JOSEPH 37:3-8, 26-34; 50:15-21

Commentary on Narrative Lectionary by Dennis Olson

The story of Joseph and his brothers in Genesis 37-50 is a story of jealousy and sibling rivalry...

... a story of dramatic changes of fortune, revenge and forgiveness, and God working behind the scenes to make good out of human suffering. The story touches on human realities that touch all of our lives, whether in families, congregations, or nations. 

Playing Favorites

The Joseph story begins with a familiar theme in the book of Genesis. In the ancient world, the oldest son was usually the one favored by parents. The eldest child would typically grow up to lead the family and inherit the largest share of the family resources. In Genesis, however, it is the younger child who is repeatedly favored over the elder (4:1-16; 17:20-21; 25:23-26; 29:16-18; 37:2-8; 48:1-22).

Joseph and Benjamin were two sons born to Jacob and Jacob's favored wife, Rachel (30:22-24); they were the youngest of Jacob's twelve sons. The story reports that Jacob [also known as Israel] loved Joseph "more than any other of his children" (37:3). To make matters worse, Jacob made his affection for the seventeen-year-old Joseph very public by giving Joseph a special "long robe with sleeves."  Not surprisingly, the other brothers "hated him" (verse 4). 

Dreams of Greatness, Feelings of Hatred

To add insult to injury, Joseph shares a dream with his brothers, implying that all of them would one day bow down to Joseph (37:5-8). Joseph has a second dream that reinforces the first one (37:9-11; see 50:18). Dreams were understood in the ancient world to be one way by which the divine realm could communicate with certain individuals.

Elsewhere in Genesis, Abraham, Abimelech, Laban and Jacob all received messages from God through a dream (15:12-16; 20:3-6; 28:10-22; 31:24; 46:1-4). Three dream sequences play an important role in the Joseph story (37:5-11; 40:5-23; 41:1-36). Each sequence has two paired dreams with similar messages, demonstrating that they are not random but divinely sent and reliable predictors of the future (41:32). The older brothers respond to their young brat of a brother: "they hated him even more" (37:8). 

The Brothers' Revenge: Murder or Slavery?

The older brothers first contemplate murdering young Joseph (37:19-20). The eldest brother Reuben (with a twinge of regret and responsibility to his father) steps in and convinces the other brothers not to kill Joseph but to throw him into a pit instead (37:21-24). Another brother Judah suggests that the best scenario would be to sell Joseph off to some caravan traders as a slave and the brothers could then pocket the money (37:26-28). Judah's plan is adopted. Joseph is sent off with traders on their way to Egypt. While in Egypt, Joseph will rise from a lowly slave and a prisoner to second-in-command of all Egypt next to Pharaoh (41:37-45).

The brothers cover up their deed of human trafficking into slavery by soaking Joseph's special coat with goat's blood and giving it to their father Jacob. Clothing works as a motif throughout the Joseph narrative, marking significant transitions in Joseph's life (37:3, 31-33; 39:12, 15-18; 41:14, 42). Jacob draws the conclusion (incorrectly) that Joseph has been attacked and killed by wild animals. Jacob is devastated and "mourned for his son many days" (37:34). Only many years later will Jacob learn that in fact Joseph is alive and well in Egypt. Jacob will eventually move all his sons and their families to join Joseph in Egypt during a time of worldwide famine (45:25-28; 46:28-30).

Joseph's Forgiveness of His Brothers

At the end of the Joseph story (50:15-21), Jacob the father dies. Joseph's brothers fear that the now powerful Joseph may take revenge upon his brothers who had sold him into slavery many years earlier (37:25-28). The brothers report to Joseph that their father Jacob had instructed them to urge Joseph to "forgive the crime of your brothers" (50:17). Joseph is touched by their words and weeps (50:17). Interestingly, Joseph may take the prize as the one person in all of Scripture who weeps the most; he seems to have developed a tender heart (42:24; 43:30; 45:2; 45:14-15; 46:29; 50:1). For the first time in the story, Joseph's brothers join in weeping with Joseph, evidence of their deep remorse for their earlier actions (50:18; see 44:16).

