Sunday 30 March 2025
4th of Lent
Mother’s Day
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.
Your Weekly Church Notices
Scripture
Luke 15: 11 – 32
Praise – When we walk with the Lord
Prayers
Loving God, we call to you as our Father thanking you for a Father’s love, but we know that fathers are not the only ones who can love fully, selflessly, sacrificially. On this day, Mother’s Day, we thank you for a Mother’s love, for all they mean to us or have meant to us, for the love they have shown and the care they have given.
We thank you for the dedication of mothers, the sacrifices they make, the support they offer, the comfort they bring and the guidance they provide.
We thank you for a mother’s patience, kindness, concern and understanding.
We thank you for mothers as home makers, the ones who help society cohere and our world be a more compassionate place.
We thank you for time spent with mothers in learning and playing.
Loving God, we thank you for the opportunity this day gives to say what we so often mean to say but so rarely do. For mothers and motherhood, for children and families we bring you this day our grateful praise.
In making our offering, we remember how our mother’s taught us to be generous and share, to think on others not just ourselves, to give what we have without hesitation or regret. So, as we place our offering upon Your table, giving as we are able, we thank you for mothers who taught us in the ways of Jesus Christ.
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
You may think that I have lost the plot!!!! It’s Mother’s Day and the scripture reading for today is the story of the Prodigal Son which is primarily about the relationship between a Father and his sons. Could there be a less appropriate reading for Mother’s Day?
It’s not as if Jesus ignored women, or degraded them, or like much of society in his time, treated women as second class citizens. Just the opposite; Jesus did not shy away from those women society thought of as lesser; the prostitute, the Samaritan woman at the well, men AND women who suffered from leprosy. In large part Jesus and his disciples depended on women, particularly those of independent means who followed Jesus and used their own income to support Jesus and the disciples, buying food, paying for their accommodation as they travelled from town to town. After his crucifixion it was the women who went to the tomb to anoint Jesus’ body with spices; it was the women who first saw Jesus risen from the dead, it was the women who received the Good News and shared it with the disciples.
And it was not as if Jesus turned a blind eye to the pain his mother Mary would endure at the sight of his death on the cross for Jesus asked the disciple John to look after her.
In that patriarchal, male-dominated society of the first century, we might argue that Jesus was ahead of his time, placing an equal value on all people irrespective of age, race, or gender. And so, I can say with a certain degree of pride that the Church of Scotland was also ahead of its time when, fifty and more years ago, we recognised the significant part women played in the story of the Gospels and recognised that women had every right to enter into the Ordained Ministry of Word and Sacrament and to be ordained as elders. It was a good moment when the Church changed its practices to reflect its growing, understanding of the Christian faith. And today, I can say that within the church, even in local congregations, there is no role, task, function or office that women are denied. So, it may be a curious thing (and this is just an observation) that in the church where the majority of members are female, the majority of ministers are male.
Nonetheless, we are left with parables and stories from a very different society to ours that focus upon fathers and sons, and twelve disciples all of who were male, and wives who must submit to their husbands and how women should cover their heads in church and remain quiet at the back of the church during worship. A society of ancient times where anything meaningful was going to be expressed through men, male characters and perhaps therefore that God should be understood to be male; a Father, our Father who art in heaven.
It may then be a curious thing to know that the ancient name for God in the Old Testament Yahweh, sometimes Jehovah, was not seen as being either male or female. And that the Holy Spirit, described as Wisdom, present at the creation of the world was understood to be female. God is understood to embrace male and female. So maybe, we’ve been left with a one-sided expression.
When we turn to such a familiar story as the Prodigal Son, it’s good to try and side-step the male orientated nature of the story and focus on the message. A message of love. A wayward child who despite their recklessness is still loved. A child who needs forgiveness for their stupidity and the harm they have done to themselves and to others. A child who needs to set relationships right again. The story of the Prodigal son recognises that setting relationships right again, extending open, welcoming, loving arms, has consequences. Loving this way evoked jealousy and resentment, a sense of injustice, in the other child and love had to overcome that too, and did.
It’s not just fathers who can love like that; mothers love that way too; absorbing the hurts, the conflicts, healing the wounds, listening with care, offering forgiveness and fresh beginnings. To love that way is to be close to God for God, whether we see him as a Father or a Mother; God is love.
Praise – Great is thy faithfulness
Prayers for Others
Prayers for Mother’s Day
Gracious God, on this Mother’s Day we bring you our prayers for all entrusted with the responsibility of motherhood. Lord hear the prayers we now offer…
We pray for mothers the world over, recognising both the joys and demands they experience – the privileges and the pressures, hopes and fears that motherhood encapsulates. Equip them with the love, wisdom and strength they need to face all of life’s circumstances.
We remember mothers who bear the responsibilities of parenthood alone. Where relationships have broken down, where bereavement has left them alone, where a partner or spouse works away from home and mums are left to cope without support, we pray that they might be granted the emotional, physical and financial resources they and their children need.
We pray for mothers who grieve; praying for those separated from their children by the breakdown of relationships, by war and conflict, those who fear they will never see their children again, who have lost hope and lost faith. Comfort the Lord through times of loss and grief and distress.
We pray for mums who open their hearts to children from other families, those who foster or adopt, and those who long to do so but are denied the opportunity to love unconditionally. We remember too those who for various reasons have given up their child for adoption and agonise over what otherwise might have been. Give to each of them the peace that passes all understanding.
We pray for children of all ages estranged from their mothers, seeking to discover their natural mother, seeking to restore their sense of identity and worth and personhood. We think on all for whom Mother’s Day brings pain and sadness rather than happiness and prayerfully offer them to you.
Gracious God, we pray for mothers and children everywhere. May your blessing be upon them, your hand guide them and your love enrich them. AMEN
Praise – Now thank we all our God
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.