Sunday service for 5 June 2022, Pentecost
5 June 2022, Pentecost
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 (sanctuary only)
Welcome
Sanctuary Hymn: Mourning Into Dancing
Call to Worship
One: Rejoice! The Lord is near!
All: We come seeking the way, trusting the Spirit will lead us.
One: Rejoice! The Lord is near!
All: We come carrying our burdens, trusting God will hear us.
One: Rejoice! The Lord is near!
All: We come to be re-created as the Body of Christ, to make him known.
Online hymn 623: Here in This Place
Sanctuary Hymn 594 verses 1, 3, 5, 6: Come, Holy Spirit, Come!
Prayer
If we say we have no sin, we deceive only ourselves, for God knows us inside and out, and even our neighbours know there is more than the image we project.When we are honest about our shortcomings and our failings, the Holy Spirit makes room in us for God to do a new thing, for truth to take root, and for our faith to bear fruit in the world. Before God and with God’s people, let us pray.
Your Spirit sends us out to meet others on their terms, O God, yet we confess that we would rather insist they come to us and learn our ways instead. Your Spirit brings people together as themselves, as equals, yet we confess that we are so used to competition we can’t imagine how to be in community with those who are different. Your Spirit gives all the gifts we need to live in your kingdom on earth as it is in heaven, yet we confess that we continue to believe some people are not worthy of your gift and call. Forgive us for believing we can restrict the movement of your Holy Spirit. Forgive us for resisting when the Spirit opens the doors and blows us out of the house into the street. Forgive us for keeping our mouths firmly shut, holding your good news for ourselves rather than participating in your revelation to the world. May your holy wind blow again this day, overcoming our recalcitrance and leading us to the grace of your radical gentleness and generosity of spirit. Amen.
Friends, if anyone is in Christ, the whole creation is made new — the old has gone, and the new has come! Trusting in the gracious mercy of God, and the power of the Holy Spirit, know that you are forgiven, and live as if you are forgiven, loved, and free. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Hymn: Mourning Into Dancing
Children’s Time (sanctuary only)
Song: Wa Wa Wa Emimimo
Readings: Acts 2 (video)
When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, ‘Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.’ All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, ‘What does this mean?’ But others sneered and said, ‘They are filled with new wine.’
But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them: ‘Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:
“In the last days it will be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams.
Even upon my slaves, both men and women,
in those days I will pour out my Spirit;
and they shall prophesy.
And I will show portents in the heaven above
and signs on the earth below,
blood, and fire, and smoky mist.
The sun shall be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood,
before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day.
Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Philippians 4:4-7
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
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: Speaking Their Language
Before it was the birthday of the Christian Church, Pentecost was a Jewish holiday that celebrated the gift of the Torah — the time God spoke to Moses on top of Mt Sinai and told the Israelite people everything they needed to know to live into their identity as God’s chosen people. God didn’t give people all those instructions so that they could become his people…the instructions were given because they were his people.
At the celebration of the Jewish holiday of Pentecost, which in Hebrew is called Shavuot (and this year began last night!) it has long been a tradition to stay up all night studying the scriptures the night before the holiday. So Pentecost eve, if you will, was a time for gathering to read God’s word together all night long, debating and discussing and asking questions and looking to the word for guidance.
Can you imagine, then, first thing in the morning, getting ready for a day of celebration after spending all night at Bible study, and the Holy Spirit comes rushing into the room with so much power that you’re propelled out of your seat, out the door into the street?
In the beginning, the Spirit blew over the waters of the earth and became the breath that sent God’s word out to create the whole spectrum of life: light and dark, land and sea, plants and animals and people. No one was there to hear the Spirit moving, but she was there. At Mount Sinai God spoke and created community out of a giant group of ex-slaves who were traumatised, lost, querulous, and anxious. They stood round the foot of the mountain and saw smoke and heard thunder, but only Moses heard God’s voice and then came down to explain what God had said, and how they could follow God’s way and live out God’s love and justice. On that Pentecost morning, when Jesus was gone and his disciples were unsure what to do next, the Spirit wind blew them out of the house where they were holed up behind a locked door studying scripture, out into the streets where they began to speak, and everyone in Jerusalem heard it, without needing a translator. A new community was created as they heard, in their own mother tongues, the stories of God’s goodness and how they might live new lives as God’s people.
