Sunday service for 28 April 2024, fifth Sunday of Easter
Sunday 28 April 2024, Fifth Sunday of Easter (NL2-43)
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 (praise band)
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: In resurrection faith, we join together —
All: called by Christ from our many places and histories.
One: In resurrection faith, we join together—
All: united in Christ, to seek his purpose.
One: In resurrection faith, we join together —
All: to share the work of proclaiming Christ’s good news.
Sanctuary Hymn 416: Christ is Alive (tune: 214 Truro)
Prayer
Risen Lord,
there is so much work to be done in your world,
that we confess that we are overwhelmed,
and we have lost focus.
We have gotten caught up in minutiae
so that we don’t have to admit we aren’t moving forward.
We have created in-groups and out-groups,
hierarchies of influence in our community,
ignoring your call to unity of purpose.
We have used our words carefully,
making sure not to say too much, or not to say anything, or not to say what we really mean,
so as never to rock the boat.
Forgive us for abandoning the core of your message
while clinging to the things we think others expect of a church.
Forgive us for using many words that serve only themselves
without ever pointing to your cross and resurrection.
Forgive us for caring more about our past
than we do about your future.
Draw us once again into the foolishness of your life —
life that lifts up where the world tramples down,
life that brings together where the world separates,
life that overcomes even the worst the world can do.
You, Holy God, are three in one,
bound together,
and we pray for the unity of the Spirit
binding us together in Christ,
in whom we have been baptised.
As you write your word on our hearts again this day,
may we too be written on your heart,
that together we may pursue only your way.
Amen.
Online Hymn: Your Grace Is Enough (praise band)
Sanctuary Hymn 415: This Joyful Eastertide
Sanctuary Children’s Time
Scripture Reading: Acts 18.1-4 (New Living Translation)
Then Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. There he became acquainted with a Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, who had recently arrived from Italy with his wife, Priscilla. They had left Italy when Claudius Caesar deported all Jews from Rome. Paul lived and worked with them, for they were tentmakers just as he was. Each Sabbath found Paul at the synagogue, trying to convince the Jews and Greeks alike.
Scripture Reading: 1 Corinthians 1.10-18 (New Revised Standard Version)
Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you should be in agreement and that there should be no divisions among you, but that you should be united in the same mind and the same purpose. For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there are quarrels among you, my brothers and sisters. What I mean is that each of you says, ‘I belong to Paul’, or ‘I belong to Apollos’, or ‘I belong to Cephas’, or ‘I belong to Christ.’ Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptised in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptised none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one can say that you were baptised in my name. (I did baptise also the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I do not know whether I baptised anyone else.) For Christ did not send me to baptise but to proclaim the gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its power.
For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
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: No Divisions
Do you know what is the most common question I get asked? 90% of the time it’s asked this way: “That’s not a Gourock accent, where are you from?”
Now that’s actually sort of a complicated question because there’s where I was born — the pacific northwest — where I consider myself to be from — Chicago —,and where’s home — here — and that’s three different places. Perhaps a little bit like Priscilla and Aquila — native of Pontus, which is northeastern Turkey, from Rome, and making a home in Corinth. Granted their reasons were different — they were refugees forced to leave Rome and make a new home in Greece. And we don’t know why they left Pontus to go to Rome in the first place. But I wonder how they felt when the Christian family they found in Corinth started devolving into arguments and factions that ultimately boil down to “where did you go to school?”
Because whatever people’s intention when they ask questions that way — usually hopefully it’s just curiosity and having no other idea how to make conversation — it ends up feeling like a way to put someone into a box and make assumptions about how we are the same or different, or even a way to subtly make us aware that we don’t belong. I have two friends with American accents who were in fact born here — one in Greenock and one in Dunoon — and then went to school in America because one of their parents was in the Navy. How do they feel when told their American accent marks them as obviously not belonging here, when they think of themselves as having moved back home here as soon as they could? When someone asks “what school did you go to” we all know that can be a way to try to pin down their religion or their economic status as often as it is innocent small talk — a way to assume things about them or a way to mark them as different from us.
I wonder what question people in Corinth would ask to try to figure out if someone was a Paul-following Christian or a Peter-following Christian.
When I put it like that it sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it?
Paul clearly thought so. His tone in this first part of the letter is almost incredulous, like he cannot believe that people have so missed the point that they are identifying themselves by the minister who preached and baptised rather than to Jesus who the minister was trying to talk about, Jesus into whose life, death, and resurrection we have been baptised. Not Paul’s crucifixion, not Apollos’s baptism, not Peter’s life…how can there be people who are so attached to their particular faction of church that they have lost track of Jesus himself?
Imagine what Paul would have had to say if they’d had church buildings back then!
