Sunday service for 18 December 2022, fourth Sunday of Advent

Sunday 18 December 2022, NL1-16, Advent 4
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

*Sanctuary Hymn: Through the line of Joseph, Mary (words: Joanna Harader 2022, tune: Hyfrydol)

Through the line of Joseph, Mary,
Tamar, Judah, Rahab, Ruth,
Comes a saviour for the nations,
born Messiah of humble birth.
God’s eternal presence with us
Through the ages grace imparts.
Holy power in fragile infant
Resting in his parents’ hearts.

Mary welcomes Holy Spirit
In her life and in her womb.
Fear gives way to awe and wonder,
Holding space and making room.
God’s eternal presence with us
In that ancient time and land.
Holy power in fragile infant
Resting there in Mary’s hands.

Joseph, open to the myst’ry
heeds his dream of angel voice,
keeps his promise, holds in honour
Mary his belov’d, his choice.
God’s eternal presence with us
in that home made safe and warm.
Holy power in fragile infant
resting there in Joseph’s arms.

Lighting the Advent Candle
One: In the midst of this world, here and now:
All: God is with us.
One: In the astonishing
and in the impossibly hard;
in the shadows
and in the absolute clarity:
All: God is with us.
One: Take heart, for even now
All: a new thing springs forth!
One: In the midst of this world,
All: God’s word is fulfilled.
One: Because Emmanuel, God is with us:
All: We love as we have been loved, unconditionally.

Sanctuary — All Sing:
As we light the advent candle,
with the light of love burning bright,
faithfully we wait for his coming,
faithfully it shines through the night!
In our humble hearts, a fire burns as well;
hear the prayer these flames would tell:
O come, O come, Emmanuel,
and ransom captive Israel.

All: You are a God of surprises,
and we pray for the openness to receive!
Just when we have figured out what your word meant in the past,
you give it new meaning for the future, too.
Just as we come to terms with an ordinary name
that carries extraordinary weight,
you offer a second as well.
Thank you, Lord Jesus, Emmanuel, for your surprises,
and for all the ways you are both so big and beyond,
yet also right here, with us.
Amen.

Online Hymn 304: O Little Town of Bethlehem
Sanctuary Hymn 316: Love Came Down at Christmas

Prayer
Holy God, you call us to righteousness, to a way of life that reflects your holiness.
We are resolved… to stick to our ways, for we have called them yours.
We confess, though, that we find it difficult to adjust when you speak a new thing.
We have definite ideas about how things should be.
We have plans and expectations.
Forgive us, and make us flexible enough to change course
when your Spirit leads a different direction.
Forgive us, and give us the humility to know our place in your story,
to recognise your ways that are higher than our ways,
to lay aside our expectations in order to take up the task you call us to do.
Bring your new world to birth, O God,
and make us ready to receive it.
We ask in the name of the One who comes among us
revealing your unconditional love in the flesh, Jesus the Christ. Amen.

Sanctuary Sung Prayer hymn 304 O Little Town of Bethlehem, verse 3

Sanctuary Children’s Time (O Little Town verse 4)

Reading: Matthew 1.1-25 (New Revised Standard Version)
An account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Aram, and Aram the father of Aminadab, and Aminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of King David.
And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph, and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos, and Amos the father of Josiah, and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.
And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Salathiel, and Salathiel the father of Zerubbabel, and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah.
So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David to the deportation to Babylon, fourteen generations; and from the deportation to Babylon to the Messiah, fourteen generations.

Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.’ All this took place to fulfil what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:  ‘Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,  and they shall name him Emmanuel’, which means, ‘God is with us.’ When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.

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: Making Space
When I was thirteen years old, my younger brother and I, and our parents, stood together in a courtroom as a judge asked us if we wanted to be family together. My mom had married my stepdad two years before, and now we had a chance to make things even more official through adoption…for my brother and I to change our last names, for our birth records to be updated, to make my stepdad into my dad forever. Of course we all said yes, even though I imagine that some days during the next 27 years, my dad might have looked at me and my brother and wondered what on earth he had gotten himself into!

I admit that from my kid perspective I have only some limited memories of the courtroom and at the time my brother and I were super excited about the ice cream cake that we had to celebrate. But the lifetime of knowing we were family together, that my dad had made room for us and we for him — it’s priceless.

Matthew’s telling of the Christmas story is so different from the perspective we normally read in Luke — no traveling for a census, no worries about where to stay, no animals trying to eat their dinner around a baby in their food bowl, no shepherds and choirs of angels. First of all, Matthew starts with that long list of names. He wants to be clear that this is a story that happens within a real family, with real people who have real stories of triumph and failure and everything in between. It’s a story of an ordinary family where unexpected things happen, and they have to figure it out.

Mary and Joseph were betrothed — which means they were already legally bound to each other, but they weren’t yet living together. They live in Bethlehem, and Joseph’s family has a long history. His family includes really amazing and famous people — he’s descended from David and Solomon! — and also some people you might really rather leave out of the story, like later kings who were really terrible. I suspect we all have highs and lows like this in our family trees — people we would prefer to pretend we’re not related to, and people we love so much we’re always looking for a family resemblance between us, and everything in between.

The thing is, this is exactly what God needs for his Son: a family. For God to take on flesh and live among us, being born into our world as a vulnerable baby, being fully human even while being fully divine, means that God-with-us needs people who will protect and nurture him. Jesus needs a place to grow up, people to raise him, and a story to be a part of. He needs someone who will provide him a home, potty train him, teach him to use his cutlery and how to tie his shoes, help him navigate the weird world of teenage friendships, listen to his dramas and dry his tears, give a high-five when he succeeds at something and encourage him when nothing seems to go right. A family where he can learn some life skills, have relationships across generations, maybe even argue with his siblings or shout at his parents and find they all still love each other. God needs for Jesus to have a place where he belongs. And yes, a family in the line of David, too — anchoring him to God’s bigger story, providing a place not just in the now but in the bigger sweep of God’s work among us.

When Joseph found out Mary was pregnant, he wanted to do the right thing, and that meant definitely not bringing this strange baby into his own family. Then, as at many times and places through history, knowing a child’s biological father meant knowing where they belonged and what resources they were entitled to…allowing this unknown-parentage baby in could be dangerous for the rest of the family as their social status and therefore financial well-being might be affected when people started to gossip, and it would disrupt his plans for how his life, career, and family were meant to progress, and it could lead to questions about inheritance. So Joseph decided that he would be as kind as possible to Mary while also doing what was best for himself. I suspect many people understand his mental calculus — how could he possibly make room in his life, in his family, for something so different from his expectations and plans?

Having made up his mind, Joseph turned in for a good night’s sleep, only to find God had another idea. The angel who appeared to him told him not to be afraid…of taking Mary as his wife. Don’t be afraid of the social stigma, don’t be afraid of the gossip, don’t be afraid of whatever you think the economic implications for your inheritance might be. Don’t be afraid of taking on a different responsibility than the one you had planned. Don’t be afraid of opening your home and your family to the unexpected one, sent by God…in fact, who is God with us.

When Joseph woke up, he changed his mind. He decided to lay aside concerns about what others would think, worries about whether he could do this hard thing, and doubts about his fiancée and her faithfulness.He heard the angel, and in light of that new information and that new calling from God, he changed his mind. He decided to move to the side and make space in his plans and vision for God to do a new thing. He opened his heart and his home and his family to something outrageous and life-changing, the consequences of which he could not have imagined himself. Because Emmanuel — God is with us — he decided to act with love that does not require anyone else to meet his conditions to receive it. He just…opened the door and brought Mary into his house and they created a family together.

And so, when the baby was born, Joseph publicly gave him his name, and he took his place in a family line stretching back fourteen times three generations. Those generations can feel at first glance like a closed book, like God’s plan simply unfolded perfectly at every turn to get to this point. But a closer look reveals something a little unusual. There are four women named in the genealogy, and they are all women who had rather unorthodox lives and relationships, and all of them are crucial to God’s story, unexpected agents of God’s plan, who moved God’s vision forward even when the people around them were stuck. They defied social norms, ethnic boundaries, economic rules, and cultural systems to open doors that seemed shut.

Coming from that kind of family line, perhaps it’s no surprise that Joseph could hear the angel saying “don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife” — maybe he recognised that God was placing her in this line of women whose unexpected and unconventional lives brought something new to birth among God’s people. And though we have recently come to regard changing one’s mind as a sign of weakness, Joseph teaches us it’s a sign of strength: strength of connection to God, strength of faith and trust in God’s promise, strength of commitment to following God’s call.

Ultimately, just as in Luke’s story there’s no space in the guest rooms for Mary and Joseph, in Matthew’s story it’s Joseph’s heart and mind and family that didn’t have space…until it did. His response to God speaking to him was to open the door, to stand there and say yes: he wanted to be family despite the risks and the unknowns and the lack of ice cream cake for celebration. He may not have known what he was in for exactly, but he was willing to open himself up to this new life.

This is what unconditional love does: it makes room. Room for being family together with unexpected people. Room for doing things we never thought possible. Room for seeing the risks and opening our hearts and doors anyway. Room for God to be born and change our lives forever.

May it be so. Amen.

Online Hymn 304: O Little Town of Bethlehem

Sanctuary Hymn: Love Has Come (words: Ken Bible b.1950; tune: Bring a Torch, Jeannette, Isabella)
Love has come: a light in the darkness!
Love shines forth in the Bethlehem skies.
See, all heaven has come to proclaim it;
hear how their song of joy arises:
Love! Love! Born unto you, a Saviour!
Love! Love! Glory to God on high.

Love is born! Come, share in the wonder.
Love is God now asleep in the hay.
See the glow in the eyes of his mother;
what is the name her heart is saying?
Love! Love! Love is the name she whispers.
Love! Love! Jesus, Emmanuel.

Love has come and never will leave us!
Love is life everlasting and free.
Love is Jesus within and among us.
Love is the peace our hearts are seeking.
Love! Love! Love is the gift of Christmas.
Love! Love! Praise to you, God on high!

Offering (Sanctuary only) (choir to sing)
Creation began with just a few small words: let there be light. God’s greatest gift to the world started out small, a baby born at the fringes of the empire and the margins of society. God’s gift is the pattern for our own giving — however small in the grand scheme of needs, we trust that God is multiplying our gifts into a blessing for our community. The ministry and mission we do here at St John’s costs just over £10,500 per month and it is because of your generous giving that we are able to serve others in all the different ways that happen here every day. May the gifts we give be a reflection of our gratitude for God’s gifts to us, and may they be dedicated to the work of God’s kingdom in this place. Your morning offering will now be received.

Sanctuary Offering Response Hymn 324, verse 5
All creation, joining praising
God the Father, Spirit, Son,
evermore your voices raising
to the eternal Three-In-One:
come and worship Christ,
the newborn king.
Come and worship,
worship Christ, the newborn king.

Prayer and Lord’s Prayer
Loving God, we thank you for the gift of family —
families we have grown into, and families we have chosen, and families who have chosen us.
We thank you for placing us into communities that nurture and care for one another,
and even for the challenges of growing together in grace.
And we pray today for those who do not have a family to call their own,
for children in the care system, and elders whose family have all gone on ahead,
for neighbours who are isolated and lonely,
for people who have been abused and abandoned and fallen through the cracks,
for those who have been told they must earn love and they aren’t deserving.
May they know your companionship, guidance, and care.
As you called Joseph to give Jesus a family home and history,
we pray for all who provide that place for others to grow into who you made them to be.
May they be flexible and courageous, compassionate and hopeful.

You come to dwell among us, to save with your presence.
We thank you for your promise to be with us always,
as you have led your people in the past so even now you reveal yourself,
in a tiny baby, in a change of heart, in ordinary life and in extraordinary love.
We pray today for those who are desperate for your saving grace,
those who are trapped in cycles of violence or poverty or grief or illness,
those who have been trafficked or exploited,
those staring at closed doors and longing for options to open.
May they know your healing liberation.
As you bore a common name with uncommon power,
and held that power in relationship to the world you so love,
we pray today for all who reveal you to others,
for those who give their energy to prayer and service,
who radiate welcome and peace,
who work for justice,
who speak your word just where it’s most needed.
May they be refreshed and renewed by your constant presence,
as they reflect your grace and model right relationship with you.

You offer yourself to us, O God,
and we in turn offer what we have,
trusting you will turn it, and us, to your kingdom work
in ways we cannot yet imagine but will join as your people.
May our lives magnify your love, here and now.

We ask these and all things in the name of the One who saves by being with us,
Jesus the Christ, Emmanuel
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.

Online Hymn 316: Love Came Down At Christmas

Sanctuary Hymn 313: See in Yonder Manger Low verses 1, 2, 5

Benediction
Friends, God is love, and God is with us. Live in that ever-present love.
And as you go to live love, 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

* The service for the Longest Night — like a Quiet Christmas service, on the winter solstice, the longest night of the year, when we are in shadows and yet turn toward the light, will be THIS WEDNESDAY 21 December at 7:30pm in the sanctuary. This contemplative Christmas service is perfect for those who are looking for a reflective opportunity, who need a little space this season, or who just enjoy the less raucous carols.

