Morning Service for Trinity 10 2023

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November 22, 2023

You all know the story of Joseph so I won’t go into it now - I’ll save that for a later date - suffice it to say that what got Joseph into trouble was as much as anything his dreams - specifically dreams of pre-eminence over his brothers, you remember how he dreamed of the sun and the moon and 11 stars all bowing down to him. Of course, it didn’t help that he was his father’s favourite - but they could cope with that, they proved that by their later tolerance of Benjamin, it was Joseph’s dreams of lordship over them that was just too much. They even say ‘here comes the dreamer.” It was the dreams that caused the problem.

Morning Service for Trinity 10 2023Morning Service for Trinity 10 2023

HYMN How sweet the name of Jesus sounds NEH 374/AMR 192 – St Peter

1 How sweet the name of Jesus sounds

In a believer’s ear!

It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds,

And drives away his fear.

2 It makes the wounded spirit whole,

And calms the troubled breast;

‘Tis manna to the hungry soul,

And to the weary rest.

3 Dear name! the rock on which I build,

My shield and hiding-place,

My never-failing treasury filled

With boundless stores of grace.

4 Jesus! my Shepherd, Brother, Friend,

My Prophet, Priest, and King,

My Lord, my Life, my Way, my End,

Accept the praise I bring.

5 Weak is the effort of my heart,

and cold my warmest thought;

but when I see thee as thou art,

I’ll praise thee as I ought.

6 Till then I would thy love proclaim

With every fleeting breath;

And may the music of thy name

Refresh my soul in death.

PRAYER OF PREPARATION
Almighty God,
to whom all hearts are open,
all desires known,
and from whom no secrets are hidden:
cleanse the thoughts of our hearts
by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit,
that we may perfectly love you,
and worthily magnify your holy name;
through Christ our Lord. Amen

PRAYERS OF PENITENCE

We recall our Lord’s command to love and in a moment of silence we confess

the many ways we fail to keep his command:

Most merciful God,

Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
we confess that we have sinned
in thought, word and deed.
We have not loved you with our whole heart.
We have not loved our neighbours as ourselves.
In your mercy forgive what we have been,
help us to amend what we are,
and direct what we shall be;
that we may do justly, love mercy,
and walk humbly with you, our God. Amen

May the God of love and power
forgive us and free us from our sins,
heal and strengthen us by his Spirit,
and raise us to new life in Christ our Lord. Amen.

THE COLLECT

Let your merciful ears, O Lord,

be open to the prayers of your humble servants;

and that they may obtain their petitions

make them to ask such things as shall please you;

through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord. Amen.

FIRST READING – Genesis 37.1-8,12-28

Jacob settled in the land where his father had lived as an alien, the land of Canaan. This is the story of the family of Jacob.

Joseph, being seventeen years old, was shepherding the flock with his brothers; he was a helper to the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives; and Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father. Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his children, because he was the son of his old age; and he had made him a long robe with sleeves. But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably to him.

Once Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more. He said to them, “Listen to this dream that I dreamed. There we were, binding sheaves in the field. Suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright; then your sheaves gathered around it, and bowed down to my sheaf.” His brothers said to him, “Are you indeed to reign over us? Are you indeed to have dominion over us?” So they hated him even more because of his dreams and his words…

Now his brothers went to pasture their father’s flock near Shechem. And Israel said to Joseph, “Are not your brothers pasturing the flock at Shechem? Come, I will send you to them.” He answered, “Here I am.” So he said to him, “Go now, see if it is well with your brothers and with the flock; and bring word back to me.” So he sent him from the valley of Hebron.

