Sunday service for 20 July 2025

Sunday 20 July 2025
Gourock St. John’s Church of Scotland
Service prepared by Rev. Teri Peterson
Manse: 632143 
Email: TPeterson (at) churchofscotland.org.uk
Email Charlene, Parish Assistant: CMitchell (at) churchofscotland.org.uk

Sanctuary Prelude Music (praise band)

Welcome

We Gather As God’s Family (As the Bible is brought in, we stand and sing)
A family gathered in love,
striving for justice and joy,
blessing the broken-hearted,
and sharing the hope of God’s kingdom.

Call to Worship
One: When life is good and we’re happy as can be,
All: The Lord is our God, and we are God’s people.
One: When we’re just plodding along, trying to get on with it,
All: The Lord is our God, and we are God’s people.
One: When our spirits are crushed and we can barely breathe,
All: The Lord is our God, and we are God’s people.
One: Come, let us turn our hearts and minds to the One who is with us always.
All: We come as God’s people to pray and praise.

Sanctuary Hymn 550: As the Deer (praise band)

Prayer
You promised, O God.
You promised to be our God, you promised to be with us,
you promised to hear us and set us free.
And we trust you.
We come before you with hope and trepidation,
we call out to you, telling you everything,
and we wait and look for what you will do.
But we confess that we want you to do it now.
We want your promise fulfilled, our prayers answered,
right this minute
with no more developments in the wrong direction.
We are tired of waiting,
tired of things getting worse,
afraid that maybe you’re not coming after all
but also afraid to think so.
Your people are suffering, Lord,
your world is in need of some good news,
and we don’t feel like we have the resources
to do what you ask us to do as the Body of Christ.
Forgive us when all we can see is the hardship and despair,
and open our eyes to see the glimmers of your presence,
open our ears to hear the whisper of your voice,
open our hearts to recognise there is more to the situation than we can understand right now.
Forgive us when our focus is so much on what we have to do
that we have no room for you to do anything, much less a new thing,
and make some space in our spirits and our task lists for your movement.
Forgive us when we doubt your promise,
and re-kindle our trust.
You are love, and your word is a light,
and so we pray to be surrounded and filled
that we might live the abundant life you promise,
even now.
We ask in Jesus’ name, trusting in the power of your Holy Spirit.
Amen.

Hymn 721: We Lay Our Broken World

Children’s Time and Bible Story: Exodus 5-6

Last week we heard about how the king of Egypt, the Pharaoh, decided that the Israelites living in Egypt were a danger, and he convinced the Egyptians to not only enslave them, forcing them to build cities and do field labour, but also to move toward genocide by throwing all male Israelite children into the Nile. The midwives to the Hebrew community refused to comply, and so, it turns out, did Pharaoh’s own daughter, who adopted an Israelite baby boy she found floating in a basket on the river. That baby, who she named Moses, grew up and after many twists and turns, God called him to go tell the Israelites that God saw their suffering, heard their cries, knew their situation, and was coming to save them. When they heard this, the Israelite people were so relieved to know they had not just been crying to a silent and helpless universe, but that God knew them and saw everything and would come to help. We pick up the story today at Exodus chapter 5, and go on into chapter 6.

Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh: thus says the Lord, the great I Am: let my people go into the wilderness to worship me.
Pharaoh said: Who is the Lord? I’ve never heard of him…(Egyptians had their own gods, and pharaoh was sometimes thought to be a god himself too)…I don’t know him, why would I listen? I’m not letting the Hebrews go anywhere.
Moses and Aaron said: The God of the Hebrews appeared to us and said to tell you to let them go 3 days into the wilderness….implication they’re gone a week but they never mentioned about coming back! If we don’t go worship, God might get angry that we haven’t in so long and come after us with violence or a plague.
Pharaoh said: no way! There are so many Israelites living here, we can’t afford for you all to leave for a week! Who would do the work? I see…it’s because you Hebrews are so lazy! That’s why you’re asking to go away. Well, no. Absolutely not.
After Moses and Aaron left, Pharaoh called in the taskmasters he had hired to keep the Israelites hard at work. He said “new plan: we aren’t going to give the Israelites straw anymore, for making bricks” — straw helps bricks hold their shape and keep together when baking — but they still have to make the same number of bricks, they just have to get their own straw from somewhere! The heavier the workload, the less they will pay attention to those liars Moses and Aaron.”
The taskmasters went out and told the Israelite supervisors — basically, like the bosses told the line managers, whose job it was to organise the workers and their work — keep making the same number of bricks, but get your own straw, we’re not giving it to you anymore! Get to work!
The people scattered everywhere, trying to scavenge for straw or even stubble, but between spending time looking for straw and the hard work of bending over to gather it, they weren’t able to make all the bricks that they were supposed to make. So the Egyptian taskmasters were abusing the Israelite supervisors, taunting them, “why haven’t you made the full amount of bricks as normal?” and then they beat them and forced their workers to work harder, insisting they had to produce the same amount of finished bricks, even though they weren’t being given all the materials anymore.
The supervisors asked for a meeting with Pharaoh, and when they got to the palace they said “why are you treating your own people like this? We aren’t being given the resources we need to do the work, but we’re still being told to produce the same amount of bricks. The Egyptian taskmasters are at fault here for not giving us what we need!” Pharaoh said “you people are always so lazy, lazy, lazy! Get back to work, get your own straw, and make just as many bricks as you did before! Stop complaining! The harder you work, the less you’ll think about wanting to go away and worship this fake god of yours. You’re only saying you want to go worship because you’re so lazy! So stop thinking about that and get back to work.”
They realised that Pharaoh didn’t recognise them as his people, so they were going to continue to be the ones beaten up by the Egyptian taskmasters, and they left the palace.
On the way out, they met Moses and Aaron and said “why did you even come here? you’ve made everything worse, now that you spoke to Pharaoh, everyone hates us even more and they are making our lives more miserable than they were before.”
Moses spoke to God and said “why did you send me here? Ever since you sent me to pharaoh, he’s done nothing but hurt them more, and you certainly haven’t even come down to save them!”
God spoke to Moses and said: now you’ll see just what I’m going to do. By the time I’m finished with the great wonders and power I’m going to display, Pharaoh won’t just let my people go, he’ll drive them out from here! Go and tell the Israelites that I am the God of their ancestors, and I made a covenant with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and I have not forgotten it. I see them, I hear them, I know the situation, and I’m about to save them. I will take them out from under their heavy burden in Egypt and bring them to a good and broad land, I will take you to me as a people and I will be your God and you will know that I set you free from bondage and the burdens of Egypt. I promised your ancestors and I promise you too! I am the Lord!
Moses went to tell them, but the people couldn’t or wouldn’t listen, because their spirits were so crushed under their hard slavery.
God said to Moses: ok, time to go back to Pharaoh again and tell him to let the people go. Moses said “even my own Israelite people wouldn’t listen to me, why would Pharaoh listen to me? I’m not enough for this.” But God spoke to Moses and Aaron again and commanded them to go to Pharaoh to let the people go.

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: when our spirits are crushed
I wonder if any of you have ever had that feeling, where you got your hopes up that something was going to get better, and then things got worse?

It’s pretty spirit-crushing to have had hope and then have those hopes dashed.

Sometimes, when it has happened to me, I’ve looked around for someone to blame — the way the Israelite supervisors first blame the taskmasters and Pharaoh and then end up blaming Moses and Aaron. But ultimately I always end up blaming myself: I shouldn’t have allowed myself to hope. And that’s the most crushing of all, because once you learn that hope is a bad idea, then there’s nowhere to look except the suffering of this moment, and it is so lonely.

I also wonder if anyone has ever felt like you’re always being asked to do more with less? Keep up the same amount of work, but with fewer staff on your team…keep feeding the same number of people but on a smaller budget, or keep the service running but with fewer hours.
Or sometimes in churches it looks like having to do ever more admin stuff for legal things like charity regulations or safeguarding — which are so important — but with not enough people with the skills to navigate the system or time to fill in yet another form. Or trying to run more programs to reach out with the good news and grow the church, but with fewer and fewer people volunteering their time or giving enough to cover the costs.

Trying to do more with less is pretty spirit-crushing too.

No wonder the Israelites couldn’t hear when Moses reminded them that God was present and listening and going to do something: they were in that pit of despair where they allowed themselves to hope, only to have even that hope pulled out from under them as they were commanded to work harder and longer just to keep up…all while they were being called lazy.

Even Moses was struggling — if the Israelites wouldn’t listen, why would Pharaoh? And so he says: I’m not enough. I can’t do this.

