Sunday service for 23 April 2023, third Sunday of Easter

Sunday 23 April 2023, NL1-41, Third Sunday of Easter
Gourock St. John’s Church of Scotland
Service prepared by Rev. Teri Peterson
Manse: 632143 
Email: tpeterson (at) churchofscotland.org.uk

Prelude Music

Welcome and Announcements

Call to Worship
One: God calls each of us in the way we will best hear,
All: bringing people together to serve the kingdom’s purpose.
One: God calls each of us with all our background experience and baggage,
All: bringing people together to reveal how far grace can reach.
One: God calls each of us from our certainty and our confusion,
All: bringing people together to worship and to do what is right.

Sanctuary Hymn 416: Christ Is Alive! (Tune: Truro 214)

Prayer
You pour yourself out, O God,
and we come with gratitude and praise,
for you do not wait for us to get it right but come to us first.
You reveal yourself in your Word and through your Spirit,
bringing us into the fullness of your resurrection life,
even before we know how to ask.
Move among us again this day,
that we may not only hear you,
but be faithful to your call to action.
For we proclaim you Alive, O God — your resurrection power is loose in the world.
But we confess that we want you only to act according to our rules,
and we do not allow you to move beyond the words on the page
or the ways you have revealed yourself in the past.
We proclaim you Sovereign, O God — you are God and we are not.
We confess that we have very definite ideas about what you can and cannot do,
and we are all too willing to constrain your freedom when it threatens our comfort or tradition.
We proclaim you God of All — you gather all people to yourself.
We confess that we didn’t think you meant those people,
and we are surprised to find evidence of your presence and gifts in them.
Forgive us, loving God.
Surprise us again today with the extent of your grace,
crossing the lines we draw,
blurring the categories we create,
broadening our interpretation of your word.
However shocked we may be at the others around your table,
may we be open enough to receive
the wonders of being part of your beloved community
without needing to control it.
Bring us alive as you are alive.
Set us free in your sovereign freedom.
Gather us in with all your children, that together we may live as your Body in the world.
Trusting in your resurrection power, we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Online Hymn 416: Christ Is Alive! (Tune: Truro 214)

Sanctuary Children’s Time

Reading: Acts 10.1-17, 34-48 (New Revised Standard Version)

In Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of the Italian Cohort, as it was called. He was a devout man who feared God with all his household; he gave alms generously to the people and prayed constantly to God. One afternoon at about three o’clock he had a vision in which he clearly saw an angel of God coming in and saying to him, ‘Cornelius.’ He stared at him in terror and said, ‘What is it, Lord?’ He answered, ‘Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God. Now send men to Joppa for a certain Simon who is called Peter; he is lodging with Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the seaside.’ When the angel who spoke to him had left, he called two of his slaves and a devout soldier from the ranks of those who served him, and after telling them everything, he sent them to Joppa.
About noon the next day, as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. He became hungry and wanted something to eat; and while it was being prepared, he fell into a trance. He saw the heaven opened and something like a large sheet coming down, being lowered to the ground by its four corners. In it were all kinds of four-footed creatures and reptiles and birds of the air. Then he heard a voice saying, ‘Get up, Peter; kill and eat.’ But Peter said, ‘By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is profane or unclean.’ The voice said to him again, a second time, ‘What God has made clean, you must not call profane.’ This happened three times, and the thing was suddenly taken up to heaven.
Now while Peter was greatly puzzled about what to make of the vision that he had seen, suddenly the men sent by Cornelius appeared. They were asking for Simon’s house and were standing by the gate.

(Peter went with them, and after two days came to Cornelius’s house, where he had gathered all his family and close friends. Cornelius explained the vision God has showed him.)

 Then Peter began to speak to them: ‘I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ—he is Lord of all. That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.’
 While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word. The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles, for they heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter said, ‘Can anyone withhold the water for baptising these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?’ So he ordered them to be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they invited him to stay for several days.

