Sermon: The Rev. Leah D. Schade
Reformation Lutheran Church, Media, PA
July 8, 2007
“Dream a Little Dream for Me” Sermon Series
Joseph the Power-Dreamer
Last week during Vacation Bible School, we taught the kids a call-and-response, and I want to teach it to you all this morning. When I say, “God is good,” you say, “All the time.” And when I say, “All the time,” you say, “God is good.” Are you ready? (God is good, all the time. All the time, God is good.)
Very nice! Now just hold onto that, because it’s going to come up again in a few minutes.
Last week we began our month-long series on dreams in the bible by experiencing the dream of Jacob’s ladder. And we learned that God often uses dreams and visions to communicate to people in very profound ways. Today, we continue by examining the dreams and interpretations of one of Jacob’s sons, his favorite - Joseph. Many people are familiar with this story, not just through the bible, but also through the Broadway musical, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Have any of you seen that movie or its stage performance? Well, my daughter, Rachel, loves it - it’s one of her favorite DVDs. We’ve watched it so many times, she can sing almost all the songs by heart. One day as we were watching it for the umpteenth time, I was thinking about the similarities between Joseph and his father, Jacob.
Like Jacob, Joseph was the younger brother, often at odds with his older siblings. And like his father, Joseph was noted not for his hunting skills or rugged manliness, but instead for his mental acuity and mystical proclivities. While his brothers were off in the wilds tending the sheep, Joseph stayed home, helping the women, learning to read, being educated, developing the mental skills that would one day serve him very well in a particular management position in Egypt. But that comes much, much later.
At the point where the story begins, Joseph, like his father before him, has visions - dreams given to him by God that reveal to him what lies in his future. The question I want us to explore today and throughout this series is: How does God use dreams to have God’s purposes be accomplished?
In order to answer that, we need to first distinguish between the two types of dreams that God gives to people. According to the Harper Collins Bible Commentary, in the bible there are two types of dreams that come to people:
1) Message dreams (in which the divine communication is heard as a voice speaking and the message is understood with no need for an interpreter)
2) Symbolic dreams (in which the divine communication is visual in symbols not immediately clear in meaning and which therefore need interpretation by the dreamer, the Deity, or by a specialist).
Last week, we saw that Jacob’s dream of the ladder had both a message and a symbol - the ladder leading up to heaven, was a symbol representing the holiness of the place where Jacob had his dream. And the message was that Jacob would inherit the land of Canaan and be the father of a great nation, and that God would be with Jacob no matter what happened to him in his life because . . . God is good (all the time). All the time (God is good.)
Joseph’s dreams are purely symbolic. Consider his two dreams from our first reading. He sees eleven sheaves of grain surrounding his sheaf, and all bowing down to him. And he sees the sun, moon and eleven stars all surrounding and bowing down before his own star. He does not know it then, but the symbolism is predicting that his family will all bow down to him in the future.
Interestingly, “the sheaves of grain representing Joseph and his brothers neatly points forward both to Joseph’s management of Egypt’s grain supplies and to the grain-buying expeditions of his brothers. The brothers will assume the posture of obeisance predicted in the dream. Now, however the fulfillment of the dream is uncertain, for Joseph [is] now “surrounded” by the hatred of his brothers.” (HBC, p. 112).
It’s not just the dream itself that causes his brother’s anger. It’s his reporting of the dream in such a brash manner that cause them such hatred, that they conspire against him to throw him into a cistern, sell him into slavery, and lead his father to believe that his beloved dreamer has been mauled to death by a wild animal. So it would seem at first that the dreams given to him by God are not a blessing at all, but a curse. Because even when he gets to Egypt and begins to be successful serving a man named Potiphar, his master’s wife makes a false accusation of Joseph of raping her, which lands Joseph in prison.
Here again, Joseph’s story is reminiscent of his father’s. Here he was, like Jacob in the desert, at the lowest point in his life, with no foreseeable way out of his situation. And yet Joseph knew he was not abandoned because he knew that . . . God is good (etc.) In fact, eight times in the space of 23 verses, the text tells us that the Lord was with Joseph, that God showed Joseph steadfast love, and that everything Joseph did was blessed by the Lord.
