4 October - Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost – Year A

A downloadable version of this page is available for anyone who would like to save or print it out.

The Faith Action Programme would like to thank Eco-Congregation Scotland for their thoughts on the 19th Sunday after Pentecost and throughout this Season of Creation Time.

Revised Common Lectionary material

Weekly worship material throughout Creation Time is hosted on the Eco-Congregation Scotland website and can be found, along with other resources for the Season at Eco-Congregation Scotland.

Introduction

Welcome to this year's Scottish resources for Creation Time/Season of Creation, this special season of ecumenical solidarity. Each year from 1 September to 4 October the Christian family unites for this worldwide celebration of prayer and action to protect our common home. It is a special season where we celebrate God as Creator, and acknowledge Creation as God's continuing work, calling us as collaborators to love and care for all that is created. As followers of Christ from around the globe, we share a common call to care for Creation. We are part of all that God has made. Our wellbeing is interwoven with the wellbeing of the Earth.

The global theme this year is based round "Living Water" – water which sustains life, as in Ezekiel 47:9,12. These resources are based on the Revised Common Lectionary, which for the first time offers dedicated readings for Week 1 as ‘Creation in Christ'.

These resources are curated by EcoChaplain Rev David Coleman for Eco-Congregation Scotland, with guest contributors, offering notes and prayers, and thematic items in poetry and video. You're very warmly invited to explore our new webpage at https://ecocongregationscotland.org/resources/season-of-creation-2026/. The five full-length video reflections may be used in sermon slots, viewed by groups or individually.

Permission is given for devotional, not commercial use, for the material presented, and copyright remains with the writers.

Themes for this week – Summary

For the full resources for this week visit Eco-Congregation Scotland's website.

  • Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20 If you are following the Season of Creation until week 5, a garden of challenging delights is in store: the depths of the Ten Commandments in this version (you might like to compare the differing nuances of Deuteronomy 5). Background reading of Exodus 19 and of the omitted verses will help to grasp the awe-inspiring breadth of the drama unfolding.
  • Psalm 19 This is an expansive hymn of praise alongside the personalities of Creation – reading it in a variety of versions brings valuable insight.
  • Isaiah 5:1-7 and Psalm 80:7-14 The disappointment of a constant and attentive gardener dramatises God's sorrow at the chosen injustice of God's people in Isaiah, echoed in the similar image of the psalm, though with added involvement of encroaching wildlife!
  • Philippians 3:4b-14 The gardening theme continues in passing as Paul describes his previous proud claims to integrity and superiority as ‘compost' for the repurposed life in Christ.
  • Matthew 21:33-46 Jesus returns with one of the darkest of all His parables, that of the wicked tenants, whose horror needs both to hit home, and also to be handled with more care than previous centuries, when this story, valuable as Scripture for every society, has been abused with racist intent.

Prayers

Gathering Prayer
Sustaining God, who doesn't stand back
yet builds and endows Your college of Creation,
enrol us as learners, mentor our struggles,
encourage, evaluate,
and as the foundation of all our worship
train us to care for those who share this Common Home of Earth.

Prayer of Confession / Forgiveness
Sustaining God, by whose love
is made fearfully and marvellously
this myriad world of fragile life
in which our kind has grown to be:
with feet that can choose to trample,
hands that can choose to tend,
and hearts that, well-informed,
can choose indeed a loving, listening change.

But for the sin that truly harms the Earth …
What can we bring You
but the truth of no excuse?

You do not abandon
whom we have neglected;
You hear every anguished cry;
attend every fallen sparrow;
You weep over every species
vanished before the time You set.

But for the greed that truly harms the Earth …
What can we bring You
but the truth of inequality
of homelands flooded, droughts which kill?

What do we bring You
but crass denial in face of facts,
pretended wisdom, wily waiting,
when causes are as clear as day.

How do we act when action is urgent?

Postponing just transitions,
blocking paths of global healing,
buying bombs with gifts reserved for aid
and blaming the poorest – hit first and worst,
whilst overflowing wealth grows on regardless
right here, right now, as we collude,
as if our prayers were pointless.

Dear Christ,
God's sending of Godself:
make what You can
of what we have been;
empower us with forgiveness,
and encourage us with hope and joy.

Stand up to what we thought we had to do
and shine Your healing light
on open roads of justice
danced by folk forgiven.

Praying all the way for all Creation
as You taught the world.
Our Father…

Prayer of Thanksgiving / Gratitude
Beloved God,
You have so kept us going;
brought us to this day;
through all the stumbles, mishaps, losses;
nourished nonetheless
by morning light, by birdsong,
by the grass and mountains,
by the breath of trees.

Give us this day,
even just a little
of these rewards of knowing
that we do Your will.
And always
guide us, that love be our law! AMEN

Prayers of Concern / Intercession

Choose subjects appropriate for the day, informed by local, world, and congregational events: For the non-human world; for justice in human societies; for the unity of the Church, both locally and globally in response to the crisis of nature and climate; for our own encouragement and resilience. Acknowledging the ‘communion of saints' (the Church through time and space) and the ‘communion of creation' (the praise of all who have breath).

