Sunday Service for 5 July 2020, sixth Sunday of Pentecost

5 July 2020: 6th Sunday of Pentecost
Service prepared by the Rev. Teri C Peterson,
Gourock St. John’s Church of Scotland
Contact: tpeterson@churchofscotland.org.uk

Welcome and Announcements
Though we cannot be together in person, we can be together in spirit! Please note the following announcements:

* Coffee Fellowship Time will happen today on Zoom! The room will be open from 11:45 – 12:45 for you to drop in for however long you wish, so grab a cup of tea or coffee (or juice or whatever you prefer!) and maybe a biscuit, and come have a chat! We look forward to seeing you!

* 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 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 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!

* We also now have an audio recording of the service available on the phone! Simply dial 01475 270 037 to listen to the most recent service. Please share this number with your neighbours, friends, family, and fellow church goers who don’t have the internet, so they can listen in!

* The Kirk Session will meet via Zoom, on 7 July at 7:30pm. For login details, contact Teri. For agenda items, contact Cameron.

* The theme for worship this summer is “Postcards of Faith” — we’ll be getting some postcards from God’s people throughout scripture, following their journeys with God and each other.

* This summer we are taking a Church Family summer trip! We’ll be journeying together from Shore to Shore — the shores of the Clyde to the shores of the sea of Galilee, to the hometown of St. John the Evangelist. Keep track of how much time you spend in prayer, reading the Bible, serving others, or going for a walk. For every 10 minutes, you move us 1km along the journey! Then each week send Teri a note, text, or phone call saying how far you “traveled” this week. So far we have made it to Aksaray, Turkey!

* Children’s Time happens each Sunday morning at 11am on Zoom. If you would like the login details, please contact Teri. 

* Young Adults (age 15-25ish) gather for Bible Study (it’s now BYOP – bring your own pizza) at 1pm on Zoom. If you would like login details, please contact Teri.

* Churches across Scotland are calling people to join together in prayer on Sunday evenings at 7pm, placing a lit candle in the window and spending time in prayer for others. Our Sunday evening prayer services will be shared across our “Fuzzy Parish” (now called CONNECT). Tonight’s service will be led by all three of the Connect Clergy, beginning around 6:57pm on the Connect Facebook page, and be sure to like / follow it while you’re there!

* Feel free to share this with others, with the attribution information at the top. If you know someone who does not have access to the internet and who also does not receive the tape ministry, you can either print this service out and share it with them, or let Teri know via email or phone call and we will be sure they receive a printed copy.

* Sign up to our YouTube Channel so you never miss a video. Don’t miss “wine and the word” — an occasional series during the 5pm hour that helps us transition from one part of the day to the next, via reflections similar to those that would normally have been in the “God’s Story, Our Story” take home inserts given out each week. 

* Mid-week there is a devotional email, which is also printed and included with the following Sunday’s sermon distribution to those without internet access. You can sign up for the email here.

* Also mid-week there is often a facebook live video devotional or a Virtual Tea Break on the St. John’s Gourock Facebook page. 

* If you or a church member you know is in need of friendly phone calls or help with anything while they self-isolate, please contact Teri. Elders are already in contact with people in their districts as well, and you can pass information to them! We are hoping to continue and even deepen our connections to one another, building up the Body of Christ even when we can’t be in the building.

* Inverclyde Family Contact Centre are looking for volunteers who can spare an hour or two on a Saturday once a month or so, in order to re-open post-pandemic. If you might be able to help, please contact them: Tel: 07918965154 or email mfoggie@familycontact.org.uk

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If you prefer to read rather than worship by video, you can find the script after the second hymn.

Hymn #167: Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah

Prayers, Reading, and Sermon 

Hymn: Take Me Over

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Call to Worship and Opening Prayer
Wherever you are today,
Whenever it is when you join in this time of worship,
Whatever is on your mind and heart,
Whatever distractions are calling your name,
Whatever your level of faith or doubt,
You are welcome.
Come to encounter the living God,
who creates, redeems and sustains,
who brings us into wholeness
and makes us a blessing.

Let us pray.

O Lord our God, you have brought us this far, and we praise you for your faithfulness to us.
Even in times of trouble, you are with us and will not forsake us.
You have provided for us and given us this beautiful earth to call our home,
families and friends and neighbours to live in community with,
and gifts and talents to build your kingdom.
You have shown us your way, and guided our steps.
As we come to worship this day, turning our attention to you,
we confess that we have often taken your providing for granted.
We admit that when you do not line up with our every desire,
we sometimes think we are abandoned.
If we’re telling the whole truth,
we confess that sometimes we don’t want what you are offering.
Yet still you give to us,
still you call us,
still you make your home among us
and fill this world with evidence of your grace and goodness.
Forgive us once again, O God.
Forgive us for not just straying from your way, but wilfully abandoning it.
Forgive us for taking, using, and abusing the resources of your creation,
and forgetting that they are meant as an abundant gift for all.
Bring us back to your path, and lead us in your truth,
so that we may know the healing and wholeness of your grace,
and live gratefully in your kingdom, even now.
We pray in the name of your Son, the well of living water and the light of the world,
who lived among us that we might share that water and light with all,
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.

