William H. Willimon - "The Family" (August 30, 1992)

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	(single note of classical music)	0:03
	(paper rustling)	0:05
Preacher	Because we're at the beginning,	0:16
	let us begin at the beginning.	0:18
	In the Book of Genesis, in the Bible,	0:23
	Genesis's name means, in the beginning.	0:26
	And because we've been asked by Marilyn Quayle	0:31
	to talk about family values,	0:33
	(students laugh)	0:35
	let us start with a family story.	0:37
	It's a family story that we have	0:41
	as our scripture this morning.	0:44
	And that's important because a lot of you	0:48
	have had to leave your families	0:50
	in order to come here to Duke.	0:52
	And that pains some of you.	0:55
	It delights others.	0:56
	(students laughing)	0:58
	But we're going to talk about family.	0:59
	But it's not just any family	1:03
	because here is a family whose head	1:05
	is named Jacob or Israel.	1:07
	And so, here is a family story	1:09
	about our family in the faith.	1:11
	It's about Israel.	1:15
	It's about the family about	1:17
	how we got here in the beginning.	1:18
	And because it's a true story,	1:24
	it's also going to be a story about your family,	1:27
	a story of promise, of dreams,	1:32
	of tension and conflict within the family.	1:35
	Most of what we know of love we learn in the family.	1:40
	And most of the really long-term damage	1:45
	done to us is done in the family.	1:47
	And it's a story that's honest enough to talk about that.	1:51
	Actually, it would not have been that eventful a story.	1:58
	Just a story about another ordinary family	2:02
	headed by somebody named Jacob,	2:06
	Jacob and his 12 sons,	2:10
	had it not been for the appearance	2:12
	in this story of somebody named Joseph.	2:14
	Joseph, whose name means add, added on.	2:19
	Joseph was added on to this family	2:25
	late in his father's life.	2:27
	And this little addition changes everything.	2:32
	How many of you know from firsthand experience	2:34
	what it's like to have, mamma and daddy,	2:36
	the world kind of to yourself	2:41
	and then have somebody added on?	2:42
	After your mother's divorce,	2:46
	she comes home and says that she's gonna get married again.	2:48
	Then you got somebody, the stepfather, added on.	2:52
	Or your parents come home one day	2:56
	when you're 12 and say,	2:57
	"Guess what?	2:58
	"You're going to have a new little sister or brother."	2:59
	Be tough to get somebody added on.	3:05
	It invariably causes some conflict, some tension.	3:09
	Now, in this family, as Wade Huey once said	3:15
	from this pulpit on this text,	3:19
	in this family Jacob always	3:20
	brought his son's clothes at Kmart.	3:22
	And that's smart if you've got 12 sons	3:27
	to clothe for school and everything.	3:29
	But when it came time to buy clothes	3:33
	for little Joseph, little added on,	3:35
	he went straight to Neiman Marcus,	3:40
	to the designer shop at Neiman Marcus	3:42
	'cause nothing was too good for little Joseph.	3:46
	In fact, as the scripture says just right out,	3:49
	"Jacob loved Joseph more than all of his other children."	3:53
	I mean, what kind of family is this,	3:57
	with this sort of parental favoritism?	3:59
	But, look, you have a child when you're about 80 years old,	4:03
	you're gonna be proud of him.	4:08
	(students laughing)	4:10
	And so, Jacob goes down to the designer shop	4:11
	and he buys for little Joseph this coat	4:17
	of many colors, in the King James version.	4:22
	But I'm sorry to tell you, freshman start this out already,	4:25
	but a lot that they told you	4:28
	in Sunday school wasn't exactly right.	4:29
	No, the Hebrew word is not coat of many colors.	4:31
	It was a coat with long sleeves.	4:34
	It was along-sleeve coat that he bought little Joseph.	4:39
	It was a garment fit for a prince.	4:43
	Because it's not only a great present from a doting father,	4:46
	this father who loves little Joseph	4:50
	more than he loves his other boys,	4:52
	but that long-sleeve robe is also a sign for all to see	4:54
	that little Joseph is somehow better than everybody else.	5:00
	It set him apart from his brothers.	5:09
	Every time he strutted about in that long-sleeve robe	5:12
	it was a visible reminder to those brothers	5:18
	that somehow little Joseph was better than they.	5:22
	'Cause you see, those who worked out in the fields	5:27
	couldn't wear long-sleeve robes.	5:31
	No, they had to roll up their sleeves and go to work.	5:34
	You had to be royalty to wear a robe with long sleeves.	5:38
	And little Joseph wore his long-sleeve robe	5:47
	to do the only work he is reported to have done,	5:51
	and that is occasionally to be sent by his daddy	5:56
	out to the fields to spy on his older brothers	5:59
	to make sure they were working and then to run,	6:02
	long-sleeves flapping in the wind,	6:06
	fast as he could back to daddy to tell him,	6:09
	to tattle tale on his brothers.	6:11
	Can you blame the older brothers for hating	6:15
	little Joseph and that long-sleeve robe?	6:19
	Can you imagine what it's like to be out there	6:24
	sweating in the fields and see this little long-sleeve	6:26
