Sunday service for 13 February 2022
13 February 2022
Gourock St. John’s Church of Scotland
Service prepared by the Rev. Teri Peterson
Manse phone: 632143
Email: tpeterson (at) churchofscotland.org.uk
To hear the audio recording of this service, please phone 01475 270037. It’s a local landline number so minutes should be included in your phone plan.
Prelude Music
Welcome
Call to Worship
One: Jesus is here, working for God’s kingdom.
All: We come, laying aside our worldly pride and status.
One: Jesus is here, asking questions and pushing boundaries.
All: We come, leaving behind the powers to which we cling.
One: Jesus is here, in the everyday wonders as much as in spectacular signs.
All: We come, to know life in all its fullness.
Prayer
You are a God who sees —
you are paying attention, even when we are not.
While we rarely notice those around us,
your eyes miss nothing,
and we give you thanks.
You see the needs of your world,
and the possibilities.
You see the fears and strains,
the hopes and wonders,
the pain and grief.
You are our help in every trouble,
you have promised never to leave us nor forsake us.
You reveal yourself that we may know your grace and live your abundant life.
We confess that we would like to see a dramatic miracle,
so we could be sure it was you.
For we rarely think of everyday life in miraculous terms,
we simply go along day by day,
so we miss you at work around and among us because we are not looking.
Forgive us for our narrow vision, and our poor attention.
Forgive us, and help us recognise your subtle signs,
that we may faithfully follow your way.
Give us your vision, that we may see what you see,
and therefore love as you love.
We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Music
Online: Healer of Hearts (David MacGregor)
In person: Prelude in c minor (Pachulski)
Children’s Time (in person only)
Reading: John 4.46 – 5.18 (New Revised Standard Version)
Last week we heard about Jesus meeting the Samaritan woman at the well, and how she brought many others from her city to meet Jesus. He stayed in that Samaritan city two days, and many people heard him and came to trust the Word made flesh. Today we pick up after those two days in Samaria, reading from the gospel according to John, beginning at chapter 4 verse 46. I am reading from the New Revised Standard Version.
Then he came again to Cana in Galilee where he had changed the water into wine. Now there was a royal official whose son lay ill in Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and begged him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. Then Jesus said to him, ‘Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.’ The official said to him, ‘Sir, come down before my little boy dies.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Go; your son will live.’ The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started on his way. As he was going down, his slaves met him and told him that his child was alive. So he asked them the hour when he began to recover, and they said to him, ‘Yesterday at one in the afternoon the fever left him.’ The father realised that this was the hour when Jesus had said to him, ‘Your son will live.’ So he himself believed, along with his whole household. Now this was the second sign that Jesus did after coming from Judea to Galilee.
After this there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew Beth-zatha, which has five porticoes. In these lay many invalids—blind, lame, and paralysed. One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, ‘Do you want to be made well?’ The sick man answered him, ‘Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Stand up, take your mat and walk.’ At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk.
Now that day was a sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had been cured, ‘It is the sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.’ But he answered them, ‘The man who made me well said to me, “Take up your mat and walk.” ’ They asked him, ‘Who is the man who said to you, “Take it up and walk”?’ Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had disappeared in the crowd that was there. Later Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, ‘See, you have been made well! Do not sin any more, so that nothing worse happens to you.’ The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. Therefore the Jews started persecuting Jesus, because he was doing such things on the sabbath. But Jesus answered them, ‘My Father is still working, and I also am working.’ For this reason the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because he was not only breaking the sabbath, but was also calling God his own Father, thereby making himself equal to God.
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: Do you want to be made well?
I think healing stories can be really difficult. I suspect most of us have had some experience of being ill and needing help…or worse, someone we love has been ill and it has felt like we couldn’t do anything useful, and every moment it seems the options close off until we’re either overcome by grief or spurred into doing something that would have seemed insane before. We know the worry that seems to settle into our stomachs, and we know how impossible it can be to think about anything else, or hear anything else, when we are in the midst of the crisis or the grief.
