Speaker 1: Good morning Central.
Speaker 1: You know, at the first service we were reading the scripture and Ryan and I were sitting in the front pew together and he leaned over to me in the middle of that and he said, man, that guy was a jerk.
Speaker 1: I'm like, yeah, that's why we have to have a sermon about little poor Joseph.
Speaker 1: So we're?
Speaker 1: My name is Sonja Knutson.
Speaker 1: I'm the pastoral associate here at Central.
Speaker 1: If I've not had an opportunity to meet you, if you're visiting here, maybe hang out and get to know us a little bit more.
Speaker 1: I'd love to get to know you.
Speaker 1: We are almost three quarters of the way through the book of Genesis and we're walking through this series called how Did we Get here, and I think it's really been a fun ride.
Speaker 1: How about you?
Speaker 1: Yeah, just really fun to look back at all those old stories that perhaps we've heard many, how many times over and over again, but we're seeing them in a different light.
Speaker 1: So far we've talked about creation and Adam and Eve, and one of my favorites so far has been baptism through the Noah story.
Speaker 1: That's been such a fun way to look at it.
Speaker 1: I was one of those guilty parents that painted on my second son's walls the little cute Noah story not recognizing the big you know the big story of like he's going to flood and kill everybody.
Speaker 1: So Ryan's warned all parents in the future don't do that.
Speaker 1: But I do love the idea of baptism through that story.
Speaker 1: And then Ben shared about the Tower of Babel and Ryan continued the stories of Abraham and Isaac's and his sons, jacob and Esau, otherwise to us known as Ted Nugent.
Speaker 1: And last week we heard how Jacob wrestled with a man and then he was renamed Israel, which also means wrestled with God.
Speaker 1: Today we're diving into Jacob's family and are introduced to the favorite son, joseph, who will now become center stage in the remaining chapters of Genesis.
Speaker 1: Our focus this morning is going to be chapter 37 only and Joseph's relationship with his brothers, and I've entitled my sermon who is the Favorite.
Speaker 1: And then Ben and Ryan will finish off the Genesis series with the Joseph story and how we will hear how God will fulfill his promises to Abraham through Joseph.
Speaker 1: So who's excited for today and for the rest of the series?
Speaker 1: Yes, let's begin in prayer.
Speaker 1: Father, we thank you for these amazing stories that often we have read and we've never been really sure how to apply them to our lives.
Speaker 1: I love how we can hear these stories in different light and we can see ourselves in these stories, and today's story isn't different.
Speaker 1: Often we don't see or hear how we are favored in others' lives or through you, especially as we live in hurt and brokenness.
Speaker 1: So today I ask that you would use me as a vessel into hearts and minds that are open to hear this story in a new way.
Speaker 1: We love you, jesus.
Speaker 1: In your name we pray Amen.
Speaker 1: So let's talk about family for a little bit and their makeup.
Speaker 1: Before the 830 service, I was in the sacristy with Allison and she's our sacristy leader and we were just talking in family in general.
Speaker 1: I was asking her about Father's Day how are you spending your day with your dad and recognized that she didn't have a father that was in her life and she continued to tell me how her brokenness really seeps into her adulthood.
Speaker 1: And then I'm like, yeah, you know today, do you mind if I just mention that, because I'm talking about family and how messy it is?
Speaker 1: And she's like no, go ahead.
Speaker 1: And Olivia walked in on the end of that conversation and all she heard me say is family is messy, and she said amen.
Speaker 1: She had no clue what I was going to talk about.
Speaker 1: But it's true, family is missing.
Speaker 1: Amen, amen it is.
Speaker 1: Let's go home.
Speaker 1: So what does your family look like?
Speaker 1: Think about how you were raised.
Speaker 1: What was your family that you were raised in?
Speaker 1: What does that look like?
Speaker 1: How did it feel growing up in your family?
Speaker 1: What does the family look like that perhaps you raised or continuing to raise?
Speaker 1: Was it a nuclear family, meaning a mom and dad and a couple kids look like that kind of perfect, everybody's smiling.
Speaker 1: Or was it a little bit more untraditional?
Speaker 1: Maybe you had step-parents, step-brothers and sisters, half-brothers, half-sisters, some cousins were thrown in there.
