The lads are holding an open day on Saturday 3rd August ’24 for anyone who wishes to satisfy their curiosity as to what goes on at Men’s Shed and how they might become a part of it.

If you are looking for them on FaceBook you’ll find them here

Did you choose to stay in on Saturday 7th Oct and look out at grey skies, the rain splashing in the puddles?

Sure it was a miserable day but not so much at Westwood Church. We went ahead with our Saturday Sing a Long fundraiser for the church. It was a gentle afternoon in good company, people laughed, smiled, enjoyed tea and scones and browsed the art works on loan to us for the occasion.

Here’s just a wee video from the occasion… (you might want to unmute the sound; then again!!!)

I did mention the art works didn’t I ?… You can almost see them in the background of the video. Here’s just a sample of the works on loan to us from Bert Howie, Isobel Brodie and Bernadette Russell. Bert and Isobel are both members at Westwood. We feel blessed to have artistic talents like this in our midst. Enjoy the show…

So how about next time you just ignore the weather, get out the door and join in !

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.

Scripture

Jeremiah 23: 1 – 6

Ephesians 2: 11 – 22

Praise – The Lord’s my shepherd

Prayers

Gracious God, our loving Father, it is with joy that we approach You today, bringing our offering of praise, seeking Your mind in scripture and making our prayers at Your throne of grace.

We give thanks for Your invitation to be bold in these approaches, for it is at Your very throne that we find grace.  We find Grace in every encounter we have with Your son Christ our Lord:

first at Bethlehem in the birth of a babe who would save His people; then along the shores of Galilee where Lord You prayed for us, taught, healed and preached and served.

We find Your grace in the shame of the Cross, where Lord You shed Your very life-blood, that our sins might be atoned for and our souls washed clean from their sin and guilt.

We find Grace at the entrance to the empty tomb, as Jesus appears to His own and assures them of His victory over death and hell – truly the Resurrection and the Life.

Keep us ever mindful of the great cost of our redemption and ever grateful to the One who paid the price.  Keep alive in our hearts the hope He has placed there of life eternal.

We are here knowing that we can unburden ourselves to you.  Lord, we can tell you of our regrets, those things that bring us pain and those things that have caused pain. We unburden ourselves of all the failures of this past week – all that has divided us from Christ and from each other, from our neighbour and our enemy.

Our loving Heavenly Father, full of mercy and truth, full of kindness and grace you have wiped the slate clean.  This is our time to start afresh, forgiving others as you have forgiven us.

We receive your gift of salvation, freedom, redemption and now offer to you hearts set free to live as Christ lived, to love as Christ loved, and serve as Christ served.

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 ancient city of Ephesus was established in the 10^th century before Christ and at that time was part of Ancient Greece.  It is located now in modern day Turkey.  The city fell into Roman control in 129 BC.  Ephesus was able to boast of the magnificent Temple of Artemis – now known as one of the Seven Wonders of the World, indeed the ruins of Ephesus are a UNESCO World Heritage site.  Ephesus was a major city boasting amongst other things a theatre with capacity for 24,000 spectators.   It was not by accident that Paul found himself living and working and preaching the gospel there for a period of two years.  Ephesus presented the opportunity to make the Gospel known to multiple traditions, races, faiths and because of the huge amount of trade that took place, the opportunity for new found believers to travel outward from Ephesus sharing their new found faith.  Paul arrives in Ephesus in the year 52 AD, about 20 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus, but writes the letter to the Ephesians while he is in prison in Rome around the year 62 AD.  Ten years on from the beginning of his ministry in Ephesus some problems have not gone away.

Paul began his ministry in Ephesus by going to the Synagogue and preaching the Messiah to the Jewish community.  While he successfully established a Jewish Christian community there Paul also faced the stubbornness of some who simply refused to believe.  For all his ability and persuasiveness Paul became so frustrated with their stubbornness that he left the synagogue and took himself off to the School of Tyrannus where his audience were mainly Gentiles.  Paul brought Gentiles into the Christian faith.  This also eventually created problems, firstly he was accused of diminishing the trade of silversmiths associated with Temple of Artemis.  The other problem it raised was that Paul had created two distinct Christian Communities – Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians.  Ten years on that tension between Jewish Christian and Gentile Christian was still pretty evident.  Maybe as Paul writes to them from prison in Rome, he’s beginning to realise that this may be his last opportunity to try to fix the problem that in some respects he created.  Paul therefore uses words like union, united, one and emphasises the common ground that both communities have in Christ stressing that God’s plan was to bring all people, Jews and Gentiles, together in Christ; no longer foreigners or strangers but fellow-citizens and members of the family of God.  I like to think that Paul’s letter did the trick as the Church in Ephesus remained a significant church into the early second century.