Sometimes I hear people say that if we just had more faith, or we just prayed harder, or we just asked more specifically, healing would come. And other times I hear people resign themselves, saying all the suffering must be part of God’s plan. But today’s stories, and the rest of the Bible too, tells us that neither of those is right.
In the first story, a father of a sick boy heard that Jesus was back in Galilee, and he — a courtier to Herod Antipas, an official who was meant to be at the beck and call of the king — left his job and home and walked, possibly as long as two days, to another town to find this man.
That action tells us two things. First: he’s desperate. And second: he already knows what Jesus can do, and trusts that he will do it. Otherwise why would he make that journey, rather than staying at his son’s bedside where he would surely rather be?
When he found Jesus, this father did not waste a single moment. He simply walked up and begged Jesus to heal him before it was too late.
It’s not often that we hear about royal officials begging for anything, but that’s what it says — he begged. Perhaps even on his knees, grasping at the hem of Jesus’ cloak, tears in his eyes. Maybe you have prayed like that for someone — I know I have. And Jesus’ first answer, which was more about Jesus’ single-minded mission than about the man’s request, feels as cold as many of us have felt when we didn’t get an immediate answer.
So he said again: Lord come down before my boy dies. It’s all he can think about.
Jesus’ second response was still not what the man expected. Instead, he said, “Your son lives.”
Not just that he’s getting better…he lives. This is the word that Jesus uses throughout John’s gospel to talk about that abundant life, eternal life, that starts now and continues forever, life that is grounded in a here-and-now relationship with God and so is full of grace and truth. Your son lives. And the man believed his word and went home. He had asked for Jesus to come with him, but on the strength of this one word, he turns and walks the many hours back by himself, trusting the Word Made Flesh even in the midst of the fear, uncertainty, and hopelessness of the situation. Though he cannot know what will happen, he walks.
In the second story, Jesus seems to have purposely sought out the place where sick people were. Unlike the father who came begging for his son, now we meet a man who had no one to plead on his behalf, no one to help him, no one to be his community. In the porches around this pool, everyone was on their own. And the man Jesus spoke to had been there for 38 years.
In a time and place where the average life expectancy wasn’t much more than that, we’re talking about a lifetime lying there, struggling and suffering. This man may well have been laying near this pool, unable to reach the healing waters at the right mystical moment, surviving on the charity of passers-by, since he was a teenager or even younger. His whole life had been spent knowing that he was alone and uncared for, that he didn’t matter to anyone.
He didn’t ask for anything, he didn’t even know who Jesus was, he didn’t proclaim his belief…Jesus just walked up and asked him: do you want to be made well?
It seems a silly question–who would say no? Of course we all want to be made well.
But the man’s answer is not an answer. Instead he said “well, there’s no one to help me…I can’t get there by myself…I’m sick, you see, and I have been for a long time, and other people always get there before me.” He doesn’t exactly say no, but he doesn’t say yes either. It’s almost as if his illness has so overtaken his identity, he can’t answer the question. All he knows how to do is point out the problem and place nebulous blame.
When Jesus healed him anyway, this man too began to walk. But his walk is very different from the other story. This man walked right back into old ways, and found himself rebuked for breaking the Sabbath, then passing the blame to Jesus. Rather than walking into the new life Jesus gave him, he remained trapped in the story he’d been telling about himself.
This is starting to sound a bit like the Body of Christ, not just one man’s body. And so I wonder, what if we read these stories as options for the Body of Christ, The Church? The question is there: Do you want to be made well?
What if it means breaking the rules of how church is supposed to be?
What if it means walking into the unknown?
What if it means letting go of the story we have always told about ourselves?
What if it means trusting, forgiving, healing, listening, praying, working…with no certainty about what will happen at the end?
Do you want to be made well?
