Easter service 2025

The video this morning was recorded live on Tower Hill and at breakfast communion. (apologies for wind noise and for my singing near the microphone yet never being seen since I was in the part of the circle that was off camera!)

The manuscript below is for the 11am sanctuary service, which will not be online.

Happy Easter!

Sunday 20 April 2025, Easter Day
Gourock St. John’s Church of Scotland
Service prepared by Rev. Teri Peterson
Manse: 632143
Email: TPeterson (at) churchofscotland.org.uk
Email Charlene, Parish Assistant: CMitchell (at) churchofscotland.org.uk

Prelude Music (praise band)

Welcome

*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
One: First thing on the first day
All: we can’t wait any longer — we want to see him!
One: We came as soon as we could
All: not knowing exactly what we would find, even though we knew what we expected.
One: Little did we know it was a whole new world!
All: Little did we know that today, Jesus has brought us into life!
One: Christ is risen—
All: He is risen indeed! Hallelujah!

*Sanctuary Hymn 419: Thine Be The Glory

Prayer
You told us this would happen, Lord,
but we didn’t understand.
How could we?
You were changing the world entirely,
and everything we thought we knew, you turned upside down.
Even now we can hardly believe it!
But it’s true:
the tomb is empty,
the messengers are dazzling,
the words sound like gibberish,
and we have nothing but wonder,
hallelujahs tripping off our tongue before our minds can catch up.
Remember, you said.
Remember what you told us, all along the way.
Help us remember, O God, your story
of life and death and life,
of unexpected people bearing your word,
of the impossible being possible with you.
Let the memories we carry take shape in the present,
that we may find our way into your future.
Bring us to see for ourselves
that you are indeed more powerful than empire,
more powerful than death and sin,
more powerful than any door we have closed.
In this place where we have come to look for you,
show us resurrection life
receive our praise
and send us out to tell the others.
Amen.

Children’s Time
Song: Hallelujah Christ is Risen (a capella)

Scripture Reading: Luke 24.1-12
On the first day of the week, at early dawn, the women went to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body. While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to the hands of sinners and be crucified and on the third day rise again.” Then they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles. But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened.

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: technicolour
At early dawn — the Greek actually says DEEP DAWN, like before it’s even light, just barely starting to change from pitch black to dark purple, a time of day I am highly unlikely to see — the women were up and ready.

The Sabbath ended at sundown the night before, but that’s hardly a safe or respectable time to be out and about, especially outside the city walls. So even though they could technically have gone hours ago, they had to wait. Maybe they used those hours to prepare what they needed, perhaps to talk through their plan for rolling away the large stone in front of the tomb, or how to deal with the scent of decay that would have begun. Maybe they even managed to rest, though being up and dressed and ready to go when it’s still dark out suggests they were as anxious as many of us might be before an early morning flight, probably not sleeping well at all, and especially not all crowded into one space with so many other distraught and exhausted disciples.

Before it was light but when they knew for sure another day would indeed dawn, they went out.

They knew what they would find, of course, so there was no logistical reason for a rush, only an emotional one. We all know what we’re going to find when we go to a funeral, or when we go to visit a grave. There will be a closed coffin, a closed curtain, a grassy space and a headstone that maybe needs some cleaning up now and then. We might sometimes be surprised by our emotions when we get there, but we are unlikely to be surprised as these women were — by two men so dazzling they lit up the dark morning even more than the imminent sunrise, standing inside an unexpectedly open and empty tomb.

Why do you look for the living among the dead?

What an insane question from these bedazzled messengers in a dark cave just before dawn.

Obviously they were looking for the dead among the dead. They never expected the living, so where else should they look?

Which makes me wonder: how often do our expectations steer us wrong — sending us rushing back to the last place we saw him, desperate to do what we think is expected of us?

It’s true that they saw Jesus’ body go into the tomb. It’s a reasonable expectation that it would still be there, that they could visit him in the graveyard as so many of us do.

We do a lot of things that seem like reasonable expectations, don’t we? Whether it’s things that churches or Christians are supposed to do, or things we used to do that were amazing and gave us a glimpse of God’s power and grace and presence, and we keep doing it again hoping to the same experience again. We do it with exercise, and with education, and with politics, and with baking, and really with basically everything we do. It’s a reasonable expectation that if it worked before, it will work now.

Except it turns out that in between last time and this time, the world has changed, and we didn’t even know it. So we keep trying, pushing harder, getting more frustrated, blaming this that and the other, but never getting past the terrified part… so we can’t hear the angels speaking. We’re so scared that what we know how to do is no longer needed, what we planned isn’t going to work, that we can’t hear or see the new thing unfolding right in front of us.

To be clear I think it’s normal for the women to be terrified: these messengers are technicolour in the dark tomb when they expected the valley of the shadow of death. And just like when the screen changed from greyscale to colour in the Wizard of Oz, the whole world is different when those women turn up at the tomb before the sun even fully rises on the first day of the week. In fact it isn’t just the first day of a new week, it’s the first day of a brand new reality, the old has gone and the new has come: Christ is alive, everything we expected is out the window. Everything we know is out the window. The world changed between the last time and this time….and what we used to do just doesn’t make sense anymore. No wonder we’re afraid.

The question is: will we stay terrified, frozen by fear and uncertainty about what happens now, wondering if it’ll all go back to normal if we just hold still long enough? Will we keep looking for the living among the dead? Or will the words sink in: he is not here, he is risen. Remember how he told you?

Remember all the things you have read in the scriptures?

Remember the promises God has made — I will never leave you nor forsake you, You are my people and I am your God, I am doing a new thing and even now it springs forth…

Remember how Jesus fed people with just a school lunch box, and how his compassion healed people who couldn’t walk, who couldn’t see, who were excluded, and even raised a man from the dead? Remember his stories?

Remember he said terrible things would happen, the worst the world can do, and that he could handle it even though we couldn’t, and his power of life was stronger than sin and death?

Remember?

And what will we do if and when we remember?

When the women disciples remembered, they ran to tell the others, to spread this technicolour joy across the world…and the men couldn’t believe it. Their expectations were so set in stone they’re harder to shift than a tomb. Women are hysterical. They’re unreliable. They’re silly and probably went to the wrong place anyway. You can’t really trust them with important stuff, they always get confused. This is impossible nonsense.

Most of the men stayed in their greyscale world. Only Peter had enough guts to at least go check out what they said for himself, and he returned, amazed, but with no sign that was sufficient for the others.

I always wonder whether the women’s joy was deflated by their fellow disciples not believing them. Because that happens, doesn’t it? When someone else gets that technicolour flash and we just know it can’t be right because it doesn’t fit our preconceived notions, we poke holes and try to bring them back into the box. I bet it has happened to us, too.

But what if we went the other way instead, and let joy and peace and hope be infectious? I know it’s not very presbyterian, but maybe it’s time for us to try it. What full-colour-3-D joy are we missing out on because we can’t let go of our fear long enough to listen, to believe, to remember that with God, all things are possible? What changed world are we missing out on because we keep looking for the living among the dead? What if we shared the good news and refused to let anyone try to suck the colour out of the abundant life Jesus has given us?

Before the sun even came up, everything was already made new. Before anyone went looking into the gloom of the tomb, life was already shining out, dazzling. And just as the birds often begin to sing before the first light, so too in the deep dawn the women’s story bubbled over in that upper room before the other disciples were ready for the new day, let alone a whole new world.

It’s not just the first day of the week, it’s the first day of a new creation: Jesus is not where we left him, he’s alive and out in the world! Remember what he taught us, so that he can bring us along into impossibly real technicolour life, too.

May it be so. Amen.

*Sanctuary Hymn 417: Now the Green Blade Riseth

Offering

*Offering Response (PRAISE BAND): Draw Near the Tomb v 3/choruses (Resound Worship)
Fall at his feet, pour out your love and praise, 
and see the world through brand new eyes. 
Hear Jesus say, “There’s no need to be afraid.” 
As resurrection people, rise.

“He is not here. He is risen from the dead!
Come see the stone is rolled away.
He is alive, he is risen like he said.
Go tell the world it’s resurrection day.”

Jesus is here. He is risen from the dead,
and worthy of eternal praise.
He is alive, he is risen like he said.
Now every day is resurrection day.

Now every day is resurrection day.

Concerns of the Church

*Book group meets at 7pm on Monday evenings in the Spinnaker, reading Jesus for Everyone, Not Just Christians, discussing chapter 5 tomorrow evening.
*Anchor Boys display Tuesday 6:30pm
*I’m away the rest of the week, so no Bible Study this week
*Prayer groups — Sunday morning 10:10 (Brian Ross), Intercessors (Fiona Webster)

Please consider yourself invited to participate, and to pray for all the activities, ministry, and mission God is calling us to do together.

I also invite you to be in prayer specifically for St John’s, and for our parish: for God to be visible here, for people to experience Jesus here, for the Spirit to transform lives and open hearts. Pray for our future, and for our capacity to live into all that God calls us to do.
Let us pray.

