Genesis 45:1-9

Then Joseph could no longer control himself before all those who stood by him, and he cried out, “Send everyone away from me.” So no one stayed with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers.  And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard it.  Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph. Is my father still alive?” But his brothers could not answer him, so dismayed were they at his presence. Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come closer to me.” And they came closer. He said, “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt.  And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life.  For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are five more years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest.  God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to keep alive for you many survivors.  So it was not you who sent me here but God; he has made me a father to Pharaoh and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt.  Hurry and go up to my father and say to him, ‘Thus says your son Joseph, God has made me lord of all Egypt; come down to me; do not delay.

Matthew 15:10-20

Then he called the crowd to him and said to them, “Listen and understand:  it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles.”  Then the disciples approached and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees took offense when they heard what you said?”  He answered, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted.  Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if one blind person guides another, both will fall into a pit.”  But Peter said to him, “Explain this parable to us.”  Then he said, “Are you also still without understanding?  Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach and goes out into the sewer?  But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles.  For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.  These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile.”

The Midsummer Butterfly

 Life is difficult

I want to begin this sermon with an invitation. Life is difficult. Coming to church for Sunday morning worship is an opportunity to pause, to rest, and to reflect. If you need to talk to someone, you can call me or write to me. We can find a time to meet. I am your pastor. I am someone you can trust and you can talk to. Life is full of problems, and part of my job, part of my calling as a minister, is to help people deal with their problems. So, my phone number and my email are public. It is best to call me to set up an appointment.

 The Butterfly[1]

It was a sunny morning yesterday and I was in the back yard when I saw a monarch butterfly with her signature orange and black markings floating around the flowers and bushes. Seeing a monarch butterfly means it’s high summer, the peak of the season. And I thought, “What a miracle, to see this butterfly. And what a miracle it is, that such a creature should even exist.” And I thought about the life cycle of the monarch, and the long journey that this little flying creature represents. To see one small piece of God’s creation is a gateway to the miracle of the entire creation.

You probably know the story. A monarch butterfly begins as an egg laid on the underside of a milkweed leaf. And that egg hatches into a caterpillar. The monarch caterpillar eats only milkweed until she grows to two inches long, and then, she forms into a chrysalis, a little green cocoon, and inside that chrysalis, the caterpillar changes into a butterfly, to emerge in two weeks’ time.

A Monarch that hatches out in Maine in the warm summer months will start to feel the cold in autumn and then migrate, flying to Mexico for the winter. Mexico! After spending the winter months in Mexico, she begins a return trip back north. But she will die along the way. After several more generations along the way, the monarchs eventually find their way back to Maine. And so there is a long cycle and a long journey.

That single butterfly I saw yesterday in the back yard was part of a much bigger cycle, a much longer journey. I saw only one small part of it: one small part of a much larger whole. 

Reading the Bible

Reading the Bible is like this. When we read a passage of scripture, we are reading one small part of a much larger whole, a small piece of writing that has had a tremendous journey, a long journey, an epic journey.

 A Library of Books

The Bible is a library of books, a collection of ancient texts, and it is an amazing collection, because these texts represent people of so many different backgrounds and time periods. The Bible is a multicultural work. It is a great soup, a great collection, a delicious collection, so to speak, a wonderful, delicious soup, a one-of-a-kind mixture, a unique blend, in other words, a miracle. The Bible is, itself, a miracle.

 Our first reading

We have another reading from Genesis this morning. There has been a thread of Genesis this summer, running through the lectionary readings. We are touching on only a small portion of it. Here is some background on Genesis.

 The Book of Beginnings

Genesis is the book of beginnings. In the original Hebrew, the word is Bereshit [beh-rey-Sheet] meaning “In the beginning.” When the Hebrew scriptures were translated into Greek, Bereshit became Genesis. The first sentence of the book is also the title. “In the beginning.” Genesis means origin, the book of generation/origin.

 Genesis overview

The first part of Genesis deals with the creation stories. These are followed by the stories of four generations, the founding lineage stories, that is, the stories of the ancestry and origin of the Israelites. So an overview of Genesis looks like this:

Creation stories: ch 1-12

Abraham and Sarah ch 12-25

Isaac and Rebekah ch 25-27

Jacob and Rachel ch 25-36

Joseph ch 37 to 50.

Notice a large portion of Genesis is the story of Joseph.

So remember, Joseph’s father is Jacob. And incidentally, I wanted to point out that Jacob is sometimes called “Israel.” The names can be confusing. But remember the story: that Jacob wrestled with an angel, and when the angel won the fight, Jacob asked for a blessing. The angel blessed him and gave him a new name: “Israel.”

