Sunday Service for 15 March 2026, fourth Sunday in Lent

Sunday 15 March 2026, fourth Sunday in Lent
Gourock St. John’s Church of Scotland
Service prepared by Rev. Teri Peterson
Manse phone: 632143
Email: TPeterson (at) churchofscotland.org.uk
Email Charlene, Parish Assistant: CMitchell (at) churchofscotland.org.uk

If the video above doesn’t play, please click here to view it on our YouTube channel (sometimes our website and YouTube don’t get on as well as they should!)

Sanctuary Prelude Music (praise band)

Welcome
God-sightings

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: Listen for the voice of the shepherd:
All: I came that they may have life.
One: Listen for the voice of the shepherd:
All: I am going ahead of you so you will know the way.
One: Listen for the voice of the shepherd:
All: I lay down my life, and I will take it up again.
One: Listen for the voice of the shepherd:
All: we will come in, and go out, and find pasture.

Sanctuary Hymn 16: The Lord’s My Shepherd (Brother James’ Air) (organ)

Prayer (in the Sanctuary, interspersed with Kyrie)

You, Lord, have brought us together in your name
providing a place for us, a name, a hope, a future…
and we come in at your invitation,
but we confess we are seeking comfort and stability,
held by the sheepfold, trusting in its walls and locks.

You are the Good Shepherd,
leading us into the safe place
and leading us out into the world you so love…
and we confess we would prefer to stay in
even if it means exhausting the resources
and starving ourselves.
We don’t want to believe that your nourishment can be found
out there.

*Kyrie Eleison (organ)

You call us your own
and we like to hear that as if we are your only.
You say your love and care reaches beyond what we can see,
and we say you can only save those we think are right.
We confess we don’t believe those other sheep deserve to be included.

You know us better than we know ourselves
and yet we have not spent time getting to know you.
We are easily deceived by those claiming your name
but speaking with power that does not lead to life.
We confess we have been seduced by others
whose tone matches the fear buried in our hearts.

*Kyrie Eleison (organ)

You ask us to follow
but the difficulty and the danger holds us back
and the farther back we fall
the more naive it feels to keep trying
so we turn back instead
and just hope the little bits we do here and there,
the leftovers we give,
the words we say but don’t act on,
will be good enough to stave off the wolves.
Living Word, you speak
and we don’t always recognise your voice.

Forgive us, loving Shepherd.
And in your forgiveness, transform us.
Turn us away from the lies that fill the air.
Turn us away from the words that bring out the worst in us.
Turn us away from the powers that manipulate our fear.
Forgive us, loving Shepherd.
And in your forgiveness, transform us.
Turn us toward the Truth you embody.
Turn us toward the tone that echoes love from generation to generation.
Turn us toward the vulnerable you promise to protect.
Turn us toward your abundant life.
Forgive us, loving Shepherd.
And in your forgiveness, transform us.
Amen.

*Kyrie Eleison (organ)

Friends, hear this good news: the Lord is our Shepherd and knows us better than we know ourselves…and loves us even before we have a chance to turn back to the fold. God’s love and mercy chase us down and bring us into life abundant. So sit at God’s table today and let your cup overflow. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Online Hymn 16: The Lord’s My Shepherd (Brother James’ Air)

Sanctuary Children’s Time

Sanctuary Hymn: Saviour, Like a Shepherd Lead Us (words: Dorothy Thrupp/Hymns For the Young; tune: Bradbury) (organ)

Scripture Reading: John 10
Last week we heard about Jesus healing a blind man and the religious leaders arguing so much about minutiae that it was clear they were the ones who could not see what was right in front of them. Today we continue with Jesus’ response to them, picking up in the next verse at John chapter 10, verse 1, and I am reading from the New Revised Standard Version.

Jesus said: “Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.” Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.
So again Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and bandits, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and my own know me, just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.”
Again the people were divided because of these words. Many of them were saying, “He has a demon and is out of his mind. Why listen to him?” Others were saying, “These are not the words of one who has a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”
…(The religious authorities questioned Jesus and then wanted to stone him, or to arrest him, but he escaped from their plans.)…
He went away again across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptising earlier, and he remained there. Many came to him, and they were saying, “John performed no sign, but everything that John said about this man was true.” And many believed in him there.

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: gate
When you picture a gate, what do you see in your mind?

I mainly see the front gate of the manse, of course…decorative wrought iron, with a little latch that I can hear go “clink” when someone is arriving. But then I also think of the first time I encountered a “kissing-gate” where it’s like a little square area and you have to go partway in and then flip the door around to the other side to get out, and how confused I was! Or a giant gate that goes over a road or a car park. Some gates are really just an arm that swings out, and others are practically a whole wall.

And when we think of the purpose of a gate…we usually think it’s to keep something in, or something out. Like people will have gates to keep children or pets in or out of a particular part of the house, or the garden. Or a gate that holds back the sheep or the cows…or keeps out the wolves or the bad guys.

But actually, what I’m describing there is not the purpose of the gate. That is the purpose of the fence or the wall — to protect, to hold back, to keep in and keep out. The purpose of the gate is to allow movement across that fence or wall. The gate is a doorway, not a barrier.

And Jesus said “I am the gate for the sheep”….and you will come in and go out and find pasture. Because that’s what a gate is for: not actually for keeping us in and them out, but for moving through.

So those who came before who were thieves and bandits? Perhaps they tried to be a wall when they were meant to be a gate. Perhaps they tried fencing the people in and keeping them there…claiming it was for their safety, when actually it was for their own control and greed and pride. And the thing is, a flock or herd kept in one place will soon be in trouble, rather than being safe. They will graze the land to nothing, churn up the earth into mud they sink into, their muscles will atrophy as they have nowhere to run, disease will spread fast because they’re spending too much time in close quarters, and the animals will become more aggressive the longer they’re kept in there, until their spirits are so broken they just lie down and give up. The sheepfold with a locked gate is perhaps the most dangerous and least healthy option available, not the safest.

Meanwhile Jesus is the gate that allows movement — in and out, to and from pasture, mixing and mingling with diverse communities, providing access to abundant life, not a limited life of scarcity and confinement.

Thinking about the gate reminds me of two other stories — one from long before this, and one for long after. First: when the Israelites were enslaved in Egypt, God heard their suffering and promised to bring them out, and the promise was “I will bring them out to a good and broad land.” Out of the narrow confines of Egypt, whose very name in Hebrew actually has a root that means “narrow,” into a spacious place. Out of the walls and fences and rules and oppressions, through the gate God opened in the sea, and into freedom. And the second is at the very end of the book of Revelation, God says that the new heaven and earth will centre on a new Jerusalem, where the presence of God will live, and the gates of the city are never closed, there’s free access all the time in and out.

And here in the middle of the human story, Jesus says: I am the gate, and you will come in and go out and find pasture, because I am here so that you can have abundant life.

There are other forces in the world that want to control the gate. Forces that believe the fear of death is the most powerful thing they can hold over us, and they use it to manipulate us into behaving in ways that benefit them. Forces that divide us into different sheepfolds and demand we stay loyal only to those in our own, and refuse entry to any others. Forces that want us to think that even though conditions inside our pen are deteriorating, it’s still better than the alternative and there’s no other way possible.

Jesus calls them thieves and bandits. He says their desire is only to control and ultimately to destroy.

And yet we continue to listen to their voices as if they are true.

Meanwhile Jesus who is both gate and shepherd is calling…calling his sheep out of the sheepfold into the world. Because it is out there that we will find pasture.

So often I think we have gotten confused about what the sheepfold is for. It’s meant to be a safe refuge in danger, a respite at night or in winter, and a place for counting and preparing — like a holding place for shearing or for health checks or for getting ready for sale or for lambing. It isn’t meant to be a permanent residence. Sheep will spend most of their time out there, not in here. Because out there is where the pasture is…meaning out there is where we will be fed. In here is where we come together to share and rest. Out there is where abundant life happens, in here is where we prepare. Out there is where we will mingle with sheep from other sheepfolds…and Jesus has sheep in many folds, not just ours. We are his own, not his only.

Jesus is the gate — as the psalmist says: he keeps our going out and our coming in forevermore. He makes it possible for us to move between temporary safety and life abundant, because it turns out those are not to be found in the same place. Abundant life is out there, and it’s a bit risky…and the safety we want in the sheepfold is only safe for a little while before it turns dangerous. It’s no life at all to always be penned in…but of course we can’t be out 100% of the time either. It’s always a going out and a coming in, always a being called together and sent out. And each time, we pass through the gate, because that’s what a gate is for. We come through a relationship with the One whose voice we know. We go through the Source, the Word that brings light and life to the world.

What difference would it make to how we follow the shepherd if we thought that the place he was taking us to be fed was out there in the world? If the nourishment we need was actually outside the sheepfold… If the abundance he promises is out there, not confined in our small community of like-minded people?

What difference would it make to how we live our abundant life if we thought that being saved wasn’t about being locked away in an afterlife, but about being both gathered and sent out in this life?

I am the gate for the sheep, Jesus said. Enabling movement in and out into the world God so loves, for the people God has set free, moving toward a promised land where the gates of the city are never shut. Jesus is the gate and the shepherd who gathers and sends out — never just one or the other, but always both. And he keeps our going out and our coming in, forevermore.

May it be so. Amen.

Silence for Reflection

Sanctuary Hymn: My Shepherd Will Supply My Need (words: Psalm 23/Isaac Watts; tune: Resignation) (organ)

Online Hymn: Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing (words: Robert Robinson)

Sanctuary Offering and Response: Hymn 392 v. 4
Were the whole realm of nature mine
that were an offering far too small;
love so amazing, so divine,
demands my soul, my life, my all.

Concerns of the Church
*Lent Wednesdays (Westburn 1pm, here 12:15-12:45 and 7:30/soup 7)
*fashion show 29th 2pm
*session meeting 24th 7pm
*Holy Week — Thursday, Friday walk, Saturday, Easter Day
*Easter breakfast
*new members class
*Prayer groups

Prayer and Lord’s Prayer
You are our Shepherd, O God,
you provide for us and care for us,
and we give you thanks.
You call us beloved — for you loved us first,
and we are grateful and we commit to loving you and others as we have been loved.
You call us family, and you place us in families,
and we give thanks today for all those who have been mothers to us,
showing your love, nurturing us, giving of themselves for us.
And we are mindful that as many celebrate the loving mothers in their lives,
others are grieving — feeling the loss that comes with great love,
or the emptiness that comes with hope and love unfulfilled or unrequited.
You lead us to green pastures and still waters,
you restore our souls.
We take this moment to lift up to you those people who have been an example for us,
who have loved us unconditionally,
who have nurtured us whether they knew it or not.
And we pause to give thanks for our church family,
for the love we share,
the life experience we pass on to one another,
the journey we walk together,
the ties that bind us as your people.

You lead us in paths of justice and righteousness
and teach us the way of your kingdom.
We pray today for those people and places in the world longing for justice and righteousness,
longing for restoration,
longing for rest,
longing for peace,
longing for enough.
We remember those families of Dunblane marking 30 years since their children were murdered.
We remember all who grieve losses through violence
and all who suffer at the hands of others.
You comfort us with your rod and staff,
you walk beside us in the valley of the shadow of death,
and we entrust ourselves and our neighbours and our world to you,
praying you would strengthen us not to give in to fear and evil,
for you are with us.
We remember today so many places close to home and across the globe
where the shadows threaten to overtake the light,
where voices of despair or hatred or greed seem to have the upper hand.
Give courage and wholeness to those who suffer.
Give peace to those places where violence reigns.
Share your vision with those who are hopeless.

We look around at our fellow sheep in your flock,
and we pray that together we might know the truth of your love for us,
and that we might heed your call to come in and go out and find pasture.
Give us the grace to share the sheepfold with all whom you have gathered,
and give us courage to turn away from the voices of those who do not call us toward abundant life.
We pray this day that you would move among us
enliven our spirits to do your will,
guide us in your way,
strengthen us to serve you with all our hearts, minds, bodies, and souls,
and open our eyes, our hearts, our hands
to be the answer to others’ prayers.
On the 15th day of the month we join our hearts as your St John’s family to pray
*For all who live and work in the area surrounding Gourock Park.
*For those who use the building at St John’s — may they encounter your grace in our hospitality — and for the volunteers who keep the building clean and in good repair.
*For the land, people, and governments of the nations of Malawi, Zambia, Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, Somalia, the Seychelles, and Djibouti.

Lead us, Good Shepherd, to be your people, sheep of your own flock.
Bring us to the table you have prepared
where our cup overflows
and send us out with your goodness and mercy pursuing us all the days of our lives,
that we may dwell in your house, now and always.
We pray in the name of 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: Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing (words: Robert Robinson) (praise band)

Sending
Jesus is the gate who enables our going out and our coming in, and he is the Good Shepherd who will lead us out to abundant life — follow his voice out to be his people in the world God so loves.
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 (organ)

Announcements

* We worship in the sanctuary on Sundays at 11am, and Sunday worship is also online.