As we work our way through pieces of this first letter to the Corinthians over the next few weeks, we’ll discover this isn’t the only thing they found to create division about. In addition to labelling themselves and others based on which preacher they follow, they also manage to divide themselves economically, with different seats and times for people with more or less money, and by which spiritual gifts they think are better than others, and who they will eat with.
Reading the letter gives the impression that the Christians of Corinth were essentially replicating the same social system from the city, inside their community. Corinth was a city at a crossroads — trade from north to south had to pass through because it’s on an isthmus, and trade from east to west also passed through because of the deep harbours on either side, making it a very cosmopolitan place with people from all over passing through. And for those who made money, they made a lot of money…some of it honestly and some less so. For those who didn’t, they were at the bottom of a vast chasm between wealthy and poor. Picture the difference between shipping magnates and dock workers…and the various other (ahem) industries that crop up at ports…add in artisans, hospitality venues, and displaced peoples. There’s plenty to divide the populace in a diverse place like that. And those divisions just carried right on into the church family.
So when Paul wrote to them to say there should be no divisions, I bet some people laughed. Surely that’s impossible? Look at the context, the world they live in, the realities of the culture…how could the church community possibly not make any differentiation between people who had money and those who didn’t, or those who had been here a long time and those who were newly arrived, or who taught them about Christ? Surely those are just normal points of conversation, the ways we know who to slot where in our mental — or in their case even physical — catalogue?
Paul is adamant about it though. No divisions. And then in our English translations it says “you should be united in the same mind and the same purpose.” But the way Paul wrote it says that you HAVE BEEN formed in the same mind and the same purpose…it’s a completed action with present and ongoing ramifications. Another way to say it could be that you have been equipped, or prepared, or trained, or even mended, it’s the same verb the gospels use to talk about the fishermen mending their nets.
You have been formed, prepared, equipped, in the same mind and the same purpose, and that formation plays out in how you live.
I wonder how often we think about God forming us, the church, in the same mind and purpose.
Preparing us. Equipping us. Mending us in the same purpose.
The only thing I can see that that means is that the Body of Christ is formed in the mind and heart of God. Not by us, though we create the institutions that we have come to mean when we say “church.” But The Church has been created in, formed by, the mind of God…and that has ramifications for how we live together, how we form those institutions, how we behave as a Body, what we do.
I was talking about this earlier in the week with people at St Margaret’s Court during their monthly worship service, and one of the people there said “so when we come up with whatever divisions, we are actually saying we know better than God…and that is undoing God’s creation.”
Surely we would never presume to say with our words that we know better than God. But with our actions, how often do we proclaim that actually the ways of our institution or tradition or culture or preferences are better than the way God created?
Thinking about it as undoing God’s creation was a really stark idea, when the person said it during that conversation it made me gasp…and then wonder why we do it if we wouldn’t say it? When we could just…live out the purpose that God equipped us for.
Sometimes I think it’s because we have actually lost sight of that purpose. We have gotten so caught up in the things that undo all that formation, all that training, all that equipping, that we forget what we are equipped for. What we are healed for. What we are formed for.
The purpose of the Body of Christ is to reveal God’s kingdom in the world — to reflect God’s glory and love so that everyone can see Jesus when they look at the Church. Is that what people see? A body that refuses to divide along lines the world creates… insists on loving even the neighbour who is the most different from us…worships and works together without worrying which box any of us belongs in…recognises that we all belong to God and no other…a body that feeds people, treats them equally regardless of their social status or economic contribution, makes space for different experiences, listens to stories, doesn’t make anyone feel they don’t belong, reaches across borders, cares for the well-being of people and the community and the creation, and leaves everyone with a sense of love greater than fear…
I wonder if that was Priscilla and Aquila’s experience of the church in Corinth, as people who came from elsewhere. I wonder if it’s the experience our community has of the church. And if not, I wonder what it would take for us to be mended again, to be re-equipped, re-formed, in the same purpose God has in mind.
As everything does, it begins in prayer. How else can we re-align with the mind of Christ? So we take a moment of silence now to reflect on the purpose for which God has called us to be Christ’s Body, the church in this place at this time, and ask for the grace to be united and courageous in pursuing God’s purpose here and now.
Silence for Reflection
May it be so. Amen.
Online Hymn 416: Christ Is Alive (tune: Truro)
Sanctuary Hymn: Because the Saviour Prayed (words: John L Bell & Graham Maule; tune: Woodlands)
Offering: Choir to sing
Sanctuary Offering Response 410 v. 4
Sing we to our God above: Alleluia!
Praise eternal as his love: Alleluia!
Praise him, all you heavenly host: Alleluia!
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost: Alleluia!
Prayer and Lord’s Prayer (Rob)
Loving and merciful God, we gather before you, our hearts overflowing with gratitude for the wonderful ways you bring us together as a community of faith. We are thankful for the richness of diversity within your family, each member uniquely gifted and called to be a part your kingdom. Each of us called by a different path, through different life experiences into a worshipping community, that praises your name above all things.