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: Faith Fortresses
The beginning of this story always makes me laugh, thinking about Peter being so hungry that his prayerful vision is of a picnic blanket covered in live animals…none of which are things Peter would actually consider food! But he isn’t that hungry…and so, likely assuming this was some kind of test, he refused, only to have God give him that strange message: ‘What God has made clean, you must not call profane.’

In the gospels, Peter is often the disciple who stands in for us, the one we identify with as he does his best to follow Jesus, with a mix of successes and failures. Peter is the one who blurts out what he’s thinking, the one who first calls Jesus the Messiah and the one who insists that Jesus must be wrong about what’s going to happen to him, the one who promises he’ll follow to the ends of the earth and the one who claims never to have met the man…how often we are like Peter, hot and cold, faithful and fearful, quick to say yes and quick to impose our own vision on Jesus.

This story is no different — how often we are like Peter! Faithful and prayerful, committed…and also unwilling to hear God speak a new word, insisting that the word of scripture must be eternal in the sense of being closed and therefore finished for all time.

Peter knew the word of God. He knew exactly what the scriptures said. He knew what that meant for his everyday life, for what he must do and not do. He had built his life on following God’s way, as it had been taught by Jesus.

He never expected that God would speak a new word, or bring new meaning to the old word.

Like many of us, Peter had built on the firm foundation — a rock like this castle is built upon, standing tall and visible from everywhere, strong and impregnable. Especially after the resurrection, Peter must have thought that was indeed the final word — what else could be so dramatically new as bringing Jesus back to life?

It turns out that building on this type of rock can be dangerous, because if God decides to expand, we don’t have any room to go, and we end up having to leave our safe and easily defensible position to find a new place that will fit all that God has in store.

In this story, that was people. God had more people to include in grace, and Peter’s job was to be the one who witnessed God’s power reaching out to people who had been excluded by the prevailing understanding of God’s previous words.

Peter had enough trust in the Holy Spirit to go with the messengers who arrived at the door, and enough humility to stand in front of that crowd of Gentiles — and not just Gentiles but a commander in the Roman army!! — and not just a gentile commander of the Roman army, but one who was literally from Rome itself, Cornelius was an insider in his own world, but an outsider of outsiders to the people of God — Peter had enough humility to stand there and proclaim that even though he had always considered himself to belong to a nation of chosen people, he now understood that God didn’t differentiate between nations. Every type of person could be welcomed into God’s people.

And Peter had enough confidence to tell the story of what God had done in Jesus…and then enough openness to recognise when the Holy Spirit decided that was enough and filled the people and the place.

The very people who had been in charge of keeping the boundaries between who was God’s and who wasn’t, what was good enough and what wasn’t, what counted as faith and what didn’t, were surprised by the movement of the Spirit among these people who had literally only just begun — none of them were circumcised, none had studied, none had made a statement of faith, all they had was Cornelius’s vision in his prayer, and Peter telling the brief highlights of Jesus’ life, and suddenly the Spirit came while Peter was still talking — he hadn’t even finished! — just as the Spirit had come to those who had been born into the chosen people and raised on the scriptures and walked with Jesus in his earthly ministry and broke bread with him after the resurrection. The same Spirit, to these definitely not-the-same people.

What else could they do except come down from that faith-fortress they had built, and make room for God’s new thing? Yes, it would require leaving behind the safety of a place to retreat when challenged, a six-feet-above-contradiction height from which to look down on the world. Yes, it would require building a new life of faith with a different floor plan and more rooms and easier access. Yes, people would think they were crazy and abandoning the Bible. Yes, there would be opposition from those who had not seen the Spirit moving among this community for themselves. And also…what else could they do? God, who is living and active and always doing a new thing, was on the move. Their only other choice was to stick with what they knew and were comfortable with, knowing it was too small for what God had in mind, and ultimately that they would be left behind while God expanded the kingdom without them.

