Sunday 26 October 2025
Twentieth 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
2 Timothy 4: 6 – 18
Luke 18: 9 – 14
Praise – Worship the Lord
Prayers
Eternal and everlasting God, you came to our world in Christ, sharing our humanity. You come to us each day through the Holy Spirit, sharing in our every experience. So now we come to you to share together in fellowship with you and one another. Open our eyes to your presence; open our lives to your grace and power.
We come to acknowledge that you are all powerful and that you embody all goodness and to declare your wonderful works. We come in awe and wonder; to bring our worship, to bring ourselves and our world before you. Open our eyes to your presence; open our lives to your grace and power.
We come to seek forgiveness, to confess our many faults and to receive your boundless mercy. We come seeking strength and guidance and to know your perfect will for us. Come afresh to us now in this time of worship – renew our commitment and vision, renew our faith, renew our love. Open our eyes to your presence; open our lives to your grace and power.
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 in his Gospel tells us a story of a Pharisee and a Tax Collector, a story about just who is welcome in God’s Kingdom and sometimes the Christian might just be a little surprised about who God, not only wants, but claims as His own.
Luke is telling this story as part of Jesus final journey towards Jerusalem. Turn just a couple of pages and we are confronted with the events of the Triumphant Entry to Jerusalem. Jesus is travelling with the disciples between Samaria and Galilee. It begins in chapter 17 and continues on through the events of today’s encounter with him telling a series of parables.
While it can be seen that, like the parable of the Good Samaritan or other parables containing stories about the Pharisees, who do not seem to “get” what the “kingdom of God” is about, there are many layers to these stories, which are designed to teach a lesson or provoke thought. This story of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector is only told in Luke, so we might rightly wonder what is it for Luke that makes this story so important?
Being someone who represents the religious authorities is never enough for Jesus. You are known, not just for what you have achieved, or for the office, which you hold. What is it that is in your heart? What has your faith led you to do or be, or not led do or not be? Maybe in that there is a sobering lesson for me (as one who wears a dog collar) to learn or be reminded of. It is easy to fall into the trap of assuming that everyone looks on me as a good person, a fine Christian, because I wear a dog collar, I’m the Minister and the Minister must be a good God fearing person.
And you; you go to Church, your neighbours see you leaving the house on a Sunday morning dressed like you’re going somewhere special and they conclude that you live by a particular code or faith. But what is in your heart? How do you relate to your neighbour because of the faith you practice?
The Pharisee still prays. He has not lost that gift. He may be a bit boastful, a little certain of himself, but he is not a bad person. He has lived within the faith and he has done the right things. He thanks God, he has a grateful heart, but is this reflected in his life?
Being a disciple of Christ is a journey, not a destination. We are forgiven, but do we know how to forgive ourselves or others? We are loved, but do we know how to love the people, we find it difficult to love?
Luke’s story is about who has a good relationship with God. Is it the man who believes he must be right with God because of his position and status or is it the man who can be humble because he knows he has failings and faults?
It was stories like the one of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector that lead church Reformers like John Calvin to develop his theology of “Faith Alone”. It is by faith alone that we are saved. Some Reformers argued it was by Grace alone. Others again believed it was by Grace through faith that we are saved. I don’t think that any of these stances are mutually exclusive but we would all understand that whatever your faith is, whatever faith you hold to it should always lead to an attitude, an outlook to life, and our fellow human beings. It should always lead to action and an attitude towards life that cares for God’s creation.
For the Pharisee, although he fasted and tithed and although he was very moral, in his actions, he was centred on himself and not on God, whereas the tax collector had awareness of his failings and, in his humility, sought the wholeness and healing of God, which the Pharisee was blissfully unaware that he needed.
The Pharisee was the self-righteous person who failed to achieve God’s favour. Whereas the tax collector was righteous in the eyes of God simply because he recognises his inner need for a relationship with God. My goodness how the Pharisee would be surprised to see the Tax Collector in Heaven.
And we might be surprised too if the anti-social neighbour, or the lad who’s been in and out of jail, or the drug dealer, or the thief is sitting next to us in Heaven simply because like us, they know their failings and understand their need for God.
Praise – O God you search me
Prayers for Others
The Way the Truth The Life
Jesus said; I am the way, the truth and the life. Truth; so vitally important to know the truth. Truth that is foundational, truth upon which everything else can be built. Truth that offers trust, acceptance, forgiveness.
Yet Lord, truth is hard to find in our world. When there are allegations of corruption, allegations of child abuse and trafficking. When those who have lived like they are answerable to no one are under suspicion it’s strange how the truth gets manipulated, concealed. But now the light is shining upon the shadows.
We pray Lord, for the truth to be heard. We pray for those who have endured abuse to have their truth heard, their voice restored, hope restored, human dignity restored. Lord Jesus Christ, just as you are the Truth so, we seek the truth. Lord hear our prayers…
Maturity in Christ
Lord Jesus, there is so much in the gospel that goes against the grain: your call to deny ourselves and put others first; your command to love our enemies and turn the other cheek; your challenge to forgive and go on forgiving. All this and so much else runs contrary to our natural inclinations, contradicting the received wisdom of the world. We do not find it easy and at times we resist, yet we know that in you and you alone is the path to life – the way to peace, joy and fulfilment. Take us then, and fashion our lives according to your ways until your will becomes our will and your ways our ways. Hear us as in prayer we seek to come close to you and learn of you…
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 our world torn apart by conflict of war, we pray for those who have nothing of their own, their meagre lives lived out in abject poverty. 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 – Come Down O love Divine
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.