Sunday service for 6 August 2023, Season of Prayer
Sunday 6 August 2023 — Lord Teach Us To Pray 1
Gourock St. John’s Church of Scotland
Service prepared by Rev. Teri Peterson
Manse: 632143
Email: tpeterson (at) churchofscotland.org.uk
Prelude Music
Welcome & Announcements
Call to worship: Psalm 8 (Common English Bible)
One: Lord, our Lord, how majestic
is your name throughout the earth!
All: You made your glory higher than heaven!
One: When I look up at your skies,
at what your fingers made—
the moon and the stars
that you set firmly in place—
All: what are human beings
that you think about them;
what are human beings
that you pay attention to them?
One: Lord, our Lord,
All: how majestic is your name throughout the earth!
*Sanctuary Hymn 63: All People That On Earth Do Dwell (Psalm 100)
Prayer
God of grace and glory, your love extends into every time and place,
your vision and desire for all creation is more wondrous than our imagination can fathom,
your presence and power make all things possible.
We thank you for the beauty of your creation,
and the joy of being in community,
and the hope of your kingdom.
You are the One who creates and calls and empowers,
guiding us in your way that leads to life.
We confess that we have sometimes gotten ourselves out of order,
trying to control you rather than follow you.
We admit that we often think of ourselves more highly than we ought,
or else think ourselves so lowly
we can’t possibly be good enough for your service.
Forgive us for not being able to see either ourselves or you clearly.
Forgive us when we try to take your place,
and when we turn away from your voice because you can’t mean us.
Forgive us when we seek our own glory rather than yours,
and so neglect to give thanks for your providing grace.
Show us your truth once again.
Fill our eyes, minds, and hearts with your presence
so that we might be of one mind and heart with Christ,
knowing you so fully that we cannot help but love you,
loving you so deeply we cannot help but serve you,
whom to serve is perfect freedom.
We ask in the name of Christ and with the powerful breath of the Holy Spirit,
who bind all your creation together in your love. Amen.
*Sanctuary Sung Prayer 124 v. 4: Praise to the Lord, the Almighty
Praise to the Lord! O let all that is in me adore him!
All that has life and breath, come now with praises before him!
Let the Amen
sound from God’s people again:
gladly for ever adore him.
Online Hymn: We Lift Our Voices (Resound)
Sanctuary Children’s Time
(Lord’s Prayer: HALLOWED)
Song: O Lord, hear my prayer
Scripture Reading: 1 Chronicles 29.10-14, 18, 20-22a (NRSV)
Then David blessed the Lord in the presence of all the assembly; David said: ‘Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of our ancestor Israel, for ever and ever. Yours, O Lord, are the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty; for all that is in the heavens and on the earth is yours; yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all. Riches and honour come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might; and it is in your hand to make great and to give strength to all. And now, our God, we give thanks to you and praise your glorious name.
‘But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to make this freewill-offering? For all things come from you, and of your own have we given you.
O Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, our ancestors, keep for ever such purposes and thoughts in the hearts of your people, and direct their hearts towards you.’
Then David said to the whole assembly, ‘Bless the Lord your God.’ And all the assembly blessed the Lord, the God of their ancestors, and bowed their heads and prostrated themselves before the Lord and the king. On the next day they offered sacrifices and burnt-offerings to the Lord, a thousand bulls, a thousand rams, and a thousand lambs, with their libations, and sacrifices in abundance for all Israel; and they ate and drank before the Lord on that day with great joy.
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
I invite you to take a moment just now to think about the ways you usually address God. When you’re talking to God, do you use any adjectives, like maybe you start with “loving God” or “almighty God”…what are those words that you use to describe who God is and what God is like? Holy…Mighty…Creator…Gracious… there are so many and I suspect each of us has a favourite. Whatever yours is, just take a moment to hold that word or phrase in your mind.
Now take a deep breath in, and let it out slowly. Think of your word as you breathe in, so perhaps when inhaling you’ll think “Gracious God”…In…and out…
Now this time when we come to breathe out, instead we’ll all just say out loud our phrase, all at the same time. Don’t worry about what people will think, they won’t even really be able to hear you because they’ll be thinking of their own words for God. Keep your focus on God and what God is like as you breathe in….and out: ________.
