"The Dream"
Sermon Presented August 10, 2008
Genesis 37:1-36
On May 7th, I dreamed the following: I was driving to a rural church to fill the pulpit for a pastor who was on vacation. On the way, I realized I was completely off-track with my interpretation of the text and began to worry about it. When I arrived at the church I parked in a parking area surrounded by trees, locked the car and walked to the church.
After trying in vain to contact the pastor to see if he had a substitute sermon I could deliver, I decided to adjust. I realized I needed something that was in the car - it seems like it was a German chocolate birthday cake - but when I arrived at the car, I discovered that the back door on the driver's side was lying on the ground. A thief had removed the door and everything inside the car - including the cake and my handbag. There were other details I won't go into, but my thought and later vocalization in the dream was that I shouldn't have had that much cash in my wallet. I was more concerned about being seen as foolish for losing so much money, than I was about actually losing the money. I wrote out the dream, but thought no more about it until I found it last week. Now - after having had my wallet stolen in Barcelona in June, I decided that I should have heeded the warning of the dream.
This morning, I'm reading a most familiar story - the story of a boy who used no discernment in sharing his dreams. The teen's name was Joseph, and his dreams indicated that he was to rule over his parents and his brothers. Because of Joseph's insensitivity to the feelings of his brothers, along with his father's preferential treatment of him, jealousy flourished. Hear the story from Genesis 37:1-36.
Let's look at the story line. Joseph was the first-born son of his father Jacob's favorite wife, Rachel - the son of his old age. Jacob, himself, was part of a dysfunctional family where each parent doted on a favorite child - Jacob was the favorite of his mother Rebecca and Esau, his twin, the favorite of his dad Isaac - favoritism that was obvious to everyone. Jacob didn't learn from the past, but perpetuates a rivalry between his children through his preferential treatment of one son. To show his favoritism for Joseph, Jacob gives him a special long coat with sleeves - a garment that signifies royalty. With this gift, everyone knows that Joseph is the "top dog" in the family, because he, alone, has such a garment.
Jealousy among siblings isn't unusual. Favoritism of one child over another by parents isn't unusual either. One child may be exceptionally intelligent or talented or kind or athletic and basks in the limelight because of his or her gifts - or that child may be most like the parent who favors him or her. Sometimes jealousy erupts because of the extra attention given to a special needs child. Children in blended families constantly look for signs that their treatment is unequal to that of other children in the family. Making favoritism obvious - as Jacob's love for Joseph was - has a negative effect on the other children and jealousy is inevitable.
And Joseph doesn't help matters either. He tattles on his older brothers. He wears the special coat his dad gave him on a regular basis. He shares his dreams of his superiority over his siblings and his parents. His insensitivity and arrogance wouldn't have endeared him to us any more than to his brothers.
Now the story turns dark! Jealousy escalates to hatred! At the instruction of his father, Joseph goes to find his brothers who are tending the flocks in Dothan, and he's wearing the symbol of his father's favoritism - the special robe. When his brothers spot him in the distance, their hatred overflows. From the time of first sighting until Joseph reaches them, a murder plot is hatched. The brothers believe that by killing the dreamer, they can kill the dream.
However, Reuben, the oldest, proposes that instead of killing Joseph, they throw him into a dry abandoned cistern - intending to return later and rescue him. When Joseph arrives, his brothers grab him, tear off the symbol of his father's preferential love, and throw him into the pit.
I doubt if Joseph had any idea of the intensity of his brothers' hatred for him, so this treatment must have come as a great shock. Later, when a caravan approaches, Judah suggests they sell Joseph into slavery. So off Joseph goes with the Midianites - or the Ishmaelites - names that are interchanged in the text - probably denoting two different sources.
Now the brothers must cover their crime, so they dip the special coat in the blood of an animal and take it to their father. Walter Brueggemann, a Hebrew theologian, believes that just as the giving of the special robe meant enthronement, the dipping of the robe in blood and taking it to his father was a sign of de-thronement and symbolic death (Interpretation Genesis, p. 305).
Jacob believes that his beloved son has been killed by a wild animal and he cannot be consoled. It now appears that the jealousy and hatred of the brothers has triumphed over the father's love, as well as over God's plans. The only clue we have of another possibility is the final verse of our text: "Meanwhile the Midianites had sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh's officials, the captain of the guard." At the last moment, the narrator takes our eyes off the grieving father and turns us to Egypt. Joseph isn't free, but he isn't dead either - nor is the dream completely dead. God hasn't abandoned the dream or the dreamer.
In the ancient world, dreams were usually understood to be externally and divinely generated, and not the result of an interior psychological process as we now believe. And yet the brothers interpret Joseph's dreams as if they are the result of Joseph's own arrogance and not a divine word about destiny. Moreover, the brothers believe they can cut off the fulfillment of the dream by killing Joseph. (Interpretators Bible: Vol. I, p. 601)
The dream sets the stage for the events that transpire. God is the main actor in the drama and God gives the dream. Without the dream, there would have been no such conflict. But in the end, the dream prevails. And in the end, the family's destiny depends on Joseph because his dream saves his family from starvation. Without Joseph, his family would die.
Joseph's dream held power to change the world as he knew it, just as Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream held the power of change. Because King spoke his dream, he was killed. The brothers intended to kill Joseph. No one likes to deal with change in a political structure or in family dynamics.
I am currently reading a book by Joan Chittister titled The Way We Were: A Story of Conversion and Renewal. You may recall that I used material from another of Chittister's books in my sermon last Sunday. Chittister is a Benedictine Sister who has made a name for herself as an author and an advocate for change. This book details the great paradigm shift that has taken place culturally and within the Roman Catholic Church since Vatican II in the 1960's.
There was no institution more resistant to change than the Religious Orders of the Catholic Church that had done things the same way for hundreds of years. Their work, schedules, and focus all needed to change with Vatican II. The sisters were called to do work other than teaching and hospital work. Worship changed! There was a new dream on the horizon, but to see the dream fulfilled would take hard work. Change takes effort!
In the end, Joseph relinquishes one aspect of his dream. He does come into a position of great power and saves the lives of his family, but he isn't interested in ruling over his brothers and father as his dreams indicated. The end of the story - that isn't in our text - tells that when Joseph gains power, he forgives his brothers and brings them to Egypt where they can live in a land of plenty. The family begins to heal as the brothers face their sins and change. With change, new life is possible.
We often wonder how some people survive the dysfunction they live in and through. Often dysfunction perpetuates more dysfunction through multiple generations. It takes a dream of a better and more whole life - plus a great deal of interior work - to bring about change and healing.
No individual in our story emerges completely innocent. Even Joseph, though certainly the primary victim in the story, fuels his own trouble, as does his father Jacob (Interpreters Bible, p. 601). Everyone contributes to the mess in which the family finds itself. And in essence, each person becomes a victim to the cumulative effects of sin, and each person is called to change.
What is your dream and how much change do you need to make to see your dream fulfilled? If the dream is from God, by faith, you and God can effect the changes necessary to reach fulfillment. I invite you to make the effort! It's worth it!
08/10/2008
