Obnoxious Coat and Impossible Dream

Genesis 45:3-11, 15

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. You shall settle in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near me, you and your children and your children’s children, as well as your flocks, your herds, and all that you have. I will provide for you there—since there are five more years of famine to come—so that you and your household, and all that you have, will not come to poverty.’ And he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them; and after that his brothers talked with him.

That obnoxious coat and those arrogant dreams!  The coat that screamed, “I’m daddy’s favorite” and the dream that he was better than the rest.  His brothers had had enough and that's what landed Joseph at the bottom of a well.   Would the dream make it out the well?  Didn’t seem likely.  But one of his brothers felt a little guilty and another brother figured slavery was just as good as death so they sold him into slavery.  Would the dream make it out of slavery?  Didn’t seem likely.  But as a slave in Egypt everything he touched was successful.  He ran the whole house!  Well, until the bosses wife got jealous and had him thrown in jail.  Would the dream make it out of jail?  Didn’t seem likely.  But even in jail everything he did was impressive.  One day he interpreted the dreams for two fellow prisoners.  A good dream for one and a nightmare for the other but  both interpretations came true.  But still he was in jail.  Would he ever get out?  It didn’t seem likely.  

But then one day Pharaoh himself had a dream that no one could figure out.  The guy from the jail suddenly remembered Joseph and brought him to Pharaoh to interpret his dream.  Seven years of incredible harvests would be followed by seven years of famine… that’s what the dream meant and Joseph told Pharaoh, “You should get someone to manage the country.  Save up in the good times, to see you through the bad times.” Pharaoh told Joseph, "Sounds good.  THAT's your new job!  Would his dream make it out of working for Pharaoh?  It didn’t seem likely.  

But this dream, you may have noticed, is more persistent and infinitely more tenacious than we typically expect.  Neither childhood arrogance, nor wells, nor jails, nor jealousy, nor powerful Pharaohs seem to have what it takes to stop the dream from coming true.  ALL of that had tried to stop the dream, but the dream made it through until one day there was Joseph’s family… standing before him, just like in the dream.  They looked into the eyes of the brother they had put down a well, and sold into slavery!  Here he was, that pain in the butt, arrogant kid who wore that damn technicolor dream coat.  Here he was, running Egypt and in literally EVERY way, he was in complete and total control whether they lived or whether they died.   

He could have thrown them down a well or sold them into slavery.  They had done it to him!  He could have thrown them in jail, sent them home to starve, or plotted to have them killed right then and there!  They had done all that to him too!  Getting even would be easy.  Making them pay a breeze!  But instead he chose grace.  In spite of all he had been through he hadn’t kept score.  He didn’t want revenge.  He set aside retribution and demanding an eye for an eye, perhaps having grown up enough to understand that the only thing that ever does is make the whole world blind!

This whole thing started with that dream.  But that dream WASN'T Jospeh’s dream.  It was God’s dream.  God’s dream to preserve God’s people from a famine and to make sure that God’s people had enough.  Not too much, nor too little, but enough.  That was God’s dream for Joseph's family back then, and it remains God’s dream for us today!  God’s dream back then landed in a dysfunctional family with a dad who could have used some parenting classes, some siblings who acted very much like siblings always have, and a young kid named Jospeh who wasn’t yet wise enough to understand the power of humility.  But in spite of God’s dream landing in the most unlikely of families and following the most unlikely of paths… God’s dream for this family… God’s dream for God’s people... , absolutely DID come true.  

God WILL see to it, it seems, that God’s dreams, both for families then and for families now, WILL come to fruition no matter what.  Granted, like that dream planted in Joseph’s dysfunctional family then, I have found that God’s dream, when planted in my own dysfunctional family now has had to make it’s way along a different but still seemingly impossible path that at every turn made it seem unlikely to ever make it through.  But over the years, with the bumps, bruises, and scars that show the world how slowly I learn, I’m beginning to... maybe, kind of, finally understand that God’s dream for my family… God’s dream for your family… God’s dream for EVERY family, really does find a way through, no matter what we or the world puts in its way. 

And the more I learn that, the easier I find it is not to get hooked when someone demands my coat along the way.  Because I'm learning that I don’t need a coat, or even a shirt for that matter, for God’s dream to make it through.  And when evil swirls and menaces around me in this world… and it does… I’m learning to move beyond my primal reactions of judgement, condemnation and revenge.  I’m learning that retribution only gives those old evils brand new life and doesn’t help God’s dream come true.

You and I… each of us are like Joseph.  Each of us carries God’s technicolor dream.  The dream that you and I and all of creation will have enough.  Enough food, shelter, love, compassion, security, purpose and joy… Enough… so that each of us has exactly what we need to become the person God created us to be.  The world will tell you that's a foolish and impossible dream.  The news will gleefully show you in high definition, each new obstacle parked in the path of that dream coming true.  But I’m here to tell you the truth!  God’s dream ALWAYS finds a way though!  God’s dream WILL come true!  

So I invite you to join me in putting on that completely obnoxious, technicolor dream coat, that goes by the name of unconditional love and inexplicable joy!  And let us join hands and dare to keep dreaming God’s impossible dream and walk together into that dream until it is true for all the world.  Amen.