Sunday service for 10 September 2023

Sunday 10 September 2023 — NL2-1, Conversations With God 1
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

Prelude Music

Welcome & Announcements

Sanctuary Gathering: 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: Breathe…
In and out, each breath both ordinary and a miracle.
All: In and out, each breath in sync with the artist whose breath was our first.
One: Close enough to look into each other’s eyes,
seeing this new world for the first time.
All: Breathing together with God,
we come alive.

Sanctuary Hymn: Creation sings! (Words: Martin E. Leckebusch (CCLI/Kevin Mayhew), tune: 188 St Petersburg)

Prayer
In the beginning, Your hand worked the soil,
forming and planting and teaching us how to care for your garden.
In the beginning, Your compassion created community.
In the beginning, You offered all that is good and invited us to trust.
Not in the abstract, but in the particular,
You create, O God.
You see what is needed, and you bring it into being,
weaving together earth and water, garden and steward, companions and partners,
a careful balance of colour and sound and silence and texture,
your living vision.
We confess that we have cared little for your balance,
and under our weight the tapestry has torn.
We do not steward, we exploit.
We do not partner, we dominate.
We do not work together, we stand alone and above.
Not in the abstract, but in the particular,
we have damaged your creation, and we have not wished to inconvenience ourselves for its repair.
Forgive us for forgetting our interdependence with the soil from which we come.
Forgive us for setting ourselves apart from the companions you gave us.
Forgive us for dismissing your handiwork and taking it for granted.
Not in the abstract, but in the particular,
in this place, in this land, with this water, breathing this air,
in these bodies,
forgive us and set us once again in our rightful place in your beautiful world.
Make today a new beginning, Lord God.
Work the soil of our hearts by hand,
form and plant and teach,
create us into your compassionate community,
and give us courage to accept your invitation to goodness.
Amen.

Online Hymn 147: All Creatures Of Our God and King

Sanctuary Hymn 171: Take Up The Song (tune: Highland Cathedral)

Sanctuary Children’s Time

Scripture Reading: Genesis 2.4b – 25 (4-6 and 10-14 Inclusive Bible, remainder Women’s Lectionary Year W)
At the time when the sovereign God made the heavens and the earth, there was still no wild bush on the earth nor had any wild plants sprang up, for the sovereign God had not yet sent rain to the earth, and there was no human being to till the soil. Instead, a flow of water would well up from the ground and irrigate the soil.

The sovereign God crafted the human from the dust of the humus, and breathed into its nostrils the breath of life, and the human became a living soul. And the sovereign God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there placed the human whom God had formed. Out of the ground the sovereign God made grow every tree pleasant to the sight and good for food, and the tree of life in the middle of the garden, along with the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

A river flows through Eden to water the garden, after which it branches into four tributaries. The first stream is named Pishon, or “Spreader.” It circles through Havilah, a land rich in gold, gold of the highest quality. There are gum resins there, and precious onyx stones. The second stream is named Gihon, or “Gusher,” and it flows through the entire land of Cush. The third stream is the Tigris, which borders Assyria on the east. The fourth stream is the Euphrates.

The sovereign God took the human and settled it in the garden of Eden to till and tend it. Then the sovereign God commanded the human, “from every tree of the garden you may eat freely, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day you eat from it, you shall surely die.”
Then the sovereign God said, “it is not good that the human should be alone; I will make it someone to rely on as its partner.” Then the sovereign God crafted from the humus every creature of the field and every bird of the skies and brought them to the human to see what it would call them; and what ever the human called every living soul, that was its name. The human gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every animal in the field; but for the human there was not found one to rely on as its partner.
The sovereign God caused a deep sleep to fall on the human, and it slept; then took one of its sides and closed up its place with flesh in place of it. And the sovereign God built the side that had been taken from the human into a woman and brought her to the human. Then the human said,
“this time, this one is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh;
this one shall be called a woman,
for out of a man this one was taken.”
Therefore, a man leaves his mother and his father and clings to his woman, and they become one flesh. And they were, the two of them, naked, the man and his woman, and were not ashamed.

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
This week I read a news story about a patch of snow. Which seems a weird thing to be reading about in September…especially since it wasn’t about snow falling, but rather about snow melting! You may know that there is a place up in the Cairngorms where there has been snow on the ground almost constantly for…ever, basically. Until a hundred years ago, it was assumed this hollow up in the mountains just always had snow. There have been only ten times in over three hundred years that there was no snow in this hollow. It melted completely away this week, for the fifth time the past six years. At this moment, there is no snow on the ground anywhere in Scotland, for only the tenth time in three hundred years, and five of those are in the past six years.

This is the kind of news story that’s almost guaranteed to appear on the pub quiz, but it hit me differently this week when I was also thinking about this creation story from Genesis 2.

The very beginning of this creation story is different from the one we often think of that starts with the earth being all chaos and without form until God says “let there be light” and then things start to happen. In this one, we have an earth with a spring of water, but no plants or anything…just dirt, dust, a blank canvas. And I’d never really noticed this before, but it says there were no plants because it had never rained, and the reason it had never rained was because there was no one to tend and care for the earth.

Why water the earth if there aren’t any plants to grow…and why start plants growing if there’s no one to take care of it all? Basically, there was no point. God didn’t want to waste the effort or resources.

And so God, desiring a garden, decides first to sculpt a human being to enjoy and tend the earth, and only after that human being is available to work does God plant the garden.

And God did all of this by hand.

A handmade sculpture is a beautiful thing, unique and interesting. The clay has to be smooshed and rolled, stretched and pressed, unstuck from the artist’s fingers, looked at from different angles, and tweaked with a little squeeze here or a smoothing down there. And only when God stepped back from the sculpting and decided it was good, did God then come close enough to breathe into the face of this handmade masterpiece, and it came to life, still bearing God’s fingerprints.

Then, with the first living piece of priceless art looking on, God’s hands went into the dirt again and began to plant the garden of God’s dreams. Soon it was beautiful…lovely to look at, full of trees and plants, everything you could need to eat and sit under and enjoy. And the human was there to take care of it all, to be alongside God with hands in the soil, tending and keeping it beautiful.

Usually, when we receive something handmade, we treasure it. We often seek out artisan things — our town here is full of artisans making lovely things from paintings to glass to greeting cards to jewellery to handmade soap. We admire the workmanship, we show it off to our friends, we treat it with love and handle those objects with more care than we might something easily replaced at Ikea or somewhere similar. Even more so when it’s the maker themselves giving us the handmade thing, even if it’s something simple like homemade shortbread, we savour it differently than a box from Sainsbury’s!

One of the reasons for that extra treasuring is, of course, that we know the love that went into making it, and if it was a gift, the thought that went into selecting it from among a world filled with identical mass-produced stuff. We understand the care, the time, the effort, the trial and error, the skill and talent, the tears and laughter that goes into making something beautiful and putting it out into the world, and we value it more highly.

One might ask why we don’t do that with God’s handmade workmanship?

The earth and the plants and the creatures…all hand made, gifted to us by God whose very first identity is artist.

And our own human bodies…and, perhaps more to the point, the human bodies of our neighbours: sculpted by hand by God, still bearing God’s fingerprints and breathing God’s breath, and placed here on purpose.

Why do we not treat these things like the artisan treasures they are?

What would we do differently, if we were treating the earth, the creation, ourselves, and our human siblings like they’re handmade gifts from God?

Well obviously we would treat it all with more care, I hope. We would treasure the earth and each other, and we would grieve when something breaks or is lost or harmed, and we would stand up and say no to people that want to use it in ways that will ruin it. We would refuse to allow our handmade treasure to be destroyed just for a fleeting moment’s pleasure, or to make someone rich. We would tend it, keep it, show it off to friends, share it with joy.

All the usual things like not littering, and picking up litter when we see it, limiting our use of fossil fuels, choosing to repair or repurpose things rather than throwing them away, buying local, and all that stuff we already know is important. Many of us are doing what we can, and the truth is that still isn’t enough. Our fellow handmade treasures are still being damaged. The snow has all melted for the fifth time in six years after hundreds of years of always being there. The last three months on earth were the hottest on record by more than half a degree celsius — and that’s an average that includes the southern hemisphere where it’s winter. People are already having to move because of sea level rise, drought and failed crops, fires, and unbearable temperatures. Children are dying because of famine. Wars are being fought over water and farmland. We are not tending and keeping the handmade treasure of our neighbour and the creation in which we all live. We must do more.

What is that more? We have to go to the institutions that struggle to change when their bad ways are profitable…and either make those ways not profitable, or make so much noise that they become convinced there’s a better way. It will take corporations and governments changing their priorities and actions if we are going to turn this around, not only the individual things we have all learned to do. Our voices and our money are frankly our most powerful tools in tending God’s garden today. And the humans, creatures, plants, water, and soil need us to use them.

