah in a profound vision of peace found in Isaiah 2:1-5. Amidst the context of war, domination and force, that governs Isaiah 36-37, the words of Isaiah 2:1-5 hold up an alternative view. It is a view of a world in which nations do not learn war no more. It is a vision of a world where people are more concerned with cultivating food than producing weapons. It reads,

Isaiah 2:1-4 Common English Bible (CEB)

The Lord’s mountain

2 This is what Isaiah, Amoz’s son, saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

2 In the days to come

    the mountain of the Lord’s house

    will be the highest of the mountains.

    It will be lifted above the hills;

        peoples will stream to it.

3 Many nations will go and say,

“Come, let’s go up to the Lord’s mountain,

    to the house of Jacob’s God

        so that God may teach us God’s ways

        and we may walk in God’s paths.”

Instruction will come from Zion;

    the Lord’s word from Jerusalem.

4 God will judge between the nations,

    and settle disputes of mighty nations.

Then they will beat their swords into iron plows

    and their spears into pruning tools.

Nation will not take up sword against nation;

    they will no longer learn how to make war.

Commentary, Within this vision, God is no longer the mighty warrior who will fight the other nations, but rather, God is the great teacher of God’s ways, the righteous judge and the arbitrator between nations. By bringing these texts from the book of Isaiah together, the lectionary seems to suggest that it is this vision of God that may be behind the prophet’s words, “Do not be afraid,” In the vision of Isaiah 2:1-5, God is held up as a God who seeks peace and justice, who instead of teaching nations how to make war, teaches them how to live together, how to share resources, how to find non-violent solutions in order to arbitrate disputes.

SERMON (PASTOR) 

We don’t have to look much further than our own cultural history, and the world’s current history, to see these dynamic of war and peace at play. As Americans we are about to celebrate Thanksgiving. At its worst, Thanksgiving is a celebration much like had the Assyrians won. The Emperor of Assyria threatens to conquer the land, separate the people and send them to an Exodus in a land, ‘supposedly,' like the one in which they reside. As white protestant Americans, of which many of us in this sanctuary are, our history also traces back to a religious people in power taking over land. In our case, land of Native Americans, or First Peoples, and then sending those that hadn’t yet died, to different lands, such as reservations, by way of force and Trails of Tears. In our town, here in Baker, a mural on the Catholic Church depicts Columbus and his three ships depending on the Americans, and silhouettes of First Peoples, stand ready with an a-historical headdresses, and spears. Under the mural, read the words, 500 years in the New World. We, are not so far from the Biblical Assyrians. 

Likewise, in current Jerusalem, there is a war of claiming land. The Zionist Jews are in power in collaboration with Christian Americans, and the Muslim Palestinians have been forced out, of their sacred space, their family’s olive trees, forced out of access to healthcare, the ability to travel within their own country, and to govern themselves. This most sacred walled city is divided within its walls according to race and religion; there is the Jewish Quarter, the Armenian Christian quarter, the Muslim quarter and the Christian quarter. Similar to Baker’s mural, Tel Aviv’s airport hosts a 400-foot poster which displays the words, “120 years of Zionism.” Zionism meaning that Israel claims all of its land for the Jewish people. 

Just as the Assyrians didn’t win in Biblical times, no one wins in any of our more current American or Israeli contexts. Acts of terrorism and heavy fighting pervade all sides. No one wins in war. To win is uphold the image in Isaiah 2, an image of peace, "Nation will not take up sword against nation; they will no longer learn how to make war.” We know this image in our American history. We celebrate this image, with school children making ceremonial headdresses and pilgrim hats, and coming together for a meal. We celebrate the First People’s saving the Pilgrims, during their first hard winter and the giving of food. 

We know this image too in our own sanctuary. Where the body and the blood of Jesus is lifted up, and given over, that Jesus might become the Prince of Peace. Peace, the King who reigns over all. Who brings communion, coming together. Like Isaiah, we take what was fraught, and hold up peace.  What is more important than the swords of war are the plowshares of peace. This peace, not the conquering victor, is where we find God. God is in the coming together, in the Thanksgiving. God is in the peace. Amen.

Genesis 39:1-23, November 11, 2018, Sermon

Genesis 39:1-23

39 When Joseph had been taken down to Egypt, Potiphar, Pharaoh’s chief officer, the commander of the royal guard and an Egyptian, purchased him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him down there. 2 The Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man and served in his Egyptian master’s household. 3 His master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord made everything he did successful. 4 Potiphar thought highly of Joseph, and Joseph became his assistant; he appointed Joseph head of his household and put everything he had under Joseph’s supervision. 5 From the time he appointed Joseph head of his household and of everything he had, the Lord blessed the Egyptian’s household because of Joseph. The Lord blessed everything he had, both in the household and in the field. 6 So he handed over everything he had to Joseph and didn’t pay attention to anything except the food he ate.