* Join us for some informal caroling at the Christmas tree in Kempock Place on Thursday the 22nd at 6pm!

* The Choir Brigade Christmas Concert will be in the sanctuary on Friday 23rd December at 730pm. Tickets are £10 and available at https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/the-choir-brigade.

* Christmas Eve worship services will be on Saturday 24 December at 7pm in St John’s and 11:30pm in Old Gourock & Ashton.

* Christmas morning worship will be on Sunday 25 December at 10am in the St. John’s sanctuary. Bring a gift you received to share about it during the children’s time!

* New Year’s Day worship will be on Sunday 1 January and will be a New Year Communion shared with Old Gourock & Ashton and St Ninian’s (Larkfield). The service will be at 10:30am in OGA.

* 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 it costs us about £10,500 per month to do the ministry we currently do at St. John’s? That includes heating and lighting the building and keeping it in good repair for church and community groups, programming and pastoral care for people of all ages, our contribution to minister’s stipends, and other ministry costs. 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 be 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!

* Would you be interested in joining the readers rota in 2023? Whether you read in the sanctuary or online, or both — whether recording yourself or being recorded by Teri — we’d love to have your voice bringing God’s word to life in our community! There is a wee training to help you feel confident. Let Teri know if you’d like to join in.

* The next Bowl & Blether in St John’s will be on Monday 2 January. Doors will open at 11:30, soup is served from noon. We also now have toasties and board games! The hall will be open into the afternoon for all who wish to stay and enjoy the company, games, chat, and a cuppa. The next B&B in St Margaret’s is on Saturday 14 January, also from 11:30.

Sunday service for 11 December 2022, third Sunday of Advent

Sunday 11 December 2022, NL1-15, Advent 3
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

*Sanctuary Hymn: Canticle of the Turning

Lighting the Advent Candle
One: In the midst of this world, here and now:
All: God is with us.
One: In the astonishing
and in the impossibly hard;
in the shadows
and in the absolute clarity:
All: God is with us.
One: Take heart, for even now
All: a new thing springs forth!
One: In the midst of this world,
All: God’s word is fulfilled.
One: Because Emmanuel, God is with us:
All: We will be the light, doing justice and living compassion.

*All Sing (Sanctuary):
As we light the advent candle,
with the justice light burning bright,
faithfully we wait for his coming,
faithfully it shines through the night!
In our humble hearts, a fire burns as well;
hear the prayer these flames would tell:
O come, O come, Emmanuel,
and ransom captive Israel.

All: You take us by the hand, loving God,
bringing us close to you, leading us on your way.
You whisper your plans and ideas,
like friends conspiring on a surprise.
Thank you for the privilege of partnering with you
to bring about your vision:
a world of justice built on compassion,
a world where light shines for all to see.
As you extend your Word into human flesh
and your Spirit to all who walk on the earth
extend our love too, as a reflection of your image,
for your glory.
Amen.

Online Hymn 291: When Out of Poverty Is Born

*Sanctuary Hymn 273: O Come O Come Emmanuel
O come, O come, Emmanuel,
and ransom captive Israel,
that mourns in lonely exile here
until the son of God appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Desire of Nations, bind
all peoples in one heart and mind;
bid envy, strife, and discord cease,
fill the whole world with heaven’s peace:
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
shall come to thee, O Israel.

Prayer
You are the Creator of all, the Source of life and breath,
the One whose word is at the heart of the world,
and yet we confess that we have turned a blind eye
to both your vision and the reality around us.
You call for justice, not for retribution.
You call for honesty and compassion in our dealings with others.
We admit that neither is convenient for us, especially at this time of year,
and so we ignore the part we play and the part you call us to play.
Forgive us,
and remind us this day that we are meant for more than our shortsightedness can see.
You have always been faithful, O God,
and yet we confess that we still aren’t so sure
about the new things you declare.
We admit that we have enjoyed solidifying your former things
into favourite traditions we would rather not see changed,
and we confess that we have sometimes acted as if they are the only way.
Forgive us,
and remind us this day that you do not cede your glory even to our most beloved idols.
Turn us to the rest of the story you are still writing,
that we may walk hand in hand with you
into the story for which you created and called us.
Amen.

*Sanctuary Sung Prayer hymn 303 v 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.

Sanctuary: Children’s Time (O Little Town verse 4)

Reading: Isaiah 42.1-9 (New Revised Standard Version)

Here is my servant, whom I uphold, 
my chosen, in whom my soul delights;
 I have put my spirit upon him; 
he will bring forth justice to the nations.
 He will not cry or lift up his voice, 
or make it heard in the street;
 a bruised reed he will not break, 
and a dimly burning wick he will not quench; 
he will faithfully bring forth justice.  
He will not grow faint or be crushed 
until he has established justice in the earth; 
and the coastlands wait for his teaching.
 Thus says God, the Lord, 
who created the heavens and stretched them out, 
who spread out the earth and what comes from it, 
who gives breath to the people upon it 
and spirit to those who walk in it:
 I am the Lord,
I have called you in righteousness, 
I have taken you by the hand and kept you;
 I have given you as a covenant to the people, 
a light to the nations,  
to open the eyes that are blind,
 to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, 
from the prison those who sit in darkness.
 I am the Lord, that is my name; 
my glory I give to no other, 
nor my praise to idols.
 See, the former things have come to pass, 
and new things I now declare;
 before they spring forth, 
I tell you of them.

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: Family Business

See, the former things have come to pass —
What an amazing reminder from God that all those things God said he would do, God has done. God keeps promises!

Sometimes I think we forget to look back at all the things God has done, all the prayers that have been answered, the promises that have been fulfilled. I love that this reminder begins with “SEE” — Like God calling out “pay attention, people! I did these things already!”

What things?

Well…God created the earth and stretched out the heavens. God set up a system where the earth produces year on year, a cycle of creation that continues even now. God gave breath and even the Spirit to all who walk on the earth. Going all the way back to the beginning, God has been busy doing things…and then it gets more personal.

God says: I called you. I took you by the hand. I gave you as a covenant to the peoples and a light to the nations.

Who is God talking to, exactly?

Some people believe God is talking to one person, who will serve God in these ways that inaugurate the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven.

Many people, including many of the Jewish people who received this book first, believe it to be about the people of Israel, God’s chosen people. They are, collectively, God’s servant. And I suspect that all or most of us are here today because we want to serve God — whatever that might mean in each of our lives, and in our life together as a church community.

And many scholars and preachers and teachers remind us that the prophets spoke an inspired word from God for both their own time and a future time, indeed into our time as well — God’s word is not confined to one time or place but has meaning for us all, so it’s likely that it has both a meaning regarding an anointed Messiah who would live out God’s will in the flesh, and also a meaning regarding the people of God… who are also to embody and live out God’s will in the world.

In fact, I think the cue we are meant to take is actually there smack in the middle of today’s reading. It says that the servant will “establish” God’s justice in the world — a justice that is careful and compassionate, that doesn’t break those who are already bent, doesn’t crush those already bruised, but instead recognises healing as a part of justice on the way to the wholeness, the shalom, of God’s kingdom.

Sometimes I think we hear the word “establish” and think it means the job is finished, all accomplished and nothing left to do. But that’s not really what it means — to establish something is actually to start it. Think of the places we like to go that have signs out front that say things like “established 1952” or whatever year. And then think of God’s kingdom on earth as in heaven as…established by the Spirit anointing the servant, or servants, of God — whether you think of that as when Jesus was born, or when he was raised from the dead, or farther back when the prophet spoke these words, or even farther back when God first breathed the Spirit of life into the first human creatures. And ever since, it’s been the family business. All who are in Christ, all who seek to serve God, join this family business established way back when, and to us God says:
I called you.
I grabbed your hand and kept you safe.
I gave you to be the light.

This same God who breathes the Spirit into us, who was born to be with us, who promised never to leave us nor forsake us…this same God with us has a job for us to do in the family business, and it’s a fairly specific job.

The job description says:
I have given you to be a light to the nations…to open blind eyes and set prisoners free. To help people see, and having seen, to act:
*to see the truth of our world’s systems of injustice that trap people in poverty, violence, isolation, or pain, and to set people free to live and serve.
*to see those things we might prefer to turn a blind eye to, and to set people free from the chosen ignorance that makes it impossible to truly love our neighbour.
*to see the bigger reality that God has created, and to set people free from the confines of the systems we have created so we can live abundant life now.

The former things have come to pass — God breathed the Spirit and gave the promise that the chosen people would be a blessing to the entire world, all the nations and people and even the earth itself.

The former things have come to pass — God anointed the Son to establish this kingdom that will have no end.

The former things have come to pass — God called us by name and claimed us as his own; God took our hands, like a parent holding a child’s hand to guide them and protect them as they navigate the world; God gave us to the world to show others what it means to love one another as we have been loved.

And now…new things God declares! And even before the rest of the world hears, the servants of God get a pre-release sneak peek, a glimpse of what’s to come. God shows us the new thing that is springing forth…so that we can be ready for it, so that we can share it, so that we can share in the work of bringing it to fruition.

What an Advent! The word “Advent” means “coming”, and indeed something is coming. Not just the same old same old, not only the re-telling of the story we hear every Christmas, but God is doing a new thing, even here and even now and even with us. God is whispering in our ears, pulling back the curtain, revealing what’s next. And because God has always been faithful in doing what he promised before, we can trust that this Advent promise will be true too. Something new is coming, and everyone in the family business is invited to join in. Because Emmanuel, God is with us, we can be the light, shining justice and joy into the world.

May it be so. Amen.

Offering (choir to sing)
Creation began with just a few small words: let there be light. God’s greatest gift to the world started out small, a baby born at the fringes of the empire and the margins of society. God’s gift is the pattern for our own giving — however small in the grand scheme of needs, we trust that God is multiplying our gifts into a blessing for our community. The ministry and mission we do here at St John’s costs just over £10,500 per month and it is because of your generous giving that we are able to serve others in all the different ways that happen here every day. May the gifts we give be a reflection of our gratitude for God’s gifts to us, and may they be dedicated to the work of God’s kingdom in this place. Your morning offering will now be received.

*Sanctuary Offering Response Hymn 324, verse 5
All creation, joining praising
God the Father, Spirit, Son,
evermore your voices raising
to the eternal Three-In-One:
come and worship Christ,
the newborn king.
Come and worship,
worship Christ, the newborn king.

*Hymn: God With Us (praise band)

(Sanctuary: Communion)

Prayer and Lord’s Prayer
Giver of every good gift,
we thank you for sending your Spirit
to empower your world to fulfil your word.
We thank you for taking us by the hand,
lending us your presence and power and purpose
to guide and protect us as we walk your way
and seek your new kingdom breaking in to this world.
Holy Spirit of compassionate justice,
we lift up those who are feeling beaten down,
trampled or forgotten or tossed aside,
whose voices are talked over, who are talked about but never with,
who long for another way yet feel they have no good options,
and those whose light is burning out.
May they be encouraged by your gentleness and our solidarity.
May they stand in your strength and find healing.
Holy Spirit of liberation,
we lift up those who sit in the shadows,
whose vision is obscured,
who are surrounded by obstacles and no obvious way out…
and also those who choose not to see anything that might challenge their worldview.
We pray for your freedom for all who are unjustly imprisoned,
for those who are dehumanised rather than offered a way of restoration,
and for those who are in cages of their own making.
May they have the strength to stand and see outside the box.
May they have the space to move and grow and change,
to live and breathe and walk in your light.
Holy Spirit of renewal,
we lift up those who find the idea of new things a threat,
for all who are well-served by the status quo,
who see no need for a different way,
who are happy just as they are, thanks.
We are grateful for the glimpse of your kingdom coming,
and we pray for those who will have to learn a new world,
even as we rejoice with those who have longed for your day.
We ask for you to come and widen our vision and open our hearts.
May all people recognise your still more excellent way,
and be encouraged and empowered to embrace the change.
May we be a light to the nations.
We ask in the name of your Word made flesh,
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.

*Hymn 320: Joy to the World

Benediction
Friends, however messy the world may appear, God’s covenant withstands it all. Go from this place, hand in hand with God, knowing the gift of the Spirit within you to bring forth justice, shining the light of Christ who makes all things new.
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 (Sanctuary)

Announcements
* Our Advent Appeal this year is supporting “A Little Box of Love” for Mind Mosaic Child and Family therapies. They are asking us to fill a shoebox or gift bag with items such as winter clothing, small toys or arts-and-crafts items, perhaps a few sweets, gift/food vouchers, baby items, gift sets, etc — there are three age categories: babies and toddlers aged 0-3 and their parents, children aged 3-12, and teens aged 13-18. If you would like to fill a shoebox (with NEW items only please), label it with the age and gender child it’s for, and bring it and place it under our Christmas tree up until the 15th of December, please do.

