Sunday Service for 19 September 2021

19 September 2021, 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Uncovered 2
Gourock St. John’s Church of Scotland
Service prepared by the Rev. Teri Peterson
Manse phone: 632143
Email: tpeterson (at) churchofscotland.org.uk

To hear the audio recording of this service, please phone 01475 270037. It’s a local landline number so minutes should be included in your phone plan.

Prelude Music

Welcome/Announcements

Call to Worship
One: God calls, and we answer —
All: here I am.
1: God calls us into partnership, so we come to learn how to work together.
2: God calls us into the unknown, so we come to be equipped and guided.
3: God calls us to worship, so we bring our whole selves to praise and prayer.
One: Here we are,
All: committed to God’s way.

Prayer
You are a God who keeps promises and notices details, a God who gives life and laughter and a future with hope. And You are a God who demands our allegiance above all else.
We confess that we are not always prepared to give you that.
For we have forgotten, O God, that real relationship has give and take, call and response — and you made us to live fully with you. Forgive us when we have believed that trust and loyalty must mean thoughtless abdication of our own agency as your covenant partners.
We confess that it is easier to sacrifice someone than it is to hold fast to seemingly conflicting loves, and so we turn away from one another and soothe our conscience with facile platitudes. Yet you call us into community and ask us to commit ourselves to your way of gracious blessing. Forgive us when we have sacrificed our neighbours to our own rigid understanding of your will.
You see us, Lord, in all our imperfect faithfulness.
Open us to your vision, Holy God, that we may play our part to further your kingdom’s work.
And when the story is hard, we pray you would reveal your grace
shimmering at the rough edges,
reaching out from under the broken places,
begging for our attention from the thicket.
We come with our full attention to see what you would show us today,
and to walk in oneness with you and each other on this road of faith and life.
Amen.

Music
Online: Take My Life (resound worship)
In-Person:

