Sunday Service for 25 September 2022

Sunday 25 September 2022, NL1-3
Gourock St. John’s Church of Scotland
Service prepared by Rev. Teri Peterson
Manse phone: 632143
Email: tpeterson (at) churchofscotland.org.uk

Prelude Music

Welcome/Announcements

Call to Worship
1: Come, all who seek God’s blessing.
2: Come, you who think of yourselves as blessed, and you who feel lost or alone.
3: Come, you who have it easy, and you who can’t get a break.
All: We come, trusting God is with us, in the good times and in times of trouble.
We come, for God is faithful, and calls forth our faithfulness.
We come, to learn to recognise God’s blessing in all its forms.

Sanctuary Hymn 153: Great is Thy Faithfulness

Prayer
You promise to work all things together for good, O God,
and we gather trusting your promise.
When shadows encircle and our steps falter,
we look and find you there beside us,
guiding us with your compassionate hand.
Yet when we pray you would remove the trouble from us,
so often you simply make your presence more tangible,
revealing your love in ways we did not expect,
giving us what we need to get through, rather than simply get over.
When everything falls into place and life is rosy,
when we forget to look because we’re so busy basking in our own power and cleverness,
believing we have no need of help,
still you are there beside us.
Forgive us for believing our earthly circumstances are a reflection of your blessing.
Forgive us for our uncharitable attitude, for blaming people when things go awry.
Forgive us for choosing not to pay attention when vulnerable people are taken advantage of.
Make us mindful and aware of you, even when we forget to look, even when we don’t want to look.
Whatever your blessing looks like today,
help us to receive it graciously, and use it wisely, for your purpose and your glory.
We ask in the name of the Trinity of Love, God in Community, holy and one.
Amen.

Online hymn: The Lord’s My Shepherd (Townend)
Sanctuary Hymn 37: God is our Refuge

Children’s Time— Song: We will walk with God (Sizohamba Naye)

Prayer of the Season
You long to be in relationship with us, O God.
You call us to walk with you,
and you choose and empower human beings to carry out your work in the world.
We do not understand why you would choose us,
what reason you might have for calling us to be your partners in love, grace, and justice.
And yet you do.
You call us to build when others tear down.
You call us to leave behind what we know while others get stuck in what might have been.
You call us to speak when others keep silent, and to listen carefully to meaning behind the noise.
Why us?
Only you know, Lord,
and we pray you would help us trust your judgment.
Open our spirits to receive your word this day,
and open our lives to walk with you, wherever you may lead.
Amen.

Reading: Genesis 39.1-23 (NRSV)
Last week we heard about Abram and Sarai traveling to and through the land of Canaan, following where God shows them. Throughout their lives they continued following God’s lead, sometimes faithfully and sometimes taking matters into their own hands, sometimes demonstrating God’s care and sometimes demonstrating human cruelty, sometimes trusting and sometimes laughing at God’s plans. Eventually, at age 90, Sarah gave birth to Isaac. Isaac married Rebekah, the granddaughter of Abraham’s brother. Together they had two sons, Jacob and Esau, who did not get along. Eventually Jacob married two sisters, Leah and Rachel, and also their maids, Bilhah and Zilpah. Between the four of them they bore Jacob twelve sons. The second youngest was Joseph, who was his father’s favourite. Jacob gave Joseph a fancy, long-sleeved coat or dress, as a sign of his favour. The other brothers were, of course, jealous, and one day they conspired to get rid of him. They sold Joseph to passing traders, and took his fancy coat, dipped in animal blood, home to their father to pretend he was dead. Jacob was inconsolable. We pick up the story today in Genesis chapter 39, beginning at verse 1, and I am reading from the New Revised Standard Version.

