Sunday 16 November 2025
23rd 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.
Your Weekly Church Notices
Scripture
Isaiah 65: 17 – 25
Luke 21: 5 – 19
Praise – All my hope on God is founded
Prayers
Loving God, we praise you that we can put our hand into yours knowing that you will lead us, support us and hold us throughout our lives, that you will supply all our needs and far more besides. You have touched our lives through your grace. And we say thank you.
We praise you for our experience of that truth across the years – the way you have always held firm despite our faults and faithlessness, never letting go of us even when we let go of you. You have touched our lives through your grace. And we thank you.
Forgive us then for too often letting go of you, intent on going our own way. Forgive us for doubting you when times are hard, questioning your ability to lead us safely through. Forgive us for reaching out only when we have need of you expecting that you will lift us up. You have touched us through your grace. And we thank you.
Help us to put our hand in yours once again, in simple trust and quiet confidence. Fill our hearts with expectation sure in the knowledge that you will hold us firm. This is what you offer to us; grace we do not deserve, love we have not earned, redemption that is full and free. And what we seek to give back is as simple and unsullied as a loving heart.
Then 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
Luke presents us with a passage that could easily fit with Remembrance Sunday themes, and indeed sometimes, this passage, as we work through the Sundays of the Christian year, does coincide with Remembrance Sunday.
There’s a lot going on in Luke’s passage and a lot of it is scary. Earth quakes, famines and plagues; wars and revolutions. Everything in upheaval. Nothing constant, nothing remaining the same. And all of that stems from the disciples admiring the vast and beautiful and ancient Temple which seems to have stood the ravages of time. The Temple has been there forever and will be there forevermore. Only it won’t be. Nothing stays the same forever. One day the temple will be torn down.
I suppose the question the disciples ask is quite legitimate. When will all this happen Lord? How will we know? What will be the signs? Yet I wonder what their motive is for asking. Are they seeking to embrace the inevitable, embrace God’s will and plan OR is it so they can take action to save the Temple and maybe then, unwittingly thwart God’s plan?
And yet, when they, or we, see the most unimaginable things happen, when we see institutions and ways of life being torn down do we think this is part of God’s plan or do we strive to keep everything as it is, keep our institutions alive, our ways of life defended. How do we know which is the right thing to do?
The answer we find in Luke’s Gospel is not an easy one for us to hear. Jesus speaks about his followers being arrested and persecuted; His followers will be tried and put in prison. I can’t say the prospect fills me with joy! But it all comes from a need to have the message of the Gospel heard. The need for truth to be spoken, made known. Truth gives those who hear it the opportunity to stop and think, change direction if they need too. Truth that forms the very foundation of our humanity, how we relate to each other and how we relate to our God. We then, might suffer for the Truth if we dare to speak it and we may not save the institutions that are so familiar to us. New worlds will come from the Truth we are bold enough to speak but the foundations of love, mercy, justice, compassion are eternal.
Who would not look at our world now and not think that the great institutions of free speech and democracy are not on the edge of destruction. Who would not look at our world and come to see that love, and compassion and mercy are harder to find now than ever before. And justice; justice seems not to hear the cry of the victim anymore. Communities are divided on matters of race and immigration and there are those who exploit and increase that division.
And all of the foundations of love, mercy, justice and compassion are enshrined in the Kingdom of God, that place where relationships between individuals and neighbours, communities and countries and continents matter. Relationships matter because our God is a God of relationships, Father, Son and Holy Spirit three persons so utterly bound together in love as to be one. To find such depths of love is costly. The cross tells us that so clearly.
If our voice is the only voice to speak that truth, to speak of love and compassion, mercy and justice; are we prepared in an increasingly hostile and divided world to carry the cost of loving.
Praise – Longing for light
Prayers for Others
Truth, Trust and the BBC
The debate and the headlines have wrangled on all week. Sometimes Father, we just switch off to the subject matters we are just not that interested in. Do we really care if a video of Donald Trump was badly edited or not? One video which only reinforced what we were thinking anyway. But maybe that is the point; one video that reinforced opinion, not fact, not unbiased truth. It didn’t inform or educated or challenge us to see another point of view. The BBC gave us Fake News. When trust is broken, we begin to question everything. We search for all the other places where we have been misled. How can we understand our world if we cannot trust those who profess to give us the truth; unbiased truth.
Lord God, in a world swamped with media outlets, fact and fiction, news and fake news, conflicting ideologies and divided opinions, help us listen to your words of Truth and discern where truth can be found in this world. Hear our prayer…
Those facing life’s struggles
Lord Jesus Christ, every day you entered into the choices and struggles that people faced. Ordinary people like us who don’t always have freedom or the power to change things. So, today we bring to You all who are struggling with life’s choices and pressures. We remember those who are facing tough choices and hard situations; those enduring physical or mental pain; those striving to come to terms with painful loss – of a loved one, of employment, of dreams and ambitions, of cherished hopes; those facing challenges for which they feel hopelessly inadequate.
Hold them in Your love and let them know Your peace and the sufficient strength of Your grace which is able to turn even calamity into a blessing. Lord hear our prayers…
Quietness for our own prayers
Lord Jesus, direct our thoughts now as from the quietness and stillness of your house we make our own prayers to you. We come with concerns for family and friend and even for ourselves, we pray for those who have nothing of their own. Wherever you take us in prayer, may these prayers be genuine and sincere, a prayer which comes from the heart and goes to the heart of God. Hear us in our prayers…
Praise – Jesus shall reign
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.