Friday of the Second Week of Lent

Lectionary: 234

A vine, twisted by a fallen tree
turns upward. 

Israel loved Joseph best of all his sons,
for he was the child of his old age;
and he had made him a long tunic.
When his brothers saw that their father loved him best of all his sons,
they hated him so much that they would not even greet him.

Thus begins the longest story in the Bible, running continuously through the last 14 chapters of Genesis. We might call it the most modern story in Genesis because God never appears or speaks directly to Joseph or anyone else. Where the Book began with God and Adam pondering together the problem of loneliness, the narrative ends with God's remaining totally in the background. He doesn't even speak directly in dreams to the Patriarch Joseph, as he would to Joseph, the husband of Mary. Rather Joseph is given the gift of interpreting dreams, which proves to be both a curse and a blessing. 

Because God never appears, it might also be the most plausible story. We don't expect to hear the voice of God very often and few of us would want a heavenly apparition. (I met a seminarian once who thought he had seen a vision. "OMG, he said, I don't want to build a chapel on this spot." Fortunately the vision was only a college prank.) 

Joseph and his many-colored dream-coat is about betrayal and fidelity. It's about the hard struggle to regain trust among rival siblings. Most importantly, it's about the guiding hand of the Holy Spirit. 

Jacob/Israel was never described as a holy man. He connived with his mother to steal his brother's birthright. Tricked by his relative into marrying the wrong woman, he would return the favor by fleeing with two wives and the household idols. He would strike a bargain with a village to circumcise all the males in reparation for a crime, then slaughter the disabled men. Treachery ran in the family. It's not terribly surprising that Jacob's sons sold their brother Joseph into slavery. 

What is surprising is that God remains with the descendants of Abraham, and keeps his pledge despite their treachery. In the meanwhile they learn to rely on honesty as "the best policy." 

The young Joseph first appears with a particular gift for interpreting dreams, but he is foolishly arrogant -- and frightfully naive. He cannot imagine that his older brothers will resent his prediction that he will rule over them some day. But many hard experiences will teach him his father's gift of craftiness, which he will turn to God's service. 

The Original Sin has many names but its most important name might be betrayal. It happens frequently in the Bible, from Adam's disobedience to Judas' treason. Betrayal is more than breaking a rule. It's the violation of an important, intimate relationship:

For it is not an enemy that reviled me – that I could bear – Not a foe who viewed me with contempt, from that I could hide. But it was you, my other self, my comrade and friend, You, whose company I enjoyed, at whose side I walked in the house of God. (Psalm 55:13-15)

Betrayal comes in many forms, from the school children who snitch on each other, to the priest who molests the altar boy. It is the violation of contracts, the bending of laws, the philandering spouse and divorced parents. It is bribes and special favors, kickbacks and racial discrimination. It is winking eyes and blind eyes and Sgt. Schultz's "I know nothing!" Hidden agendas and Freud's transference are betrayals. 

More tortuous than anything is the human heart, beyond remedy; who can understand it? I, the LORD, explore the mind and test the heart, Giving to all according to their ways, according to the fruit of their deeds. Jeremiah 7:9-10

In the same seventh chapter, Jeremiah says, 

Cursed is the man who trusts in human beings, who makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the LORD.

During this season of Lent we ask the Lord to reveal to each of us our own particular forms of treachery. How often do I enter conversations with a hidden agenda? How often do I fail to answer the subtle invitations of loved ones to pay attention to them? How often do I say one thing and mean another? Say yes when I mean no, and no when I mean yes? 

Lent will lead us to Holy Week and to the Garden of Gethsemane and to the One who remains always faithful to us and to His God:

This saying is trustworthy: If we have died with him we shall also live with him; if we persevere we shall also reign with him. But if we deny him he will deny us. If we are unfaithful he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself. (2 Timothy 2: 11-13)