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.