Prayer and Lord’s Prayer
On this first day of a new creation,
we come to you, O God,
for by your word the world is made fresh
and with the dawn, life is born from the darkness of the tomb.
We come holding grief, holding tenderness, holding uncertainty, holding fragile hope,
carrying the weight of the world,
and you roll away the stone,
dazzling us with the news:
he is not dead, but alive.
On this first day of your new creation,
we sing our hallelujahs and wonder how and why,
we praise your power of life and wonder what to do next,
we hear your word again and wonder how to let your impossible truth bloom in us today.
Make your resurrection life real once again, O God.
Make your resurrection life real for those who are caught among the dead,
those grieving endings in this life,
those whose challenges overwhelm,
those who see only closed doors and hear no good news.
Let there be hope, and light that shines in the shadows.
Make your resurrection life real for those who haven’t been believed,
those dismissed, ignored, or told they’re just being silly,
especially women whose truth is so often overlooked and undervalued.
Give them the courage to bear your word in the world,
and open the ears of those who would hear.
Make your resurrection life real for those who hide in fear,
those who no longer expect anything better,
those who can’t believe things could be different.
Surround them with peace and possibility.
On this 20th day of the month, we join our hearts as your St John’s family, praying you would make your resurrection life real
*Fro all who work in our transportation services — the trains, the buses, the ferries, and the taxis. For drivers and conductors and pilots and sailors and behind-the-scenes workers, and for all who travel in and out of our town.
*For the many volunteers who keep St John’s ministry vibrant: the pastoral care team, the flower team, Bowl & Blether volunteers, sound and powerpoint volunteers, those who count the offering, and so many others.
*For the land, people, and governments of the nations of Myanmar, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei.

On this first day of your new creation,
remembering your faithfulness and your promise,
we look into your empty tomb,
we wonder at the angels’ message,
we tremble before your powerful love that changes everything…
you have given us this gift,
of good news and life everlasting:
now strengthen us to go and tell the others.
We ask in the name of the risen One, 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 422: Christ Is Alive

Sending
Christ is risen — he is risen indeed! Just as he told you. Remember, and you will find the blessing of resurrection life already planted. Go to let that resurrection story bloom, in your life and the world.
And as you go may the Spirit of God go above you to watch over you. May the Spirit of God go beside you to be your companion. May the Spirit of God go before you to show you the way, and behind you to push you into places you might not go alone. And may the Spirit of God go within you, to remind you that you are loved more deeply than you can possibly imagine. May the fire of God’s love burn brightly in you, and through you into the world. Go in peace. Amen.

*Sung Benediction Response (John L Bell, tune Gourock St John’s)
Now may the Lord of all be blessed,
Now may Christ’s gospel be confessed,
Now may the Spirit when we meet
Bless sanctuary and street.

Postlude Music

Announcements

* We worship in the sanctuary on Sundays at 11am, and 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 Sunday evening service is on a break for Lent so that we can focus on the Monday evening book group (more info below). The Sunday evenings will re-launch after Easter.

* 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.

* The Anchor Boys display and prize-giving will be on Tuesday the 22nd of April at 6:30pm. It is also the last display for the current leadership team, who have been faithfully leading our Anchor Boys section for over 40 years. We are so grateful for their commitment and leadership that has formed so many young people over the years!

* Starter Packs are in need of bathroom/kitchen cleaner, handwash, shampoo, deodorant, soap, teabags, as well as Easter Eggs.
The FoodBank are in need of UHT milk, microwave rice, instant noodles, tinned tomatoes, and tinned soup.
You can bring donations to the church and place them into the boxes in the vestibule. Thank you!

* The Lent book group didn’t quite finish the book during Lent, so we continue another two weeks on Monday evenings in the Spinnaker at 7pm. The book is Jesus For Everyone, Not Just Christians. All are welcome — come along and have your dinner, or a drink, or just come for the discussion!

* We are having a Smarties fundraiser this season — it’s time to bring back your tubes!

* Did you know that the ministry we do at St John’s costs about £3000 per week? 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 on Youtube, pray with video devotions on Facebook, and consider a new angle on something with a devotional email.

* Wednesday Evening Bible Study is NOT meeting this week, we’ll be back on Wednesday 30 April at 7:30pm in the manse.

* Free period products are available in the church toilets for anyone who might need them, thanks to Hey Girls and Inverclyde Council.

Palm Sunday service 13 April 2025

Sunday 13 April 2025, Palm Sunday all age service
Gourock St. John’s Church of Scotland
Service prepared by Rev. Teri Peterson
Manse: 632143
Email: TPeterson (at) churchofscotland.org.uk
Email Charlene, Parish Assistant: CMitchell (at) churchofscotland.org.uk

Today in the sanctuary is an all-age service …the online service is also informal with no script for the sermon. The story will be broken up through the sanctuary service as noted here, but read all in one go during the online service. Apologies for any confusion in the reading of the manuscript!

Prelude Music (praise band)

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.

Welcome

Sanctuary Call to Worship Hymn GWA114 Hosanna (Praise is Rising) (praise band)

Online Call to Worship

One: We come together here on holy ground,
All: proclaiming “blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!”
One: We come together as the cosmos aligns for this moment:
All: the moment the Prince of Peace comes in glory.
One: We come together remembering God’s past faithfulness and hoping for the future —
All: let those with eyes to see and ears to hear understand what God is doing now.

Online Prayer

Come, Lord Jesus —
into this unsteady world
surefooted even on an unbroken colt
wrapped in holiness yet surrounded by shouts and jeers
making too public your purpose
opposing the powers of this world
with the peace of heaven.
Come, Lord Jesus,
and make us ready to recognise this time
when God is with us.

You call us to follow you,
King of Kings and Lord of Lords!
But we confess that we are nervous, shy, afraid.
We want to keep our faith to ourselves,
personal and private, just between us.
We don’t want to look silly.
We don’t want to commit too much.
We don’t want to draw the attention of the empire.
So we pray quietly
and try not to rock the boat.
And the stones cry out,
for you have not left the world without a witness,
even when we are silent.
Forgive us, O God, for obeying the will of the empire before they even ask.
Forgive us for believing we can go along to get along.
Forgive us for thinking we can just substitute Jesus in their game without challenging the rules.
Expand our imagination to grasp the possibilities of kingdom life,
promised and embodied and sustained by your love,
yet so different than anything we’ve known.
Forgive us, and give us the courage
to lay down our cloaks
to raise our voices
to risk living your gospel of peace even here and now.
We ask in the name of the Holy One who comes to give his all, Jesus the Christ.
Amen.

God was in Christ reconciling the world — and entrusting us with this ministry. Know that you are loved, and called, and trusted to be about God’s work in this life, by the power of the Spirit. Amen.

Online Hymn: Praise is Rising (Hosanna)

Sanctuary Palm Prayer

Sanctuary Peruvian Gloria (a capella call and response)

Getting on the Road
(Luke 19.28-39)
Jesus went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.
When he had come near Bethphage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples, saying, ‘Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, “Why are you untying it?” just say this: “It’s Master needs it.” ’ So those who were sent departed and found it as he had told them. As they were untying the colt, its masters asked them, ‘Why are you untying the colt?’ They said, ‘It’s Master needs it.’ Then they brought it to Jesus; and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road. As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, saying, ‘Blessed is the king  who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven,  and glory in the highest heaven!’

Sanctuary: The Crowd Sings — Hymn 364: All Glory Laud and Honour vv 1, 2, 5

Rock Concert (Sanctuary Stone Painting)
(Luke 19.44)
Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, order your disciples to stop.’ He answered, ‘I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.’

Sanctuary Hymn: Give Me Oil In My Lamp (praise band)

The Things That Make For Peace
(Luke 19.41-42a)
As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, ‘If you, even you, had only recognised on this day the things that make for peace!’
(Sanctuary Palm Crosses)

Prayer including the Lord’s Prayer

The stones cry out with praise, Creator God,
witnesses to your power and your goodness,
and we join our voices with the choir of creation,
all earth and heaven declaring your purpose.
Indeed all things are yours,
coming into being through your Word
and fulfilling your vision, with nothing lost or wasted.
We give you thanks for your saving grace,
for the blessing of your presence among us,
for the peace you embody and offer.
We pray this day for your creation,
for its voice silenced by human greed,
for its groaning under our weight,
for its pain at being used and abused for our gain.
May we recognise our place in your created order,
and the beauty and value of its witness.
We pray this day for our neighbours who are also silenced,
those in the minority who know they will all pay for any one’s action,
those whose history leaves them afraid of repeating it,
those who no longer believe they will be heard.
Strengthen their heart and voice,
and give us ears to hear.
Set the world’s attention to justice,
to breaking cycles by choosing to listen with care.
We pray this day for those who buy in to the power structures,
hoping for a scrap of benefit to fall their way,
and so they participate in unjust systems
and silence even their own neighbours and friends to save their own hoped-for position.
Reveal to us all the things that make for peace,
and may your tears open our eyes to your way of truth and life.
On the 13th day of the month we join our hearts as your St John’s church family to pray
*For all who live and work along Shore Street to Eastern View.
*We pray for the staff of St John’s: for the minister, the organist, and the parish assistant.
*For the land, people, and governments of the nations of Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, São Tomé & Principe, Gabon, the Republic of Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Angola.

