Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 15(20)
“God has made me lord of all Egypt…” Joseph, son of Jacob (Gen 45.9)
“For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God.” Paul of Tarsus (Rom 8.19)
By Wes Howard-Brook and Sue Ferguson Johnson
A decade or so ago, we spent two years of our monthly Saturday teaching/retreat series with the book of Genesis. Folks eagerly engaged Genesis’ anti-city perspective and its all-too-human characters. But when we got to the Joseph story, several rebelled angrily against our starting characterization of Joseph, son of Jacob, as a self-absorbed, manipulative power seeker, who “succeeded” by teaching Pharaoh how to manage famine for personal profit. What is it about Joseph that leads so many to want to see him as a heroic expression of faith? Continue reading “Wild Lectionary: Joseph—God’s Agent or Agent of Empire?”