Sunday service for 21 November 2021, Christ the King Sunday

21 November 2021, Christ the King Sunday, Uncovered 9 // 
Gourock St. John’s Church of Scotland
Service prepared by the Rev. Teri Peterson
Manse phone: 632143 
Email: tpeterson (at) churchofscotland.org.uk

To hear the audio recording of this service, please phone 01475 270037. It’s a local landline number so minutes should be included in your phone plan.

Prelude Music

Welcome and Announcements

Call to Worship
One: In ages past, God was at work,
All: revealing the grace and wonder of the word.
One: In these days, God is at work,
All: empowering us to create communities of justice and peace.
One: In the time still to come, God will be at work,
All: making things right and good, just as in the beginning.
One: Through the gloom, we see light,
All: and the light of our Sovereign God reveals all.
One: So let us come into the light, to worship in spirit and in truth.

Prayer
We stumble along, uncertain and unsteady in these unsettled days,
reaching out for something familiar,
worrying what might be around the next bend.
We cannot see the whole story, Lord.
Yet we trust that you are present in the darkness,
and that your dawn will reveal your work,
bringing your kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.
Let the zeal of your living word enlighten our way,
that we may live toward your future, even now.
For your counsel is wonderful, O God.
You guide us in your way of loving-kindness with your everlasting care,
and choose to use your power in service of peace.
We confess that we love to talk about peace, but our lives rarely reflect it.
Forgive our tendency toward destructive power.
We confess that we pray for your light to shine,
even as we prefer to keep some things in the shadows.
Forgive our part in obscuring the light of your truth.
We confess that we long for freedom from injustice,
but we are not willing to give up the burden of authority just yet.
Forgive our stubborn insistence that everyone must be like us.
Shed your light on our lives and hearts, our church and nation, this day,
that all that is hidden may be revealed, and so be healed.
Then turn us again to rejoice in your kingdom of justice and peace.
We ask in the name of Christ our King. Amen.

Music
Online: Hymn 455: I Greet Thee, Who My Sure Redeemer Art (tune: Toulon)
In Person: organ by Philip

Children’s Time (in person only)

Reading: Isaiah 9:2-7
Last week we heard from the prophet Amos, who worked in the northern kingdom of Israel in the mid-700s BCE. Today we will hear from the 1st prophet called Isaiah, who worked in the southern kingdom of Judah, mainly in the city of Jerusalem, a few years after Amos. Isaiah was speaking to people who were weathering attacks from the northern kingdom and other surrounding tribes, and were tempted to make political alliances with bigger empires to protect themselves, and Isaiah was insistent that they should rely on God and God’s promise. While the kings in Jerusalem were mostly as corrupt as the northern kings were, there were two who weren’t terrible and who made an effort to turn the people back to God’s way so that they would be able to live faithfully in God’s promise. One of those was Hezekiah, who became king sometime around the time that Isaiah wrote the words we hear today, from chapter 9. I am reading from Robert Alter’s translation.

The people walking in darkness
   have seen a great light.
Those dwelling in the land of death’s shadow—
   light has beamed on them.
You have made great the nation,
   and heightened its joy.
They rejoiced before You
   as the joy in the harvest,
   as people exalt when they share out the spoils.
For its burdensome yoke,
   and the rod on its shoulders,
   the club of its oppressor,
   You smashed, as on the day of Midian.
For every boot pounding loudly
   and every cloak soaked in blood
   is consigned to burning, consumed by fire.
For a child has been born to us,
   a son has been given to us;
and leadership is on his shoulders.
And his name is called wondrous councillor,
divine warrior, eternal father, prince of peace,
making leadership abound and peace without end
on the throne of David and over his kingdom
to make it firm-founded and stay it up
in justice and righteousness, forever more.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do this.

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: Light Changes Us
Sometimes there’s a word or phrase in a reading that just stops me in my tracks, calling to mind all sorts of connections or questions that draw me down deep rabbit holes…though at least they are rabbit holes through scripture so even if they don’t lead anywhere in the end, they’re always still worthwhile to explore! After all, spending time with God’s word is never wasted time, whether or not it’s productive.

