Sunday Service for 2 August 2020, tenth Sunday of Pentecost

2 August 2020: 10th Sunday of Pentecost
Service prepared by the Rev. Teri C Peterson,
Gourock St. John’s Church of Scotland
Contact: tpeterson@churchofscotland.org.uk

* 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.

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. On our return journey, we have now reached Antioch — the city where followers of the risen Christ were first called Christians! 

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

* Late-night Mayhem Club happens each night this week, Sunday – Friday, at 10pm on Zoom! Contact Teri for login details and a craft packet!

* 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 all three Connect Clergy, and includes the launch of the Prayer Path that can be found this week at all our area CofS churches. the service will begin at 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.

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Hymn: Open the Eyes of My Heart, Lord

Prayers, Reading, Sermon

Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus

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Call to Worship and Opening Prayer

Whoever you are,
Wherever you are,
Whenever you are taking this time to worship,
The call is the same.
Jesus says to us: Come and See.
Come and see grace and love, justice and peace, hope and faith.
Come and see.

Let us pray.

In the midst of everything, O God, you are.
You promised to be with us, in joys and sorrows, in times of hard work and times of rest.
While we go about our daily lives, you are there.
When we aren’t even sure what we’re looking for, you are there.
We praise you for your constancy, for your faithfulness, for your persistence.
For we confess that we are not always good at noticing you.
And we admit that often, when we do look for you, it’s with the hope that you will confirm our desires, our biases, our preconceived notions, so that we will feel justified in whatever action we take, even at the expense of others or of the earth.
Today, Lord, we confess that we are tired of those justifications.
We are exhausted from going our own way and massaging things to make it look like your way.
We have glimpsed a more excellent way, and we want to know more.
We have heard your word and we long for an up-close view of what life with you could be.
So we pray that you would forgive our hard-heartedness.
Forgive the blinders we have put on our eyes and our minds.
Take away those things that keep us from coming close to you and seeing your truth.
Take away those things that keep us from living for your glory.
Take away those things that distract us from your way.
And then fill us again with your grace, that we may indeed live as your people, forgiven, loved, and free, and ready to share your story, that all who seek may indeed find — for you are never far from us, filling our lives with your very breath of love.
We pray these things in the name of Jesus the Christ, who continually calls us through all the tumult of this life, 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.

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: John 1.35-46 (Common English Bible)

The next day John was standing again with two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus walking along he said, “Look! The Lamb of God!” The two disciples heard what he said, and they followed Jesus.
When Jesus turned and saw them following, he asked, “What are you looking for?”
They said, “Rabbi (which is translated Teacher), where are you staying?”
He replied, “Come and see.” So they went and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about four o’clock in the afternoon.
One of the two disciples who heard what John said and followed Jesus was Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter. He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated Christ ). He led him to Jesus.
Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon, son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which is translated Peter).
The next day Jesus wanted to go into Galilee, and he found Philip. Jesus said to him, “Follow me.” Philip was from Bethsaida, the hometown of Andrew and Peter.
Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law and the Prophets: Jesus, Joseph’s son, from Nazareth.”
Nathanael responded, “Can anything from Nazareth be good?”
Philip said, “Come and see.”

Sermon: Come and See (Postcards of Faith 7)

I love picturing this first scene like a film — imagine: John the Baptist and some of his disciples are standing around, loitering on the corner. He sees Jesus and points (he wouldn’t be the subtle type to just nod his head and say “don’t look now, but here comes the lamb of God”, he would definitely point). And the two disciples walk away from John, leaving him standing on the corner alone. They follow Jesus at a discreet distance, perhaps, but he senses that he’s being followed and turns around to confront them, and when he asks what they’re looking for, I picture them as a bit tongue-tied. What are they looking for? Do they even know?

We know that John had been teaching that he wasn’t The One, that he was preparing the way for one who would come after him and be greater than he could even imagine. So when he finally pointed to Jesus in the flesh, perhaps it’s no surprise that Andrew and the other disciple with him simply dropped everything and changed schools without a blink. Or perhaps there was a bit more thought involved — I think of how difficult it was to leave behind my hairdresser and my therapist when I was moving here, and how much more difficult it would be to leave behind a spiritual teacher like John the Baptist! Yet off they went. But when Jesus turned around, they suddenly realised there was more to this than they’d thought.

What are you looking for?

When we come to Jesus, what are we looking for?

Are we looking for someone who will comfort us through difficult times?
Someone who will ease our discomfort at changes in the world by offering us a bubble of pious words and pictures?
Someone who looks like us and will help us maintain the status quo?
Are we looking for answers to difficult 21st century questions?
Are we looking for 5 easy steps to a good life?
Are we looking for hope in the midst of the despair of this world?
Are we looking for a friend who will go along with our ideas, or one who will challenge us to be our best selves?
Are we looking for God, creator, redeemer, and sustainer of the universe, in the flesh beside us?
Are we looking for someone who will lead us through green pastures and through the valley off the shadow of death, who will invite us to a feast in the presence of our enemies?
Someone who will open our eyes to see the truth of this world, and who won’t let us shy away from big challenges?
Someone who will steer our steps toward the people who are poor, ill, outcast, foreign, and undesirable? Or who will call us to change the systems that keep people poor, marginalised, and seen as less-than?
Are we looking to have our hearts broken when God’s heart breaks?
Are we looking for love so overwhelming that it spills over to people who don’t deserve it?

