Sunday Service for 25 April 2021, fourth Sunday of Easter

Sunday Service for 25 April 2021, Fourth Sunday of Easter
Prepared by Rev. Teri Peterson, Gourock St. John’s
Manse phone: 632143 
Email: tpeterson (at) churchofscotland.org.uk

To hear an audio recording of this service, including music, please phone 01475 270037.

To hear David Lamotte’s full song “Water”:

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Prelude Music (in person only)

Welcome/Announcements

Call to Worship
The Spirit whispers, calling us to get up and go,
to set out on the road God will show us.
The Spirit whispers, calling us to walk alongside,
to listen and ask questions and listen more.
The Spirit whispers, calling us to tell the story,
sharing the truth we know and discovering new truth together.
The Spirit whispers, calling us to worship.

Let us pray.
God of good news,
in your word we find life in all its fullness…
sometimes embraced and celebrated,
sometimes obscured by our brokenness,
sometimes shining like a beacon,
if only we will turn the next page,
or ask for help understanding,
or listen to the questions.
You meet us with grace just where we are,
whatever our experiences,
the shape of our bodies,
the level of our understanding.
We praise you for your love that leads us into your kingdom
where all are welcome.
Amen.

Music:
In Person: Chia Mai, by Ennio Morricone
Online: Hymn 609, Come Living God When Least Expected

Children’s Time (in person only)

Reading: Acts 8.26-39 (Common English Bible)
Last week we heard about what happened with Stephen, one of the first deacons ordained to serve the church community. After he was killed, Saul — also called Paul — began to persecute followers of Jesus, even dragging them out of their homes to put them in prison. The apostles, deacons, and many other followers scattered out of Jerusalem and began sharing the good news in other towns and across the countryside. Another of those first seven who were ordained to serve was Philip, who left Jerusalem and went to preach and serve in Samaria. We pick up the story there today in the book of Acts, chapter 8, beginning at verse 26. I am reading from the Common English Bible.

An angel from the Lord spoke to Philip, “At noon, take the road that leads from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is a desert road.) So he did. Meanwhile, an Ethiopian man was on his way home from Jerusalem, where he had come to worship. He was a eunuch and an official responsible for the entire treasury of Candace. (Candace is the title given to the Ethiopian queen.) He was reading the prophet Isaiah while sitting in his carriage. The Spirit told Philip, “Approach this carriage and stay with it.”
Running up to the carriage, Philip heard the man reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, “Do you really understand what you are reading?”
The man replied, “Without someone to guide me, how could I?” Then he invited Philip to climb up and sit with him. This was the passage of scripture he was reading:
Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter
    and like a lamb before its shearer is silent
    so he didn’t open his mouth.
In his humiliation justice was taken away from him.
    Who can tell the story of his descendants
        because his life was taken from the earth?
The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, about whom does the prophet say this? Is he talking about himself or someone else?” Starting with that passage, Philip proclaimed the good news about Jesus to him. As they went down the road, they came to some water.
The eunuch said, “Look! Water! What would keep me from being baptised?” He ordered that the carriage halt. Both Philip and the eunuch went down to the water, where Philip baptised him. When they came up out of the water, the Lord’s Spirit suddenly took Philip away. The eunuch never saw him again but went on his way rejoicing.

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: The Water’s Gonna Win

On this day, the 25th of April, 22 years ago, I was attending my fourth ever Sunday morning worship service. I was eighteen years old, and had not been brought up in the church. A few years before, I had read the Bible as a literary pursuit, and realised that it was much more than the other things I was reading in literature courses — that it was True, with a capital T, though I didn’t really understand anything about it or about how it related to life or church or anything like that. Some friends had invited me to church with them for Easter, and I went. And then I went back by myself the next week. Then the day after that I attended an Inquirer’s Class, and then I spent two weeks talking with one of the ministers about what this whole Christianity thing was about, how it was related to the Bible, and what it had to do with me. I had a lot of questions that he patiently discussed with me, until I asked him if it was possible to become a Christian without telling my parents who were, after all 2,000 miles away and maybe didn’t need to know until it was done? He said I probably shouldn’t do that because it wasn’t really the kind of thing that should be a secret, so I called them first and they surprised me with their support.

