Trusting God when life feels unfair? | God's faithfulness during life's darkest moments | Lakeside Light Podcast

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Let us pray.

Holy Spirit, pour out upon us wisdom and understanding that, being taught by you in Holy Scripture, our hearts and minds may be opened to receive all that leads to life and holiness.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Our first reading this morning comes from Genesis chapter 37, verses 18 through 28.

Genesis 37:18–28

The brothers saw Joseph from a distance, and before he came near to them, they conspired to kill him.

They said to one another, Here comes this dreamer.

Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits.

Then we shall say that a wild an a wild animal has devoured him, and we shall see what will become of his dreams.

But when Reuben heard it, he delivered him out of their hand, saying, Let us not take his life.

Reuben said to them, Shed no blood, throw him into the pit here in the wilderness, but lay no hand on him, that he might rescue him out of their hand and restore him to his father.

So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the ornamented robe that he wore, and they took him and threw him into a pit.

The pit was empty, there was no water in it.

Then they sat down to eat, and looking up they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with their camels carrying gum, balm, and resin, on their way to carry it down to Egypt.

Then Judah said to his brothers, What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood?

Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and not lay our hands on him, for he is our brother, our own flesh.

And his brothers agreed.

When some Midianite traders passed by, they drew Joseph up, lifting him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver, and they took Joseph to Egypt.

Our New Testament reading comes from Matthew chapter fourteen, verses twenty two and through thirty-three.

Immediately he made the disciples get into a boat and go on ahead to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds.

And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray.

When evening came, he was there alone.

But by this time the boat, battered by the waves, was far from land, for the wind was against them.

And early in the morning he came walking toward them on the sea.

But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, It is a ghost, and they cried out in fear.

But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, Take heart, it is I.

Do not be afraid.

Peter answered him, Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.

He said, Come.

So Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water, and came toward Jesus.

But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, Lord, save me.

Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, You of little faith, why did you doubt?

When they got into the boat, the wind ceased, and those in the boat worshiped him, saying, Truly, you are the Son of God.

For the word of God in Scripture, for the Word of God among us, for the Word of God within us, thanks be to God.

O God, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock, and our Redeemer.

Amen.

Inscribed on a gray marble plaque in Memphis, Tennessee, are a few of the words from today's reading from Genesis.

Originally meant to be placed on a window, the plaque now stands instead at a bit of a distance from the spot it commemorates, which is the balcony off of room 306 of the Lorraine Motel, where Martin Luther King Jr.

was assassinated in 1968.

The plaque reads, Martin Luther King Jr., January 15, 1929 to April 4th, 1968, founding president Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

They said one to another, Behold, here cometh the dreamer, let us slay him, and we shall see what will become of his dreams.

Behold, here comes the dreamer, let us slay him, and we shall see what will become of his dreams.

Joseph was the 11th of Jacob's 12 sons, and Jacob Israel, this is nickname, Jacob Israel, had made it clear that Joseph was his favorite of the sons.

He did this in a variety of ways, but one of the main ones is he gave him a special coat.

Maybe you know about this coat.

By the way, uh here is a cool thing about this coat that I am going to tell you all because I trust that this group of people can handle when I do word studies and will humor me.

So you may have noticed if you were reading along that it's translated differently in our updated edition that Kinsey read than the word you saw in your Pew Bible if you were following along.

The word uh that describes this coat is sometimes translated mini-colored, sometimes translated as having long sleeves, it's sometimes translated as the latest ornamented.

Um we don't really know exactly what it means, but this word is only used one other time in all of the Hebrew scriptures to describe a garment.

The only other time it is used is in 2 Samuel, and it is used to describe a coat worn by King David's daughter, Tamar.

It is a princess coat.

It is a princess coat.

So anyway, Joseph has this ornamented coat, an unusual coat.

Plus, Joseph had dreams.

He was already a bit of a prophet.

He would prophesy in dreams that God sent to him.

So between the coat and the dreams, the older ten brothers find themselves threatened by Joseph.

