Reflection on the 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Today’s readings are interesting juxtapositions. The story of Joseph is of a family riddled with secrets and lies. Then the Gospel reading tells us that everything done in the dark will be shouted from the rooftops. However, I am not to be afraid because I am worth more than a bunch of birds. But then I am also warned that if I disown Jesus, I will be disowned before God. Yikes! Who can keep up? And what do these readings mean for us today? 

Let’s start with Joseph. He is the 11^th son of Jacob. The first six sons are the children of a woman named Leah. Jacob was tricked into marrying her, and he did not love her. Four of the sons are from two concubines and the final two, Joseph and Benjamin, are the children of Leah’s sister, Rebecca. Rebecca is Jacob’s true love. He works for years to be able to marry her. The brothers know that Joseph is Jacob’s favorite child. Jacob shows his favoritism in one of the most famous stories in the Bible, when he gives Joseph a coat of many colors. Joseph is a show-off and a know-it-all. His brothers hate him. When they are out in the desert tending their flocks, they hatch a plan to kill Joseph. But Reuben, the oldest, persuades them to not to do that, and they wind up selling Joseph to a passing band of Egyptian merchants. Then they put goat’s blood on the coat of many colors and tell Jacob that Joseph has been eaten by a predator. Joseph, after many trials and tribulations, becomes very powerful in the Egyptian government and eventually saves his brothers and their families from a famine that is wiping out everyone in Israel. There are many more twists and turns, with Joseph pulling his own stunts on his brothers and the brothers continuing to lie to their father. And why are these guys important? Because these lying, betraying, conniving people are the progenitors of the 12 tribes of Israel. Practically everyone in the Bible is descended from them, including Jesus. Of course, many of the stories in what we call the Old Testament, or the Hebrew testament, are about people who are deeply flawed. Cain the murderer, David the philanderer, Saul, the jealous vindictive King, and so on.  

When we dig down into these stories, what is at the root? It is the feeling of not being wanted, not being chosen. The sons of the not loved wife feel that they are rejected in favor of the son of a different woman. And what does the youngest child in a family often want more than anything, but to be loved and adored by their older siblings? But Joseph is despised and rejected by them. 

 As I read this story, I think of my own mother. She was the youngest of four, 15 years younger than her eldest brother. Her mother, my grandmother, had a nervous breakdown after my mother was born and my mother didn’t even have a name for six months. Her birth certificate says “Baby.”  Her parents were so surprised by this late pregnancy that they couldn’t even pick names. “Baby” lived with an uncle until my grandmother recovered enough to take care of her. And how did my mother know this? Because she was told, “You were an afterthought.” My mother grew up feeling unwanted, and when I was growing up, she worked hard to be accepted by neighbors and various volunteer efforts she engaged in. And she was — she was well liked and popular. So, when I told her I was a lesbian, she was furious. “What will people think?” was her first question to me. And she demanded, “We will not speak of this again.” It took me years to understand that her rejection of me came from her own deep hurt at being unwanted and her unexamined fear of facing that again from her friends. 

Just about every story in the Bible that involves one person betraying or rejecting another ends with the person who was rejected going on to reject someone else. 

Jesus is a great exception to this. Betrayed and rejected, he does not betray or reject. So, when he says basically, “Don’t be afraid. Everything will be shouted from the rooftops,” I don’t think he means the things we are ashamed of. He means all the times we behaved kindly, all the unseen times we went out of our way for someone or some cause. Jesus says that God monitors everything. God knows how many hairs we have on our heads. God cares about each sparrow. God sees us, knows us inside and out, and loves us. We are not rejected, and what we are asked to do is show that same grace to everyone around us. 

Jesus says, “Who disowns me before others, I will disown before God.” But who does he mean when he says “me?” Who acknowledges “me?” Who disowns “me?” Remember Jesus is very clear in another part of the Gospel, “If you did this to the least of these — the naked, the hungry, the prisoner – you did it to me.” 

When we are good and patient, when we deeply listen, when we accept each other, flaws and all, and when we forgive ourselves for all the ways we have fallen short, we break the pattern of rejecting. 

So, today, please shout from the rooftop of your own mind, “I am seen. I am known. I am loved. I have nothing to be afraid of.” And then shine that light on all those around you.