Telling the story of who you are

James Cathcart August 20, 2017 0 0

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Genesis 45: 1-15

1 Then Joseph could no longer control himself before all those who stood by him, and he cried out, ‘Send everyone away from me.’ So no one stayed with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers. 2 And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard it. 3 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.

4 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. 5 And now do not be distressed, or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life. 6 For the famine has been in the land these two years; and there are five more years in which there will be neither ploughing nor harvest. 7 God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. 8 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. 9 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. 10 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. 11 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.” 12 And now your eyes and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see that it is my own mouth that speaks to you. 13 You must tell my father how greatly I am honoured in Egypt, and all that you have seen. Hurry and bring my father down here.’ 14 Then he fell upon his brother Benjamin’s neck and wept, while Benjamin wept upon his neck. 15 And he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them; and after that his brothers talked with him.

The featured diarist for this week, the iconic revolutionary Che Guevara, was a bit like Joseph in the Old Testament. Both started out as idealistic young dreamers, drifting along, before the twists and turns of life transformed them into driven and dynamic political actors. Before becoming the iconic political figure, Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara was a sensitive medical student, who went on a journey through South America with his dear friend and a beat up old motorbike ‘La Poderosa II’ (somewhat ironically for the crash-prone beast, ‘the mighty one’).

His journal of this trip, undertaken 1951/52 is known as ‘The Motorcycle Diaries’ and captures a young man’s political and ideological awakening as he crosses borders and familiarises himself with the plight of the poor, marginalised and oppressed. Guevara’s daughter, Aleisa Guevara March, says in the introduction: ’Slowly we see how his dreams and ambitions changed. He grew increasingly aware of the pain of many others and he allowed it to become part of himself.’

In a similar way, the events of Joseph’s life - the hardship, adventure, encounters with different cultures, changed and shaped who he was. In both cases then men are affected by their experience but do not become jaded or disillusioned. In verses 14 and 15 of today’s reading we see Joseph openly weeping with his brothers. His experiences - rather than making him bitter, have brought him closer to his own emotions, his family, and the plight of the hungry.

Joseph allowed the pain of others, of his people, of the land he was staying in, of his family to become part of himself. Joseph and Che were both flawed men, but they were not hardened and shut off from the world, they took the pain they saw around them and they engaged with it. 

In life we don’t have a choice about whether things affect us, and we only have a small amount of influence on how they affect us. Life is an ongoing process of transformation that never stands still. Humans have an extraordinary, God given gift, to draw lines of narrative, and through our lives we learn and relearn how to tell the story of who we are. Joseph and Che were both men who took the opportunity to include the pain and plight of others into their own story, to engage with the world rather than retreat from it. Journalling is one way to help this process. It can give us an opportunity to reacquaint ourselves with our experiences, our pain, the pain of others and form a narrative that holds it together.

Dear God,

Help us to be aware of the pain of others,

and ourselves,

and to write it into our story -

to stand with

and share with

and meet eyes with

those who suffer.

Amen.