Sunday service for 14 January 2024

Sunday 14 January 2024 — NL2-21
Gourock St. John’s Church of Scotland
Service prepared by Rev. Teri Peterson
Manse: 632143 
Email: TPeterson (at) churchofscotland.org.uk
Email Charlene, Parish Assistant: CMitchell (at) churchofscotland.org.uk
Email Rob, student minister: RThomson (at) churchofscotland.org.uk

Prelude Music

Welcome & Announcements

*We Gather As God’s Family (As the Bible is brought in, we stand and sing)
A family gathered in love,
striving for justice and joy,
blessing the broken-hearted,
and sharing the hope of God’s kingdom.

Call to Worship
Teri: Come, gather round —
1: seeking a word,
2: seeking hope,
3: seeking healing,
All: Jesus, living Word of God, is here.
Teri: Come, gather round, for Jesus is calling us —
1: from ordinary work,
2: from long traditions,
3: from friends and family,
All: Jesus invites us to new life with him.

Sanctuary Hymn: God of History — Recent, Ancient (text: Jane Parker Huber 1926-2008; tune: Hyfrydol)

Prayer
The crowds gathered around you, Jesus…
what did you say to them?
What will you say to us, today?
We who come to hear your word,
to see your power,
to marvel…or to grumble…
what will you reveal today?
We pray for great wonders, of course,
and also for understanding of your way,
and courage to walk it,
which would be a wonder for all the world to see.
You say now is the time, and yours is the way,
but we admit we aren’t quite ready for what you’re proposing.
Forgive us when we look down on the very people you came to love and serve.
Forgive us when we can’t quite stretch to include all your people in our own community,
and when we insist no one else should either.
Forgive us for the many times when your Body, the Church, does not reflect your life on earth.
Gather us in and open our hearts to sit at table with all your people,
celebrating and creating the community of love you bring to fulfilment in Jesus Christ,
in whose name we pray.
Amen.

Hymn 187: There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy

Sanctuary Children’s Time

Scripture Reading: Mark 2.1-22 (Common English Bible)
Last week we heard about Jesus being baptised in the Jordan River, spending time in the wilderness being tempted, and then healing and teaching in Capernaum before going out to other towns and villages to spread the word of God’s kingdom, because that is his mission. Today we pick up the story in Mark chapter 2, beginning at verse 1, and I am reading from the Common English Bible.

After a few days, Jesus went back to Capernaum, and people heard that he was at home. So many gathered that there was no longer space, not even near the door. Jesus was speaking the word to them. Some people arrived, and four of them were bringing to him a man who was paralysed. They couldn’t carry him through the crowd, so they tore off part of the roof above where Jesus was. When they had made an opening, they lowered the mat on which the paralysed man was lying. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Child, your sins are forgiven!”
Some legal experts were sitting there, muttering among themselves, “Why does he speak this way? He’s insulting God. Only the one God can forgive sins.”
Jesus immediately recognised what they were discussing, and he said to them, “Why do you fill your minds with these questions? Which is easier—to say to a paralysed person, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take up your bed, and walk’? But so you will know that the Son of Man has authority on the earth to forgive sins”—he said to the man who was paralysed, “Get up, take your mat, and go home.”
Jesus raised him up, and right away he picked up his mat and walked out in front of everybody. They were all amazed and praised God, saying, “We’ve never seen anything like this!”
Jesus went out beside the lake again. The whole crowd came to him, and he began to teach them. As he continued along, he saw Levi, Alphaeus’ son, sitting at a kiosk for collecting taxes. Jesus said to him, “Follow me.” Levi got up and followed him.
Jesus sat down to eat at Levi’s house. Many tax collectors and sinners were eating with Jesus and his disciples. Indeed, many of them had become his followers. When some of the legal experts from among the Pharisees saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples, “Why is he eating with sinners and tax collectors?”
When Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor, but sick people do. I didn’t come to call righteous people, but sinners.”
John’s disciples and the Pharisees had a habit of fasting. Some people asked Jesus, “Why do John’s disciples and the Pharisees’ disciples fast, but yours don’t?”
Jesus said, “The wedding guests can’t fast while the groom is with them, can they? As long as they have the groom with them, they can’t fast. But the days will come when the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.
“No one sews a piece of new, unshrunk cloth on old clothes; otherwise, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and makes a worse tear. No one pours new wine into old leather wineskins; otherwise, the wine would burst the wineskins and the wine would be lost and the wineskins destroyed. But new wine is for new wineskins.”