Notice in the story that the rivers are named — this is a particular place God is known to walk and work. The animals are all given names by God’s first sculpture — they are seen, known, valued, and meant to be companions in community. And the very first relationship in the creation is between God the artisan craft maker, and the soil. The second relationship is between God and the human being God sculpted from the soil. And the purpose of that sculpting was to create the third relationship of creation: between these first two of God’s loves: the human being and the soil and the garden that grows in it.

It’s all lovingly made and placed together for a purpose. In the midst of everything else we try to force this story into saying, whether or not it says what we want it to say, we have too often ignored the thing it does say: that we are deeply, intimately, at our core, connected and interconnected with the earth and every living thing on the earth, both plants and other animals and humans. And we exist because God needed someone to take care of the earth and so created us explicitly for that task.

Knowing that should convict us, and call us to take up that task for which we were created, to tend and keep the earth and its creatures and its community, to treasure it and care for it as God’s beloved…because together, we are.

May it be so. Amen.

Online Hymn: We Are Tenants of the King (Resound Worship)

Sanctuary Hymn: Monarch and Maker (words: John L Bell & Graham Maule; tune: Woodlands)

Sanctuary Offering

Sanctuary Offering Response: God Our Creator, vv. 1 & 4 (tune: Bunessan; words: John L Bell & Graham Maule)
God our Creator, you in love made us
who once were nothing but now have grown.
We bring the best of all our lives offer;
for you we share whatever we own.

And with the people summoned together
to be the Church in which faith is sown,
we make our promise to live for Jesus,
and let the world know all are God’s own.

Prayer and Lord’s Prayer (ends with the prayers from our prayer book…and in the St John’s part, I’ve borrowed from the 11th)

Creator God, you are so tuned-in to your creation,
its very breath is yours.
We thank you for your hands-on care,
bringing your vision to fruition.
You sculpted and built this world,
and your goodness is visible at every turn.
We lift up today those who have been denied their place in your creation,
treated not as equals or partners but as inferiors and servants.
We remember those who have no one to call “my people,”
who have been cast aside or left out or dismissed.
We ask for your blessing of a community
where we can hold one another up and hold one another to account,
where we can be real and not ashamed.
We lift up today those places where the fabric of creation is so torn,
where abundant life feels impossible,
and the holes left by our destruction harm those trying to survive around the edges.
We remember our neighbours who struggle each day
without ever getting a moment in our news cycle.
We ask for your blessing of inspiration, courage, and strong will
to do what is right for others, not only what is convenient for ourselves,
and for leaders in business and politics
to lay aside their greed and lust for power and seek the common good.
We lift up today (today’s local concerns: — BB 125 charity ball celebration, people grieving/suffering, war, gatherings of world leaders)…
And on the 10th day of the month we join our hearts together as your church family to pray
*For all who live and work in the Midton and Trumpethill areas.
*for the music ministry of St John’s: for the choir, the praise band, the organist, and all who enable our worship and prayer through music.
*For the land, people, and governments of the nations of Libya, Malta, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Western Sahara, and Cape Verde.
We ask for your blessing of peace, grace, and love that endures.

We ask these things, trusting in your creative Spirit and your compassionate presence,
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.

Sanctuary Hymn 141: Oh the Life of the World

Benediction
Go forth with the courage to be in relationship — with the earth, with your neighbour, with God. In that relationship may you find joy, challenge, commitment, and creativity.
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. 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

* We plan to expand Bowl & Blether to add the 3rd Mondays of the month in the winter months, starting in October. This will require a team of volunteers to make soup in the church kitchen in the morning, to make toasties, and to serve soup/toasties/tea/coffee, offering hospitality and a warm cheery chat to anyone who wants to come in through the winter. Please contact Teri if you would be willing to volunteer on the 3rd Mondays of the month over the winter.

* We worship in the sanctuary on Sundays at 11am, and all 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.

* Starter Packs are short of Shaving Foam, Shampoo, Soap, Toothpaste, Bathroom/Kitchen Cleaner, Kitchen Roll and Teabags.  The FoodBank are short of biscuits, UHT milk, soup, tinned fish, and tinned meats. 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? 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 new parish assistant, speak to Anne Love about how to go about directing new donations to that new item in the budget.

* Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Youtube, and to sign up for our email devotions! Midweek you can watch Wine and the Word on Youtube, pray with video devotions on Facebook, and consider a new angle on something with a devotional email. Feel free to share with your friends, too!

* Wednesday Evening Bible Study is taking the next two weeks off, and will meet again on Wednesday 27 September at 7:30pm.

* Philip is playing a recital at Kelvingrove Museum on Saturday 16 September at 1pm. Music will include items written by Henry Purcell, William Mathias, Malcolm Arnold and Philip himself.

* St John’s Contact Group will start the new session on Tuesday 19th September at 2pm in the church hall. Entertainment will be provided by The Skelpies Ukulele Band, followed by tea, cakes and time to chat. All are welcome to this opening meeting and the fortnightly meetings thereafter. The syllabus of events will be available soon.

* The next Bowl & Blether will be on Monday 2 October, doors open at 11:30 and soup and toasties are served between 12-1:30. It’s a great opportunity to get out and meet some friends, invite a neighbour, and have a meal and some social time!

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

* Youth organisations are in full swing, and we are especially looking for new members of the Anchor Boys and the Smurfs (P1-P3, boys and girls respectively). Young people are invited to come along to the Junior Section (P4-P6) of the BB on Monday evenings at 7, Anchor Boys (P1-P3) on Tuesdays at 5:30, Brownies and Guides on Wednesday evenings at 6pm and 7:30pm respectively, Smurfs on Thursdays at 6pm, and Company Section (P7-S6) of the BB on Fridays at 7. For more information on the Boys’ Brigade, email: 2ndgourock@inverclydebb.org.uk , for more information on the Smurfs (pre-Brownies), email Lyn at lyn41185@hotmail.com, and for more information on the Brownies/Guides, visit https://www.girlguidingscotland.org.uk/for-parents/register-your-daughter .

* The Church of Scotland has a new online learning platform called Church of Scotland Learning (more info here). The first set of modules is now available, and are designed with members of local congregations in mind and will help to grow faith, stretch minds and explore possibilities. They are set at an introductory level and accessible for all. We hope this will ignite people’s interest in learning more. Currently available topics include Vows for Elders; Vows for Ministers; Conversations in Discipleship, Exploring Discipleship, Talking About Your Faith; New Ways of Being Church; Knowing You Knowing Me (Learning to understand more fully where God is and what God is calling us to do); Theological Reflection for Everyone; Equality Diversity and Inclusion; and Unconscious Bias and Me. More modules will be added periodically, so sign up today by clicking here!

* Trinity College Glasgow and New College Edinburgh also both offer “short courses” for lay people — there are a variety of interesting modules available for online or in-person participation, including courses on Listening In Mission, worship, New Testament, Mission and our response to Presbytery planning, Creative Writing as a Spiritual Practice, and more. Please become a lifelong learner and dig into some of these opportunities that God is putting in front of us to grow in our faith and life together!

* Would you be able to host two university students from the USA from 8-11 June, 2024? They will each need their own bed, though they can share a room, and you would be providing them breakfast and dinner, bringing them to church on Sunday, and being a welcoming and engaging host as they get a cultural exchange experience. There would be some financial help to cover the food expenses. If you might be interested, please be in touch with Teri or Seonaid Knox, so we have a sense of how many students we can host.

Sunday service for 4 September 2022

Sunday 4 September 2022, fourth Sunday of Season of Creation
Gourock St. John’s Church of Scotland
Service prepared by Rev. Teri Peterson
Manse: 632143
Email: tpeterson (at) churchofscotland.org.uk

Prelude Music

Welcome/Announcements

Stilling Video: “ears to hear”

Psalm 148.7, 10-13
1: Praise the Lord from the earth, sea monsters and all you deeps!
2: Praise the Lord from the earth, wild beasts and all the cattle,
crawling things and wingèd birds!
3: Praise the Lord from the earth, all the nations, and all the leaders!
4: Praise the Lord from the earth, children and elders, boys and girls, powerful and ordinary!
All: Let us praise the Lord’s name, for God alone is exalted,
His glory and power over earth and the heavens.

Hymn: Let All Creation Sing (Resound)
Chorus:
Let all creation sing before the Lord
and every nation of the earth rejoice,
let all the trees lift a shout of joy
for the Lord is King.
Let the deep waters of the sea resound,
let every mountain, every hill sing out,
let all the fields make a joyful sound
for the Lord is King.