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

* Starter Packs are in need of Shaving Foam, Shampoo, Soap, Hand Wash.
 The FoodBank are short of diluting juice, cereal, noodles/microwave rice, jarred sauce, biscuits, UHT milk, and tinned meat/soups/vegetables. You can bring donations to the church and place them into the boxes in the vestibule. Thank you!

* We are preparing a new member class for the spring — if you or anyone you know would like to explore becoming a member of St John’s, please speak to Teri for more information.

* During the season of Lent we have two midweek opportunities for prayer, reflection, worship, and discussion: on Wednesdays from 12:15-12:45 we’ll have Lent Lunchtime Reflections in the sanctuary, and at 7:30pm in the sanctuary will be Lent Evenings. We’ll be looking at what happened on the last night Jesus spent with his disciples before his arrest, in John chapters 13-17. Everyone is welcome as we dig deeper into the last words Jesus said to his disciples!

* Bowl & Blether is on the first and third Mondays through the winter, with doors open from 11:30-1:30, and lunch served from noon. All are welcome for a bowl of soup, a toastie, a friendly chat in our warm hall! See you tomorrow, the 16th of March.

* Greenock Philharmonic Choir will be performing Britten’s St Nicolas alongside Vivaldi’s Gloria in Greenock Town Hall on Saturday 28th March at 7pm. They will be joined by members of Voices of Inverclyde Senior Schools, and singers from St Mary’s Primary School. The tenor soloist is Euan McDonald. Tickets are available via choir members, or contact Calum Harbison (07847 250529) – also through TicketSource. See the choir’s website for more information.

* We are having a fundraising Fashion Show with clothes from The Dressing Room (Saltcoats) on Sunday 29 March from 2-4pm at the Masonic Lodge. Tickets are £5 and you can get them from Norma or Anne L. Come along for a fun and funny afternoon of fashion!

* We are looking for someone to help with the Easter Breakfast on Sunday 5 April— it would mean joining the kitchen team from about 6am to help with preparation, and also staying to help wash up. Please speak to Graham Bolster or Anne Love for more info.

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

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

* Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Youtube, and to sign up for our email newsletter! Midweek you can watch Wine and the Word and Theology Thursday on Youtube, get snippets of thought or inspiration following Teri on TikTok, and of course keep up with announcements and events on Facebook and our weekly email.

Sunday service for 30 March 2025, fourth Sunday in Lent

Sunday 30 March 2025, 4th Sunday in Lent
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

*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
1: Come and find yourself in God’s story
2: Come and have your imagination expanded
3: Come and meet the Living Word
4: Come and see what the Holy Spirit wants to show you
All: We come at Christ’s command, to be transformed.

Sanctuary Hymn 520: Ye Who the Name of Jesus Bear

Prayer
Compassionate and merciful God,
you call us into relationship with you and one another.
You call us to step out of our usual ways to truly see.
You call us to reach across the chasms of this world to create one beloved community.
We confess that we find it easier to ignore them,
because we don’t know what to do or how to fix the situation,
so we avoid even seeing the people you place in our paths.
We understand that it’s the way of the empire to keep us separated and atomised,
yet we confess we do not resist —
indeed, that we have bought the lie
that we are each isolated individuals who can’t do anything on our own.
Instead we insulate ourselves from the suffering we do see,
using our privilege and position to protect ourselves,
lusting after the trappings of even greater wealth and comfort,
looking for reasons others deserve their suffering.
Forgive us, loving God,
for believing and living un-truths that contradict your word and your kingdom.
Forgive us for our inability to see our neighbours as fully human.
Forgive us for seeing yet doing nothing, as if we deserve better than others.
You invite us to a new world,
so different from what we know of the way things are.
Open us today to hear your word afresh,
to see what is possible in your eyes.
Awaken us today to your vision,
and make us willing to try your way
even when it contradicts the way of the world
before it is too late for yet another generation
to live in the fullness of your kingdom life today.
We ask in the name of the One who died and was raised to show us the way, Jesus the Christ.
Amen.

Sanctuary Sung Prayer — Hymn GWA 111: God, Come Now to Explore My Heart

Online Hymn 253: Inspired by Love and Anger

Sanctuary Children’s Time (Mothering Sunday)

Scripture Reading: Luke 16.19-31
Last week we heard Jesus teaching in parables about looking for the lost and restoring the wholeness of community. He proceeded straight after the story of the Lost Son to tell some very confusing parables related to how we use our resources, especially wealth, ending with the statement “you cannot serve God and wealth.” Some Pharisees and other leaders heard him teaching and they mocked and criticised him, and Luke describes them as “Pharisees who were lovers of money.” Jesus then says to them, “you justify yourselves before others but God knows your heart.” That’s where we pick up the story today, in Luke chapter 16, at verse 19.

Jesus told this parable: “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, where he was being tormented, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. He called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in agony in these flames.’ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things and Lazarus in like manner evil things, but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.’ He said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house— for I have five brothers—that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.’ Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.’ He said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’ ”

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: chasm
I’ve been thinking a lot this week about the chasm between the rich man and Lazarus…fixed in place in their afterlife so that no one can cross it.

But that afterlife chasm seems to reflect the this-life chasm…and in this life, it isn’t yet fixed. We might think it is, but in reality it’s perfectly crossable. The problem is that most of us don’t want to cross it.

The rich man seems to have known Lazarus — he knew his name, and he implies that his still-living brothers would know him by sight too, and know that he had died. He walked past him every time he left his house. Perhaps sometimes he even had to step over Lazarus, depending how close he was to the gate, and how much he moved in trying to get even a scrap of help or food or mercy, or just to get away from dogs.

Yet…did he see him? Or did he choose not to see?

Do we see people? Or do we choose not to see?

Who are our neighbours that we are walking past, stepping over, looking over?

The rich man acted as if there was a giant chasm between him and his nearest neighbour. But the reality is that he could have literally reached out and touched Lazarus, anytime. He could have housed him. He could have fed him. He could have helped him. But he didn’t.

And every time we don’t, the chasm grows a little more fixed. A little more impassable. But it isn’t until we take our last breath that it’s permanent. Up until that point, we always have the chance to turn around, to put out a hand, to lift up another. Or perhaps I should say: we always have the choice.

What is stopping us from making that choice?

Perhaps our relative comfort and the desire to keep it insulates us from the realities other people have to live with. Perhaps the rich man in the story simply enjoyed his life, his beautiful clothes and beautiful food and beautiful home, as many of us do…and that was like a buffer that kept him safe from having to encounter people whose lives were less enjoyable than his.

Perhaps we see those around us but fear of what might happen to us if we stepped out of the norm stops us from doing anything about it. We don’t want to be the only ones acting differently from others of our circle, or others of the status we want to have. We don’t want to draw attention, or to potentially have negative consequences…whether those consequences would be losing some of our own comforts and resources, or drawing the ire of people in power, or something more serious. Maybe the rich man knew Lazarus but couldn’t bring himself to risk helping him. Maybe we see what’s going on but we don’t want to risk being associated with it.

Perhaps deep down we’re actually afraid it will happen to us, and the more we separate ourselves from the difficulties — whether of poverty, or injustice, or violence, or even grief — the more we can tell ourselves we’re safe. Maybe deep in his heart the rich man worried about losing everything — because when you serve a master as fickle as wealth or popularity, it’s always going to lead to anxiety about losing it. Acknowledging Lazarus, or helping him, would bring the rich man too close to the very thing he was afraid would happen to him, so he had to turn away, in order to keep up the pretence that they were different, that he deserved all he had and Lazarus deserved what he got too. Because isn’t that the corollary? If we have earned our comfortable life, then those suffering must have somehow earned that. And when it’s something like an illness or tragedy, we can’t face the idea that it could happen to us, so we keep well away.

Perhaps we just don’t actually know what to do. We see that people are suffering and we see that cycles of poverty and injustice persist and we pray for God to do something because we don’t know what else to do. We turn our eyes to heaven and avoid meeting the eyes of our neighbours we pray for. Maybe the rich man prayed for Lazarus. But as the book of James reminds us, faith without works is dead. Prayer without action is self-serving, not God-serving.

There could be many reasons we don’t choose differently. But the truth is still the same: the chasm is not permanent until we take our last breath. And all those reasons we have actually boil down to excuses, especially when we claim to follow a God who literally laid his life down to bridge the chasm between earth and heaven.

The trouble with perpetuating the chasm — whether because we want that safety buffer or the comfort bubble or because we are afraid or think we’re powerless — is that it isolates us from community. And that isolation withers up our compassion. It may feel safer or easier, but in reality it is dangerous to our souls to stay on our side of the chasm and act as if it is impassable in this life.

The rich man discovered this too late…that God has been calling us to empathy and mercy and community the whole time. He learned too late that relationship and active compassion — in other words, loving God and loving our neighbour and loving the stranger — was the whole point of the Torah and the prophets. Only when he saw that chasm fixed into place did he realise that it was not real, he had only acted as if it was real, and that repeated choice to isolate himself and refuse relationship and mercy had created his eternity.

Now…this story Jesus tells is a parable. It isn’t a photograph or textbook about the afterlife. It’s a story that’s meant to make us think, meant to open up possibilities, meant to put things side by side so we can see more clearly. In this case I think it’s meant to give us some insight into something we rarely see in this life: that we have to choose between serving God and serving wealth. It was the last thing Jesus said before telling this story…that we can’t have both. We can, as A-J Levine said in chapter 1 of Jesus for Everyone that we discussed last week, serve God with wealth, but that still requires choosing to serve God. And that choice means recognising that the chasm we sense between us just is not real. It’s entirely made up. So we need to ask ourselves: who does it serve? If it harms our souls, and it harms our neighbours bodies, and it harms the creation…who is served by us all seeing a chasm that isn’t really there?

And what are we going to do, when we see people on the other side of it? People sleeping rough. People who have to rely on food banks. People dying and losing homes because some nation’s government wanted to kill one person who lived in their apartment block. Children being shot by snipers or buried under rubble during airstrikes. People desperate for safety and opportunity but with no options we will accept, so they have to take any route they can.

Or maybe we should ask…what are we going to do when we see people on this side of that fake chasm, celebrating those airstrikes with strong arm and fist bump emojis, funding them with our taxes while encouraging us to give extra to charities that try to mitigate the disaster, taking benefits from people with disabilities, allowing the raiding of churches to arrest people who talk about what to do in the face of so much injustice?

The chasm isn’t real until we take our last breath. But the consequences of acting like it is are very real, physically and spiritually.

Meanwhile, God’s word walked on earth in a human life, erasing the biggest chasm we have ever created. Meanwhile, Jesus chose relationship even with those who would do anything to maintain that chasm. He saw how we treat each other, he knew how we would treat him, and he still laid himself down as a bridge to bring us together, to prove that the separation isn’t real: not the separation between earth and heaven, not the separation between holy and human, not the separation between neighbour and stranger and enemy and friend, not the separation between rich and poor, not the separation between any of us…he broke down the dividing wall and offered us a new way. If only we have eyes to see and hearts to act.

May it be so. Amen.

Online Hymn GWA216: Build a Longer Table

Sanctuary Hymn 253: Inspired by Love and Anger

Sanctuary Offering and Response Hymn 465 vv. 1 & 4
Be thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart,
naught be all else to me, save that thou art;
thou my best thought in the day or the night,
waking or sleeping, thy presence my light.

Riches I heed not, nor earth’s empty praise,
thou mine inheritance, now and always;
thou, and thou only, the first in my heart,
High King of Heaven, my treasure thou art.

Prayer and Lord’s Prayer
Holy God,
we give you thanks for you have reached across the chasm of the universe
and brought us to yourself.
You draw us close to you
and reveal your kingdom life
and we can never plumb the depths of your grace,
so we simply come with gratitude.

You call us beloved — for you loved us first,
and we are grateful and we commit to loving you and others as we have been loved.
You call us family, and you place us in families,
and we give thanks today for all those who have been mothers to us,
showing your love, nurturing us, giving of themselves for us.
And we are mindful that as many celebrate the loving mothers in their lives,
others are grieving — feeling the loss that comes with great love,
or the emptiness that comes with hope and love unfulfilled or unrequited.
We take this moment to lift up to you those people who have been an example for us,
who have loved us unconditionally,
who have nurtured us whether they knew it or not.
And we pause to give thanks for our church family,
for the love we share,
the life experience we pass on to one another,
the journey we walk together,
the ties that bind us as your people.

