Sunday 16 August 2026
Twelfth 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 67
Your Weekly Church Notices
Scripture
Romans 11: 25 – 32
Matthew 15: 21 – 28
Praise – The Lord’s my Shepherd
Prayers
Loving God, we gather here this day in your Church and as your Church. We gather as a family; Your family. Allow us to be reassured by a sense of your presence amongst us, to feel the ties that bind us to each other and to You, love that is tangible, meaningful, fulfilling.
Father God, we come to offer our praise and our thanks because you have watched over us and though many trials and tribulations befall us in life, you are still there offering your care, your love and your guidance.
Forgive us, Lord, when we dare to determine who is part of the family and who is not, who is “in” and who is ‘out’. Lord remind us that we do not get to choose our family; Lord you have chosen and called each of us to be a part of your family here and we are all such different people with different wants and desires yet you love us all the same.
Forgive us, Lord, when our words and actions bring discord and tension when the calling upon us is to bring harmony. Forgive us, Lord, when we put up walls that cause division and pain when we are called to unite and to care. Inspire us through your word and bless our hearts and voices, which we offer to you this day.
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
I might have mentioned in the last little while that Lynn and I had family staying with us at the Manse while building work went on at their house. On Mother’s Day, Graeme, Emma, Freya, Paige, Boris the cat and Annie the dog moved in with us for 3 to 4 weeks, which became 13 weeks!
Now, I thought our wee dog Jet was pretty quick to spot when food was on the go. Like most dogs he’ll sit and wait to see if he’s getting anything off our dinner plate. We really don’t indulge him that way but he still waits hopefully on some scrap of food coming his way.
Annie is just a wee King Charles Spaniel, half the size of Jet, our Cocker Spaniel. Yet Annie could move like lightening when so much as a crumb fell on the floor. Jet was beaten hands down, every time for 13 weeks. Annie is a wee “grubber” and I told her so to her face, but it changed nothing.
A dog getting the scraps under the table… Now there’s an image we can relate too. And it’s one that Jesus related to as well when a woman approached him hoping that something good might happen for her daughter who was in a terrible condition, so terrible the woman believed her daughter had a demon.
When a dog gets a scrap that has fallen under the table we think nothing more than the dog is following instinct. The dog is an opportunist, grabbing what it can while it can.
If a child sees a discarded lollipop on the ground, we might forgive their naivety for thinking that they might pick it up and enjoy it. Any parent would tell their child that such a thing is dirty off the ground and is not to be eaten.
If an adult picks up scraps of the ground we can be pretty sure they are in desperate times. The down and out who rummages through a bin for the remnants of a kebab thrown away by the clubbers and partygoers the night before. The men, women and children who make a living off of India’s vast refuse tips foraging for food and items that can be salvaged and sold. Foraging for scraps is an act of desperation.
In the same way that we might veer away from someone raking through a bin for scraps of food, Jesus was trying to veer away from this woman. And that might surprise us. Had the woman not been able to convince Jesus that she was somehow deserving of his attentions the outcome might have been very different. Jesus had been sent only to the lost sheep of the people of Israel; he had no interest in this Canaanite woman. We have set for ourselves this image of Jesus doing good to all, kind and loving, never offending, never turning anyone away, and we have to question just how accurate that picture is because Jesus also had a mission, a purpose and a calling, he was focussed and that naturally includes some but excludes others.
But two things change the situation for this Canaanite woman and for that matter for Jesus too. Jesus saw her desperation and he saw her faith. This woman was prepared to equate herself to a dog looking for scraps under the master’s table. An opportunist, perhaps but also blessed with a basic instinct to survive. Desperate, yes, but not without hope. If she could get even just a little bit of what Jesus was offering she truly believed it would make all the difference in the world.
Jesus could not ignore her desperation or her faith. He responded to her willingly, prepared in himself to lay aside his own perceptions of where God was calling him to serve, Jesus willingly moved the boundaries for her and more than that; he gave more than just a morsel, a scrap, a crumb. Jesus gave this desperate woman everything she hoped for. He set a banqueting table before her by healing her daughter.
Of course any story where people living in desperation are touched by compassion is a beautiful and wonderful story. The media would call it a “human interest” story. But I wonder how much this story touches you and me. Hope and faith are never more vital when there is nothing else but hope and faith to cling to. The Canaanite woman lived with desperation every day; all she had was hope and faith. But is that true for us? Desperation is not part of my existence. I have a banqueting table set before me every day in life. I don’t even encourage my dog to pick up scraps from under the dinner table. Can faith and hope still be a meaningful part of life? And if you answered that question with a resounding YES then tell someone else why you believe that to be so.
Praise – How deep the Father’s love for us
Prayers for Others
Earthquake Colombia
Where people suffer, where the structures and patterns of life are torn apart by natural disaster, Lord we offer our prayers. Barley two months ago Venezuela was hit by two massive earthquakes. Families sill search for loved ones amongst the rubble. Neighbouring Colombia are now enduring the same tragedy. The dead and the missing are numbered in their hundreds. It is something we can barely imagine unless we have experienced living in a war zone. Times of devastation, with no help to hand other than your neighbour, equally as determined to find their loved ones. Desperation, hope, resilience, determination, faith. Lord hear us as we pray for those who know desperation yet cling to hope…
Purpose
Lord Jesus, you knew your purpose. You were sure of your calling. You knew the limits of what you were being asked to do. Lord Jesus, you knew your purpose. Yet, we come before you wondering, asking, what purpose the church has in the world today. What purpose does the church serve in Scotland and what is its purpose within this parish?
You created us so that we might enjoy you, to be in fellowship with you, know you as our creator. Is this our purpose – simply to enjoy you? Just to gather and worship. Or is there more? Have you not given us a message to share, a hope to live by, a word of life that is for all your children.
We thank you that we have heard that word and responded to its call; and now you call us to help others hear the word of life too. You have given us a purpose; we are here for a reason – to shift the boundaries, to take the barriers down, to bring others to faith in Christ.
Lord hear us in our prayers as we seek a renewed sense of purpose, a clearer understanding of what you have called us here to be and to do. Quietly in your presence we offer our prayers and ask that you rest your hand upon us…
Our Own Prayers
Praise – Longing for 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.