The man by the pool told Jesus “I’ve been here a long time, and my body doesn’t all work together properly, and there’s no one to help me, and other people always get there first.”
I’ve heard The Body of Christ say those things too. All over The Church, the same conversation is happening: we look at the numbers, at the bigger churches down the road, at the changing demographics, and most of all at the way things used to be. We tell a story where the best days are behind us and the problems should have been solved by someone else. Our disagreements descend into gossip and hurtful words, and our desires are for our own comfort as we deal with the grief and isolation of a long slow decline. We have no idea what could be, because our story is all about what was and what isn’t.
Jesus waltzes right into that story and offers another way. God’s vision is always for life—not just for bodies that walk and talk, but people and communities made whole and transformed. Jesus even says so at the end of today’s reading: “Regardless of the rules you’ve set up, regardless of the box you’ve stuffed God into, my Father is still working, and so am I.” In fact, Jesus continues to waltz right into our stories and offer another way. New life is possible. And it’s also possible to live the old story instead, complete with blinders and rose coloured glasses and fault always being someone else’s.
Both of these stories are about receiving Jesus’ promised abundant life, the kind of eternal life that starts now, where we live life in all its fullness in relationship with God, here, today. But what they do with it is very different. The first man puts one foot in front of the other, every step a choice to trust and hope, rather than despair. The second man isn’t able to imagine those steps into abundant life.
There is another difference between these two stories. In the first, though the people watching over the boy knew he got better, it was only when the father asked the time and shared that it was the very time Jesus had spoken that everyone in the household came to believe. They were looking, and they saw what happened, and they walked into new life. In the second, the people who saw only the threats to their institution and power missed the miracle entirely. They saw only a man carrying his mat on the Sabbath, not a neighbour who’d been ill for nearly four decades. There is another lesson for the Body of Christ here — if we want to see a miracle, we need to be paying attention to the people who are desperately waiting for one.
Do we want, as the Body of Christ, to be made well? Will we, Christ’s church, walk the path even when the future is uncertain? Will we trust Jesus that life is ahead? Where are we looking — in at ourselves and our traditions and our comfort, or out at the people in need, people God has placed us in community with even thought they may never walk through our doors? Will we break the rules of what church is supposed to be in order to risk living the life God has in mind?
Ancient Greek philosophers said, “it is solved by walking.” Or, we might say today, “we’ll figure it out as we go along.” We may not have all the answers, or know the final outcome, but one step at a time we can follow Christ’s way…and on the way, we might find healing and wholeness, but we will definitely find Life.
May it be so. Amen.
Hymn 259: Beauty for Brokenness
Prayer and Lord’s Prayer
You hear us when we call, O God, and we give you thanks.
We bring our gratitude for your care for us,
even when we are not fully focused on your goals.
We bring our longing to be made whole,
to be made faithful, to be true to your calling.
We carry with us our cares for those dear to us,
and beg for your help to bring them into abundant life.
For those at the end of their earthly journey, and those who love them.
For those struggling with illness and treatment, hoping for good news.
For those living with chronic illness, feeling alone in their pain.
For those who are hungry, and those for whom clean water is a distant dream.
For our neighbours who must choose between heat and food.
For those who have no one to carry them to you,
no one to check in, nothing to look forward to.
Speak, Lord, and make all things new.
Speak healing, speak peace, speak hope, speak community into being.
We lift up your church, longing for a new story.
We call for your presence and your vision to be made clear,
and for courage to follow in faith.
We see the broken places, we feel the hurt, we grieve many losses,
and we recognise our tiredness from trying to do it all and keep things as they are.
We long for the abundant life you have promised for your people.
Help us to trust you, to turn to your way, to take one step at a time.
You are faithful, Lord.
And you have made us in your image,
created us to love, serve, and care for the world.
We take you at your Word, O God,
and pray for eyes and ears and hearts open to hear and respond.
In the name of the One who makes us well and commands us to walk,
Jesus the Christ,
who taught us to pray together:
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and forever. Amen.