Now Joseph was well-built and handsome.

7 Some time later, his master’s wife became attracted to Joseph and said, “Sleep with me.”

8 He refused and said to his master’s wife, “With me here, my master doesn’t pay attention to anything in his household; he’s put everything he has under my supervision. 9 No one is greater than I am in this household, and he hasn’t denied me anything except you, since you are his wife. How could I do this terrible thing and sin against God?” 10 Every single day she tried to convince him, but he wouldn’t agree to sleep with her or even to be with her.

11 One day when Joseph arrived at the house to do his work, none of the household’s men were there. 12 She grabbed his garment, saying, “Lie down with me.” But he left his garment in her hands and ran outside. 13 When she realized that he had left his garment in her hands and run outside, 14 she summoned the men of her house and said to them, “Look, my husband brought us a Hebrew to ridicule us. He came to me to lie down with me, but I screamed. 15 When he heard me raise my voice and scream, he left his garment with me and ran outside.” 16 She kept his garment with her until Joseph’s master came home, 17 and she told him the same thing: “The Hebrew slave whom you brought to us, to ridicule me, came to me; 18 but when I raised my voice and screamed, he left his garment with me and ran outside.”

19 When Joseph’s master heard the thing that his wife told him, “This is what your servant did to me,” he was incensed. 20 Joseph’s master took him and threw him in jail, the place where the king’s prisoners were held. While he was in jail, 21 the Lord was with Joseph and remained loyal to him. He caused the jail’s commander to think highly of Joseph. 22 The jail’s commander put all of the prisoners in the jail under Joseph’s supervision, and he was the one who determined everything that happened there. 23 The jail’s commander paid no attention to anything under Joseph’s supervision, because the Lord was with him and made everything he did successful.

SERMON (PASTOR) 

39 When Joseph had been taken down to Egypt, Potiphar, Pharaoh’s chief officer, the commander of the royal guard and an Egyptian, purchased him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him down there. 2 The Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man and served in his Egyptian master’s household. 3 His master saw that the Lord was with Joseph and that the Lord made everything he did successful. 4 Potiphar thought highly of Joseph, and Joseph became his assistant; he appointed Joseph head of his household and put everything he had under Joseph’s supervision. 5 From the time Potiphar appointed Joseph head of his household and of everything he had, the Lord blessed the Egyptian’s household because of Joseph. The Lord blessed everything he had, both in the household and in the field. 6 So he handed over everything he had to Joseph and didn’t pay attention to anything except the food he ate.

Now Joseph was well-built and handsome. 7 Some time later, his master’s wife became attracted to Joseph and said, “Sleep with me.” 8 He refused and said to his master’s wife, “With me here, my master doesn’t pay attention to anything in his household; he’s put everything he has under my supervision.  No one is greater than I am in this household, and he hasn’t denied me anything except you, since you are his wife. How could I do this terrible thing and sin against God?” 10 Every single day she tried to convince him, but he wouldn’t agree to sleep with her or even to be with her.

11 One day when Joseph arrived at the house to do his work, none of the household’s men were there. 12 She grabbed his garment, saying, “Lie down with me.” But he left his garment in her hands and ran outside. 13 When she realized that he had left his garment in her hands and run outside, 14 she summoned the men of her house and said to them, “Look, my husband brought us a Hebrew to ridicule us. He came to me to lie down with me, but I screamed. 15 When he heard me raise my voice and scream, he left his garment with me and ran outside.” 16 She kept his garment with her until Joseph’s master came home, 17 and she told him the same thing: “The Hebrew slave whom you brought to us, to ridicule me, came to me; 18 but when I raised my voice and screamed, he left his garment with me and ran outside.”

19 When Joseph’s master heard the thing that his wife told him, “This is what your servant did to me,” he was incensed. 20 Joseph’s master took him and threw him in jail, the place where the king’s prisoners were held. While he was in jail, 21 the Lord was with Joseph and remained loyal to the Lord. The Lord caused the jail’s commander to think highly of Joseph. 22 The jail’s commander put all of the prisoners in the jail under Joseph’s supervision, and he was the one who determined everything that happened there. 23 The jail’s commander paid no attention to anything under Joseph’s supervision, because the Lord was with him and made everything he did successful.

