Sunday service for 20 September 2026
Sunday 20 September 2026, NL1-2, Flourish In Faith 2
Gourock St John’s Church of Scotland
Service prepared by Rev. Teri Peterson
Manse phone: 632143
Email: tpeterson (at) churchofscotland.org.uk
If the video does not play, please click here to view it on our YouTube channel!
Sanctuary Prelude Music (praise band)
Welcome
*loop
*tea/coffee
God-sightings
We Gather As God’s Family (As the Bible is brought in, we stand and sing) (praise band)
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: At every age and stage of life,
All: God calls us to follow into blessing.
One: In every situation, whether celebration or grief,
All: God calls us to follow into blessing.
One: Just as we are, with our whole life story,
All: God calls us to follow, and be a blessing.
Sanctuary Hymn 160: Praise My Soul (organ)
Prayer
You call us out, O God,
into your holy land —
a place you show us
and promise to appear.
We pass through,
uncertain which parts are holy,
looking for you,
wondering how we’ll know.
Make this a holy place today
that we may see you here
and recognise your blessing
poured out into us, and through us.
You call, God, and you promise.
You invite us into partnership,
and we confess that we have mostly tried to do things ourselves.
We spend our energy making something of ourselves,
securing our future, keeping up, defending our way of life.
And when you call us to a new thing,
we admit we sometimes think “we’ve done our bit, can you send someone else?”
Forgive us for hearing your word and still believing we had to take matters into our own hands.
Forgive us for acting as if you have only a finite amount of blessing to go around.
Forgive us for putting a time and age limit on your calling.
Speak to us once again, and give us ears to hear and feet ready to go
to be a blessing to your world in need of good news.
We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Hear and believe this good news: It is never too late. God’s grace is right now, and God’s blessing is from everlasting to everlasting. Trust the Spirit’s call and let the blessing be for you, and through you. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Online Hymn 81: I to the Hills (Psalm 121)
Sanctuary Children’s Time
Sanctuary Special Music: Choir to sing “He Put a New Song in My Heart”
Scripture Reading: Genesis 12.1-9 (NRSVUE)
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. Abram took his wife Sarai and his brother’s son Lot and all the possessions that they had gathered and the persons whom they had acquired in Haran, and they set forth to go to the land of Canaan. When they had come to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. From there he moved on to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east, and there he built an altar to the Lord and invoked the name of the Lord. And Abram journeyed on by stages toward the Negeb.
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: be a blessing
I always think it’s so interesting that when God calls Abram, he doesn’t ask any questions. I would have a lot of questions…. like “where am I going, or at least how will I know when I’ve got there” or “where will I live and what will I do when I get there.” I suspect some people would want to whether it was safe, or if we would be able to meet new friends or if the view would be as good as it is here. Some may wonder why — why choose me for this task? After all, Abram was 75 years old — he could have just said “I’ve already done my bit, you should ask someone else, it’s time for the next generation to volunteer, I’m winding down and stepping back from commitments…”
Maybe we’d want to know how exactly any of this was going to happen — Abram was 75 years old with no children, so how would God make him the father of a great nation, exactly? If we can’t have the road map, could we at least have the business plan?
Yet Abram asks no questions at all. We don’t know if maybe Sarai would have, if she was given the chance — I have some friends whose husbands definitely just turn up without planning or packing anything, so maybe Abram was one of those and she was the one handling all the details. But ultimately, what God said seems to have been enough for them to pull up their tent stakes and go. No excuses about their age or how much they’d already done and it being someone else’s turn. No clarifications. No demands to at least have the destination in mind before they set out. They just decided to take the first step and trust that this God — who was different than the gods their family had worshipped for generations — would handle the rest.
That made me curious about what exactly God said, that would get these two pensioners packing up their home and setting off into the unknown without a single question.
First — and I do mean first, like literally the first word that is ever recorded between God and Abram — God says Go. It’s a command, not an invitation, and it’s written in kind of a weird way that isn’t used very often — it actually says the word twice in two different forms so that you don’t miss the point: Get yourself going. Get up and get moving. Get out of the rut you’re in and go.
Then God says he will show Abram his new home. He doesn’t say where, or how far, or what it will be like. No TripAdvisor reviews or estimated travel times, just “I will show you.”
And then before Abram has a chance to ask a question — because this is the point that I would probably have interrupted God to ask my questions — God gives a promise and an invitation. I will make of you a great nation — let me bless you, let me make your name great.
We normally read that as things God will do — I will bless you, I will make your name great. But the verbs are again a little bit weird, and can definitely be understood as an offer that needs accepting. The promise is there — you will be a great nation. And then the invitation: let me bless you. Let me be the one that raises you up. Let me handle what others think of you. Let me pour new life into you even at your age and stage of life. Let me do this for you.
Letting God handle that is perhaps trickier than it sounds on the surface, of course. We like to be in control of our own image. We want other people to think well of us. We know we have to work hard for ourselves, and promote ourselves in order to get promoted. If we want to get ahead, then we’ll have to make that happen. Making a name for ourselves in whatever our area, or at the very least becoming prosperous, is a more than full time job, especially when you add in defending yourself against detractors who want to pull you down for their own reasons. And all of that is as true for the church as for our individual lives — we want to make sure our church looks good, or better than the others, is growing, and is safe in the presbytery plan.
