Sunday Service for 10 April 2022, Passion Sunday

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

Prelude Music

Welcome

Call to Worship

All: We come out to meet him —
1: The one we have high hopes for!
2: The one we are a little bit afraid of…
3: The one we have been praying will come?
All: Hosanna! Save us!

Teri: Outside, loud demands and chaos.
Inside, questions and confusion,
fear and cruel instinct,
desire for calm, imposed through power.
Outside, accusations and increasing tension,
desire for security, imposed through power.
Around us and within us,
the swirling forces of this world
compete with the power of Truth and Life,
to which we cling.

All: Save us and set us free —
1: free from our oppressors,
2: free from our too-narrow expectations,
3: free from the status quo.
All: Hosanna! Save us!

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

You have the situation in hand, Lord Jesus,
walking into the city, and out of it again, on your terms.
With every step, you show us the truth of your Way.
This isn’t power the way we think of it, O God.
We want your power to be big and flashy and forceful,
and instead you offer us love that carries its own cross.
We confess that our vision of power is coercive,
and yours is self-giving,
and we are not sure how to manage that chasm between your way and ours.

Kyrie Eleison, Kyrie Eleison, Kyrie Eleison

Forgive us when we seek positions of advantage
and manipulate our way to a better deal,
while you speak unpopular truth with great love.
Forgive us when we feel hopeless and helpless,
watching you shoulder the weight of the world in search of reconciliation.
Forgive us when we see only failure
while you are on the way to unrecognisable glory.

Kyrie Eleison, Kyrie Eleison, Kyrie Eleison

You are indeed the King who saves us,
and we come asking for mercy,
that we may be made ready to walk your way of Life.
While we do not understand, and it all feels so messy,
we pray to recognise the story you are writing,
that we too may take up our part.
Give us the courage — today, even right now —
to follow your way of self-giving love,
even though we know how the empires of this world respond.
Give us the hope — today, even right now —
to withstand this pain and to keep watch for signs of new life.
Give us the faith — today, even right now —
to trust the truth and to live it.
We ask in your holy, loving name. Amen.

Music
Online: What Wondrous Love Is This (piano meditation by Shawn Kirchner)
In person: Andante by J. Fiocco

Children’s Time: Palm Sunday
(Listen to the word that God has spoken) — round

Reading: John 19.1-22 (NRSV)
Last week we left off in the middle of Jesus’ trial before Pilate, with the religious leaders asking for the release of Barabbas, an insurrectionist, as their Passover favour. We pick up today in the next verse, in the gospel according to John, chapter 19, beginning at verse 1. I am reading from the New Revised Standard Version.

Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. And the soldiers wove a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and they dressed him in a purple robe. They kept coming up to him, saying, ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’ and striking him on the face. Pilate went out again and said to them, ‘Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no case against him.’ So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, ‘Here is the man!’ When the chief priests and the police saw him, they shouted, ‘Crucify him! Crucify him!’ Pilate said to them, ‘Take him yourselves and crucify him; I find no case against him.’ The chief priests and the police answered him, ‘We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die because he has claimed to be the Son of God.’

Now when Pilate heard this, he was more afraid than ever. He entered his headquarters again and asked Jesus, ‘Where are you from?’ But Jesus gave him no answer. Pilate therefore said to him, ‘Do you refuse to speak to me? Do you not know that I have power to release you, and power to crucify you?’ Jesus answered him, ‘You would have no power over me unless it had been given you from above; therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.’ From then on Pilate tried to release him, but the religious leaders cried out, ‘If you release this man, you are no friend of the emperor. Everyone who claims to be a king sets himself against the emperor.’

When Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus outside and sat on the judge’s bench at a place called The Stone Pavement, or in Hebrew Gabbatha. Now it was the day of Preparation for the Passover; and it was about noon. He said to the Judean leaders, ‘Here is your King!’ They cried out, ‘Away with him! Away with him! Crucify him!’ Pilate asked them, ‘Shall I crucify your King?’ The chief priests answered, ‘We have no king but the emperor.’ Then he handed him over to them to be crucified.

So they took Jesus; and carrying the cross by himself, he went out to what is called The Place of the Skull, which in Hebrew is called Golgotha. There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, with Jesus between them. Pilate also had an inscription written and put on the cross. It read, ‘Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.’ Many of the Jews read this inscription, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, in Latin, and in Greek. Then the chief priests said to Pilate, ‘Do not write, “The King of the Jews”, but, “This man said, I am King of the Jews.” ’ Pilate answered, ‘What I have written I have written.’