There are at least as many ways of naming God as there are people who call on God’s name…whether you go instinctively toward words like good, gracious, merciful, loving or words like powerful, almighty, all-seeing or words like healer, creator, friend: all these are true. We don’t often think about all these attributes of God in the way some traditions do — like for instance Muslims talk about the 99 names of God and they are things like this, Mighty, Most Merciful, Eternal, Forgiver, Provider, the Just, or even “the Relenting One” which could also be translated as “ever accepting of repentance.” Scripture in both the Old and New Testaments are full of these descriptions and names of God, but we don’t often pour them out in quite the same way some traditions do. Some of that could be because we have heard Jesus teach about “not heaping up empty phrases” and so decided not to use those sort of flowery words, we just get to the point of our prayer. Or it could be because we think God doesn’t really need for us to tell God what he’s like. After all, God knows God’s own character!
I used to wonder about this a lot when it comes to what are sometimes called prayers of Adoration, or praise for who God is, which is a little bit different than Thanksgiving which is praise for what God has done. I’m all about prayers of gratitude, of course. Giving thanks to God for even the smallest everyday things as well as the big things is really important. It’s good for our health and for our relationship with God and with the world. It’s crucial that we learn to practice gratitude and that we vocalise our thanks both to God and to others. It keeps us grounded in the truth that all we have is a gift from God, it helps adjust our attitude when we are losing focus on who God created us to be, and it offers us a healthy perspective on the world. Paying attention to what God has done and being grateful is important. But praising God just for who God is… Like…why do I need to spend time in prayer telling God who I think I’m talking to?
I think David’s prayer in our reading today is a great answer to this question. By this point in the story, David had been king for many years, he had united the northern and southern kingdoms, he had won many battles, he had done great things. He was the greatest king biblical history would ever know. Even with all his failings, which were many, he was described as “a man after God’s own heart.” He was the one who had received the promise that his line would sit on the throne forever. And on this occasion, he was passing the crown to his son Solomon. There was no one in the kingdom greater than David, no one who received more praise and no one with higher status. And he prayed:
Yours, O Lord, are the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty; for all that is in the heavens and on the earth is yours; yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all. Riches and honour come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might; and it is in your hand to make great and to give strength to all. And now, our God, we give thanks to you and praise your glorious name.
In his prayer, yes, David is telling God who God is. But he is also affirming a truth: the kingdom that David oversees belongs to God who is the true ruler. It is God who is head, not David the king. All the glory and all the riches that David enjoys are actually God’s. All the power and might that David has used to succeed in his work are in God’s hand, not his own. Saying all this in a prayer is really about David needing to say it, rather than about God needing to hear it.
Because after all this he says “But who am I?” We might say — well, you’re the king! You’re the most powerful, richest, most beloved, glorious person in the land! But David, in beginning his prayer with all this adoration, has come to a place of humility. By first on praising God, our ego becomes right-sized. No matter who a person is, spending time intentionally focusing on praising God — not only what God does but for who God is and what God is like — will put things in perspective. David’s prayer is basically a long way of saying “you are God and I am not.” However amazing and fabulous I am — and yes, we were created to shine — I am still a human being, not God. And so the prayer of adoration puts our relationship in the right order — which of course is the meaning of “righteous”: right relationship, a relationship in the right order and right priorities.
David’s praise of God is followed by the whole people’s praise, in the form of both prayer and offering, and then it says that the people celebrated God that day with great joy. Joy is one of those things we seek and sometimes try to create, when the reality is that joy is a consequence. Joy is more likely to flow out of gratitude than it is to be created by sheer force of will. Joy is a fruit of the Spirit — it grows from the well-tended soil of a life steeped in praise and faithfulness and offering both gratitude and commitment to God’s way.
As we begin this season of prayer in St John’s, it feels right to start from this adoration and gratitude, this praise of God’s being and God’s work. Sometimes it feels like our relationship with God is based mostly in asking for things, or in apologising for not getting it right and asking for help to do better. Sometimes our life of faith has been focused on what happens in this building and how we can save the institution of the church, or sometimes how to save ourselves from the institution of the church! But all those things are actually all about us. So at the start of this particular season of prayer, let’s return to the right order and focus first on God. Who God is, what God is like, what God does…in the big picture as well as the personal. With David and the psalmist we can praise God with every breath, and be reminded that God made us to reflect God’s image into the world.
