Sunday 09 August 2026
Eleventh 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 85: 8 – 13
Live recording
Your Weekly Church Notices
Scripture
Romans 10: 5 – 15
Live recording
Matthew 14: 22 – 33
Live recording
Praise – Lord you have come to the seashore
Prayers
Live recording
As we come to You this day, Lord God, help us to lay aside the many things that are on our minds and in our hearts, trusting that You know our thoughts, you see into our hearts and know what we need before we even ask. Reassure us that You are with us in all things.
Help us to turn now towards You, to be attentive to Your presence, to listen to Your word and to one another, and in response to lift our hearts in loving worship.
In the comfort of Your presence, we feel able to tell You, our Heavenly Father, of those things we have done and said that we regret, things that have hurt others and ourselves and hurt our relationship with you.
Father in Heaven, we seek your forgiveness for those things we wish we had done or said and failed to do. When we did not respond with grace, or failed to offer forgiveness, when we did not act with generosity or be the servant.
In the comfort of your presence, we recognise our weaknesses and failings and seek your strength, and ask for mercy, forgiveness, that we might start afresh from this moment.
We do not know Lord how to express the extent of your offering to us. You gave everything, the whole of yourself, body, mind, spirit so that our joy may be complete, that we might have life in all its abundance. This is your gift to us, to know the true meaning and value of life through a loving relationship with our Creator. What we offer to you seems small, unworthy of such sacrifice, but you see beyond the material, the physical, to see the loving heart that beats within us, the spirit that seeks to know You and the body that seeks to serve You. Receive then, this offering. As you gave your all to us so we give our all to 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
Live recording
It’s a long time now since Peanuts and Charlie Brown cartoons graced our TV screen. I was never a big fan of Charlie Brown but I have to acknowledge that the author and creator often used Charlie Brown to reflect upon our human condition.
In one Peanuts cartoon Charlie Brown goes to Lucy for a ha’penny’s worth of psychiatric help. She proceeds to try and pinpoint his particular ‘fear’. Perhaps, she says, you have hypengyophobia, which is the fear of responsibility. Charlie Brown says no. Well, perhaps you have ailurophobia, which is the fear of cats. No. Well, maybe you have climacophobia, which is the fear of staircases. No. Exasperated, Lucy says well, maybe you have pantophobia, which is the fear of everything. Yes, says Charlie, that is the one!
Fear is part of our human condition.
In the story of creation found in the Book of Genesis, we read that Adam and Eve had eaten of the forbidden fruit, something which had been specifically denied them. Knowing that God is searching for them, they try to hide. It is a scene perhaps reminiscent of many of our childhoods when we had done something that we were not supposed to and we literally hid from our mum and dad. I can vividly remember times when my sister locked herself in the bathroom because being caught by mum or dad meant certain punishment! Finally God finds Adam and Eve, as we know He will, for, after all, where can we go to hide from God? And God asks them why they are hiding. Do you remember the response that Adam gave: “Because, I was afraid?”
I think this very poignant story reminds us that fear is so basic to who we are as humans, it goes all the way back to the beginning of time. To be human is to experience fear. Sometimes we feel like we are afraid of everything. We are afraid of ourselves. We are afraid of people. We are afraid of the future. We are afraid of the past. We are afraid of living. We are afraid of dying.
Every person, even those who live by the Christian faith, must fight their fears. Even the Apostle Paul, for all that he was a determined and resolute witness to Christ still had to face his fears. Paul had fallen flat on his face in Athens. Paul had tried to bravely teach the Christian Gospel using the alter to the Unknown God as a way of opening up his audience to his story about Jesus Christ. But they laughed at his suggestion that someone might rise from the dead. And that was pretty much an end to his mission in Athens. Paul did exactly what he intended not to do; in his own eyes he had failed. He wrote of his arrival in Corinth: “For when we came into Macedonia we had no peace, but we were troubled on every side; without were fightings; within were fears.” Paul was full of fears, just like you and me–the fear of inadequacy, the fear of failing.
But perhaps the most surprising fear of many people and one that we do not like to address is the fear of God. It is the fear that God is not really on our side. It is the fear that God will toy with us in some random, unpredictable way; leave us out on a limb unable to cope.