Speaker 1: Maybe somebody's relatives from a distance or neighbors moved in with you and all of a sudden your family is kind of big.
Speaker 1: Maybe your grandparents lived with you for a short time.
Speaker 1: A little bit untraditional, but it makes it a little bit more messy, right, Because everybody's living in their voice and their perspective, and the more voices that we have, the more messy our families get.
Speaker 1: I was raised in a small family unit.
Speaker 1: My parents were divorced but my dad, my biological dad moved to California and we were raised by a wonderful stepfather.
Speaker 1: But we were all there was three of us.
Speaker 1: We were all biological siblings.
Speaker 1: My stepdad and my mom didn't have any more children.
Speaker 1: Thank you, because I was the baby then.
Speaker 1: I loved being the baby Even to this day.
Speaker 1: I still do.
Speaker 1: But often I was taunted as being the spoiled one or the favored one.
Speaker 1: Now I would argue that I was the favorite because I was the least to get in trouble or add the less amount of stress to my parents.
Speaker 1: Right, my siblings might say that I was a kiss-up, kind of spoiled.
Speaker 1: I maybe tattled a little bit.
Speaker 1: Was I treated special from time to time?
Speaker 1: Maybe Could be debated.
Speaker 1: Did I tattle once in a while?
Speaker 1: Perhaps, but I think it was for their own good.
Speaker 1: I was really saving them from themselves.
Speaker 1: Of course, if mom and dad heard the accusations that I was the favorite, they would appropriately and politically step in and say no, no, no, we don't have any favorites, we treat everybody equal.
Speaker 1: And I would whisper to my mom I'm really a favorite, right.
Speaker 1: And she'd be like no, no, no, wink, wink, I don't have favorites.
Speaker 1: I would deny it and then the bickering would start between the three of us.
Speaker 1: But in all of the fighting and all of the disagreements that my siblings and I had, I never once feared my life as Joseph did in our story today?
Speaker 1: Okay, maybe one time.
Speaker 1: One time my sister was having a party and I kind of told on her and I got a pizza party and she got grounded for a month and maybe a couple times I locked my door at nighttime.
Speaker 1: Other than that I really didn't fear my life.
Speaker 1: So sibling rivalry is nothing new, right, I would guess most families feel and share in it at some point, because, after all, we are human, which means we struggle with jealousy and competitiveness and personality differences and conflicts, and we all live in our own stories, our own truths, our own perspectives.
Speaker 1: So rivalry is going to happen and we've been hearing about this through this whole book of Genesis since the beginning with Cain and Abel, isaac and Ishmael, jacob and Esau, and now in the story of Joseph and his brothers.
Speaker 1: And this story makes sense to me because in the ancient world, the oldest son was usually the one who was going to be favored and would typically grow up to lead the family and inherit the largest share of the family resources.
Speaker 1: Well, joseph was not the oldest, nor was he the youngest, but he was birthed to the favorite wife to Jacob.
Speaker 1: Joseph was number 11 out of 12 boys born to Jacob and four women.
Speaker 1: That's right, ladies, four women, two wives and two handmaids.
Speaker 1: So not your traditional nuclear family with a mom and a dad and 2.5 kids and a dog and a white picket fence.
Speaker 1: Their family looked like this Jacob was the patriarch and, if you remember from Ryan's sermon last week, he was tricked to marry Leah, which was Rachel's sister, and Leah and Jacob had Reuben, simon, Levi, judah, and then later on they had Ishkar and Zebulon.
Speaker 1: Then Zilpah and Bilhah were birthed to Gad, asher, dan and Naphtal.
Speaker 1: Now Zilpah and Bilhah were the slaves to Rachel and Leah, but Rachel and Leah were being competitive and were like we need to give Jacob more boys, but we don't think we can do it and so we're just going to give you our slave and you guys can do it for us.
Speaker 1: Then Jacob's favorite wife, rachel, birthed Joseph and Benjamin.
Speaker 1: So technically, joseph was Jacob and Rachel's firstborn, but he was number 10.
Speaker 1: By the way, jacob had a daughter Her name was Dinah, who was born to Leah and Jacob.
Speaker 1: A Dinah was a girl.
Speaker 1: B Dinah was raped at a young age and so therefore she was unclean and not worthy to be named amongst those boys who then became the 12 tribes of Israel.