We’ve been hearing some of Paul’s words a bit more frequently of recent times – union, united, one.  Lots of congregations across the Church of Scotland have been hearing those words – union, united, oneand not necessarily finding them easy words to hear.  Even though congregations of the Church of Scotland clearly adhere to the same faith we are separate communities; communities which sometimes have felt a sense of rivalry with each other, competition with each other, and in many cases a distancing from each other.  In so many church communities the focus has been on our own survival reluctant to share our successes, our good ideas with anyone else and certainly not “that church” over there.  Church communities can become so very insular.  I think that was the experience of the Gentile Christians in Ephesus; not being circumcised the Jewish Christians just couldn’t accept them, couldn’t see them as “belonging” until Paul highlighted the common ground between them and reminds them of God’s plan to bring all people together through faith in Christ.

It is quite possible then that next Sunday when we gather in Greenhills church and words like union, united, one, begin to take on a bit more reality we will not necessarily find it easy, natural or comfortable.  We might feel out of place, like strangers, foreigners.  It may feel like that for the good folks of Greenhills when they come here at the end of August.  But what will see us through these times of awkwardness is the foundations of the faith we all hold to.  We are fellow-citizens in the Kingdom of God, members of the family of God.  We are all built upon the same foundation and it is Christ who holds the whole building together.  In union with Him we too are being built together with all the others into a place where God lives through his Spirit.

Praise – Just as I am

Prayers for Others

For Light in the Darkness

Lord God, we pray for light in the darkness. We pray that our world might emerge from the shadows into the light of faith and love.  Yet we find it hard at times to tell the difference between darkness and light.  In a world where one man’s freedom fighter is another man’s terrorist, where one man’s right to justice denies the rights of many, where the guilty are protected and the innocent abandoned; in a world of shadows and probabilities neither entirely in the light nor entirely in the darkness; what else can we do but pray our God that He might guide us into the light of truth and justice to dispel the shadows and overwhelm the darkness.  Lord hear us as we pray for a world to come to the light…

Relationships

Lord Jesus Christ you did not come to judge or condemn the world but to save it.  Where others saw only the bad in people you saw the good.  You recognised the value of everyone and instilled in all a sense of worth.  Such was your willingness to welcome the unacceptable that many were scandalised by your behaviour.  Forgive us that we can be equally self-righteous; more concerned with judgement than mercy.  Forgive us for failing to see in ourselves the sinfulness we are so quick to see in others.  Teach us to look at the world through your eyes and to offer grace in all our relationships just as you have extended grace to us.  Hear us as we pray…

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, lives lived out in abject poverty.  Wherever you take us in prayers, 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 – We Cannot Measure

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.

A service will be held for Helen within Westwood Parish Church on Friday 9th August at 10.15am and then to South Lanarkshire Crematorium for an 11am Committal service.

We keep Helen’s friends and relatives in our prayers.

A service for Greta will take place at South Lanarkshire Crematorium on Friday 2nd August at 11am.

We keep family in our prayers.

A service for Sam will be held in Westwood Church on Thursday 1st August at 1pm then to South Lanarkshire Crematorium for 2pm

We keep Sam’s wife, Carol, and all the family in our prayers.

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.

Scripture

Psalm 85: 8 – 13

Ephesians 1: 3 – 14

Praise – Psalm 95

Prayers

Most Gracious God, gathered in your presence you are amongst us.  You live within the hearts of each of us, you live in the relationships we have with each other, you live in the intangible spaces between us, the gaps that divide us seeking to close those gaps and bring us into ever closer fellowship with each other and with You.  There is no place where You are not.  And yet so often we are unaware of You.

We have come to your House, this sacred place, so that hearts may be opened and spirits uplifted and every inch of our being know that You are with us, You are real and You are in every breath we take. 

You are everywhere.  Every place where we can sense You, feel You, talk to you, pray to you, is a sacred placed.  In the privacy of our room, in the places where we work or rest and when we lie down to sleep, you make these places sacred.   

For we come to meet with You, trusting that knowing You will bring us all that we need to face what life has in store for us.  We long for the day when things on earth will be done Your way as they are in heaven; in holiness and righteousness, in love.

