Sunday service for 20 October 2024

Sunday 20 October 2024
Gourock St. John’s Church of Scotland
Service prepared by Rev. Teri Peterson
Teri Manse: 632143 
Email Teri: TPeterson (at) churchofscotland.org.uk
Email Charlene, Parish Assistant: CMitchell (at) churchofscotland.org.uk

Prelude Music (praise band)

Welcome & Announcements

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: From our first breath to our last day:
All: always, God is faithful.
1: In the comfort of home, God is with us.
2: In the wandering near and far, God is with us.
1: When we listen and when we forget, God is with us.
2: When our motivation is pure and when it is complicated, God is with us.
One: From before the beginning to beyond the end:
All: always, God is faithful.

Sanctuary Hymn 716: Come and Find the Quiet Centre

Prayer
Your promise is still true, O God,
and your Spirit is still active, your voice still heard,
even when we have tried to mould you in our own image.
Word of Life, you are always speaking, making yourself known if only we will notice.
We confess we have our own ideas about what we’d like to see and hear,
and our own ideas about what we think you would like.
We admit we have made assumptions about you:
sometimes based on past experiences, as if you are confined in the past;
sometimes based on limited understanding, as if what we know is all there is;
Sometimes based on what others say, as if any one interpretation could contain you.
But your ways are higher than our ways,
your thoughts are more vast than we can comprehend,
you do not need or want the same things we want.
Forgive us, O God,
when we act on our assumptions instead of listening afresh for your will.
Forgive us, O God,
when we come up with things you didn’t ask,
as a way to distract from the fact we aren’t doing what you did ask.
Forgive us, O God,
when we treat you the way we want to be treated, rather than loving the way you love us.
Move among us today, and slow us down.
Make space in our spirits and minds
that we may experience your nearness in the community of your people
and learn to recognise your presence in every place,
and so grow into faithfulness
that carries us through all the instability and uncertainty of life.
Speak to us again today,
for your servants are listening,
praying to be made faithful.
~silence~
Amen.

Online Hymn 716: Come and Find the Quiet Centre

Sanctuary Children’s Time

Sanctuary Hymn GWA15: Bless the Lord (10,000 Reasons) (praise band)

Scripture Reading: 2 Samuel 7.1-17 (Robert Alter translation)
Last week we heard about Hannah praying for a son, and then dedicating Samuel to God’s service in the Temple at Shiloh. Samuel grew up and was called by God to guide the people in their faithfulness. Eventually, though, the people decided that they needed to have a human king, so they could be like other nations. Samuel tried to teach them that having a human king rather than simply following God as their king would lead to strife and pain, but they insisted. God led Samuel to anoint Saul as the first king, but then Saul made some choices that led to the very strife that Samuel had warned about, as he overstepped his bounds and took power that belonged to God. So God called Samuel to anoint David as king, while he was still just a child, and Saul still reigned. When David eventually took the throne, after much violence and confusion, he did three things to mark the new era: he married Saul’s daughter, cementing his legitimacy; he built a new capital city, Jerusalem, in between the northern and southern territories, to unite the kingdom; and he built a royal palace in the capital so everyone could see the new stability and power of the king. That is where we pick up the story today, in 2nd Samuel chapter 7, reading verses 1-17, from Robert Alter’s translation.

