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“God is light; In him there is no darkness...”  

[1 John 1:5]

Dull and Weem Parish, Church of Scotland

Sunday Service 9 30 am.

Minister : Rev. Neil M Glover

Senior Elder : Mr C. Thom

Phone 01887 820174   e mail

Roll Keeper : Mr T. Pringle

Phone 01887 820931   e mail

Session Clerk : Mr P. Hobbs

Mobile 07967 226824   e mail

Treasurer : Mr R. Chadburn

Youth Worker : Jamie Pringle

Mobile 07399 589422   e mail

PA to Rev Neil Glover : Judy Ewer

Mobile 07836 565528  e mail

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Link to Church of Scotland congregations of the Upper Tay, and of Tenandry Sunday Service 25th October 2020.

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Upper Tay and Tenandry Churches of Scotland

 25th October 2020

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Welcome

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CH4 510

  1       Jesus calls us here to meet him
          as, through word and song and prayer,
          we affirm God's promised presence
          where his people live and care.
          Praise the God who keeps his promise;
          praise the Son who calls us friends;
          praise the Spirit who, among us,
          to our hopes and fears attends.

  2       Jesus calls us to confess him
          Word of life and Lord of all,
          sharer of our flesh and frailness,
          saving all who fail or fall.
          Tell his holy human story;
          tell his tales that all may hear;
          tell the world that Christ in glory
          came to earth to meet us here.

  3       Jesus calls us to each other,
          vastly different though we are;
          creed and colour, class and gender
          neither limit nor debar.
          Join the hand of friend and stranger;
          join the hands of age and youth;
          join the faithful and the doubter
          in their common search for truth.

John L. Bell (b. 1949) and Graham Maule (b. 1958)

Let us pray together

Dear God,

We come to you, we praise you

We open our hearts

We still our minds

We give to you our whole selves

Nothing held back

For that is how you are to us

Giving all, Nothing held back

Your heart unyielding in love

Determined in action , You coming to us

As we come to this online space

Let it be holy ground

Let there be signs from heaven

Let there be words of truth

Let there be newness which is gospel

No small invented gods

But you the true God

Present, Here, Now, Always

Forgive us our sins

Take them away

Unburden us of our guilt we pray

On that cross of Jesus

Take from us all , Which we have harmed ourselves

Release us and renew us and remake us

This we ask in the name of Jesus

As we say the words that he taught us

Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be your name

Your kingdom come, you will be done on earth as it is in heaven

Give us today our daily bread and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil

for yours is the kingdom, the power and the glory, forever and ever

AMEN

Sermon – On The Crossing Of Seas

Last time we looked at the story of Exodus, we were thinking about the Passover,

The story of the lambs being sacrificed and the unleavened bread being eaten

Just as the Israelites were about to leave Egypt,

And I talked about how food has a memory to it,

And tasted Khamshala's curry.

That was in Exodus chapter 12

In Exodus 13,

The Egyptians have had enough of the Israelite slaves with their plague inflicting God

So they send them out

And the slaves leave.

And God guides them to the promised land

With a cloud leading them by day

And a fiery pillar leading them by night.

This is what leads us to Exodus 14,

The story of the Red Sea.

And the first part of what I want to think about today,

I want to call the "Anatomy of a Sea Crossing"

Part 1 of a Sea Crossing, Is "Being Backed into a Corner"

Again and again in Exodus

God does not take the Israelites by the simplest route

God seems to prefer the route that leaves them with the better story.

God wants the Israelites to turn back,

Between Migdol and the Sea

A place called

With Baal-Zephon in front of them.

Some speculate that Migdol and Baal-Zephon are mountains,

And certainly you have water behind you and an army coming towards you.

You're trapped.

Just let that sink in

God leads the Israelites to a place where no matter where they turn

They are in trouble,

All they have are bad options.

That's where they are

That's the first part of a Sea Crossing Story

Being led to the place

Where all you have are bad options.

Part 2 of a Sea Crossing Story

Is to want a return to Egypt

Reading – Exodus 14: 10-18 (NIV)

10 As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the Lord. 11 They said to Moses, "Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? 12 Didn't we say to you in Egypt, 'Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians'? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!"

13 Moses answered the people, "Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. 14 The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still."

15 Then the Lord said to Moses, "Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on. 16 Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground. 17 I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them. And I will gain glory through Pharaoh and all his army, through his chariots and his horsemen. 18 The Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I gain glory through Pharaoh, his chariots and his horsemen."

Did you hear the complaint there?

In fear, it would be better to be slaves than to die here.

To lunge for the past is to yearn for a slavery based on a fear.

One of the seeming attractions of Church life is it offers a return to a comfortable past in contrast to a difficult future.

I spoke to someone recently who said to me

"Oh, I miss my Church, I really want to get back to my Church"

Except I rarely remember that person being in Church when it was open.

