Sunday service for 15 February 2026

Sunday 15 February 2026
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

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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
1: When we count the minutes
2: and when we have lost track of the years
Teri: The call is for you: come to the One who brings life —
All: the life that is the light for all people.
1: When we are desperate for hope
2: and when we have stopped hoping to avoid disappointment
Teri: The call is for you: come to the One who brings life —
All: the life that is the light for all people.
1: When we trust before we know
2: and when we don’t even know what to ask
Teri: The call is for you: come to the One who brings life —
All: the life that is the light for all people.

Sanctuary Hymn 352: O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing (organ)

Prayer
Compassionate and healing God,
you walk among us with the power of life,
and we confess that we are often focused on the wrong thing.
Our imaginations are so constrained by the systems in which we live,
we keep falling back into the old ways even when we know you have set us free.
Forgive us for relying on the ways of the world
because the evil we know seems easier than the unknown you promise.
Forgive us for allowing the perfect to be the enemy of the good.
Forgive us for seeing your grace upon grace
and looking instead for something we can control.
Forgive us and release us from all that keeps us from faithfully following you.
You come to us
and open the way of life
directly.
You come to us
and pour out grace upon grace
directly.
You come to us
and invite us to trust your way,
participate in your work,
live abundantly…
We pray now you would bless us with the faith to join you
directly.
We ask in Jesus’ name.

Friends, hear this good news: at the very hour Jesus speaks, healing becomes real. Let his voice echo in you today: you are made whole. Now live like it. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Online Hymn 718: We Cannot Measure How You Heal
Sanctuary Hymn 719: The One Who Longs (tune: Resignation) (organ)

Scripture Reading: John 4.46 – 5.17
Today’s reading picks up where we left off last week, after the Samaritan woman and her whole town had spent time with Jesus and came to believe in him. We pick up at the next verse as he continues his journey through Samaria to Galilee, reading the gospel according to John, starting at chapter 4 verse 46, from the New Revised Standard Version.

Then he came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had changed the water into wine. Now there was a royal official whose son lay ill in Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and begged him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. Then Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.” The official said to him, “Sir, come down before my little boy dies.” Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started on his way. As he was going down, his slaves met him and told him that his child was alive. So he asked them the hour when he began to recover, and they said to him, “Yesterday at one in the afternoon the fever left him.” The father realised that this was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” So he himself believed, along with his whole household. Now this was the second sign that Jesus did after coming from Judea to Galilee.
After this there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew Bethsaida, which has five porticoes. In these lay many ill, blind, lame, and paralysed people. One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be made well?” The ill man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am making my way someone else steps down ahead of me.” Jesus said to him, “Stand up, take your mat and walk.” At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk.
Now that day was a Sabbath. So the religious leaders said to the man who had been cured, “It is the Sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.” But he answered them, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Take up your mat and walk.’ ” They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take it up and walk’?” Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had disappeared in the crowd that was there. Later Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you have been made well! Do not sin any more, so that nothing worse happens to you.” The man went away and told the leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well. Therefore they started persecuting Jesus, because he was doing such things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, “My Father is still working, and I also am working.”

For 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: First Steps of Faith and the Sacrament of Baptism (Sanctuary)

When we think about what Jesus did during his earthly life, we often think about healing — I bet we could make a list of a dozen or more healing stories just from memory, whether the woman bleeding or the man lowered through the roof or the girl who died or the blind man who saw trees walking or the people wrestling their inner demons.

Which makes it all the more strange, then, that John only gives us three healing stories and one story of bringing someone back to life. When we get to the end of John, after Easter, we will hear him say that “Jesus did many other things not written in this book, and all the books of the world wouldn’t be enough to hold the stories” and it seems healings are on that list of things he couldn’t fit in. So these two must be included for a reason!