You are trustworthy in the smallest detail,
now teach us to trust your transformative grace
riding into our lives in the most awkward and yet powerful way,
demanding our all.
We give you glory, O God,
praying in the name of 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 279: Make Way

Sending

Don’t leave it to the stones — go from this place to proclaim joyfully and with a loud voice the saving grace of the Lord, whose power is not what you might expect and yet changes everything. 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

* The first Sunday of the month at 11am(except this month, when it’s today for Palm Sunday!) is now 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.

*****Holy Week and Easter services******

* Wednesday 16 April at 7pm, we are invited to St Margaret’s for a service led by the Connect Singers, focused on the story of the anointing of Jesus at Bethany.
* Maundy Thursday, 17 April 7pm, cafe-style communion service in St John’s.
* Good Friday, 18 April cross-walk leaving from St John’s (Bath Street) at 10:30am and ending with a service at the pierhead around 11.
* Good Friday, 18 April 7pm, evening service in OGA.
* Easter sunrise service, 20 April 7am at the top of Tower Hill followed by breakfast communion in the large hall.
* Easter morning family service, 20 April at 11am in St John’s.

* Teri is leading a Lent book group on Monday evenings in the Spinnaker at 7pm. The book is Jesus For Everyone, Not Just Christians. All are welcome — come along and have your dinner, or a drink, or just come for the discussion!

* We are having a Smarties fundraiser this season — pick up your tube of Smarties, enjoy them, then fill the tube with £1 or 20p coins, and bring it back at Easter!

* Wednesday Evening Bible Study is at 7:30pm in the Manse and we are reading Luke!

* Free period products are available in the church toilets for anyone who might need them, thanks to Hey Girls and Inverclyde Council.

Sunday service 6 April 2025, fifth Sunday in Lent

Sunday 6 April 2025, 5th Sunday in Lent
Gourock St. John’s Church of Scotland
Service prepared by Rev. Teri Peterson
Manse: 632143
Email: TPeterson (at) churchofscotland.org.uk
Email Charlene, Parish Assistant: CMitchell (at) churchofscotland.org.uk

Sanctuary Prelude Music (praise band)

Welcome

Call to Worship
One: Along the way on this journey:
All: Praise God for insight and clarity!
One: When the view is blocked:
All: Praise God for revealing good news!
One: In the midst of the crowds and off out of sight:
All: Praise God for restoring community!

Sanctuary Hymn GWA199: Oh How Good It Is (praise band)

Prayer
Glory and honour and praise are yours, Living God!
We long to see you,
we stand on tiptoe and shout our praise and prayer,
we hope you can sense our excitement
and our faith.
What will you do today, Holy One?
We want to be close,
to be a part of whatever it is,
wherever you are.
Come among us and give us a glimpse of your grace.
And have mercy on us, O God.
When it’s all too much to bear, when we cannot hear the words, we cannot take in the enormity,
have mercy on us.
When we try to protect you from our neighbours in need,
when we try to protect you from questions or different ideas,
when we try to protect you from those we think of as sinners,
have mercy on us, O God.
When we assume the worst of others,
and when we are upset that others assume the worst of us,
have mercy on us, O God.
When we care more about appearances than reality,
when we overlook those who do not fit our boxes and categories,
when we push people to the periphery so we don’t have to be in community with “them,”
have mercy on us, O God.
When we are too unsure about your presence, promise, or power,
and so we cling instead to rules
and keep our voices quiet except to grumble,
have mercy on us, O God.
~silence~
Amen.

Wherever you find yourself today, Jesus sees you, and calls you to him. Trust in his good news: today salvation has come to this house. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Online Hymn GWA199: Oh How Good It Is (praise band)

Sanctuary Hymn 644: O Jesus I Have Promised

Sanctuary Children’s Time

Scripture Reading: Luke 18.31-19.10 (Common English Bible)
Jesus has set his face toward Jerusalem, and today’s story takes us on the road through Jericho, a city about 20 miles northeast of and 3400 feet lower elevation than Jerusalem.
In the verses that come just before today’s reading, a well-off man asked Jesus how to inherit eternal life, and was instructed to sell his possessions, give the money to the poor, and come follow Jesus. He was saddened by this teaching, and Jesus’ response was “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom.” When the disciples expressed their own shock, Jesus said: “What is impossible for humans is possible for God.” He continued to teach them as they traveled, which is where we pick up the story in the gospel according to Luke, beginning at chapter 18 verse 31 and continuing to chapter 19 verse 10, and I am reading from the Common English Bible.

Jesus took the Twelve aside and said, “Look, we’re going up to Jerusalem, and everything written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. He will be handed over to the Gentiles. He will be ridiculed, mistreated, and spit on. After torturing him, they will kill him. On the third day, he will rise up.” But the Twelve understood none of these words. The meaning of this message was hidden from them and they didn’t grasp what he was saying.
As Jesus came to Jericho, a certain blind man was sitting beside the road begging. When the man heard the crowd passing by, he asked what was happening. They told him, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.”
The blind man shouted, “Jesus, Son of David, show me mercy.” Those leading the procession scolded him, telling him to be quiet, but he shouted even louder, “Son of David, show me mercy.”
Jesus stopped and called for the man to be brought to him. When he was present Jesus asked, “What do you want me to do for you?”
He said, “Lord, I want to see.”
Jesus said to him, “Receive your sight! Your faith has healed you.” At once he was able to see, and he began to follow Jesus, praising God. When all the people saw it, they praised God too.
Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through town. A man there named Zacchaeus, a chief tax collector, was rich. He was trying to see who Jesus was, but, being a short man, he couldn’t because of the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed up a sycamore tree so he could see Jesus, who was about to pass that way. When Jesus came to that spot, he looked up and said, “Zacchaeus, come down at once. I must stay in your home today.” So Zacchaeus came down at once, happy to welcome Jesus.
Everyone who saw this grumbled, saying, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”
Zacchaeus stopped and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord, I give half of my possessions to the poor. And if I have cheated anyone, I repay them four times as much.”
Jesus said to him, “Today, salvation has come to this household because he too is a son of Abraham. The Son of Man came to seek and save the lost.”

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: Jesus Sees
Isn’t it interesting how when Jesus is around, nothing seems to be, or to go, quite as expected?

This day in Jericho is the perfect example. First we have his closest followers who can’t understand anything, the meaning of their teacher’s words is hidden from them…they can’t see no matter how many word-pictures he paints of what is to come.

To be fair to them, they had no frame of reference to work with, nothing like what Jesus described had ever happened before. Sure, they’d seen people crucified before, the Romans crucified hundreds of thousands of people. And they’d seen torture before — they lived in an occupied territory, after all, and one thing that hasn’t changed throughout history is that occupiers use physical abuse as well as mental and economic and social and cultural control. And maybe the descriptions of all that was enough to shut down their minds, they could picture it and the trauma was too much to imagine happening to their friend and teacher, the one they believed was going to change everything….so by the time he mentioned resurrection — the thing they absolutely could not grasp because it had never happened before — there was nothing their minds could do except put up a blank wall.

Meanwhile a man along the roadside, whose physical eyes were blind, had insight that very few others had. The crowds were blocking him, of course, assuming there was no need for a line of sight, since he couldn’t see anyway and no one wants the visiting dignitaries to be greeted by a vision of people begging, better to clear them out or at least hide them for a bit. So they made sure he was behind the crowd, but that didn’t stop him from recognising something powerful around him. Though the crowds shushed him, though he was seated on the ground behind a sea of legs jostling for position, though Jesus should never have been able to see him and he certainly couldn’t see Jesus, he still managed to get Jesus’ attention. Not by using the name the crowd used, but by using the title that only those connected to the spiritual plane seemed to know: Son of David. It’s a political title, another way of calling him the Messiah. This man who couldn’t see nonetheless saw more than almost anyone else…and Jesus saw him, too.

Jesus saw something no one else in the crowd seems to have seen: a human being, sitting there on the ground, below the usual plane our eyes cover, below our attention…well, beneath us. And to this human being, Jesus gave his attention. Not like others assuming what the man wanted, or what he was capable of, or where he belonged. Simply calling him out and asking: what would you like me to do?

What a beautiful moment, when this man who has probably had people making assumptions and decisions made for him for years, got asked for his own desire, his own opinion about his life, and got to make his own decision.

How often do we ignore those who we think are beneath us, never seeing them at all, hiding them from view? And if we do see them…do we make decisions for them and about them? Or do we ask what they need and want? Including people in conversations about their own lives is one of the most important things we can do — whether that’s people with disabilities or other challenges, people living in poverty, or people who are minorities in our culture. Nothing about us is for us if we weren’t included in the conversation — treating people like humans with dignity and grace is required, and Jesus showed the whole community what that looked like. The man they had stepped over and blocked and shushed was a real whole person, and they could not see him, but Jesus did.