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 Power
Years ago there was a television show called Buffy the Vampire Slayer — it was about a young woman who was supernaturally chosen to fight evil in the world, in the form of vampires and demons. She had superhuman strength and recovery powers, and she was constantly in training. The catch is that there’s only one Slayer alive in the world at any given time, but of course the evils of the world seem to multiply faster all the time. Near the end of the series, Buffy decided to train other girls and young women to help to the best of their ability, and she started with her own younger sister. One night they went out and waited for a vampire to rise from a grave, and when he did, Buffy said to her sister Dawn: it’s not about right and wrong, it’s about power, who has it and who wants it. Then she looked at Dawn, who was looking at the vampire, and asked, “who has the power?” And Dawn said, “well, I have the stake.” — because of course the way one kills a vampire is with a wooden stake through the heart!

Buffy’s response was: “the stake is not the power.”

Someone should have told Pilate that, too. He believed himself to have all the power — he said to Jesus, do you not know that I have power to release you and power to crucify you? In Pilate’s mind, the ability to put someone to death was the same thing as having ultimate power. That is, after all, the empire’s only real weapon — and they use it to frighten people into submission.

But the stake is not the power. The ability to nail someone onto a cross is not the same thing as having power. Striking fear into people is not power.

Pilate thought he was the one with the power in this situation. And he used his power over the religious leaders, for sure. They also thought they had some measure of power, perhaps even believed they were forcing Pilate to do their dirty work for them. But in the end, Pilate manipulated them just as he does everyone else, until they, the religious leaders of an occupied people, whose faith is built on there being only One God who is ruler of heaven and earth, ended up having to affirm an idolatry, that they have no king but the emperor who was also considered a god. In getting what they wanted when it came to Jesus, they had to lay aside some of their deepest held beliefs and give up their own autonomy.

Because the kind of power they thought they wanted is a lie. And power built on lies requires us to buy in to the lie in order to project an image we want other people to believe.

But that’s not real power. On the contrary, that’s weakness. We may think all the weapons and all the money and all the status symbols and all the ability to coerce other people into doing our will is power, but it’s actually a mask, something to hide behind, so no one will see just how shallow that all is, so no one will see the lie at the heart of it all.

Meanwhile, Jesus is the truth, the bringer of life. And not just life, but life abundant. While Pilate proclaimed his ability to kill, Jesus demonstrated his ability to overcome death, thus revealing just how weak both the religious and political leaders were. Pilate may hold the stake, ready to drive it into the heart of love and truth embodied in human form…but Jesus is the one who carries his own cross, in control of the situation, giving himself away for the sake of those who cannot fathom that self-giving could be greater than their power of forceful taking.

In his self-giving, Jesus reveals just how weak and broken our power structures are, just how shaky the false foundation is, and how we cling to them despite all that. He holds up a mirror to the systems of this world, to us and our complicity in them — for they are not as different now as we would like to think.

We see how an innocent man can be condemned by the insistence of a few.
We see how inevitably the wheels of the justice system can turn toward a particular outcome, regardless of whether the person caught up in it is guilty or not.
We see how easily we are manipulated by those in positions of power in government or media, to think what they tell us to think even when it isn’t what we actually believe.

We see how quickly things change from seemingly harmless name-calling to dehumanising and brutalising another human being, believing them to be beneath us and deserving of abuse.
We see how easily abuse comes to our lips and then to our hands.
We see the lengths to which we will go to maintain the status quo.

It is not comfortable to look in that mirror, but it’s the one Jesus holds up to the world, to see that though we may feel powerful in the moment we do those things, in the moment we call someone a derogatory name or the moment we force someone else to do something or the moment we decide to abandon our principles for a quick win…that feeling of power is fleeting. And then too often we end up seduced by that tiny taste of power, and we do it again and again, like a drug we can’t let go of. But the truth is that these all-too-common behaviours are rooted in weakness and fear and lies, not in the source of light and life and truth.

And we all do it. There’s no point pretending we don’t. All of us have chosen, at one time or another, to try to tear down someone else and get that feeling of power over them. We’ve looked at people in positions of authority, people we don’t even know, and called them names to our friends. We’ve sat behind our screens and said things we’d never dare to say to someone’s face. We’ve laid aside our faith or our values to get something we wanted for less, pretending we don’t know the effect it has on others. We have all been seduced by the lies of power in one way or another.

The only way to change that is to be honest about it, to tell the truth, to look into that mirror Jesus holds up and admit our complicity in these systems of domination and abuse and exploitation and dehumanisation, to admit we have believed the stake is the power. And to then look to Jesus, who is the way, the truth, and the life, who is love in the flesh, carrying the cross by himself.

On his own shoulders, he bears the weight of all those destructive ways of humankind. The means of his own torture and death are his burden, and he takes it up without a moment’s hesitation — in John’s gospel there’s no pleading in Gethsemane, no sense of struggle, this is his to do, because God so loved the world.