Then on Sunday the 25th of April, four weeks after I had walked into a church building for the first time, I sat in the front row of the sanctuary, and partway through the service I was called forward to kneel on the marble steps — they did have a cushion, thankfully, since I was wearing a shorter-than-knee-length dress! — and after answering some questions, the minister sprinkled water on my head and declared that I was now a part of this family of Christ followers.

That was a day that changed my life forever.

Which is something I could also easily have said about several of the days that led up to that day! The day my friends invited me to worship with them. The day the Spirit nudged me to get up and go to the service by myself. The day the minister taught the Inquirer’s Class in a way that invited not only those who were lifelong churchgoers just moving their membership, but even those who had no idea what church was about. The day after day that he sat with me and talked through what this all meant. The day he convinced me to phone my parents first.

Or perhaps, farther back, the day I opened the Bible for the first time and started to read, under the covers at night so no one would know.

All of those were life-changing days.

But the one I remember and observe every year is this one, the day the water dripped through my hair and the words “you belong to God” echoed through the sanctuary.

Imagine being that Ethiopian eunuch — a royal official, in charge of all the riches of the Ethiopian empire, yet also an outsider, a sexual minority, given power because he would never have been able to insinuate himself into the royal bloodline. That meant that when he traveled to Jerusalem to worship, even though he may well have been a Jew, he wouldn’t have been allowed into the inner parts of the Temple. He could read scripture and he could pray, but he would never be able to access the full worship life of his community, just because of who he was. And at home, he could walk the halls of power and control the purse strings of the palace, but he would never be able to access the full relational and family life of his community.

Imagine how he felt when a stranger ran up beside his chariot and somehow managed to carry on a conversation while running alongside, starting with “do you really understand?”

This man who was both insider and outsider, both man and not-a-man, welcome and unwelcome, could have pretended to understand. He could have projected the image of the strong and powerful person who has it all together. But instead he took the question sincerely. He was reading a prophet’s words about a man who was cut off from descendants by injustice and humiliation…he had questions.

Imagine being Philip, following the nudge of the Holy Spirit to go for a run on a desert road at high noon, and somehow having the wherewithal to speak! He listened, and then he asked a question. He didn’t interrupt the reading with an explanation or a prepared speech. He listened, asked a question, and then allowed the eunuch to ask his questions. From those questions, he told the story and talked about what a difference this new way of understanding God’s work could make in his life. Philip met him where he was and listened to his questions…and was also not shy about telling the story and speaking truth openly and boldly.

It’s hard for us to imagine being like the eunuch…but I think in some ways it can be harder to imagine being like Philip. Many of us are not practiced at heeding nudges from the Holy Spirit, first of all. We talk ourselves out of them, with pro and con lists or a belief we aren’t ready or educated enough. And when we do follow the nudge, most of us are not very good at starting where the seeker already is. We have a few answers we want to get across, and that’s all we know how to say, even if it isn’t what the person is asking about. Or else we are so uncertain about how to speak about our faith that when someone asks questions, we stay where they are without ever telling the story that goes on from there, without ever speaking the truth we know. Sometimes we accidentally, or on purpose, put up more barriers in front of people who already feel like they don’t belong…and other times we forget to give the person the stepping stones to cross the chasm from where they are to where the Spirit is calling. Too often we assume that people will simply “get it”, that they’ll know what we’re talking about, be familiar with our stories and our traditions, and they’ll just become like us…rather than listening, finding out what God has been doing in their lives, and perhaps adjusting our own ways to be more inclusive, to allow people to be themselves and also part of the Body. But it is possible. The friends who invited me to church, and the minister who patiently discussed my questions and showed me a place in the story, even my parents who accepted and rejoiced so unexpectedly, are an example to us all. We can follow the Holy Spirit nudge just as they did.

When the chariot approached some water — remember, this is a desert road, so who knows what water this was! — the eunuch said “what would keep me from being baptised?”

What would keep him out? His was a life defined by boundaries that kept him out — out of the main worshipping community, out of the centre of the Temple, out of the real power, out of polite society, out of the family. He would never fully belong, even if he could pretend for a little while to try to fit in. There were barriers that no matter how hard he tried, he was never going to be able to overcome, simply because of who he was and what body he lived in. Discussing scripture and the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus with Philip, he wanted to know: do I belong in God’s story?