And we pray this day for those we have not loved,
those we have walked past,
those we have avoided or ignored.
And we lift up all those who have been left to suffer,
blamed for their own circumstances,
stepped on and stepped over,
with not even a compassionate glance thrown their way.
Comfort them with your presence, O God, and hold them close.
Your providing is so abundant,
we ask that all people would have enough.
Your love and compassion pour out on your creation,
we ask that more people would be conduits rather than dams.
Your healing grace crosses every barrier,
we ask for wholeness and care for all.
And we ask for the commitment to carry out your word,
to create your beloved community,
to live as you call.
We pray this day for those who create the chasms of us-and-them on purpose,
those who believe that chasm serves them,
those who prefer the comfort and convenience of their side
without the disruption or discomfort of the other.
We hold in your light those who cannot believe that they have already received their consolation,
those who see not neighbours but people to be used or abused,
those whose compassion has been stunted by their self-protection and self-interest.
Your wisdom is more valuable than gold or jewels,
we ask for imagination that can stretch to receive.
Your voice speaks through your word and Spirit even still,
we ask for the ability to hear and obey.
Your mercy is from everlasting to everlasting,
we ask that it would transform hearts and minds, and so the world.
And we ask for the commitment to carry out your word,
to create your beloved community,
to live as you call.
On the 30th day of the month we join our hearts as your St John’s family to pray:
*For the whole community of Gourock, for our beautiful natural environment: the river, burns, lochs, soil, air, flora and fauna of all kinds, and for all who live, work, play, pray, and pass through in this place.
*For the youth organisations of St John’s: for the Anchor Boys, Junior Section, and Company & Senior Section of the Boys’ Brigade, for the Smurfs, Brownies, Guides, and Rangers, and for the Exploratorium holiday clubs. For their leaders, volunteers, young people, and families. May they grow in faith, hope, and love together.
*For the land, people, and governments of the nations of Mexico, the USA, Canada, and Greenland

We also lift up all those affected by the earthquake in Myanmar and Thailand, those still searching for loved ones, those trapped, and those wondering how to move forward with so much destruction.
We remember those in Gaza and the West Bank and Israel and Ukraine and Russia who suffer as war goes on.
We turn our attention to those who don’t make the news, as conflict causes so much suffering in Yemen, in South Sudan, in the Democratic Republic of Congo…as fires rage in South Korea…
The world longs for your peace, your comfort, your hope, your justice.

You bring us together with your people through the ages
to share in the goodness of your promise.
Give us the grace to reach beyond ourselves,
to stretch across the chasm, as you have done,
and find wholeness together.
We ask in the name of Christ,
who laid himself down for the world to know your kingdom come on earth as in heaven.
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 GWA216: Build a Longer Table

Sending
Go into the world in peace, and have courage. Hold on to what is good. Honour all of God’s children. Love and serve the Lord, rejoicing in the power of the Spirit.
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

* We worship in the sanctuary on Sundays at 11am, and Sunday worship is also online. If you are able, please enter by the front door in Bath street, and only those who need step-free access should use the back door. If you feel unwell, please worship online, to protect both yourself and others in our community.
The Sunday evening service is on a break for Lent so that we can focus on the Monday evening book group (more info below). The Sunday evenings will re-launch after Easter.

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

* Starter Packs are in need of handwash, soap, kitchen/bathroom cleaners, washing up liquid and tea-bags
 The FoodBank are in need of diluting juice, tinned carrots and other vegetables, tinned meat & tinned meals. You can bring donations to the church and place them into the boxes in the vestibule. Thank you!

* Teri is leading a Lent book group on Monday evenings in the Spinnaker at 7pm. The book is Jesus For Everyone, Not Just Christians. All are welcome — come along and have your dinner, or a drink, or just come for the discussion!

* We are having a Smarties fundraiser this season — pick up your tube of Smarties, enjoy them, then fill the tube with £1 or 20p coins, and bring it back at Easter!

* 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 parish assistant, speak to Anne Love about how to go about directing new donations to that item in the budget.

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

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

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

Sunday service for 10 March 2024, fourth Sunday in Lent

Sunday 10 March 2024, Fourth Sunday in Lent, NL2-34
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
Email Rob, student minister: RThomson (at) churchofscotland.org.uk

Prelude Music (praise band)

Welcome & Announcements

Call to Worship
One: Come, bring your whole self to worship —
All: mind and body, heart and soul.
One: Love for God and love for our neighbour come together
All: for we cannot do one without the other.
One: This is the foundation of faith and life:
All: to love with all we have and all we are.

Hymn: In the Light of Your Mercy (Resound) – Praise Band

Prayer
We come to listen, O God,
with delight and anticipation,
not sure what you will say next.
With every word you challenge our expectations,
invite us to your narrow way,
and re-set us in your paths of righteousness.
May your love be our guide this day
bringing us into your kingdom,
for you made us for community and called us to care for one another.
We confess that we often care mostly for ourselves.
We look for ways to score points, to get ahead, to be right, to secure our futures,
and so it is impossible to find common ground.
Forgive us when we cannot see the forest for the trees.
Forgive us when we idolise generosity we have no intention of practicing.
Forgive us when we do not live up to our responsibility to care for each other.
Forgive us when we demand vulnerability from some but refuse to be vulnerable ourselves.
Forgive us when we seek recognition and honour and glory instead of the greater good.
Set us back on your path to real relationship,
where we can see each other as fellow travellers made in your image,
and learn to love one another as you have loved us.
We ask in the name of the One who perfectly embodies your Love, Jesus the Christ. Amen.

Sanctuary Hymn: Spirit, Open My Heart (words: Ruth Duck; tune: Wild Mountain Thyme)

Sanctuary Children’s Time

Scripture Reading: Mark 12.28-44 (The Living Bible)
Last week we heard the religious and political leaders confronting Jesus in the Temple while the crowds looked on, and in his parables and teaching he reminded them that they have been acting like bad stewards — using the community, the earth, and their resources as if all of it belonged to them and could just be used to benefit themselves. All that arguing leads us to today’s reading, where we pick up in the second half of the gospel according to Mark, chapter 12, and I am reading from The Living Bible.

One of the teachers of religion who was standing there listening to the discussion realised that Jesus had answered well. So he asked, “Of all the commandments, which is the first?”
Jesus replied, “The one that says, ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only God. And you must love him with all your heart and soul and mind and strength.’
“The second is: ‘You must love others as much as yourself.’ No other commandments are greater than these.”
The teacher of religion replied, “Sir, you have spoken a true word in saying that there is only one God and no other. And I know it is far more important to love him with all my heart and understanding and strength, and to love others as myself, than to offer all kinds of sacrifices on the altar of the Temple.”
Realising this man’s understanding, Jesus said to him, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God.” And after that, no one dared ask him any more questions.
Later, as Jesus was teaching the people in the Temple area, he asked them this question:
“Why do your religious teachers claim that the Messiah must be a descendant of King David? For David himself said—and the Holy Spirit was speaking through him when he said it—‘God said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.’ Since David called him his Lord, how can he be his son?”
(This sort of reasoning delighted the crowd and they listened to him with great interest.)
Here are some of the other things he taught them at this time:
“Beware of the teachers of religion! For they love to wear the robes of the rich and scholarly, and to have everyone bow to them as they walk through the markets. They love to sit in the best seats in the synagogues and at the places of honour at banquets— but they shamelessly cheat widows out of their homes and then, to cover up the kind of men they really are, they pretend to be pious by praying long prayers in public. Because of this, their punishment will be the greater.”
Then he went over to the collection boxes in the Temple and sat and watched as the crowds dropped in their money. Some who were rich put in large amounts. Then a poor widow came and dropped in two pennies.
He called his disciples to him and remarked, “That poor widow has given more than all those rich men put together! For they gave a little of their extra, while she gave up her last penny.”

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: Love Takes Up Space
These are some stories that many of us know so well we can talk about them with shorthand — the greatest commandment, the widows mite — and just assume everyone knows what they’re about. We know that a religious leader wanted to catch Jesus out, we know that the poor widow who gave it all is a model we hold up even though we don’t intend to follow what she did, so we hardly even need to listen because once the story starts, we know how it ends. Which makes them kind of hard to preach about because we all know what they’re about: love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbour as yourself. As one of the other gospels puts it: on these two hang all the law and the prophets, they are the key for interpreting everything else in God’s word.

The thing is…in Mark’s gospel, which is the first one written, he didn’t actually say that phrase: on these two hang all the law and the prophets. Instead Jesus says “there are no other commandments greater than these.”

When I noticed that, I found myself headed down a bit of a rabbit hole that I had never noticed before because of how English translations have obscured something in the way Mark told the story. Now I know some of you love this and some of you hate it, but you’re coming down this rabbit hole with me.

When the religious leader came to ask Jesus his question, he asked what commandment was first — and the word he uses is prote — you might recognise it as proto, as in prototype. Literally it means which comes first: first in time, first step toward following commandments, that sort of first-and-foremost.

Jesus answered him with the first — quoting the verse from Deuteronomy that’s called the Shema, the most important Jewish prayer and affirmation of faith, the verse that Jews recite and pray several times every day: Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is One, you shall love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. There is no other possible answer to the question of what comes first, because this is the first prayer Jewish children learn, the first thing said in the morning and the last thing at night, and the first part of it is literally the first of the ten commandments, that God is One.

Then Jesus adds a twist by giving a second, and saying that it is “like” the first — using the word that means “same”, homoia, as in homogenous. He quotes it from Leviticus: Love your neighbour as yourself.

These two together, Jesus says, are GREATER than all the rest. This is where I think our translations let us down, because it turns out that the word for greater is meitzon which is related to “mega” and it often means BIGGER. Larger. Greater in size.

These two commandments, which Jesus says are like each other — to love God and love our neighbour — are bigger than all the rest. They take up more space.

And then the religious leader says to him “yes, you’re right, these two commandments are indeed MORE IMPORTANT than sacrifices.” He actually used yet a third word, pleion, that is about priorities. He says “yes you’re right” but then changes what Jesus actually said, to make it not that these two like-each-other commands are larger and take up more space than others, but that they are a more important priority. Which of course means that he has a list of God’s words that are not priorities, too, or maybe even unimportant enough that they’re safe to ignore.

Jesus’ response is to tell him that he almost got it. You are “not far” from the kingdom of God, he says…not far, but not there either. It’s clear Jesus believes that we could enter the kingdom of God here and now, but this religious leader hasn’t quite gotten there, even though he’s so close!

What does it mean to live a life where the biggest part is about loving God and loving our neighbour as ourselves? A life where the majority of our attention, our energy, our time, our resources, are taken up with love?

We see what it isn’t: when Jesus talks about the people who like to wear the fanciest clothes, have the best seats, and get recognised for their accomplishments, who pray long prayers and act all pious so that everyone thinks well of them, even though behind the scenes they are actually living in ways that contribute to injustice and harm others. Those people — no matter how much they pray or how much they put into the offering — are actually putting all their energy into projecting an image, pretending to be something they’re not so they look good.

And he shows us a glimpse of what it can be: the widow puts in her two pennies, which is nothing compared to the giant cheques from the wealthy, but she gives her all, while they give their extra. They keep the majority for themselves, and she chooses to let love of God and neighbour take up all her resources, trusting that when we all live according to the way God teaches, we will look after each other, rather than only ourselves.

I talk all the time about projecting an image, and how it takes up energy we really don’t have to spare. In this passage I think Jesus is telling us what we are supposed to be doing with the majority of ourselves…what should take up the lion’s share of our time, our attention, our resources…our diaries, our bank books, our conversation, our mental attention. To love God and love our neighbour as ourselves is meant to literally take up space in our lives, not to be first on a checklist of things of diminishing importance. Everything we do should actually be about these two things that are like each other.

So what does that mean? What does it look like to live a life where the main thing is love, where love takes up all the space, and there’s no room for stuff that isn’t about loving God and loving our neighbour? Because if we can learn to let love occupy the most space in our mind, heart, soul, and body, then we may just find ourselves living in the kingdom of God, here and now…not just close to it, but in it.

I think one place to start is to look honestly at ourselves and ask whether love is the main thing we see in our lives. And LOVE here isn’t about feeling warm fuzzies toward God or others, it’s an action in which we consciously choose to treat God and other people as valuable, as worthy and deserving of our loyalty and our care — regardless of how we are actually feeling about them. Looking at our diaries…do the things we give our time to reflect love of God and love of neighbour? Looking at how we spend our money…does our spending further our love of God and love of neighbour? Looking at our words…are they reflections of our love for God and God’s people?

