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Jubilee Episcopal Church is an incense-swinging, sanctus-bell-ringing, stomp-your-feet- singing ancient way of following Jesus with more than enough room for you to bring your compassion, curiosities, and complete self. We're rooted in NW Austin, Texas, but connect with folks globally in sharing a joyful and inclusive Christian faith. The title comes from a prayer found in Compline, a service in the Book of Common Prayer, where we intercede for Jesus Christ to care and tend for the hurting, the sick, and the weary, but also, to shield the joyous. This prayer is our heartbeat at Jubilee. You'll hear sermons, devotions, and other occasional audio treats here -- including the occasional baby squawk or squeak from our decidedly family-friendly community!
We worship Sundays at 9:30am in person at 12129 FM 620 Ste 310 Austin, TX and online!
Watch Live: https://www.youtube.com/@jubileeatx/streams
Website: https://www.jubileeatx.org
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Okay, great. So I would like to tell you all a story. And this has been one of my favorite stories in the Bible since I was littler than Margaret because it involves dreams. Can you go dreams? And a rainbow outfit, which I know that's really surprising that that was my favorite since childhood. A rainbow outfit and it involves family forgiveness. So special. So this story, we started to hear a little bit last week. We heard a little bit this week, but I wanna tell you the whole story. So it begins with a little boy named Joseph. Can you say Joseph? Joseph. And you wanna know something incredible about Joseph? He had 11 brothers. 11, 11 brothers. Isn't that amazing? Now, here's the tricky thing. All right, this is a story of siblings. Joseph's dad gave Joseph something very special. Eyes on me, cause you're gonna wanna see this. Oh, ah, yes. Joseph's dad got him a very, very special coat. Which I have made my own version of. This was a coat of many colors with fabulous long sleeves. This was the kind of outfit that princesses wore. Now, do you think Joseph's dad got one for every single one of his 12 children? No, he only made one coat for Joseph. And Joseph wore it all the time. And that made all his other brothers feel very jealous, very understandably. But then the story gets even more wild. That's right, some beautiful color, just like the colorful coat. Joseph would go to sleep. Can you all pretend to go to sleep with me? Like that, yes. And he would have dreams. Can you repeat after me? Joseph would dream in color. Joseph would dream in color. And Joseph had very, very special dreams that he believed were from God. And in one of those dreams, I've made that scene right here. What do you see up here on this coat? What do you see? A sun, that's right. That's a sun right here. What's this? A moon and a giant cloud, that's right. And that's because Joseph had a dream that he was at the center of the sky and the sun and the moon and 11 stars, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 11 stars, just like his 11 brothers, all bowed down before him. So let me get this straight. Not only did Joseph have the special, beautiful coat of many technicolor dreams his father gave him, he now had a dream that his brothers bowed down before him. And not just that, but his father and his mother too. And do you think Joseph kept this to himself? No, do you think Joseph shared this with his brothers with great humility and tenderness and awareness of their feelings? No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Joseph was a little bit bratty. We stand, we love Joseph, but he was a little bit like, you won't believe this dream I had, na na na na boo boo. And even his daddy was like, Joseph, that's a lot. That's a lot. You think even your mother and I are gonna bow down before you? But I need you to take out your hands. Joseph's father pondered these things in his heart. Now time went by and something very sad happened. Joseph's brothers got more and more jealous, more and more angry, more and more sad. And you know what they decided? They decided they were going to kill Joseph. Oh, that is so bad. They saw Joseph coming over the hills and they said, look, here comes the dreamer. Let us kill him and we shall see what becomes of his dreams. But one of his brothers, Ruben, the oldest brother spoke up and said, no, this is not okay, this is not okay. We will not do this. And Ruben planned to save Joseph. He convinced his brothers, let's just put him in a hole in the ground. That won't be very fun, but I can go back and save him later. But then a group of traders started walking by and Joseph's brothers saw an opportunity. They decided to sell Joseph to these people. These people thought it was okay to own another person and make them work for no money and no food and no rest. That's not okay. So you know what Joseph's brothers did? They ripped his coat apart and they brought it to their father and said that Joseph was no more. This made Joseph's father so sad. This made Joseph so sad. But God is with us even when we are sad. God is with us when we can't see any way out of the pit. So Joseph was carried far away from his home to a place called Egypt. Can you say Egypt? Egypt and there he started working first as an enslaved person at a place called Potiphar's house. Now Joseph, it turns out was very smart. And so Joseph very quickly became a manager. This is why he is under Potiphar's house management system. Joseph thought a lot about math. He knew his numbers, he knew his letters and so he oversaw the whole household and he had everything running really, really well until one day Potiphar's wife said, hey Joseph, you should steal something. And do you think Joseph said yes? No, Joseph said no. And then she said, well, I want to do something bad to you and he said, no, you will not do that to me. Well, Potiphar didn't really like that so guess what happened to Joseph? He got thrown into prison. Poor Joseph, he really had a rough go of it. And so while he was in prison, he started to feel really sad again. But is God with us when we are sad? Yeah. Is God with us when we are in the pit and we can't see a way out? Yes, God is. So Joseph was there in prison when something amazing happened. Two other people were put in prison with him and Joseph listened to their stories and they started to tell him about some dreams he had. And you remember what we said earlier? Joseph dreams in color. Joseph dreams in color. And one of them told him a story about his dream. In his dream, he had a special cup because he had been a cup bearer for Pharaoh. This was a special job people had. It's kind of like being a waiter. He would come and bring the cup to Pharaoh. And in his dream, he grew some special grapes, squeezed them into wine and filled the cup and presented it to Pharaoh. But he didn't know what this dream meant so