Mighty river, barren desert,
 howling wind and stormy weather, 
every canyon every valley, 
sing your praise and give him glory.
Nature proclaims the glory of our God,
 nature proclaims his name.
Chorus

Every star and constellation,
 every wonder in the heavens,
 silver moon and supernova, 
sing a shining hallelujah!
Nature proclaims the glory of our God,
 nature proclaims his name.
Chorus

Honey bees and weeping willows,
 grizzly bears and armadillos,
 every narwhal and sea otter, 
every son and every daughter.
Nature proclaims the glory of our God,
 nature proclaims his name.
Chorus

La la la la la la la – All the earth, praise the Lord
 La la la la la la la – All the earth, praise the Lord

Prayer (adapted from Creation Time resources: Fauna/Humanity/Animal Blessing Sundays)
God, our Creator, we celebrate with all living creatures today.
Help us to see your presence,
not only in human history but also in the stories of our kin in creation,
the great family of all creatures.
We remember animals we have loved or with whom we have felt a spiritual kinship.
Pets that have shared our homes, birds that have woken us each morning,
animals that have inspired awe or brought joy with their cuteness
or led us to gratitude for their life among us.
We confess, Lord, that we have not heard the good news of your loving care
ringing through the creatures of the wild.
We have not listened when other parts of creation have tried to teach us.
We have closed our eyes and hearts to the mysteries of your wisdom implanted in all life.
And so we admit we have played a part, unintentionally or intentionally,
in the destruction of the community of your creation.
We confess we rarely think of your creatures whose habitats and homes are disappearing,
or those animals whose lives are endangered through our greed or carelessness.
We ignore news of extinction and assume it doesn’t matter.
Forgive us, creator God.
Forgive us for refusing to love this world as you love.
Forgive us for narrowing its goodness to how it can serve us.
Forgive us, and open our ears to hear creation groaning, fellow creatures crying out in pain.
Forgive us, and teach us again that the animals of earth are our companions in abundant life.
May they lead us to celebrate our place in the circle of life.
God, our Creator, help us to love
all creatures as kin, as partners on Earth, as messengers of praise,
as expressions of your mysterious design, as voices of hope.
In the name of God, who creates all life,
In the name of Jesus Christ, who redeems all life,
and the name of the Spirit, who renews all life, we pray.
Amen.

Hymn 147: All Creatures of our God and King, v. 7
Let all things their Creator bless,
and worship God in humbleness,
O praise him, alleluia!
Praise, praise the Father, praise the Son,
and praise the Spirit Three in One:
O praise him, O praise him,
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!

Sanctuary: Children’s Time— Song: Oh the earth is the Lord’s (chorus)

Readings: Genesis 2.18-20 and Job 12.7-10 (Robert Alter)

We hear in Genesis chapter 2 that in the midst of creating all things,
“The Lord God said, “It is not good for the human to be alone, I shall make him a sustainer beside him.” And the Lord God fashioned from the soil each beast of the field and each fowl of the heavens and brought each to the human to see what he would call it, and whatever the human called a living creature, that was its name. And the human called names to all the cattle and to the fowl of the heavens and to all the beasts of the field, but for the human no sustainer beside him was found.”

Job said to his friends who had misrepresented the relationship between God and people:
“Yet ask of the beasts, they will teach you,
the fowl of the heavens will tell you,
or speak to the earth, it will teach you,
the fish of the sea will inform you.
Who has not known in all these
that the Lord’s hand has done this?
In Whose hand is the breath of each living thing,
and the spirit of all human flesh.”

For the word of God in scripture
For the word of God all around us
For the word of God within us
Thanks be to God.

Sermon: the community of creation
Whenever a new pet has come into my life, I’ve always taken a few days to live together and get to know them before deciding on a name. I like to get a sense of their personality, how we interact, and their place in the house before the name is really clear — sometimes it feels as if they’ll tell me their own name if only I pay close enough attention! There’s something about naming a creature that feels too personal to do it before actually meeting it, though I know some people choose a name before they even know for sure they’re getting a new pet!

At the beginning of the second creation story God plants the human in the garden and quickly realises that though God and human spend a lot of time together, it’s not the same as being in creaturely community, so God uses the very same dirt that the human was made from to bring more creatures to life. And then when each one is finished, God brings it to the human in what feels almost like one of the first children’s games. I imagine God ooh-ing and aah-ing and laughing and squee-ing and leading each animal to the person to meet and get to know it and then find out what name it’ll have. It’s a giant collaboration, building and naming together to end up with a final project of a garden full of different kinds of life. Together, God and the human build the community of creation.

Now it may feel like the naming part isn’t that big of a deal. After all, it’s God who does the real work — God who forms and moulds and shapes and breathes life into the creatures. But in the ancient world naming was a form of power as well. To call someone by name was to have some authority with them — which is why God’s name is never pronounced. To have the responsibility of naming the things God formed is to be a co-creator, a partner in the authority of creating. Which is not to say that the human has a coercive power-over, not an authoritarian in control of the creatures, but rather to say that God trusted the human to take part in this activity together, building a community that would populate this garden, for God’s delight and glory.

I’m not sure we often think of the whole of creation as a community. We think of human community, though often our boundaries are more narrow than God’s vision. We think of our pets as family pretty easily. But for some reason we can’t quite extend to the idea that we are in community with all the other creatures too. Though Job reminds us we can be taught by them! Deer and rabbits and Galapagos tortoises and grizzly bears and fruit bats and giraffes and robins and magpies and elephants and lizards and even seagulls…and also sheep and cattle and pigs and chickens…God created them and brought them to the human to name, and that process was about creating relationship among all the creatures, the same way naming our pets creates relationship among us in the family. Not only a relationship of hierarchy and usefulness and servitude, but a community in which we all recognise God’s hand in making us, fearfully and wonderfully, and in putting us together in the garden, and giving us each our own place and responsibilities this world God made.

Ultimately, none of those animals God and the human made together were the right counterpart, balance, partner, sustainer, helper alongside the human. They are beautiful, wondrous parts of the creation, made from the same stuff of life as the human and the garden, and they and we are a community together with roles to play, but ultimately it’s humanity itself that needed more diversity if the creation was to be complete.

Which does make you wonder why we are often so insistent on undoing that diversity…both in human community and the wider community of all creation. We try to homogenise and assimilate rather than celebrating the variety of human bodies and abilities. We choose monoculture that leads to extinction of species we barely even recognise, reducing the number of animals and insects in the world year by year, eliminating their habitats so that the earth can serve only us rather than the whole of the system God created.

God made us partners in creating a world, but we forgot that we’re the junior partner here, not the head, and that’s why I included the reading from Job’s rebuke of his friends. It’s a reminder that our hunger for power has often blocked our ability to learn from those we think of as subordinate — both the creatures and the people. Literally every creature, and even the earth itself, could teach us, because they know they belong to God, that all breath is God’s, that even we humans are in God’s hand despite how often we try to convince ourselves we stand on our own. That belief that we are different, better, on our own, means we think nothing of using our power as God’s partners for destruction rather than creation. We act as if this is all here for us, instead of seeing how the whole fits together.

The reality is that God created this beautiful system of mutual interdependence…and if one part is hurting, or dies out, that upsets the whole. Not only do we grieve the loss of other members of the community of God’s creation, but also there’s a missing piece that the whole system has to find a way to compensate for. Just as when a member of our family or community dies or moves away, taking their gifts and skills and contributions with them, and it takes a while for us to recalibrate and work around that void, so too on a global scale the loss of species means that things get out of balance and it takes time to adjust. Unfortunately if too many losses happen too quickly, it becomes impossible to adjust without radical action. The community cannot recover and either collapses or becomes uninhabitable.

God’s intention for creation is clear — that we humans are the junior partners in creating a community that depends on each other. Each animal has a part to play in the system, from the earthworm to the elephant…even the midges and mosquitoes must have some purpose, even if it eludes us! The insects we are losing at a terrifying rate, as we eliminate their habitats so we can grow single crops that ultimately go to feed livestock things that fatten them up faster than their normal food sources so that we can feed our own greedy appetites…those insects are food for other animals, as well as pollinating our food and working the soil. The animals that feed on insects then decline, and their part in the system begins to fail, and eventually it will become obvious that in overstepping our bounds in this community of creation, we actually end up hurting ourselves too. Even if we think that creation is here to serve humanity, rather than being an interconnected community like the one described in Genesis, then the way we have used, abused, neglected, and been apathetic about the consequences is still actually counterproductive.

What if we decided, as a human community, to return to our place as one creative partner in the wider community of creation? What if we looked to the animals and listened to what they have to teach us and acted in ways that honour their contributions and presence and goodness? What if instead of narrowing and homogenising and monopolising, we celebrated the full diversity of God’s creation and the fact that’s actually what’s required for the fullness of life that God promises?

It feels daunting, because it is. The creation feels at a tipping point and it will be a big task to recalibrate and set the system in harmony again. We will have to learn and re-learn how to live differently, laying aside our delusions of grandeur and our sense of entitlement. But it is the way of life which humans were set from the beginning — to tend, to care, to participate in creating, to use our authority for building relationships across the whole spectrum of God’s diverse beautiful amazing wondrous world. And we aren’t in it alone. The other members of this community have much to teach us, if only we will listen and respect the relationships across the whole. And it is God’s hand that holds us, God’s breath that is in us, and God’s vision and intention that we work toward, living into our very first relationship with the One who formed us and planted us in the garden to live for God’s delight.

May it be so. Amen.

Hymn: Pray for the Wilderness (words: Dan Damon 1989, tune: Slane)
Pray for the wilderness, vanishing fast,
pray for the rain forest, open and vast;
pray for the waterfalls, pray for the trees,
pray for the planet brought down by degrees.

