A Story of Slavery, a Story of Unity

FOCUS READING

Genesis 37:14b-28 (NRSV)

[Joseph] came to Shechem, and a man found him wandering in the fields; the man asked him, ‘What are you seeking?’ ‘I am seeking my brothers,’ he said; ‘tell me, please, where they are pasturing the flock.’ The man said, ‘They have gone away, for I heard them say, “Let us go to Dothan.” ’ So Joseph went after his brothers, and found them at Dothan. They saw him 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 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 hands, saying, ‘Let us not take his life.’ Reuben said to them, ‘Shed no blood; throw him into this 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 long robe with sleeves 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 there 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.

DAILY BYTE

This week, we read a story from Genesis, and just as we spoke yesterday about the World Methodist Conference as a family reunion, this biblical story is also about a family reunion.

We know very well, don’t we, the story of Joseph being sold into slavery by his brothers? But how well do we know what happens after Joseph was sold into slavery?

That part of story is not usually found in Bible story books. It’s not as popular a story to tell, and I’ve been wondering why. Perhaps it’s because some people think the reunion story is not as dramatic as the story of selling Joseph into slavery. But I’m not sure why – because it’s full of tears and drama!

Or maybe the story we hear this week is not told as often because stories of division in our world sell much better than stories of unity.

Or maybe it’s not told because a story of division and slavery is easier to believe than a story of healing and reconciliation.

During the conference, Archbishop Elias Chacour, a Palestinian ministering in Galilee, after telling an amazing story of sacrifice and healing between Palestinians and Jews, said to us with deep sadness, that you would never hear a story like that on the news because it is too beautiful.

This story in Genesis is too beautiful for us to tell only the beginning, a beginning of division and heartache, where Joseph becomes enslaved.

And this story is too beautiful to tell it so flippantly that we start to believe that it has nothing to do with us.

It’s a story of a family squabble. And as a Muslim guest speaker at the conference reminded us, family feuds are the worst kind of feuds. We often find this to be true in our own present-day families. But, this story is also about our family squabble. We can feel through our own experience the pain that Joseph and his family feels because of the things that divide them. But this story is also a family reunion. Our family reunion – the story is not finished yet. We are still – re-unifying. And that is something to celebrate like we did last week at the conference.

But even during such an amazing show of unity at the conference, it became increasingly obvious that although we are unified, we are still trapped – even enslaved – by many things that divide us.

Picture your relationships – do you focus mainly on what divides you from others, or do you focus on what unites you to others? Do you dwell on what traps you, or do you seek after what is beautiful? Can you understand your personal family story of slavery and freedom to be entwined with God’s family story?