Southwest Community Church
September 20, 2026
  • Blessed Be Your Name
  • What A Beautiful Name

  • Connecting - with God’s mission - at the Table

    Our series on connecting at the Table will give us some opportunity to wonder together about what Communion means and how we might participate more fully in it. Sometimes called The Table. Sometimes the Lord’s Supper. Sometimes communion. And sometimes Eucharist. The meal has many names just as their are many modes of eating it. Practices differ regionally and depending on tradition. And then, even congregation to congregation, we will find little nuances here and there.
    Two weeks ago, we examined the reality of the Table as a place where we connect with God. Reading from Genesis and thinking about the symbols of Ark and Rainbow from the Noah story, we considered how they point us towards God’s provision (Ark) and promise (rainbow). Then, as we looked at the Table as a sacrament (a symbol made special because of God’s invitation and instruction - like baptism and communion). And we saw how God’s provision and promise are also shown to us at the Table.
    Last week, we considered how this table connects us to one another. [more]
    This week, we’ll consider how this table connects us to God’s mission - joining God in what God is up to… this table gathers us but then also propels us out into the world God loves to share what we’ve received here.
    And then, next week we’ll explore the table as a place that weaves our stories into the story of God which will braid all these themes together.
    None of these themes stay neatly in their lanes… there is much overlap and cross-fertilization. Which is a beautiful thing. And so each week, we also are looking at a part of the Old Testament narrative.
    As we look at these texts, we see a bit of who God is, and how God is revealed through these ancient parts of the biblical narrative. And then we get to look to see if there are connections to be made at the Table.
    Reading intro: What do you know about the story of Joseph as told in Genesis 37-50
    Major themes & moments:
    Favourite
    Dreams
    Brothers fake his death/sell him into slavery
    Potiphar’s house
    False accusation
    Prison dream interpreter
    Pharoah’s dreams
    Rise to power & position in Egypt - Pharoah’s “right hand man”
    Famine
    Forgiveness
    Family resettlement - honour Jacob’s wishes to be buried in Canaan, but the family is now in Egypt
    As Lorina comes, she’s going to read a summary of the story - so this is NOT a scripture reading
    In the Joseph story, I wonder if there is someone you identify with?
    Joseph? the favourite, but also the misunderstood one? the one who rises from the disaster only to be pushed down yet again?
    The brothers - an idea spins out of control and now what? a famine arises and your family will starve… how can we trust this brother we betrayed to now be the source of our salvation?
    Jacob - the loss of a child, the eventual realization of what your children have done to one another, the relief, but also the disorientation of learning the “real” story after so many years of believing and grieving - yes, Joseph was alive, but what grief came when Jacob learned what his other sons had done
    A story like this one is rooted in the idea of a LONG arc. If we take any one piece of the story, we can get stuck. But taken as a long arc, it is a story of deep hope. Of joy. Of reconciliation. Of redemption.
    AJ Ochart is a scholar and pastor whose work I have appreciated over the last few years. And he points out a few connections in the Joseph story to the wider narrative…
    Dominion
    There is this idea woven into the creation narratives of Genesis 1 & 2 that humanity, bearing the image of their Creator are meant to steward creation (or to “exercise dominion”). As we saw, the spiral demonstrated that humans were often spectacularly unfaithful in their role as image bearers.
    Joseph, for all his faults, demonstrates some good image bearing - he is in or returns to being in right relationship with God, with those around him, and with creation… and we see this most clearly when he works to gather food during the years of good harvest in order to be prepared for the years of famine. God’s provision is seen once again through the image bearer Joseph.
    ++Blessing
    In the Joseph story, we also see God’s blessing - like that promised to Abraham - in the flourishing that seems to mark Joseph’s life even after suffering devastating the blows being sold into slavery - rises to a position of trust & authority in Potiphar’s house - and then the second blow being falsely accused by Potiphar’s wife - rises to be Pharoah’s right hand man.
    This reminds us that the blessing of God doesn’t mean that everything goes his way. But God’s blessing continues through the hardship and eventually comes to fruition.
    ++The Test
    Tests appear all through scripture - Adam & Eve tested with fruit, Abraham tested with the sacrifice of Isaac, The Israelites tested many times and of course Jesus tested in the wilderness.
    In the situation with Potiphar’s wife, Joseph passes the test - he handles himself well in a situation that offered him multiple opportunities, but there are consequences. She is in a position of power and his refusal brings another blow. We like a story where we pass the test and ride off into the sunset. But Joseph passes the test and lands in prison.
    ++Justice
    This leads to the fourth theme AJ points out. JUSTICE. Or, in some ways, perhaps the theme in Joseph’s story is INjustice.