Most Gracious God, you offer to us a new way of living that offers riches and blessings, grace and forgiveness.  As we take hold of all that you offer to us, so may we offer back to you lives that are faithful, words that are kind, hearts that do not judge and a faith that embraces all people.

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

Recently, a report from the Office of National Statistics revealed that 51% of the population in the UK say they have no faith or religious affiliations.  I suppose we have all known in our hearts that the time is coming when secular / non-religious society is the norm and religion in all it’s forms is consigned to the past.  We might not be quite there yet, but it does look like we are well on our way to it; the balance has shifted 51 / 49 which may allow organisations who actively pursue a secular society and the removal  of religion from schools, for example, to have a stronger case to argue.  Why would you have Religious Observance in schools when the majority of the population do not have any religious affiliation?

Of course, there are many causes for the change in society’s outlook on religion and the move away from religious beliefs.  Perhaps we are all a bit more materialistic, maybe we have become far more individualistic, common bonds, common expressions, shared outlooks are far fewer these days. You can’t go to McDonalds for just a burger these days – it has to be a burger the way you like it, extra mayo, extra cheese, no pickle. Thank you! Society emphasises the individual and the choice of the individual while religion tends to emphasis community, shared values, togetherness, oneness.  I suppose these kinds of things have been rehearsed many many times, I’m telling you nothing that you have not heard before.  Things have changed in society and continue to change and we as a church have been powerless to prevent that.

Those, like ourselves, who go to church and hold to a faith, do not live in a vacuum.  Even though we still see our church as precious and value those whom we are close to within this community, it does not mean that we are immune to changes in society.  Our attitudes change too.

Freedom is one such thing.  Freedom of choice that allows us all to be unique – just like everyone else, as someone once quipped.  Freedom to cast your vote and choose who governs us – even when we wonder if any of them are worth voting for!  Freedom to travel where you wish, marry whom you wish, freedom to do whatever you wish other than the volumes of law which state the things you must not do, like steal and murder and deceive and fail to pay your taxes.  Freedom is a wonderful and precious thing that comes with the responsibility of not using my freedom to take away another person’s freedom.  Freedom sounds like it emphasises the individual but actually only works when it’s in community; when we have awareness of each other and care about each other.

When Paul wrote to the church in Ephesus it didn’t take him long until he was talking about freedom.  “We are set free by the sacrificial death of Christ; that is, our sins are forgiven.”  Paul speaks like we have been let out of prison, held captive to our sins, we are now out in the fresh air ready to start life over in a new and wonderful way. Freedom!

Indeed, how can we enjoy freedom unless we know we have been set free from something.  In past generations the church has strived to convict us of our sinfulness, whether that be our individual sinfulness or the sinfulness of a nation, in order that we might find forgiveness (freedom) in Christ.  Maybe in past generations we were more likely to be aware of our sinfulness, the wrongs we have done to others, because we lived as community with common values and so freedom from sin made sense; it sustained the life of the community.

Not so much these days where freedom is about the individual who only has to consider their own wants and wishes and opinion.  I think it’s a kind of freedom that promotes isolation and division, where the individual does not need to confront the way their freedom might have stolen away another’s freedom.  Society therefore has less sense of its sinfulness, and if that’s the case it has less sense of the place and need for religion to express that sinfulness and express ways of starting over again, of finding forgiveness and freedom from those past sins.

Like I say, we don’t live in a vacuum.  Prayers of confession, seeking forgiveness for our sins is not now a big feature of church life.  We don’t come here filled with a sense of guilt for what we have done or failed to do that caused hurt to others or to ourselves or to our relationship with God.  If the Church doesn’t show that sinfulness matters, that freedom exists only in forgiveness and community why would society even think about coming through the doors?

Praise – O God you search me

Prayers for Others

Places of Conflict

How many times have we offered prayers for peace, an end to conflict.  Prayers for leaders to show mercy and restraint, prayers for those who suffer, and yet, here we are once again offering hopeful prayers that something in our world might change.  In Ukraine where conflict sinks to the depths of an attack on a children’s hospital, in Gaza where refugees have no place of safety.  Our world is sick, the life of a human being expendable, the boundaries of decency, morality, ethics, basic right and wrong have been torn up.