Take a deep breath and focus on an attribute or descriptor of God — loving God, almighty God, forgiving God, God of justice, God of hope, eternal God, whatever works for you. Whenever you breathe you can pray, and give thanks and praise, and re-orient your perspective.
May it be so. Amen.
Hymn 128: How Shall I Sing That Majesty
Sanctuary Offering
Who are we that we should be able to make an offering…Of your own we have given you!
*Sanctuary Offering Response Hymn 497 v. 1 & 5
Almighty Father of all things that be,
our life, our work, we consecrate to thee,
whose heavens declare thy glory from above,
whose earth below is witness to thy love.
Then grant us, Lord, in all things thee to own,
to dwell within the shadow of thy throne,
to speak and work, to think, and live, and move,
reflecting thine own nature, which is love.
Prayer and Lord’s Prayer
Gratitude, praise, hearts lifted high, these we offer to you, O God.
You are the One whose breath gives life,
whose presence is peace,
the One from whom all blessings flow.
We give you thanks this day that you do not belong to us,
but rather that all of us belong to you.
We bring our prayers for those who have been locked out of your family,
told they cannot belong,
that they are not good enough to be known as a sibling or cousin in Christ.
May your love surround them,
and may all your people see ourselves in the unity of your Spirit,
calling together upon you as our father, our king.
We give you thanks this day that you made a world that continues your creative work,
and that there is enough.
We bring our prayers for those who do not have enough,
for those who look longingly at the abundance of others
while trying to quiet a hungry stomach,
for our neighbours who suffer
for lack of water, lack of housing, lack of resources…
and especially for those whose lands have been pillaged to feed our greed.
Your Spirit is moving,
and we pray for the grace to respond to her insistence on sharing,
just redistribution, reparation, and new systems of equity.
And we bring our prayers, too,
for those victims and perpetrators whose humanity has been devalued,
who have been hurt or pushed aside or overlooked,
who long for wholeness this world seems disinclined to pursue.
Especially on this Hiroshima day,
we remember the ways we have failed to make peace through justice,
the people and creation who suffer for our misuse of the powers you have given us,
and the continued fear and injustice that comes along with such weapons.
May your Spirit of healing and reconciliation
bring us all to new life in your kingdom.
God we pray desperately for your will to be done on earth as it is in heaven,
that all may live in harmony and peace,
in the loving connection of your gracious community.
We ask these and all things in the name of Christ,
who taught us to both pray and live 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 74: Not To Us Be Glory Given (tune: Hyfrydol 519)
Benediction
Thomas Merton once said “The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them.” This is as true of how we love God as how we love people. In your prayer this week, focus on praise and gratitude for who God is and what God is like, and so find your true self in right relationship with God’s goodness.
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
* 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.
* Bowl and Blether is TOMORROW! doors open at 11:30 and soup and toasties are served from 12-1:30. Who will you invite?
* Starter Packs are short of Washing up Liquid, Bathroom/Kitchen Cleaner, Kitchen Towels, Ladies Shampoo, Toothpaste, Children’s Shampoo, Baby Bath. The FoodBank are short of biscuits, UHT milk, soup, tinned fish, 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!
* Greenock Philharmonic Choir are hosting a ‘Come and Sing Coronation Music’ event on Saturday, 19th August, in St John’s Episcopal Church, Union Street, Greenock. All singers of all abilities are welcome. Rehearsals will start at 10.30am, followed by a performance at 4pm. The cost is £15 to participate all day, and £5 for anyone wishing to attend the performance. Advance booking is recommended.
* 2023 marks the 125th anniversary of the 2nd Gourock Boys’ Brigade. Our anniversary Grand Charity Ball will be Saturday 9th September 6.30 for 7pm in Greenock Town Hall. Tickets priced £50 or £500 for a table of 10 are available now from BB leaders. The benefitting Charities have been selected and will be announced shortly. We are delighted to announce that 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.
