Sunday service for 4 February 2024

Sunday 4 February 2024 — NL2-24
Gourock St. John’s Church of Scotland
Service prepared by Rev. Teri Peterson
Manse: 632143 
Email: TPeterson (at) churchofscotland.org.uk
Email Charlene, Parish Assistant: CMitchell (at) churchofscotland.org.uk
Email Rob, student minister: RThomson (at) churchofscotland.org.uk

Prelude Music

Welcome & Announcements

We Gather As God’s Family (As the Bible is brought in, we stand and sing)
A family gathered in love,
striving for justice and joy,
blessing the broken-hearted,
and sharing the hope of God’s kingdom.

Call to Worship
One: Come, bring your burdens, your hopes, your last-ditch efforts, your pain, your longing.
All: We come seeking God’s compassion, present in Christ.
One: Whoever you are, whatever positions you hold, whatever experience life has brought you,
All: we come seeking healing, restoration, peace, grace.
One: Trusting in what Jesus can do,
All: we come seeking the One who gives life.

Sanctuary Hymn 718: We Cannot Measure How You Heal

Online Hymn 259: Beauty for Brokenness

Prayer (Rob)

Merciful God, we come to you with empty hands, carrying no righteousness of our own, we have faltered in our faith and fallen short of the love you call us to embody. We have looked at the lives of others without compassion and judged them, while we have presented a polished and flattering image of ourselves to the world.

Forgive us our many shortcomings and renew our spirits with your grace.

We stand amazed Sovereign Creator, at your boundless mercy which sustains us. Your unfailing love is our refuge, and we stand in awe of your infinite wisdom and grace. Thank you for your love, that does not fail when we feel doubt or grow tired, failing to treat others with empathy. You see us for who we are and you have adopted us as our own. Thank you for the security of being grafted in to your eternal family, made whole and accepted as who we are.

As we reflect today on healing and restoration, grant us the strength to seek reconciliation in our lives and extend it to others. May todays worship be a source of inspiration and empower us to live out the transformative message of your love. 

Amen.

Sanctuary Children’s Time

Scripture Reading: Mark 5.21-43 (CEB)
Last week we heard about Jesus going to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, to gentile territory, and healing a man possessed by Legion by sending the demons into a heard of pigs, who then drowned in the sea. Jesus sent the man to tell people in the ten cities on that side of the lake what had happened to him, and the people of that area asked Jesus to leave. Today we pick up the story where we left off, in the gospel according to Mark, chapter 5, beginning at verse 21. I am reading from the Common English Bible.

Jesus crossed the lake again, and on the other side a large crowd gathered around him on the shore. Jairus, one of the synagogue leaders, came forward. When he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet and pleaded with him, “My daughter is about to die. Please, come and place your hands on her so that she can be healed and live.” So Jesus went with him.
A swarm of people were following Jesus, crowding in on him. A woman was there who had been bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a lot under the care of many doctors, and had spent everything she had without getting any better. In fact, she had gotten worse. Because she had heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his clothes. She was thinking, If I can just touch his clothes, I’ll be healed. Her bleeding stopped immediately, and she sensed in her body that her illness had been healed.
At that very moment, Jesus recognised that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched my clothes?”
His disciples said to him, “Don’t you see the crowd pressing against you? Yet you ask, ‘Who touched me?’” But Jesus looked around carefully to see who had done it.
The woman, full of fear and trembling, came forward. Knowing what had happened to her, she fell down in front of Jesus and told him the whole truth. He responded, “Daughter, your faith has healed you; go in peace, healed from your disease.”
While Jesus was still speaking with her, messengers came from the synagogue leader’s house, saying to Jairus, “Your daughter has died. Why bother the teacher any longer?”
But Jesus overheard their report and said to the synagogue leader, “Don’t be afraid; just keep trusting.” He didn’t allow anyone to follow him except Peter, James, and John, James’ brother. They came to the synagogue leader’s house, and he saw a commotion, with people crying and wailing loudly. He went in and said to them, “What’s all this commotion and crying about? The child isn’t dead. She’s only sleeping.” They laughed at him, but he threw them all out. Then, taking the child’s parents and his disciples with him, he went to the room where the child was. Taking her hand, he said to her, “Talitha koum,” which means, “Young woman, get up.” Suddenly the young woman got up and began to walk around. She was 12 years old. They were shocked! He gave them strict orders that no one should know what had happened. Then he told them to give her something to eat.