So when an opportunity appears for them to get rid of him, they seize the opportunity.

The brothers tone down, by the way, their original plan to kill him and decide instead to sell him to a passing band of Ishmaelites.

And for 20 pieces of silver, Joseph is left to a life of slavery in a different land.

We'll continue this story next week, by the way, this story of Joseph and his brothers.

And in the next reading, what we'll look at next week, things do get pretty tidily buttoned up.

There will be forgiveness, right?

God will take what the brothers meant for harm and make it into something good.

And so we'll look at that next week, but that's next week.

This week.

This week, let's not gloss too quickly over this story about a man thrown into a pit.

Because, to be honest, if we're looking around at our world, this first story about a man being sold into slavery, this story feels maybe a bit more relatable than the one about happy family reunions that we'll read next week.

Because this is a story that looks a little more like the world we live in.

A story about fighting, about death, about the vulnerability of the one in the face of the anger of ten, a minority versus a majority.

It's about mixed and complicated power dynamics.

This is a hard story.

If you look at this story, is there anyone you relate to?

Who do you relate to in this story?

Have you ever related to Joseph?

Maybe you felt picked on or alone, felt like you had dreams that didn't fit in with the current status quo?

Maybe you can or could envision or articulate a reality that's different from the one you see in front of you, that kind of dreaming, maybe you relate to that.

But maybe you relate to the brothers.

What about them?

What leads them?

What leads anyone to act out inexcusable cruelty?

Genesis, by the way, it adds a few little barbs about Joseph being likely somewhat annoying.

He must have been a bit annoying.

He tattles on the older brothers, for instance, right?

But the larger dynamic seems to have much more to do with a deep jealousy that has curdled into hate.

They hate him, Genesis tells us.

The brothers are so jealous that they hate him.

And at the bottom of that jealousy and hate, we must assume there is fear.

In his screw tape letters, C.S.

Lewis says to Wormwood, hatred is often the compensation by which a frightened man reimburses himself for the miseries of fear.

The more he fears, the more he will hate.

Compensation for the miseries of fear.

There is plenty to fear in the world, and there was plenty to fear for these brothers, right?

These sons of Israel.

Their whole family is in a precarious position.

Israel, the term Israel is at this point not yet a people.

It is not yet a tribe.

It is just an individual.

It's their dad's nickname.

They're a nomadic family, and until very recently, this family had had to find its way from place to place without finding a home.

But we find out at the beginning of this chapter that Jacob has settled in the land where his father had lived as an alien, the land of Canaan.

So for the first time, we're one generation in to a family feeling like they have a home, like they have some sense of stability.

But here we have Joseph already threatening what little stability these brothers have.

Joseph is not the oldest brother, but he has the nerve to seem to possibly be able to rise above his station.

Not only that, he tells them about these dreams of a world he has where power dynamics have significantly shifted.

And now he's finally 17.

For the first time, he is sent into the fields to join these brothers as though he is one of them, though born of a totally different mother.

And also he wears the wrong thing.

In a tribal world where people are either in or out, Joseph is an outsider.

He is born from a different mother, Rachel, and he is untrustworthy in that kind of world.

In a zero-sum game world, right?

In a world where there is not enough to go around, and the bigger your piece of the pie, the smaller mine.

In that kind of world, Joseph represents a new threat.

Someone who might be able to claim property that was their father's.

In a zero-sum game world, he's a threat.

In that time.

So as we read this, we have to ask ourselves as modern readers, who are our modern outsiders?

Who in our world was born from the wrong mother?

Who in our world is trying to claim power in new ways, right?

Maybe power over, but also maybe just simply power?

Power with, maybe just power as it comes in the form of land or jobs, stability, resources?

With all of that in mind, do you ever wonder?

Do you ever have a bit of a nagging fear?

Will there be enough to go around?

When these kinds of fears grow inside of us, when we start to notice jealousies or maybe tribalism, where there are insiders and outsiders.

And when, or hopefully, if we notice those jealousies and fears begin to curdle into hate, what do we do?