Joseph reassures his brothers and asks a rhetorical question: "Am I in the place of God?" Unlike Adam and Eve who desired to "become like God" (Genesis 3:5), Joseph does not presume to take over God's role as judge. Instead, Joseph offers his brothers forgiveness. Joseph looks over the struggles and difficulties of his life -- the threat of violence, slavery, and imprisonment. Joseph sees that through all the remarkable ups and downs of his life, God was with him: "Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good" (50:20).

It needs to be said that this response to tragedy may not be appropriate in every instance of human suffering. It is sometimes impossible for humans to understand what good could come out of certain experiences of intense suffering and loss (see the book of Job). Nor should such a response ("God meant it for good") be imposed upon a sufferer by someone else from the outside; it is a response that is best self-discovered by those who have suffered. Joseph sits in a secure place in his life and is able to look back and see in his long struggles the hand of a gracious and loving God (45:5-7).

Interrupting the Cycle of Violence in Genesis

The Joseph story has clear echoes back to the Cain and Abel story at the beginning of Genesis. Genesis 4 tells the story of one brother favored over another, the resulting jealousy, and the vengeful murder of one brother by another. At the end of Genesis, Joseph's life story offers an alternative possibility that interrupts the spiral of envy and violence that plagues humanity's story in Genesis (Genesis 4:8, 23; 6:11, 13; 12:12; 14:1-16; 20:11; 26:7; 27:41; 32:11; 34:2, 25-31; 37:18).

Beginning as a privileged, bratty seventeen-year-old, Joseph endured a long series of humiliations, struggles, threats, and injustices over his lifetime. Along the way Joseph developed empathy, humility, a tender heart, and, most of all, a deep faith and trust in God's guidance of his life over the long haul. Repeatedly, the story informs the reader: the LORD "was with Joseph" (39:2-3, 21, 23). It was the LORD who blessed Joseph and caused him to prosper in the midst of his difficulties (39:3, 5, 21, 23). Joseph came to know that what he accomplished was not his work but God working through him (41:16, 39; 45:8, 9). God took the evil that humans did and made it into something good and life-giving (45:5, 7; 50:20). Through it all, God molded Joseph into a new person who learned to forgive, to let go, and to work for life and not death.

ABRAHAM Genesis 15:1-6

Commentary on Narrative Lectionary by Dennis Olson
 

In Genesis 1-11, the LORD struggled with all humanity to redeem a sinful and violent world. Beginning in Genesis 12, the LORD tried a new approach.

God selected and focused on one unlikely family among all the families of humankind: the family of Abraham and Sarah.

Abram (the name later changed to Abraham -- Genesis 17:5) was 75 years old (Genesis 12:4), and his wife Sarai (later changed to Sarah -- 17:15) "was barren; she had no child" (11:30). God chose to focus special attention upon this elderly man and this barren woman. God promised this unpromising couple that they would become a "great nation" (12:2). The LORD would give them the land of Canaan (12:7), and descendants as numerous as the grains of dust on the earth (13:14-17). The LORD would bless them so that "in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed" (12:3).

Abraham, a Model of Unquestioning Faith?

The New Testament portrays Abraham as a model of faith (Romans 4:3; Galatians 3:6; James 2:23; Hebrews 11:8-11). But what was Abraham's faith like?  Unquestioning trust? Blind faith? Never complaining? Is that what biblical faith looks like?  Well, not exactly, if we take Genesis 15 as our example.

Faith Lesson #1: God Keeps Promising.