 The Children of Israel

So, just to review a bit: Jacob had twelve sons, by four women: two wives Leah and Rachel, and two concubines, Bilhah and Zilpah. So these four women gave Jacob 12 sons, and their names were Ruben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Napthali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, and Benjamin. (Jacob also had a daughter named Dinah, born between Zebulun and Joseph)

Now, because Jacob is also called “Israel,” these twelve sons of his are the beginning of the twelve tribes of Israel, and all their descendants are called “The Children of Israel.”

Now, I’m sure you already know this. It may be totally obvious, but sometimes it’s good to state the obvious.

 Date of Writing

The book of Genesis was written sometime between the 5^th and the 4^th centuries BCE. So, let’s call it 450 BC. And, of course, this date is controversial. It depends, really, on who you talk to. It’s not an exact date and no one really knows for sure. The writing of Genesis probably occurred over a long period of time.

But let’s call it 450BC.

It was written in Hebrew and later translated into Greek. Why? To put it simply, it was because of Alexander the Great. The process of translation, too, was a long process that occurred somewhere around 250BC.

 Alexander and the Septuagint

It was because of Alexander’s influence that people all across the Mediterranean region spoke Greek. Greek was a shared language. It was the language of learning and culture, it was the language of power, it became the dominant language, all because of Alexander, his military conquests, the empire he established, and the Greek generals that ruled after him. And it was because of this Greek influence, this so called “Hellenization” that the Hebrew Scriptures were translated into Greek, 250 years before Jesus. So 250 years before Jesus, there was already Greek scripture, that is, a Greek translation of the Torah. And Jews were reading it. Jews were reading the Torah in Greek in Jewish communities all across the Mediterranean.

 Fun fact

The word “Hellenization” comes from Hellas, (Greece). The word for Greece, Hellas, comes from Hellen. And this Hellen was not Helen of Troy. (Something I learned this week. I am a wannabe scholar, but I am not a real scholar.)  Hellen was not Helen of Troy. Hellen is a legendary male figure, a hero, the patriarch of Greece. All Greek people are said to be descendants of Hellen. That’s Hellen with two ll’s.

Hellenization, then, was the process of spreading Greek influence throughout the region. And part of Hellenization was the translation of Jewish scriptures from Hebrew into Greek.

 First Reading: Reconciliation

Last week, we read about Joseph’s betrayal. His half-brothers betrayed him, all sons of Jacob, sold him to Egyptian slave traders.

Today’s reading from Genesis 45 is a reconciliation story. A divided family is reunited. To be reconciled and reunited is a beautiful thing. “Then [Joseph] fell upon his brother Benjamin’s neck and wept, while Benjamin wept upon his neck. And [Joseph] kissed all his brothers and wept upon them; and after that his brothers talked with him.” (vs.14-15)

Family division is so painful. Emotional cutoffs, broken relationships, all are the causes of great suffering. Sometimes these breaks cannot be healed. But when they are, when there is forgiveness and reconnection, this is such a beautiful thing. Here we see in Joseph’s case, the conflict is resolved and this reunites the family.

 Second Reading

Now, fast forward several hundred years and we come to Matthew’s Gospel, written originally in Greek. Again, this was because of Alexander’s influence. All of the early Christian writings that eventually became the New Testament were written in Greek. And this is so interesting because we really don’t know if Jesus spoke Greek. It’s thought that he and his disciples spoke Aramaic, the everyday language spoken in Galilee. He may have known some Greek, and possibly some Hebrew. But by this time, the Greek Empire had fallen and the Romans occupied Judea. So there was also the Roman influence at the time of Matthew’s writing.

What I’m getting at is that the formation of the Bible as we know it is such a miracle, such an amazing mix of cultures and languages and histories.

Each of the four Gospels tells the story of Jesus in a unique way, each for a unique community. Again, we see the Jewish influence in Matthew’s writing. Matthew is writing for a new Jewish-Christian community, an early community of the Jesus movement.

In our reading today, Jesus talks about purity in moral terms as opposed to ritual cleansing. So this teaching speaks for itself. The teaching is timeless and does not need interpretation. Defilement comes from the heart: evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. To be pure means to avoid these things. To keep one’s heart pure. Keeping the heart pure is what matters. Purity has nothing to do with washing your hands.

 Conclusion

My goal this morning is to encourage you in your Bible reading and studying. The Bible is an amazing resource. These teachings are timeless gems. They have withstood the test of time. They are relevant for us today, just as they were relevant for people thousands of years ago. So we can see that reading these texts are like seeing a monarch butterfly. They speak of long journeys and complex cycles, generation after generation.

Amen? Amen.

[1] https://extension.umaine.edu/signs-of-the-seasons/indicator-species/monarch-fact-sheet/