When he asked for his physical sight, Jesus gave it to him without hesitation…and the whole crowd saw that the man’s response was both praise and to join in following. He didn’t want to sit there, he didn’t want to be at the back, he wanted to be part of the community of disciples—perhaps the only one to join in knowing what he was getting into.

Not much farther along the road was someone else the crowd didn’t think deserved to see. They wouldn’t let short Zacchaeus up to the front — perhaps a petty response to what they thought of him as a person. You can practically picture the whole town closing ranks as he walked up and down, jumping up on tip-toe or trying to look through gaps between shoulders. For all his money though Zacchaeus didn’t seem to be prideful…he did just about the most undignified thing you can imagine, hiking up his fancy robes and climbing a tree, perching on a branch and peering down through the leaves.

We might wonder why he was so desperate to see Jesus. What insight did he have that drew him out and made him so persistent in the face of the hostility of his neighbours? How did he feel when the only option was to leave his pride and dignity on the ground and clamber up above their heads, knowing he would never catch the eye of anyone, hidden away up there?

Again, Jesus sees outside the usual plane, and not only notices Zacchaeus through the branches but honours him by calling him by name and inviting himself over for tea. That was the final straw for the crowd, they couldn’t restrain themselves any longer, pulling out the name-calling and gossip that had been brewing for years and bringing it out into the open. All they could see was a man who collaborated with the Romans and got rich doing so, and they assumed they knew the rest of his story.

As that all bubbled over, Zacchaeus stopped dead in the street and told Jesus the truth: just like John the Baptist had taught when he said that tax collectors who came to be baptised should ensure they only collect the mandated amount, Zacchaeus says he is careful to pay back anyone he discovers he’s overcharged, and he gives half his income away.

Half! And that without fanfare or putting his name on it or making sure everyone knew….half his income! How many of us could say the same? And yet Zacchaeus, who everyone else assumes is a terrible person, has a whole way of being, a whole life story, that no one else can see.

We are probably used to hearing this story in the future tense, where Zacchaeus says he “will” give away his wealth and he “will” pay back those he has overcharged or cheated. That’s a translation choice — the Greek is in the present tense, an ongoing reality. It’s who Zacchaeus is, what he does.

But his community can’t see him past their assumptions about him.

When his story comes out into the open, no longer trapped behind the wall of hostility, or hidden up in a tree, Jesus says “today salvation has come to this house” — today wholeness and healing has come here, because this man too, just like you all who are watching, is a son of Abraham, made in the image of God. Now you see him as one of God’s beloved, just like you, and the community is restored to health.

So we have disciples who can’t see what Jesus tells them is coming. We have crowds that can’t see the humanity and dignity and truth of individuals in their community, one because he’s a beggar and one because he’s too rich…one they think is beneath them and one they think believes himself above them. We have those two individuals who have insight that no one else has recognised.

And we have Jesus, who looks beyond the usual plane of eyesight and sees people, looking with compassion and love, and restoring not only physical health but community health, bringing people back together as one.

Today salvation has come to this house…this place…this community. What was broken apart by our exclusion of those who don’t fit our narrow vision is healed by Jesus’ broader grace. Whatever we have seen or not seen, and whatever we have tried to hide…Jesus sees, and things change.

May he open our eyes to see, too.
Amen.

Hymn GWA146: Waymaker (praise band)

Sanctuary Offering: Choir to Sing “I Have a Dream” by Mary Donnelly

Sanctuary Offering Response Hymn 465 vv. 1 & 4
Be thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart,
naught be all else to me, save that thou art;
thou my best thought in the day or the night,
waking or sleeping, thy presence my light.

Riches I heed not, nor earth’s empty praise,
thou mine inheritance, now and always;
thou, and thou only, the first in my heart,
High King of Heaven, my treasure thou art.

Concerns of the Church

Prayer and Lord’s Prayer
You come to us, O God,
walking our streets, staying in our houses, sharing our life.
And in your presence, things happen.
Life is renewed, community is restored, healing is possible,
good news is visible even when we thought there was nothing good left.
Thank you, Loving God,
for embodying your grace even here and now.
We call out for your attention,
praying you would turn your eyes, and ours,
to those who are off to the side of our community,
those pushed there, and those who put themselves there out of fear or frustration.
Help us perceive our neighbour with the same vision you do.
Let love and compassion be our guide,
and restore your beloved community to wholeness.
We call out for your healing grace for those who are living with illness or disability,
and we pray for dignity and consent in all the care they need and receive.
We call out for your insight for those who lead your people,
that they may recognise your image in every face,
and see all people as your family and all creation as your gift.
We call out for your spirit of trust and generosity to be visible among us,
that we might be faithful in the tasks you have given us to do,
that we might do more than the letter of the law in serving others,
that we might be bold in giving and in speaking out.
On the 6th day of the month we join our hearts as your St John’s family to call out to you in prayer  *For the Church of Scotland, for the staff based in Edinburgh and around the country, for those serving on committees and forums, for programmes and resources they produce, for those training for ministry and those who support them, for our mission personnel abroad, and for the Church’s witness locally, nationally, and worldwide.
*For the youth organisations of St John’s: for the Anchor Boys, Junior Section, and Company & Senior Section of the Boys’ Brigade, for the Smurfs, Brownies, Guides, and Rangers, and for the Exploratorium holiday clubs. For their leaders, volunteers, young people, and families. May they grow in faith, hope, and love together.
*For the land, people, and governments of the nations of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, and Russia.

You know the truth of all that is good and all that is wrong in us, and in our world, God.
Let your grace overflow in this world,
and your church reflect your glory for all to see.
We ask in the name of the One whose very presence opens hearts and eyes, changing everything, 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 GWA 226: God of All Comfort

Sending
Go out into the world looking beyond your usual line of sight, praying to see as God sees.
And as you go may the Spirit of God go above you to watch over you. May the Spirit of God go beside you to be your companion. May the Spirit of God go before you to show you the way, and behind you to push you into places you might not go alone. And may the Spirit of God go within you, to remind you that you are loved more deeply than you can possibly imagine. May the fire of God’s love burn brightly in you, and through you into the world. Go in peace. Amen.

Sung Benediction Response (John L Bell, tune Gourock St John’s)
Now may the Lord of all be blessed,
Now may Christ’s gospel be confessed,
Now may the Spirit when we meet
Bless sanctuary and street.

Postlude Music

Announcements

* We worship in the sanctuary on Sundays at 11am, and 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 Sunday evening service is on a break for Lent so that we can focus on the Monday evening book group (more info below). The Sunday evenings will re-launch after Easter.

*UPDATE for Lent: next Sunday 13 April, Palm Sunday, will be this month’s All-Age service!
 The first Sunday of the month at 11am is now 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.

* Holy Week and Easter services: 
Maundy Thursday, 17 April 7pm, cafe-style communion service in St John’s.
 Good Friday, 18 April cross-walk leaving from St John’s (Bath Street) at 10:30am and ending with a service at the pierhead around 11. 
Good Friday, 18 April 7pm, evening service in OGA. 
Easter sunrise service, 20 April 7am at the top of Tower Hill followed by breakfast communion in the large hall.
 Easter morning family service, 20 April at 11am in St John’s.

* Starter Packs are in need of handwash, soap, kitchen/bathroom cleaners, washing up liquid and tea-bags
 The FoodBank are in need of diluting juice, tinned carrots and other vegetables, tinned meat & tinned meals. You can bring donations to the church and place them into the boxes in the vestibule. Thank you!

* Teri is leading a Lent book group on Monday evenings in the Spinnaker at 7pm. The book is Jesus For Everyone, Not Just Christians. All are welcome — come along and have your dinner, or a drink, or just come for the discussion!

* We are having a Smarties fundraiser this season — pick up your tube of Smarties, enjoy them, then fill the tube with £1 or 20p coins, and bring it back at Easter!

* Wednesday Evening Bible Study is at 7:30pm in the Manse and we are reading Luke!

* Free period products are available in the church toilets for anyone who might need them, thanks to Hey Girls and Inverclyde Council.

Sunday service for 30 March 2025, fourth Sunday in Lent

Sunday 30 March 2025, 4th Sunday in Lent
Gourock St. John’s Church of Scotland
Service prepared by Rev. Teri Peterson
Manse: 632143
Email: TPeterson (at) churchofscotland.org.uk
Email Charlene, Parish Assistant: CMitchell (at) churchofscotland.org.uk

Prelude Music

Welcome

Call to Worship
1: Come and find yourself in God’s story
2: Come and have your imagination expanded
3: Come and meet the Living Word
4: Come and see what the Holy Spirit wants to show you
All: We come at Christ’s command, to be transformed.

