Sunday service for 24 December 2023, fourth Sunday of Advent
Sunday 24 December 2023 — NL2-17, Advent 4
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
*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.
Welcome & Announcements
Call to Worship
One: From generation to generation,
God’s world-changing grace passes —
All: one to another, telling the story
and sharing the hope.
One: Come to hear the story again,
and be transformed by the Living Word,
All: the power of God’s presence
in our midst.
Online Hymn: The Stillness of the Night (Resound)
Sanctuary Hymn 285: The Angel Gabriel
Lighting the Advent Candle
One: Look at the world —
All: But it feels like endless bad news
despair / hardship / cruelty / hunger / bigotry / inequality
One: Look at the world —
All: The world is weary.
*All sing: (hymn 303 it came upon the midnight clear v3)
But with the woes of sin and strife
the world has suffered long;
beneath the angels’ hymn have rolled
two thousand years of wrong;
and warring humankind hears not
the love-song which they bring;
oh, hush the noise and still the strife
to hear the angels sing.
One: Hush the noise.
Look closely.
You may have to
squint.
You may have to
peer
into the shadows.
But when you do…
~Candle is lit~
love / new life / prayer / faith / grace / community
One: Look at the world —
All: The world God so loves
One: This is where the Messiah comes
not some faraway galaxy
not waiting for a perfect world
not a safe, sanitised, rose-tinted past
not where there’s plenty of room and plenty of time.
Here.
All: A thrill of hope: Emmanuel, God with us.
*Hymn 273, vv 1 & 5: O Come O Come Emmanuel
O come, O come, Emmanuel,
and ransom captive Israel,
that mourns in lonely exile here
until the son of God appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
shall come to thee, O Israel.
O come, thou Wisdom from on high,
who orderest all things mightily:
to us the path of knowledge show;
and teach us in her ways to go.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
shall come to thee, O Israel.
Prayer
Loving God, Christmas is so close now, but our bodies carry both excitement and concern.
We do not know what lies ahead, or how to navigate all the uncertainties.
You send messengers to young girls
and fill old women with your Spirit,
you speak through songs and dreams,
and even when we are perplexed
you entrust us with your Word.
We hear Mary’s words of trust in your constancy
and her song of your upside-down kingdom,
and we confess that we might just want something “normal” instead,
even if normal wasn’t that good.
Forgive us for holding so tightly to the way things were
that we cannot grasp the opportunity to step into your future.
May we, today,
believe there will be a fulfilment of your promise.
May we, today,
have the courage to take the next step
even when the whole path is unclear.
May we, today,
be ready for your disruptive blessing
for us and for the world.
Fill us again with your grace,
and make us ready to say “let it be according to your word.”
We ask in the name of your Living Word, Jesus the Christ. Amen.
*Sanctuary Hymn 316: Love Came Down at Christmas
Sanctuary Children’s Time
Scripture Reading: Luke 1.26-56 (New Revised Standard Version)
Last week we heard that when Elizabeth became pregnant, she stayed in seclusion for five months. Today we hear what happened during her last trimester. The reading is from the gospel according to Luke, chapter 1, beginning at verse 26.
In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favoured one! The Lord is with you.” But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” The angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.
In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”
And Mary said,
“My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour,
for he has looked with favour on the lowly state of his servant.
Surely from now on all generations will call me blessed,
for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
and holy is his name;
indeed, his mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones
and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things
and sent the rich away empty.
He has come to the aid of his child Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”
And Mary remained with her about three months and then returned to her home.
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: Practice Love
We often have this vision of Mary being a gentle, meek, girl, looking perfect and serene. All the paintings of her from the imaginations of renaissance artists have her looking prayerful and calm as an angel stands before her, and she never has a hair out of place as she hold the baby Jesus she’d presumably given birth to hours before.
But if we put those pictures out of our minds and read her story with a blank canvas, what kind of picture of Mary would you paint?
I think we should see a picture of Mary that is much stronger than those saintly renaissance waifs. First of all, this is a girl who lived as a peasant in an occupied land, she would have had actual muscles in her body from drawing water and managing a house and helping with her siblings and walking everywhere. She was clearly fit enough to travel 85 miles each way more than once during a pregnancy. She had to have been physically strong.
Second, she stood in the presence of the angel Gabriel and she did not cower or faint; she asked a thoroughly practical question of logistics, and then gave her consent to something that would likely have been dangerous for her — both because pregnancy is always dangerous to a woman’s health and because being pregnant when not yet married, especially when she was from a priestly family, would be potentially have deadly consequences when people found out — yet she decided it was not just something she could do, but something she was willing to do. She clearly had more fortitude than many of us probably would.