he told Joseph all about it. And Joseph said, this dream means that you will not stay in prison for long. Pharaoh is pleased with you and you will be set free. But when you are set free, remember me. Can you say that? Remember me. And then it happened. This man who'd had the dream about the cup was set free. Do you think he remembered Joseph? No, years went by. Poor Joseph was sitting there in prison and Pharaoh had, and this man, sorry, the man who had the cup heard one day that Pharaoh had a bad dream. Do you ever have bad dreams? Yeah. And so Pharaoh told everybody about this bad, bad dream he had. And in the dream, there were seven cows that were fat and happy. They were eating all this lovely food and drinking all this water. But then the cows laid down and were sick and moaning. This dream scared Pharaoh so badly he told everybody about it. And that's when the man who once had that dream about the cup said, oh, I forgot. I forgot, but now I remember. Can you say I remember? I remember. I remember Joseph dreams in color, dreams in color. And he said, Pharaoh, there is someone who can help you interpret this dream. And conveniently, he's locked in your dungeon. And Pharaoh said, oh, love to hear it. Too bad he's been locked away waiting for a time such as this. So Joseph said, bring, no, Pharaoh said, bring me Joseph. So Joseph was brought out and then Pharaoh said, actually, he's been in prison for a long time. So let's give him a little Princess Diaries makeover. Let's like shave his beard, put some like oil on his face, give him a really good bath. So Joseph got like the best bath of his entire life. Very nice, very nice little treat there. And then Joseph came before Pharaoh and Pharaoh told him his dream about those seven fat, happy cows and then how they got sick and sad. And Joseph said, in seven years, there will be a famine. Do you know what a famine is? It's when no food and no plants grow and no rain falls from the sky. So all the land gets really, really sick. And Joseph said, in seven years, there's going to be a famine, but you have been warned. So you may start planning now to save up enough food and enough water so that everyone has enough to eat for when the famine comes. And Pharaoh said, this man is full of Ruach Elohim. This is really interesting. Can you say that's a very fancy word, Ruach Elohim? Ruach Elohim, that is Hebrew for the spirit of God. So anytime we hear Ruach Elohim in the Hebrew in the Bible, our ears ought to pay attention. And how interesting that a man who did not know God and did not know God's stories could still see the Ruach Elohim, just like the Canaanite woman in today's gospel. So Pharaoh said, Joseph, thank you for this dream. Do you happen to have any experience managing a house? And Joseph said, would you believe it? It's all over my CV. So Joseph was appointed in charge of all of Pharaoh's house and Joseph made sure that they had enough grain, they had enough flour. Have you ever baked something, maybe? I know you've baked something. They had enough flour to make sure they would have enough bread to eat for years to come. Now here comes the best part of the story. Are your listening ears on? Are your looking eyes open? Because this part is great. That's okay. Do you remember Joseph's brothers? Remember how jealous they were of Joseph, how sad and mad and how they had done a very bad thing to Joseph? Well, here's the thing. The famine that came to Egypt did not just come to Egypt. It came to all the lands far and wide, which meant Joseph's brothers were very, very hungry and none of their plants were growing in the ground. So they said, we need to go to Egypt because we have heard there's food there. So all 11 brothers walked very far to Egypt and they walked into the palace and they said, can we speak to the person who's in charge of Pharaoh's household and all of his food? And who was that person? It was Joseph. And Joseph saw his 11 brothers who had hurt him so badly and he recognized them. But do you think they recognized him? No, they didn't. So Joseph wept. Joseph now felt angry and sad because they had done a bad thing to him. But Joseph also believed that there was so much more than jealousy. There was so much more than doing more bad and more sad. Joseph believed in something called mercy. Can you say that word? Mercy. Mercy is when we believe there is more than what we can see. So Joseph began to weep. Joseph said, my brothers, do you recognize me? And at first all 11 of his brothers were very scared because not only did they not have anything to eat, the person who was now in charge of making sure they got food was the person they had done this very bad thing to. And they thought, oh no, maybe Joseph is going to punish us. Maybe Joseph is gonna take out his revenge on us because he's so angry at us. That wouldn't be nice, but we kind of understand why he would. But Joseph said, what you intended for evil, God has used for good. Joseph said that the person whom the hurt had been done to got to tell the story of how God was there in the pit with him. Joseph said, what you intended for evil, God has used for good. And I have for you, my brothers, enough bread for you and for my father and for all of us. We all get to eat because mercy means there is more of God than any evil in the world. And with that, Joseph's dreams, which were in color came true. Joseph's dreams of his brothers and his father and his mother bowing down before him came true. Not because Joseph was someone to be worshiped, but because he believed in God's mercy to help them. And that's why on the front, I know it's very fun to touch. Don't you worry, girl, you live with this jacket. You can touch it anytime. Do you see this? What's this? A butterfly. Do we have a lot of butterflies at Jubilee? Yeah, do you know why? We have a lot of butterflies at Jubilee because we love them, but butterflies are symbols of resurrection. Butterflies are symbols of an extravagant harvest. Butterflies are symbols that there is always enough to eat. There is always abundance for everyone more than the evil of God. And so I have something for all of you, my little friends. Reverend Tishara, would you help me with this? Yes. So I know, I wish I could make you all a Joseph Technicolor Disco Cape of many colors and dreams. But you see here, all these fun colored stripes. These are, imagine, I want you to use your imagination. Can you touch, can you tap on your imagination? These are each a stripe, a thread in Joseph's coat of many colors. So when you start school, or if you've been in school for a while, you can look at your little stripe, your little piece of Joseph's coat, and remember to dream in color and that mercy is always more. And we have enough for everyone, but we're gonna just right now hand them to our friends and make sure we pass them out the offertory. Girlfriend, I know you want pink. Here, you wanna help?