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: Tone
This week, Rob and I were talking about this reading and the different tones of voice we might use to read different parts of the story. The tone of voice we imagine when we hear scripture can really change our understanding, because tone carries with it implications. Like if I said: (~with a tone of disgust/anger~)
A swarm of people were following Jesus, crowding in on him. A woman was there who had been bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a lot under the care of many doctors, and had spent everything she had without getting any better. In fact, she had gotten worse. Because she had heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his clothes. She was thinking, If I can just touch his clothes, I’ll be healed. Her bleeding stopped immediately, and she sensed in her body that her illness had been healed.
At that very moment, Jesus recognised that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched my clothes?”

You might get the impression that I was disgusted with the woman and that Jesus was angry with her. But if I said it like this… (~sad/surprised~)

A swarm of people were following Jesus, crowding in on him. A woman was there who had been bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a lot under the care of many doctors, and had spent everything she had without getting any better. In fact, she had gotten worse. Because she had heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his clothes. She was thinking, If I can just touch his clothes, I’ll be healed. Her bleeding stopped immediately, and she sensed in her body that her illness had been healed.
At that very moment, Jesus recognised that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched my clothes?”

Then you might hear the woman as sympathetic, you’d feel sorry for her and empathise with the long suffering with no answers from doctors and treatments that make everything feel worse, the desperation and hope that might bring her to sneak up on a holy healer in the midst of a crowd…and Jesus sounds more amazed that something has happened, rather than angry.

Every line of every story we read in scripture, we have choices like this to make. And the tone we use, or the tone we imagine, makes a huge difference to how we understand the word…and that in turn affects how we approach God, how we pray, how we act, how we behave toward other people and toward creation, what choices we make. If we hear an angry tone when Jesus tried to find who touched him in the crowd, how might that affect our approach to him when we are desperate? How might it affect our feelings about people who come looking for help? If we read with a tone that imagines the woman as disgusting, someone who shouldn’t have been out in public when she was so ill, how do we then see people with long illnesses that don’t get any better? If we hear Jesus as amazed or confused or in awe when he asks “who touched my clothes?” then how does that change the way we expect him to answer us when we pray?

That woman had suffered for twelve years. Every professional she went to took her money but didn’t give her any relief. She was meant to keep apart from people, especially men, to look after herself…and after that length of time that means any family she’d had was long gone, along with her money and her friends and her hope. But somewhere deep inside herself, she found the courage to put herself out there one more time, hoping that staying anonymous and sneaking up in a crowd and just getting a brush of the hem of his tunic would be enough and she could go home again with no one the wiser. If it didn’t work, at least she hadn’t gone into anymore debt. If it did work, she could get back to a normal life that seemed a distant memory. So how do you think Jesus sounded when he started looking for her? What tone of voice do you hear his question in?

I imagine the woman as desperate, and desperately hopeful. She would not have gone out into the crowd, risking everything, for just another doctor like all the others. She had heard about Jesus and she knew he was different…and she trusted that he was different enough to be able to do something for her. When Jesus called out for her, it says she was afraid. But I also don’t think that fear was because of Jesus’ tone of voice, I think she was afraid of the rest of the crowd, swarming and pressing in on each other. This very private medical problem, which had so impacted her life for so long, and the private healing she had tried to seek, was about to become the most public scandal the village had ever seen — unclean woman sneaks up and touches famous holy man. So actually, Jesus’ tone must have been compassionate enough to draw her out of the crowd despite her fear of them…and compassionate enough to convince her that she could tell him the whole truth. Not the well-rehearsed story given to dozens of doctors, not the careful responses given to neighbours who might occasionally have asked after her but not really cared, not the resigned short version because people were tired of hearing about her suffering…she told him the whole truth. You don’t do that unless you think the person listening actually cares and wants to know. So something in the way he spoke must have convinced her.

