Sunday Service for 23 July 2023, songs of praise

Sunday 23 July 2023
Gourock St. John’s Church of Scotland
Service prepared by Rev. Teri Peterson
Manse: 632143 
Email: tpeterson (at) churchofscotland.org.uk

Sanctuary Prelude Music (praise band)

Welcome and Announcements

*Sanctuary Hymn 512: To God Be the Glory

Online Hymn: Blessed Be Your Name

Opening Responses (mission statement)
One: Who are we, and what are we called to do?
All: We are a family gathered in love,
where all ages and experiences sing and study together,
laugh and cry together, grow in faith and life together.
One: We are not perfect, we are a work in progress
All: and there’s always room at Christ’s table for more,
so all are welcome!
One: As a family, we are striving for justice and joy,
All: by standing up for what’s fair and right,
challenging systems that harm,
working toward a world that sustains us all,
joining our creativity with creation’s joy.
The Holy Spirit has work for us to do.
One: As a family, we offer blessing to the broken-hearted,
All: by walking alongside each other,
holding one another’s stories with grace,
sharing comfort and practical support,
with compassion and prayer.
One: As a family, we are always sharing the hope of God’s kingdom.
All: standing on God’s promises,
trusting the Spirit’s leading,
we will be the hands and feet of Jesus,
serving with love, joy, and generosity.

*Sanctuary Hymn: Blessed Be Your Name (praise band)

Online Hymn: Open the Eyes of My Heart, Lord

Prayer
We come before you today with praise, O God,
thankful for the blessings you pour out,
though we do not always recognise them or name them.
For you are with us always, to the end of the age,
and even when the path is shrouded in shadow,
you have promised to be our guide.
We are grateful for your love that surrounds us and fills us,
and together we sing to your glory.
We confess that we have not always lived from your love.
We have built on other foundations,
planted and watered other seeds,
and walked other ways.
Forgive us when we have not allowed your word to dwell in us richly,
but rather impoverished its soil and made it impossible for it to bear fruit.
Forgive us when we have not shared your word with others,
and for when we have twisted it to our own ends, to manipulate or harm.
Forgive us when we have neglected gratitude, refused to sing praise,
and given you the silent treatment in our anger or despair.
Re-fill us with your grace,
re-connect us to your goodness,
re-make us in your image.
Set us free from the idols that constrain us,
and clothe us with compassion and love,
that all we say and do may be a reflection of your will for creation.
We ask in the holy name of Jesus and through the power of your Holy Spirit. Amen.

*Sanctuary Hymn: Open the Eyes of My Heart, Lord (praise band)

Online Hymn 550: As the Deer (Psalm 42)

Reading: Colossians 3.12-17
As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

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.

*Sanctuary Hymn 550: As the Deer (Psalm 42)

Online Hymn: Bless The Lord – 10,000 Reasons (Psalm 103 & 104)

Sanctuary Children’s Time

*Sanctuary Hymn: 10,000 Reasons (Psalm 103 & 104) (praise band)

Reflection
Our songs of praise take so many different forms, and bring forward so many things we might otherwise overlook in scripture and our traditions.
Think of what we’ve sung today:
We’ve praised God for the gift of Jesus, and invited and encouraged the whole creation and all people to join in our praise.
We’ve sung the words of Job, that God gives and takes away and in all things we will still bless the Lord, and indeed everything God gives us we will turn to his purpose — whether we receive good things or bad, challenges or what we would commonly call blessings, whatever it is, we’ll turn it toward praise. We may not think of those as Job’s words, and it may feel strange to sing a song of commitment echoing one of the most famous sufferers in scripture, but there we are!
We’ve prayed for God’s vision, asking that God would reveal himself, that we might see what has previously been hidden but here in a community making music together, can be visible.
We’ve prayed, with the psalms, claiming God as our first priority and our primary allegiance, the only one who can satisfy our longings and lead us into new life.
We’ve echoed another psalm that talks about what God is like: slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, beginning and end, beyond time and space and human understanding and human strength, the one who is with us on every step of the journey no matter how long it takes.
So far we’ve mainly been praying to God in our songs, and committing ourselves to his way. We have asked for faith, for truly worshipful hearts and lives, for blessing. We have offered our praise, our evangelism, our good and bad days, and our loyalty.
Other hymns give us settings of scripture so that we can perhaps embed them more firmly in our bodies, because while memorising words is one thing, words with a tune are something else entirely. Somehow a song is more memorable than words alone, so when we sing the scriptures they find their way into us more deeply, and often we carry them in a different part of ourselves — a part that remains even when our other memories or physical abilities fail. It’s something the Scottish church has been particularly good over the 500 years of our tradition, setting scripture to music so we can sing the word anywhere, anytime.