I would guess many of us have had that feeling, too. I’m not enough…not good enough, smart enough, confident enough, educated enough, experienced enough…I can’t do it.

It’s fascinating to me that when it comes to the crushed spirits of the Israelites, God is right there with a new message of hope, even when they can’t hear it. God is ready to act even when they feel as if they’ve been abandoned. But when Moses is lamenting that he will never be equal to the work God called him to do, nothing. Like it’s such a ridiculous statement to make to the God of all creation who chose him for this task, that God isn’t even willing to dignify it with a reply.
No comfort or reassurance, just further instructions. I can almost hear God rolling his eyes, like obviously you’re only a human being and of course you’re not enough but I’m the one who called you, I’m the one who is with you…and I am enough. You don’t have to be, because I am. It’s literally God’s name.

It often feels to me like our spirit is burdened…as people who live in the empires of this world, and as a church. The constant need to be more and do more, but with fewer people, fewer resources, and less hope for the future wears people down. And I think it has worn down our leaders too. Lots of people who followed their calling or their passion are finding themselves burned out by the feeling they can never be enough. Lots of people sitting in churches or in the NHS or in schools or in charities or even in parliaments feel like they are scrabbling about for straw while being asked to make at least as many bricks as they did 50 years ago, if not even more, but with a smaller budget…and they start to wonder if there’s any point to speaking up, or any point to carrying on, this is just how things are and it’s demoralising but…oh well.

It’s hard to hear God’s voice when our spirits are heavy. It’s hard to have hope in a promise that feels so delayed in being fulfilled. It’s hard to try new things when nothing seems to bring relief. It’s hard to lead when people are too tired to lift their eyes to the future. It’s hard to trust that God is enough when all around us and within us just feels like not enough.

That’s exactly what Pharaoh was hoping would happen. He even said “make them work harder so they won’t have time to think about their supposed God, or listen to the lies of these men who try to show them another way.” He was hoping that they would be so crushed, so disappointed, so exhausted, so demoralised, that they would have no room to listen to God.

I think that’s still what the empire hopes will happen. Those who are at the top of the pyramid don’t want any of us to look too closely at how they got there or how they stay there…and they certainly don’t want us paying attention to the word of a God who speaks of abundant life here and now, who turns the world upside down, who demands justice for the poor and oppressed, who speaks on behalf of the enslaved and beaten down, who is willing to come down and be here in the flesh to show us a new way to live.

But God is still speaking. God’s name is still “I am.” God is still paying attention to us, still listening, still reaching out. God is still hoping that we’ll hear his voice cutting through all the other voices that are trying to keep us burdened and despairing. And God has absolutely no intention of letting Pharaoh win.

When our spirits are crushed, when it feels like we hoped for nothing, when we keep working but things get worse instead of better…God is near. Even the smallest glimpse of light can be enough for us to hold on until the promise can be more and more fulfilled. Holding on to that promise, and acting on it instead of giving in to despair, is what will bring down the empire.

Because know this: God keeps promises. It may take longer than we want. It may not be the exact way we dreamed. But God is faithful and present, especially with those whose spirits are heavy burdened. And God will act toward freedom so that we too can act toward freedom. So hold on to this word, like a signpost toward the impossible: I will take you as my people, and I will be your God. The empire that crushes bodies, minds, and spirits WILL NOT have the last word. In every circumstance, in every generation, in every hard moment: I am, and believe it or not, that is enough.

May it be so. Amen.

Hymn GWA24: Your Labour is Not in Vain (praise band)

Sanctuary Offering and Response 809 (tune: Old Hundredth)
Praise God, the Source of life and birth;
praise God the Word, who came to earth;
praise God the Spirit, holy flame:
all glory, honour to God’s name.
Amen

Concerns of the Church
Food Bank and Starter Packs
Holiday Club – DECORATIONS, DONATIONS, PRAYERS
Prayer Groups: Sunday morning at 10:10, Brian; intercessory group Fiona W.

Prayer and Lord’s Prayer (Seonaid)

Let us pray.

Oh, mighty God, we’ve heard today from Exodus of the Pharoah’s unjust treatment of his people, and we take this time to reflect on how today, some people suffer just the same.

In different contexts, we all can often feel like we’re being expected to do more with less resources. Whether it’s at work, at school, or in our homes.

