United in spirit, and gathered through the power of the Holy Spirit, we worship God with gladness. We encourage you to pray over the words that follow, and follow the links within the liturgy. Prayers in this service are adapted from Celebrate God’s Presence (UCPH). Thanks this week to Dave and Heather!
PRELUDE: “This is My Father’s World” (Babcock)
OPENING PRAYER
Gracious God,
we pray for your blessing
on the church this day.
May the faithful find salvation,
and the careless be awakened.
May the doubting find courage,
and the anxious be calmed.
May the tempted find help,
and the sorrowful be comforted.
May the weary find rest,
and the strong be renewed.
May the aged find consolation,
and the young be inspired,
in Jesus, the Christ. Amen.
HYMN OF PRAISE: “Immortal, invisible, God only wise”
Immortal, invisible, God only wise;
in light inaccessible hid from our eyes;
most blessed, most glorious, the Ancient of Days,
almighty, victorious, thy great name we praise.
Unresting, unhasting, and silent as light,
nor wanting, nor wasting, thou rulest in might;
thy justice like mountains high soaring above
thy clouds, which are fountains of goodness and love.
To all, life thou givest, to both great and small;
in all life thou livest, the true life of all;
we blossom and flourish like leaves on the tree,
then wither and perish; but naught changeth thee.
Thou reignest in glory, thou rulest in light;
thine angels adore thee, all veiling their sight;
all praise we would render, O help us to see
’tis only the splendour of light hideth thee!
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
Gracious God,
You are the author of love
and source of forgiveness.
We are all too human,
quick to judge,
and slow to understand.
Send your Spirit, O God.
Remind us the last word,
spoken on a hill far away,
was “forgive.”
Amen.
ASSURANCE OF PARDON
God will give us what we need:
strength for today,
hope for tomorrow,
and forgiveness
for all that is past.
Amen.
SPECIAL MUSIC: “Glory Bound” (Maher)
FIRST READING: Psalm 133
Spanish Refrain:
¡Miren qué bueno, qué bueno es!
¡Miren qué bueno, qué bueno es!
English Refrain:
Behold how pleasant, how good it is!
Behold how pleasant, how good it is!
How pleasant and harmonious
when God’s people are together:
fragrant as precious oil
when running fresh on Aaron’s beard. R
How pleasant and harmonious
when God’s people are together:
fresh like the morning dew
that falls on Zion’s holy hill. R
How pleasant and harmonious
when God’s people are together:
there is where God bestows
the blessing, life for evermore. R
SECOND READING: Genesis 45.1-15
Then Joseph could no longer control himself before all his attendants, and he cried out, “Have everyone leave my presence!” So there was no one with Joseph when he made himself known to his brothers. 2 And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard him, and Pharaoh’s household heard about it.
3 Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph! Is my father still living?” But his brothers were not able to answer him, because they were terrified at his presence.
4 Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come close to me.” When they had done so, he said, “I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! 5 And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. 6 For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will be no plowing and reaping. 7 But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.[a]
8 “So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt. 9 Now hurry back to my father and say to him, ‘This is what your son Joseph says: God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me; don’t delay. 10 You shall live in the region of Goshen and be near me—you, your children and grandchildren, your flocks and herds, and all you have. 11 I will provide for you there, because five years of famine are still to come. Otherwise you and your household and all who belong to you will become destitute.’
12 “You can see for yourselves, and so can my brother Benjamin, that it is really I who am speaking to you. 13 Tell my father about all the honor accorded me in Egypt and about everything you have seen. And bring my father down here quickly.”
14 Then he threw his arms around his brother Benjamin and wept, and Benjamin embraced him, weeping. 15 And he kissed all his brothers and wept over them. Afterward his brothers talked with him.
HYMN: “Blest be the tie that binds”
Blest be the tie that binds
our hearts in Christian love;
the unity of heart and mind
is like to that above.
Before our Maker’s throne
we pour our ardent prayers;
our fears, our hopes, our aims are one,
our comforts and our cares.
