Sunday Service for 19 July 2020, eighth Sunday of Pentecost

19 July 2020: 8th Sunday of Pentecost
Service prepared by the Rev. Teri C Peterson,
Gourock St. John’s Church of Scotland
Contact: tpeterson@churchofscotland.org.uk

Welcome and Announcements
Though we cannot be together in person, we can be together in spirit! Please note the following announcements:

* Coffee Fellowship Time will happen today on Zoom! The room will be open from 11:45 – 12:45 for you to drop in for however long you wish, so grab a cup of tea or coffee (or juice or whatever you prefer!) and maybe a biscuit, and come have a chat! We look forward to seeing you!

* 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 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 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!

* We also now have an audio recording of the service available on the phone! Simply dial 01475 270 037 to listen to the most recent service. Please share this number with your neighbours, friends, family, and fellow church goers who don’t have the internet, so they can listen in!

* The theme for worship this summer is “Postcards of Faith” — we’ll be getting some postcards from God’s people throughout scripture, following their journeys with God and each other.

* This summer we are taking a Church Family summer trip! We’ll be journeying together from Shore to Shore — the shores of the Clyde to the shores of the sea of Galilee, to the hometown of St. John the Evangelist. Keep track of how much time you spend in prayer, reading the Bible, serving others, or going for a walk. For every 10 minutes, you move us 1km along the journey! Then each week send Teri a note, text, or phone call saying how far you “traveled” this week. We have reached Bethsaida, the hometown of St. John the Evangelist! Watch for more on our YouTube channel this week!

* Children’s Time happens each Sunday morning at 11am on Zoom. If you would like the login details, please contact Teri. 

* Churches across Scotland are calling people to join together in prayer on Sunday evenings at 7pm, placing a lit candle in the window and spending time in prayer for others. Our Sunday evening prayer services will be shared across our “Fuzzy Parish” (now called CONNECT). Tonight’s service will be led by Teri, beginning around 6:57pm on the Connect Facebook page, and be sure to like / follow it while you’re there!

* Feel free to share this with others, with the attribution information at the top. If you know someone who does not have access to the internet and who also does not receive the tape ministry, you can either print this service out and share it with them, or let Teri know via email or phone call and we will be sure they receive a printed copy.

* Sign up to our YouTube Channel so you never miss a video. Don’t miss “wine and the word” — an occasional series during the 5pm hour that helps us transition from one part of the day to the next, via reflections similar to those that would normally have been in the “God’s Story, Our Story” take home inserts given out each week. 

* Mid-week there is a devotional email, which is also printed and included with the following Sunday’s sermon distribution to those without internet access. You can sign up for the email here.

* If you or a church member you know is in need of friendly phone calls or help with anything while they self-isolate, please contact Teri. Elders are already in contact with people in their districts as well, and you can pass information to them! We are hoping to continue and even deepen our connections to one another, building up the Body of Christ even when we can’t be in the building.

* At this time the St John’s Kirk Session has decided, for a variety of reasons, not to open the building yet. We will continue to worship online and via the telephone recording ministry, with mid-week offerings on video and by email, and through phone calls and zoom gatherings. If you have questions about this, please do contact Teri, or Cameron, or your elder. However, the building works that were suspended during lockdown are resuming. If you see people around the church building, they are likely contractors, and we would ask that you go ahead and say hello but keep a safe distance, and do not enter the building at this time. It’s important that we do everything we can to ensure they have a safe worksite, so that they can continue the work both on the tower and inside the sanctuary as quickly and safely as possible. 

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If you prefer to read rather than worship by video, you can find the script after the second hymn.

Hymn 543, Longing for Light, We Wait in Darkness (Christ Be Our Light)

Prayers, Reading, Sermon

Hymn: Thrive

Call to Worship and Opening Prayer

Wherever you are,
whatever you have had to set down
in order to take this time today,
whatever else is on your mind and heart,
however you are feeling today,
you are welcome here.
Together, we listen for God’s voice,
and we seek God’s blessing
for ourselves and the world.

