Sermon Tone Analysis
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Introduction
The philosopher George Santayana famously wrote “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
To which the author Kurt Vonnegut replied, “I've got news for Mr. Santayana: we're doomed to repeat the past no matter what.
That's what it is to be alive.”
Frankly, both of these statements are a bit on the gloomy side.
But, sadly, they might both be true.
How many of us either remember, or know people who remember, where they were when Pearl Harbor was attacked?
How about when the World Trade Center in New York was attacked?
How many of us remember, or know people who remember, when President Kennedy was assassinated?
How about when President Reagan was almost assassinated?
How many of us remember, or know people who remember, the school shooting at Columbine?
How about the school shooting at Uvalde?
In every one of these events—except the shooting in Uvalde which is still fresh in our minds—we, as a nation, have vowed ins some form or another to never forget.
And while those directly impacted by these events have carried the memories of these events with them, the rest of us moved on.
The information may be retained our memory, but the lack of lasting impact would suggest we did not really remember.
And because we did not, and do not, remember, the substantive changes that we might make to better our lives never happen.
We never get beyond the sound bites of political actors who attempt to hijack tragedy as a means of advancing their own agenda.
This tendency of failing to remember and learn from the events that takes place is not confined to large-scale, national news making events: it is true in the smaller events that make up our individual lives as well.
If we were to look closely and think carefully, I am confident that we could all dredge up events in our lives that repeated themselves in some way.
Transition
Failing to remember and learn from the events that make up history is a problem that is likely as old as history itself.
We can see it play out in the book of Genesis, just as surely as we can see it play out in today’s newspaper.
Illumination
Joseph Seemed Forsaken
Joseph’s Background
In Genesis 37, we find the tragic story of a fractured family that saw sibling rivalry go so far that one sibling was actually sold to slavers.
That sibling was a man named Joseph.
In chapter 39, Moses reminds us, a couple times, that “The Lord was with Joseph”.
That is an important reminder because on the surface, it looked like maybe God didn’t remember Joseph.
he was sold as a slave to an Egyptian Bureaucrat named Potiphar
he worked his way up the ranks of slaves eventually becoming the head of the household.
He literally went from being a slave to being a servant.
It is an upgrade, but not one we aspire to
he was eventually falsely accused of a crime
he was innocent of the crime and everyone knew it, but he was still imprisoned: talk about injustice
he worked his way up the ranks of prisoners eventually becoming the head prisoner…but let’s face it, that is not something most of us aspire to be either
We get a pretty good picture of Joseph’s life as one of those important events kicks off:
Joseph was in the position to serve the imprisoned servants of the king:
The chief butler, literally cup-bearer, the guy primarily responsible for handing Pharaoh his cup after he sipped from it and didn’t die
the chief baker, literally the guy who baked stuff
Joseph’s Moment
But then, something important happened
In the Butler’s dream, there were three branches with grapes on them.
He took the grapes, pressed them into a cup and placed the cup in Pharaoh’s hand.
In the Baker’s dream, there were three baskets on his head having baked goods for Pharaoh and birds were eating out of the top basket.
In Joseph’s mind, the meanings of the dreams were clear because God gave him the ability to interpret dreams.
He told the men what their dreams meant.
in three days, the butler would be restored to his position
in three days, the baker would be hanged
Joseph’s Request: Remember me
Joseph Seemed Forgotten
And not just kind of.
Chapter 41 opens with the revelation that two full years elapsed before the next events.
Two full years of Joseph being in prison, forgotten by all.
Pausing the narrative here, it is a good time to ask a question.
What happens when we don't remember the significant events in our life or in our history?
Joseph had a particular skill set—not one that would qualify him for a Liam Neeson movie—it was a skill set that allowed him genuinely guide and help people.
Based on what he have already seen in the story, and looking a little ahead to what we know will happen in the story, there are some definite drawbacks to forgetting:
Victims lose their voice (Joseph)
Survivors lose their significance (butler)
Kings lose their counsel (pharaoh)
Visions lose their vitality (God)
Lands lose their leadership (people)
Some of these may seem a bit high-level but what has become clearly exemplified for all of us in the last year or so is that high-level leadership changes eventually—sometimes, suddenly—impact everyday-level life.
As long as Joseph languished in prison, his God-given skills were not truly helping anyone.
Joseph Seemed Foreordained
Fortunately, the story does not end there.
Pharaoh had a dream.
In Pharaoh’s dream 7 fat cows were eaten by 7 skinny cows and 7 plump heads of grain were consumed by 7 thin heads.
Strangely enough, no one knew what Pharaoh’s dream meant.
And then, the lightbulb moment...
Fortunately, Pharaoh was smart enough to care more about what Joseph could do than where Joseph currently was.
Conclusion
From there, a lot of good things happened for Joseph.
But a lot of good things happened for Egypt because of Joseph.
If you don’t know the proverbial rest of the story, read it when you get home.
All of the good things that happened, happened because the Butler remembered.
And he didn’t remember too late for good things to happen.
If he had forgotten for a few more years, the story would have been very different.
Application
It is Memorial Day tomorrow.
It is a day that we have set aside in order to say we remember.
Unfortunately, we really don’t.
Honestly, I’m not sure there is a way to fix that for 300 million people.
I’m most concerned about fixing it for a handful of people.
And I’m most concerned about fixing it relative to the events that make up our actual lives, not the events that we experience only through the news.
It is important that we pay enough attention to the events in our own lives that we notice them and remember them.
How many of us have regrets that we would prefer to forget that are only made worse by the fact that we repeat them instead?
Forgetting isn’t the answer; remembering is.
When we remember, we are able to proactively implement the lessons we have learned and take the actions we know we need to take in order to keep history from repeating itself in our lives.
If enough people did that, we could begin to make some bigger, societal changes.
But until that happens, we can better our own lives by simply remembering them enough to learn from them.
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