Today is the 4^th of July. It’s only every so often that we are able to celebrate July 4^th on a Sunday. Now everyone in here knows the reason why we celebrate July 4^th, right? Well, apparently there is a very large number of Americans who have no idea what exactly we are celebrating on July 4^th. Let’s watch this video where random American’s were asked this very question: what exactly happened on July 4^th.

Just to be clear, July 4^th is the day we celebrated the signing of the Declaration of Independence. On this day in 1776, we signed a document that would eventually make its way to King George III and would result in the Revolutionary War where the American colonists fought against the British army to create a nation that was no longer subject to the governance of the British monarchy. Interestingly, this moment would influence the American idea of freedom and independence from that point forward.

When the United States became an independent nation, we established a bill of rights (which are the first 10 amendments to the Constitution). James Madison wrote these amendments in response to calls from several states for greater constitutional protection of individual liberties. This was a unique moment, because, up until this point in history, no other country had gone to such great lengths to define the freedoms of the individual and specifically restrict governmental power.

The bill of rights was a signal to the rest of the world that the United States was going to be a different kind of country where freedom is the highest ideal. Of course, when the constitution was first written, this did not apply equally to all the people occupying the United States. The bill of rights applied primarily to white men who owned property. It didn’t apply to Native American tribes, who were here long before we arrived. It didn’t apply to women. And it certainly didn’t apply to African slaves who were being kidnapped and shipped over to the United States by the thousands.

But the principle of freedom, which was woven into the very fabric of our country, is the same principle that has inspired every generation to ask the question: Is America living up to its promise? Each generation has had to ask that question in different ways and about different groups of people. Because here’s the interesting thing about freedom—you’ve never fully achieved it. Freedom is always a moving target because, just when you think you have it nailed down, humans find another way to discriminate against each other.

If it’s not about your race, it’s about your gender. If it’s not about your gender, it’s about your sexual orientation. If it’s not about your sexual orientation, it’s about your nationality. If it’s not about your nationality, it’s about your religion. Humans are pros at finding any and every reason for why one group of people is better than another. But in my opinion, what makes America a great country is that we have the ability to constantly readjust our definition of freedom and change our laws to reflect those evolving norms.

But this principle of freedom began on July 4^th, 1776. Our declaration of independence from the British monarchy would set the stage for how we thought about our independence as individual citizens of this country. Every person should be free to pursue life, liberty and happiness, which brings me to our life philosophy that was sent to me by Larry Tidrick.

Larry, rather than give me his own philosophy, sent me a quote from Ayn Rand, the author and thinker who established the intellectual foundation for Libertarian thinking. The quote goes like this: “The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me. I swear, by my life and my love of it, that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine. The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities.”

If you know anything about Ayn Rand, you are probably aware that she was originally from Russia. Her given name was Alisa Rosenbaum. Alisa was born in St. Petersburg on February 2, 1905, to a Russian-Jewish family. Her father was a successful pharmacist who provided a good life for his family. Alisa was a precocious young girl who started writing screenplays at the age of eight and novels at the age of ten. She also developed an intense interest in politics.

Alisa was twelve years old when the Russian Revolution of 1917 took place. After Vladimir Lenin came to power, her father’s business collapsed, disrupting the prosperity her family had enjoyed. Alisa’s family faced desperate conditions. They were often on the brink of starvation. This experience would influence Alisa’s thinking from that point forward where she developed an intense acrimony towards socialist thinking and governments.

Wanting to become a writer, she adopted the name Ayn Rand. Ayn was derived from the Hebrew word עין (ayin, meaning “eye”) and Rand was a derivation of the Cyrillic version of her birth name. In 1926, Rand had the opportunity to visit America for the first time to visit relatives in Chicago. When she arrived in New York City, she was so impressed with the Manhattan skyline that she cried. She decided she did not want to return to Russia and moved out to Hollywood to become a screenwriter. Rand would work on many screenplays, but her defining literary contributions would be two novels—the Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged.

At the core of these novels was a sense that the freedom of the individual is paramount. Her belief was that humans should be able to live in whatever manner they choose with as little government oversight as possible. This, of course, is the result of living in Russia where the government intervened in every aspect of a person’s life. Her political and life philosophy ricocheted to the opposite extreme. Perhaps the most critical element that defined Rand’s philosophy is the principle of free market economics where a person’s financial success or failure should always rest on their shoulders.

In her mind, the best way to make the most productive, hard-working citizens is to give them nothing. It’s very much a survival of the fittest mentality. You either have what it takes to survive or you will perish. Her belief was that, if you take away all the safety nets from an individual, most people, under those circumstances, will step up and figure out a way to survive.

A good example of this is found in our scripture reading from Genesis. So let’s do a quick recap of Joseph’s story. Joseph is one of the sons of Jacob. Joseph is hated by his brothers because he was super arrogant and the most loved of all their father’s children. This animosity results in Joseph’s brothers selling him into slavery. Joseph is transported to Egypt where he is sold into the house of Potiphar. Potiphar is the captain of the guard, which means he is probably the person who oversees Pharaoh’s personal security detail.

