Sunday service for 18 September 2022

Sunday 18 September 2022, NL1-2
Gourock St. John’s Church of Scotland
Service prepared by Rev. Teri Peterson
Manse: 632143 
Email: tpeterson (at) churchofscotland.org.uk

Prelude Music

Welcome/Announcements

Call to Worship
Leader: God’s voice speaks: go where I will show you.
1: To those who are comfortable where we are
2: To those who are stuck in a rut
3: To those who have never heard God’s voice before
4: To those who think they know God best
Leader: The call and promise comes to us all:
go, and I will bless you, and I will make you a blessing.
All: Together we seek what God will show us today, and commit ourselves to respond.

Hymn: Glory to God! Our Living Songs We Raise (Words: Leith Fisher (1941–2009), tune: The bleacher lass o’ Kelvinhaugh)
Glory to God! Our living songs we raise
with all your folk of every time and place;
with saints both old and new we lift our praise
to fill with swelling sound this holy space.

Glory to God! With thankful hearts we come
for all who loved and served your people here,
for all who for the Christ made room and home,
their faith inspiring us to persevere.

Glory to God for years of service true
in church and home and in community;
the acts of grace which brought your truth to view,
the sacrifices that made others free.

Glory to God for challenges today
which call us forward into service new,
which reawaken faith and deepen prayer,
which lift our worship, and our song renew.

Glory to God! Let now our lives resound
as we step forward on the narrow road;
may you, Lord Christ, our journeying surround
and bring us safely to our home in God.

Prayer
You are a God who blesses,
a God who risks being in relationship,
a God who creates beginnings out of endings.
Because of who you are,
you call us to be who we truly are.
And in your choice to pour out your grace,
you push us to be a blessing beyond ourselves.
As we mourn the death of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II we cannot help but see
from the example she set throughout her days,
the many ways in which we have fallen short as faithful servants.
We bless you
For her dedication to duty and diplomacy
For her commitment to country and commonwealth
For her faithfulness and loyalty to your ways of love and peace.
We give you thanks for the respect and affection in which she was held
by people of different nations and generations.
You blessed her with insight, humour, and faith,
you guided her through the massive changes of seventy years,
and we are grateful for the ways in which she followed you
into the new ways of being you laid before us all.
O Lord our God, we hear you calling us as you have called the Queen and others before us,
but we confess that we mainly want to keep things as they are,
and today we admit our fear and vulnerability as the stability of the ages passes away.
We hear you calling, but we confess that we find it difficult to step out on an unknown journey.
We hear you calling, but we admit that we do not always trust that we will encounter you out there.
Forgive us.
Forgive us for insisting only on our constrained imaginations, rather than looking for your vision.
Forgive us for our inability to carry our experiences of your grace into other places and situations.
Move us today, O God —
to look for what you will show us next,
to be among this world as your covenant people.
Give us again the blessing of your call to go and be a blessing to others, in your name.
Amen.

Sanctuary Hymn: Faith Begins By Letting Go

Sanctuary Children’s Time— Song: We will walk with God (Sizohamba Naye)

Prayer of the Season
You long to be in relationship with us, O God.
You call us to walk with you,
and you choose and empower human beings to carry out your work in the world.
We do not understand why you would choose us,
what reason you might have for calling us to be your partners in love, grace, and justice.
And yet you do.
You call us to build when others tear down.
You call us to leave behind what we know while others get stuck in what might have been.
You call us to speak when others keep silent, and to listen carefully to meaning behind the noise.
Why us?
Only you know, Lord,
and we pray you would help us trust your judgment.
Open our spirits to receive your word this day,
and open our lives to walk with you, wherever you may lead.
Amen.

Reading: Genesis 12.1-9 (Robert Alter translation)
Last week we heard the story of Noah, his family, and the animals sailing in the ark, and then God making a promise to all the people and creatures of the earth. Noah’s family included three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. The oldest son, Shem, is the great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather (that’s seven greats!) of Abram, who we are going to hear about today. Abram had two brothers, one of whom died, leaving a son. The whole family, including Abram’s wife, his father, Abram’s brother and his wife, and their nephew decided to move away from their home in Ur and go to the land of Canaan. Along the way, they stopped in a town called Haran — which was also the name of Abram’s brother that had died. The family stopped there and couldn’t bring themselves to go any further, and Abram’s father died there. We pick up the story today when the family is there in Haran, in the book of Genesis, chapter 12, beginning at verse 1, and I am reading from Robert Alter’s translation.

