Sunday 19 April 2026
3rd 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 116: 1 – 7
Live recording
Your Weekly Church Notices
Scripture
1 Peter 1: 17 – 23
Live recording
Luke 24: 13 – 35
Live recording
Praise – At the name of Jesus
Prayers
Live recording
Lord Jesus Christ, we approach you with thanksgiving in our hearts for you meet with us, not just on this day but day by day. Just as you met with your disciples in the days following the resurrection so, you meet with us.
We thank you that your victory of good over evil, love over hate and life over death continues to change our lives just as it did for the disciples. New beginnings emerged from the darkest and most desperate of places, even from the cross and tomb! The light of love and the flame of hope cannot be extinguished.
In our weakness you are strong. In our fear you are our confidence. In the midst of crippling doubt the seed of faith you planted in our hearts grows ever stronger. Continue to work that miracle in our lives and our world today, making all things new to the Glory of your name.
Lord Jesus, we thank you that you shared our humanity; you embraced the good and the bad. You understand what it means to hurt, to endure suffering in your body and in your soul, to face even death itself, and all for us.
Living God, we thank you for the assurance which comes through faith; that whatever we face you will be with us. Teach us to live each day in the light of that truth, and so to live always as your Easter people.
All of this is your gift to us; faith, hope and love; priceless gifts in themselves given freely and without reserve. We too bring our gifts offering our hearts and our service, our worship and our devotion; to give of ourselves freely and without reserve to the one who gave his all for us. Lord receive the gifts 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
Jesus appears unexpectedly. Speaks to the disciples and disappears again. Most of the resurrection appearances are fairly fleeting. Going by the accounts in the Gospels they seem to last only a few minutes; just long enough for the disciples to recognise Jesus by the wounds. Just long enough for those bewildered disciples to be overwhelmed by the very thought of Jesus actually being with them; and then He is gone!
The story of the road to Emmaus is therefore one of the strangest of the resurrection appearances. Emmaus was seven miles from Jerusalem that’s at least two hours walk and after that, Jesus remained until a meal had been prepared. Conjecture, I know, but not unreasonable to think Jesus must have been with Cleopas and his friend for some length of time, possibly several hours.
And Jesus put the time to good use. He explained and interpreted all the scriptures to Cleopas and his friend, starting with Moses and all the prophets. And yet the two disciples fail to recognise Jesus.
I find that very strange. How can you fail to recognise someone you know so well? I frequently fail to remember names, sometimes I fail to recognise a face if I’ve only met someone a couple of times before, but I never fail to recognise someone I know well. Although their hearts burned within them while the stranger was speaking and opening the scriptures to them, the two disciples weren’t even reminded of Jesus. In view of the recent horrifying events of the trial and crucifixion, we might imagine that Jesus would have been very much in their minds. Yet they noticed no resemblance at all between the stranger they met on the road, and the Jesus whom they had spent three years of their lives with. Clearly this stranger didn’t have any wounds in the hands or feet or side as there were later that same day; wounds that might have given a clue to his real identity.
It might be safe to conclude that the risen Jesus was quite different from the earthly Jesus. And the risen Jesus was seen differently by different people, and although they all recognised him eventually, they recognised him through different characteristics. Mary Magdalene recognised him when he spoke her name. The gathered disciples recognised him when they looked at his wounds. The couple on the road to Emmaus recognised him through the breaking of bread, through brokenness.
The journey to Emmaus must have been terrific for them, stimulating, fascinating, enjoyable. It centred around Jesus. The talk was not only about him, but also by him. But for all he said, for all the teaching he gave them, they still didn’t recognise him. They only recognised him when he stopped speaking and teaching, and started doing. And the thing that he started doing, that enabled them to recognise him, was breaking bread and sharing it with them. Brokenness.
Could that be why Jesus enjoyed the company of the social outcasts so much? Because they were broken and vulnerable people who could be nothing other than their true selves. People who use their energy, not to build defences around themselves, not to create an acceptable social facade, but simply struggle to survive.
We may not think on ourselves as the outcasts of society, but we still experience brokenness just by virtue of living this human life. Bereavement, divorce, redundancy, ill-health, are all occasions of brokenness. They’re occasions of suffering, when our energies are used simply to survive, to get through it; there’s no spare energy to worry about social niceties or what other people think about us. They are occasions, where we are forced to lean heavily on other people and to rely on their strength, because we have none of our own.
They are occasions through which we can recognise Jesus. We may each recognise him in different ways, through different events. So did the disciples. He may not appear in the form we expect. He didn’t for any of the disciples. We may not be aware that we’ve been walking with him. Neither did the two disciples on the road to Emmaus.
The disciples who met Jesus after his resurrection were changed by the experience. And that’s the test and reality of an encounter with the risen Christ. We are changed by it. He changes our perspective, the way we view life. We become different people, with different values and different priorities, even if it’s only after the event that we understand we have been in the presence of the Christ.
Brokenness may indeed lead to moments where we experience the Risen Christ but is it possible to experience brokenness without becoming desperately poor, outcast or without enduring the sort of traumatic shock, which breaks our hearts and spirits? Maybe it is possible to experience brokenness by becoming increasingly aware of who and what we are. By allowing ourselves to be vulnerable with other people. By allowing ourselves to admit to the Christ what we really think and feel. When we let go of our facades and pretences, then in those places of vulnerability we can experience the Risen Christ and we will be changed by his presence.
Praise – Beauty for brokenness
Prayers for Others
Live recording
Preparing for the worst
With the eye of a weaver, you have chosen us; such different threads to be woven into one fabric, with one purpose – that the world might believe.
News headlines reveal that our government is preparing for the worst case scenario should the war on Iran continue. And of course they must prepare for the worst possibility; being prepared is vital. And we know that the suggestion of shortages will open the door to panic buying and price increases in what becomes virtually a self-fulfilling prophecy. What may come will test us as a nation and as communities; what will emerge? Profiteering, self-interest and greed? Or care for our neighbour, care for each other, a willingness to offer our last. You call us Lord, to reflect your love, to dare to love as you love us, but just what will that mean in the days and weeks and months to come? Will testing times also test our faith? Lord hear our prayers, guide us in our responses as our nation prepares for the worst…
School shootings in Southern Turkey
Inspired by a mass murderer in the USA, one 14 year old school boys turns his guns on students at his own school. At least eight students and one teacher were killed in the school shooting in southern Turkey. 13 others were wounded, six in critical condition. The USA and Turkey have very different cultures yet; we see the commonality of extreme violence being brought to bear upon school age children by attackers who are themselves just children. And we cannot help but ask what has changed in our world that influences children to act with such violence?
Lord, we feel the depth of sadness and trauma that has visited families in Southern Turkey, just as it has visited so many families here at home and in other countries. We pray for those who grieve, we pray for those who glorify such atrocities on social media, we pray for those who have no compassion, no care or concern for neighbour, we pray for responders first on the scene, who witness the horrors of such violence. Lord God, we offer our prayers to you…
A world that needs to know the peace of Christ
Forgive us Lord, if praying for peace in our world might sound a little twee. What do we mean when we offer each other the Peace of Christ? What did the disciples experience when you stood amongst them, risen from the grave, and offered them your Peace? We cannot quantify it, or fully describe it, yet we know in our hearts that you have given us a gift that the world around us needs so much. Help us to share the Peace of Christ in all the places where we live and move and have our being; until at last all the threads are woven into one fabric, with one purpose – that the world might believe. Lord hear our prayer…
Praise – When we walk with the Lord
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.