Signet Ring - Signature of Human Integrity

(#5 in the series, “Try THIS on for Size!”)

And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “See, I have set you over all the land of Egypt.”

Removing his signet ring from his hand, Pharaoh put it on Joseph’s hand.

He arrayed him in garments of fine linen, and put a gold chain around his neck.

He had him ride in the chariot of his second-in-command; and they cried out in front

of him, “Bow the knee!”  Thus he set Joseph over all the land of Egypt.

(Genesis 41:41-43)

A sermon by Siegfried S. Johnson on the Seventh Sunday of Easter, May 20, 2007

It’s time for another Sunday climb into the attic of our faith, each trip an adventure pulling from the bible, as if it were a trunk of old clothing, another treasure of instruction and inspiration.  Like a child exploring the clothing worn by parents and grandparents, these items may seem peculiar, yet as we Try Them On For Size we find ourselves transported into the past.  Re-living  their stories, we discover that these are OUR stories as well, each a segment of the quilt which makes up our own spiritual history. 

Life is an affair of putting on clothing.  Born into a shower of diapers, booties, and blankets, we begin our journey, a journey on which we wear the uniforms (whether of recreation or occupation) that form our self-definition.  Our clothing says something about how we see ourselves and how we wish to be seen by others.  This series is intended to help us understand ourselves, to heighten our awareness of our own spiritual history.  In short, our clothing challenges us to remember who we are. 

This morning we discover a treasure, indeed, the ring and gold chain given to Joseph by Pharaoh.

The ring is called a signet ring, because it bears the signature of Pharaoh himself.  “Removing his signet ring from his hand, Pharaoh put it on Joseph’s hand.”  The word signet derives from the Latin, signum.  In this Latin root we see in our words, sign and signature.  When you sign your name to a document, when you affix your signature, it is not merely your name which in ink you place on the document, but it is your honor, your character, your Self.

Pharaoh, finding worthiness in Joseph, was willing to invest Joseph with the authority to speak and act for Pharaoh.  Elevated to second in command in Egypt, Joseph owned the complete trust of Pharaoh.  The signet ring completed the rise of Joseph to prominence, this one who had been sold into slavery by his brothers, then unjustly accused by the wife of an Egyptian official and sentenced to prison.  To mark his confidence in Joseph, Pharaoh arranged a clothing ceremony, an investiture of power symbolized by his signet ring.  This is no act of ceremony and formality lacking substance.  This ring gave Joseph the power to use the signature of Pharaoh.  In ancient times, policy-making authority was signaled in the possession of the monarch’s signet ring, in the same way that a government office today might press a seal bearing the authority and sanction of the state.

The signet ring presupposed such honor that the presence of the king was not needed.  Joseph could act in the absence of his king.  Because this was so, the one wearing the ring was expected to possess integrity, thus, our title, Signet Ring: Signature of Integrity. 

The back page of this sermon gives an excellent example of a signet device (a necklace, in this case, rather than a ring, but the same function) from ancient Israel, a piece measuring one inch tall and 2/3 inch wide which was used to stamp official documents during the reign of Hoshea from 732 to 722 B. C., the last Israelite king before the plundering of the country by Sennacherib the Assyrian.  The signet necklace inscription reads, “Belonging to Abdi, servant of Hoshea.”  Servant means something like we might say, Secretary of State (a high ranking official bearing the king’s authority).  This signet necklace, then, brings us into the royal court of Hoshea.

If the signet ring is to be a sign of integrity, then it is to be expected that there will be occasions in which there are breaches of honor, both in ancient times and in modern times.  In fact, of the four Old Testament passages which speak of the signet ring, all the stories (except Joseph’s) are remembered and told because of the dishonor and shame of the one wearing the ring.  

The first involves Joseph’s brother, Judah, a story told in Genesis 38.  Judah’s son married a woman named Tamar.  When his son died without having a child, tribal custom called for any unmarried brother to marry his deceased brother’s widow – a cultural phenomenon called Kinsman Redeemer.  The Kinsman Redeemer was to “raise seed to his dead brother’s wife.”  So Judah’s second son married Tamar, and he died also.  Though Judah had another son, he declined to allow him to marry Tamar.  After a time, Tamar dressed in a veil and posed as a prostitute to entrap Judah, her father-in-law.  Not knowing who she was, he went in to her, promising her some his livestock as payment.  She demanded his signet ring as a pledge of his payment, and promptly disappeared.  It was an ancient version of identity theft – the signet ring being both credit card and social security number.  When Tamar’s pregnancy began to show, Judah was enraged with his daughter-in-law’s sin, pledging judgment.  That’s when Tamar produced the signet ring and said, “I am pregnant by the man who owns this.”  Judah had signed his signature to the confession of his dishonor.

