Inverleith St Serf's Church

02/09/2026

Wednesday Reflection
the image of God…...
On Sunday, we read from Deuteronomy ch4 vs 15 to 20 beginning,” On the day when the Lord spoke to you out of the fire on Mount Horeb, you saw no figure of any kind;” going on to warn against trying to make any image of God.
It tells us that since God created everything in the heavens and on earth then an image of any of these cannot possibly be a representation of the uncontainable, unseen God.
And then we read in Colossians these words,”God’s dear son is the image of the invisible God; his is the primacy over all created things…...He exists before everything and all things are held together in him.”
God sent his only Son so that we might see the visible face of Christ—the one in whom all things in heaven and earth hold together.

We looked at the 12th-century Tree of Life mosaic from Rome, where Christ’s cross becomes a living tree whose acanthus vines expand to cradle the whole cosmos—birds, soil, beasts, and human weariness alike.
And heard again the Invitation: A quiet welcome for anyone feeling scattered or on the outside to find their place as branches on that same tree, held in the same grace. In those branches is the universal church.

Our call to worship
Open our eyes, Lord; for we have stared into the fire and found no form to hold.
Open our eyes, Lord; to the face of the Firstborn, the image of the unseen God.
Open our eyes, Lord; to the soil, the sea and the stars, where all things hold together.
Open our eyes, Lord; be thou our vision, O Lord of our hearts.

01/09/2026

Join the Global Week of Prayer with Inverleith St Serf’s, and with other local churches, Wardie and Granton parish churches and St James, Goldenacre.

Gardens at all four churches are open for quiet prayer 24/7 during this week of global prayer.

Our sanctuary will be open on Sunday 6 September from 7pm to 8pm for a worship event and prayer time and on Monday 7 September morning from 7.30am to 8am for a time of quiet prayer.

Both Wardie and Granton churches will be open on Wednesday 9 – Granton from 11am for a prayer service at 11.15 (and then till 2pm) and Wardie from 7pm to 9pm for quiet prayer.

On Thursday 10 September Granton church will be open from 10-11am.

On Friday 11 September Wardie will be open from 10-noon and Granton church will be open from 11-1pm

and on Saturday 12 September, Wardie church will be open from 10am to noon.

There will also be an online prayer time on Tuesday 8 September – REGISTER at https://www.24-7prayer.com/gwp-prayer-calls/ – Scotland 8am-9am and UK – 11am-12noon and 2pm-3pm and also on Sunday 13 September – Scotland 9am-10am

26/08/2026

Wednesday Reflection
Dusk to Dawn – our Sunday theme.

When navigating profound transitions and the collapse of familiar structures, it is easy to mistake the shifting landscape for the end of things—a terrifying dusk. However, what looks like ruin is actually the necessary clearing of the ground before dawn breaks. Because exhaustion blurs our vision, we must seek a "quiet resting place" in God to regain our bearings and recognize that the world is turning toward renewal, not destruction.

​As we read in Isaiah 41: vs 17-20, we will not be forsaken in the barren wilderness but God will provide rivers and springs of water to turn the dry land into a fertile garden where trees will grow.

God uses our seasons of transition not so we can build fortresses to hide from a weary world, but so we can cultivate spaces of grace and provision. We are called to be a spring of solace for others making the hard journey, trusting that out of this quiet obedience, new life will burst forth.

23/08/2026

19/08/2026

Wednesday Reflection
Keep the change ……

This week we explored the story in Matthew 15 vs 21 to 28 where Jesus meets a Cannanite woman, a foreigner, who was asking him to heal her very sick daughter. Jesus met a new situation that challenged his understanding of who should be accepted to eat from the table of God. An understanding which had been taught to him in childhood and through his years of growth to this point in his ministry. It opened up a fuller vision of God’s plan for human salvation.
He changed and he kept the change.

Following Jesus means we must constantly struggle to test what we have been taught and what we always have believed. What Jesus offers us isn’t always a clear set of instructions about where to go and what to do.
The Christian life is not static, but dynamic. We should always be challenging the traditions we harbour. We must examine our most cherished beliefs.
And when the Spirit leads, we must be willing to change, and keep the change.

12/08/2026

Wednesday Reflection
Not just for Christmas …..

This week we thought in art, in hymn and readings about God reaching out to humankind and our response.

