A warm Welcome to Worship on Sunday 13th June

SEEDS

Welcome to the church in Weem and its lovely garden.  Inside the church is undergoing some serious repair work, so we will stay outside to enjoy the beauty of this place.  And what better way to begin than with that hymn of praise Morning has broken.”   

Hymn 212 – Morning has broken

Morning has broken,
like the first morning,
blackbird has spoken
like the first bird;
Praise for the singing,
praise for the morning,
praise for them, springing
fresh from the Word!

Sweet the rain's new fall,
sunlit from heaven,
like the first dewfall
on the first grass;
Praise for the sweetness
of the wet garden,
sprung in completeness
where his feet pass. 

Mine is the sunlight;
mine is the morning,
born of the one light
Eden saw play!
Praise with elation,
praise every morning,
God's re-creation
of the new day!

The Psalmist wrote:  “Blessed be the Lord whose love is unfailing to me and to all his works.”

Let us pray:

Lord God, the wonders of your creation,

the splendour of the heavens,                                                               

the beauty of the earth,                                                          

the order and richness of nature                                                                       

all speak to us of your glory.                                                                          

The coming of your Son,                                                                                

the presence of your Spirit,                                                                                       

the fellowship of the church                                                                          

show us the marvel of your love.                                                                    

We worship you and adore you,                                                                      

God of grace and glory,                                                                            

through Jesus Christ our Lord.

God of mercy, God of love,                                                                                

in humbleness of heart                                                                                         

we confess our sins.                                                                                       

We forget to love you and serve you,                                                              

and wander from your ways.                                                                                                        

We are careless of your world                                                                        

and put its life in danger.                                                                                

We talk of our concern for others                                                                     

but fail to match our words with action.                                                     

Merciful God forgive us our sins                                                                       

and bring us to everlasting life,                                                                 

through Jesus Christ your

Son, our Saviour.    

Amen 

READING    Psalm 92:  1 – 4, 12 – 15

A psalm. A song. For the Sabbath day.

1 It is good to praise the Lord
   and make music to your name, O Most High,
2 proclaiming your love in the morning
   and your faithfulness at night,
3 to the music of the ten-stringed lyre
   and the melody of the harp.

4 For you make me glad by your deeds, Lord;
   I sing for joy at what your hands have done.

12 The righteous will flourish like a palm tree,
        they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon;
13 planted in the house of the Lord,
      they will flourish in the courts of our God.
14 They will still bear fruit in old age,
       they will stay fresh and green,
15 proclaiming, ‘The Lord is upright;
      he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him.’

Our next hymn is one that I frequently choose when I am leading services here.  It is a setting by Bernadette Farrell of part of Psalm 139, “O God you

search me and you know me.”

Hymn 97 – O God you search me and you know me

O', God, you search me, and you know me.
All my thoughts lie open to your gaze
When I walk or lie down, you are before me:
ever the maker and keeper of my days

You know my resting and my rising.
You discern my purpose from afar,
and with love everlasting, you besiege me:
in every moment of life or death, you are.

Before a word is on my tongue, Lord,
you have known its meaning through and through.
You are with me beyond my understanding:
God of my present, my past and future, too.

Although your Spirit is upon me,
still I search for shelter from your light.
There is nowhere on Earth I can escape you:
even the darkness is radiant in your sight.

For you created me and shaped me.
gave me life within my mother's womb.
For the wonder of who I am, I praise you:
safe in your hands, all creation is made new.
 

READING     Mark 4:  26 - 34  

The parable of the growing seed

26 He also said, ‘This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. 27 Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. 28 All by itself the soil produces corn – first the stalk, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. 29 As soon as the corn is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.

The parable of the mustard seed

30 Again he said, ‘What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? 31 It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds on earth. 32 Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds can perch in its shade.’

33 With many similar parables Jesus spoke the word to them, as much as they could understand. 34 He did not say anything to them without using a parable. But when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything.

PRAYERS OF INTERCESSION

SERMON

SEEDS

At the beginning of this service you will, I hope, have seen a collection of objects, large and very small.  The little black dots, the olive, the apple pip and all the rest have something in common – they are all seeds.  Or they – like the grape and one or two other odd objects – are seed cases.

