Sunday Service for 20 March 2022, third Sunday in Lent

20 March 2022, third Sunday in Lent
Gourock St. John’s Church of Scotland
Service prepared by the Rev. Teri Peterson
Manse phone: 632143 
Email: tpeterson (at) churchofscotland.org.uk

To hear the audio recording of this service, please phone 01475 270037. It’s a local landline number so minutes should be included in your phone plan.

Prelude Music

Welcome

Call to Worship
1: Come into the presence of Christ,
for he is making us ready for holiness.
2: Come into the presence of community,
for together we lift one another into faithfulness.
All: In humility and trust, we come to be made into Christ’s body.

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

You love us to the end, and beyond, O God.
You give yourself to us,
beyond our comprehension.
We cannot fathom the depth of your love
nor the cost of your gift,
yet we see the path you walk and the way you choose.

Kyrie Eleison, Kyrie Eleison, Kyrie Eleison.

You, Lord, kneel in front of us, and we are uncertain how to respond.
We confess that we do not like the feeling of not being in control of what you’ll do next.
You are the source of all holiness, yet you stoop down to serve all,
and call us to do the same, and we admit it makes us uncomfortable.
We confess that we love to serve, but on our terms,
so that we never have to be vulnerable enough to receive.
Yet you insist that we must experience the fullness of your love,
if we are to share it.
So forgive us for refusing to allow you to work in us, and wash away our self-reliance.
Forgive us for our unwillingness to truly break down the power structures
that make us always the giver and others always the needy,
and wash away our arrogance.
Cleanse us and make us ready to stand in your presence
and to walk your way of love for the world.

Kyrie Eleison, Kyrie Eleison, Kyrie Eleison.

You break down dividing walls
and social norms and power structures
with nothing but a basin and a towel,
gathering all your people into your holy presence.
As we are made new this day, make us ready to follow your example,
to create a community of mutual care that transforms the world.
Amen.

Music
Online: The Servant King 
In person:
 

