Sunday service for 8 March 2026, third Sunday in Lent

Sunday 8 March 2026, third Sunday in Lent
Gourock St. John’s Church of Scotland
Service prepared by Rev. Teri Peterson
Manse phone: 632143
Email: TPeterson (at) churchofscotland.org.uk
Email Charlene, Parish Assistant: CMitchell (at) churchofscotland.org.uk

If the video above doesn’t play, please click here to view in our YouTube channel! sometimes our website and YouTube don’t get on with each other as well as they should!

Sanctuary Prelude Music (praise band)

Welcome
God-sightings

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: Close enough to touch our eyes, powerful enough to reveal God’s glory:
All: He is the Light of the world.
One: Setting us on the path to new life, seeking us out to reveal himself:
All: He is the Light of the world.
One: Healer and prophet, teacher and Word made flesh:
All: He is the Light of the world.

Sanctuary Hymn 543: Longing for Light (organ)

Prayer
You are a God who refuses to stay in the box we have built for you,
a God who breaks the rules we create
and so opens to us a new world of abundant life.
We confess that we want you to stay within the confines of what we understand,
and we admit that when we can’t figure it out
we are quick to get defensive and turn away in a huff.
Forgive us when we can’t live with the discomfort of unknowing.
We confess that we like to think we’ve got you under control,
and we admit that we like this world that works for us.
Forgive us when we ignore or silence others who try to tell a different story.
Teach us to say we don’t know,
and to listen when you speak in unexpected voices.
Teach us to see your light shining
and to follow into your kingdom life.
We ask in the name of the One who is the Light of the world,
Jesus the Christ. Amen.

Sanctuary Sung Prayer: Kyrie Eleison (organ)

Friends, hear this good news: Some days we are all confusion and questions, and some days we are ready to hear and obey.
Whatever the state of our hearts and minds today, whatever the situation of our bodies and spirits,
God comes close enough to form and re-form us and to breathe new life into us.
Know that you, too, are re-made for abundant life, and be at peace.
Thanks be to God. Amen.

Online Hymn 543: Longing for Light, We Wait in Darkness

Scripture Reading: John 8.12 and all of chapter 9
Last week we heard from chapter 7 about the confusion and arguments about who Jesus is, and what he is doing, and how he is the Source of Living Water. Today we continue where we left off, with a bit of chapter 8 and all of chapter 9, and I am reading from the New Revised Standard Version.

Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.”

As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and spread the mud on the man’s eyes, saying to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). Then he went and washed and came back able to see. The neighbours and those who had seen him before as a beggar began to ask, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” Some were saying, “It is he.” Others were saying, “No, but it is someone like him.” He kept saying, “I am he.” But they kept asking him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes, and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ Then I went and washed and received my sight.” They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know.”
They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. Then the Pharisees also began to ask him how he had received his sight. He said to them, “He put mud on my eyes. Then I washed, and now I see.” Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not observe the Sabbath.” Others said, “How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?” And they were divided. So they said again to the blind man, “What do you say about him? It was your eyes he opened.” He said, “He is a prophet.”
The religious leaders did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight and asked them, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?” His parents answered, “We know that this is our son and that he was born blind, but we do not know how it is that now he sees, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself.” His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jewish authorities, for the religious leaders had already agreed that anyone who confessed Jesus to be the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. Therefore his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”
So for the second time they called the man who had been blind, and they said to him, “Give glory to God! We know that this man is a sinner.” He answered, “I do not know whether he is a sinner. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” They said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” He answered them, “I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?” Then they reviled him, saying, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.” The man answered, “Here is an astonishing thing! You do not know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but he does listen to one who worships him and obeys his will. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” They answered him, “You were born entirely in sins, and are you trying to teach us?” And they drove him out.
Jesus heard that they had driven him out, and when he found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” He answered, “And who is he, sir? Tell me, so that I may believe in him.” Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and the one speaking with you is he.” He said, “Lord, I believe.” And he worshiped him. Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment, so that those who do not see may see and those who do see may become blind.” Some of the Pharisees who were with him heard this and said to him, “Surely we are not blind, are we?” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.

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.

Sanctuary Hymn: We Walk By Faith and Not By Sight (organ) (words: Henry Alford; tune: 308 Dunlaps Creek)

Reflection: Light enables sight
So often we read these ancient stories and they feel far away, like they’re from such a different time we can barely understand how people thought that way. Thinking that sin causes illness, or that it matters whether someone mixes up mud on a particular day of the week compared to some other day, just almost feels foreign. How could this possibly be relevant to us?

A little modernising of translation, though, and suddenly things start to feel more real. For instance we might not ask “who sinned” but instead “whose fault is it” that a child is born with a disability? Is it the mother’s fault? Is it something she ate, a medicine she took, a drink she had when she didn’t know she was pregnant? Is it actually the baby’s fault somehow? Is it an environmental fault? We like to put blame somewhere when things don’t go according to plan — and that’s what the disciples are asking Jesus about this person who had been born blind. Whose fault was that?