Loving God, when we grow tired, we seek your strength and your outstretched hand, ready to carry us when we feel we cannot take the load on our own.

Lord God, please also teach us to know the difference between real scarcity and our desire to just make things easier for ourselves.

So much of our lives has become about convenience, which in fact can be more wasteful, and the lack of convenience can make us feel like we’re having to work harder.

But God, we know there are people in our midst and across the globe who truly understand scarcity; who have to choose between heating and eating – and some who don’t even have a home to heat, or a table to eat at.

Give us the grace to appreciate what we have, and that resources are more than just money – they are people, tools, and skills.

Let us not waste these resources, particularly when it feels like they’re not enough. Instead, grant us the wisdom to put our faith in You, as you called upon the Israelites to do.

Gracious God, help us to see your plan for us. Help us to hear your Word’s of abundance and trust in them, even when it seems as though our lives are not plentiful.

Help us to appreciate what we have, and to offer what we don’t need to those who are truly in need of kindness and love.

And on this, the 20th day of July, we pray:

*For all who work in our transportation services — the trains, the buses, the ferries, and the taxis. For drivers, conductors, pilots and sailors and behind-the-scenes workers, and for all who travel in and out of our town.

*For the many volunteers who keep St John’s ministry vibrant: the pastoral care team, the flower team, Bowl & Blether volunteers, sound and PowerPoint volunteers, those who count the offering, and so many others.

*For the land, people, and governments of the nations of Myanmar, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei.
And now let us pray together the words Jesus Chris taught us to say:
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 706: For the Healing of the Nations (tune: Regent Square)

Sending

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

* Registration is now FULL for our Summer Exploratorium: Holy Histories! It’s a week for P1-P7 getting into the messy side of Bible stories and learning how God’s love is for us even when things get messy. It runs every day between 4-8 August, from 9am – 1pm, including lunch, and with an optional breakfast club from 8am. Please be praying for the team as we prepare, and for the children and families who will come!
***We are in need of some donations, if you can help please bring these to the church ASAP: an old video camera (we will return it after!)…large disposable tablecloths (that you won’t need back)…some large plastic tubs/bins, like the kind we use to put food bank donations in, or the flat kind that you would use to store things under the bed.
Food donations: there are post it notes on the board in the large hall with the items we need to feed the children through the week — if you can take a post it (or a few) and bring those items back on Sunday the 3rd, that would be great! Non-perishable items can be brought before then, but perishables on the Sunday please, unless the note specifies another date.

* We worship in the sanctuary on Sundays at 11am, and Sunday worship is also online. If you are able, please enter by the front door in Bath street, and only those who need step-free access should use the back door. If you feel unwell, please worship online, to protect both yourself and others in our community.

* The first Sunday of the month at 11am is now an all-age service, with different ways of encountering God’s word without a traditional sermon. All people — young and old, different personalities and learning styles, are welcome! You’ll find a more informal service with a variety of music, a Bible story, prayer, and some more interactive elements. The online service for the first Sunday will therefore also be different — there will still be a reading, prayers, and music, but usually not a sermon.
HOWEVER: In August, our all-age service will be on the SECOND Sunday, the 10th, to celebrate the end of the Exploratorium.

* Starter Packs are in need of most things as they have given out a lot of packs in the past month!

The FoodBank are running low on pasta sauce, diluting juice, and UHT milk.
You can bring donations to the church and place them into the boxes in the vestibule. Thank you!

* Did you know that the ministry we do at St John’s costs about £3000 per week and we are currently running about £500 short? Everything we do is funded by your generous giving — all our support for young people, older people, bereavement care, community outreach, worship, study, spiritual growth, and community work is because of your offering. If you would like to set up a standing order in order to facilitate your spiritual discipline of giving, or if you would like to make an extra gift to support the ministry St. John’s does in our parish, you can give online by clicking here. If you would like to set up a standing order, please contact Teri and she can give you the treasurer’s details. You can also send your envelopes to the church or the manse by post and we will ensure they are received. 
It is also possible to donate to the work of the parish assistant, speak to Anne Love about how to go about directing new donations to that item in the budget.

* Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Youtube, and to sign up for our email newsletter! 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. 

* Wednesday Evening Bible Study is at 7:30pm in the Manse and we are reading Luke!

* Free period products are available in the church toilets for anyone who might need them, thanks to Hey Girls and Inverclyde Council.