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: a perpetual supply of new wineskins
Many of you know that Mark is my favourite gospel, and that the story of the four people who won’t be deterred in carrying their friend to Jesus is my favourite story in the entire gospel…literally if I had to choose just one story from the whole New Testament, I think it would be that one. I was all ready to preach about this story again because I could talk endlessly about how it’s so amazing — it teaches us that our faith can affect other people, that perseverance in faith matters, that community and holding each other up and carrying each other through the hard times, bringing each other to Jesus when we can’t get there ourselves, is important. It’s what church is supposed to be. And Jesus doesn’t just heal the man’s body, but his spirit and life, he starts with what’s most important and then proves his ability to forgive — which is really proving his identity as God in the flesh — by telling the man to get up and walk. And everyone is amazed and says they’ve never seen anything like it. I could probably preach a month’s worth of sermons on it, at least.

But this week I have not been able to stop thinking about the end of this reading instead of that story I love so much. “No one pours new wine into old leather wineskins; otherwise, the wine would burst the wineskins and the wine would be lost and the wineskins destroyed. But new wine is for new wineskins.”

I was so looking forward to spending more time with the four friends, but those last two sentences will not let go of my mind. So let’s talk about wineskins.

A wineskin is just that — an animal skin, stitched into a pouch, lined with pitch or resin, and used for wine. New wine would still have fermenting to do and as the yeast does its thing it would expand, so you need a nice supple new skin that will stretch and grow with the wine…an old wineskin, which is done stretching and is beginning to dry out, won’t work. You can use an old wineskin to store mature wine, and to travel with already-aged wine, or maybe even for water, but not for new wine. And at some point the used wineskins dry up and crack can’t be used again.

And of course, every new wineskin becomes an old wineskin.

Just as once playing the organ in a church service was an innovation requiring permission of the presbytery and even the general assembly…just as once our favourite hymns were newfangled tunes no one liked to sing…just as the idea that every person could talk directly to God, and read God’s word for themselves, was once a heresy the church wanted to put a stop to…every new wineskin becomes an old wineskin. The ideas that once were new, and rough around the edges, the things we started doing in worship that maybe had potential or maybe just made your mouth pucker or your eyes roll, the activities that still needed work but some people inexplicably loved…they matured, we got used to them, and they became normal. The new wine becomes matured wine, the new wineskin becomes an older wineskin, that fits us like a glove and is comfortable and familiar. It also becomes a bit more rigid, more structured, less able to adapt or accommodate, because why would we want to when it’s such a good fit for us as we are? Those beliefs and traditions and activities and buildings — the institution that is our container — holds everything we need for us to enjoy the life of faith, right?

Jesus is clear in telling this parable that he doesn’t mean that old wineskins are useless, and that he doesn’t want to see the structures that have held us together simply torn apart. They have use for those for whom they fit perfectly…but he does tell us to take care because of their limited capacity. They become travel-size wineskins, which is okay because there’s also a diminishing amount of wine to be kept in them.

But that means we need a perpetual supply of new wineskins.

If we were to decide not to make any new ones, then that would also mean no new wine. The wine we have, aging nicely, is good enough, after all…why do we need new? New wine isn’t usually very delicious, it takes a long time to get to a drinkable state, the effort is significant and the payoff is months or even years down the line. Let’s just stick with our old wine and old wineskins. The stuff we know we like, we’re comfortable with, nourishes us and makes us feel good.

Until the wine runs out…and we haven’t got any coming up behind to continue the tradition.

Sound familiar?

This is normally the point where we panic and try to make new wine in a hurry, and just pour it into the existing structures because after all, they’re the right size for what we like, they fit us like a glove, they’re comfortable and familiar, so they must work for everything and everyone, right? Unfortunately, Jesus says, doing that will actually mean we lose the lot — the old comfy wineskin AND the new wine. We’re left with nothing, it all blows up and runs away and all we have are broken pieces and stains and regrets.

Doesn’t that also sound kind of familiar?

How often have we seen the church try to contain something new within the existing structures, only to find that actually, both the institution and the new thing are damaged in the end? How often have we tried to patch the holes in “we’ve always done this” by just plugging in new people and ended up with a bigger hole when they tear apart in different directions as the visions diverge and the reality of life in a different time pulls at the edges?

