Sunday 05 July 2026
Sixth after Pentecost
Welcome!
Welcome to excerpts from the worship held within the newly formed Westhills Church of Scotland Congregation. We know that not all members of the congregation are able to be in church on Sunday morning; offering these excerpts from the Sunday morning service might help you feel included. Where we can, we offer parts of the service in text and audio, whichever works best for you.
If this post helps you explore what happens within an act of worship then please read on…
The Psalms
Psalm 63: 1 – 8
Live recording
Your Weekly Church Notices
Scripture
Romans 7: 14 – 25
Live recording
Matthew 11: 16 – 30
Live recording
Praise – How lovely is thy dwelling place
Prayers
Live recording
In every age, in every place You call Your people to worship.
In every hour of every day, You invite us to rest in You.
In this time and place, Lord God, we worship You and rest in You.
God, we thank You that You made us as the pinnacle of your creation. We are everything to you. Into our souls You placed a seed, a sense, a desire to know you, seek you out and be at peace with You. Into our souls You placed an instinct within us to love and be loved by You.
The beauty you gave us has through the years become tarnished, dulled, diminished within us. Overwhelmed by the weight of years, by disillusionment,
by cynicism. Ground down by hurt and rejection. Yet You persist.
You persist in calling us back to that which we know instinctively that we are loved. Loved as we are and called to rest in You. Forgive us. Restore us. Reunite us with the seed of faith, hope and love you placed within us.
In Grace undeserved, You have poured out yourself to us. Lord God, through Your Son You poured out Your heart and soul for us. Now we dare to make an offering like yours; to pour out ourselves to you, venturing our all, holding nothing back, but in love and in hope and in faith lay everything at Your feet in worship and service.
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
Live recording
What was it all about? Jenny just couldn’t get her head around it. Always the same, she thought, Change, Change, Change. Wasn’t it enough that she’d had to put up with the demise of the corner shop and the arrival of the supermarket, which was two busses journeys away; the students who had moved into the flats above and below her own – she used to have nice neighbours quiet families and retired couples; not now. Television wasn’t what it used to be either, the programmes were rubbish these days – what had happened to all the decent stuff.
As if this wasn’t enough… church was changing too. They now had a woman minister, new hymnbooks were in the pews, there was a young lad playing guitar and there was talk of the pews being taken out to make way for chairs. Why couldn’t church just stay as it was? Why the need for change all the time? Jenny just couldn’t see what it was about. Maybe she wouldn’t bother going to church anymore.
Isn’t it just part of human nature to not be able to see? Even if our eyes are working great we still fail to see, and it made Jesus sad when he witnessed that unwilling, unseeing nature in the people he loved so much. To him it seemed that people could be like children playing in the village square. One group would say, “Come on, let’s play at weddings,” and the others would say, “We don’t feel like being happy today.” OK then, they would say, “Lets play at funerals.” And the others would say, “We don’t feel like being sad today.” They were what we would call “contrary”. No matter what was suggested they did not want to do it; no matter what was on offer they could find fault with it; no matter how obvious they could not see it.
Taking his theme a little further, Jesus is at pains to point out that the people are not happy no matter what obvious good is placed before them. John the Baptist lived a life of simplicity deliberately deciding to live in the desert separating himself from everything that might corrupt him or tempt him to fall from his chosen path of devotion and holiness. John fasted and lived in isolation in order to preserve his purity of spirit. And what did the people say of him? They said he must have a demon! He must be mad they said to cut himself off from all that we know and enjoy in society.
Jesus on the other hand, lived a life fully immersed in the lives of the people. Jesus didn’t live a life of denial, instead he engaged with people where he found them. And what did the people say about him? They said he was a glutton and a drunk, a friend of those who have the potential to corrupt, people like tax-collectors, publicans, prostitutes, every kind of sinner that has ever disgraced society.
If I were to put it in a more succinct and colloquial way we might hear Jesus saying, “ What are you lot like? You call John mad and you say the Son of Man lives an immoral life. The truth is, you are never happy. You’ll find something to criticise no matter what!”
Yet, Jesus seems to think there might be another way. And it’s this… The proof of the pudding is in the eating. Or as Jesus puts it “Wisdom is shown to be right by her deeds” What is right and good will never be shown by the contrary nature so evident in society, but by events. John might be criticised for his strange ways and customs but look at what he achieved, he caused people to turn to God in ways that hadn’t been seen in generations. He caused a revival, a real spiritual awakening.
The obvious point Jesus is making is this: you might criticise Jesus for mixing too much with the ordinary folk, living too much of an ordinary life but in him, in this living presence of God amongst them, people were finding a new Way, a new Truth and a new Life. They were discovering a new way of living in God’s love, as they ought too.
And Jesus gives thanks because these things are hidden from the wise and intelligent, but revealed to infants.
There was a long-standing tradition of the Rabbis to debate all the theological problems, to intellectualise God’s Word and Truth. But clearly the intellectuals had no use for Jesus – while the ordinary people, described by Jesus as children – saw a truth that was obscured by the Rabbis. We might consider Jesus as condemning intellectual pride where leaders and teachers and theologians strive for purity of dogma. Jesus calls for an openness and wonder, just as a little child might have, a growing, developing, questioning child. It’s not cleverness in itself that is the problem but the limiting of the Gospel to an intellectual pursuit. God’s truth is as much to do with the heart as with the head. There is no point to asking clever questions about God if you cannot feel God in your heart. God can more readily be understood, loved and trusted through the innocence of the child-like-heart than he can by intellectual pursuit alone.
Our Heavenly Father has a real yearning in his heart for the trusting acceptance of his Grace by the people he made in his own image. But we tend to clutter the acceptance of his love with rules and regulations, patterns and traditions, intellectual enquiries, philosophical studies, dogma and doctrine, all of which have their place but all that is really needed, and it’s very simple, is to give yourself to God in innocence and acceptance and you will find love and grace beyond all measure.
And maybe that’s why we struggle to understand the gospel – cause it’s just so obvious we find it hard to see.
Praise – As the deer
Prayers for Others
Live recording
Openness of Heart
Father God, you opened your heart to us in love when you sent your Son Jesus Christ into this world. You knew how harsh and dark this world could be yet; you took the risk because the hope within you outweighed all the risks. Father God, you made us in your image so that we could love you and love our neighbour in the way that you love us. Give us such openness of heart that the hope within us might outweighs all the risks so that we can love as you love, serve as you have served and hope with an everlasting hope. Lord hear us as we pray for a real and genuine openness of heart toward the things of God…
The Kingdom of God
Father God, open our eyes that we might see this world as you see it and reach out to it with compassion. Humanity makes life so difficult; the wars, the starving millions, the countless refugees, the blight of natural disaster, cruelty and inhumanity. Allow us to see the fullness of your kingdom, for your Kingdom is already amongst us, within us. It is within our grasp to see the world live in peace free from fear and want, every life lived out in the assurance of your love. Allow us to see in our hearts and spirits what it is you call us to do to bring in your Kingdom. Hear us as we pray …
The call to Listen
Listen then, if you have ears! Lord Jesus, you encouraged us to open our ears to all you have to say, not just to hear but to listen. May the message you preached and taught seep down into our souls and change the way we relate to you and to each other. In a world swamped with rhetoric, when our ears are bombarded with all kinds of truth and untruth, give us the wisdom to discern what we should listen to. Let the Good News of Christ, already in our hearts, be our guide, our means of discernment so that we might help others to listen and see and be open to Christ. Lord hear our prayers…
Praise – The Lord of heaven confess
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.