In this is love — not that we loved God, but that while we were yet sinners, unable to recognise the truth, unwilling to look in the mirror and acknowledge reality, God loved us. While we were listening to all those other voices that call — voices of grief, self-sufficiency, fear, competing expectations, and power, and so many others — the voice of truth and love has always been calling us out of those destructive ways and into abundant life. While we were clinging desperately to any shred of control we could find, betraying love to save our own skin, the good shepherd was laying down his life for the sheep.

And that kind of love is true power.

May it be so. Amen.

Online hymn 385: Here Hangs a Man Discarded (tune: Passion Chorale)
(in person Hymn 391: This is Your Coronation, tune passion chorale)

Prayer and the Lord’s Prayer
We give you thanks, O God, for you so love the world —
your love created and is still creating,
your love saved and is still bringing wholeness,
your love sustains us all our days.
We praise you for your goodness
and we ask that we might reflect your image more clearly
into the world where you have placed us to live as your people.

You speak truth to power, Lord Jesus,
and we pray today for the grace to do the same.
As you stood firm,
revealing what is right even to those who could not choose the right,
we pray you would give us the courage to trust your word
and follow your way.
Give us eyes to see the truth,
and to change our ways to walk more closely with you.
And for those in positions of earthly authority, we pray the same:
eyes to see truth, and the will and courage
to align with your kingdom instead of their own power.
May all of us together be makers of peace and justice,
following the voice of the good shepherd who leads us into life.

You, Lord Jesus, are clear who you are, sure of your place in the story,
and we pray today for the grace to be the same.
As you stayed true to your purpose,
even in the midst of so many competing voices,
we pray you would clarify our self-understanding,
that we might recognise your call to be transformed,
and so to transform the ways of this world.
When we are tempted to give in to the voice of false power just this once,
speak your loving truth ever more clearly,
that we may echo your voice and find ourselves in abundant life instead.

We hear your call to reflect on our part in the brokenness
that sees some people as disposable or less than human.
You expose the workings we would rather ignore,
so we don’t have to know the truth of how people are treated in our name.
We pray this day for those who have been caught up in a justice system
that does not recognise their humanity,
and for those who simply write off others as irredeemable.
We pray this day for those whose work requires them to see others as less-than,
and for the harm that does to their own souls.
We pray this day for those who have been victims and still find retribution brings no justice.
May all people know the truth of their belovedness,
and may we all act from love, with love, for love.
Give us the imagination to see another way,
valuing all people and restoring one another to wholeness.

Loving God, this world feels so caught up in the power of death,
the shadow is long and we aren’t sure how to escape it.
We ask your companionship as we walk this valley,
and especially for those who suffer at the hands of another.
For people living in the midst of war or occupation,
for those fleeing for their lives,
for those seeking a future of hope,
for those whose homes are places of violence instead of refuge,
for those who have been taught that love hurts,
for those who have lost sight of possibility and see only despair,
we offer our prayers and our hearts…
and we hear you asking us to be an answer to prayer, too,
with hands and homes and resources open.
May your spirit of healing flow over your world, Lord.

Show us the truth this day,
and give us the steadfast courage to do what is right,
even if the cost is great.
We pray in the name of the Lamb of God
who protects us from the power of death and saves us all for abundant life,
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.

(In person Hymn 385: Here hangs a man discarded (tune: Salley Gardens))

Benediction
Friends go forth under the power and protection of the Lamb of God, to lay aside the lies of power and choose instead the love that is the way of truth and 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.

Postlude Music

Announcements

* Today is the last Sunday in 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.

We are now entering Holy Week:
10 April:
11am, Passion Sunday service in St. John’s
4pm, CONNECT Palm Sunday event at OGA, with a light dinner served

11 – 15 April: self-guided prayer stations available in the St John’s sanctuary, to experience the Holy Week story in different ways. The Stations will be open on:
Monday, 10:30am – noon
Tuesday, 5-6:30pm
Wednesday, 10am – noon and 6-7:15pm
Thursday, 5-6:30pm,
Friday, 11:30am – 1pm
Saturday, 2-4pm

11-15 April:
7pm, Holy Week Services: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at OGA; Tuesday and Thursday at St. John’s (Thursday includes Communion)

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

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

*You are invited to join in reading the Bible in a year for 2022 — immersing ourselves in God’s word throughout the year. Click here to find a reading plan that’s five days a week (leaving a couple of days for catch up each week!). Watch this space for information about a Bible study as we go through the scriptures together!

* All worship is online (or on the phone at 01475 270037, or in print) and we also meet in person, subject to the usual protocols for distancing, hand hygiene, mask wearing. We can now welcome up to 85-100 people for worship with one-chair-between-households distancing. No booking is required. Masks are required at all times inside the building, including while singing. If you are able, please enter by the front door in Bath street, and only those who need step-free access should use the back door.

* Tonight we will gather for evening prayer on the Connect Facebook Page, led tonight by 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 Spring Church Notes are now available! You can read them by clicking here.

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

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