Sunday service for 12 February 2023

Sunday 12 February 2023, NL1-26
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
Teri: The kingdom of heaven is a like a story —
1: a story with characters we recognise and identify with, and some we are surprised by;
2: a story that could happen in the midst of anyone’s day;
3: a story that opens and closes, twists and turns, as we look from different angles.
Teri: The kingdom of heaven is like a story —
1: not just a straightforward statement of fact,
2: not a closed question with only one right answer,
3: not something you can memorise to pass the test.
Teri: The kingdom of heaven is like a story —
All: inviting us to join in.

Sanctuary Hymn: O God in Whom All Life Begins (text: Carl P Daw Jr, tune: 340 Seven Joys of Mary)

Prayer
O God the master gardener,
you have planted good seed in the field of your world,
and invited us to tend the field, whatever may grow.
We confess that we have opinions about what belongs in your garden,
and we are passionate about weeding out those who don’t seem to fit in.
Forgive us for overstepping the bounds of our calling,
trying to take on tasks that are not ours to do.
O God the master gardener,
you have planted unexpected seed in your world,
and allowed it to be itself even when we want it to be different.
We confess that we want everything to be useful or desirable for ourselves,
without thought for how it affects other parts of the creation or community.
Forgive us for refusing to see the breadth of possibility
you have placed in even the smallest of seeds.
O God the master baker,
you have mixed and kneaded and waited
to see your love rise and fill out in your Body.
We confess that we have often tried to remain separate,
not realising that love kept for ourselves can never grow.
Forgive us for misunderstanding our purpose.
Small or even invisible though we may feel,
in your hand amazing things happen.
Open us to your possibility
and help us to bear fruit for your kingdom of heaven come on earth.
We live not by bread alone, but also by every word you speak.
Entering your story
sometimes feels like biting off more than we can chew,
yet we come back for more,
as there’s nothing more beautiful or satisfying than the feast you lay before us.
Open your stories to us today,
and give us ears to hear,
that we may come in and see your world anew,
and find our place, shining like the sun in your kingdom.
Amen.

Sanctuary Hymn: Sisters and Brothers, With One Voice vv. 1-5 (text: John L Bell, tune: 412 Vulpius)
Online Hymn: God Whose Giving Knows No Ending (text: Robert L Edwards, tune: 252 Beach Spring)

Sanctuary: Children’s Time

Reading: Matthew 13.24-43 (Common English Bible)
Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like someone who planted good seed in his field. While people were sleeping, an enemy came and planted weeds among the wheat and went away. When the stalks sprouted and bore grain, then the weeds also appeared.
“The servants of the landowner came and said to him, ‘Master, didn’t you plant good seed in your field? Then how is it that it has weeds?’
“‘An enemy has done this,’ he answered.
“The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us to go and gather them?’
“But the landowner said, ‘No, because if you gather the weeds, you’ll pull up the wheat along with them. Let both grow side by side until the harvest. And at harvest time I’ll say to the harvesters, “First gather the weeds and tie them together in bundles to be burned. But bring the wheat into my barn.”’”
He told another parable to them: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and planted in his field. It’s the smallest of all seeds. But when it’s grown, it’s the largest of all vegetable plants. It becomes a tree so that the birds in the sky come and nest in its branches.”
He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast, which a woman took and hid in a bushel of wheat flour until the yeast had worked its way through all the dough.”
Jesus said all these things to the crowds in parables, and he spoke to them only in parables. This was to fulfil what the prophet spoke:
I’ll speak in parables;
        
I’ll declare what has been hidden since the beginning of the world.

Jesus left the crowds and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.”
Jesus replied, “The one who plants the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world. And the good seeds are the followers of the kingdom. But the weeds are the followers of the evil one. The enemy who planted them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the present age. The harvesters are the angels. Just as people gather weeds and burn them in the fire, so it will be at the end of the present age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all things that cause people to fall away and into sin. He will throw them into a burning furnace. People there will be weeping and grinding their teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in their Father’s kingdom. Those who have ears should hear.”

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: Hidden
Why would anyone hide yeast in flour?

Remembering that yeast wasn’t little dried granules but a handful of something like sourdough starter…hiding it in 20 kilos of flour seems strange. I’ve done some research on no-knead bread, where you just mix everything together and then leave it alone for several days, and somehow the ingredients interact in ways that cause rising and falling and essentially that motion develops the gluten without any human effort. But that’s not what Jesus’ parable seems to be about — it’s about a woman who hides — enkrypto is the word Matthew uses — the lump of leavened starter in a giant jar of flour, and it grows and grows until eventually the entire container of flour is leavened. It’s a little like feeding the sourdough starter without ever using it, until you have enough to make like 60 loaves of bread.

