When Joseph’s brothers sell him into slavery, we may be tempted to think God wanted them to. What God wants is for us to change.
slavery and other bad ideas
Proper 14A | Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28, Matthew 14:22-33
Before we talk about Jesus walking on water, let’s talk about Joseph’s brothers.
The basic background is this: God made a covenant with Abraham and Sarah, to stick by them no matter what. Their grandson Jacob was a piece of work, but God stuck with him anyway.
Jacob had a bunch of kids with four women. And remember, because Jacob’s a piece of work, he plays favorites. And Joseph is his favorite because he was born to his favorite wife. So, therefore, Joseph, Abraham’s great grandson, is favored over a bunch of sons who came before him. This includes the oldest, Reuben, and the wisest, Judah. Lots of sibling rivalry here.
On top of all of that, Joseph has this precognition superpower—he can see the future in his dreams. And he can’t help sharing that knowledge with everybody.
The Scheme
This is background for when Joseph’s irritated, frustrated, humiliated brothers start scheming. They can’t stand the sight of him. He makes their skin crawl. They hate him with every fiber of their beings.
And then they start justifying. If they get rid of him, then they can get favor again. The blessing will certainly go to Reuben, not his little brother. If they get him out of the way, they’ll all benefit. Honestly, they’re acting just like they’re Dad.
They scheme to kill their own brother. Premeditated murder supposedly justified by their victimhood.
But notice what they do. They talk each other down from direct fratricide to indirect fratricide. Then to selling him to slavers.
The calculus they make is, in the end, grotesque. But they’ve talked themselves into thinking they’ve saved his life! On a scale of 1-to-10 with one being good and harmless and ten being terrible and wrong, all three of those options are tens. But they’ve convinced themselves they brought to…maybe a 3.
As weird as this story is, there is something really easy to overlook in it. Whereas Judah manages to save his brother’s life here, they have no less done an inhumane and unspeakable thing to their own brother.
We often perform a similar calculus when evaluating behavior. A lesser evil seems good. Or we feel justified in inflicting a terrible, immoral evil on a neighbor because we think we’re the “real” victim. And the more we see this present in our neighbors—the ones we agree with and the ones we don’t, the more obvious it becomes.
God’s purpose is transformation
The thing about this story is that these terrible decisions will become the thing that saves them. They sell their brother into slavery. That brother, Joseph, ends up in Egypt, where he will eventually gain the trust of Pharaoh and save the world.
And Judah’s act of sparing his brother’s life by sending him to Egypt will be the means of their salvation. Which, as a plot twist, is totally bonkers!
Reading this story, we are tempted to fall on assumptions and platitudes. We say everything happens for a reason! or that God actually wanted them to sell their brother. But what we see is that God transforms their evil into their opportunity for redemption. God never fails to be with any of them in the midst of their clouded judgement.
These stories in Genesis pull us toward a more complex relationship to a living and potent God. They don’t justify bad behaviors in the name of a distant, deadbeat God.
This story compels us toward the redeeming power of God and away from the scheming evil of justifying each other’s cruelty.
It is that same presence we see in the gospel.
The promise to Abraham was the fulfillment of destiny, the transformation of impossibility, and the persistent presence of God in every trial.
So we get a story of Jesus finally getting a break. Remember, he tried to get one last week, but the people were so pathetic. He couldn’t leave them hanging. So he got his students to find some food and feed them by the thousands like it’s no big deal.
He was exhausted before all of that. Now he gets to climb a mountain in solitude. That’s where he spends the night. Praying in the peace and quiet.
Early the next morning, he gets up, walks on the water, and finds his people out in the boat, freaking out because it’s storming. And when they see him, they point and scream and maybe John jumps into Peter’s arms like Shaggy does with Scooby-Doo.
Much like the Transfiguration story from Thursday, there’s something totally crazy about this event. And like the basic jealousy of Joseph’s brothers, the disciples’ fear is pretty justified. Storms are scary. Ghosts are scary. And…why in the world would they even think that’s Jesus! That would be crazy. People don’t walk on water!
But my favorite part about this story is that Jesus walking on water is not the craziest part.
The craziest part is Peter walks on water, too.
We’re tempted to think this is just all about faith and if we had the right amount of faith, we could walk on water, just like Peter and Jesus. That stretches the point to snapping. Remember he’s already told them that faith the size of a mustard seed is enough to transform the whole world. It isn’t about volume.
This is a story about God’s presence and commitment. It’s about the transformation of the world toward the beloved community and the power that is present when we move beyond fear.
We might focus on the courage of Peter to even step out of that boat. That he gives us an example of our own potential courage.
But Peter doesn’t walk on water because he is special or because he has the right amount of faith. The whole scene is another example of God’s connection to us in the midst of fear. For when Peter throws the fear from his mind and plunges himself into the unknown, he finds himself mirroring Jesus.
And when he recalls all of his fears and they rush back in, he is plunged into the sea. But—Jesus’s hand is there to save him.
Peter is never alone.
He recognizes Jesus and asks him to call him. He wants to be there out of the fear and in the embrace of God. And Jesus honors this bold, compassionate request. “Come,” he says. And Peter leaps.
Peter sees Jesus, but when he is overwhelmed with fear, he can’t sense his presence. But Jesus hasn’t gone anywhere. He, like God promised Abraham, is with them.
Reason to Fear
We have a lot going on, don’t we? A lot to fear, to frustrate and confuse us. A lot of righteous anger at our neighbors. Maybe its when we see people not wearing masks. For many of us, that’s replaced the people who take their 24 items into the express checkout.
And maybe it is bigger than that. Matters of public health, safety, justice.
There are many things that blind our sense of justice. Vengeance, confusion, fear, tunnel vision, pessimism. We think there’s no other way. So we must be justified in depriving others. What else are we going to do?
And the confusion lets us let ourselves off the hook. Which, inevitably leads to outcomes we deplore, but…and we think there’s no other way.
Which is strange to think since there are many, many other ways. The brothers didn’t have to get rid of Joseph. And Joseph didn’t have to save them. He didn’t have to be the source of reconciliation. But he could be.
As Peter, who still will deny Jesus three times, mirrors him here by walking on water.
God is with us
The point is that God is with us in this messy life, in this pandemic life. God is with us in the fear and frustration. And in spite of our best attempts to justify our worst selves!
Don’t lose hope! God’s love is eternal, God’s grace is eternal, and our call to transformation is eternal.
We get to change! God gives us opportunity upon opportunity to be loved when we feel unlovable. Cared for when we feel ignored. Heard when there’s no one there to talk to. God is present with us, dreaming with us, rooting for us to see it, to spark that mustard-seed faith to see past the storms. The apparitions, phantoms.
To see we’re never alone, the storm will not take us all, there is more life ahead.
That, my friends, is a lesson the disciples spent a lifetime figuring out. And we are blessed by all of the saints who came before, each learning this lesson the hard way. Offering it to us to learn. To live in our most trying times.