In the first, we have a royal official, someone used to people doing what he said. We don’t know which royal court he was with — he could have been from the Jewish or the Roman system. What we do know is that he was a father with enough hope — or enough desperation — to ask for help and to persevere when Jesus’ first answer didn’t seem to be relevant to his request. He had enough trust to then turn and go home without a single shred of proof that what Jesus said was true. Once he got there, he had enough wisdom to put together the pieces and to recognise what others might have seen as coincidence was actually the work of God. Hope enough, trust enough, wisdom enough…all that enough-ness, all of that grace upon grace, was the first steps of faith…and that grace upon grace filled to overflowing and spilled over! He shared his experience with the whole household, just like the Samaritan woman right before this story had shared her experience of Jesus with the whole town…so the household had their experience of the boy’s healing and the story of the father’s meeting with Jesus, and they saw not just a miracle but a sign: a sign that points to the One whose love is indeed for the whole world, even those who cannot ask for themselves and who cannot yet respond — like the child. And even all the way to those who would normally be outside the purview of our regular everyday community, like a royal courtier who may or may not even be from our own people. The father’s first steps of faith enabled many others to take their first steps too! From abundance we all receive, not just one but everyone.

In the second story we have an opposite experience: a man who’d been ill for a lifetime. Thirty-eight years…We don’t know how old he was, it could be that he’s been lying by that pool since he was a child and this was the only life he’s ever known, or it could be that something happened when he was already a man and he’d laid there knowing what he was missing as the world goes by year after year. He’d been there long enough to lose hope, though. Long enough to fade into the background, so people didn’t even see him there anymore. When Jesus took notice of him, it must have been a bit of a shock! After all this time…to be asked “do you want to be made well?” probably seemed a pointless question. It didn’t matter if he wanted to be well or not, he didn’t have anyone to help him.

And that’s what happens, isn’t it? So often the real problem is actually a poverty of connection, a lack of community…and so struggling to make ends meet becomes homelessness, injury or illness becomes isolation. With no one to help, what was he supposed to do? There was always someone else who got there first, and eventually hoping for healing or even just hoping for help becomes too painful. Better to stop asking, and just accept the situation as it is.

When Jesus healed him, it wasn’t by using that same system that had failed him for so long. It wasn’t just that Jesus helped him into the miracle pool at the right moment, so he could finally be first when he had been last for so many years, and at the expense of another. Instead, Jesus bypassed the way we’ve always done it, and took the man straight to a brand new reality. And then later said to him: don’t go back to those old ways — it’ll be easy to do, to fall back into that individualism, that isolation, that system where people look out only for themselves, where you’re either first or you lose. But you’ve been given a new life, and you’ve taken the first steps into it…slipping back into the way it’s always been will be far worse, because that old way isn’t sustainable. It’s the way of death, not the way of abundant life. It’s the way the powers of this world wants us to be, because if we are all individuals we’ll keep feeling powerless to change our situation, and we’ll give up hope that things could be better.

Which means that the first steps of faith are hard! There’s opposition from the powers that be, and those who live by their rules. There’s people questioning why you’re doing something different. There’s new habits to get used to, and old habits to put away. And, crucially for this new life in God’s kingdom: there’s a whole community to be part of, and that’s both a joy and a challenge — we support each other and work together, and also being in community is hard sometimes as we manage personalities, different ideas, and different gifts. But without it, we can’t take more than the first few steps of faith. We need each other if we are going to go the distance in this new life. We need each other if our healing is going to be sustainable. We need each other if we are going to continue the journey beyond the first pushback or the first obstacle.

We don’t know where the second man’s first steps of faith lead. Does he recognise it isn’t just a miracle, it’s a sign pointing the way to life in the kingdom of God, pointing the way to a different way of being in the world? Or does he turn away from the sign and go back into the old ways of every man for himself?

What about us? Do we see the sign, and follow it into the community of faith trying to live a kingdom life now? Are we willing to turn our backs on the isolationist individualist win-or-lose mentality and instead take up life in the Body of Christ, where we bear one another’s burdens even if it isn’t convenient, we hold each other’s stories with grace even when we’d like to gossip, we work for justice and seek healing even for people who aren’t normally in our social circle, we figure out how to be together even when our ideas clash…so that in community we experience grace upon grace pouring out of Christ’s fullness?

May it be so. Amen.

The Sacrament of Baptism is about entering new life, not by ourselves but by entering a community. For S it’s a first step of faith…and it’s our responsibility as the Body of Christ to guide her next steps, to look at the signs together and to support her as we follow where they point us.

