Sunday Service for 5 December 2021, the second Sunday of Advent

5 December 2021, 2nd Sunday of Advent
Gourock St. John’s Church of Scotland
Service prepared by the Rev. Teri Peterson
Manse phone: 632143 
Email: tpeterson (at) churchofscotland.org.uk

To hear the audio recording of this service, please phone 01475 270037. It’s a local landline number so minutes should be included in your phone plan.

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Prelude Music

Welcome and Announcements

Lighting the Second Advent Candle
Teri: In a time when breath has been short, or dangerous, or obstructed,
we call on the breath of God to fill us and bring us to life.

1: Breathe in the hope that God offers to those who don’t quite know how to hope.
(deep breath)

2: Breathe in the peace that passes all understanding.
(deep breath)

3: Breathe in the winds of the world, the creation itself.
(deep breath)

4: Breathe in the promise of the restoration of community.
(deep breath)

All: God is coming, and the world will never be the same!
~candle is lit~

O come, thou Dayspring, come and cheer
our spirits by thine advent here;
disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
and death’s dark shadows put to flight:
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
shall come to thee, O Israel.

Prayer
Come, O Breath, come and breathe upon us, that we may live.
When we are feeling disconnected —
from traditions that we have had to lay aside for now,
from people we long to see,
from the creation itself —
reach out and re-member us by your powerful hand.
You are a God who creates and re-creates,
who gets your hands dirty and who puts pieces together
and who takes on flesh and lives in a human body.
You are Holy, yet not far off…
you care about this physical world, your creation,
and you choose to dwell among us in this place.
We confess that we are prone to separating our bodies and spirits,
this world and your kingdom.
We admit that we think of ourselves as different from the rest of your created world,
and that sometimes all that thinking keeps us from being fully present with you in this place. Forgive us when we forget that this life, in all its mess and beauty,
is your gift, blessed by your breath.
Forgive us when we become so separated in mind and body
that we end up numb to your presence among us.
Re-integrate us, that we may know your grace in our very bones.
Bring us up from the dry valley
and set us firmly on your path toward hope and peace,
following the One who was, and is, and is to come.
Amen.

Hymn: O Come, Divine Messiah, Come

Children’s Time (in person only)

Invitation to a Generous Advent
During the season of Advent, many people traditionally open a door of an Advent calendar to find a treat of some kind. This year we are invited to a different kind of advent calendar, in which each day we do something. Connect is gathering together for a Reverse Advent Calendar in which we put something into a box each day, and then those things are donated to the food bank and starter packs — these will be collected at our family film night on Saturday the 18th at 4pm at the Lyle Kirk, or you can bring them to church or the manse that weekend so we can get them to the right people — a tangible way to put Jeremiah’s instruction into practice. St John’s also has an advent calendar to help us explore the them of an EmBodied Advent, and each activity will help us go deeper into living out what we hear in scripture on Sundays. These advent calendars are available in print and online.
As this is also a season of gift giving and generosity, I also encourage us all to consider our spiritual practice of generosity and perhaps to make a special gift to the ministry of the church in this place and time, as we seek to serve our community in new ways that put Jeremiah’s words into practice. You can give a one time gift, change your regular offering, or create a new standing order either by talking to Peter, giving online, or arranging things with your bank. Or if you use envelopes or prefer cash/cheque donations but are not able to join in-person worship at this time, please let us know and we can arrange a collection. Thank you for your generosity, at this time and every time of year, as we try to be faithful to God’s mission for us.

Reading: Ezekiel 37.1-14
Last week we heard from the prophet Jeremiah’s letter to the people who had been exiled from Jerusalem to Babylon. That first wave of exile involved the royal family, the nobility, the priests, the artisans and merchants, and other cultural influencers and power people. Included in that group was a priest named Ezekiel. A few years into their exile in Babylon, God showed Ezekiel some very striking visions, and asked him to do some symbolic actions to get the attention of the people who were beginning to lose hope and forget God’s way. Ezekiel’s visions and prophecies are often confusing, full of images that are hard to imagine and sometimes even a bit scary to picture. Remember that a prophet is not someone who sees the future, a prophet is someone who sees with God’s vision…and sometimes that’s hard for us to understand! Today we hear about a conversation between God and Ezekiel that takes place in an unusual location. I am reading from Ezekiel chapter 37, in the New Revised Standard Version.

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The hand of the Lord came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me all round them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. He said to me, ‘Mortal, can these bones live?’ I answered, ‘O Lord God, you know.’ Then he said to me, ‘Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord.’
So I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, ‘Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.’ I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude.
Then he said to me, ‘Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, “Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.” Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you back to the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people. I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken and will act, says the Lord.’

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: Not Another Zombie Movie
For a while, a few years ago, it felt like zombies were everywhere in pop culture — zombie movies, the Walking Dead television show, and constant social media memes about the coming zombie apocalypse and who among your friends was most likely to be useful, or get eaten, or whatever.

I have to confess that zombies have never really been my thing…I’m more of the vampire type myself.