We have to be honest with ourselves if there’s any hope of being honest with God or others. Otherwise the largest share of our lives is actually given over to pretending, which makes it impossible to be transformed — since if everything is fine, nothing needs changing! When we give up pretending — not just for Lent but for good — then we can choose to let love take up the most space. We can make different choices that will show love to neighbours, even the ones we’ll never meet, rather than harming them by, for instance, buying things that contribute to climate change or sweat shops or big corporations that drive small businesses and jobs out of communities… or by using hurtful words that we think are funny but actually communicate to others that we aren’t safe to talk to about hard things… or by holding on to systems that only benefit us while making life harder for others. We can make different choices in how we pray, what we feed our spirits with, and how we give our money and time to serving God and building up the Body of Christ.

Different choices are only possible if we are honest about what is taking up space in us: is it love? Or is it something else? And are we willing to give that something else up, so that love can take up more room?

Because the greatest of these — the biggest, largest, occupying-the-most of us, body, mind, heart, and soul — is love.

May it be so. Amen.

Hymn: The Church of Christ Cannot Be Bound (words: Adam Tice; tune 473 Irish)

Offering

Sanctuary Offering Response 374 v. 4
So let us learn how to serve,
and in our lives enthrone him;
each other’s needs to prefer,
for it is Christ we’re serving.
This is our God, the Servant King,
he calls us now to follow him,
to bring our lives as a daily offering
of worship to the Servant King

Prayer and Lord’s Prayer
You loved us first,
before there was a world,
before we took our first breath,
before we had the chance to deserve it.
You loved us first.
And we are grateful—or grace-full, even—
for you continue to love,
with every divine breath
living and active, creating and redeeming and sustaining,
bringing healing, bringing new life, bringing hope.
Now turn our hearts, and our minds, and our strength,
to love as you love,
creating and healing and active.
We bring our praise, O God,
along with our commitment
to live according to your word,
to love you and love our neighbour
and so find ourselves in your kingdom.
We pray that our whole community might be bound together in love,
lifting each other up and journeying hand in hand along your way.
We pray, too, that your world might choose this way of love.
For those who have been taken advantage of, manipulated, or pushed to the margins,
we ask for your care and strength.
For those who are entrenched and cannot see a way to change without losing everything,
we ask for your mind-opening Spirit.
For those who have been abused in the name of love,
we ask for your healing.
For those too afraid to offer their whole self to you or to another,
we ask for your courage.
For those longing for another way,
we ask for your vision.
Give us courage to speak up and speak out,
to offer compassion even when we do not know what to say.
Where there is violence,
emotional or spiritual or physical,
in derisive words or hurtful actions,
give us courage to be peacemakers,
to insist that it is not okay to cause pain,
that your way is a way of compassion and reconciliation,
a way of picking each other up and looking out for each other’s welfare,
not a way of putting down or pulling ahead.
In this world where some give their whole life while others benefit
and where we reach first for weapons,
we need to know your love and your call yet again.
May all we say and do flow from your love for us, and our love for you and your world.

And on this tenth day of the month, we join our hearts as your church family to pray:
*For all who live and work in the Midton and Trumpethill areas.
*For the leaders of St John’s congregation: for the elders, the Kirk Session, the Session Clerk, the Treasurer, the pastoral care team, the flower team, and the many other volunteers.
*For the land, people, and governments of the nations of Libya, Malta, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Western Sahara, and Cape Verde.
May we all act as if we know what it is to be loved,
may we speak words of kindness and act on what we say we believe,
letting our love for you and for our neighbours take up the most space
in our hearts, minds, souls, and strength,
until all come together in your kingdom.

We pray these and all things trusting in your Holy Spirit to empower us,
in the name of Jesus the Christ who taught us to pray together with one voice:
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: Love the Lord (praise band)

Benediction
It is an endless dance — to love God, we must love our neighbour, and to love our neighbour well, we must love God. Go to join that dance, sharing the love of God, the generosity of Christ, and the strength of the Holy Spirit with all whom you meet.
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

****** The Easter Code is in St John’s on Monday and Tuesday this week (11-12 March), and in St Margaret’s on Wednesday and Thursday (13-14 March). We are in need of volunteers from about 9-12 each day, if you’d be willing to help please speak to Teri!

* 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.

* A funeral service celebrating the life of Mrs. Margaret Turner will be held at Greenock Crematorium on Friday, 15 March, at 2pm. Please keep all Margaret’s family in your prayers.

* We are now in the season of Lent, and there are several opportunities over these 40 days to deepen our spiritual lives, to worship and study together, and to prepare our hearts and minds and lives for Easter.
1. There’s a daily devotional booklet available.
2. Each Wednesday at noon there will be a brief CONNECT service held in OGA, followed by a simple lunch together at 1230. Join our CONNECT friends for this time of worship and reflection and fellowship.
3. Wednesday 13 March at 7pm we will have a CONNECT Lent evening, held at Westburn church.

Looking ahead to Holy Week:
Sunday 24 March, 11am: Palm Sunday family service.
Wednesday 27 March, 7pm: CONNECT Holy Week service in St Margaret’s.
Thursday 28 March, 7:30pm: Maundy Thursday communion service in St. John’s.
Friday 29 March, 10am: Gourock cross-walk (TBC), followed by 12 noon Good Friday service in St John’s.
Saturday 30 March, 7:30pm: Easter Eve service in St John’s — a service that takes us through the whole story of salvation and brings us to the new light of resurrection.
Sunday 31 March, Easter Day: 7am service on Tower Hill, followed by breakfast communion in the large hall; 11am family service in the sanctuary.

**If you’d be willing and able to help with the Easter Breakfast, please speak to Anne Love, Charlene, or Graham Bolster. Thanks!

* Greenock Philharmonic Choir’s Spring Concert is on Saturday 23rd March at 7-30pm, in Lyle Kirk, Union Street, Greenock. They will perform Mozart’s Requiem, plus two of the Handel Coronation Anthems, including ‘Zadok the Priest’, and featuring Glasgow Chamber Orchestra. For information or tickets (£15) – contact Calum on 07847 250529 or email info@greenockphilharmonic.co.uk. Tickets are available at the door on the night. Tea, coffee, cakes included. There is further information on the choir’s website and Facebook page.

* Starter Packs are in need of T-Bags, Kitchen Roll, Cleaning Cloths, Soap and Soap Powder, and Easter Eggs. The FoodBank are in need of tinned fruit, coffee, tinned vegetables, instant mash & breakfast cereal. You can bring donations to the church and place them into the boxes in the vestibule. Thank you!

* 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 meets in the manse at 7:30pm most weeks — but not this week, as we have the CONNECT Lent event on Wednesday at 7pm at Westburn.

* Bowl & Blether is on Monday the 18th of March, from 11:30-1:30. Why not invite a friend along to join you for some soup, a toast, and some chat in our lovely warm hall? If you’d like to volunteer, you’re always welcome! We make soup at 9:30, do the set up to serve at 11, and clean up from 1:30. Thank you!

* The Contact Group last meeting of the session is on Tuesday, the 19^th of March when they will hold their AGM, followed by a meal at Gourock Golf Club. If you wish to join them please speak to Anne Armour or Fiona Webster.

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

*** Our new evening service begins TONIGHT at 5pm!
Graham Gardiner is doing a placement with us this spring, focused on a project, and we hope everyone will support it!
Excited to explore faith in a new way?
Inspired by Teri’s recent sermon on New Wineskins, we’re launching a new Sunday Evening service starting March 10th at 5 pm.
What’s different?
No traditional sermon! Instead, we’ll dive deeper into the morning message through an engaging interview with the preacher.
Guitar-based music, Bible readings, and prayer will create a relaxed atmosphere for reflection and worship.
Did you miss the morning service? No worries! We’ll get you caught up before the discussion.
Imagine:
Gaining fresh insights from the morning message in a conversational format.
Discovering practical ways to apply the message to your life.
Enjoying a chilled vibe that fosters connection and reflection.
Join us for this exciting new experience!
Looking forward to seeing you there!
Graham
Ps. Spread the word and invite your friends!

Sunday service for 19 March 2023, fourth Sunday in Lent

Sunday 19 March 2023, NL1-34, 4th Sunday in Lent
Gourock St. John’s Church of Scotland
Service prepared by Rev. Teri Peterson
Manse: 632143
Email: tpeterson (at) churchofscotland.org.uk

Prelude Music

Welcome and Announcements

Call to Worship
One: Keep alert for Christ coming among us.
All: We come with eyes open to see.
One: Looking for ways to love our neighbour,
All: We come with hearts open to receive.
One: Ready to let your light shine,
All: We come with hands open to serve.

Sanctuary Hymn 543: Longing for Light, We Wait in Darkness

Prayer
Sovereign God, all time is in your hand,
and yet we confess that we want you to work to our timetable.
We recognise that the world is not as it should be
and we long for your coming to make things right,
yet we delay and slow down because justice is not profitable or comfortable.
We pray for you to change things now, when we want them fixed,
yet we make excuses about how we are not ready to change.
Forgive us, Lord, for our lamps are going out,
and we have stumbled in the shadows as we sought our own way.
Forgive us, and let your forgiveness fill us to overflowing that we may have light to share,
and so include others in the work you set before us each day.
Re-ignite our passion for your kingdom,
and guide us to faithfully walk with you whenever, and wherever, you lead,
for however long it takes to see your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Awaken us to your presence,
and enliven us with your possibility.
Give us even a glimpse of your foolishness that is wiser than human wisdom,
for we hear your coming and we want to be ready
to be part of the next chapter of your story.
We ask in the name of Jesus the Christ,
who comes to fulfil your kingdom among us.
Amen.

Online Hymn: Shine Jesus Shine

Sanctuary Children’s Time

Reading: Matthew 25:1-13 (New Revised Standard Version)
‘Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. 2Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. 3When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them; 4but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. 5As the bridegroom was delayed, all of them became drowsy and slept. 6But at midnight there was a shout, “Look! Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.” 7Then all those bridesmaids got up and trimmed their lamps. 8The foolish said to the wise, “Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.” 9But the wise replied, “No! there will not be enough for you and for us; you had better go to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.” 10And while they went to buy it, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went with him into the wedding banquet; and the door was shut. 11Later the other bridesmaids came also, saying, “Lord, lord, open to us.” 12But he replied, “Truly I tell you, I do not know you.” 13Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.

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: community lamps
This week I heard a shocking statistic that approximately 1/3 of Church of Scotland ministers are off sick just now, and a large proportion of those are off with stress or burnout. Last week a Church of England minister just two years older than I am took her own life, and her story is being shared all over clergy social media groups. It’s the same in other professions too — nurses and doctors and teachers and charity workers and hospitality staff and even political leaders like Jacinda Ardern in New Zealand stepping down because she felt she was too depleted to continue giving her all to leading the country. There’s a lot of exhaustion, frustration, a sense of being undervalued or taken for granted while also facing unreasonable expectations…and there’s no time or resources to re-fill those empty lamps.

These stories of Jesus are so provocative because they invite us to find ourselves inside them.
Some of us may well recognise ourselves in the bridesmaids who trusted that the day was going to run to schedule, and so when they had to actually go on for longer than expected, didn’t have the resources. It happens to most of us at some point — when expectations change midway through a task, it can be hard to adapt. For some, that might mean that a job changes, we need to learn to do things differently or to take on new responsibilities within our role, and the thought of learning new skills or retraining ourselves for a different way of working is just too much. For some it’s a death of a family member changing our roles and relationships and sense of ourselves. We see it in the church, too, as the culture and world change and the church keeps trying to be the same, but we look into the lamp and see there’s not much left and the light is flickering. Change can be scary and threatening and it feels like we’re running on empty. What do we do if it isn’t immediately obvious how to replenish, or if the resources we need aren’t available and no one seems willing to offer support?

Some of us may recognise ourselves in the bridesmaids who packed extra oil, and probably snacks and a change of clothes too. They were ready for anything, even if it meant the groom was unconscionably late. And when they were asked to share, their first reaction was “but then there might not be enough for us!” Most of us know that scarcity mindset well. We have been taught to take care of ourselves, and only if we have something leftover do we share it. For generations we have learned to save for a rainy day, to be self-sufficient and to insist that others are self-sufficient as well, to do everything we can to avoid having to ask for help and to respond to others asking for help with a little bit of help and maybe also a little bit of patronising. Like if they had just been as careful as we were, they wouldn’t need that help, but for now here’s a little something we can spare…or not, as these bridesmaids decided. I have seen this in institutions and churches and individuals and nations — the idea that we just have to take care of ourselves and everyone else should do that too, and if they can’t then that’s their own problem, not our problem. That is the wisdom of this world but God calls it foolishness, in his kingdom where the last will be first and where Jesus came that we might have abundant life. This same mindset is the one that keeps churches from growing, because we plan our mission around the resources we currently have, which means always doing the same or less…which is the wisdom of this world’s budgeting strategy… rather than saying we have a new vision or want to do additional ministry and now we need to ask for support for it, however foolish it may appear to ask in the midst of everything else.

