Sunday service for 19 January 2025

Sunday 19 January 2025
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

Prelude Music (praise band)

Welcome

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
One: Listen! In Christ, God speaks.
All: In our hearing, may the word be fulfilled.
One: Listen! God’s voice goes out to the world.
All: The word calls us in and sends us out.
One: Listen! But don’t just listen.
All: As we attend to the word, may we also enact it.

Sanctuary Hymn 348: Praise the One Who Breaks the Darkness (tune: Nettleton OR Lux Tremenda)

Prayer
We are excited to hear your word today, O God,
and we rejoice that you continually speak to us.
Amaze us once again with your grace,
and fix our eyes on you
so that when you begin to lead us out of our comfort zones,
we will be ready to follow without fear.
For You are a God on a mission,
always going out to the world,
sending your liberating and healing grace
to those most in need.
We confess we want more of your attention,
and we have confused our belonging to you, thinking instead that you belong to us.
We want some ownership, some control, over how you use your power,
though of course we would never admit that out loud.
We confess we have too often given in to the temptation to conform to expectations,
and we think you should do that too — specifically, our expectations.
Forgive us when we try to control you
and keep you for our benefit first, misunderstanding what and who your power is for.
Forgive us when we insist
that any care for others must come only after we’ve cared for our own comfort.
Forgive us when we are perfectly willing to give
but only from our leftovers.
As you move away from the centres of power and privilege and ease,
take us with you on the journey
and set us free to serve those who most need your upside-down kingdom,
so that we may in turn become good news embodied,
in your name.
Amen.

Jesus’ mission is liberation from all that harms us. Jesus’ mission is to give us vision to see the kingdom of God among us even now. Jesus’ mission is good news life abundant for all. Through God’s forgiving grace, receive these gifts today: liberation, vision, and good news. And through God’s forgiving grace, hear the Spirit’s call to join Jesus on his mission to the world God so loves. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Online Hymn 259: Beauty for Brokenness

Sanctuary Children’s Time

*Sanctuary Hymn GWA 167: A Little More (praise band / Fischy)

Scripture Reading: Luke 4.14-30 (New Revised Standard Version)
Last week we heard about John the Baptiser preaching at the Jordan River, and baptising people, including Jesus, who then heard God’s voice proclaiming him God’s beloved Son, and experienced the Holy Spirit descending upon him like a dove. After his baptism, the Holy Spirit led Jesus in the wilderness for 40 days, where he experienced several temptations — to turn a stone into bread to alleviate his own hunger, to worship Satan in exchange for the glory of the kingdoms of the world, and to demonstrate his specialness by throwing himself from the top of the Temple. Having resisted all these, he then returned home, where we pick up the story today in the gospel according to Luke, chapter 4, beginning at verse 14. I am reading from the New Revised Standard Version.

Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.
When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: 
‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
   because he has anointed me
     to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
   and recovery of sight to the blind,
     to let the oppressed go free, 
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’ 
And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’ All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, ‘Is not this Joseph’s son?’ He said to them, ‘Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, “Doctor, cure yourself!” And you will say, “Do here also in your home town the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.” ’ And he said, ‘Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s home town. But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up for three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.’ When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.

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 credit to them?
I still remember vividly the first time I heard someone say “you’re a credit to your parents.” It was here in this room, about six and a half years ago, during the Boys Brigade display. It was jarring to me, because it is not a phrase normally used in the parts of the world I have lived in before, and I had no idea at first what it meant. It sounded an awful lot like we were saying to a group of teen boys that their parents could take credit for accomplishments, or maybe that their primary motivation was to somehow bring glory to their parents. I asked a friend — also an American my age — who said it made her think of how anytime she did well at something or got a prize, her dad would say “of course you did, because you’re our child” — like they just expected that her successes were a natural outgrowth of themselves, nothing to do with her hard work or gifts.

You’ll be happy to know that a few days ago I finally asked Google and discovered it means something about making your parents proud of you — like an American parent might say “you’ve done us proud, kid.” But for nearly 7 years now I’ve been cringing a little every time I hear the phrase…a credit to your parents, a credit to your school, all of it just makes me feel so weird. I’m working on it! But I also couldn’t stop thinking about this phrase while reading this story of Jesus in his hometown.

It says that after his baptism, the Holy Spirit descended on him and then led him into the wilderness to be tempted — tempted by self-sufficiency, tempted by glory and power, tempted by fame — then Jesus, full of the Spirit, went back home. He taught in synagogues in every town he passed through along the way, and he healed people and was making a name for himself. By the time he got home, everyone had heard about him. So of course they would have flocked to the synagogue that weekend, expecting that their home-grown celebrity would be there. Of course they’ll have wanted to hear what he had to say, what was it that had everyone so excited, what made him the rising star of rabbis. And they may also have wanted to see him for themselves, be close to him, get an autograph, be able to tell their friends about their brush with greatness, and say “we knew him when…”

They were so impressed with his sermon they almost didn’t hear it, they were so excited — isn’t this Joe’s boy? He’s a credit to his parents. To all of us, really. After all, this is the very synagogue where he learned to read and where he learned Torah! It takes a village and we’re the village that nurtured him — that’s what it says, not just the town where he was brought up but the town where he was nurtured. How great that this boy next door has really made it big — makes us look good, doesn’t it!

