Sunday 15 September 2024
Seventeenth 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
Psalm 19: 1 – 6
Mark 8: 27 – 38
Praise – Jesus shall reign
Prayers
In the gloom of an autumn evening, in the dreich moments of a drizzly day, in those moments of transition from morning to evening the skies still tell of the Glory of the God who created them. All of nature tells of the God which looked upon it and saw it to be good.
There is no language in which the voices of nature and all creation are not heard; no culture which succeeds more than temporarily in ignoring them. May we be encouraged and filled with awe as we contemplate our common home, this living Earth, which speaks so eloquently and prophetically of you, the sustaining God.
Creator God, Who spoke and at your word the world was created, who breathed life into your creatures, and declared all you created as good, Lord, we praise you, for the wonder of your creation. It is with sorrow that we admit that the good you have done has been tarnished by us. We have played our part in the damage done to the world.
We ask your forgiveness for the mess we have made and continue to make.
Strengthen us to mend our ways and to move away from all that damages our common home; help us to see the needs of others ahead of our own.
Lord forgive us for covering our ears and refusing to listen to wisdom as she calls out to us. Forgive us when we become more interested in the clamour of the world that the words of wisdom that will keep us on the right path. Forgive us our foolishness, and our refusal to learn. Give us ears that are ready to listen and to learn from you, our saviour and Lord,
Lord Jesus Christ, you offer us a clean slate, the opportunity to start afresh. And we come to offer you willing hearts and open minds. We give what we can from of all that you have given to us so that your Kingdom may grow and all nature rejoice in the love of the Creator.
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
Maybe it was vain pride that got the better of me. When it came to choosing a family pet dog there was no way I was going out to walk a toy poodle, or a Yorkshire Terrier. I needed a proper dog, a dog of a decent size, but not aggressive nor one that was going to leave puddles of dog drool on the furniture or up the walls. I have no complaints therefore about the two Golden Retrievers I have owned; Zach and Caie were both wonderful dogs. For the last eight years our wee dog Jet, a Working Cocker Spaniel, has lived with us and he has been the best dog yet. No, he is not a big manly dog like the retrievers, but I’ve learned that that does not matter. He’s a quiet, affectionate patient dog in the house; easy to live with. Take Jet to Rouken Glen or the windfarm and it’s like someone has flicked a switch on. Suddenly he is animated, full of energy, nose to the ground picking up every sniff and scent, pounces on every stick he can find with absolute commitment and precision (we have to put him on his lead to pick up sticks to throw or you’ll lose your fingers!) And he loves the water, he loves swimming in the river at Rouken Glen and he loves the muddy peaty puddles at the windfarm, and he loves sticks being thrown into the water for him to fetch. He’s a joy to watch, a joy just watching him being a spaniel, doing what he instinctively knows how to do, like a child at play in the best playground ever, up to his ears in mud and glore.
I cannot understand why some people try so hard to humanise their pets. No dog needs a pink bow tied in its hair, or a coat to keep it dry, a handbag to be carried about in, or worse still a pram so you can push it about; it’s a dog, it has four paws, it can walk!!! While I sort of disapprove of such humanising of our pets, I also understand that’s it’s a way of expressing the relationship we have with the living, breathing, sentient creatures we share our lives with.
Maybe that’s why we are a nation of dog lovers, and cat lovers too. We see their individual personalities, their adaptability to fit into our surroundings. The close bonds and relationships we form with them become meaningful to us.
I can be pretty sure we don’t feel that way about the sun, or the moon, or the stars. In Psalm 19 the sun is like a happy bridegroom or an athlete eager to run a race, I’ve never thought on the sun in terms like that. I’ve never thought on the rising of the sun or its going down as in any way announcing God’s glory. Don’t get me wrong, a magnificent sunrise or sunset is something to behold but I don’t see the sun or moon or stars as living things, not living in the way that you and I, or our family pet, are living, breathing, sentient and blessed with personality. Yet, the psalmist attributes personality to these heavenly bodies. He wants to express a relationship between humanity and the cosmos that surrounds us. For him it is a relationship that stems from and points to God.
If we only think on the sun as a ball of burning gas, and the moon as no more than a lump of rock and dust floating in space, and the stars as so infinitely distant from us as to be irrelevant to anything, then what do we think of planet earth? Is the rock and dust beneath our feet just dead, inanimate meaningless nothing, devoid of purpose or personality, with which we have no relationship? Or should we be reinforcing the images of Mother Earth and all the concepts of birth, death, love and care, nurture and nourishment – relationship, that we learn from our mothers and need to express toward planet earth and all that stretches out in the heavens above.
In the Book of Genesis, a story of relationship is retold. The relationship between God and creation, God and humanity, humanity and creation. Genesis also retells the story of a broken relationship between God and humanity and how one broken relationship impacts upon all others including humanity’s relationship with nature. Is it possible that we’ll never get humanity’s relationship with planet earth right until we get humanity’s relationship with God, right?
Praise – I’m not ashamed
Prayers for Others
Finding God Everywhere
Father in Heaven, we think on you as a God who is everywhere, omni-present. You are with us now, in this place, within these walls, in our thoughts, our words, our prayers and praises. Yet we are challenged at the thought that you might be in our neighbour, in a stranger, in a foreigner or in a refugee. We are challenged by the thought that you might be within all living things, that having given them the gift of life, they too might be in a relationship with you, even if that relationship is different to ours. Can you really be alive to us in plants and animals? Can you really be alive to us in the rocks and the dust? Can you really be alive to us in the sun and moon and stars?
Help us Lord to realise that you are involved in every aspect of our lives and that you exist in every relationship; the relationships we love and enjoy and in the relationships that are broken for you are a God of relationships, Father, Son and Spirit, three and yet one. When we return to our daily routines may we come to know that you are present in the everyday, the mundane and ordinary as much as you are in the wonders of creation. Lord hear us in our prayers as we turn to seek you in all things and everywhere…
The Wonders of Life
For the wonders of life, we thank you and praise you. For the beauty that surrounds us, that fill us with awe and causes us to catch our breath we thank you. For family and friends, for the gift of faith and the hope of the Gospel; for food to eat and clothes to keep us warm, and a home to shelter us; we thank you.
For all the things we think we have worked for and earned by our own endeavours yet, are still gifts from you by virtue of the skills and talents, intelligence and ingenuity you have gifted us with, we thank you.
Lord God, you know and we know that life brings its hardships and struggles yet, life is the most wonderful, resilient and precious of gifts. Hear us now a we offer our thanks for the Wonders of Life…
Praise – Be thou my vision
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.
Very good service and lots to think about.