Maybe prayer is all we have.  Maybe prayer is the silent cry that rises to the heavens, to the God who created humanity, to the God who can change the persecutor to a saint, the thief to a disciple, the silent to the outspoken, the fearful to the bold. We pray to the God who can convict the human heart of its wrongdoing and bring change for the good.  Lord hear us in our prayers for places of conflict…

The Bereaved

Loving God, in the simplicity of our prayers we come to remember those who struggle with the pain of loss and grief.  When life has lost purpose and each day seems emptier than the one before, when anything happy seems like a distant memory, will you reach into their heartache and sadness bring them comfort and reassure them that you enfold them within your arms.  May your tenderness scatter the shadows and your love restore the sweetness of joyful living.  Lord hear us as we pray for those who have been bereaved…

Thanksgiving

Living God, we thank you this day for the hope that lies at the heart of the Gospel.  For though we pray for a world filled with pain and sorrow, you have given us the assurance through faith that love will emerge victorious and that hope shall never disappoint us.  Through the life and witness of countless generations of faithful people, we learn to live each moment with confidence and look forward with anticipation whatever our circumstances might be, whatever times of testing may befall us.  We come with joyful hearts in glad thanksgiving.  Lord hear our prayers of thanks…

Praise – Look forward in faith

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.

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.

Scripture

Psalm 48

2 Corinthians 12: 1 – 10

Praise – Lord of all hopefulness

Prayers

God of the past and of the future, when we look back may we look forward too.

When we dream of the past, may those dreams still shape our future.

May our faith be rich enough to see through, past golden eras, knowing that You haven’t finished with us yet:

We shall still be a community, we shall still find a new song to sing, we shall still believe You make all things new.

May we have the faith of David who could write a Psalm of praise and see you at work in the past, in the present and in the future. May we have the eyes of David to see You in every future. May we have the heart of David to recognise the future unfolding in the present.

God of the past and of the future, when we look forward may we look back too,

and know that what is still to happen, begins now.

Forgive us for when we get things wrong, relying on our own strength and forgetting to be guided and inspired by Your story. Help us to look forward, learning from the past inspired by Jesus in the present and guided by Your spirit into the future. We are part of something quite extraordinary – We are part of Your story, our God’s story: past, present and future.

Lord and God, it seems inconceivable that you offer to us your past, present and future.  The entire eternity of God is offered to us through Christ your son and now we bravely offer you our past, present and future.  All that we have been, all that we are, all that we hope to be, we lay at your feet in humble sacrifice.  May we then, through our offering of self find a new unity and oneness with our God and Creator.

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

If I were to mention the “Hardest Geezer” might you know what or who I am talking about?

Hardest Geezer is a young man, Russ Cook, who aged 27 years undertook to raise funds for charity by running the length of Africa.  He completed his challenge on 7^th April this year having set out in February of 2023.  It took him 352 days, running pretty much the equivalent of a marathon each day, to complete his challenge, and in the process raised £700,000.  Of course, he faced obstacles – anything from ill-health and severe back pain, to visa problems and armed robbery.  None of which deterred him from completing his challenge.  It is an incredible achievement of human perseverance, endurance, strength and determination.  We may well stand amazed at what the human body can do when pushed to the limits.  Indeed, we may question where the limits are.

Now looking around, and I will include myself in this, I don’t see anyone who looks like they might be OK to run the length of Africa.  Each morning my right ankle reminds me that I went and broke it 14 years ago.  It will always give me discomfort and I expect it will get worse as I get older.  Lynn says she OK to push my wheelchair!  The three screws that hold my ankle together will not allow me to run, or kick a ball, or jump down from a wall – things that I did easily in my youth.  And you may reflect on your situation in a similar way.  We are not as young as we used to be, age is not for the feint hearted, every morning as we try to get ourselves moving for the day, we are conscious of our aches and pains, the tablets we need to take and the struggle to get a doctor’s appointment.  We no longer celebrate our youthful strength rather we are conscious of our human weakness.

Weakness does not mean that we should be dismissed, overlooked or underestimated.  The Apostle Paul finds himself in a challenging situation.  His authority in teaching the Christian faith has been undermined by some who reckoned they were better preachers than Paul.  Truthfully, Paul was not a great preacher.  For all his amazing grasp of the Christian faith he tended to be long-winded as a preacher and it seems he had a stammer or stutter in his speech that made him difficult to follow.  Paul states clearly that he had a painful physical ailment (we don’t know what it was) but it certainly reminded him every day that he was just human and he had his weaknesses.  As Paul went on his missionary journeys, bringing people to faith in Christ and establishing small faith communities it was not because he was a great preacher or an exceptional human being, it was not a celebration of Paul’s abilities.  In his weakness strength came from somewhere else, it came from faith in a living God, faith in Christ.  Paul’s weaknesses made Christ’s presence within him all the more evident.