Third, she trekked across the country to visit her relative Elizabeth and when she got there, she sang about how through her child, God was overthrowing the entire socio-economic political system. To recognise that’s what God’s love will look like in the flesh, she had to be so spiritually strong — not to think mainly about herself being favoured, her relationship with her own child, or even the peace and quiet that must be inherent in the idea that “of his kingdom there will be no end.”
Mary was about as physically, emotionally, and spiritually strong a person as we can imagine.
So why do we so often picture her as meekly submissive and perpetually serene, with that mona-lisa-half-smile that makes her look like she’s not really a part of this world?
I think sometimes we do it because it makes the woman in the story unattainably perfect…from a man’s perspective — never talks back, always calm, unaffected by the things going on around her. And sometimes I think we do it because it’s easier for us if this woman around whom the whole Christmas story rotates is just a lovely piece of artwork and not a real person who did something we can’t actually imagine ourselves doing. It lets us off the hook, if this person in God’s story is so far distant from us that we couldn’t possibly do what she did.
I mean obviously we aren’t all going to give birth to the son of God…at least, not in the same way that she did. But also, we kind of are, in that we are the Body of Christ, through which God is made visible in the world today. And if we think the mother of God was anything other than a regular girl who was strong and courageous, then that lets us also avoid being strong and courageous.
Mary knew exactly what she was getting into when she said yes. She knew that she would be scorned, potentially outcast, maybe abused. She trusted that if this really was God’s message, she wouldn’t be stoned to death because that would be counterproductive to God’s plan, but everything short of death was probably on the table. She could lose her marriage, her family, her reputation, her ability to support herself, and her place in the religious community. And for the sake of bearing God in the world, she said yes, she literally handed her body over to God’s service.
Mary knew exactly what she was getting into when she went to visit Elizabeth — a woman traveling on her own, apparently, to visit another woman who was disgraced in her own way and whose husband was the talk of the town. Remember she went there during the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy — which would likely have been around the time Zechariah was due back in Jerusalem for his next shift in the Temple, so it’s entirely possible the two women had the house to themselves. And their conversation is described as “filled with the Spirit” as they encourage each other in faithfulness. Elizabeth even blesses her with “blessed is she who believed” — perhaps she knew that Zechariah had not believed, or perhaps she herself had given up hope only to be surprised in her old age. She saw Mary’s trust in God despite the difficulty ahead.
Mary knew exactly what she was getting into when she sang the Magnificat — a song so subversive that at various points in history, authoritarian governments have banned it. She knew that to sing of God overthrowing the powerful and mighty and rich and raising up the lowly, hungry, and oppressed was to pray for the end of the Roman Empire, that it was treason and that she was in too deep to take it back now. She knew that having said yes to serving God, she had said yes to participating in this complete overturning of the world order.
This is what the love of God does: it calls forth in regular people the strength to face the change that love incarnate will bring to literally every level of everything.
I suspect some of you know what I’m about to say: this kind of love takes practice. Because like our tendency to strip Mary of her strength and power, we have a tendency to make love a warm fuzzy feeling that doesn’t actually do anything. But love — real love, as in God-is-Love, capital L Love — is the strongest and most powerful force in the universe. And when we practice the discipline of love, we get stronger in body, mind, and spirit. We get stronger in faith and faithfulness…the kind of love that reaches out, that does not put up with the way things are just because it’s how they’ve always been, that goes out of its way to seek out those who need it. Even if we don’t feel like it, we have to practice this sort of love if we have any hope of being strong enough to bear God into the world.
In the 1300s a German theologian and pastor called Meister Ekhart said in a sermon “What good is it if Mary is full of grace if I am not also full of grace? What good is it if Mary gave birth to the Son of God, 1400 years ago, if I don’t give birth to the Son of God in my own person, in my own time, in my own place, and my own culture?”
Indeed, what good is it to God’s world if Mary sang of a complete overturning of the world, if we too do not pray for and act on the change that Jesus brings to the world? If we celebrate Christ’s birth one day and then let everything go on as before, with inequality and injustice, the rich trampling the poor, the powerful bombing the powerless, the warmongers ignoring the cries of the victims and the main concern of the masses being what new thing we don’t need we want to buy…what good is that? If we are not strong like Mary, practicing the discipline of Love like Mary, then why tell her story at all? She doesn’t deserve to be put on a pedestal and set aside as lovely and confined to her tiny place far from our reality — she was first to bear God in her body but she wasn’t meant to be the last.