Sanctuary Hymn 520: Ye Who the Name of Jesus Bear

Prayer
Compassionate and merciful God,
you call us into relationship with you and one another.
You call us to step out of our usual ways to truly see.
You call us to reach across the chasms of this world to create one beloved community.
We confess that we find it easier to ignore them,
because we don’t know what to do or how to fix the situation,
so we avoid even seeing the people you place in our paths.
We understand that it’s the way of the empire to keep us separated and atomised,
yet we confess we do not resist —
indeed, that we have bought the lie
that we are each isolated individuals who can’t do anything on our own.
Instead we insulate ourselves from the suffering we do see,
using our privilege and position to protect ourselves,
lusting after the trappings of even greater wealth and comfort,
looking for reasons others deserve their suffering.
Forgive us, loving God,
for believing and living un-truths that contradict your word and your kingdom.
Forgive us for our inability to see our neighbours as fully human.
Forgive us for seeing yet doing nothing, as if we deserve better than others.
You invite us to a new world,
so different from what we know of the way things are.
Open us today to hear your word afresh,
to see what is possible in your eyes.
Awaken us today to your vision,
and make us willing to try your way
even when it contradicts the way of the world
before it is too late for yet another generation
to live in the fullness of your kingdom life today.
We ask in the name of the One who died and was raised to show us the way, Jesus the Christ.
Amen.

Sanctuary Sung Prayer — Hymn GWA 111: God, Come Now to Explore My Heart

Online Hymn 253: Inspired by Love and Anger

Sanctuary Children’s Time (Mothering Sunday)

Scripture Reading: Luke 16.19-31
Last week we heard Jesus teaching in parables about looking for the lost and restoring the wholeness of community. He proceeded straight after the story of the Lost Son to tell some very confusing parables related to how we use our resources, especially wealth, ending with the statement “you cannot serve God and wealth.” Some Pharisees and other leaders heard him teaching and they mocked and criticised him, and Luke describes them as “Pharisees who were lovers of money.” Jesus then says to them, “you justify yourselves before others but God knows your heart.” That’s where we pick up the story today, in Luke chapter 16, at verse 19.

Jesus told this parable: “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, where he was being tormented, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. He called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in agony in these flames.’ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things and Lazarus in like manner evil things, but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.’ He said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house— for I have five brothers—that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.’ Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.’ He said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’ ”

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: chasm
I’ve been thinking a lot this week about the chasm between the rich man and Lazarus…fixed in place in their afterlife so that no one can cross it.

But that afterlife chasm seems to reflect the this-life chasm…and in this life, it isn’t yet fixed. We might think it is, but in reality it’s perfectly crossable. The problem is that most of us don’t want to cross it.

The rich man seems to have known Lazarus — he knew his name, and he implies that his still-living brothers would know him by sight too, and know that he had died. He walked past him every time he left his house. Perhaps sometimes he even had to step over Lazarus, depending how close he was to the gate, and how much he moved in trying to get even a scrap of help or food or mercy, or just to get away from dogs.

Yet…did he see him? Or did he choose not to see?

Do we see people? Or do we choose not to see?

Who are our neighbours that we are walking past, stepping over, looking over?

The rich man acted as if there was a giant chasm between him and his nearest neighbour. But the reality is that he could have literally reached out and touched Lazarus, anytime. He could have housed him. He could have fed him. He could have helped him. But he didn’t.

And every time we don’t, the chasm grows a little more fixed. A little more impassable. But it isn’t until we take our last breath that it’s permanent. Up until that point, we always have the chance to turn around, to put out a hand, to lift up another. Or perhaps I should say: we always have the choice.

What is stopping us from making that choice?

Perhaps our relative comfort and the desire to keep it insulates us from the realities other people have to live with. Perhaps the rich man in the story simply enjoyed his life, his beautiful clothes and beautiful food and beautiful home, as many of us do…and that was like a buffer that kept him safe from having to encounter people whose lives were less enjoyable than his.

Perhaps we see those around us but fear of what might happen to us if we stepped out of the norm stops us from doing anything about it. We don’t want to be the only ones acting differently from others of our circle, or others of the status we want to have. We don’t want to draw attention, or to potentially have negative consequences…whether those consequences would be losing some of our own comforts and resources, or drawing the ire of people in power, or something more serious. Maybe the rich man knew Lazarus but couldn’t bring himself to risk helping him. Maybe we see what’s going on but we don’t want to risk being associated with it.

Perhaps deep down we’re actually afraid it will happen to us, and the more we separate ourselves from the difficulties — whether of poverty, or injustice, or violence, or even grief — the more we can tell ourselves we’re safe. Maybe deep in his heart the rich man worried about losing everything — because when you serve a master as fickle as wealth or popularity, it’s always going to lead to anxiety about losing it. Acknowledging Lazarus, or helping him, would bring the rich man too close to the very thing he was afraid would happen to him, so he had to turn away, in order to keep up the pretence that they were different, that he deserved all he had and Lazarus deserved what he got too. Because isn’t that the corollary? If we have earned our comfortable life, then those suffering must have somehow earned that. And when it’s something like an illness or tragedy, we can’t face the idea that it could happen to us, so we keep well away.

Perhaps we just don’t actually know what to do. We see that people are suffering and we see that cycles of poverty and injustice persist and we pray for God to do something because we don’t know what else to do. We turn our eyes to heaven and avoid meeting the eyes of our neighbours we pray for. Maybe the rich man prayed for Lazarus. But as the book of James reminds us, faith without works is dead. Prayer without action is self-serving, not God-serving.

There could be many reasons we don’t choose differently. But the truth is still the same: the chasm is not permanent until we take our last breath. And all those reasons we have actually boil down to excuses, especially when we claim to follow a God who literally laid his life down to bridge the chasm between earth and heaven.

The trouble with perpetuating the chasm — whether because we want that safety buffer or the comfort bubble or because we are afraid or think we’re powerless — is that it isolates us from community. And that isolation withers up our compassion. It may feel safer or easier, but in reality it is dangerous to our souls to stay on our side of the chasm and act as if it is impassable in this life.

The rich man discovered this too late…that God has been calling us to empathy and mercy and community the whole time. He learned too late that relationship and active compassion — in other words, loving God and loving our neighbour and loving the stranger — was the whole point of the Torah and the prophets. Only when he saw that chasm fixed into place did he realise that it was not real, he had only acted as if it was real, and that repeated choice to isolate himself and refuse relationship and mercy had created his eternity.

Now…this story Jesus tells is a parable. It isn’t a photograph or textbook about the afterlife. It’s a story that’s meant to make us think, meant to open up possibilities, meant to put things side by side so we can see more clearly. In this case I think it’s meant to give us some insight into something we rarely see in this life: that we have to choose between serving God and serving wealth. It was the last thing Jesus said before telling this story…that we can’t have both. We can, as A-J Levine said in chapter 1 of Jesus for Everyone that we discussed last week, serve God with wealth, but that still requires choosing to serve God. And that choice means recognising that the chasm we sense between us just is not real. It’s entirely made up. So we need to ask ourselves: who does it serve? If it harms our souls, and it harms our neighbours bodies, and it harms the creation…who is served by us all seeing a chasm that isn’t really there?

And what are we going to do, when we see people on the other side of it? People sleeping rough. People who have to rely on food banks. People dying and losing homes because some nation’s government wanted to kill one person who lived in their apartment block. Children being shot by snipers or buried under rubble during airstrikes. People desperate for safety and opportunity but with no options we will accept, so they have to take any route they can.

Or maybe we should ask…what are we going to do when we see people on this side of that fake chasm, celebrating those airstrikes with strong arm and fist bump emojis, funding them with our taxes while encouraging us to give extra to charities that try to mitigate the disaster, taking benefits from people with disabilities, allowing the raiding of churches to arrest people who talk about what to do in the face of so much injustice?

The chasm isn’t real until we take our last breath. But the consequences of acting like it is are very real, physically and spiritually.

Meanwhile, God’s word walked on earth in a human life, erasing the biggest chasm we have ever created. Meanwhile, Jesus chose relationship even with those who would do anything to maintain that chasm. He saw how we treat each other, he knew how we would treat him, and he still laid himself down as a bridge to bring us together, to prove that the separation isn’t real: not the separation between earth and heaven, not the separation between holy and human, not the separation between neighbour and stranger and enemy and friend, not the separation between rich and poor, not the separation between any of us…he broke down the dividing wall and offered us a new way. If only we have eyes to see and hearts to act.

May it be so. Amen.

Online Hymn GWA216: Build a Longer Table

Sanctuary Hymn 253: Inspired by Love and Anger

Sanctuary Offering and Response Hymn 465 vv. 1 & 4
Be thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart,
naught be all else to me, save that thou art;
thou my best thought in the day or the night,
waking or sleeping, thy presence my light.

Riches I heed not, nor earth’s empty praise,
thou mine inheritance, now and always;
thou, and thou only, the first in my heart,
High King of Heaven, my treasure thou art.

Prayer and Lord’s Prayer
Holy God,
we give you thanks for you have reached across the chasm of the universe
and brought us to yourself.
You draw us close to you
and reveal your kingdom life
and we can never plumb the depths of your grace,
so we simply come with gratitude.

