A worship service was held at 10.30am in the church building on  Sunday, 13 October.  The service was simultaneously broadcast on the Church Facebook page.  You can catch up here, or by following the link below.

The Bible passage was Luke 10:25-37 – the famous story of the ‘Good Samaritan’ and Gillean MacLean led the service and preached. This was the latest in our ‘Generous Hospitality’ series, with a focus on ‘Welcoming the Stranger’.

Do listen to Gillean’s sermon on the catch-up – it starts at 49minutes in.  She reflected on the ‘Good Samaritan’ story, and translated it into a twenty-first century urban context, trying to capture the shock value of the original – the person who went to help the beaten-up stranger in the alley in Gillean’s version was an illegal immigrant, a sex-worker making money for those who controlled her. It was she – not the tired minister and the top-shot lawyer who sought to justify themselves in just walking past – who stopped to help.

Gillean’s call to us was to be true neighbours – to those we live close to, to those in our communities, to those groups who are suffering in our nation and in our world. She highlighted especially the issue of ‘modern slavery’ – there are many in Scotland who are literally slaves to others – either brought in as illegal immigrants to work for a pittance in agriculture, fisheries, sex-work or the beauty industry, or Scots-born people in hard times who have fallen into the lands of unscrupulous lenders.

These are our neighbours. ‘Loving your neighbour’ can seem daunting. The suggestions Gillean gave us included looking out for ways to care for our literal neighbours, and seeing what God is doing in Hilton – through for example Hilton Family Support – and joining in.  And we can all pray – Gillian is convinced that prayer, though unfathomably mysterious, is effective and leads to change.

John reflects:  And so, Father God, help us in the coming week to see everyone we encounter as a neighbour, to discern what we can do to help, to know when the most helpful thing is to do nothing, and act in a way which reflects the love and grace and inclusion of Jesus Christ.

John muses:    A few thoughts which came to me this morning, reflecting on the theme of neighbours.

One:    Am I, are we, open to receiving help from those who see us as their neighbour, or do we shut them out, because for reason of shame or whatever we resist their help. In resisting them, could we be resisting God?

Two:   Vital as it is to truly care for our human neighbours, as Christians we are also neighbours to the created environment – to all living things, to the earth itself. What does it mean to take seriously caring for these neighbours? ‘Brother sun, and sister moon’ as St Francis put it.

Three: Part of  being human  is somehow being conscious of ourselves, being able to stand back and look at ourselves, and sometimes we don’t like what we see. I wonder if this concept of ‘being a neighbour’ might  be applied to our inner relationship with ourselves?  Is there a wounded, angry, shameful, broken part of ourselves  which we despise or ignore or bury?  Jesus calls us to love one another as we love ourselves. And this must involve sitting down with our broken  selves in the presence of God rather than rushing on with our frantic agendas, putting an arm around the shoulder of these wounded selves as they shake with weeping, and letting the healing of Jesus reach them. Only when we are truly neighbours to ourselves do we find real freedom to be neighbours to others.

Four: One thing I hadn’t really noticed about this story before is that it’s about the love of the outsider. Christians sometimes think of themselves as ‘better’ than those who are ‘unbelievers’ – more insightful, more caring. In fact, the story shows religion can kill and formalise, and make us judgemental and self-righteous.  There is so much love and caring in our society from people who have no faith other than in the value of others. People whose lifestyles some Christians might despise show great love and compassion. And I believe that God is present in their love,  for God is present in all love and compassion.

Five:  Gillean spoke about the privilege of praying for people in difficult situations, and assuring us that ‘prayer is a powerful tool in a suffering world.’ This is good news, but I’m just conscious that people can come to church with many different questions and doubts about faith, and that for some of us, these questions and doubts surround prayer and its mysteries. But all who come are welcome, even the most unbelieving among us, for God’s love reaches out to us all.