A pit with no water

Genesis 37:12-24

                I have no illusions that this blog is read by any right wing conservative types. I often think it is read, or at least glanced at, by hackers in eastern Europe. I pray that what I write will help a few, maybe just one person who struggles with being gay and also feels called by God to the close relationship, something he wishes from all his creations. So while I do not expect any one in the opposing camps to take the message for today to heart, it is none the less for everyone, gay, straight, left and right. It almost always is about those people  but I do not want my camp to think they are immune. I do not want gays and liberal democrats to think only the right conservative wingnuts are always wrong. Well, maybe most of the time.

              I see so many people that are willing to kill over differences in politics, religion and sex. Death to Fags, new laws in African countries overtly hostile to the gay people and newspapers that publish the names of the accused so that they will be easier targets to the torch wielding villagers. I say that sadly, only half of a bad joke.

             The other part of the world, and this goes for not simply gays but people who differ in a whole host of others ways, are merely tolerated. 'We wish them no malice' but yet they ignore, separate and in their hearts, condemn others. People can isolate others without overt actions. Hate can be very silent in nature but equally effective.

           This passage speaks about  what Joseph's brothers would do and eventually did. Some wished to kill him. Others said no and eventually they threw him in a pit with no water. Was this really better?  Both usually would result in death.  Speaking figuratively, how many people do we throw in isolation pits today?  'We wish you no malice' can be a death by isolation that we all use today, especially with those we don't like on the left, the right or whatever. Rather than listen to hearts and love one another, we write off people and isolate them - on both sides.

             While Joseph did not die, and the people we isolate today may not physically die either, we are called to be better than that. While there is hope for those of us who are isolated and hated by the silence of malignant hearts, wouldn't it be better if we did it God's way? Love thy neighbor? Listen with our two ears and be have converted hearts?

              Let us not throw any one aside. Pits and no water will never do.     

Now his brothers went to pasture their father’s flock near Shechem. And Israel said to Joseph, ‘Are not your brothers pasturing the flock at Shechem? Come, I will send you to them.’ He answered, ‘Here I am.’ So he said to him, ‘Go now, see if it is well with your brothers and with the flock; and bring word back to me.’ So he sent him from the valley of Hebron.

He came to Shechem, and a man found him wandering in the fields; the man asked him, ‘What are you seeking?’ ‘I am seeking my brothers,’ he said; ‘tell me, please, where they are pasturing the flock.’ The man said, ‘They have gone away, for I heard them say, “Let us go to Dothan.” ’ So Joseph went after his brothers, and found them at Dothan. They saw him from a distance, and before he came near to them, they conspired to kill him. They said to one another, ‘Here comes this dreamer. Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits; then we shall say that a wild animal has devoured him, and we shall see what will become of his dreams.’ But when Reuben heard it, he delivered him out of their hands, saying, ‘Let us not take his life.’ Reuben said to them, ‘Shed no blood; throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but lay no hand on him’—that he might rescue him out of their hand and restore him to his father. So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the long robe with sleeves that he wore; and they took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it.