Children’s Time

Reading: Genesis 21.1-3, 22.1-14, Robert Alter translation
After the creation story we heard last week, the story moves quickly along through the drama of the first sibling rivalry, between Cain and Abel, to the earth’s population booming and trying to come together to become like gods and build a tower to heaven, to the flood and Noah’s family and the animals floating in the ark, to the reality that violence can never stop violence, and so God commits to another path and offers the rainbow as a sign of that promise. And then we meet Abram, whom God calls to leave his family and familiar surroundings and go out into a new-to-him land. Abraham and Sarah pack up and go, trusting God to guide them and to provide what they most want: children. It’s a long journey through foreign lands, different tribes and towns and difficulties and adventures, but through it all two things are constant: God promises to make Abraham and Sarah’s descendants more numerous than the stars, and also Abraham and Sarah have no children. Today we hear about that promise finally being fulfilled, when Sarah and Abraham were in their 90s!
A couple of years after their son Isaac is born, however, jealousy flared between Sarah and the slavegirl Hagar, who had previously borne a son to Abraham, named Ishmael. Sarah and Abraham sent Hagar and Ishmael away, throwing them out of the house to fend for themselves in the desert. When their food and water ran out, Hagar left Ishmael alone and travelled on until she couldn’t see or hear him, so she would not have to see him die. Both of them cried out, and God heard them and opened Hagar’s eyes to see a well, providing just what they needed to go on, so that Ishmael too would carry his part of God’s promise to his father Abraham, to be a great nation.
~~~~~

The Lord singled out Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as he had spoken. And Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abraham in his old age at the set time that God had spoken to him. And Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore him, Isaac.
…
And it happened after these things that God tested Abraham. And he said to him, “Abraham!” and he said, “Here I am.” And he said, “Take, pray, your son, your only one, whom you love, Isaac, and go forth to the land of Moriah and offer him up as a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I shall say to you.” And Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey and took his two lads with him, and Isaac his son, and he split wood for the offering, and rose and went to the place that God had said to him. On the third day Abraham raised his eyes and saw the place from afar. And Abraham said to his lads, “Sit you here with the donkey and let me and the lad walk ahead and let us worship and return to you.” And Abraham took the wood for the offering and put it on Isaac his son and he took in his hand the fire and the cleaver, and the two of them went together. And Isaac said to Abraham his father, “Father!” and he said, “Here I am, my son.” And he said, “Here is the fire and the wood but where is the sheep for the offering?” And Abraham said, “God will see to the sheep for the offering, my son.” And the two of them went together. And they came to the place that God had said to him, and Abraham built there an altar and laid out the wood and bound Isaac his son and placed him on the altar on top of the wood. And Abraham reached out his hand and took the cleaver to slaughter his son. And the Lord’s messenger called out to him from the heavens and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” and he said, “Here I am.” And he said, “Do not reach out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him, for now I know that you fear God and you have not held back your son, your only one, from me.” And Abraham raised his eyes and saw and, look, a ram was caught in the thicket by its horns, and Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up as a burnt offering instead of his son. And Abraham called the name of the place “He sees”, as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord there is sight.”

For the word of God in scripture,
For the word of God among us,
For the word of God within us,
Thanks be to God.

Sermon: What God Learned
This is a pretty terrible story.

Actually not just pretty terrible, it’s very terrible.

Abraham had just sent Ishmael and Hagar away, casting them out into the desert with only a couple days of supplies, and hoping that he could indeed trust God to provide for them — sacrificing one son to his wife’s jealousy. And now he’s being asked to sacrifice the other, this time with his own knife. And again he says nothing, just does it.

This is a man who argued with God, negotiating to ensure that no innocents were collateral damage at the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham convinced God to spare the entire city if only ten people could be found doing the right thing, and when they couldn’t, God rescued the one faithful family first. Abraham laughed in God’s face at the idea he would become a father in his old age, and he talked with God about other options for his inheritance. And yet when finally the promise comes true, the one child who would carry on his name and the covenant to be a blessing to the world, Abraham was willing to let it all go without a single question. God did ask politely, saying please — which is unusual! — but still.

Though it does say he was up very early in the morning…perhaps he was having trouble sleeping. I know I would. I would be lying in my bed thinking about that phrase “Here I am”…the Hebrew word is “hineni” and it’s not just like “I’m over here” but like “I’m all in, fully committed” — it’s the word Abraham used when he heard the voice call his name. Before he actually knew what God was going to ask, he had proclaimed his commitment. I would be lying there wishing I’d used another word…and then wondering if I’m allowed to regret answering God’s call?

But we don’t know why Abraham was up so early. We don’t hear anything of his thought process or his feelings or his interior life. Since he doesn’t reply to God at all, doesn’t engage in his usual back-and-forth as he has in every previous conversation, we’re left to wonder what on earth was going on in his head. Or maybe whether he was so caught up in his own thoughts that he just went on auto-pilot.

When Isaac was finally able to break in to his father’s silent thoughts, Abraham again answered with “hineni” — he was all in, fully committed to his son, at least while they walked together. The whole story is full of notes about how they traveled as one, united in purpose — or so Isaac thought, anyway.

At the top of the mountain, it feels to me like those movie scenes where everything goes into a weird sort of slow-motion, with the edges of the screen blurred, almost like a dream sequence. Basically without looking, Abraham builds an altar, and he stacks up the wood, and he ties up Isaac, and lifts him onto this pyre, and he reaches for the cleaver…it’s all like moving through molasses, like the air is thick, and Abraham is going through the motions without really seeing anything, just moving his hands until it’s all in order. Then again, the voice calls—twice, this time, urgent, desperate to get his attention, to break through the thrall he’s caught in. And Abraham again says “hineni” — he’s all in, whatever the voice is going to ask. And finally he looks up, almost like that moment when you shake your head and see what you were doing like for the first time, and there’s a sheep standing right there. Just as God promised to provide of Ishmael in the desert and God did, though Abraham didn’t know it…just as Abraham had told Isaac that God would see to the sheep, God did, though Abraham very nearly didn’t know it, because he wasn’t looking.

The next words God says are, I think, the most disturbing in the story. God says “now I know…” — implying that God really didn’t know what Abraham would do. The story is set up as a test — not necessarily a pass-fail final exam, but a progress test that reveals how much we’ve learned and where we still need to do a bit more work. We can talk another time about the idea of God setting a test, but what I want to wonder today is just what this test revealed that God didn’t already know. What did God uncover in Abraham that maybe neither of them actually knew he had in him?

Abraham was willing to sacrifice the person most precious to him — his only legitimate son, and also all that he represented, the fulfilment of the promise that God made to him all those years ago. Remember by this point Sarah would be well into her 90s and Abraham past 100 years old. This one child is the one who will carry the covenant, because God promised that through him Abraham would become the father of many nations, with more descendants than the grains of sand or stars in the sky. And beyond even all those decades of waiting and longing for him, Abraham loved him, it says.

And he was willing to put a knife to his throat, if he thought that God was asking for that.

Here’s what I think God learned that day:
If Abraham was willing to sacrifice even his most precious beloved, and the covenant promises God had made, without even asking a single question…how much more easily would he sacrifice someone he didn’t love so closely? Someone he didn’t like at all? Someone he didn’t know? God learned that humans, even those in close relationship with God, are far more willing to sacrifice each other than we would like to admit.

I suspect that if any of us heard a calling to sacrifice a member of our family for God, we’d at least pray about it again first before deciding to reject the voice that did not align with the call to love God and love our neighbour as ourselves.

But would we do the same when asked to sacrifice someone who isn’t close to us?

What about if we don’t have to personally hold the knife…but simply put an x on a ballot paper for a person or party who believe in turning refugee boats away and sending them back to sea? Or simply to demand cheap clothes and food, even knowing that people must work for pennies in order to provide that for us? Or simply to insist on the convenience of our own private cars while the sea rises and swallows people’s homes and livelihoods? What about if all we have to do is continue to believe our economy and power and standard of living must grow indefinitely because that’s what politicians say…while in other parts of the world water sources are drying up and healthcare is a distant dream and the fires and floods and famines get worse every year? What if all we have to do is look away from the person we’re walking past on the street, or turn off the television…sacrificing our literal neighbours to poverty or drugs or mental illness for our comfort or worse, our self-righteous judgment. Or what if all we need to do is hold to one narrow understanding of God’s love, leaving everyone different than us outside it?

How easily we sacrifice each other.

That’s a reality that I think we would prefer stay hidden deep within us, but God uncovers in this terrible story — how easily we are willing to sacrifice those who are not so precious to us, despite the fact they are precious to God. Despite the fact they are made in God’s image, and carry God’s promise.

This test reveals where Abraham still has work to do…and where we still have work to do. The truth is that we can only transform what we can name — so even though it is painful and awful, bringing this story out into the open means that now we are capable of doing that work. We are capable of seeing our choices and their impact on others, and making a different choice. We are capable of seeing the pain we cause, and changing direction to be healers instead. We are capable of keeping our eyes and hearts open, of saying “hineni” and being all in and fully committed to not only those most precious to us, but those precious to God. In fact, more than being capable of this, it is our HOLY CALLING to do this. God uncovered our tendency to sacrifice each other so that we could stop doing it and learn a different way. If only we will open our eyes and look and see what God has provided — abundant life for all. On the mount of the Lord, there is vision.

May it be so. Amen.

Hymn 465: Be Thou My Vision

Prayer and Lord’s Prayer
Early in the morning, O God, our songs and prayers rise…
songs of praise for your faithfulness, your grace, your love,
and prayers for a world that seems to rarely reflect your goodness.
Early in the morning, we see your glory in the changing light and the freshness of a new day.
Early in the morning, we worry about things — both in and outside our control.
And so we pray for those whose lives are lived in the shadows of anxiety,
for those who long to see another way yet do not have resources or energy for it.
We hold in your care those who have been sacrificed to our convenience, or apathy, or comfort.
May they be enfolded by your love, and may they experience justice…
and may our eyes be opened to our complicity and responsibility in creating a different world.
We lift up those desperately holding conflicting loves in their hearts and lives,
working for all to be welcome.
May they be strengthened by your compassion and encouraged by your Spirit of hope.
We offer our prayers for all those who are feeling trapped — in relationships, in limited understanding, in cycles of violence, in poverty.
May they know your freedom, your peace, and the spaciousness and abundance of your grace.
Early in the morning, while it is still dark, O God,
when our minds and hearts feel weighed down
and the wonders of the world are hidden from us,
still we trust you are at work,
your love cannot be resisted,
your presence goes alongside us.
So now show us how to be your faithful people,
to work alongside you for the fulfilment of your vision for all creation.
Here we are, your people, and you are our God,
and because your promise is true, we pray with boldness and hope,
in the name of your Son Jesus the Christ,
who taught us to pray together:
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and forever. Amen.

Benediction
Friends, go into your week resisting the voices calling us to sacrifice each other, and instead be fully present to God’s calling to love your neighbour as yourself, eyes open to what God is revealing in and around you. And as you go, may the Spirit of God go above you to watch over you. May the Spirit of God go beside you to be your companion. May the Spirit of God go before you to show you the way, and behind you to push you into places you might not go alone. And may the Spirit of God go within you to remind you that you are loved more deeply than you can possibly imagine. May the fire of God’s love burn brightly in you, and through you into the world. Go in peace. Amen.

Sung Benediction Response (John L Bell, tune Gourock St John’s)
Now may the Lord of all be blessed,
Now may Christ’s gospel be confessed,
Now may the Spirit when we meet
Bless sanctuary and street.

Postlude Music

Announcements

* The theme for worship in this Harvest season will be “Uncovered” — we’ll be looking at things God is calling forth that we didn’t know we had in us.

* All worship is online (or on the phone at 01475 270037, or in print) and we also meet in person, subject to the usual protocols for distancing, hand hygiene, mask wearing. We can now welcome up to 85-100 people for worship with 1m distancing between households. No booking will be required. Masks are required at all times inside the building, including while singing. If you are able, please enter by the front door in Bath street, and only those who need step-free access, and families with children, should use the back door.

* Tonight we will gather with Christians across the nation for evening prayer on the Connect Facebook Page, led tonight by Teri. Log on at 6:58pm to join in.

* The Kirk now has online giving! If you have not already set up a standing order in order to facilitate your spiritual discipline of giving, or if you would like to make an extra gift to support the ministry St. John’s does in our parish, you can give online by clicking here. If you would like to set up a standing order, please contact Peter Bennett, our treasurer, or Teri and she can give you his details. You can also send your envelopes to the church or the manse by post and we will ensure they are received. Remember: no one is coming to your door to collect your envelopes, so please stay safe!

* Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Youtube, and to sign up for our email devotions! Midweek you can watch Wine and the Word on Youtube, pray with video devotions on Facebook, and consider a new angle on something with a devotional email. Feel free to share with your friends, too!

* Our Harvest Communion service will be on 3 October. We will also be having a special gift day as part of the Church of Scotland’s National Day of Giving — both 3 and 10 October will have special gift offerings, which will be divided between Mind Mosaic Child and Family services and Belville Community Gardens, both of which are local charities that have been doing and continue to do incredible work during the pandemic, helping families and young people and older people with mental health, food support, combatting social isolation, and more. Please give generously to support the work of these two groups!

Sunday service for 12 September 2021

12 September 2021, 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Uncovered 1
Gourock St. John’s Church of Scotland
Service prepared by the Rev. Teri Peterson
Manse phone: 632143
Email: tpeterson (at) churchofscotland.org.uk

To hear the audio recording of this service, please phone 01475 270037. It’s a local landline number so minutes should be included in your phone plan. Please let your neighbours without internet know!

Prelude Music

Welcome/Announcements

Call to Worship
1: The voice of God cuts through swirling chaos,
2: rises above the mists and shadows,
All: and calls into being something only God could see.
1: In the beginning, God brought forth good.
2: Today, in the midst of everything, God brings forth good.
All: We come to worship the One who created and is creating space for abundant life.

Prayer
Creating God, you look at the world and see deeper truths that we ignore.
You see the possibility underneath the disarray,
and we confess that we instead see problems only force can solve.
You see your creation’s capacity for continued creativity,
and we confess that we instead see something to exploit.
You see how pruning and setting boundaries make space for flourishing,
and we confess that we instead see only the loss of our comfortable old unhealthy ways.
Forgive us for turning aside from our role as your representatives on earth.
Forgive us, for we who are made in your image do not prefer your pattern of power.
Forgive us when we forget that our goodness is bound up with all the wonders created by your word, which you call good, together.
In the beginning of your story, O God,
wind rushed and waters roared
and your voice echoed
and new life began.
Renew your image within us that we may reflect your will and your way.
In this new season of our life together,
whatever is rushing and roaring,
may your voice echo in this place,
and may new life begin. Amen.

Music
Online: At Your Bidding (Resound Worship)
In-Person:

Children’s Time (in person only)

Reading: Genesis 1.1 – 2.4a, Robert Alter translation

When God began to create heaven and earth, and the earth then was welter and waste and darkness over the deep and God’s breath hovering over the waters, God said, “Let there be light.” And there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good, and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night.
And it was evening and it was morning, first day.

And God said, “Let there be a vault in the midst of the waters, and let it divide water from water.” And God made the vault and it divided the water beneath the vault from the water above the vault, and so it was. And God called the vault Heavens,
and it was evening and it was morning, second day.

And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered in one place so that the dry land will appear,” and so it was. And God called the dry land Earth and the gathering of waters he called Seas, and God saw that it was good. And God said, “Let the earth grow grass, plants yielding seed of each kind and trees bearing fruit of each kind, that has its seed within it upon the earth.” And so it was. And the earth put forth grass, plants yielding seed, and trees bearing fruit of each kind, and God saw that it was good.
And it was evening and it was morning, third day.

And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the heavens to divide the day from the night, and they shall be signs for the fixed times and for days and years, and they shall be lights in the vault of the heavens to light up the earth.” And so it was. And God made the two great lights, the great light for dominion of day and the small light for the dominion of night, and the stars. And God placed them in the vault of the heavens to light up the earth and to have dominion over day and night and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.
And it was evening and it was morning, fourth day.

And God said, “Let the waters swarm with the swarm of living creatures and let fowl fly over the earth across the vault of the heavens.” And God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that crawls, which the water had swarmed forth of each kind, and the winged fowl of each kind, and God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the water in the seas and let the fowl multiply in the earth.”
And it was evening and it was morning, fifth day.

And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures of each kind, cattle and crawling things and wild beasts of each kind. And so it was. And God made wild beasts of each kind and cattle of every kind and all crawling things on the ground of each kind, and God saw that it was good. And God said, “Let us make a human in our image, by our likeness, to hold sway over the fish of the sea and the fowl of the heavens and the cattle and the wild beasts and all the crawling things that crawl upon the earth.”
And God created the human in his image,
in the image of God he created him,
male and female he created them.
And God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and conquer it, and hold sway over the fish of the sea and the fowl of the heavens and every beast that crawls upon the earth.” And God said, “Look, I have given you every seed-bearing plant on the face of all the earth and every tree that has fruit-bearing seed, yours they will be for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and to all the fowl of the heavens and to all that crawls on the earth, which has the breath of life within it, the green plants for food.” And so it was. And God saw all that he had done, and, look, it was very good.
And it was evening and it was morning, the sixth day.

Then the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their array. And God completed on the seventh day the task he had done, and he ceased on the seventh day from all the task he had done. And God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, for on it he had ceased from all his task that he had created to do.
This is the tale of the heavens and the earth when they were created.

For the word of God in scripture,
For the word of God among us,
For the word of God within us,
Thanks be to God.

Sermon: Boundaries
We are so used to the opening line of the Bible being “in the beginning”…but I have to admit I really love this new translation that Hebrew scholar Robert Alter worked on over the past decade. “When God began to create” — it’s a reminder that God’s creativity is not confined to this one story, but goes on throughout history even to today.

I also love the sense that there’s no beginning separate from God’s activity. It’s God’s creative energy that is, itself, the beginning. So it isn’t as if we could point to a calendar and say “this is the beginning” like we can with the school term or the new year, but rather that in the midst of chaos, God started something…and that was the beginning. When God began to create, everything was chaos and darkness, and God started something new by pulling that chaos and darkness back, revealing light and airspace and earth, which were full of potential. Particularly this year, I just find that the idea of God uncovering the potential of the earth from underneath the chaos — the welter and waste — to be really provocative and interesting.

There’s certainly plenty of welter and waste to go around, and I don’t know if it’s because of social media or having spent so much time home alone or what, but somehow the world feels more chaotic than ever, as we try to figure out what “new normal” looks like. There’s still a pandemic raging around the earth, of course. The climate change situation is dire and the consequences become more visible and more tragic with each passing day. We still live with the fallout of war-making decisions made decades ago. All of these things mean people are moving around the globe in huge numbers, seeking peace and safety, seeking clean water or refuge from drought, seeking higher ground, seeking healthcare. And many who aren’t yet desperate for those things are unwilling to accommodate those who are, so conflict intensifies.

I think there’s something instructive, then, about how God goes about creating order from chaos. Because it turns out that God could see the abundant life of creation already, in the midst of all that welter and waste…it just needed uncovering. It needed space to flourish and grow into its potential…potential that only God could see. The breath of God hovered over the dark depths — hovered like a mother bird hovers over the nest, caring for eggs and then chicks, going back and forth, one eye always on what’s happening in the nest and one eye on what else is moving in the background. And the breath of God hovered…and then God drew in that breath and sent it out in a word that literally moved heaven and earth.

The light shone, and the waters were pulled back, and earth and air and sea had space to breathe too. Another word and they were commanded to bring forth life — and the earth and sky and sea were obedient to God’s voice asking them to join in the creation. Notice it doesn’t say in this story that God created plants, it says that God told the earth to put forth grass and plants and trees. The potential was there, and God called it out of the ground. And into that environment, which God saw could continue being endlessly sustainable in re-creating itself, God called forth animals and birds and humanity. God saw what was possible, and made enough space in the chaos and darkness that possibility could become reality. God uncovered life where it looked like there was only welter and waste.

And then God asked humankind to continue the work. The word sometimes translated as “have dominion” or what Robert Alter translates as “hold sway” is a royal word, about being the royal representative…humanity is meant to be God’s image, God’s representative, amidst the creation, to take the kind of responsibility for it that God has done. And what has God done? Made space in the midst of chaos for flourishing life, uncovered potential and allowed it to do what it does best, set in motion a system that continues to create and re-create. God both creates things and enables creativity by setting boundaries — boundaries for water and sky and chaos and time — and by calling out the goodness buried beneath the depths.

How do we do that, as the people made in God’s image? How are we making space for creation to flourish, allowing it to continue its God-given creative work, and uncovering goodness?

If we’re honest, the answer is that we don’t. Instead we fill up the space with our stuff, snuffing out the creativity of the earth and sea and sky with our rubbish. We disrupt the cycles of creation so that it will serve our greed, even though it depletes the earth. We take what it produces and keep it for ourselves, believing we are somehow outside the system rather than a part of it. Rather than acting like God’s representatives in the midst of creation, we have acted like the idols we believe ourselves to be, agents of chaos rather than creativity. Rather than uncovering the goodness at the heart of God’s creation, we have laid waste to it.

But planted more deeply than all that is wrong, God’s word of goodness is still true. God can still see the potential and possibility in the midst of the welter and waste. It’s still there, and the creation is still partnering with god in creativity and flourishing. When God began creating, God didn’t then quit. But where previously it was the dark depths and the waters that needed boundaries set in order to reveal the fertile ground, now it is human greed and idolatry that needs boundaries. If we are restrained, as the seas were, as the darkness was, then there will be space for new life. God is, even now, calling forth and empowering the creative capacity of all things…and that includes us. It will take all our creative capacity as human beings if we are to find ways to restrain ourselves in order that all life might thrive.

We could begin by taking the seventh day seriously. It’s a built in time when God allows creation to do its thing without interference, as God rests…and if we were to take time out from shaping and re-shaping and micromanaging and using and abusing the environment around us, we may find that our relationship to the creation is re-set to be more like the image of God…but at this point, we can’t stop there. That is just one small boundary restraining our insatiable desire for more and the truth is that because we ignored it for so long, now we need much deeper cuts if we are to be good stewards of this gift for future generations.

In about half an hour our boys brigade will be doing a litter clean up, and that’s a good start. Of course if we restrained ourselves from littering in the first place that would be better. Restraining our use of private transport, and fossil fuels, and single use plastic, and intensive agriculture, especially animal agriculture, is also all crucial. But we are beyond the point of individual actions being enough. We need them, don’t get me wrong. We must act as individuals. But we need the whole human family, all of us who are made in God’s image and called to act in God’s likeness, to come together to set some boundaries on the relationship we have with the rest of creation. We cannot abuse it and expect it to continue to nourish us, any more than we can expect that in any other relationship. We cannot simply overrun it and expect it to live up to its potential. And we cannot uncover the good news God planted within creation if we are constantly burying it under mountains of landfill. In other words, we cannot be agents of chaos and expect creation to treat us like agents of grace.

We need to restrain ourselves, individually and corporately and politically, and we need to do it now. To live into the image of God is to create space for life to flourish, and to nurture that potential and possibility together, letting the world do what God made it to do: thrive.

May it be so. Amen.

Hymn 727: In the bulb there is a flower

Prayer and Lord’s Prayer
We thank you, O God, for your light that cannot be overcome,
for the forces of chaos seem to gather round.
Push back the shadows —
of war and famine and disease,
of depression and anxiety and despair,
of our over-full yet under-nourished life.
Speak again this day, and reveal the good that is so deeply planted in your world.

We thank you, O God, for this earth you have given us for a home.
For the colours in the sky
and the unfathomable depths of the sea,
binding us together by common elements.
Where pollution poisons the waters above and below,
making them a trap instead of a sanctuary,
we pray for your healing.
Speak again this day, and reveal the good that is so deeply planted in your world.

We thank you, O God, for the generativity of the land,
for your gift of flower and fruit, for forest and flatland.
Where the earth has been stripped of its capacity,
worked to death,
buried under the weight of waste and expectation,
we pray that it may again be allowed to answer your call to create.
Speak again this day, and reveal the good that is so deeply planted in your world.

We thank you, O God, for the lights of day and night,
for stars that guide our way through time and space.
Where they cannot be seen through the artifice of human folly,
where disaster blots out their glow,
we pray for those who must seek other direction.
Speak again this day, and reveal the good that is so deeply planted in your world.

We thank you, O God, for the life teeming in ocean and sky.
For animals we have yet to see with human eye,
and those we have come to take for granted.
Where they choke on plastic or suffocate under blooms of oil or algae,
where their habitats are destroyed and fruitfulness impaired,
we pray for changed hearts and, more importantly, changed lives.
Speak again this day, and reveal the good that is so deeply planted in your world.

We thank you, O God, for all with whom we share this earthly life,
for wild animals and pets,
even those creeping things pollinating as they go —
and for your wisdom in creating such a complex web of interconnected life.
Where animals or people are abused,
exploited for the prosperity of others,
or abandoned for our convenience,
we pray for your compassion and justice to take root.
Speak again this day, and reveal the good that is so deeply planted in your world.

We thank you, O God, for building downtime into your creation,
for the space to rest and reflect.
Where there is no margin,
where we cannot see the way to new boundaries,
we pray again for you to empower our creativity,
to act like your image,
making space for abundant life for all, not only those who can afford it.
Speak again this day, and reveal the good that is so deeply planted in your world.

We pray these and all things in your holy, creating name,
through the power of your Spirit, the breath of life,
and in the name of your Son Jesus the Christ,
who taught us to pray together:
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and forever. Amen.

In-person Hymn 141: Oh, the life of the world is a joy and a treasure

Benediction
Go into your week to live as God’s image in the world, living within the boundaries God set that all creation may thrive. And as you go, may the Spirit of God go above you to watch over you. May the Spirit of God go beside you to be your companion. May the Spirit of God go before you to show you the way, and behind you to push you into places you might not go alone. And may the Spirit of God go within you to remind you that you are loved more deeply than you can possibly imagine. May the fire of God’s love burn brightly in you, and through you into the world. Go in peace. Amen.

Postlude Music

Announcements

* The theme for worship in this Harvest season will be “Uncovered” — we’ll be looking at things God is calling forth that we didn’t know we had in us.

* Tonight we will gather with Christians across the nation for evening prayer on the Connect Facebook Page, led tonight by Karen. Log on at 6:58pm to join in.

**** Do you know how to work an iPad or other tablet? Would you be willing to help someone else, one-on-one, learn to use theirs for basic things like email, YouTube, Facebook, and Zoom? Contact Teri for more information about volunteering, even just for a few hours a month, to help combat isolation by getting people connected.

** We are looking for someone to organise the coffee rota. We hope to offer tea and coffee after the service again soon, but first we need a coordinator who will keep track of the volunteers and supplies. If you’d be interested in learning more about what’s involved, please Contact Teri, Anne L, or Rab & Eileen G (former coordinators).

Sunday Service for 5 September 2021

5 September 2021, 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Sunday School Revisited 15/final
Gourock St. John’s Church of Scotland
Service prepared by the Rev. Teri Peterson
Manse phone: 632143
Email: tpeterson (at) churchofscotland.org.uk

To hear an audio recording of this service, including music, phone 01475 270037. Please tell your friends, neighbours, and fellow church members who don’t have internet access!

~~~~

Prelude Music

Welcome/Announcements

Call to Worship
1: Through the clouds I see love shine —
Love is all around me!
2: I just called to say I love you —
Take me to your heart, for it’s there that I belong.
1: What’s love but a sweet old fashioned notion?
Two hearts that beat as one.
2: All of me loves all of you…
Everything means nothing if I ain’t got you.
1: I hold you for a million years to make you feel my love.
Love is all you need!
One: Not just a pop song, more than a feeling,
All: God is Love.

Prayer
O Lord we love to sing about love.
The butterflies in the stomach, the warm fuzzy feeling, the companionship and care, the passion.
We confess that sometimes we forget that love
isn’t really about the feelings we feel in any given moment.

We love to talk about things we love.
The stuff that makes us happy, the experiences that fill our diaries, the places we go and things we acquire.
We confess that sometimes we forget that love
doesn’t lead to acquisitiveness or greed.

We love to talk about who we love…and who we don’t.
We confess, O God, that we want your love to be as restricted as ours.

Forgive us, Lord, for the ways in which we do not reflect the fullness of your love for the world.
Renew us in your image and lead us in being your Body, loving, serving, and caring for others.
We ask in the name of Jesus the Christ, who poured himself out in love for all. Amen.

Music
Online: Your Love Never Fails
In-Person: Minuet in A by Boccherini

Children’s Time

Reading: 1 Corinthians 13 New Revised Standard Version
If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

For the word of God in scripture,
for the word of God among us,
for the word of God within us,
thanks be to God.