Do we hear Jesus with a tone that invites and compels us to tell the whole truth? With compassion in his voice that says he wants us to come to him, that he is amazed by the faith it takes to reach out to him in the midst of life’s struggles? Or — especially when we’ve struggled with something for a long time — do we imagine his tone is exasperated or tired or grudging, the way we might sometimes be with others?

His response to hearing her story was to say that she was not only healed — which she already knew — but also to call her daughter. He made her family, this woman whose family had likely all abandoned her. He brought her back into community after more than a decade of being isolated. He restored her to the blessing of a normal life, which so many of us take for granted.

And after all that delay, looking for her, hearing her story, speaking with her, taking time for her in the middle of a really important and urgent journey, a messenger comes and says the line that I think is hardest to imagine the tone for:
While Jesus was still speaking with her, messengers came from the synagogue leader’s house, saying to Jairus, “Your daughter has died. Why bother the teacher any longer?”

Can you even imagine being the one to draw the short straw and have to deliver that message? How did the messenger say it? Was he in a hurry to get the words out…was he trying to mask his own heartbreak…was he worried that Jairus would be angry…was the messenger disgusted that Jairus had left his daughter’s deathbed to seek out a last-ditch random healer…was he a paid messenger just passing on what the wife said in a very matter of fact way…was he sorry for the man who had just lost a child…why bother the teacher any longer? he says. What sort of tone do you imagine the messenger used?

Jesus heard him, and looked at Jairus and said: don’t be afraid, keep trusting.

Keep trusting. The same trust that brought you away from your daughter’s bedside…the same trust that has allowed you to wait patiently through this other woman’s story and healing and restoration…keep that trust alive, even though this news makes it feel like the bottom fell out of your world. This whole experience hasn’t gone how Jairus had hoped, and now the worst has happened, and Jesus looked at him and encouraged his faith. Keep trusting. Keep walking in the same faith that brought you here in the first place.

I imagine Jesus’ tone is more urgent for this one. Not a pity tone, but an assertive one. Like that thing we do when someone is hurt and we say just keep your eyes on me, keep breathing, don’t look away, don’t worry about what the doctor is doing, just look at me…stay with me…keep trusting. Like Jesus is giving Jairus his own strength because otherwise Jairus might just crumple in a heap on the street.

Neither the woman nor Jairus and his family had the day they expected, exactly. But they both felt Jesus’ power and compassion and invitation and hope. They both experienced his strength carrying them through fear. They both found themselves restored to everyday life at the end of the day, with the most urgent problem being what to have for a snack. They both heard Jesus voice in all his love and grace and insistence.

What do we hear, when God’s word speaks to us? Not only the the words themselves on the page, but the meaning behind the words? Do we hear an invitation to come and tell our whole truth? Do we hear strength that will carry us when our legs want to give way? Do we hear compassion that makes time for the outcast and stranger even in the middle of an emergency? Or do we hear boredom? Anger? Disgust? Irritation? Or perhaps worse, nothing, no emotion at all, just words with no feeling or meaning behind them?

When you open your Bibles this coming week, I encourage you to read out loud and try out different tones of voice, different inflections, and see how it sounds when you hear God speaking to you. What difference does it make to the meaning when you hear it? And when you hear Christ calling you out of the crowd, making time for your suffering even when you think someone else has it worse…when you hear him saying “keep trusting” even though you’re not even sure you can get a breath…when you hear God look at creation and say “it was very good”…when you hear the psalmist say “I lift up my eyes to the hills…”…when you hear Jesus call you a son or daughter and say that you are made whole…listen carefully for his compassion, his grace, his strength, his demands, his love. Because that’s where the healing is. For us, and for the church and community and world, because when we hear it, we can echo it, too.

May it be so. Amen.

Sanctuary Hymn 724: Christ’s is the World in Which We Move

Online Hymn: You Are A Refuge

Offering

*Sanctuary Offering Response: God Our Gifts We Lay Before You (words: Leith Fisher; tune: Abbot’s Leigh)
God, our gifts we lay before you,
gifts of hand and heart and mind;
these we offer to adore you;
may you ever in us find
willing hands for costly giving,
spirits faithful, spirits true,
shaping in our daily living
gifts of worth to honour you.