And it happened when the king was dwelling in his house and the Lord had granted him respite all around from his enemies, that the king said to Nathan the prophet, “See, pray, I dwell in a cedarwood house while the Ark of God dwells within curtains.” And Nathan said to the king, “Whatever is in your heart, go, do, for the Lord is with you.” And it happened on that night, that the word of the Lord came to Nathan, saying, “Go, say to my servant, to David, ‘Thus says the Lord: Is it you who would build me a house for me to dwell in? For I have dwelled in no house from the day I brought up the Israelites out of Egypt until this day, but I have gone about in tent and tabernacle. Wherever I went about among all the Israelites, did I speak a word with any of the tribal chiefs of Israel whom I charged to shepherd my people Israel, saying, Why did you not build me a cedarwood house? And now, thus shall you say to my servant, to David, Thus says the Lord of hosts: I myself took you from the pasture, from following the flocks, to be prince over my people, over Israel. And I have been with you wherever you have gone, and I have cut down your enemies before you. And I will make you a great name, like the name of the great of the earth. And I will set aside a place for my people and plant them, and they shall abide there and no longer quake, and the wicked shall no more afflict them as before, from the day that I appointed judges over my people Israel. And I will grant you respite from all your enemies, and the Lord declares that it is he who will make you a house. When your days are full and you lie with your fathers, I will raise up your seed after you, who will issue from your loins, and I will make his kingship unshaken. He it is who will build a house for my name, and I will make the throne of his kingship unshaken forever. I will be a father to him and he will be a son to me, so should he do wrong, I will chastise him with the rod men use and with the afflictions of humankind. But my loyalty shall not swerve from him as I made it swerve from Saul whom I removed from before you. And your house and your kingship shall be steadfast forever, your throne unshaken forever.’” In accordance with all these words and in accordance with all this vision, so did Nathan speak to David.

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: Who’s the House For?
Normally when I read this story, the thing that strikes me is God’s insistence that a tent is perfectly fine, thanks, no need for a giant fancy house. I think we forget sometimes that from the moment the people left Egypt, God was going everywhere with them. And even before that, in the stories in Genesis, God was wherever the people were, from walking around in the garden of Eden with the first humans, showing Abraham the way as they constantly moved their tents along the journey into a new land, going with Jacob when he fled from Esau, and on and on. In a culture and time where gods were usually thought to be related to their territory, to have a God who goes with you everywhere was actually an astounding claim. When all the Israelites lived in tents in the wilderness, there was also a tent that represented God’s presence with them, and the same way they carried their own homes and possessions every time they moved, they carried God’s tent too.

By the time we get to King David and his luxury palace, the people were settled down in towns and cities, spread all over the land. They had moved on from their old wandering ways to a stable and settled existence in the one land they thought they would be in forever. So perhaps it makes sense that David would then think that God also needed to progress from a tent to a Temple. Something more permanent and stable. Something that couldn’t be moved from this land they intended to be in forever — no longer did God need to go places, God could finally settle down and just be in this land like all the other gods were in theirs.

This time as I’ve been praying through this passage, though, it’s not exactly the tent itself that has held my attention. This time I keep being brought back to a question, and that question is:

Who is the Temple for?

David had built himself a gorgeous and enormous palace, and only then did he think perhaps he should build a palace for God as well. Was that because he thought God needed a permanent place to live? Or because he wanted to be the king who settled God down and cemented his new capital city as the centre of the nation, the same way surrounding nations had their palaces and Temples to their gods? Did David want to take the credit for building God’s house, or did he want to do something for God?

I have the same question about what happens when the Temple actually does get built, a generation later. Solomon said then that he’s the son God mentioned in today’s reading, the one who would build the house for God…and when that Temple was dedicated, Solomon prayed that no matter who came to the Temple, or even prayed in the direction of the Temple, God would heed their prayer. But also, Solomon had no wars going on, which is of course awesome…and also means there was no common goal to rally the people behind. He ended up conscripting labour the same way David had conscripted people into the military, and giving the people a common task and a focal point — something to bring them together. So was the Temple for God, or for focusing people’s prayers, or for Solomon’s own political needs in creating community and being a player like everyone else on the world stage?

And I admit I have the same question about our buildings today. We sometimes say the church building is the house of God, but who is it for? Is the house for God? Or does it serve some other purpose?

When David chatted with his new court prophet Nathan about the idea of building God a palace to match David’s, Nathan seemed to understand the assignment. He knew that everything David did seemed to be blessed. He knew that what David wanted, David usually got. And it seems as if he knew who the new palace would really be for. So he jumped in with a rubber stamp, and you can just picture the two of them raising a glass to the idea before heading off to bed.