It’s fascinating that throughout history the Holy Spirit appears to be purposely broadening the audience — from no human ears even existing to hear the first breath on the waters, to speaking just to Moses, to sending the disciples out of the house to talk to everyone in their own languages. The first action of a whole community filled with the Spirit was to go out and communicate God’s goodness across the barriers that kept people apart, working across differences without glossing over them. Pentecost isn’t a story of everyone speaking the same language. It’s a story of the Spirit enabling hospitality that creates community from a group of people whose experiences and languages and skin colours and family configurations were different — a community gathered around the good news of God’s powerful resurrection love. In that community, the Spirit doesn’t distinguish between young and old, men and women — the Spirit simply pours out and the people speak. The boundaries between the human and divine break down, and therefore so do the boundaries we have set up between people.
Of course that always sounds crazy, then and now. Some of the people who heard this message in the streets that morning nearly 2000 years ago thought it was bonkers and believed the only way someone could come up with this nonsense was if they were drunk. Now, granted, sleep deprivation, like, say, staying up all night to study, can make people act drunk sometimes! But the truth is that’s just a convenient way of dismissing something they didn’t want to hear. Just as on Easter morning the men had dismissed the women’s idle tales, so too on Pentecost morning people who did not want to imagine a world where God was loose and active and everywhere and empowering everyone to do God’s work found ways to write it off. It’s a threatening idea, that the Spirit might be out there doing things we haven’t sanctioned, with people we haven’t vetted and approved. And it might be an even more threatening idea that the Holy Spirit might be in here, in us, pushing us out of our safe four walls into the streets to do things we don’t understand and could never have imagined with people who don’t even speak the same language. It’s much easier to simply say those people are crazy and we would never do that, we’re Presbyterians for goodness’ sake!
But the early church thought this was cause for rejoicing, not for fear. After all, the gift of the Holy Spirit is a reminder that the Lord is near! So we don’t need to be afraid of following the Spirit out of the house and into the street. We don’t need to be afraid of reaching out to people who are different. We don’t need to be afraid of welcoming people, speaking their language, changing our ways to ensure that they can hear the good news of God’s love better. Instead we can rejoice in the fact that the Spirit enables us to be hospitable and generous, and empowers us to leave our seats and our buildings and create the Church out there, not just in here.
Paul’s letter to the Philippians, reminding them to rejoice always, has this little line in it that I think our translations do a disservice to, and that connects us back to the Acts story of Pentecost morning. Our English translation says that Paul wrote “do not worry about anything” — but in the original Greek the letter says “do not be pulled apart in multiple directions”. It’s the same word that Jesus said to Martha, that she was being pulled apart by trying to focus in too many directions at once when she was trying to get Mary to be like her. I think that’s part of the problem of the scoffers on Pentecost morning. They see and hear something happening, but they also see that it seems to have started with lowly uneducated boorish Galileans, and it’s taking in people of all kinds of backgrounds and statuses. And so they are pulled apart — God calling on the one hand, but their prejudices and their traditions and comfort zones calling on the other hand. In that anxious place of being pulled in multiple directions, they end up in competition instead of cooperation, and that makes it impossible to be generous or to experience or offer hospitality. So they cannot rejoice, as Paul teaches us to do, because they are anxious — not in the sense we think of that English word today, which is not what Paul is talking about, but in the sense of being pulled apart by competing values in themselves, between a desire for the way things were and a desire to see what God is doing now. Because they can’t allow that God would work in people they thought were inferior, or that God would lead a new direction, they also can’t rejoice in God’s nearness, and therefore rob themselves — and their community — of the peace that passes all understanding.