For the past several weeks as I’ve been working on this reading, I’ve been pondering the word “zeal” from the very last line. You may know that I love the word “zeal” so much — it’s slightly old fashioned but conveys something passionate. Reading that word conjured up memories of the ordination questions we’re asked, about zeal for the glory of God being our chief inducement to take up a ministry. And it also drew me back to the story from a couple of weeks ago, about Elijah on the mountain with God. In that story Elijah described himself as “very zealous for the Lord”…so zealous, in fact, that after God had revealed power that the false gods didn’t have, Elijah had taken the opportunity to kill all the false prophets. That’s certainly one kind of zeal. Perhaps it’s even the kind of zeal we are used to thinking about — passion that finds its outlet in really dramatic ways, often loud and flashy and forward…and maybe violent.

So I had that violent zeal called to mind when I read that the zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. But when looking at exactly what the zeal of the Lord will do, it’s a pretty different picture than Elijah’s zeal. Isaiah tells us of endless peace, founded on justice and righteousness, and all the accoutrements of attack — the soldiers’ boots and bloody uniforms — will be burned up. It feels very different to think of being zealous for peace, almost a contradiction in terms. And yet there it is, that’s what God’s zeal is directed towards: peace founded on justice, not on military might, not on oppression of subjects.

It’s hard to imagine, honestly.

It’s the kind of thing we consign to the future, like the afterlife future, or even after the end-of-days. We are so used to a form of leadership that comes from power-over, putting others down to lift ourselves up, conquering and fighting our way to the top. The idea of a leader who breaks the yoke and allows everyone to stand tall, who sets fire to the military supplies because they won’t be needed anymore, who bears the full weight of leadership that does justice, and so leads us in the way of endless peace…it sounds impossible. Which might be why we have made the prophet be talking about Jesus, 700 years before he was born — because it is absolutely true we see this fulfilled in Jesus, but also because it lets human leaders off the hook a bit. If this is only about God’s work in Christ, then it means it doesn’t have to be about God’s work in us, in our systems and structures, in our nation, in our time, in our lives.

But of course prophets give messages that have meanings for their own time and for future times…Isaiah was likely originally speaking about a very human king of his own time, one of the few who did more right than wrong. And we see that his words shone new light when God took on flesh and lived among us, and bore himself the weight of the world that we are not able to carry. And also we are the Body of Christ in the world today, so this poetry, this prophecy, must also be for us.

It’s certainly not unusual to still feel we are walking in darkness. Remember that before electric light, and in many ways still today, to be out in the darkness highlights our vulnerability. When we can’t see what, or who, is around us, we walk differently. Perhaps we walk more hesitantly, feeling our way. Perhaps we walk only on known routes so we can be a bit more confident even when we can’t see. Perhaps we even walk aggressively, determined that anything or anyone we run into we’ll just push past or bowl over. Whatever the case, when it’s dark, we move differently than when the light shines and we can see the way ahead — even though, of course, the light doesn’t actually change the obstacles and the path and the people around us, it only changes us.

The second line, the poetic parallel that intensifies the meaning of the first line, gives us the second rabbit hole of my week:
The people walking in darkness have seen a great light.
Those dwelling in the land of death’s shadow—light has beamed on them.

Dwelling in the land of death’s shadow.

That’s not exactly the same as walking in darkness, is it? It feels different — more like the darkness is inside rather than surrounding us. It can be any time of day, any state of sun or moon or even artificial light, and we can still feel the gloom of the shadow of death, almost as if it infuses our very being. It makes our inner landscape feel more threatening and more vulnerable — we never know what feelings or thoughts or memories are going to pop up without warning and cause us to stumble. So it often does feel like the shadow of death is a place we dwell, rather than walk through — it becomes a place we live, a new normal when any old normal feels like a lifetime ago.

And, of course, it’s a phrase that pulls us to new depths of meaning, as it calls to mind the 23rd psalm.

Remember what it says in that line?

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.

Even when we can’t see, God is there, with all the tools of shepherding that will guide us in the right way.

Some of you will have heard me say about the 23rd psalm that this moment is when the writer changes from talking about God to talking to God, recognising that God is not just far off and theoretical, but close at hand. God is with us, not just as eternal father or prince of peace but also as a counsellor, a guide.

Think how differently we would walk through the world, how differently we would travel this journey of life, if the beam of light cut through the shadow of death and revealed this truth: that God is with us, carrying the load that has burdened us, destroying the weapons of war, calling us to be zealous for peace. Not just for days long ago, but still today.