And the Lord said to Abram, “Go forth from your land and your birthplace and your father’s house to the land I will show you. And I will make you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing. And I will bless those who bless you, and those who curse you I will curse, and all the clans of the earth through you shall be blessed.” And Abram went forth as the Lord had spoken to him and Lot went forth with him, Abram being seventy-five years old when he left Haran. And Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his nephew and all the goods they had gotten and the folk they had bought in Haran, and they set out on the way to the land of Canaan, and they came to the land of Canaan. And Abram crossed through the land to the site of Shechem, to the Terebinth of Moreh. The Canaanite was then in the land. And the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “to your seed I will give this land.” And he built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him. And he pulled up his stakes from there for the high country east of Bethel and pitched his tent with Bethel to the west and Ai to the east, and he built there an altar to the Lord, and he invoked the name of the Lord. And Abram journeyed onward by stages to the Negeb.

For the word of God in scripture
For the word of God all around us
For the word of God within us
Thanks be to God.

Sermon: Keep Calm and Carry On

Can you imagine what it is like to hear God saying so clearly: “Go”? The moment of realising that in order to do what God has in mind, you’ll have to leave comfort and family and follow a path of duty that will take you to who-knows-where? Knowing that other people will look on from the outside and wonder, and judge, and talk, and you will have to stand firm even when you’re not at all sure about the next step? I suspect many of us have had at least some part of that experience, even if not always obvious at first that it was God’s voice.

I wonder if that’s how the Queen felt. She knew one day her moment would come, but it happened far sooner than she expected. And then for seventy years, while the rest of us looked on, she simply carried on faithfully. The moment when she was called to service was a decisive one, but then she had to navigate all kinds of unfamiliar terrain as the world changed drastically over the years. And yet she continued, regardless of the gossip, or the unclear path, or the wishing things might be different. She dedicated her life to serving both God and country as best she knew how, and sometimes she chose a good way forward and other times made mistakes, like any human being, and still she carried on.

When God spoke to Abraham, he and his whole family had been in Haran for a while. They had left their ancestral homeland during a time of grief…when one brother died, leaving a son behind, the family decided to pack up and move. But in the middle of that move, they came to a town with the same name as their lost loved one, and they simply sat down and stayed.

I think most of us recognise that feeling, when something drastic has happened, and we know we need a change…but then partway through, we get caught up in the grief or the desire for comfort and stability, and we just get stuck. And then life happens, and we just stay in the same habit and routine, because even though it wasn’t where we thought we were headed, at least it’s comfortable for now. Many of us have experienced this as individuals or families, and if we look at history we can see how it happens to whole churches and communities and nations, too. We start out on a journey of change and new life, and then get sidetracked into something safe, where we can feel comforted and secure when everything around is shifting and strange and hard. And then even when difficult things happen, like Abraham’s father dying in that place, they somehow just dig us deeper into the nest, because we can’t fathom facing the vulnerability of more change.

God spoke at that moment — the one when Abraham, or any of us, would have preferred to stay in that cozy place, surrounded by comforting memories of his family who were no longer with him. After all, Abraham was 75 years old, he didn’t have any children, one of his brothers and his father had already died…he could be forgiven for thinking that he was settling in for the end of his story. But what God said was: you were on a journey and I need you to get back on it again. You’ve gotten stuck here in this place that I understand, but it is not where I need you to be.

