Sunday 07 September 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
Philemon 1: 15 – 22
Luke 14: 25 – 33
Praise – I want Jesus to walk with me
Prayers
Lord Jesus Christ, we thank you that you dared to enter this world and make your voice heard. You spoke with words of love and compassion, you spoke words of forgiveness, you spoke words of judgement. But more than anything you spoke of the Kingdom of God and called us to be disciples of your Kingdom. We thank you that your call has come to us to be disciples, to offer a life of service, to share in the work of your Kingdom.
We thank you that you call us as we are – with all our faults, all our doubts and all our sinfulness.
We thank you that you chose us not through our own deserving but through your grace, your love, and your mercy.
We thank you that as you chose your people Israel, your twelve disciples, and your Church, so also you have chosen us.
And we thank you that though we fail you repeatedly, though we disobey your will, and turn away from you, yet your purpose for us continues and your love endures.
Lord Jesus Christ, we thank you for calling us, and we ask very simply, but also sincerely – help us to respond in the name of Christ.
May this offering we place before you be part of our response to you in discipleship, giving from an open and generous heart, loving God, loving our sister and brother, loving our neighbour. And where discipleship becomes costly, demanding and difficult show us how to offer our all for the sake of Christ our Lord.
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
Let me this morning tell you about Nambu. Nambu and his wife come from South India. They have two children but when I first met Nambu they had just one child.
I got to know Nambu because he was attending church as regularly as he could. Sometimes he arrived late to church or had to leave early depending on when his shift at work started. He so obviously wanted to be part of the church community, he wanted to be involved. Nambu was happy to lend a hand anywhere and as a fit, strong young man amongst a gathering of elderly and not so fit people he gladly moved tables and chairs and was generally really helpful. But that’s not the involvement he was really looking for. Nambu wanted to read the scriptures on a Sunday morning. So, he was put on the Readers Rota and his turn came around. Understandably, english was not his first language so reading the scripture passage aloud was something he had to rehearse and even be coached on to get it right. When he finished reading the scriptures passages that morning, he received a spontaneous round of applause from the congregation! They could all see just how much it meant to him to be part of a Christian congregation.
About a year later, I had the privilege of baptising Nambu into the Christian faith and then he became a communicant member of the church. His wife was baptised into the Christian faith a few months later.
About a year after that I received a phone call from Nambu. He was panicked and clearly looking for help. Working out just what was wrong was a bit of a challenge but eventually I got to the bottom of it. Nambu’s Visa, which allowed him to live and work here was coming to an end. He didn’t know if his employer was seeking to renew the Visa. Nambu was having nightmares about being deported to Rwanda, which to him meant living in mud huts, or even worse having to go back home.
Now that Nambu and his wife had been baptised into the Christian faith going back home to family in South India was just not possible. His family are Sheik; they would look on his Christian faith as a betrayal. Nambu and his wife would be disowned, they would be homeless, have no inheritance of land or wealth. He would not be employed by anyone and there would be a high probability that his life would be in danger. The cost of discipleship, the consequences of following the Christian faith, was for him and his family so very, very real. Glad to say it all worked out in the end. Nambu’s Visa was renewed and he and his wife and two children continue to be valued members of church and community.
We are incredibly fortunate to live in a country where Religious Freedoms are enshrined in law and division in society along religious lines, although they exist, are not as severe as in some parts of the world. The lines are softer here, blurred even. For Nambu, where he comes from in South India, faith is an utterly defining characteristic of who you are. Faith will determine where you live, who you can marry, what kind of work you will do, it will determine the daily patterns of life around worship, prayer, devotions, service to others. Faith holds together all of the elements of life. Without that faith life disintegrates.
It’s a pretty stark message that comes from Jesus in Luke’s gospel. If you want to follow Him then it’s wise to know what you are getting into. Following Christ might be a costly business; costly in terms of relationships, home, family, work.
Don’t start something you are not prepared to finish.
Praise – Just as I am
Prayers for Others
Posturing of the Super Powers
Is it possible Father, that we are facing a changing world order? China hosts Vladimir Putin and Kim Yong Un and other leaders during a breath taking show of military might. It’s not just that the East wants to subsume the global role, until now, acted out by the West; it is the very different political backgrounds of democracy and communism that creates such different outlooks, solutions, intentions. Across the millennia of human history empires have risen and fallen; nothing remains forever, everything changes and change creates anxiety, fear, sometimes conflict. Father God, we cannot tell where this ends but we can be sure we are seeing the beginning of a change that we cannot stop. Today, Lord, we truly are praying for our world that as a new global political era dawns it may not bring us to the brink of World War. Lord hear our prayers…
Lisbon (Portugal) Gloria Funicular Crash
Residents and tourists negotiating the steep hills of Lisbon on the historic and popular funicular cable railway when it all goes disastrously wrong. At least 16 have died and many are injured. Investigations will determine the cause of the failure but that will not bring healing to their grief, it will not bring strength to cope with life changing injury. Lord, we pray with sadness in our hearts for families whose loved ones have been snatched away in the twinkling of an eye. May faith be their strength and the love of God, shown through friend and stranger, bring healing to their spirits. Lord hear us in our prayers for grieving families…
The Cost of Discipleship
Lord Jesus, we live in a world where faith is not valued as once it was. Sometimes, following religion is discredited because of the very human flaws and failings that tarnish its image. Sometimes we have softened the demands of discipleship as not to set ourselves at variance with the world. When discipleship can be costly forgive us for seeking to avoid the cost. We pray for those who bravely face the cost of following you, those who have lost family and homes, land and inheritance, those who experience persecution, hatred, violence for the sake of their faith. We remember and pray for our sisters and brothers in Christ who bear the cost of discipleship. Hear our prayers…
Praise – Lord Jesus Christ
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.