Reading: John 13.1-18 (NRSV) — Annette Holliday
Last week we heard about Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. The religious leaders saw that as a dangerous act, and from that moment they began looking for a way to get rid of him. Jesus continued to go about the community, teaching and sharing meals. At one such meal, at Lazarus’s house, Lazarus’s sister Mary brought a large amount of expensive perfumed ointment and used it to anoint Jesus’ feet, and Jesus proclaimed that she had anointed him for his death. The next day, he entered Jerusalem while crowds waved branches and shouted Hosanna. Many at all levels of society believed and many others did not, so there was division among the leaders about what to do, but the most vocal were looking for a way to kill him, even though it was just a few days until Passover. And then, after three years of teaching and miraculous signs, he retreated with his disciples to teach them the last things he needed them to know. This section of John’s gospel is called the “farewell discourse” and today I am reading from the very beginning of that discourse, in chapter 13, beginning at verse 1. I am reading from the New Revised Standard Version.
~~~~

Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him. And during supper Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, ‘Lord, are you going to wash my feet?’ Jesus answered, ‘You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.’ Peter said to him, ‘You will never wash my feet.’ Jesus answered, ‘Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.’ Simon Peter said to him, ‘Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!’ Jesus said to him, ‘One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you.’ For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, ‘Not all of you are clean.’

After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, ‘Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.

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 Self-Sufficiency
Whenever I say that this is the reading coming up, people get a slightly scared look in their eye, and with much trepidation they ask “are you going to make us wash each others’ feet?” Even as I was preparing the cover slide for this Sunday, I tried to find a picture that wouldn’t make people afraid that I was planning a foot washing ceremony. For some reason, we really really don’t want to do that.

It’s interesting because I think the discomfort is mostly on one side. I suspect that many of us would be perfectly happy — if we could physically get down on the floor, anyway — to be the one doing the washing. After all, Jesus said that we should be like him, serve others. We hear that call to serve and we want to do it. We recognise our privilege and want to help those who have less. We count our blessings and want to give to those whom we think are somehow less blessed. We see that we have more than we need and we want to give some of that extra to people who don’t have enough. Serving others is part of who we are as Christians, what we understand to be our purpose as people who follow Jesus.

Sometimes we forget that when he washed his disciples’ feet, it was a reversal of social status and hierarchy — for the teacher to lower himself literally to the floor in front of his disciples to serve them was a shock. But still, we don’t mind, as long as it isn’t too terribly inconvenient. We will kneel and offer our bit of extra, leftover time or money as a gift of care to people who haven’t experienced much compassion or grace from others.

But when it comes to being the one sitting in the chair, receiving a gift of care, allowing someone else to serve us, we rapidly become like Peter. “You will never wash my feet!” I can’t even count the number of times people have said to me “I don’t want anyone to have to help me.” Especially from people who have spent their lives helping others.

We are far more comfortable serving than being served.

Usually I then invite people to consider that they would be creating opportunities for someone else to fulfil their calling to Christian service…if no one is willing to accept help, to let themselves be served, then how are we supposed to serve one another?

But ultimately I think there’s a bigger issue here. Because in the ancient world, the far and away most common way foot washing happened was that people washed their own feet. The host would provide basins of water, and guests washed themselves. It was only the poshest of homes that an enslaved person might do it for you. It was certainly never the host himself, of course, but in the vast majority of instances, people washed themselves.

And we are so used to the ideal of being self-sufficient, aren’t we? We can do it ourselves. We can take care of ourselves. We don’t need anyone.

Friends I am here to tell you that the voice of self-sufficiency is a liar. All of these ideas are lies, and they draw us away from the way of Christ.

Notice what Jesus said to Peter, when Peter said he would not allow Jesus to wash his feet, meaning that he would wash his own feet, thank you very much — Jesus said “unless I wash you, you have no share with me.”

That’s a pretty harsh assessment. Peter was perfectly capable of washing his own feet. And if Jesus had asked, he probably would have gotten down on the floor and washed Jesus’ feet too. What Jesus actually asks is much harder: to wash each other. Which means both serving and being served, giving and receiving, caring and being cared for.

The thing is, when we wash ourselves, we’re in control. And actually, when we serve someone else, we’re also in control. But when we’re the ones being cared for, we are no longer in control. It’s a vulnerable situation to be in, and we don’t like it. But Jesus says that if all we want is control, and never want to be vulnerable…that’s not a real relationship. It’s a power play. And there’s no room in the Body of Christ for power plays, however well intentioned or subconscious it may be. Heeding the voice of self-sufficiency means that we are not listening to the voice of Christ…and the voice of self-sufficiency is loud and persistent, ingrained in us so we hear it both from outside, in the culture, and from inside ourselves as we replay the ways we were brought up to never be dependent on anyone, because then we might be like “those” people — the people we think are beneath us, the underprivileged, the less. Following the voice of Jesus instead of the lies of self-sufficiency will align us with exactly those people that we subconsciously look down on as we help them.

Just before today’s reading, in chapter 12, Mary anointed Jesus’ feet with very expensive perfumed ointment, and Jesus received that gift of service and love from her. Judas complained the money should have been given to the poor, and Jesus said “the poor you always have with you” — meaning not that there will always be poor people we can give to, serve, or patronise, but rather that literally, Jesus’ disciples will always be with the poor. Not distant from them, giving from afar, but literally with — no them and us, just us — in one community, serving each other. Giving and receiving, with no distinction between who has the privilege of always being the giver and who has the need to always be the recipient.