And seeds are the subject of our thinking this morning, as you will have heard in the reading from Mark’s gospel.  Now I’m not sure about the biblical mustard seed – it is one of the smallest, yes, but I really have never seen a mustard plant so tall that birds can perch in its branches.  The old Bible concordance which I consulted on the subject, dodged the issue nicely by declaring that the mustard plant in Palestine “attains a greater height than in more temperate climates.”

But that’s not really the point – it’s more about great things growing from small beginnings, isn’t it? There are some fruit trees behind me – not very large at the moment, but potentially good sized trees.  They will have come originally from a small pip.  And what about conifers?  The largest tree around here – the giant sequoia in Cluny gardens is around 41 metres tall and that will have grown from a pine kernel which I would guess to have been not much more than a centimetre in length.

You see, in these verses which Mark records, Jesus was talking about great things coming from small beginnings.  And so it was with what he and his disciples were doing.

To the rulers and influential people in the capital cities of the world of biblical times, the actions of a tiny group of people in an insignificant little country can have had no importance whatsoever.  Indeed, who would have heard of them?  Palestine was just a part of the huge Roman empire and Galilee a back-of-beyond sort of area of that country.  The people involved were not the A-listers of the time – they were not wealthy or important, just ordinary villagers, fishermen and farmers – not worth bothering about really.

It was only when the consequences of what that little group was doing that the authorities sat up and took notice.  This nonentity, Jesus, was proving a bit of a nuisance, his followers were starting to get a bit above themselves – time to put a foot down, time to put a stop to this semi-dangerous movement before it got too powerful.

Yet – like the seeds that Jesus talked about – “night and day, whether [the man] sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how.”

And the seed planted in the minds and hearts of ordinary people in Galilee sprouted, and grew and covered the whole world.

When I was in primary school we used to have a ‘nature table’ in the classroom.  On this throughout the year, we would put things we found around us – catkins in the spring, nuts and berries in the autumn, even, I’m sorry to say, frog spawn in the spring with all the resulting complications of escaping tiny frogs!

And in the spring we would grow beans.  Now I don’t know if you’ve ever done this, but it’s not difficult.  You need a jam jar, a broad bean seed and some blotting paper [do you remember blotting paper?  And when did you last see any?]

You would roll a piece of blotting paper into a tube and put it inside the jar.  Then you would carefully push the bean down between paper and glass, fill the jar with water up to the level of the bean and leave it.  After a while [which always seemed ages but was only a few days] the bean would start to sprout and you could watch the root and the shoot develop and grow.

We also used to grow mustard [the smallest seed] and cress on a piece of damp flannel, placed on a saucer. 

Did anybody else do these things?  I asked Frank but he had never heard of either. 

It was always good to do and I remember ‘experimenting’ with the bean by putting it upside down, or sideways in the jar and being fascinated by the fact that, despite being the wrong way round, the shoot always grew upwards and the root went down.  [which I am going to be very obvious about in a minute or two!]

So – seeds and the Church?  Well I can think of quite a lot of connections. 

We might think that what we are doing here in Weem is of very little importance.  For most of this year we have continued to meet here on Sunday mornings. Throughout the difficult days of the pandemic restrictions we have not been allowed to worship in the usual way – no singing, very little fellowship – and all with the paraphernalia of masks and hand sanitisers.  But, week by week, private prayer and then worship have brought us here. 

And during these Sundays the shape of our meeting together has changed.  They have evolved from three-quarters of an hour of silence, through spoken meditation and music, to what we have today.  Like a seed putting out small shoots and roots, we have seen our meetings evolve into something closely akin to our ‘normal’ Sunday mornings.

There have sometimes been very few of us here in church, but even so, there have been prayers, and meditations and music.  The seeds have been kept alive.

And that is so important.  You will have sometimes heard from a pulpit somewhere about the seed that ‘falls onto the ground and dies’ and from which wheat or whatever will grow. Now that is in fact technically wrong – if a seed does die, then nothing will grow from it.  What happens is that the life contained in that seed will emerge.  It looks as if it might be dead, but from it new life will emerge.

