Sunday 12 April 2026
Second Sunday of Easter
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 16
Live recording
Your Weekly Church Notices
Scripture
1 Peter 1: 3 – 9
Live recording
John 20: 19 – 31
Live recording
Praise – Crown him with many crowns
Prayers
Live recording
We gather as God’s people, faithful in our worship, faithful in our service. We find joy in each other’s company and joy in the presence of our God.
We gather as God’s people to acknowledge that we are nothing without our Lord. You Lord, have given us all we need, you have made us who and what you are. You hold us within your hands in this moment and for all time to come. You have given us an unshakeable foundation of faith to live by.
Show us again the path that leads to life and joy and blessing as we walk with Christ your Son and our Risen Lord.
Risen Christ, You grace us with your presence; you stand among us, filling our hearts with peace, breathing hope into our uncertainty. As we gather, open our hearts to Your presence, open our lives to Your word, and lead us into the fullness of life You offer.
We make our offering, our way of responding to your love and grace, our way of offering service to you and to the Body of Christ Your Church. We will never see our gifts as enough yet in them you see our devotion to you. And so, in love we make our offering and in the light of that love you accept all that we bring.
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
Typically I’m not careless with my belongings. I’m not in the way of losing my glasses or my mobile phone or the keys to the house. But I do recall a couple of occasions when I was young and foolish that I went out without my house keys. If you have ever done the same thing then you’ll know that dreadful sinking feeling when you are standing at the front door in the pouring rain, soaked to the skin, with heavy bags of messages, rummaging through pockets to find keys that are not there wondering how on earth you are going to get in.
The first time that happened to me I went got hold of Davie. Davie was a retired butcher. Now, Davie didn’t have a key to the front door but he did have a big butcher’s knife. Davie, me and Davie’s big butcher’s knife stood in broad day light, in plain view of the main road, with passing motorists and pedestrians as we prised off the door facings with the big butcher’s knife forced the Yale lock open. No one saw anything suspicious!! And I’ll tell you it was surprisingly easy to force entry to the house.
Knowing how easy it was to force entry, it should not have surprised me when one day I returned home to find the TV lying face down on the sitting room floor, the video recorder was missing, and so was the HiFi. The bedroom looked like a bomb had hit it; every personal effect was strewn across the bed. It took a little time for the penny to drop. A little time before the shock set in. A none too subtle break in had taken place. Of course, the house had been easy prey. The rear of the house was very secluded giving easy opportunity for a brick to be lobbed through a bedroom window. The housebreakers climbed in and a little time later climbed back out with a load of my worldly possessions. The whole experience made me feel very uneasy and anxious. I had always assumed my house was a safe place to be but now that assumption was being tested. From then on, every little noise and creak and rattle made me think that someone was prowling around outside. I was uncomfortable looking out the windows at night imagining a face might appear on the outside. Closing the curtains made me more anxious because then I couldn’t tell if someone was out there or not. Every time I went out, and even when I was in, I double-checked the doors and windows to make sure they were shut and locked.
All a far cry from the way I grew up in the rural setting of Aberdeenshire. We never thought to check that doors were locked or windows were shut. It was commonplace to go out and knowingly leave the door unlocked. No one ever touched anything, life was relaxed and free from the anxiety that someone out there might be waiting to violate your home and steal your possessions. Later experiences in life taught me to live behind locked doors.
Late on the Sunday evening, on the day of the resurrection, the disciples gathered behind locked doors. What might have been or should have been a time of excitement for them was overshadowed by their anxiety and fear. It seems such an innocent thing to say; they gathered behind locked doors and in any other circumstances it would hardly be worthy of mention. But locked doors always indicate our anxiety and fear of what is outside, of what or who might be lying in wait.
The disciples were beginning to believe that Jesus had fulfilled his promise to rise again on the third day, yet they still had that seed of doubt niggling away that maybe the Jewish authorities had simply taken Jesus body away from the tomb, maybe the authorities would come looking for them too. After all, Peter had had a narrow escape at the time of Jesus arrest. Peter had been identified as one of Jesus followers, they had heard his Galilean accent, they were ready to point the finger and accuse him of assisting the so-called “king of the Jews”. Peter may have made his excuses and he may have been ashamed of his actions afterward, but he had escaped imprisonment, perhaps execution, by the skin of his teeth! The disciples had good reason to meet behind locked doors; they had good reason to be anxious of what was on the outside.