Having had his own feet washed and anointed, Jesus then turns and washes his disciples. All of them, even Judas who was already preparing his betrayal, perhaps in part because of that teaching about being in community with the poor. This is the example Jesus sets: everyone, including the denier and the betrayer, get washed. Everyone, even Jesus and even Judas, is called to give and to receive. No one is so far above that they never receive, and no one is so far below that they never give. The Body of Christ is a community of interdependence and mutuality. Anything else and we are choosing the voice of self-sufficiency instead, and so we have no share in Christ.

And Jesus says: if you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.

May it be so. Amen.

(Online hymn 694: Brother, Sister, Let Me Serve You)
In person Hymn 484: Great God, your love has called us here

In person: Baptism

Prayer and Lord’s Prayer

Let us pray.
Eternal God,
your essence is love
and you made us in your image.
For your love which surrounds and infuses
all things, O Lord,
we give thanks.
For your love which shines in every face,
we give thanks.
And we pray for the courage to live love,
to be vulnerable and real,
to share and hold confidence and offer peace.
We pray for those places where love seems absent—
where despair grows and shadows threaten.
We long for answers,
or at least a sense of your guiding presence in the confusion.
We lift up those who live daily with violence and fear,
especially in Ukraine, and also so many other places near and far.
We lift up those here in community with us,
holding hurts and hopes in your loving light.
We lift up all those who have been seduced by the voice of self-sufficiency,
and pray that your voice of gracious mutuality and interdependence
would come through loud and clear.
Fill us again with your grace,
that we may know
the cleansing and renewing, calling and empowering
water flowing over us,
until we learn to both give and receive generously,
to love each other as you have loved us,
and to let love grow even beyond these walls
until all are welcomed into your kingdom.
Make us bold to proclaim your grace, your forgiveness, your hope, your way.
Make us ready to receive it.
Make us again into your body, sharing your love with the world.
Remind us of the love poured on us in our baptism,
and bring us once again to new life with you.
Water the seeds that have been planted this day,
and help us bear fruit for your kingdom, living in your love.
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.

Benediction
Christ himself has prepared us for the Way, and given us this truth: If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them. So go into your week to be blessed and to be a blessing: follow Jesus’ example, to both lift others and to be lifted by others, that together we may embody beloved community. 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 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 1m distancing between households. No booking is required. Masks are required at all times inside the building, including while singing. If you are able, please enter by the front door in Bath street, and only those who need step-free access should use the back door.

* Tonight we will gather with Christians across the nation for evening prayer on the Connect Facebook Page, led tonight by Teri. Log on at 6:58pm to join in.

* The Kirk now has online giving! If you have not already set up a standing order in order to facilitate your spiritual discipline of giving, or if you would like to make an extra gift to support the ministry St. John’s does in our parish, you can give online by clicking here. If you would like to set up a standing order, please contact Peter Bennett, our treasurer, or Teri and she can give you his details. You can also send your envelopes to the church or the manse by post and we will ensure they are received. Remember: no one is coming to your door to collect your envelopes, so please stay safe!

* Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Youtube, and to sign up for our email devotions! Midweek you can watch Wine and the Word 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!

* The Kirk Session will meet today after worship, with a light lunch provided.

* St John’s is hosting the Easter Code for P6 pupils on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday the 21st – 23rd of March, from 9-12 each day. If you would be available to help out on any or all of those mornings, please contact Teri.

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

Sunday Service for 13 March 2022, second Sunday in Lent

13 March 2022, second Sunday in Lent
Gourock St. John’s Church of Scotland
Service prepared by the Rev. Teri Peterson
Manse phone: 632143 
Email: tpeterson (at) churchofscotland.org.uk

To hear the audio recording of this service, please phone 01475 270037. It’s a local landline number so minutes should be included in your phone plan.

Prelude Music (in person)

Welcome

Call to Worship
One: With mingled love and anxiety, we come to Christ, who says:
All: This is for God’s glory.
One: In hope and in grief, we come to Christ, who says:
All: I am the resurrection and the life.
One: With trust and with confusion, we come to Christ, who says:
All: Unbind him and let him go.

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

God of life,
you overcome even the long shadow of death,
that we may live freely and fully in your way.
As Mary and Martha trusted the power of your presence,
we too call on your name and ask to see your face.
As Mary and Martha were honest about their grief and disappointment,
we too come to tell you our truth.
Walk with us to the place we have laid our grief,
and call us out into new life.

Kyrie Eleison, Kyrie Eleison, Kyrie Eleison.

We proclaim you all-powerful and sovereign, O God,
and yet we confess that we want you to use your power
for the things we want, when we want them.
We know you can,
and so we can’t comprehend why sometimes it seems you won’t.
We admit that we wish we could control how you answer our prayers.

Kyrie Eleison, Kyrie Eleison, Kyrie Eleison.

Forgive us when we think that your seeming silence
is the same as your indifference.
Forgive us when we leave you behind,
assuming you have left us.
Forgive us for our wavering trust
in the face of the difficulties of this world.

Kyrie Eleison, Kyrie Eleison, Kyrie Eleison.

Set us free from the shadows that cling so closely,
and make us ready to come out when you call our name. Amen.

Music
Online: You are a Refuge (Resound Worship)

Children’s Time (in person only)

Reading: John 11.1-44 (New Revised Standard Version)

Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, ‘Lord, he whom you love is ill.’ But when Jesus heard it, he said, ‘This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.’ Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.

Then after this he said to the disciples, ‘Let us go to Judea again.’ The disciples said to him, ‘Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to stone you, and are you going there again?’ Jesus answered, ‘Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Those who walk during the day do not stumble, because they see the light of this world. But those who walk at night stumble, because the light is not in them.’ After saying this, he told them, ‘Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him.’ The disciples said to him, ‘Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right.’ Jesus, however, had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was referring merely to sleep. Then Jesus told them plainly, ‘Lazarus is dead. For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.’ Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow-disciples, ‘Let us also go, that we may die with him.’

When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. Martha said to Jesus, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again.’ Martha said to him, ‘I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?’ She said to him, ‘Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.’

When she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary, and told her privately, ‘The Teacher is here and is calling for you.’ And when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet come to the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. The Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary get up quickly and go out. They followed her because they thought that she was going to the tomb to weep there. When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.’ When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He said, ‘Where have you laid him?’ They said to him, ‘Lord, come and see.’ Jesus began to weep. So the Jews said, ‘See how he loved him!’ But some of them said, ‘Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?’

Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Jesus said, ‘Take away the stone.’ Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, ‘Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead for four days.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?’ So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upwards and said, ‘Father, I thank you for having heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.’ When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out!’ The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, ‘Unbind him, and let him go.’

For the word of God in Scripture
For the word of God among us
For the word of God within us
Thanks be to God.

Sermon: The Voice of Grief
Lord, if you had been here…

It’s the kind of thing that really only hits home when the funeral is over. Before that, there are too many details to attend to, things to arrange, tasks to do. But when the paperwork is finished, and everyone is paid, and the last sausage roll is eaten, and the tomb has been closed, we go home and it all suddenly becomes very real. Too real. All the feelings we’d been holding together so we could get through the days come to the surface, and we finally get a chance to say to God what we really think and feel.

The sisters knew that Jesus could have changed this. He was capable of doing something…and he didn’t do it. And when they saw him, they told him point blank: you could, but you wouldn’t. It’s hard to know exactly if they were blaming him for their grief, but it wouldn’t have been the first or the last time that God was questioned for not acting.

Some of us may have spoken to God this way before. Maybe not in exactly these words, but similar ones — where are you, God? Why do you allow these terrible things to happen? Why won’t you do something? The pain is overwhelming and unnecessary and unfair, when you could do something but you don’t.

Those feelings are perfectly normal, and God can handle it us telling the truth about them. It is okay to cry out, to give voice to the grief and frustration and anger and pain, just as we do when we are joyful or grateful or hopeful. Sometimes we may feel like praying this way about our own situations, when we’ve lost someone or gotten bad news or when we’re anxious for ourselves or a loved one. Sometimes it may be more for world events, when we feel helpless as we watch the news and we can’t understand why these terrible things are happening and why everyone seems so powerless to stop it.

Lord, if you had been here…

Martha said it first, having run down the road to meet Jesus before he could even get to the house — a house filled with flowers and food and friends who had come to mourn with them and support them. Mary and Martha weren’t alone, they had a whole community that surrounded them in this time of grief, weeping with them, sharing memories, drying their tears.

Martha didn’t wait until Jesus could join this crowd, she ran out and met him at the edge of the village. There in the middle of the road, we see that Martha is a thinking type of person. She and Jesus had a theological discussion…one which she thought was about some future time, and one which Jesus knew was about the here and now. He is offering abundant life, resurrection life, right this minute, because in him, time is fulfilled. Martha may only have understood eternal life as something that comes later, but Jesus says that with him, it starts today.

When Mary came out to meet Jesus, he hadn’t gotten any closer. He was still standing in the middle of the road. And all her community was with her — unlike Martha who came out alone, Mary was surrounded by the people holding her up in these difficult days. Mary wept as she said, “Lord, if you had been here…” Unlike her sister’s way of coping by intellectualising and anticipating a future, Mary was coping by sitting with the pain, with wave after wave of feelings. She needed her friend, and he wasn’t there. And Jesus wept with her.

He met each of them in exactly their grief place, and walked with them in it in a way they could manage in the moment — whether that was crying together or talking through the big questions. Each of them said the same words: If you had been here… but the voice of grief sounded different for each of them, and Jesus gently joined them and offered another voice — the voice of resurrection life.

And then they said to him the very words he had said to countless disciples, perhaps even words he had said to them before: come and see.

Come and see the closed door of death, the end of hope and possibility, the stone that blocks the way. Jesus followed them to see the reality of fully-human, to experience the depths and the visceral horrible decaying end.