He came to Shechem, and a man found him wandering in the fields; the man asked him, “What are you seeking?” “I am seeking my brothers,” he said; “tell me, please, where they are pasturing the flock.” The man said, “They have gone away, for I heard them say, ‘Let us go to Dothan.’ ” So Joseph went after his brothers, and found them at Dothan. They saw him from a distance, and before he came near to them, they conspired to kill him. They said to one another, “Here comes this dreamer. Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits; then we shall say that a wild animal has devoured him, and we shall see what will become of his dreams.” But when Reuben heard it, he delivered him out of their hands, saying, “Let us not take his life.” Reuben said to them, “Shed no blood; throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but lay no hand on him”—that he might rescue him out of their hand and restore him to his father. So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the long robe with sleeves that he wore; and they took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it.

Then they sat down to eat; and looking up they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with their camels carrying gum, balm, and resin, on their way to carry it down to Egypt. Then Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and not lay our hands on him, for he is our brother, our own flesh.” And his brothers agreed. When some Midianite traders passed by, they drew Joseph up, lifting him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. And they took Joseph to Egypt.

HYMN Ye servants of God NEH 476/AMR 226 – Paderbourne

1 YE servants of God, your Master proclaim,

And publish abroad his wonderful name:

The name all-victorious of Jesus extol:

His kingdom is glorious, and rules over all.

2 God ruleth on high, almighty to save;

And still he is nigh, his presence we have:

The great congregation his triumph shall sing,

Ascribing salvation to Jesus our King.

3 Salvation to God who sits on the throne!

Let all cry aloud, and honour the Son:

The praises of Jesus the angels proclaim,

Fall down on their faces, and worship the Lamb.

4 Then let us adore, and give him his right:

All glory and power, all wisdom and might,

All honour and blessing, with angels above,

And thanks never-ceasing, and infinite love.

GOSPEL – Luke 13.10-17

Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, but by this time the boat, battered by the waves, was far from the land, for the wind was against them. And early in the morning he came walking toward them on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.”

Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water, and came toward Jesus. But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” When they got into the boat, the wind ceased. And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

SERMON

Dreams – it’s all about dreams – dreams that get you into trouble and dreams that make things happen. Dreams that carry ideas and dreams that carry hopes.

You all know the story of Joseph so I won’t go into it now – I’ll save that for a later date – suffice it to say that what got Joseph into trouble was as much as anything his dreams – specifically dreams of pre-eminence over his brothers, you remember how he dreamed of the sun and the moon and 11 stars all bowing down to him. Of course, it didn’t help that he was his father’s favourite – but they could cope with that, they proved that by their later tolerance of Benjamin, it was Joseph’s dreams of lordship over them that was just too much. They even say ‘here comes the dreamer.” It was the dreams that caused the problem.

And dreams can indeed get you into trouble – visions that guide your life – aspirations, longings, images of a different future – imaginings of the way things might be. Be it inner peace and serenity or a win on the premium bonds. In one way or another the dreams that we choose to dream, or perhaps are given to dream, can have an enormous effect on our lives.

Paul in his letter to the Romans does his bit of dreaming – or rather imagining a different reality. He has been brought up to believe in the law – to believe in a relationship with God based on action and observance, on obedience and obeisance. But he’s seen something new, perceived God differently. Caught a dream.

Through the wonder of the death and resurrection of Christ, he now says that life comes not through words of law but through the mystery of faith. Christ is to be found – not high above us all, nor deep in the depths of a lifeless grave. No, he is to be found on your lips and in your heart. The Emmanuel, the God with us, is with us still. Through faith he can be present within our hearts and within the proclamation of our faith.

This is a revolutionary dream. The living out of the Gospel, and its telling out, is where the salvation of God can be found.

And Paul is looking for more people who have caught his dream – so that they may, in turn, carry the Gospel of hope to those who have no hope – share the good news dream.

And it so happens that we can see the possibilities of the dream in the Gospel reading – Jesus begins his journey across the sea of Galilee at night and simply walks on water – he reaches his disciples at 3.00am. Which isn’t a good time for anyone to see someone walk on water. But it wasn’t the walking on the water that was the point – connect this wonder with Jesus’ trip up the mountain to speak to God, and the immediately prior event of feeding the 5,000 and we have Jesus fulfilling all the Moses tasks – the feeding and the praying, and the mastery of the sea – this time not flight from the Gentiles but a journey to them in Galilee – to carry the good news to them also. Jesus has come to bring new dreams, new visions – the primacy of faith over race, faith over fear and faith over even nature and the laws of what is solid enough to bear a man’s weight.