But the Spirit of God is here, now…surrounding us, including going behind us to push us out to places we might not go alone, to be with people we did not choose for ourselves, broadening the message of God’s love wider and wider every time. And we aren’t alone, God is with us, right here, close at hand, giving us the gifts we need to do kingdom work, the words we need to share good news, and the hearts we need to welcome all God’s people into community. The Holy Spirit has been widening the circle since the beginning of time. Still God’s breath fans the flames of Christ’s passion to make us into his body — not to be all the same, and not to be in competition, but to work together across the lines, speaking each others’ languages and adapting to each others’ needs gifts, as equals and neighbours made in God’s image. Where once there was division and distrust, arrogance and apathy, grief and greed, mourning turns to dancing and praying and generosity and hope and peace beyond what our minds can imagine. Now through the gift of the Spirit we can be of one mind, not pulled apart…and so we who are being created into God’s community rejoice in the Lord, who makes all things possible, even for us, even here, even now.
May it be so. Amen.
Online hymn: Send Us Out (Resound Worship)
Sanctuary Hymn 590: Holy Spirit, Gift Bestower
Sanctuary: Concerns of the Church (Announcements)
Prayer and Lord’s Prayer
On this jubilee weekend, we give you thanks, O God, for your servant the Queen,
and for her faithfulness in doing her duty and serving her country these past 70 years.
We are grateful for her constancy,
for the example of graciousness and compassion she has set,
and for her willingness to speak of her faith in you.
As we prayed at her coronation, again today we ask that you would
Strengthen her, O Lord, with the Holy Ghost the Comforter;
Confirm and establish her with thy free and princely Spirit,
the Spirit of wisdom and government,
the Spirit of counsel and ghostly strength,
the Spirit of knowledge and true godliness,
that so persevering in good works unto the end,
she may by thy mercy come to thine everlasting kingdom.
National Anthem vv 1, 3 (sanctuary only)
God save our gracious Queen,
long live our noble Queen,
God save the Queen!
Send her victorious,
happy and glorious,
long to reign over us:
God save the Queen!
Not on this land alone,
but be God’s mercies known
from shore to shore.
Lord, make the nations see
that all should kindred be,
and form one family
the wide world o’er.
(You may be seated as we continue in prayer)
We are not yet one family the wide world o’er, O God.
We thank you for sending your Spirit to enable us to live as your people,
and we pray for your help in fulfilling your call.
Re-create us as makers of peace,
reaching out to those who are different,
making space to welcome those you call into community,
willing to learn and grow with each other.
May your people come together to make peace
in Ukraine, in South Sudan, in Ethiopia, in Palestine, in Colombia, in Sri Lanka, in the USA,
and here in our own homes and neighbourhoods and towns.
May your people come together to share good news
for the people of Yemen, and Afghanistan, and Hong Kong.
May your people come together to work for your kingdom
across divides of
skin colour, accent, sexuality, socio-economic status, education, sectarianism, and age.
Pour out your Spirit of vision and dream,
show us the world you long for,
and give us the courage to live toward your future.
We hear the sound of your rushing wind,
opening us where we have been closed,
clearing our heads and filling our ears with the sound of your Spirit moving,
blowing where she will.
We give you thanks for the privilege of hearing your new creation in progress!
We pray you would speak the language of our hearts to reveal your word again this day,
and loosen our tongues to proclaim your praise.
Trusting in the power of your Spirit, and in the name of our risen Lord Jesus 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 584: Like Fireworks in the Night
Benediction
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
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 (sanctuary only)
Announcements
* 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!). We get together to discuss each week on Wednesday at 7:30pm in the Sanctuary. Please enter via the front door on Bath street — if you can’t manage the stairs, let us know and someone will meet you at the St John’s Road door. All are welcome, no experience necessary! Feel free to invite a friend, too! Anyone who has ever wondered just what the Bible actually says and what it has to do with us is welcome.
All worship is online (or on the phone at 01475 270037, or in print) and we also meet in the sanctuary at 11am. Hand sanitiser is available at every entrance, and mask-wearing is optional though encouraged. Masks are available at the door if you would like one. 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.
* Tonight we will gather 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 annual meeting of the congregation will take place during sanctuary worship on 12 June. You can find the annual finance report by clicking here. If you have any questions, please let Cameron, Teri, or Peter know by the 6th of June if possible so they can be answered for everyone both in the building and online. (there will still be an opportunity to ask questions during the meeting as well.)