And it is during this stay in prison when God gives Joseph another gift - not just of dreams, but the ability to interpret others’ dreams. Two of the Pharaoh’s servants are thrown into prison and each has a dream they cannot discern the meaning of. Joseph asks them to tell him their dreams and says these key words: “Do not interpretations belong to God?” This is important, because Joseph is not taking credit for his gift - he is giving the glory to God. And by sharing his gift of interpretation with those two prisoners, he witnessed to the truth he knew that . . . God is good . . .
And it’s a good thing that Joseph had that strong faith, because it had to sustain him for a long time, let me tell you! Joseph languished in that jail for two more years before he was finally given his break. And, again, it was God’s giving of dreams that provided Joseph his opportunity.
Pharaoh had two dreams - the ones we heard about in our second reading. Pharaoh’s dreams cause the released cup-bearer to remember Joseph to Pharaoh. Joseph immediately recognizes the dreams as being a forecast sent from God of the seven years of plenty followed by seven years of want. But there’s also an interesting parallel between Pharaoh’s dreams and Joseph’s dreams: “The weaker and inferior (Joseph, the gaunt cattle and the thin ears of grain) will dominate the stronger [and superior] (Joseph’s brothers, healthy cattle, and the good ears of grain).” (Harper’s). This also re-echoes a similar theme in his father’s Jacob’s story - the younger, weaker brother dominates the stronger older brother.
But, again, notice that Joseph does not take the credit when he interprets Pharaoh‘s dreams. He gives God the glory, saying, “It is not I; God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer.” Because . . . God is good (etc.). And then Joseph not only interprets Pharaoh’s dreams about the upcoming famine, but also shrewdly positions himself to be the land-manager to steer Egypt safely through the upcoming agricultural trials. And when Joseph’s brothers come straggling in from Canaan, weak from hunger, begging for food, bowing at their scorned brother’s feet, not recognizing him -- we see that we have come full circle back to the original dreams of Joseph. It is one of the most classic stories illustrating how God’s plan can play out for the faithful, even in the midst of what seems like insurmountable difficulties.
The Old Testament scholar, Walter Brueggeman, notes the importance of this story for the ongoing history of Israel: “We may note the motif which relates to the theme of promise . . . Joseph who, because Yahweh is with him and because he “feared God,” begins as a hated younger brother without resource or authority and becomes the powerful, respected, and feared controller of the empire. He is the embodiment of that central conviction of Israel that God’s impossible promises will come to fulfillment.” (Brueggeman, p. 9).
Joseph’s story, like that of his father’s before him, and like that of numerous biblical characters after him, is marked by the movement of descent, languishing in the depths, and then restoration, or rebirth. Think of the many other stories where this motif is repeated:
Every time the people of God find themselves in exile, in the pit, in the depths, they can hold on to this story of Joseph to give them hope. “Exile is being cut off with no way back. But strangely, when [Joseph is in exile it becomes] the context for [his] most remarkable expression of faith. [Being in the depths] becomes the setting for the boldest gospel of newness. . . Faith is precisely for [people] who remember [God’s promise] but see no way to it.” (Brueggeman, p. 9).
It’s repeated over and over - we descend into the depths, but God does not leave us abandoned there. God is with us. And not only is God with us, but God uses even the most tragic of circumstances to bring us up out of the depths and accomplish God’s purposes. Because God is good . . .
I want you to remember this story of Joseph as you go through life - no matter what you experience, be it the grandiosity of success, or the tragedy of loss. Remember to give glory to God. When you have gifts from God, give credit to God, and use those gifts to serve others. When you are dealt crushing blows by life, trust that God will find some way to bring blessing out of even the most harshest of circumstances.
And for those of you participating in the bible studies about dreams this Wednesday and in the upcoming weeks, when you have dreams and work to interpret them for yourself or others, remember that they often come from God, and that our work of discerning them must begin by being oriented in God’s purposes for us and for this world.
Because, as we will sing in the hymn, no matter what vision we have, we ask God to be the source and center of our dreams. “Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart; naught be all else to me, save that thou art: thou my best thought by day and by night, waking or sleeping, thy presence my light.”
Because God is good (all the time!) All the time (God is good). Amen!
Sources:
Brueggemann, Walter, The Land, Fortress Press, Philadelphia, 1977
Harper’s Bible Commentary, 1988