Sunday service for 3 October 2021

3 October 2021, 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Uncovered 4, Harvest Communion
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.

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Prelude Music (in person)

Welcome/Announcements (in person)

Call to Worship
One: In the big flashy moments and in the everyday little things,
All: God provides.
One: Whether we have done more than enough or next to nothing,
All: God provides, and God calls.
One: Day in and day out,
All: God provides, God calls, and God teaches us to trust.
One: We come to worship the One who shows us a new way.

Prayer
God of the miraculous and the mundane, we praise you for your care —
in daily bread and in liberation from all that harms.
With you there is always enough, even when we do not know how to name it.
For you are a God of manna and a God of sea-parting power; you know our needs and you act.
We have seen how you provide enough for all,
and yet we confess that we have chosen not to follow in your way.
Though we know our systems lead to death and run contrary to your kingdom vision,
we admit that we are too afraid to leave them behind,
even for your promise of consistent abundant life.
We don’t know how to do everything differently,
so we continue in the way it’s always been,
even as we cry out for justice.
Forgive us our constrained imaginations,
our attachment to nostalgia,
our tendency to hoard while others go hungry,
and forgive us when we pray for big miracles while ignoring your daily sustenance.
Help us today to practice your abundance,
that we may be good stewards of your ordinary miracles each day.
Bring us into the wilderness once again and teach us how to be your people,
living according to your way.
Amen.

Music
Online: Praise Awaits You (Resound Worship)
In-Person:

Children’s Time (in person only)

Reading: Exodus 16.1-18 New Revised Standard Version

Last week we heard about God calling Moses from the burning bush — telling him to go back to Egypt and convince Pharaoh to let the Israelites go free from slavery. Moses and Aaron went, and pharaoh was obstinate, so God sent plagues in hopes of breaking open Pharaoh’s hardened heart. Each plague caused suffering among Egyptians and their land and livestock, but did not affect the Israelites. Sadly, Pharaoh’s response was to oppress the Israelites even more. By the time of the tenth plague, the death of the firstborn, the Egyptians had had enough and let the Israelites go. The whole people traveled as fast as they could to the shores of the Red Sea, where God parted the waters and brought them across on dry land and the Egyptian army was defeated. After a few days, the people began to worry about water as the only water they’d found was bitter and undrinkable, and God gave Moses a tree whose wood turned the water sweet. We pick up the story about six weeks later, in the book of Exodus, chapter 16. I am reading from the New Revised Standard Version.
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The whole congregation of the Israelites set out from Elim; and Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had departed from the land of Egypt. The whole congregation of the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. The Israelites said to them, ‘If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.’
Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘I am going to rain bread from heaven for you, and each day the people shall go out and gather enough for that day. In that way I will test them, whether they will follow my instruction or not. On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather on other days.’ So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, ‘In the evening you shall know that it was the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, and in the morning you shall see the glory of the Lord, because he has heard your complaining against the Lord. For what are we, that you complain against us?’ And Moses said, ‘When the Lord gives you meat to eat in the evening and your fill of bread in the morning, because the Lord has heard the complaining that you utter against him—what are we? Your complaining is not against us but against the Lord.’
Then Moses said to Aaron, ‘Say to the whole congregation of the Israelites, “Draw near to the Lord, for he has heard your complaining.” ’ And as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the Israelites, they looked towards the wilderness, and the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. The Lord spoke to Moses and said, ‘I have heard the complaining of the Israelites; say to them, “At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread; then you shall know that I am the Lord your God.” ’
In the evening quails came up and covered the camp; and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. When the layer of dew lifted, there on the surface of the wilderness was a fine flaky substance, as fine as frost on the ground. When the Israelites saw it, they said to one another, ‘What is it?’ For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, ‘It is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat. This is what the Lord has commanded: “Gather as much of it as each of you needs, an omer to a person according to the number of persons, all providing for those in their own tents.” ’ The Israelites did so, some gathering more, some less. But when they measured it with an omer, those who gathered much had nothing over, and those who gathered little had no shortage; they gathered as much as each of them needed.

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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 Glory of the Lord

There is no manuscript today, sorry!

Hymn 655: For Your Generous Providing

Mission Focus: Belville Community Garden (in person), National Day of Giving (online and in person)

Prayer and Lord’s Prayer
Blessed are you, O Lord our God, ruler of the universe,
for you reveal yourself in your world so many ways,
some we notice and others we ignore,
some we take credit for ourselves and others we fall down in awe,
some we forget about and others make an impression down the generations.
You hear us when we cry out and when we complain,
and when we bring our praise and our prayers for help.
We thank you this day for your generous providing,
for sustaining us all our days.
We thank you for the ordinary things we so easily overlook,
the changing of seasons, the produce of the earth,
simple pleasures like toast, and clean water from the tap,
gathering with friends, and worshipping together.
And we remember those who do not have these things we take for granted,
praying that your promise of “enough” for everyone will one day be reality.
We lift our voices to cry out on behalf of those in the wilderness,
begging for your guidance and your care.
For those in the wilderness of hunger or food insecurity,
thoughts consumed by wondering where their next meal will come from.
For those in the wilderness of mental illness,
unable to disentangle your truth from the anxiety, despair, and pain.
For those in literal wilderness,
fleeing their home and seeking peace and hope in a new land.
For those in the wilderness of loneliness,
longing for a friend to phone or someone to show they remember and care.
For those in the wilderness of illness,
navigating treatments and tests, unfamiliar language and cold clinical spaces.
For those in the wilderness of politics and activism,
those trying to make a change and those tempted to hold their own power.
We pray for your healing, your courage, your shining light.
We pray for your daily bread, your water from a rock, your freedom.
We pray for your caring community, sharing equally and dismantling old unjust ways.
As we gather at your table,
we join with the great cloud of witnesses in giving thanks
for your gifts of nourishment from the earth, sea, and sky,
giving thanks for your compassion that feeds our spirits,
giving thanks for your justice that nurtures our community.
We remember your greatest gift, your Son Jesus the Christ,
who ministered and taught and died and rose that we might live with you.
We pray that whenever we are at table, alone or together,
we might know you as host and provider of our daily bread,
and that each bite may be a taste of your providing grace,
that we may know your kingdom coming on earth as it is in heaven.
We ask these and all things in the name of 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.

(In-person Hymn: God, Our Gifts We Lay Before You (Leith Fisher, tune Nettleton (339)))

Benediction
Go into your week to live in God’s kingdom economy, even if it is different than the world around us. May the glory of the Lord be revealed as we share God’s providing grace with all. 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 (in person only)

Announcements

* The theme for worship in this Harvest season is “Uncovered” — we’ll be looking at things God is calling forth that we didn’t know we had in us.

* 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 will be 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, and families with children, 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 Jonathan. 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!

* Our Harvest Communion service in person is today, 3 October. We are also be having a special gift day as part of the Church of Scotland’s National Day of Giving — both 3 and 10 October will have special gift offerings, which will be divided between Mind Mosaic Child and Family services and Belville Community Garden, both of which are local charities that have been doing and continue to do incredible work during the pandemic, helping families and young people and older people with mental health, food support, combatting social isolation, and more. Please give generously to support the work of these two groups!