How often we, like Peter, have done our best to build on a firm foundation…and ended up building a fortress that looks down on everyone else, without room for God to bring more people in? The question then is whether we, like Peter, trust God enough to follow when we’re called somewhere unexpected…and have enough humility to admit that our understanding or interpretation or tradition doesn’t line up with what God is doing now…and have confidence to share the story of Jesus and openness enough to let the Spirit do whatever the Spirit is going to do? The history of the church sadly leans more toward fortresses than faith with room to expand. And it shows, as the exclusion plays toward its natural end of people believing our faith irrelevant — a museum piece to be visited and marvelled at, maybe a few picturesque photos taken and a laugh or two at what people used to be like, and then left behind with the other holiday snaps. But our God is not in fact trapped in the pages of a book that was finished 2000 years ago. Our God is not in fact calling us to pull up the drawbridge and hide on our mountaintop, relying only on that foundation but never shining the light that goes with being a city on a hill. There has to be more room for God to be alive, and for us to follow, or else the tourists are right, our faith is dead.

Peter learned that our human categories are not God’s categories. Who is in and who is out does not depend on any of the things we use to define people. Who is in and who is out is entirely up to the Holy Spirit, not to us, and…well…it would be wise for all of us to come down from our faith fortresses and build a bigger house. God is on the move.

May it be so. Amen.

Online Hymn: Christ Was Raised (Resound)

*Sanctuary Hymn 606: Lord, You Sometimes Speak in Wonders

Offering (Sanctuary only)

Sanctuary Offering Response 420 verse 4 (tune: Lasst uns erfreuen)
Praise we the Father, Spirit, Son;
Praise we the victory God has won:
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Praise we the Lamb who reigns above;
Praise we the King whose rule is love:
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

Prayer and Lord’s Prayer
You astound us, O God, with your generosity.
You freely fill the world with your creativity,
you speak your word to all who will listen,
you pour out your Spirit without waiting for us to ask.
We give you thanks for all the ways you give yourself to us,
in life, in death, in resurrection, in community, in calling.
And we bring ourselves to you,
all our joys and concerns,
carried in our hearts, minds, and bodies in these days,
trusting your generous love to enfold them in your care.
For those who have found themselves on the outside of the lines and boxes and categories…
and for those who feel they need to draw them.
For those who only admit one way to be faithful,
and for those who are overwhelmed by the breadth of your grace.
For those who hunger in this world of abundance,
and those who hunger for you yet cannot find a place among your people.
For those who are trying to figure out how to be faithful in complicated circumstances,
and those whose faith is fragile and needs tending.
For those….(insert local/current concerns here)

We offer our lives, O God,
trusting you will gather us up into your resurrection life,
guiding us in giving, in serving, in speaking, in listening, in caring.
Through the power of your Spirit who blows where she will,
in the name of your Son Jesus who lives again,
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 252: As a Fire is Meant for Burning

Benediction
Go to let your life, as well as your word, be a witness to the good news that Christ is alive and the Spirit is moving. 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. Alleluia! 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

* You are all invited to a lunch celebrating the coronation of King Charles III, on Sunday 7 May at 12:30pm. All are welcome, so why not invite a friend or neighbour? There will also be sign up sheets for those who would like to help by decorating, making sandwiches or home baking. Please contact Cameron Melville, Ann Stephenson, or Fiona Mackenzie for more information.

* 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.

* 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. 

* 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. All are welcome as we continue reading through the Bible in about a year and a half!

* Young Adult Bible Study meets in the manse on the 2nd and 4th Sundays at 7pm for a meal and discussion of the gospel according to John. Everyone in their 20s is welcome! Our next meeting is 23 April.

* 2023 marks the 125th anniversary of the 2nd Gourock Boys’ Brigade. Our anniversary Grand Charity Ball will be Saturday 9th September 6.00 for 6.30pm in Greenock Town Hall. Tickets priced £50 or £500 for a table of 10 will be available soon. 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.