* The Kirk Session will meet after worship on Sunday 12 June, with a light lunch provided. Kirk Session meetings are always open for those who wish to observe and know what is happening in the leadership of the church. If you’d like to join the session as we look forward at what God has in store for us, please let us know by 6 June of any dietary needs so we can plan properly for lunch.
* Young Adults Bible Study is now meeting together many Sunday afternoons, sometimes in the manse and sometimes on Zoom. Contact Teri for information on how to join and for a copy of the book they are using.
Sunday Service for 23 May 2021, Pentecost
Sunday Service for 23 May 2021, Pentecost
Prepared by Rev. Teri Peterson, Gourock St. John’s
Manse phone: 632143
Email: tpeterson (at) churchofscotland.org.uk
To hear an audio recording of this service, including music, please phone 01475 270037. Let your neighbours and friends who don’t have internet know that they can receive the tape ministry by telephone now!
Prelude Music (in person only)
Welcome and Announcements (in person)
Acts 2.1-13 selected verses (in person: popcorn style, read by 11 voices; online, read by Teri)
1. When Pentecost Day arrived, they were all together in one place.
2. Suddenly a sound from heaven like the howling of a fierce wind filled the entire house where they were sitting!
3. They saw what seemed to be individual flames of fire alighting on each one of them!
4. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit enabled them to speak!
5. There were pious Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. When they heard this sound, a crowd gathered.
6. They were mystified because everyone heard them speaking in their native languages.
7. They were surprised and amazed, saying, “Look, aren’t all the people who are speaking Galileans, every one of them? How then can each of us hear them speaking in our native language?
8. We hear them declaring the mighty works of God in our own languages!”
9. They were all surprised and bewildered.
10. Some asked each other, “What does this mean?” Others jeered at them, saying, “They’re full of new wine!”
11. Peter stood up and said “Listen carefully to my words! These people aren’t drunk, as you suspect; after all, it’s only nine o’clock in the morning!”
Music
In person: Fanfare by CS Lang
Online: Enemy of Apathy by John L Bell & Graham Maule, sung by Ferryhill Parish Church Virtual Choir
Welcome (online)
Call to Worship
Come, let us seek the Spirit of God together —
for the Spirit leads us toward one another, and so toward Christ.
Come, God calls us into community
and sends us out to share the good news.
Come, for God is making and re-making the Body of Christ,
as the wind blows, we are created anew, to bear fruit for the kingdom.
Come, let us worship God, together.
Prayer of Confession
Rushing wind and burning flame and a hubbub of good news — You know how to get our attention, God. Your Spirit moves us out from behind our closed doors into the streets, bearing your word into every place. We confess that we are not always ready to follow. For we admit that we may not want to lay aside our selfish motives, and the lucrative fruit they produce. We look to the people you place in our path and we prefer to remain divided from them. We aren’t sure we want to learn to communicate in new and unfamiliar ways, nor to reach out in reconciliation. Looking to our own hearts, we confess that what we want has taken precedence over what you want, and over the needs of others. Forgive us for our part in creating conflict that tears the fabric of community apart, rather than leading toward healing. Forgive us for our tendency to prioritise ourselves at the expense of others. Forgive us for when we have borne bad fruit, and transform us into a community that embodies love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. We ask in the name of the Risen Christ, and through the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Music (in person only): Hymn 613, Gracious Spirit
Children’s Time (in person only)
—involves fruit! Get yourselves some fruit and give thanks for God’s faithful providing, nourishing us so that we too can bear fruit in our lives.
Reading: Galatians 5.16-26 (Common English Bible)
I say be guided by the Spirit and you won’t carry out your selfish desires. A person’s selfish desires are set against the Spirit, and the Spirit is set against one’s selfish desires. They are opposed to each other, so you shouldn’t do whatever you want to do. But if you are being led by the Spirit, you aren’t under the Law. The actions that are produced by selfish motives are obvious, since they include sexual immorality, moral corruption, doing whatever feels good, idolatry, drug use and casting spells, hate, fighting, obsession, losing your temper, competitive opposition, conflict, selfishness, group rivalry, jealousy, drunkenness, partying, and other things like that. I warn you as I have already warned you, that those who do these kinds of things won’t inherit God’s kingdom.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against things like this. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the self with its passions and its desires.