Just as locked doors keep unwelcome visitors out, so they keep those on the inside united as one. Jesus had been handed over for trial and execution as the result of being betrayed by one of his disciples. Judas valued his thirty pieces of silver more than Jesus life and maybe they thought that some other of their number might betray them too. They met behind locked doors maybe so no one could slip out early from their meeting to betray them to the authorities. Maybe they were anxious that Thomas, who was not with them at the time, was speaking to the authorities at that very moment.
Into the midst of this rather anxious body of disciples comes Jesus. Those locked doors suddenly tell a very different story. Now the locked doors tell us of miracle, and hopefulness, and the truth of the resurrection. It was not humanly possible for Jesus to enter the room, yet he came and stood among them and said “Peace be with you” and continued to instruct them on the tasks which lay ahead of them. Although the disciples were overjoyed to see their Lord, it did not entirely remove their sense of anxiety. A week later they were still meeting behind locked doors. On that next occasion Jesus appeared to them again and Thomas, placing his fingers in the wounds of crucifixion, had all doubt removed as he witnessed the Risen Christ for himself. Jesus had to meet with his followers again and again gradually re-building their confidence, over coming their fears until they emerged from behind those locked doors ready to tell the Good News.
I wonder if we are still behind locked doors? I suspect you locked your doors before you left home this morning. We all have that little bit of anxiety about the security of our homes and possessions. We lock our doors.
But what about you and I as disciples and followers of our Lord Jesus? Are we behind locked doors? Are we anxious about what society thinks of us as churchgoers, as Christians? Do we like to “lock the doors” so we can feel safe and unchallenged by what lies out there? Are we protecting ourselves from ridicule and secularism? Do we lock the doors to the outside world so we might try to keep ourselves as one, keep our community strong? Perhaps I am labouring the point but there will be elements of truth in what I’m saying. In a society where the influence of the Christian faith and the strength of the Church are diminishing we are bound to have a degree of anxiety that makes us lock the doors behind us.
But the miracle of the Christian faith is that into the midst of this anxiety, even when the doors are locked tight, Christ comes and stands in the midst of us, giving us peace, breathing the spirit into us and rebuilding our confidence. It may not happen all at once, Christ may need to touch our lives again and again reassuring us of his presence and of the power of the Gospel until we venture out to be his people once again.
Praise – Look ye saints
Prayers for Others
Live recording
Scottish Parliament Elections
On Thursday 7th May Scotland heads to the Polling stations. It will always be a time that excites some and leaves other bored and disinterested. Many will see it as their duty to vote, other will see it as a waste of time. There will be promises made and promises broken. Some things will get better; some will get worse. There is never a level playing field for those who hold the power; plans and ambitions are subject to the ever changing world in which we live. Our vote is a matter of personal conscience yet here today, in the presence of our Lord, in the quietness of prayer, Lord we seek your guidance. We live by faith in you Lord. You call us to love you and love our neighbour as ourselves, you call us to mercy, tolerance, forgiveness, you call on us to build community. Show us then how to bring faith to bear upon politics. Lord hear our prayer…
Peace from Turmoil
We read the scriptures and are reminded of the experiences of your followers on that first Easter. How you came to them in their confusion – each still reeling from the shock of your death, struggling to come to terms with the suffering you had endured and the apparent triumph of evil over good. And in the face of all that seemed evil and wrong you restored faith, rekindled joy, revived vision, and strengthened commitment.
Lord Jesus Christ, meet with us when life is hard and faith is weak, grant the reassurance that , despite appearances, your purpose continues unchanged, your strength remains undiminished and your love is indestructible. Lord hear our prayers for peace to emerge from the turmoil of our experiences and the turmoil of our world…
For those who are weary
Loving God, we pray to you for those who are weary – exhausted in body, mind and soul. Lord of life renew their strength and refresh their spirits. We think on those whose daily work hangs heavily upon them, those in stressful careers, those who work long and unsociable hours. We think on those battling against illness, wrestling with infirmity or disability. We pray for carers who cannot find time for themselves, time to rest, for who the burden of care is very real and never ending. Loving God draw near to all who need to know your healing touch and the assurance of your constant love. Lord hear us as we pray for all who are weary…
Praise – There is a green hill
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.