{"id":868,"date":"2014-03-10T10:45:32","date_gmt":"2014-03-10T14:45:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/?p=868"},"modified":"2014-03-10T10:45:32","modified_gmt":"2014-03-10T14:45:32","slug":"var-_gaq-_gaq-_gaq-push_setaccount-ua-25646250-2-_gaq-push_trackpageview-function-var-ga-document-createelementscript-ga-type-textjavascript-ga-53","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/?p=868","title":{"rendered":"<script type=\"text\/javascript\">  var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-25646250-2']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);  (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text\/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https:\/\/ssl' : 'http:\/\/www') + '.google-analytics.com\/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })();  <\/script>  <\/heat> Joseph Meets His Brothers &#8211; Held on Sunday, March 02, 2014"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>Outline of Post on the Scripture Session held on 03\/02\/14<\/b><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Posting Note<\/li>\n<li>Background to today\u2019s Reading<\/li>\n<li>Reading Gen. 42: 01 &#8211; 38<\/li>\n<li>Discussion<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><b>Posting Note<\/b><\/p>\n<p>There will not be a Scripture Study on Sunday, March 9 so the next post following this one [03\/02\/14] will be no later than Friday, March 21<sup>st<\/sup>.<\/p>\n<p><b>Background to today\u2019s Reading: Gen. 42: 01 \u2013 38.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>We began as we have for the past four weeks reviewing Walter Brueggemann\u2019s schema.\u00a0 The previous three chapters [39 \u2013 41] depict Joseph\u2019s rise to power but form the necessary backdrop to the next three chapters [41 \u2013 44] which tells the story of Joseph and his family.<\/p>\n<p>Brueggemann is of the opinion that the initial setting for the composition of the Joseph story is around the time of Solomon, that is, 1000 \u2013 931 BC.\u00a0 However, its final redaction probably occurred in the post exilic period around the last quarter of the 6<sup>th<\/sup> century BC.\u00a0 The more that we can imagine the audiences of the narrator the richer the story he is telling becomes.\u00a0 It also helps to keep in mind the final outcome of the story itself.\u00a0 The God of the Israelites is the God of their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.\u00a0 But the Israelites owe a great deal to the story of Joseph in which the promise moves from individuals ultimately to a nation, from Egypt [symbol of slavery and oppression] to Canaan, the Promise Land.\u00a0 When we think then of the post exilic period, the audience listens to this story in terms of a longing, a return from exile to the promise land not in the hands of foreign rule but under the rule of YHWH, their God.\u00a0 Hundreds of years later, this longing is the climate in which Jesus announced the coming of the Kingdom of God.<\/p>\n<p>Throughout the story there is what is hidden to some but known to others.\u00a0 A few examples might prompt us to look for others.\u00a0 The brothers don\u2019t recognize Joseph but Joseph recognized them and obviously therefore, the listeners, readers know both what Joseph knows and the brothers don\u2019t.\u00a0 There is the dream that the brothers are unwittingly fulfilling in their very actions that Joseph now knows and so do the audiences down through time.\u00a0 God is at work beyond the knowing and the not knowing; so too is God acting in our time but with a radical difference.\u00a0 We hear all of this within the consciousness of the Christ event.\u00a0 It is that consciousness that both enriches our hearing but it also can darken it.\u00a0 What matters is first to strive to hear the story in its full symbolic manner.\u00a0 That is what we attempted in our reading of it.<\/p>\n<p><b>Reading: Gen. 42: 01 \u2013 38 <\/b><a href=\"http:\/\/usccb.org\/bible\/genesis\/42\">http:\/\/usccb.org\/bible\/genesis\/42<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><b>Discussion<\/b><\/p>\n<p>After reading the entire chapter I asked those gathered what stood out for them. Ken pointed out how the brothers were driven by their senses of guilt.\u00a0 Guilt leads to lies.\u00a0 Even as they profess that they are honest men before Joseph they are lying.\u00a0 When they retell their story to their father, they are lying.\u00a0 But it not just them, it is their guilt that is not owned that lays hidden which is then covered up by their lying.\u00a0 The story reveals this dynamic that is part not just of Joseph\u2019s brothers but for all of human life.