Sunday 01 September 2024
15th Sunday after Pentecost
Welcome!
We know not everyone who is part of Westwood Church is able to be in church on Sunday morning however, we thought it would be good to offer some excerpts from the Sunday morning service. Where we can, we offer parts of the service in text and audio, whichever works best for you. If you want to plug in headphones to your computer, tablet or mobile phone now is a good time to do it ! If you want to offer some comment or feedback just use the comment box at the end of this post.
Scripture
Song of Songs 2: 8 – 13
Mark 7: 1 – 4 & 14 – 24
Praise – Lord of creation
Prayers
In this Season of Creation may our God hear the voices of all nature, of peoples and forests, of all that flies, or walks, or swims, or crawls; from the heights to the depths may God the Creator, the Sustainer be praised.
For you, our God, have woven the fabric of life with such exuberant variety, of creatures seen and unseen; predators and prey, pollinators and plants, blossoms that delight, and fruits that nourish; and people… yes, people, to protect the Earth!
Lord God, you delight in us, made us in your image, so much so that in Christ you have shared flesh, blood and frailty full in the knowledge of what humanity had become; that we have torn apart the web of life, trampled the poor, blocked the circulation of goodness, eradicated all that might sustain and feed our neighbours and ourselves.
And still, we go on blaming those who suffer, writing laws that justify destruction, looking away from the struggle nature endures at our hands, not reading the signs you send.
Lovingly you warn us to change and reconnect with creation and the Creator, to choose Your ways not our own.
We cannot compare our gifts to Yours Lord. What we bring is so modest and simple. What you give to us is magnificent, awe inspiring, so deeply loving. Yet, you see in the gifts we bring a reflection of your love for us, an image of you, something that comes from the heart and is precious in your sight. All we ask Lord, is that you bring Glory to your name through the gifts we bring.
Hear us as we join in the words of the Lord’s Prayer saying…
Our Father who art in Heaven Hallowed be thy name. Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day 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 thine is the Kingdom, the Power and the Glory forever. Amen.
Address
I may have said this before… I hate gardening! That little bit of creation that wraps around the Manse is not something I find a great deal of joy in tending to. Sure, I cut the grass, keep it tidy. But it grows again. Then it rains and I can’t cut the grass until it’s a decent dry or even sunny day, by which time I’d rather be doing anything else but cut the grass. The weeds grow up all too quickly. Mildew gets the roses. Slugs and snails and caterpillars and green fly all take their toll upon healthy plants. It’s a never ending battle against creation, which I know I will never win. There is a life force in creation that is undeniable, unquenchable and unconquerable.
During the Sundays of September, we enter into a Season of Creation or Creation Time, as it is often referred to. Creation Time is not something I have really indulged in before perhaps believing that it is a response to Climate Change and therefore will be a season of guilt-ridden prayers depicting humanity’s destruction of all things created and ultimately our own destruction. There may be a place for such things yet, guilt and blame are seldom the tools that bring about change in attitudes; love and joy on the other hand… love and joy awaken our souls to better things, to see things positively, and express the desire to care and protect and nurture. And now, I think, I may have painted myself into a corner. Next time I cut the grass I will need to do it joyfully with a spring in my step and a song on my lips. Or pay someone else to do it !!
The Season of Creation should allow us to look again at the 1,300 pages of scripture in Old and New Testaments and see that creation is not some marginal, subordinate, optional extra. Creation is where it begins, with day and night, land and sea, the moon, the stars, the sun, all things that walk, or crawl or fly or swim; to let the wonder of these things into our lives and make sure that our footprint on the planet is as misery-negative and joy-positive as it can be. Consider that this might be one more thing your faith is for: Shamelessly to spread an infectious and transformative joy, and conspicuously to be known to be Christian by our love for Creation.
Isn’t it time they knew we are Christian by our active and costly and exuberant and realistic love for the wonder and mystery and terror and beauty of the Creation of which we are all a part.
Whatever else it is our churches offer in response to the crises of nature and climate, even as our lives and economies struggle with the devastation of hurricanes, droughts, rising seas and societal breakdown…. it is stupidity, not strength, to miss out on the delights which God places in our way. Our responsive, respectful, interactive and interdependent relationship with the rest of Creation need not defile us. Nor need we defile Creation.
I cannot think on any time that I have turned to the Song of Songs for a scripture reading. Attributed to King Solomon, this series of poems celebrates love and human relationship. Time and time again it is the beauty of creation that reflects the beauty of their love. Humanity is wonderfully and beautifully united with creation; we come from the hands of the same Creator. That said, I’m unsure how Lynn might react if I said her “teeth are as white as sheep just shorn and washed”. Then maybe the point is we have stopped seeing beauty in the world around us, stopped taking the time to see that beauty. Beauty is not expendable. It’s healthy, it’s how we’re made.
Maybe we need to find the courage – or call it foolishness, like the foolishness of a lover – to see happiness in a tree, as well as in the birds
who make their nest within its branches. Those of us who’ve shared life even with a dog or a cat will know what it is to let their wagging tails or their gentle purring work their magic on us. It by no means diminishes our
humanity to find beauty and joy in the creatures we share this planet with.
In your garden, in our church grounds, in a window-box or plant pot at home, give space to something living, something fragile; and to someone with whom you can share the joyfulness and beauty of creation. Celebrate it and don’t be shy!
Praise – Thou whose almighty word
Prayers for Others
Bracing Ourselves for the Autumn Budget
Lord God, even if we set aside the political rhetoric, the blame game that politicians play, we can be sure that financially difficult times lie ahead of us. The Prime Minister has paved the way for bad news in the autumn budget. Certainly, some of us will face such times with greater ease than others, we have enough, we have resilience, we can cope; but for those who cannot, who do not have the resources, who do not have the abilities to help them budget or manage, for those we think of as living in poverty… help us not to be blind to them, not blind to our neighbour, show us how to rebuild community that cares, that sees, that restores hope and dignity. Lord hear us in our prayers for those least able to face times of hardship…
Climate – The South Pacific Islands (Tonga & Samoa)
Maybe we hear it too much. Maybe we have tuned out to the endless story of Climate Change. We oscillate in our thinking… has it just been a bad summer or is this climate change. Is it a one off or is this the way it now is? And if we think that summers are not how they were when we were young then lets spare a thought, a prayer, for those who live on the Pacific Islands, the paradise islands of Tonga and Samoa who can see their islands being submerged by rising sea levels. They can foresee the time when they lose everything, literally everything. Lord God, in the season of Creation help us to open our hearts and our minds once again to a message we find hard to take in and hard to respond too – for the sake of your creation, all peoples and all living things, we need to change our ways. Lord hear us in our prayers for those who endure the fallout from a changing climate…
Our Own Prayers
Lord Jesus, we take comfort in the knowledge that you listen to even the smallest of prayers, the simplest of requests. We have prayed for the big things, prayed for our nation and those who struggle, we have prayed for a world in crisis. And now we pray for ourselves, those things which by comparison seem insignificant and silly yet they matter to us and they matter to you. We talk to you in the quietness of prayer, just as we might talk to an old friend sharing our woes and our worries, our hopes and our fears, our concerns for self and concerns for others. Lord God, hear our prayers…
Praise – How deep the Father’s love
The Grace
And now… May the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God and the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you and all whom you love, now and for evermore. AMEN.
Great service and very.moving lots to think about.