Reading:  Genesis 37:12-36 (Joseph, the favourite youngest son of Jacob -- also known as Israel, is sold by his eleven jealous and angry older brothers to some passing traders, who take him to Egypt where they in turn sell him as a slave to someone in the pharoah's court.)

What a terrible story! 

Out in a field where there are no witnesses, eleven brothers gang up on the twelfth, youngest brother.  They rough him up, strip him and throw him into a deep pit.  Ten of the eleven want to kill him right there.  One says no, not to go that far.  They solve their problem by selling their brother to passing traders, who take him to Egypt and sell him there as a slave to one of the pharoah's officials.

I'm glad I'm not having to teach this story to children in Sunday school.

Family jealousy and violence.  Slavery and international human trafficking.  A young man lost, his eleven brothers guilty, and their father broken in grief.
  
It sounds like a terrible story from the nightly news.  Or an episode of The Hunt with John Walsh, or Nightline.  Or The Fifth Estate.  And it goes on for 12 long chapters of pain and confusion before there is a "good" conclusion and God's good will is accomplished. 

My guess is that when I was taught this story as a child in Sunday school, the story was somewhat sanitized with the violence and pain toned down, the traders turned into serendipitous good guys, the evil and brutality of slavery glossed over, and the happy ending as well as a take-home lesson about learning to be a good rather than a bad brother all tacked on by the end of class.


But is there something in the non-sanitized version that offers a word of deep hope in the world as we know it?

Can we, like the ancient people of Israel, come to see the stories of our day -- as bad as they are, somehow gathered up in, and made part of the story of the kingdom of God being unveiled in our time?

What did those ancients in all their dark stories know about the good news of God and the kingdom of God on Earth, that would be good for us to know today?