But we all have a fantasy of Church life,

Which we are not going to back to,

Our future lies ahead.

In a community that is probably more diverse

Smaller possibly, Deeply committed to faith, to Christ, to each other,

I hope.

Or more recently a political party posted a tweet which said

The Clocks go back this weekend.  I'm setting mine to 1940 when this country had some guts. And a picture of two Spitfires flying over the white cliffs of dover.

To 1940 when there was no national health service, To 1940 when there was a blitz,To 1940 when there was rationing, To 1940 when children were evacuated from their families, To 1940 when women were expected to end their education at 14 and go into service

All of this is to go back to a slavery which is based on fear. A yearning to be held in a constricted routine. Rather than freedom which is never certain

And this applies to our Churches, To our country, To the way we live in our friendships and our families.

Where do you yearn for the past? Are you really yearning for a slavery which is certain.

Or in our family lives do we yearn for a past That if we were there now, Would still hold us in, Pen us in, Not be liberation.

Part of being cornered is to cry out, To cry out for a time when it was all better than ths.

And this is a ludicrous fantasy

I have no desire to turn Church life to the 1950s, even if the Churches were packed, Because those Churches too had to imagine a good future.

God summons us into a liberate future, Not to fantasise about an imagined past.

And a future for us as a country where the bonds that have bene forged in shared restriction, And will be shared in future economic change, Will continue in the way that we deal with our housing, our transport, our environment.

This part ends with a stiff response from God:

Why do you cry out to me?

Tell the Israelites to Move forward

Part three is a movement in stillness.

Its going to be read for us now by Peter

Reading – Exodus 14: 19-30

19 Then the angel of God, who had been traveling in front of Israel's army, withdrew and went behind them. The pillar of cloud also moved from in front and stood behind them, 20 coming between the armies of Egypt and Israel. Throughout the night the cloud brought darkness to the one side and light to the other side; so neither went near the other all night long.

21 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, 22 and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.

23 The Egyptians pursued them, and all Pharaoh's horses and chariots and horsemen followed them into the sea. 24 During the last watch of the night the Lord looked down from the pillar of fire and cloud at the Egyptian army and threw it into confusion. 25 He jammed[b] the wheels of their chariots so that they had difficulty driving. And the Egyptians said, "Let's get away from the Israelites! The Lord is fighting for them against Egypt."

26 Then the Lord said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand over the sea so that the waters may flow back over the Egyptians and their chariots and horsemen." 27 Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at daybreak the sea went back to its place. The Egyptians were fleeing toward[c] it, and the Lord swept them into the sea. 28 The water flowed back and covered the chariots and horsemen—the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed the Israelites into the sea. Not one of them survived.

29 But the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left. 30 That day the Lord saved Israel from the hands of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the shore. 

There comes a deep knowing in faith, Of walking with a sense that God goes with us.

There have been times in my life When I have been frightened

My recent treatment

A difficult conversation where a powerful person has to be confronted

A meeting where there needs to be resolution of long running conflict

A place I had to go where I feared for my physical safety

People had said things about me that needed to confront me

Or I had to face the consequence of a mistake I had made.

And sometimes there has been a fear about me

A panic

A grip that has led to hard words

Or dismissing others

Or being entrenched within myself

And other times,

There have been other times I have prayed, And I have sensed a stillness, And I have walked in calm

And it is this calmness which the Israelites are urged to move to.

This is the heart of sea crossing.

A calmness, Did you see what Moses said?

You only have to be still You only have to have a silence that is about not lashing out

And then to stop crying out, And to walk forward.

It is that place, And that takes practice.

Last week on Tiree, I was trying to learn something new on my paddle board

Which is how to catch a wave.

And what you have to do is get yourself into the wave at the right point,

And then to move back on the board.

And this very simple movement, takes so much practice. And is so hard to do when you have a wave coming in behind me. You tend to go far too far.

Here is some footage of me doing this.

But the times I caught the wave, Felt like the times I moved the least I was able to have a calm. Almost do nothing.

And stand on the wave, with the thrill on crossing the sea.

But here is the thing

Doing the least in these situations Takes the most amount of practice.

To move in big movements is a sign of clumsiness and inexperience

To have softer, gentler, trusting movements is a sign of skill and of wisdom and of learning.

And that is the heart of the crossing,

To move and to be still, Because you trust

There is another thing about this learning

It becomes compelling, You want to get out there again and again, Even though all the time you got toppled and thrown, You wanted to learn, To learn the thrill of moving across the water To learn the thrill of crossing the sea.

So that is part three, Moving forward with stillness.

The last part is the knowing.

And for that part I want to go back to Tiree.

To the Calmac Ferry terminal at Gott Bay on Tiree.