Paul writes that we are to let the word of Christ dwell in us richly, and in the same sentence he says that we are to be together in community and to sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. I don’t think it’s an accident that those three things go together: a community teaching each other and holding each other accountable to the teaching, a community singing together, and the word of Christ dwelling in us richly. When we sing, the words worm their way into the corners of our minds and hearts and something happens…they stick with us, dwell in us, take up residence and find their way out again in our words and our behaviours.

That’s what it means for the word of Christ to dwell in us richly: for God’s living word to be so deeply embedded in us that it comes out again in all our words and actions. Not just parroting verses we’ve memorised, though I do believe memorisation has an important place in our spiritual lives, but revealing the word because it has been incarnated in us — literally in the flesh. It’s a part of us, not just an add on but integrated into who we are, wherever we are.

So friends let us sing together, that God’s word may take up residence inside us and move into the neighbourhood. Amen.

*Hymn 425: The Saviour Died But Rose Again

Offering (Sanctuary only)

*Sanctuary Offering Response Hymn 465: Be Thou My Vision

Prayer and Lord’s Prayer
High King of Heaven, the earth is yours and all who live in it,
and we give you thanks and praise for your creation, your creativity, and your care.
You keep us close to your heart,
and we pray for the grace to keep your vision, your purpose, your will in ours.
The world is longing for good news,
and we pray your comfort, peace, justice, healing, and wholeness
would become reality for all.
In the quiet of this moment, we offer to you the concerns of our hearts —
for ourselves, our families and friends,
our nation, the people of this world,
and your creation.
….

We pray especially today for the children and young people
who will come to the Exploratorium this coming week,
for their families,
and for the adult volunteers —
those leading the programme
and those shepherding groups through activities,
those keeping everyone safe,
and those in the kitchen.
Make your word known to us here.
Help each person enter into your story
and discover your love and your call to faithfulness.
May Jesus be seen and heard and followed
in all our singing, playing, learning, and sharing.

We pray for your Church on earth, O God,
that we may be your body,
knitted together and living in harmony.
Fill your Church with your Spirit once again,
and send us out to share the good news of your love and justice.
May your word be on our tongue,
and your passion in our souls.

Creator and Creative God,
direct our minds and hearts, our voices and hands,
to your purpose.
Give us the grace to live for your glory,
to seek your will,
and to praise you with our words and our deeds.
We are made in your image, and you hold us in your care,
and so we are bold to pray in your holy name,
in the same way that Jesus taught us:
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.

Online Hymn 465: Be Thou My Vision
*Sanctuary Hymn: Send Us Out (praise band)

Benediction
Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
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. 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

* Our next summer songs of praise will be on Sunday 13 August. If you would like to submit a suggestion for a hymn (whether organ or praise band), please do so by next Sunday the 30th of July. Thank you!

* We worship in the sanctuary on Sundays at 11am, and all Sunday worship is also online (or on the phone at 01475 270037, or in print). 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.

* Starter Packs are short of Bathroom/Kitchen cleaner, Toothpaste & toothbrushes, and tea bags. The FoodBank are short of biscuits, UHT milk, tinned fruit, and tinned meats. You can bring donations to the church and place them into the boxes in the vestibule. Thank you!

* Did you know that the ministry we do at St John’s costs about £2700 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 new parish assistant, speak to Anne Love about how to go about directing new donations to that new 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. Feel free to share with your friends, too!

* Wednesday Evening Bible Study is on a summer break!

* Young Adult Bible Study is on a summer break!

* 2023 marks the 125th anniversary of the 2nd Gourock Boys’ Brigade. Our anniversary Grand Charity Ball will be Saturday 9th September 6.00 for 6.30pm in Greenock Town Hall. Tickets priced £50 or £500 for a table of 10 are available now from BB leaders. Every penny raised from ticket sales and our charity auction on the evening will go directly to our chosen charities. This event is open to all so please spread the word, book your table, put the date in your diary and look forward to what we are sure will be a Second To None evening of enjoyment and celebration.

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