* The Christmas Post is being carried out by our youth organisations — you can bring your cards between December 4 and 18, though the earlier the better please! The cost will remain at 30p per card, with all proceeds going to support ministry with young people at St John’s.

* The Wednesday evening Bible Study meets at 7:30pm in the manse at 6 Barrhill Road. All are welcome, no experience necessary! Feel free to invite a friend, too! We are reading through the Bible in a year…ish. Anyone who has ever wondered just what the Bible actually says and what it has to do with us is welcome. This week we are having a festive gathering and then we will take a break until the new year.

* Young Adult Bible Study meets TONIGHT for a festive gathering in the manse at 7pm, and then we take a break until the new year. If you’d like more information, for yourself, a family member, a friend, or neighbour who is in their 20s, please contact Teri for the dates/times and other information.

* The Contact Group is having an Advent Celebration of carols and readings on Tuesday 13th December at 2pm. This will be an informal event with participation from members of other local churches. All are welcome to attend and we ask that a donation to Starter Packs be brought along to help people in our local community.

* PB Wright are hosting a Quiet Christmas service for those who’ve lost a loved one, Wednesday 14th December at 7pm at St. Ninian’s Roman Catholic Church in Gourock. All are welcome.

* The Christmas concert/service with the Stedfast Silver Band and the Connect+ singing group at Westburn on the evening of Thursday 15 December at 7pm.

* Reely Jiggered and the Voices of Argyll choir will be doing a Christmas Concert in the sanctuary on Friday 16 December at 7:30pm. Tickets are £12 and available on their website https://reelyjiggered.com or at the door.

* The service for the Longest Night — like a Quiet Christmas service, on the winter solstice, the longest night of the year, when we are in shadows and yet turn toward the light, will be on Wednesday 21 December at 7:30pm in the sanctuary. This contemplative Christmas service is perfect for those who are looking for a reflective opportunity, who need a little space this season, or who just enjoy the less raucous carols.

* The Choir Brigade Christmas Concert will be in the sanctuary on Friday 23rd December at 7:30pm. Tickets are £10 and available at https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/the-choir-brigade.

* Christmas Eve worship services will be on Saturday 24 December at 7pm in St John’s and 11:30pm in Old Gourock & Ashton.

* Christmas morning worship will be on Sunday 25 December at 10am in the St. John’s sanctuary. Bring a gift you received to share about it during the children’s time!

* New Year’s Day worship will be on Sunday 1 January and will be a New Year Communion shared with Old Gourock & Ashton and St Ninian’s (Larkfield). The service will be at 10:30am in OGA.

* We worship in the sanctuary on Sundays at 11am (except Christmas Day at 10am and New Year’s Day at OGA at 10:30am), 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.

* The Church Notes, which will celebrate what has been going on at St John’s for the past few months, will be coming soon. If you have stories to share from an organisation or group or ministry from the summer or autumn activities, please send them to Seonaid Knox as soon as possible.

Sunday service for 4 December 2022, 2nd Sunday of Advent

Sunday 4 December 2022, NL1-14, Advent 2
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

*Sanctuary Hymn 472: Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus

Lighting the Advent Candle
One: In the midst of this world, here and now:
All: God is with us.
One: In the astonishing
and in the impossibly hard;
in the shadows
and in the absolute clarity:
All: God is with us.
One: Take heart, for even now
All: a new thing springs forth!
One: In the midst of this world,
All: God’s word is fulfilled.
One: Because Emmanuel, God is with us:
All: We have courage to tell the truth, even if our voice shakes.

*(Sanctuary) All Sing:
As we light the advent candle,
with the light of truth burning bright,
faithfully we wait for his coming,
faithfully it shines through the night!
In our humble hearts, a fire burns as well;
hear the prayer these flames would tell:
O come, O come, Emmanuel,
and ransom captive Israel.

All: God, you have given us what we need to live faithfully,
whoever we are, wherever we are.
From the highest rank to the most marginalised, and everywhere in between,
you call us to use what power we do have to play our part in your kingdom.
In prayer, in protest, in service, even in strategic silence,
may we follow your way.
Amen.

Online Hymn 274: Comfort, Comfort Now My People
*Sanctuary Hymn 273: O Come O Come Emmanuel, vv 1 & 3

Prayer
You’ve brought us this far, O God.
Every step has been learning,
and now here we are in this place, this moment.
Perhaps we are here for just such a time as this.
But we confess that we do not feel equipped.
We don’t feel ready for the holidays,
let alone for facing the situations that keep arising around the world.
We admit we would rather lock the door and pull the curtains,
hoping no one will ask of us
something we aren’t sure how to do.
Forgive our timidity,
and our unwillingness to trust your word.
You have promised to be with us,
to strengthen and uphold us,
to equip us for every good work.
And we admit we have taken your gifts and let them languish,
or used them for our own purposes.
Yet still you have intentions for your world,
so forgive our closed minds and hearts,
and help us to step outside the lines we have drawn for ourselves.
Remind us that you have given us what we need,
and that you have given us as the gift to meet the needs of the world in this moment.
Make us your blessing again today.
We ask in the name of the coming Christ. Amen.

Sanctuary Sung Prayer hymn 303 v.3
But with the woes of sin and strife
the world has suffered long;
beneath the angels hymn have rolled
two thousand years of wrong;
and warring humankind hears not
the love-song which they bring;
oh, hush the noise and still the strife
to hear the angels sing.

Sanctuary Children’s Time (O Little Town verse 4)