You call us beloved — for you loved us first,
and we are grateful and we commit to loving you and others as we have been loved.
You call us family, and you place us in families,
and we give thanks today for all those who have been mothers to us,
showing your love, nurturing us, giving of themselves for us.
And we are mindful that as many celebrate the loving mothers in their lives,
others are grieving — feeling the loss that comes with great love,
or the emptiness that comes with hope and love unfulfilled or unrequited.
We take this moment to lift up to you those people who have been an example for us,
who have loved us unconditionally,
who have nurtured us whether they knew it or not.
And we pause to give thanks for our church family,
for the love we share,
the life experience we pass on to one another,
the journey we walk together,
the ties that bind us as your people.

And we pray this day for those we have not loved,
those we have walked past,
those we have avoided or ignored.
And we lift up all those who have been left to suffer,
blamed for their own circumstances,
stepped on and stepped over,
with not even a compassionate glance thrown their way.
Comfort them with your presence, O God, and hold them close.
Your providing is so abundant,
we ask that all people would have enough.
Your love and compassion pour out on your creation,
we ask that more people would be conduits rather than dams.
Your healing grace crosses every barrier,
we ask for wholeness and care for all.
And we ask for the commitment to carry out your word,
to create your beloved community,
to live as you call.
We pray this day for those who create the chasms of us-and-them on purpose,
those who believe that chasm serves them,
those who prefer the comfort and convenience of their side
without the disruption or discomfort of the other.
We hold in your light those who cannot believe that they have already received their consolation,
those who see not neighbours but people to be used or abused,
those whose compassion has been stunted by their self-protection and self-interest.
Your wisdom is more valuable than gold or jewels,
we ask for imagination that can stretch to receive.
Your voice speaks through your word and Spirit even still,
we ask for the ability to hear and obey.
Your mercy is from everlasting to everlasting,
we ask that it would transform hearts and minds, and so the world.
And we ask for the commitment to carry out your word,
to create your beloved community,
to live as you call.
On the 30th day of the month we join our hearts as your St John’s family to pray:
*For the whole community of Gourock, for our beautiful natural environment: the river, burns, lochs, soil, air, flora and fauna of all kinds, and for all who live, work, play, pray, and pass through in this place.
*For the youth organisations of St John’s: for the Anchor Boys, Junior Section, and Company & Senior Section of the Boys’ Brigade, for the Smurfs, Brownies, Guides, and Rangers, and for the Exploratorium holiday clubs. For their leaders, volunteers, young people, and families. May they grow in faith, hope, and love together.
*For the land, people, and governments of the nations of Mexico, the USA, Canada, and Greenland

We also lift up all those affected by the earthquake in Myanmar and Thailand, those still searching for loved ones, those trapped, and those wondering how to move forward with so much destruction.
We remember those in Gaza and the West Bank and Israel and Ukraine and Russia who suffer as war goes on.
We turn our attention to those who don’t make the news, as conflict causes so much suffering in Yemen, in South Sudan, in the Democratic Republic of Congo…as fires rage in South Korea…
The world longs for your peace, your comfort, your hope, your justice.

You bring us together with your people through the ages
to share in the goodness of your promise.
Give us the grace to reach beyond ourselves,
to stretch across the chasm, as you have done,
and find wholeness together.
We ask in the name of Christ,
who laid himself down for the world to know your kingdom come on earth as in heaven.
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 GWA216: Build a Longer Table

Sending
Go into the world in peace, and have courage. Hold on to what is good. Honour all of God’s children. Love and serve the Lord, rejoicing in the power of the Spirit.
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.

Postlude Music

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 Sunday evening service is on a break for Lent so that we can focus on the Monday evening book group (more info below). The Sunday evenings will re-launch after Easter.

* The first Sunday of the month at 11am is now 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.

* We are having a Smarties fundraiser this season — pick up your tube of Smarties, enjoy them, then fill the tube with £1 or 20p coins, and bring it back at Easter!

* Wednesday Evening Bible Study is at 7:30pm in the Manse and we are reading Luke!

* Free period products are available in the church toilets for anyone who might need them, thanks to Hey Girls and Inverclyde Council.

Sunday service for 16 March 2025, second Sunday in lent

Sunday 16 March 2025, 2nd Sunday in Lent
Gourock St. John’s Church of Scotland
Service prepared by Rev. Teri Peterson and Graham Gardiner
Manse: 632143
Email: TPeterson (at) churchofscotland.org.uk
Email Charlene, Parish Assistant: CMitchell (at) churchofscotland.org.uk

Prelude Music (praise band)

Welcome

Call to Worship (St John’s Mission Statement)
One: Who are we, and what are we called to do?

All: We are a family gathered in love,
where all ages and experiences sing and study together,
laugh and cry together, grow in faith and life together.

One: We are not perfect, we are a work in progress

All: and there’s always room at Christ’s table for more,
so all are welcome!

One: As a family, we are striving for justice and joy,

All: by standing up for what’s fair and right,
challenging systems that harm,
working toward a world that sustains us all,
joining our creativity with creation’s joy.
The Holy Spirit has work for us to do.

One: As a family, we offer blessing to the broken-hearted,

All: by walking alongside each other,
holding one another’s stories with grace,
sharing comfort and practical support,
with compassion and prayer.

One: As a family, we are always sharing the hope of God’s kingdom.

All: standing on God’s promises,
trusting the Spirit’s leading,
we will be the hands and feet of Jesus,
serving with love, joy, and generosity.

Sanctuary Hymn: Today We All Are Called To Be Disciples (text: H Kenn Carmichael; tune: Kingsfold)

Prayer
You stand in the middle, Lord,
between heaven and earth
between the powers and the people
between who we are now and who you call us to be.
Reaching out, drawing us near,
finishing your work.
Whatever may come,
renew our relationship with you today
and lead us into a more full and true life.
You are a God of love and challenge,
and we confess that some teachings are hard to hear.
We are so often caught by empire,
unable to disentangle ourselves from the web of powers and complications and systems.
We feel stuck, even when we struggle against it, impatient to get our way.
Yet you call us to repent,
to simply turn back
and find ourselves freed for abundant life even now,
freed to live according to your way
and find hope and grace beyond fear and demand.
We confess we cannot do this on our own, but by your Spirit we long to turn to you.
Take our fragile fruitless faith
and nurture our roots and guide our growth
until we reflect your forgiving love for the world.
We ask in the name of Jesus the Master Gardener. Amen.

Hymn 502: Take My Life

Visualising the Church and Offering Ourselves (Graham)

Hymn: How Clear is Our Vocation, Lord (text: Fred Pratt Green; tune: Repton)

Children’s Time and Scripture Reading: Luke 13.6-9
Jesus told this parable: ‘A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, “See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?” He replied, “Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig round it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.” ’

Reflection and Commitment (Teri)
Imagine that the church, the Body of Christ is the fig tree in this story.
What fruit does God want us, St John’s Church, to produce?
Imagine five years from now: what will be happening here? Who will be here meeting Jesus and how will their lives have changed because they were here?

The leadership team of the Church of Scotland has been asking the same questions of the church across the nation, and they have produced this video describing the vision that God has given to them: (6:46)

If the church is the fig tree…imagine that we who are part of it are actually the gardener. The gardener will dig around the roots, adding compost and manure for nutrients, aerating the soil, perhaps pruning back some branches that are taking energy that could go into fruit…it isn’t pretty work. It’s smelly, it’s hard, it might even hurt. But it is the only way to encourage and nurture the tree into fruitfulness.
If we are also the gardener, we get one year to nurture this Body of Christ to produce fruit. What do we need to do to bring this church to more fruitfulness? What things will be like the digging, the manure, the pruning in our church family, so that when the owner comes back next year he sees an abundant harvest? What are we going to do?

If we are to put a year of concentrated effort in — what will you commit to do?

Online Hymn: Thrive (praise band)

Sanctuary Hymn GWA129: Build Your Kingdom Here (praise band)

Concerns of the Church
*Bible Study
*devotions
*Lent book group meets at 7pm on Monday evenings in the Spinnaker, reading Jesus for Everyone, Not Just Christians, discussing chapter 1 tomorrow evening.
*Easter Code
*Prayer groups

Please consider yourself invited to participate, and to pray for all the activities, ministry, and mission God is calling us to do together.

Prayer and Lord’s Prayer (Graham)

*Sanctuary Hymn: Thrive (praise band)

Sending
Friends there is no time to waste: go to live God’s kingdom life today, bearing the blessing of the One who was, who is, and is to come.
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.

Postlude Music

Announcements

* The first Sunday of the month at 11am is now 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.

* Bowl and Blether is on the first and third Mondays of each month through the winter, the next one is TOMORROW Monday 17 March. Doors open at 11:30am, soup and sandwiches are served from noon – 1:30. All are welcome to join us for lunch and a chat in our cozy warm hall. Volunteers are also needed and welcome, please speak to Teri, Graham Bolster, or Charlene if you’d like to volunteer for soup making (9-11:30am), toastie-making (11:30-1:30), serving (11:15-1:45), or clean up (1:15-2:30).

