Christ Church Sermons

In the sixth week of our sermon series, The Gospel According to Joseph, we focus on Joseph’s rise to leadership in Egypt: how he faithfully and effectively interprets Pharaoh’s dreams and credits God with providing a path of survival during the coming famine. Bishop Paul reminds us that Joseph’s fruitful life ultimately points to what Jesus has done for us. We are God’s fruit—the joy set before Jesus at the cross—and our lives can be faithful, effective, and fruitful because of him.

The Right Reverend Alan Hawkins, Bishop of our Diocese of Christ Our Hope, examines the parable of the landowner who hires workers at all hours yet pays them each equally. In this parable, Jesus reveals how God gives his lavish grace fully to all, and lest we complain by comparing our situation with others, we must take joy in God’s generosity.

In the fifth week of The Gospel According to Joseph, Bishop Paul teaches that Joseph remains faithful during his time in prison, because he knows that God is: present with him, purposeful in the “pit experiences,” and trustworthy to fulfill his promises. Like Joseph, we come to our own “pit experiences” that may feel unjust, unending, and unexplained. Yet God invites us, like Joseph, to trust him even here.

In a world marked by conflict, the church has an opportunity to show a better way. In Matthew 18, Jesus gives his people a biblical and brilliant path toward reconciliation—not an advanced technique, but basic Christianity. When brothers and sisters pursue one another in love and live in harmony, the church becomes a powerful witness to the gospel that brings unlikely people together—and keeps them together.

In the fourth week of The Gospel According to Joseph, Bishop Paul teaches how Joseph resisted temptation at a great personal cost. Yet Joseph is not the hero of the story—God is. When our own strength fails, God remains with us, giving grace in our hardest moments of temptation. Joseph does what is good not by grit, but by grace. His story points ultimately to Jesus, the one greater than Joseph who helps us to live from the reality of our baptism more and more.