Let us pray.
God of every blessing,
you are the one who gives every good gift…
you created the world
and gave it to us to tend and enjoy.
You created communities
and gave us each other to learn from and to live with.
You gave us gifts and talents
to use for the building of your kingdom.
We thank you for all these gifts,
and for your continued calling to us.
We confess that we have not always
used your gifts the way you intended.
We have sometimes kept them for ourselves
and called it your will,
when actually it was our own brokenness.
We confess that it pains us to admit
that we didn’t get here under our own power.
And we confess, too,
that many of those on whose shoulders we stand
have then been left behind, walked over,
and forgotten as we continued
to move up in the world.
Forgive us, God.
Reveal the truth to us once again,
however difficult it may be,
that we may live faithfully,
in the fullness of reconciled relationship with you
and with one another and with your creation.
Show us the truth of your blessing,
that we may in turn be a blessing to others.
We ask it in the name of 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.

Sung Prayer #159
(words: Timothy Dudley-Smith, tune: Lord of the Years by Michael Baughen)

Lord, for ourselves; in living power remake us,
self on the cross and Christ upon the throne;
past put behind us, for the future take us,
Lord of our lives, to live for Christ alone.

Scripture Reading: 1 Kings 10.1-10, 13 (Common English Bible)

When the queen of Sheba heard reports about Solomon, due to the Lord’s name, she came to test him with riddles. Accompanying her to Jerusalem was a huge entourage with camels carrying spices, a large amount of gold, and precious stones. After she arrived, she told Solomon everything that was on her mind. Solomon answered all her questions; nothing was too difficult for him to answer. When the queen of Sheba saw how wise Solomon was, the palace he had built, the food on his table, the servants’ quarters, the function and dress of his attendants, his cupbearers, and the entirely burned offerings that he offered at the Lord’s temple, it took her breath away.
“The report I heard about your deeds and wisdom when I was still at home is true,” she said to the king. “I didn’t believe it until I came and saw it with my own eyes. In fact, the half of it wasn’t even told to me! You have far more wisdom and wealth than I was told. Your people and these servants who continually serve you and get to listen to your wisdom are truly happy! Bless the Lord your God because he was pleased to place you on Israel’s throne. Because the Lord loved Israel with an eternal love, the Lord made you king to uphold justice and righteousness.”
The queen gave the king one hundred twenty talents of gold, a great quantity of spice, and precious stones. Never again has so much spice come to Israel as when the queen of Sheba gave this gift to King Solomon.
King Solomon gave the Queen of Sheba everything she wanted and all that she had asked for, in addition to what he had already given her from his own personal funds. Then she and her servants returned to her homeland.

Sermon: #SoBlessed (postcards of faith 5)

Several years ago I celebrated my birthday by taking a trip to France, Switzerland, and Germany. I landed in Paris on my birthday, and after a day wandering about, I got on a train out to Versailles, where my grandma had booked me in at the fanciest hotel I will ever stay in, as long as I live. From my room’s multiple balconies, I had a view of the palace, and the next morning, I walked over and began what felt like a completely surreal day. The fences are covered in gold. The doors too. And the walls. The chairs, the dishes, the artwork…literally everything, everywhere I looked, was gilded. The enormous palace, filled with beautiful things, was the most opulent place I had ever been. It was breathtaking.

I imagine that’s a little bit like what the Queen of Sheba experienced when she arrived at Solomon’s palace. Granted, unlike me, a 30-something minister just barely hanging on to the bottom of the middle class at the time, she was fabulously wealthy herself, queen of a nation that controlled the major trading routes across the Arabian peninsula and across the sea to North Africa. She was used to palaces and gold and jewels. Yet even one of the wealthiest monarchs of one of the wealthiest nations of the time was overwhelmed by the grandeur of Solomon’s life. It even says that it took her breath away.

When she saw all his wealth and wisdom, she proclaimed that it was because of God’s love and blessing that he was king, and that his kingdom was so happy. And in so doing, she reminded Solomon that his job as king was to uphold justice and righteousness.

The thing is, he wasn’t exactly doing that…and his kingdom wasn’t exactly happy. Just as the prophet Samuel had told the people when they first asked for a king, Solomon had conscripted people into both his armies and his workforce, building palaces and temples, serving in the palaces and temples, and generally working very hard for not a lot of reward. He was gaining more and more wealth both by taxing people and by receiving gifts from other nations and tribes as they worked out trade agreements — like the Queen of Sheba was likely there to do, bringing her gifts and taking others away with her. Solomon was well insulated from his people, and he began to make choices that were not in line with the faithfulness God required.