* Teri is leading a Lent book group on Monday evenings in the Spinnaker beginning Monday 10 March at 7pm. The book is Jesus For Everyone, Not Just Christians. All are welcome — come along and have your dinner, or a drink, or just come for the discussion!

* Wednesday Evening Bible Study is at 7:30pm in the Manse and we are reading Luke!

*The Easter Code is on Monday and Tuesday the 24th and 25th in St John’s, and also Wednesday-Thursday the 26th and 27th in St Margaret’s. if you would be willing to volunteer to lead a group of P6s round the stations as they learn the Easter story, please let Teri know! We would need you to arrive about 9:15am and we finish by noon. We are looking for around 4 volunteers each day.

* Free period products are available in the church toilets for anyone who might need them, thanks to Hey Girls and Inverclyde Council.

Sunday service for 9 March 2025, first Sunday in Lent

Sunday 9 March 2025, 1st Sunday in Lent
Gourock St. John’s Church of Scotland
Service prepared by Rev. Teri Peterson
Manse: 632143
Email: TPeterson (at) churchofscotland.org.uk
Email Charlene, Parish Assistant: CMitchell (at) churchofscotland.org.uk

Prelude Music

Welcome

Call to Worship
One: The Word made flesh is among us — listen to him!
All: Turning from the distractions, we turn toward the Holy One in our midst.
One: The Living God has a story of eternal life now — listen to him!
All: Looking for our part in the story, we open ourselves to hear.

Sanctuary Hymn 519: Love Divine, All Loves Excelling

Prayer
Ever-present God,
we have a lot on our minds,
our to-do lists run off the page,
we flit from one thing to another,
sometimes doing three things at once.
Capture our attention today,
that we may focus on what you have given us to do,
be present to the people you have put in our paths,
slow down enough
to feel compassion
to show mercy
to listen.
You say, O God, that the way to abundant life is to live it:
to love with all our heart and soul and mind and strength,
without asking who deserves it or how much is too much
or any of the other questions we use to limit your love, and ours.
We confess that we’d really like a list, please.
Who exactly is our neighbour, and how will we know if someone is or isn’t?
What is the appropriate level of attention and care and effort?
How do you propose we accomplish the rest of the to-do list if we give our attention to you or others?
Forgive us, Lord,
when we demand an itemised checklist before we act on love.
Forgive us when we draw the circle so tightly that we neglect to do mercy.
Forgive us when we are pulled in so many directions we can no longer see you in the work we do.
Forgive us when we get caught up in justifying ourselves and our activities,
and so miss your call to a new way of life.
Lead us back to your way —
the way of love manifest in the world,
the way of eternal life lived now.
Amen.

God looks on us with compassion, and God’s grace does not abide by the boundaries and barriers of the human imagination. So hear and live this good news: anyone who is in Christ is a new creation, with the opportunity and the power to live a new life in God’s kingdom today. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Online Hymn 519: Love Divine, All Loves Excelling

Sanctuary Children’s Time
Lent: a time when we pay extra special attention to our relationship with God, and practice new habits that help us be close to God — prayer, self-reflection, abstaining from something, doing justice, giving alms.

Sanctuary Hymn 552: Oh, For a Closer Walk With God (tune: Martyrdom)

Scripture Reading: Luke 10.25-42 (Disciples Literal New Testament)
And behold— a certain Law-expert stood up, testing Jesus by saying, “Teacher, what must I have done to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “What has been written in the Law? How do you read it?” And the expert said, “You shall love the Lord your God from your whole heart, and with your whole soul, and with your whole strength, and with your whole mind, and your neighbour as yourself.” And Jesus said to him, “You answered correctly. Be doing this and you will live.” But the man, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbour?”
Jesus said, “A certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho. And he fell into robbers, who, having both stripped him and beaten him, went away— having left him half-dead. And by coincidence, a certain priest was going down on that road. And having seen him, he passed by on the other side. And likewise also a Levite having come upon the place and having seen, passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, while traveling, came upon him. And having seen, he felt deep feelings of compassion. And having gone to him, he bound his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. And having put him on his own mount, he brought him to an inn and took care of him. And on the next day, having taken out two denarii, he gave them to the innkeeper and said, ‘Take care of him. And whatever you spend further I will give back to you on my return’. Which of these three seems to you to have become a neighbour of the one having fallen into the robbers?” And the one said, “The one having shown mercy to him”. And Jesus said to him, “Go, and you be doing likewise.”
As they traveled, Jesus entered into a certain village. And a certain woman, Martha by name, received him. She had a sister called Mary, who also was following His word, having sat near to the feet of the Lord. But Martha was being distracted with much service. And having stood-near, she said “Lord, do You not care that my sister left me to be ministering alone? Tell her then that she should help me”. But having responded, the Lord said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things. But there is a need of one thing. For Mary chose the good part, which will not be taken away from her”.

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: one thing
These are stories many of us know well — perhaps so well that it’s easy to just think we know how it goes so we stop listening. But we rarely read the stories back to back, the way Luke wrote them. Luke obviously intended us to learn something by putting these stories one after the other, and the people who added the chapter and verse numbers must have recognised that as well since they kept them together in the same chapter. So what is it that we see differently — what insight becomes clear — when we look past our usual ways of reading these as separate stories we already know backwards and forwards?

As I have been pondering this throughout the week, I have heard Jesus’ voice echoing this sentence: there is need of one thing.

We might echo the law expert in asking: what is the one thing?
And I think we would get the same answer Jesus gave him — the one who showed mercy…go and be doing likewise.

I love that super literal translation: go and be doing likewise. I know that “go and do likewise” is correct and efficient but there’s something about the phrase “be doing” that feels a little bit different…a little bit more continuous, if you will. Like it is a state of being, a constant choice to be doing mercy.

When Martha welcomed Jesus, it says that she was distracted with all her service, all her ministry. It’s the same word that’s used when the angels minister to Jesus in the wilderness after his temptations, the same word that when applied to men is always translated ministry, the same word that Paul writes the Spirit gives people the gift of ministry…that word is the one we normally translate as Deacon! Martha is a deacon, she is ministering through service…which is so important! It’s a role she clearly took seriously, and also one that took a lot of her attention and energy. The word for “distracted” literally means “pulled apart” and isn’t that what it feels like, when there are so many things that need doing? So much service to offer…in so many different directions…so many needs to try to meet…her ministry was pulling her apart, and she lost sight of the one thing.

You could perhaps say the same about the priest and the Levite — they were religious professionals who had been born into those roles, and had been brought up to them. And that ministry is important. They were on their way down from Jerusalem, perhaps after their two weeks on duty, thinking about all they would encounter at home, all the people they had met during their shift, still smelling of sacrifices, looking forward to a rest. But the way Jesus tells the story, they had so much going on they missed the one thing.

And then there’s the part where Martha demands that Jesus talk to her sister — first of all, that is not healthy communication. That’s called triangulation and it’s a classic manipulation move. If Martha has a problem with Mary, she should speak to Mary, not get someone else to do it for her. But aside from that, the other day I noticed something interesting. The word Martha uses when she triangulates Jesus — she says “tell her to help me” and the word for “help” is only used one other time in the entire New Testament, in Paul’s letter to the Romans, when he says that the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness, interceding for us because we don’t know how to pray. It’s a word that implies deeply personal support, coming alongside and working as a mutual partnership.

I was thinking about that word and wondering if part of the problem is that Martha actually needs to ask the Holy Spirit for that help, not her sister. And by asking for that kind of help that the Bible attributes to God, rather than another kind of assistance with a task, Martha was maybe unintentionally going to pull Mary apart a little too…pull her away from her own ministry, her own discipleship, to do Martha’s. When in fact, Mary and Martha each have their own callings to follow, their own separate ways to be doing the one thing: showing mercy, loving neighbour.

Meanwhile the person who does this is actually the one person you’d never expect: the foreigner from the country we hate. The person whose religion we think is corrupted, whose language and accent are inferior, whose character and culture we make assumptions about. The Samaritan had plenty on his mind as he traveled, he obviously was going somewhere for a purpose, he had business to attend to. And yet, having seen a person in need, he did the one thing.

He did not try to ascertain if he was seeing someone of his own nationality, religion, or class. He saw a human being in need. He did not stop to look around and see if the robbers were still around, waiting for another victim. He felt deep compassion — that same gut-twisting feeling we talked about Jesus having a few weeks ago when he raised a widow’s son from the dead. And as we said then: compassion is not optional. Acting on compassion is not optional. Having felt it, the Samaritan did the one thing: he put his compassion into action. He was doing mercy.

