Wanderings for the week of November 10-16, 2008

Happy Weekend everyone. This Sunday we are reading Genesis 37:1-36- the tale of how Joseph was attacked by his brothers and sold into slavery. Today I wish to focus on just one verse: 37:25 "Then they sat down to eat..." That verse chills me to the bones. Joseph's brothers are so full of hate/jealousy for their baby brother that they strip him of his robe (for me this is almost a rape scene), then cast him down into a dark, waterless well, where he is screaming and pleading for his life...and they sit down to eat. What kind of sick, twisted act of communion is this? How can anyone eat a meal after doing such grave injustice, while hearing another person, much less their own brother, crying out for help. How have the son's of Israel sunken so low? It makes me think of an article in the GR Press that showed photos of the Auschwitz guards at rest, singing and laughing and even sharing a meal, meanwhile they are right next to where the gas chambers are running at "full tilt." The cruelty of humanity is a horrifying thing, but if there was to be any solace, is a quote from Alice Walker who says the unimaginable suffering that humans invoke upon one another is matched and perhaps even bettered by by the sheer gentleness/kindness also found in humanity. With these thoughts I will let us go, and invite us all to think about what our responses has been to those in pain, especially the pain that we caused ourselves. May Christ be made known to you today not only in the face of others, but in the face you see in the mirror as well. Peace, Pastor G