If we live by the Spirit, let’s follow the Spirit. Let’s not become arrogant, make each other angry, or be jealous of each other.
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: Demonstrably Different
When Pentecost Day arrived — 50 days after Passover, the day when Jews celebrate God giving the Torah on Mount Sinai, thus creating the Israelites as God’s covenant people — the disciples were together. Traditionally, Jewish people get together to study scripture all night long for this particular holiday, so it’s possible that’s what the disciples were doing that day, reading scripture and giving thanks for God revealing the word and bringing them together as a community.
That morning, when perhaps they had been reading scripture all night, and maybe they were a little bit giddy from sleep deprivation and holiday excitement, there was a loud and rushing wind blowing through the house — like the wind that blew over the waters of creation back in Genesis 1. And tongues of fire, like the flames that had danced in the burning bush, and like the pillar of fire that led the Israelites in the wilderness, appeared above them, leading them out of the house, into the street. And they spoke…and people heard. It was a day of new creation, with the wind of God blowing and the fire of the Spirit filling them all, so that they could share stories of God’s amazing works in ways that people would understand, bringing a new community into being.
It’s a community that, of course, seeks to become more like Christ every day. And, according to Paul, the way we do that is by being guided by the Spirit, rather than being guided mainly by the ancient law. Paul says that when we are guided by the Spirit, we will choose to set aside our selfish desires, and choose instead things that build up. He told the Galatians, and still tells us today, that if we are following the Spirit, our community will have a demonstrably different character than those who are not. And then he describes two different and competing visions of what life can be like: life driven by selfish desire, and life driven by the Spirit. If we are following the Spirit, Paul says, it will be obvious to even a casual observer who looks at us or our community.
Listen to the things Paul describes as coming from “selfish motives” — things like sexual immorality, hate, fighting, competitive opposition, group rivalry, jealousy, doing whatever feels good, idolatry. These are things that put myself first — above what’s good for others, above what’s good for my community, even above God. Sometimes it might seem like they serve us — to be competitive, to have rivals, to do what feels right, even to hate people who are different. But in addition to hurting others, they are harmful to ourselves as well. When we dehumanise others, we lose a bit of our own humanity. When we think only of ourselves, we cut ourselves off from support and relationships that could help us grow. When our focus is on me and my security and what I want — when we focus on serving ourselves, or saving ourselves — we paradoxically lose everything, including the chance to experience the kingdom of God.
Now listen to the fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Do you notice anything about those things? They are relational things. Love is always received and given, not kept for ourselves. Joy bubbles over and is shared. Peace is known between people. Patience and kindness and gentleness and self-control are how we treat each other and how we interact with the world. Generosity is about giving away. Faithfulness means being focused on Jesus and following him. The fruit of the Spirit draws our eyes away from our self-centredness and pulls us into community. Just as the Spirit blowing through the upper room on Pentecost morning drew the disciples away from studying for their own sake and pulled them out into the street to speak to people who needed to hear the good news in understandable language.
When people look at the church today, do they see a different way of life than anywhere else? Do they see a community that loves, is joyful, works for peace, has patience, is kind and generous, faithful and gentle? In other words, is the Body of Christ demonstrating the relational, outward-looking fruit of the Spirit, in a way that any casual observer could see or experience? Or do they see a community that cares mainly about itself, about keeping the people inside the church happy, arguing amongst ourselves and serving our own comforts and desires and doing what we want regardless of what else is going on around us?