The next passage tells of the abuse of governmental authority, the story of Jezebel’s (1 Kings 21) possession of Naboth’s vineyard in the Jezreel Valley.  King Ahab, craving to add the vineyard to his royal lands, met Naboth’s refusal with a seething anger which the bible calls pouting.   Not so Queen Jezebel, who leads Ahab to governmental abuse of power.  She takes Ahab’s signet ring and affixes his official seal on a document commanding the courts to manufacture false evidence about Naboth.  Following Naboth’s unjust execution, Ahab and Jezebel win the vineyard, but God’s wrath burns for their lack of integrity. 

The last passage is Esther, where the king of the Medes and Persians, Ahasuerus (Xerxes I), offers his signet ring to Haman, one he thinks has honor.  But Haman is a villain, an ancient Hitler who wants to use the ring’s authority to destroy the Jews.  Ultimately, through Queen Esther’s intervention, Haman’s deception is unmasked, and the signet ring is given to a Jew named Mordecai, Haman’s arch-enemy.  The fortunes of the Jews are turned, and in what is perhaps the most famous verse from Esther, “They hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai” (7:10).  “Then the king took off his signet ring which he had taken from Haman, and gave it to Mordecai . . . you may write as you please in regard to the Jews in the name of the king, and seal it with the king’s ring; for an edict written in the name of the king and sealed with the king’s ring, cannot be revoked” (8:2, 8).   The Feast of Purim still marks the salvation of the Jews through God’s providence working through Esther and Mordecai.

We don’t have the signet ring anymore.  We do, of course, have the seal of government authority, from the presidential seal to the sanctioned documents of local and county governments.  Human civilization needs an apparatus for the conveyance of power and authority, and these things are the modern equivalent of the ancient signet ring.  Which is why, from the president to the mayor, accusations of abuse of power are front page news, the signature of any official being held to high standards of accountability and truthfulness. 

We began this sermon with a clothing ceremony, Pharaoh placing his signet ring on Joseph’s hand, an act presupposing the eventual absence of the one passing authority to another.  With that ring, Joseph did not need Pharaoh’s presence to speak or act officially.  Clergy in the Arkansas Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church have a similar clothing ceremony, when one member of the retiring class of clergy passes the stole to a member of the newly ordained class, passing to another generation the authority to offer sacraments and preach the word.  The ceremony presupposes the absence of those retiring.  An excellent lesson for us on Ascension Sunday.  You see, the Ascension of Jesus from the Mount of Olives initiated a time of waiting for the disciples, a time of learning how to live in the absence of their Lord.  

Country music star Willie Nelson tells the story of an image of Jesus which seemed to mysteriously emerge in 1987 on a wall in a town in South America.  When tabloid magazines reported the story, people from surrounding towns gathered to pray in front of the image.  As miraculous healings were reported, overnight it became a sacred site.  Until, after a heavy rainfall, another face began to be visible, the face, clearly, of Julio Iglesius.  The people had been praying in front of an old poster covered over for years with whitewash, advertising a concert with Julio Iglesius and Willie Nelson.  A few days later the tabloid ran the headline, “That’s not Jesus – It’s just old Willie.”

In a sense, Christ has presented his church with his signet ring.  Though our Lord is absent, the church owns the authority of the Christ who has ascended.  Often enough we fail.  When we do, the world may look at us and say, “That’s not Jesus – It’s just the church.”   Still, despite our failing, we own a calling to bear faithfully the name of Christ.  “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given unto you.  Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” 

Sources and notes:
“Clothed in the Beauty of Possibility:  How what we wear reveals who we are,” an essay by Richard Wentz, Professor of Religious Studies at Arizona State University, in PARABOLA (Fall 1994, Clothing).

Twang!  The Ultimate Book of Country Music Quotations, compiled by Raymond Obstfeld and Sheila Burgener (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1997).  Quoted in the sermon, “When Your Lips Are One Place But Your Heart . . .” by Rev. King Duncan in Dynamic Preaching, Volume 15, Number 3.