Benediction
Go into the world paying attention. Look and listen to the people God places in your path, for in community we will find wholeness. And know that you can take Jesus at his word when he proclaims life, for that is why he came: that we may live. And as you go, may the Spirit of God go above you to watch over you. May the Spirit of God go beside you to be your companion. May the Spirit of God go before you to show you the way, and behind you to push you into places you might not go alone. And may the Spirit of God go within you to remind you that you are loved more deeply than you can possibly imagine. May the fire of God’s love burn brightly in you, and through you into the world. Go in peace. Amen.
Sung Benediction Response (John L Bell, tune Gourock St John’s)
Now may the Lord of all be blessed,
Now may Christ’s gospel be confessed,
Now may the Spirit when we meet
Bless sanctuary and street.
Postlude Music
Announcements
* This winter our theme is “Seeing Jesus.” Where do you see Jesus? What is he up to in your life, and in our community’s life?
*You are invited to join in reading the Bible in a year for 2022 — immersing ourselves in God’s word throughout the year. Click here to find a reading plan that’s five days a week (leaving a couple of days for catch up each week!). Watch this space for information about a Bible study as we go through the scriptures together!
* All worship is online (or on the phone at 01475 270037, or in print) and we also meet in person, subject to the usual protocols for distancing, hand hygiene, mask wearing. We can now welcome up to 85-100 people for worship with 1m distancing between households. No booking is required. Masks are required at all times inside the building, including while singing. If you are able, please enter by the front door in Bath street, and only those who need step-free access should use the back door.
* Tonight we will gather with Christians across the nation for evening prayer on the Connect Facebook Page, led tonight by Karen. Log on at 6:58pm to join in.
* The Kirk now has online giving! If you have not already set up a standing order in order to facilitate your spiritual discipline of giving, or if you would like to make an extra gift to support the ministry St. John’s does in our parish, you can give online by clicking here. If you would like to set up a standing order, please contact Peter Bennett, our treasurer, or Teri and she can give you his details. You can also send your envelopes to the church or the manse by post and we will ensure they are received. Remember: no one is coming to your door to collect your envelopes, so please stay safe!
* Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Youtube, and to sign up for our email devotions! Midweek you can watch Wine and the Word and/or Westminster Wednesdays 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!
* Next Sunday 20 February will be a communion service, as we hear the story of the feeding of the 5,000, and offer a prayer of dedication for our new window depicting this story.
Sunday service for 6 February 2022
6 February 2022
Gourock St. John’s Church of Scotland
Service prepared by the Rev. Teri Peterson
Manse phone: 632143
Email: tpeterson (at) churchofscotland.org.uk
To hear the audio recording of this service, please phone 01475 270037. It’s a local landline number so minutes should be included in your phone plan.
Prelude Music
Welcome
Call to Worship (in person — Hymn 510: Jesus calls us here to meet him)
One: The time is coming, to worship in Spirit and truth,
All: to reach across dividing lines
and let go of our fear that someone might see.
One: The time is here and now, to worship in Spirit and truth,
All: for in Jesus God’s kingdom is fulfilled
and living water flows.
One: Come and see the One who goes out of his way to draw us in
and gives us a holy story to share.
Prayer
Loving God, you come to us in broad daylight,
drawing us out of ourselves to meet you in the midst of everyday life.
You sustain us with your word and by your power.
In doing your will, we find ourselves filled with your grace.
In seeking your way, we are nourished by your presence.
We pray this day you would strengthen us for the work of your harvest.
Give us hearts open to receive the gift of labouring in your kingdom,
that we may rejoice together with all your servants in this and every place.
For we confess that we have a lot of ideas about what you should do,
where you should be, who you should talk to,
and those lines look very like the ones we draw for ourselves.
We like to know what categories to put people in, so we know how to behave:
when to act like we know more than we do,
when to change our accents,
when it’s fine to dismiss or talk over or when to listen or when to flatter.