Sermon: We Do What We Are
I am often asked about the King James translation of this last verse, which uses the word charity where we now use love — “and the greatest of these is charity.” The difficulty, of course, is that over the past 400 years since the King James Version was translated, the meaning of English words has shifted. So those translators saw that the Greek word agape was translated into Latin as caritas, so they used the similar-sounding English word charity. Over the centuries, though, we have lost some of the depth of the word charity, so now it simply means making donations or helping someone less fortunate. At the same time, we have actually lost some of the depth of the word LOVE, too, so now it is a feeling, an emotion that can come and go, the topic of gushy romantic songs that focus entirely on just two people. Which, paradoxically, means that neither the old nor the new translation gives us the fullness of what Paul was trying to say when he wrote to the Corinthians 2000 years ago.

The church in Corinth was a church divided. The members of the church were constantly arguing with each other about who was the better follower of Jesus, and which spiritual gifts were better than others, and what material things were signs of God’s blessing. Some had decided that speaking in tongues was a requirement, and if others didn’t have that gift then they were inferior to those who did. Some had decided that their wealth and high social status meant they were better than others, and those who were poor didn’t deserve a seat at the table, they were to sit on the floor or at the back. The church was tearing apart over which preachers to listen to and what faithful life looked like in practice.

And so Paul wrote to them: all the gifts of the Spirit — prophecy, knowledge, faith, tongues, giving, even martyrdom — mean nothing at all if they don’t come from love. And without love, then it doesn’t matter whether you can speak to angels or communicate across cultures, it doesn’t matter whether you understand every word of scripture or give away your last penny — without love then none of that is faithful to the God we know in Jesus Christ.

But when Paul talks about love, he isn’t talking about liking people, he’s not talking about being friendly, he’s not even talking about a feeling at all. The emotions don’t really enter into this. There is a Greek word that means love-the-feeling, but it isn’t the word Paul uses. Paul is using the word agape, which literally means to prefer the other, to exhibit goodwill, to give myself away to the other. It’s an action word, not a feeling word.

Elsewhere in scripture we read that “God is love” — and in Jesus, God gave Godself away to us, even when we were behaving in ways that would surely mean God wasn’t feeling particularly fuzzy warm love-hearts about us. Love is an action that doesn’t depend on how we feel about the other person today.

Now let me pause and take a moment to be as clear as I possibly can here. I am not saying, and Paul is not saying, and God is certainly not saying that we are required to endure abuse because that’s the loving thing to do, nor that we are required to do everything that is asked of us simply because someone asked or commanded, nor that we are supposed to give and give and give without ever being filled and nourished and cared for. God does not call us to be burned out, God does not call us to be abused, God does not call us to have to die inside so that others can have their way. This passage has been used that way over the centuries but that is, at best, a misunderstanding, and at worst, an abusive tactic of its own. God’s will is for flourishing abundant life for all creation, including us. And if you, or anyone you know, needs to have a confidential chat about this, or you have questions about it, I am here to listen and talk — don’t hesitate to reach out by message or email or phone.

At the very beginning of this series about stories we learned in Sunday school, we heard Jesus teach that the most important thing is to love God and love our neighbour…even when we might not like them very much, we can still act out love.

All of this brings me to the middle of this passage, where Paul describes what love is like. Again, English lets us down a little bit because we get phrases like “love is patient, love is kind” and it sounds so very….peaceful, in the sense of being still, unmoving, flat. But love is an action word.

Which got me started thinking about that tiny word, “is.”

It’s a form of the verb “to be” — meaning it’s an identity word. When we say “God is love” we are describing God’s identity, the core of God’s being. And it is from our identity that our actions flow. We do what we are. So to say that Love “is” patient means that love shows patience. Love does kindness. And Love does not act rude or arrogant or selfish, because Love is not those things. Because of what Love is, Love does.

Or another way to say that is that we only know what Love is because we see what Love does. We come to know its identity because of its actions. God’s identity is revealed by what God does — Jesus pours out his life for us, and so we recognise God’s love. The same is true for us! Our actions reveal who we are…harsh words reveal a hard heart, generosity reveals a grateful spirit, extending hospitality reveals openness, etc. For individuals and for churches, we can see who we are by what we do. And we decide what to do because of who we are. Which means that, as a church community, we need to be absolutely clear about our identity if we want to have any hope of acting with purpose rather than just simply doing every good idea that comes our way! We want to be able to say “because we are ____, we will do ____”…and also to be able to say “because we are _____, then ____ is not our calling to do.” We do what we are.

Love is an action word, not a feeling word. And we can see what it is when we see it in action — the action of giving itself away.

You can see why the translation “charity” both works and doesn’t work. Because charity is indeed about giving away. But 21st century charity is mostly about occasionally giving away what we have left over, and is often done out of pity or sometimes guilt, though of course it is also often from compassion and empathy and a desire to help others. Caritas, the Latin for Agape, points to the kind of love that consistently puts the well-being of others at the top of the list, that works for the flourishing of others, that understands that we must be in this together, not alone — it’s an identity that informs every action. Basically, Caritas is the opposite of childishness, and Paul wants the Corinthians — and us! — to grow up, and to care more about our neighbour than about getting our own way or being seen as the best or having the most toys. For the church in Corinth, and the church today, the question always has to be, regardless of how we feel about each other or about others around us, regardless of what we think we know and understand or are good at: do our actions reveal Love that gives itself away in service of God and others? Or do they reveal that our identity is actually built on something other than love?

Jesus shows us what it means to love God with all our heart, mind, and soul: it means to love our neighbour as ourselves. Love isn’t a feeling word, it’s an action word. And charity isn’t just an occasional action, it’s a way of being, an attitude toward others and the world. The action of love giving itself away comes from the heart’s attitude of charity. So while Latin and Greek could say all of that in one word, we actually sort of need the deepest and most expansive meaning of both if we want to get the depth of meaning that Paul is trying to convey.

Faith, hope, and love abide…and the greatest of these is the one that acts to give itself away for others.

May it be so. Amen.

Online Hymn 519: Love Divine, All Loves Excelling (tune: Hyfrydol)

In Person Hymn: Love is the Welcome (words: Kathy Galloway, tune: Loch Lomond)
Love is the welcome that comes from the heart
and opens its door to the stranger
which makes of its house a resting-place for all,
for the sake of the babe in the manger.

Love is the struggle for justice and peace
that the cause of the weak may inherit,
and*the wretched of the earth,
see a new day brought to birth
in the strength of the gentle in spirit.

Love is the touch that does not draw back
from the maimed and the hurt and the broken,
but*em-braces their pain,
and calls them by their name,
that the word of compassion be spoken.

Love is the journey whose reason is faith,
though its step may be faint*and hesitating,
but though the*march is long
and the courage be not strong
in its end its fulfilment is waiting.

Love is the life that responds to a call
and chooses its truth as its treasures
and walks with the one
who says, “Come and follow me,
for to show you the way is my pleasure.”

Prayer and Lord’s Prayer
Loving God,
You create, redeem, and sustain all things
in the power of your love.
We thank you this day for being the foundation of our lives,
and of our life together.
We are especially grateful for
your patience,
your kindness,
your willingness to bear with us even when we are not faithful to you.
From age to age, you endure, and your love leads us on.

We come, bearing the burdens of our community,
holding both friend and enemy in your light.
In your mercy, hear our prayers
for those who suffer, in body, mind, and spirit…
for those who care for others so tirelessly, on the front line and behind the scenes…
for those working diligently to guide us into a new way of living…
for those in fear…
for those living in unsafe situations…
for those who feel overlooked or forgotten…
for those who wait in hope for a new dawn…
for your creation groaning…
May your comfort, your peace,
your courage, your justice,
your wonder, your grace,
your hope, your faithfulness,
your love
fill every place,
every heart, every home,
every crack, every hole,
every mind, every body.

Your love never fails.
You never give up,
and we pray that we too would have the fortitude to persevere in loving as you love.
We offer ourselves, body, mind, and spirit, to you,
trusting in your grace and mercy.
We lift these prayers in the name of Jesus the Christ,
your love in the flesh, who taught us to pray together:
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and forever. Amen.

In-person Hymn 519: Love Divine, All Loves Excelling

Benediction
Go into your week to put love into action. And as you go, may the Spirit of God go above you to watch over you. May the Spirit of God go beside you to be your companion. May the Spirit of God go before you to show you the way, and behind you to push you into places you might not go alone. And may the Spirit of God go within you to remind you that you are loved more deeply than you can possibly imagine. May the fire of God’s love burn brightly in you, and through you into the world. Go in peace. Amen.

Sung Benediction Response (John L Bell, tune Gourock St John’s)
Now may the Lord of all be blessed,
Now may Christ’s gospel be confessed,
Now may the Spirit when we meet
Bless sanctuary and street.

Postlude Music

Announcements

* This is the last Sunday in the season of Pentecost (30 May – 5 September, also known as Ordinary Time) so it is our final week of “Sunday School Revisited.” Next week we begin the Harvest season (continuing in Ordinary Time until Advent begins at the end of November), and the theme for worship in this season will be “Uncovered” — we’ll be looking at things God is calling forth that we didn’t know we had in us.

* Tonight we will gather with Christians across the nation for evening prayer on the Connect Facebook Page, led tonight by Jonathan. Log on at 6:58pm to join in.

** We are looking for someone to organise the coffee rota. We hope to offer tea and coffee after the service again soon, but first we need a coordinator who will keep track of the volunteers and supplies. If you’d be interested in learning more about what’s involved, please Contact Teri, Anne L, or Rab & Eileen G (former coordinators).

Sunday service for 29 August 2021

29 August 2021, 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Sunday School Revisited 14
Gourock St. John’s Church of Scotland
Service prepared by the Rev. Teri Peterson
Manse phone: 632143
Email: tpeterson (at) churchofscotland.org.uk

To hear an audio recording of this service, including music, phone 01475 270037. Please tell your friends, neighbours, and fellow church members who don’t have internet access!

Prelude Music

Welcome/Announcements

Call to Worship (from the Iona Abbey Worship Book)
One: Jesus says, “I am the Way for you.”
All: And so we come to follow Christ.
One: Jesus says, “I am the Truth for you.”
All: And so we come to dwell in the light.
One: Jesus says, “I am the Life for you.”
All: And so we come, leaving behind all else to which we cling.

Prayer
You are the Way that opens before us, making space for a deep breath and calling us to step onto a path that we know and yet cannot fully know.
Forgive us for insisting on our own way.
You are the Truth that supersedes argument and puts an end to strife, casting light that drives out hatred and illuminates the shadowy corners of our minds and hearts.
Forgive us for calling our opinions facts, and insisting our closed minds are the same as your word.
You are the Life that conquers death, laying a feast of abundance we can’t even imagine.
Forgive us for hoarding your goodness for ourselves, while our neighbours around the world starve for food, for water, for safety, for hope, for love, for peace.
Holy God, the news of the world makes us angry and drives us to despair, yet we admit that we cannot see past our own fear and complacency to discern what you would have us do, and so we lament and forget.
Forgive us, and loosen our grip on our own desire for comfort that we may join you in serving the world you so love. Strengthen our hearts, renew our trust in you, and lead us into fullness of life with all your people.
We ask in the name of Jesus the Christ, who lived your life among us in order that we might live with you. Amen.

Music
online: Plenty Good Room (African-American spiritual)

Children’s Time

Reading: John 14.1-10 New Revised Standard Version
‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling-places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going.’ Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.’
Philip said to him, ‘Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, “Show us the Father”? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works.

For the word of God in Scripture,
For the word of God among us,
For the word of God within us,
Thanks be to God.

Sermon: Roomy
Some of you may know that two new cats came to live in the manse recently. For the past two weeks, it has been a slow process of getting them settled in. We started out with several days spent in my bedroom — anytime I was home, I was in there with them, and the rest of the time they stayed in by themselves, door firmly shut. Then they were allowed out to explore the hallway and stairs to the upper floor…but all the doors to rooms were closed, so they couldn’t get into mischief. After a week, I took them one at a time to the sitting room for an afternoon, then to the study and kitchen for an afternoon — both of those days they were so exhausted that they slept about 9 hours straight overnight! Then we had a little time exploring just the ground floor, and then just the upstairs again, and finally a day when the gate was opened and they could go anywhere in the house, as long as I followed them around. And now they are able to roam freely and unsupervised around the whole house — except the rooms that are always closed for heat-saving purposes!

It’s a big house, so there’s plenty of room for them to run, have adventures, sprawl out on the floor for an impromptu nap, or hide behind the books on the shelf. They have plenty of toys in basically every room, and yet they have stolen cherry tomatoes off the counter, balanced precariously on the bannister on the top floor landing, and hidden under the duvet. They are not kittens, but they’re still fairly small creatures, so this three story house must feel like…well…like their mama’s house has many mansions.

I promise I’m not being sacrilegious, or comparing myself to God and God’s house. Just trying to give a different perspective on a text that many of us are very familiar with — whether from Sunday school and holiday clubs or from funerals. Every day there’s some new place in the house for the cats to discover…and every day there’s something new within God’s house for us to discover.

The thing that makes all that exploration of the house possible is the security of our relationships within it. Before they were out wandering the house, the cats had to get to know and trust me. Each time we went to a new room they knew it was okay because I took them there, and they could always come back to my lap. The same is true within God’s house — especially since, honestly, most of the time scripture uses the word “house” it’s actually about a relationship, a family, not a physical building! Jesus says there are many places to dwell in God…just as he and the Father dwell in each other, and just as he tells us to abide in him as he abides in us. To live in God’s house is to trust the relationship we have with God — a close relationship in which we live our lives together, meaning that we share our lives with God and God shares God’s life with us. When Jesus says he is the way to a relationship with God, this is why — because in Christ, God shared life with us and brought us into the family.

The disciples didn’t really know what was going on when Jesus talked this way. Then, as now, people just can’t really fathom the idea that God’s house, God’s family, is roomy enough for everyone. We’ve usually got quite a list of people we just frankly don’t have time for, but God has all the time in the world, for each of us… and for each of “them.” That’s what it means to have roominess in God’s “house”, God’s family — the relationship is spacious, there’s room to walk around, to learn and grow and change, to ask questions and to explore and to know we can come back to the safety of resting in God’s hand. Because God gave Godself to us, and we give ourselves to God. That’s how committed relationships work.

The disciples, though…they thought they had to understand first in order to commit. They thought they had to have the right words, the right map to follow, before they’d be allowed in. They were so afraid of being left alone, so afraid of the future Jesus was trying to prepare them for, that they couldn’t see what was right in front of them.

In reading their story from the outside, we can see very clearly what they could not when they were in the midst of those last days of Jesus’ earthly life — that fear obscures vision. When all they could think about is how to save themselves and the way of life they had come to love from certain death and destruction…when all we can think about is how to save ourselves and the way of life we have come to love…it’s like having blinders on. We see so narrowly, and so dimly, that the expansive Way of Truth and Life becomes impossible. We miss out on relationship because we’re too afraid to allow the fullness of God to meet our whole selves. So we reduce Jesus to a tool that buys our salvation but locks the gate to others so that we can feel safe.

Former Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby once said that “Fear imprisons us and stops us being fully human. Uniquely in all of human history, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is the one who as living love liberates holy courage.” Fear imprisons us and stops us being fully human — it locks us up and blocks us from full relationship with God and with others, rather than stopping “them” who we wanted to be kept out…and Jesus lives God’s love so fully that it sets us all free to be courageous, to live this life with God rather than simply waiting for the next.