Reading: Esther 4 (New Revised Standard Version)
The scripture reading today is from the book of Esther, the fourth chapter. Since this is the middle of the story, allow me to recap what has happened up to this point.
The Book of Esther opens with an enormous 180-day party thrown by the King of the Persian Empire, ruling over 127 provinces. As the days of feasting draw to a close, he summons his wife, Vashti, to show off her beauty by appearing wearing only her crown. But Vashti refuses, so the king banishes her. After a while, he begins to miss his queen. His officials propose an elaborate beauty contest of all the kingdom’s beautiful maidens, from whom he can choose a new queen. From all over the 127 provinces, beautiful women are brought to the palace, trained in ways that please him, given lessons in clothes and makeup, and one by one introduced to the king for a night.
Esther is a Jew who lives in the capital city. She is an orphan who was raised by her uncle, Mordecai, one of the leaders of the Jewish people in exile. When they come to take her to the palace, Mordecai insightfully instructs her not to reveal who her family is or that she is Jewish. After a 12 month process, Esther is deemed the fairest of them all. “The king loved Esther more than all the women, and she carried charm and favor before him more than all the other virgins, so he placed the royal crown on her head, and made her queen in place of Vashti.”
Mordecai doesn’t tell anyone he is related to the new queen, but he does frequent the palace gates to hear news of Esther’s well being. One day he overhears two men plotting to murder the king and he quickly sends word to Esther, who reveals the plot to the king in the name of Mordecai. The plotters are caught and executed, and Mordecai’s name and deed are written in the king’s Book of Chronicles.
In the meantime, the king appoints Haman as Prime Minister and issues a decree that all should bow to him. Mordecai refuses to bow down before Haman. Mordecai’s refusal infuriates Haman. Already driven by his family’s historic hatred of the Jewish people, Haman goes to the King at the beginning of the year with 10,000 silver pieces and asks for permission to destroy the Jews. He presents the issue to the king as a matter of loyalty, saying “There is a certain people, scattered and spread out among the peoples in all the states of your kingdom, their laws are different from other peoples and they do not observe the king’s laws, so it is not worth it for the king to leave them alive.” The king agrees and issues an edict to all 127 provinces saying that on the 13th day of the 12th month, the Jews in all the provinces are to be exterminated and their property kept as plunder.
Upon hearing this vile edict, Mordecai dons sackcloth and ashes. He quickly sends word to Esther that she must go to the king and stop this horrible decree from becoming reality. We pick up the story today in chapter 4, and I am reading from the New Revised Standard Version.
~~~~~

When Mordecai learned all that had been done, Mordecai tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes, and went through the city, wailing with a loud and bitter cry; he went up to the entrance of the king’s gate, for no one might enter the king’s gate clothed with sackcloth. In every province, wherever the king’s command and his decree came, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting and weeping and lamenting, and most of them lay in sackcloth and ashes.

When Esther’s maids and her eunuchs came and told her, the queen was deeply distressed; she sent garments to clothe Mordecai, so that he might take off his sackcloth; but he would not accept them. Then Esther called for Hathach, one of the king’s eunuchs, who had been appointed to attend her, and ordered him to go to Mordecai to learn what was happening and why. Hathach went out to Mordecai in the open square of the city in front of the king’s gate, and Mordecai told him all that had happened to him, and the exact sum of money that Haman had promised to pay into the king’s treasuries for the destruction of the Jews. Mordecai also gave him a copy of the written decree issued in Susa for their destruction, that he might show it to Esther, explain it to her, and charge her to go to the king to make supplication to him and entreat him for her people.

Hathach went and told Esther what Mordecai had said. Then Esther spoke to Hathach and gave him a message for Mordecai, saying, ‘All the king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces know that if any man or woman goes to the king inside the inner court without being called, there is but one law—all alike are to be put to death. Only if the king holds out the golden sceptre to someone, may that person live. I myself have not been called to come in to the king for thirty days.’ When they told Mordecai what Esther had said, Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, ‘Do not think that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. For if you keep silence at such a time as this, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another quarter, but you and your father’s family will perish. Who knows? Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this.’ Then Esther said in reply to Mordecai, ‘Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. I and my maids will also fast as you do. After that I will go to the king, though it is against the law; and if I perish, I perish.’ Mordecai then went away and did everything as Esther had ordered him.

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: We Are the Ones
This may seem like a strange story to read during Advent, the season of looking and waiting and preparing for Christ to come and reveal God’s kingdom in the flesh among us. But then the news this week was full of stories that frankly feel like they would fit right in to this one. A former president of the USA invited noted white supremacists and christian nationalists to share a meal. A popular American musician said such bonkers anti-semitic things that even two other celebrities known for their white supremacist views had to cut him off from their platforms. A palace event hosted by the Queen Consort made news not for its topic, violence against women, but for the racist behaviour of one staff member, which then caused much social media conversation about whether or not her behaviour was actually offensive or not. And there have been several news stories this week about disabled people not being able to get housing — including the news that a number of cities don’t actually have any accessible housing in their plans at all.

As I was thinking about all these stories and the story of Esther, something they all have in common really stood out to me: how it’s the minorities, the people being marginalised, the people most in danger, who end up having to advocate for themselves while the majority just accept things because they’re not really affected. The palace event trying to raise awareness about violence against women was…hosted by a woman. The charities and organisations represented there to talk about their work were almost entirely run by women. The people of colour who are tired of being made to feel they can’t possibly belong here are the ones who have to continually speak up and ask the rest of us not to assume they’re outsiders. It’s wheelchair users themselves who are having to go public with the fact they can’t get a house and how humiliating it is to have to crawl from room to room or to rely on carers they don’t really need simply because their home doesn’t have wide enough doorways for them to get around. And it’s the Jews, both today and in the story of Esther, who have to cry out about the rhetoric and plans for extermination that non-Jews just shrug off.

All those marginalised people who have to spend all that energy and time and effort advocating to be treated as equals also means there’s something else in common: a majority culture that doesn’t notice or care much about these things until it affects us. Or worse, a majority culture willing to go along with what is obviously wrong, simply because it’s easier to go along, or more profitable, or less dangerous. I want to believe, despite the evidence I see every day, that surely the average Persian would have recognised the king’s decree as terrible. In the capital city they may even have recognised the hand of Haman behind it, one man’s narcissistic dreams manipulating the political system to get his way and raise himself up. And yet the story doesn’t say anything about people standing up and saying no, they won’t do this thing. It’s only the Jews, who are at risk of death, who mourn and cry out and try to raise public awareness of what’s happening to them.

Maybe the people felt it was too dangerous to defy a royal decree, better to just follow orders no matter what. Maybe they secretly didn’t care what happened to their Jewish neighbours. Maybe deep down they agreed with Haman that they didn’t want those people who had different customs and hard-to-pronounce names and weird traditions to be their neighbours. Maybe they thought it didn’t matter because the day appointed for the slaughter was still eleven months away and they’re too busy to think about something so far off. Maybe they figured they were just one person, it’s just how it is and even though everyone knows the king is an unstable ruler surrounded by greedy opportunistic advisers who manipulate him, it was too scary to try to stand up to the powers that be or to change the system.

Whatever the case, the ones in danger don’t have that luxury. They have to do something. Mordecai sends word to Esther, and she quickly learns that even though she is passing as Persian, she doesn’t get to say she’s just one person. Instead Mordecai reminds her that she is exactly the one person needed. And yes, it will be dangerous, but that’s a risk she will have to take.

Actually, Mordecai points out to Esther that the danger is really the same no matter what her own decision: she can do nothing and hope that her privilege will protect her, but the truth is that will only work for a little while. She’ll be found out and she’ll die with the others. Or she can do something…if it works, she’ll have saved countless lives, and if her attempt is unsuccessful, she’ll die with the others anyway. But if she does nothing, certain death is ahead. If she does something, there’s a chance that new life might be ahead.

Since the risk is the same whether she does a new thing or the same old thing, it’s time to put aside the fear of death.

Esther is just one person. One scared person. One scared person whose background and current circumstances combine to make her exactly the person needed.

But also, she wasn’t alone. She asked the whole community to fast for her, so they could have that moment of solidarity before she took her stand. Even though she was isolated in the palace, she renewed her connection to her people — God’s people. And in that strength, she spoke the truth to the king, and that one small voice turned everything upside down. The one who had plotted for the demise of others while raising himself high was brought down low. The one who had been the lowly man at the gate in sackcloth and ashes was lifted up to favour and status. The people who had been at risk were equipped to defend themselves, and the people who tried to do harm were the ones harmed. It’s a story of reversal, of shaking up the world as it is and trying a new way.

Doesn’t that sound like an Advent story, after all? One small voice, turning everything on its head. One person from a marginalised community bringing down the systems of an empire. One young girl, saying yes to her calling to do something dangerous and impossible…because Emmanuel, God is with us.

What if, instead of just letting things happen because they aren’t happening to us, or because we’re too scared, or it’s too big…what if we too said yes, because Emmanuel?
What if we really believed that we are exactly what is needed? Not that someone else will do it, someone else is better equipped, not waiting for some superhero to swoop in and save the day, but you and me and us — we are what the world needs.
When we look at everything going on around us…when we see that people are still targeted because they’re different, still marginalised, still at risk, still vulnerable…when we see that the way things are and the dreams of the way things could be…
how might we respond differently if, rather than waiting for someone else to be the hero, we knew that we are the ones who are in this place for such a time as this?
What could we do when white supremacy and christian nationalism and antisemitism and ableism and sexism and violence raise their ugly heads…
what could we do when faced with difficult changes in the church…
what could we do when our politics or culture or economy intentionally divides and disadvantages…
What could we do if we understood that the danger of doing nothing was the same as the possible danger of doing something, but that doing something could also change everything?

We often talk of Advent as a season of preparation, and we mean that we are preparing for Christmas. But Advent is also a season when God prepares us to participate in the arrival of Christ and his kingdom.
We are the ones God has been preparing and putting into place for just such a time as this.
We are the ones God has equipped and when we, the people of God, stand up and speak truth, even if our voice shakes, the world will begin to turn.
And we can do it, because Emmanuel.

May it be so. Amen.

*Hymn: Canticle of the Turning (the Magnificat, adapted by Rory Cooney, tune Star of County Down)
My soul cries out with a joyful shout
that the God of my heart is great,
and my spirit sings of the wondrous things
that you bring to the ones who wait.
You fixed your sight on your servant’s plight,
and my weakness you did not spurn,
so from east to west shall my name be blest.
Could the world be about to turn?

Refrain:
My heart shall sing of the day you bring.
Let the fires of your justice burn.
Wipe away all tears, for the dawn draws near,
and the world is about to turn.

Though I am small, my God, my all,
you work great things in me,
and your mercy will last from the depths of the past
to the end of the age to be.
Your very name puts the proud to shame,
and to those who would for you yearn,
you will show your might, put the strong to flight,
for the world is about to turn. (Refrain)

From the halls of power to the fortress tower,
not a stone will be left on stone.
Let the king beware for your justice tears
every tyrant from his throne.
The hungry poor shall weep no more,
for the food they can never earn;
there are tables spread; every mouth be fed,
for the world is about to turn. (Refrain)

Though the nations rage from age to age,
we remember who holds us fast:
God’s mercy must deliver us
from the conqueror’s crushing grasp.
This saving word that our forebears heard
is the promise which holds us bound,
till the spear and rod can be crushed by God,
who is turning the world around. (Refrain)

Offering (Sanctuary only)

Prayer and Lord’s Prayer
Creator God, your world is not as you intended.
So much is upside down, and our priorities are out of order.
We pray today for those who find themselves the target of the resulting anxiety,
who are blamed and scapegoated as a way to avoid the bigger issues.
We ask your help for all who are under the thumb or the boot of the powerful,
that they may have the strength and courage to stand,
and that we may have the strength and courage to join them.
We pray today for those in danger, who have to look past fear to possibility,
who protect others and who long for a rest from their vigilance,
that they may experience peace and safety,
and that we may work toward justice that leads to peace on their behalf.
We pray today for those who believe they can manage alone,
who do not see that the fate of all creation is tied up in our ability to reach across lines of privilege,
that they may recognise the value of community,
and that we may reach across too.
We pray today for those who have been told they are not good enough, or not needed or wanted,
for those who have learned to keep themselves safe by carefully following the rules,
that they may be set free to fulfil their potential,
and that we may support them as they step out of their comfort zone.
As Esther said yes to your call, knowing the risks yet choosing to serve;
As Mary said yes to your call, knowing the risks yet bearing your word;
give us courage to say yes to your call,
knowing the risks yet speaking the truth and living your way,
that all may see your kingdom coming on earth as it is in heaven,
turning everything upside down.
We ask in the name of Christ who changed everything,
and 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 279: Make Way

Benediction
Go to use the power you do have, in the place you are. For just such a time as this, God has given you what you need so that you can be just what the world needs. May you know the blessing of being a blessing in the world waiting for your light.
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

* Our Advent Appeal this year is supporting “A Little Box of Love” for Mind Mosaic Child and Family therapies. They are asking us to fill a shoebox or gift bag with items such as winter clothing, small toys or arts-and-crafts items, perhaps a few sweets, gift/food vouchers, baby items, gift sets, etc — there are three age categories: babies and toddlers aged 0-3 and their parents, children aged 3-12, and teens aged 13-18. If you would like to fill a shoebox (with NEW items only please), label it with the age and gender child it’s for, and bring it and place it under our Christmas tree up until the 15th of December, please do.

* Gourock Schools and Churches Together will host a carol service TONIGHT Sunday 4 December at 6pm in Old Gourock & Ashton’s sanctuary, with music provided by all our local schools, carols to sing together, and refreshments afterward.

* Bubblegum and Fluff, the Christmas workshop for Primary 5 pupils, is taking place this week. If you’d like to volunteer please come to OGA at 8:55am on Monday and/or Tuesday, and St Margaret’s on Wednesday and/or Thursday. We finish each day before noon. Thanks!

* The next Bowl & Blether in St John’s is TOMORROW Monday 5 December, and the next one in St. Margaret’s is this Saturday 10 December. Both days the doors open at 11:30 and soup is served from 12. Come for a lovely meal in a cozy hall, with friendly faces! In St. John’s we now also have toasties and board games!

* The Pastoral Care group will meet on Tuesday the 6th of December at 7:30pm in the small hall. Anyone interested in helping with pastoral care in the church is most welcome.

* Greenock Philharmonic Choir are holding their Christmas Concert on Saturday the 10th December at 7:30pm, in the Lyle Kirk, Union Street. The choir will be joined by the very talented and entertaining Riverside Youth Band. Tickets are priced £15, and this includes refreshments. Tickets are available by calling Calum on 07847 250529 or by emailing info@greenockphilharmonic.co.uk. Tickets are also available at the door on the night.

* You are invited to join in reading the Bible in a year for 2022 — immersing ourselves in God’s word throughout the year. We get together to discuss each week on Wednesday at 7:30pm in the manse at 6 Barrhill Road. All are welcome, no experience necessary! Feel free to invite a friend, too! Anyone who has ever wondered just what the Bible actually says and what it has to do with us is welcome. We are reading Isaiah and 1 Corinthians just now.

* Young Adult Bible Study meets in the manse on the 2nd and 4th Sundays at 7pm for a meal and a study of the gospel according to John. If you’d like more information, for yourself, a family member, a friend, or neighbour who is in their 20s, please contact Teri for the dates/times and other information.

* The Christmas concert/service with the Stedfast Silver Band and the Connect+ singing group at Westburn on the evening of Thursday 15 December.

* Reely Jiggered and the Voices of Argyll choir will be doing a Christmas Concert in the sanctuary on Friday 16 December at 7:30pm. Tickets are £12 and available on their website https://reelyjiggered.com or at the door.

* The service for the Longest Night — like a Quiet Christmas service, on the winter solstice, the longest night of the year, when we are in shadows and yet turn toward the light, will be on Wednesday 21 December at 7:30pm in the sanctuary. This contemplative Christmas service is perfect for those who are looking for a reflective opportunity, who need a little space this season, or who just enjoy the less raucous carols.

* The Choir Brigade Christmas Concert will be in the sanctuary on Friday 23rd December at 730pm. Tickets are £10 and available at https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/the-choir-brigade.

* Christmas Eve worship services will be on Saturday 24 December at 7pm in St John’s and 11:30pm in Old Gourock & Ashton.

* Christmas morning worship will be on Sunday 25 December at 10am in the St. John’s sanctuary. Bring a gift you received to share about it during the children’s time!

* New Year’s Day worship will be on Sunday 1 January and will be a New Year Communion shared with Old Gourock & Ashton and St Ninian’s (Larkfield). The service will be at 10:30am in OGA.

Advent & Christmas 2022

Sunday Service for 27 November 2022, first Sunday of Advent

Sunday 27 November 2022, NL1-13, Advent 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 and Announcements

Sanctuary Hymn 477: Lo, He Comes With Clouds Descending

Sanctuary — All Sing:
As we light the advent candle,
with the light of hope burning bright,
faithfully we wait for his coming,
faithfully it shines through the night!
In our humble hearts, a fire burns as well;
hear the prayer these flames would tell:
O come, O come, Emmanuel,
and ransom captive Israel.

All: So much feels impossible, O God.
We are looking for what you will do,
longing for answers, for help, for inspiration.
You offer a vision of hope,
simpler than we imagined yet beautiful enough to keep us going…
And you call us to not only stand there and look for ourselves,
but to share it, so all may be encouraged.
In the midst of everything,
bless us with the grace to see and to hold hope for others.
Amen.

Hymn 273: O Come O Come Emmanuel

Prayer
In you we have every reason to rejoice, loving God, for you are our strength and our salvation.
And also in the world we see so few reasons to rejoice.
We confess that we would rather ignore the hard parts, and focus on the positive.
We find it easy to demand cheerfulness and smiles,
and harder to admit that not everyone feels cheery or wants to fake a smile for us.
We confess that we are uncomfortable with the upheaval all around us,
and uncertain what it means for the world to turn upside down
when we are at the top of the global ladder,
so we focus on shallow happiness instead of the full depth of reality.
Forgive us for ignoring the whole truth.
Forgive us for focusing on ourselves and our comfort
at the expense of knowing our neighbour enough to love them.
Give us courage to be honest about the unraveling of the world,
that we may experience both depths and heights together,
trusting your presence to lead us onward.
We ask in the name of Emmanuel, God with us. Amen.

Sanctuary Sung Prayer hymn 318 verse 2
You are our God beyond all praising,
yet, for love’s sake, became a man;
stooping so low, but sinners raising
heavenwards, by your eternal plan:
you are our God, beyond all praising,
yet, for love’s sake, became a man.

Sanctuary: Children’s Time (O Little Town verse 4)

Reading: selections from Habakkuk (New Revised Standard Version)
Today’s reading is from the prophet Habakkuk, who lived around the year 600-ish BCE, after the destruction of the Northern Kingdom of Israel by the Assyrians, but before the Babylonian empire rose to full power and took over the Southern Kingdom of Judah. This was a time of great uncertainty among God’s people as they were not sure of their own safety or future, the leadership was poor, and so their faithfulness and hope was faltering. The prophet speaks to God, reports the words of God in response, and also speaks to others about God. We will hear selections from all three chapters of this short book, and we are reading from the New Revised Standard Version.

The oracle that the prophet Habakkuk saw.  
O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, 
and you will not listen?
 Or cry to you ‘Violence!’ 
and you will not save?  
Why do you make me see wrongdoing 
and look at trouble?
 Destruction and violence are before me; 
strife and contention arise.  
So the law becomes slack 
and justice never prevails. 
The wicked surround the righteous— 
therefore judgement comes forth perverted.

Look at the nations, and see! 
Be astonished! Be astounded!
 For a work is being done in your days 
that you would not believe if you were told.  
For I am rousing the Chaldeans, 
that fierce and impetuous nation,
 who march through the breadth of the earth 
to seize dwellings not their own.  
Dread and fearsome are they; 
their justice and dignity proceed from themselves.

I will stand at my watch-post, 
and station myself on the rampart; 
I will keep watch to see what he will say to me, 
and what he will answer concerning my complaint.

Then the Lord answered me and said: 
Write the vision; 
make it plain on tablets, 
so that a runner may read it.  
For there is still a vision for the appointed time;    i
t speaks of the end, and does not lie. 
If it seems to tarry, wait for it;    i
t will surely come, it will not delay.
Look at the proud! 
Their spirit is not right in them, 
but the righteous live by their faith.

His glory covered the heavens, 
and the earth was full of his praise.  
The brightness was like the sun; 
rays came forth from his hand, 
where his power lay hidden.  
Before him went pestilence, 
and plague followed close behind.  
He stopped and shook the earth; 
he looked and made the nations tremble.
 The eternal mountains were shattered; 
along his ancient pathways 
the everlasting hills sank low.

Though the fig tree does not blossom, 
and no fruit is on the vines;
 though the produce of the olive fails 
and the fields yield no food;
 though the flock is cut off from the fold 
and there is no herd in the stalls,  
yet I will rejoice in the Lord; 
I will exult in the God of my salvation.  
God, the Lord, is my strength; 
he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, 
and makes me tread upon the heights.

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: Public Hope
Sometimes — more often than I would expect, honestly — when I meet with families to talk about a loved one’s funeral, they say things like “they just got on with it, never complained about anything.”

For the avoidance of doubt: no one will ever be able to say that about me. If they do, you should be very suspicious that they are actually talking about someone else, or that they don’t really know me at all…or possibly it’ll be their secret code for trying to say I’ve been kidnapped or something, because it’s so patently untrue. I mean, I try not to be completely miserable with never a good thing to say, but I am definitely also a complainer. And having read the beginning of the book of Habakkuk, I have decided I’m in good company.

In fact, this is something of a common theme through the Bible — there are many moments in the history of God’s people where they have been brutally honest about their complaints. After all, God made big promises, and did amazing things in the past, and the people didn’t hesitate to remind God what God had promised. How long do we have to cry out for help? How long do we pray for peace yet see only violence? How long will there be so much slack — so many loopholes — that there might as well be no law at all for some people who get away with anything and the rest suffer? How long, O Lord?

God’s people were desperate for help that did not seem to be forthcoming. The average person was growing poorer while the rich grew richer, people were trying their best to survive while the weather didn’t cooperate and the fields were bare. Their leaders were corrupt and enriched themselves while selling out the rest of the country. And because their leaders were not faithful, that culture trickled down the way wealth never seems to do. If the people at the top don’t do what is right, why should we? The only way to get by is to participate in the injustice and violence.

But at least the prophet knew that God called them to a different kind of life…but he lifted up his voice to complain that God wasn’t doing anything to help them get there. Where was God’s voice, God’s presence, God’s intervention? How were they supposed to go against the grain if God wasn’t going to give them the strength to do it?

That longing threatened to overtake their hope. And yet still the prophet stood and waited for God to answer.

Sometimes we jump straight from longing to despair to “I’ll handle it myself.” We have such an addiction to instant gratification that waiting for God to answer feels antithetical to our way of life. But it is that waiting for God that is at the heart of Advent — and at the heart of a life lived on God’s way. When we give in to the temptation to handle it ourselves, we find ourselves straying from the path. It’s easy to see how the Israelites fell into following those leaders who promised a lot, even though they never delivered — because sometimes we all long for easy answers to our complex questions, and it can feel like our complaints go unanswered so we want to just do something, even if that something is actually hurtful to others, ourselves, our community, or the planet.

But the prophet stood on the watchtower and waited. And sure enough, God had an answer.

Unfortunately sometimes the answer is not what we wanted to hear!

After all, if I was looking out at a barren land, where the crops failed and there was violence all around, I would not want to hear God say “I’m raising up another nation to do my work, since you won’t.” That sounds like bad news instead of good news, however true it may be that sometimes God’s people abandon the work God calls us to do. Though I suppose it is good news in that God will not be thwarted, even by our unfaithfulness.

But the next thing God says is maybe even more difficult actually:
God says to make the vision clear even to people who are just running by.
Not just to have private hope, nurtured in our hearts but kept inside…but to share it in such a way that literally anyone and everyone can see it.

Now I don’t know about you but when I’m in complaining mode, the last thing I want to do is figure out how to be hopeful in public. But that’s what God offers: a promise that God will act in God’s time, no matter how late we think God is, and a calling to make hope visible.
There is still a vision, and it is not a lie. This vision is true and trustworthy. And if it feels like it’s slow in coming, then your job is to keep holding it up for people to see, to keep living as if it is true and bringing everyone who passes by into its promise.

Everyone who passes by. Not even just the people we purposely interact with, not just the people who are looking for us and what we have to offer, but everyone. Even a runner may read it — the people who are hurrying past, on their way to somewhere else. And not just the hurried but the harried too, full up on stress, busy taking matters into their own hands, going every which way trying to keep up, minds going a million miles an hour, not interested in one more thing clamouring for their attention. All those people should be able to see, at a glance, the vision of hope God has given us to share.

That’s a tall order! That kind of public hope is hard work.

If we try to draw that hope from within ourselves somewhere, or from the world around us, it will be impossible work. If we try to draw that vision from the leaders in politics or corporations — however compelling their Christmas adverts may be — it will be impossible work. Why are we able to have hope and share it? Because Emmanuel. Because God is with us. There is no other well deep enough to draw joy even when all we see around us is bleak. There is no other source that can sustain us even through our most justified complaints. There is no one else who can lift us up when we are so weary from carrying on that we don’t know if we can do it anymore.

When the earth is starved, when our eyes see only wrongdoing and trouble and violence and destruction and strife, when even the rest of God’s people have abandoned their posts and God is raising up someone else to do the work…God calls us to write the vision so plainly that even the briefest of glances will inspire enough hope to get back on track, to slow down and keep waiting and watching for God’s kingdom to come in, for it will come, in God’s time, and God is showing us so we can show others.

That will require being clear about the vision and hope ourselves, or else people will get mixed messages from us instead and the vision will be obscured. There is no time in the year when we have such an opportunity, when the story of God With Us is so accessible to people who normally have no idea or connection…and also no time in the year when people are more hurried and more harried and caught up in instant gratification… no time when we are more in need of a message of hope, of light in the darkness. No time when we have a greater chance to invite people into a vision of the different world that God makes possible, and to watch and work for it together. This is when God calls us to have the most public hope.

Why? Because Emmanuel. And in the midst of it all, we are called to share the vision so clearly that anyone and everyone whom we encounter can see it and be lifted up and encouraged to live in God’s way now. There is no better time.

May it be so. Amen.

Hymn: Everlasting God (praise band)

Sanctuary: Offering

Prayer and Lord’s Prayer
Your presence is amazing, O God,
and powerful, un-making and re-making the world you so love.
We thank you for your promise,
fulfilled in your time.
And we pray for those who live now in barren places,
where the trees do not blossom and the crops fail,
those affected most as the creation cries out
and the warped ways of this world yield suffering and fear.
May they know your providing,
in the hands of friends and the commitments of the global community,
and in the actions we all take to help.
We pray for those who cannot see the vision,
whose minds and hearts have become clouded with pain or illness or grief,
whose lives are too harried and hurried that they don’t have time to look,
whose bodies have grown weak and their souls tired.
May their burdens be lifted
and may they know the possibility of joy in the sharing of the common life.
We pray for those whose glimpses of joy are not enough to sustain them,
and for those who have closed their eyes to anything but good news.
May your fullness of life be theirs.
As we await your new world coming into being,
strengthen and uphold us,
give us the tools and courage to share the vision with others,
and guide our feet into your path of hope.
We ask in the name of the coming 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.

Sanctuary Hymn 479: View the Present Through the Promise

Benediction
In the midst of it all, God is with us. In the midst of it all, Christ is coming. In the midst of it all, the Spirit is revealing a new vision of hope. Hold onto that vision, and go to be a blessing to others by sharing it with all whom you meet.
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

* The season of Advent begins today! Any organisations or groups with announcements to share for the season of Advent or month of December should please send details ASAP for the weekly emails and monthly intimations sheet.

* Young Adult Bible Study meets in the manse TONIGHT and on the 2nd and 4th Sundays at 7pm for a meal and a study of the gospel according to John. If you’d like more information, for yourself, a family member, a friend, or neighbour who is in their 20s, please contact Teri for the dates/times and other information.

* The Contact Group meets on Tuesday the 29th of November at 2pm, to hear from Bruce Newlands of Inverclyde Shed and Shore Street Gardens. All are welcome.

* You are invited to join in reading the Bible in a year-ish for 2022 — immersing ourselves in God’s word throughout the year. We get together to discuss each week on Wednesday at 7:30pm in the manse at 6 Barrhill Road. All are welcome, no experience necessary! Feel free to invite a friend, too! Anyone who has ever wondered just what the Bible actually says and what it has to do with us is welcome.

* Old Gourock and Ashton Parish Players Panto is this week! This year it’s Jack and the Beanstalk and shows are from Wed 30th November to Sat 3rd December. Evening performances start at 7.30 on Wed, Thur and Fri. Tickets for these performance cost £9. The matinee on Saturday starts at 1pm and the early evening performance starts at 5pm. Tickets for these performances cost £6. If anyone is interested please contact Avril on 07713 625750.

* Our Advent Appeal this year is supporting “A Little Box of Love” for Mind Mosaic Child and Family therapies. They are asking us to fill a shoebox or gift bag with items such as winter clothing, small toys or arts-and-crafts items, perhaps a few sweets, gift/food vouchers, baby items, gift sets, etc — there are three age categories: babies and toddlers aged 0-3 and their parents, children aged 3-12, and teens aged 13-18. If you would like to fill a shoebox (with NEW items only please), label it with the age and gender child it’s for, and bring it and place it under our Christmas tree up until the 15th of December, please do.

* The Christmas Post will again be carried out by our youth organisations — you can bring your cards between December 4 and 18, though the earlier the better please! The cost will remain at 30p per card, with all proceeds going to support ministry with young people at St John’s.

*Gourock Schools and Churches Together will host a carol service on Sunday 4 December at 6pm in Old Gourock & Ashton’s sanctuary, with music provided by all our local schools, carols to sing together, and refreshments afterward.

* The Contact Group is having an Advent Celebration of carols and readings on Tuesday 13^th December at 2pm. This will be an informal event with participation from members of other local churches. All are welcome to attend and we ask that a donation to Starter Packs be brought along to help people in our local community.

* 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.

* Greenock Philharmonic Choir are holding their Christmas Concert on Sat. 10^th December at 7-30pm, in the Lyle Kirk, Union Street. The choir will be joined by the very talented and entertaining Riverside Youth Band. Tickets are priced £15, and this includes refreshments. Tickets are available by calling Calum on 07847 250529 or by emailing info@greenockphilharmonic.co.uk. Tickets are also available at the door on the night.

Sunday service for 19 December 2021, fourth Sunday of Advent

19 December 2021, 4th 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.

Prelude Music

Welcome and Announcements

Lighting the Fourth Advent Candle
1: In the depths of night, God’s grace lights the way.
2: In the shadows before dawn, God’s life lights the way.
3: In the confusion and chaos, God’s truth lights the way.
4: In the longing and waiting, God’s Word lights the way.
All: God is coming, and the world will never be the same!
~candle is lit~

O come, thou Wisdom from on high,
who orderest all things mightily:
to us the path of knowledge show;
and teach us in her ways to go.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
shall come to thee, O Israel.

Prayer
Your glory shines, Holy One, yet we confess that we find it easier to live in the kingdoms of this world than in yours. We understand how the systems work, and we admit that though the price the powers and principalities demand is high, still we choose them. We confess that we have fallen into the trap of speaking one way and living another — we claim the truth of your word and at the same time live as if the empires of this world have ultimate power and sway. They obscure your grace and love, and we admit that in the fog and shadows we have gotten turned around, so we find ourselves serving the death-dealing powers rather than your life and light. Forgive us and turn us again to your way, enlightened by your truth and grace. We ask in the name of the one who forever bound word and action together, your Word become Flesh among us, Jesus the Christ. Amen.

Online Hymn 274: Comfort, Comfort, Now My People

Children’s Time (in person only)

Reading: John 1.1-18
For several weeks, we have been reading from the prophets, with their concerns and promises for the people in exile, looking for God’s presence and call in unfamiliar territory. Today we transition from the Hebrew Bible to the New Testament. From now through Easter we will be reading from the Gospel According to John, which was written between 90-100 CE to a community struggling with how to differentiate themselves in an increasingly hostile environment, as they no longer fit into synagogue life but were also threatening to the Roman Empire. Each of the four gospels has a unique perspective as they tell the story of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. We might think of John as looking at Jesus from above, from a cosmic perspective, seeing a big picture rather than small immediate details. We’ll hear this from the very beginning, as the gospel opens with an overture that, just like a musical overture, hints at the themes that are to come. I am reading from chapter 1, beginning at verse 1, from the New Revised Standard Version.
~~~~~