We share each other’s woes,
each other’s burdens bear;
and often for each other flows
the sympathizing tear.
This glorious hope revives
our courage on the way;
that we shall live in perfect love
in God’s eternal day.
REFLECTION
Our story begins with a criminal conspiracy.
No, we’re not talking about Russian interference or coercing Ukraine to help find dirt. That’s another sermon. In this sermon, Joseph’s brothers conspire to murder the lad, then change their minds, then conspire to deceive their father, and break an old man’s heart. But is it still criminal?
Conspiracy is one of those things you hear on television all the time. If you have an appetite for procedural dramas of a criminal sort, you will know that when two or more people conspire to commit an offence, yet only one person does the deed, everyone gets charged. In fact, doing the deed isn’t even necessary for the conspiracy charge to stick, since planning a crime is a crime itself.
And just because I’ve waited 30 years to quote a legal decision in a sermon, here is Regina v. O’Brien [1954]: “The law punishes conspiracy so that the unlawful object is not attained. It considers that several persons who agree together to commit an unlawful act, are a menace to society.” So the next time you and a friend are eyeing the donut on my plate, and agree to split my tasty donut, think again—no one wants to be labelled a menace to society.
(Just as an aside, keep R. v. Déry, [2006] in your back pocket. In my donut example, the Supreme Court does not include “fruitless discussions” as conspiracy. You need to make a proper plan.)
Back to poor Joseph. It’s not his fault that he’s his father’s favourite. Of that he has vivid dreams that others find annoying. Or that he can interpret the dreams of others. Or that his father gave him a fabulous coat, the kind of coat that just screams “Broadway musical.” Maybe Joseph was a little overbearing, or enjoyed his special status a little too much. But a criminal conspiracy? That’s going too far.
On the day in question, Joseph’s father has sent the lad to check up on the others, and make sure they’re doing their work. He’s still a speck on the horizon when the brother’s decide they’ve had enough of this upstart. They agree to kill him. Their plan—if you could call it a plan—is to kill Joseph, throw his body in an empty cistern, and claim a wild animal did it.
Luckily for Joseph, one brother couldn’t abide the plan. Reuben suggested they forget the killing part and just throw him in the cistern—just teach him a lesson, I suppose. But just then some traders appear, and the brothers hit on a new plan: sell Joseph to the Egyptbound traders, make some shekels, and then present a bloodied dreamcoat to their father. And the plan works. Joseph is sold on to Potiphar, the captain of the Pharaoh’s guard, and Jacob believes that his son is gone.
But that, of course, isn’t the end of the story. To summarize our way to today’s reading, we learn:
Some sort of Mrs. Robinson thing happens with Joseph and Potiphar’s wife.
Joseph lands in jail, but uses his dream gift to impress others.
One of the impressed inmates takes word back to Pharaoh, and Joseph is released.
Joseph interprets Pharaoh’s dream of fat and skinny cows, and becomes vizier.
As vizier—sort of like Prime Minister—Joseph saves the land from famine (and skinny cows).
People from the surrounding nations come to buy from Egypt’s ample supply of grain, including Joseph’s own brothers.
There is some back and forth with a silver cup (see chapter 44)
And the moment finally comes for Joseph to reveal to his brothers that he is, in fact, the vizier of Egypt.
But first Joseph has a good cry. People were a bit more emotional back then. He has a good cry and then the reveal:
“I am Joseph! Is my father still living?” But his brothers were not able to answer him, because they were terrified at his presence.
4 Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come close to me.” When they had done so, he said, “I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! 5 And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you.”
And just because they’re in shock, he says it again, and then again: “God sent me ahead of you to save your lives! Go and get my father, and bring him along. There will be five more years of famine, some I’m going to settle you in the nearby Land of Goshen, and I will provide for you there—for you, your children and grandchildren, your flocks and herds, and all you have.” At this moment, he embraced his brother Benjamin, and started crying. And Benjamin hugged him back, and started crying. Then I assume everyone was crying—because afterall—it was a more emotional time.