And we admit that we use those categories to subconsciously decide
who is worth our attention,
and who is beneath us,
and who we wouldn’t want to be seen with.
Forgive us, O God, for we create these categories based on
assumptions and stereotypes and old grudges and long lost history,
and rarely allow new facts or personal stories to change our minds.
Forgive us, O God, for we have confined you to the same boxes we put ourselves and others in.
Forgive us, O God, and give us the courage to reach across divisions
and find you there on the other side, offering us streams of living water.
We ask in the name of the One who disrupts the world with love, Jesus the Christ.
Amen.
Music
in person: Children’s Time
Reading: John 4.1-42 (New Revised Standard Version)
Before we hear today’s reading, we need a little bit of historical context. You may recall a few months ago when we read the prophets, speaking about the Assyrian and Babylonian empires conquering first the northern and then the southern kingdoms of Israel and Judah, and taking the people into exile. Well, neither empire took 100% of the population away into exile — they did a simple divide and conquer, leaving the people who were least likely to cause trouble: the poor, the peasant, and the demoralised. The people who had been taken from the northern kingdom never returned, but the descendants of those taken from the southern kingdom were able to return, several generations later. In the meantime, those who had been left in the land, especially in the north, had continued to develop their traditions, including by some intermarriage with others who had been moved into their land. When the returnees in the South began to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem, the northerners resisted, as they believed they now had the proper place of worship in the north. By the time of Jesus, that northern territory was known as Samaria, and the people living there were the Samaritans. They followed the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, but they did not include the prophets or books of kings in their scripture. They worshipped, but in a temple on Mount Gerizim instead of on the Jerusalem Temple mount. Judean Jews and Samaritans hated one another, thought the other were heretics and apostate and wrong about literally everything. And the territory of Samaria stuck out into the middle between Judea and Galilee, so Jews who needed to travel between them would most often go around the longer way, crossing the Jordan and going around, rather than go through that evil place.
When we left off in John’s gospel, we had just read chapter 3, when Nicodemus came to meet Jesus. He was a religious leader and he chose to come at night, and at the end of his conversation with Jesus he was still in the dark, never quite managing to understand what Jesus was trying to teach him. Today we pick up just after that conversation, in chapter 4, verse 1. I am reading from the New Revised Standard Version, and as you hear this story, I invite you to close your eyes and picture the scene, as if it is a film playing on the screen of your eyes. Notice the set, the colours and sounds and sights and smells, and the people, their expressions and tone of voice and body language. Let the film play and draw you in to the story.
Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard, ‘Jesus is making and baptising more disciples than John’— although it was not Jesus himself but his disciples who baptised— he left Judea and started back to Galilee. But he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.
A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, ‘Give me a drink’. (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?’ (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, “Give me a drink”, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.’ The woman said to him, ‘Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?’ Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.’ The woman said to him, ‘Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.’
Jesus said to her, ‘Go, call your husband, and come back.’ The woman answered him, ‘I have no husband.’ Jesus said to her, ‘You are right in saying, “I have no husband”; for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!’ The woman said to him, ‘Sir, I see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.’ The woman said to him, ‘I know that Messiah is coming’ (who is called Christ). ‘When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I am he, the one who is speaking to you.’
Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, ‘What do you want?’ or, ‘Why are you speaking with her?’ Then the woman left her water-jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, ‘Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?’ They left the city and were on their way to him.
Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, ‘Rabbi, eat something.’ But he said to them, ‘I have food to eat that you do not know about.’ So the disciples said to one another, ‘Surely no one has brought him something to eat?’ Jesus said to them, ‘My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. Do you not say, “Four months more, then comes the harvest”? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, “One sows and another reaps.” I sent you to reap that for which you did not labour. Others have laboured, and you have entered into their labour.’
Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, ‘He told me everything I have ever done.’ So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there for two days. And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, ‘It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Saviour of the world.’
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.