** Edit Cal Mac, Ferry Crossing, The Islands

In travelling on the ferry

I was reminded of the sea journeys that lie in my past.

The heritage of my faith, The crossing of the Red Sea, The Crossing of Columba

The heritage of this country, ,The crossing of the Sea at Dunkirk,Or the crossing of the sea of Industrial revolution

To a better society where health is better, and more are included

Which informs us now as we cross this sea called Covid.

And in my faith, The times that God has got me across.

The part here is a knowing, That God gets you across the sea.

But there is a critical dimension to this

That it is the powerless and oppressed that God gets across the sea; The powerful military machine does not make it across.

This is a story of God acting decisively; For those on the margins, For those called slaves, For those who were broken

And acting against those who trust in their own power; Their weapons, And their track record of success.

There is a way of reading life; That says that the luck is always against us,That those who won in the past will keep winning into the future, And we who lost in the past will keep losing

There is a way of saying that the presidents who lied to the top, And the generals who killed to the top, And the wealthy who bought their way to the top, Will also bring the gods of war and the gods of power always to their side

This was the theology of Egypt.

But this is a story that says Yhwh

The God of Israel Brings the slaves across the sea

We love to sing Psalm 103, Bless the lord Oh My Soul; Bless the Lord Oh my and forget not all his benefits

We sing in Praise my soul the king of heaven

Or in the more recent Bless the Lord Oh My Soul

And I love the verse at the core of that psalm;The Lord is merciful and gracious; Slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

But at the heart of that psalm , Also is this statement

The Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed, He made known his ways to Moses, His acts to the people of Israel.

And it is stories like this one he had in mind.

You have often heard me talk about my friend Graham who died at the end of last year, A man whom I first encountered on a sea journey from Oban to Mull, Saw him there unassuming with his jeans and his baseball boots

And at various points in my life he was a strong strong influence

But there burned in him a core conviction, For freedom, For hope, For goodness

That though the tyrants are against us, theirs is a deluded fantasy.

He hated the arms trade, with the modern equivalent of Pharaoh's chariots.

I'll never forget my last encounter with him.

In hospital in Glasgow, in the West of Scotland Cancer Centre, the Beatson

And the minute I walked into the room, I knew something had happened. He and his family had just received bad news.And we talked about what that might mean.

And then I said to him, Graham - who knew that I was also getting tests - I've got a biopsy tomorrow. Twelve samples they've to take from me. I'm a bit scared

And he reassured me - he said, in my experience the leaflets they give you normally go on the side of caution, it's not normally as bad as they say

And there was a comfort in that

We prayed, we held each other, And this was about finding faith in the God who takes you across the sea, And finding a stillness to move with confidence, And then he said his last words to me, "The powerful won't always win."

And this took what he said about protection

Into language which was about justice and liberation and hope For the individual and the community

Red Sea crossings are about a knowing, That God is with his people, To liberate the oppressed from those systems which crush them

So a red sea crossing, Is about being cornered, It is about recognising our fearful desire to return to the past

And it about walking confidently in stillness in silence

And it is about knowing that God acts to bring his people across the sea

And that this is about justice and hope for those who are broken

And those who are oppressed.

Amen

CH4 509 

1        Jesus calls us!  O'er the tumult
          of our life's wild restless sea,
          day by day his voice is sounding,
          saying, 'Christian, follow me'.

  2       As, of old, Saint Andrew heard it
          by the Galilean lake,
          turned from home and toil and kindred,
          leaving all for his dear sake.

  3       Jesus calls us from the worship

          of the vain world's golden store,
          from each idol that would keep us,
          saying, 'Christian, love me more'.

  4       In our joys and in our sorrows,
          days of toil and hours of ease,
          still he calls, in cares and pleasures,
          'Christian, love me more than these'.

  5       Jesus calls us!  By your mercy,
          Saviour, make us hear your call,
          give our hearts to your obedience,
          serve and love you best of all.

Cecil Frances Alexander (1818–1895) (alt.)

Prayer for Others

Dear God,

May it come soon

May justice come soon

To the hungry

To the weeping

To those who cry out

To those who run away

May it come soon

May justice come soon

To the traffickers

To the gangmasters

To the indifferent policy makers

To the arms dealers

We take a moment of silence

To name before you those

Who need you now

Silence

May peace come soon

To those in pain

May friendship come soon

To those who are alone

May newness come soon

To those who have given up

May escape come soon

To those who are trapped

 All this we ask

In the name of Jesus

AMEN

CH4 233

  1       Guide me, O thou great Jehovah,
          pilgrim through this barren land;
          I am weak, but thou art mighty;
          hold me with thy powerful hand:
          Bread of heaven, Bread of heaven,
       *  feed me till my want is o'er.