This is the moment to ponder hugging in the Bible. Where else do we see tearful reunions, families reunited in an emotional time? I think you see where I’m headed. This is really just an early telling of the prodigal son—which Jesus has recast to teach us about the Kingdom. How does it work?
Joseph, like the prodigal, is in a faraway land, and only late in the story chooses to return home (or rather, lets home come to him). There is lots of brotherly resentment, for Joseph on the front-end of the story, and for the prodigal at the end-end of the story. Both stories have an element of “while he was still far off,” but with a twist. For Joseph being far off gives his brothers occasion to plot against him, for the prodigal being far off gives the father time to plot forgiveness.
And forgiveness is where the stories truly meet. Yes, Joseph was forgiving from a position of good fortune, but this does not erase the pain of being sold, imprisoned, and separated from the father he loved. He could have just as easily turned his brothers away, or imprisoned them for all they did and for all they conspired to do. But he did not. He chose to forgive.
Likewise, the father of the prodigal had every reason to align with the older brother. Half his fortune wasted on profligate living. A faithful son still by this side. He could easily have turned the prodigal son away, and let the dead remain dead in his eyes, but he did not. He chose to forgive.
The glue that binds these two passages is a forgiving God. God could have acted to thwart the co-conspirators, but gave occasion to save them instead. Joseph gives God the glory, he doesn’t claim it for himself. It is God’s desire to preserve Joseph and by extension to save the rest of the tribe, since God has plans for all of them. And God can forgive these brothers, even when they don’t deserve it.
And again, the parable of the prodigal son is a glimpse of God’s kingdom, where wastrels and those given to profligate living also receive forgiveness: once dead, he is alive once more—was lost, but now is found. It is God’s desire to reach beyond resentment and “the way the world works” and forgive instead. It is God’s desire that everyone separated from kin and clan find their way home, resting in the everlasting arms of a forgiving God. Amen.
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE
Attentive God,
you have called us to be your holy people,
and to sing your praise.
Teach us to use our gifts for your glory,
and for strengthening the faith of your church.
Help us to persevere in practice and prayer,
that we may show your love to others,
and lead them closer to you.
Accept, O God,
the service of those who offer you praise
in the fellowship of this church.
May they serve you with glad hearts and dedicated lives;
that, by their service, your name will be glorified,
and the hearts of your people uplifted.
Acknowledge God,
the confession we make, having wronged others.
the prayers we make, for the sake of others.
the needs we have, making us like all others.
For those who are ill…hear our prayers.
For those who mourn…hear our prayers.
For those who have lost everything,
or enough to make it feel that way…hear our prayers.
For those in leadership…hear our prayers.
For those who teach, care, comfort, challenge,
support, console, or advocate…hear our prayers.
Find us among those we name,
as we pray for ourselves.
Amen
THE LORD’S PRAYER
Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.
HYMN: “Now thank we all our God”
Now thank we all our God, with heart,
and hands, and voices,
who wondrous things has done,
in whom this world rejoices;
who from our mother’s arms has blessed us on our way
with countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.
O may this bounteous God
through all our life be near us,
with ever joyful hearts
and blessed peace to cheer us,
and keep us strong in grace, and guide us when perplexed,
and free us from all ill in this world and the next.
All praise and thanks to God
for all that has been given,
the Son, and Spirit blest
who dwell in highest heaven,
the one eternal God, whom heaven and earth adore;
for thus it was, is now, and shall be evermore.
BLESSING
Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way,
and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless
until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again. Amen.
—1 Thessalonians 5:23
God be with you till we meet again;
loving counsels guide, uphold you,
with a shepherd’s care enfold you;
God be with you till we meet again.
Forwarded to my daughters and my niece, so that we all may share worshipping.
Once again, you have provided solace in these times of stress. So good to enjoy your music each week, Heather, and to hear Michael’s voice. You are always a bonus, Dave. It feels like old times, gathered together in the sanctuary. God bless you and yours “til we meet again.”