Learn from the elephant, eagle and whale,
learn from the dragonfly, spider and snail;
learn from the people in neighbouring lands,
learn from the children who play in their sands.

Work for the justice created things need,
work for the health of each plant and its seed;
work for the creatures abuse has betrayed,
work for the garden God’s wisdom once made.

Trust that God’s Christ over came nails and wood,
trust that earth’s people will turn to the good;
trust that creation forever will grow,
trust that God’s goodness to us overflows.

Pray for the atmosphere, pray for the sea,
learn from the river, the rock and the tree;
work till shalom in full harmony rings,
trust the connection of all living things.

Prayer and Lord’s Prayer (Adapted from Creation Time prayers)
Loving God, you made us from the dust of the earth, and planted us in a garden,
and invited us to join you in creating this world you so love.
We pray this day for your love to be manifest —
not only among the human family but among the whole family of creation.
We pray for peace for people and for the earth to have rest from violence and exploitation.
We pray for a sense of enough,
that all may know the blessing of your abundance
and none would go hungry or thirsty or homeless.
We give thanks for the beauty and power of your world,
and we also remember those who are experiencing its force —
especially we lift up the people, animals, and land of Pakistan,
under flood waters, grieving lives and homes lost and struggling to survive,
and the people of East Africa living in extreme drought,
land cracked and dry, humans and animals alike starving,
grieving and desperate for a future they cannot see.
We are grateful for the animals of our lives, and for the people who help us care for them —
for veterinarians and their nurses and staff, for animal rescues and charities,
for people who work tirelessly to design seagull-proof bins
and to keep rubbish from choking the land and its inhabitants.
We pray for your continued care and wisdom to surround and fill
all who serve the community of your creation.

God our Creator, teach us to empathise with Earth.
Make our spirits sensitive to the cries of creation,
cries for justice from the creatures with whom we share this earth —
ants and armadillos, wildcats and hedgehogs,
cattle and creeping things, bears and penguins and horses and badgers and crickets,
animals wild and domesticated and farmed,
all with a part to play in the great symphony of abundant life.
When one falls silent, there is a hole that cannot be filled,
and we grieve the loss with the whole community you have made.
Lord Jesus Christ, make our faith sensitive to the groaning of creation,
staggering under our weight and begging for relief.
Holy Spirit, make our hearts sensitive to the songs of our kin,
songs of celebration and praise, songs of lament and pleading
from our fellow creatures who have so much to teach us.
Christ, teach us to care.

We pray these and all things
through the power of the Holy Spirit who descends like a dove and whispers on the wind,
and in the name of Jesus the Christ, your Word made Flesh,
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: O God, Your Creatures Fill the Earth (Carolyn Winfrey Gillette 2011, tune: Ellacombe)

Benediction
Go into your week looking for ways to recalibrate and take your rightful place within the whole community of creation, to create relationships that demonstrate God’s vision for diverse abundant life for all, not just for some.
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
* 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 just beginning the gospel according to Matthew, so there’s no better time to join in!

* All worship is online (or on the phone at 01475 270037, or in print) and we also meet in the sanctuary at 11am. Hand sanitiser is available at every entrance, and mask-wearing is optional. Masks are available at the door if you would like one. 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 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!

* Youth Organisations are starting the new session. If you or anyone you know is interested in the Boys Brigade (P1 – S6), please contact Alan Aitken or 2ndgourock (at) inverclydebb.org.uk. If you or anyone you know is interested in the Brownies or Girl Guides, please visit the website to register. For the Smurfs, our youngest girls, please contact Teri and ask to be put in touch with the leader.

* 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.

* Philip is organising a choir for any interested singer to come and have fun, learn some of the new hymns, and sing sometimes in worship. The choir will rehearse on some Thursday evenings at 7:30pm in the sanctuary — you can meet Philip to register your interest after worship today, and the first rehearsal will be on Thursday 8 September.

* A Bowl & a Blether TOMORROW 5 September will also be a Macmillan Coffee Morning! Come along for a cup of tea or coffee and a scone from 10:30, and/or a bowl of soup from noon – 1:30…whether you come for a bit or stay all day, we can guarantee a good fun time, a chat with friends old and new, and a chance to donate to a good cause. Why not invite a neighbour to join you? We are looking for some volunteers to help with set up and serving in the morning and at lunchtime, and with cleanup at the end. If you’re available and willing, please contact Teri. Thanks!

Sunday service for 28 August 2022

Sunday 28 August 2022, third Sunday of Season of Creation
Gourock St. John’s Church of Scotland
Service prepared by Rev. Teri Peterson
Manse: 632143
Email: tpeterson (at) churchofscotland.org.uk

Prelude Music

Welcome/Announcements

Stilling Video: flowers and trees

Hymn 147: All Creatures of our God and King, v4
Dear mother earth, who day by day
unfolds God’s blessings on our way,
O praise him, alleluia!
All flowers and fruits that in you grow,
let them God’s glory also show:
O praise him, O praise him,
alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!

Psalm 1 (eco-chaplain David Coleman)

Hymn: God the Maker of the Heavens (Resound Worship)
Sanctuary Hymn 181: For the Beauty of the Earth

Prayer (adapted from Creation Time resources: Land Sunday)
Holy creator God, we give you thanks for your gift of
a planet filled with your presence,
quivering in the forests,
vibrating in the land,
pulsating in the wilderness,
shimmering in the sands.
God, reveal yourself to us in this place and show us your face in all creation.
We remember the dry land that rose
from the waters in the beginning of creation,
and the plants that emerged from the soil to cover the land with vegetation.
We remember with delight the gardens, fields, and forests of our childhood,
the places where we have played in the sand,
when we felt close to the ground, to beautiful flowers and plants that are good to eat.
Thank you, God, for the land, for soils, and for plants,
for the ways they sustain life, nurture growth, clean the air,
and provide a home for your creatures.
We confess that we have become alienated from Earth
and cleared much of the life from the land in our garden planet.
We have killed living soils with excessive chemicals.
We have turned fertile fields into lifeless salt plains.
We have cleared rich lands of wild life.
We have swallowed Earth’s resources to feed our own desires.
We are sorry.
Forgive us, God.
Forgive us and also teach us to love the earth as our home
and the planet as a precious sanctuary.
Help us to empathise with your creation’s suffering.
God, our Creator, we celebrate your vibrant presence among us and our kin in creation,
especially in the soil, the fields and the land.
Turn our minds, hearts, and lives to live in harmony with the land,
the flowers of the field and all the creatures of the countryside.
In the name of Christ, who reconciles and renews all things in creation. Amen.

Sanctuary only Children’s Time with “bee bombs”— Song: Oh the earth is the Lord’s (chorus)

Readings: Genesis 2.8-9, 15 (Robert Alter’s translation) and Luke 13.6-9 (NRSV)
The Lord God planted a garden in Eden, to the east, and placed there the human he had fashioned. And the Lord God caused to sprout from the soil every tree lovely to look at and good for food, and the tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge, good and evil.
And the Lord God took the human and set him down in the garden of Eden to till it and watch over it.
……..
Jesus told this parable: ‘A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, “See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?” He replied, “Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig round it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.” ’

Sermon: Tend
Many of you will already know that gardening is not my strong suit nor my passion. I don’t have the talents many of you have, to coax the soil and seeds to work together to bring colourful or delicious plants to life…and keep them alive. I have managed to grow kale for myself to eat a few times, though last year my autumn kale all got eaten by slugs before I got any! And while I love to go for walks in beautiful places, marvelling at trees and plants and hills and valleys, I really really don’t like to be dirty.

Now I know that the soil is beautiful, rich, wondrous, and full of micro-organisms that make life on earth possible. I know that without it I could not eat all the gorgeous foods I love. I also know that I personally do not like to have it on my hands or my clothes, really for any reason. Thomas Jefferson and many other enlightenment thinkers — people who, like me, live in their heads — insisted that a truly free and intelligent person is a person with their hands in the soil, feeling the life-giving power of the earth, connected to the source of our nourishment. And here, 200 years later, I am sure they’re right, but I don’t think I have to like it!

One of the things that has happened since the beginning of the story in Genesis is that we have become progressively more disconnected from the earth. In the beginning, God planted a garden. It was, in this second creation story, the second act God did. The first was to form a human being out of the dirt…and then the second was to plant a garden in that very dirt, and put the human there to take care of it. God created us from the same stuff that would host and nurture all life…the very stuff I don’t like to have on my own hands. And God put us together, creature and garden, to grow together, to be nourished by each other, cared for by each other, all connected to the stuff from which we were made.

In fact if you back up a few verses from where we read today, you hear that at the very beginning there were no plants or trees or herbs or even rain, “for there was no one to till the ground.” There was no one around to take care and tend the earth, and therefore it was not yet growing. Only when God had moulded the dirt — the host, the medium, the potential — into a caretaker did God then proceed to plant the garden.