Jesus told this parable in response to being asked about why his followers don’t do the same spiritual practices as other people. And that questions was kind of a follow-up from the previous question about why Jesus and his friends sat down and ate with people who were different, who were sinners and tax collectors, who weren’t good enough for the religious systems of the day. And that question was really a follow up from the friends who lowered the man through the roof and Jesus, acting like God, forgave his sins and healed his body all in one conversation…in which no one ever actually asked for anything, he simply saw the faith of four guys and turned his attention to their friend in need.

And the traditions and institutions and worldviews struggled to stretch that much.

The question is: can ours?

Or more to the point, perhaps, are we willing to make new wineskins, and be side by side with each them? Because there clearly is a place for the old wine skins and the beautiful old wine, even as the supplies dwindle. We don’t want that destroyed. And also, over time it becomes travel-sized, and rigid, and cracked, and eventually it runs out. But luckily what was once a new wineskin eventually becomes an old one…comfortable, fits us just right…and we have to be aware that it too becomes rigid. Perhaps not unlike my love for the first story, and the things I want to see there…while the Spirit has things to say about other parts of the gospel and I want everything to fit into that one story I love so much.

Where are our new wineskins? The ones flexible enough to stretch in new directions, to hold a different vintage, to give space and support for it to bubble and change and develop into the mature wine and the old wineskin of the future. If we want mature wine, we have to have new wine, and that requires a perpetual supply of new wineskins.

If we want mature Christians, we also need to constantly be putting in the effort for new Christians…and also on making the new wineskins for them, so that we don’t end up losing both the old and new ways. Because there’s no value judgment here on the wineskins, though we often get defensive and think there is. But actually there’s only a reminder to use each for its purpose so that it can be most effective. Perhaps we, who have grown up in Christ, matured in faith, and find that our traditions and structure fit us perfectly but don’t have much stretch to include the new, still-fermenting and expanding faith that God is growing in others, could continue our own journey by allowing and helping create the spaces for the kingdom to keep growing. Not by replicating our own ways but by resourcing the new and letting them get on with it, and cheering them on when those wineskins grow into a different shape than ours did but we can still see that it’s the Spirit bubbling up inside. Not every vintage is the same, that’s what makes wine interesting and what makes the Church interesting too! And ultimately…every new wineskin becomes an old one. Every generation’s tradition was a previous generation’s innovation.

Perhaps some of us even see ourselves still having some maturing to do, still having new wine in us — we’re still expanding and stretching, the Spirit is still working in us, and actually we find we like the flexibility of the new wineskin too, it makes room for God to do something we hadn’t been able to see before.

If we’re not willing to allow and make space and provide resources for new wineskins to be made, and if we don’t want to put in the effort to make new wine, then we should not be surprised when the wine runs out in our generation.

Scholars say this little saying is the keystone for an over-arching story that lasts several chapters of Mark…and I can see why. The people who encounter Jesus in these early chapters of Mark’s telling of Jesus’ life have one of two reactions to him: either they are amazed and their amazement bubbles over into discipleship, or they are unwilling or unable to stretch to see a new thing, all they see is how if he’s allowed to continue, the things they love about their faith tradition will come apart at the seams. Isn’t that still true? We see Jesus at work and either we want to join in, or we want to put a stop to it because we’re afraid of the damage he’ll do to the systems that keep the world comfortable for us.

The roof will have to come off, and we need a perpetual supply of new wineskins, if we truly want the amazing abundant life Jesus has to offer.

May it be so. Amen.

Online Hymn: God Beyond Knowledge (text: Pat Bennett b. 1957, tune: 500 Slane)

Sanctuary Hymn: Faith Begins By Letting Go (text: Carl P Daw Jr b. 1944, tune: Dix)

Offering

Sanctuary Offering Response: God Our Gifts We Lay Before You (words: Leith Fisher; tune: Abbot’s Leigh)
God, our gifts we lay before you,
gifts of hand and heart and mind;
these we offer to adore you;
may you ever in us find
willing hands for costly giving,
spirits faithful, spirits true,
shaping in our daily living
gifts of worth to honour you.

