The Messiah’s Secret – How Great is our God

Readings Genesis 50: 4-26.  Mark 6: 45-52.  

Jesus in faith proved that he was greater than Moses when he walked on the waters of Galilee. Moses crossed the Red Sea by walking on dry land after God held back the Sea. 

Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water towards Jesus. He began to sink as his faith weakened. Jesus’ response to him, “O man of little faith, why did you doubt.” Matthew 14: 31  

Joseph was a man of faith, his faith increased as he suffered the trials of life. He prospered because of his faith in God.  

Joseph’s Story.    

 In the Hebrew Bible Jacob is the son of Isaac and Rebekah, the grandson of Abraham, Sarah and the younger twin brother of Esau. Jacob had twelve sons, by his two wives, Leah and Rachel and by their handmaidens Bilhah and Zilpah. The sons were Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issacher, Zebulun, Joseph and Benjamin.  

Joseph was one of the two sons by Rachel, Benjamin was the other son and the youngest of Jacobs twelve sons. Joseph was seventeen when Jacob gave him a robe that he had made, a coat of many colours.  The brothers of Joseph knew that Jacob loved him more than any of them and when Joseph shared with them his dreams they began to hate him and as a result they despised him enough to want to kill him.

Joseph’s dreams   

 “Behold we were binding sheaves in the field, and lo, my sheaf arose and stood upright; and behold, your sheaves gathered round it, and bowed down to my sheaf.” When the brothers heard this they were indignant towards him. Joseph had another dream and he told it to his brothers, “Behold, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” His father rebuked him saying, “Shall I and your mother and your brothers indeed come and bow ourselves to the ground before you?”   

Jacob sent Joseph to his brothers who were watching the sheep at Shechem. When he arrived there he found that they had moved on to Dotham. When his brothers saw him coming they plotted to kill him and throw him into a pit. Only Reuben didn’t want him killed, so he requested that they should not take his life before throwing him into the pit. Reuben had planned to rescue Joseph later.  They stripped him of his robe and threw him into a waterless pit. However, Judah spoke up when he saw the Ishmaelite traders in the distance and suggested that they should sell Joseph to them. But before this could take place, some Midianite traders passing by pulled Joseph out of the pit and they took him and sold him to the Ishmaelite traders for 20 shekels. (RSV Bible NIV Bible says the brothers pulled Joseph out of the pit and sold him to the Ishmaelites.) When Reuben saw that Joseph was no longer in the pit he was very upset he did not know what had become of Joseph. The other brothers dipped Joseph’s coat in goat’s blood and took it home to show Jacob suggesting that a wild animal had killed him. Genesis 37    

Chapter 39.     

 The Ishmaelites took Joseph to Egypt where they sold him to Potiphar, the captain of Pharaoh’s guard. The Lord was with Joseph and he was successful in all his endeavours. Potiphar made him overseer of his house and field. Joseph was handsome and attracted the attention of Potiphar’s wife, but Joseph refused her advances towards him. However, one day Joseph was in the house attending to his work when Potiphar’s wife tried to seduce him. In his haste to free himself from her, she held onto his garment as he was fleeing out of the house. Afterwards she accused Joseph to her husband of trying to seduce her. Potiphar arrested Joseph and took him to the king’s prison where he was imprisoned.  

Chapter 40.   

 The Lord loved Joseph and upheld him, the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph the care of the prisoners.  Two prisoners Pharaoh’s butler and baker were also in the prison. One night they both had dreams each dream had its own meaning: Joseph interpreted the butler’s dream – “In my dream there was a vine before me, and on the vine there were three branches; as soon as it budded, its blossoms shot forth and the clusters ripened into grapes. Pharaoh’s cup was in my hand; and I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh’s cup and placed the cup in his hand.” Joseph said to him this is the interpretation: the three branches are three days; within three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your office; and you shall place Pharaoh’s cup in his hand as formerly, when you were his butler.” Joseph asked the butler if he would remember him as he had done nothing deserving imprisonment.

