Sunday 26 April 2026
4th 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 23
Live recording
Your Weekly Church Notices
Scripture
1 Peter 2: 18 – 25
Live recording
John 10: 1 – 10
Live recording
Praise – Blessed Assurance
Prayers
Live recording
We hear your familiar voice; the voice of the shepherd. And we come. We come in worship, we come in praise, we come so that we might learn how to follow the one who has promised to lead us and guide us through all things.
When we seek new pastures. When our souls yearn for places of rest and refreshment, You Lord, guide us to new pastures, by quiet pools of fresh water we find new strength. May this time in your presence bring to us a soul refreshing view of You and your world.
You have made us for this, to enjoy You and worship You in holiness.
Lord Jesus, by Your life and death and resurrection You have opened the door to heaven, flung wide the gates, that our joy may be complete, that all may enter into the abundant life that is found with You.
Holy Spirit, helps us as we pray, to recognise the Shepherd’s voice and understand the meaning of God’s word to us today. Speak to us Good Shepherd,
as individuals, but also as Your flock, Your family gathered here, that the bonds of fellowship we share may reach out beyond these walls.
Here we offer our gifts, trusting, hoping, praying that these gifts reach out beyond these walls to bring the gift of faith to all who seek you. Just as you welcome us as honoured guests at your banquet so may all people hear of your generous love and be made welcome at your banquet.
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
That’s okay I thought. Sounds simple. I can do that.
Jim and Val were heading away on their annual summer holiday. They were fortunate to live in a large house set within spacious grounds where several sheds and outhouses were erected. In order to make use of all the accommodation they had, and perhaps to feel a little like they were living the good life, they kept a number of hens from which they got a regular supply of fresh eggs. Trouble was, as holidays loomed, they needed some poor unsuspecting mug to look after the chickens. That’s where I stepped in!
That’s okay I thought. Sounds simple. I can do that.
What else do chickens need but some food and fresh water and what do you know – eggs pop out the other end.
It was a delight to collect free-range eggs. Indeed, I ended up with more eggs than I knew what to do with, but other than that, the romance soon wore off.
Keeping chickens turned out to be hard work. I hadn’t reckoned with hens that were broody. Being pecked by a broody hen is no fun at all. Hadn’t reckoned with hens which refused to lay. Hadn’t reckoned on the fact that they tend to attract rats, or the occasional fox. But worst of all, I hadn’t reckoned with the pecking order.
The first I really knew of the pecking order was when I noticed one particular hen was losing its tail feathers. A day or two later its naked rump was sore and bleeding. So, with a little help I got it separated from the others into a little run all of its own. Thankfully, it recovered quite quickly. But meanwhile, another hen was losing its tail feathers. Keeping chickens was definitely losing its attraction and fast. I was getting concerned that Jim and Val would return to find half of their chickens cold, hungry and naked!
It didn’t take much to work out that these hens were being attacked by the others every time they wandered near. When those two poor hens were removed, the rest turned on another. And when that one was removed, they turned on another, and so it went on.
It was really distressing to see such savagery at close quarters and among such apparently docile creatures. There seemed to be this primeval urge to attack; to exclude one hen from the rest of the community. The hens were constantly turning on one of their own, and it proved almost impossible to stop it.
There are many, many variations of suffering. But perhaps one of the worst is suffering at the hands of your own. Suffering deliberately, knowingly, inflicted by members of your own peer group. Being excluded and marginalised by your own community, being made to feel you don’t belong. And yet this so often happens in groups of people. Almost as though we humans also have a primeval urge to attack.
Jesus, and the very first Christians were Jews, whose very life is religion. The early Christians had discovered a new and life-giving revelation of their Jewish religion through Jesus. A new way of interpreting God through Jesus. Yet when they tried to share their experience and their joy with their own people, their own community, they were viciously excluded and blamed for all the ills of the community.
Jesus warned his followers they would suffer for their beliefs. But I wonder whether they realised this suffering would come not so much from outside, but from their own people. As we know and as we hear pointed out to us in today’s reading from the first letter of Peter, Jesus himself suffered horrifically at the hands of those who were afraid of him and who didn’t understand him or what he was about. And it was fairly clear that if his followers continued to proclaim him after his death, and indeed to claim that Jesus was alive again and still actively working amongst the people, then they too would suffer.
When the first letter of Peter was written, the early Church was undergoing a time of persecution, so Peter is attempting to make some sense of all that suffering and to encourage fellow Christians to stand firm, no matter what. He says that merit is not just in enduring suffering. There’s not much merit in enduring suffering if you deserve to suffer, but if you suffer when you’re completely innocent, that’s a different matter; you’re thoroughly commended to God, because you’re following in the footsteps of the Christ.
And yet, there’s something very sad about a religious community blaming and excluding and persecuting their own, for religion basically should be about love. God is love, and God loves all human beings, no matter what they’re like. And the mark of a truly religious community must surely be that they’re able to love and tolerate each other.
Jesus warned his followers about the suffering they’d face. He told them this in order that their faith would remain strong despite the suffering. They discovered that when the whole community remained strong in the face of suffering, refusing to inflict suffering on others, but accepting and receiving the suffering and keeping hold of their faith despite it, something quite miraculous happened. The community grew in spiritual depth. They all grew closer to God. And as that happened, so they increased in numbers too. For a community, which grows closer to God can’t help but pour out love on all those around, and love like that is very attractive.
Unmerited suffering, suffering caused by your own people is immensely painful. But it’s also an opportunity. An opportunity for love and growth and outreach. When a whole community does that we all experience the miracle of God’s love.
Praise – What a friend we have in Jesus
Prayers for Others
Live recording
Praise be to You our Lord and God! in love You have sought us and found us and brought us home rejoicing!
Lord Jesus, present with us by Your Spirit, You go before us in the adventure of faith. Thank You that You have given gifts for the building up of the Body of Christ; we pray for one another as You call us to minister in Jesus’ name. May it be that in our life together we all come to discover the Good Shepherd’s care.
Risen Lord Jesus, whose perfect love chases fear away, we pray for all who are challenged by life. We remember especially people who are oppressed in our world by war or injustice, those who suffer because of their faith or beliefs,
people trapped in poverty, hunger or homeless. Lord hear our prayers…
We pray for the hurting and the broken-hearted, people who are unwell in body or in mind whether they are at home or in hospital. We pray for people in prison and for those who are the victims of crime. In quiet moments we offer prayers for those known to us and precious to us who are forever in our thoughts. Lord hear our prayers…
Lord Jesus, You are the true Shepherd who desires only what is good for Your flock, Your rod and staff offer us protection, Your compassion sets us free and binds up our wounds. Risen Jesus, hopefully, confidently, because already it has begun in You, we look to the day when the new earth and new heaven will be complete and there will be no more dying, or crying, or pain. Until then let us be found faithful, peacemakers, builders of bridges, workers for justice, to the glory of Your holy name. Lord hear our prayers…
Now may the God of peace, who raised our Lord Jesus from the dead, the great shepherd of the sheep, make us complete in everything good so that we may do His will through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Praise – All my hope
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.