Jesus’ answer is that there’s no blame involved…but there is opportunity. And because he is the light of the world, and light enables sight, everyone is about to see something amazing.

Similarly, we might think that being afraid that a religious leader would kick them out of the community is bonkers, surely the man’s parents would still choose to stand with their kid and his experience? But again…there definitely are religious communities where particular life experiences, or particular family configurations, or supporting your child when they say something has happened to them, is actually basically an exit door that locks behind you. There are a shocking number of people who have been essentially kicked out of their faith communities because they spoke truth — about abuse, or about their sexuality, or about doubt and questions, or about their life experience. And an even higher number who have stayed in the closet, suppressed their memories, and lived in fear of religious leaders because that felt easier than the pain of losing their faith family.

For the formerly-blind man and his parents, they had to choose: tell the truth and lose the community that supported them all these years? Or turn away from the truth, stay silent, throw each other under the bus, in order to keep that support? It’s the kind of false choice too many of our sisters and brothers in Christ have had to face…and one that Jesus clearly rejects, as he personally goes looking for the man after hearing he was kicked out. The light shines and the darkness did not overcome it. In Jesus, the man could see a new way of life, and a new community — light enables sight.

And of course the story feels really long and repetitive — thanks Seonaid for reading it! — with the leaders focusing on the wrong thing. They are so caught up in the rules about mixing up mud, they have entirely missed the point that a man was healed. And when they can’t disprove the experience or the facts of the matter, they turn instead to discrediting the person. They turn to personal attacks against the formerly-blind man, and against Jesus, and then they’re the ones to get offended!

Not that our leaders today ever get so caught up in something small that they miss something big, of course, and they definitely don’t do that to distract from their own failings or corruption or greed. And not that we’d ever see leaders demanding someone tell their story over and over again in hopes of tripping them up, catching them out, and proving they’re wrong. We live in a world where personal attack feels like the main mode of communication sometimes, don’t we? We know what it’s like when someone can’t win an argument on the merits or with the facts, so instead the argument turns to name calling and insults. And then calling out that bad behaviour ends up with that gaslighting “hey! I’m offended you said that about me!” defensiveness.

Jesus cuts through all that noise, shining a light on things we often don’t want to see, and pointing out that when we choose not to assess ourselves honestly, when we choose not to listen to the stories and testimony of people whose experience is different than ours, when we choose not to learn despite all the opportunities presented to us, then we condemn ourselves. There’s no shame in not knowing or in having been deceived…but there is guilt in refusing to look when truth is presented.

So light enables sight cuts both ways. Jesus is the light of the world, and that means he illuminates things we might rather not see. But hiding in the dark of our own echo chamber means missing out on healing and abundant life. It means carrying burdens too heavy for our spirits. It means repressing truth and cowering before the powers that want to put us in our place. It means tearing down community in search of some kind of perfect purity that doesn’t even exist. It means allowing injustice to carry on because we don’t want to deal with it, so we think we’re taking the easy way out.

It’s surprising how much these ancient stories sound like modern ones, isn’t it…and how much light still shines from the word even now. Jesus is the Light of the world — in the light, will we look for opportunities, or opportunity to blame? Will we look for the truth, or hide from it? Will we get caught up in the minutiae or see the big picture?

The Light of the world shines to bring life for all people. Not just some. Not just the people the powers that be like. Not just the lives that are convenient and fit our preconceived ideas. Not just the lives that look like ours. Light and life for all people.

May it be so. Amen.

Online Hymn: Blessed Be Your Name

Sanctuary Sacrament of Baptism

Sanctuary Hymn: Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone) (praise band)

Sanctuary Offering: choir to sing
and Offering Response: Hymn 392 v. 4
Were the whole realm of nature mine
that were an offering far too small;
love so amazing, so divine,
demands my soul, my life, my all.

Concerns of the Church
*Lent Wednesdays (Westburn 1pm, here 12:15-12:45 and 7:30/soup 7)
*Easter code (monday-tuesday here, Thursday SM, need 2-3 more vols) — CHAIRS/set up
*fashion show
*Holy Week — Thursday 7:30, Saturday 8pm, Easter Day 7am / breakfast / 11am
*Easter breakfast
*new members class
*Prayer groups

Prayer and Lord’s Prayer
Compassionate God,
you reach out to your world with healing power,
bringing us into the light of life with you.
We give you thanks for all the ways your healing happens —
through miracles we can’t understand
and through your gift of medical science
and through the hands and hearts and minds of dedicated people.
We long for transformation from dis-ease to wholeness,
for ourselves and our loved ones and indeed for your whole creation.
Where bodies and minds struggle, God,
be present with your healing grace,
and draw your people close to your heart.
Where communities struggle and cannot recognise your image in their midst,
be present with your healing grace,
and draw your people close to your heart.
We especially lift up to you today
our neighbours who have been excluded from community for speaking their truth,
and those who are ignored and dismissed when they share their story.
May they be heard, may they know their belovedness,
and may we learn to create places where everyone belongs.
We remember all those who have been treated as an issue rather than a person,
known only by their disability or category or situation, not for themselves.
May they be recognised and loved for who they are,
and may we repent of our dehumanising ways.
We hold before you all those who are just beginning to realise
there is more to the story than they knew,
including ourselves as we learn and grow.
For all who struggle to understand,
all who resist a shift from authority to learner,
all whose rigid worldview can’t accommodate the experiences of others.
May your light shine in the shadows and never be overcome,
breaking through the cracks and opening us to a wider world of your grace and truth.