When the baker saw that the interpretation was favourable, he told Joseph his dream, “There were three cake baskets on my head and in the uppermost basket there were all sorts of baked food for Pharaoh. But the birds were eating it out of the basket on my head. Joseph interpreted the dream – “The three baskets are three days within three days Pharaoh will lift up your head – from you – and hang you on a tree and the birds will eat the flesh from you.”   Both dreams were fulfilled on the third day which was Pharaoh’s birthday. But the butler did not remember Joseph, he forgot him.   

Chapter 41      

After being 2 years in prison Joseph was summoned by Pharaoh to interpret his dreams. The first dream – “There came up out of the Nile seven cows sleek and fat, and thy fed in the reed grass. And behold seven other cows, gaunt and thin, came up out of the Nile after them, and stood by the other cows on the bank of the Nile. The gaunt cows and thin cows ate up the seven sleek and fat cows. 

The second dream,” Behold seven ears of grain, plump and good, were growing on one stalk. And behold, after them sprouted seven ears, thin and blighted by the eat wind. And the thin ears swallowed up the seven plump and full ears.”     

Verse 25, Joseph interpreted the dreams: “The dream of the Pharaoh is one; God has revealed in Pharaoh what he is about to do. The seven good cows are seven good years and the seven good ears are seven years; the dream is one. The seven lean and gaunt cows that came up after them are seven years, and the seven empty ears blighted by the east wind are also seven years of famine. There will be seven years of plenty throughout all the land of Egypt, but after them there will arise seven years of famine.” Joseph proposed that Pharaoh should put in place overseers to gather all the food in the good years and store it in the cities. The food will be a reserve against the seven years of famine.   

The proposal was accepted by Pharaoh and his servants. In response to this Pharaoh made Joseph head over his house and governor over all the land of Egypt, bestowing upon him his signet ring and gave him fine linen garments and a gold chain. He was second only to Pharaoh, he rode behind him in his second chariot. Pharaoh gave Joseph in marriage to the daughter of Potiphar’s priest of On. Joseph was 30 years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh. The seven years that followed the grain was stored in the cities in readiness for the famine. Before the year of the famine started Joseph had two sons Manasseh and Ephriam. Manasseh – “For, he said, “God has made me forget all my hardship and my entire father’s house.” Ephraim -  “For God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction.” Joseph opened the stores of grain as the famine told hold.    

Chapter 42    

The famine was server not just in Egypt but all over the region. When Jacob heard that Egypt had grain he sent 10 of his sons to buy grain. The brothers of Joseph came before him in their request to buy grain. Joseph knew who they were when they said that they had come from Canaan, but he did not let them know who he was. He treated them like strangers and spoke roughly to them. Joseph remembered his dream.   

Instead of revealing who he was he accused them of being spies, in response they gave account of their family; they were sons of one man and were honest. In verse 29 “We are twelve brothers, sons of one father; one is no more, and the youngest this day with our father in the land of Canaan. Then the man, the lord of the land said to us, ‘By this I shall know that you are honest men:  leave one of your brothers with me, and take grain for the famine of your households, and go your way. Bring your youngest brother to me; then I shall know that you are not spies but honest men, and I will deliver to you your brother, and you shall trade in the land.”  Joseph had ordered that the money should be put in the brother’s sacks as well as the grain. When they saw the money Jacob was perplexed and worried, he was afraid of losing  two sons, Simeon and Benjamin the son of Rachel.

Chapter 43     
The famine continued, Jacob had relented and said that Benjamin could go with them, so he sent his sons to Egypt again to buy grain. Jacob insisted that they should take double the money for the grain that they had already received and for the grain they hoped to purchase and also take with them gifts of fruit, balm, honey, gum, myrrh, pistachio nuts and almonds.      

When they arrived in Egypt, Joseph saw Benjamin was with them. He ordered his steward to prepare a meal for them at his house. They were a little concerned and afraid that it might be a trick to capture and enslave them. When Joseph came home he greeted them and inquired about the welfare of their father and asked if he was still alive. He asked if this was their younger brother, they replied that he was. Joseph was overwhelmed with joy at seeing his brother Benjamin he sought a place to go and weep.  After he had composed himself he returned and together with his brothers they ate the meal.    

Chapter 44    

While they were eating, the steward filled the sacks and also placed their money in them  before they left for Canaan. Joseph also had instructed his steward to place his silver cup in Benjamin’s sack along with his money in payment for the grain. The brothers set out for Canaan, but only after going a short distance Joseph sent his steward to search for his cup and apprehend the one who had it and to let the others go.   