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.
He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.
And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. (John testified to him and cried out, ‘This was he of whom I said, “He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.” ’) From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.

~~~
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: The Word Became Flesh

This time of year means that everything I read or see calls a song to mind…this week I’ve been non-stop humming

God of God,
Light of light,
Lo! he abhors not the Virgin’s womb;
very God,
begotten not created;
O come, let us adore him,
O come, let us adore him,
O come, let us adore him, Christ the Lord!

In just a few sparse lines of poetry filled mainly with words we rarely use anymore, the carol gives us a summary of John 1: the Word was God…light shines in the darkness…the Word became flesh, loving and blessing this human body…and when we see, we will orient our lives around praise.

A few weeks ago, when we read from Isaiah 9 about “the people walking in darkness have seen a great light,” I said that the shining of the light doesn’t change the path on which we walk or the obstacles in our way, it changes us and our ability to navigate the journey to which God calls us.

John’s understanding of the light is the same. The Word, who is the light of all people, became flesh and lived among us, moved right into our neighbourhood and set up home and shop in our community…and we have seen his glory. That glory, that light, illuminates the world around us, showing us things we might not have seen before. Just the same way that a stream of sunshine through the window can highlight the dust floating in the air or the fingerprints on the windows, the light of the world highlights the things we live with everyday without even noticing. Things that the empires of this world want us to not see.

The Word became flesh and lived among us, and in the light of his glory we can see that we are children of God — our ancestry is not the determiner of our status in God’s family. The empires of this world want us to believe that where we’re born, or what we look like, or who our parents are, determines our value, and our place in the world, and how we ought to relate to other people. They have even used this ancient poetry to claim that dark skin is inferior to light skin, so we have to be careful when we use these powerful metaphors. Because the truth is that being a child of God, made in God’s image, has nothing to do with any of that. When we see that truth, we can live differently, walking in the light of life for all people.

The Word became flesh and lived among us, and in the light of his glory we can see that there is power in humility. John the baptiser recognised that though his role was important, he was not the light. He saw his job was to point the way toward the coming Christ, rather than trying to gather fame and power and wealth for himself. And even Jesus did not try to elevate himself or take equality with God for granted, but humbled himself. Which reminds me of another carol:

Hail, the heaven-born Prince of Peace!
Hail, the Sun of Righteousness!
Light and life to all he brings,
risen with healing in his wings.
Mild he lays his glory by,
born that man no more may die,
born to raise the sons of earth,
born to give them second birth:
Hark! the herald angels sing,
‘Glory to the new-born King.’

The empires of this world want us to focus attention on ourselves, and on what we can gain or earn, how we can get ahead, not on God himself laying his glory by the wayside. But when we see the truth of our place in God’s story, we can live differently, pointing the way to the one who is greater than we are.

The Word became flesh and lived among us, and in the light of his glory we can see that even those seemingly small roles matter. John was certain that his task was small and temporary — he wasn’t the light, he was a witness, and he wasn’t the first or the last. But he still went about his ministry faithfully, doing what God needed him to do, and it mattered. It made a difference to the people he baptised, the people who heard his teaching, the disciples he sent to follow Jesus, and even the religious and political leaders who were so disturbed by him. The empires of this world want us to think that small efforts make no difference, that if we can’t solve everything in one go, we should simply give up and let them carry on with their destructive ways. But when we see the truth of our place in God’s story, we can live differently, confidently doing even the smallest thing God asks of us, trusting it matters to God’s kingdom or else God wouldn’t call us to do it!

The Word became flesh and lived among us, and in the light of his glory we can see that flesh and blood matter, these bodies matter. Surely God could have sent the Word in any number of intellectual or spiritual ways, but God chose to take on a body, to live with the pains and joys and limitations and senses of a human body. Our bodies are not incidental to God’s story, they are a gift, a blessing, and it’s through a human body that God blesses the world. The empires of this world want us to separate mind, body, and spirit, and to believe none of them are good enough, to measure ourselves against some impossible standard so they can sell us more things. But when we see the truth of God’s emBodiment, we can live differently, treasuring the gift of physical presence and honouring and taking care of this body God gave us for a purpose.

The Word became flesh and lived among us, and in the light of his glory we can see that the darkness itself is already past, despite what the empires of this world think about themselves. This reading uses only past-tense words to say “the darkness did not overcome it” while the light shines in ongoing present tense verbs. The powers of this world, which do not have grace and truth at heart and are not serving God’s kingdom, want us to think they are the ultimate reality. I’m reminded of that old quip about “he’s a self-made man, and he worships his creator” — that’s what the ways of the world are like. They think they are the self-evidently correct, ordained since the beginning of time, or even only possible way things could be. And people uphold them because we can’t see any other way, so we assume it’s true that this is just the way things are, nothing to see here, nothing we can do about it. But ultimately that’s idolatry — the empire worshipping itself as if it’s the only way.

In the light of God’s Word, we see that they are past tense, holding on only by keeping us in the dark. When we see the truth of God’s ongoing life, we can recognise what is truly ultimate reality…and then we can live our lives in light of that reality instead of the one the world so desperately wants us to believe. Some do not see, despite the light shining. Some don’t accept the vision the light reveals. Some choose the shadows, because it’s easier and more profitable. But the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. The light overcomes the confusion and obfuscation, offering clarity we can only describe as grace upon grace.

In which kingdom would we prefer to live? Christ was born to shine the light of truth, not from far off but from right here, as close as God could get — pitching a tent in the back garden, moving in to the kitchen, meeting us at the front door — so that we could see God’s glory, up close and personal. This Christmas, and beyond, may we see, and walk, in the light.

Amen.

Online Hymn: Emmanuel – Living Word (by David MacGregor)

In Person Hymn 308: Behold the great Creator makes (vv. 1, 2, 3, 5)

Prayer and Lord’s Prayer
We take a deep breath and feel your spirit in our lungs, O God.
We feel your breath expanding, filling, stretching us, bringing us to new life.

We give thanks for these bodies you have gifted us.
As we place our hands on our legs,
we are grateful for muscles and joints,
and for assistive devices like sticks and chairs,
that bear heavy loads,
that move us from place to place.
We pray this day for those who feel trapped, unable to move.
We lift up those who are confined to home or hospital,
those who are self-isolating,
those who live with pain in their joints or muscles,
those who mourn the loss of freedom or mobility.
May they be upheld and moved by your strength.

As we place our hands on our stomachs,
we are grateful for all that goes on inside of us, out of sight.
We thank you for all the organs that keep us going,
for the way you have knit us together
and created a body that cares for itself.
We are fearfully and wonderfully made!
We pray this day for those who do not have enough to eat,
whose tummies rumble and whose systems suffer from lack.
We lift up our neighbours who are ill and awaiting tests or treatment,
whose stomachs are full of butterflies and nerves as they wonder what the future holds.
May they be fed and healed by your power.

As we place our hands on our arms, wrapping ourselves in your gift,
we give thanks for the ability to feel, to know you through our senses.
We are grateful for wonder and tenderness, compassion and joy,
there for us to experience in every way.
We pray this day for those who are starved for touch,
who are lonely and longing for a hug.
We lift up those whose senses show them only pain,
who are surrounded by fear or shadows or abuse.
May they be cared for by your love.

Your word is the foundation of reality,
your grace pre-dates history,
and still you choose to reveal yourself to us,
still you call us your children.
We come, longing to see your glory,
praying you will once again speak life into being, O God,
and call us to walk by your light.

We ask in the name of the Word made Flesh, Jesus the Christ,
the light and life of the world, 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.

In Person Hymn 313: See! in yonder manger low (vv. 1, 2, 5)

Benediction
May you walk in the light of grace and truth this Christmas. 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 Calendar! There’ll be a Facebook Live for some of the St John’s Advent Calendar too.

* Bring your Reverse Advent Calendar donations to church or to the manse and we will get them delivered.

* Christmas worship Schedule:
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 Teri. 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!

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.

