Life in the Pit
a sermon based on Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28
by Rev. Randy Quinn
 

I've seen the story several times on the internet. But when I went to find it this week, it was no where to be found!

Those who have internet access have probably seen the story. It's about a farmer who has an old mule. The mule has apparently outlived his usefulness, but it was too expensive to have him put down.

So the farmer digs a big hole in the ground, throws the donkey in and proceeds to bury the donkey alive.

From the donkey's perspective, however, the story changes. His master digs a big hole and throws him in. He isn't sure why, but there is no way out of this pit he's in. Then some dirt falls on him.

He shakes off the dirt and steps on up.

More dirt comes down. He shakes it off and steps up.

More dirt. More shaking. More stepping.

After enough dirt has been thrown into the pit to bury the donkey, the donkey is close enough to the top of the hole to step right on out of the pit.

I've never seen one, but I understand that in ancient Canaan they were quite numerous – cisterns. Cisterns were bulbous shaped holes in the ground that were used to catch and store the meager amounts of rainfall that fall in the desert. The water would then be drawn up as if it were a well.

That's what made Jacob's well so significant. The water there came from a spring within rather than the rain that fell.

Joseph is put into just such a cistern. A hole in the ground with no obvious means of escape.

And it's hard to read this story without identifying with Joseph. We've all been mistreated at some point in time. We've all found ourselves caught in tight places with no obvious means of escape.

A few years ago, we were all captivated by the rescue of the coal miners in Pennsylvania. Do you remember that story?

None of us may have been locked in a pit or trapped in a mine, but we can identify with the fear and anxiety of the nine men who were rescued as well as this one obnoxious young boy.

We want to jump to their rescue.

And in so doing, we miss the forest for the trees.

In another popular internet story – which I couldn't find either – is the story of a small town on the banks of a river where a young man was rescued from the raging waters. But almost as soon as they had him on shore, another young man came down the river. Then another. Then another. And another.

For two entire days the scenario continued to repeat itself.

Some wanted to build a rescue station. Some wanted to train special swimmers to stand guard in the water waiting for the next victim. Some wanted to build shelters where the rescued swimmers could recuperate. A whole industry was about to develop around the rescue operations.

They were focusing on the victims, just like we focus on Joseph or the miners.

One wise member of the community, however, insisted that the better means of treating the problem was to send a team upstream to find out what was causing so many people to fall into the river in the first place.

Rather than ask what caused Joseph's unwanted tour of the inside of a cistern – a question that has an obvious answer in the way Jacob unwittingly created a monster by bestowing special affection toward him – the question I want to ask is what kind of people Joseph's brothers are and where are they in today's society?

It might be easy to see ourselves as Joseph – a nation that often appears to be victimized by the world just because we are successful. But the harder truth is to see how we are more often like Reuben or Judah or even Simeon and Asher.

Our thirst for energy put those nine men in the Quecreek mine to begin with. They didn't really choose to be there, they simply were pushed into the mine in order to meet our needs. There is a sense in which our actions led to their crisis.

Some have argued that on the world's stage America is acting like the spoiled child who deserves to be thrown in the pit – and while I don't necessarily disagree; I do think the truth is that we have put more people in the pit than we like to admit.

In a market economy, for instance, we claim to encourage freedom but in reality we encourage a modern form of slavery by only purchasing the lowest priced products. Let me suggest two examples, both of which have local consequences.

In place after place around our country, Wal-Mart has opened its doors while local businesses have closed theirs. The reason? The people who live in those towns would rather save a nickel than help put their neighbor's children through college with those same nickels. Our pocketbook has made decisions rather than any sense of commitment to community. And in the end, rather than supporting several small businesses and their families, we have pushed those same families into the pits by making them work for minimum wage at Wal-Mart.

Coffee growers in Columbia rarely receive more than 30¢ a pound for their coffee. And while some of us grumble about paying $3 a pound, many of us willingly pay $6.88 for a 12 oz package of Starbuck's ground coffee. For the past year and a half, our Annual Conference has been encouraging churches to intentionally purchase "Fair Trade Coffee," coffee that guarantees the grower $1.26 a pound and is available to us for $6.95. The truth is we prefer to push coffee farmers into pits along with Joseph.

(By the way, I use "Fair Trade Coffee" in my office. Stop by some time and see how good it tastes to help support Columbian farmers!)

Reuben was the oldest son. By tradition and by custom, he should inherit the mantle of authority from his father. But he thinks he knows the truth – his father was not the oldest and so he believes that in his family the oldest will not receive the blessing.

The truth is he WILL receive the blessing. So will Judah. So will Simeon and Asher and Levi.

You see, God made a promise to Abraham. And in faith, Abraham accepted and believed the promise to be true. It was a promise that was to last throughout time.

But with each generation, there was a crisis when it came time to pass the promise on. Abraham had a hard time passing it on to Isaac. Isaac had a hard time passing it on to Jacob. Now Jacob is having difficulty passing on his faith in God's promise to his children.

The same crisis of passing on the faith from one generation to another is a crisis that continues to be true in the church today. We have tried ways to address the crisis in the past – through Sunday School and Youth Groups and college ministries – but the crisis is an age-old crisis that must be faced by and dealt with in every generation.

In the case of Joseph and his brothers, the crisis seems to have come in the form of jealousy over who will inherit the promise. It's a jealousy that appears in many churches today – a jealousy over who will determine the shape and nature of the church's ministries or what kind of worship services will be held or how the pastor's time will be allocated.

Metaphorically Joseph's brothers were the ones in the pit. They thought there was no way out of their predicament. They saw Joseph as the favored son and sought a way to be included in the promise by denying Joseph access to it.

But they overlooked the possibility that all could inherit it. They didn't see how each one of the twelve brothers could play their own role in receiving the promise and passing on the faith.

No one of them will inherit God's promises. They will all inherit them or no one will inherit them.

And maybe that's the message we need to remember today.

The answer to the dilemma of Joseph's brothers does not need to result in Joseph being thrown into a pit or sold into slavery. The answer lies in the same place Jacob found an answer in our text from last week.

The answer lies in the promises of God and trusting God to provide the answer.

The miners in Pennsylvania almost lost hope when the sound of the drill stopped. They didn't know – nor could they know – that the bit had broken off. And as one observer noted, had the drill not broken the miners may have drowned when the waters were released.

The new drilling operation allowed more time for the water to be pumped out. And in the end, the longer wait was the safer route.

God was at work, whether they realized it or not.

When we cling to that promise, we can find ways to work with other people rather than against them. When we recognize that God is working in our midst, we can allow even the obnoxious "Joseph's" in our world – or in the church – to find their place as we find our own places and roles in the Kingdom of God.

Thanks be to God.

Amen.