June 2, 2024
Wait:  Waiting in Prison

Lighting the Christ Candle

Welcome and Announcements 

Call to Worship
We wait in the night in the hush that only stars can hold as they bend towards the coming of the light 

We wait in the night labouring with anticipation of what midnight shall bring;
We wait in the night listening to the cadence of minutes beat in rhythm with the birth of hope;
We wait in the longing for a new dawn in expectation of Good News may we choose to wait together
 

May we find we have moved to the edge of justice for in such anticipation is the only place for the Word to be born among us.
We wait for the revelation of your Word.   

Hymn:  321  Praise to the Lord the Almighty

Prayer of Adoration 

God of the seasons, God of the years, God of the eons, Alpha and Omega, before us and after us. 

You promise and we wait: we wait with eager longing, we wait amid doubt and anxiety, we wait with patience thin and then doubt. 

We wait because you are the one and the only one. We wait for your peace and your mercy, for your justice and your good rule. 

 

O Holy God, give us your spirit that we may wait obediently and with discernment, caringly and without passivity, trustingly and without cynicism honestly and without utopianism, 

Grant that our wait may be appropriate to the revelation that  you will bring us.  In our waiting, we worship you, proclaim our love for you, and in humility approach you, seeking forgiveness and redirection.  Hear us as we confess together:   

Prayer of Confession:
God, we confess that we do not always understand Your ways.  We are easily discouraged when life takes unexpected turns and our carefully laid plans and dreams come to nothing.  We confess that we are quick to give up when things get difficult, and quick to question Your presence and Your power.
 

Forgive us.  Grant us patience to wait for Your good timing.  Open our eyes to recognize Your leading in our lives—to listen for Your gentle whisper when we least expect it.  And then give us courage to step out in faith and obedience, trusting in Your leading even when we cannot yet see the outcome.
We praise You for Your faithful love, and pray that You would make us worthy to bear Your name. Amen. 

Assurance of Pardon 

God’s love for us caused him to send Jesus, who died for our sins, and rose again to give us total forgiveness and eternal life.  Trust in that grace, and be confident in the knowledge that God will not abandon us.  Praise God for his eternal mercy.  Thanks be to God. Amen. 

Passing the Peace
 

Hymn:  442  Speak Lord, in the stillness

 

Scripture:

Genesis 37: 12-28  p. 60
Genesis 39: 1-20    p. 64
Genesis 41:  1-15   p.  66 

  

 

 

Sermon:  Joseph:  Waiting in Prison 

Most of us know the story of Joseph.  Songs have been written about his coat of many colours.  There has been a Broadway play about his technicolour dream coat.  We have heard of his story in one way or another.  

It was the coloured coat—a sign that his father loved him best that led to the hatred his brothers felt toward him.  Additionally, it was his dreams about his brothers bowing down to him, that sealed his fate.  He lorded it over them and they were done with him.  They wanted to kill him. 

Fortunately, the oldest brother diverted that plan and had him thrown into a cistern.  His plan was to let him out later, but in the meantime his other brothers sold him to an Egyptian Caravan. 

As we trace the story of Joseph, we will see that God has always been present and preparing for Joseph to be the answer to providing for his family;  but that would not revealed for decades.   

 

That revelation that God is in this, begins as we see Joseph in the cistern.  Waiting, wondering what will happen to him.  Maybe a little afraid and maybe a little humbled.   

There is a rabbinical midrash which points to the unfolding of God in what was about to come. 

The Scriptures we read today simply say, “the cistern was empty, there was no water in it.”    The midrash says, “The cistern was empty except for a scorpion and a snake.” 

 

Interesting, isn’t it.  There is a real sign that there is danger for Joseph.  This could be a life-ending situation.  But we are meant to look beyond the danger, and see that if there is a scorpion and a snake in the cistern, then God’s creation was already present.  And where God’s creation is present, God is present.  And where God is present, God’s grace and salvation is present.   

Was Joseph aware the God was present?  That grace and salvation were present?  Did he stay aware of that on the journey into Egypt?  Or when he was sold into slavery? 