Of course, the yeast on its own doesn’t do much. It has to be added to flour in order to become anything. And flour on its own doesn’t do much either, it has to be mixed with something and cooked in order to become edible.

But why hide it? And why hide it somewhere that will cause such an abundance of food, enough for the whole town?

It would take a while for the yeast to work through that much flour. Maybe the woman thought she’d be back to get it later, and forgot. Maybe she didn’t have a nice dark cool place to store it and that was the best option. Maybe she was hiding it from the kids who were trying to stick their fingers in because it looks like a science project. Maybe she was hiding it from a neighbour who had a propensity for taking other people’s things instead of just asking.

The kingdom of God is like a woman who hid — enkrypto — yeast in 18 kilos of flour and it worked its way through the whole jar, silent and unseen until the day it spilled over and demanded to be baked into a feast for the whole neighbourhood.

Maybe it doesn’t matter why it was hidden. Maybe it only matters that it was secretly growing, gathering more and more surrounding flour into its influence, spreading yeastiness out and out, until the only thing to do was feed everyone.

The mustard seed, too, was hidden. For those who haven’t experienced mustard plants before…it only takes one seed for the stuff to take over your garden. It’s under the ground for a long time, nothing noticeable happening…until the day it’s overflowing and making a home for all sorts of creatures, some of which you may not want in your garden. After all, birds and small animals that enjoy the shade and the underground structure provided by the roots are also eating other things in the garden, and sometimes digging, or chewing…but they’re also transplanting seeds and pollen from one place to another, they’re also creating a fuller ecosystem, they’re also enjoying the fruits of creation and playing a part in it. That one little seed couldn’t do anything on its own, but hidden in the garden where it can interact with dirt and water and bugs and light, it grows and grows until the only thing to do was make room for all sorts in it.

And the weeds were hidden…perhaps maliciously, even. They too grew in secret, intertwining their roots with the wheat, and even looking just like wheat up until the fruit began to ripen. Wheat and darnel, or tares, look identical until the fruit matures — and then you know them by their fruits. Wheatberries turn golden and are heavy enough to weigh down the stalk, bending over to signal they’re ready to harvest. Tares, or the formal name Bearded Darnel, remains greener and upright…and even a little ground into your flour can ruin the whole batch. But below ground, they’re all growing together.

And yet, the farmer says to leave it where it is, because the regular everyday workers in the field don’t have the skills needed to tell them apart and separate them safely. Instead, they are to tend the whole field — the weeds and the wheat. They are to water, and fertilise, and hoe, and look after all of it. Only the harvester, the one with the knowledge and ability to be absolutely certain which is which, will have the task of separating them at the very end of the season. Because who’s to say that some stalks that aren’t golden or bowed down aren’t just late ripening? And who’s to say that some that are bending over aren’t just stuck under the weight of a neighbouring stalk? And what damage would be done to the field if tearing up some bad stuff also tore the roots of the good? So the workers in this kingdom field are to tend it all. Take care of every inch of the field, and the One who is qualified to tell the difference will do the separating work himself.

All these things — working away in secret, growing and expanding until they force us to pay attention. The kingdom of God is like this.

Which suggests that the kingdom of God is currently present, hidden in plain sight. Where are we tempted to do God’s job in the field, taking care of the undesirables and making sure there’s only what we want to grow here? Perhaps it’s a kingdom check on our job description as God’s workers, not God. Where do we see unexpected combinations of people? Perhaps it’s kingdom mustard, gathering a diverse group into its shade and nourishing. Where is there a bubble of pressure against the confines of the containers we have put the church in? Perhaps it’s kingdom yeast, growing hidden under the raw ingredients we haven’t used in a while. If we have eyes to see and ears to hear, it turns out that everyday life is bursting with grace and possibility— and it grows best when interacting with things around it, like the flour and the soil that provide the space for the yeast and seed to grow. The kingdom of God is like this.

And so is a parable. Jesus says he tells these stories in order to reveal what has been hidden. A simple “do this, don’t do that, God is x and we are y and together the people of God are z” wouldn’t reveal much of anything. We have commandments and instructions and descriptions, but Jesus chose stories — stories that open in different ways each time we hear them, stories that look different from different angles, stories that circle around but never come out and say a single definitive thing, stories that offer opportunities for us to participate in learning rather than just ticking off a list, stories that get stuck deep in our minds and hearts and grow in secret until they expand into enough to share…food, and shelter, and nurture even for those we don’t really want to share garden space with.

The kingdom of God is like a story that was hidden away in someone’s mind, interacting with their other stories and knowledge and ideas, expanding, breaking open, putting out shoots, reaching outwards until the host was transformed into something new and nourishing and welcoming, shining so all can see God’s goodness and come to experience it themselves, something that bears fruit for God’s kingdom.