Zombies and vampires do have something in common, though: they’re both dead. Or rather, undead. They walk, talk, and have survival instincts, and in many ways act much like normal people, with feelings, thoughts, and even relationships.

On first glance, today’s story seems a bit like a zombie story. God tells Ezekiel to prophesy and bring to life a mass grave full of bones…these bones have been there for so long they’re completely dried up and disconnected, basically just a jumble of bleached bones in a valley, with no sense of who they were or what happened to them, or what their lives had been like.

Remember that Ezekiel was talking to his fellow exiles — people who had been taken from everything they knew, whose homes and Temple and lives had been destroyed, people who were certain that they were alone, abandoned, hopeless. These are the people who gave us the lament “how can we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?” The light had gone out from their eyes, the songs had fled from their lips, and they may as well have been dried up and dead. Ezekiel’s vision begins in a mass grave, the bones jumbled together and dried out, not even a possibility of hope.

Sometimes life feels like that, doesn’t it? Like we just have nothing left to give, or like nothing is turning out how we imagined. Our dreams seem shattered, our expectations have not been met, and all we can think about is what was, or what should have been…and in comparison, what is and what might be are just not worth singing about.

Or sometimes maybe we feel like Ezekiel — God asked him to prophesy to the bones, even though it seems like bones wouldn’t be able to hear a word he said. They’re just piles of dried up old bones, after all. And Ezekiel found that he didn’t exactly feel hopeful himself…but he wasn’t so hopeless that he just laughed in God’s face either. He said “Oh God, you’re the one who knows what’s possible…” and somehow that tiny smidge of not-hopeful-but-not-completely-hopeless-either was enough for him to speak into that silence where it seemed nothing would make a difference.

When Ezekiel speaks God’s word to the valley full of bones, several things happen. The first step is that God pulls this jumbled mess of bones together, bone to its bone, in the right order so they can be whole. But just a complete skeleton is still not a body. Sure, we might have all the right pieces, but that doesn’t make us ready.

The second step is God putting flesh and sinews—holding together the bones with tendons and ligaments, muscles and fat, organs and tissues. Bones by themselves aren’t much use, really. They only stick together if they’re immobilized, like in a museum. This second step makes movement possible, so we’re not a museum piece, but still not a whole body either—though it’s starting to look familiar!

The third step is God covering the bodies with skin. The largest organ in the body, skin not only holds everything in, but protects too. We may want to get moving, but without skin the body is susceptible to injury, infection, and falling apart. This step may be uncomfortable, because we don’t like boundaries. But without them, bacteria multiply and pieces fall out.

At this point, stuck together with all the right pieces, we’re chomping at the bit, ready to go! This is the moment most of us as both individuals and churches get to, and then we’re off. We look like the body, feel like the body, and feel perfectly put together and prepared. Three steps is just right for our attention span and for our capacity for waiting for God to get to work already.

So we walk around, doing things, trying our best, and still can’t figure out why people aren’t flocking to churches or why there’s a budget deficit or where the families are going. We listened when God called us together, so how come things still aren’t the way they used to be, when children always grew up to be better off than their parents, when we had a strong community with lots of opportunity, when pews and classrooms and offering plates overflowed? God promised to restore us, so why aren’t we reliving the good old days yet?

At this point in the process, we’re not jumbled up skeletons, but not full of life either. That’s still exile. Yes, we go about our daily lives, we do what we’ve always done, we get by…but there’s nothing transformative happening. It’s just day in and day out. We don’t experience life, we’re not touched or changed, we just…are. Just exist. The Israelites in exile seem to have swung between these two positions—dried up and hopeless, and just waiting out life without expectation.

Because at just three steps, that valley is full of zombies. And zombies are, by definition, living in the past. All the undead can do is try to re-live the lives they once had, over and over again.

And the undead are different from the living in one major way:
They don’t breathe.

Scripture tells us over and over, God is a God of the living, not the dead, and not the undead — and God’s word of life points us forward, not backward. God’s promise is not just that we’ll walk through life, but that we’ll breathe life. God’s promise is not just that the bones will organise into skeletons and be covered with flesh and skin, but that they will be filled with breath, coming from the four winds, blowing into their bodies and hearts and minds and souls so that they can love God and love their neighbour with everything they’ve got. God’s promise is not that we’ll be undead, God’s promise is Everlasting Life Abundant, even when we can’t see how it could be possible.

And God keeps promises. Every time. Even impossible ones. Even ones we hesitated to speak, even ones we weren’t sure we could stand to hear. If my options are to go through the motions like a zombie or to feel the stretch and burn of God’s breath in my lungs, I’ll take the breath of life every time.

The Hebrew word for breath is ruach, the same word that’s translated as wind and spirit. When the wind blows, that’s the breath of God. When we breathe, that’s the Spirit of God filling our bodies. The very air we breathe, in other words, is God’s presence, God’s promise, God’s hope, entering our lungs. When God tells Ezekiel to call the breath from the four winds, that’s the Spirit that comes rushing in, from every corner of creation, bringing life and hope and possibility and love — and setting us in motion to live for the future God has planned, rather than simply re-living the past that’s dead and gone.