And here’s where it feels like the phrase “a credit to his family” — or his synagogue, or his town —could end up taking a little bit of a wrong turn. Because it seems they aren’t just thinking how great it is that the boy who played with their kids, who was part of the hand-me-down chain of tunics and sandals for neighbourhood boys who grew faster than they could weave, whose scraped knees they had wiped clean…you know, that boy who went through that phase of being obsessed with toy bricks and once built a scale model of the pyramids in the middle of the street, was now a celebrity. They seem to also be thinking that his gifts and talents and skills reflect well on them. And that they get some glory for that. They get the credit for raising him. He’s one of their own, one of them. He belongs to them.

And surely that will mean benefits for them, right? He owes them.

Jesus anticipated how fast we can slip from pride to ownership, and began telling stories of how God had been moving outside his home territory for centuries. And as much as they had loved it when he said the prophets were being fulfilled, they equally hated it when he told them just what that really looked like.

It feels ridiculous to us to imagine people thinking that Jesus is theirs…except also we sing about it sometimes — blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. We don’t think we mean it that way, of course, but then subconsciously it seems to seep in: Jesus is one of us, which is true…but he’s one of us in the big picture human sense, and so often we humans tend to make it more like he’s one of us meaning one of ours, like us, part of our group, our tribe, our language, our ethnicity, our religion…ours.…and not theirs. He belongs to us.

But the thing is: Jesus doesn’t belong to us. We belong to him.

And that’s a pretty different thing. We belong to Christ. We are God’s treasured possession….not the owner of the treasure. We don’t even have any say in who belongs to God, actually. The glory isn’t ours to taste, it’s God’s glory. And ultimately Jesus doesn’t owe us anything, but we owe him everything.

It’s what he was trying to tell them in the first part of his sermon: he is anointed by the Holy Spirit to carry out God’s mission, which means always going out — out to the poor, out to the captive and imprisoned, out to the margins, out to the oppressed, out to the blind, out to those who need the world to change. God’s mission has not a single word about staying in with the comfortable, not a word about benefits for those who already benefit from the way society is structured, and not a word about taking care of our own first. The entire passage Jesus reads, and the stories he tells afterward, are about God and God’s people going out to serve, no matter what.

And, Jesus says, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.

Not just that he fulfilled it while they listened in, and aren’t they lucky to be the ones who were there. The word “hear” also means “obey”…in their hearing, like by their hearing and obeying… Because they have heard, they will put it into practice, and in so doing, the promise is fulfilled.

This is what it means to belong to Christ. It’s quite different than how we would live if Christ belonged to us.

If he belonged to us, then we could rightly expect that we would benefit from his power and celebrity. We might expect people to look at us with awe, to listen to our stories and give our voices priority over others, and to flock to us, wanting to be close to the people who influenced such a great man. We might even expect that we’d find it easier to get ahead, networks and jobs and offices of power would open to us because of our connection to him, and it would be a simple matter to get others to follow our rules and methods. They would move in and join us because they wanted to be connected to this group that produced such a powerful famous figure. All we would have to do is keep doing the same things we’ve always done, and all the glory and honour and power would come our way, because what we’ve always done obviously works, look what came out of our people!

If we belong to him, and he is always going out to the poor, the oppressed, the sick, the despairing, the marginalised, the powerless…
Then we would also be going out there. Crossing the borders, like Elijah, to bring bread and hope to people who we had assumed were actually the cause of all our problems. Serving our political and military enemies like Elisha did. We would expect to find ourselves among those with no voice in the society, standing alongside them, serving their needs, looking for ways to make the system more fair so that no one would be marginalised anymore, offering a glimpse of the Holy Spirit to people who would never have thought they were worthy of seeing God at work. We would always be trying to be a little more and a little more like Jesus, who is always on the move in the world because he loves it so much.

Even today, Jesus’ voice rings out, reminding us that he does not belong to us, we belong to him…the question is, will we try to throw him off a cliff, or will the word be fulfilled by our hearing and obeying?

May we live to be a credit to him.

Amen.

Hymn GWA 226: God of All Comfort (praise band)

Sanctuary Offering and Response GWA148, chorus
I will sing a song of love
to the One who first loved me,
and I’ll sing it as a child of God,
who is named and known and free.
For the love of God is good,
it is broad and deep and long;
and above all else that matters,
God is worthy of my song.

Concerns of the Church/Announcements

*Bowl & Blether
*Bible Study
*Baptism 
*Smalls for All
*Gift Day
*Readers Rota update

Please consider yourself invited to participate, and to pray for all the activities, ministry, and mission God is calling us to do together.

