Lossiemouth Church of Scotland

Sunday 23 April 2023 is the Third Sunday of Easter.

The main Scripture in today’s sermon is 1 Peter 1:17-23.

Peter did not use the word ‘refugee’ for the Christians he was addressing in this – his first epistle – but he used a very similar word. He used the term ‘exiles’ in the opening sentence of his letter and in verse 17 here in our passage today he referred to ‘the time of your exile’.

Rev. Geoff McKee discusses what this means for the way Christians should relate to God, to one another, and to the world in general.

Today’s main scriptural reading

1 Peter 1:17-25 (from The Message Bible translation)
17 You call out to God for help and he helps—he’s a good Father that way. But don’t forget, he’s also a responsible Father, and won’t let you get by with sloppy living.

18-21 Your life is a journey you must travel with a deep consciousness of God. It cost God plenty to get you out of that dead-end, empty-headed life you grew up in. He paid with Christ’s sacred blood, you know. He died like an unblemished, sacrificial lamb. And this was no afterthought. Even though it has only lately—at the end of the ages—become public knowledge, God always knew he was going to do this for you. It’s because of this sacrificed Messiah, whom God then raised from the dead and glorified, that you trust God, that you know you have a future in God.

22-25 Now that you’ve cleaned up your lives by following the truth, love one another as if your lives depended on it. Your new life is not like your old life. Your old birth came from mortal sperm; your new birth comes from God’s living Word. Just think: a life conceived by God himself! That’s why the prophet said,

The old life is a grass life,
its beauty as short-lived as wildflowers;
Grass dries up, flowers wilt,
God’s Word goes on and on forever.

This is the Word that conceived the new life in you.

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16 April 2023 is the Second Sunday of Easter.

In his sermon today, Rev. Geoff McKee includes the following quote from Malcolm Muggeridge:

“Contrary to what might be expected, I look back on experiences that at the time seemed especially desolating and painful with particular satisfaction. Indeed, I can say with complete truthfulness that everything I have learned in my 75 years in this world,
everything that has truly enhanced and enlightened my experience, has been through affliction and not through happiness.”

How can that be?

Joy is sown in tears. That’s the Easter model. That’s what the Easter story brings to us.

Main Scripture for today

1 Peter 1:3-9 (from The Message Bible Translation)
A New Life
3-5 What a God we have! And how fortunate we are to have him, this Father of our Master Jesus! Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we’ve been given a brand-new life and have everything to live for, including a future in heaven—and the future starts now! God is keeping careful watch over us and the future. The Day is coming when you’ll have it all—life healed and whole.

6-7 I know how great this makes you feel, even though you have to put up with every kind of aggravation in the meantime. Pure gold put in the fire comes out of it proved pure; genuine faith put through this suffering comes out proved genuine. When Jesus wraps this all up, it’s your faith, not your gold, that God will have on display as evidence of his victory.

8-9 You never saw him, yet you love him. You still don’t see him, yet you trust him—with laughter and singing. Because you kept on believing, you’ll get what you’re looking forward to: total salvation.

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Sunday 09 April 2023 is Easter Sunday.

On this day, Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. For example, in Lossiemouth, people gathered on the East Beach at 0600 for an Easter Sunday Sunrise Service.

Rev. Christine McWhirter leads today’s worship and the thread running through her two All-Age Talks in the service is how we come to believe in the resurrection of Jesus – that the impossible is possible.

Order of Service

Welcome/notices
Call to worship
Hymn – CH4 194 This is the day
Prayer of approach and Lord’s prayer
Easter Song/Video – Tiffany Coburn
Hymn – CH4 404 I danced in the morning
All-age talk 1
Children’s hymns
All-age talk 2
Hymn – CH4 410 Jesus Christ is risen
Prayer
Hymn – MP 295 I serve a risen Saviour
Blessing and Amen

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Sunday 02 April 2023 is Palm Sunday, the last Sunday before Easter Sunday.

Main Bible Reading for Palm Sunday

Matthew 21:1-11 (from The Message Bible Translation)
The Royal Welcome
21 1-3 When they neared Jerusalem, having arrived at Bethphage on Mount Olives, Jesus sent two disciples with these instructions: “Go over to the village across from you. You’ll find a donkey tethered there, her colt with her. Untie her and bring them to me. If anyone asks what you’re doing, say, ‘The Master needs them!’ He will send them with you.”

4-5 This is the full story of what was sketched earlier by the prophet:

Tell Zion’s daughter,
“Look, your king’s on his way,
poised and ready, mounted
On a donkey, on a colt,
foal of a pack animal.”

6-9 The disciples went and did exactly what Jesus told them to do. They led the donkey and colt out, laid some of their clothes on them, and Jesus mounted. Nearly all the people in the crowd threw their garments down on the road, giving him a royal welcome. Others cut branches from the trees and threw them down as a welcome mat. Crowds went ahead and crowds followed, all of them calling out, “Hosanna to David’s son!” “Blessed is he who comes in God’s name!” “Hosanna in highest heaven!”

10 As he made his entrance into Jerusalem, the whole city was shaken. Unnerved, people were asking, “What’s going on here? Who is this?”

11 The parade crowd answered, “This is the prophet Jesus, the one from Nazareth in Galilee.”

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26 March 2023 is the Fifth Sunday in Lent. The main scripture today is Psalm 130.

We follow Psalm 23 last Sunday with this darker Psalm, but we must remember that both psalms share a common belief in a God who is so interested and committed to the individual’s existence that he is able to offer real help.

As Rev. Geoff McKee mentions in his sermon, at the beginning of 2023, following the sudden, unexpected death of a much-loved traditional musician in Ireland, called Séamus Begley, a close friend of his sang an old Irish ‘keening’ song and uploaded the clip to her Twitter account. This was a very fine example of a lament – a crying out for comfort and succour in the midst of loss. The clip of the keening song can be accessed via this link.

Main Bible Reading for this week

Psalm 130 (from The Message Bible Translation)
130 1-2 Help, God—I’ve hit rock bottom!
Master, hear my cry for help!
Listen hard! Open your ears!
Listen to my cries for mercy.

3-4 If you, God, kept records on wrongdoings,
who would stand a chance?
As it turns out, forgiveness is your habit,
and that’s why you’re worshipped.

5-6 I pray to God—my life a prayer—
and wait for what he’ll say and do.
My life’s on the line before God, my Lord,
waiting and watching till morning,
waiting and watching till morning.

7-8 O Israel, wait and watch for God—
with God’s arrival comes love,
with God’s arrival comes generous redemption.
No doubt about it—he’ll redeem Israel,
buy back Israel from captivity to sin.

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