Monday, August 21, 2023

Sermon (August 20) “Amazing Technicolor Grace” by Rev. Robert McDowell

 



August 20, 2023

    The 1972 musical, “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” which is based on the story of Joseph in the Book of Genesis has been performed in more than 20,000 schools and theatre groups throughout the world. My church performed this musical when I was a teenager. 

     Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote the music and Tim Rice provided the lyrics of this musical that tells the story of Joseph who was one of twelve brothers. Our Old Testament reading which we will get to in a moment comes toward the end of this story about Joseph and his brothers. 

     The title of the musical is taken from a coat of many colors that Joseph’s father, Jacob had given to him. As you would expect, this favoritism of Joseph doesn’t go over too well with Joseph’s brothers. 

     Whenever they would see their brother wearing this special coat, they would become even more jealous. And did you catch the little detail that this coat had sleeves?  In Bible times, you were somebody special and set apart if you had sleeves. It was understood back then that anyone with long sleeves would not be expected to do manual labor. 

     So, you can imagine what the family dynamics were like for Joseph and his brothers? Not very good! In fact, we are told that after their father gave Joseph this special coat, they hated him and could not talk peaceably with him. 

     If that wasn’t bad enough, we are told that Joseph told his brothers about a dream he had. And he told them how he dreamt that they were all binding sheaves in the field when his sheaf rose up and stood upright while his brother’s sheaves gathered around and bowed down to his sheaf. 

     Uh, Joseph, some dreams are best if you keep them to yourself. And please don’t tell them about the other dream you had about your brothers. Please don’t. Oh, no. He already started.

     So Joseph tells them this second dream where the sun, the moon, and the elven stars were bowing down to him. 

     Hmmmm…. Wonder if it was just a coincidence that there were eleven stars and Joseph has eleven brothers? Guess how that went over with the boys?

     I am reminded of a tongue in cheek comment that the famous comedian, Jerry Lewis said about being a celebrity. He said, “People hate me because I am a multifaceted, talented, wealthy, and internationally famous genius.” That sounds like something Joseph would have told his brothers. 

     Who says that the Bible isn’t fun to read? Reading this story, you wonder what Joseph was thinking and for that matter why daddy made it obvious who his favorite son was. The bible often reads like a reality TV show. Joseph just doesn’t get it. But remember. He’s only 17 at this early point in the story. Maybe we should cut Joseph some slack. But for sure, his brothers aren’t ready to do that. They become even more jealous of him.

     And so, one day, Joseph approaches his brothers from a distance and they are just fuming as they see him wearing his amazing technicolor dreamcoat. One of them sarcastically says, "Here comes the dreamer."  So that’s now the new name they have given their spoiled brother, “dreamer.” And they don’t mean that in a good way. 

     So as dreamer boy walks toward his hard-working brothers, one of his brothers says, "Hey, guys, this is our chance to kill Mr. Dreamer." Things are escalating quickly. 

     And this story goes from bad to worse.  There's a glimmer of hope when Reuben begs his brothers to not kill Joseph. He suggests that they just throw Joseph into a cistern that doesn't have any water.  

     When Joseph arrives to greet them, the brothers strip him of his long-sleeved fancy robe and they throw him into a pit.  And how they managed to eat lunch after all of this, I will never know, but while the brothers were eating, they noticed a caravan of people on their way to Egypt.

     That's when they decide to sell Joseph to this traveling group for twenty pieces of silver.  So, Joseph officially becomes a slave and is sent off to Egypt. 

      A little side note. I’m the youngest of four siblings and my brother and two sisters said how as the youngest, I sometimes got preferential treatment. Penny has told me there is a reason why parents sometimes do this for their youngest child, and it has something to do with not wanting their baby to grow up. Well, at least my brother and sisters didn’t throw me in a cistern and sell me off into slavery. But back to the story.

      The brothers grab Joseph’s fancy robe, dip it into some blood of a goat, and make up a story that Joseph had been killed by a wild animal.  Their father, Jacob is devastated upon hearing this news and grieves the loss of his youngest son, Joseph. Meanwhile, the band of travelers arrives in Egypt and Joseph is sold to one of Pharaoh’s officials.

     This is where the sermon probably needs an intermission because this story of Joseph is only halfway over at this point. Oh, it gets even more interesting!

     So,instead of taking an intermission break, I’m going to speed the story up a little bit so that we have time to focus on the part of the story that we heard read for us from our Old Testament reading this morning.

     So, to make a long story short, Joseph ends up being separated from the father he loves for the next several years, and his father, Jacob, thinking that his son is dead, grieves the loss of Joseph every single day. 

