St James' Church of Scotland, Lossiemouth
For Christ, For You
The Sunday service at St. James’ on 13 November 2022 is a joint service with St. Gerardine’s High Church for Remembrance Sunday. (In other words, this year (as in alternate years on this occasion) there is no service in St. Gerardine’s).
Worship will be led by Rev. Geoff McKee and Rev. Christine McWhirter.
[Read more…](NOTE: This article was originally posted on 10 March 2022 and has been updated as at 10 November 2022).
Everyone knows about the terrible events which continue to unfold in the Ukraine.
This is where the idea of bell ringing – as a means to show solidarity with, and support for, the people of Ukraine – has come from: a tweet by the Mayor of Lviv, Andriy Sadovyi, on 08 March 2022.
Daily bell-ringing continued until 24 April 2022, after which we moved to ringing the bell every Thursday at 4pm – from 28 April 2022.
[Read more…]Sunday 06 November 2022 is the Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost.
The Gospel text today centres around the asking and the answering of two good sets of questions.
The “starter” question – asked of Jesus – was: ‘What is the greatest commandment?’
Having answered this question, in return, Jesus asked his own set of related questions. These questions were asked so as to lead the Pharisees to the point when they would know exactly what Jesus thought of himself without Jesus explicitly stating it.
Matthew 22:34-46 (from The Message Bible Translation)
The Most Important Command
34-36 When the Pharisees heard how he had bested the Sadducees, they gathered their forces for an assault. One of their religion scholars spoke for them, posing a question they hoped would show him up: “Teacher, which command in God’s Law is the most important?”
37-40 Jesus said, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.’ This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: ‘Love others as well as you love yourself.’ These two commands are pegs; everything in God’s Law and the Prophets hangs from them.”
David’s Son and Master
41-42 As the Pharisees were regrouping, Jesus caught them off balance with his own test question: “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” They said, “David’s son.”
43-45 Jesus replied, “Well, if the Christ is David’s son, how do you explain that David, under inspiration, named Christ his ‘Master’?
God said to my Master,
“Sit here at my right hand
until I make your enemies your footstool.”
“Now if David calls him ‘Master,’ how can he at the same time be his son?”
46 That stumped them, literalists that they were. Unwilling to risk losing face again in one of these public verbal exchanges, they quit asking questions for good.
30 October 2022 is All Saints’ Sunday, ahead of All Saints’ Day on 01 November 2022.
The Good News of Jesus Christ declares that, despite our human frailty and our failure to live lives of holiness, every day is a day to begin again with God.
Ephesians 1:11-23 (from The Message Bible Translation)
11-12 It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone.
13-14 It’s in Christ that you, once you heard the truth and believed it (this Message of your salvation), found yourselves home free—signed, sealed, and delivered by the Holy Spirit. This down payment from God is the first instalment on what’s coming, a reminder that we’ll get everything God has planned for us, a praising and glorious life.
15-19 That’s why, when I heard of the solid trust you have in the Master Jesus and your outpouring of love to all the followers of Jesus, I couldn’t stop thanking God for you—every time I prayed, I’d think of you and give thanks. But I do more than thank. I ask—ask the God of our Master, Jesus Christ, the God of glory—to make you intelligent and discerning in knowing him personally, your eyes focused and clear, so that you can see exactly what it is he is calling you to do, grasp the immensity of this glorious way of life he has for his followers, oh, the utter extravagance of his work in us who trust him—endless energy, boundless strength!
20-23 All this energy issues from Christ: God raised him from death and set him on a throne in deep heaven, in charge of running the universe, everything from galaxies to governments, no name and no power exempt from his rule. And not just for the time being, but forever. He is in charge of it all, has the final word on everything. At the centre of all this, Christ rules the church. The church, you see, is not peripheral to the world; the world is peripheral to the church. The church is Christ’s body, in which he speaks and acts, by which he fills everything with his presence.
It was most impressive.
So much so that it wasn’t so much the bridge that was the attraction as the incredible crane.
It was so tall.
It was noticeable how many triangular shapes there where within the structure of the crane.
[Read more…]