Sunday 21 Sep 2025
15th 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
1 Timothy 2: 1 – 7
Luke 16: 1 – 13
Praise – Be thou my vision
Prayers
Gracious God, Lord of all, we thank you that we can come to you in our prayers, that for all your greatness, and wonder, and holiness, we can still speak to you as a friend.
We thank you that we can open our hearts to you, that we can pour out our innermost souls and share our deepest thoughts, in the knowledge that you are there, always ready to listen and understand.
So now once more we lay our lives before you, open to your gaze
The bad as well as the good,
The doubts as well as the faith
The sorrow as well as the joy
The despair as well as the hope.
We bring the anger as well as the peace,
The hatred as well as the love
The confusion as well as the certainty
The fear as well as the trust
Gracious God, we bring these not with pride or any sense of arrogance but honestly, recognising that you know us through and through.
Help us through our times of worship to be truthful to ourselves and truthful to you, and so may we discover the renewing love which only you can offer – a love that frees us to live as you would have us live, and allows us to be the people you would have us be.
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
The Church of Scotland has for a long time had an unfortunate relationship with alcohol!! And I understand why. Alcohol misuse and addictions are a blight upon the life of the individual, upon family life and society in general. For that reason, no Church of Scotland will never have a bar facility in the church hall or be permitted to hold a licence for the sale of alcohol or purchase alcohol with congregational funds. The Church does not promote total abstinence but does encourage us “not to promote the habit of drinking”. But should we choose to have a social event where an individual holds a licence and donates proceeds from the sale of alcohol to the church, we will smile and say “Thank you!” Is that just being shrewd?
The same can be said of gambling. Again, gambling can be an absolute blight on the life of the individual, the family and society which is why as a Church we would not indulge in any gambling related activity but we are happy to receive in our offering plate the money you won on the horses. Is that just being shrewd?
It is for these same reasons that congregations seeking to raise large sums of money to refurbish their buildings typically set up a separate “Friends of” charity as a fundraising body. And their new charity, which is not subject to church practice, will happily embrace organised gambling and sell alcohol. It is just about the only way to raise appreciable sums of money. Is that just being shrewd? Just finding ways of sidestepping the regulations?
Jesus tells a story of a shrewd manager. Actually, he is accused of being dishonest because he has allowed people to accrue sizeable debts to his master. Yes, he was being wasteful of his master’s property by simply not making sure that debts were paid and accounts were up to date. And yet he uses his dishonesty to his advantage by reducing the level of debt on a number of accounts thereby creating friends in the right places. This manager knows the system, he knows it inside out and he knows how to work it to his best advantage and the master rather admires the manager for that. If only the manager would apply those skills in favour of his master!
It does feel out of place that Jesus says to make friends with worldly wealth. Cosying up to the rich and powerful seems to be at odds with the concepts of poverty and sacrifice we tend to highlight in the Christian faith, the ideals of justice and defending the poor against the greed of the wealthy, the concept of the church being the prophet that speaks to society calling out its short comings and failures and injustices. How can we do that if we have sidled up to the rich and powerful, made friends with worldly wealth?
Yet Jesus is telling us that those who are faithful in small matters will be faithful in larger and more important matters. If we are faithful in the small matter of handling worldly wealth, in a shrewd way then, we’ll be faithful in the handling of true wealth; which must surely be the treasures that await us in Heaven.
Assuming that all proceeds well between now and 1st January 2026. The new congregation of Westhills will be in a very different position in terms of property, income and investments. We will have to manage those assets carefully and wisely, because they exist really for one purpose only, that the Gospel may be preached and the Kingdom of God advanced. The reality of the parable of the Shrewd Manager may soon be upon us; it will be a test of our faith, our wisdom and our determination to move forward to the Glory of God.
Praise – I’d rather have Jesus
Prayers for Others
Gaza Genocide
Lord, we return to you in prayers for Gaza and the Palestinian people. How often have we brought them to you in prayer simply because we see their suffering. And now the United Nations release their report highlighting signs that a genocide is taking place. Heavenly Father, in our hearts we knew that anyway. Yet what do we do? Are we not simply powerless to stop this? Will our own nation be complicit in genocide because we continue to be an ally to Israel. Heavenly Father, we see the actions of the aggressors in this world, we see the suffering they create, when will we speak up for those whose voices are silenced? When will we take action to defend the innocent civilian? If it were us, would we not want someone to come to our aid, to stand beside us? Lord hear our prayers…
A State visit behind closed doors
A divisive President. An unprecedented second State visit. Pomp and protest. Maybe we wonder which side you would have been on Lord? Would you have dined with the powerful or taken a stand with the protestors? Are we called to take sides? Or is it okay to take a middle ground; sit on the fence, be silent, not have an opinion? In what way Lord Jesus do you speak to us, speak through us, act through us? If we believe something to be wrong give us the strength to challenge it. Let us not be complicit by our silence. Lord hear our prayers…
Being Shrewd
Lord Jesus, you told a story about a shrewd manager. Are you asking us to be shrewd as well? Because if that manager was clever enough to make himself some new friends, he also revealed his dishonesty to them! How can you be asking us to be so dishonest? Are you not Lord, asking us to be faithful even in our worldly dealings, to show our honesty and truthfulness in the small things of life and so prove our worthiness to receive the spiritual and eternal gifts you give? Then show us how to be people of the light who stand apart from the shrewd and dishonest. Help us to be the people you need us to be. Lord hear our prayers…
Praise – My life flows on
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.