Even as I read those five bridesmaids that way, though, I can hear and feel another side too. I recognise myself in those bridesmaids who did their best and then found it still wasn’t enough. The demands are endless and the reserves are not, no matter how hard we try to do the good works that Jesus says are the light we shine. There’s always someone else needing or wanting something, and for all the effort we put in to being adaptable to any potential situation and resilient in the face of change or challenge, sometimes we also reach the point when we have to protect ourselves a little bit, like putting on your own oxygen mask first in the airplane safety instructions.

Of course, there’s no story here at all if not for the groom who was ridiculously late for his own wedding! His lateness creates a rift among the community of bridesmaids, so that ultimately only half of them are able to come to the celebration…which probably also creates a rift with the bride! While of course we aren’t responsible for other people’s feelings and relationships, we can at least spare a thought for how our behaviour impacts on the community as a whole. How often have we acted in ways that dismiss the people who aren’t right in front of us at the moment we decide to look? Or that harm people with fewer resources than we have, simply because they couldn’t keep up with our expectations? Or how often have we assumed uncharitable things about the people who weren’t there, when really they just needed a minute to replenish themselves so they could shine all the brighter for us?

And then there’s also the reality that often things just take longer than we think they should. We want a quick fix. We want to make a decision and have the solution instantly. And the truth is that the transformation of the world into the kingdom of God is just taking a lot longer than we want it to. Our glimpses of the kingdom seem few and far between, and the glimpses we do get sometimes actually scare us off so we close our eyes. Our hopes and dreams for the church often feel as far off today as they did when we first had them, but now we have fewer resources to try to put them into action. We keep waiting, but sometimes it seems we are too depleted to respond when the call finally comes, and sometimes it feels like all we have to offer is the same old way we’ve always done it even though now the time is different than when we originally started… and sometimes we’re the ones shouting “it’s coming!” only for people to scatter in a million directions instead of focusing!

This parable gives us a lot of places to find ourselves, and our church, in the story. The characters are all relatable in one way or another, and I’m pretty sure I’ve been all of them, or encountered all of them, at one point or another! I suspect that’s true for most of us, and it’s definitely true for the church. (I wonder — what character do you think the church is most like right now?)

The sticking point remains, though: what are we to do, having seen ourselves in this story Jesus told?

As we read from the end of Matthew’s gospel today, it would behoove us to remember the beginning, in Jesus’ very first teachings, because the two make bookends for the gospel. Back in the sermon on the mount, 20 chapters ago, Jesus said: let your light shine before others. No one lights a lamp and hides it or hoards it — the purpose of a lamp is to give light to all in the house, the purpose of the city on a hill is to be a beacon that shines out for all to see.

Often, we are tired from waiting for God to do something…or from doing the same old same old until we just can’t anymore. Sometimes, our lamps may be going out. Sometimes, we may want to keep our light to ourselves. Sometimes, we need a break from serving past our capacity so we can be refreshed and renewed, and sometimes we need help adapting to changed circumstances we just did not foresee. In those moments, there is someone else in the community who has plenty of light to shine on the path so we can take the next step, there is someone else in our community who calls us out of that isolation back into relationship, and leaning on our community means we can rest or be resilient. Perhaps a strong sense of belonging together and caring for each other…and a willingness to be cared for, too… is one way of keeping our lamps filled.

If we follow the wisdom of the world and send others away to fend for themselves so we can just focus on ourselves, we will ultimately find the half-attended party bittersweet and the light thin and weak.
If we foolishly decide to leave the community to try to fill ourselves up in the marketplace, we’ll miss the opportunity to join God’s kingdom together.
We may not always be able to share oil. But if we will not share our light, then what is that oil for, anyway?
If we face the challenge together instead of putting the whole burden on a few,
if we support each other through those dark valleys rather than just demanding people do more and more with less and less,
if we look for creative ways to share the light even when it feels like God is taking forever in coming,
we’ll be prepared and strong for whatever lies ahead.

May it be so. Amen.

Online Hymn 694: Brother, Sister, Let Me Serve You
Sanctuary Hymn: O God, prepare your children (Words: Michael Morgan (1948 – 2023))

Offering
Sometimes standing here and inviting us all into a spiritual practice of generous giving feels a little bit like asking to share the oil in your lamps. The reality is that we have budgeted only for what we currently do, not even everything we actually feel God is calling us to do to serve our community, and that just what we currently do costs more than our regular offering income, let alone what we think God is asking us to do. Is there oil enough to share the light of Christ with more people and in more ways? We trust that our generous God who gives abundantly will also inspire us to be like him, and give us what we need to be like him, so that the kingdom of heaven may flourish here in this place. If you give by standing order, thank you so much for that consistent generosity that allows us to make plans. If you haven’t reviewed your standing order in a while, this is a good time to do so — I revised mine last week to account for the increase we have heard we need. If you give with envelopes, thank you so much for your generosity that keeps us going week by week. If you give online, thank you so much for those special gifts that give a boost to our ministry! If you give regularly but also feel moved to give a special gift in response to God’s goodness or God’s call, thank you for digging deep and being willing to share what you have with those in our community whose reserves feel depleted. We trust that when we stick together as a community, and when we let our light shine as a beacon of blessing to all, there will be enough for everyone.

Your morning offering will now be received.

Sanctuary Offering Response 680 v. 4 (tune: Picardy)
May the One whose love is broader
than the measure of all space
give us words to sing the story,
move among us in this place.
Christ be known in all our living,
filling all with gifts of love.

Prayer and Lord’s Prayer
Your wisdom is beyond us, O God, but we still try to understand.
Your timing is different than we would prefer, but we still try to be both patient and prepared.
Your justice turns our sense of fairness upside down, but we still try to carry out your will.
We thank you for the reminder that you are God and we are not,
and we pray you would help us to be faithful in what you give us, Lord, to do.
We hold in your light today those who have waited long for justice,
whose hope wanes and spirits faint.
May your day come, and soon, when they hear good news.
We hold in your light today those who must navigate the world on their own,
who have no one to advise or nurture or challenge them.
May your beloved community enfold them in grace and growth.
We hold in your light today those who have been shut out,
and those who have closed doors, for safety reasons and for selfish ones.
May your healing welcome expand and transform their lives.
We hold in your light today those people and places
where violence, hunger, and climate change make it impossible to look forward or plan,
those whose lives must be lived moment by moment
with fear and grief seeming to have the upper hand.
May your peace fill each corner of the earth and each heart.
We hold in your light today those who have followed you faithfully
and yet grow weary as the day and years go on and progress seems far off.
May your day come, and soon, when your will is done on earth.
Loving God,
you are the perfect parent,
guiding and nurturing, calling and challenging,
teaching and caring.
We give you thanks for the love that has passed from generation to generation,
love received from you and shown to others,
and we celebrate those who have nurtured us with your mothering spirit.
We give you thanks for the way you call us all your children,
making us sisters and brothers, aunts and uncles,
parents and grandparents, cousins and neighbours
with the whole world.
When we use the phrase “our children” or “our mothers” too narrowly,
open our hearts and minds to see as you see.
We pray today for the mothers who weep for their children,
lost to violence, to fear, to hate, to indifference;
living with homelessness, going hungry,
lost to broken systems and selfish blindness.
Remind us that if one part of the body suffers, all suffer together with it. …
We pray today for the many people who find days like today hard,
even as we celebrate the many blessings you have given to us
through people who have helped us grow in your love over the years.
May all your children be comforted, supported, nourished, challenged, healed, and renewed.
Reveal yourself, loving God,
as the One who creates a new thing,
starting from today and moving us forward into the future you intend.
We ask these and all things in the name of Christ, in whom your fullness dwells,
and 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 694: Brother, Sister, Let Me Serve You

Benediction
Friends, go to live each day ready for Christ’s call, letting your light shine that all may see God’s love in and through you.
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.

Sanctuary Postlude Music

Announcements

* We worship in the sanctuary on Sundays at 11am, and all Sunday worship is also online (or on the phone at 01475 270037, or in print). 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 choir rehearses in the sanctuary immediately after the service, and finishes before 1pm. All who enjoy singing are welcome!

* St John’s is hosting the Easter Code for Primary school pupils on Monday, 20th March and Tuesday, 21st March and we are looking for volunteers to assist. If you can help, please see Teri after the service.

*We are looking for a new Property Convenor — the role mainly involves keeping track of contracts (ie utilities/works) and contacting and following up with contractors to get works done in accordance with the Kirk Session’s instructions, plans, and budget. The administrative/reporting duties have thus far been done entirely using Microsoft Word, so no particular technological skills required. If you might be interested in volunteering for this role, please speak to Cameron, Donald (the current convenor), or Teri to learn more.

* Did you know that it costs us about £10,500 per month to do the ministry we currently do at St. John’s? That includes heating and lighting the building and keeping it in good repair for church and community groups, programming, events, and pastoral care for people of all ages, our contribution to minister’s stipends, and other ministry costs. 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.

* Wednesday Evening Bible Study meets in the manse at 7:30pm. All are welcome as we continue reading through the Bible in somewhat more than a year!

* Young Adult Bible Study meets in the manse on the 2nd and 4th Sundays at 7pm for a meal and discussion of the gospel according to John. Everyone in their 20s is welcome!

*The Contact Group meets on Tuesday 21 March at 2pm for their Annual General Meeting.

* Our Lent study is with all of Connect, meeting in the Lyle Kirk on Thursday evenings. We gather at 7pm for tea and coffee and then start at 7:30pm. We are studying “Another Story Must Begin” based on the musical Les Miserables. All are welcome, no experience necessary.

* The Stated Annual Meeting of the congregation will be held immediately after morning worship TODAY. The minute of last year’s meeting is available in the sanctuary. You can download a copy of the Annual Report by clicking here.

* March 2023 marks the 125th anniversary of the 2nd Gourock Boys’ Brigade. Our anniversary Grand Charity Ball will be Saturday 9th September 6.00 for 6.30pm in Greenock Town Hall. Tickets priced £50 or £500 for a table of 10 will be available soon. The benefitting Charities have been selected and will be announced shortly. We are delighted to announce that every penny raised from ticket sales and our charity auction on the evening will go directly to our chosen charities. This event is open to all so please spread the word, book your table, put the date in your diary and look forward to what we are sure will be a Second To None evening of enjoyment and celebration.

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

* Greenock Philharmonic Choir’s Spring Concert will be on Saturday 25th March in Lyle Kirk, Union Street, Greenock at 7-30pm. They will perform ‘Elijah’ by Mendelssohn. The conductor is Andrew McTaggart, and the choir will be accompanied by the Glasgow Chamber Orchestra. Soloists are Catriona Hewitson, Penelope Cousland, William Searle, and Ross Cumming. Tickets, priced £15, including refreshments, are available from Calum Harbison on 07847 250529, or by emailing info@greenockphilharmonic.co.uk.

Sunday service for 27 March 2022, fourth Sunday in Lent

27 March 2022, fourth Sunday in Lent
Gourock St. John’s Church of Scotland
Service prepared by the Rev. Teri Peterson
Manse: 632143
Email: tpeterson@churchofscotland.org.uk

In the sermon, there’s a pause to watch a video that I cannot embed in our worship video, for copyright reasons. You can watch that video on YouTube by clicking here!

Prelude Music

Welcome

Call to Worship
1: When the time is right, Jesus calls us to follow.
And sometimes, he calls us to wait.
2: When the time is right, Jesus calls us to speak.
And sometimes, he calls us to listen.
All: In every time, Jesus gives us what we need to be faithful,
to look past our fear toward Life anew.

Prayer with Hymn 776: Ukrainian Kyrie
Kyrie Eleison, Kyrie Eleison, Kyrie Eleison.

Faithful God, you have made us in your image and called us your own.
We confess that we have not lived up to our potential,
and we admit that the gap between your kingdom way and our daily lives
is larger than we can bridge.
We have tried to do it under our own power,
proving our strength and earning our place,
even as you teach us to rely on your grace in our weakness.

Kyrie Eleison, Kyrie Eleison, Kyrie Eleison.

We confess that in our attempts to be worthy,
we have actually lost our way.
Though we know you are near,
we cannot hear you over the voice of fear roaring in our ears and minds,
coursing through our bodies and telling us lies about who we are.

Kyrie Eleison, Kyrie Eleison, Kyrie Eleison.

Forgive us for denying who you made us to be,
in favour of projecting an image that makes it easier to get along in this world.
Forgive us for pretending we do not know you,
in order to pursue our own instant gratification.
Forgive us for meeting your “I am” with our own scared “I am not,”
and bridge the gap between our ability and your vision,
that we may hear you clearly and obey your word.

Kyrie Eleison, Kyrie Eleison, Kyrie Eleison.