    “He is in the right, he does the right thing morally, and he is still sent to prison. This directly goes against our innate sense of justice, especially the simplistic justice of ‘good things happen to those who are righteous, and bad things happen to those who are not’ that we see throughout Scripture and [western] culture.”
    “The story of Joseph plays with the assumptions and implications of justice and injustice. Joseph is at the mercy of other, first his brothers, then Potiphar and his wife, then the jailor, and so on. The injustice that he experiences… is not earned, and yet God makes good out of these bad situations. In the end, Joseph says (multiple times) that while his brothers (and everyone else) had meant these actions for Joseph’s harm, that God meant them for good.”
    Genesis 50:20 NRSVue
    20 Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good, in order to preserve a numerous people, as he is doing today.
    A story like this, much like the larger story of Scripture, reminds us of the long arc. The idea that we’re not inhabiting a 20 min short story, or sit com where everything is resolved tidily. We are in this longer story of God’s work in the world.
    And the prevailing sense I get from tracing the Joseph story is that of HOPE. There is more going on that what Joseph might have been able to see. There is more going on than what Jacob would have been able to see. There is more going on than the brothers would ever have been able to dream.
    The Table is also a place where we recognize that same hope.
    The Table is a place where we are invited to see that there is more going on.
    When we are invited to the Table, we may be living in a moment where we feel particularly disconnected from God, from one another, or from what God is doing to renew all of creation…
    but when we come to the table, we’re invited to get swept up in those connections.
    The Table is a place where we meet God and see what God is like (not the only place, but this is a place God has invited us and promised to meet us!)
    The Table is a place where we discover a shared centre. This table is why we belong to one another, even if there are many things that would suggest we should otherwise be divided. We belong to one another because we have been invited to this Table by the One who also then hosts the meal and gives us himself. Jesus is our shared centre, Jesus is what we have in common even if we have other things that we don’t share or don’t understand about one another.
    And the Table is where our hope is found. Hope that is anchored in the future - in Jesus promise to renew all things. And that hope allows us to tell the truth about the present moment and to take action that participates in what God is doing in the world. Sometimes, I think we downgrade hope to “optimism” … or just plain, “don’t worry, it will all be okay”… but there are plenty of things in our world and in our own lives, that are NOT OKAY. And hope doesn’t mean calling the not okay or even evil things okay, or not a big deal. Hope is deeper and more robust than that.
    In his book, A Holy Meal, Gordon Smith writes this:
    Gordon T. Smith: [Hope] “allows us to see our circumstances clearly, recognizing the presence and power of all that is wrong, and not sentimentalize or overly dramatize all that we think is wrong. In other words, the genius of living with hope is that we are able to describe reality without downplaying the wrong or, conversely, having to be fearmongers. Hope enables us both to see and to act truthfully.”
    When we encounter this table as a place of hope, it results in two things:
    JOY - When we see who God is and what God is like at this Table.
    When we discover that we are part of a community not built upon shared socio economic status or political opinions or whatever preferences and experiences we sometimes think are crucial to who we are.
    When we find that we are invited to participate with God in God’s mission to make all things new…
    Joy bubbles up. Joy is an indicator of hope.
    And when we see who God is and what God is like
    When we encounter one another and discover that we are part of God’s ever growing family, invited to live as a community that exists because of our shared orientation towards Jesus
    When we hear the call to participate in the renewal and recreation of the world God loves
    That hope also manifests in what Gordon Smith calls generous, active, sacrficial service…
    He describes it like this: “If our joy is not matched by concrete action in the world, if our renewed hope does not infuse our lives with both joy and engagement, then something is amiss, for the Lord’s Supper is not an escape or an act by which we look to the future because we have given up on the present. Just the opposite. We are enabled to live with joy in the present, and we are enabled to make a difference in the present. This is the fruit of hope.
    God writes long stories.
    Which means that we trust that God is still working. Even in the face of truly hard things.
    Because of stories like that of Joseph, we look at other stories, including our own, and declare as we gather at this table that no situation is inherently hopeless. And then, as we are nourished here, included in what God is doing in the world, we also listen in for how we might be being invited to allow the joy to spill over into generous, active, sacrificial service of some kind.
    Where are you noticing what is wrong? How are you being invited to work towards the righting of that wrong? What is God doing there in that place, in that situation? Who is already there? Who needs help?
    Two examples…
    This week, Canada celebrates the National Day for Truth & Reconciliation - how might you choose to participate, to respond to the invitation that Indigenous communities are offering settler Canadians to join in and learn together so that we might tell the truth about the past and the present and then create a different kind of future together?
