Sunday service for 3 July 2022

3 July 2022
Gourock St. John’s Church of Scotland
Service prepared by the Rev. Teri Peterson
Manse: 632143 
Email: tpeterson (at) churchofscotland.org.uk

Prelude Music

Welcome

Call to Worship (adapted from Wee Worship Book 5 & Fire and Bread)
1: In light and in darkness, in peace and confusion,
2: when we have questions, when we’re just putting one foot in front of the other,
All: The Holy Spirit walks alongside us, sharing our journey.
1: In Christ there is neither Jew nor Gentile, black nor white, no insider or outsider.
2: In Christ there is neither rich nor poor, no master or servant, no male and female.
All: In Christ, God makes us one.
1: In this place and in every place,
2: in sharing meals and sharing stories,
All: Jesus walks alongside us, sharing our journey.

Online hymn: Praise is Rising
Sanctuary Hymn 577: Christ be beside me

Prayer
Friends, all of us fall short of God’s vision, and pretending that we have it all together only makes it harder for us to hear Jesus’s voice and follow the Holy Spirit’s gifts. Everyone knows that we’re all projecting an image that isn’t the whole story, and God can never be deceived. When we are honest about our faults and failures, God clears our hearts and minds and spirits so that there is room for the Holy Spirit to fill us and bring our faith to life. So let us join together in prayer.

You, God, are everywhere present. Your creative Spirit blows where she will, your compassion and grace are planted in each of us, your call echoes in every corner of the universe. We confess that we are often not paying attention, so we assume you were absent when we just didn’t notice you. We have become so used to handling things ourselves, we have forgotten how to look for and accept your help. We have trapped ourselves in the ways you revealed yourself in the past, and refused to see you at work in new ways. We need your help, Lord. Forgive us, and make us aware of you, always right beside us, our companion and guide in this life, not only the next. We ask in the name of Jesus the Christ, your word made flesh to live among us. Amen.

If anyone is in Christ, that new life makes the world different — the old has gone, and the new has come! Trusting in the gracious mercy of God, and the power of the Holy Spirit, know that you are forgiven, and live as the beloved body of Christ. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Sanctuary only: Children’s Time (Song: Wa Wa Wa Emimimo)

Reading: Luke 24.13-35, Common English Bible
On that same day, two disciples were traveling to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were talking to each other about everything that had happened. While they were discussing these things, Jesus himself arrived and joined them on their journey. They were prevented from recognising him.
He said to them, “What are you talking about as you walk along?” They stopped, their faces downcast.
The one named Cleopas replied, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who is unaware of the things that have taken place there over the last few days?”
He said to them, “What things?”
They said to him, “The things about Jesus of Nazareth. Because of his powerful deeds and words, he was recognised by God and all the people as a prophet. But our chief priests and our leaders handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him. We had hoped he was the one who would redeem Israel. All these things happened three days ago. But there’s more: Some women from our group have left us stunned. They went to the tomb early this morning and didn’t find his body. They came to us saying that they had even seen a vision of angels who told them he is alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found things just as the women said. They didn’t see him.”
Then Jesus said to them, “You foolish people! Your dull minds keep you from believing all that the prophets talked about. Wasn’t it necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and then enter into his glory?” Then he interpreted for them the things written about himself in all the scriptures, starting with Moses and going through all the Prophets.
When they came to Emmaus, he acted as if he was going on ahead. But they urged him, saying, “Stay with us. It’s nearly evening, and the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them. After he took his seat at the table with them, he took the bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Their eyes were opened and they recognised him, but he disappeared from their sight. They said to each other, “Weren’t our hearts on fire when he spoke to us along the road and when he explained the scriptures for us?”
They got up right then and returned to Jerusalem. They found the eleven and their companions gathered together. They were saying to each other, “The Lord really has risen! He appeared to Simon!” Then the two disciples described what had happened along the road and how Jesus was made known to them as he broke the bread.