Your word is alive, O God,
out in the open,
moving in hearts and minds and lives.
Your good news cannot be contained or controlled,
and there’s no stopping your revolutionary love
rippling out through the world.
Give us ears to hear your voice, calm and sure,
guiding us through fear to resurrection faith.
We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Music
Online: The Voice of Truth (Casting Crowns)
In person: improvisation on St Columba (by P Norris)

Reading: John 18.12-27 (NRSV)
Last week we heard about Jesus washing the feet of his disciples, and instructing them to do the same: to demonstrate love by serving one another. After the meal ended, Judas went out and met the authorities, and showed them where to find Jesus and the disciples meeting and praying in the garden. Meanwhile, Jesus spoke to the disciples at great length about his upcoming trials and triumphs, and prayed for his disciples to be faithful in following his way, including teaching them that the world will recognise them as his disciples by their love. When the authorities arrived with their lanterns and torches, Judas stood with the soldiers and police who came to arrest Jesus. When they said they were looking for Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus himself stepped forward and said “I am,” and he instructed his disciples to leave, so that none might be lost. Peter drew his sword and cut off the ear of the high priest’s slave, and Jesus told him to put his sword away, it wasn’t the way. We pick up the story in the gospel according to John, chapter 18, beginning at verse 12. I am reading from the New Revised Standard Version.
~~~

So the soldiers, their officer, and the Jewish police arrested Jesus and bound him. First they took him to Annas, who was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the high priest that year. Caiaphas was the one who had advised the religious leaders that it was better to have one person die for the people.

Simon Peter and another disciple followed Jesus. Since that disciple was known to the high priest, he went with Jesus into the courtyard of the high priest, but Peter was standing outside at the gate. So the other disciple, who was known to the high priest, went out, spoke to the woman who guarded the gate, and brought Peter in. The woman said to Peter, ‘You are not also one of this man’s disciples, are you?’ He said, ‘I am not.’ Now the slaves and the police had made a charcoal fire because it was cold, and they were standing round it and warming themselves. Peter also was standing with them and warming himself.

Then the high priest questioned Jesus about his disciples and about his teaching. Jesus answered, ‘I have spoken openly to the world; I have always taught in synagogues and in the temple, where all the Jews come together. I have said nothing in secret. Why do you ask me? Ask those who heard what I said to them; they know what I said.’ When he had said this, one of the police standing nearby struck Jesus on the face, saying, ‘Is that how you answer the high priest?’ Jesus answered, ‘If I have spoken wrongly, testify to the wrong. But if I have spoken rightly, why do you strike me?’ Then Annas sent him bound to Caiaphas the high priest.

Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. They asked him, ‘You are not also one of his disciples, are you?’ He denied it and said, ‘I am not.’ One of the slaves of the high priest, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, asked, ‘Did I not see you in the garden with him?’ Again Peter denied it, and at that moment the cock crowed.

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: The Voice of Fear
Sometimes I wonder about how much pressure Peter felt. He was, after all, the one that Jesus re-named “The Rock” the very first time they met. He was one of Jesus’ inner circle of closest friends. He was the one who felt most free to speak up, and he had some spectacular successes…though John’s gospel says someone else is the “beloved” disciple. Peter was a leader among the disciples, and he had been told that he’d be a leader in the community of Jesus followers in years to come. Not to mention that, narratively in the story, he stands in for us a lot of the time, saying and doing things that we might think! Though of course he wouldn’t have known that at the time. But by this point in John, Peter has been with Jesus for three years, learning, absorbing, watching, and being empowered. But that night in the garden, Peter heard Jesus predict his strength would falter. He heard Jesus say “you cannot follow me now, but later you will.” He heard Jesus send his disciples home.

And then a crack appeared in the Rock. He not only pulled out his sword, he brandished it about and he injured someone, and Jesus told him to stop. He had gotten this spectacularly wrong, misunderstanding who Jesus was and what he had to do, and also what it meant to be a disciple of the Prince of Peace.

Once that crack opened, it’s as if the pressure got greater and greater, because the foundation was compromised, and Peter just fell apart.

I think that’s something we can relate to — in fact it’s a common enough experience that there’s a whole song about it in the recent Disney film Encanto.

Luisa’s Song (Surface Pressure): https://youtu.be/tQwVKr8rCYw

Sometimes the pressure comes from outside expectations, things people need or want from us, the things they ask us to carry or handle or hold. And sometimes it’s on the inside — thoughts like “who am I if I don’t have what it takes?” or “I’m pretty sure I’m worthless if I can’t be of service.” Those are the things that, when we say them to ourselves, mean that one little crack feels like the end of it all. One crack, and we fall entirely apart, as Peter did. One mistake in the garden — granted it was a big mistake, but still — and it was as if he’d passed some point of no return, and left behind everything he’d learned, all the transformation and experiences of the past three years becoming a disciple of Jesus.

So there Peter stood in the high priest’s courtyard — not with Jesus, whom he followed there in spite of being told it wasn’t time for him to come yet, but rather with the guards and police, around a fire. The light of the world was a few metres away, but Peter chose the lesser light, almost as if he felt he no longer belonged with Jesus. In Peter’s mind, he’s failed in such a big way that he is no longer able to call himself a disciple of Jesus. One crack and his entire identity fell apart, so when he was asked: are you not also one of this man’s disciples? — which tells us that the other person Peter went there with was already known to be a disciple, and was presumably standing with Jesus during this interrogation — but when Peter was asked, having had this crack open up, he could not say yes. Who was he, if his courage faltered? Well, he certainly couldn’t be a disciple, could he? He was a disciple before, sure…but now?

That’s the voice of fear talking, not the voice of the Shepherd. The voice of fear calls us to forget who we are. It talks round and round in circles until we are trapped by it and all we can imagine is this wee cage that holds us stuck in place.

That’s what the voice of fear wants — for us to forget, or at least hide and deny, who we really are. And even better, to drown out or ignore any other voices that might remind us. That way we will behave entirely in self-serving ways, seeking our own safety without thought for others or for the common good or the bigger picture.

Fear makes us forget ourselves. It takes the truth to set us free.

Perhaps Peter could not see the truth, that he was still a disciple, even though his courage had faltered. He made one mistake and then the voice of fear told him that was it, he was finished, he could never live up to his name. If you don’t keep it together all the time, then there’s no point in trying again. And turning to the other disciple for support was of course out of the question, because the voice of fear and the voice of self-sufficiency are best friends…a friendship made possible by the fact that they are both liars.

The voice of truth says “do not be afraid” — which is easier said than done, of course! With so much pressure both from the outside and the inside, and so many competing voices, it can feel impossible. So perhaps we might listen instead for the voice of truth reminding us who we are.

Fear wants us to forget who we are, or if that’s not quite possible, to at least pretend to be something else. Peter was not the first nor the last to hide his true self out of fear of how others would react to him. We have neighbours, brothers and sisters, children and grandchildren, who are hiding themselves because they are afraid of what others will think of them, or afraid for their safety if they’re honest, or afraid of being alone in the world. Whether they have to hide because of who they love or because of what faith they practice or because of some past trauma or because of some illness that they’re ashamed of, that fear is real and it traps us in that tiny cage that obscures our view of ourselves and the world.

But what if the voice of truth reminds us who we are?

The voice of truth says: you are my beloved.

The voice of truth says: I made you in my image, for my glory.

The voice of truth says: I believe in you.

The voice of truth says: you were never meant to carry this all alone.

The voice of truth says: I know you make mistakes, and I still love you.

The voice of truth might even quote Leonard Cohen and say: it’s okay if you crack now and then — there is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.

The voice of truth says: the worst thing is never the last thing.

The voice of truth says: come, follow me.

Though the voice of fear wants you to forget or deny yourself, remember who you are. When the pressure is overwhelming, remember who you are. When the world is out of control, remember who you are. When everything feels dangers, remember who you are. Even if you can’t manage to let go of fear, instead focus on who you are: you are a child of God, and you belong to God who loves you. Hone in on that truth, and though the other voices will still be there, they won’t be quite so loud. Because the truth will set you free.

May it be so. Amen.

Online hymn 533: Will You Come and Follow Me
(In person Hymn: The Truth That Sets Us Free (words: John L Bell; tune: Courage Brother))

Prayer and Lord’s Prayer: Fiona Webster
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 533: Will You Come and Follow Me (John L Bell, tune Kelvingrove)

Benediction
Go into your week to hear and obey the voice of truth which says you are a beloved child of God, and let that love that is the foundation of all things give you courage to stand firm in who God has made you to be.
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.

Announcements

* We are now about halfway through the season of Lent, a season of preparing for Easter. During Lent we are invited to be particularly attentive to our spiritual practices, to remove things from our lives that are hindering our relationship with God, and to be diligent in pursuing faithful ways. This season is meant to get us ready to meet the risen Christ on the other side of the tomb, and to follow him wherever he will lead. The theme for worship during this Lenten season will be “Who’s Calling?” — thinking about how we incline our ear to the voice of Jesus through the cacophony of the world around us.

*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 one-chair-between-households distancing. 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 for evening prayer on the Connect Facebook Page, led tonight by David. 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!

* The Spring Church Notes are now available! You can read them by clicking here.

* The Lower Clyde Mission Group (of which St. John’s is a part) is hosting an Easter Trail on Saturday 16 April, on Tower Hill, from 2-3pm. All are welcome!

*Young Adults Bible Study is on Zoom most Sunday afternoons. Contact Teri for the link to join and for a copy of the book they are using.

*Mark your calendars for Holy Week and Easter worship:
10 April:
11am, Passion Sunday service in St. John’s
4pm, CONNECT Palm Sunday event at OGA, with a light dinner served

14 and 15 April:
7:30pm, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday services

16 April:
2-3pm, Easter Trail on Tower Hill
8:30pm, Easter Eve service in St. John’s

17 April:
7am, Easter service on Tower Hill
8am, Easter breakfast with communion in St. John’s large hall
11am, Easter service in St John’s sanctuary

Sunday Service for 14 March 2021, the fourth Sunday in Lent

Sunday Service for 14 March 2021, fourth Sunday in Lent
Prepared by Rev. Teri Peterson, Gourock St. John’s
Manse phone: 632143, Email: tpeterson (at) churchofscotland.org.uk

To hear an audio recording of this service, including music, call 01475 270037. Minutes should be included in your phone plan for landline numbers.

Coffee hour is on Zoom between 11:45 – 1. Grab a cuppa and come for a chat!

Children’s Time is on Zoom at 11. If you or someone you know would like login details, please contact Teri.

Our Lent Study this year is online as well. Each day throughout the week we are learning about various people of faith through the ages on Lent Madness, and then on Wednesday evenings at 7:30 we will gather on Zoom to go more in depth about them and what we can learn from their faithfulness to help us on our own journeys with Christ. If you’d like to join the Zoom study, click here on Wednesday at 7:30. If you know someone who needs the details to join by audio only (by phone) please contact Teri for the details.

Palm Sunday is in two weeks. If you are out for a walk between now and then, be on the lookout for a smooth stone that fits in the palm of your hand — not too small or too big, just right. Bring it home and wash it and let it dry — we will be using them in our Palm Sunday worship.

~~~~~~

Call to Recognition
God has been telling the story for generations,
calling us to faithfulness.
The prophets and apostles proclaim
the covenant written on our hearts.
The Holy Spirit gifts us with all we need
to live in the kingdom of God here and now.
So come, let us worship together, to recognise the word of life.

Recognise —

To see or understand something we have known before
A place we have been
A person we have met
A word we have heard

Sometimes we forget, sometimes we’ve been away for a while,
sometimes it was crowded out, sometimes we didn’t want to recall
but when the moment of recognition comes, it is just that:
Re – cognition. Knowing again.

In the beginning, God made humankind in God’s image.
In the beginning, God breathed into dust and ashes, and we came to life.
Along the way, God spoke, filling our ears with promise.
Along the way, God wrote the word on our hearts.

Yet we have forgotten, we’ve turned away for a while, we got busy, we didn’t want to recall.
We went our own way —
the way of the to-do list that can’t be set aside
the way of easy judgmental answers that put some out while we’re in
the way of accepting that wholeness, shalom, is an impossible, naive dream
the way of overlooking things that make us uncomfortable

The whole time, You have been here.
The whole time, You have been speaking, calling to us.
In the word, in the flesh, in our neighbour, in the stranger, in our hearts, in our communities,
you have been here all along,
and we have not recognised you.

Show us your way again, Lord.
Remind us of what we have forgotten, turned away from, crowded out, ignored.
Give us hearts and minds to recognise you,
wherever you reveal yourself today.

Amen.