One consistent feature throughout all the stories of Abraham and Sarah is that the LORD keeps repeating the word of promise to them over and over again (Genesis 12:1-3, 7; 13:14-17; 17:1-8, 15-21; 18:10; 21:12-13; 22:15-18). Thus, God's promise in Genesis 15:1 is one of a long series of such reassuring promises, "Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great." The central task of preaching the gospel promise Sunday after Sunday has its Old Testament roots here. Keep announcing God's powerful words of promise over and over again.

Faith Lesson #2: Complaint and Lament are Part of the Life of Faith. 

Abram hears the promise but is not satisfied. He laments that God has given him no child, no biological offspring. So how can his reward be great and how can he become a great nation if he does not have even one child to carry on after him? This lament tradition runs wide and deep in the Old Testament in times when God's promises seem unfulfilled and remote (for example, numerous lament psalms like Psalm 13, 89; Lamentations; Job; Jeremiah 11:18-23; 12:1-6; 15:10-21; 17:14-18; 18:18-23; 20:7-18 and many other texts). 

The life of faith is a constant back and forth dialogue between God and us. God makes promises. We hope and trust. But we also get disappointed or impatient or desperate or angry when the promises don't seem to be coming true. Lament offers a way to keep our relationship with God alive in difficult times.

Faith Lesson #3: God Gives Us What We Need to Carry On.

The LORD reassures Abram that he will have his own biological child as his offspring. More than that, God takes Abram out into the night air and invites him "to count the stars if you are able to count them" (15:5). Is there a little divine humor here? Go on, count the billions upon billions of stars, if you think you can! "So shall your descendants be." God gives Abram the gift of a nightly visual aid, a tangible reminder of the promise. Every night, Abram can step outside his tent, raise his eyes to the galaxies, and be amazed that his descendants will be as numerous as all those uncountable stars.

Faith Lesson #4: There is a Complex Relationship of Faith and Works. 

Our text ends with one of the most important Old Testament texts for the New Testament and its discussion of the relationship of faith and works, the relationship of believing and obeying. The NRSV translates the verse as "he [Abram] believed the LORD, and the LORD reckoned it to him as righteousness" (Genesis 15:6).

The original Hebrew is somewhat more ambiguous, reading as follows: "he [Abram] believed the LORD, and he [the LORD or Abram?] reckoned it to him/for himself as righteousness." The most straightforward way of translating the Hebrew may suggest that Abram believed God's promises and then Abram [not the LORD] counted what the LORD had done as putting their relationship back into good order, into righteousness. Abram was now satisfied, given how the LORD had reaffirmed the promise.

This verse was translated from its original Hebrew into the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint) as "Abram believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness." The Greek translation takes some of the ambiguity of the Hebrew away and opens it up to the way in which the apostle Paul (Romans 4:3; Galatians 3:6) and the writer of the letter of James (2:23) use this verse to discuss the relationship of faith and works.  It was the LORD who reckoned Abram's faith as righteousness. 

Note how Paul and James use the same verse to come to somewhat different conclusions. For Paul, Abram's trust in God's promise and thus his righteousness before God in Genesis 15:6 comes sequentially before Abram obeys God's command to circumcise his household (Genesis 17:9-14, 23). For the apostle Paul, the sequence demonstrates that righteousness through faith in God's promises (Genesis 15) comes before and apart from works of obedience (Genesis 17). 

For James, one should read the whole Abraham story from beginning to end as one piece. James argues that righteousness by faith (Genesis 15:6) is always accompanied by works and obedience (Abraham's willingness to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice in Genesis 22). Same text in Genesis 15:6, but somewhat different conclusions!

Read the rest of Genesis 15 (verses 7-21) as further background for your sermon. Note that God makes another promise (this time, about the land of Canaan -- verse 7). Abram raises yet another objection (verse 8). God offers a dramatic and one-sided covenant ritual binding God to make good on God's promise, on pain of God being split in two like the animal carcasses through which the divine fire pot and smoke move (Gen 15:17; see Jeremiah 34:18).