Speaker 1: So, as you can see, this family is a train wreck waiting to happen.
Speaker 1: Amen.
Speaker 1: It's no wonder the brothers were frustrated with Jacob showing favoritism.
Speaker 1: They were just trying to figure out who they were and what was their pecking order.
Speaker 1: But Genesis 37.3 makes it very clear that Joseph, who is number 11, is the favored one when he says more than any of the other children, joseph is my favorite because he was born to me in my old age.
Speaker 1: And then Jacob made his affection very clear by giving Joseph a special colorful coat.
Speaker 1: Everyone had cloaks and robes in that time, which of course kept them warm, but they were also used for belongings, to bundle their belongings while they were traveling.
Speaker 1: Most of these coats or robes were kind of drab in color.
Speaker 1: So Jacob's gift of a colorful robe was found to show favoritism, as it was clearly the colors of royalty, and Joseph wore it proudly, as I think you and I would do.
Speaker 1: I know I taunted my siblings well in seventh grade when I got my new white Nikes with the red stripe and they did not get theirs.
Speaker 1: I would argue your tennis shoes are worn out.
Speaker 1: My siblings would have said I was just spoiled and I got them first.
Speaker 1: Either way, don't think that I did not taunt them with my tennis shoes by walking up and down the hallways, and that's exactly what 17-year-old Joseph did as well.
Speaker 1: See my new coat, reuben.
Speaker 1: Hmm, simon, is your coat looking like this?
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 1: Judah, my coat's kind of pretty.
Speaker 1: Should I twirl in my coat?
Speaker 1: Can you see it?
Speaker 1: Can you hear it?
Speaker 1: Can you see yourself doing that?
Speaker 1: And then to poke and prod the bears just a little bit more.
Speaker 1: Joseph shares his dreams with his brothers, implying that all of them would one day lie down to him.
Speaker 1: In verses 5 through 8, we hear Behold, we were binding sheaves in the field.
Speaker 1: And behold, my sheaf arose and stood upright.
Speaker 1: And behold, your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf.
Speaker 1: I would be just annoyed to him because he kept saying behold, behold, behold.
Speaker 1: Why can't you just say, fine, here's my dream.
Speaker 1: But he doesn't.
Speaker 1: Then he shares a second dream.
Speaker 1: Behold, the sun, the moon and the 11 stars were bowing down to me.
Speaker 1: And then, to make matters worse, jacob sends Joseph out to check up on his brothers in the field and to report back to him.
Speaker 1: He's telling him go spy on your brothers.
Speaker 1: I'm sure they're having a party out there somewhere in my fields, come back and tell me what they're doing.
Speaker 1: He's telling him, be a tattletale, it's okay.
Speaker 1: And Joseph being the good son, he does it.
Speaker 1: Do you hear the constant riff between the brothers?
Speaker 1: Do you see why they were frustrated with him?
Speaker 1: So Joseph goes out to spy to his brothers and when they see him coming in his bright coat, twirling across the fields, they make a plan let's kill him.
Speaker 1: Let's kill him, not, let's tackle him and give him a wet willy, let's kill him, because that's a great plan.
Speaker 1: But thank goodness Reuben had some common sense and he said you know what, guys?
Speaker 1: Let's not kill him, let's just take off his coat and throw him into a pit.
Speaker 1: And they're like, yeah, let's not kill him, let's throw him in a pit.
Speaker 1: So they do just that they throw him in a pit.
Speaker 1: And then what all criminals would do?
Speaker 1: They order Jimmy Johns and go have lunch.
Speaker 1: Criminals would do.
Speaker 1: They order Jimmy John's and go have lunch.
Speaker 1: They sit down, they don't have remorse, they're not weeping, they snack before they're going to go back to work.
Speaker 1: But then in the distance they see a caravan coming with camels and Judah.
Speaker 1: Number four suggests a new plan very similar to Reuben's plan let's not get blood on our hands.
Speaker 1: What if he dies in the pit?
Speaker 1: Let's just take him out and sell him.
Speaker 1: Let's make a profit.
Speaker 1: After all, he is our blood, he's one of us.
Speaker 1: Let's just make a profit off of him instead.
Speaker 1: And all the brothers are like, yeah, let's sell him, let's make a profit from him.
Speaker 1: And they do just that.