Sung Prayer #159 (words: Timothy Dudley-Smith, tune: Lord of the Years by Michael Baughen)
Lord, for ourselves; in living power remake us,
self on the cross and Christ upon the throne;
past put behind us, for the future take us,
Lord of our lives, to live for Christ alone.

Friends, hear this good news: if anyone is in Christ, the whole creation is made new. The old has gone, and the new has come. So know and live as Christ’s people, forgiven, loved, and free. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Reading: Exodus 15.22-27 (NIV)

Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea and they went into the Desert of Shur. For three days they travelled in the desert without finding water. When they came to Marah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter. (That is why the place is called Marah.) So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, ‘What are we to drink?’
Then Moses cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a piece of wood. He threw it into the water, and the water became fit to drink.
There the Lord issued a ruling and instruction for them and put them to the test. He said, ‘If you listen carefully to the Lord your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, who heals you.’
Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs and seventy palm trees, and they camped there near the water.

Sermon: Thirsty (Postcards of Faith 3)

Here in Scotland, going out into the wilderness is more likely to involve worries about too much water, rather than not enough. But in the Sinai, and throughout most of the places where the action of the Bible takes place, water is a real concern. Many stories involve looking for water, digging wells, meeting at the well, watering animals, or, as is the case today, a dangerous lack of water.

The Israelites were only three days past the saga of crossing the sea when they ran out of water. Remember there were thousands of them, perhaps even hundreds of thousands, the way the story is told. And they also had sheep, cattle, donkeys, and maybe even camels, who would all need water as well. Even fleeing on short notice, they could probably have carried food enough to ration for many days…but no matter how much time they had to prepare, they would not be able to carry enough water for more than a day or two. They needed to find a well, or even better a spring or stream or pond.

It’s easy for us, who have plentiful access to clean water on demand, to forget what a valuable commodity it is. There are many in the world who do not have that, whose water is polluted, or has dried up, or is carrying disease. And when we start to think about people who have had to flee their homes due to violence, oppression, or disaster, just as the Israelites once did, we can add even more people to the list of those who are thirsty and worrying about when they’ll come across a clean water source again.

It doesn’t take long, when one is food or water insecure, to have all thoughts revolve around that lack. People living in poverty or where there is no water spend more mental and emotional energy thinking about food and water than those of us who have them immediately to hand. It crowds out other thought, makes it impossible to focus on other tasks, and generally means that everything that isn’t about survival must be put on the back burner.

So it is not surprising that when the Israelites, who had run out of water probably a day or even two days before, finally arrived at a place that looked wet, all they could think about was finally getting a drink. To discover that the place was called “bitter” because the water was undrinkable was the last straw. There was no space in their brains for anything other than desperation…and so they turned on Moses.

Remember it was just three days ago that they stood on the banks of the sea and complained that Moses should have let them stay in Egypt because at least then there’d be a place to bury them when they died. Just three days ago that scripture reports they crossed the sea and that they trusted God and Moses. Probably three of the longest days of their lives, as they walked on without any sign of water, jugs running dry, worry crowding out everything else in their minds, feet growing heavy and tongues starting to feel thick and dry.

This man Moses, who was cast upon the waters as a baby and rescued from the water by a princess, who brought them through the water…had led them to a place where they could not drink.

They could be forgiven for thinking back to the very first of the ten plagues, when the Nile and all its tributaries and canals were turned to blood. It was said then, in exactly the same words: they could not drink its water.

Remembering all that happened after that first plague, and standing in front of water they could not drink, perhaps the Israelites wondered if they were at the beginning of the end themselves. Would the next nine plagues be ahead for them too?

Once again, the people grumbled against Moses. And Moses turned to the Lord, on behalf of the people. He absorbed their fear and pain and thirst, and took it to God…and God provided. God opened Moses’ eyes and mind to a solution, and Moses followed that guidance, and the people were able to drink their fill, and care for their animals.

Only then, after they have quenched their thirst, when their minds are no longer entirely absorbed in the problem of finding water, does God speak: “I will not bring on you the diseases that plagued the Egyptians.” Don’t worry, this is not the start of another round of horror. Instead, God says, “I am the Lord, who heals you.” The one who brings a balm to your wounds, who renews and makes whole.

And this is part of the healing process: Listen carefully. Follow God’s ways. Do what is right in God’s eyes, not only your own. This is how you will be made whole, stitched back together after years of oppression and pain and fear and grief: by learning to trust that God desires your flourishing, and following the way God lays out for you.