This is the point in the story when I think it’s easy to get ourselves in trouble. When we think we’ve figured it out and we’re comfortable and then we see a change coming…we can either listen and follow the God who called Abraham out to a further journey, or we can dig in and insist that the way we like it is the way it will be…even if it isn’t where God needs us to be. At our own family or church level that can mean we’re choosing decline or frustration or pain for ourselves or others around us, though we think of it as choosing our own comfort. Imagine how that works at a big picture level, though. The shift, for example, from empire to commonwealth had a pretty rocky start because imagining the future journey was too difficult compared to just maintaining the status quo. Only when the highest levels of society allowed that change was possible did things begin to unfold peacefully rather than violently. Learning that new way of being, and then pioneering a brand new form of global community, was part of the Queen’s calling. She had to hear God’s call to leave behind the ways her ancestors had reigned, and set out into uncharted territory, trusting that the way would become clearer with each step, even as people wondered if any of it was sensible or possible. She was committed to following the new vision, and her commitment made the rest of the community feel secure enough to join in.

We may not be asked to undertake quite such a mammoth task, but the call to the next stage of the journey is there nonetheless. Again, Abraham offers us an example: at every place they stopped, he built an altar to the Lord. He built something tangible to help remember the encounter with God, his experience of being led by God through this unfamiliar terrain.

We know how to do this — we are good at monuments and memorials and buildings that mark special moments and places. We love the places that remind us of important moments in our lives, and the experiences we’ve had here, and that soak up the prayers and joys and sorrows and witness down the generations.

But then Abraham did something very strange. He moved on to another place, and built another altar, and then moved on to another place, and another…in every place, he called on God’s name and he built an altar to mark the experience of being close to God…and then he just left it there and went to the next.

As I have thought about this aspect of Abraham’s journey, his ability to mark the moment without being attached to the one place it happened, I’ve been drawn back to the beginning of his story. In English it isn’t very obvious, but in Hebrew it doesn’t simply say “go”…it says something like “go yourself” or “get yourself going” or some scholars think it might be “go to yourself.” And I wonder if that’s exactly what Abraham did — he went on a journey to reclaim his Self and his relationship with God, both of which had gotten a bit lost during the time his family was in Haran and stuck. It happens, we sometimes find ourselves get covered up or set aside, or like Abraham’s family we start a journey and then get pulled off track. God calls us, just as God called Abraham, to go to ourselves, to get up and go out to be the person God created us to be.

And the person God created us to be is a blessing. Not just to receive a blessing for ourselves, but to be a blessing to others. The land God led Abraham through was populated by other people, and Abraham and Sarah were supposed to be among those people as a blessing. So they went, and in each place they stopped they recognised and celebrated and shared the blessing of God’s presence and guidance…and then they moved on, to continue sharing the blessing, carrying that blessing to another place, another people, another patch of land that needed a blessing too. The only way to receive the blessing was to be a blessing to the world, and that required leaving behind the things and places that served only themselves.

Abraham’s story is not always a story of being a blessing, of course. Sometimes he gets it wrong, and sometimes he and Sarah get wrapped up in themselves and they hurt other people, and sometimes they get confused and end up going the wrong way, and sometimes they find their way back to themselves and God’s way becomes clear again. And isn’t that true of all our lives? Whether our example is Abraham or the Queen or anywhere in between, we see that following the call to be who we are meant to be is a journey of ups and downs. What matters is that we do our best to pursue the path of blessing — not to get stuck in our own nostalgia or grief or reminiscence; not to get attached to our favourite place where we experienced God; but to carry on sharing the blessing in the next place and the next. Not to seek to be blessed, but to bless others.

It’s an act of faith to follow that call, to leave behind the old ways and step out into the further journey God has in mind. And maybe we wonder “why me” — why would God choose Abraham to go…why would God choose the Queen to serve for so long and through such change…why would God choose us? Ultimately the answer to all those questions is because it’s in God’s nature to bless, and God has created us in his own image, so it’s also in our nature to bless others. So of course God would call us, because that’s how God’s blessing extends to the world, as we go forth from this place to the many places God will show us.

May it be so. Amen.

Online hymn: Blessed Be Your Name  (Matt Redman)
Sanctuary Hymn 237: Look Forward in Faith

Prayer and Lord’s Prayer
Counting our Blessings…and how we ARE a blessing

Loving God,
we are grateful for all you have done, for the ways you work in and among and through us.
All at the same time you pour out your blessing and invite us to join you on a journey,
to turn our eyes forward and to risk following where you lead.

