Father’s Day Sermon – Joseph’s Father -- Sunday, June 20, 2010
A Sermon by Reverend Lillie Mae Henley
Universalist National Memorial Church
Judah, the son of the Hebrew patriarch Israel, is pleading with the governor of Egypt—Joseph—who is his brother—but he does not know—yet
Our Reading is from Genesis 44:30-34 “So now, if the boy is not with us when we return to our father, and if our father, whose life is bound up with the boy’s life, does not see the boy, he will die. We will have brought the gray head of our father to his death. I guaranteed the safety of the boy to our father. I said, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, I will bear the blame before you, father, for my whole life!’ Please, then, let me remain here in your service in place of the boy, and let him return with our brothers. How could I return to our father if the boy does not return? No! Don’t let me see the misery my father would suffer.”
In the beginning…
Israel had ten sons by his first two wives and then in his “old age” he married again and had two more sons, Benjamin, then Joseph. He “doted” on Joseph, we would say he was spoiled
Joseph, as many children would, enjoyed this family role and often would report his brothers’ behavior to his father,
The brothers lived with that,
But when Joseph had a dreams where his was a bundle of grain and his brothers as bundles of grain bowed to him, and then where the whole family bowed to him, that was the last straw, so to speak
Joseph, with the “coat of many colors” went out into the wilderness, as his father asked, to find them, and when they saw him in the distance,
They plotted his murder, but one brother Rueben knew how awful it would be to have his blood “on their hands,” talked them into throwing him in a pit—thinking he would come back and get him
They conceded, thinking he could be sold to traders going to Egypt
When Rueben went back, the traders had indeed sold him
All that was left was his coat,
The brothers threw goat blood on the coat and they took it to their father as proof Joseph was dead
Many years pass
Joseph has become the governor of Egypt, an advisor to the Pharaoh,
There is famine throughout the region; however, because of Joseph’s wisdom, Egypt has stores of grain
Israel and all his family is starving. He tells them to go down to Egypt and buy grain. When they arrive at the governor’s court they bow down to the governor—Joseph... Joseph recognizes them.
At first he is harsh, unforgiving, actually keeps one of the brothers prisoner until they “come back with” Benjamin
Eventually they need more grain and have to go back
They bring Benjamin and Joseph wants to keep Benjamin
The brothers know it will kill their old father to lose his youngest son
That is why Judah pleads for Benjamin’s freedom and offers himself to Joseph
Their father Israel
There are all kinds of fathers,
Some nice
Some not so nice
We see examples of “not so nice” in the world all around us
There are even examples of “not so nice” in the Hebrew Scriptures
Lot who slept with his daughters
The general who killed his daughter
And here we find in the story repentant brothers, who know they have done wrong
They loved their father enough to know what the loss will do to him
•
As you might imagine, I have many books of stories, and my favorites are those collected by Paul Auster from NPR Weekend Edition All Things Considered
He has several books of stories that contain hundreds and hundreds of stories submitted by his listeners. Some were read on NPR, some are in Auster's books.
As you might imagine, his book are full of stories about fathers
Some nice, some not so nice
Story of a woman who was always losing things, which drove her father crazy, but when she lost the hood of a brand new coat and lied about it he slapped her;
Can we imagine what kind of life she had to write that story for others to read
Some nice, some not so nice
The father who saw his two teenage sons struggling with the taunts of a younger child
The family was at a family gathering, a graduation party, and the boys were clinging to the wall in the room that had the graduation cake, looking sour as teens do, and a young boy came in, held his head over the cake and dared the boys to shove his face in
About that time, the father walked through to the kitchen to get another drink, with a cigar in his hand, the little boy straightened up, and the father kept on going,
Of course, the father sized up the situation, and when he came back through, the little boy didn’t have time to stand up, and the father, not missing a beat, or a step, shoved the younger boys face down into the cake, winked at his sons, and walked out.
There is the nice father who invited the family waiting for a bus and a new life at a relative’s on a freezing day on Christmas Eve, to come home with his family for a few hours to eat something and warm up, and gave his own children’s toys to the homeless family,
And then gave the man the family’s last two dollars
The man who wrote this story of his father said it was one of the nicest Christmas his family ever had
You, too, have stories of your fathers, memories, some nice, maybe some not so nice. We are human beings after all, and, no one is perfect
Yet, as sons and daughters, what we enjoy remembering are those times when our fathers were affirming, caring, loving,
We enjoy remembering those life lessons he taught us, by word and example
And if there are those here who cannot remember any positive moments, we lift you up to be nurtured by our caring spirits
For years, Joseph longed to see his father and his brothers. That was not possible. In the Scriptures, Joseph moves from bitterness to love, becoming aware that out of the darkness of his brothers’ desire to get rid of him,
There came the goodness of being able to – not only feed them – but reconnect – to love them.
Today, Father’s Day, is a time for us to remember our fathers, those nice and “not so nice” stories of our lives with him
IF the memories are not so nice, allow them to find the goodness in you they came from the stories
Because from all our stories, all our memories, there is the opportunity for Goodness, just as there was in Joseph’s life