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: Beside To Be Your Companion
The start of this story feels to me like the kind of thing children do, not adults. I’ve definitely had kids come up and tap me on the leg while I’m talking to someone and blurt out “what’re you talking about?” But most of us are too polite to just butt in on someone’s conversation so openly. If we’re going to do it, we usually first overhear something — sometimes on purpose and sometimes on accident — and then catch the person’s eye, and offer a little interjection or another piece of information they might not have mentioned, and then we can sort of….slide into the conversation if they seem open to it. But Jesus doesn’t do that — and, actually, the more I thought about the Bible, the more stories I remembered like this, where someone just walks up and interrupts strangers!

The pair of Jesus followers were walking home after an exhausting week of ups and downs. The excitement of Palm Sunday, the drama throughout the week, the trauma of Friday, the sadness and despair of Saturday, the outrageous stories the women told just that morning….by Sunday night anyone would have been ready to get home and sleep in their own bed and just try to get on with life. Maybe they even had a bag, carrying a change of clothes or some souvenirs from that trip to Jerusalem they would prefer to forget.

When the man they didn’t recognise fell into step beside them on the road, maybe they pretended not to notice, because they were too tired and sad and confused after the week they’d had. Or maybe they just carried on their conversation and hoped he would go away. Perhaps they welcomed the distraction and greeted him and tried to engage him in random chat that wouldn’t require too much thinking or energy. But instead he interrupted with “what are you talking about while you walk?”

The pair stopped walking then, incredulous that he didn’t know what was going on. After all, being with Jesus, and then losing him in the most painful and violent way possible, had consumed all their time and energy. Surely everyone must know what had happened — it’s all they’d been able to think about!

Isn’t that how things often feel? We get so wrapped up in what we’re doing, or the difficult thing we’re facing or the project we’ve been working on, that we can’t believe it when others don’t even know it has happened. Picture the look parents give when someone who doesn’t have kids suggests something that clashes with school, or when you realise other people on the train have no idea what sporting event or concert you’re coming home from. Or on the other end of the spectrum, I remember the first time I lost someone close to me, and I walked through the street of my city and all I could think was “all these people are acting like the world is going on as normal — how can they not know that everything has changed?”

I imagine that’s what the disciples thought when this stranger asked them what they were talking about. What else could there possibly be to talk about, besides all that had happened to Jesus, from the parade to the anointing to the stand off with authorities to that dinner they still couldn’t figure out to that horrible Friday morning and the longest sabbath ever and now the walking home in a fog?

When he started to tell the story back to them, though, it sounded different.

And somewhere along the way, they started walking again. As they heard anew about God’s love and grace and justice changing the world throughout history right into their own day, they began to move forward, getting unstuck one step and one story at a time.

They were so engrossed that they barely noticed the time until they realised they were standing at their own front door, and this stranger had become a companion they insisted on inviting in for the night. After that walk, and his retelling of their own story that they thought they knew, all they could think was that they wanted to spend more time together, be side by side at the table and through the night as they had been on the road. They burned with the desire to stay together, to just be with him.

In their house, at their table, this stranger who had become a new friend, a welcome guest, picked up the bread. Usually the man of the house would do it, but this companion on the way took the bread, and said the blessing: Baruch atah Adonai Eloheinu melech ha olam, ha motzi lechem min ha’aretz. Blessed are you, O Lord our God, king of everything, for you have brought forth bread from the earth. He broke it, and gave it to them, and suddenly everything made sense. Their eyes were opened, and they recognised him.

And though immediately they could no longer see him in the flesh, they knew he was still there. They felt that burning in their hearts, the same fire that was lit as he told and re-told the stories they had based their lives on. The same fire that had propelled them onward when he walked alongside them propelled them again, to run and tell the story — to share the wonder they had experienced with others who longed for a companion on the way. Just a few hours before they had said, with disappointment and dejection, “we had hoped he was the One, but…”…and now they could say with joy and commitment, “we had thought it was our table, but…”

The story says that Jesus “joined their journey” and set their hearts on fire as they walked along. And it says that when he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them, they recognised him as the companion who promises never to leave us behind, the Lord who is alive and present.

That promise still holds. God’s Spirit goes beside us as a companion — in the hardest journeys and the best days, telling and re-telling the story of love and grace and justice and fellowship that moves us forward and sends us out to share. And we see most clearly, we recognise our companion as the Christ whose life and death and resurrection is for us, when we break bread together, where he is unexpectedly the host at a table we have laid. He joins our journey, butts in on our conversations, re-tells us his own story, and feeds us for the future path, so that we can tell the others.