On the 8th day of the month we join our hearts as your St John’s family to pray
*For all who live and work in the centre of Gourock — for those who are neighbours of our churches, those who own businesses, those who use the library, and those who come into the centre of town for any reason.
*For the music ministry of St John’s: for the choir, the praise band, the organist, and all who enable our worship and prayer through music.
*For the land, people, and governments of the nations of Serbia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, North Macedonia, and Greece.

And as your Body of Christ living in a world at war, we pray for peace that passes all understanding, for justice that makes peace possible, for families grieving and communities destroyed, for people living in fear and also for people who believe they have no choice but to follow orders. And we remember, too, those people whose suffering has fallen out of the headlines as another war has taken over— people used and abused, people starving, people living with daily violence we can hardly imagine, people afraid of their neighbours or their government, and a creation suffering under our weight. Turn the hearts of our leaders away from violence and greed, and toward the common good.

Heal your people, O God,
in our thought patterns that we think are the only way,
in our relationships that so rarely make room for the fullness of the other person,
in our communities that say one thing but do another.
Reveal your glory among us and through us and within us,
that all may see your light.
We ask in the name of Jesus the Christ,
who shines in the darkness
and whose grace transforms,
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: Blessed Be Your Name (praise band)

Sending
As you go out from this time together, may you know the blessing of admitting you don’t know it all, and may you offer the blessing of truly hearing the stories of others, in the name of the Word who became flesh and dwelt among us, his light enabling our sight.
And as you go to live in the Light, 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 (organ)

Announcements

* We worship in the sanctuary on Sundays at 11am, and 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.

* The first Sunday of the month at 11am is an all-age service, with different ways of encountering God’s word without a traditional sermon. All people — young and old, different personalities and learning styles, are welcome! You’ll find a more informal service with a variety of music, a Bible story, prayer, and some more interactive elements. The online service for the first Sunday will therefore also be different — there will still be a reading, prayers, and music, but usually not a sermon.

* Starter Packs are in need of Shaving Foam, Shampoo, Soap, Hand Wash.

The FoodBank are short of diluting juice, tinned potatoes, tinned sweetcorn, tinned carrots, and UHT milk.
You can bring donations to the church and place them into the boxes in the vestibule. Thank you!

* We are preparing a new member class for the spring — if you or anyone you know would like to explore becoming a member of St John’s, please speak to Teri for more information.

* During the season of Lent we have two midweek opportunities for prayer, reflection, worship, and discussion: on Wednesdays from 12:15-12:45 we’ll have Lent Lunchtime Reflections in the sanctuary, and at 7:30pm in the sanctuary will be Lent Evenings. We’ll be looking at what happened on the last night Jesus spent with his disciples before his arrest, in John chapters 13-17. Everyone is welcome as we dig deeper into the last words Jesus said to his disciples!

* Bowl & Blether is on the first and third Mondays through the winter, with doors open from 11:30-1:30, and lunch served from noon. All are welcome for a bowl of soup, a toastie, a friendly chat in our warm hall! See you next week, the 16th of March.

* We are hosting the Easter Code for P6s in St John’s on Monday and Tuesday the 9th and 10th of March, from 9am – 12noon. If you could volunteer to shepherd a group of pupils around the stations, that would be very helpful! Please speak to Teri ASAP.

* The Contact Group meets this Tuesday the 10th when the speaker will be Marion McNeill from Inverclyde Skywatchers.

* Greenock Philharmonic Choir will be performing Britten’s St Nicolas alongside Vivaldi’s Gloria in Greenock Town Hall on Saturday 28th March at 7pm.   They will be joined by members of Voices of Inverclyde Senior Schools, and singers from St Mary’s Primary School. The tenor soloist is Euan McDonald. Tickets are available via choir members, or contact Calum Harbison (07847 250529) – also through TicketSource.  See the choir’s website for more information.

* We are having a fundraising Fashion Show with clothes from The Dressing Room (Saltcoats) on Sunday 29 March from 2-4pm at the Masonic Lodge. Tickets are £5 and you can get them from Norma or Anne L. Come along for a fun and funny afternoon of fashion!

* We are looking for someone to help with the Easter Breakfast on Sunday 5 April— it would mean joining the kitchen team from about 6am to help with preparation, and also staying to help wash up. Please speak to Graham Bolster or Anne Love for more info.

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

* Did you know that the ministry we do at St John’s costs about £3000 per week and we are currently running about £500 short? 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 item in the budget.

* Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Youtube, and to sign up for our email newsletter! Midweek you can watch Wine and the Word and Theology Thursday on Youtube, get snippets of thought or inspiration following Teri on TikTok, and of course keep up with announcements and events on Facebook and our weekly email.