Seventh Sunday after the Epiphany (C), February 20, 2022—Genesis 45:3–11, 15

 

 

Marc Chagall: Joseph Recognized by his Brothers (1958)

 

This Love We’re Still Announcing

 

I want to know the brothers’ words,

Their groveling apologies;

I want to read just how they felt,

Their deepest guilt psychologies;

I wonder what effect their deeds

Had on lifetime pathologies

Of Joseph and those brothers, grim

At such revealed chronology!

The text, however, doesn’t care

About such modern ponderings;

But rather offers us the choice

To be in awe, and wondering

About the grace this ancient God

Sent to a nation forming,

That it be known by even us,

And lead to our transforming.

 

Scott L. Barton

 

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.

 

 

Lectionary Poems, Year C: Even More Surprising Grace for Pulpit and Pew, which has all these poems for the year, 150 of them, including seven new hymn texts, with two indices of scriptural references and titles, is available from Wipf and Stock, Amazon, or, the least expensive, from me, signed and inscribed, for only $11 (which includes tax) and $3.19 postage. Check or Venmo. Write me at scott.l.barton[at sign]gmail[dot com]!  —S.L.B.