The General Assembly is meeting this week. Lots of people might wonder why that matters…and it’s a good question. Does the Assembly demonstrate the fruit of the Spirit? Does it lead us all, as the church, the Body of Christ, in living a more fruitful faith in the world? Or is it just arguing about how to best keep members happy while ignoring the things affecting real people, like climate change and weapons of war and economic injustice and gender disparity and health problems and cycles of poverty and violence and trauma? Those are big issues, yes, but they are also things that are part of everyday reality for billions of people. They may not seem to immediately be about theology, but they are about how we respond to God’s work in Christ in this world, how we steward the gifts we have been given and live with the compassion, justice, and love of God for all people. And if the Body of Christ can’t do anything about those things because we’re too busy worshipping our buildings or our legislation or our traditions, then we have not followed the Spirit’s lead and we’re not bearing fruit and we are far away from the kingdom of God.
If our faith doesn’t lead us to do things that make other people feel loved, and that work for peace, and that expand generosity, that bring more beauty and goodness into the world, then we’re not being led by the Spirit, Paul says. He would say it’s time to seek the Spirit more, and then follow more closely. The Holy Spirit blew into the upper room and made a new creation — a Body that went out of its comfortable familiar building into the streets, met people, spoke their language, and invited them into God’s deeds of power.
More than just singing happy birthday to the church, perhaps it’s past time for us to celebrate this birthday by doing what the Spirit has always been calling us to do: to go out of our comfortable familiar building into the streets, to meet people where they are rather than insisting they come to us, to speak their language rather than insisting they speak ours, and invite them into God’s deeds of power rather than lamenting that no one wants to join in our personal pet peeves or projects.
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. These are the things God’s law has always been trying to bring forth in us, the things that studying all night for Pentecost are meant to help us learn. These are the things that the Spirit is calling the Body of Christ to live. These are what the world should see and feel and experience from the church. Imagine how delicious that would be, if we could be the ones living so that everyone can taste and see that God is good.
May it be so. Amen.
Music
In person: Fantasia on Leaving Lismore (“Spirit of God, come dwell within me”) by Philip Norris
Online: Thrive, by Casting Crowns (played/sung by Good Shepherd Lutheran Church of Cincinnati praise band)
Announcements (online)
Prayer & Lord’s Prayer
God of all life, you call us to walk in your way,
for every moment to be directed by your grace.
Move among us again this day,
rest your Spirit upon us,
and reveal your will to us and through us.
Open us to receive your word with joy
and to respond with faithful lives.
For the world needs your Body to bear fruit —
we are desperate for more
love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
One glance at the news shows us the fruit of the way we humans have chosen to go.
We see how people profit off of pain and destruction,
while those who suffer are either exploited or ignored.
You call us to keep our eyes and our hearts open, Lord,
to see our neighbours in all their glory and their need,
and to respond with love.
Don’t let us look away from our nearby neighbours who are dying
from addictions
from poverty
from despair.
Enfold them in your love,
and show us how we can reach out with gentleness and kindness and patience,
to encircle your people with the support they need to experience true joy in your abundant life.
Don’t let us look away from the tragedies unfolding around the world, in
Palestine and Israel
Colombia
India
South Sudan
and so many other places.
We may not understand the complexities of every situation,
but we know that all human beings are made in your image and beloved,
so we pray for your healing and peace for a world that feels so broken.
Show us how we can act with generosity and self-control,
and how to be peace-makers.
Blessed are you, O Lord our God, ruler of the universe,
and blessed is Jesus Christ your Son, head of the church,
and blessed is your Holy Spirit, breath of life and wind of new creation.
We pray that your blessing would overflow onto the General Assembly as they meet,
and to every Presbytery and Kirk Session,
and to every congregation and parish of this land.
Move among us again, and give us life…
and more importantly, give us courage to seek your leading and to follow,
even out of our comfortable places and into the world you so love.
Make your church fruitful,
feeding the hungry in body and soul,
reaching across barriers to share your good news,
changing the world ever more into your kingdom.
We ask these and all things through the power of the Holy Spirit who guides our prayer and our living, and in the name of Jesus the Christ, Saviour and head of the Church, 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
Go to live your week in a way that is demonstrably different because you are part of the Body of Christ, for those branches connected to the vine bear fruit. So go into community to bear fruit that will last — love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. 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.
Announcements
* 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, and no singing yet. We can welcome approximately 33 people for worship, so if you would like to come in person, please phone Cameron (630879) on a MONDAY afternoon between 1-3pm or Anne Love (07904 617283) on a Saturday morning between 10-12 to book a place.