Hymn 360: Jesus Christ is Waiting

Reading: Luke 16.19-30 (Common English Bible)
Last week we heard Jesus teaching in parables about looking for the lost and restoring the wholeness of community. He proceeded straight after the story of the Lost Son to tell some very confusing parables related to how we use our resources, especially wealth, ending with the statement “you cannot serve God and wealth.” Some Pharisees and other leaders heard him teaching and they mocked and criticised him, and Luke describes them as “Pharisees who were lovers of money.” Jesus then says to them, “you justify yourselves before others but God knows your heart.” That’s where we pick up the story today, in Luke chapter 16, at verse 19. I am reading from the Common English Bible.
~~~~~
Jesus said, “There was a certain rich man who clothed himself in purple and fine linen, and who feasted luxuriously every day. At his gate lay a certain poor man named Lazarus who was covered with sores. Lazarus longed to eat the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table. Instead, dogs would come and lick his sores.
“The poor man died and was carried by angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. While being tormented in the place of the dead, he looked up and saw Abraham at a distance with Lazarus at his side. He shouted, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me. Send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I’m suffering in this flame.’ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your lifetime you received good things, whereas Lazarus received terrible things. Now Lazarus is being comforted and you are in great pain. Moreover, a great crevasse has been fixed between us and you. Those who wish to cross over from here to you cannot. Neither can anyone cross from there to us.’
“The rich man said, ‘Then I beg you, Father, send Lazarus to my father’s house. I have five brothers. He needs to warn them so that they don’t come to this place of agony.’ Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets. They must listen to them.’ The rich man said, ‘No, Father Abraham! But if someone from the dead goes to them, they will change their hearts and lives.’ Abraham said, ‘If they don’t listen to Moses and the Prophets, then neither will they be persuaded if someone rises from the dead.’”

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: What More Do We Need?

Lent is a season when we are meant to prepare for Easter by first noticing and then detaching ourselves from the things that separate us from God — things that take our attention and energy when we ought to be focused on God’s kingdom. We fast from things that distract us, so that we can be ready — or at least as ready as possible in our limited human reality — to receive the incredible grace of resurrection. Lent is about honest self-reflection, letting go, and clearing ourselves, body, mind, and spirit, so that we can repent and return to God’s way.

So perhaps it’s no surprise that readings like this come up in Lent. It isn’t exactly the cheeriest of seasons, when we confront our brokenness with honesty, sorrow, and hope. And this reading is not cheery. It’s one we’d probably rather skip over…but that discipline of truth-telling that we practice in Lent so that we can do it all year long requires us to confront the hard words Jesus has for us today.

The contrasts in this story couldn’t be more startling — between a nameless rich man who has the best clothes, and a poor man called Lazarus whose broken skin doesn’t even cover him, between the man who feasted luxuriously every day and the man who saw those feasts and wished for a crumb but starved just outside, between the one who died and was simply carried off, and the one who died and was given a proper and dignified burial.

There was clearly a chasm between these two men and their experience of the world. They existed in the same sphere, living in the same space, looking at each other through windows, through the gate, or whenever the rich man left his house and had to step over poor Lazarus. They knew each other, but their lives were so different, they might as well have lived on different planets. One had more than he knew what to do with, and so had access to anything he could ever want or dream. The other had less than nothing, and could only look longingly and hope for mercy from those in his community — mercy that was never forthcoming. Not even a crumb.

Once they had both died, the tables turned but the chasm remained. They could still see each other, and speak to one another…and the rich man did. He was used to getting what he wanted, and saw no reason this time should be any different. So he begged for the same thing that he had denied Lazarus in life — just a drop of cool water. Just a drop, just a crumb.

But in asking, he betrayed himself: he called for Lazarus by name.

It’s easy to imagine that having lived such incredibly different lives, that the rich man might never have even noticed the poor man — just always studiously avoided looking. It’s something many of us who have spent time in cities are practiced at, the looking away, never making eye contact with people in need sitting on the side of the street. We stay safely on our side of the chasm, imagining we have little in common with “those people.”

But the rich man said “send Lazarus.”

He knew him. He recognised his face and knew his name.

He knew that man who sat at his gate, starving and wounded. Which means he chose to ignore his suffering. These two people lived in the same space and were in the same community and one of them simply decided that the other was not valuable enough to help. He preferred his sumptuous meals and beautiful clothes and didn’t care about anyone else, not even his closest neighbour, who lay at his very gate.

We might put it like this: he loved himself far more than his neighbour.

When the chasm he had created was brought to his attention, he was undeterred in his sense of entitlement to control Lazarus, asking for him to be sent away from the comfort he’d never had in life, back to the very place where he had suffered, for the benefit of the rich brothers. Who, for the record, appear to have never cared for Lazarus in life, so it’s not at all clear they would pay attention to him coming back from the dead either.

Abraham’s response should give us all pause. He said “they have Moses and the Prophets. They must listen to them.”

In other words: we already know what we’re supposed to do. The commandment to Love God and Love Neighbour are not news, they’ve been there this whole time. That’s supposed to be the core of who we are and what we do. What more do we need before we act on the word of God? What will it take for us to recognise the truth of God’s call, and respond to it?

Remember that Jesus told this story to “Pharisees who were lovers of money” — as Pharisees, they knew the Torah. They knew perfectly well the commandments and the words of the prophets through the ages, calling people to live God’s way. And yet their love was out of order. Rather than loving God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength, and loving their neighbour as themselves, they loved money first.

I think Jesus told this story to show them what kind of world that out-of-order love would create.

The thing is, we know all this, and yet we choose not to know it. We know that we have created that chasm between us and them, coming up with all sorts of reasons why we can’t cross it to love our neighbour. And so we look away, and congratulate ourselves, jockeying for our return to normal while developing nations continue to die of covid with no access to vaccines. We look away as we place our stockpiling grocery orders, while people fleeing from violence or environmental disaster or abject poverty die, either trying to get here or in substandard accommodations in our cities. We look away as we justify ourselves as not knowing anyone who would do those things while women are abducted and killed for walking home after dark. We look away as we repeat rumours and jokes about others, while they hear us and wish they weren’t alive anymore. And the chasm grows, and grows, and becomes more and more fixed, and it feels impossible to cross.

The rich man knew Lazarus’s name. He recognised his face. But he did not recognise the image of God in his neighbour. Or, to be more honest about it, he chose not to see the image of God in his neighbour, because he loved himself more.

Lent is a time for honesty, for the kind of self-reflection that brings us closer to the truth that sets us free. Choosing to live in ways that create that chasm, while the kingdom of God beckons from the other side, may feel like freedom but actually we end up trapped too, unable to get out of a system we can’t even see, and it can be terrifying to admit it. But perfect love casts out fear, and the Way of Jesus leads to life — not just surviving, but abundant life, eternal life that starts now. Jesus says, in this story and in plenty of others: you know the way. I am the way.

May we recognise our part in creating the chasms of this world, and choose to live by Christ’s command to love. Amen.

Hymn 253: Inspired by Love and Anger

Prayer
God who crosses chasms,
reach out today to your people.
May your healing power surround those who are ill.
May your compassion guide the hearts of those who care for others.
May your abundant life fill those who are barely getting by.
May your mothering love be known to all.

God who crosses chasms,
reach out today to your people.
May your truth open the eyes of those who walk past need.
May your generosity flow through the hands of those with plenty.
May your grace change the lives of those whose worldview is narrow.
May your mothering love be known to all.

God who crosses chasms,
reach out today to your people.
May your wisdom empower those who lead.
May your justice flow to every corner of the earth.
May your persistence give us courage to seek peace and pursue it.
May your mothering love be known to all.

God who crosses chasms,
reach out today to your people.
We ask these and all things 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.

Benediction
Friends, however difficult the self-examination of this season, may you see and act on the truth of God’s call to love. 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.

Announcements

* If you are out for a walk during the next two weeks, be on the lookout for a smooth stone that fits in the palm of your hand — not too small or too big, just right. Bring it home and wash it and let it dry — we will be using them in our Palm Sunday worship.

* All worship is online (or on the phone at 01475 270037, or in print) until further notice — the building is closed during the government’s lockdown and during level 4 restrictions. We will let you know when in-person worship begins, and whether any new procedures will be in place at that time.

* The theme for worship during the season of Lent is “Recognition” — a word which means “understanding something we previously knew/have seen before.” God has written the covenant in our hearts, and we have heard Jesus’ teaching before…where do we recognise him in our daily lives, what lessons is he reminding us about when he tells his parables, and how do we return our way to the way he has faithfully laid out for us, time and again?

* Our Lent Study this year is online as well. Each day throughout the week we are learning about various people of faith through the ages on Lent Madness, and then on Wednesday evenings at 7:30 we will gather on Zoom to go more in depth about them and what we can learn from their faithfulness to help us on our own journeys with Christ. If you’d like to join the Zoom study, click here on Wednesday at 7:30. If you know someone who needs the details to join by audio only (by phone) please contact Teri for the details.

* Each day of Lent — 40 days not including Sundays — I will be posting a video on our Facebook page about “Faith in 40 Objects” — household things that can inform our faith journey, depending on how we look at them!

* Evening Prayer with Connect will be led by all three Connect clergy this evening. Join us on the Connect Facebook Page at 6:58pm.

***The coffee money that we normally send on to the school in Venda has been exhausted. If you would like to contribute to keep our donations to the school going, please contact Rab & Eileen for bank details for donations, phone 634159.

Update from Venda, 1st of March:
“In Venda we are having huge rainfalls and all our roads are broken, the road to school we can’t get in with the car. for 3 days without electricity and network, all we had was rain and cold. but today the rain is better and hopefully tomorrow there will be no rain. The good news is that there is a vaccine and the number of new cases is going down every day.
In 2020, we were approved as a COVID-19 complaint school by the Department of Education and Social Development. Our Outreach program have been at its best this year since the outbreak of COVID-19 ensuring that the community gets help they need and that our children are safe and have food during the pandemic. Even though the school had a long holiday, because our children are vulnerable the school was providing monthly food parcel to all our need family. I am very grateful to you all for your ongoing support.”

Sunday Service for 22 March 2020, Fourth Sunday in Lent

22 March 2020: 4th Sunday in Lent
Service prepared by the Rev. Teri C Peterson,
Gourock St. John’s Church of Scotland
Contact: tpeterson (at) churchofscotland (dot) org (dot) uk

Welcome and Announcements

Though we cannot be together in person, we can be together in spirit! Feel free to sing the responses, even if you are alone, and to pray aloud or in silence throughout this service, and know that others are doing the same.
Please note the following announcements:

1. There will be church services broadcast on BBC1, including an ecumenical service for Mothering Sunday at 12:15 led by a former Moderator of the General Assembly and a Roman Catholic Priest.

2. Tonight at 7pm all are invited to join the National Day of Prayer, placing a lit candle in the window and spending time in prayer for others. A prayer to get you started can be found at this link. Also, Teri will be leading a brief time of prayer via Facebook Live on the church Facebook page.
In addition, the moderator of our Presbytery has asked us to pause each day at 11am to pray for healing, health care workers, and our community.

3. Feel free to share this service 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.

4. Mid-week there is a devotional email that goes out, you can see last week’s and subscribe to future mailings at this link.

5. Also mid-week there is a facebook live video devotional on the St. John’s Gourock Facebook page.

6. 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.

Call to Worship

One: Let us, together and individually, observe a holy Lent:
turning away from all that does not glorify God,
and turning toward the cross,
obediently following Christ’s way of love and justice.
All: We come to seek God’s help in discerning
what we must lay down and what we must take up,
what we must end and what we must begin.
For the way is narrow that leads to life,
but with God all things are possible.
One: Let us worship God together.

Prayer and The Lord’s Prayer

Loving God, we come today with such a mix of emotions…we are anxious and afraid, we are grateful, we are wondering, we are frustrated, we are hopeful. We are meant to be keeping our distance, and we admit that sometimes it feels as if you have kept your distance as well, though we know you are never far away. We don’t know where to turn, when the news is constant and the advice is conflicting, when we have put so much on hold, and it feels like loss after loss. We confess that we are tempted to fend for ourselves, and leave others to do the same. We confess that it can be hard to keep sight of you and your call to be gracious and compassionate. We confess that it’s easy to let fear rule. Lord God, we are sorry for the ways we have withheld love from you and from our neighbours and from ourselves. We ask your forgiveness. We long for your peace, your comfort, your safety…or even for things to “return to normal.” But you turn us around from the way we have been and lead us in the way you want us to go….so we pray you would turn us around to your way, and lead us onward. Give us courage to live as your people, to know we are forgiven and loved, and to share that grace with others. We pray 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.

Sung prayer 382, verses 2-3
(tune: Passion Chorale, O Sacred Head Now Wounded)

O Lord of life and glory,
what bliss till now was thine!
I read the wondrous story;
I joy to call thee mine.
Thy grief and bitter Passion
were all for sinners’ gain;
mine, mine was the transgression,
but thine the deadly pain.

What language shall I borrow
to praise thee, heavenly Friend,
for this thy dying sorrow,
thy pity without end?
O make me thine for ever,
and should I fainting be,
Lord, let me never,
never outlive my love to thee.