Waiting on God, even when there are signs that God is present can be frustrating, and confusing.  More than that it can lead to despair as we wonder why God isn’t answering prayer, and isn’t working to make things better. 

I think that in this story, we are reminded that God is in the waiting.  God has already prepared for the waiting.  We need to remember that regardless of our circumstances, God is present and working on our behalf.  Our waiting must ultimately be about our trusting.  But how do we do that? 

There were signs that Joseph was in God’s favour.  Potipher purchased him as a slave and in time noticed that Joseph was a diligent, hard worker.  He was promoted to be the manager of the household.  However, if Joseph thought this was a part of the way in which God would release him to go home, he was mistaken. 

Potipher wasn’t the only one who noticed Joseph.  Potipher’s wife was very taken by this good looking, strong young man and kept making sexual overtures to him.  He always replied that he had no intention of abusing the trust of his master or offending his God.  Potipher’s wife plotted to have Jospeh be alone with her in the house; and then attacked him and tore off his robe.  He ran away.  She then used the robe as evidence that Jospeh had attacked her.  Potipher heard about it and had Jospeh thrown into jail.  

And yet God was still with him.  Which leads us to the second lesson that Joseph needed to learn in the wait.  Humility. 

He was a brash, young, good looking man, who had lorded it over his brothers and been spoiled by his father.  Even as a slave he had risen quickly to a place of honour in his household.  As he waited in prison, he learned the lessons of life in a very difficult way. 

And that’s not to say that this was punishment.  This was a time of preparation.   

Waiting is about trust.  Waiting is about being humble.  This is a time in which we grow and change; learning the lessons of God. Waiting is about preparation.  When we wait on God, he prepares us for what is to come.   

Root and Bertrand, write that all we really have is the moment we are in and the people we are with right now.  Right now, is our moment.   

God’s plan can’t work if we want everything be in our control.  Even Jesus gave over everything that was rightly his, to humbly and obediently go where God asked.  Did we ever pause to think that for Jesus, humility was power? 

And what about for us?   

It bears thinking about.  After all, in our prevailing culture the message is that submitting, surrendering, and humility are to be avoided.  Instead, we are told to claim our power.  Stand our ground.  Set our boundaries.  Good advice in some circumstances—but  not in our relationship with God. 

Then our culture also tells us that submitting to God is not a good thing.  We should not be giving up control of our lives. Especially not to a capricious God. 

And yet, today we are asked to consider that submitting to God is where our power comes from.  Surrendering our will to God, gives us power.  Being humble before God, is a source of power.   

Waiting with peace, and calm, and trust is our source of power.. 

Last week we explored the concept that waiting is not passiveness, but a choice.  The same holds true for submitting, surrendering and humbling ourselves.  It is a choice, in which we trust God and expect that in his time, he will give us the guidance and direction we need.  It’s powerful to trust. 

In contrast to weakness which leads to doubt and questioning.   Weakness leads to wondering if God heard us and pestering him constantly to remind him of our prayers.  In that weakness we tell God what we want done.   None of that comes from a place of strength; but from a place of fear. 

Surrender, submission and humility are the hallmark of the strength of trust.   

So what of Joseph? 

When we left him, he had just been sent to prison.  He was an innocent man in prison for something that he did not do.   

Do we recall that God was with Joseph in the cistern?  And in slavery?  Will God continue to be with him in prison? 

In Exodus we read:  But while Joseph was there in the prison, 21 the Lord was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. 22 So the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison, and he was made responsible for all that was done there. 23 The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph’s care, because the Lord was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did.  Genesis 39: 20-23  NIV 

The fear response would have been to fight for his rights.  The giving up response would have been to retreat to a corner and complain about his treatment to anyone who would listen. 

Rather, he submitted and surrendered to his new situation and was humbled by the trust given to him by the prison warden. 

And God was able to use the gifts he had given Joseph.  Remember way back as a young boy he had dreams from God that spoke of provision for the future.  Remember how in pride and in arrogance he used those dreams to show how he was better than his brothers. 