Prayer and Lord’s Prayer 
Life-giving God,
we praise you for we are fearfully and wonderfully made,
and your will is for the healing and restoration of all things that we may again reflect your glory.
We come with gratitude for the power you display around us, through us, within us,
and for the many blessings we have known.
We come, too, with longing for the fullness of your vision to become reality,
for tears to be wiped away, for pain and suffering to be no more,
for life everlasting and light that shines on all.
We come begging for the lives and livelihoods
of our loved ones, our neighbours near and far, and your world.

Where there is fear, touch hearts with your peace.
Where there is illness, may your hand bring relief.
Where there is grief, let your living word be a guide through the shadowed valley.
Where there is suffering, may your healing bring restoration.
Walk among your people, O God,
and let us feel the brush of your cloak,
the whisper of your powerful breath on the breeze,
the grace of your presence healing all that harms us.

Where there is inequity and misused privilege, reveal a more excellent way.
Where there is violence, may your spirit of peace frustrate the designs of the powerful.
Where there is despair, shine the light of your grace through the cracks.
Where there is isolation or stigma, reach across the void and lift them into community.
Walk among your people, O God,
and call out to your children,
re-creating your family,
binding us together in your compassion and love.

We lift to you our neighbours in need —
those who have spent all they had, yet find no relief,
those who have been left alone by friends and family who don’t know what to say,
those who have waited so long that their only hope is now eternal.
Make your healing real to them today, O God, and bring them to the blessing of ordinary days.

And we lift to you those with the power to change things —
those who profit while others can’t afford medicine,
those who use war as a distraction or a game or an opportunity,
those who manipulate the suffering of others for their own benefit.
Heal their hard hearts and selfish minds, and turn their talents to your kingdom work.

Walk among your people, O God,
for we trust that even on your timescale that doesn’t match ours,
your power makes all things possible.
And so we pray these and all things in your holy name,
seeking your mercy,
trusting in your Son Jesus Christ our Lord 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 259: Beauty for Brokenness

Benediction
Friends, may we hear the truth both in and behind God’s words — the love, the invitation, the calling — and trust it is for us, and for us to echo into the world.
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

****Please can you fill in a new Gift Aid form as part of your New Year’s resolutions? We want to be sure our records are correct so we maximise our Gift Aid claims, and some of those records are outdated so we are asking everyone to do a new one. You can download it here and send it in! 

The next Bowl & Blether is TOMORROW the 5th of February, doors open at 11:30 and soup and toasties are served from 12-1:30. All are welcome!
We are looking for volunteers to help make soup tomorrow morning at 9:30am, and to help service from 11:30 onwards. We are also looking for volunteers to help make soup on the 19th from 9:30am.

* The Contact Group meets on Tuesday 6 February at 2pm with Dr. Anne Pettigrew who will be talking about her world of books.

* If you would like to join the rota for tea and coffee after the service, or for reading in the service, please let us know!

* Are you over 80, or turning 80 soon? We send a birthday and Christmas card to everyone over 80 and would love to include you — please let Cameron, Teri, Charlene, or Hazel Melville know your birthday.

* We worship in the sanctuary on Sundays at 11am, and all Sunday worship is also online. 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 in need of of bathroom/kitchen cleaner, washing up liquid, dish cloths, scourers and kitchen roll.
The FoodBank are in need of UHT milk, rice pudding, long-life fruit juice & cooking sauces. You can bring donations to the church and place them into the boxes in the vestibule. Thank you!

* The school chaplaincy team will be doing Firm Foundations for P7s at Moorfoot on Tuesday 20 February, and we need someone willing to make hot chocolate and deliver it to the school between 10-10:15am. Everything except milk will be provided for you, including flasks and pots and hot chocolate mix. Please speak to Teri if you are willing to volunteer!

* Did you know that the ministry we do at St John’s costs about £3000 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 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 meets in the manse at 7:30pm most weeks.

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