Because Joseph is such a good looking fellow, he attracts the attention of Potiphar’s wife who wants to have an affair with him. Day after day she pursues Joseph until one day she corners him. When she grabs for Joseph’s clothes he is forced to run away, but she tears his tunic from his body. Unable to explain how Joseph’s clothes came into her possession, she accuses Joseph of attempting to rape her. Potiphar sends Joseph to prison.

While in prison, Joseph becomes friendly with the chief jailor who puts Joseph in charge of all the prisoners because everything Joseph puts his hands on seems to prosper. Eventually, two prisoners from Pharaoh’s court end up in prison with Joseph: Pharaoh’s chief baker and cup bearer. They each have a dream, but neither of them know anyone who can interpret it for them. Of course, dream interpretation just happens to be Joseph’s area of expertise and he is able to predict the future for the two men – Pharaoh will restore the cup bearer to his position and hang the chief baker.

Even though Joseph’s predictions comes true, the cup bearer forgets about Joseph until two years later when Pharaoh has a dream that none of his advisors are able interpret. Pharaoh’s cupbearer remembers Joseph from their time together in prison, which results in Pharaoh bringing Joseph out of prison to interpret the dreams. The interpretation is that there will be seven years of plenty and seven years of famine.

Joseph then advises Pharaoh to appoint someone to strategically store up grain during the years of plenty so that the population will be able to survive during the years of famine. Pharaoh appoints Joseph to this position. When Joseph rises from slave to savior in one fail swoop, we see how he has done exactly what Ayn Rand talked about. He was in a very bad situation where he was backed into a corner and used his talents, tenacity and grit to put him in a successful position. This would be the epitome of Ayn Rand’s philosophy.

That being said, the question we have to ask ourselves is whether this is the way the authors intended for Joseph’s story to be interpreted. Our culture, particularly Western culture, is highly individualistic. What this means is, when we hear a story, we have a tendency to focus on the hero. Now in Joseph’s story, the primary person on whom we focus is Joseph. And that makes sense, right? It’s his story and we’re rooting for him to succeed. But is Joseph truly the focus of the story?

We tend to read the Bible assuming that the authors of these stories intended for us to focus on the main character, like Joseph. But that’s actually not true. You have to realize that the authors of the stories in the Bible lived at a time when individualism wasn’t nearly as important as the community. At the time the Bible was written, everyone lived in close tight-knit communities. You couldn’t just strike out on your own and make it. The world was simply too harsh. You needed these people to survive.

Therefore, when the ancients heard the story of Joseph, the payoff was not the individual accomplishments of Joseph, but rather, how his accomplishments impacted the community he was serving. We have to remember that the reason why Joseph became the second most powerful man in Egypt was because he had a plan to store up grain so the population could survive during the years of famine, including his family, who would have died from starvation had he not come to power.

In other words, we’re putting the emphasis in the wrong place. When Joseph saved everyone by storing up grain, the point of the story wasn’t to emphasize how great Joseph was as an individual, but how God used Joseph to save the Israelites. It was the effects of the individual on the community that mattered far more than that individual’s achievements. This is why sacrificing for your community (which is exactly what we talk about with Jesus) is such a central theme throughout the Bible. When you’re willing to sacrifice for the benefit of the community, you make the world a better place for everyone.

Joseph’s story highlights a bit of a deficit in Ayn Rand’s philosophy. Yes, I would agree that when the government strips the individual of their freedoms and determines the outcome of their lives for them, this is an oppressive situation. But going to the other extreme, where all that matters is the individual, is not good either. Hyper individualism produces a morality where you are only driven by what benefits you personally and when you are never thinking of the larger community, then the results can be equally as catastrophic to our society.

When we only care about ourselves, then sacrificing for the greater good is out of the question. And the truth is, not everybody is as self-sufficient as Ayn Rand. For those who have the tenacity, resourcefulness and wherewithal to forge through a world defined by survival of the fittest, they will do well. But these people are the exception, not the rule. Humans evolved out of a place of shared community responsibility. It’s built into our DNA. What this means is that most people are not capable of navigating life without any social supports.

Therefore, the Bible promotes a philosophy that is a middle ground. The Bible promotes the idea that individual leaders, like Joseph, should care for the greater good of the community. This allows the individuals who have the capacity to care for themselves to do so, while the larger community benefits from the support system. Joseph is a great example of this because he proves how it’s important to be self-sufficient, but also what it means to care for your community.

And that is our goal at this church. We are here to help you to become the best individual Christian you can be. We want you to become the person who God intended for you to be. But, at the same time, we want you to contribute your gifts to this community. We want you to be a support to those who are struggling and we want you to feel supported when you can no longer go it alone. We are here for each other in the best of times, the worst of times, and, most importantly, we never abandon our own. Amen.