We praise you for the unity that surpasses all our worldly differences, a unity grounded in our shared faith in Jesus Christ. A unity that does not seek to reduce our individuality or personality but to direct us towards a better way of traveling through life. Thank you for the bonds of fellowship that strengthen us, for the friendships that sustain us, and for the mutual support that upholds us in times of trial.
In a world so often obsessed with division we are grateful for the sanctuary of peace and harmony found within each others company. We thank you for the privilege of worshiping together, traveling together, of lifting our voices in praise and thanksgiving as one body, united in a purpose of love and devotion.
We give thanks for the wisdom and guidance given to us through your Holy Scriptures, that you have preserved for us and which we can read freely without fear of persecution. We thank you for the teachings of Jesus Christ, who gave the ultimate example of love, humility, and service.
We are grateful, for your faithfulness throughout the generations, for the blessings you bestow upon us each day. We thank you for those who came before us, who built many of the things we now take for granted. May our hearts overflow with thanksgiving and gratefulness at all the blessings we enjoy as we continue to journey together.
We pray for your power to enter the lives of those who feel that they are excluded, unwanted or unwelcome. We ask that you soften our hearts and guide us, help us to reduce the extent to which we contribute to that feeling.
We pray for your Church across the world. For those who worship differently from us, for those whose understanding of you is unlike our own. Help us to be accepting, help us to support one another, help us not to see enemies or adversaries when we should see siblings in Christ.
We pray for those who do not have a safe place to worship. Who are forced to hide, smuggle, and share secret copies of your Word. Grant them peace and safety, may they know the comfort of your presence.
We as a part of your Church in Scotland, ask for the bravery to go forward. For the strength to build upon that which our predecessors created. Not by pretending everything our institution has done has been perfect but by acknowledging our shared humanity. By changing what needs to be changed, lovingly and gently laying to rest the tools that no longer serve us. By keeping what is important close to our hearts, your name, your Word, and your ordinances to us. May we love the standard of your law, even as we fail to meet it, as it exposes our shortcomings. May we love the name of Christ, who opened the way to Grace.
And now we join our voices together as a congregation, no matter where we are on this the 28th day of April as we pray:
For Clydeview Academy — for the young people, the teachers, the staff, and the families. Bless them with bright minds and open hearts and willing spirits, with friendship and laughter and the graciousness it takes to be in community together. May the school have the resources it needs and the families the support they need to ensure the children grow in mind, body, and spirit into the people you are calling them to be.
*For the many volunteers who keep St John’s ministry vibrant: the pastoral care team, the flower team, Bowl & Blether volunteers, sound and powerpoint volunteers, those who count the offering, and so many others.
*For the land, people, and governments of the nations of the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Bahamas, Bermuda, Bonaire, Cayman Islands, Jamaica, and Cuba
In the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour, we offer this prayer.
Now let’s join our voices together and pray the words Jesus taught His disciples:
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: Your Grace Is Enough (praise band)
Benediction
Whatever the world offers you to define your identity, live only this truth: You belong to Christ, whose grace is enough. Go to proclaim and live his resurrection power, the power of love overcoming all things, this and every day. 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 Go, go before you to show you the way and behind you to push you into places you might not go alone; 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
* We worship in the sanctuary on Sundays at 11am and 5pm, 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 Anchor Boys annual display is this Tuesday evening 30 April in the sanctuary. The Company Section display is on Friday evening 10 May, and the Junior Section display is Monday evening 13 May.
* Seonaid Knox is getting married in St John’s on Sunday 5 May at 1:30pm. She and Ben invite the St John’s church family to join the church service — the seats at both sides of the sanctuary will be reserved for the church.
* Starter Packs are in need of of Tea-bags, cleaning cloths, soap, soap powder & kitchen towel.
The FoodBank are in need of Diluting juice, Long life juice, Rice pudding, Tinned Ham & Tinned Tuna. You can bring donations to the church and place them into the boxes in the vestibule. Thank you!
* CONNECT churches are hosting a concert by acclaimed folk band Siskin Green — you may have seen them on Reflections at the Quay! The concert will be at the Lyle Kirk on Saturday 11 May at 7:30pm. Tickets are available by clicking here, or speak to Teri to get one if you’re not able to book online.
* 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!
* Free period products are available in the church toilets for anyone who might need them, thanks to Hey Girls and Inverclyde Council.
* Wednesday Evening Bible Study meets in the manse at 7:30pm.
* The Kirk Session will meet on Thursday the 9th of May 2024, at 7.30pm.
* Why not join us for the 5pm Sunday evening service, where we’ll dive deeper into the morning message through an engaging interview with the preacher, guitar-based music, Bible readings, and prayer in a relaxed atmosphere for reflection and worship.
Did you miss the morning service? No worries! We’ll get you caught up before the discussion.