 Every one of them lowered their sack and it was searched, the steward found the cup in Benjamin’s sack, he was bound and taken back to the city. The brothers returned to the city to Joseph’s house and before Joseph they pleaded that he should not keep Benjamin from his father Jacob. Judah related to Joseph his father’s distress on sending Benjamin to Egypt as he was afraid of losing another of Rachel’s son.  

Chapter 45     

Hearing this from Judah Joseph could not control himself and he sent away his servants, only he and his brothers remained. Joseph made himself known to his brothers and he wept aloud. He inquired after his father, but his brothers were dismayed at his presence. “So Joseph beckoned them to come near to him where upon he told them not to fear or be angry with yourselves, because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years; and there are five years in which there will be neither ploughing nor harvest. And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God.”  Joseph bid them go and tell his father that he was alive and he had the authority to give to them the land of Goshen.  When Pharaoh heard he welcomed Joseph’s family to come and live in Egypt. When Jacob heard that Joseph was still alive and ruler over all Egypt, he found it hard to believe, but when he saw the waggons that Joseph had sent he believed. “It is enough; Joseph my son is still alive; and I will go and see him before I die.”

All the persons of the house of Jacob that went to live in Egypt were seventy. Jacob was 130 years of age when they entered Egypt and he died aged 147. Joseph died in Egypt 110 years of age. Genesis 50: 22.   

 Chapter 47: 29-31. 49: 31.  

Jacob had discussed with Joseph where he wanted to be buried, he wanted to be buried in Canaan near to where Abraham, Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah and Leah, so Joseph asked Pharaoh if he and his family could go to the place of burial at Atad in Canaan. Pharaoh consented.     

Joseph a type of Christ.

The brothers had heeded Joseph’s words about God having allowed his suffering and being treated with contempt by his brothers. Joseph a type of Christ in his suffering and being thrown into a pit to die, signifying Christ’s death and when he was pulled out of the pit by the Midianite traders it was like Jesus’ resurrection. 
Joseph being sold into slavery and was redeemed from slavery and imprisonment by God through Pharaoh having appreciated his interpretation of his dream, he was raised up to sit in the second chariot after Pharaoh. 
Jesus was redeemed resurrected by God and raised up to be seated at the right hand of the throne of God, where he intercedes for those  who come to him in faith.         
Joseph's brothers sought his forgiveness, but Joseph reminded them that he was not God. 
Jesus forgives those who come to him in repentance and faith. 

Jane's True Testimony (I know this dear lady personally)
In Sept 1989 Jane who had no links with any church met Jesus as she walked along the disused railway line with her dogs.
“First I would like to explain that I finally forgiven someone, I mean truly forgiven. A few days later I was walking along the disused railway in Helmshore with our dogs. It was a pleasant day, very still. I felt a wind blow up, but nothing was moving. I saw in front of me a life size Jesus on the cross. He was dead, his body grey, stone like, I couldn’t bear to look, I turned away. I felt all the wrong that I had done being taken away from me, but I didn’t want him to, because I physically felt the pain that I had caused him. I felt ashamed and started crying. The next minute I felt a presence next to me. I wasn’t sure if it was Jesus or God, but I couldn’t see anyone. All the weight I had been carrying inside had been taken away. I felt so happy, so clean. Everywhere was so beautiful, the colours were so bright, I had never seen colour like it before.” 

Joseph's brothers had repented 
"So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, "Your father gave us command before he died, Say to Joseph, Forgive, I pray you, the transgressions of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you.' And now, we pray you, for give the transgressions of the servants of the God of your father." Joseph wept as they spoke to him. His brothers also came and fell down before him, and said, "Behold, we are your servants." But Joseph said to them, “Fear not, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.” Thus he reassured them and comforted them.” 50: 16-21.

While Jesus  he was dying on the cross, he said "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." Jesus forgave the sins of Israel and all of those who had brought charges against him. Luke 23: 34.