	added on out there, come out there?	6:32
	A couple of summers ago, I stood before the doors	6:38
	of the Ufizzi Gallery in Florence	6:41
	and I watched American college students turn sadly away	6:45
	because they said they couldn't afford the entrance fee.	6:52
	And they stood by and they watched	6:58
	as Japanese and Spanish and Korean,	7:00
	other students marched into the gallery.	7:04
	It makes you feel kinda funny.	7:09
	And I noticed that it's been many years	7:13
	since expensive restaurants in Munich	7:15
	put signs on the window saying, "We speak English."	7:18
	Now, those expensive restaurants have waiters	7:23
	that are learning languages other than English.	7:27
	And, is there nobody here that felt	7:32
	even a tinge of resentment	7:35
	during the Gulf War as we watched	7:40
	our sons and daughters go over there	7:42
	to fight for the Amir of Kuwait,	7:45
	while other more prosperous nations sent checks	7:48
	rather than their own children?	7:53
	It's kinda odd to find ourselves here,	7:58
	at the end of the 20th century,	8:02
	to see little brother Joseph in his	8:05
	Mercedes or Lexus, long sleeves flapping in the wind.	8:10
	And we hate him for it, those long-sleeve robe.	8:17
	That long-sleeve robe caught up within itself	8:24
	all of the resentment that they felt towards Joseph,	8:28
	all of the pathology of a family that's not working,	8:35
	and a father who doesn't know how to love	8:40
	little brother Joseph without damaging the older brothers,	8:43
	and the natural resentment of siblings for this younger,	8:48
	favored little added on and that long-sleeved robe.	8:52
	Don't you just hate people in long-sleeve robes	9:00
	that stand up and kind of lord over everybody else?	9:03
	(students laughing)	9:06
	And would you look at mine.	9:14
	I've got an even prettier one in my closet	9:15
	and if you're lucky enough to graduate in a few years,	9:17
	I'll wear that long-sleeve robe for you at graduation,	9:20
	down in the football stadium.	9:24
	It's a lovely blue robe.	9:25
	It's got velvet and satin.	9:28
	I wear it with some degree of humility,	9:35
	but at the front of the procession.	9:39
	(students laughing)	9:42
	But unlike Joseph, you see, unlike Joseph,	9:46
	my robe is not a sign	9:52
	of some sort of patriarchal favoritism.	9:53
	No, I got my robe the old fashioned way.	9:56
	I earned my robe.	9:59
	Daddy did not give me that robe.	10:01
	So, if I am among the most favorite of the world,	10:04
	if my children go to bed with enough to eat at night,	10:07
	if we have a roof over our head,	10:09
	a place to sleep,	10:11
	if I don't have to greet another day	10:14
	by grubbing around the town garbage dump for food,	10:16
	it's because unlike Joseph, you see, I earned it.	10:22
	That makes a big difference.	10:27
	And on your day of Duke commencement,	10:31
	you will be able to stand up in your long-sleeve robe	10:33
	and you will be able to say,	10:37
	"I got my robe the old fashioned way.	10:40
	"I earned this robe.	10:43
	"Daddy did not give this robe to me.	10:44
	"I earned it.	10:46
	"I am not saved by grace."	10:48
	But there may be some older brother	10:55
	standing around that day,	10:57
	growling under his breath.	11:01
	You know, the older brother that you left behind	11:04
	in your hometown to work in the garage	11:06
	while you went on to do Duke.	11:08
	That older brother may say, "Wait a minute.	11:12
	"Daddy gave you that robe."	11:16
	All those teachers that struggled.	11:22
	You remember that teacher that stayed after class	11:26
	with you when everybody had gone,	11:28
	to help you work that thing through?	11:30
	You remember that coach that gave you that second chance	11:34
	even when you blew your first?	11:37
	You think of those parents	11:42
	that started saving and planning for you to go to college	11:44
	while you were still in diapers.	11:48
	No, in our better moments, we realize it's a lie.	11:52
	We didn't earn this robe.	11:55
	It was a gift, it was grace.	11:59
	Daddy gave us that robe.	12:01
	We got it the old fashioned way.	12:06
	But, I hate to tell you that Joseph	12:11
	did not wear his robe too well in the family.	12:13
	One day, Joseph came down for breakfast,	12:17
	sleeping in late as usual.	12:21
	His brothers were already there,	12:23
	getting ready for a day's work,	12:25
	bent down, slurping over their Corn Flakes.	12:26
	And little brother Joseph said,	12:30
	"I had the most interesting dream last night.	12:33
	"Would anybody here like to hear about my dream?"	12:35
	Silence from the slurping brothers.	12:39
	"Yes, it was an awfully interesting dream.	12:42
	"I dreamed that we were out in the fields	12:44
	"gathering wheat and we had our sheaths.	12:46
	"And your sheaths of wheat bowed down to mine."	12:48
	"Really?" said the brothers.	12:54
	"Yes, and then I had this dream.	12:57
	"I dreamed that there was the moon and the sun	12:58
	"and the stars and they were all bowing down to me."	13:00
	"Really?" said the brothers.	13:08
	And the story says if those brothers	13:15
	resented little Joseph because of that robe,	13:18