In Philippians ch 2 vs 1 – 11 we read that ‘our bearing to one another should arise out of our life in Christ Jesus who did not keep himself separate from humankind but made himself one with us, being born as we are, growing, learning and working as we do and then dying on a cross so that we might have life.’

And in Hymn 318 we sang
‘Lord, you were rich beyond all splendour, yet, for love’s sake, became so poor.
You are our God beyond all praising, yet, for love’s sake, became a man.
Lord, you are love beyond all telling, Saviour and King, we worship you.’

Do we keep God’s approach to us only in the special times of festival, at Christmas, at Easter or do we look for and respond to his approach every moment of our lives.

05/08/2026

Wednesday Reflection
Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice.
Him serve with mirth, his praise forth tell, come ye before him, and rejoice.

When I was at school this was the hymn we always sang at the end of term assembly. One which we learnt by heart in music lesson so we could stand tall and sing with all our might. It has overtones of great joyfulness - enhanced by the thought of holidays and time to play!
All our readings, hymns and the reflection this week centred on God’s relationship with us - we thought how young children like to copy their parents’ or carers actions, learning through play. Enjoying the moments together, learning and growing in knowledge, skills and ability.
Having the courage to try new activities comes from feeling safe and being loved. Having a safe space allows children to step out into new places and helps them cope with new challenges.
One of our hymns had this refrain:-
No storm can shake my inmost calm while to that rock I’m clinging.
Since love is Lord of heaven and earth, how can I keep from singing?

29/07/2026

Wednesday Reflection
We sang a new hymn on Sunday which seems to capture why we come to church each week.

God is here! As we your people meet to offer praise and prayer, may we find in fuller measure what it is in Christ we share. Here, as in the world around us, all our varied skills and arts wait the coming of the Spirit into open minds and hearts.

Here are symbols to remind us of our lifelong need of grace. Here are table, font, and pulpit; here the cross has central place. Here in honesty of preaching, here in silence, as in speech, here in newness and renewal, God the Spirit comes to each.

Here our children find a welcome in the Shepherd’s flock and fold; here, as bread and wine are taken, Christ sustains us as of old. Here the servants of the Servant seek in worship to explore what it means in daily living to believe and to adore.

Lord of all, of Church and kingdom, in an age of change and doubt, keep us faithful to the gospel; help us work your purpose out. Here, in this day’s dedication, all we have to give, receive; we, who cannot live without you, we adore you! We believe!

© 1979 Stainer & Bell Ltd, CCLI Number A632964

22/07/2026

Wednesday Reflection
“Go in peace. The mission you are on is under the eye of the Lord.”

This week we read 2 passages from the Old Testament, the first from Judges in chapter 18, and the second from the Book of Nehemiah in chapter 1. Both talking of journeys taken, searches made, without knowing the outcome in advance. The group of 5 in Judges looking for a new home, uncertain and wanting to get reassurance on the way, asking for word from God about their task, and Nehemiah, fearful but getting courage to get started on his way by praying to God before making his request to the King to allow him to go on his journey to rebuild Jerusalem.
In these days of uncertainty and upset in our world, country, society and Church, days when what we once took for granted as stable and continuing is now unknown, we too need to look to prayer to prepare for a new journey, to have the certainty and courage to step out into the future.
The message given so many centuries ago in the Judges story holds today,
“Go in peace. The mission you are on is under the eye of the Lord.”

15/07/2026

Wednesday Reflection
Jesus said,”Behold, I freely give the living water; thirsty one, stoop down and drink, and live.”
As we look at passages from the bible over the summer Sundays which we do not often read, we dipped into the Old Testament in the Book of the prophet Ezekial; his call in ch3, his words to the city of Tyre ch27, and part of the final recorded vision in ch 47.
In difficult times, God’s spirit moved in Ezekial’s life, showing him visions, pictures of how earthly riches, power and earthly glory were not lasting but would direct people away from truth and bring disaster upon them.
But not all was lost, God could send his Spirit refreshing and renewing, bringing new, invigorating life; the pictures of mighty seas overpowering and destroying, the storms of life raging in Ezekial’s visions, are replaced at the end with the vision of the waters of God’s river of life flowing into the seas bringing purity, peace and healing.

As Jesus said,“If only you knew what God gives, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water. The water that I shall give will be an inner spring always welling up for eternal life.”