~~~

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.

~~~~
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.

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.

* 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.

Sunday Service for 20 December 2020, fourth Sunday of Advent

Worship for 20 December 2020, 4th Sunday of Advent
Prepared by the Rev. Teri Peterson, Gourock St John’s
Email: tpeterson (at) churchofscotland (dot) org (dot) uk

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Hymn #303: It Came Upon the Midnight Clear

Reading, Sermon, Prayers

Hymn: My Soul Cries Out With A Joyful Shout (Canticle of the Turning)

~~~~~~

Lighting the Fourth Advent Candle

In the darkest times we cannot see to make our way…
our eyes adjust, but still everything is shadowed and grey.
We reach out, desperate
for comfort
for balance
for the familiar
for hope
In the darkest times,
even a faltering light can be just enough:
the flame flickers, twinkles, dances—and it is dazzling!
For in its light, we see light: God in our midst.

~Candle is lit~

However impossible it seems,
God’s promise will be fulfilled —
and blessed is the one who sees the truth of God’s kingdom in our midst.
Come, O come, Emmanuel, God with us, and we will rejoice.

Reading: Luke 1.46-56
Today we pick up right where we left off last week, with Mary visiting her relative Elizabeth. They’re both pregnant and Elizabeth has blessed Mary for her trust in God’s word to her. I’m reading from the gospel according to Luke, chapter 1, beginning at verse 46, from the New Revised Standard Version.

And Mary said,
‘My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour,
for he has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servant.
Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
His mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
to Abraham and to his descendants for ever.’
And Mary remained with her for about three months and then returned to her home.

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: Mary Sings

This week I read a startling news article. Did you know that 2020 is the year that human-made things literally outweighed nature? This is the year that all the stuff we have created — our built environment of concrete and metal and glass, machinery, waste, everything we own — all of that now weighs more than all the entire biomass of the earth. Plastic alone weighs more than all the animals on land and sea! And the vast majority of that mass has been created since the second World War.

Reading about this definitely gave me pause when I was shopping for Christmas gifts. How can we celebrate the Christ who turns everything upside down and at the same time not add to this heavy footprint on God’s beloved creation?

I also had Mary’s song at the front of my mind as I was reading about the study titled “poverty linked to higher risk of Covid death” showing that those living in poorer health board areas of Scotland were more likely to have severe cases of Covid requiring intensive care, and because fewer critical care beds were available in those areas, people in economically deprived areas are more likely to die. We’ve seen the effects of that in Inverclyde through this pandemic, and the statistics nationwide bear out that more poor and disadvantaged people are dying—both from Covid and from other things going untreated as the health service tries to cope.

And again, the news this week is full of the epidemic of drug misuse in Scotland, and here in Inverclyde a rising rate of drug use and deaths. Of course we know that drugs and deprivation go hand in hand, so it shouldn’t be a surprise to us.

Into the middle of this reality, where hope seems impossible, Mary sings.

Like all of us, she begins from her own personal experience. Though she was not a person of power or status or wealth, just a poor teenager in an out-of-the-way town in an occupied land, God noticed her. God loved her. God called her. And she sang of her gratitude, her awe and wonder, her praise. This thing that God had done — called her to be a prophet and the mother of the Messiah — would not be easy, yet she said that God had done great things for her! She may have been scared, as anyone in her position would be, but her confidence in God’s goodness was enough to raise her voice.

And then, halfway through, Mary recognises that her own personal experience, her own little life that has been unremarkable, is also part of something bigger. Something that God has been doing for a long time, and will continue to do through her and her son, and on into the future: upend the systems of this world and make them look more like the kingdom of God.

From generation to generation, God works with power and mercy, through the lowliest and the marginalised, to fulfil the promise that changes everything: scatters the proud, brings down the powerful, and sends the rich away empty, while lifting up the lowly and filling the hungry with good things.

This is the Word that becomes flesh in Jesus. This is the promise that Mary is bearing in her body, the fruit of her faithfulness. This is who God is and what God does — from the earliest days of scripture to the very end of the book and beyond.

I wonder how many of us would join Mary in praising God for these things … given that we are far more likely to be the proud, powerful, and rich in this scenario? We are, globally speaking, at the top of this system that God is turning upside down. We are the ones whose lifestyles have created a situation where our stuff weighs down God’s creation. We are the ones who stand at arms length from the realities of deprivation and wring our hands and make a donation here and there and pray for something to change.

We should be careful what we pray for, because the song Mary sings is definitely about change. It’s about an upending of a system that is, frankly, immoral and against the values of God’s kingdom. Which is not to say that those of us who benefit from the system are bad, but rather that the entire system is. We can’t even claim that it’s broken, because the reality is that it’s working exactly as it’s been designed — to privilege the few at the expense of the many, to lift up some on the backs of others. And that system is exactly what God in the flesh will challenge, insisting on valuing every person as a beloved child of God, deserving of enough to eat and inclusion in the community and compassionate care…and that challenge is what will get him killed by the powers that do not want to be scattered or sent away empty. But the Mighty One who looks with favour on Mary will not be thwarted. Not this time, not ever. This is a promise that cannot be broken, and God will find a way to fulfil it, even if it means breaking the power of death to do it.