Courage is actually exactly where Jesus began this teaching: do not let your hearts be troubled. We so often read this at troubling times that I think we have decided to live with only the shallowest meaning of “do not let your hearts be troubled.” Yes, it certainly can be a reminder that Jesus gives us peace beyond all understanding. But deeper down, it’s an instruction to take heart, to not allow the troubles of the world to narrow our vision and weaken our courage to do good and stand up for what is right.

Even when we are afraid.
Even when it looks like the shadows are overtaking the light.
Even when the world is threatening.
Even when it feels like we are drowning in grief.
Even when the problems are bigger than we can solve and all we can see are obstacles.
Even when it’s our lives, or the life of our beloved institutions, at stake.

In fact especially at those times, take heart, and act like the members of Christ’s family that we are. Do not let fear obscure our vision of the roominess of God’s house or tempt us to use Jesus to lock the doors behind us so that we can live in ignorant or apathetic comfort. There’s space to spare, and God has time for refugees, and people who are homeless or hungry, and people who look and sound different, and people who need extra support, and people who work for peace and those who are trying to change their ways, and people who can’t see past the dark cloud of despair, and people suffering from climate change, and people struggling with addictions, and and and…so we, who are made in God’s image and grafted into God’s family tree, had better have time and space for them too. Because it’s when we act like Jesus that we will most likely see him. When we choose, like Philip and Thomas, to focus on ourselves and our fears of the future, we’ll miss God’s presence literally in our midst.

The house is roomy, and Christ has set us free to live life to the full within it — all of us. Take heart.

May it be so. Amen.

In Person Hymn 344: And Jesus said: don’t be afraid (tune 117-1, Mother Julian)
online Hymn: The Love of God Comes Close (by John L Bell, tune Love Unknown)

Prayer and Lord’s Prayer (by the Very Rev Derek Browning, for Life and Work Sunday, interspersed with “Jesus Christ, here among us” by John Bell)

(Refrain)
Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ, here among us
Go with us, stay with us, grant us your peace.

Ever-Present God
You are our life.
You are the One Who, from the chaos of creation
Called us into being,
Shaping who and what we are.
You are the artist and the architect.
You are the poet and the musician.
You bring colour and form, words and harmony
Into the world where we live,
And the lives that we live.
(Verse 1 and refrain)
You are the way and the truth and the life;
in you the fullness of God is found.
Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ, here among us
Go with us, stay with us, grant us your peace.

Ever-Active God,
With You we work:
To bring peace and justice,
To bring comfort and blessing
Into the world where we live.
In partnership with You and with others,
We shape and reshape our world
To make it a place where all are welcome,
And all find a place to be safe.
(Verse 2 and refrain)
You are the lover and light of the world;
even the darkness is light to you.
Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ, here among us
Go with us, stay with us, grant us your peace.

There is life to be lived;
There is work to be done;
For life continues to refresh around us each day,
And work continues to unfold in the vision You give us
And in the dreams we have
For what our world and our communities might yet be.
(Verse 3 and refrain)
You are the shepherd who calls us by name;
none who respond will be turned away.
Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ, here among us
Go with us, stay with us, grant us your peace.

God of life, God of work,
Blend these twin realities for us,
That in our living and in our working,
We may honour You,
And follow You,
And change this world,
To Your unending glory.
(Verse 4 and refrain)
You are the vine which is rooted in God;
grafted to you we will bear much fruit.
Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ, here among us
Go with us, stay with us, grant us your peace.

We pray these and all things in the name of the One who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, Jesus the Christ, who taught us to pray together…

in-person Hymn: The Love of God Comes Close

Benediction
Take heart! God’s house is roomy and full of light. Go into your week to live with Christ and allow Christ to live through you. And as you go, may the Spirit of God go above you to watch over you. May the Spirit of God go beside you to be your companion. May the Spirit of God go before you to show you the way, and behind you to push you into places you might not go alone. And may the Spirit of God go within you to remind you that you are loved more deeply than you can possibly imagine. May the fire of God’s love burn brightly in you, and through you into the world. Go in peace. Amen.

Postlude Music

Announcements

* Today is Life and Work Sunday — celebrating the ministry of the magazine of the Church of Scotland. For over 140 years Life and Work has been informing, engaging, educating, sharing news, inspiring, uplifting, and connecting our church together across the nation and world. Learn more about the history of Life and Work, its founder, and some of its highlights over the years — and get a discount on a subscription! — by clicking here,   and also check this out if you’d like to see what’s made the cover over the past 142 years!
— You can also speak to our Life and Work Coordinator, John Reid, anytime with questions or to subscribe!

* Tonight we will gather with Christians across the nation for evening prayer on the Connect Facebook Page, led tonight by all four Connect clergy. Log on at 6:58pm to join in.

Sunday Service for 22 August 2021

Sunday Service for 22 August 2021, 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time
Sunday school Revisited week 13
Rev. Teri Peterson, Gourock St. John’s
Manse phone: 632143
Email: tpeterson (at) churchofscotland.org.uk

To hear an audio recording of this service, including music, phone 01475 270037. Please tell your friends, neighbours, and fellow church members who don’t have internet access!

Prelude Music

Welcome/Announcements

Call to Worship
1: Surely the Lord is in this place —
whether we know it or not, God is present here.
2: God’s promise is true,
and God’s blessing is for the whole earth.
Teri: Sleeping and waking,
at home and abroad,
at work and at school and at play,
together and alone,
All: God is with us.

Prayer
Blessed are you, O Lord our God, for you are everywhere present, and your word is everywhere at work. In every place, you speak to us — in a small small voice, in a cry for help, in scripture, and in silence. You call us to follow where you lead, and we confess that we mostly want you to follow where we lead. Forgive us when we take matters into our own hands, unwilling to make space for your way. We admit that we would prefer your voice to call us into the safety of a sanctuary, not out into the wilderness of the world, and so we hear only what we want to hear and see only what we want to see. Forgive us when we ignore you for our own convenience, looking away from your image reflected in every face and talking over your word calling out in our community. We admit that we are only protecting ourselves from receiving a blessing we do not want, a blessing that asks something of us rather than simply giving to us. Forgive us our selfish ways and create us anew as your image-bearers, made to love, serve, and care for your world. We ask in the name of Jesus the Christ, who was obedient to your way and calls us to follow him. Amen.

Music
Online: You, Lord, Are in This Place (Keith Duke)
In Person: “O Isis und Osiris” from The Magic Flute by Mozart

Children’s Time (in person: back to school blessing)

Reading: Genesis 27-28, selected verses (New Revised Standard Version)
When Isaac was old and his eyes were dim so that he could not see, he called his elder son Esau and said to him, ‘My son’; and he answered, ‘Here I am.’ He said, ‘See, I am old; I do not know the day of my death. Now then, take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field, and hunt game for me. Then prepare for me savoury food, such as I like, and bring it to me to eat, so that I may bless you before I die.’
Then Rebekah took the best garments of her elder son Esau, which were with her in the house, and put them on her younger son Jacob; and she put the skins of the kids on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck. Then she handed the savoury food, and the bread that she had prepared, to her son Jacob.
So he went in to his father, and said, ‘My father’; and he said, ‘Here I am; who are you, my son?’ Jacob said to his father, ‘I am Esau your firstborn. I have done as you told me; now sit up and eat of my game, so that you may bless me.’ But Isaac said to his son, ‘How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son?’ He answered, ‘Because the Lord your God granted me success.’ Then Isaac said to Jacob, ‘Come near, that I may feel you, my son, to know whether you are really my son Esau or not.’ So Jacob went up to his father Isaac, who felt him and said, ‘The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.’ He did not recognise him, because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau’s hands; so he blessed him. He said, ‘Are you really my son Esau?’ He answered, ‘I am.’ Then he said, ‘Bring it to me, that I may eat of my son’s game and bless you.’ So he brought it to him, and he ate; and he brought him wine, and he drank.Then his father Isaac said to him, ‘Come near and kiss me, my son.’ So he came near and kissed him; and he smelled the smell of his garments, and blessed him, and said,
‘Ah, the smell of my son
is like the smell of a field that the Lord has blessed.
May God give you of the dew of heaven,
and of the fatness of the earth,
and plenty of grain and wine.
Let peoples serve you,
and nations bow down to you.
Be lord over your brothers,
and may your mother’s sons bow down to you.
Cursed be everyone who curses you,
and blessed be everyone who blesses you!’

Jacob left Beer-sheba and went towards Haran. He came to a certain place and stayed there for the night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place. And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven; and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And the Lord stood beside him and said, ‘I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring; and your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you and in your offspring. Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.’ Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, ‘Surely the Lord is in this place—and I did not know it!’ And he was afraid, and said, ‘How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.’

For the word of God in scripture,
For the word of God among us,
For the word of God within us,
Thanks be to God.

Sermon: Opposite Blessings

I used to think that my brother and I were pretty bad as far as fighting and sibling rivalry goes. When we were younger we broke things, hurt each other, and shouted ourselves hoarse. I don’t know how our parents put up with us honestly.
And then I read the Bible, and the things that siblings get up to, even just in the book of Genesis, puts our petty squabbles to shame.

Jacob and Esau are a good example. They’re twins, and even in the womb they were already wrestling. While she was pregnant, their mother Rebekah suffered a lot from their constant movement, and when she prayed about it, she received a vision from God to say that she was giving birth to two nations…and that the younger would take precedence over the elder. Now of course they’re twins, so there’s not much room for younger and older, especially since Jacob was born quite literally on the heels of Esau — it says that he was holding on to Esau’s heel with his hand!

From that moment onward, they were rivals in every way. One was their father’s favourite, and one their mother’s favourite. One was skilled in hunting, the other in husbandry. On and on the list goes of how they were polar opposites of each other. And of course there’s the story where we learned that Jacob was a typical Scot as well — he was able to cook a good hearty meal, and his lentil soup was so good that when Esau came in from hunting and was so hungry, he agreed to sell his birthright, his inheritance, to his brother for a bowl of it! A good cook and canny too!

So perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that there’s a twist to the story of their father preparing for his last days, and thinking about his legacy, wanting to give his eldest son a blessing.

Remember Rebekah had been told by God that “the elder will serve the younger.” She simply did, in her mind, what she had to do to ensure that God’s word came true. So she and Jacob worked out a plan to dress Jacob in Esau’s clothes, to cover him in goat hair, and to take in Rebekah’s best cooking. After all, Isaac’s eyesight had failed, and he wasn’t mentally as sharp as he’d once been either, so the plan that Rebekah and Jacob concocted paid off. They were able to manipulate and scheme their way into Jacob getting his father’s blessing.

Esau was murderously angry, of course, which is why Jacob fled towards Haran — the homeland of his grandfather Abraham, running away with only what he could carry. No servants, no livestock, no extra baggage allowance, just what he was wearing and a bag on his back as he headed into the wilderness.

When he laid down that night, exhausted from running, having left his mother with his dying father and his angry brother, the only thing he had to hand was a stone. We always think he used it as a pillow but it’s more likely to have been a large stone that he laid down next to, his back to it, protecting his head and back and hiding him from at least one angle as long as he didn’t stick his legs out. The wilderness is a dangerous place, especially at night, that’s the best he could hope for in terms of protection.

There, in the middle of nowhere, under the stars, his back to a stone, exhausted and sad, Jacob slept.

There’s nothing more vulnerable than a person who is mentally and physically exhausted, exposed to the elements, asleep.

And that is when God appeared.

Not when Jacob was controlling the situation and scripting the conversation, but when he was asleep, outside, far from home, alone.

There he saw the connection between earth and heaven, and how easy it is to move between them for those messengers doing God’s work. He understood that even there, in the wilderness, he was in the house of God, literally sleeping at the gates of heaven…and he had no idea.

Now at this point I could go on for quite some time about the fact that we, like Jacob, so often have absolutely no idea that God is in this place. Right here and now, wherever we find ourselves, is the gate of heaven. God has not left a single square millimetre of the universe without divine presence, it’s just that we choose not to see God all around us, and we choose to treat the creation as if it is not God’s house, but our own to abuse as we wish. Rather than being vulnerable and open to receiving the truth of the interconnectedness of heaven and earth, we have chosen to stay closed in order to manipulate and overpower creation for our own purposes, as if that will have no consequences for us or others or for the kingdom of God.

And that is all true.

But what I most want to notice with you today is slightly different. Related, in a way, but different.

Take a look at the blessing that Jacob and Rebekah worked so hard to get from Isaac. It is about two main things: material prosperity first (the fatness of the earth, plenty of wine), and power second (let peoples serve you, be lord over your brothers).

Those are things that many of us strive for. To have more than enough to satisfy our desires, and to have a higher status than other people. To work our way up the ladder, socially and economically, to be better off than our parents were — isn’t that what we’re culturally conditioned to work for our whole lives, and what our western economies require of us?

Now take a look at the blessing God gives to Jacob while he is sleeping at the gate of God’s house. God says “I am with you and will keep you wherever you go” and promises that this land will be full of his descendants, people who will be a blessing to others.

God blessed him with the knowledge of God’s constant presence everywhere, not just in holy places, and with the gift of being a blessing to others, to all the families of the world.

It’s the opposite of the blessing he’d manipulated his father for, which was about being served while God’s blessing is about being a blessing.

One is what we often think of as blessing, we work for it or we say we’re “so blessed” when we have prosperity and power. And the other is what God thinks of as a blessing: to know God’s presence and share it with others, to spread the news that “surely the Lord is in this place” and to work for a world where all can experience God’s goodness here and now.

In other words, as Jesus put it, to receive a blessing is not to be served, but to serve. To love as we have been loved. To represent God’s image in the world.

This doesn’t only apply to us as individuals, though it is the opposite of the way we use the word “blessed” culturally. It also applies to the church as a whole. A blessed church is not a church that has a lot of people and a lot of money and a high profile in its town or nation or the world. A blessed church is a church that gives itself away as a blessing to others. A blessed church isn’t a church with a beautiful building, a blessed church is a church that knows the people are the church, wherever we are. A blessed church isn’t a church that’s packed to the rafters, standing room only, a blessed church is a church that is reflecting the image of God outside the sanctuary walls, loving its neighbours in every neighbourhood where the church lives. A blessed church isn’t one that controls or manipulates to get what it wants, a blessed church is one that recognises God’s presence everywhere and stands up to say “Surely the Lord is in this place” — in the high street and in the train station and in the dark alleyways and in the deprived empty town centre and in the hospital and in the funeral parlour and in the drugs den and in the beautiful park and in the school and in the eyesore of a building and in the pub and in the fancy restaurant and in the community garden and in the close no one is caring for and in the care home and in the library and in the council offices and in the chippy and in the big fancy yachts and everywhere else.

The blessing we’ve been pursuing so hard for ourselves is actually no blessing at all, and while we’re putting all our energy into that, we can’t see what’s right in front of us. Which means a blessed church has to be one that is full of people who are willing to pause, to let our guard down, to be vulnerable, to stop working so hard for our own institutional survival and the desires of those already inside the walls, and instead make space for God to speak…even if it’s to give us a blessing we aren’t sure we actually want. Because that’s what comes when one sleeps at the gates of heaven.

When we are vulnerable enough to recognise that the Lord is in this place, and that the Lord is calling us to be a blessing to others, then what will we do? How will we give ourselves away to share the good news, to spread the blessing far and wide, to participate in the work that all those messengers of God are doing when they go to and fro between heaven and earth?

When we answer that, we’ll find ourselves in God’s house, wherever we are.

May it be so. Amen.