Scripture Reading: Mark chapter 12 verses 28-44 (NIV)

One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, ‘Of all the commandments, which is the most important?’
‘The most important one,’ answered Jesus, ‘is this: “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” The second is this: “Love your neighbour as yourself.” There is no commandment greater than these.’
‘Well said, teacher,’ the man replied. ‘You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbour as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.’
When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, ‘You are not far from the kingdom of God.’ And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.
While Jesus was teaching in the temple courts, he asked, ‘Why do the teachers of the law say that the Messiah is the son of David? David himself, speaking by the Holy Spirit, declared:
‘“The Lord said to my Lord:
‘Sit at my right hand
until I put your enemies
under your feet.’”
David himself calls him “Lord”. How then can he be his son?’
The large crowd listened to him with delight.
As he taught, Jesus said, ‘Watch out for the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and be greeted with respect in the market-places, and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honour at banquets. They devour widows’ houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. These men will be punished most severely.’
Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few pence.
Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, ‘Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything – all she had to live on.’

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: Core Muscles

It was a few months ago now that I first looked at the readings for the Narrative Lectionary for the season of Lent, and about a month since I started planning just how this would fit with the Boys Brigade Battalion service we were meant to have today. The first part of this story, where Jesus gives us the most important commandments to love God and love our neighbour, are the verses I have been using each time I visit the various sections of the BB throughout the year. We have been working on Strengthening Our Core — both our physical and our spiritual core muscles. So in every section, no matter their age, we have had some exercise challenges, trying to see how long we can hold a plank position or a v-sit position. I will admit that when I started the session I was feeling pretty strong, but the first night I visited the Company Section, two boys held the plank for 4 minutes when I had fallen before the stopwatch got to the 2 minute mark — though to be fair, someone kicked my feet as we were all crammed up on the chancel! Each month we start the timer and see who can hold the position the longest, and we talk about why it matters that we have strong core muscles: because they hold our body together and make all movement possible. Without a strong core, we would have trouble with balance, with walking, turning, sitting down and standing up, picking things up, and of course all the more strenuous activities children do!

Once we have our physical core exercises done, we talk about our spiritual core, and this verse is it. Jesus says that our spiritual core, the muscles that allow us to do everything else, are this: love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbour as yourself. If we strengthen these muscles, then we’ll be able to do everything else life throws at us. So each month we have talked about how we love God with our heart, or our mind, or how we love our neighbour.

So this seemed perfect for the service when all the local BB companies would be here.

Little did we know how much things would change, and how important this story would be for completely different reasons.

Over the past two weeks we have seen incredible kindness all around us. Groups of people wanting to help, offers to drop off shopping or to help set up technology. There seems to be a rebirth of community spirit and pulling together.

And we have also seen an incredible lack of kindness, too. We have seen people buying far more than they can use, and leaving others with nothing. We have seen people continuing to congregate in ways that seem to imply they’re willing to sacrifice other people’s lives in order to maintain their own convenience or fun. We have seen racist attacks against Asian people, because the virus is thought to have originated in China.

Yesterday during the government briefings we were begged repeatedly to “think of others”….when we’re shopping, when we’re planning to go out with friends, when we’re on public transport. Nearly every sentence, it felt like, asked us to consider the needs of someone else, whether it was NHS workers, elderly family and friends and neighbours, or supermarket clerks.

They stopped just short of saying “love your neighbour as yourself” but I wondered if it might not be the best way to get the point across. The golden rule seems to apply more than ever: do unto others as you would have them do unto you. If you would want there to still be supplies on the shelf at Tesco when you get off a long shift at work, then take only what you need right now and leave the rest for others. If you would want someone to respect a safe distance from your parents, your grandparents, your neighbours, or yourself…then do that to others. If you would want there to be a nurse and a doctor available when you become ill or get injured, then do what you can to keep them safe. And in the same way, if you would want someone to check in just to chat when you’re feeling lonely, then go ahead and make a phone call to someone else who might be wishing someone would phone them! If you would want someone to offer to deliver your medicine or a pint of milk if you were poorly, then offer that help to your neighbours.

Loving God and loving our neighbour are inextricably linked, like all our core muscles are. If one muscle is weakened or sprained or torn, the others struggle to keep you going…and that’s true for our spiritual core too.

Jesus and the teacher discuss what commandment is the most important, and Jesus offers two, and each of them has sub-threads as well.
Love God: not just the feeling of love, but love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. So with every aspect of your being — your feelings, your intellect, your body, and your spirit. Nothing is excluded from God’s love, and nothing is excluded from the command to love. Using our spirits and our emotions to love God seem relatively easy and familiar, but using our bodies and our minds to love God might seem more unusual. But nonetheless they are important. God gave us brains, and expects us to use them for the building up of the kingdom, for discovering more about God’s world, for finding ways to encourage and teach and heal. God gave us bodies, and expects us to use them, to take care of them and to use them to take care of others. There is no aspect of our lives that God doesn’t care about — God made it all, gave us it all, loves it all.

And then we’re taught to love our neighbour as ourselves….which also means loving ourselves well. No one can fill another’s cup from their own empty jug. Before you say something to yourself, ask yourself if you’d say it to someone else. And, as we’ve already said, think about how even in everyday actions like buying just enough, or washing your hands, or offering some help, you can love your neighbour the way you have experienced being loved by God.

I think it is so fascinating that the conversation between Jesus and the teacher expands into conversations with the crowds. Jesus was teaching in the Temple courts, surrounded by pious people who had come from all over the country to worship at this holiest of places, plus local people popping in to see what was happening in the courtyard today, plus religious leaders and scribes, and probably political spies as well. In the midst of that place, surrounded by that particular crowd of people, he took the opportunity to say that we should watch out for the people who make a show of their love for God. Not only are they likely failing at loving their neighbour, they may actually be harming their neighbours—not leaving them anything on the shelves, as it were. Their preoccupation with being noticed, with gaining recognition for their greatness or their preparedness or their piety, meant they had no energy or attention left to do justice or love kindness, and they had missed the point of “walk humbly with God.”

And our core muscles are inextricably linked: If we aren’t loving our neighbours, we aren’t loving God….indeed, we cannot love God if we are not also showing love to our neighbours. And vice versa.

Right on cue, a parade of people putting their offerings in came by. The Temple treasury was meant to be used to support people in need, especially immigrants, orphans, and widows. Giving was — and still is — an important spiritual discipline, a part of the way we show our gratitude for all God has given us, and participate in the ministry God calls us all to do together. (I would be remiss if I didn’t say that this is still true even when we cannot worship together in person…as Peter said before, if you don’t already give by standing order, please consider it! But in the meantime, you can hold on to your envelopes until we are together again! And, of course, it is never a bad time to think about a legacy, to enable ministry to continue long into the future!)

But that day, people who had plenty to spare were ostentatiously giving out of their plenty, so everyone would know they had plenty more, not because they wished to help people in poverty, and not out of gratitude for God’s providing. They wanted people to know how generous they were, and how well-off they were.

Then came a widow, the very person the treasury was meant to serve. She didn’t have much, and obviously all those people with more than enough hadn’t seen her or thought to help, but she did have a lot of gratitude for God’s grace. She gave her offering, and it was an act of worship. Not an act desiring recognition, but instead an act recognising the Giver of every good gift.

Jesus saw her, when no one else did. We know he made a habit of seeing people that no one else saw. But this time, she didn’t want to be seen. She didn’t make her offering hoping someone would notice her. And thankfully, Jesus didn’t call her over and make a big deal about it. Instead, he called his disciples, his small group, to come into a private conversation, and he taught them to see as he saw — a woman who gave everything, who loved God with all her heart, soul, mind, and strength, and showed it by giving to help her neighbour even though she was the one who ought to have been given help.

That woman had a strong core. She didn’t need to show off her spiritual six pack, but it helped her live according to God’s way, even in difficult circumstances.

Each week of Lent we have been considering different things we might “give up” not just for Lent, but forever. We’ve talked about how often we are over full and owned by our possessions. We’ve talked about fasting from being first, and fasting from being right. This story, I think, leads us to try the practice of fasting from being recognised. What if we loved God and loved our neighbour, NOT so that people would see us and thank us for our service, but because it’s the core of who we are? What if we fasted from recognition, and just put love into action, every day, in whatever small or large ways we can, and let go of the need to be thanked or seen or noticed?

Now…I’m not saying we should give up thanking people, or recognising people’s contributions. Gratitude is a practice we should NEVER fast from. I am saying that perhaps we could try out fasting from our own personal need or desire for recognition, and simply show love because it’s what God asked us to do, it’s what God equips us to do, it’s what God created us to do.

Remember: God is love. And we are made in the image of God, which means we are made for love. Not only the feeling, but the action: love with heart, yes, but also soul, and mind, and strength. Love for our neighbour that is equal to our love for ourselves. Love that remembers that if one member of the Body suffers, all suffer together with it…our health and wholeness is bound up in the health and wholeness of our neighbours. Love that plays out in action — in the supermarket, and the doctor’s office, and the park. Though we have a lot of physical barriers right now (barriers that are currently another way of showing our love for our neighbour, because we value their safety and health!), love can reach across them, through phone calls and prayers and cards, bread and milk and paper goods, even as we keep our hands to ourselves.

Love God and love your neighbour. These are the core muscles we’re meant to strengthen so that everything else is possible — not so we can be seen as strong or good or pious, but so that everyone might know the truth: that God’s love is stronger than our fear, and even stronger than death. And it’s through us that people will know God’s love, so let us love one another, in word and in deed.

May it be so. Amen.

Offering Prayer

Lord, you call us to match our giving to our gratitude. It feels impossible, for all we have is a gift from you, and we cannot hope to fully express our thanks. But with you, all things are possible. Teach us again that in giving, we are able to receive, and in practicing generosity, we become more like you. Bless these gifts, the fruits of our labour, that they may in turn bless others, bringing glory to you and a glimpse of your kingdom on earth. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.

You are invited to either place your offering envelope in a safe place until we can gather again, or to take a moment to think about how you might offer something to God today.

Offering Hymn 392, verse 4
(tune: Rockingham, When I Survey the Wondrous Cross)
Were the whole realm of nature mine,
that were an offering far too small;
love so amazing, so divine,
demands my soul, my life, my all.

Prayers of Thanksgiving and Intercession

Gracious God, You loved us first,
before there was a world,
before we took our first breath,
before we had the chance to deserve it.
You loved us first,
and like a mother hen, you gather us under your wings.
And we are grateful—or grace-full, even—
for you continue to love,
with every divine breath
living and active, creating and redeeming and sustaining,
bringing healing, bringing new life, bringing hope.
Now turn our hearts, and our minds, and our strength,
to love as you love,
creating and healing and active.
Where there is despair,
send your hope,
and make us into lights that shine in the darkness.
Give us courage to speak up and speak out,
to offer compassion even when we do not know what to say.
Where there is violence,
emotional or spiritual or physical,
in derisive words or hurtful actions,
fill the world with your peace,
and give us courage to be peacemakers,
to insist that it is not okay to cause pain,
that your way is a way of compassion and reconciliation,
a way of picking each other up and looking out for each other’s welfare,
not a way of putting down or pulling ahead.
Where there is brokenness,
bodies battered by illness,
minds racing the dark,
relationships gone awry,
may your comfort and healing flow,
and make us agents of your healing grace.
Give us courage to reach out,
to offer a call, a look, a prayer for wholeness,
a token of our care,
which is small compared to your power,
but still you call us to this ministry together.
In this world where scarcity seems to reign,
and where words are beamed instantly around the world,
where some give their whole life while others benefit
and where we reach first for weapons,
we need to know your love and your call yet again.
You are everywhere present,
Your spirit still flows free, O God,
in and among and between and through us,
bringing light and life, healing and hope.
May we recognise your image in every face,
and may we act as if we know what it is to be loved,
may we speak words of kindness and act on what we say we believe,
loving you by loving our neighbours
until all come together in your kingdom.
We pray in the name of Jesus the Christ, your loving Word in action. Amen.

Benediction

Even at home, you can strengthen your core! Not just with plank exercises or V-Sits, but by practicing loving God with your whole heart, and your whole soul, and your whole mind, and your whole strength, and loving your neighbour as yourself.
And as you do, may the Spirit of God go above you to watch over you; may the Spirit of God go beside you to be your companion; may the Spirit of God go before you to show you the way, and behind you — to push you into places you might not go alone; and may the Spirit of God go within you, to remind you that you are loved more deeply than you can possibly imagine.
May the fire of God’s love burn brightly in you, and through you into the world. Go in peace. Amen.

Sung Response (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.

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