Through his experiences he has learned that his gifts are not about him; but about God.   His gift of understanding God’s message in dreams now humbles him and he realizes that it is for the benefit of the others in prison.  This is no longer all about Joseph, but about what God could do through Joseph.   

And all this growth and spiritual awareness came in the waiting.  This was not yet a confirmation of what God was calling forth in Joseph.  This was not about how Joseph would save his family.  All of that was still waiting to be revealed.  

In prison, Joseph learned to use his God given gifts with humility.  There, Pharoah’s cup-bearer and baker brought their dreams before Joseph.   The cup bearer spoke of a dream in which he pressed grapes by hand into Pharoah’s cup.  The baker dreamt of having baskets of bread on his head, but the birds kept eating the bread. 

The cup-bearer was told he would return to his job as the wine maker for the Pharoah.  The baker was informed that he would lose his head and his body be put out for the birds to eat. 

Then Joseph extracted a promise from the cup-bearer to tell his story to Pharoah, and the cup-bearer went on his way. 

Once out of prison he promptly kept his promise.  (pause) 

Or, rather, two years later he kept his promise. 

That left Joseph waiting in prison for two more years.  Two more years.   

What would be the temptation to believe that God had abandoned him?  Did this put a strain on Joseph’s new found state of trust in submission and surrender and humility?   

Did he have weak moments and complain to God that he was being neglected and ignored?  Did he demand his freedom immediately? 

We see none of that in Scripture.  

Joseph waited for two more years.  When we wait. it is more than waiting for God to speak to us about what we are to do.  It is all about waiting for God to act and for the Holy Spirit to move, until the time is right for God to connect with us. 

Until the time is right for God to connect with us, and put his plan into motion.  

We recall that God was planning the future for Joseph from the time Joseph was a boy.  The waiting was about the unfolding of God’s timing. 

In that waiting, we learn to listen—not only to God; but also to those whom God sends to us.  There are many roads in our growth.  

When we are surrendered, we trust that in those moments we will encounter a resonance that will connect us deeply with the world, and the God who loves the world….We wait in anticipation and submission for God’s action. 

So, two years later Pharoah is having disturbing dreams; and the cup-bearer belatedly remembers his promise to Joseph. 

Pharoah has Joseph released from prison and Joseph is brought to hear about Pharoah’s dreams. 

7 fat cows, followed by 7 emaciated cows who ate the 7 fat cows. Then 7 healthy heads of grain followed by 7 scorched heads of grain that ate the healthy grain.   

When asked to interpret the dreams, Joseph’s response was:  “I cannot do it, but God will give Pharaoh the answer he desires.’”  

Clearly, he has remembered the lesson of humility. And he has learned the lesson that he is not the centre of the universe.  This is not all about Joseph; but instead, all about God’s grace.  Joseph has come a long way. 

This humility and trust in God are going to be very important for Joseph going forward because now he begins the wait for what God has been intending to call forth from Joseph from the very beginning.  He becomes the chief in Pharoah’s household, governor of the land, and marries and has children, whom he names after his brothers.   

Then 7 years later as the famine ravages Egypt and Joseph’s homeland, he becomes the one who will save his family from the drought and famine.    His brothers will come and bow down before him, and it will break his heart.   

He cries, even as he manipulates his brothers until they leave and come back with all the other brothers and eventually his father his father and the whole household.  He cries again when he sees his brother Benjamin, and again when he tells them all who he is and absolves them of the guilt of selling him into slavery because he knows this was always God’s plan.   

In all the trips back and forth, until all his family were finally together, I can imagine that the anticipation must have made that the most difficult of all the times in which he waited.  Now he waits to have his heart healed and to see his whole family healed and everyone safely together.   He recognizes that this calling is not about him; but about God’s grace.   

Root and Bertrand write that sometimes the waiting can feel like a painful standing still.  Sometimes that waiting can be heartbreaking.  But the waiting is what shapes us as we grow in humility and give everything to God to work out to his good will.  Surrender, submission, humility, trust, hope, resonance with others and more importantly surrender to God’s will, are the factors that shape us into people that God can use. 