I always wonder at what point Lazarus woke up. I was talking about this with a friend and she said “at what point did the water turn to wine?” Like that miracle, this is another one where we don’t see it happen, or know how it worked, or at exactly what moment. But what if Lazarus was awoken, in the dark, covered in a shroud, to hear the muffled voices outside…what if he too could hear the weeping of his sisters and friends, the shock and disgust at the smell his body would be giving off, the scraping of stone against stone, the rush of fresh air bringing sounds of confusion and the prayer of Jesus: “Father I thank you that you have heard me” — past tense, notice: Jesus thanks God for having heard even though we don’t yet know what he asked, or when. And only then, cutting through the voice of grief, came the voice of Jesus addressed to him, calling him by name as the shepherd calls the sheep: Lazarus, come out.

Imagine how disorienting that would be, not only for Mary and Martha and their friends and neighbours, but for Lazarus. He knew that voice — like the sheep know their shepherd. But what could he possibly be calling Lazarus to? The end was past, the grief was real, there were no more options.

With God, all things are possible. And it turns out that Jesus intends to give abundant life on both sides of the grave.

It’s easy for us to identify with Martha and Mary in this story, to see ourselves in their experience. Great grief is a sign of great love, and we know grief well. We know the helplessness and the fear and the anger. We know how to call out “where are you?” We know that God has the power…and yet we cannot understand why God doesn’t use that power the way we want him to. Why doesn’t Jesus’ offer of abundant life also offer a way to skip over suffering and pain? He takes away the power and finality of death, and changes its meaning…but the human experience still has both heights and depths, and Jesus knows them himself, just as we do.

I wonder, though, if we might imagine ourselves as Lazarus. Disoriented, hearing the grief and disgust and longing and prayers through layers of shroud and stone…catching a whiff of fresh air but totally uncertain how that can work or what to do with it…and then when we hear the voice of the shepherd rise above the voice of grief, we come out like Lazarus, walking hesitantly out of the tomb but still bound by the old reality that had been shattered, still carrying the baggage of grief, still clothed in the past.

And Jesus said: unbind him and let him go.

Unbind him.
Remove that old stuff, for the former things have passed away, and all things are made new.
Unbind him.
Take off the markers of death and walk into new life.
Unbind him.
Lay aside the old ways that muffle our sight and hearing, that hold us back and tie us down, and let go.

What kind of abundant life might we live, if we were unbound?
How might we turn out to be an answer to prayer, if we were unbound?
What other powers we think are so definitive might be shattered, if we were unbound?

The grief of this world is great and is like a thick fog shrouding everything. May the voice of the shepherd cut through it all, and set us free to live, and so to change the world.

Amen.

Online Hymn 727: In the Bulb There Is a Flower

(In person Hymn 721: We Lay Our Broken World)

Prayer and Lord’s Prayer
You, God, know the breadth of human life and death,
the joy and the sorrow mingling throughout this journey.
You have celebrated milestones, and laughed, and wondered.
You have felt grief, and wept alongside your friends.
We give you thanks that even now,
you walk alongside us, sharing the heights and depths,
and reminding us of your abundant life
that transcends the boundaries we think we know.
We bring our joy, for lighter nights and changing seasons, for daffodils peeking through the earth, for new life in our midst and new opportunities to love.
We bring our concern, for those dear to us who are ill, for your creation struggling to survive, for those who are struggling to pay the bills, for those caught in cycles of poverty or substance abuse or trauma, for our leaders who are meant to seek the common good.
We bring our grief, for a world at war, and those who suffer at the hands of another, for the people who must flee their homes and are met with something less than welcome, for all who grieve without the ability to say goodbye.
As your people, following your example,
we rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.
In all the ups and downs of this human life, you are with us, God,
and you promise that we will know the fullness of your life,
not only on the other side of death, but even now,
so we come to ask your transforming grace to lead us ever onward.
May we be unbound this day,
set free from the trappings of death whose power you have broken,
to walk in the power of your love,
this day and all the days to come.

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.

(in person) Hymn 727: In the Bulb There Is a Flower

Benediction
Friends, whatever the challenges of the week ahead, remember they are not the end of the story: the love of God overcomes even the power of death! The Holy Spirit is even now setting you free from the old ways, and Christ himself calls you by name to come out into new life.
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.

In person Postlude Music

Announcements

* We have now entered 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 1m distancing between households. No booking is required. Masks are required at all times inside the building, including while singing. If you are able, please enter by the front door in Bath street, and only those who need step-free access should use the back door.

* Tonight we will gather with Christians across the nation for evening prayer on the Connect Facebook Page, led tonight by Karen. Log on at 6:58pm to join in.

* The Kirk now has online giving! If you have not already set up a standing order in order to facilitate your spiritual discipline of giving, or if you would like to make an extra gift to support the ministry St. John’s does in our parish, you can give online by clicking here. If you would like to set up a standing order, please contact Peter Bennett, our treasurer, or Teri and she can give you his details. You can also send your envelopes to the church or the manse by post and we will ensure they are received. Remember: no one is coming to your door to collect your envelopes, so please stay safe!

* Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Youtube, and to sign up for our email devotions! Midweek you can watch Wine and the Word 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!

* The Kirk Session will meet next Sunday, the 20th, after worship, with a light lunch provided.

* St John’s is hosting the Easter Code for P6 pupils on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday the 21st – 23rd of March, from 9-12 each day. If you would be available to help out on any or all of those mornings, please contact Teri.

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