Speaker 1: They sell him and they cover up their sin of human trafficking by soaking his coat with goat's blood and giving it to their father.
Speaker 1: And after receiving the coat, jacob, the father, draws the conclusion that Joseph has been attacked and killed by wild animals and he is dead and he is devastated.
Speaker 1: And chapter 37 ends like that, with a cliffhanger.
Speaker 1: But don't worry, ben and Ryan are going to tell you the rest of the story, that Jacob learns later that Joseph is alive and he's doing well in Egypt.
Speaker 1: So how and what do we do and take away from this dysfunctional family and the abuse that Joseph took from his brothers?
Speaker 1: Some of you might thinking he deserved it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he deserved it, and I would guess that one of you is an elder in your family and you've got some baggage to work through, because he really doesn't.
Speaker 1: I mean.
Speaker 1: Yes, he was spoiled and he taunted his siblings with his father's favoritism.
Speaker 1: But if we're being honest, would we have acted any differently?
Speaker 1: Maybe some of us would have, but I feel like Joseph gets a bad rap in this, considering all the facts and looking at it from his perspective.
Speaker 1: Young, arrogant Joseph, an immature teenager whose frontal lobe has not developed.
Speaker 1: You know that part of your brain that doesn't allow you to make good decisions until you're in your 20s or later.
Speaker 1: He was mistreated decisions until you're in your 20s or later.
Speaker 1: He was mistreated.
Speaker 1: This young teen who was lifted and set apart by his father's actions, his father's words, his father's gifts.
Speaker 1: Not really acting out of character, was he, this boy who's sharing prophetic dreams that his culture encourages him to do was playing the part that only he knew how to play?
Speaker 1: He had heard other dreams from others before him.
Speaker 1: Abraham and Lamont had prophetic dreams and they were encouraged to tell those dreams.
Speaker 1: So why wouldn't he?
Speaker 1: After all, it's a way to predict the future, right?
Speaker 1: But his brothers, out of anger and jealousy, distrust and poor judgment, plot to kill him, throw him in a pit to die, and then they sell him into slavery with no ill feelings, and then they lie to their father to gain a place in his reign.
Speaker 1: This is a story for a miniseries on Netflix, or perhaps a Broadway musical featuring Donny Osmond.
Speaker 1: Oh wait, that's been done already.
Speaker 1: This is an insane, sad story of family violence and jealousy, greed and poor judgment on both the father and the brother's parts that continue a cycle of hurt and destruction due to misunderstandings and fueled tempers.
Speaker 1: Sound familiar?
Speaker 1: Do you live in or know a family unit, immediate or extended, that is damaged?
Speaker 1: A family that is torn apart by poor choices?
Speaker 1: A family that doesn't let go of the past and lives in bondage?
Speaker 1: A family, perhaps, where favoritism has been used to express brokenness and segregates those that may feel abandoned or overlooked?
Speaker 1: A family that could be cleansed with the gifts of Jesus if only they were offered?
Speaker 1: Joseph was defined and enslaved by favoritism, something he did not choose, but was cast on him.
Speaker 1: It held him in bondage and imprisoned him, but it didn't break him and in the end of the story, he found favoritism where it mattered.
Speaker 1: When we move forward in Genesis and we go to 50, verses 15 through 21, we hear that Jacob dies and the story reads when Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said it may be now that Joseph will hate us and pay us in return for all of the wrong that we did.
Speaker 1: They were assuming that he was going to treat them the way he treated, the way they treated him.
Speaker 1: So they sent word to Joseph saying before he died our father told us you say to Joseph, forgive the wrongdoing of your brothers and their sin.
Speaker 1: And Joseph cried when they spoke to him.
Speaker 1: And then his brothers came and fell down in front of him and they said See, we are your servants.
Speaker 1: And they wept Hmm, sound like a dream, maybe.
Speaker 1: And touched by their words, joseph weeps.
Speaker 1: And he asked them the question Am I in the place of God?
Speaker 1: In other words, are you asking me to judge you as God for your actions?
Speaker 1: Yes, joseph never assumes to take God's role over his brothers.
Speaker 1: He could have come down hard on him, right?
Speaker 1: He was surely in the power to do that.
Speaker 1: He could have plotted to kill them.
Speaker 1: He could have thrown them in a pit.
Speaker 1: He could have sold them into slavery.