Reflection
In the scene that played in your mind, what does the woman look like?
— what age is she?
— what is her hairstyle like?
— what is her body type and shape?
— what does her face look like?
—if you looked into her eyes, what would you see there?
*Talk about the woman.
*Talk about the theological conversation she has with Jesus…starting with the Big Thing that everyone knows separates Jews and Samaritans, and moving on from there.
In the scene that played in your mind, what are the disciples like?
—what age are they?
—what are their faces like?
—if you looked into their eyes, what would you see there?
*Talk about betrothal scenes at the well — throughout the bible this is where the biblical heroes met their wives: Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Rachel, Moses and Zipporah. Everyone would immediately think of these stories when it begins with a man and a woman meeting at a well!
*The shock of seeing Jesus talking to a woman at a well!! And in Samaria!!
*God so loved the world…Jesus says “look around: can’t you see the harvest is ready here in this place that God loves even though you do not love it?”
**Who are the samaritans for us today? Who are the people with whom we have long standing differences, that we would avoid on the street, that we can’t imagine Jesus talking to?
To see Jesus, we must first look past “the way things are” or “how we’ve always done it”
—those historical/cultural/traditions are barriers that obscure the Truth of Love in the world
—the assumptions we make about people
—the assumptions we make about church
—the assumptions we make about the community around us, in which we live
—the assumptions we make about “others”
**What assumptions or traditions are obscuring our vision and stopping us from offering what we have to give, or inviting our community to Come and See the Word made flesh for themselves?
In the scene that played in your mind, what are the other Samaritans from the city like?
—how many are there? Age? Gender mix?
—If you looked into their eyes, what would you see there?
*The woman offers her community her story,
and a question that invites them to Come and See.
*they believed her story and came to see for themselves — they heard the Word made Flesh!
**What do we have to offer our community?
Nicodemus, the professional religious person, came to Jesus and night and went away in the dark. The foreign woman with a difficult past came to the well at high noon, the brightest, lightest part of the day…and looked past her social status, past the rules about what was allowed, past her fear of what might happen if she was caught breaking tradition and doing something new…and she not only walked in the light herself but brought all her neighbours into the light as well. She amplified Christ’s light into the community, like a beacon shining a blessing into her town and inviting everyone to come and see.
May we go and do likewise.
Amen.
Hymn 540: I heard the voice of Jesus say
Prayer and Lord’s Prayer
We come to draw from the deep wells of your grace and help, loving God,
giving thanks for your persistence and patience
with all our questions and confusion and wrong-headedness.
We want what you offer, but we do not quite know what to live it.
We pray this day that you would quench our thirst
and satisfy our souls with your presence.
Make us again into your body,
and teach us to live as you live,
for the earth cries out for your good news, O Lord.
We are divided by race, class, and football team.
We turn a blind eye when others are exploited.
We use violence for our own ends.
We insist that one person cannot change things.
Yet still you call, whispering persistently.
Still you lead us through the wilderness toward your stream of living water.
Still you desire abundant life for all creation.
And so we come, hearts heavy with the daily news,
minds overflowing with to-do lists,
bodies hurting as they’re pushed beyond limits.
Fill us with your love, O God.
Give us courage to do your will, even when we don’t have all the answers.
Give us the voice to tell your story to anyone who will listen.
Where there is division, may we seek your peace.
Where there is hate, may we be agents of grace.
Where there is violence, may we be healers.
Gather us around your story and form us into your community,
we pray in the name of the living Word, 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.
in person Hymn 683: Go to the world! (Tune: Sine Nomine)
Benediction
Go to reach across the dividing lines and tell the story of your encounter with the living God! May your witness be a blessing to all who hear, drawing together a new community in Christ. And as you go, may the Spirit of God go above you to watch over you. May the Spirit of God go beside you to be your companion. May the Spirit of God go before you to show you the way, and behind you to push you into places you might not go alone. And may the Spirit of God go within you to remind you that you are loved more deeply than you can possibly imagine. May the fire of God’s love burn brightly in you, and through you into the world. Go in peace. Amen.