In-person Hymn 716 Come and Find the Quiet Centre (in person only)
Online hymn: God of Justice

Prayer and the Lord’s Prayer
Loving God,
you are the giver of every good gift,
the one who bestows blessings,
even on the unworthy.
We give you thanks for your love
that transcends our boundaries,
overflowing our meagre dreams.
You have promised your presence,
walking with us every step of this life,
through pain and suffering as in joy and triumph.
And yet we long to know you,
we often wonder where you’ve gone,
and it seems the world looks in vain.
Where there is suffering, Lord, make your healing Spirit known.
We know you are present and we pray for people to see you in our neighbours
in Afghanistan, in Syria, in Yemen,
in places where the virus rages and vaccines are scarce,
in places fighting fires and reeling from floods,
in homes where tempers boil over and children live in fear,
in hospitals and homes, in schools and churches.
Fill your world with so much grace that we cannot help but love.
Fill your world with so much light that the shadows cannot get a foothold.
Fill your world with so much hope that all may know your abundant life.
We seek your face, O God. Reveal yourself again,
that we may know this and every place as the gate of heaven.
…
God, you created the world and called it good,
you made us in your image,
you called together your church to be your body in the world.
Create us anew this morning that we may reflect your glory,
your compassion, your love, your justice, your grace,
in every word and every action.
Guide us to do what you are blessing, that the world may know blessing through us.
We pray in the name of Jesus the Christ,
who came not to be served but to serve,
and who taught us to pray together:
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For yours is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever.
Amen.

in-person Hymn: God Be The Love to Search and Keep Me

Benediction
Friends, go out into the world looking for God’s presence and sharing God’s blessing, for it is in so doing that you will be blessed yourself. And as you go, may the Spirit of God go above you to watch over you. May the Spirit of God go beside you to be your companion. May the Spirit of God go before you to show you the way, and behind you to push you into places you might not go alone. And may the Spirit of God go within you to remind you that you are loved more deeply than you can possibly imagine. May the fire of God’s love burn brightly in you, and through you into the world. Go in peace. Amen.

Postlude Music

Announcements

* Tonight we will gather with Christians across the nation for evening prayer on the Connect Facebook Page, led tonight by David. Log on at 6:58pm to join in.

**Vhutshilo Mountain School 3^rd Term Update

All staff received their Covid vaccine on the 9th of July and Vhutshilo Mountain School’s 3rd term began on the 26 of July. To date, staff and children are all healthy and well, as we continue to follow all Covid-19 protocols.

We have 63 students: 38 are sponsored thank you! and 25 fee students. Our multi-grade class has 20 students, pre-school class has 25 students, and toddlers has 18 students. We are busy educating them! We are now receiving assistance from the local department of education with curriculum development and teaching materials. The department liaison, Mr. Savhase, is very knowledgeable and helpful.

Computer lessons are going well. We have applied for improved internet connection, which should be available soon, providing greater access to students. We are very happy about this development and the many ways it will improve student learning.

VMS Outreach program

The vegetable garden is producing plenty of vegetables for both school and family food parcels. We handed out over 800 seedlings to caregivers between April and June. We will continue to offer vegetables and seedlings to our students and members of the community in need of food support.

Youth on A Mission continues to educate local school children through school visits and through a local weekly radio talk show. Flyers were designed and printed that provide information on sexual assault, HIV/AIDS, and teen pregnancy. It had been a challenge to distribute them due to the pandemic. Beginning next week we will again be visiting schools.

A local NGO, The Zwonka Network (Zwonka means beautiful), received funding to educate and train young women and girls in nail technology and education and training on gender-based violence, HIV/AIDS, and positive living skills. Trainees will be prepared to educate their peers in these same areas. Ten girls from VMS’s HIV+ support group were selected and are currently attending the training. They are gaining new skills that better prepare them for life and earning a living. The training began on the 2nd of August for the first ten young women. Another ten girls have been identified and a new training session will start on August 21st.

Ridgeway College, located in Louis Trichardt, recently donated multiple items of clothing, food and 45 blankets to our vulnerable students and support group children. These items were much needed and appreciated by all.

We appreciate your ongoing support! We couldn’t do it without you.

Thank You

Khathu Nemafhohoni.

Sunday service for 15 August 2021

Sunday Service for 15 August 2021, 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Sunday school Revisited week 12
Rev. Teri Peterson, Gourock St. John’s
Manse phone: 632143
Email: tpeterson@churchofscotland.org.uk

To hear an audio recording of this service, including music, phone 01475 270037.

Prelude Music

Welcome/Announcements

Call to Worship
One: Some problems are so giant, all we can do is stand and look, talking it over again and again.
All: We feel so small in the face of it all.
One: Some ideas are so out there, all we can do is scoff and laugh, brushing off that naive silliness.
All: We feel so helpless it makes us certain nothing can work.
One: Some encounters are so important, all we can do is take off the armour and be our full selves.
All: We feel so vulnerable, we understand true power.
One: Whatever we see through our eyes, the truth is that God looks on the heart,
All: and nothing is impossible with God.
One: Whether we are quaking in our boots or standing tall in the Spirit’s courage,
All: we trust God’s promise to make small offerings into great things.
One: So let us bring ourselves to worship, and be transformed.

Prayer
God, we thank you that you equip us with all that we need to follow your call.
You love us and welcome us, showing us how to offer hospitality.
You know us and challenge us, showing us what is possible with your power.
You give us gifts of imagination and purpose, generosity and curiosity, showing us that there is a different way.
We confess that we do not often see what you see.
Where you see possibility, we see obstacles.
Where you see beautiful diversity, we see terrifying difference.
Where you see a path to your kingdom, we see difficulties we don’t know how to overcome.
Where you see a world-changing story, we see the impossibly naive.
Forgive us for our narrow vision.
Forgive us for insisting the only way is the way we have comfortably walked before.
Forgive us for huddling in our safe places
and refusing to even try our hand at the new thing you are doing.
Open our eyes, and our minds, and our hearts,
and give us courage to let go
of those things that weigh us down and hold us back
from following you wherever you lead.
We pray in the name of Jesus the Christ. Amen.

Music
In person:
Online: Voice of Truth (Casting Crowns)

Children’s Time

Reading: 1 Samuel 17.1-51, selected verses (Common English Bible)
The Philistines assembled their troops for war … Saul and the Israelite army assembled and camped in the Elah Valley, where they got organised to fight the Philistines. The Philistines took positions on one hill while Israel took positions on the opposite hill. There was a valley between them.
A champion named Goliath from Gath came out from the Philistine camp. He was more than nine feet tall. He had a bronze helmet on his head and wore bronze scale-armor weighing one hundred twenty-five pounds. He had bronze plates on his shins, and a bronze scimitar hung on his back. His spear shaft was as strong as the bar on a weaver’s loom, and its iron head weighed fifteen pounds. His shield-bearer walked in front of him.
He stopped and shouted to the Israelite troops, “Why have you come and taken up battle formations? I am the Philistine champion, and you are Saul’s servants. Isn’t that right? Select one of your men, and let him come down against me. If he is able to fight me and kill me, then we will become your slaves, but if I overcome him and kill him, then you will become our slaves and you will serve us. I insult Israel’s troops today!” The Philistine continued, “Give me an opponent, and we’ll fight!” When Saul and all Israel heard what the Philistine said, they were distressed and terrified.

Now David was Jesse’s son, an Ephraimite from Bethlehem in Judah who had eight sons. By Saul’s time, Jesse was already quite old and far along in age. Jesse’s three oldest sons had gone with Saul to war. Their names were Eliab the oldest, Abinadab the second oldest, and Shammah the third oldest. (David was the youngest.) These three older sons followed Saul, but David went back and forth from Saul’s side to shepherd his father’s flock in Bethlehem.

For forty days straight the Philistine came out and took his stand, both morning and evening. Jesse said to his son David, “Please take your brothers an ephah of this roasted grain and these ten loaves of bread. Deliver them quickly to your brothers in the camp. And here, take these ten wedges of cheese to their unit commander. Find out how your brothers are doing and bring back some sign that they are okay. They are with Saul and all the Israelite troops fighting the Philistines in the Elah Valley.”
So David got up early in the morning, left someone in charge of the flock, and loaded up and left, just as his father Jesse had instructed him. He reached the camp right when the army was taking up their battle formations and shouting the war cry. Israel and the Philistines took up their battle formations opposite each other. David left his things with an attendant and ran to the front line. When he arrived, he asked how his brothers were doing. Right when David was speaking with them, Goliath, the Philistine champion from Gath, came forward from the Philistine ranks and said the same things he had said before. David listened. When the Israelites saw Goliath, every one of them ran away terrified of him. …

David asked the soldiers standing by him, “What will be done for the person who kills that Philistine over there and removes this insult from Israel? Who is that uncircumcised Philistine, anyway, that he can get away with insulting the army of the living God?”
Then the troops repeated to him what they had been saying. “So that’s what will be done for the man who kills him,” they said.
When David’s oldest brother Eliab heard him talking to the soldiers, he got very mad at David. “Why did you come down here?” he said. “Who is watching those few sheep for you in the wilderness? I know how arrogant you are and your devious plan: you came down just to see the battle!”
“What did I do wrong this time?” David replied. “It was just a question!”
So David turned to someone else and asked the same thing, and the people said the same thing in reply. The things David had said were overheard and reported to Saul, who sent for him.

“Don’t let anyone lose courage because of this Philistine!” David told Saul. “I, your servant, will go out and fight him!”
“You can’t go out and fight this Philistine,” Saul answered David. “You are still a boy. But he’s been a warrior since he was a boy!”
“Your servant has kept his father’s sheep,” David replied to Saul, “and if ever a lion or a bear came and carried off one of the flock, I would go after it, strike it, and rescue the animal from its mouth. If it turned on me, I would grab it at its jaw, strike it, and kill it. Your servant has fought both lions and bears. This uncircumcised Philistine will be just like one of them because he has insulted the army of the living God.
“The Lord,” David added, “who rescued me from the power of both lions and bears, will rescue me from the power of this Philistine.”
“Go!” Saul replied to David. “And may the Lord be with you!”

Then Saul dressed David in his own gear, putting a coat of armour on him and a bronze helmet on his head. David strapped his sword on over the armour, but he couldn’t walk around well because he’d never tried it before. “I can’t walk in this,” David told Saul, “because I’ve never tried it before.” So he took them off. He then grabbed his staff and chose five smooth stones from the streambed. He put them in the pocket of his shepherd’s bag and with sling in hand went out to the Philistine.

The Philistine got closer and closer to David, and his shield-bearer was in front of him. When the Philistine looked David over, he sneered at David because he was just a boy; reddish brown and good-looking.
The Philistine asked David, “Am I some sort of dog that you come at me with sticks?” And he cursed David by his gods. “Come here,” he said to David, “and I’ll feed your flesh to the wild birds and the wild animals!”
But David told the Philistine, “You are coming against me with sword, spear, and scimitar, but I come against you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel’s army, the one you’ve insulted. Today the Lord will hand you over to me. I will strike you down and cut off your head! Today I will feed your dead body and the dead bodies of the entire Philistine camp to the wild birds and the wild animals. Then the whole world will know that there is a God on Israel’s side. And all those gathered here will know that the Lord doesn’t save by means of sword and spear. The Lord owns this war, and he will hand all of you over to us.”

The Philistine got up and moved closer to attack David, and David ran quickly to the front line to face him. David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone. He slung it, and it hit the Philistine on his forehead. The stone penetrated his forehead, and he fell facedown on the ground. And that’s how David triumphed over the Philistine with just a sling and a stone, striking the Philistine down and killing him—and David didn’t even have a sword! Then David ran and stood over the Philistine. He grabbed the Philistine’s sword, drew it from its sheath, and finished him off. Then David cut off the Philistine’s head with the sword.
When the Philistines saw that their hero was dead, they fled.

Sermon: Size Doesn’t Matter
It’s a favourite story for many, and popular in children’s bibles and storybooks — the underdog facing the giant and winning. We usually leave off the gruesome ending, of course! And we normally only hear about the big moment, when David slings the stone with perfect aim…but as you can hear, there’s much more to the story!

The Philistine and Israelite armies were encamped across from each other, each on top of hills. Obviously from that position, no one wants to make the first move because it would mean going to low ground and being vulnerable while making their way up the opposite hill. So they just stood there every day and shouted at each other. Finally the Philistines sent out one man, hoping that if they could settle this one-on-one, they could all avoid a bloodbath. But the man they sent out was…huge. He was the tallest person anyone had ever seen, and he was absolutely covered in shining armour.

Notice, though, that he’s got so much armour he can barely see to navigate the path, so he follows his shield bearer up and down the hill, twice each day. He’s so weighed down by all this external stuff, he can’t even carry his own shield! Goliath may be the biggest man ever, and he was no doubt a fearsome sight, but the truth is that he was totally reliant on all that armour and weaponry to give him the courage to fight, whether with words or swords.

On the Israelite side, no one was willing to step forward. They looked between that hulk of armour, lumbering down into the valley twice every day, and their king — Saul, who also stood head and shoulders taller than anyone else in the country, who was handsome and charismatic, and who was trembling in his boots. He had been chosen to be king because he was the biggest and the best-looking…and it turns out that his leadership was nothing of the sort. If the only person who could even sort of match Goliath for height and skill was afraid, what was the Israelite army supposed to think? Of course they followed Saul’s lead…in being terrified and frozen in place.

It was clearly a dire situation, since Jesse was sending provisions for his sons and for the commander too. There wasn’t enough food for them to stand on that hillside for 40 days doing nothing but quaking in fear. When David arrived with food, though, he got to hear firsthand the taunts from the other side and to see with his own eyes the despair of his countrymen. Which is something his brothers didn’t want him to see…and after more than a month of listening to the verbal abuse from Goliath and wallowing in the fear of their own leader, his brothers were desperate for an outlet for their own frustration. So they took it all out on their baby brother — he was an easy target, after all!

But people overheard their sibling dispute, and took David straight to Saul. Once David was finished boasting about his shepherding skills — you can practically hear his brothers’ eyes rolling from outside the tent — Saul dressed David up in his own armour and sent him on his way.

Remember, Saul was a grown man who was head and shoulders taller than anyone else in Israel. And David was probably a young teenager. He was very diplomatic saying “I’ve never worn this before so I can’t do it”…because the truth is it would have been giant on him, he’d be swimming in armour meant for someone twice his size! All that would do is highlight the fact that Saul ought to have been the one serving as champion, but he was too weak a leader, even with armour and weapons.

So David, taking only himself and his sling, went out to face the Philistine champion who was weighed down with the things he thought he needed to protect himself.

A shepherd or a warrior experienced with a sling could throw a stone very nearly at the same speed as a bullet comes out of a gun. So it was no children’s toy. But the contrast must have been immense: the massive Goliath, made even more massive by hundreds of pounds of armour strapped on, a hulk that could not even lift his own shield as he shouted insults at the opposition, and the slight David, in a tunic and sandals and with a bit of fabric he swung round his head as he proclaimed that God could do more than any weapon or armour.

Malcolm Gladwell talks about how we think of this story as about the underdog defeating the giant against all odds, but that isn’t actually the case. The reality is that Goliath and David were equipped for two different fights — Goliath was ready for hand-to-hand combat, he says “come here so I can fight you,” but David could fight from a distance. While the armies on the hillside could only see one way forward, David had the gifts and skills and, perhaps most importantly, the imagination to do something different. He wasn’t weighed down by the old ways, or the expectations of being the biggest and best, or the structures of the institution. He looked at the problem and saw that God had given him exactly what he needed to meet the challenge, and he had faith that despite what everyone else thought was necessary, he was equipped enough. Size doesn’t matter, vision does. And the courage to follow that vision through.