SERMON (PASTOR) 

I have gone back and forth with this text all week and I still don’t have an answer. I don’t know whether I believe Potiphar’s wife or Jospeh, and I am not sure either way what believing those things tells us about God. And so maybe, that’s the lesson today that part of being faithful, is to struggle with scriptures. It is to find yourself between what was written, we know about the time it was written, what we know now today, and what we believe about God. I am hoping, that maybe someday, I and others will know enough to read this text with simple answers and pervasive grace, but I’m not there this week, nor are we as a society, and I invite you, to join me in the middle place, where whom to believe in a case of assault is a struggle.

It is hard for me to ignore when any woman accuses a man of rape. I just don’t think women make accusations up, nor does it behove them to do so, at least in 99.9% of cases, that actually come forward. And so I look at the text, and I am skeptical that the narrator, who would have his own biases as a male living in biblical times, has the story exactly correct. So, I question the narrator and Jospeh’s innocence. 

Jospeh was the favored son, the one who was given by his father, a cloak with long sleeves. Likewise, Jospeh sees himself as favored by God over his brothers. He interprets two dreams to mean that his brothers will bow down before him, these are his older brothers, and to them he must have seemed entitled and arrogant. So much so, that they think of killing him, and end up selling him into slavery, and bringing back his special cloak marked with blood, to convince the father he has died of a wild animal. (Jospeh is used to getting in trouble for his cloak.) The brothers are horrible, but what it also tells me is that there is in this family a pattern of subjugation and violence mixed with entitlement. These are the patterns we see in violence towards women. That what was done to one, will be done to another. That what could have been done to Jospeh, Jospeh could do to Potiphar’s wife. 

To that end there is a varying power difference between Jospeh and Potiphar’s wife. Part of that can be seen in that she is given no name. What might that tell us about the narrator and the time in which he wrote? Was it just that this is a story about Jospeh and we need not names, or does it tell us that women have a lesser role even to their their slaves? 

The narrator explains that Potiphar thought highly of Joseph, and appointed Joseph head of his household and put everything he had under Joseph’s supervision. Women, even wives, in this time are thought of as possessions, so where does the power lie between Joseph and Potiphar’s unnamed wife. If the wife in this time is in charge of the inside of the household, what does it mean that Jospeh is put in as head over the household? 

When the narrator describes that Jospeh is propositioned in the scripture, this is Jospeh’s answer, “With me here, my master doesn’t pay attention to anything in his household; he’s put everything he has under my supervision. No one is greater than I am in this household, and he hasn’t denied me anything except you, since you are his wife.” This is not the answer of a salve, this is the answer of someone who knows they are in charge, and can do things in secret without the master knowing, and perhaps are entitled. He is not saying, “I feel powerless, I don’t want to.” He is saying, “I am choosing not to,” or is he saying that. Jospeh speaks, “How could I do this terrible thing and sin against God?” It is a question, not a statement. He does not say, “I will not do this terrible thing.”

The narrator likewise, suggests Potiphar’s unnamed wife is suspect because Jospeh was well built and handsome. This could mean that she is interested in him, or it could also mean that he has the power that is afforded to attractive people, and the strength that is given to those who are well built. How might this affect what the master and other’s are willing to notice.

Then we have the day in question. Our scripture says that “Joseph arrived at the house to do his work, none of the household’s men were there.” Were any of the women, or does their voice matter so little that they are not there. And there Joseph is again getting in trouble with his cloak. If she had wanted him, and had the power in the relationship, if she had wanted him, why would she tell, and not just continue? I can’t answer this. 

***

This is what else I know. We don’t believe women when they tell, but we even less, believe men. How little too, do we believe men of other races? How much more often are they accused? How often are slaves heard? There are various ways to look at history. We can look at what is written, but we also need to look at what isn’t. In our own country, we have a lot of accounts of white slave owners attacking women and men but we have few of women slave owners attacking black slave men. We can believe the lack of accounts are because women slave overs didn’t abuse slaves, or we can try to understand why it might to have been written. The ones with the power are not the ones who do the writing, neither women slave owners nor slaves gained anything by sharing the abuse. Jospeh is a slave, slaves, do not have power over themselves. Therefore, any sexual interaction would have been abusive because it was an abuse of power. Moreover, Jospeh is also called a Hebrew slave. This puts him lower than the native Egyptian slaves. He has even less status by which to protect himself. Not only does Jospeh’s slavery and foreignness put him in danger but so does his family history. Having been victimized in his own family increases the likelihood that Jospeh will be victimized again.  Finally, though not exhaustively, he, not Potiphar’s wife, is the one who goes to jail. Being in jail as we can see in our own time, and as the narrator alludes to in Biblical times, often has less to do with who was right and wrong, and much more to do with who has power. And that’s the thing I don’t know. 