In baptism we die to all that separates us from God, rise to new life in Christ, and find ourselves in the family of God’s people, trying to be faithful together. It’s about God loving us even when we can’t yet make any response ourselves — we can’t ask, we can’t change, and God reaches out and marks us as God’s own people. This is how much God loves us: that he gives us life in God’s kingdom even now in this life.

N and A, in presenting your child for baptism, do you desire that she may be grafted into Christ as a member of his body, the Church, and do you receive the teaching of the Christian faith which we confess in the Apostles Creed? Do you? (I do)

If you’re comfortable doing so, please stand as we affirm our faith together using the ancient words of the apostles creed:
I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord,
Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
Born of the Virgin Mary,
Suffered under Pontius Pilate,
Was crucified, died, and was buried;
He descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again;
He ascended into heaven,
He is seated at the right hand of the Father,
And he will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
The holy catholic Church,
The communion of saints,
The forgiveness of sins,
The resurrection of the body,
And the life everlasting. Amen.

You may be seated.

(Invite children to the font….children’s time)
Hymn 611 v. 1
Holy Spirit, fill our hearts
overflowing with love.
May we shine with the light of God,
come, Spirit, come.

Let us pray.
We give you thanks, O God, for you nourish and sustain all things by your gift of water. You led your people to freedom by parting the sea, you sent John to the Jordan to baptise and call us to repentance, and in Christ you give us streams of living water. We pray now that you would pour out your Spirit on this water, set it aside from a common to a sacred use. May all who now pass through these waters be buried with Christ, and rise with him to new life, born anew of water and the Spirit, and so be delivered from death to life, from bondage to freedom, from sin to righteousness. Clothe us with Christ, and bind us together in one family through your Holy Spirit. Strengthen S to serve you with joy. We pray in the name of Christ. Amen.

S is six months old today. When the calendar turns over to 2050, she will be still looking forward to planning her 25th birthday party. In 2100 — doesn’t it feel like science fiction to talk about it? — Sophie will most likely be there, just 74 years old, younger than some of us here today.
That kind of future is a mystery beyond us, but we know that God knows. We can’t predict what S’s life will hold — but we can predict that God will be present, that Jesus will be calling together his body to care for each other and the world, that the Holy Spirit will be at work…because that is true today, and we are privileged to be part of it today, trusting that S will continue to play her part long after we have gone.

Jesus commanded us to go and make disciples, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything he commanded us. And scripture reminds us that the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away — everyone the Lord our God shall call.

Confident of this promise, we baptise those whom God calls, promising to be a true family for one another, traveling the journey of faith together, sharing the story of God’s amazing power and possibility together.

S, for you Jesus Christ came into the world, for you he lived and showed God’s love, for you he suffered the darkness of Calvary and cried at the last, “It is accomplished”; for you he triumphed over death and rose in newness of life; for you he ascended to reign at God’s right hand. All this he did for you, though you do not know it yet. And so the word of Scripture is fulfilled: “We love because God first loved us.”

S, I baptise you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. You have been sealed by the Spirit in your baptism, and you belong to Jesus Christ forever. Amen.

*Holy Spirit fill our hearts overflowing with love…

This child belongs to God. From this day forward, she is at home in the Christian community, and there will always be a place for her—whether loud, or wiggly, or upset, or perfectly well behaved.

Tell her of her baptism. Teach her of the treasure she has received today, and of the further wonders of growing in grace and love within the family of the Church, that she may come in time to make her own response to this gift, and to join in the work of the Holy Spirit in this world. Teach her the story of God’s love and pray with her for the hope of God’s future, that she may bear fruit for Christ’s kingdom. In this Bible you will find the word of God written and illustrated for children, and also the blessings, welcomes, and well-wishes of this community, to remind you that you are surrounded with prayer and support, and we are here to share this life with you, to be family together.

So now I ask you, as parents: do you promise, depending on the grace of God, to teach this child the truths and duties of the Christian faith, and by prayer and example to bring her up in the life and worship of the Church? Do you?

L and J, as godparents, do you promise to guide and encourage S, through prayer and example, through word and deed, teaching her to know and love Christ and his Church? Do you?