It was only when Nathan was alone that he seems to have paid attention to the fact that God entered the chat…or perhaps more to the point, that God wasn’t really in the chat before. Nathan’s job was supposed to be to listen to God and report God’s word to the king. But he had missed out the first part and assumed what God’s word would be…and once he did listen, it was going to make for an embarrassing morning meeting. Because God could not possibly be more clear in saying: I don’t need a house. Who are you, David, to presume to know what I want without even asking? Even if I did want a house, which I don’t, it wouldn’t be you building it anyway. Instead, let me remind you: I was the one who brought you from the fields keeping the sheep. I was the one who was with you when you faced Goliath with no armour. I was the one who led you when you were the only person on Saul’s most-wanted list. I was the one who protected you, fed you, directed you, and managed your battles. You, David, can’t take credit for anything at all — everything you are and everything you have, including that palace you’re enjoying so much, is a gift I gave you. And in fact, I’ll do much more than that, securing your house, your dynasty, forever, as a sign of my love and presence, no matter what happens to the land and the buildings, you and your people are the bearers of my blessing.
So how about instead of trying to do something I never asked for, you just do the things I did ask? Keep my covenant, look after each other, care most about the vulnerable, and don’t get distracted by the idols of the world. No need for a palace, just a way of life as the community of my people.

Can you imagine Nathan going back to David the next morning and reporting all of that? I imagine him bringing a nice coffee or something and saying “about God’s house…I was too hasty in what I said yesterday, God actually put the brakes on because it turns out the house you want to build isn’t about God at all.”

If David’s desire to build a house of God wasn’t about God but about his own sense that God should settle down now that the people were settled…and if Solomon built the Temple as a focal point for the community’s work and prayer life even though he knew a house could never contain God…then what can we learn from that?

First I think we learn to take everything to God first, not to assume we know the answer! Listening to what God has to say should be the first step, and should accompany every step, in any idea or project of any kind.

Second I think we learn that God doesn’t need the house…we do. This is not the house of God, it is the house of the church, the house of God’s people. It’s a focal point for our work as the Body, and is a place where our senses attune to God. But when the house becomes about us rather than a gift for us to use, we have a problem, and God will have things to say about that. When the house becomes a way for us to think we have contained God, or that we control God in some way, we have a problem and God will have things to say about that. When the house itself becomes our focus rather than pointing us to God, we have a problem and God will have things to say about that. Because God doesn’t need the house, and the moment we start to think that the house means God is stationary, or static, or immoveable like a stone structure, settled down and contained, or that God needs or wants the opulence of a palace, is the moment we miss the whole point of who God is and how God is with us.

Third I think we learn that it’s important to pay attention to the gifts God has given us: that all we are and all we have is a gift, and that God’s desire is that we will use those gifts to further his kingdom…not our own. God’s desire is that we will recognise what God has done, and not try to take credit for it ourselves. God’s desire is that we will know it was a gift…and not think we can repay God for it, or earn more. All of this is a gift — from our skills and talents, to our families and friends, to our educations and experiences and achievements, and even this community and this house that has been passed down to us. And that gift doesn’t require repayment…it requires using for God’s purposes. Nathan and David got a re-orientation, which was also a gift, to re-focus away from what David wanted to accomplish to what God wanted to accomplish. I think we are invited to that same re-orientation: to seek in our own everyday lives, and in the life of our community together, using every tool we’ve been given including this building and our gifts and skills and energy and prayers and time to work toward God’s goals.

So friends, let us be re-oriented, re-focused: on listening for God’s direction, and giving our all to following it. That will be our thanks for the gift: to use it for God’s purpose.

May it be so. Amen.

Hymn GWA129: Build Your Kingdom Here (praise band)

Sanctuary Offering and Response: The Doxology (tune: Old Hundredth)
Praise God from whom all blessings flow;
Praise Christ all creatures here below;
Praise Holy Spirit evermore;
Praise Triune God whom we adore.
Amen.