I suppose, if we look at our church in those terms, and many many churches could do this, we can see that we are not a congregation in the first flush of youth.  We don’t have a vast Sunday School, not now.  We don’t have a Guild, not now.  Our Men’s Fellowship is small in number and so is our Girls’ Brigade Company.  Boy’s Brigade finished up years back.  When membership once stood at 1200 were are now more like 200.  All the things that once spoke of strength now remind us of our weakness.  But weakness does not mean that God is done with us.  In our weakness Christ’s work in and through us is amplified.  Things can happen that clearly, we have not achieved in our own strength.

So, we shall not be dismayed in our individual lives nor in our collective lives as a congregation.  We shall boast, not of our strength, but of our weakness, in order that God’s work within us might be glorified.  For, when we are weak, then we are strong.

Praise – How deep the Father’s love

Prayers for Others

A New Government Elected

Six short weeks of campaigning come to a close.  Headline grabbing statements and door to door canvassing have come to an end, for now.  Controversy over Postal Votes will rumble on – perhaps.  But voters have cast their votes and for better or worse a decision is made over who shall lead our country forward.  We pray then for our new government, not assuming they have all the answers, but that they should govern with wisdom, honesty and truthfulness.  We pray for integrity in all our elected representatives of every party and persuasion and a seeking of common ground that benefits all people.  Lord hear our prayers…

Union Island – Hurricane Beryl

Father God, we bemoan a dreadful summer – wind and rain dash our hopes of better days, warmth, freedom, relaxation in the sun.  Yet, what we experience is nothing compared to the onslaught of Hurricane Beryl as it reached landfall on Union Island.  Hurricane force winds and rain have come early in the season and have left at least 90% of the population homeless, without water, food, communications or power.  It is questionable if this island community can ever recover.

And so, we pray for them that help may come, that their immediate needs for food and water and shelter may be met from the international community.  And where they need to be evacuated to neighbouring islands that their passage may be safe.  And we give thanks for lives that have been spared for where there is life there is hope.  Lord hear us in our prayers for the people of Union Island and all whose lives have been torn apart by Hurricane Beryl…

Time for our own prayers

Lord Jesus, we thank you for quiet moments in your presence.  Time for stillness in our thoughts and in our souls.  Time in which to offer prayers for ourselves, for others, for the world; just as you might direct our thoughts.  Lord, receive the prayers we offer…

Praise – Great is thy faithfulness

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.

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.

Scripture

2 Corinthians 4: 13 – 5: 1

Mark 3: 20 – 35

Praise – Lord you have come to the seashore

Prayers

Compassionate and ever-loving Lord, we thank You that in Your mercy You have brought us together today to worship You, the one true, holy and everlasting Lord.  We ask that You would give us the grace to grow in knowledge of You.

Loving, Heavenly Father, we come and bow in Your presence, offering our prayers and worship to You. We acknowledge that You are the one who has created all things, and to whom we all owe our existence, our life.  We seek to live in Your light and Your strength, but we confess that there are times when our steps are faltering, times when our trust in You wavers.  Lord we would ask that You give us a deeper trust, that You would give us a deeper knowledge of Yourself as our Saviour, Master, Lord, and King. 

May we find a deepening need to seek you in prayer, a deepening devotion to Your holy word, and a steadfast reliance upon its truth.

Give us, we pray, a deeper holiness in our words, thoughts, and actions, and let our lives more fully reflect Your grace and beauty, until our lives overflow with the living water of Your Holy Spirit.

Just as we have offered these prayers in your name, so we offer the gifts now placed upon the table. Out of the abundance you have given us we bring our gifts, grateful for the gifts you have placed in our lives and glad to offer them back so your Kingdom may grow.  Lord, we bring so much more to you than material possession.  We bring that which cannot be seen or touched, only known and experienced; we bring our love for you and all people, we bring our service to church and community, we bring our hopes and dreams and place them all before you.

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

“We fix our attention not on things that are seen but on things that are unseen.”