It wasn’t long before the relationship between God’s garden and we who were created to take care of it started to break down. The desire for domination rather than stewarding took over and we began to view the garden as something that serves us, rather than a partner in relationship among the whole creation. Ultimately we began to think of ourselves as almost outside the creation, separate from it, and we became its master rather than its tender and friend.

Even by the time of Jesus we can see the distance that has grown up between humans and creation. It had been a couple of thousand years since the stories of Genesis were told, and of course many millions since the beginning of life on earth. But even then, 2,000 years ago, which is a time we think of as long ago, pre-technology, when the society was more agriculturally based and people were, of necessity, more connected to the rhythms of the earth, even then Jesus was able to tell this parable of the fig tree that bore no fruit.

The beauty of parables is that they can have so many different messages for us, depending on which angle we look from, how we walk round and through and turn about and see what new thing the Spirit is revealing. Like the parabola for which it is named, the parable is open ended, always holding something else. So we may recognise this parable as one about how God expects us, as people of faith, to bear fruit, and that we need our lives to be fed by the living Word who is like a master gardener. I think the way Jesus tells the parable, though, also offers us some insight into the relationship between people and the earth. The landowner has had a fig tree planted — he doesn’t seem to have done that planting himself. It’s in the vineyard, which is not the normal place one might plant one random fruit tree! And he then seems to have simply left the tree unattended, for at least three years. Now I learned this week that it takes a fig tree between 8 and 10 years to produce fruit, so it isn’t clear whether this tree has actually been planted there for that long and should now be productive, or if he wants it to be doing something it simply isn’t ready to do.

But more to the point, the tree has simply been left there without any attention, and then expected to produce what the man wants, when he wants it.

And that, to me, feels an awful lot like the way we have generally treated God’s garden. We expect it to provide what we want, when we want it, but without any tending or effort on our part. We feel we should be able to neglect or even abuse it, and yet have the world simply continue producing whatever we desire. We have grown disconnected from the earth, caring little for it until the moment it does not yield the thing we want, at which point we channel that disappointment and anger into destruction, blaming the earth for not living up to our expectations.

That disconnect has only gotten worse as cities have grown and a global economy has developed. Most of us don’t need to go anywhere near the places where food is grown, it just comes from the shop — even delivered right to the door in a nice neat package. We are protected from the elements and from the vagaries of the cycle of the seasons. We think nothing of eating tomatoes or strawberries in the dead of winter, or squash at the height of summer, because we can get whatever we want without having to worry about whether it’s in season or not. About 15 years ago I took a group of teenagers from suburban Chicago out to visit a farm in the countryside, and the grower pulled a carrot out of the ground and offered it to them. The entire group of more than a dozen young people gasped and took a step back, and one said “you can’t eat that, it came from the dirt!” They literally did not know that their food was grown in the dirt and would come out dirty…to them, carrots came from a plastic bag in the supermarket.

That level of disconnect between us is astonishing and problematic. In the beginning we were created to tend the garden. When we think of ourselves as outside or above it, then it’s very easy to use and abuse. To expect things of the earth and its plants that are unreasonable, and to insist that it simply serve our every whim without any investment or care or attention from us. We demand fruit from a tree that has not been nurtured and decide it’s a waste of space before it ever grows to maturity, simply because we didn’t get what we wanted from it.

The gardener in Jesus’ parable knew better though. He spent his life with his hands dirty. He had a connection to the earth even if the landowner did not. And he knew that he had put his attention elsewhere rather than on that tree…perhaps tending the more plentiful grapevines rather than the lone fig tree. But even the one tree needs its tender. And that work will be messy. It will be smelly with manure, and involve hard labour digging around the now packed soil, it will involve carrying water, pruning branches, and maybe even protecting the tree from cold weather.

To tend the garden of God’s creation is our task, no one else’s. We humans cannot outsource that attention and labour to some other animal…we have to be the ones to pay attention, we have to put in the effort, we have to put up with the smell…and since we haven’t tended it well thus far, it will be harder now than it would have been if we’d been good stewards from the beginning, and the time is now short. We have to re-learn our interconnectedness, rather than seeing ourselves as simply the pinnacle of it all, looking down with disdain or apathy at the lowly servant of our happiness.

In the beginning, God created us from the soil, and in that same soil planted the garden. We are in this together, to grow and nurture and cross-pollinate and fertilise and, ultimately, to produce fruit that gives abundant life— that is what both the garden and the humans who tend it are designed to do.

May it be so. Amen.

Online hymn 243: Touch the Earth Lightly
Sanctuary Hymn: Creation sings! (Words: Martin E. Leckebusch (CCLI/Kevin Mayhew), tune: 188 St Petersburg)

Prayer and Lord’s Prayer (Adapted from Creation Time prayers)
**seed paper prayers: you can pick up your seed paper at the manse to write your prayers on!
We bring our prayers to the God who planted a garden full of good things,
nurturing abundant life from the soil.
And just as the sower plants seeds and prays for their growth — we know not how —
we too plant our prayers like seeds,
trusting that Christ the master gardener will bring them to fruition.
You are invited to write your prayers — for people, for our community, for the church, for the world, for the earth, for yourself. Nothing is too small a seed, nothing too big for God’s hand. Write them on the paper, and then offer them to God’s nurturing loving care. When you are ready, soak your paper for about five minutes in lukewarm water and then plant in a pot with about half a centimetre of soil on top. Tend it and keep it…in a window, keeping it moist, and see what God will do, in God’s own time.
…
…

Online Hymn 727: in the bulb there is a flower

…
…
God our Creator, teach us to empathise with Earth.
Make our spirits sensitive to the cries of creation,
cries for justice from the land, the soil and plants, fields and flowers, trees and bushes —
they grow from the soil from which you made us,
they are your delight, the lungs of the earth and home to multitudes.
Lord Jesus Christ, make our faith sensitive to the groaning of creation,
staggering under our weight and begging for relief.
Holy Spirit, make our hearts sensitive to the songs of our kin,
songs of celebration and praise, songs of lament and pleading from
the plants and trees and foods and grasses whose beauty withers in the hotter days,
whose miraculous healing we may never know as extinction looms,
whose shade is taken for granted and whose roots hold the mountains and fields in place,
whose existence is threatened by monoculture,
and whose seasons are manipulated to feed a greedy world.
Christ, teach us to care.
We pray in your holy and loving name, joining in as you taught your family 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: The Earth is the Lord’s (Carolyn Winfrey Gillette 2001, tune: 132 St Denio)

Benediction
Friends, go reconnect with the earth from which we are made. Go and tend God’s garden — even if it means getting your hands dirty, for it cries out for our attention and our care, and though the work will not be easy it will make a literal world of difference.
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
*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 beginning to read Matthew this week so it’s a perfect time to join in!

* Young Adult Bible Study returns today, 28 August at 7pm, with pizza as we begin our study of John’s gospel. We will meet in the manse on the 2nd and 4th Sundays at 7pm. 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.

* Philip is organising a choir for any interested singer to come and have fun, learn some of the new hymns, and sing sometimes in worship. The choir will rehearse on some Thursday evenings at 7:30pm in the sanctuary — you can meet Philip to register your interest after worship today, and the first rehearsal will be on Thursday 8 September.

* Looking ahead: A Bowl & a Blether on 5 September will also be a Macmillan Coffee Morning! Come along for a cup of tea or coffee and a scone from 10:30, and/or a bowl of soup from noon – 1:30…whether you come for a bit or stay all day, we can guarantee a good fun time, a chat with friends old and new, and a chance to donate to a good cause. Why not invite a neighbour to join you? We are looking for some volunteers to help with set up and serving in the morning and at lunchtime, and with cleanup at the end. If you’re available and willing, please contact Teri. Thanks!

* 2nd Term update from Venda:
In a world of uncertainty and challenge, we needed to step up. We needed people to show kindness and compassion. We needed people who were willing to make a difference. Thank you very much for your continuous support.
Term 2 came to an end on the 24th of June 2022 and term 3 started on the 19 of July 2022. We are starting this term with the national mandatory mask requirement for indoor spaces is no longer in force and therefore learners and staff are no longer required by law to wear these indoors or on any form of public transport which includes classrooms, halls and passageways.
At the end of the term, we had 81 students in our care of which 51 students are orphans and vulnerable children, some are born with chronic illness such as HIV/AIDS and 15 of them are staying at a local orphanage home as have been abandoned by parents and some parents are in jail (Takalani Children’s home) and 30 students come from middle income family.
The children are divided into three groups: toddlers aged 1 year to 2 years old with 27 students, preschool aged 3 to 4 years old with 29 students, grade R aged 5 years with 16 students and Grade 1 with 9 students. The academic development of learners is going well. It includes computer literacy and dancing lessons. On the 22nd of June 2022, we had a birthday celebration for all the children born from January to June to show them love and make them feel special as these moments contribute to their childhood memories. It was a great day and each child got an individual photo and a present. All the vulnerable got winter tracksuits as we are experiencing a very cold winter.
Because of your support Vhutshilo continues to be the best community project by bringing solutions where we can. We provide water for neighboring households (there is no water in the houses in the area) which helps women and children directly, as they are the ones who are expected to collect water, clean, cook, and perform general household duties. For the past four months over 41 decant food parcels have been distributed including vegetables from our community garden that every Friday children at the school take home fresh vegetables. Sometimes the cabbages are bigger than the children, and it takes two of them to cart them away for the weekend. We are very grateful for the community members who volunteer their time to work in our garden.
One of the families we helped is of a single mother Norah living with HIV/AIDS since 2010 and have 5 children and one of her sons is also HIV+ aged 12 years old this year. She is unemployed and survives by government grant, after receiving food parcels in December 2021 Norah became a volunteer at our community garden, she comes twice a week to work and receives two healthy meals and also takes vegetables to cook for her children. Her life has changed a lot as she has her own vegetable garden at home and is able to sell vegetables to her community so she can buy bread for her children.
We are happy to announce that we have won R20,000 from The Woolworths my school reward program. VMS entered completion in February 2022 and on the 23rd we were informed that we have won the cash prize. The cash will be used to build toilets for the grade 2 learners together with other donations received.

