Barclay Viewforth Church Edinburgh: Recent Episodes
Barclay Viewforth Church Edinburgh
The Bible - not one book but many of different genres, spanning centuries. How are we to read and understand it?
2 Kings 3:4ff, Elisha's challenge to the Kings to trust God to provide the water they so desperately need, but they need to do their bit and get ditch-digging!
Psalm 92 the Sabbath principle - rest, a need, not a luxury and the chance to refocus on what matters
Family service - thinking about Moses and God’s call to him and others to trust and obey at various critical moments in the escape from Egypt and journey through the desert to the promised land and beyond.
Do we live up to Jesus call to us (Matthew 28:18-20) to go out and make disciples of all?
First in a series for Advent. Immanuel, God with us. Luke 1:1-25 God with us brings hope.
Joshua 4:4. Stones are set up at Gilgal as a reminder of God's faithfulness in delivering them from destruction. We need to remember times of deliverance too to help give us the confidence in the face of the challenges to us and our nation and nations.
Mary washes Jesus' feet with perfume that costs a fortune and could be put to far better use - or so one would think!
John 11:17-22, 32-44. Martha and Mary's faith is really tasted when Jesus does nothing to stop brother Lazarus from dying. Then he does arrive, hears their implicit complaint, grieves with them, then takes their faith to a whole new level by what he does next.
John 9:1-23, 35-38 Jesus heals the man born blind but the religious leaders are more concerned about his Sabbath rule breaking.
John 10:22-39 Jesus is challenged to tell the religious leaders if he is the Messiah. He directs them to what he's been doing for the answer.
Jesus is regarded as dangerous by the religious authorities - he's not had the usual training but is making extraordinary claims and they're determined to silence him. The feast of Tabernacles is the context - the celebration of God's deliverance
John 6:1-24 Jesus feeds a huge crowd and later terrifies the disciples when they're in the boat crossing the lake and see him coming towards them walking on the water! Trust Jesus to meet our needs, involves us in feeding others and when it dawns on us who he really is, tells us not to to be afraid.
John 5:16-47. People - especially religious people - were outraged at Jesus as we might well be too when we think how we'd react if someone claimed to be God! Where was the evidence? What were the signs? He challenged them -and challenges us - to look and see.
Reflecting on John 4:27-42, the Samaritan woman goes and tells all her neighbours to 'come and see' Jesus
John 4:1ff Jesus speaks with a woman who Jews of his day wouldn't normally have anything to do with. He prompts her to ask him for a kind of life-giving water that will never run out.
John 3:22ff John's response to his followers when they are indignant that Jesus is now baptising, prompting John to say 'he must become greater, I must become less
Nicodemus was prepared to accept Jesus' authority - but what was this rebirth he was talking about?
John 2:12-25. How often do we hear Jesus name taken in vain to express shock when something truly shocking is done? But which of our long held assumptions social, cultural or religious and practices will He shock us into realising aren't pleasing to God?
John 1:19ff John the Baptist is quizzed about who he is - he points them to Isaiah's prophecy about the voice announcing the coming of God
Peter, shamed by his denial of Jesus is given the chance to declare his love and reinstated by the risen Jesus to follow where He led in serving and suffering for others.
John 21:1-14. The disciples come to recognise the risen Jesus by the lake after another miraculous catch of fish when it dawns on them who he is and he serves them breakfast and calls them to continue his work.
Family service reflection on the disciples walking to Emmaus, Jesus coming alongside and helping them see the big picture.
How can we recover when we have the wind knocked out of us by life? Thinking about John 20:19-29
Easter Sunday. Mark 16:1-8 Jesus is risen! How that transforms everything, including us, however insecure, unlikely or broken we may think we are.
Jonah 4. Jonah is angry because God spares the Ninevites (-Israel's enemies who weren't good at all) when they repent in response to his warning message. God's response and what we can learn from that.
Jonah's reluctance and slowness in getting in the message doesn't make him the obvious choice to be God's messenger.
The prophets show us we can hear but not really be paying attention or ready to do what we're being told - even a prophet can be guilty of this, like Jonah.
Text:Romans 12:1ff. God calls each of us individually and together as His church to serve one another and the world as Jesus did.
Family service - reflecting on what we know through our faith in Jesus - that we are God's family.
Thinking about Paul's command in Ephesians 5:15-20 to go on being filled by the Holy Spirit and so become more and more like Jesus and part of God's family as He wants us to be.
Talking and listening is key to any relationship - so too prayer with our God as Jesus showed us..
Part of a series:"I dream of a church ....". This week:a church that expects to hear God speaking to us through the Bible. With reference to 2 Timothy 3:10-17.
What is your dream? What inspires you? What does God want and how can you help bring that about?
Focus on what YOU are called to do (-or working out what that is) and do it to the best of your ability and don't get distracted by worrying what others are doing, seemingly better than you. Hebrews 12:1-3.
Family service for Ability Sunday led by the Connect Plus group on the theme of Connecting.
Naomi's strange (-to us) advice to Ruth about approaching Boaz, Ruth's trust and readiness to go with it and what came of it.
Continuing the series on 'Growing Young', reflecting on the parable of the good Samaritan
Fiona Kennedy on us as a church doing as Jesus says and letting the children come to Him.
David Clarkson describes the process by which we hope to encourage young people to feel welcome and grow up in their faith as part of our church family.
reflection for 'back to school' service on growing up, not just physically but in trust too that Jesus in with us always through all our transitions.
Reflections on Psalm 133 and Ephesians 4:1-17 and our being called to be one, acknowledging God as our Father and so His family.
The gifts God gives us are for serving one another, building a new community where everyone has a place.
Rev David Clarkson unpacks what Pauls says about love, 'the greatest' of the fruits of the Spirit in I Corinthians 13.
Thinking about 1 Corinthians 12:12-31, the church like a body, one but with many parts with different functions making up the whole.
After Jesus' ascension, the disciples are told to wait for the 'gift' He promised them.
Jesus uses His last meal with His followers to help them understand what His coming and His death were all about.
Martin Fair, Moderator of the Church of Scotland encourages us to pause, be patient and trust we'll see God's big picture.
Israel in exile rediscover ‘the law’ - what God had revealed to them about who He is and who they are called to be - His people, making Him known among all nations.
Service including communion and a reflection on the Israelites flight from Egypt only to be confronted by a 'sea' to cross in front and a pursuing army right behind.
Moses had high hopes of rescuing his people but may have thought he 'd blown it, resigning himself to being a shepherd in Midian. God has other plans, as usual!
Joseph's long period of waiting and wondering comes to an end and his faith is vindicated as his dream starts to come true.
Reflecting on the Genesis story of the flood and God's enduring sign of hope since then :the rainbow.