If this is what God is doing in Christ, then we who are called the Body of Christ had better be ready to be a part of it. If we celebrate Christmas and then nothing is different afterwards, we haven’t celebrated the Messiah that Mary is singing about today. Her words echo through the generations calling us to the kind of impossible Christmas that changes the world. What does the Word of God Incarnate have to say to those who live in such dire poverty that drugs seem the only comfort? Or to those who get richer while the poor get poorer? What does the community of those who love Mary’s son have to say to those who care more about their ability to shelter money in tax havens than about the lack of critical care beds in our hospital? How does the magnificat sound to the earth that groans under the weight of our economy’s need for constant consumption?

I’m sure I’m not alone in wishing Christmas was just about celebrating a birth and then getting back to normal life, just like any other birthday party. But what God is doing in Christ is saving the earth and all that is in it, even if that means saving us from ourselves. This is an act of love so monumental that it turns everything upside down. Who are we to wish that God would…what, love us a little less so we could go on as before? It’s impossible for God to do anything but love, and to fulfil promises, and this is the promise that makes Mary rejoice and that hopefully brings us the same kind of joyful commitment to God’s call that we, too, will be willing to bear God’s word in our bodies—and into the world that is desperate for the good news to be more than just pretty words or songs or cards or presents.

May it be so. Amen.

Prayer and the Lord’s Prayer
God who has created and is creating,
through all of history you have been making things new.
Your vision of justice and peace, compassion and community,
has always been and will always be.
Remember your mercy, O God,
and fulfil your promise of new life for all.

In this season when we prepare for your coming among us in the flesh,
we pray for all who cannot afford to wait any longer for justice —
for those yearning for peace;
for those facing holidays with an empty stomach;
for those whose physical and mental health is suffering;
for those whose Christmas list asks only for a safe place to call home.
Remember your mercy, O God,
and fulfil your promise of new life for all.

We pray too for those at the other end of the Magnificat —
for the rich, that they may learn true generosity;
for the full, that they may know the gift of emptying;
for the powerful, that they may use their position to do justice;
for the proud, that they may experience wonder and extend grace.
Remember your mercy, O God,
and fulfil your promise of new life for all.

We give you thanks, living God,
for your faithful people who have taught us your way.
For those who have recognised your work in our lives,
offering encouragement and blessing when we most needed it.
We thank you for friendship unconfined by generation,
for voices that cause our spirits to leap,
for the family of faith that nudges us to the next step on your path.
Remember your mercy, O God,
and fulfil your promise of new life for all.

Nothing will be impossible with you,
and so we ask for the blessing of trust that we might follow wherever you lead,
in the name of the One who is making all things new, 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
Go into your week committed to God’s call, to bear the word of God into a world that needs the good news to be lived and enacted by us all. 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.

Announcements

* If you would like to attend in-person worship in the sanctuary, you will need to book a place as we can only safely accommodate 35 people at a time under current distancing guidelines. Please phone Cameron (630879) on a Friday morning between 10-12 or Anne Love (07904 617283) on a Saturday morning between 10-12 to book in for that Sunday. If we reach our capacity, you’ll be given the first seats the following week.
Inside the church: face coverings must be worn, you may give your offering at the door rather than by passing it through the rows, we will ask you to sit in a particular seat to ensure everyone’s safety as there is a one-way system in place, and the service will be around half an hour with no singing but with instrumental music. Families are welcome, and children should stay in the service for the whole half hour — there will be a children’s time for them though! If you’ve been out of the area in the past 2 weeks, or if you have any symptoms that could be covid, please plan to worship online rather than in person.
If the government Tiers or regulations change, that could affect our services. Should that happen, we will contact everyone who is booked in for a service, and will use all our regular communication channels to advise of any new restrictions or procedures or plans.

* Online and audio recording-by-phone (call 01475 270037 to listen to the service) worship will continue, and the print version will continue to be available on request.

* The theme for Advent is “The Blessings of an (Im)possible Christmas.” You may want to have a candle handy when you worship at home during Advent, so you can join in the Advent Candle Lighting.
In addition, there is a daily devotional for Advent, written by members of the congregation. Print copies are available, and it is also posted each day on our Facebook page.
Teri will be doing a “carol calendar” throughout Advent via Facebook Live, too!

Christmas Services:
We will have online services for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and the first Sunday of Christmas (27 December, led by the Moderator of the General Assembly, no in-person worship that day).

We will also have an in-person Christmas Eve service at 7pm, with all the usual protocols in place — please book by phoning/texting/emailing Teri no later than 21 December (manse: 632143, mobile 07549866888, email tpeterson@churchofscotland.org.uk).

The Boys Brigade is again meeting in the large hall — if you know any boys from P1 – S6 who would like to explore what it’s all about, please contact Alan Aitken: alanandrewaitken at gmail dot com. There are spaces available in all sections (Junior Section on Mondays at 7pm, Anchor Boys on Tuesdays at 5:30pm, Company Section on Fridays at 7:30pm). The Guides are working on their plans and hope to start up after Christmas. For information, contact Gillian Dick: gndick at hotmail dot com.

No other organisations or groups are currently using our halls, so that we have time to adequately clean and ensure the space is safe for everyone. This will be reviewed after Christmas.

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. 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 by post or with a neighbour who is coming to in-person worship and we will ensure they are received. Remember: no one is coming to your door to collect your envelopes, so please stay safe!

Sunday service for 13 December 2020, third Sunday of Advent

Worship for 13 December 2020, 3rd Sunday of Advent
Prepared by the Rev. Teri Peterson, Gourock St John’s
Email: tpeterson at churchofscotland dot org dot uk

Reflection Music to Begin Worship: Hymn #285 The Angel Gabriel

Hymn #287: No Wind At The Window

Reading, Sermon, Prayers

Hymn 320: Joy to the World
classical version

or praise band version!

Lighting the Third Advent Candle
In the darkest times we cannot see to make our way…
our eyes adjust, but still everything is shadowed and grey.
We reach out, desperate
for comfort
for balance
for the familiar
for hope

In the darkest times,
even a faltering light can be just enough:
the flame flickers, twinkles, dances—and it is dazzling!
For in its light, we see light: God in our midst.

~Candle is lit~

However impossible it seems,
here we are, the servants of the Lord, both perplexed and joyful —
and blessed is the one who trusts that with God all things are possible.
Come, O come, Emmanuel, God with us, and we will rejoice.

Reading: Luke 1.26-45
Today we transition from a season of reading from the Old Testament to the New, beginning the gospel according to Luke, which we will read from now until Easter.
The first two chapters of Luke’s gospel are like an overture, setting the scene for the story of Jesus’ life, ministry, death, and resurrection. Luke’s primary themes are all present in the overture, so we have a hint of what is to come.
Luke begins with the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth, who are elderly and childless. Zechariah is a priest who receives a visit from the angel Gabriel, telling him that Elizabeth will bear a son and they are to name him John. Zechariah is doubtful, and Gabriel takes away his ability to speak until John is born. Today’s reading from Luke chapter 1 begins at verse 26, six months after Elizabeth became pregnant. I am reading from the New Revised Standard Version.

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, ‘Greetings, favoured one! The Lord is with you.’ But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.’ Mary said to the angel, ‘How can this be, since I am a virgin?’ The angel said to her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.’ Then Mary said, ‘Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.’ Then the angel departed from her.
In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leapt in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leapt for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her by 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: Three Wise Women
Every single time I read this story, I think about how much Gabriel sounds like an alien when he greets Mary. Instead of “hello” he says “greetings favoured one” — and she was much perplexed. Of course she was perplexed — who talks like that? Even in ancient Palestine, I’m fairly certain people did not go around saying “greetings favoured one” to each other.

Aside from the strange stilted alien phrase, though, there’s more to be perplexed about. Why does the angel address her as “favoured”? She must have wondered what he was talking about, or if he had picked the wrong girl. After all, she was betrothed but not yet married, likely a young teenager. In Nazareth the tradition says that Gabriel met Mary at the well — a tradition which connects Mary to a long line of women in the Old Testament whose marriages were made at the well, including Rebekah who became the wife of Isaac, Rachel and Jacob, and Moses’ wife Zipporah. While Mary would know those stories, she would never have expected to be part of one! She was a poor teenager from a nondescript family in a town far from the centres of power, in an occupied land. For an angel to address her as “favoured” would be confusing indeed — favoured by whom? In what sense? Not in any of the usual ways.

While she was still pondering this strange word, Gabriel explained that actually, he meant favoured by God. He doesn’t say why, though. What was it about Mary that drew God’s attention? She wasn’t anybody important, just a girl at the well. But she barely had time to think that thought before Gabriel said she was going to be a mother!

So often our pictures of Mary are of a quiet, shy girl who keeps her eyes down and submits to whatever she’s told. But Mary’s first out-loud question proves her to be a bit more practical than we usually give her credit for. She wants to know how this is going to work — the mechanics of the situation. She doesn’t yet live with her husband-to-be, so…what’s the next step?

Gabriel’s answer that she’s going to be filled with the cloud of God’s presence, like the cloud that filled the Temple when it was built, or like the cloud that covered Mount Sinai, may or may not have been very comforting. But as Gabriel insisted that nothing is impossible with God, Mary spoke up again: Here am I, the servant of the Lord.

A lot of prophets have answered God with this same phrase — in Hebrew it’s “hineini”. Here am I. Moses says it, and Samuel, and Isaiah — and all of them said it before God actually told them what he was calling them to do. This is the answer of someone who trusts their relationship with God enough to say yes, even though the fullness of the task is not yet clear to them.

Mary is the first woman to ever be recorded saying “hineini” in response to God’s call. She agrees to carry God’s Son, without yet knowing the full picture of what that will mean — including the risks to her own physical health, to her safety in her family and community, or the challenges of parenting, let alone parenting the son of God! Like the prophets before her, she trusts God, and that will have to be enough even though she doesn’t have a map.

Gabriel did give her a hint, though, when he mentioned Elizabeth. Mary headed straight there, apparently by herself, to get some advice from her older relative. It was a fair distance from Nazareth into the hill country, which is the area that includes Jerusalem and Bethlehem and other surrounding villages. When she arrived, Elizabeth too joined the ranks of the prophets, filled with the Holy Spirit, speaking truths neither she nor Mary understand yet. Over the next three months they will have many such conversations, passing knowledge from generation to generation, sharing the experience of growing a world-changing child in their bodies, blessing each other with the companionship of women while the men of the story are silent on the sidelines.

I originally titled this sermon “Three Wise Women” as a balance to the wise men of Epiphany. Those travellers came from afar and symbolise the whole world recognising the Messiah who has been born…but before those wise men can set out on their journey, before the star shines in the sky, before any of the Christmas story can take place, we need the three wise women of this story first! And I can hear you wondering, because there are only two women named in the story. Of course Mary was wise enough to trust God’s impossible word. And Elizabeth wise enough to recognise God at work in and through Mary’s life. And the third….is the Holy Spirit! In the Hebrew of the Old Testament and the Aramaic which Mary and Elizabeth spoke, the word for Spirit is a feminine noun, ruach, so would usually use the pronoun “she” or “her”—and even better, in the Old Testament the Spirit is sometimes personified as God’s wisdom, and so the third wise one appears in the story! God’s Spirit fills Elizabeth and she speaks God’s wisdom.

I particularly love Elizabeth’s last Spirit-filled line: “blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”

How often we need this encouragement! From one generation to another, to be reminded of the blessing that is born of trust, even in something that seems impossible. It’s a blessing that only asks we take the next step, even if we aren’t sure what the one after will be. Mary says “here I am” and then visits Elizabeth, and slowly the path begins to unfold before her, one step at a time. And it turns out that what seemed impossible before isn’t really, because with God, nothing is impossible.

Perhaps in this season where so much normality feels out of reach, we too can trust God enough to take just the next step and see what God unfolds after that. Or perhaps this is a season when we are the ones who are called to speak with the Spirit’s voice and encourage those who are struggling with what the next step might be. Whether that’s across the generations or across other divides, can we reach out to one another and find the blessing together?

May it be so. Amen.

Prayer and the Lord’s Prayer
From generation to generation,
your world-changing grace passes, O God —
one to another, telling the story
and sharing the hope.
You send messengers to young girls
and fill old women with your Spirit,
you speak through songs and dreams,
and even when we are perplexed
you entrust us with your Word.
May we, today,
believe there will be a fulfilment of your promise.
May we, today,
have the courage to take the next step
even when the whole path is unclear.
May we, today,
be ready for your disruptive blessing
for us and for the world.
In the midst of all the difficulties,
we pray you would send your peace.
In the midst of all the grief,
we pray you would send your comfort.
In the midst of all the uncertainty,
we pray you would guide us.
We are grateful for your gifts this season,
especially for the gift of scientists
and their perseverance and cooperation,
as they have sought ways to bring an end to the pandemic.
We thank you for their hard work
that has brought the first vaccines.
We thank you for those who have supported them,
at home, in the scientific community, in government,
and those who have worked so hard
in health care to save lives up to this point.
When it seemed impossible,
they trusted that they could take the next step
toward your bigger picture of health and wholeness for all.
We thank you for all who have sacrificed so much during this time,
for the ways people have showed love for their neighbours near and far.
We thank you for the unexpected gift
of time and space to evaluate our priorities.
We pray for the courage to insist
on a healthier future for all your people,
to advocate for those who are
suffering under austerity and from isolation,
to reach out to those who have been pushed to the margins,
to work for a day when all can live without fear.
We hear you calling, O God,
and we want to be the ones who say “here I am”
even if we’re nervous about what you might ask of us.
Remind us again that nothing is impossible with you,
and that your blessing will carry us through.
We ask these and all things in the power of the Holy Spirit
and in the name of Christ, the coming king,
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
Go into your week trusting that the blessing of the first step will carry you forward into God’s future, remembering that nothing is impossible with God! 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.