One of the great fears of the ancient people was that God would fall asleep. Can you imagine such a thing? When the prophets of Baal could not get their Gods to rain down fire on the top of Mount Carmel, Elijah taunted them: Maybe your God is asleep, he said. On the other hand, the Jews took great comfort in the fact that the God of Israel neither dozes nor sleeps. (Psalm 121)
Over and over again the message of the Bible is “fear not”. When Abram took his family to the Promised Land he feared that he was turning his back on everything he knew, giving up his security for the completely unknown. God spoke to him: Fear not Abram, I am your shield and your reward will be great.
When the Jews stood at the Red Sea and could see Pharaoh’s chariots coming on the horizon, they cried out that they would all be slaughtered. Moses said to them: Stand still, fear not, and see the salvation of the Lord.
When the angel of the Lord came to Mary and said that she would bear a child, she trembled with fear. What would become of her? And the angel said: Fear not Mary, for you have found favour with God.
It comes as no surprise then that the disciples screamed with fear when, in the middle of the night, they saw Jesus walking across the water toward their boat. What else could it be but a ghost? The sight of someone walking on water is so impossible, so out of place, so far outside of our experiences I can forgive the disciples for being filled with fear. I would be too and so might you. Jesus calms the disciples with just a few simple words, “Courage, it is I. Don’t be afraid.”
If anything Peter is a great example to us of how to deal with our fears. Peter was willing to confront and test the thing that scared him so much. If it is you Lord then command me to come out on the waters to you. And Peter too walked on the surface of the water. In confronting his fears, he did what previously seemed impossible to him.
I know someone who is scared to use escalators so they find a nearby lift or walk the long way round. Living with their fear doesn’t change the quality of their living that much but if they confronted their fear and overcame it I know that they would feel like a different and more confident person inside. Confronting our fears can allow us to do what previously seemed impossible.
The same is true for churches. Sometimes we fear words like Mission and Evangelism. We are fearful of these things because we don’t know what they will ask of us, or we fear failure. But if we could confront those fears then how much more confident would our church be in its purpose and in its faith?
Peter steps out of the boat and walks on the surface of the water toward Jesus but begins to notice the waves and the wind. The whole situation begins to get a little surreal for him, he begins to doubt and he begins to sink.
Doubts often go hand in hand with fears. Doubts force us to live with our fears. Doubts often cause us to sink rather than swim. Churches doubt that there is any meaningful way of increasing our membership, we doubt that an unchurched population will ever be interested in what we have to offer, we doubt that we have the means or the expertise or resources to change our situation. And when we doubt, we sink. Trouble is we find it easier to sink. It is easier not to tackle our doubts or face our fears. It takes real courage, real faith, real effort to challenge our doubts.
We recognise we are human; doubts and fears are part of who and what we are and yet the amazing thing is regardless of what happens our Lord is there to save us. We cry for help and he catches hold of us. He helps us find a place of safety, a place where we are restored and in that place we worship Him.
Praise – Beauty for Brokenness
Prayers for Others
Live recording
Fears
Lord God, we pray for those who daily cope with fears and anxieties. When fears hold us back and prevent life from being lived to the full, when fears cause us to hide away, reclusive and alone, when we can find no relief, now way forward, no help or encouragement, no peace within our souls; Lord be our place of encouragement, and hope, be the one who can lead us gently forward into a place of freedom and fulfilment. Lord Jesus hear our prayers for those who find themselves enslaved to their fears and anxieties…
Walking on Water
And then they worship you… ‘Truly you are the Son of God” this is how the disciples reacted to seeing Jesus walking on the water. Or was it more than that? Was it the teaching and the miracles of healing? Was it His presence? the sense of there being something ‘different’ about him. Was it all of this and more? Just what did they see in Jesus that convinced them that he was ‘Truly the Son of God?’ And what Lord convinces us that you are Truly the Son of God?
Help us Lord in quiet moments of prayer to search our thoughts and search our hearts – why do we believe you to be the Son of God? …
Seeing through God’s eyes
Living God, all knowing, all powerful, all-seeing, help us to capture something of your wonder, to glimpse something of your greatness, to see that our small horizons are not the last word. Living God, teach us to see with your eyes. Help us to see life from your perspective with all its opportunities, potential, goodness and beauty. Where we have lost sight of the future remind us that your promises continue. Where we see only obstacles you have planned a way through, where we see only our limitations you see opportunities. Where we see division, you work toward reconciliation. Give us a faith that lets us see life in a new light, a different way, a wider perspective. Lord hear us in our prayers as we ask to see this gift of life through the eyes of the giver…
Praise – I am weak but thou art strong
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.