Young people of the church…do you promise to love S as a friend, to help her learn how to love Jesus and to be a part of his church?

And you who are gathered here represent the whole Church.
Word and Sacrament bring you the joy of Christ’s presence in your midst.
They also bring you responsibilities as Christ’s people in this place.
Do you welcome Sophie,
and do you commit
to share with her the knowledge and love of Christ,
and to support her and her family with God’s love?
If so, please say “we do.”

All of us are called to model God’s grace in all that we do,
whether our interactions are with friends or strangers,
children or peers or elders,
church members or not.
Today we particularly promise to these young families, but the promise extends to all of us.
Will you take up this call to build up Christ’s body,
nurturing one another in faith,
upholding one another in prayer,
and encouraging one another in service?
If so, please say “we will.”

Let us pray.
God of love, we rejoice again to receive your grace in Word and Sacrament.
We have heard your call, we are made new by your Spirit,
we have committed ourselves to your path.
Guide and guard S all her days.
May your love hold her, your truth guide her, your joy delight her.
Bless her family, that she may grow up in a secure and happy home.
Give them wisdom and courage, laughter and peace,
and the love that endures all things.
May the breath of your Spirit fill them with life abundant.
God of grace and glory, you have called us to your
One Church, proclaiming One Faith, One Baptism, One Lord.
Help us to profess this truth with our lives, not only our words.
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.
Amen.

Hymn GWA146: Waymaker (praise band)

Sanctuary Offering and Response (tune: 555 Amazing Grace)
When we’ve been there ten thousand years
bright shining as the sun,
we’ve no less days to sing God’s praise
than when we’d first begun.

Concerns of the Church
*Wednesday Bible Study
*Smalls for all – new pants, children and women any size
*Bowl & Blether tomorrow
*Communion next Sunday
*New members class
*Lent Wednesdays (Westburn 11am, here 12:15-12:45 and 7:30)
*Prayer groups

Prayer and Lord’s Prayer ** with a verse of 553 Just As I Am (Sanctuary)
We thank you, living God,
that you neither slumber nor sleep —
day in and day out your care continues,
your power is at work,
your love reigns.
We come before you with gratitude and praise
for your attention that seeks us out
and your word that changes lives.
We also come before you with our prayers
for our neighbours who need your healing presence to be tangible today.
We know there are those who will never get to the front,
those who wait patiently but it is never their turn to get help,
those who cannot access the care they need,
those who have no community around them to help.
We lift them up to you,
and we pray that they would be surrounded by people who will carry them through.
We bring our prayers today
for those who have lost hope as they wait,
and for those who feel they have to keep up a brave face,
and for those who feel as if every day is a battle.
Waiting for peace in a world where war is profitable,
waiting for help in a world that overlooks those who don’t fit the mould,
waiting for something to finally work for them —
so many of our beloved neighbours near and far are suffering in body, mind, and spirit, O God.
We bring our prayers today
for all who long for healing,
and for all who work as your healing hands.
For those in the midst of treatment,
and those who use your gifts of medical science and technology to help;
for those who work behind the scenes disinfecting or preparing or researching,
and those who offer a listening ear and an arm to lean on.
We lift them up to you,
and we pray for your healing that leads to abundant life.
          *Just As I Am, verse 5
              Just as I am, of that free love
             the breadth, length, depth, and height to prove,
             here for a season, then above —
             O Lamb of God, I come.
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.

We bring our prayers to you
and lay our worries, hopes, fears, and dreams down before you,
trusting that you not only can transform them with your power,
but that you will.
We ask in the name of the One who changed lives with a word,
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.

Sanctuary Hymn: Your Grace is Enough (praise band)

Sending
Go out today to take the NEXT steps of faith, following the sign into abundant life in and through Christ.
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. 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 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, tinned potatoes, tinned sweetcorn, tinned carrots, and UHT milk.
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 will be offering 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 February.

* The Contact Group meets next Tuesday the 24th when the speaker will be Anne Pettigrew from Plan UK.

* We are participating in the Rotary Club’s “Smalls for All” collection — if you can donate NEW underpants in any size (especially for women and girls), please bring them to the box by the front door over the next few weeks. Thank you!

* 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.