But God says…let me make your name great. Let me handle the other people. Let me bless you.
And then in the middle of all of this, there’s another command. Let me bless you…you, be a blessing.
You, be a blessing.
That’s the instruction: Go, and be a blessing.
The middle bit is where we so often get ourselves into trouble — when we try to make ourselves great, when we try to save ourselves, when we try to control what other people think of us, when we try to manufacture our own blessings apart from God’s gift or grow our own church. I was at a Book Festival event in Edinburgh last month where the author said “growth is not the mission — growth is what happens when you’re faithfully doing the mission.” Or, as God says to Abram: let me handle that. Let me bless you. You, Go and be a blessing. Focus on the mission, and I’ll do the rest.
I can’t say for sure that hearing that promise from God would inspire me to get up out of my familiar comfortable place and go without any further questions, but I do wonder what might happen if we trusted God as much as Abram and Sarai did, and just….went? Without asking for a fully developed plan, or a list of goals and outcomes, or even certainty that there’d ever be an end point at all. Without worrying how it would look in the paper or whether anyone would even know it was us so we could get the credit. Without saying we’re past our prime and it’s someone else’s turn to step up, or we don’t have permission, or we don’t know in advance if it’s going to work or not, we need more research. What if we just decided that our mission is to be a blessing to all the families of the earth — or at least all the people right here where we’ve been planted — and let God handle the questions about our reputation or our stature in the community or our future in the presbytery plan or our growth. What would it look like for us to take the first step on a mission to bless our community without knowing where the rest of the staircase goes?
I wonder if we could actually pause right now to brainstorm: what can we do this week to be a blessing to someone else? What can you do as an individual that would bless someone else? And what could we do as a church that would bless our parish or the world? What action, what generosity, what opportunity can we offer to the people around us? Not so that we will get anything out of it, not to accomplish a goal, but because it is the command God gives: go and be a blessing. Not in the abstract, but in real life.
Let’s take a moment to think and to ask God to show us what we can do to bless our community.
…
Does anyone have any ideas to share? Perhaps your idea can be an inspiration for others…
Each day let’s practice — when you wake up, ask God to show you how you can bless someone else today. Then keep your eyes and heart and hands open to act. No excuses, no endless clarifying questions: go and be a blessing, and let God handle the rest.
May it be so. Amen.
Silence for Reflection
Online Hymn: Send Us Out (Resound)
Sanctuary Hymn 81: I To The Hills (Jessie B favourite) (organ)
Sanctuary Offering and Response GWA153: God the Maker of the Heavens, verse 1 (tune: Converse) (organ)
God, the maker of the heavens,
and the planet that we share,
show us how to live, like Jesus,
lives of gratitude and care.
Make us mindful of the footprints
from the lives that we pursue.
Make us partners in your mission:
you are making all things new.
Concerns of the Church
*blessing photos
*Kirk Session tomorrow 7pm
*Contact Group Tuesday 1pm
*Bible Study Wednesday
*Tent of Nations Daoud Nasser at GLPC 4 October
*prayer groups
Prayer and Lord’s Prayer
Gracious God,
you are present as you promised,
and we give you thanks
for you see us —
in all the ups and downs of our life stories,
with all we carry,
with all the griefs we bear and the hopes we nurture,
in our faithfulness and our failure.
You see us, and you care.
When we think we are at an end,
you show us into new life.
And so we come before you in prayer,
seeking your future.
We ask for your help for all who are walking through the valley of the shadow of death,
those living with sadness and loss that changes everything.
Walk beside them and bear them up in your hand.
We ask for your help for those places where neighbours struggle to coexist,
where hate has flourished and favour for one has meant pain for the other.
Show us how to live together in your peace.
We ask for your help for those beginning a new chapter,
those making a journey they never anticipated,
those leaving home and wondering what new life is ahead of them.
And we ask for your help for those who are stuck in the familiar,
in old patterns that no longer serve them, in comfortable ruts that will not lead to life.
Reveal your next step for them.
On the 20th day of the month we join our hearts as your church family to pray:
*For all who work in our transportation services — the trains, the buses, the ferries, and the taxis. For drivers and conductors and pilots and sailors and behind-the-scenes workers, and for all who travel in and out of our town.
*For the many volunteers who keep St John’s ministry vibrant: the pastoral care team, the flower team, Bowl & Blether volunteers, sound and powerpoint volunteers, those who count the offering, those who serve on Season Teams, those who do door duty and who make tea & coffee, and so many others.
*For the land, people, and governments of the nations of Myanmar, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei.
We ask for your help as we learn how to be a blessing.
Teach us to ask how we can be a blessing wherever we are,
to look for opportunities to bless those around us,
and to live as if your grace is enough not only for us, but for everyone.
We ask these and all things through the power of your ever-present Holy Spirit,
and in the name of Jesus the Christ, who lived your way among us
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.