Sung Benediction Response (John L Bell, tune Gourock St John’s)
Now may the Lord of all be blessed,
Now may Christ’s gospel be confessed,
Now may the Spirit when we meet
Bless sanctuary and street.
Postlude Music
Announcements
* This winter our theme is “Seeing Jesus.” Where do you see Jesus? What is he up to in your life, and in our community’s life?
*You are invited to join in reading the Bible in a year for 2022 — immersing ourselves in God’s word throughout the year. Click here to find a reading plan that’s five days a week (leaving a couple of days for catch up each week!). Watch this space for information about a Bible study as we go through the scriptures together!
* All worship is online (or on the phone at 01475 270037, or in print) and we also meet in person, subject to the usual protocols for distancing, hand hygiene, mask wearing. We can now welcome up to 85-100 people for worship with 1m distancing between households. No booking is required. Masks are required at all times inside the building, including while singing. If you are able, please enter by the front door in Bath street, and only those who need step-free access should use the back door.
* Tonight we will gather with Christians across the nation for evening prayer on the Connect Facebook Page, led tonight by Karen. Log on at 6:58pm to join in.
* The Kirk now has online giving! If you have not already set up a standing order in order to facilitate your spiritual discipline of giving, or if you would like to make an extra gift to support the ministry St. John’s does in our parish, you can give online by clicking here. If you would like to set up a standing order, please contact Peter Bennett, our treasurer, or Teri and she can give you his details. You can also send your envelopes to the church or the manse by post and we will ensure they are received. Remember: no one is coming to your door to collect your envelopes, so please stay safe!
* Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Youtube, and to sign up for our email devotions! Midweek you can watch Wine and the Word and/or Westminster Wednesdays 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!
* Update from Venda:
School
Wow, I know it has been a long since I promised the last newsletter for 2021, life has been really hectic here for personal and professional being a mother, working, and also studying part-time. I just want to catch you up on a few of the happening since the beginning of the 4th term (October to December).
2021 was a difficult year for people in South Africa, specifically for school-going children and youth. It is estimated that 49% of people are unemployed, more than 11 million people go to bed without a meal to eat and more than half of high school children have dropped out of school. We are pleased to announce that VMS remained open throughout the year and learners attended school every day. We are COVID -19 compliant schools and our service is regarded as essential service. Here at VMS, we believe that education is the best tool to alleviate poverty and children are the future.
We would like to convey our sincere gratitude to everyone who has supported our children, their extended families, and the 9 staff members of the Vhutshilo Mountain School. Without your generous support, we would never have been able to provide each of our 63 children with an excellent early education, two daily nutritious meals, a fruit snack as well as transportation to and from school, winter blankets, and second-hand clothing as needed. We were able to pay monthly salary to our 9 staff members 6 of them are single mothers and 2 are widows. Hand over 160 decent food parcels in 2021 to needy families.
The graduation ceremony
On the 26 of November 2021, the graduation ceremony was for 8 Grade R and a farewell party for 13 grade 1 students. 40 parents/guardians attended the ceremony and we had guests from the department of education and social development. Before the pandemic, we normally have 250+ guests during the graduation ceremony. The day was filled with lots of music, dances and children perform lots of items and after a long day, lunch was served to all our guests. The local community, parents/guardians make donations of money or kind to help with the graduation lunch. The parents/guardians cooked the lunch together with the VMS staff.
All COVID-19 protocols were followed during the ceremony and it lasted for 2 hours only to keep everyone safe.
Youth on a Mission….
Zwonaka Network members had a busy month of December going around the villages doing manicures and pedicures also educating their clients about gender-based violence. Not only did they earn an income but have shared necessary information regarding domestic violence.
Warm regards,
Khathu Nemafhohoni.
(Director)