It’s interesting that the queen uses the word “happy” to describe Solomon’s people and servants, because it’s the same word that the psalms use to describe people who follow God’s way. “Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, but their delight is in the law of the Lord…” Yet Solomon had already begun to stray, marrying foreign princesses and adapting to their worship, in order to make alliances with other nations; forgetting to take care of the poor while he amassed vast treasure; using and abusing people to build up his kingdom. He was indeed gifted with incredible wisdom, but the purpose of that gift was so that he would be able to govern rightly. The more separate from the people he became, the less he was able to use that gift for its true purpose. The Queen of Sheba reminded him of it that day…though the reminder doesn’t seem to have lasted long.

This is one danger in the way of thinking that sees wealth as blessing. The queen takes Solomon’s palace, possessions, and people as a sign of God’s blessing — as does Solomon, most likely! And often, we all do this. We talk of the blessings of having a decent income, a nice house, a chance to go on a fancy holiday. We look at those who are less fortunate and we count our own blessings. It’s easy to do, and it is important to give thanks! Gratitude is a crucial part of our faith. As is recognising that we have more than the vast majority of people in the world, even if we don’t feel wealthy. Where I think we sometimes get into trouble is by claiming that’s God’s blessing for us…because then what does that say about those who have less? Why is 40% of the world’s population living on less than £4 per day…does that mean God isn’t blessing them? Why is it that who has blessings like these, and who doesn’t, often seems to line up with old colonial realities? Sometimes we forget that many of the blessings we enjoy have come at the expense of others, whose lives, land, resources, and livelihoods were often stolen, and even now are kept in debt by global superpowers who enjoy our comforts well-insulated from those who provide them. That forgetfulness and insulation then also allows us to overlook the ongoing disadvantaging of people — people who are made in God’s image, who are beloved, and yet are held back from enjoying the things we call blessings.

Solomon got into trouble when he amassed so much that he didn’t have to be among the people, and when he forgot his calling and the purpose of his gifts. The Queen of Sheba, even inadvertently, reminded him, and reminds us, of the truth: all these blessings are not for us, they’re so that we can share them with others, so that we can do justice and righteousness. Remember that when God called Abraham, he said “I will bless you, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed through you.” Here is an example of a foreign nation coming to see the goodness and love of God, perhaps even more clearly than Solomon himself did.

So what if we adjusted our understanding of “blessed” to be more about the gifts we have to do justice and love kindness, the gifts we have to bless others, rather than about the ways our life is comfortable or good or fun? And what if we decided not to engage with the world in a transaction, like these two monarchs, always seeking what we can gain from what we give, but rather to engage with the world from a position of wanting to be a blessing?
Perhaps the love of God would be more visible through us, and the kingdom of God more evident even here on earth.

May it be so. Amen.

Hymn 655: For your generous providing, vv. 1-2
(text: Leith Fisher, tune: Holy Manna)

For your generous providing
which sustain us all our days,
for your Spirit here residing,
we proclaim our heartfelt praise.
Through the depths of joy and sorrow,
though the road be smooth or rough,
fearless, we can face tomorrow
for your grace will be enough.

Hush our world’s seductive noises
tempting us to stand alone;
save us from the siren voices
calling us to trust our own.
For those snared by earthly treasure,
lured by false security,
Jesus, true and only measure,
spring the trap to set folk free.

Prayers of Thanksgiving and Intercession
Generous and loving God, we thank you for your many blessings — and we pray you would make us a blessing. Use us as a conduit of your love, your peace, your justice, your righteousness, your grace, to the world.
We pray this day for all who have been left out of our prosperity…for those struggling each day for food, living without shelter, or dependent on the kindness of strangers. May we dig deep and draw on the will to create justice and peace, a world where all have dignity and worth.
We pray this day for those in the halls of power, that they may have the vision to see a world with room for all people to flourish, and the courage to pursue the good of all, not just some.
We pray this day for all who are grieving, especially in these days when grief is so isolating. May they know your comfort.
We pray this day for those who are ill in body, mind, or spirit, who are in pain, or waiting for news from a doctor. May your healing presence be known.
We pray this day for all who care for others, professionally or not, behind the scenes or on the front line, in hospital or care home or at home or through a charity. May they be strengthened by the knowledge that they are your hands and heart, serving your people.
We pray that all the world may know your blessing, Lord God. You are always giving, and your gifts are for all, so we ask that you would make us grateful and remind us of the purpose of your gifts — for the building up of your kingdom.
We pray in the name of Christ. Amen.

Benediction


Now friends, as you go out into your week, may you know that wherever you go: the Spirit of God goes above you to watch over you; the Spirit of God goes beside you to be your companion; the Spirit of God goes 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 goes 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 Response
(tune: Gourock St. John’s, text and tune 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.