Joseph is the favored son. Wearing a beautifully embroidered coat as a token of his father's love. And the brothers are jealous. The brothers mock him. The brothers decide to toss him into a pit and tell their father that he was consumed by wild animals. But then, a brother suggests that they not leave him for dead but sell him instead.
This passage is about jealousy. It is about privilege. It is about ridding yourself of something that challenges you or bothers you or threatens you. And lying about what happened. And selling out. And profiting on the back of another.
My goodness. Does it get any more dramatic? Does it get any more in-your-face 'real' than this? I'm tempted to lead us down the road of wondering what Joseph was thinking about when he's six feet under, so to speak... sitting in a pit wondering if he will live or die. Wondering why his brothers so easily tossed his life away?
But this story isn't really about how Joseph feels in the pit. This story is about the brothers. The brothers who are so willing to get rid of someone (their own flesh and blood, mind you!) that they feel threatened by. They are jealous of Joseph's favor with their father. They are threatened by his 'star' in their dad's eyes. They somehow easily throw him into this pit and initially leave him to die.
This story is about the brothers easily discarding their own kin. And then deciding instead not to let him die, but not because they feel any empathy or sorrow for him, but to gain a profit.
I am reminded of times and situations in my own life when I have perhaps too easily walked away from my own identity. Moving to a new place, starting a new life, and deciding to not cling to the old. There is great power in new beginnings, but there is great power in remembering where you're from, as well.
I have recently begun to research the cooking that is native to my homeland, Appalachia. I walked away from a lot of things southern when we moved West over thirteen years ago, but I have realized that I cannot NOT be southern. I was born and raised southern and I grew up eating southern food and living southern life. What did I toss in the pit when I moved here and why? What did I sell out to? Why was that so important? What did I lose or gain in that process?
In the American institution we call church, we have made much of what we do a commodity that can be bought and sold. We have sometimes thrown into the pit and sold to the highest bidder so much of what the original church was supposed to be. We have sometimes let commerce take over even the spiritual aspects of our lives and insist on programs and activities and consumable goods as a part of our church experience. We have sold out our faith as a commodity. We plan events that do a public good, perhaps, like taking up donations for a worthwhile cause or feeding hungry people and the like... but we put it into a slick packaging that makes it a marketable value. Like it's somehow more palatable to love one another when we get something consumer-oriented from it ourselves. I don't know why we require goods and services in exchange for every single thing we do in life, but that has become the American way... in every facet of life.
In the highly-acclaimed HBO series Six Feet Under, a family-run funeral home hangs onto being family run with the threat of corporate takeover looming over them, enticing them, luring them to become corporate or else. It is an undercurrent that ran throughout the show. The integrity to fight the good fight or the lure of reward if you give in.
How have we thrown our religious values six feet under? Tossed them aside for a new and cool version of Jesus and what it means to follow him? How have we sold out the Christ we are called to follow in favor of a newer, sleeker savior?
There are no easy ways to look at this story if we are the brothers tossing our own away. But it is a very real concern. Our tendency to let our petty jealousies and our desire to be the 'star in the beautiful coat' affects the way we see and love our neighbor. Or don't.
Thoughts? Email me or comment below.
We have not "tossed aside" religious values, but we are seeking to better understand those values in light of today's world, which is much different than Joseph's world. We are seeking to understand better how to implement those values in our daily lives that are so different from Joseph's and his brothers' lives.
ReplyDeleteHow much "duty" do we have towards siblings? If Joseph deserves better treatment from his brothers, it is because they are all human beings, not because they are brothers. Although I do not condone the behavior of the brothers, I also do not know if he was perhaps a spoiled brat, and they were fed up with him. Obviously, they felt threatened by his presence. I think the duty to siblings is much overrated. Why do we "owe" better treatment to a sibling than to a caring neighbor or friend?
We must be careful to sort out "perceived" threats from real ones before we act.