May it be so. Amen.

Hymn 539: I want Jesus to walk with me

Sanctuary: Invitation to Communion
Communion Hymn: Let us stay together for a time by Brian Woodcock

Prayer & Lord’s Prayer
Blessed are you, O Lord our God, ruler of the universe,
for your story that makes sense of all our lives.
In the beginning, you called for yourself
a people and promised life abundant.
When we turned away from you,
you spoke through prophets and priests,
foreign kings and servant girls,
and then you sent your Word become flesh,
living and real and for us.
We give you thanks for the many ways
Jesus showed us how to follow you,
eating with sinners, touching the outcast,
loving all.
He brought us back into full relationship with you.
Though the world could not handle the abundant life he offered,
and humanity did its worst,
still you refuse to be defeated.
After you raised him from the dead,
making everything different by the power of your love,
he promised your Spirit to go with us as we proclaim the good news
that you have triumphed over death,
that life and love have the last word.
We praise you for your resurrection power,
bringing us all together into new life in your kingdom.
And we praise you for the gift of your Spirit
whose first task is to send us out into community,
to overcome our objections and our isolation,
teaching us to share the good news you have given us.
We look around at your world,
praying for eyes to see and ears to hear you—
in the face of the stranger,
the tears of the refugee,
the love of our pets,
the fear of our neighbours,
the pain of our friends,
the laughter of children.
And when we have seen, give us courage to speak and act
as witnesses to your presence, your love, your good news.
Where there is despair, make us beacons of hope.
Where there is suffering, make us your healing hands.
Where there is violence, make us creators of justice and peace.
We give you thanks for your unending love for us,
and we pray to be the people you have called us to be,
strengthened by your companionship
to be your witnesses in this place and to the ends of the earth.
May your good news be alive in places of pain and suffering,
in the midst of stories of fear and anxiety,
in communities where the struggles are hidden and private,
and among communities supporting one another without resources we take for granted.
And may your people finally have courage to make change
so that no one else goes hungry,
sleeps rough, dies of preventable disease,
flees for their lives, or weeps for their children.
Open our eyes and hearts to recognise you not only at special tables, but at every table,
not only in an hour a week, but in every hour,
not only in Sunday best, but in every face,
not only in quiet peaceful moments but in the midst of everyday life.
You are our constant companion and we give you thanks,
and pray to notice and join your journey.
We pray in the name of our living Lord 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.

Sanctuary Hymn 530: One More Step

Sending
Friends, go into your week looking for the ways Jesus joins your journey, butts in on your conversations, and invites you to a new understanding of his story — for he always goes beside you to be your companion. As you go may you also know the blessing of God going above you to watch over you, and may you recognise the Holy Spirit going before you to show you the way, and behind you to push you into places you might not go alone, and 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

*You are invited to join in reading the Bible in a year for 2022 — immersing ourselves in God’s word throughout the year. We get together to discuss each week on Wednesday at 7:30pm in the Sanctuary. Please enter via the front door on Bath street — if you can’t manage the stairs, let us know and someone will meet you at the St John’s Road door. All are welcome, no experience necessary! Feel free to invite a friend, too! Anyone who has ever wondered just what the Bible actually says and what it has to do with us is welcome.

*Note that we have a number of weddings in the sanctuary in coming days:
3 July, 3pm: Irene Donald (Frizzell) and Danny Sorrell
8 July, 11am: Sarah Glenny and David McGahey
9 July, 1pm: Ross Aitken and Emily Atterton

*All worship is online (or on the phone at 01475 270037, or in print) and we also meet in the sanctuary at 11am. Hand sanitiser is available at every entrance, and mask-wearing is optional. Masks are available at the door if you would like one. 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.

* 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!

*If you or anyone you know is in your early 20s and would like to join our young adults’ Bible study, please contact Teri for more information on the book they are using. The group meets many weeks in the manse or another nearby home for lunch and study and fellowship.

*A Bowl and a Blether returns TOMORROW — join us in the large hall for a bowl of soup and a blether with friends old and new. Invite a neighbour! All are welcome, no requirements, just come anytime between 11:30 – 1:30 using the St. John’s Road door.