Announcements

* Young Adult Bible Study meets on Zoom at 1pm (BYOPizza). We are reading chapter 12 of Revelation today! If you’d like login information, contact Teri.

* Online and audio recording-by-phone (call 01475 270037 to listen to the service) worship will continue, and the print version will continue to be available on request.

No other organisations or groups are currently using our halls, so that we have time to adequately clean and ensure the space is safe for everyone. This will be reviewed after Christmas.

Sunday Service for 29 November 2020, the first Sunday of Advent

29 November 2020, First Sunday of Advent
Worship prepared by Rev. Teri Peterson,
St. John’s Church of Scotland, Gourock
Contact: tpeterson at churchofscotland dot org dot uk

Music: O Come O Come Emmanuel

Reading, Sermon, Prayers

Hymn 291: When Out of Poverty is Born

~~~~~

Lighting the First Advent Candle
In the darkest times we cannot see to make our way…
our eyes adjust, but still everything is shadowed and grey.
We reach out, desperate
for comfort
for balance
for the familiar
for hope

In the darkest times,
even a faltering light can be just enough:
the flame flickers, twinkles, dances—and it is dazzling!
For in its light, we see light: God in our midst.

~Candle is lit~

However impossible it seems,
God’s mercy is from everlasting to everlasting,
and blessed is the one gifted with God’s vision.
Come, O come, Emmanuel, God with us, and we will rejoice.

Hymn: O Come O Come Emmanuel

Children’s Time

Reading: Joel 2.12-16, 26-29 New Revised Standard Version
The prophet Joel was a learned interpreter of sacred text—he quotes the Torah and other prophets many times in his short book. He spoke to people in Jerusalem, warning them of the consequences of not following God’s way, and painting beautiful word pictures of God’s promise and faithfulness. Today’s reading from chapter 2 begins with the words “Yet even now” which signal a big change, a complete turnaround, that needs immediate attention. I am reading from the New Revised Standard Version.

Yet even now, says the Lord,
return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
rend your hearts and not your clothing.
Return to the Lord, your God,
for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love,
and relents from punishing.
Who knows whether he will not turn and relent,
and leave a blessing behind him,
a grain-offering and a drink-offering
for the Lord, your God?

Blow the trumpet in Zion;
sanctify a fast;
call a solemn assembly;
gather the people.
Sanctify the congregation;
assemble the aged;
gather the children,
even infants at the breast.
Let the bridegroom leave his room,
and the bride her canopy.

You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied,
and praise the name of the Lord your God,
who has dealt wondrously with you. And my people shall never again be put to shame.
You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel,
and that I, the Lord, am your God and there is no other.
And my people shall never again
be put to shame.

Then afterwards
I will pour out my spirit on all flesh;
your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
your old men shall dream dreams,
and your young men shall see visions.
Even on the male and female slaves,
in those days, I will pour out my spirit.

Sermon: Yet Even Now (Blessings of an Impossible Christmas 1)

This may seem like a strange reading to start the season of Advent. We don’t read from Joel very often, though bits and pieces might sound familiar from other times of year — sometimes at the beginning of Lent we hear the call to “rend your hearts and not your clothing” and of course Peter’s sermon on the first Pentecost quoted this bit about “I will pour out my spirit on all flesh.” Maybe Advent was feeling left out, and didn’t want to be the only season with nothing from the prophet Joel!

The first chapter of the book of Joel describes a nation losing hope — he talks about a plague of locusts, which could be about ecological destruction or a metaphor for an invading army, which brings its own kind of environmental damage. The first chapter of Joel is all about a land that has been ravaged and has nothing left to offer, and a people who don’t see their own part in bringing the story to this point or how they can play a role in the unfolding of God’s future story either. The world was turned upside down and everything was uncertain.

And that is when Joel says: Yet even now.

Even now, when you’re anxious and worried.
Even now, when it feels like you have nothing to offer.
Even now, as you try to figure out how to manage everything going on.
Even now, with this situation and these rules and restrictions and under these circumstances.
Even now, when it feels impossible.

Yet even now, says the Lord…return to me with all your heart.

Your heart that has been broken again and again in this season — as we have had loss upon loss, of life, of livelihood, of relationship, of security, of celebrations, of hope, of time. Bring it all.

And then…though it feels like our hearts can’t take anymore, God invites us to be broken open one more time. But this time it’s just that, a breaking open— a chance for all that is in us to be revealed, and for all that God offers us to be received.

In that open space, God will leave a blessing, even if we aren’t sure what that means just yet.

But isn’t that just what Advent is about? An opening, a making space, a preparation for God to come into the world and do a new thing. An impossible new thing, the divine becoming human, taking on flesh and living among us…even now.

The prophet called the people to come and worship, in the midst of all the devastations of the year — and remember, worship involved bringing offerings of the land to the Temple. But there was nothing to offer, the land was ruined, the crops and animals gone. They were empty-handed. They could not worship the way they were used to…but still all of them, even the people usually left out, were to bring what they had: their hearts, their minds, their strength, all broken open. God would take care of the rest, though maybe not in quite the way they expected.

Perhaps this is not such a strange reading for Advent after all.

This year when so much we are used to feels impossible, God is still calling us to break open and make space…to turn to God with all our heart, and find that there is a blessing we never expected, poured out.

Into all those open hearts, God was pouring out the Spirit — not just on church people, not just on leaders, not just men, not just adults, not just on those who were ready or worthy — on all flesh. God coming to earth wasn’t just for some, but for all. We might hear the word from strangers or outsiders, we might hear it coming from our own mouths, we might hear God speaking through the people on the lowest rung of society, in a different accent or a completely different way of communicating. Joel calls us to be ready, to open our hearts to receive the truth that God is in our midst — even if God comes in a peasant baby born to an unwed teenage mother in a borrowed stable in an occupied foreign territory.

This Advent season, can we stand to break open our hearts one more time? To listen for the voice of the Spirit coming from unexpected quarters, in the midst of a devastated land?

Perhaps we might listen for the Spirit speaking through those who show us our complicity in that devastation — something the people of Joel’s time couldn’t see, and something we too often turn away from. When we recognise our part in the destruction of the land we can also recognise our part in its healing — the visions poured out on the young and the old can show us a way forward for living in harmony with creation.

Perhaps we might listen for the Spirit speaking through those who are imagining a way of worship that meets the challenges of a new day and a new generation — in Joel’s time they were forced to change because they physically could not do what they use to do. How familiar that feels today! Will the visions and prophesies poured out on young and old show us a path toward encountering God anew?

Yet even now, says the Lord: return to me with all your heart.
Yet even now, says the Lord: you shall know that I am in your midst.
Yet even now, says the Lord: I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh.

This may be an Advent and Christmas like no other…but in the most important way, it’s the same as ever: in the disruption, in the darkness, in the wondering and the waiting, Emmanuel, God is with us.

May it be so. Amen.

Hymn#291: When Out Of Poverty Is Born

Prayer
Come, O come, God, and be with us.
We are longing for your presence
in the midst of all that is going on this year.
Our preparations look different,
our plans are scaled down,
our hopes and dreams and visions uncertain.
Still you promise, though.
You promise that when we turn to you,
we will find you were already here.
You promise to come and dwell with us,
to open our eyes and hearts to see and know your grace.
We pray this day that you will be faithful to that promise,
and help us to be faithful to your call in return.
Through the shadows, we hear your voice of grace and mercy, Holy One.
You call all people to yourself, and we are unprepared.
We confess that rending our clothing is easy,
for we are accustomed to performing outward displays.
Rending our hearts is harder.
We do not want to feel exposed —
not even to you, and especially not to the others you call.
We admit that we are wary of your spirit being poured on all flesh,
that we are not sure about those people we don’t know,
who are outside our community
(or outside our institutional control)
speaking your word to us.
We confess that we’d like your visions and dreams to be safe
and confined to the story we already know and love,
that children can act out while we snap photos —
and edit them —
to show our friends.
Rending our image is hard, O God.
Allowing others to speak words that challenge our image of you is harder.
Forgive us.
Give us courage to be honest with you and one another,
and to find your blessing in the midst of that truth.
We give you thanks for your mercy and steadfast love,
seen in your creation and your continued call.
We thank you for the blessing of your voice,
and even more for your Word made flesh,
born on the margins,
teaching words some did not want to hear,
healing those overlooked,
dying at the hands of the state,
rising to embody your power of life,
and coming again even now as prince of peace.
We pray for your peace and justice,
your healing and hope,
your comfort and compassion
for all who are in need in this season.
And we pray you would open our ears and minds and hearts
to hear you crying out from the earth and its people —
in Yemen, Syria, and Afghanistan, as violence and hunger collide,
in Ethiopia and Nigeria as war inches closer
across central America after devastating hurricanes,
in India and Taiwan amidst protests,
in hospitals and care homes, schools and offices, where people worry and wait for relief,
and in every place where your people are suffering.
May all see your vision and dream your dreams.
May all know and live as if you are indeed our God.
And may we, your church, be made
into a blessing that finds its way into every open space,
that we may indeed rejoice in the name of the One who is coming in the flesh.
We ask these and all things in the name of 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
As you go into this Advent season, may your heart be open to receive whatever blessing God has for you, and 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.

Announcements

* The theme for Advent is “The Blessings of an Impossible Christmas.” You may want to have a candle handy when you worship at home during Advent, so you can join in the Advent Candle Lighting.
In addition, there is a daily devotional for Advent, written by members of the congregation. Print copies are available, and it is also posted each day on our Facebook page.
Teri will be doing a “carol calendar” throughout Advent via Facebook Live, too! So 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!

* The Gourock churches are sponsoring a Christmas Window competition for those who live in Gourock! The theme is Christmas Carols — so choose a carol, decorate a street-facing window in that theme, and send in your entry form by 10 December! The judging begins on the 11th and prizes will be announced later the following week. We may not be able to sing together at a carol service, but we can have a visual carol service as we walk around our neighbourhoods, so let’s make the whole town festive together! You can enter online here, or you can get a paper entry form and either snap a photo and email it in, or return it to the manse.

Inside the church: face coverings must be worn, you may give your offering at the door rather than by passing it through the rows, we will ask you to sit in a particular seat to ensure everyone’s safety as there is a one-way system in place, and the service will be around half an hour with no singing but with instrumental music. Families are welcome, and children should stay in the service for the whole half hour — there will be a children’s time for them though! If you’ve been out of the area in the past 2 weeks, or if you have any symptoms that could be covid, please plan to worship online rather than in person.

If the government Tiers or regulations change, that could affect our services. Should that happen, we will contact everyone who is booked in for a service, and will use all our regular communication channels to advise of any new restrictions or procedures or plans.

Online and audio recording-by-phone (call 01475 270037 to listen to the service) worship will continue, and the print version will continue to be available on request.

* The Boys Brigade is again meeting in the large hall — if you know any boys from P1 – S6 who would like to explore what it’s all about, please contact Alan Aitken: alanandrewaitken at gmail dot com. There are spaces available in all sections (Junior Section on Mondays at 7pm, Anchor Boys on Tuesdays at 5:30pm, Company Section on Fridays at 7:30pm). The Guides are working on their plans and hope to start up after Christmas. For information, contact Gillian Dick: gndick at hotmail dot com.

No other organisations or groups are currently using our halls, so that we have time to adequately clean and ensure the space is safe for everyone. This will be reviewed after Christmas.

* 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. 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 by post or with a neighbour who is coming to in-person worship and we will ensure they are received. Remember: no one is coming to your door to collect your envelopes, so please stay safe!

Sunday service for 18 December 2022, fourth Sunday of Advent

Sunday service for 11 December 2022, third Sunday of Advent

Sunday service for 4 December 2022, 2nd Sunday of Advent

Advent & Christmas 2022

Sunday Service for 27 November 2022, first Sunday of Advent

Sunday service for 19 December 2021, fourth Sunday of Advent

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

Sunday Service for 20 December 2020, fourth Sunday of Advent

Sunday service for 13 December 2020, third Sunday of Advent

Sunday Service for 29 November 2020, the first Sunday of Advent

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