    The story continues. And here are the cliff notes. Joseph, who is now in Egypt gets falsely accused of sexual assault by the wife of a high-ranking Egyptian official and Joseph gets thrown into prison.  Things continue to go from bad to worse for Joseph because he helps one of his fellow prisoners escape by interpreting this man’s dream, but after this fellow prisoner is released, that guy does nothing to help Joseph get out of prison. He doesn’t return the favor and Joseph remained in prison. 

     But things finally turned positive for Joseph when he is able to interpret Pharaoh’s dream which leads to his eventual release from prison, and he is even appointed by Pharaoh to a very important position which is to oversee the land of Egypt. 

     Through his interpretation of dreams, Joseph is able to prepare Egypt so survive a famine. And this brings us to our story for today when Joseph’s brothers come to Egypt to seek relief from that same famine even though they aren’t Egyptians. 

     Here’s where the story needs to slow down, because our story today from Genesis chapter 45 is one of the most emotional stories in the entire Bible. It’s like the long anticipated last episode of the series for this long reality TV Show  that we have here in the Book of Genesis. The ratings for this final episode are going to go through the roof. 

     Joseph’s brothers have come to Egypt to receive help during this massive famine, and they don’t recognize that the Egyptian official they are meeting with is the brother that they had sold into slavery several years ago.

     This is a golden opportunity for Joseph to finally get his revenge on his brothers for leaving him for dead and selling him off as a slave. What are the odds that his brothers would be meeting him face to face after all of these years?

     The musical about the life of Joseph is called, “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” but maybe a better name for that musical would be “Amazing Technicolor Grace” because instead of revenge, Joseph embraces his brothers. He tells them all that had happened to him since that time they sold him into slavery and then he tells them, “So it was not you who sent me here, but God.”

      He then tells his brothers that he will provide food for them and their father. Our scripture reading concludes with Joseph weeping and embracing his brothers. 

     The story of Joseph is a a story of how God’s amazing grace can help us to choose forgiveness over revenge, love over hate, and reconciliation over bitterness and resentment. There’s a song that has this wonderful line in it that comes in the form of a question and that question is, “Are you tough enough to be kind?”

     When every part of you wants to seek revenge or be bitter, or get back at someone, this story of Joseph reminds us to ask the question, “Am I tough enough to be kind?” God enabled Joseph to be tough enough to be kind when he encountered his brothers after all of those years.

     Are you tough enough to be kind?

     In 1993, a young white woman named Amy Biehl, a Fulbright scholar who was working with poor communities in apartheid South Africa was violently murdered by four black youth. Amy’s parents, despite their incredible grief and anger at losing their daughter were able to come to understand that the bigger picture of the systemic evil of apartheid had created the conditions that led to the personal evil of their daughter’s murder.

     Amy’s parents eventually even hired two of the young men who killed Amy to work in a foundation they set up in their daughter’s name. The Biehl family has writtten and spoken extensively on the need for forgiveness, grace, reconciliation, and restorative justice in our communities and world.

     Now, for sure, forgiveness and reconciliation are not an overnight process. We don’t want to sugarcoat this because relational healing often takes time. Sometimes reconciliation does not come until both parties are in a better place where it is less likely for additional harm to be done. Those types of situations require extra care, patience, and prayer. 

     But the story of Joseph invites us to see beyond our hurt and anger to what the real issues are that lead to the pain and suffering that we have experienced. Are we tough enough to be kind?

     And there are also times where we may do as much as we can to seek reconciliation and forgiveness, but for whatever reason, we still do not experience the emotional and relational healing we so desperately want and need. God knows our heart. God knows that we are doing all that we can do in these more complex situations. Sometimes we don’t get the fairy-tale ending we are seeking. 

     If you think about it, the Joseph story has a lot of parallels with the life and ministry of Jesus. I can’t help but to see a parallel between Joseph and his eleven brothers and Jesus and his twelve disciples.

     Joseph’s brothers got 20 pieces of silver for their betrayal. One of the twelve disciples ended up betraying Jesus in exchange for 30 pieces of silver. 

     Joseph’s brothers stripped Joseph of his coat of many colors, and the Roman soldiers stripped Jesus of his robe and then led him away to be crucified.

     Joseph ended up forgiving his brothers for all they had done to him so many years ago. Jesus forgave his disciples and willingly died on the cross for the sake of the world even though those closest to him betrayed and denied him when he needed them the most. 

     This is why we sing the hymn, “Amazing Grace.” It’s because God’s grace is amazing. I would even say that it is amazing technicolor grace!

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