What will we do?

Who will we be?

I do just want to name a couple of news stories from this last few days alone, right?

Where our neighboring Islamic center of Greater Cincinnati was attacked.

Those are our neighbors.

Um and where just nearby there are conversations around our Haitian neighbors in Ohio.

Do we ever get a little bit afraid?

And does that fear ever turn into something worse?

Reuben is the oldest of these twelve brothers.

There will be a Benjamin will be the youngest.

But Reuben is the oldest brother.

And when Reuben hears that the other brothers are plotting to kill Joseph, he makes an interesting move, right?

He becomes a bit of an advocate for Joseph.

Let us not take his life, Reuben said to his brothers.

Throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but lay no hand on him.

And then Scripture tells us that he has this plan, right?

He might rescue Joseph out of their hand and restore Joseph to their father.

So he has this plan.

He says, just put him in the pit and I'll restore him to dad, he says to himself.

But then he has to go for some reason that's not explained to us, so he leaves the scene.

He probably has saved Joseph's life.

But he's left now, and the other brothers they sit comfortably and eat a meal, we're told, while Joseph is next to them in a pit without water.

And Judah, another one of the brothers, suggests making a bit of money off of this situation.

And next thing you know, Joseph is gone.

He's sold.

So Reuben saves Joseph's lives, but you've got to wonder if he could have done more, maybe?

What if he had pushed harder on behalf of Joseph?

What holds Reuben back from being more upfront with the group about his plan to restore Joseph?

And if Reuben had been completely honest about his plans, if he had pushed further, would this group have turned against him?

Would he have lost his own status as eldest brother or been unsafe himself?

Would he have wound up in the same pit?

We'll never know, but by the time Reuben returns to the scene, it's too late.

And here's what scripture says, here's what Genesis tells us.

When Reuben returned to the pit and saw that Joseph was not in the pit, he tore his clothes.

This traditional sign of tremendous grief.

Reuben rents his clothes, he's racked by grief, and he presumably is racked with regret because then we hear him say, the boy is gone.

And then he asks, And I, where can I turn?

What is Reuben wondering here?

Are we ever called to be Rubens, right?

Are we called to be like Ruben advocating to use our power as the top of one version of power to stop extreme violence, maybe?

And if so, could we risk even more than Ruben risks, right?

Could we learn maybe from Rubin's regrets and mistakes?

Reuben overcomes some of his fears, but not all of them.

Meanwhile, there's this story that we read in Matthew, and it's a strange pairing to have the story of Jesus walking on water with this Genesis reading.

But both stories include groups of brothers filled with fear.

The disciples are surrounded by their own storms.

They're terrified, we hear the sea is battering them.

And let's not forget that the scene preceding this one, almost immediately before, is the scene where they find out that John the Baptist, their dreamer, has been beheaded and killed.

Right?

They are scared, and the wind is against them, everything is battering them, but Jesus crosses to them from across the lake.

And even when the testy Peter leaves the boat, even then Jesus saves Peter from sinking and saves all of them from their storm.

So despite whatever storms and fear are shaking the disciples, Jesus accompanies them.

And ultimately Jesus rescues them.

The plaque outside of room 306, it was placed onto that building only four weeks after King was assassinated, right?

Coretta Scott King was a new widow, just a few weeks into processing her new reality.

And Ralph David Abernathy was only days into taking on his new role, taking King's place as the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

Just days into their grief and into this new era, they held on to hope.

Because they knew what became of Joseph's dreams.

They knew the whole story.

They knew that Joseph's dreams would outlive Joseph by a long shot, and that those dreams were always bigger and stronger than the fear and the hatred of those brothers.

And so Scott King and Abernathy and their whole movement, they defiantly etched into marble.

We shall see what will become of his dreams.

Good dreams, true prophecy, God's kind of dreams.

Friends, those are all bigger and stronger than any fear or any kind of hatred, even our own.

May we always hold on to and trust that hope.

Amen.

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Have a great week.