Joseph saved Jacob and his sons and their families, “God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth.” Genesis 45: 7.                                                                                              
The Messiah’s Secret  
Jesus Christ would have saved the nation of Israel had the leaders recognised him after his ascension when the disciples of Jesus proclaimed for the first time at Pentecost that Jesus was the Christ, God meant his suffering for good, fulfilling Joseph's words. 
"Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs which God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know ------this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. But God raised him up, having loosed the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. " Acts 2: 22-24. Peter continued to witness that Jesus had fulfilled King David's prophecy of the Messiah's bodily resurrection. 
Those Jews who accepted Jesus proclaimed him to the Jew first and then to the Gentiles. Jesus the Saviour of the world.  

Jacob crossing the Jordan in his death was prophetic of the journey that Joshua made leading the Israelites into the Promised Land and of Jesus’ Baptism.                       

Jacob’s funeral was like our state funeral were high ranking people in society pay their respects to the death of a leader or a royal person. Thousands of his own relatives plus Egyptian men and women made the journey to Atad situated beyond the Jordan near to where it flows into the Salt Sea.  

When Joshua was about to enter the Promised Land, the priests were to carry the Ark of the Covenant and stand in the middle of the Jordan, as they did so the river stood in a heap and the Israelites crossed over on dry land. Afterwards the river returned to normal. Joshua 3: 8. 4: 15-18. 

 Baptism     

The Ark symbolising God’s presence, his meeting place between the Cherubim on the lid of the Ark where the sacrificial blood was sprinkled by the high priest on the Day of Atonement. We see this in the tomb situation when Mary looked into the tomb and saw two angels one where his feet had been and the other where his head had laid. Jesus having made the sacrifice of himself, the final atonement for sin and the causes of sin against our Holy God. God raised Jesus up from the dead and in his resurrection he has redeemed us. Redeemed by his blood and set free into the freedom of his forgiveness. Water a symbol  cleansing in dying to sin and being raised up from death in being filled with the eternal Holy Spirit.   

This scene a picture of our baptism.  
In faith we enter into Jesus’ baptism through acknowledging our sin against God; we step down into the river where the water had been, we look to the middle of the river and see Jesus on the cross and his offering of himself to take our sin upon him. As we look into his face we ask for forgiveness and then we move towards the other side of the river and step out onto the land, we have been raised with Christ into his kingdom.                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

The  Messiah’s Secret – Jesus the Bridge

 Colossians 1: 15-28. Luke 10: 38-42.

Above a children's story about three goats who wanted to cross over the bridge to go to church on the other side of the river, but the monster on the bridge tried to stop them. The last goat tossed the monster over the bridge 'splash' and he was never seen again. 

The pull of the world will stop us from crossing over the bridge that God has provided in Jesus. The Lord Jesus will help us to overcome all the things that would stop us: it might be that we have no one to go with. When we don't know what to do we say a prayer telling God what our problem might be and so we leave it with Him.
 I know a young lady who as a young child regularly on a Sunday morning would go and sit alone in her local church graveyard and she listened to the people singing, she longed to go in and join them. When she grew up she told her family she wanted to become a Christian, although her family didn't approve as they followed the Islamic faith, seeing her determination they eventually understood. Jesus answered her prayer when the time was right.

 Mary's Church  'Away Day.'  Rev Mark Cowley began by mentioning a little of his background: Before the Lord called him to become a Vicar in the Church of England he worked as a Medical Engineer. Three men in particular who he worked with: John Charmers, John Murphy and Kevin Hardy they had perfected the world renowned ‘hip replacement’ joint that is so successful in orthopaedic surgery.  He described the three men as being totally different in mannerisms, background and personality. But that did not affect their ability to work together with amazing results.   

During the second session in the afternoon he showed us this picture below:

We realised that the river had changed its course and the bridge stood on its own. 

The Honduran town of Choluteca needed to cross a river, so a bridge was built. In 1998 Hurricane Mitch dropped 36 inches of rain swelling the river to six times its width, destroying the road and moving the river. When the storm was over, the bridge was standing in perfect condition spanning over dry land, with no roads connected to it. 

Mark used this picture to illustrate team building: being ready to respond to the changes that may well occur in the future for instance: the Deanery having fewer clergy working in the Rossendale Valley. 