Remarkably, God puts God's own self on the line as assurance that God's promises will indeed be fulfilled. That assurance will be important when God "tests" Abraham in Genesis 22 and asks him to give up his child Isaac who is the one link to the promises of God and Abraham's future.

People who meet Jesus (paralytic, tax collectors etc)

Commentary on Narrative Lectionary by Elisabeth Johnson

After a preaching tour in Galilee, Jesus returns to his home base in Capernaum, where he continues preaching, teaching, and healing.

He also comes into conflict with some Jewish religious leaders -- namely, the scribes and Pharisees.

Scribes were professionals trained in the interpretation of Jewish law. They are often mentioned in association with the Pharisees, who led a lay reform movement within Judaism. Concerned to preserve the Jewish faith and way of life in the midst of Roman occupation, the Pharisees took seriously God's calling of Israel to be "a priestly kingdom and a holy nation" (Exodus 19:6). They sought to renew the faith by applying biblical laws concerning ritual purity to all Jews (not only priests) and to all aspects of daily life (not only temple worship), with special attention to dietary laws and Sabbath observance.

While scribes and Pharisees valued debate about interpretation of the law, opinions were formed on the weight of precedent and tradition. Jesus troubles them because he speaks and acts on his own authority, without deference to tradition (1:22). He seems cavalier about law observance and simply makes pronouncements, claiming to speak and act for God. Thus they view him as a threat to the religious and social order.

Forgiveness, Healing, and Conflict

The first of Jesus' conflicts with the religious leaders is embedded in a healing story. Jesus is teaching in a home in Capernaum, and the place is packed, with no room even in the doorway (2:1-2). Four people come carrying a paralyzed man on a mat, trying to bring him to Jesus. Seeing no way to get through the crowd, they dig through the roof (probably thatch and mud) and lower their friend on the mat to Jesus (2:3-4). "When Jesus saw their faith," Mark tells us, "he said to the paralytic, 'Son, your sins are forgiven'" (2:5). We are told nothing about the faith of the paralyzed man; Jesus responds to the determined faith of this man's friends. He does not begin with physical healing, but first pronounces the man's sins forgiven.

Jesus' pronouncement does not sit well with the scribes, who begin "questioning in their hearts" and accusing Jesus of blasphemy. After all, "Who can forgive sins but God alone?" (2:7). In using the passive voice ("your sins are forgiven"), Jesus is essentially saying, "God forgives your sins." Yet the scribes are apparently troubled that Jesus declares the man forgiven without him going through the proper channels -- i.e., visiting the priests and offering appropriate sacrifices. Jesus simply declares him forgiven now, implicitly claiming to speak for God.

Blasphemy, or claiming what belongs to God alone, violates the law's all-important boundary between God and creation, and is so serious as to be punishable by death (Leviticus 24:15-16). Indeed, in the end, the charge of blasphemy will lead to Jesus' crucifixion (14:63-64).

What the scribes cannot see, of course, is that Jesus is authorized to speak and act on God's behalf. He is God's anointed, the Messiah, God's beloved Son (1:11). As a demonstration of his authority to forgive sins, Jesus tells the paralyzed man to stand up, take his mat and return home, which the man promptly does (2:10-12). Jesus demonstrates his power to bring both spiritual and physical wholeness, and the crowds respond by being amazed and glorifying God (2:12).

Eating with Sinners

Moving from the overcrowded house, Jesus goes out beside the sea to teach the crowds. Seeing a tax collector named Levi sitting at his tax booth, he simply says, "Follow me." Like the fishermen before him, Levi gets right up and follows (2:13-14).

Next we find Jesus and his disciples having dinner at Levi's house, along with many other tax collectors and sinners. "For there were many who followed him," Mark tells us (2:15). The term "sinners" in the Gospels generally refers to notorious sinners, those who show blatant disregard for God's law. Tax collectors were considered among the most notorious sinners and were particularly despised in Israel. They were viewed as collaborators with the Roman occupiers, who placed a heavy tax burden on the people. Because they dealt with Gentiles and Gentile money, they were considered unclean. They were also known to be greedy. They were assigned a region and a fixed sum to collect, and were allowed to collect as much additional money as they could for profit.