This will not be an easy task…for the Israelites, or for generations to come, or for us.

Sometimes, we will forget all that God has already done.

Sometimes, we will look back at the way things used to be, and wish we could go backwards.

Sometimes, we will refuse to be healed, preferring to perpetuate our own pain rather than do the hard work of desiring God’s way.

But even then, it will still be true that God is the one who heals us, and who offers us a part to play in that healing, for ourselves and for the world. Because remember God’s words to Abraham: he would be blessed, and all the world would be blessed through him. From generation to generation, we can be a part of passing on the blessing by participating in this healing work. Allowing our own fears and desires to drop to the side, so that we can see what God is doing, and join in. God knows that when we are in the midst of the trauma, it is hard to think about anything else. God knows that when we are thirsty, all we can focus on is water. God knows that when we are in the middle of a pandemic, all we can do is watch the news updates. God knows that when people are constantly being harassed, in large and small ways, for their skin colour or their accent or their religion, all they can think about is how to protect themselves.

And God showed Moses the tree branch. It had been there the whole time, but he couldn’t see it…yet when he listened to God’s word and followed God’s way, the whole people was saved, again and again.

The end of this episode is easy to overlook, after the fear and relief of finding water. It says that they journeyed on and came to an oasis that had twelve springs and seventy date palms — can you imagine the feeling of arriving somewhere so abundant, after time spent in the desert, and after generations of being enslaved?

Twelve springs — one for every tribe. Seventy fruit trees — one representing every elder. This was a place where there was enough for everyone. No one would go thirsty or hungry here. Finally, they could relax. They could taste and see that God is good. They could begin to live into their new reality as free people, no longer scrabbling about for scraps of straw to make Pharaoh’s bricks, no longer hiding their children in the reeds of the river, no longer suffering in poverty despite their forced labour. This was a true oasis, a place of nourishment for body and soul, the first stop on their journey to healing.

The journey ahead of the Israelites was still long. There would be many setbacks along the way. But this first moment of trial in the wilderness, when God provides first and then shows them the path to wholeness, will be played out again and again. This is how God works: saves first, and then invites us into a way of life in response. Over and over. Then, and now.

As our eyes are opened to the ways God is providing for us in this day’s trials and tribulations, let us also listen for the ways God invites us to participate in the healing that is ahead, for us and for our community and for the world. Not so that God will love us more, but because we are already so loved, so cared for, so nourished, so blessed, that we can join in God’s work of blessing the world.

May it be so. Amen.

Hymn: How Clear is Our Vocation, Lord (verses 1-2) (Text: Fred Pratt Green, Tune: Repton)
How clear is our vocation, Lord,
when once we heed your call
to live according to your word
and daily learn, refreshed, restored,
that you are Lord of all
and will not let us fall.

But if, forgetful, we should find
your yoke is hard to bear;
if worldly pressures fray the mind
and love itself cannot unwind
its tangled skein of care:
our inward life repair.

Prayers of Thanksgiving and Intercession
You, Lord, are the One who leads us.
Whether by fiery pillar lighting the way,
or through the gifts of your prophets,
or the life, death, and resurrection of your Son,
or the wind and flame of your Spirit,
You are always guiding us to follow your path through this life,
that your kingdom might be revealed, even now.
We give you thanks for your constant presence,
in our moments of celebration and our moments of grief.

Healing God, the world is in need of your gift of wholeness.
We are in need of your healing, too.
We are tired and uncertain, longing for clarity and for community.
Surround us with reminders of your love.

We pray for others,
remembering those who are in pain and
who suffer, in body, mind, or spirit.
We ask your comfort and your healing presence,
guiding the hands of doctors and nurses and scientists and carers,
that all who are ill may know your compassion and be made well.
We remember those who live without the security of clean water or enough food.
We ask for your justice to re-make the systems of this world
that leave some with too much and others with not enough.
May all people know the goodness of your creation,
the joy of a sip of cold water or a hearty meal,
the chance to let go of survival worries and find joy in work and leisure and family.
We remember those who work in the halls of power.
We ask for your wisdom to guide their decisions,
and your courage to fill them
that they may truly seek the good of all, not just a few.
Where there is division, help them to work
toward the wholeness that embodies your abundant life.
We remember those who are grieving,
whether the loss of a loved one, a livelihood, a home, a dream.
We ask for your grace to enfold them,
surround them with your compassion and hope,
that they may know they are not alone in this dark valley.
And when the time is right,
we pray you would give them eyes to see your care and your future.
Loving God, you are with us always,
calling us to participate in your work of wholeness and blessing for the world.
Fill us this day with the grace and gifts we need to follow your way,
to be as faithful to you as you are to us.
It is in the name of Christ, and through the power of the Holy Spirit
that we are able to pray, trusting in your mercy and love.
Amen.

Benediction
Wherever you find yourself this week, 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 Response (text and tune: 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.