May it be so. Amen.

Online Hymn: Thrive (Casting Crowns)

Sanctuary Hymn 343: The Reign of God

Offering

Sanctuary Offering Response 808 (old hundredth)
Praise God from whom all blessings flow;
praise God all creatures here below;
praise God, the Trinity of love,
before, beneath, around, above.
Amen

Prayer and Lord’s Prayer
In the mystery of your love,
you reveal what has been hidden.
In the clarity of your teaching,
you invite us to deeper wonder.
We thank you for the blessing of exploration,
for the journey of seeking
and finding anew your grace
in the familiar and the unexpected.
We pray this day for those
whose exploration has been curtailed,
who have been closed down
and taught to believe there’s only one way to see and to be.
We ask for the wind of your Spirit to work into the cracks,
to blow open hearts and minds with possibility.
We pray this day for those who live in the midst of monoculture —
in creation and in community.
For those places where the earth is forced into one way,
biodiversity falters, and the ecosystem is dying,
to serve our appetites at any cost.
For those places where families, churches, schools, business, neighbourhoods, nations
think it’s best to be all the same, and difference is squashed,
to serve our sense of security at any cost.
We ask for your Spirit to drop seeds of new life, even unseen and unknown,
and we ask for the courage to water them ourselves.
May little changes make a big difference,
until there is a place for all to find shelter and home in the branches.
We pray this day for those who cannot imagine the abundance of your stories,
for those who long for even a bite of bread, and yet there is none,
those who go to school hungry while down the street we waste food without thought,
those who work long hours to feed others but get paid nearly nothing for themselves.
We ask for your Spirit to leaven your people with generosity,
that we might rise to the occasion,
and that the abundance you provide might be shared so all may be fed.
We pray this day for our neighbours in Turkey, Syria, New Zealand, Zambia,
and other places where natural disasters have struck,
and people are grieving, struggling, searching, fearful, hurt, and needing help.
And we pray this day for our neighbours in Ukraine, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Peru, Moldova,
and other places where politics, violence, unrest, and economic anxiety are heavy burdens
and people are weary, frustrated, worried, or scared.
May they experience safety and hope, peace and prosperity, justice and joy.
Make your kingdom visible on earth, O Lord our God,
and help us shine the light that reveals your love to the world, even now.
We ask 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: God, Whose Giving Knows No Ending 

Benediction
Go out into the world, letting your light shine that all may see God’s kingdom growing right here in our midst, welcoming and nourishing all.
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 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!

* 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 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. Remember: no one is coming to your door to collect your envelopes, so please be 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!

* Wednesday Evening Bible Study meets in the manse at 7:30pm. All are welcome as we continue reading through the Bible in slightly 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 21 February, at 2pm, with guest speaker Clare Cunning about Smalls for All.

* Smalls for All: During January and February the Contact Group is facilitating this year’s Smalls For All appeal, and everyone is invited to contribute packs of pants for ladies, girls and boys. There is a box for contributions at the Bath Street entrance to the church building. Thank you for your generosity.

* Pancake Tuesday, 21 February, Connect will have a pancake tuesday event with pancakes, activities, and a service to lead us into the season of Lent. The evening will start at 7pm at St Margaret’s Church Hall in Finch Road.

* Our Lent study this year will be with all of Connect, meeting in the Lyle Kirk for five Thursday evenings, beginning 23 February. We gather at 7pm for tea and coffee and then start at 7:30pm. We’ll be studying “Another Story Must Begin” based on the musical Les Miserables. All are welcome, no experience necessary!

* This month, on 23 February, we celebrate our Guide company’s 100th anniversary. Congratulations, 4th Gourock Guides! Watch for more information about celebration activities over the coming year.

* 2023 marks the 125th anniversary of the 2nd Gourock Boys’ Brigade. Tickets are available now for two anniversary events: the Reunion Dinner Saturday 18th March 6.30 for 7pm in Masonic Hall John Street, tickets are £20 for a 3 course dinner menu and programme. Places are filling up fast so please get in touch to reserve your place as soon as possible. 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.

* The Stedfast Silver Band is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year and is keen to contact as many former members as possible. To launch a year of festivities the Band is hosting a Birthday party at 2pm on Sunday the 12th of March in Westburn Parish Church hall for all members past and present and would like as many people as possible to attend. There will be displays, photos, music and birthday cake and a chance to reminisce and catch up. If you are, or you know, any former members of the band, please let them know. For more information or to RSVP, please contact stedfastbandsecretary@outlook.com or find them on Facebook: Stedfast Silver Band: Greenock.