The "scribes of the Pharisees" (i.e., scribes associated with the Pharisees) appear again, keeping a wary eye on Jesus. They are scandalized by Jesus' behavior, for this meal in which he is partaking is certainly not kosher. Moreover, by eating with such folk, he may be seen to approve of their "lifestyle." So the scribes ask Jesus' disciples, "Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?" (2:16). Jesus overhears and responds to their question with a proverb, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick," and then a mission statement: "I have come to call not the righteous but sinners" (2:17).

While the scribes and Pharisees focus on separating themselves from sinners and keeping themselves ritually pure, Jesus shatters all boundaries between clean and unclean, righteous and sinners. He does so not just to be iconoclastic, but because that is the only way to heal the sick and bring back the lost.

Fasting and New Wine

Next a question arises about fasting. We are not told who the questioners are. The text simply says that "they" came and asked Jesus, "Why do John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?" (2:18). Jesus responds by telling them that it is not appropriate to fast at a wedding banquet in the presence of the bridegroom (2:19). Once again Jesus uses eschatological language. The time is fulfilled and reign of God has come near! This is a time for feasting!

At the same time there is a somber reminder that the bridegroom will be taken away, and there will again be a time of fasting (2:20). God's reign has not yet arrived in all its fullness. This is but "a foretaste of the feast to come."

Jesus continues his eschatological theme with metaphors of patches and wineskins. It will not work to put a patch of new, unshrunk cloth on an old cloak, or to put new wine in old wineskins. The patch will pull away and tear, and the old wineskins will burst. The old boundaries cannot contain the new reality of God's reign coming near in Jesus.

Shattering Boundaries

From the very beginning, Jesus' ministry shatters boundaries. He eats with the unclean, heals on the Sabbath, touches lepers, and even claims divine authority to forgive sins. God's invasion of this world in Jesus is resisted by those who hold power, those whose lives are dedicated to keeping boundaries intact. Yet for the leper who is cleansed, for the paralytic who is healed, for the sinner who is forgiven and welcomed to the table, God's invasion in Jesus is welcomed as a mission of liberation, healing, and life.

The preacher's challenge is to discern both the threat and the promise in these stories for those who hear them today. Jesus may very well be breaking down boundaries that we are desperately trying to hold in place. Yet this boundary-smashing Jesus is our only hope of deliverance from all that holds us captive.

The Genesis of Jesus

Commentary on Narrative Lectionary by Elisabeth Johnson

At the beginning of his genealogy (1:1) and at the beginning of his birth narrative (1:18), Matthew introduces what follows as the "genesis of Jesus the Messiah."

In the genealogy, the genesis speaks of Jesus' ancestral origins, establishing his royal lineage as a descendent of King David through his father Joseph. In the birth narrative, the genesis has to do with Jesus' divine origins, with the astounding truth that the child in Mary's womb is "from the Holy Spirit" (1:20). As the Spirit hovered over the waters at the beginning of creation (Genesis 1:1-2), so now the Spirit is initiating a new creation with this child.

Of course, God's way of launching this new creation brings complications for the human characters involved. Joseph is engaged to Mary, but they have not yet "come together." When Mary is found to be with child, a dilemma arises for Joseph. He does not yet know that the child is "from the Holy Spirit" and believes that she has been unfaithful, bringing dishonor to both their families. A betrothal was as legally binding as marriage and could only be ended by divorce. According to the law, Joseph had grounds not only to dismiss Mary, but even to have her stoned to death (Deuteronomy 22:13-30).