    We heard today about the trip to Kapsowar. Fixing the injustice that some parts of the world have had access to and control of wealth and technology and healthcare and … often at the expense of those nations who we extracted resources from. That’s not something any one of us can solve. But the work of Kapsowar Mission Hospital exists to serve their patients as Jesus would. Believing each person is made in God's image and therefore full of dignity. Maybe you can’t GO with Gerhard and the team to install solar panels so that the hospital can function in a better way, but you can pray. You can tell them you’re behind them and are with them and see the value in what they’re doing. And, if you’re able, you can contribute towards the financial realities of making this trip happen.
    Communion
    This is the table, not of the Church, but of the Lord. It is to be made ready for those who love him and who want to love him more.
    So, come, If you have much faith and if you have little, if you have been here often and if you have not been for a long time, if you have tried to follow and if you have failed.
    Come, not because it is I who invite you: it is our Lord. It is his will that those who want him should meet him here.
    A communion song may be sung here.
    THE STORY
    On the night on which Jesus was betrayed, he sat at supper with his disciples. While they were eating, he took a piece of bread, said a blessing, broke it, and gave it to them with the words, ‘This is my body. It is for you. Do this to remember me.’ Later, he took a cup of wine, saying, ‘This cup is God’s new covenant, sealed with my blood. Drink from it, all of you, to remember me’.
    So now, following Jesus’ example and command, we take this bread and this wine, the ordinary things of the world which Christ will make special. And as he said a prayer before sharing, let us do so too.
    PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING
    This may be said extempore or using a written prayer such as the following
    Gratitude, praise, hearts lifted high, voices full and joyful: these you deserve.
    For when we were nothing, you made us something. When we had no name and no faith and no future, you called us your children. When we lost our way or turned away, you did not abandon us. When we came back to you, your arms opened wide in welcome.
    And look, you prepare a table for us offering not just bread, not just wine, but your very self so that we may be filled, forgiven, healed, blessed and made new again. You are worth all our pain and all our praise.
    So now, in gratitude, we join our voices to those of the Church on earth and in heaven:
    The Sanctus may be spoken or sung
    Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might. Heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest.
    Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.
    The prayer continues
    Lord God, as we come to share the richness of your table, we cannot forget the rawness of the earth.
    We cannot take bread and forget those who are hungry. Your world is one world and we are stewards of its nourishment. Lord, put our prosperity at the service of the poor.
    We cannot take wine and forget those who are thirsty. The ground and the rootless, the earth and its weary people cry out for justice. Lord, put our fullness at the service of the empty.
    We cannot hear your words of peace and forget the world at war or, if not at war, then preparing for it. Show us quickly, Lord, how to turn weapons into welcome signs and the lust for power into a desire for peace.
    We cannot celebrate the feast of your family and forget our divisions. We are one in spirit, but not in fact. History and hurt still dismember us. Lord, heal our church in every brokenness. Amen.
    THE SHARING
    Taking and breaking the bread
    Among friends, gathered round a table, Jesus took bread, broke it and said, ‘This is my body, it is for you’.
    Taking the cup of wine
    And later he took the cup of wine and said, ‘This is the new relationship with God, made possible because of my death. Take this – all of you – to remember me’.
    Look, here is your Lord coming to you in bread and wine.
    These are the gifts of God for the people of God.
    The bread and wine are shared according to the appropriate custom. A quiet prayer song may be sung as the elements are distributed.
    THE PEACE
    Christ who has nourished us, is our peace. Strangers and friends, male and female, old and young, he has broken down the barriers to bind us to him and to each other.
    Having tasted his goodness, let us share his peace.
    The peace of the Lord be always with you.
    And also with you.
    The peace may be shared, giving time for participants to greet each other.
    CONCLUDING PRAYER
    Lord Jesus Christ, you have put your life into our hands; now we put our lives into yours. Take us, renew and remake us. What we have been is past what we shall be, through you, still awaits us.
    Lead us on. Take us with you. Amen.
    Or
    Loving God, we thank you that you have nourished us at this table. We pray for those who hunger and thirst – may they be filled! And may we, with them, feast at the table of your eternal kingdom. This we ask through Jesus Christ, who was and is and is to come, and who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever. Amen.

      • Genesis 12:1–9NRSVUE

      • Galatians 3:26–29NIV2011

  • O Taste and See
  • Holy Spirit
Southwest Community Church
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