I can’t tell who in this text has the power, and to me, that is the hinge on which this text swings. If it is Potipher’s unnamed wife who has less power, then I want to believe her dialogue, that Jospeh tried to assault her. If Jospeh has less power than I want to believe he has been wrongly accused as assaulting her or that he was pressured into another unjust power dynamic. This is the piece I can’t figure out, and it leaves my brain in a messy muddy puddle. I think sometimes this mess can be a faithful mess. It can be faithful,  to be willing to not have the answer, and to not pretend to know details we don’t, but to keep wrestling and struggling with a text until we finally get there, maybe years later. Sometimes, perhaps like Jospeh, perhaps like Protifer’s wife, just being in the mess and continuing to look at it is what is faithful. 

It can be hard to see where God is in the midst of this scripture, and in cases like this today. I have often heard this sentiment during pastoral care, and felt it in my own experiences. Where is God, where was God? It doesn’t help that the narrator here makes Jospeh too perfect to be believable, and he measures godliness by a Jospeh’s material success. Clearly, Jospeh isn’t perfect, and the prosperity gospel is the opposite of godliness. To not believe this narrator is tlike disbelieving a judge or jury. So it leaves us very little to deem as holy if outcomes are the only way we measure God. 

But there is one more way presented here, Despite the mess, the lack of answers, the narrator says over and over, “The Lord was with Joseph,” “The Lord was with Joseph.” I would like to think that whether Jospeh was the victim or the perpetrator God was with Joseph. That even if he abused Potipher’s wife God was with him. I want to think God’s grace is that big. And also, even if Jospeh was the victim, and was sold into slavery, taken to a foreign land, or accused of rape and put in jail, that God was with him would not leave him. I believe that even if Potipher’s wife was also ignored by the narrator, I believe that God was with her too. Life can be so messy that we can not understand, but God doesn’t leave us or pick sides in the middle of our human messes. I believe that God was with me as I wrestled this week with this text, and God will be with us all as we continue to wrestle with this and other tough scriptures and cases like this today. Perhaps, this Jospeh story isn’t a story told so we can watch how God blesses one man, Jospeh, over and over in his life, but to note that even as tragedy after tragedy happens to him, God is still with him, and us even when we can’t figure it out.

Genesis 12:1-9, November 4, 2018, All Saints Sermon

Genesis 12:1-9 

The Lord said to Abram, 

“Leave your land, your family, and your father’s household for the land that I will show you. 

I will make of you a great nation and will bless you. 

I will make your name respected, and you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you,

    those who curse you I will curse;

        all the families of the earth

            will be blessed because of you.”

Abram left just as the Lord told him, and Lot went with him. Now Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. Abram took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all of their possessions, and those who became members of their household in Haran; and they set out for the land of Canaan. When they arrived in Canaan, Abram traveled through the land as far as the sacred place at Shechem, at the oak of Moreh. The Canaanites lived in the land at that time.

The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “I give this land to your descendants,” so Abram built an altar there to the Lord who appeared to him. From there he traveled toward the mountains east of Bethel, and pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and worshipped in the Lord’s name. Then Abram set out toward the arid southern plain, making and breaking camp as he went.

SERMON (PASTOR) 

Before this story, we have only heard of Abram and Sarai once, in the lineage of a genealogy. The only thing mentioned is that Sarai is barren. She is the first barren creature in the Biblical narrative, and her barrenness stands in juxtaposition to God’s creation, God’s covenant, and the genealogy itself. It would be easy to assume the story ends there, at the end of an linage, but that’s not our God, and we are only in the first book of the Bible.

And so, seemingly out of nowhere, and because of nothing they did, God greeted Abram with a blessing, and isn’t this how blessing come? In unexpected places, at unexpected times.

“I will make of you a great nation and will bless you. 

I will make your name respected, and you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you,

    those who curse you I will curse;

        all the families of the earth

            will be blessed because of you.”

It’s a pretty big blessing, it’s like the kind with which we bless babies. May you have health, and peace, and joy, a family and a place to call home, and may you likewise, tiny child, know and be a blessing. It’s a pretty big blessing, one that seems to come at the beginning of a life, or a graduation, not so much at a retirement, or a funeral. It’s a pretty big blessing, if that’s what it is for Abram. Because, Abram unlike a newborn, is seventy-five, and Sarai also elderly, and it is to their old age God speaks a word of call before God speaks God’s blessing. God says, “Leave your land, your family, and your father’s household for the land that I will show you.” This is not a blessing for the elderly. It is a call to be alone in your old age. It is to leave the town you love, and say goodbye to the Elkhorns greeting your morning and silhouetting your sunset. It is let go of the people who know your name enough to ask about a recent trip, or doctor’s visit. It is to leave behind witnessing years of children growing. Saying goodbye at the point they start talking to you like an adult, or still childlike run after your car yelling, “Bye Grandpa! Bye Grandma!" It is to pack only enough to make and break camp, leaving behind decades of collected memories and items deemed useful, and those common ones we are unable to throw out, and with them, and so much moe than them, the relationships of the three generations of family under one roof, in one town, on your own land. It’s not what you do at 75.