What are you looking for?

Andrew and his friend don’t appear to have an answer, so they simply indicate that they want to be close to Jesus — except they do it in the creepiest way possible. Having followed him around town and gotten caught, they then just say “where are you staying?” Luckily, Jesus knows their hearts. He knows they aren’t stalkers or celebrity-obsessed paparazzi. He knows that they are seeking something they don’t yet know how to articulate, and that the best way to find it is to stay close to him. So he issues them an invitation: Come and see.

And those two go, and they see, and then they find their siblings and friends and give them the same invitation: come and see.

Notice there are no answers in the story, no pithy sayings, no clarifying of positions on political issues yet. So far, we’ve got Jesus inviting disciples, and then those disciples inviting more. And for thousands of years, that’s exactly how it has worked. We come to Jesus and see, and then we invite others to come and see with us.

Whatever we think we’re looking for, the answer will be the same: come close to Jesus, and see what he is doing and saying, how he is living and being, where he is going, who he is spending time with, and that will change us, and it will change the world.

When we come close to Jesus, we’ll discover there’s no room for the casual racism that enables a question like “can anything good come from Nazareth?” Those dividing walls are torn down and the kingdom of God encompassing all can be seen, when we join Nathanael in rooting out those internalised prejudices.

When we come close to Jesus, we’ll see that the way our thoughts become actions is more important than just believing the right things.

When we come close to Jesus, we’ll learn that love isn’t just a feeling, and it isn’t just for the people we like. It’s an action that has to be chosen every day, in every situation, toward everyone — because that is how the world will know that we are his followers, by our love.

When we come close to Jesus, what we see will make us want to invite others to come as well, because there is no one else in whom abundant life can be found, and surely we will want to share that when we have found it.

So hear the invitation again today: come and see.

May it be so. Amen.

Hymn 510, Jesus Calls Us Here To Meet Him (vv. 1-3)
(words: John L Bell & Graham Maule, tune: Lewis Folk Melody)

Jesus calls us here to meet him
as, through word and song and prayer,
we affirm God’s promised presence
where his people live and care.
Praise the God who keeps his promise;
praise the Son who calls us friends;
praise the Spirit who, among us,
to our hopes and fears attends.


Jesus calls us to confess him
Word of life and Lord of all,
sharer of our flesh and frailness,
saving all who fail or fall.
Tell his holy human story;
tell his tales that all may hear;
tell the world that Christ in glory
came to earth to meet us here.

Jesus calls us to each other,
vastly different though we are;
creed and colour, class and gender
neither limit nor debar.
Join the hand of friend and stranger;
join the hands of age and youth;
join the faithful and the doubter
in their common search for truth.

Prayers of Thanksgiving and Intercession

Loving God, we thank you for the many ways you reveal yourself to us — through the beauty of your creation, through the laughter of children, through the caring companionship of family and friends. We thank you for the wonders of four seasons in one afternoon, and for the glimpse of grace that we get from seeing our community come together to help each other in the midst of a crisis. We are grateful to feel your breath in the wind, to remember our baptisms when we unexpectedly get caught in the rain, and to hear your call in the voices of our neighbours near and far who cry out for help, for healing, and for justice.
You call us to come and see, to stay close to you and follow your lead. And so we pray for the courage to walk your way, Lord. For the strength to love as you love, to include those you include, and to do the work that you have left for us to do as ambassadors of your kingdom.
We remember this day those who have been left behind, forgotten, or silenced…those on the margins of society, overlooked because their stories are inconvenient for those in power. We pray that they may be heard, and valued, and welcomed.
We remember those who sit in the places of power and decision making, and we pray that they might have the wisdom and compassion to seek your way, to build a more just society where none are expendable.
We remember your creation, groaning under our weight. We pray for the vision and the discipline to be good stewards of this earth you have entrusted to our care, that it may indeed provide for all, as you intend.
We remember your people who are suffering —
with illness of body, mind, or spirit;
with uncertainty, unemployment, or loss;
with grief, pain, or despair;
with violence, hatred, and war.
We pray for your comfort to surround them, your healing to fill them, your justice to roll down like waters.
For all the ways in which the world does not yet look like your kingdom, we ask your help, O God.
Bring us close to you, and let us see your truth.
Guide us in seeking your way, and gift us for the task of being your Body, tearing down dividing walls of hostility and building up a society of love, compassion, and justice.
Then send us out to tell your story, to invite others to come and see, that together we may live always for your glory.
In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.

Benediction
Wherever you find yourself in days to come, keep your eyes on Jesus, for he will show you the way — the way to abundant living, the way to invite others, the way of love for all. 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.

Benediction Response
Words and tune (Gourock St. John’s): 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.