As with all the stories of the miraculous what matters is what their reporting was supposed to teach us – what the sign was for is much more important than discussions of whether the thing could possible have happened or not.

What the disciples knew of Jesus and what they conveyed, taught of someone whose self possession left him invulnerable to anything – wind, rain, water, even death. This was just the man they knew. And Peter was keen to catch that dream of invulnerability – desperately keen – only, like us, he struggles to have what it takes. He is still too connected to this world, too reliant on it to be free enough to walk without it. What spoilt his dream was what spoils the dreams of so many of us – fear.

Dreaming is what the religious life is all about – it isn’t an escape from reality, it is instead a different perception of reality – the events, the facts of existence haven’t become remade – they are as ever they were – but how they are understood, how they are experienced changes things immeasurably. Neitzsche once wrote ‘he who has a why to live can bear almost any how.’ The dream and the why are all bound up – and they transform the how.

If the dream is so important – if the guiding, defining dream of our lives is so essential to our happiness and contentment, to our usefulness and physical, mental and spiritual well being, then ought we not to take great care of it – ought we not to nurture, and feed, and reassess the dream that guides our way – or like a lamp with an untended wick – we will splutter and smoke.

If a dream is to be a firm ground for living it must be maintained, must be trimmed and fed, worked with and kept bright. Dreams that are put in a draw and ignored for year after year only turn to dust should the strong light of day ever reach them.

Mother Julian of Norwich had a dream, in fact she had several – on the 8th May 1373. And she spent the best part of her life meditating upon them- working out what they meant. I’ll end with what Mother Julian ended her book about her dreams.

‘Thus did I learn that love was our Lord’s meaning. And I saw full surely that ere God made us he loved us; which love has never slackened nor ever shall. And in this love he hath done all his works; and in this love he hath made all things profitable to us; and in this love our life is everlasting. In our making we had beginning; but the love wherein he made us was in him from without beginning: in which love we have our beginning. And all this we shall see in God, without end.’

This is hope that brings light to the darkest place. This is a dream to inspire a lifetime.

AFFIRMATION OF FAITH
Let us declare our faith in the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ:

Christ died for our sins
in accordance with the scriptures;
he was buried; he was raised to life on the third day
in accordance with the scriptures;
afterwards he appeared to his followers,
and to all the apostles: this we have received,
and this we believe. Amen. 1 Corinthians 15.3-7

HYMN – Jesus calls us o’er the tumult NEH200 – St Andrew

1 Jesus calls us! O’er the tumult

Of our life’s wild restless sea

Day by day his voice is sounding,

Saying, ‘Christian follow me’:

2 As of old Saint Andrew heard it

By the Galilean lake,

Turned from home and toil and kindred,

Leaving all for his dear sake.

3 Jesus calls us from the worship

Of the vain world’s golden store,

From each idol that would keep us,

Saying, ‘Christian, love me more’.

4 In our joys and in our sorrows,

Days of toil and hours of ease,

Still he calls, in cares and pleasures,

‘Christian, love me more than these’.

5 Jesus calls us! By thy mercies,

Saviour, may we hear thy call,

Give our hearts to thy obedience,

Serve and love thee best of all.

PRAYERS OF INTERCESSION – Gill Macdonald

Lord we come before you with grateful hearts for all your goodness, and for the many blessings we receive from you.

We thank you for your worldwide church, we pray for Christians around the world, especially those working in places of danger and hostility. Bless their ministry, give them wisdom and confidence, courage and dedication to proclaim your love and saving grace wherever they go. We pray for William and family and for all who worship in our churches, and those who quietly visit throughout the week..