  2       Open now the crystal fountain
          whence the healing stream doth flow;
          let the fire and cloudy pillar
          lead me all my journey through:
          strong Deliverer, strong Deliverer,
          be thou still my strength and shield.

  3       When I tread the verge of Jordan,
          bid my anxious fears subside!
          Death of death, and hell's destruction,
          land me safe on Canaan's side!
          Songs of praises, songs of praises,
          I will ever give to thee.

       *   The last line of each verse is repeated.

William Williams (1717–1791)
translated Peter Williams (1727–1796)

Blessing

May the God of Moses go with you
Behind and before
To lead you from slavery to liberation

May the God of Jesus Christ go with you
Behind and before
To lead you to the promised land

May you be blessed
In the name of the Father, the Son and the Spirit
May you be blessed

AMEN

Linkage Newsletter 22 October – 2020

SUNDAY 25 OCTOBER - MORNING WORSHIP

REV. NEIL GLOVER  - TENANDRY KIRK

When

Link

Traditional YouTube

Sunday morning onwards

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpA-Ianua69JOCtTV2zBDxw

Traditional Dial-In

Sunday morning onwards

Dial 01887 440446

Contemporary YouTube

Sunday morning onwards

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpA-Ianua69JOCtTV2zBDxw

Contemporary Zoom

10.30am

 https://us02web.zoom.us/j/9205989200

or Zoom from tablet or phone:
Zoom meeting room 920 598 9200

Password  - 316316

Post-service Zoom chat

11:30am Sunday

 https://us02web.zoom.us/j/9205989200

or Zoom from tablet or phone:
Zoom meeting room 920 598 9200

Password  - 316316

Remember the clocks change this weekend!

Service Plan for November

November 1  - YouTube and Zoom Service from Aberfeldy Parish Church with Re. Neil Glover.

The Stated Annual Meeting for Aberfeldy will follow the Zoom Service (Details to follow in a separate email to Aberfeldy Members)

November 8 – Remembrance Sunday – YouTube and Zoom live streaming

November 15   - YouTube Service with Rev. Robert Nicol.

There will also be an Evening YouTube Service

November 22 – YouTube and Zoom Service from Logierait with Rev. Neil Glover

November 29 - YouTube and Zoom Service from Dull and Weem with Rev. Neil Glover.

All three Session and Boards are due to meet in early November. They will be considering all possible options for future services, including Christmas.

Baptism on Sunday 25 October – 3.45pm

 Jamie Pringle hopes you will tune into the regular YouTube Channel to watch the 'live streaming' of his Baptism in the River Tay.

Support

 We recognise that for many the current restrictions and uncertainty can make life very stressful. The ministry team are able to offer pastoral support, but for a few this may not be enough. Perth and Kinross Council have an excellent directory of services. You can type in:

Perth and Kinross Mental Health Directory 2020 or hit the hyper link below.

https://www.pkc.gov.uk/media/46386/Mental-Health-Directory-of-Services-Covid-19/pdf/Mental_Health_Directory_of_Services_Covid19_(1).pdf?m=637353449218700000

Contact details

 Neil's email -  

Neil's mobile – 07779 280074

PA – Judy Ewer – judy.ewer@adwgls.org.uk

Mobile – 07836 565528

Message from Christians Against Poverty (CAP)

We thought it would be helpful for your Church family if we created a short message about the work of CAP in Scotland right now. I have recorded a short (5 mins) video for you that you could share with your Church family. 

 This Scotland CAP Update Video would be perfect for a 'news' slot during your online services or for home groups to use or prayer meetings. The video does two main things:

1. What need are we seeing in communities across Scotland & how are we responding?

2. How can people support CAP? Pray and share our 0800 number. 

 That's it! There's a good news story of a family being helped by a local Church and some key facts and figures. No financial ask whatsoever, just a quick update from me. 

 We would really love to get this message out to as many Churches as possible right now -let people know what's going on. Please do consider if you could share with your own Church family one Sunday. Please also feel free to pass this on to any other Churches you are connected with in your area who you think would like to hear a message from CAP and how we are responding during Coronavirus. 

You just need to copy and paste the link Scotland CAP Update Video or forward this email if you need to share with AV teams coordinating services. 

Thanks so much, I hope this message is of use to your Church. Please know we continue to lift you and the work of your Church in prayer as you serve your community and proclaim the good news of Jesus. 

 Every blessing, Emma 

 Emma Jackson

National Director Scotland 

Monthly Information

Dull and Weem Parish Church is be found on the west side of the river Tay in Highland Perthshire.

Follow the road, from Aberfeldy, Crossing the historic Wade's Bridge, and continue down the avenue towards Weem.

As you enter the village of Weem, you will find the church on the right-hand side of the road. 

“Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” 

[Hebrews 4:16]

News from the Pews