Righteousness (dikaiosune) is an important theme in Matthew. While righteousness includes law observance, it is not slavish adherence to the letter of the law. This becomes clear when Matthew tells us that Joseph, being a righteous (dikaios) man, was unwilling to expose Mary to public disgrace and "planned to dismiss her quietly" (1:19). Joseph, being righteous, has mercy and compassion toward Mary, and resolves to end their betrothal without submitting her to public humiliation.

Yet God has other plans. An angel appears to Joseph in a dream and tells him not to be afraid to take Mary as his wife, "for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit" (1:20). The angel further says that Mary will bear a son, and that Joseph is to name him Jesus (the Greek form of the Hebrew name Joshua, which means "he saves"), for "he will save his people from their sins" (1:21).

Matthew tells us that all this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken through the prophet, and quotes Isaiah 7:14 from the Septuagint: "Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel" (1:22-23). The Greek word parthenos (virgin) translates the Hebrew word 'almah (young woman). In the Greek translation of Isaiah, Matthew sees an apt description of what is happening with Mary, a virgin who has conceived and will bear a son. The name Emmanuel, meaning "God is with us," also highlights a central claim of Matthew's Gospel -- that Jesus bears God's saving presence among us.

When Joseph wakes up, he does exactly as instructed in his dream. He takes Mary as his wife, and when she bears a son, he names him Jesus, adopting him as his own and grafting him into his royal family tree (1:24-25).

Redefining Righteousness

Joseph, being righteous, risks disobedience to the letter of the law in order to respond to God's call. He risks shame and scandal by taking Mary as his wife and adopting her son as his own. He travels an uncertain path that challenges conventional notions of righteousness, just as his adopted son Jesus will do.

The righteousness taught and lived by Jesus in Matthew is not slavish adherence to the letter of the law, but faithfulness shaped by mercy. Over and over again, Jesus comes into conflict with religious leaders for breaking with their interpretation of the law. He is criticized for healing on the Sabbath, for not fasting enough, and for eating with tax collectors and sinners. His response? "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners" (9:12-13).

Jesus says that righteousness exceeding that of the scribes and Pharisees is necessary for the kingdom of heaven (5:20). The righteousness he teaches goes beyond what the letter of the law demands and sometimes even overturns it. Instead of demanding an eye for an eye or a tooth for a tooth, for instance, Jesus exhorts his followers to turn the other cheek and to love their enemies (5:38-48). Jesus not only teaches these words but lives them -- suffering hatred, rejection, and violence, and responding only with love.

Jesus embodies God's over-and-above-and-beyond righteousness, righteousness that shatters the letter of the law and will stop at nothing to save us from sin and death. He enacts God's gracious will to heal and restore a broken creation, to bring about a new creation shaped by justice, mercy, and love.

God With Us

A preacher might help hearers imagine how, through Jesus the Messiah, God is at work to renew and restore lives today, even in unexpected ways. A personal or communal crisis, for instance, may bring us to new clarity about faithfulness to God's call, as it did for Joseph. We may be led to rethink long-held rules and traditions that obstruct mercy and no longer serve God's purposes. We may be called outside our comfort zones and led down uncertain paths for the sake of God's mission.

Are we ready for the risks involved? We may be subject to criticism and even hostility when God's mercy moves us -- when, for instance, we risk reaching out to those on the margins. But then we are in good company, for Jesus was called "a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners" (11:19). This Jesus, friend of sinners, is Emmanuel, "God with us" to heal and to save. What better company could there possibly be?

Isaiah 50:4-9a

Commentary on First Reading by Anathea Portier-Young

"I know that I shall not be put to shame" (Isaiah 50:7 NRSV).

The preacher receives a place of honor during worship. Some of us sit on a special chair, on a raised platform, and when we stand to proclaim the word we step up higher still. We wear special garments that mark and separate us, some richly decorated with quilting, lace, or embroidery. And when we preach, despite our fears to the contrary, people listen, and their eyes look up at us in wonder and admiration. The more confidently we declaim, the more they praise our skill. Preachers are wealthy stakeholders in the economy of honor and shame.

