27 September - Eighteenth 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 18th 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 17:1-7 Do we really want to live in ‘Grumbletown' (Meribah)? Exodus gives us an unlovely picture of people with genuine and reasonable grievances completely comparable to intrusive cost-of-living issues – how do we treat the leaders we ask to sort out environmental circumstances for which we need God's help, as well as wisdom? How do we empower them to grasp nettles and weather what may be initial knee-jerk responses?
  • Psalm 78:1-4suggests the resources of faith and Scripture should have something to offer – though only when devoutly recycled in daily use. What are we ‘hiding from our children' that could inspire us to respond creatively and in partnership with the Earth and other people?
  • Ezekiel 18:1-4, 25-32is a helpful reflection on the ‘sour grapes' tendency of generations to blame each other: does your church reach out to young people in despair about the damage undeniably done by those who have been in charge of human societies in our lifetimes?
  • Matthew 21:23-32on the other hand, shows us the unlovely yet tragically familiar spectacle of religious (and therefore political) leaders who know they've lost the argument digging in, in the hope of delay by means of procedure. Have no patience with such tactics: Jesus' sharp and crafty response is exemplary.

Prayers

Call to Worship / Gathering Prayer
Our Guiding God, Your Word so strongly gives the lead
Your Word made flesh and heard in righteous living

Our Patient God, Your faithfulness is urgent
Love expressed through justice cannot wait

Our God of Green and Growing; all authority is Yours
The God of human life – alive in all

Prayer of Confession – "So What?"
Dear God, All-Provider, who so graciously showered
the freedom, grace and chances
which our ancestors so certainly misused;

So what?

[Short silence]

What have we done with their legacy –
be that of justice or of harm?

What have we made of the blessings
that each day fall from heaven?
And blossom, with beauty and food from Your Earth?

We said: "So what?"

[Short silence]

What have we done with each chance to do different?
Have we just grumbled, when blessings sustain?

What have we done when You showed us our neighbours
losing their homelands to drought and to flood?

Where have we looked when You showed us what follows
is not ‘natural', but caused, when we burn and deny?

We said, and passed it as wisdom: "So what?!"

[Short silence]

What have we made of the Christ who insisted
that love for ourselves and our neighbour are one?

We add nails to the Cross; and say: "So what!!?"
We raise it high and look away.
Thank God, dear God, You're not like that Yourself!

Dear God, You have patience to shrug off the grumbling
to attend to real grievances
to offer Your Way;
Grace, and forgiveness through Christ.

[Short silence]

Remake and repurpose Your grumbling people
Do send manna and quails
to delight and to feed us
Forgiven, invited, by Christ, thus to pray:
Our Father…

Prayer of Thanksgiving
Thank You, God, our Caregiver,
for the things we shouldn't have to think hard about;
for light and sun, for air and water;
for whatever food last passed our lips,
and these folks around us, [online with us]
with whom we pray.

Thank You, God our Sustainer
for what we've taken for granted;
for those who work out of sight, that we can rest;
pollinators and microbes who do their part
in the next meal we look forward to;
for all the fellow creatures, human and otherwise
whose labours, unseen, are so real.

Thank You God, You Beauty!
For everything beyond mere monetary value:
for the wildflowers who, over centuries
have directed minds and hearts to You;
for the trees and the birds,
Christ's partners in mission!
Thank You, in words, and beyond. AMEN

Prayers of Concern / for Others
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).

Creator and Sustainer of all that's real,
seen and unseen, by us,
though all are known by You,
we are bold to pray
that You may teach us first
to see Your hand in all Your works
and then Your likeness in all Your children;
and then again, to trust beyond our seeing;
and trust in the added value of Your grace.

Thus empowered and committed
we pray for peace;
for an end to conflicts – even those deemed ‘just'–
where Creation is always the first casualty.

We bring to You
the terror – which might not yet have hit us –
of what it means for extinctions to run
a thousand times the ‘natural' rate.

We bring to You
the rural, coastal and marginalised human communities,
who will face hardship caused by others
first, and then for generations yet.

We bring to You the generations
of societies who have relied on fossil fuels –
their exploration, exploitation –
asking and looking for transition with justice
from that age, which soon must end.

We come to You amidst the fellowships of Your Church
that they may heed Your commission
of Good News for all Creation
and rise with You
to be a beacon of resilience
speaking without fear the truth in love
through all we know that lies ahead.

And more.

Creator and Sustainer of all that's real,
seen and unseen, by us,
praying thus for world and Church,
we are ourselves embraced:
the small and local
the thresholds and anniversaries;
the things which only prayer can help;
which can't be spoken aloud.
yet still are heard, respected as we pray.

Closing Prayer
When our wells have run dry
You befriend us with water

We doubt our own value
Yet You disagree

When we're scared to be vulnerable
You lead from the cross

When we're trapped in denial
You speak through Earth and Sky

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.