Now Joseph was taken down to Egypt, and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him down there. The Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man; he was in the house of his Egyptian master. His master saw that the Lord was with him, and that the Lord caused all that he did to prosper in his hands. So Joseph found favour in his sight and attended him; he made him overseer of his house and put him in charge of all that he had. From the time that he made him overseer in his house and over all that he had, the Lord blessed the Egyptian’s house for Joseph’s sake; the blessing of the Lord was on all that he had, in house and field. So he left all that he had in Joseph’s charge; and, with him there, he had no concern for anything but the food that he ate.
Now Joseph was handsome and good-looking. And after a time his master’s wife cast her eyes on Joseph and said, ‘Lie with me.’ But he refused and said to his master’s wife, ‘Look, with me here, my master has no concern about anything in the house, and he has put everything that he has in my hand. He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except yourself, because you are his wife. How then could I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?’ And although she spoke to Joseph day after day, he would not consent to lie beside her or to be with her. One day, however, when he went into the house to do his work, and while no one else was in the house, she caught hold of his garment, saying, ‘Lie with me!’ But he left his garment in her hand, and fled and ran outside. When she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and had fled outside, she called out to the members of her household and said to them, ‘See, my husband has brought among us a Hebrew to insult us! He came in to me to lie with me, and I cried out with a loud voice; and when he heard me raise my voice and cry out, he left his garment beside me, and fled outside.’ Then she kept his garment by her until his master came home, and she told him the same story, saying, ‘The Hebrew servant, whom you have brought among us, came in to me to insult me; but as soon as I raised my voice and cried out, he left his garment beside me, and fled outside.’
When his master heard the words that his wife spoke to him, saying, ‘This is the way your servant treated me’, he became enraged. And Joseph’s master took him and put him into the prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined; he remained there in prison. But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love; he gave him favour in the sight of the chief jailer. The chief jailer committed to Joseph’s care all the prisoners who were in the prison, and whatever was done there, he was the one who did it. The chief jailer paid no heed to anything that was in Joseph’s care, because the Lord was with him; and whatever he did, the Lord made it prosper.

Sermon: highest highs and lowest lows

Joseph’s life was one of massive swings between up and down…he was his father’s favourite, then he was sold into slavery, then he was in charge of his master’s household — though still enslaved, so not powerful in any usual sense — and then he was in prison…he was in charge of the jail, but as a prisoner…he was a foreigner and outsider, ethnically and religiously and culturally different, and yet also rose to be Pharaoh’s right-hand man. It was quite a life of rising and falling through every level of what might be considered blessing and curse.

I imagine that if Joseph ever asked, at one of those low points, “why me?” — why did these things keep happening to him??? — that it might be tempting, for those of us who are the elder siblings, to point out that there’s a certain schadenfreude to watching the favoured youngest get a bit of comeuppance. After all, he was the worst of the indulged younger child, prancing around in his princess dress as a way to get out of doing chores, talking about his dreams that everyone in the family would bow down to him. Even when he was enslaved in Potiphar’s house he was bragging about his position to Potiphar’s wife, as part of his rejection of her advances. That old saying about pride going before a fall seems apt. But of course even the most annoying little brother does not deserve to be abused, trafficked, enslaved, wrongfully accused, or forgotten in prison. It isn’t his fault and he does not bear the blame for how other people treated him. Even in my most cynical older sister moments I would never say he brought it on himself. He was a victim of others’ greed and narrow-mindedness, and his suffering was real. “Why me” is something many of us would ask if it happened to us!

But then Joseph may also have wondered occasionally “why me” when he was in those favoured positions, too. Why was he his father’s favourite son, instead of any of the other eleven? Why was he the slave that grew to such prominence in Potiphar’s household, when presumably there were others as well? Why did the jailer put all the responsibility in his hands, rather than anyone else? After all, he was the inferior one here — not just a slave, but a Hebrew slave in the Egyptian court. Sure, a good looking one, but an ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic, and social outsider nonetheless.

But when he was enslaved and when he was successful, God was with him. That might be a shocking thing to suggest — because if we just looked objectively from the outside, we might be more likely to say that Potiphar was blessed rather than that Joseph was. After all, Potiphar was wealthy enough and had put together such a good team that he was able to delegate literally everything in his life except for deciding what to eat. He didn’t worry where his next meal was coming from, he didn’t worry about whether his house was warm enough or if his kids did their homework or what his boss thought of his job performance…all he had to consider, in his day to day life, was whether he wanted rice or bread with his stew; ale or wine. A friend described it as being “disconnected from responsibility” — and isn’t that kind of a goal for many of us? It’s why we like holidays, and why business coaches are always touting the importance of making sure you have the right staff. It’s like a life goal, to be so disconnected from responsibility that all we have to think about is whether we want sticky toffee pudding or crème brûlée. Potiphar had it made.

Meanwhile, Joseph was an enslaved member of that team that made the dream happen for Potiphar.

It seems clear who’s blessed here, doesn’t it?

And yet the story tells us that the Lord was with Joseph. The Lord blessed Joseph. The Lord showed steadfast love to Joseph. And because of Joseph, the people around him were blessed as well.

That was, of course, the promise God made to Abraham generations before, the promise we heard last week — that through you, because of you, all the peoples of the earth will be blessed. Abraham and his descendants were to live among the nations as a blessing, sharing God’s grace and promise with everyone they met. And here is an example of God’s blessing coming to others, to people who were not the chosen ones, people who did not worship the same God, people who looked and sounded different…they experienced blessing because Joseph was among them as God’s blessing.

