Sunday 24 August 2025
11th 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.
Your Weekly Church Notices
Scripture
Hebrews 12: 1 – 4
Luke 4: 14 – 24
Praise – Longing for light
Prayers
Lord Jesus Christ come as those who are blessed and broken, seeking The Word that sets captives free. Open our hearts to Your presence among us, not just in this sanctuary, but in our streets, in places where people rejoice and where they suffer in silence. Make this time of worship a place where faith is fanned into flame, where we are moved to show mercy, and love is unleashed.
For you are the God of the full and the famished, God of the hopeful and the hurting. We come as people who long to walk the pathway of service but confess how easily we grow weary and wander.
We acknowledge that we have spoken of justice more than we have worked for it. We have prayed for the poor while clinging to comfort, and listened to the cries of the oppressed with selective ears. Forgive us for the moments we have worshipped You with words only; compassion withheld by our inaction.
Break the chains of apathy that grip so tightly our hand and hearts. Shape us again in the image of Christ: a suffering servant, a friend to the marginalised,
a King who welcomed the leper, ate with the sinner and loved the unlovable.
Lord Jesus, it is in knowing you that we bring our offering. We are drawn to your words, drawn to your person desiring to know you better and to live a life that honours your teachings. We offer of our resources; we offer our hearts in loving service and our voices in songs of praise. We offer ourselves with all our imperfections knowing that you can and will use us to accomplish your will.
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
Reading: Luke 4: 14 – 24
Just last week, or maybe it was the week before, Gerry Briody asked me if I rehearse the scripture readings before I read them in church. Well, yes, I do. Even taking a few minutes to understand the flow of a passage helps enormously; to take note of the punctuation so I can grasp the sentence structure, how ideas are linked together, where emphasis lies; it all helps.
And then, when it comes to reading it out loud, the only tool we have to convey that understanding is the voice. How we use the pause, the pace of the words, the intonation of the voice, a quiet voice in gentle touching moments, a raised voice in anger and protest that adds drama to the story. Wonderful!
If only it was as simple as that. We’ve had versions of the Bible in English for centuries now, but if we were to go back to the very beginning, to the time when the Gospels existed only in Greek we’d have a much more complicated task. There would be no chapters numbers to divide up the text, no verse numbers either to help us find our favourite stories. There would be no headings in bold print. There would be no paragraphs, no capital letters. There would be no punctuation, not even spaces between the words. Each letter character follows on from the one before in endless succession. So, when we open our Bibles to read, we are looking at something that has already been interpreted by someone. Someone has decided where a sentence begins and ends, where the coma, or the apostrophe or the question mark belongs. And that makes a difference to how we understand a passage.
They said, “Isn’t he the son of Joseph?” Question mark. And so, we are left to believe that this is the turning point. The men who gathered in the synagogue in Nazareth realise the nature of Jesus humble background and are already looking down their noses at him. In the twinkling of an eye those men go from being ‘well impressed at his eloquent words’ to rejecting him because he is the carpenters boy. “Isn’t he the son of Joseph?” are words we read with a note of disdain just because there is a question mark. Change it for an exclamation mark and think again about the sense of those words.
Now we cannot ignore the fact that this episode in Nazareth ends with the people in the synagogue rising up in anger, dragging Jesus out of the town to throw him over a cliff. If that’s not rejection, what is? But their anger, their rejection of him, is in response to what Jesus said to them.
Jesus had been travelling through Galilee teaching in the local synagogues. And he was praised by everyone for his teaching and eloquent words. The people of Nazareth were filled with anticipation and expectation at hearing a wonderful teacher and preacher and hopeful too that ‘the things that happened in Capernaum’ would happen for them too. Jesus response to all those hopes and expectations was a very adamant “NO”. No, I’m not doing that for you; it won’t be happening here. He rejected them. Feeling disappointed and insulted the people of Nazareth rise up in anger against him.
It might be a sobering lesson for us to ponder that the way we understand Jesus Christ and his ministry comes down, at times, to the colour we put on individual words or whether it is a question mark or an exclamation mark at the end of a sentence. But maybe even more sobering for us to ponder that our hopes and dreams and visions just might meet with disappointment; ‘No, I’m not doing that for you; it won’t be happening here.’
Is it okay to respond to God in anger?
Praise – Will you come and follow me
Prayers for Others
Prayers for the oppressed
Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ, we pray for those denied their freedom – freedom to worship, freedom to express their opinions, to vote, to determine their own affairs. Help them to make their voice heard and to secure the justice they seek. Set at liberty those held captive and may the oppressed go free. We pray for those whose spirits are held captive, poisoned by greed, envy, pride and selfishness, trapped in a vicious circle of hatred and bitterness. May they find in Jesus Christ the one who is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Lord set at liberty those who are held captive and may the oppressed go free. Lord hear our prayers…
Those enduring domestic abuse
Lord Jesus, we come to pray for those who are subjected to abuse at home. Where relationships are meant to be kind and loving and supportive it is tragic to know that too many relationships are marked by jealousy, or the need to be controlling, that some are dominated and coerced by their partners.
Lord, we know that you came to set the oppressed free, help us to understand that sometimes those who are oppressed are living next door to us. Lord hear us in our prayers for those who endure domestic abuse whether physical or mental or emotional that they might be set free from their captivity…
Those struggling with their mental health
Lord Jesus, in our prayers we remember those who do not enjoy good mental health. Often fragile and vulnerable help is hard to come by when access to health professionals is so limited and waiting lists are long. All too often they are confronted with prejudice and apprehension and simple lack of understanding. Caught within the prison of their fears and anxieties and darkness we pray for those struggling with their mental health to find support and care and freedom to live life to the full. We pray for ourselves that we might be able to open our hearts to their needs and offer a listening ear, care and support even here in our church and within our community of faith. Lord, 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.