Our church St Mary’s today is made up of people who believe and witness that Jesus Christ is Lord: some  are life-long members through family connections and there are those who have joined St Mary’s through being an Anglican and some have come from having no church background that have come to faith through hearing the good news about Jesus.                                                                                              

The church at Colossae was made up of people who had come from different backgrounds and religious beliefs. A small percentage were probably Jewish people and a high percentage who had once worshiped idols, like the people on Mars Hill, Athens and some who had no religion at all. All of them had come to the knowledge that the name of Jesus stands above all of their former worship of an idol deity or ideology.

Jesus name above all names.  
Paul reminded them of the Incarnation of Jesus, that he is the name above all names, “He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation, for in him all things were created, in heaven and on the earth, visible and invisible.” Colossians 1: 15,16.   

In our nation over recent years, we are seeing more people responding to new age spirituality and it's being presented as the norm.     

On our youngest daughters’ recent home visit, she told us that she was seeking a career change, so she has started on a degree nutrition course. I asked if I could have a look at what she was studying. I recognised agnosticism and new age spirituality that was being put forward as part of the Module’s discussion on “Progress.”  

Extract from ‘Module One Ref: Slack, J. D., & Wise, J. M. 2005 ‘Progress’ in Culture and Technology: A primer (pp. 6-26). Peter Lang, New York.

“Defining Progress  

The dictionary definition of progress is to ‘move forward’. If we are walking, we’re said to be making progress down the street. If we are beginning to accomplish a task, we are said to be making progress. The dictionary meaning is, however, only the beginning of what progress means in everyday cultural sense. To move forward is to move in one direction: forward as opposed to backward. Consequently, movement forward implies a direction or goal. Similarly, making progress toward the completion of a task implies an endpoint. Progress, then, in its cultural use, is not just movement forward, but movement towards something: a goal or endpoint. If a patient is said to be making progress, he or she is moving towards the goal of health. If a disease is said to be progressing, it is advancing, presumably, towards death.

In broad cultural terms, progress is often used to underscore the belief that humankind, as a whole, moves forward. Robert Nisbet, a historian who has written extensively on progress, put it this way: “Simply stated, the idea of progress holds that mankind has advanced in the past from some aboriginal condition of primitiveness, barbarism, or even nullity (nothingness) is now advancing, and will continue to advance through the foreseeable future.”

In addition, as Nisbet sees it, this advancing is not mere movement, but a movement towards something. We are not marching blindly into a future. Rather, we are advancing towards what we envision as utopia on Earth. Things will get better and better, and eventually we will achieve what we understand to be ‘the good life.’ Progress shows us how far we have come, what we have achieved, and how much better life is now than it used to be. It also reveals to us where we think we are going.

The Goal’s of Progress

The goals or endpoints of progress are usually unstated, left for the cultural critic to determine by carefully ‘reading’ the culture. However, whether a goal is stated or not, it typically takes the form of what is considered to be ‘the good life’. Most people have a sense of what, for them, the good life entails. It typically involves some of the following: family, community, happiness, leisure, health, happiness, wealth, harmony, and so on, though not necessarily in these terms or this order. Overall, however, two types of goals are associated with progress: material betterment and moral betterment. Material betterment might mean that life is more comfortable, that we are healthier, and that we have more things, more conveniences perhaps. Moral betterment might mean that spiritually we are more enlightened and that we treat each other better and with more tolerance.

The goals of progress (again usually assumed as part of unstated cultural knowledge) usually match the fundamental values of society. Progress at a particular moment in the development of culture could be ‘a chicken in a pot,’ indicating a democratic value of universal health and physical well-being; ‘a car in every garage,’ indicating the values of widespread personal mobility and private ownership; the absence of war or violence, indicating the values of peace and spiritual enlightenment, or a combination of all three. In any given historical context, understanding the assumed goals of progress is crucial to understanding that culture."

Looking at these two Goals associated with ‘Progress’.    Material and Moral Betterment.  

Material Betterment – Progress measured and valued in material possessions, which is agnosticism.

Agnosticism – is were a person holds the view that we know nothing beyond material phenomena.

The Bible today identifies material betterment as being under  law. 

Meaning: putting our trust and investing in the pursuit of material possessions. 

Material betterment may satisfy our physical needs, but does not satisfy the inner person, the soul, which is the spiritual entity within us, our soul is constantly searching to find fulfillment and speaking from experience my soul was searching for God.  