Sanctuary Hymn: Send Us Out (praise band)
Sending
Go and be a blessing, and let God handle the rest.
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 if you thought you were 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) (organ)
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.
Sanctuary Postlude Music (organ)
Announcements
* We worship in the sanctuary on Sundays at 11am, and Sunday worship is also online.
* The first Sunday of the month at 11am is 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.
* The Kirk Session will meet on Monday 21 September at 7pm.
* The Contact Group starts its season with a Pot Luck Lunch on Tuesday 22nd September at 1pm. This will be followed by a short AGM. All are welcome to join us – just bring along a small sweet or savoury item for the lunch.
* Wednesday Bible Study is at 7:30pm in the manse and we are beginning a study of the five “festival scrolls” guided by the book Forgotten Books of the Bible by Robert Williamson Jr.
* Bowl & Blether is on the first Mondays of the month, with doors open from 11:30-1:30, and lunch served from noon. All are welcome for a bowl of soup, a toastie, a friendly chat in our warm hall! We will take August off, so see you next month on 5 October.
* Starter Packs are in need of Bathroom/Kitchen Cleaner, Washing Up Liquid, Shaving Foam, Hand Wash,Toothbrushes for Adults.
The FoodBank are short of Biscuits and Juice as well as the usual items: Meals, Beans, Vegetables and Soup.
You can bring donations to the church and place them into the boxes in the vestibule. Thank you!
* We are moving into a time of Harvest, and turning our attention to how God’s faithfulness ensures our flourishing, through every season. To help us celebrate that He keeps His promise to be with us always, no matter the circumstance, you might like to bring to church a photo capturing what this has meant to you, personally. The photo could be of a person who has been a particular help or encouragement to you, or of an occasion or point in time that has been important to you in your faith. Please place your photo in an envelope with your full name written on the front and give this to Anne Love. Anne will photocopy the photo, and return the original to you. These pictures, over a period of weeks, will form a collage of gratitude on the board we have put up on the wall: a visual testament to how we form part of a living story, a legacy, blessed by many hands to be fruitful, that we may in turn bless others.
* Harvest 1 (Anne Love, Seonaid Campbell, Ann Stephenson, Nicola and Jamie Amott):
Have you ever received something that you felt you did not deserve? A good thing, that you had not worked for? A trial that felt unjust? Or have you ever trusted in a promise that seemed to take a while to be realised? Or have you felt you were being asked to do something you did not feel experienced enough or brave enough to do?
When we studied the readings set for the harvest season, we noticed that God’s sending is often uncomfortable, requiring us to leave the familiar and face the unknown. We also saw that God was eager to bless, keen to take our burdens, generation after generation and for all time, His spirit pushing us into places we might not go if we thought we were alone so that all might ultimately flourish. And so our theme this season is flourishing in faith, and this flourishing is how we are blessed, because there is always room for more, and always enough for all.
The story of God’s faithfulness in and through every season stretches back thousands of years.
It is our heritage. The theme of God’s constancy to His people winds its way through our readings this season, through characters just like ourselves: undeniably human, complicated, fallible, finding themselves in all kinds of challenging situations, having to make choices, being victors and being vulnerable. We see how the beautiful partnership between God and his people unfolds in:
* Noah’s trust in God’s oddly specific building instructions and surviving the end of the world;
* Abram’s obedience in a late age relocation to a land he did not know, with no map to get there, yet he did;
* Joseph’s diligence, both as a valued servant and then as a valued prisoner, blessed in the worst of times;
* Moses’s leadership, guiding a disgruntled, homesick people through a wilderness to an uncertain future; yet he receives God’s timeless commandments for his people;
* Joshua’s strength, succeeding Moses in leadership, carrying that burden to reprimand a people going astray, yet ultimately driving them to renewed commitment to God.
In these stories we won’t see easy prosperity, quick wins or magic formulae for success. Rather, we will see something more like our own lives. We will recognise being in a difficult place, outside our comfort zone, far from what has been home, or perhaps being misunderstood, maligned or even misused. But so too, will we be reminded of the times we have benefitted at some point from receiving a gift we did nothing to earn: be it friendship, guidance, a kind word, a helping hand, a helping cheque, an opportunity to grow, an encounter that changed our lives. And through the constant change life brings, so too does God’s love remain constant, blessing us that we may be a blessing to others. And we flourish not because everything has always gone well for us, but because God intends for us to be fruitful through the seasons and gives us what we need to get where He wants us to be.
This season we will acknowledge God’s love in our lives through people, places and times on the Blessing Board which Teri will tell us about in more detail. We plan to host a Christian Aid Just Peace film study and discussion night on 6 October. We will have our Harvest Service on 11 October, with a particular focus on the plight of refugees. We will also be looking at how we can encourage and support a new baby group.
So, as we move into Harvest time, we reflect on what we have received and what we can give, on our inheritance and our legacy, gratitude for God’s generosity, and giving generously where we can, when we can, flourishing in our faith to bless our community and our world now, and in the times ahead.