Once again, on behalf of VMS staff, children and the community we serve. Thank you very much.
Warm regards,
Khathu Nemafhohoni
(Director)

Sunday service for 21 August 2022

Sunday 21 August 2022, second Sunday of Season of Creation
Gourock St. John’s Church of Scotland
Service prepared by Rev. Teri Peterson
Manse: 632143
Email: tpeterson (at) churchofscotland.org.uk

Prelude Music

Welcome/Announcements

Video: water

Psalm 46.1-4
1: God is our refuge and strength,
always present and ready to help in any trouble.
2: Therefore we will not fear, even though the earth changes,
even though the mountains might shake in the heart of the sea;
3: when the waters roar and foam,
and the mountains tremble through all the tumult, we will take courage.
4: There is a river whose streams bring joy to the city of God,
the holy dwelling of the Most High.
All: Listen for the voice of creation, calling us.

Online hymn 147: All Creatures of our God and King, v3
Cool flowing water, pure and clear,
make music for your Lord to hear,
alleluia, alleluia!
Fire, with your flames so fierce and bright,
giving to all both warmth and light:
O praise him, O praise him,
alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!

Prayer (adapted from Creation Time resources: Ocean and River Sundays)
Deep calls to deep, proclaiming the vastness of your creation, O God. Splashing and shimmering, glassy and choppy, the waters of life reveal you. We give you thanks for your care for all who dwell within the waters — for turtles and toads, starfish and stingray, anemones and angelfish, coral reefs standing firm and jellyfish floating free. You created a world that waters itself, that hosts an astonishing array of life, with beauty spouting up and cutting canyons and nourishing all things. We remember the rivers and burns and seas in which we have played, paddled, swum, washed, and even drunk…where we have felt the caress and nurture of your water of life.
We confess that we have treated the waters of your creation as here only for our pleasure and use, that we have chosen to dominate and manipulate, that we have polluted your rivers with poisons, and treated your streams as waste dumps, and drained your wetlands to expand our empires, and turned living waters into currents of death. We admit that it is our greed that drives global warming, and we confess that we have loved progress more than we love the planet you entrusted to our care.
Forgive us, O God.
Forgive our carelessness and our complicity. Forgive our forgetfulness and arrogance. Help us to recognise your vibrant presence among us and our kin in creation, especially in the rivers, the streams, the oceans, the ice caps. Help us to empathise with your creatures who are suffering and to serve you as agents for healing the waterways of Earth. Teach us to sense you in the tides and currents of the surging seas. Teach us to care.
We pray these things through the power of the Spirit of God who hovered over the waters in the beginning, through the wisdom of God who filled the deeps with amazing designs, through the creating word of God who parted the waters so land appeared…and in the name of the Son of God, source of Living Water, Jesus the Christ. Amen.

Online Hymn: If the Fields are Parched (Resound Worship)

Sanctuary Children’s Time— Song: Oh the earth is the Lord’s (chorus)

Readings: Genesis 2.10-14, Robert Alter and Revelation 22.1-2, NRSV
Now a river runs out of Eden to water the garden and from there splits off into four streams. The name of the first is Pishon, the one that winds through the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. And the name of the second river is Gihon, the one that winds through all the land of Cush. And the name of the third river is Tigris, the one that goes to the east of Ashur. And the fourth river is Euphrates.

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.

Sermon: Between the Rivers
Living here along the Firth of Clyde, we take for granted that the water defines our place. It’s been the primary driver of our economy and our leisure time for centuries, from fishing to shipbuilding to the steamers to yachts to cruise ships to the navy, from swimming to just everyday walks along the front and their attendant amazing photographs. This place exists because of the river, and because of the ways we humans interact with the river. It’s literally just part of the landscape, in the background of everything about life here.

Similarly, the west of Scotland is a stereotypically wet place, and whether it’s statistically true or not it can sometimes feel as if it rains all the time. We look out at more shades of green than most people from elsewhere know exist, because of that wet weather. We can barely imagine what a drought must be like, though we are hearing a lot about them in other parts of the country and world.

The waters that flow through the air and the landscape are at the core of this place, and the core of us as people who live here. The shape of life is outlined by the waters.

In scripture, the landscape of God’s created kingdom is also defined by the waters. At the very beginning of creation, the garden of Eden is home to the source of the rivers that flow out and water the whole earth, shaping the places and people and industries and communities that will grow up there. God built in a way to share the goodness at the centre of God’s creation, rippling out from the garden God planted to give life a home.
And at the very end, the new Jerusalem is home to the source of the stream of living water that nourishes the new creation for the healing of the nations. It’s bright and shimmering, constantly moving, doing what water does: making a way even where it seems like there is no way.
The bookends of the story of the Bible are rivers that flow out — not containing the creation, but feeding it so it can grow and flourish into God’s vision.

The waterways of the world are its lifeblood, defining and shaping the earth, flowing in and through and around and under, gathering into seas and splashing down mountains and spouting up in geysers and collecting in lochs, watering the plants and providing a home for incredibly diverse life from seaweed to whales and everything in between. We who have easy access to clean water, flowing both out of taps in our homes and right outside past our windows, don’t have to think much about it. But perhaps we should think more about the waters. Not only because there are still billions of people who don’t have clean water, and the injustice of that is staggering. But also because taking things for granted, as just the background of everyday life, makes it easier to abuse them. I read yesterday in the news about the large sections of English shoreline where raw sewage is being pumped out, making the water and beach unsafe. There’s the reality that the cruise ships we love to watch sail past are also some of the biggest polluters on the planet. There’s the sea life being choked by our plastic waste, and the chemicals and microplastics that last thousands of years and are poisoning the rivers and seas, and therefore also the land, animals, and people nourished by those waters.

And then there’s the uncomfortable facts about sea level rise…the latest research published just last month predicts that if we do nothing but live as we currently do, then Albert Road, the pool, Battery Park, Lunderston Bay, the train station, and that new cruise terminal set to open later in the year could be below the highest tide level in as little as just 18 years, or maybe even sooner if storms intensify. Ten years on from that and the manse could be essentially waterfront property. (source) And of course there are places in the world where that future is already the present reality — Yesterday the BBC reported that people living on the islands of Panama have to be relocated to the mainland, and last year we saw a film about how the nation of Kiribati has been negotiating with Fiji to become a nation within a nation, in both cases because the tides already come up so high they cannot grow enough food and building foundations are being undermined. As I said to a friend earlier in the week, we need new verses for “Eternal Father Strong to Save” because it’s no longer only those on the sea who are in peril — a large portion of the world’s population is in peril from the sea.

The psalmist wrote that though the earth changes and the waters roar and foam, we will not be afraid because God is our refuge and strength, our help in every trouble. And that is absolutely true…though the psalmist writing 3,000 years ago could never have predicted the extent to which the earth would have changed and the way the waters would rage today. And honestly too much of our recent pop-theology has involved simply saying that God is in control, so we don’t need to worry about things. After all, if God made the world and God is powerful and has a plan, then everything that’s happening must be part of the blueprint that gets us toward that vision of Revelation, where after the end, everything is made new. So we just live on however we want, and wait until God does something. Right?

Unfortunately that view is, first of all, cruel since it essentially says that the suffering of our neighbours is part of God’s plan, and we should just let people and animals suffer and die. And second, that view often falls apart when the consequences affect us personally. It’s an attractive view to hold when the effects are far away and the people suffering are not just unknown to us but also tend to be different — in a different economic situation, or a different skin colour, or a different religion. But as soon as the people suffering are some combination of white, wealthy, and Christian, or worse are us, we suddenly have a different opinion. That is in direct opposition to what scripture commands and what Jesus embodies. We are called to act with love, even toward people we will never meet, and even toward people who are in opposition to us, and even at cost to our own comfort. And, in case this has not occurred to us before, I must say: we are not the only people for whom God is a refuge and strength and help. The people we are too often willing to consign to climate chaos because change is inconvenient for us are also people who cry out for God’s help, they are also people who are seeking God’s refuge and strength, they are also people who are seeking that river whose streams make God’s city glad.

