SCRIPTURE: Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28
TEXT: 28b And they took Joseph to Egypt. THEME: God continues to allow us to dream. INTRODUCTION We are emotionally spent. We are physically tired. We are filled with unanswered questions that would not change the outcome of where we are today. When we think of the events of the fire in Lahaina we are overwhelmed. We don’t just feel one thing but legion for there are many. Starting this lectionary series focusing on food, table, and guest, it seems to have shifted as we turned from the Gospel of Matthew into Genesis. This week’s passage is about shattered dreams. Similarly, to the shattering of dreams we have experienced this week. Dreams are present in Genesis from the beginning with the unexpected guests who kept God’s dream alive in Abraham and made Sarah laugh. In the Feast of Tears, the Dream Sarah has for her son Isaac is threatened by Ishmael, but in the end God’s expansiveness is revealed through new dreams for Hagar and Ishmael. At Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac, the dream of our relationship with God becomes more defined with love over feats of devotion. God continues to break the Dreams of cultural convention as the second born gets birthrights and blessing because they want it. We mark those places where our dreams of God have been especially clear but realize that God is always present even when we are running from the consequences of our hurtful actions. SCRIPTURE The dream of God, passed on to Jacob is becoming realized through his many sons. Yet in his human ways, Jacob overtly favors one son over all of the rest. Joseph is the youngest yet is given a royal garment and does not have to work shepherding. In the passages leading up to this story God has also favored Joseph with dreams of what God will do, through Joseph. Being immature, Joseph is insensitive as he shares these dreams given by God with his brothers and uses them to brag or elevate his importance. Jealousy leads to hate and hate to bitterness and bitterness to violence. His dad asks Joseph to check on his brothers in the field and he goes, wearing his brightly colored show off clothes. As his brothers see him approach, blinded by jealousy and envy, they think that if they get rid of Joseph, then their father will be forced to love them more and plot to kill Joseph. “We shall see what will become of his dreams.” So, when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe…and threw him into a cistern, an empty well. Brothers and Cistern. Betrayed, incarcerated, stripped of status, Joseph is sold as a slave by his brothers to distant relatives on their way down from Midian to Egypt. These are relatives of Isaac’s half-brother Ishmael, that God uses to save Joseph. An ironic twist of fate where what was thought would take away from an inheritance from God, is used by God’s hand to preserve it. APPLICATION Instead of his brothers wanting the best for their brother, they become the destruction of his dreams. And yet the hand of the unseen God is at play, through these other descendants of Father Abraham, to further along God’s dream when Jacob’s children are behaving poorly. Where is God in the twist and turns of our lives? What has happened in Lahaina is a destruction of dreams. There is so much sorrow in all that has been lost. The devastation of an entire community. The loss of lives continues to grow. The hopes and dreams that have been betrayed. And yet there is no time to grieve our losses. We are in shock, but we have to move on because we need a place to stay, we need food, we need to recover what we need to survive, what we need to stay connected, to do what we need to prepare for the next steps. There has been a generous out pouring of generosity as displayed at the War Memorial Gym with the collection of food, water, clothing and the like. Volunteers just show up to stack, sort and deploy these needed necessities. Shelters are in schools, churches, homes, friends, and relatives. Accommodations are being made, driving in Kahului has heavier traffic. Shopping in the stores have crowds of stranger. Certain supplies are off the shelves in ‘good will’ efforts, leaving few for others who need these daily necessities too. I found myself a Kaahumanu Shopping Center with the parking lot full and every table, bench and chair filled as people gathered, to pick up some thing or service they needed, but stayed and found other refugees from Lahaina and shared their stories of escape, relocation, reconnection, grief and lost. Many with just the clothes on their back. Everything lost to fire. Loved ones lost to fire. This is not the hand of God punishing an evil people. This is how a captive people understood the situation they were in, but when we take responsibility for our actions, we can see how this was an unforeseen calamity. A convergence of freakish events caused by climate change, the perfect storm, high winds, fallen power lines, a runaway fire, drought conditions, and lots of dry fuel. There was no time, no warning, no respite, no escape for some. Lives were changed in an instant. Dreams cut short. And now we are looking for signs of God among the rubble. It could be in the distant Ishmaelite trader, who is a relative on my father’s side, and a half brother’s sibling’s children. CONCLUSION Shish Kebab is a dish of pieces of marinated meat and vegetables cooked and served on skewers. This comes from the Turkish word that means ‘a sword.’ A Middle Eastern/Mediterranean food, made of lamb (or other meats). I got this title because the boys were tending to their sheep. The pieces of meat are like unrelated events of dreams, broken dreams, families, broken families, betrayals, slavery, and the hand of God that is able to string us all together and hold us and work through the chaos. God holds us in our grief. Fuels us through the smoke, provides for us with gracious generosity, clears the clogged roads, and helps us to redefine our dreams for whatever God has in store next. We may not see God at this time, but God is there, even if it is in the form of a Midian, trader headed towards Egypt, willing to pick up a slave from some shepherds along the way. One of the things we can do, for each other right now, is listen to each other’s story, of how these stories of fire have affected their live Because when we listen to someone else, it helps them to process their grief, to let go of one dream and have the ability to discover a new one. And we need to tell our stories too, because when we tell our story, it helps us to process all of these changes in our lives and helps us see God in our midst, so we can begin to dream again.
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