Speaker 1: He could have said na-na-na-na-boo-boo, my dream was right.
Speaker 1: But he didn't.
Speaker 1: Instead, joseph offers them forgiveness and kindness and love.
Speaker 1: He looks over his struggles and difficulties of his own life, the threat of violence and slavery and imprisonment, and he sees that, through all of the remarkable ups and downs, god was with him, that even though his brothers intended to do harm to him, god intended it for good, and many lives were saved because of that, and in that he found favor by the one that mattered, not his father, not his mother, not his brothers, or even Pharaoh, who placed him in leadership later on.
Speaker 1: But he was favored by God because he was trusting and obedient, even in the darkest, hardest areas of his life.
Speaker 1: You know, often we don't see favoritism in our hurts or in our pains, do we?
Speaker 1: We question instead where are you, god, when we're hurting because of something our siblings said, because of something someone else said to us, when tragic things happen in our lives and we ask why would you allow this to happen?
Speaker 1: I don't feel favored in this.
Speaker 1: When we lose our jobs or our homes or a loved one, or the world around us comes crashing down.
Speaker 1: But Joseph models for us what our walk for Christ is supposed to look like.
Speaker 1: We are to be patient and trusting, we are to be obedient, we are to forgive those that hurt us even if they don't ask for it, and not for us to be a doormat for anyone.
Speaker 1: But we are to forgive so we can be free from the anguish and the hurt.
Speaker 1: We are to love as Jesus loves unconditionally so we can be free from the anguish and the hurt.
Speaker 1: We are to love as Jesus loves unconditionally so we can receive the blessings that God intends for us.
Speaker 1: We are to turn the other cheek and to remember that those that are favored are often those that are broken the most.
Speaker 1: That sounds really hard, right, Especially if you're broken right now.
Speaker 1: That sounds really hard, right, especially if you're broken right now.
Speaker 1: That sounds very hard.
Speaker 1: But then I remember the Sermon on the Mount when Jesus tells us who is favored.
Speaker 1: He says to us blessed and favored is the poor in spirit and those that are meek.
Speaker 1: He reminds us that blessed and favored are those that mourn and those that are hungry and thirsty.
Speaker 1: Can you imagine I'm hungry and I'm thirsty and I am favored and I am blessed.
Speaker 1: He tells us blessed are you and favored are you if you are persecuted?
Speaker 1: And I am favored and I am blessed.
Speaker 1: He tells us blessed are you and favored are you if you are persecuted, and blessed and favored are you when you are scorned and abused and spoken evil over?
Speaker 1: You are blessed and you are favored because in that brokenness we turn to him the most.
Speaker 1: Amen.
Speaker 1: We are Joseph.
Speaker 1: We are this story.
Speaker 1: We are Joseph at times, sometimes, when we're arrogant and immature, sometimes abused and beaten, and we are still favored.
Speaker 1: And we are the father making bad choices that affect others' well-being, and yet we are favored.
Speaker 1: We are the brothers, assuming that our truth, our perspective, is right.
Speaker 1: When we're hurting others with our words and our actions.
Speaker 1: We are the mothers fighting for attention, raising our families the best that we can.
Speaker 1: We are innocent bystanders.
Speaker 1: We are the mothers fighting for attention, raising our families the best that we can.
Speaker 1: We are innocent bystanders.
Speaker 1: We are the slaves.
Speaker 1: We are the pharaohs of this world, often looking for favoritism in the wrong place when we should be looking at that cross.
Speaker 1: Friends, no matter what part of this play, this Broadway musical that we call life, our most important role in this world is to act like Jesus.
Speaker 1: We are to forgive and love, to offer mercy and be kind, even in our broken states.
Speaker 1: We are to be the favored ones that Jesus calls us to be, because we are to wear our coats as Joseph did, not in arrogance and in pride, as Joseph did not in arrogance and in pride, but humbly offering our threads to others.
Speaker 1: Central Lutheran Church.
Speaker 1: This Father's Day, may we, as fathers and mothers and as sisters and brothers, be obedient in our calls as his sons and his daughters, and may we know in the deepest parts of our soul, as Pastor Ryan often says, may you know in the deepest part of your soul, because of the gifts on that cross, that we are his beloved daughters and sons.
Speaker 1: Amen.