Moral betterment – spiritually asserting self control over our nature.    

It is under the law of self improvement of human nature. Romans Chapters 7 & 8              Sadly, there won’t be an absence of war and violence because mankind’s spirituality is corrupted by anger, rivalry, jealousy, murder, lies, deceit, licentiousness, greed and the dominance of self. Mankind being a god unto himself. The Bible refers to these as sin.  

Paul’s letter to the Christians at Colossae he reminds them of their former life were their hearts and minds corrupted by sin. “And you who once were estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death.” Colossians 1: 21. 

Below a diagram showing the gulf between mankind and God. The cross is placed in the gap carrying the weight of sin and acts like a bridge..  

Jesus in his love for us, died to his own desires and accomplishments. 

His Father’s purpose in his coming as one of us was to pay the price for sin which he did on the cross. Death is the punishment for sin, Jesus took all sin and its causes and bore it on his cross and in his death we find forgiveness. 

Jesus Christ  is God’s bridge 
it is through faith in Jesus that we pass over from the deadness of our old nature to our new nature in Christ and so we begin to feel how God feels about his love for the sinner but not the sin in people’s lives.     

Paul’s letter to the Colossians. “Seeing that you have put off the old nature with its practises and have put on the new nature, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free man, but Christ is all and in all.” Colossians 3: 9,10. 

  We are all different in personalities, but when we accept Jesus into our heart we all have the same knowledge and nature of God and the same empowering of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. In the indwelling presence of Jesus we find fulfillment, as we are complete in him. The end of our life on earth is not a spiritual dead end. No we are a new creation in Christ, created by God to be his children. Children not born of flesh and blood, but born of the eternal Spirit of God. This is our hope that is shared with millions of other Christians across the world.  

A Chinese Christian Meditation taken from the book ‘From Shore to Shore’ page 46  
“Christ, Son of God, preceded all creation. He is the image of God, with all God’s majesty, power and glory. Yet he was willing to be humbled, even to be a servant.
 It was precisely because he was humbled to the lowest that God exalted him to the highest, above all things. Though he was rich, he became poor for our sake. And because he was poor. God made him heir of all creation.   
He cared for neither power nor position, nor did he seek them. He willingly humbled himself, and therefore God filled him with all things. He poured himself out, but God filled him, that all things might find their richness in him.  
When will I learn, O God, to see poverty in riches, to see humility in exaltation, to find plenty in emptiness, and empty myself, so that I may be filled with all of creation.”                                                                                                                                                
‘From Shore to Shore’ page 46 'A Chinese Christian Meditation' read in two parts.   

“Christ, Son of God, preceded all creation. He is the image of God, with all God’s majesty, power and glory. 
Jesus we recognise how you demonstrated the power and glory of God in healing sickness and disease, when you raised the dead, walked on water, manufactured bread and turned water into wine, only God could do those things.  

Yet he was willing to be humbled, even to be a servant.  
 We are your servant Jesus and we want to follow you wherever you go.                                                                                       

It was precisely because he was humbled to the lowest that God exalted him to the highest, above all things. 

Lord, it is hard to go unnoticed, but we know in our heart that it pleases you. 

Though he was rich, he became poor for our sake. And because he was poor, God made him heir of all creation. 
What we have received from you Lord, we have treasure within our being.

He cared for neither power nor position nor did he seek them. 
In his love for us he has raised us up to be his child, a child of God.

He willingly humbled himself, and therefore God filled him with all things. 
Dear Lord teach us how to pray for what pleases your heart.

He poured himself out, but God filled him, that all things might find their richness in him.  
May we give and not  count the cost, toil and not to seek for rest,and labour not seeking any reward. 

When will we learn, O God, to see poverty in riches. 
May we, Lord, put true emphasis not on the things created for our pleasure, but on knowing God himself, the provider.    

When will we learn, to see humility in exaltation.  
To trust and invest in God’s will and as Jesus was blessed by God, so should we do the same.  

When will we learn,To find plenty in emptiness, and empty ourselves, so that we may be filled with all of creation.”  
Thank you heavenly Father that we have found fulfilment in Jesus Christ.  

 (The goats and monster pulled along on curtain tracks.)