We see all of that in Joseph.  In every situation in which he waited he developed resonance in the relationships with those he was with.  When his brothers come to Egypt, he forgives them and develops resonance with them as they learn to trust him, and believe that he is not desiring revenge.   

Sometimes it can take decades until that growth in humility is complete in us.   

We who are the church are also called to wait and learn how to trust God in the storm, the good times and the long, lonely days.  We are reminded that our story is not about us, but rather, about the unfolding of God’s grace among us.  We are reminded that the gifts we have for ministry are not about what we can do, but instead about what God will do through us when we surrender.  We are reminded that we must grow into humility if we are ever to be useful to God.   

That painful standing still that Root and Bertrand speak of, is the place where we need to choose to give our will over to God and wait for the Spirit to speak within us….no matter how long it takes, be that days, or weeks, or decades.   

Until we learn those lessons, we will be prisoners as surely as Joseph was a prisoner.  Learning how to be God’s prisoner is the road to humility and the surrender that allows God to reveal his will for us—in his timing.   

It may not sound like it, but this is good news.   

Wait and surrender.  Wait and be humble.  Wait and submit.  Wait, and in time God will reveal all.   Yes, this is good news.  Amen 

 

 

Affirmation of Faith:
Those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. Isaiah 40: 31 NRSV 

Hymn:  319 Wherever I may wander

Offering and Doxology 830

Offertory Prayer

In love and devotion we bring our offering:  our tithes, our service and our lives.  Be generous in taking what we have brought in blessing the world and all in it who have need.  And then, make us bold in serving you that we will continue to be generous in providing for the need of your world and your people.  Help us to share of ourselves and our possessions with one another and especially with people in need.
Amen. 

 

Gathering Prayer Requests
Prayer of Thanksgiving and Intercession 

We will wait for you, O God.  Your Spirit compels us to go into the wilderness, calls to us in our prisons and we ask for the courage to examine the desert places in our hearts, and to be be willing to face the difficulties in our lives—which lure us away from being who you have created us to be.  

We have seen your faithfulness to us in each trial and difficulty we have endured.  We have been cared for by you, lifted  up by you, and called forth by you.  The grace you have given to us again and again, is the grace we trust will be given to us as the future unfolds.  We trust in your mercy. 

Trusting that mercy, we bring you now the prayers we have for your Church, your people and  your world.   

We bring our joys 

 

We pray for those we know and those we don’t know 

 

Wendy, surgery Monday 

WE pray for your creation, 

 

 

 

As a congregation, we vow to place our confidence in you and to wait for your revelation.  We acknowledge that we have doubts and fears; nevertheless we commit to trust in you and your timing.  We pray for the courage to face our wild beasts and fears. 

We ask you to relieve the troubles of our hearts, and the devastation of our distress. 

We trust that you will turn your love towards us that we may we know your grace in our loneliness and afflictions. 

 

We pray, knowing that you watch over us, and deliver us. 

We wait for you, O God.  

In the name of our brother Jesus we pray, saying together as he has taught us… 

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 debts as we forgive our debtors and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, for ever.  Amen 

 

 

Hymn:  461 Be thou my vision

Benediction
So now we leave this space of worship.  While so much of the road ahead is uncertain, and the path is constantly changing, we know some things that are as solid and sure as the ground beneath our feet, and the sky above our heads. 

We know God is love.  We know Christ’s light endures.  We know the Holy Spirit this there, found in the space between all things, closer to us than our next breath, binding us to each other, until we meet we again, 

Go in peace Trusting in the love of God, the grace of Jesus, and the leading of the Holy Spirit.  Amen 

 

Blessing Song:  500 Open my eyes v.1 & chorus

Open my eyes that I may see glimpses of truth thou hast for me place in my hands the wonderful key
that shall unclasp and set me free Silently now, I wait for thee ready my Lord, thy will to see open my eyes, illumine me Spirit Divine
Public Domain