Prayer and Lord’s Prayer
Gracious, merciful and loving God,
We come before you with hearts full of gratitude and reverence, thankful for the opportunity to gather as your family, sing songs of love and to hear your Word.
Today’s reading reminds us of the deepness of your mercy and kindness towards us.
Thank you, Lord, for the power of the good news of salvation. We are so grateful for the healing power of your Son, who has the power not merely to restore physical health but to forgives sins and bring spiritual renewal. In moments of weakness, may we turn to you, trusting in your mercy and grace to heal our brokenness.
Thank you for the relative warmth and shelter provided by our homes. For those who keep our homes, towns, and cities safe from fire, rushing towards danger. To the men and women in our armed forces dedicated to protecting us from danger. For those who serve in our intelligence services, cyber security, civil services, and administration keeping everything from power stations to water processing safe and functional.
We pray for those in our community who need healing—physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Be with those who are burdened by illness, grief, or challenges, offering them comfort and strength in their times of need. We pray for the caregivers, the doctors, and all those who extend a helping hand, that they may be instruments of your love and compassion. Most of all we pray for those who struggle on, feeling that they have no need of a relationship with you, may they hear and respond to your voice and be comforted.
Lord, we also bring before you the broken systems and structures in our world. May your justice prevail, and may we, as your people, be agents of change and reconciliation. While we are thankful for all the many privileges, we enjoy we acknowledge that we contribute to a system that views medicine, security and even war as products to be profited from. Guide our leaders with wisdom and empathy, that they may govern with justice and compassion.
On this the 14th day of the month we join our hearts as a Church family to pray
*For all who live and work in the Cardwell Bay and upper Cardwell Bay areas.
*For those who use the building at St John’s — may they encounter your grace in our hospitality —and for the volunteers who keep the building clean and in good repair.
*For the land, people, and governments of the nations of Namibia, South Africa, Lesotho, Eswatini, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Madagascar, Mauritius, and Comoros.
As we pray, help us to be mindful of your call to love one another as you have loved us. Empower us to be vessels of your grace, sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ with those who have yet to experience the depth of your love.
We offer this prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Redeemer.
Now we join together, our voices as one, as we pray in the way Jesus taught His disciples to pray:

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.

Sanctuary Hymn: God Beyond Knowledge

Benediction
Beloved in Christ,
Just as Jesus reached out to the paralysed man, calling him to rise and walk, we are called to embrace and demonstrate the transformative power of Christ in our lives. Go forth with a heart full of compassion and a willingness to reach out to those in need. And as you do, may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all, now and forevermore. 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

****Please can you fill in a new Gift Aid form as part of your New Year’s resolutions? We want to be sure our records are correct so we maximise our Gift Aid claims, and some of those records are outdated so we are asking everyone to do a new one. You can download it here and send it in! 

***If you use offering envelopes, please speak to Anne Love to get the new year’s envelopes and ensure your name is connected to your number! Also PLEASE make sure your Gift Aid form is up to date. We have at least one person giving faithfully with an envelope we don’t have a name for, so please double check as that means we can’t claim Gift Aid without a form, and gift aid increases your generosity by 25% without you doing anything else!

* The next Bowl & Blether is TOMORROW 15 January, with doors open from 11:30-1:30. It’s a great opportunity to get out and meet some people and have a meal and some social time!

* A service to celebrate the union of Inverkip and Skelmorlie/Wemyss Bay congregations will take place in the Skelmorlie church building on Tuesday 16 January at 7pm, and Teri is the preacher.

The Kirk Session will meet on Thursday, 18th January, 2024, at 7.30pm.

* The Contact Group meet next on Tuesday the 23rd of January at 2pm with Margaret Foggie talking about Zimbabwe.

* We worship in the sanctuary on Sundays at 11am, and all Sunday worship is also online. If you are able, please enter by the front door in Bath street, and only those who need step-free access should use the back door. If you feel unwell, please worship online, to protect both yourself and others in our community.

* Starter Packs are in need of Kitchen Roll, Tea Bags, Shaving Foam and Razors.
The FoodBank are in need of UHT milk, rice pudding, long-life fruit juice & cooking sauces. You can bring donations to the church and place them into the boxes in the vestibule. Thank you!

* Did you know that the ministry we do at St John’s costs about £3000 per week? Everything we do is funded by your generous giving — all our support for young people, older people, bereavement care, community outreach, worship, study, spiritual growth, and community work is because of your offering. If you would like to 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 Teri and she can give you the treasurer’s details. You can also send your envelopes to the church or the manse by post and we will ensure they are received. 
It is also possible to donate to the work of the parish assistant, speak to Anne Love about how to go about directing new donations to that new item in the budget.

* 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!

* Wednesday Evening Bible Study meets in the manse at 7:30pm most weeks.

* Young Adult Bible Study meets on Zoom on the 2nd Sunday of the month at 7pm, contact Teri for the Zoom link.

* Free period products are available in the church toilets for anyone who might need them, thanks to Hey Girls and Inverclyde Council.