Let me pause a moment and say that we had better not walk away from this story thinking that victims of domestic violence and human trafficking are blessed in that situation. The violence people experience is not a pathway to knowing God’s love. I am not saying that God caused or even allowed these terrible things to happen to Joseph so that he could experience blessing or so that he could share blessing with the world. I am saying that in the highest heights and the lowest lows, God is with us. And while we wish that God would maybe intervene to avoid those lowest of lows, the truth of human cruelty is that we do terrible things to each other. God’s intervention doesn’t really work the way we might like. Instead God is always showing us a still more excellent way, sending the Holy Spirit to transform our hearts and minds, calling us to be amongst each other as a blessing instead of a curse. Terrible things happen, and God is with us offering us ways to respond. Some choose to respond to injustice or violence or hate with more of the same, and it cycles through the generations and the curse ripples out into the world. Some choose to respond with nonviolence, peacemaking, hope, faithfulness, doing justice and walking humbly and loving kindness, and that too cycles through the generations and blessing, however small, ripples out into the world. When God is with us, those choices are both open to us.

God was with Joseph, even in the literal pit of despair, even though it might not look like it to an outsider. Honestly it’s not even clear what it felt like to Joseph! The story doesn’t say that Joseph was faithful and had expectations God would be faithful in return — it says God was faithful, and that Joseph was a blessing that paid forward. And the sign of God’s presence and God’s blessing in Joseph’s life was…more work.

You can see why I might wonder what Joseph thought of it all. Because every time it says “the Lord was with Joseph” that’s followed by an increased list of tasks and responsibilities! He ends up being the overseer of Potiphar’s entire household, which is a big task involving managing staff and resources and schedules and maintenance. And that huge job…which he undertook as an enslaved person…was a sign of God’s presence and favour. Then he fell even lower, an imprisoned slave, and the sign of God’s steadfast love was that he was in charge of taking care of all his fellow prisoners — managing rations, health, exercise, accommodation, guards.

It’s the opposite of the kind of blessing we recognise in Potiphar’s life — the blessing of being disconnected from responsibility. Instead it’s a blessing of increased responsibility. I don’t know about you but I might prefer the blessing of a bigger cell, or better food, or, I don’t know, the blessing of not being unjustly imprisoned or enslaved in the first place. But what he’s given is the chance to be a blessing among more and more people…of a lower and lower status.

It’s easy for the Potiphars of this world to attribute their blessings to themselves, their hard work or talent or ability to manipulate the world around them to their own liking. Not so for the lowly, the outcast, the marginalised. In this story you wouldn’t be able to tell just by looking at them who was the blessed one…it turns out that God is explicitly with, loving, and blessing the one who is at the bottom of the heap, the least likely candidate, the one on the outside edge of society, and the blessing comes to others through him.

When we experience the blessing of ease and comfort, this story invites us to disturb that comfort enough to ask whose invisible or marginalised labour made that blessing possible. When we find ourselves in a low point, this story offers us just enough stamina to look for God’s presence. And when, as I suspect many of us are, we mostly find ourselves somewhere in between, bobbing along rather than enduring the biggest peaks and troughs, this story reminds us that God’s blessing comes in order that we may be a blessing to others — and that just as injustice rolls down to most affect those who can least afford to weather it, so too blessing can roll down to most affect those who have been pushed out or trodden upon or forgotten, if we will take up the tasks and responsibilities that come with our blessing. The people of the Way will always be found working to be a blessing to those who most need it.

May it be so. Amen.

Online hymn 153: Great is Thy Faithfulness
Sanctuary Hymn 31: I Waited Patiently For God (Tune: Amazing Grace)