* Young Adult Bible Study is on Zoom at 1pm, we are reading through the Gospel According to Mark. Contact Teri for login details.
* Tonight we will gather with Christians across the nation for evening prayer on the Connect Facebook Page. All four Connect clergy are leading tonight’s service, 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 theme for worship during the season of Pentecost (30 May – 5 September, also known as Ordinary Time) will be “Sunday School Revisited” — look out for some well-known stories, and maybe even some crafts as we explore in depth the things we learned the basics about long ago.
* May includes Christian Aid week! While door to door collections, book sales, and coffee mornings are not possible, Christian Aid is encouraging us to undertake a month-long sponsored walk. If you would like to sponsor one of the other church members who have committed to this walk — Alison Bolster, Ann Stephenson, Ben MacSwan, Mhairi Gilchrist, or Teri, you can find all their fundraisers linked here. Or you can request a Christian Aid envelope (or go to the Christian Aid website) if you’d prefer to just make a more traditional donation. Don’t forget to GiftAid it!
Pentecost Sunday Service, 31 May 2020
Welcome and Announcements
Though we cannot be together in person, we can be together in spirit! Please note the following announcements:
*Teri is on holiday until the 3rd of June. If you have a pastoral emergency, please call and leave a message and she will get back to you. Otherwise, she’ll be responding when she returns, but if you have a question you can contact Cameron.
* This summer we are taking a Church Family summer trip! We’ll be journeying together from Shore to Shore — the shores of the Clyde to the shores of the sea of Galilee, to the hometown of St. John the Evangelist. Keep track of how much time you spend in prayer, reading the Bible, serving others, or going for a walk. For every 10 minutes, you move us 1km along the journey! Then each week send Teri a note, text, or phone call saying how far you “traveled” this week. So far we have made it to Manchester, and we know that when everyone starts participating, we’ll make good progress on the journey together!
*Children’s Time happens each Sunday morning at 11am on Zoom. If you would like the login details, please contact Teri.
*Churches across Scotland are calling people to join together in prayer on Sunday evenings at 7pm, placing a lit candle in the window and spending time in prayer for others. Tonight, we hope you will light your candle and use the prayer offered for this purpose on the Church of Scotland website. Beginning next week, our Sunday evening prayer services will be shared across our “Fuzzy Parish” (now called CONNECT), so watch this space!
*Feel free to share this with others, with the attribution information at the top. If you know someone who does not have access to the internet and who also does not receive the tape ministry, you can either print this service out and share it with them, or let Teri know via email or phone call and we will be sure they receive a printed copy.
*Mid-week there is a devotional email that goes out, it will be printed and included with the following Sunday’s sermon distribution. You can subscribe to the email here.
*Also mid-week there is a facebook live video devotional or a Virtual Tea Break on the St. John’s Gourock Facebook page.
*We now have a youtube channel! You can subscribe there so you never miss a video. Don’t miss “wine and the word” — an occasional series during the 5pm hour that helps us transition from one part of the day to the next, via reflections similar to those that would normally have been in the “God’s Story, Our Story” take home inserts given out each week.
*If you or a church member you know is in need of friendly phone calls or help with anything while they self-isolate, please contact Teri. Elders are already in contact with people in their districts as well, and you can pass information to them! We are hoping to continue and even deepen our connections to one another, building up the Body of Christ even when we can’t be in the building.
*Parklea has plants for sale! While we can’t have our usual plant sale in the church hall, you can still support this community organisation and get your spring and summer plants by visiting their website.
*Visit our Holy Spirit Selfie Station near the front gate of the Church by Wednesday, 3 June! Stop and take a selfie, or have someone take a photo, and send it to Teri so we can put together a slideshow —both to see each other and to celebrate the Church’s birthday….and to remember that the Church is the people, not the building.
Today’s service is led by the Right Rev. Dr. Martin Fair, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.
You can find the service live at 10am, or via recording anytime after that, here:
On the Church of Scotland Website (includes options for captions and BSL interpretation)