Prayer and Lord’s Prayer
Come, Holy Spirit,
and fill your Church with power
to carry out your mission in this world —
for you, God, are about the work of good news
that sets people free
brings new life
opens possibilities
reveals truth
re-orients the systems to justice and equity.
We pray for your purpose to be fulfilled
and for your Body to have the courage and will to participate.
We thank you for bringing us into your kingdom now
so that we can join in the sharing.
We pray for open hearts and minds and hands,
and for obedient hearts and minds and hands,
to put your word into action
without demanding you serve us first.
When we find it difficult to praise you for your presence among those who get so little good news,
bring us out of our centres of comfort
and show us the blessings of life in community with those the world rejects.
We pray for our neighbours who are often overlooked,
those living at the edges of our consciousness and our communities,
those we would rather pretend don’t exist.
May they know your care,
and may our hearts be softened to make room for them in our circles too.
We pray for our nation,
for the ways we fall short of embodying your vision,
for the leaders who are tasked with seeking the common good,
for the people with whom we share this place and time,
longing to feel at home here together.
May we recognise your blessing
in serving rather than being served.
We pray for those who suffer in body, mind, or spirit,
those whose relationships are fractured,
those who find these days too long to bear,
those who have waited and waited for news, for treatment, for justice.
May they receive your healing presence,
your release from all that harms them.

On the 19th day of the month we join our hearts as your St John’s family to pray:
*For all the carers, social workers, and other professionals who visit and support our neighbours. We ask your compassion and help to flow through their hands as they make it possible for people to remain in their homes. May they be blessed with cheerful smiles, good listening skills, open hearts, and discerning minds as they offer support, companionship, and help to those in need. Make them your hands and heart, building up community and encouraging your people.
*For the leaders of St John’s congregation: for the elders, the Kirk Session, the Session Clerk and Assistant Session Clerk, and the Treasurer.
*For the land, people, and governments of the nations of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bhutan, and Bangladesh.

We lift particular prayers this day, O God, for our brothers and sisters in the Holy Land. For people in Palestine and Gaza and Israel. For all who have worked for a ceasefire, for all who have waited for loved ones, for all who have grieved losses, for all who have lived in fear. May today be the beginning of a new era of peace.

You are gracious and merciful, O God,
even to those we think don’t deserve it,
and even to us.
Liberate us from our expectations and desires for control that imprison us in systems of worthiness and unworthiness,
and reveal the truth of your love that transcends the borders and barriers we build.
Bring us together as your one human family,
Beloved,
and set us about your business in the world.
We ask in the name of your Word made flesh, 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.

Sanctuary Hymn 259: Beauty for Brokenness

Benediction
Having heard the word, you are now a part of its fulfilment. You belong to Christ, so go in the power of the Spirit to take up the mission: good news, liberation, and vision. In the living of this mission, may you know the blessing of God who is always going out to the Beloved world.
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

* We worship in the sanctuary on Sundays at 11am, and 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.
The Sunday evening service is normally on the 2nd and 4th Sundays of each month. We have toasties and sandwiches together from 5:30 and the service will start at the back of 6. All are welcome for this simple meal and time of worship. The Sunday evening service is informal and reflective, with guitar-based music, Bible readings, and prayer for our parish. Come along and discover practical ways to apply the word to your life, in a chilled vibe that fosters connection and reflection.

* The first Sunday of the month at 11am is now an all-age service, with different ways of encountering God’s word without a traditional sermon. All people — young and old, different personalities and learning styles, are welcome! You’ll find a more informal service with a variety of music, a Bible story, prayer, and some more interactive elements. The online service for the first Sunday will therefore also be different — there will still be a reading, prayers, and music, but usually not a sermon.

* Charlene is available for Conversation Corner (Vestry Hour) on WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON, from 1-2pm. Just ring the bell at St John’s Road and she’ll have the kettle on for you! Come in to chat about anything you’d like.

* Bowl and Blether is on the first and third Mondays of each month through the winter, the next one is TOMORROW Monday 20 January. Doors open at 11:30am, soup and sandwiches are served from noon – 1:30. All are welcome to join us for lunch and a chat in our cozy warm hall. Volunteers are also needed and welcome, please speak to Teri or Charlene if you’d like to volunteer for soup making (9-11:30am), toastie-making (11:30-1:30), serving (11:15-1:45), or clean up (1:15-2:30). 

* Starter Packs are in need of cleaning clothes, hand wash, soup & shaving foam.

The FoodBank are in need of Diluting and long life juice, tinned ham & tuna, UHT milk & nappies sizes 5 & 6.
You can bring donations to the church and place them into the boxes in the vestibule. Thank you!

* During the month of January we are helping Greenock Rotary with their Smalls For All collection.  Pants must be new and they are particularly asking for ladies size 8 to 14 and children ages 3 to 15.  

* Our Advent Gift Day has raised £2,120.00 (including the Gift Aid) for the ministry of St John’s so far. Thank you so much for your generosity! If you would like to contribute a gift, it isn’t too late! Please be sure your name is on your envelope or your bank transfer, so that we can claim Gift Aid. If you haven’t filled in a Gift Aid form at some point since this time last year, please do so — we have all new forms to update our records. 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 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. 

* Wednesday Evening Bible Study is at 7:30pm in the Manse and we are reading Luke!

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