Sunday 20 September 2026
17th 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 1
Live recording
Your Weekly Church Notices
Scripture
Philippians 1: 27 – 30
Live recording
Mathew 20: 1 – 16
Live recording
Praise – From heaven you came
Prayers
Live recording
Living God, thank you for the sense of shelter and retreat that we find as we come to your House. Here in your presence, we seek peace and strength for living and in seeking you, you give us all that we ask for in your name and so much more. Here in your presence we thank you for everything that speaks of your loving purpose; all the ways you teach, guide and challenge us, calling us forward in faith. Forgive us that we sometimes in the normal patterns of the everyday we lose sight of the great things you have done and lose our sense of anticipation at the wonders you have yet to reveal. Forgive us that we limit the possibilities for our living when we lose sight of your purposes for us.
Draw near in love Lord Jesus and open our hearts to all the ways you are at work.
Open our eyes to your glory all around us, open our ears to your living word, and our minds to your truth.
So may we grasp each day a little more of who and what you are, acknowledging your greatness, marvelling at your love, rejoicing in your blessings and celebrating your inexhaustible mercy.
These are your gifts to us. A richness of life, a depth of humanity, grace divine to touch our souls and make our joy complete. What gifts could we bring to you that compare with these? Our gifts are humble yet given in love, our gifts of service, of talent and time. Before you now we lay our gifts. Lord receive our offering and make it divine.
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
I have fond memories of family holidays when I was just a wee lad. My mum and dad had a Mark 1 Cortina, which we loaded with every conceivable item of camping equipment. My sister and I were then shoe-horned into the back seats and we set off for sunny Yorkshire. No one had seat belts or airbags, no side impact bars or emergency brake assist. Travel was basic and the car was slow. Then came the challenge of driving the car up the Kirkston Pass. The Kirkston Pass was and is, a long and winding climb. The old Cortina took it in first gear hoping the engine would not overheat. Cars were stranded at the side of the road, which had either overheated or just did not have enough horsepower to climb the hill. The journey was an adventure in itself and the adventure made the reward of reaching the summit all the more rewarding.
Of course, I’ve been along the Kirkston Pass more than once since that first time in my childhood. A modern car can accelerate up the hill in top gear as if there were no hill there at all. Sure, a modern car will make for a wonderful smooth journey but where’s the sense of adventure, the sense of achievement. Maybe we’ll make it. Maybe we won’t. That journey is no longer rewarding. In fact, it’s disappointing.
Have you ever wondered why God lead his people out of Egypt to let them wander in the desert for forty years? Why not just take them straight to the Promised Land? It is obvious that the Israelites found the desert to be a testing place. They mutter against God and their leaders Aaron and Moses.
“We wish that the Lord had killed us in Egypt. There we could at least sit down and eat meat and as much other food as we wanted. But you have brought us out into this desert to starve us all to death”
It can hardly be surprising that in the desert food and drink become the issue for Moses and Aaron’s to solve. It is a difficult moment for the people and their leaders as God’s provision is compared with Pharaoh’s provision and God is found to be wanting. Yet in the midst of the struggle the Israelites are bound more tightly together as one people even if it is the most basic fight for survival that unites them. Into that struggle steps God who provides for them on a daily basis. First a large flock of Quails and then the Manna that covered the surface of the desert. The Manna was new and strange and understood as something supernatural, created by God to sustain his people. The flock of Quails was in every way a natural occurrence but still seen as the hand of God providing. The flock of Quails was perhaps familiar but still a miracle.
The story of their 40 years in the wilderness builds up a picture of a God who is trustworthy: one who will meet the needs of His people, one who will be present with them. A God who journeys with his people and sustains them, knowing that the struggle of the journey, the endeavour, will make the reward so much more rewarding.
Now the theme of reward occurs in our passage from Matthew’s gospel. We might wonder if it was a topic of debate in society at the time – a fair wage for a fair days work. Labourers typically worked a 12-hour day 6am to 6pm and the expectation is that those who worked the longest day should get the biggest pay packet. And that is still the way we look at it today. The more hours you work the bigger your pay packet. We still sense the injustice felt by those workers who began work in the early morning and endured the heat of the sun when they saw those who had arrived late receiving a full days wage. No one was paid less than what was agreed but many received more than they expected. Every one of those workers had to put bread on the table, every one of them needed to be sustained and through the generosity of the owner of the vineyard, each one of them was sustained. It is the landowner’s generosity that is the key: God’s generosity is not won, not worked for, not earned; but given; religious endeavour does not earn anything. God’s generosity is not proportionate to human merit, all is Grace.
Yet as we’ve indicated before; does forgiveness open a doorway to greed? Should we sin the more that grace may abound? Does the landowners generosity encourage laziness if I start work during the last hour of the day knowing that I’ll get the same pay as those who worked all day?
Somehow, even the parables are imperfect stories that in their imperfection convey these eternal truths. God knows our needs. He journeys with us and gives us what we need even when we don’t deserve it.
Whatever journey we are on, whatever stage of that journey we might have reached, however arduous it may have been or maybe still is, our God will give enough and more than enough to sustain us.
Praise – O Jesus I have promised
Prayers for Others
Live recording
Serving our neighbours
Lord Jesus Christ, you have told us in no uncertain terms what is expected of us when we say that we love you. You have made it clear that if we want to serve you and give joy to God, that we will do it in our neighbours wherever we find them by meeting their needs! We will find you in Church and in the streets; we will find you on the bus and on the train; we will find you in the office and the shop, in the Hospital ward, in prison, in places where we would never think to go. Where men and woman laugh and where they cry, where they are glad or sad, help us to see you in the face of another and serve you. Hear us as we pray for our neighbour in need…
Victims of violence
Lord Jesus Christ, we are saddened as we reflect upon our world and see the cruelty and violence, which exists. So much hurt and pain inflicted because of greed and anger and lives, which are out of control. We place into your care those who have suffered injury as the result of terrorism, or robbery, or assault at home or in the street. Where fear has stolen the place of confidence and trust allow the healing of body, mind and spirit to take place that anger may not breed anger, and hatred may not breed hatred, but that we should learn to love our enemies, walk the second mile, turn the other cheek. Lord hear us in our prayers for those who are victims of violence…
Our Own Prayers
Lord God, we have the privilege of coming to you in prayer to open our hearts to you, share our inner most thoughts, to say to you the things we cannot say to anyone else. Nothing is hidden from you; there are no secrets. In quiet moments we pour out our hearts to you that you Lord, might fill us with your grace and love to heal our wounds and offer us completeness of spirit. Hear our prayers…
Praise – Heaven shall not wait
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.