The psalmist’s words are true: God is with us, and we do not need to be afraid — though what I think the Bible really means by that is that we cannot afford the luxury of being paralysed by fear. Not that nothing will ever change. Not that God will handle the problem if we just sit back and wait. But that God is our refuge and strength, ready to help in any trouble: meaning that we can have courage to face the trouble honestly, because we do not face it alone.

We live between the rivers — the ones coming from the first garden of creation to nurture life on the earth and the one flowing down the centre of the new creation to bring new life to all the world. Here in the middle, things are messy, as middles often are. Change and disruption and transformation and reformation are messy. It feels like the earth is shaking beneath our feet, and the waters roar and foam in ways that menace as well as thrill. And the river that makes glad the city of God is, in a way, like any other — you can never step in the same river twice. It always nurtures us toward newness, washing away the old and carrying us into the future. So do not dig in and insist on staying where we are, because that’s fear talking. Instead, trust that God is ready to help in every danger and trouble, and allow the strength of God to encourage us for the work ahead, honouring and tending the waterways that define and shape and encompass and enliven God’s creation and all that is in it.

May it be so. Amen.

Online hymn 36: God is our Refuge and our Strength
Sanctuary Hymn: O God, the Great Wide Seas are Yours (words: Carolyn Winfrey Gillette © 2010, tune: Melita)

Prayer and Lord’s Prayer (Adapted from Creation Time prayers)
We give you thanks, Creator God, for your beautiful gifts —
for rivers and lochs, seas and waterfalls,
for rain that nourishes the earth and for aquifers that provide for us all.
You have given all we need for all creation to flourish, and shown us how to care as you care.
And yet your world, and we your people, are in trouble.
You are our strength and we trust you stand ready to help.
We pray that you would once again pour out your Holy Spirit,
that your grace would fall like rain on every corner of the earth,
that your powerful love would fill us to overflowing.
We remember and lift up those places
*whose reservoirs so low that old ruins have re-appeared in the dried up lakes
*where rubbish continues accumulating into an island
*where sea life is choking on plastic
*where waters are contaminated by waste
*where the land is so thirsty yet unable to absorb the rain
*where people must carry water for miles because there’s no clean source nearby
*where access to water drives people to violence
*where preventable illness results from poor sanitation or drought or pollution.
May all people and creatures have the water they need to live life to the full.

You created the world and called it good,
and you loved the world enough to send your son Jesus to make it his home,
and you taught us to pray for your kingdom to be visible on earth as it is in heaven.
We ask today for the creativity and courage to face the challenges ahead.
We ask for perseverance and courage for all who work for change and for justice.
We ask for wisdom and courage for those in positions of power,
that they may lead us in new ways of conserving and sharing.
We come to be strengthened by your presence and upheld by your power,
to re-learn how to cooperate with creation rather than abuse it.
Your promise is for courage to live your kingdom way,
and we commit ourselves to follow your call.

God our Creator, teach us to empathise with Earth.
Make our spirits sensitive to the cries of creation,
cries for justice from the seas and rivers and all who dwell in their depths.
Lord Jesus Christ, make our faith sensitive to the groaning of creation,
staggering under our weight and begging for relief.
Holy Spirit, make our hearts sensitive to the songs of our kin,
songs of celebration and praise, songs of lament and pleading from
the seals and dolphins, the coral and octopus, the whales and seahorses,
the whole community of life we rarely see beneath the surface.
Christ, teach us to care.
We pray in your holy and loving name, joining in as you taught your family 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
Friends, go out into your week paying attention to the waters all around us — not just in the background, but at the forefront of God’s creation. Let their beauty inspire you, yes, and also call you to have courage to change for the sake of the waterways of creation and the people and creatures they nourish, near and far.
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
*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.

* Young Adult Bible Study returns next Sunday 28 August at 7pm, with pizza as we begin our study of John’s gospel. 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.

* Looking ahead: A Bowl & a Blether on 5 September will also be a Macmillan Coffee Morning! Come along for a cup of tea or coffee and a scone from 10:30, and/or a bowl of soup from noon – 1:30…whether you come for a bit or stay all day, we can guarantee a good fun time, a chat with friends old and new, and a chance to donate to a good cause. Why not invite a neighbour to join you?

Sunday service for 13 September 2020

13 September 2020
Service prepared by the Rev. Teri C Peterson,
sermon by Elder Seonaid Knox,
Gourock St John’s Church of Scotland
Contact: tpeterson at churchofscotland dot org dot uk

* At this time the St John’s Kirk Session has decided, for a variety of reasons, not to open the building yet. We will continue to worship online and via the telephone recording ministry, with mid-week offerings on video and by email, and through phone calls and zoom gatherings. If you have questions about this, please do contact Teri, or Cameron, or your elder. However, the building works that were suspended during lockdown are again underway. If you see people around the church building, they are likely contractors, and we would ask that you go ahead and say hello but keep a safe distance, and do not enter the building at this time. It’s important that we do everything we can to ensure they have a safe worksite, so that they can continue the work both on the tower and inside the sanctuary as quickly and safely as possible.

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 theme for worship this autumn is “Becoming God’s People.” We’ll be exploring who God is and how God’s character informs God’s actions, and how our actions also ought to be informed by that character…by way of stories of God and humanity working out their relationship with one another through the Old Testament.

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

* The Young Adult Bible Study (BYOPizza) meets via Zoom at 1pm, reading chapter 2 of the Book of Revelation! If you’re aged 15-25 and would like the 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 Karen, beginning at 6:58pm 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.

* 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.

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Hymn 147: All Creatures of Our God and King

Prayers, Reading, and Sermon:

Some links that Seonaid suggests to learn more about how to take up our task as stewards of God’s creation:

The petition she and others have organised, with the help of Christian Aid: Stop Fuelling the Fire

