Sunday Focus

10th May 2026

Christian Aid Week 10-16th May 2026

Welcome to this weeks Sunday Focus, we pray you will be blessed.

Hymn - Praise to The Lord

Song -  Praise is Rising

Faithful God,
we come before you
with our gifts and strengths,
and with our faults and weaknesses,
knowing your unfailing love for us.
Open our hearts and our minds,
that we may hear your word and act on it.
Foster in us boldness and perseverance.
Transform us into your likeness,
and inspire us to build your kingdom of justice and love on earth.
Amen.

Video - Christian Aid Video

Acts 17:22-31

22 Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, ‘Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. 23For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, “To an unknown god.” What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. 24The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, 25nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. 26From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, 27so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us. 28For “In him we live and move and have our being”; as even some of your own poets have said,
“For we too are his offspring.”
29Since we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals. 30While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.’

If you were to draw "a thriving church", what might it look like? Is it a building with a spire? Is it a group of people and an open door?
For members of the Areopagus, their concept of a thriving institution might have looked different. That meeting space stood surrounded by splendid courts and temples, and in the shadow of the mighty Acropolis. Towering statues and temples lavished with gold were what some of them might have considered the sign of a thriving institution.
Yet for all the wealth centred on the temples and institutions around and above the Areopagus, there is clear unmet spiritual longing in the city.
There is in creation a call to all humanity. A call to a living harmony with one another, with all creation, and with God. Christian Aid articulates this as the belief that we are called to reconcile broken relationships, between people, God and creation.
This passage sees Pauls sharing the good news of that call at the Areopagus, but in looking for signs of folks feeling that call and seeking, reaching instinctively for God, Paul finds resonance more in the humble undecorated altar near the marketplace
Perhaps that same puzzle applies to us in Scotland today. We who have long nicknamed our own capital city a latter day "Athens of the North". Many folks still have spiritual longings and questions. How do we best represent and share the good news? How do we communicate the relevance of the gospel.
In Athens, Paul suggests the answer is at least partly in living out the good news in the everyday. Encountering God not only in a designated space and time, but also seeking a living breathing kingdom of love in our daily routines, and in our society. A prayer, or a collection envelope, or a voice raised to speak out for justice: each reflects what it means to be known and loved by God, and to work together toward a world where all can live full and dignified lives.
Perhaps when we sketch "a thriving church" we must start with its context. Reaching out in the heart of its community. Living out the love of God, and perhaps without realising, transforming the world around it.
 

Song - Beauty For Brokenness

The Lord's Prayer
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins
as we forgive those who sin against us.
Lead us not into temptation
but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power,
and the glory are yours
now and for ever.
Amen. 

Song -  Great Is Thy Faithfulness