	they really hated him for his dreams.	13:21
	It was too much even for old Israel.	13:26
	"Really Joseph?	13:28
	"You really do go on sometimes, don't you?	13:29
	"Am I and your mother suppose to bow down to you?	13:33
	"If you're gonna strut your long-sleeve robe	13:40
	"in front of people, it's important to try to look humble	13:43
	"while you're doing it."	13:46
	Is it any wonder that a short time after this episode	13:49
	at breakfast when the older brothers were out	13:52
	sweating in the fields and they looked up	13:55
	and here came little brother Joseph with his robe,	13:57
	they looked up and they said, "Now, comes our chance"?	14:00
	"Now comes our chance to do away	14:04
	"with this dreamer and his dreams."	14:06
	It is the same biblical verse that is inscribed	14:13
	on the tomb of Martin Luther King in Atlanta.	14:15
	"Away with this dreamer and his insolent dreams."	14:21
	But then they thought better of it.	14:28
	And so, after throwing him in a pit when there were	14:30
	these Ishmaelite traders that came through,	14:32
	they pulled him out and they sold him into slavery in Egypt.	14:34
	And as they drove away on their camels, they said,	14:38
	"Let's see what'll become of little Joseph	14:41
	"when he's a slave in Egypt."	14:44
	And that long-sleeve robe,	14:48
	they smeared it in goat's blood	14:51
	and they took it back to the daddy.	14:54
	And they laid it before him and they said,	14:57
	"Gosh, Dad, guess what happened at work today?"	15:00
	(students laughing and gasping)	15:04
	And the story ends in pain with old Israel crying out	15:06
	to heaven for his presumed to be dead favorite son Joseph,	15:11
	the lies inflicted by those brothers on their old man.	15:16
	And thus, we end the first chapter of the Joseph story,	15:21
	with the brothers dumbly watching their father grieve	15:25
	and scream to heaven in torment	15:28
	and Joseph on his way to slavery in Egypt.	15:31
	The story invites us to ask,	15:36
	"Well, how is this family going to turn out?	15:38
	"What's going to happen now?"	15:41
	But we don't know.	15:43
	All we've got now is this deceit	15:44
	and resentment and violence and grief.	15:47
	And poor old Jacob crying to heaven	15:51
	for his slaughtered child.	15:54
	And there would be many other instances	15:58
	for Israel to cry to heaven for dead children.	16:00
	In the sermons of anti-Jewish preaching by Christians,	16:05
	in the vindictiveness of Martin Luther	16:10
	in the medieval pogroms in Europe,	16:12
	in the fires of Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen,	16:14
	Israel would have lots of experience	16:18
	weeping for his children.	16:21
	And it's a story about a dream,	16:27
	about dream of little added on,	16:29
	about something that's added on to the normal humdrum,	16:33
	ordinary course of family's life.	16:36
	Things might have gone quite uneventfully for this family	16:39
	if it hadn't been for little brother	16:42
	and his arrogant, pushy dreams.	16:43
	And it's a story about the resentment felt by those	16:48
	who do not dream, who seethe with envy and resentment,	16:51
	as upstart pushy little brother moves ahead of the line.	16:56
	And it's a story about killers of the dream,	17:03
	about people who refuse to make room for little brother.	17:08
	Well, I told you it was a family story,	17:14
	a story about your family and my family.	17:17
	It's about the human family.	17:22
	Some of you are here this morning	17:26
	because somebody gave you a nice, long-sleeved robe.	17:28
	You're gifted.	17:34
	And some of you are here this morning	17:38
	because you've got a dream.	17:39
	You've had a pushy, upstart dream	17:40
	and that's why you're here.	17:43
	And some of us sit here like the older brothers,	17:47
	as deniers of dreams,	17:49
	maybe even capable of killing little brother	17:53
	for dreams greater than our own.	17:57
	And some of us are here like Joseph,	18:01
	just full of dreams, but now stuck in Egypt,	18:04
	impatient for the next chapter of the story to take place.	18:08
	And we're left at the end of the story wondering,	18:15
	how is all of this gonna work out?	18:17
	Who's gonna work it out?	18:20
	Amid such family violence	18:23
	and family deceit and family grief,	18:25
	who's gonna work it out?	18:28
	We don't think Israel is gonna work it out.	18:29
	We don't think the older brothers are gonna work it out.	18:32
	Even Joseph will not work it out.	18:34
	Who will work it out?	18:36
	There is one who is never mentioned in this story,	18:41
	but who we suspects presence is there,	18:45
	darting behind the trees, waiting in the wings.	18:49
	We pray that He might have something	18:56
	in mind for this family,	18:58
	behind the family's sad life together.	19:01
	And so we end this story,	19:07
	having had a mirror held up to ourselves	19:10
	and then praying that Saint Paul maybe was right	19:14
	when he said, "We believe that despite everything,	19:19
	"God works together for good	19:25
	"with those who are called according to his purposes."	19:31
	Amen.	19:37
	(organ music)	19:42