Sustaining God
As we gather in this place of Good News,
strengthened by prayer, by praise,
by stories of injustice confronted,
creation included,
and Your Word spoken from below
by those whom tyranny entitled
had classed of no account …

So too we consider in fellowship with Christ crucified
yet risen …

Christ, God's Word made Flesh, we pray, powered by Your Wild Wind; Your Holy Spirit …

God, community of giving, living and receiving,
we pray in the company of all who have gone before
and of Your friends in such diverse lands and societies …

Dear God of loving, listening and protection;
hear our prayers, change our lives,
heal and encourage,
from birth, through death and beyond,
for of such is Your glory. AMEN.

Blessing / Closing Prayer
Bless us, God, who parts the seas for freedom!
Lead us, teach us, feed us!

Bless us, Christ, with powerful stories!
Lead us, teach us, feed us!

Bless us, Breath of Life unbounded!
Teach, inspire, empower us!

Thus enfolded and equipped for lives of love and justice
may God: Father, Son and Spirit [God, Beloved, Wild Wind]
bless us through all that lies ahead, to the End of the Age. AMEN

Musical suggestions

God Welcomes All is the new supplement to Church Hymnary Fourth Edition. This exciting new collection features over 200 hymns and songs in a wide range of styles by writers from Scotland and around the world.

The full music and words-only versions are now available; and digital resources, including the expansion of the existing Church of Scotland music website, will be published in due course, with streaming functions and further information on each song; backing tracks; and lyric videos. God Welcomes All is available to order from https://chbookshop.hymnsam.co.uk/books/9781786225573/god-welcomes-all

Our online music resource is on the Church of Scotland website; you can listen to samples of every song in the Church Hymnary 4th edition (CH4) and download a selection of recordings for use in worship. You will also find playlists for this week and liturgical seasons and themes on the Weekly Worship and Inspire Me tabs.

  • The Compilers of God Welcomes All recognise that Creation is a major contemporary theme, and the book includes a whole section (numbers 153-165) devoted to issues of celebrating and care for Creation, climate justice, and more.
  • You can find further musical suggestions for this week in a range of styles on the Songs for Sunday blog from Trinity College Glasgow.

Reflecting on our worship practice

Since the start of the pandemic in 2020, the way we worship has changed and we need to reflect on the changing or newly established patterns that emerged and continue to emerge as a result of the disruption.

We can facilitate worship for all by exploring imaginative approaches to inclusion, participation and our use of technologies in ways that suit our contexts. This is not an exhaustive list, but some things we could consider are:

  • Framing various parts of the worship service in accessible language to help worshippers understand the character and purpose of each part. This is essential for creating worship for all (intergenerational worship) that reflects your community of faith.
  • Holding spaces for reflection and encouraging prayer to be articulated in verbal and non-verbal ways, individually and in online breakout rooms.
  • In online formats the effective use of the chat function and microphone settings encourages active participation in prayer, e.g. saying the Lord's Prayer together unmuted, in a moment of ‘holy chaos'.
  • While singing in our congregations is still restricted, we can worship corporately by using antiphonal psalm readings, creeds and participative prayers.
  • Using music and the arts as part of the worship encourages the use of imagination in place of sung or spoken words.
  • Use of silence, sensory and kinaesthetic practices allow for experience and expression beyond regular audio and visual mediums.

The following questions might help you develop a habit of reflecting on how we create and deliver content and its effectiveness and impact, and then applying what we learn to develop our practice.

  • How inclusive was the worship?
    Could the worship delivery and content be described as worship for all/ intergenerational?
    Was it sensitive to different "Spiritual Styles"?
  • How was the balance between passive and active participation?
  • How were people empowered to connect with or encounter God?
    What helped this?
    What hindered this?
  • How cohesive was the worship?
    Did it function well as a whole?
    How effective was each of the individual elements in fulfilling its purpose?
  • How balanced was the worship?
    What themes/topics/doctrines/areas of Christian life were included?
  • How did the worship connect with your context/contemporary issues?
    Was it relevant in the everyday lives of those attending and in the wider parish/ community?
    How well did the worship connect with local and national issues?
    How well did the worship connect with world events/issues?
  • What have I learned that can help me next time I plan and deliver worship?

You can listen to samples of every song in the Church Hymnary 4th edition (CH4) and download a selection of recordings for use in worship in our online hymnary.

You are free to download, project, print and circulate multiple copies of any of this material for use in worship services, bible studies, parish magazines, etc., but reproduction for commercial purposes is not permitted.

Please note that the views expressed in these materials are those of the individual writer and not necessarily the official view of the Church of Scotland, which can be laid down only by the General Assembly.