Prayer and Lord’s Prayer
You provide, Lord God,
beyond what we can ask or imagine.
You build us as Living Stones into your dwelling place,
you call us together to be your Body,
and in your people your breath dwells
and your love is made known.
We thank you for all your faithfulness,
for promises that endure even when we do not.
We thank you, too, that you know the deepest prayers within us,
the worries we carry and the hopes we nurture,
and whatever inadequate words we try to use to speak to you.
Loving God, hear the prayers of our hearts.
For those whose lives are unstable,
who worry about where to live, what to eat, how to care for their families.
For those whose days are lived under threat,
where bombs fall and grief is constant and fear is real.
For those who can’t plan,
waiting for medical treatment, waiting for news, waiting for help.
Loving God, hear the prayers of our hearts.
For those who feel abandoned, lonely, or isolated,
longing for someone to talk to.
For those who bear the weight of this world’s structures,
trapped in cycles of inequality, poverty, injustice.
For those living the reality of climate change,
as the old normal falls under rising seas and sliding land.
Loving God, hear the prayers of our hearts.
For those who take time to listen,
to you and to others, building bridges between people and the divine.
For those who speak truth,
even to those in power who demand unquestioning obedience.
For those who lead,
trying to move our human community forward to the common good.
Loving God, hear the prayers of our hearts.
On this 20th day of the month we join our hearts as your church family to pray:
*For 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.
And for all that is on our hearts today, in this quiet place we bring our prayers to you.
~silence~
Loving God, hear the prayers of our hearts.
In your compassion, make us more empathetic.
In your mercy, make us more just.
In your grace, make us more loving.
Reveal yourself in your people once again,
that we may be a house for your name,
a reflection of your glory alive in the world, even now.
We ask in the name of the One who embodies your promise forever,
who calls us his Body,
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 609: Come, Living God, When Least Expected

Benediction
Go to live as God’s people, the holy temple of God’s name: trusting Christ the word made flesh, never assuming the Spirit is contained by your ideas, always reflecting God’s love for 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

* Starter Packs are in need of soap, shampoo, Kitchen Towel, Cleaning Cloths.
The FoodBank are in need of bottles of squash, tinned fruit, tinned ham, tinned soup, biscuits, ladies & gents toiletries.
You can bring donations to the church and place them into the boxes in the vestibule. Thank you!

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 the 2nd and 4th Sundays of each month. We have toasties and sandwiches together from 5:30 and the service will start at the back of 6. All are welcome for this simple meal and time of worship. The Sunday evening service is informal and reflective, with guitar-based music, Bible readings, and prayer for our parish. Come along and discover practical ways to apply the word to your life, in a chilled vibe that fosters connection and reflection.

* Wednesday Evening Bible Study is taking this week off, and will resume on the 30th of October, beginning to read the gospel according to Luke on Wednesday evenings at 7:30pm in the manse. As we start a new study, this is a great time to join. All are welcome!

* 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 TOMORROW, Monday 21 October, and on the first and third Mondays of each month through the winter. Doors open at 11:30am, soup and toasties 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 or Charlene if you’d like to volunteer for set up, toastie-making, serving, or clean up. 

* The Contact Group meets on Tuesday 22 October at 2pm we will welcome Janice McAvoy to talk about Calum’s Cabins. Our Syllabus of Events is available for £5.

* Come along to OGA on the Sunday 27 October at 2:30pm to learn some of the songs from the new hymnbook God Welcomes All. No experience required, just a desire to sing or to listen to others sing and make a joyful noise to the Lord!

* The Kirk Session will meet on Monday, 28^th October, at 7.30pm.

* We are excited to host a Resound Worship concert on Thursday 7 November at 7:30pm! We’ll also have an opportunity for a meet-n-greet with the band, when we can hear more about their music and also their charity that their proceeds support, at 6:30pm. You can register online for free to help us plan for chairs and catering, and then entry is by donation at the door.

* 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 new item in the budget.

* Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Youtube, and to sign up for our email devotions! Midweek you can watch Wine and the Word on Youtube, pray with video devotions on Facebook, and consider a new angle on something with a devotional email. Feel free to share with your friends, too!

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