Zero Waste Scotland: ways to reduce, reuse, & recycle

Creative Carbon Scotland’s Guide to Climate Justice

Zero Waste Scotland: the climate crisis

Hymn: Thrive

~~~~~
Call to Worship and Prayer

In the beginning, and now, and forever,
God the Maker, God the Son, and God the Spirit
danced together, worked together, belong together.
In the beginning, and now, and forever,
God created the earth and its inhabitants — plants and animals and people —
to dance together, work together, belong together.
As one with God’s people in every place and time,
grounded in God’s goodness,
we join our voices with the trees of the field,
the stars in the heavens,
the mountains and the seas,
to worship together.

Let us pray.

O God, whatever we have done, and whatever story we tell ourselves about how that affects who we are, there is no place we can hide from you.You created us and you see the truth, and still call us into life. Trusting in your mercy, we take this moment to step out from our hiding places and be honest with you and ourselves.

From dust and breath you formed us and placed us in the midst of your abundance, O God,
and you trusted us to live according to your word. We confess that sometimes, the voices whispering
“you are not enough”
“what if…”
“you could be better”
are louder than yours, and they plant seeds of mistrust.
We have fallen prey to the lie that you are holding out on us, that taking matters into our own hands will bring us more happiness, more knowledge, more power, more success…and that we need to be more than we are. We admit that we have hidden our true selves, ashamed that we are not good enough for you, for others, or for ourselves.
Forgive us, Creator God, for pulling apart the web of your creation in our quest for more.
Forgive us for believing we know better, and so forcing our way into a gift that was not meant for us.
Forgive us, and let your story take root in us, that we may again take our rightful place in the community of your created order.
We ask these and all things in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, 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,
and 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 #139 vv. 1 & 4
(words: Iain D Cunningham, tune: cwm rhondda)

God the Father of Creation,
source of life and energy,
your creative love so shapes us
that we share your liberty.
Teach us how to use this freedom
loving children all to be,
loving children all to be.

Members of our Saviour’s body,
here on earth his life to be,
though we stand as different people,
may we share the unity
of the Father, Son, and Spirit,
perfect love in Trinity,
perfect love in Trinity.

Friends, hear and believe this good news: God knows us fully, and still loves us fully. There is no place you can go where the grace of God cannot reach. Even now, just as you are, God’s grace is enough, and it is for you. Know that you are forgiven, live as if you are forgiven, and be at peace, with yourself, with God, with your neighbour, and with the world. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Reading: Genesis 2.4b-9, 15-17; 3.1-11 (Common English Bible)

24bOn the day the Lord God made earth and sky— 5 before any wild plants appeared on the earth, and before any field crops grew, because the Lord God hadn’t yet sent rain on the earth and there was still no human being to farm the fertile land, 6 though a stream rose from the earth and watered all of the fertile land— 7 the Lord God formed the human from the topsoil of the fertile land and blew life’s breath into his nostrils. The human came to life. 8 The Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east and put there the human he had formed. 9 In the fertile land, the Lord God grew every beautiful tree with edible fruit, and also he grew the tree of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

15 The Lord God took the human and settled him in the garden of Eden to farm it and to take care of it. 16 The Lord God commanded the human, “Eat your fill from all of the garden’s trees; 17 but don’t eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, because on the day you eat from it, you will die!”

3 The snake was the most intelligent of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say that you shouldn’t eat from any tree in the garden?”
2 The woman said to the snake, “We may eat the fruit of the garden’s trees 3 but not the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden. God said, ‘Don’t eat from it, and don’t touch it, or you will die.’”
4 The snake said to the woman, “You won’t die! 5 God knows that on the day you eat from it, you will see clearly and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 The woman saw that the tree was beautiful with delicious food and that the tree would provide wisdom, so she took some of its fruit and ate it, and also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then they both saw clearly and knew that they were naked. So they sewed fig leaves together and made garments for themselves.
8 During that day’s cool evening breeze, they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden; and the man and his wife hid themselves from the Lord God in the middle of the garden’s trees. 9 The Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”
10 The man replied, “I heard your sound in the garden; I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself.”
11 He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree, which I commanded you not to eat?”

Sermon: With — by elder Seonaid Knox

The Creation story is one of the first Bible stories I remember learning when I was a child.

The descriptions in Genesis of how God created the universe and all things living within it drum up eye-catching images in our mind – the animals, the plants and trees, some bearing fruit or colourful flowers, the landscapes and also humankind.

The details in this story suggest that God wants us know to how carefully he has planned our existence.

Different aspects of the universe were created at different times, to ensure the conditions could sustain one another, and this interdependence does not just relate to ecosystems and weather patterns, but to us as humans.

The first few verses of today’s reading talk about how God formed humans to maintain the fertile land of the earth; that it’s our responsibility to look after the land if it is to bear crops for us to eat.

As stewards of God’s creation, we are called to make use of the land in a way that furthers God’s Kingdom here on earth.

However, we are not perfect, and at times we find ourselves wanting to reap maximum gain from what God has given us.

Genesis Chapter 2 Verses 15-17 says:

“The Lord God took the human and settled him in the garden of Eden to farm it and to take care of it. 16 The Lord God commanded the human, “Eat your fill from all of the garden’s trees; 17 but don’t eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, because on the day you eat from it, you will die!”

When he heard this, the human must have felt like God was holding out on them – why else would he put something in front of the human that they can’t use or eat?

Yet even today there are things in the natural world that are not intended for humans.

In a world where humans have found a way to make almost anything useful, or profitable, we forget that we were created to nurture and live alongside creation, and God did not in fact make the land for us to pillage or use at the expense of other humans or living things.

When the woman in the creation story eats the fruit from the tree of knowledge, which she then shares with her husband, God is angry.

God is angry because the humans ignored his command to stay away from the tree of knowledge despite all of the luscious fruit and vegetables elsewhere in the Garden of Eden.

The humans just had to have a taste of what was forbidden even though they knew it would upset God.

As a Christian and climate justice activist, I see the Creation story as a message that not all things on this earth are meant for our consumption – and in these particular verses, that consuming the wrong things can be harmful, if not fatal.

God equipped the world with natural resources, such as fossil fuels, diamonds and wood – just to name a few.

All of these resources have and are being used to further the interests of some people over others, and in many cases are leading to oppression and causing conflict.

In the UK, public money is used to support fossil fuel expansion projects in poorer countries where people are already suffering the devastating impact of climate change.

That is why I am currently involved in running a campaign alongside other young Christians calling on the UK Government to end the use of UK Export Credits to support the extraction of fossil fuels overseas, as this is completely at odds with the switch to greener, cleaner renewable energy.

Funding dirty fossil fuels abroad for UK benefit is fuelling climate injustice and does not value the lives of those living in the Global South, such as South America, Africa and South Asia.

Deforestation is also a huge issue globally, thought to be responsible for about 11% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

It’s estimated that an area the size of the UK was used abroad every year between 2016 and 2018 to meet UK demand for cocoa, palm oil, pulp and paper, rubber, soy, timber, beef and leather.

While using these natural materials is not in itself wrong or unjust, the Creation story reminds us that God wanted us to have our fill but not to the extent that our actions inflict damage.
Our actions don’t just result in environmental degradation, but they directly harm people living in the Global South.

To put into perspective how deadly climate change is and will continue to be, some research indicates that in 80 years from now, climate change could kill as many people as all infectious diseases, and these deaths will be concentrated in the world’s poorest countries.

When we consider the impact of COVID-19 on Scotland and our local communities, it highlights quite drastically how harmful climate change is.

Theologian Sam Wells talks about ‘Being with the Creation’ in his book Incarnational Ministry: Being with the Church.

In one section, he states:

“So much attention in interpreting the creation accounts focuses on humans as being made in the image of God and about their subduing the earth and having dominion over it. What is lost in this emphasis is the with – humankind’s being with the creation…What needs recovering is the sense in which humanity is part of the creation – not first of all its owner, or controller, or conqueror, but its companion.”
This way of thinking reminds us that we were made to live alongside creation, and just as the earth can nurture and sustain us, we must also take the time to care for it.

This view of creation is well established in many parts of the Global South where the wellbeing of rural communities is directly tied to the local environment and its ability to provide food and water.

In cities and urban areas where rural life is not commonplace, we forget what it is like to nurture and fertilise the land, and so we can fall into ways of thinking that do not reflect God’s intention that we are companions to creation, not it’s master.

When discussing the ecological crisis, Sam Wells says the balance between what humankind believes is for its own use and what it recognises as things simply to be enjoyed needs to change.

Sam Wells considers worship as a way of helping facilitate this change.

He says:

“In worship we reorder the world so as to enjoy that which otherwise we would simply use. Every created thing has a source and a destiny: it may be a gift to us, but we should never assume that gift is our possession; rather, it’s a reminder of where it came from and what purpose it serves in the kingdom.”

Taking a different approach to the things we use, whether they be essential items or luxury items, helps us truly appreciate what God has provided for us.
It also forces us to consider what God had not intended for us, and how our unwillingness to relinquish these resources will only fragment our relationship with creation and hurt our siblings in Christ across the world.

To quote Sam Wells, “the goal of being with the creation is to enjoy the world as God enjoys it.”

Therefore, I would encourage you over the next week to stop and look at things you use on a daily basis.

Think about what it’s made from, and where its materials might have come from.

Who might have made it, grew it or delivered it?

Do we appreciate these things, whether they’re basic, precious, cheap or expensive?
I’d encourage you to look into how your purchases of everyday items impacts the environment.

Could you buy items with less or no plastic, or buy locally sourced or handmade items?

Could you reduce your waste and use up everything in your fridge before going shopping again?

For many people, COVID-19 has already made them ask these questions as the pandemic resulted in certain items and food stuffs becoming difficult to buy on a regular basis.

However, even as things for us in Scotland begin to settle on that front, there are people across the globe who struggled to access essential items before COVID-19, and will continue to struggle after the pandemic.

Climate change, much like COVID-19, intensifies all the other inequalities people around the world face – almost certainly the poorest people who have contributed the least to the problem.

The land that they have nurtured and cared for and lived off of is eroding around them due to global warming, drought and rising sea levels – predominantly because of the climate crisis.

So may we hear today’s readings and be reminded that God made this world with us in mind, but not for us, and that how we treat creation tells a story about how we see ourselves in God’s kingdom – are we complicit in its destruction, or will we take a stand to help it heal?

Amen.

Prayers

Deep breaths…
You breathed life into us, O God,
and with every breath we thank you.
Breathing in with gratitude for your care for us,
and breathing out with commitment to join you in caring for creation.
For the relationships on which you built this world are fractured,
so we come to you, as Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer.
We come seeking your healing
for the places and peoples torn apart by violence,
for the bodies and minds suffering,
for the earth groaning under our weight.
We remember especially the people surrounded by fire on the west coast of the United States,
the people of Sudan whose towns are underwater from terrible flooding,
the people of Yemen and Syria living with man-made disasters.
We come seeking your justice
for those whose voices have been silenced,
for those whose lives have been stolen,
for those whose worth is debated.
We come seeking your peace
for those who live daily under the pressure of expectations,
for those whose lives are marked by hatred and division,
for those who feel they are barely hanging on.
We come seeking your abundance
for those whose bodies need nourishment they cannot provide,
for those who struggle each day for crumbs,
for those who believe they are flawed, unloveable, and not enough.
And in these days when a deep breath is both a privilege and a worry,
we come seeking your help for all who cannot breathe —
whether they are pressed down by the weight of racism
or fighting disease
or worrying about air quality,
may your breath of life sweep through, bringing your power of fullness, hope, and joy.
We ask these and all things in the name of Jesus the Christ,
in whom you were reconciling all things,
repairing what was broken and entrusting us anew with your vision of wholeness.
Amen.

Benediction

Friends, as you go into your week, follow the lead of our young people in their faithfulness to God’s way. Take heed of your choices and how they might affect those not just near to us, but far off in other parts of the world. And remember that part of becoming God’s people is repairing relationships with God’s creation.
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.

Benediction Response
Words and tune (Gourock St. John’s): John L Bell
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.

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