<\/p>\n<p>Heber pointed out that Joseph was paying his brothers back for what they had done to him but not as harshly as they had treated him.\u00a0 The brothers threw him in a cistern from which he could not escape.\u00a0 They sold him into slavery.\u00a0 They lied about what they had done.\u00a0 From then to now in the story their actions have shaped their understanding and talking about God.<\/p>\n<p>Faryl pointed out the irony in the story.\u00a0 If the brothers had not treated Joseph as they did, the famine would have occurred anyhow but there would not have been a Joseph to manage the famine both Egypt and for them.<\/p>\n<p>I asked the question, what does this aspect of the story tell us of God\u2019s actions?\u00a0 For Ken God can [I think does] turn turmoil around for good.\u00a0 This is where the cross of Christ leaps across the years.\u00a0 Jesus is treated as we treat anyone who is dangerous, who wants to redefine who we are and what we are to become; challenges our sacred symbols that define us.<\/p>\n<p>The role of Benjamin reminded Tim of events that are happening in his own life.\u00a0 Favoritism exists, Heber reminded us not just in the family, but in most institutions, in schools, in the work place, etc.\u00a0 But for Rosemarie the favoritism is more a matter of favoring those who think as we do, value what we value.\u00a0 We favor those who are like us.<\/p>\n<p>Although time was running out, we returned to the first five verses and reread them.\u00a0 I noted that the story teller, writer is a person who believes.\u00a0 He is writing to his community of believers but they don\u2019t believe in the same fashion as the story teller, writer.\u00a0 Rather he is attempting in the story to reshape their believing, to support their believing.<\/p>\n<p>Ken picked up on this as he focused on verse 5, \u201cAnd so the <b>sons of Israel<\/b> were among those who came to buy grain, since there was famine in the land of Canaan.\u201d\u00a0 Is the author thinking of the sons of Jacob but with his name changed?\u00a0 Is he thinking of the nation of Israel?\u00a0 For Ken, the author had both references in mind.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t agree more.\u00a0 In this one word change we can uncover the symbolic nature of the listening audience.\u00a0 They hear both and more because they heard the story in the context of their own struggles, their own yearnings.\u00a0 We actually do the same.\u00a0 What we are attempting to achieve, though in our scripture study, is to know that is what we are doing and to know it in the concrete of our lives and compare or contrast what it means to us and what it meant to them.\u00a0 This is our journey.<\/p>\n<p>Tim wondered how Joseph felt when he met his brothers.\u00a0 He recognized them right away.\u00a0 When they bowed down before him, Joseph realized that his dream was coming true right before his eyes.\u00a0 As the story progress Joseph reveals his conflicted emotions.\u00a0 The biblical stories are powerful precisely because they capture our struggles, our conflicted emotions and they talk about this life we live in the context of God.<\/p>\n<p>Joseph despite his conflicted emotions, wanted to see Benjamin, wanted to \u201ctest\u201d the integrity of his brothers, wanted to bring the true story out in the open.\u00a0 This testing reminded Ken of the Lord\u2019s Prayer in which we ask God not to put us to the test.\u00a0 Tim felt that Joseph wanted his brothers to admit they were in the wrong.\u00a0 I thought immediately of the Sacrament of Reconciliation.\u00a0 Why do we have to tell our sins to the priest?; so that we can own them.\u00a0 The very difficulty in telling someone our sins reveals the nature of guilt and its power.<\/p>\n<p>You are invited to respond to these or other questions that might arise within you as you read this passage.\u00a0 Your comments, observations, questions are welcomed.\u00a0 See \u201ccomment\u201d link below<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Outline of Post on the Scripture Session held on 03\/02\/14 Posting Note Background to today\u2019s Reading Reading Gen. 42: 01 &#8211; 38 Discussion Posting Note There will not be a Scripture Study on Sunday, March 9 so the next post &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/?p=868\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,5],"tags":[7,18,19],"class_list":["post-868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-scripture","tag-modern-scripture-scholarship","tag-religion-and-culture","tag-scripture-study"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=868"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":869,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868\/revisions\/869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}