And then he kept doing it. At every step where we might say “well done, you loved your neighbour” he kept going…just like that slightly awkward translation: go and be doing. Continuous. He bandaged the wounds, and that could have been enough. But it wasn’t, he kept going…he took the man to an inn. That could have been enough, he could have handed it over to someone else. But it wasn’t, he kept going…he stayed and nursed the man, delaying his own journey and the business he had to attend to. That could have been enough, but it wasn’t, he kept going…he left money to continue his care…and that could have been enough, but it wasn’t, he kept going…he promised to come back and pay any extra.

Go and be doing the one thing.

We are in a situation right now in the world where there’s a lot going on. And that is by design: it is a strategy that is meant to overwhelm with a constant stream of drama so we barely even know where to look. We can’t put out all the fires out at once so we get discouraged and give up…and then they win. But it is a small number of people who are pulling those strings, and there are a lot of us. And if we refuse to be pulled apart…if we refuse to be distracted from the one thing…if we refuse to give up and say we’ve done enough and we’re handing it to someone else…we can make a difference.

We may all be doing the one thing in different ways, and that’s okay. There’s plenty of ministry and service to go around. And each of us has our calling to follow. And as I often say: there is a church for everybody, but not every church is for everybody. Our congregation has a calling to follow. Sometimes like the priest and Levite we might get caught up in the stuff we think we have to do because of who we are, what role we play in society, what people think church is supposed to be…but when we feel that gut-twist of compassion, we need to be ready to lay that other stuff aside and respond, no matter what people will think. And just as Martha demanding Mary abandon her ministry to shift to Martha’s isn’t okay, the same is true for churches. We ask the Holy Spirit for support, and we invite those who are also called to carry out the one thing the way we are to come and join in, and we bless those who carry out the one thing a different way. There is room in this world for every bit of compassion and mercy we can muster. And it is the only thing that will make a difference.

I realise it feels like it doesn’t make a difference. I also realise that it can sound exhausting to be doing mercy continually. And that’s why we need to be doing it as a community — so that we have a bigger impact with critical mass, and so that individuals can tap in and out as needed to practice sabbath rest. When vulnerable people languish and the rich get richer, we must come together to be doing mercy. When powerful people play games with the lives of others, we must come together to be doing mercy. When people of colour or LGBTQ people or women are targeted so that a few people can feel superior, we must come together to be doing mercy. When the leaders of our governments serve only themselves, we must come together to be doing mercy. When people are fleeing their homes because of violence or climate change or economic collapse and meeting hostile environment after hostile environment, we must come together to be doing mercy. When nations rise and empires fall, we must come together to be doing mercy. When some people try to claim empathy is a sin — thus making Jesus himself a giant sinner — we must come together to be doing mercy. Whether it’s homelessness or hunger or social isolation or refugees and asylum seekers or gender inequity or education and employment injustice or climate change or international peacemaking or healthcare disparity or disability and special needs accessibility or children in poverty or violence against women or whatever is the main thing that pulls at our gut-feeling…if we want to be like Jesus, if we want to follow the instructions of Jesus, then we must come together to be doing mercy. We don’t have the luxury of apathy or waiting for someone else to do it or believing we can’t make a difference or trying to manage what other people think about us. This is what it means to love our neighbour — to love without checking to see who they are first, to see beyond the reasons and the fears and the distractions and the interrupted to-do lists, to let the one thing be our focus for our action: go and be doing mercy.

I know how easy it is to get pulled apart in worthy tasks. Sometimes the activities and the meetings and the news stories and the needs and the pains and the never ending decisions about what to have for dinner all add up to distraction…but there is one thing that needs to be in front of us. One thing that drives our decisions about what activities and tasks to do and which to put off for a little while because we get that gut feeling. One thing that pulls us back together and focuses us like a lens focusing the light. One thing that should be our constant orientation, our north star, our compass point: compassion in action.

Go and be doing mercy. In the doing, you will find eternal life.

May it be so. Amen.

Online Hymn 374: From Heaven You Came

Sanctuary Hymn 254: O God, We Bear the Imprint of Your Face (tune: 691 Finlandia)

Riches I heed not, nor earth’s empty praise,
thou mine inheritance, now and always;
thou, and thou only, the first in my heart,
High King of Heaven, my treasure thou art.

Concerns of the Church
*Bible Study
*devotions
*During Lent, starting TOMORROW, I’ll be leading a book group that will meet at 7pm on Monday evenings in the Spinnaker. The book is Jesus for Everyone, Not Just Christians, so get your copy now!
*Contact Group 11 March Alec Galloway
*Prayer groups

Please consider yourself invited to participate, and to pray for all the activities, ministry, and mission God is calling us to do together.

Prayer and Lord’s Prayer
You are a God who desires wholeness,
and you pour yourself out that all creation might live abundantly.
Your love creates and sustains,
your mercy is from everlasting to everlasting,
your word echoes even in our hearts today.
We ask your healing grace for those places that are pulling apart at the seams —
where nation rises against nation and neighbour against neighbour,
where there is not enough to go around
and people live in fear.
Knit us back together in your vision of peace and justice,
that the world may reflect your heart.
We ask your healing grace for those relationships that are fraying at the edges,
where scorekeeping and grudge holding are normal,
where we talk about each other instead of to each other,
where we don’t notice the cares or callings of the other.
We lift up especially those for whom home is not a safe place,
those who live with the threat of violence or manipulation,
those who no longer know themselves beloved.
Let your loving-kindness overflow,
and your spirit of courageous compassion fill every place.
We ask your healing grace for those who feel they must justify themselves,
those who are caught in the lie that they are loved only for what they do.
And we ask your healing grace for those who are targeted for being themselves,
for pursuing their calling rather than giving in to people-pleasing,
for disrupting stereotypes and refusing to stay in categories and boxes.
May your unconditional love be their foundation,
and your truth be their guide.
We ask your healing grace for those who have been hurt by others,
those who have been left to suffer,
those we can’t bring ourselves to look at,
those who are just the latest collateral damage of the world’s systems and injustice.
May they be treated gently, with dignity,
and may we finally have the will to do something so no one else is left lying abandoned at the margins.
On the 9th day of the month we join our hearts as your St John’s family to pray
*For all who live and work in the Ashton area, along the waterfront of Gourock. For families, tourists, those who take their exercise and who sit to admire the view.
*For the Bible Study groups at St John’s, for the Intercessory Prayer Group, that they may encounter you, Living God, in word and prayer.
*For the land, people, and governments of the nations of Türkiye, Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Palestine, Egypt, and Cyprus.

For all who act as your hands and heart, caring for others,
we give you thanks.
For all who break down barriers, we give you thanks.
For all who come to recognise your image even in the faces of enemies, we give you thanks.
For all who learn the one thing that is needed, and the transformed life that flows from your grace, we give you thanks.
And we pray, Lord, that we might go and be doing likewise.
In the name of Christ
who taught us to pray together: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come,
your will be done on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins,
as we forgive those who sin against us.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and forever. Amen.

Sanctuary Hymn 374: From Heaven You Came

Sending
Rev. Traci Blackmon once said: How often the church prioritises sermonising instead of seeing, teaching instead of touching, inviting people to join rather than welcoming them to belong….while Jesus’ priorities are the opposite, stopping what he is doing to ensure people know they are seen and heard and loved.
Go and be doing likewise.
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.

Postlude Music

Announcements

* We worship in the sanctuary on Sundays at 11am, and Sunday worship is also online.  The Sunday evening service is taking a break during Lent so that we all have capacity for the amazing Lent Book Group! (See below)

* The first Sunday of the month at 11am is now 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.

* Bowl and Blether is on the first and third Mondays of each month through the winter, the next one is Monday 17 March. Doors open at 11:30am, soup and sandwiches are served from noon – 1:30. All are welcome to join us for lunch and a chat in our cozy warm hall. Volunteers are also needed and welcome, please speak to Teri, Graham Bolster, or Charlene if you’d like to volunteer for soup making (9-11:30am), toastie-making (11:30-1:30), serving (11:15-1:45), or clean up (1:15-2:30).

* Starter Packs are in need of handwash, soap, kitchen/bathroom cleaners, washing up liquid and tea-bags. 
The FoodBank are in need of diluting juice, tinned carrots and other vegetables, tinned meat & tinned meals. You can bring donations to the church and place them into the boxes in the vestibule. Thank you!

* Teri will be leading a Lent book group on Monday evenings in the Spinnaker beginning Monday 10 March at 7pm. The book is Jesus For Everyone, Not Just Christians. All are welcome — come along and have your dinner, or a drink, or just come for the discussion!

* The Contact Group meets on Tuesday 11 March at 2pm in the large hall. All are welcome.

* Wednesday Evening Bible Study is at 7:30pm in the Manse and we are reading Luke!

* Free period products are available in the church toilets for anyone who might need them, thanks to Hey Girls and Inverclyde Council.

Easter service 2025

Palm Sunday service 13 April 2025

Sunday service 6 April 2025, fifth Sunday in Lent

Sunday service for 30 March 2025, fourth Sunday in Lent

Sunday service for 16 March 2025, second Sunday in lent

Sunday service for 9 March 2025, first Sunday in Lent

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