Today is Christ the King Sunday, which is a feast day that was established in 1925 — when across Europe, fascism and nationalism were on the rise. In the midst of calls to give our allegiance to a nation or a leader, to define our identity by our ethnicity or our language or the place where we were born, and to build structures and systems that would burden most while privileging the few, the Church declared that our primary allegiance is to Christ and his kingdom, not to any of our earthly kingdoms or political leaders or parties. In the dark days of staggering wealth inequality, political turmoil, division, and post-pandemic exhaustion, we were called to turn our attention to the light of Christ, calling us forward. The lay of the land was still the same — the light doesn’t change that — but followers of Christ had a new way of seeing, because the light changes us.

And when we see differently, we can move differently. Whether we feel like we’re groping about in a blind darkness, taking halting steps or aggressively pushing through, fearful of what obstacles or dangers might be out there…or whether we’ve set up camp in the shadow of death, unable to move because our inner landscape is so confusing it’s safer to dig in and stay put in the comfort of the familiar…the true light of the world changes us. In the light we see that we are not alone. Because God is with us, leading us in paths of righteousness and preparing tables that bring enemies and friends together at the feast and putting endless peace into motion, then regardless of what obstacles the world puts in the path, we can move confidently toward Christ’s kingdom. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this!

May it be so. Amen.

Hymn 543: Longing for Light, we wait in darkness

Prayer and Lord’s Prayer
You are the God who provides in every place,
bringing us through the difficult days into your gift of plenty,
and we are thankful.
We give you thanks,
and we pray for your strength for those who are vulnerable or afraid.
We give you thanks,
and we pray for your liberation for those who are burdened by an oppressive load.
We give you thanks,
and we pray for your peace for those whose nights are disturbed by the sounds of violence.

We lift up to you our community —
your church, this parish, this town, this nation —
and pray that your light would shine,
revealing the way forward through the obstacles we face.
For our neighbours who are suffering,
whose lives are marked by pain, addiction, grief, or poverty,
and for those who are tasked with leadership,
with helping others,
with serving the good of all,
we ask for your presence to be tangible,
your compassion to overflow,
your justice to be made real.

You are Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
We ask this day for your clarity to meet our obscurity,
that we may know your way and follow it.
We ask for your joy to meet our despair,
that we may trust your constancy.
We ask for your promise to meet our fear,
that we may be empowered to live in your kingdom.
We pray these and all things in the name of Jesus the Christ,
on whose shoulders all authority rests,
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.

In-Person Hymn 455: I Greet Thee, Who My Sure Redeemer Art (verses 2-5) (tune: Toulon)

Benediction
Friends, may the light shine, changing you and the way you live and move in Christ’s kingdom among us now. 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.

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

* All worship is online (or on the phone at 01475 270037, or in print) and we also meet in person, subject to the usual protocols for distancing, hand hygiene, mask wearing. We can now welcome up to 85-100 people for worship with 1m distancing between households. No booking is required. Masks are required at all times inside the building, including while singing. 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.

* Tonight we will gather with Christians across the nation for evening prayer on the Connect Facebook Page, led tonight by Teri. Log on at 6:58pm to join in.

* 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 by clicking 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 or the manse 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!

* 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!

* During the Harvest season (continuing in Ordinary Time until Advent begins at the end of November), the theme for worship is “Uncovered” — we’ll be looking at things God is calling forth that we didn’t know we had in us.

* Greenock Rotary – Smalls for All 2021 Appeal:  The club is appealing for people to buy a pack or single pair of pants for a woman or child.  These will be given to vulnerable women, girls and boys in Africa where there is a severe lack of ‘smalls’.  Women and girls with no underwear are very vulnerable, it is a health and hygiene problem as well as a matter of human dignity for those affected.  Ladies briefs in UK size range 8 to 16 and for children aged from 3 to 15 years will be gratefully accepted.  You can place  your donation in the box placed in the front vestibule during November.

* Volunteers needed for Bubblegum & Fluff on Monday, 29 November and Friday 3 December. Bubblegum & Fluff happens in the Old Gourock and Ashton church hall, and the time commitment is roughly 9-12. Volunteers will need to be able to sit down (probably on the floor though some choose a chair with the children on the floor) and to stand at a table to help facilitate activities with groups of around 6 children. No public speaking is required, and all instructions will be given to you on the day. All adults must wear masks in the building, but children will not be required to do so. If you are willing to come and help out with P5s learning the Christmas story, please let Teri know.