Shame is not simply a personal response to feelings of guilt or impropriety. It is a cultural phenomenon. It is a mechanism of social control that shapes behaviors and inculcates values.

"I gave my back to those who struck me" (Isaiah 50:6 NRSV).

Beating someone's back in public is a performance of domination. The audience sees the face of the one beating and the face of the one beaten. They see one person standing, head up, legs wide and steady, arm raised in power, beating. They see another person bent, restrained, body contracting and shivering, beaten. An act of public beating claims power, high status, and honor for the one who can inflict such pain, who can force another person to feel what they never want to feel, and to feel it publicly, irrefutably. It assigns low status to the one being beaten, aiming through public shame to deter this person and anyone who views the humiliation and pain from defying the will of those in power.

Sometimes acts of shaming are not so physically brutal. Physical pain is not the only form of power. Every community knows ways to attack a person without leaving visible scars on their bodies.

"... my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard" (Isaiah 50:6 NRSV).

In a culture where the currency of honor is closely tied to gender, such that masculinity is associated with honor and femininity with shame and dishonor, it is common to assail a man's honor by denying or questioning his manhood (cf. Nahum 3:13: "look at your troops, they are women" NRSV). This can be accomplished by removing or marring visible signs that distinguish a man from a woman. One such sign is a beard.

Second Samuel relates a story in which David sent messengers to offer condolences to Hanun, a neighboring king, at the death of his father. Hanun doubted David's sincerity; Hanun's advisers suggested that the messengers were really spies. Hanun shamed David's messengers by shaving off one side of their beards and cutting their garments at the hips before sending them back on the road to Jerusalem. They were disgraced (niklamim). When David learned of it, he told his messengers to get off the road and stay in Jericho until their beards had grown back (2 Samuel 10:1-5).

"I did not hide my face from insult and spitting" (Isaiah 50:6 NRSV).

Most in the community will not have license to beat the back or pull the beard of one who has violated their norms or challenged their values. But they can open their mouths and let fly words and spit. These forms of shaming are easy to perform and easy to get away with. They direct verbal and physical expressions of rejection and disgust to the person who has violated social norms and values. Spit sticks. So do words. Being assaulted by these expressions of disgust and rejection can trigger the desire to hide, to become invisible.¹

Beating, pulling the beard, insulting, and spitting cause shame when the person to whom these things are being done accepts that she or he has violated shared values and norms. But they are not the only values, and not the only norms. The prophet insists, "I have not been disgraced (niklamti)" (Isaiah 50:7 NRSV).

Many of us will never be beaten or spit at for preaching the gospel. But all of us inhabit a social economy of honor and shame. And not only shame but also honor can be a mechanism of social control.

In the court of honor and shame, those who are shamed are silenced or silence themselves.² Those who receive honor appear to speak freely but do not -- honor is a prize for conformity. Isaiah's prophet stands and speaks in a different courtroom where the prophet is neither honored nor shamed. The prophet does not accept the values of the community or conform to social norms, not for the sake of status and not even for the sake of safety and health.

And so Isaiah's prophet does not assume the high status of a teacher in the community (pace NRSV, 50:4). Instead God gives the prophet the tongue of students (limmudîm) and opens the prophet's ear to listen like students (limmudîm) do. There is neither honor nor shame in possessing the faculties of a student. Instead, students know that they are still learning. They know that the mysteries of heaven and earth, our life with one another, and our life with God are still unfolding before them.

What will it mean for us to preach the word of God with the tongue of students, listen like students do, and still stand up to testify confident in God's help? What would it mean for us to perceive, examine, and refuse the economy of honor and shame that operates even in our churches? Let us stand up together (50:8) and make the case.

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¹Michael Lewis, Shame: The Exposed Self (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992), 2.
²Stephen Pattison, Shame: Theory, Therapy, Theology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 41.