That’s true of the giants we face today too. The big stuff staring at us from the other hillside — climate change, homelessness, poverty, hunger, injustice, violence, political corruption, or even the difficulties facing the church in the modern world — all of it is huge, and we are small, and it all feels impossible to deal with. So we huddle together in fear. We take up positions but never move forward, we just stand there for awhile looking at the problem and then go back into our tents and hope it’ll be different tomorrow. We look to leaders who were, frankly, chosen for the wrong reasons. And we keep doing the same things we’ve always done, even though we know it doesn’t work and nothing ever changes.

But size doesn’t matter, vision does. It doesn’t matter that we feel small in the face of such huge challenges like this week’s climate report, or the situation in Afghanistan, or the refugee crisis, or the number of people addicted to drugs and alcohol. What does matter is that our leaders do not have the imagination to see a different way, and so following their leadership freezes us in place. What does matter is that we keep trying to fit into armour we cannot carry, weighed down by what they think we need rather than trusting the gifts God already gave us.

It is often said that we cannot solve problems with the same kind of thinking that created the problem. Saul and the Israelite army knew perfectly well they could not defeat Goliath and the Philistines on their own terms. David knew that too. But he saw a way to adapt and use the gifts God had given him, simple as they were, to change the game. He thought differently, and that different thinking opened a new solution to an old problem.

Never underestimate God’s gift of imagination — and never forget that that gift is often housed in the youngest among us. Size doesn’t matter, and age doesn’t matter, vision does. Allowing David to pursue God’s vision changed everything on that hillside. What if we trusted God to equip us, and our young people, to face the giant problems of the world in new and surprising ways too?

May it be so. Amen.

Music
In person: Hymn 535, Who Would True Valour See
Online: Hymn 251: I, the Lord of Sea and Sky

Prayer and Lord’s Prayer (adapted from Spill the Beans)

You are the God of the ages, your hand has guided us throughout history.
In every time and place your word creates and re-creates,
calling us to your kingdom way.
You are not trapped in the past,
nor are you far away in some future we cannot imagine.
You do not live high up in the sky or in between the covers of an old book.
You, God, speak in this place, even now.
You, God, live and breathe in us, even now.
You, God are everywhere present, involved in our every moment,
challenging us and equipping us to live as your people, today.
By your power, we pray for the courage to slay giants —
of poverty and hunger,
of prejudice and hatred,
of conflict and bigotry.
By your power, we pray for the will to slay giants —
of environmental destruction,
of apathy and wilful ignorance,
of greed and unwillingness to change.
By your power, we pray for the imagination to slay giants —
to look at things a different way,
to listen to those with new ideas,
to shed the things that constrain us and step forward in faith.
It took David only one stone…and the resourcefulness to use it well.
We trust you have given us all we need to take our stand for your goodness in this world.
We commit ourselves to your work,
to slay the giants we have named,
for with you all things are possible and we need not fear.
We ask in the name of Jesus, who chose a different path and changed the world, and who taught us to pray together:
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and forever.
Amen.

Music:
In Person: Hymn 251: I, the Lord of Sea and Sky
Online: Goodness is Stronger than Evil

Benediction
Friends, go into your week ready to use your God-given imagination in the service of God’s kingdom. However big the problem, remember size doesn’t matter, vision does. And as you go, may the Spirit of God go above you to watch over you. May the Spirit of God go beside you to be your companion. May the Spirit of God go before you to show you the way, and behind you to push you into places you might not go alone. And may the Spirit of God go within you to remind you that you are loved more deeply than you can possibly imagine. May the fire of God’s love burn brightly in you, and through you into the world. Go in peace. Amen.

Postlude Music (in person only)

Announcements

* All worship is online (or on the phone at 01475 270037, or in print) and we also meet in person, subject to some continued protocols for distancing, hand hygiene, test-and-protect details, and mask wearing. We are now singing! Beginning next Sunday the 22nd of August, we can welcome approximately 85 people for worship with 1m distancing still in place. No booking will be required, but please arrive early enough to sign in with your test-and-protect details, and please use the front door unless you require step-free access.

* Tonight we will gather with Christians across the nation for evening prayer on the Connect Facebook Page, led tonight by Teri. Log on at 6:58pm to join in.

Sunday service for 8 August 2021

Sunday Service for 8 August 2021, 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Sunday school Revisited week 11
Rev. Teri Peterson, Gourock St. John’s
Manse phone: 632143
Email: tpeterson (at) churchofscotland.org.uk

To hear an audio recording of this service, including music, phone 01475 270037.

Prelude Music

Welcome/announcements

Call to Worship
Teri: Come, people of God, and bless God’s holy name!
1: Jesus, who met hate with love,
2: Jesus, who gave himself to us, for us,
1: we bring our gratitude and praise,
2: we bring our hopes and prayers,
All: to the one who took up the cross and changed everything.

Prayer
Holy One, you have taken the weight of the world on your shoulders, borne our brokenness and transformed it into your wholeness. We thank you for your love that encompasses us all, for your grace that surrounds us and brings us close to you. We confess that we have too often projected our own image onto you, rather than reflecting your image into the world. We have asked you to bless our ways, rather than following the way of your blessing. We have chosen words that hurt rather than words that heal, and put others down in order to lift ourselves up. Forgive us for wandering from your path, and for causing suffering for our sisters and brothers. Forgive us for so blithely saying “forgive us” without remembering the cost of our words and actions. In your mercy, Lord, forgive and heal us, and make us once again into your people, sharing your love and justice with the world. We ask in the name of Jesus the Christ, whose arms spread wide in welcome for us all, and whose grace transforms even the hardest of hearts. Amen.

Music:
Online: improvisation on O Sacred Head
In Person: “Herzlich Thut Mich Verlangen” by JS Bach

Children’s Time

Reading: Mark 15.16-47. New Revised Standard Version

Then the soldiers led him into the courtyard of the palace (that is, the governor’s headquarters); and they called together the whole cohort. And they clothed him in a purple cloak; and after twisting some thorns into a crown, they put it on him. And they began saluting him, ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’ They struck his head with a reed, spat upon him, and knelt down in homage to him. After mocking him, they stripped him of the purple cloak and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him out to crucify him.
They compelled a passer-by, who was coming in from the country, to carry his cross; it was Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus. Then they brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha (which means the place of a skull). And they offered him wine mixed with myrrh; but he did not take it. And they crucified him, and divided his clothes among them, casting lots to decide what each should take.

It was nine o’clock in the morning when they crucified him. The inscription of the charge against him read, ‘The King of the Jews.’ And with him they crucified two bandits, one on his right and one on his left. Those who passed by derided him, shaking their heads and saying, ‘Aha! You who would destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself, and come down from the cross!’ In the same way the chief priests, along with the scribes, were also mocking him among themselves and saying, ‘He saved others; he cannot save himself. Let the Messiah, the King of Israel, come down from the cross now, so that we may see and believe.’ Those who were crucified with him also taunted him.
When it was noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. At three o’clock Jesus cried out with a loud voice, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?’ which means, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ When some of the bystanders heard it, they said, ‘Listen, he is calling for Elijah.’ And someone ran, filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a stick, and gave it to him to drink, saying, ‘Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down.’ Then Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. Now when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, ‘Truly this man was God’s Son!’

There were also women looking on from a distance; among them were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome. These used to follow him and provided for him when he was in Galilee; and there were many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem.
When evening had come, and since it was the day of Preparation, that is, the day before the sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the council, who was also himself waiting expectantly for the kingdom of God, went boldly to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate wondered if he were already dead; and summoning the centurion, he asked him whether he had been dead for some time. When he learned from the centurion that he was dead, he granted the body to Joseph. Then Joseph bought a linen cloth, and taking down the body, wrapped it in the linen cloth, and laid it in a tomb that had been hewn out of the rock. He then rolled a stone against the door of the tomb. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where the body was laid.

For the word of God in scripture,
For the word of God among us,
For the word of God within us,
Thanks be to God.

Sermon: Mirror
This is one of those stories that many of us know, and yet if we were pressed to talk about it we may find that we have only the bare basics of it, or that we resort to simply saying “Jesus died for our sins” — which Mark’s gospel doesn’t say explicitly, he simply tells the story and we have come to understand its meaning over the years. It’s one of the central moments of the Christian faith — some might say the moment. There is often a friendly disagreement between those who see Good Friday’s crucifixion as the most important part of the easter story, and those who see Sunday’s resurrection as the most important part. Without death, there can be no resurrection, of course — something we who worry about the loss of certain traditions or institutions should remember. But then again, without resurrection, this is just another execution in an empire that famously crucified hundreds of thousands of people.

Crucifixion was meant to be humiliating torture, the most painful way to execute those who dared to oppose the empire. It was supposed to be a spectacle, and also to be so shameful that those who were crucified would essentially be erased from daily conversation. Friends and family wouldn’t mention them, for fear someone might connect them to the person who had been caught rebelling against Rome and turn them in too. Often bodies were left to the elements and the animals, rather than buried properly. It was intentionally as terrible as anyone could dream up. And it happened nearly every day in the Roman Empire, for about 500 years.

As an aside: you would think that if it was an effective deterrent, they wouldn’t have to do it quite so much. But we know how easily we humans fall into the trap of continuing to do things that don’t work, even harmful things, simply because it’s what we’ve always done. The death penalty and other forms of physical punishment and, indeed, many punishments in general, are no different — they don’t work but we want to believe they do.

Which is why it matters that we tell this story, in all its brutality and horror.

Not because we need or want to glorify gore, or torture, or pain. There’s plenty of that to go around in other places, other stories.

But because we do need to see the truth of what humanity can do, and the truth that it doesn’t work. We want to believe that inflicting pain on others will make us feel better, but it doesn’t. We want to believe that making an example of someone will deter others from working for change, but it doesn’t. We want to believe that punishment works, but it doesn’t. Jesus, on the cross, holds up a mirror to us as human beings and asks if this was really what we believed?

Think of the people who saw him there and looked square into that mirror.

The soldiers who pulled things out of the dress-up box and played out their fantasies of being more powerful than the monarch…as they were beating him and spitting on him, they inadvertently spoke truth by calling him the King of the Jews. In that moment they revealed themselves, who they really were and what really mattered to them, and it was to hold the power of violence in their hands, to put others below them and climb to the top of the heap by any means possible including even throwing dice to divvy up his last possessions. It’s not a flattering picture in their mirror. But could they see it?

Along with passers-by, the others who were crucified beside Jesus also taunted him, calling names and mocking his power to save. Even in the midst of their own agony, even as they bore the same punishment, they still needed to be better than the man next to them. They were likely there for committing acts of treason or violence against the empire, while Jesus was there for speaking in ways that undermined the empire’s power with God’s love…and yet when they looked into the mirror-image of the cross next to them, what they saw was one more chance to prove they were more manly than the next guy.

The women, looking on from a distance…they’d been with him from the beginning, following him through Galilee and Judea and to Jerusalem. They had been providing for him and his followers, making space, making food, sharing their resources, learning at his feet and going out with his good news. They were the only friends who didn’t run away and hide, and even they had to watch from a distance. But they saw every writhe and heard every cry, and at the last they saw the tomb and the stone’s heaviness shuddering into place. They saw their friend, their teacher, their brother, their son…and they saw an end. The end of everything. In that moment it may have felt like their lives were over too.

And the centurion. Mark says he stood facing Jesus, and when he saw everything, the way others treated him, the way Jesus responded, his final breath, he saw truth shining through all the pain and sorrow and horror: truly, this man was God’s Son. Truly.

We couldn’t see it in the thousands of other bodies, made in the image of God, on crosses. But this one was God’s flesh and bone on the cross, God’s blood pouring out, God’s breath that stopped, and we are forced to confront just what cruelty we have chosen. We could not deal with the truth of what God-with-us said and did, the challenge he posed to the way things have always been, and so we killed him instead. And if the world were being honest, we would do it again today.

On the cross, Jesus reflected that truth back to us in a way we cannot ignore, though we have tried to look away, or pretended that when we continue on the wrong path it was okay because those people deserved it — forgetting what he said about “whenever you have done it to them, you did it to me.” The mirror shows uncomfortable truths, and will continue to show them to us every time we read the story and take it to heart, for we cannot stand at the foot of the cross and walk away unchanged. Or rather, we should not, though we often resist the transformation the crucifixion calls for.

When Jesus breathed his last, anguished cry, the curtain of the Temple was torn from top to bottom. The way that grieving people were to tear their clothes and put ashes on their heads, even the holy place grieved. And yet that tearing — from top to bottom, though it was taller than any human being could tear — also opened something. Sometimes we talk about grief as being broken-hearted, broken open, falling to pieces. Perhaps that’s what happened in the Temple that day, too. The curtain separating the holy place where God lived from the rest of the world and all its messiness was torn, from top to bottom.

The word “torn” is a word Mark only uses one other time in his whole gospel — to describe the heavens opening at Jesus’ baptism and the Holy Spirit descending on him. The heavens were torn open and the Spirit flew…and the curtain was torn and holiness was free, unconstrained. God had experienced the depths of human suffering, unmedicated. Mental and emotional and spiritual anguish, betrayal and desertion by all his friends, bullying and taunting and mocking of his very identity and passion and love, physical brutality and torture, the loss of a child…there is nothing in this world that we can go through that God hasn’t already experienced. And the separation between God and us has been torn to pieces by grief and love, so we will never walk the dark valley alone — we always have an experienced guide.

God shows us what really does work, and calls us to a new way. Not torture or punishment or cruelty, but tearing down separation barriers and coming together to walk the journey. If God would not stay separated from us even when we were literally doing the worst we could imagine, why would we insist on separating ourselves from one another?

The curtain was torn from top to bottom, from heaven to earth…and the tomb was open and empty on the third day…and nothing, nothing, nothing can separate us from God’s love, revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

May it be so. Amen.

Hymn 374: From Heaven You Came, Helpless Babe

Prayer and the Lord’s Prayer (adapted from Eggs & Ashes page 205)

Lord God, we meet beneath your cross, friends, strangers, mourners, wonderers, grieving the loss of love in the world.
We meet because we want to understand the awful things that happened.
We meet because we want to be with you, alongside you, near you,
seeing the truth you reveal even when it’s hard.
And in our meeting, we keep silence. We keep silence for words fail us.
We keep silence as you kept silence on the cross.
And so we keep silence with those crucified today,
living in darkness, in despair, in pain.

We keep silence with those treated as today’s scapegoats…
refugees, LGBT folks, people who look or sound different, those people…

We keep silence with those robbed of a sense of belonging in our society…
people without homes, people in debt and afraid of money-lenders, young people without a place to go, mothers whose sons have been taken, asylum seekers kept in hotels, workers who are essential yet not worth a living wage, those addicted to drugs or alcohol…

We keep silence with those who live in places of violence, longing for a moment of peace and quiet…

We keep silence with all who mourn a loved one…

We keep silence with those rebuilding their lives after trauma or disaster, after the headlines have passed but the suffering goes on…

We keep silence with those who find it hard to see beyond despair…

In the darkest of valleys, we are not alone.
In the silence, God, we hear your cry,
the language of love that walks with us the road of suffering as well as joy.
Wherever we find ourselves, you are there.
Whatever we experience, you know.
You are nearer to us than our own hands and feet, You are our very breath.
Show us your truth and your goodness out in your world, we pray.
We ask in the name of Jesus, who taught us to pray together,
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and forever.
Amen.