And even though he may not have fully understood it all, and even though maybe he and Philip both still had questions, they went down into the water, and the ritual sealed his belonging. If there’s one thing we can learn from the story of Easter, it’s that there were no barriers that God could not overcome.

The singer-songwriter David Lamotte has a song called “Water” that includes this refrain:
The water’s gonna win
You can’t hold back the tide
You can’t hide from what’s within
The water’s gonna win
Feel it move beneath your skin

The water’s gonna win
It will keep flowing through
All we are and all we’ve been
The water’s gonna win
Forever and amen
The water’s gonna win

The moment they came up from the water, the Spirit took Philip away. The eunuch would continue to learn, and to grow, and to try and fail and try again. He would still have questions. But he wasn’t going to be able to hold on to the teacher, he was going to have to trust that the water was enough to mark him as beloved. The water would win. He was re-membered, put back together, into the Body of Christ. He belonged, to God and to a community, to an us. It was a day that changed his life forever.

When a child is baptised, we say to them, “for you Jesus Christ came into the world, for you he lived and showed God’s love, for you he suffered the darkness of Calvary and cried at the last, “It is accomplished”; for you he triumphed over death and rose in newness of life; for you he ascended to reign at God’s right hand. All this he did for you, though you do not know it yet. And so the word of Scripture is fulfilled: ‘We love because God first loved us.’”

And then after the water, we say: you belong to Jesus Christ forever.

You belong. And it changes your life.

Whatever we think we understand or don’t understand…whatever barriers we see, because of our bodies or minds or hearts, because of our past or because of the expectations we think others have, because of what we look like or who we love or where we live or what job we do…however gifted or inept the person we speak to about our faith questions or doubts or wonderings…whether we’ve read the whole Bible or only ever heard the Nativity story…if our lives seem to be falling apart or if we’re living the best life we can imagine or if we aren’t even sure about any of it…whether we are the one being nudged to speak the truth of God’s story or the one nudged to ask questions…

We belong. You belong. The Body of Christ is not whole without you.

The water’s gonna win.

May it be so. Amen.

Music:
In person: Improvisation on St. Columba, by Philip Norris
Online: The King of Love My Shepherd Is (St. Columba)

Prayer and the Lord’s Prayer
Living God,
we thank you for the wonders of your ongoing work
in creation, in community, and in us.
We thank you for deconstructing our boxes and crossing the lines that separate,
putting us back together as your Body on earth.
We lift up to your care those who have known rejection or exclusion,
who long for a place at the table yet see only walls.
May they know the truth of your grace that has room for all.
We lift up to your care those whose questions have been met with derision or clichés,
rather than compassion and curiosity.
May they experience your gentle, patient guidance and companionship.
We lift up to your care those who know only one way of doing things,
and cannot imagine taking an open opportunity for love.
May they learn to trust your Spirit, wherever she leads.
And we pray these things for ourselves, too, O God.
May your love open us to newness of life,
that we might be ready to heed your call.
We ask these and all things in the name of the One
who heals all division, re-members us into his Body, and renews all life:
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.

Benediction
Friends, you belong to Jesus Christ forever. Go into your week ready to follow the Holy Spirit’s nudge, and to meet people where they are with the story of God’s love. 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.

Postlude Music

Announcements
* All worship is online (or on the phone at 01475 270037, or in print) and we have also begun to meet in person, subject to the usual protocols for distancing, hand hygiene, mask wearing, and no singing yet. We can welcome 33 people for worship, so if you would like to come in person, please phone Cameron (630879) on a MONDAY afternoon between 1-3pm or Anne Love (07904 617283) on a Saturday morning between 10-12 to book a place.

* Young Adult Bible Study is on Zoom at 1pm, we are reading through the Gospel According to Mark. Contact Teri for login details.

* Tonight we will gather with Christians across the nation for evening prayer on the Connect Facebook Page. David is leading tonight’s service, 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!

* The theme for worship during the season of Easter is “Re-membering” — being put back together as a community, perhaps in new ways! Easter is a season that lasts 50 days, from Easter Day until Pentecost.

* 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!