Prayer and Lord’s Prayer
We praise you, gracious God, for your grace that sustains us all our days.
We offer our gratitude for your gifts that seem to hide from our view,
yet empower us to live and serve in every place you call us,
and for blessings we find it easy to count.
Today we remember those who are longing for a different or better life.
We lift up those who have been betrayed by family or friends,
abused by employers, misjudged by neighbours, or harassed because of their identity.
We call to mind the ongoing horror of human trafficking,
people forced to labour to serve others’ greed and to enable our consumption.
We pray for those still being harmed by historic wrongs,
living with the consequences of racist systems and cycles we have not yet broken.
May your justice transform our ways of being,
that all people might know the blessing of equity, kindness, and freedom.
…
We lift up those whose lives are marked by war and oppression,
whose voices are silenced by fear, or neglect, or power they cannot access.
We call to mind the ongoing global horror of violence against women and children,
and the pain endured by those who do not fit our stereotypical images.
We pray for those still being harmed by traumatic experiences,
living with physical and mental and spiritual and relational challenges we may not see.
May your compassion move us to action,
that all people might know the blessing of peace, comfort, and security.
…
We lift up those who suffer from illness in body, mind, or spirit,
who are waiting for answers or undergoing treatment,
and for those who cannot get the healthcare they need to flourish in this life.
We call to mind the ongoing horror of preventable disease stealing lives,
and the work of those who seek solutions for sanitation, clean water, hunger, and access to medicine.
We pray for those living with chronic conditions,
still being harmed by long-covid, by pain as a constant companion,
by the stress of multiple appointments and the uncertainty of what a day will hold.
May your healing spirit fill them,
that all people might know the blessing of wholeness in the midst of it all.
…
We thank you, O God, for you have promised to be with us.
We pray you would change things so this world looks more like your kingdom…
and we pray for hearts and wills open to recognise
when you are changing us to be an answer to our prayers.

We pray these and all things in the name of Christ Jesus our Lord,
who taught us to pray together:
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and forever.
Amen.

Sanctuary Hymn 513: Courage, Brother, Do Not Stumble

Benediction
In the hardest days and the best moments, God’s blessing be with you.
When you see it and when you don’t, God’s blessing be with you.
For receiving and for sharing, God’s blessing be with you.
And as you go, may the Spirit of God go above you to watch over you. May the Spirit of God go beside you to be your companion. May the Spirit of God go before you to show you the way, and behind you to push you into places you might not go alone. And may the Spirit of God go within you, to remind you that you are loved more deeply than you can possibly imagine. May the fire of God’s love burn brightly in you, and through you into the world. Go in peace. Amen.

Sung Benediction Response (John L Bell, tune Gourock St John’s)
Now may the Lord of all be blessed,
Now may Christ’s gospel be confessed,
Now may the Spirit when we meet
Bless sanctuary and street.

Postlude Music

Announcements
*You are invited to join in reading the Bible in a year for 2022 — immersing ourselves in God’s word throughout the year. We get together to discuss each week on Wednesday at 7:30pm in the manse at 6 Barrhill Road. All are welcome, no experience necessary! Feel free to invite a friend, too! Anyone who has ever wondered just what the Bible actually says and what it has to do with us is welcome.

* We are hosting an October holiday club for Primary aged children, 18-20 October, on the theme “Life in Plastic, NOT Fantastic: Caring for God’s Good Earth.” More information and registration is available at our website. If you are interested in volunteering in any way — whether helping shepherd groups, cooking lunch, providing leadership, or a little light decorating, please contact Teri!

* All worship is online (or on the phone at 01475 270037, or in print) and we also meet in the sanctuary at 11am. If you are able, please enter by the front door in Bath street, and only those who need step-free access should use the back door. If you feel unwell, please worship online, to protect both yourself and others in our community.

* The Kirk now has online giving! If you have not already set up a standing order in order to facilitate your spiritual discipline of giving, or if you would like to make an extra gift to support the ministry St. John’s does in our parish, you can give online by clicking here. If you would like to set up a standing order, please contact Peter Bennett, our treasurer, or Teri and she can give you his details. You can also send your envelopes to the church or the manse by post and we will ensure they are received. Remember: no one is coming to your door to collect your envelopes, so please stay safe!

* Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Youtube, and to sign up for our email devotions! Midweek you can watch Wine and the Word on Youtube, pray with video devotions on Facebook, and consider a new angle on something with a devotional email. Feel free to share with your friends, too!

* Youth Organisations have begun! If you or anyone you know is interested in the Boys Brigade (P1 – S6), please contact Alan Aitken or 2ndgourock (at) inverclydebb.org.uk. If you or anyone you know is interested in the Brownies or Girl Guides, please visit the website to register. For the Smurfs, our youngest girls, please contact Teri and ask to be put in touch with the leader.

*Young Adult Bible Study meets in the manse TONIGHT — on the 2nd and 4th Sundays — at 7pm for a meal and a study of the gospel according to John. If you’d like more information, for yourself, a family member, a friend, or neighbour who is in their 20s, please contact Teri for the dates/times and other information.

*Philip is organising a choir for any interested singer to come and have fun, learn some of the new hymns, and sing sometimes in worship. Please contact Philip for more information: philipnor617@gmail.com

*Next Monday, 3 October, is the next Bowl and Blether — come along for a bowl of soup and a chat with friends and neighbours! if you’re interested in volunteering either in the kitchen or in welcoming/hospitality/serving, please speak to Teri.