Hymn 404: I Danced in the Morning

Benediction
Friends, go into your week transformed by what you have seen from the foot of the cross. Go into your week to reflect God’s image into the world, knowing that there is nothing, in life or in death, can separate us from God’s love. And as you go, may the Spirit of God go above you to watch over you; may the Spirit of God go beside you to be your companion; may the Spirit of God go before you to show you the way and behind you to push you into places you might not go alone; and may the Spirit of God go within you, to remind you that you are loved more deeply than you can possibly imagine. May the fire of God’s love burn brightly in you, and through you into the world. Go in peace. Amen.

Sung Benediction Response
(John L Bell, tune Gourock St John’s)

Now may the Lord of all be blessed,
Now may Christ’s gospel be confessed,
Now may the Spirit when we meet
Bless sanctuary and street.

Postlude Music

Announcements

* All worship is online (or on the phone at 01475 270037, or in print) and we also meet in person, subject to the usual protocols for distancing, hand hygiene, mask wearing, and some limited singing! We can welcome approximately 50 people for worship, so if you would like to come in person, please phone Cameron (630879) on a MONDAY afternoon between 1-3pm or Anne Love (07904 617283) on a Saturday morning between 10-12 to book a place.

* Tonight we will gather with Christians across the nation for evening prayer on the Connect Facebook Page, led tonight by Karen. Log on at 6:58pm to join in.

Sunday service for 1 August 2021

Sunday Service for 1 August 2021, 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Sunday school Revisited week 10
Rev. Teri Peterson, Gourock St. John’s
Manse phone: 632143
Email: tpeterson (at) churchofscotland.org.uk

To hear an audio recording of this service, including music, phone 01475 270037.

Prelude Music

Welcome/announcements

Call to Worship: Psalm 77, verses 1-4, 11-15
1: I cry aloud to God,
aloud to God that he may hear me.

2: In the day of my trouble I seek the Lord;
in the night my hand is stretched out without wearying;
my soul refuses to be comforted.

1: I think of God, and I moan;
I meditate, and my spirit faints.

2: You keep my eyelids from closing,
I am so troubled that I cannot speak.

1: I will call to mind the deeds of the Lord;
I will remember your wonders of old.

2: I will meditate on all your work,
and muse on your mighty deeds.

1: Your way, O God, is holy.
What god is so great as our God?

2: You are the God who works wonders;
you have displayed your might among the peoples.

All: With your strong arm you redeemed your people,
the descendants of Jacob and Joseph.

Prayer
Holy God, your power is displayed throughout the universe,
right down to our own everyday lives.
For you, all things are possible.
And we know that with you, all things are possible.
You are our refuge and our strength.
We confess, though, that sometimes we prefer refuge to strength.
Our spirits are willing, at least mostly willing —
we know what you call us to do, and we really want to want to do it.
But the flesh is weak.
So we come to you for refuge, but we confess that we’re hiding.
Hiding from the hard path,
hoping you will reveal a different one if we wait long enough.
Forgive us, O God, and fill us again with your strength.
Make us strong and courageous, ready to do your will,
trusting that the words we say about you are actually true:
that you will never leave us nor forsake us,
that with you all things are possible,
that your grace is enough,
that you will lead us into abundant life for all,
if only we will follow you out of the safe place
and into the streets of this world you so love.
May your forgiveness fuel our faith,
and make us anew into your Body on earth.
We ask in the name of Jesus the Christ,
who was obedient even to death on a cross,
and beyond to the empty tomb.
Amen.

Music
Online: What Wondrous Love is This
In Person: Lilting by Philip Norris

Children’s Time

Reading: Mark 14.32-51 (New Revised Standard Version)

They went to a place called Gethsemane; and he said to his disciples, ‘Sit here while I pray.’ He took with him Peter and James and John, and began to be distressed and agitated. And he said to them, ‘I am deeply grieved, even to death; remain here, and keep awake.’ And going a little farther, he threw himself on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. He said, ‘Abba, Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup from me; yet, not what I want, but what you want.’ He came and found them sleeping; and he said to Peter, ‘Simon, are you asleep? Could you not keep awake one hour? Keep awake and pray that you may not come into the time of trial; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.’ And again he went away and prayed, saying the same words. And once more he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were very heavy; and they did not know what to say to him. He came a third time and said to them, ‘Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? Enough! The hour has come; the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Get up, let us be going. See, my betrayer is at hand.’
Immediately, while he was still speaking, Judas, one of the twelve, arrived; and with him there was a crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders. Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, ‘The one I will kiss is the man; arrest him and lead him away under guard.’ So when he came, he went up to him at once and said, ‘Rabbi!’ and kissed him. Then they laid hands on him and arrested him. But one of those who stood near drew his sword and struck the slave of the high priest, cutting off his ear. Then Jesus said to them, ‘Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest me as though I were a bandit? Day after day I was with you in the temple teaching, and you did not arrest me. But let the scriptures be fulfilled.’ All of them deserted him and fled.
A certain young man was following him, wearing nothing but a linen cloth. They caught hold of him, but he left the linen cloth and ran off naked.

For the word of God in scripture,
For the word of God among us,
For the word of God within us,
Thanks be to God.

Sermon: Yet

I think this might be one of the most heartbreaking moments in all of scripture. The rest of the passion story, and plenty of other stories throughout the Bible, are hard, gruesome, horrifying, or sad…but in the garden of Gethsemane, we see both the difficult events play out and also the feelings. Normally scripture doesn’t give us much about the interior lives or emotions of people involved, which makes it all the more powerful when we see glimpses in the garden.

Jesus took his three closest friends, the three who had witnessed his transfiguration, who had proclaimed their loyalty by insisting they could drink the cup that would guarantee a seat at his right and left hand, who had seen him for who he really was before anyone else. Once the four of them were alone amidst the olive trees, Jesus let them see his distress. Jesus was in pain that night in the garden — his body wasn’t hurting yet, but his spirit was.
His grief became visible on his face and his body…he asked them to watch, and then he threw himself on the ground.

The kind of prayer where you throw yourself on the ground, not just sink down to your knees or find a comfortable spot to sit, but throw your body down, lying face down, begging for help…that’s what the disciples saw.

For a moment, anyway, before sitting in the garden in the darkness on a warm spring evening after a big meal made their eyes get heavy.

Three times he asked them to keep vigil with him. Three times they failed to support their friend, they didn’t know how, and they knew they had failed and had no excuses to offer.

While his friends napped, Jesus was pleading with God. Please please please, can we do this a different way? Please please please, you can do anything, can you take this away from me? Please please please.

I’m sure many of us have pleaded with God for something — whether for ourselves or a loved one, asking for healing, or a new job, or the resources to do something, or help with an exam, or safety in a sticky situation, or any number of other things. We’ve asked God for what we want and what we need, just as we have been taught — to bring our desires to God.

Jesus does that, over and over affirming God’s power to do anything — for you all things are possible. So, God, could you just use that power for a minute, and save me and my friends and family from this terrible pain, this grief, this torture?

And then Jesus used a tiny wee word that makes all the difference in any prayer.

Yet.

Yet not what I want…but what you want.

I think those are probably the hardest words anyone can utter in prayer. To pour out our hearts, to ask and ask for what we want, and then to say: yet not what I want, but what you want.

It sometimes feels like our lives are defined by a combination of our own desires and the expectations of others, and that’s what we pray about. We ask God for help living up to those expectations, or to give us the gifts we need to be and do what we want…and here’s Jesus, knowing what’s coming, begging for another way, saying “yet not what I want, but what you want.”

St Ignatius of Loyola taught about the grace of “detachment” — essentially, of praying this prayer of Jesus. Detachment, or sometimes it’s called “indifference,” doesn’t mean not caring. It means that when we have offered our desires to God, we let go of controlling the outcome. How often do we pray about things and then still try to force them to go the way we want? Detachment or Indifference is a blessing that allows us to pry our fingers off the controls and allow God to answer our prayer however God will, not just the way we want God to answer.

Praying with Jesus for God’s will to take precedence over our own desires, our own pride, our own sense of meeting others’ expectations, may mean that God writes us a story we weren’t expecting. It will almost certainly mean disappointing someone, or letting go of some of the things we want, or things we remember, or things we once thought were important. After all, Jesus is basically begging for his life. And not just his life, but for his friends too — for their lives, for their community, for their place in his life. They were sleeping, and one was at the head of an angry mob on the way to betray him with a kiss, and they were all about to deny him and leave him alone, even abandoning their clothes and dignity to get away and save themselves. He would be bereft of his closest friends as he faced the worst torture humanity could dream up at the time. With his heart breaking into pieces, and that emptiness in his chest and the pit in his stomach, he still prayed “yet not what I want, but what you want.”

And what he got was the courage to be obedient to God’s way even through the darkest of dark valleys, to face down the powers of this world and declare that they are no power at all in the face of God’s love and desire for life, to take on the weight of the world and bear it to the very end, and beyond, changing the story of the world forever.

I imagine he was still wiping away tears, and catching his breath, when Judas arrived. Knowing his three closest friends had slept through his increasingly desperate prayer, he must have felt totally alone in the garden. But he also had the grace of detachment — the strength to trust that God’s will was for the best, and however big the hole in his heart might be, he was not truly abandoned. So when the mob scene turned unruly, he was able to point out how ridiculous they were — coming under cover of darkness when he was openly available all day long, hiding their actions because they knew they were wrong. But — there’s that same word again. Yet. But. Let the scripture be fulfilled. Not what I want, God, but what you want.

And then he was alone. Choosing to give up his own desires, choosing to step away from his friends’ expectations, and going instead with God’s way, meant they all deserted him. They didn’t know how to support him through this journey, or maybe they weren’t sure they wanted to anyway.

That happens sometimes when we pray this prayer. We might find that those who want us to follow their script will simply abandon us when we choose a different one. We might also find others who are laying aside those human expectations in favour of the divine story and want to join us. But either way it won’t be easy. Whether we are praying for the church to grow, and so have to be ready to let go of some things we have loved and even been proud of to make room for God to do a new thing, or praying for direction in our own lives or jobs and have to be prepared to learn something new to make that shift, or praying for the health and safety of friends or family members or ourselves and maybe have to heed the call to a different lifestyle… “yet not what I want but what you want” will require courage. Courage to trust God, and God’s power, and God’s goodness. Courage to keep going even when we have to let go of things that have made us comfortable before. Courage to stand up for what’s right even if others pull away. Courage to actually walk the path God sets before us…not just talk about praying for a new path. Courage to rely on friends who are also walking that path, and courage to be the friends who support others in the hardest times.

It’s not a prayer where we simply hand everything over and sit back and wait for God to fix everything. It’s a prayer in which we commit ourselves, our bodies, minds, and spirits, our resources, our energy, our everything, to God’s will ahead of our own. It isn’t a prayer to be prayed lightly, but it is one that’s necessary — perhaps uttering that little word even at the end of every single prayer we make.

Yet …not what I want, but what you want.

May it be so. Amen.

Prayer and the Lord’s Prayer
(Including hymn 793 “Stay With Me”)
Stay With Me x 3….

Gracious God, we give you thanks this day for your many blessings. Thank you for bringing us together to pray and to rest in you. Thank you for this space and this community. Thank you for all your incredible gifts.
Here in this place, we offer to you the things we are grateful for.
(…)
Stay With Me x 2

God, we come carrying burdens of worry and anxiety about many things and many people, especially our families and friends. Your children are in need of healing, courage, strength, and love. Pour out your grace and mercy, your healing power, your loving presence, on your people.
Here in this place, we offer to you the people who are in need of your healing, your love, your strength.
(…)
Stay With Me x 2

O Lord, our world is so troubled. War, famine, disease…our nightly news tells stories of destruction. But we know that is not the end of the story, and so we pray for your peace, your abundance, your healing, for your people around the world. Send your Spirit on all your people that they may know your comfort, your grace, your joy.
Here in this place, we offer to you the situations and places in the world in need of your overwhelming peace, healing, love, and fullness of life.
(…)
Stay With Me x 2

God, you hear the prayers of our hearts, and where we cannot form the words your Spirit intercedes for us. We have so much to pray for, Lord, that now, in this place, we offer you the prayers that are in our hearts and minds, the prayer of our souls.
(…)
Stay With Me x 2

O Lord, hear our prayers and have mercy on us and on your whole creation. We pray that you would walk alongside us as we seek you in our everyday lives. Keep us focused on you and your will. Strengthen us as we serve you and your people in the world, and guide us, for we are bold to ask: not what we want, but what you want.
We pray in the name of Jesus, who taught us to pray together,
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and forever.
Amen.

Music
Online: When My Flesh Is Weak (Resound Worship)
In person sung Hymn: O Jesus Christ, in human flesh (words: John L Bell, tune: St. Columba)

Benediction

Go into your week trusting that what God wills is for the best, and so you can have the courage to pray “yet not what I want, but what you want.” And as you go, may the Spirit of God go above you to watch over you; may the Spirit of God go beside you to be your companion; may the Spirit of God go before you to show you the way and behind you to push you into places you might not go alone; and may the Spirit of God go within you, to remind you that you are loved more deeply than you can possibly imagine. May the fire of God’s love burn brightly in you, and through you into the world. Go in peace. Amen.

Sung Benediction Response
(John L Bell, tune Gourock St John’s)

Now may the Lord of all be blessed,
Now may Christ’s gospel be confessed,
Now may the Spirit when we meet
Bless sanctuary and street.

Postlude Music

Announcements

* Teri will be off from the 19th – 29th of July. Please contact Cameron or your elder for any pastoral emergencies.

* All worship is online (or on the phone at 01475 270037, or in print) and we also meet in person, subject to the usual protocols for distancing, hand hygiene, mask wearing, and some limited singing! We can welcome approximately 35 people for worship, so if you would like to come in person, please phone Cameron (630879) on a MONDAY afternoon between 1-3pm or Anne Love (07904 617283) on a Saturday morning between 10-12 to book a place.

* Tonight we will gather with Christians across the nation for evening prayer on the Connect Facebook Page, led tonight by Jonathan. Log on at 6:58pm to join in.

Sunday service for 25 July 2021

Sunday Service for 25 July 2021, 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Sunday school Revisited week 9
Service prepared by the Rev. Teri Peterson, Gourock St. John’s
Manse phone: 632143
Email: tpeterson (at) churchofscotland.org.uk

To hear an audio recording of this service, phone 01475 270037. There is no sermon or intercessions manuscript available today.

This week we welcome guest preacher the Rev. Elana Keppel Levy. Elana is co-pastor of Trinity Presbyterian Church in Bixby, Oklahoma. She introduces herself this way:
“I am a co-pastor with my delightful spouse Rev. Lucus Levy Keppel at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Bixby, Oklahoma. (Given my dreadful technology curse and general computational ineptitude, my website literally could not exist without the snake charming tech skills of Lucus. Thanks, sweetie!)
“I see God’s work inscribed throughout the world. Growing up with a Jewish father and Presbyterian mother, religious conversations were all playful and interfaith. Engaging and appreciating difference meant that exact agreement was not required to cultivate a beautiful life that pleases God.
“From a very young age, I have been drawn to the study of the Holocaust, particularly those who acted with such cruelty. I learned German in school, and received undergraduate degrees in German language and psychology. I spent ten years working as a freelance translator focusing on documents about concentration camp guards (thanks to the ongoing projects and vital work of Dr. Susan Eischeid). I have spent most of my life pursuing questions: How could humans commit such evil acts? Who are we when we stray from our creaturely calling? What can Christians do to cultivate justice? These unanswerable questions prompt me to see people as people first and to try to reach out even when hope seems lost.
“After college, I earned a Masters of Social Work with a special focus on older adults, the bereaved, and those traumatized by sexual assault. God’s presence is most strongly felt when we are present, attentive, and loving to one another. Feeling strongly called to the ministry, I completed my Masters of Divinity and received a call as a Pastoral Care Associate in Roswell, NM (where I ministered to all comers, even aliens!).
“I love movies (and quoting them!); games and puzzles; deep conversations that come out of nowhere; prayer from the heart; and moments of genuine human kindness.”