We pause today to lift up those among us who feel stuck where they are —
ourselves, our friends and neighbours,
people we have not met but whose lives are entwined with ours in your great human family —
all who cannot imagine another way,
who are trapped in grief or despair or illness or violence or cycles of poverty,
who both long for newness and are afraid to try again.
May they know themselves guided by your strong and supportive hand.

As we seek to follow you, we carry with us
the hopes and fears of those who have lost themselves along the way;
who have tried to change themselves for the approval of another,
who have forgotten their own stories underneath all the labels that define them,
who have borne so many burdens they no longer recognise themselves.
May they know your grace that gifts us with truth,
and may they experience your love for them for who they are.

As we respond to your blessing, we commit ourselves, in your name,
to put out a hand to help those for whom the risks feel bigger than the possibilities,
those who have been held back rather than helped along,
those who no longer have the confidence or ability to trust themselves, let alone you or others.
May they experience your presence through our love as their neighbours.

And as we give thanks for all those who have gone before us in faith, we bless you again for our late Queen Elizabeth II, for her courage in the face of overwhelming expectation, for her sense of duty, for her hospitality and kindness offered to so many, and for her daily trust in the example and grace of Jesus Christ.
Commending again her family to your care and trusting that she lives now in your presence, we pray for Anne, Edward, and Andrew, and for their children and grandchildren, as they grieve so publicly. Encourage and uphold them, that they may not grow weary, and may know your comfort and peace. And we pray for our King as he assumes his many responsibilities. May he find support and strength for the way ahead. Direct his steps and guide his paths in the days and years to come.

God save our gracious King,
long live our noble King,
God save the King!
Send him victorious,
happy and glorious,
long to reign over us:
God save the King!

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.

We pray these and all things through the power of the Holy Spirit and in the name of Christ Jesus our Lord, 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 683: Go To The World (tune: Sine Nomine)

Benediction
Go forth! Go as yourself, the one God calls. Go to yourself, to know the love the Holy Spirit pours into your heart, just as you are. Go be yourself, blessed to be a blessing to others in Christ’s name.
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

* Teri is off from Monday – Friday this coming week. If you have a pastoral need, please contact Cameron or your elder and they will put you in touch with the minister on call.

* The Contact Group autumn session begins this coming Tuesday the 20th of September at 2pm: Afternoon Tea with entertainment by Kenny Wilson of the Wherries! All are welcome, tickets are available from Anne Armour, Anne Love, or Fiona Webster. The group will meet on alternate Tuesday afternoons going forward.

* We are hosting an October holiday club for Primary aged children, 18-20 October, on the theme “Life in Plastic, NOT Fantastic: Caring for God’s Good Earth.” More information and registration is available at our website. If you are interested in volunteering in any way — whether helping shepherd groups, cooking lunch, providing leadership, or a little light decorating, please contact Teri!

* All worship is online (or on the phone at 01475 270037, or in print) and we also meet in the sanctuary at 11am. 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 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!

* Youth Organisations have begun! If you or anyone you know is interested in the Boys Brigade (P1 – S6), please contact Alan Aitken or 2ndgourock (at) inverclydebb.org.uk. If you or anyone you know is interested in the Brownies or Girl Guides, please visit the website to register. For the Smurfs, our youngest girls, please contact Teri and ask to be put in touch with the leader.

* Young Adult Bible Study meets in the manse on the 2nd and 4th Sundays at 7pm for a meal and a study of the gospel according to John. If you’d like more information, for yourself, a family member, a friend, or neighbour who is in their 20s, please contact Teri for the dates/times and other information.

* NO BIBLE-IN-A-YEAR STUDY THIS WEDNESDAY — we will be back next week the 28th of September. You are invited to join in reading the Bible in a year for 2022 — immersing ourselves in God’s word throughout the year. We get together to discuss each week on Wednesday at 7:30pm in the manse at 6 Barrhill Road. 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.

* Philip is organising a choir for any interested singer to come and have fun, learn some of the new hymns, and sing sometimes in worship. Please contact Philip for more information: philipnor617 (at) gmail.com