My Mum and I tend to have recurring conversations.  Sometimes it’s quite amusing, sometimes it drives you daft as you go round the same thing again and again.  Mum has had some eyesight problems due to cataracts forming on the lens of both eyes.  I’m sure there will be some of you here who will sympathise with that.

“You know” says mum, “I’ve discovered just how important your eyes are.  They are like windows to the world. You can’t do anything unless you can see.  All the information you need comes from your eyes.”  And then she gets a bit angry at the NHS for doing nothing to help her!  Mum and I have had that conversation more times than I can shake a stick at.

Now I’m not saying that Mum is wrong, it’s just that she can’t work out how someone who really does have significant visual impairment might adjust to that, or rely more heavily on their other senses to navigate the world.  I don’t suppose I can work that out either.  OK the text of this address is a total blur when I take my glasses off, but I still take my eyesight for granted.  I see all the physical stuff around me, I see the beauty of nature, I can recognise a person’s face and see their facial expressions and I’m not going to underestimate the importance of any of that.

Yet, Paul as he writes for a second time to the Christians living in Corinth asks them, (and us) to fix our attention on things that are unseen, that which we cannot see with our eyes yet may be the most important things of all.

Now this may be a poor example but I hope it will help.  During the pandemic we brought ten round tables into the sanctuary and that required a different layout for the seating in here too.  We can physically see the tables and the different layout but it’s the unseen stuff that has become the most important feature of this. The way it has refreshed relationships and has brought us closer together in friendship and fellowship – that’s way more important.  That I’m not up there in a pulpit like I’m in some place of authority but here with you, all of us on the same level, speaking with you not at you.  We are equal contributors in this time of worship and in the whole life of this church.  These are things that are unseen and ultimately these things are spiritual.

Gathered round the Lord’s Table, the bread and wine of Communion set before us, we are afforded the opportunity of experiencing the seen and the unseen.  We can see the bread as it comes to us on its platter, feel its texture as we hold it in our fingers, taste it upon our tongue and know that it is bread like any piece of bread.  And we will raise a small glass to our lips and taste the sweetness of the red grape juice that was purchased at the supermarket.  What is seen is ordinary what is unseen is extraordinary.  The unseen is the love of Christ expressed in his sacrifice, his body broken, his blood poured out.  The unseen is the forgiveness he offers to each and every one of us as we take the bread and the wine.  The unseen is the refreshing of our relationship with Christ and with each other, to be one with Him and one with each other.  The unseen is Christ’s desire to speak with you not at you.  The unseen is fellowship with Jesus Christ and with all who follow him.  The unseen is the deep sense of worth we have as individuals because we know Jesus Christ has loved us enough to offer his whole life for us.  These things are spiritual.

As we receive of the bread and wine, we fix our eyes “not on things that are seen but on things that are unseen.”

Praise – This is my body

Prayers for Others

D-Day Normandy Landing 80^th Commemoration

Lord and God, in recent days we have paused to remember and commemorate the brave events of the D-Day landing on Normandy beaches that took place 80 years ago.  The years slip by and those who faced those events in person are now so few in number.  Yet we ask that those who gave their all may never slip away from our consciousness because by their endeavours they shaped the future and they shaped us.  Lord and God, as now we sit in quietness we offer our prayers, our respect, for those who gave their all…

Young People

God our Father, we pray together for our young ones; exams having drawn to a close, wondering what their exam results will be like, what the future holds for them, and how they might find their place in a complex world. In times of uncertainty, we know that our young one will often be the last to find jobs, their sense of worth diminished by rejection.  Show them that life does have meaning and purpose, that there is a better way to live life than that which the world portrays. We do not need to chase after empty goals when we can follow Christ and find our sense of worth in Him. Give us a faith which is positive, supportive and strong so that we can support and encourage those who are still finding their way. Hear us Lord as we pray for our young people to find strength and purpose through faith in Christ…

The Church’s Ministry

We thank you Lord for calling us to be your witnesses.  Give us the courage to say that we belong to you even when we might be ridiculed for believing.  We know that Peter, your disciple, was confident that he would never betray you but in the heat of the moment he denied you three times.  We know how easy it is to back down and make it look like our faith is not important, anxious not to cause offence or to find ourselves in an awkward situation.  Thank you Lord, that you could forgive Peter and that you forgive us.  Help us to go forward in the confidence that you are with us always and that we can bear witness to your presence in this world.  Lord hear our prayers for the ministry of the whole church…

Praise – Christ be our light

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.