The first sentence God gives to Ezekiel is “I will cause breath to enter you” and the last is “I will put my Spirit within you.” This entire story is literally filled with the ruach, the breath of God blowing everywhere, in and around and through the people who thought there was no hope, the prophet who spoke even though there was no point, the place that was dead and then undead and then alive. No longer a jumble of bones, no longer zombies, but life in all its fullness — for everyone.

May it be so. Amen.

Hymn 291: When Out of Poverty is Born
When out of poverty is born
a dream that will not die
and landless, weary folk find strength
to stand with heads held high,
it’s then we learn from those who wait
to greet the promised day:
‘The Lord is coming; don’t lose heart.
Be blest: prepare the way!’

When people wander far from God,
forget to share their bread,
they find their wealth an empty thing,
their spirits are not fed.
For only just and tender love
the hungry soul will stay.
And so God’s prophets echo still:
‘Be blest: prepare the way!’

When God took flesh and came to earth,
the world turned upside down,
and in the strength of woman’s faith
the Word of Life was born.
She knew that God would raise the low,
it pleased her to obey.
Rejoice with Mary in the call,
‘Be blest: prepare the way!

Prayer and Lord’s Prayer

You promise peace,
not merely the peace of the grave but the peace of resurrection life.
You restore your people, O God,
and we give you thanks for knitting us together,
piece by piece, thread by thread, bone by bone.
We pray this day for those whose hope is lost,
those who feel cut off,
those who have been left behind or left out,
those whose lives have dried up from the inside out.
Lift them in your hand, hold them close, and bring them to your heart.

We pray this day for those who speak words of encouragement they do not yet feel,
those who share good news they can’t allow themselves to hope,
those who look through half-open eyes at the future you are creating, even now.
Put your breath in them, and your word in their hearts, and give them a glimpse of your vision.

We pray this day for those who can’t get a deep breath,
whose anxiety or grief or illness makes it impossible to fill their lungs,
who live in danger or uncertainty that makes it safer to hold their breath.
Set them free from constraint and fear, heal them in body, soul, and situation.

Hymn 303 verse 4
And you, beneath life’s crushing load
whose forms are bending low,
who toil along the climbing way
with painful steps and slow,
look now! for glad and golden hours
come swiftly on the wing;
oh, rest beside the weary road,
and hear the angels sing.

We pray this day for your creation,
winds and waters and mountains and valleys,
for the gifts it gives in supporting us,
and for the burden it bears under our weight.
May your breath revive your earth as well as your people.

When we don’t know how to hope, you lead us.
When we can’t see our way to peace, you lead us.
When we feel dismembered and alone, you lead us.
We give you thanks for you always keep your promise.

Hymn 303 verse 5
For lo! the days are hastening on,
by prophet bards foretold,
when, with the ever-rolling years,
still dawns the Age of Gold,
when peace shall over all the earth
its ancient splendours fling,
and all the world give back the song
which now the angels sing.

We bring our gratitude and longing to you,
in the name of the One who embodies your truth, Jesus the Christ,
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.

Benediction
Take a deep breath, and feel the Holy Spirit bringing you to fullness of life, setting you in motion to move forward into God’s future. Take a deep breath, and get ready to speak God’s word even into the most hopeless of situations. 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
* This Advent our theme is “EmBodied” — encountering the Word Made Flesh, in our own bodies and in our own places where God has planted us.

* Follow your St John’s Embodied Advent and your Connect Reverse Advent Calendars! There’ll be a Facebook Live for most of the St John’s Advent Calendar too.

* The Youth Organisations are again running the Christmas Post — drop cards in at the church on the 5th or 12th of December for delivery by the 19th to addresses in Gourock and Greenock West End, 30p per card with all proceeds going to youth ministry. If you can’t get to the church, let us know and we may be able to make arrangements to collect!

* Connect is hosting a family film night on 18 December at 4pm at the Lyle Kirk (Union Street). Bring your Reverse Advent Calendar with you so we can take the donations to the Foodbank and Starter Packs!

* Mark your calendars for Christmas worship: 
Longest Night (a quieter Christmas service recognising the darkness in which the Light shines) on 21 December at 7:30pm
Joint services for Christmas Eve at 7:30pm at St. John’s and 11:30pm at Old Gourock and Ashton
Christmas Day, 11am, on ZOOM with all of Connect
Sunday 26 December, 10:30am, joint service with St Ninian’s Larkfield and OGA, at Old Gourock.

* All worship is online (or on the phone at 01475 270037, or in print) and we also meet in person, subject to the usual protocols for distancing, hand hygiene, mask wearing. We can now welcome up to 85-100 people for worship with 1m distancing between households. No booking is required. Masks are required at all times inside the building, including while singing. 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.

* Tonight we will gather with Christians across the nation for evening prayer on the Connect Facebook Page, led tonight by David. Log on at 6:58pm to join in.

* The Kirk now has online giving! If you have not already 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 Peter Bennett, our treasurer, or Teri and she can give you his details. You can also send your envelopes to the church or the manse by post and we will ensure they are received. Remember: no one is coming to your door to collect your envelopes, so please stay safe!

* 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!