Skip to main content

Take 3: Joseph

Do you ever have a conversation then immediately think, "I wish I would've said that?" I feel that way almost every Sunday. So this blog will be a place where I share things that I didn't say in the sermon.

Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. spent the last night of his life in room 306 of the Lorraine Motel. Outside that room is a plaque with verses from our story today. Those words are haunting.

Joseph also was a dreamer. He dreams of a future where the family has survived and thrived. In the end, God did something with those dreams. But before that happens, Joseph faces tragedy.

The Wesleyan Bible Commentary says, "The exact meaning of the Hebrew word translated a coat of many colors is uncertain. Some translate it 'a long garment with long sleeves.' One scholar finds in ancient clay tablets a clue which suggests that it was something of a ceremonial robe with costly ornaments of gold sewed into it. In any event, it was the distinctive garment of royalty."

The only other mention I found of an ornate robe is in 2 Samuel 13:18. There Tamar "was wearing an ornate robe, for this was the kind of garment the virgin daughters of the king wore."

If this robe represents royalty, then it foreshadows the end where Joseph basically is royalty.

The thing we know for sure is that this robe marks Joseph as different from his brothers, and the coat is probably fancy.

In Joseph's dream, he sees wheat. Most people focus on the brothers bowing down. But wheat actually is how Joseph is going to rise into power. Also, this dream is not fanciful imagination. The dream reveals part of what is to come.

Joseph doesn't know where this is headed yet. As readers, we don't know where the story is headed yet, but we know the brothers' jealousy is real. And in their limited perspective, they've had enough.

So they plan to sell Joseph into slavery. The irony is that this horrible event is an important step that leads to Joseph's dreams being fulfilled. 

The life of Joseph has tragedy, betrayal, deception, and false accusations. But even with those things happening God is at work. That's what makes this a story of hope for those grasping for God's hand in the dark.  


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Surprised by Mercy: Advent 2

  Matthew 3:1-12 My favorite way to start a sermon is with a song.  Let’s see if you know this one, it’s a little more recent than the one I used last Sunday. “Me and all my friends / We’re all misunderstood / They say we stand for nothing and / There’s no way we ever could / Now we see everything that’s going wrong / With the world and those who lead it / We just feel like we don’t have the means / To rise above and beat it / So we keep waiting / Waiting on the world to change.” Yes, you can add John Mayer to your Advent playlist because this season is all about waiting. John Mayer isn’t the only one waiting for the world to be different. John the Baptist says, “Prepare the way for the Lord’s coming!” He’s looking forward to something that has not happened yet. He’s looking forward with anticipation and excitement to the moment when God breaks onto the scene in the coming of Jesus. I remember when Rachel was pregnant with Ella, people would ask, “Are you ready?” And I would s...

From the Bottom Up

 Let’s play a game of Show-and-tell. Can you guess what this is? It’s a Lego car of an Aston Martin. It’s James Bond’s car. Now, let’s do a bit of trivia. Do you know the actor who played James Bond in the most movies? Roger Moore. And before Roger Moore was James Bond, he in a TV show called The Saint . And the reason we’re talking about this is because there’s an episode in that series called “The Effete Angler” (effete means ineffective and not manly) and that episode has the right name. Because it has the absolute worst fishing scene. As you watch it, it is so obviously bogus that it’s funny. It’s funny because Roger Moore hooks a small marlin and ferociously cranks on a large trolling reel, which, at one point, he’s holding upside down. And we’re talking about fishing because Jesus says he’ll make the disciples “fishers of men.” Before Jesus says this, we hear that John the Baptist has been arrested. To make a long story short, he said some things about the governor that the ...

Jesus, hating family, and a choice?

Rather than being in the pulpit yesterday, I was with my family at the beach. The girls had a fantastic time playing with their cousins. And, to make a confession, I was glad to see that I wouldn’t be preaching on one of Jesus’ most difficult teachings. But I couldn’t escape thinking about this text, and I think I finally discovered something beautiful in it.  Luke 14:25-33 NRSVue  "Now large crowds were traveling with him, and he turned and said to them, “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish....