Sunday 22 September 2024

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.

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Scripture

Psalm 1

Mark 9: 30 – 37

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Praise – Immortal Invisible

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Prayers

Our trust in God is like a tree growing by living streams of water.  The fruit we bear brings joy to all when justice blossoms.  The tree is nourished, watered, it never fails, it never dries up for God provides for its needs.

God of Heaven, Creator and Sustainer,

Christ Jesus, saviour and friend,

Holy Spirit, our constant guide, we come before you as your people.

We come with the dust of the world on our feet, acutely aware of strife, both within and without. We seek your cleansing power, your presence, your promptings, your peace.

We come in response to your invitation, knowing that you will work within us and among us. We offer you ourselves, open, expectant, ready for new life to take root within us.

Loving God, we marvel at the gift of life itself, the sheer wonder of being. Thank you for the everyday beauty we see: the flowers and fruits in their season, the gifts of fellowship and friendship, not only with one another but with you.  Your life giving goodness is unstoppable. We depend upon you like trees, planted beside a stream. Forgive us for our straying. We know there have been times when we’ve harboured resentment and jealousy, when we’ve been consumed by ambition. We have not paused to remember your values, nor to ask for guidance. Our negligence leaves us weary. Renew and forgive us. Bring us ever closer to you and plant your wisdom within us.

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.

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Address

I don’t know if you’ve ever had a walk through Chatelherault Country Park and come across the ancient oaks.  These ancient oak trees sit in a meadow on the left bank of the River Avon, although to be honest they are not that close to the river.  The Chatelherault Oaks have been dated back to the 15^th century making them around 600 years old, which is old but not that old compared to the life span of a Yew tree.

Yew trees grow very slowly, some years they don’t grow at all and it makes them very difficult to date.  If an oak tree is considered ancient at about 400 years old, a Yew tree is not considered ancient until it is 900 years old.  The most ancient Yew trees in the United Kingdom are almost exclusively found in church graveyards; the most ancient of which is at Fortingall Church in Perthshire not far from Kenmore at the end of Loch Tay.  The Fortingall Yew is at least 2000 years old, scientific dating has suggested it is 3,500 years old and some wild estimates suggest it’s as much as 9,000 years old.

It is hardly surprising that the Yew tree has come to symbolise the immortal.  Something that spans thousands of years of history, that pre-dates any records of our heritage will inevitably carry a sense of mystery, spirituality and eternity, which is maybe why graveyards were established around them.

I suppose the Chatelherault Oaks and the Fortingall Yew have seen their share of flood and drought and survived it all because they have had time, (centuries/ millennia) in which to sink their roots deep into the soil; they will always find water even in the driest and hottest of summers.  Unlike the young trees we planted at Dunedin Park.  Hundreds of young striplings were planted late in the year full in the knowledge that one third of them would not survive.  I had thought that winter frost and snow might have killed them off but NO; it was the very dry June of the following summer that did the most harm. Each day I could see leaves wilting and going brown.  Each day that passed brought those young trees closer to dying off.  Their young shallow roots were unable to find water.

Like all living things, trees, all plants and animals, humans too, we depend on water for life.  And I will qualify that by saying “clean water”, we need clean water for life.  But I am not about to launch into some rhetoric on sewage spills into lochs and lakes and rivers from inadequate Victorian sewage systems.

The Book of Psalms opens with an image of God’s people being like trees that grow beside a stream.  They have an endless supply of clean refreshing water that provides them with growth, even in the driest of summers, and because they have water, they produce fruit at the right time, fruit in season, and their leaves never dry up.

I think many of us would look on our faith in Christ as being just that.  We’ve faced the hard and difficult times in life, we’ve had our crosses to bear, yet our faith is undiminished; faith like clean water, has sustained us, our spirits have not dried up or withered and we have produced fruits through our quiet testimony to the need for faith in Christ.

And as I, we, reflect on that, we come to realise that so many images of faith, and life lived in faith, are drawn from images in nature.  The parable of the wheat and the tares, Jesus calls us to be fishers of men, we are the sheep and He is the great shepherd, the creator God seen in sun, moon and stars, the parable of the fig tree, God in the storm, in the wind, in the fire, God in the stillness…  In terms of the scriptures so much of our relationship with God is seen in our relationship with nature; nature tells us about God; God communicates with us through nature.

And I wonder if that’s why we find faith so hard to communicate in our world today.  We have lost our relationship with God in part because we have lost our relationship with nature.  We communicate God in some academic, doctrinal way, in statements of faith that are dry and fruitless.  When faith should be live-giving, soul-refreshing, thirst-quenching like a drink of ice-cold water on a hot summer’s day.

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Praise – Fairest Lord Jesus

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Prayers for Others

Israeli Espionage (Mossad)

War, they say, is the mother of all invention.  Who could imagine that something as small as a Pager for receiving messages could become an explosive device? Who could imagine that such things as Pagers and Walkie Talkies could be weaponised?  This is high tech espionage mindboggling in its ingenuity, yet, so utterly dismaying in its pre-meditated nature.  Even if the intent was only to destroy communications amongst Hezbollah militia, then where is the thought for innocent bystanders?  The deception and darkness of warfare brings forth the greatest of ingenuity and inventiveness and the worst of human nature.  Lord God, where does it go from here?  Do sworn enemies admit defeat and seek peace? Or does this descend to ever great depths of deception and cruelty?

Lord hear us in our prayers for sworn enemies…

In Praise of the Creator

Almighty and sovereign God, we join together in grateful acknowledgement of your creative power.  For you are the one whose hands shaped the universe.  Yours is the power that guides and controls the nations.  Yours is the love that works in and through all things.  Mighty God, we acknowledge you as the Lord and master of our lives.  Come amongst us and inspire us with new vision for what this world could be, should be; fill us with hope and send us out into this world to speak up for creation, to speak up for our neighbour, to speak up for Christ and all He has done to redeem us and all creation.  Almighty God hear us in prayers of thanksgiving for Your creative works…

Made in the image of God

You Lord God, made us in your image.  Often, we wonder exactly what that means.  Maybe simply this, that you have blessed us with the same creativity that you possess.  You have given us the ability to explore the far reaches of space, the depths of the oceans, the structures of the atom.  You have given us the ability to understand physics and chemistry and create afresh with materials and forces.  Yet not all our creativity is used for the good of humanity or for the glory of God.  Lord Jesus, where creativity has become depravity convict humanity of our wrong, and lead us in paths that lead to a harvest of goodness for all.  Lord hear us in our prayers…

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Praise – Love Divine

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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.

Tags: Worship