May we have the strength to practice the discipline of love that changes the world.
Amen.
Hymn: Canticle of the Turning (Magnificat)
Sanctuary Offering
*Sanctuary Offering Response: Hymn 305 verse 5
What can I give him, poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb,
if I were a wise man I would do my part,
yet what I can I give him,
give my heart.
Prayer and Lord’s Prayer (Rob)
Heavenly Father, Gracious God,
We praise you, thankful that you call the humble to serve you. May we, like Mary, find favour in your sight and have the courage to respond with obedience.
We thank you for your Son, for the life led and the love and courage of the man Jesus. For His walking amongst us healing, teaching and forgiving.
We thank you for our own families, the ones we grew up in, the ones we have found along the way.
We thank you for relatively easy access we have to food and water, medical supplies and treatment, education and knowledge. Aware that not all people are so blessed.
As we intercede for our community, nation, and world, we lift up the marginalised, the oppressed, and those in need. Just as Mary’s song exalted your mercy, may our prayers be a testament to your compassion and justice.
Bless your Church family with unity, understanding, and a spirit of love that mirrors the grace revealed in the story of Christ’s earthly ministry.
We pray for those around the world and in our community, who feel lost or excluded. Those who feel unheard and unloved. May they know the comfort and company of your Holy Spirit.
For the nurseries and parent-toddler groups in our area — for the children, the staff, and the young families served. We ask for your blessing and guidance as children grow and learn and make friends, for your strength and protection from harm, and for your patience and grace for those who teach and nurture.
On the 17th day of the month, we join our hearts as your church family to pray for:
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 Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Aruba, and Curaçao.
We pray in the name of Jesus
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 324: Angels From the Realms of Glory
Benediction
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.
Sanctuary Postlude Music
Announcements
* Christmas Eve our service is at 7pm in the sanctuary and online. Christmas Day our service is at 10am in the sanctuary only. Sunday 31 December we have an informal communion service for Hogmanay, including receiving our Star Words for 2024, at 11am in the sanctuary.
* JUMP INTO JANUARY holiday club will be on 3-4 January, from 9am – 1pm each day. We are looking for volunteers who can help in the kitchen preparing snacks and lunches — please speak to Teri ASAP! Thanks!
* The next Bowl & Blether is 15 January, with doors open from 11:30-1:30. It’s a great opportunity to get out and meet some people and have a meal and some social time!
* We worship in the sanctuary on Sundays at 11am, and all Sunday worship is also online. If you are able, please enter by the front door in Bath street, and only those who need step-free access should use the back door. If you feel unwell, please worship online, to protect both yourself and others in our community.
* Starter Packs are short of Razors/Shaving Foam, Bathroom/Kitchen Cleaner, Tea Towels and Cleaning Cloths.
The FoodBank are requesting UHT milk, rice pudding, long-life fruit juice & confectionery. You can bring donations to the church and place them into the boxes in the vestibule. Thank you!
* Did you know that the ministry we do at St John’s costs about £3000 per week? Everything we do is funded by your generous giving — all our support for young people, older people, bereavement care, community outreach, worship, study, spiritual growth, and community work is because of your offering. If you would like to set up a standing order in order to facilitate your spiritual discipline of giving, or if you would like to make an extra gift to support the ministry St. John’s does in our parish, you can give online by clicking here. If you would like to set up a standing order, please contact Teri and she can give you the treasurer’s details. You can also send your envelopes to the church or the manse by post and we will ensure they are received. It is also possible to donate to the work of the new parish assistant, speak to Anne Love about how to go about directing new donations to that new item in the budget.
* Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Youtube, and to sign up for our email devotions! Midweek you can watch Wine and the Word on Youtube, pray with video devotions on Facebook, and consider a new angle on something with a devotional email. Feel free to share with your friends, too!
* Registration is now open for Jump Into January, the Winter mini-Exploratorium: 3rd-4th January, 9am – 1pm, we’ll be Jumping Into January with children in P1-P7 — tell all the kids you know! If you can volunteer for breakfast club (8am), during the morning, or in the kitchen for snacks and lunch, please speak to Teri or Charlene or Graham Bolster.
* Wednesday Evening Bible Study is off until the 10th of January.
* Free period products are available in the church toilets for anyone who might need them, thanks to Hey Girls and Inverclyde Council.
* A funeral service celebrating the life of Mrs Dorothy Grey will be held at Greenock Crematorium at 3pm on Thursday 28 December.