I think of the Traditional Song, Weeping Pilgrim (Traditional). It sings,

“If you see them father (sister, brother, mother), please tell them 

I’m a poor mourning pilgrim bound for Canaan land. 

Well, I weep and I moan and I move slowly on, 

I’m a poor mourning pilgrim bound for Canaan land.”

This dislocating, this traveling, this sojourning, this being a pilgrim, it’s not what you do at 75, or maybe it is, at least in some ways.  

At seventy-five, we start looking the other way, not to what our lives will accomplish, who we will meet, or marry, or where we live, if there will be children, or what will our occupation be, but we start wondering what it has meant, how will end, who will be with us when it does, and we begin to name the many who have passed already. In old age, there is a dislocating, a traveling, a sojourning, a being a pilgrim, wondering what is after. American Slaves once sung this question of age and journey,

“If you get there before I do, Coming for to carry me home, 

tell all my friends I’m coming after you, coming for to carry me home.”

The words of Swing Low, were a metaphor, both to a physical place of freedom in the North, but also, to a place beyond this world. Abram and Sarai, likewise, were heading for the physical place of Canaan, but they were also also looking beyond this world. 

Their’s, like many slaves, was a hard story. Abram and Sarai were told they would be a blessing, and would be blessed, that their descendants would be given Canaan land. And so, with hope, or trust, or faith, or who knows what, Abram and Sarai went, but at the end of their life, not many of those promises had come true. Abraham and Sarah only had one biological son together, and the only land Abraham owned was the burial plot he bought for Sarah. If all we have is the lens of youth, the lens which looks at this physical life and it’s genealogy with dates on a grave, then Abram and Sarai, may not exactly be blessed. Yet. I don’t believe this is how the elderly look at life. I imagine Abraham long past 100, digging that small amount of earth for Sarah’s grave, looking over the life they had, but equally looking forward into the next life, the life that is beyond them. I have not met someone who is in their nineties, or hundreds, who doesn’t have this view. The view beyond the grave. They seem to know in a different way that though their life is ending, it will still go on. 

Abraham lived to be 175. He watched generations be born and die, many of which he produced, he who laughed at God, when God first bore Sarah a child in her old age. I doubt he laughed at 175. He’d seen too much to be surprised. If we look at our own genealogy back 175 years, we can see that, that which is astonishing, is commonplace. My favorite genealogy story is of a generous patron family member to a Presbyterian church on the St. Lawrence River during prohibition, who was later found out to be a counterfeiter, and rode seven horses across that frozen river, to escape to Canada. I like that this in my lineage as a Presbyterian pastor, and I think God is the one having the laugh. Likewise, our own church, didn’t exist 175 years ago, yet 134 years ago, four women, in a mining town set up this fellowship. I don’t think any of us are related to any of them, but I believe many of us, are the progeny of their ministry. And I do believe that 134 years from now (though probably not in a building, or a church), God will still be bringing about unexpected blessings we cannot fathom and hardly believe. Hardly believe, except for the fact, that in looking back, we are witnesses to unexpected generations under a God of unexpected blessing. Abram and Sarai’s story reverberates throughout the Old Testament and is echoed into the New. And Even at 175, Abraham could not have known this, but perhaps by then he expected it.The book of Hebrews (11:17) surmises he might have. It reads, “All of these people died in faith without receiving the promises, but they saw the promises from a distance and welcomed them. They confessed that they were strangers and immigrants on earth.”

Abraham and Sarai may not have received the promises, but they saw them from a distance and welcomed them. They confessed that they were strangers and immigrants on earth, merely to make and break camp until Cannan was theirs. We remember them on this All Saint’s Day, and we remember all those who have gone before us, who maybe only saw from a distance the blessing that were fulfilled in our own generation. Their history, is a great cloud of witness, to God’s blessings, and our own. I don’t know if you can see it. Maybe you are young this day, and hearing, like hear the first word God spoke to Abram, words of blessing, of promise, of future. Maybe though, you are old this day, or have the vision of the elderly, who know this blessing is beyond us, because of us and despite us, but that we are merely pilgrims, immigrants, from whom God will continue to bless the generations. Amen.