Prelude Music (in person only)

Welcome/Announcements

Call to Worship
One: Come, servants of the Living God!
Bring your prayers to the Lord who delivers and rescues,
who works signs and wonders.
All: With childlike trust, we come with hope,
that we might see God in our midst this day.

Prayer
Holy God, your power is unlike any we know.
You do not coerce or pressure, like human powers.
When we are faced with bad-faith uses of power,
we pray you would give us the good faith to resist,
to continue in your way, for you have never failed us yet.
You are faithful, and you call us to live with hope even when we cannot see hope.
You call us to wait for you, even when we want to see you right now.
You call us to pray, and to be an answer to prayer, even in the midst of opposition.
We confess that we are prone to giving in to the other voices,
the ones offering power and prosperity if only we will turn away from you.
And we admit that we often find it easier to hide our faith instead,
to keep it private so as not to rock the boat.
We give in to those who want us to keep quiet
so they can be comfortable with injustice,
and so we are complicit.
Forgive us, God.
Forgive our easy rejection of your call for our convenience.
Forgive our unwillingness to pray through the night and stand firm in the morning.
Forgive us, and call us out again to live as your people,
witnessing to your power and grace.
We ask in the name of Jesus the Christ. Amen.

Music
Online: Hymn 600, Spirit of God, unseen as the wind
In person: __________

First Reading: Mark 8.31-38 (New Revised Standard Version)
Then Jesus began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, ‘Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.’
He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.’

Second Reading: Daniel 6, selected verses (New Revised Standard Version)
Soon Daniel distinguished himself above all the other presidents and satraps because an excellent spirit was in him, and the king planned to appoint him over the whole kingdom. So the presidents and the satraps tried to find grounds for complaint against Daniel in connection with the kingdom. But they could find no grounds for complaint or any corruption, because he was faithful, and no negligence or corruption could be found in him. The men said, ‘We shall not find any ground for complaint against this Daniel unless we find it in connection with the law of his God.’

So the presidents and satraps conspired and came to the king and said to him, ‘O King Darius, live for ever! All the presidents of the kingdom, the prefects and the satraps, the counsellors and the governors, are agreed that the king should establish an ordinance and enforce an interdict, that whoever prays to anyone, divine or human, for thirty days, except to you, O king, shall be thrown into a den of lions.

Although Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he continued to go to his house, which had windows in its upper room open towards Jerusalem, and to get down on his knees three times a day to pray to his God and praise him, just as he had done previously. The conspirators came and found Daniel praying and seeking mercy before his God.

Then the king gave the command, and Daniel was brought and thrown into the den of lions. The king said to Daniel, ‘May your God, whom you faithfully serve, deliver you!’ A stone was brought and laid on the mouth of the den, and the king sealed it with his own signet and with the signet of his lords, so that nothing might be changed concerning Daniel. Then the king went to his palace and spent the night fasting; no food was brought to him, and sleep fled from him.

Then, at break of day, the king got up and hurried to the den of lions. When he came near the den where Daniel was, he cried out anxiously to Daniel, ‘O Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God whom you faithfully serve been able to deliver you from the lions?’ Daniel then said to the king, ‘O king, live for ever! My God sent his angel and shut the lions’ mouths so that they would not hurt me, because I was found blameless before him; and also before you, O king, I have done no wrong.’ Then the king was exceedingly glad and commanded that Daniel be taken up out of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no kind of harm was found on him, because he had trusted in his God.

Sermon by Rev. Elana Keppel Levy

No manuscript available — please call the tape ministry phone number to hear the full service with sermon

Music
Online: He Never Failed Me Yet
In person: Hymn: How Clear is Our Vocation, Lord (by Fred Pratt Green, tune: Repton)

Prayer and Lord’s Prayer

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and forever.
Amen.

In Person: Sung Hymn 513, Courage, brother! do not stumble

Benediction

SUNG Benediction Response (tune: Gourock St. John’s, words by John L Bell)
Now may the Lord of all be blessed,
Now may Christ’s gospel be confessed,
Now may the Spirit when we meet
Bless sanctuary and street.

Postlude Music (in person only)

Announcements

* Teri will be off from the 19th – 29th of July. Please contact Cameron or your elder for any pastoral emergencies.

* All worship is online (or on the phone at 01475 270037, or in print) and we also meet in person, subject to the usual protocols for distancing, hand hygiene, mask wearing, and some limited singing! We can welcome approximately 35 people for worship, so if you would like to come in person, please phone Cameron (630879) on a MONDAY afternoon between 1-3pm or Anne Love (07904 617283) on a Saturday morning between 10-12 to book a place.

* Tonight we will gather with Christians across the nation for evening prayer on the Connect Facebook Page. David is leading tonight’s service, log on at 6:58pm to join in.

Sunday service for 18 July 2021

Sunday Service for 18 July 2021, 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Sunday school Revisited week 8
Service prepared by the Rev. Teri Peterson, Gourock St. John’s
Manse phone: 632143
Email: tpeterson (at) churchofscotland.org.uk

To hear an audio recording of this service, phone 01475 270037

Prelude Music (in person only)

Welcome/Announcements

Call to Worship
Teri: Come, the shepherd is calling.
All: The sheep know the shepherd’s voice.
1: Come and rest
2: Come and be nourished
1: Come and be comforted
2: Come and be fed
1: Come and be led into righteousness
2: Come and know goodness and mercy
All: The shepherd is calling, and we know his voice.

Prayer
You, Lord, are our guide and protector, our teacher and healer, our creator and sustainer.
You provide for our needs, yet we confess we always want more.
You bring us to the place of plenty,
and yet there are so many who do not have enough.
While we revel in green pastures and use still waters without thinking twice,
your people around the world thirst for clean water,
and the forests and prairies burn.
Restore your creation, O God.
…
You hold us fast through the darkest times,
even when we can’t see through the shadows,
and your presence gives us strength.
For those who are in fear,
those walking in the shadow of death,
those who wander far from the path or the embrace of the flock,
we ask for your protection.
Surround them with your loving embrace,
that they may know help in hard times,
companionship on the journey,
and comfort in the midst of the pain.
Make your presence known to your people, O God.
…
You welcome us to your family,
invite us to your table,
and call us to your work.
For your gifts of plenty, we give you thanks.
And for those who have no table…
those whose tables are bare…
those who have been denied a seat…
those whose enemies block the way…
we pray your grace would indeed overrun,
that your abundance may be shared by all, not just some.
We claim your goodness and mercy, O God,
and ask your forgiveness for the times we have kept it for ourselves.
In your house there’s more than enough room,
so we ask your help for all who long for a place to live,
a meal to nourish,
and a community of celebration and support.
May your persistent grace follow us, follow all people,
teaching us your ways that together we may dwell in your house, forever.
In the name of the good shepherd, Jesus the Christ, we pray. Amen.

Music
Online: The Lord’s My Shepherd (Townend)
In person:

Children’s Time

Reading: Psalm 23 (NKJV)
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me to lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside the still waters.
He restores my soul;
He leads me in the paths of righteousness
For His name’s sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil;
For You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You anoint my head with oil;
My cup runs over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
All the days of my life;
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord
Forever.

For the word of God in scripture,
For the word of God among us,
For the word of God within us,
Thanks be to God.

Sermon: Pursued
These are such familiar words to many of us, as we have so often heard or sung them at funerals or recited them in Sunday school while making crafts from cotton balls. They are words that endure in memories that have long since forgotten everything else. And yet because they are so familiar, it can be easy to miss what the psalmist is saying!

In the beginning, the psalmist tells us about God. It’s almost like an affirmation of faith about who God is and what God does: God provides, God leads, God nurtures and restores. God wants what is best for us. We know all these things are true, and they are what God continually promises and fulfils, even though it isn’t always the way we would prefer, or on the timeline we would want. And the translation into English actually obscures some of the power of this affirmation — the line “he restores my soul” would better be translated as “he brings me back to life.” When we are on the brink, when we can’t breathe, God brings us to a place of peace and plenty, and puts God’s own breath of life back into us. And when we are again breathing freely and we’ve been restored to life, God leads us in the pathways of justice, showing us the road to walk into the kingdom of God.

And then, halfway through, something happens — hardship enters the story. Perhaps it was a tragedy, or perhaps the grief of losing someone dear to them, or perhaps the disappointment of dashed expectations or hopes, or perhaps an experience of physical or mental illness. It’s a universal feeling, one we all know: walking through the valley of the shadow of death.

There, in the valley of the shadow of death, when it seems as if the light is fading, when the world seems a bit less hospitable than it did before, when the certainty of God’s goodness is harder to see, the psalmist changes from talking about God to talking to God. No longer is God an abstract concept, an intellectual exercise, something we talk about or think about at a distance…God is up close and personal. YOU are with me, guiding and comforting, feeding and anointing, filling with good things that the valley of the shadow of death threatened to take away.

In the valley of the shadow of death is often where we meet God face to face. It’s where all our ideas about what God is like become ephemeral, because the fullness of true relationship takes over. No longer is this a creed or rote affirmation that God is a guide and help…in the valley of shadows, God’s love can become more tangible. When it seems as if we are alone, when we can’t see and don’t know how to carry on, it turns out God is closer than our own breath. This isn’t just the kind of relationship where we know God’s there somewhere. In the dark valley we may not be able to see anything else, we may not be able to hear anything but the terrible roaring silence of grief or despair or fear, but it is a place where we can see God face to face, as we stare into the mysterious darkness.

And when we come out the other side, that closer relationship makes the feast table—even with enemies present—more glorious than the peaceful green pastures and still waters had been.

The psalm ends with words as beautiful as the beginning — surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life…but yet again, the translation softens what is one of the most powerful images you can imagine. In Hebrew it says that goodness and mercy will pursue me. Not just follow, but follow in pursuit, hot on our heels, insistently, not letting us out of their sight. This isn’t a blessing that will just saunter behind us and offer a little continual comfort now and then, this is an almost aggressive goodness and mercy. This is God’s goodness and mercy — persistent and not taking no for an answer. God is good all the time, and that will be true wherever we go. Even if we encounter another valley, even if we struggle on the pathway of justice, even if we feel we can’t catch our breath and need another respite in the green pastures…even if we end up going back to talking about God instead of to God, goodness and mercy will pursue us all the days of our lives, calling us back to dwell in God’s house, forever.

May it be so. Amen.

Hymn 462: The King of Love My Shepherd Is (tune: St. Columba)

Baptism (in person only)
A sacrament is an outward sign of the grace that God has already given us—and this sacrament of baptism is the ultimate sign of grace, the ultimate lesson in hospitality. Before we can receive, before we can respond, before we can ask for forgiveness or change anything about ourselves, God loves us, reaches out to us, and marks us as God’s own people, promising that whatever paths we walk, whatever shadowed valleys we encounter, whatever we learn about God and however we learn to talk to God, God’s goodness and mercy will pursue us all our days.
……
……
……

Let us pray.
God of love, we rejoice again to receive your grace in hearing your word.
We have heard your call, we are made new by your Spirit,
we have committed ourselves to your path.
Guide and guard us all our days.
May your love hold us, your truth guide us, your joy delight us.
Bless our families, community, nation, and world
with wisdom and courage, laughter and peace,
and the love that endures all things.
God of grace and glory, you have called us to your
One Church, proclaiming One Faith, One Baptism, One Lord.
Help us to profess this truth with our lives, not only our words.
Remind us of the love poured on us
and bring us once again to new life with you.
Water the seeds that have been planted this day,
and help us bear fruit for your kingdom, living in your love.
We pray to you, our Creator, with the power of the Holy Spirit, in the name of Christ, who taught us to pray together:
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and forever.
Amen.

In Person only: Sung Hymn 511, Your hand, O God, has guided

Benediction
Friends, whether you find yourselves in need of a deep breath in the green pastures, or striding confidently the pathways of justice, or walking the seemingly endless shadowed valley, know this: God is good, all the time, and God’s goodness and mercy pursues us all the days of lives. The Spirit of God will go above you to watch over you. The Spirit of God will go beside you to be your companion. The Spirit of God will go before you to show you the way, and behind you to push you into places you might not go alone. And the Spirit of God will go within you, to remind you that you are loved more deeply than you can possibly imagine. May the fire of God’s love burn brightly in you, and through you into the world. Go in peace. Amen.

Postlude Music (in person only)

Announcements

* Teri will be off from the 19th – 29th of July. Please contact Cameron or your elder for any pastoral emergencies.

* All worship is online (or on the phone at 01475 270037, or in print) and we also meet in person, subject to the usual protocols for distancing, hand hygiene, mask wearing, and some limited singing! We can welcome approximately 35 people for worship, so if you would like to come in person, please phone Cameron (630879) on a MONDAY afternoon between 1-3pm or Anne Love (07904 617283) on a Saturday morning between 10-12 to book a place.

* Tonight we will gather with Christians across the nation for evening prayer on the Connect Facebook Page. Teri is leading tonight’s service, log on at 6:58pm to join in.

* VENDA UPDATE:
We are in the middle of the winter here in Venda and cold days are very cold with a little bit of rain sometimes and warm days are very hot. The country has moved to Level 4 as of 27 June 2021, no gathering, restaurants only open for takeaway, no sales of alcohol, and all schools will be closing on the 30th of June 2021 until the 19 of July 2021. The minister of Education made the announcement on the 20th of June 2021 that all teachers and all the people working at schools will be getting vaccines starting with government schools and then the private school will follow later as of the 23rd of June 2021. This is great news if all goes well, by the 19 of July 2021 we will all have got the vaccine. Adults from 60+ have been getting vaccines since the 1st of May 2021.

Since the school opens on the 3rd of May 2021, all has been going very well. The 3rd wave of COVID-19 is heating SA very hard especial in Johannesburg and Pretoria, here in Venda High school students and teachers are testing positive every day.

The grade R and grade 1 students are enjoying computer lessons and now they are capable of using the Computer on their own, we are very proud of the progress and the next step will be to introduce the internet. On the 25th of June 2021, we host a birthday celebration for all students born from January to June and was a great ceremony as last year there was no birthday celebration. The covid-19 pandemic has made us aware that we need to be well advanced in technology and educate our children from a younger age. VMS was one of the NGO’S invited by the Global Skills Initiative South Africa to attended training on Basic digital skills. The training just came at the right time for us and we are very excited. Myself and Reason Sithagathaga (member of VMS support group) attended the training and we are receiving ongoing support. This week we are sharing with the Educators and on the 1st of July Reason will be training youth and other community members here at VMS, we can only have 5 people per day due to COVID. We are doing a weekly talk show on Radio, educating the community about HIV/AIDS, bullying at schools, and domestic violence. And the Youth on a Mission is having more likes and follows and we are posting articles weekly. The aim is to reach more adolescents.

VMS was planning to host winter school as additional to our program, as most children from the government school are not attending school daily. We had a plan to help children catch up with their school work during school holiday for primary schools. Now we have cancelled due to country moving to level 4. The office, outreach program and vegetable garden will remain open during level 4.

Regards,
Khathu

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