That image is of vital importance – the seed which can lie in the ground, inactive for a long time, but which contains the potential for so much abundance.  And I think is important because I think that that is what we will see in Weem and in all the churches of our linkage and beyond.  After the time of lockdown, of closed churches and “nothing happening” we will see our congregations return and our life of worship and fellowship grow again.  Perhaps even stronger than before.

You remember the broad bean and the way in which the shoot always grew to the light? 

I think that we – as part of the life of the church – will learn to grow upwards to the light, no matter how we’ve been turned around in these last months.  And, moreover, like the bean whose root seeks the nourishment of the soil, so will we find ourselves re-rooted in our faith.

We might be a bean seed, or an acorn, or just a tiny mustard seed, but that difference is of no importance.  Whatever we are, whatever we may become, we can ground ourselves in the loving kindness of our father God.  And if we do, we will draw nourishment in that love as we and the whole church grow upwards in faith and together bear fruit.

Because that is the purpose of a seed – to produce a flower, a fruit, a tree or a small herb.  Of course it can take a long time for that purpose is accomplished – think how long it takes for an oak tree to grow.  But there is fruit that we can produce which is much more immediate.

If we make sense of all that we have been through in this difficult months – the church with no music nor fellowship, meeting so few of our fellow worshippers, all these things – by continuing to meet here to worship our God together then we will have achieved something.

We won’t be producing olives or grapes, or roses, but we can try to produce:-

“the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control”

With that harvest then we, and all the church, will be true to the purpose for which we have been placed on earth, in this place.

Amen

Let us close our morning’s worship with a hymn that speaks of the enabling power of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

HYMN   622  We sing a love that sets all people free

We sing a love that sets all people free,
that blows like wind, that burns like scorching flame,
enfolds the earth, springs up like water clear:
come, living love, live in our hearts today.

We sing a love that seeks another's good,
that longs to serve and not to count the cost,
a love that, yielding, finds itself made new:
come, caring love, live in our hearts today.

We sing a love, unflinching, unafraid
to be itself, despite another's wrath,
a love that stands alone and undismayed:
come, strengthening love, live in our hearts today.

We sing a love that, wandering, will not rest
until it finds its way, its home, its source,
through joy and sadness pressing on refreshed:
come, pilgrim love, live in our hearts today.

We sing the Holy Spirit, full of love,
who seeks out scars of ancient bitterness,
brings to our wounds the healing grace of Christ:
come, radiant love, live in our hearts today.

BLESSING

And now may we go into the world to love and serve our God, and may the blessing of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit be with us and all whom we love, now and for evermore.  Amen

Linkage Newsletter  10 June 2021

Sunday Services –13 June 2021 

SUNDAY MORNING ONLINE YOUTUBE WORSHIP  - MARGARET YEARSLEY

EVENING SERVICE ONLINE YOUTUBE  – JOHN HAYWARD

YouTube Services

Sunday onwards

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

Traditional Dial-In

Sunday morning onwards

Dial 01887 440446

Zoom Service

10.30am

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/9205989200

or Zoom from tablet or phone:

Zoom meeting room 920 598 9200

Password  - 316316

Dial in

One tap mobile

+442080806592,,9205989200#,,,,*316316# United Kingdom

+443300885830,,9205989200#,,,,*316316# United Kingdom

Dial by your location

        +44 208 080 6592 United Kingdom

Post-service Zoom coffee and biscuits

11.30am

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/9205989200

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

Password  - 316316

Private Prayer and Worship

Current guidelines for Level 1 restrictions 

·      Church Hymn books and Bibles cannot be used at the present time. Please take your own or a copy of the weekly service sheet if your Church is planning to follow this.

·      No ‘lifts to church ‘should be in operation unless you are in a ‘bubble’

·      Congregational singing can resume – with a mask

·      Unfortunately, the informal tea and coffee after the service are still not possible. We have to follow the rule of 8 from 3 households with hospitality

Dull and Weem Parish Church 

Worship - 9.30am 

As many will know the Church building is currently undergoing major building works which has restricted the available space and changed the décor!

Grantully, Logierait and Strathtay Parish Churches

Private prayer has resumed at both Churches on alternative Sundays. 

Both Churches will be open on 5th Sundays

Logierait Parish Church - 10 - 11am with bell ringing

Strathtay Parish Church – 11.30 am – 12.30 pm with bell ringing at 12.00 noon

Strathtay will be open on the 2nd and 4th Sunday

Logierait will be open on the 1st and 3rd Sunday 

Aberfeldy Parish Church

Worship - 10.30am

Message from Angus Macdonald
“ It has been a long haul but we are at last able to open the church building for physical worship, albeit with significant restrictions to prevent any risk of infectious spread and to comply with guidelines issued by the Government and the Church of Scotland.

 We intend to hold a service this Sunday, the 13th June, at 10.30am. However, the two metre rule restricts the number we can accommodate to c.30 people although we will try to cater for more if the combination of people (singles, pairs or family groups) enables that to take place. 

Although a more established booking system will come into play once the new website is active (hopefully soon) for the first two Sundays please request a seat by contacting Annette Macdonald on annette.macdonald@aberfeldyparishchurch or Angus Macdonald on 07783 303367 preferably by midday on Saturday 12th at the latest. 

The service will be available by zoom and the YouTube version is also accessible as has been the case throughout the pandemic.

In the first instance priority will be given to those who have been unable to access Zoom or YouTube services but we will try to ensure fairness in allocating seats and will reserve a number of places for visitors. 

Although the restrictions below look somewhat forbidding it is a necessary condition of opening the doors that due diligence is undertaken and apologies for the restrictive tone are hereby tendered.

• PLEASE DO NOT ATTEND IF YOU HAVE COVID SYMPTOMS

• Please bring your own Bible

• Your details will be taken for the NHS ‘Test and Trace’ programme

• Everyone is required to wear a face covering inside the church building

• Please observe 2m safe distance at all times inside the church building

• The service will last between 30-40 minutes

• Children are welcome but there are no crèche or Sunday school programmes running just now. We are working to provide for younger people over the coming weeks and months

• Refreshments will not be served at this time

• Access to the kitchen area is restricted to minimise our post-service cleaning regime

Breadalbane Community Larder

Breadalbane Community Larder has been Aberfeldy Co-op’s ‘FoodShare’ partner since March last year, taking ‘Best Before’ and ‘Use By’ food which would otherwise be thrown away or sent to their bio-digester.  Not wanting to lose this valuable partnership, we continue to collect these items and have this food available outside the rear of the church building for people to come and help themselves during Larder opening times (11.00am -12.30pm each Saturday). 

This FoodShare (Best Before only) is being extended to be ‘open all hours’ for a trial period and has reducing food waste as its key aim although it also helps those struggling with food insecurity on a limited basis.

We also offer two other options:

·      alongside the ‘FoodShare store’ on a Saturday morning, customers can come to the Larder and collect items from the stock indoors, for a nominal fee. This reduces the stigma and helps maintain customer dignity

·      emergency support is also available and can be accessed by calling 0345 30 111 00 Monday to Friday 9.00am - 5.00pm

With restrictions easing we have secured alternative premises at Offizone on Kenmore Street and are in the process of fitting this out with shelving.  We aim to move to our new home by the end of May.

If you know of anyone struggling to make ends meet please let them know about the support provided by Breadalbane Community Larder.

The Larder is a joint initiative of several local churches and also involves members of the local community.  If you would like to be involved please contact the team on 07513 652597 or email breadalbanecommunitylarder@btinternet.com

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 -  nglover@churchofscotland.org.uk

Neil’s mobile – 07779 280074

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

Mobile – 07836 565528

Future Online Services

June

20 – Neil Glover - Strathtay

27 – Robert Nicol

July

4 - Jamie Pringle

11 – Geoff Davis - Tenandry

18 – James Simpson - Weem

25 July – Neil - Logierait

Judy Ewer
PA to Neil Glover

Minister - Aberfeldy (SC007899), Dull and Weem (SC001465) and Grantully, Logierait &  Strathtay (SC004275) Churches of Scotland 

judy.ewer@adwgls.org.uk

mobile - 07836 565 528

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