Item Info

Title:

William H. Willimon - "The Family" (August 30, 1992)

Description:

Sermon start time: (Part 1) 0:16.
Retelling Joseph’s story of wearing the colorful garment that brought him jealousy from his brothers, the preacher indicates that though there are people who are gifted and favored and there are people who are in denial of other people’s talents, God works in all things and uses all things for the good of God’s purpose. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Key quotation: “There is one who is never mentioned in this story, but whose presence we suspect is there, darting behind the trees, waiting in the wings. We pray that He might have something in mind for this family, behind the family’s sad life together.”

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4c24r272

Date:

August 30, 1992

Speaker:

Willimon, William H.

Liturgical Calendar:

Biblical Book:

Genesis

Chapter and Verse:

Genesis 37

Subject:

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 CS-0607
ref9142_kns
uachapelsermaud
duke:320950
dcrau001417
ark:/87924/r4c24r272
bd234980-f53d-480f-925a-638cbd7672ba

Digital Collection:

Duke Chapel Recordings

Source Collection:

Duke University Chapel recordings, 1954-2005

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Language:

English

Location:

United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

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Provenance:

The Duke University Chapel Recordings were transferred to the Duke University Archives beginning in 1970.

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Limited Re-Use

CC BY-NC 4.0

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This recording may contain 3rd party materials, such as music or readings that are therefore not covered by the Creative Commons license indicated here. For more information see https://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/research/citations-and-permissions.

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William H. Willimon - "The Family" (August 30, 1992)

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1. William H. Willimon - "The Family" (August 30, 1992)

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William H. Willimon - "The Family" (August 30, 1992)

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