Lossiemouth Church of Scotland

Isaiah 6 is Rev. Geoff McKee’s scripture for Trinity Sunday (27 May 2018). It would be easy to get bogged down in technicalities about a 3-in-1 God; instead, the Isaiah passage delivers us from intellectual conundrums, as Geoff explains. He sets out 3 important truths which Isaiah’s experience reveals about the nature of worship. It is fascinating to see how much Isaiah’s encounter with God – which can be dated to 740BC – shapes our modern worship.

You can download a PDF version of the sermon here, if you wish.

Isaiah 6:1-8 (New International Version)
Isaiah’s Commission
6 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. 3 And they were calling to one another:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory.”

4 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.

5 “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”

6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”

8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”

And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”

How do we end our prayers so often?

What do we pray?

‘In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost’.

Ann Spivack wrote in a magazine article: “While our friends from India travelled around California on business, they left their 11 year-old daughter with us. Curious about my going to church one Sunday morning, she decided to come along. When we returned home, my husband asked her what she thought of the service.

“I don’t understand why the West Coast isn’t included too,” she replied. When we inquired what she meant, she added, “You know: in the name of the Father, the Son, and the whole East Coast.”

This Trinity thing can be confusing, can’t it.

Is the Eternal Functional Submission of the Son taught in Scripture?

The Bible indicates that the Son submits to the Father while he is incarnate (John 5:19 and so on), and that he continues to into the future (1 Corinthians 15:27-28).

But does it also teach that he has done so from eternity past?

Is the Eternal Functional Submission of the Son novel?

That is: was it articulated, or even entertained, in the ancient church, or by the Reformers?

Is the Eternal Functional Submission of the Son heterodox, or even heretical?

The debate began with a claim that Eternal Functional Submission is not just wrong, but that it involves “reinventing God”, producing a different deity to the God of Nicene orthodoxy.

Is there a separation of the divine will?

Here’s the point many critics of Eternal Functional Submission are making –

For the Son to submit to the Father’s authority, there must be a distinction between the will of the Father and the will of the Son (otherwise submission would make no sense).

Which is fine, as long as we’re talking about Christ after the incarnation, since Christ has two wills.

But if we’re talking about Christ before the incarnation, then we’re saying the eternal God has two wills—and that is a denial of divine simplicity.

Does the Eternal Functional Submission of the Son imply that Christ only had one will? This is the flip-side of the previous point.

Take the Gethsemane prayer. Was Jesus saying “not the will of the Son, but the will of the Father,” or “not my human will, but your (and in fact my) divine will”?

If the former, as some Eternal Functional Submission advocates have argued, does that lead to the conclusion that Christ had just one will? Does the Eternal Functional Submission of the Son involve denying the Eternal Generation of the Son?

And so it goes on… Are you asleep yet?

What a travesty that the nature of our God is reduced to intellectual conundrums. [Read more…]

The opening verses of the Acts of the Apostles and the ascension of Jesus Christ to heaven are Rev. Geoff McKee’s text for Ascension Sunday, the seventh Sunday of Easter (13 May 2018). Geoff explains how what is probably the most understated of the three key events which make up Christ’s act of salvation (his death, resurrection and ascension) is, nevertheless, central to salvation.

You can download a PDF version of the sermon by clicking here.

Acts 1:1-11 (New International Version)
Jesus Taken Up Into Heaven
1 In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach 2 until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. 3 After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. 4 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5 For John baptised with water, but in a few days you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit.”

6 Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

9 After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.

10 They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11 “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”

We find ourselves this morning right at the end of the Easter season.

Our minds may be more at ease now, as the astonishing stories of the resurrection have had time to influence us afresh, stimulating our thinking and inspiring our living.

But right at the end of the season we are hit with another concept that puzzles and perplexes us.

Where is Jesus now?

Where is the Father’s right hand anyway?

Ascension Day always occurs on the Thursday prior to the Seventh Sunday of Easter, forty days after Easter Sunday.

We do not gather for worship on Thursday and so today is our celebration of the Ascension of our Lord.

I think it is fair to state that this is the most understated of the three key events which make up Christ’s act of salvation: his death, resurrection and ascension. The three may be only truly understood as a unity and so neglect of one will distort our understanding of the whole.

If the resurrection stretches our incredulity with its outrageous claim of new life from death then the ascension likewise seems to beg us to believe beyond reason.

Comic stained glass windows depicting a cloud with a pair of legs sticking out underneath it may make us laugh but it’s uncomfortable because what on earth – or beyond – was going on?

What are we actually being called on to believe here?

One of the essential elements of the incarnation is that Jesus entered into space and time to live and identify with humanity.

His resurrection body carries the marks, the evidence of that space/time experience and his continuing existence in the resurrection body implies that that space/time experience is real in some kind of meaningful sense.

Recognising the work of Augustine and the insight of Albert Einstein, we can acknowledge that time is a further dimension of spatial location.

You are receiving this sermon at 57.43.14 degrees North and 3.17.35 degrees West at (time of day) on Sunday 13th May.

Where is Jesus, in those terms, at this precise moment?

Of course, we can’t specify that.

We can say, consistent with the New Testament, that he is not here, but that he is elsewhere, at the right hand of the Father.

Could we say that he has ascended to the future; the future in God that changes the present?

For example, when we pray, “Give us this day our daily bread” we may also be praying, ‘Give us this day our future bread” – the bread that is promised to us now, which we are awaiting (because it can be translated that way).

None of this is easy, but we must not settle for less than the fullness of Christ.

Jesus remains fully human, located in time and space, yet unseen by us.

If, indeed, he is in the future of God’s purposes, we can be sure that he reaches to us from that point. He is not too far away. He is not remote.

The early church believed that the very particular ministry of the ascended Christ to all of humanity and the created order is prayer.

He remains both truly God and fully human and he continually prays for us.

Now for all of us – and especially for those of us who struggle with prayer (and I would think that would make up the majority of us) – that is particularly good news. [Read more…]

Rev. Geoff McKee has Acts 10:44-48 as his Scripture for the sixth Sunday of Easter (06 May 2018). This passage makes clear that “the unstoppable gospel of Jesus Christ is for all nations and for all races.”

You can download a PDF version of the sermon by clicking here.

Acts 10:44-48 (New International Version)
44 While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. 45 The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on Gentiles. 46 For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God.

Then Peter said, 47 “Surely no one can stand in the way of their being baptised with water. They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have.” 48 So he ordered that they be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked Peter to stay with them for a few days.

I read the following recently in a blog article about racism in the Church.

“It isn’t exactly evidence of great insight, though, to say that “racism is wrong”. The more urgent question is: why is racism so persistent in human societies? Why, when we know the devastation that racism can wreak, is prejudice against someone on the basis of race or ethnicity something that is so casually evident?

Let me put it more pointedly: why is it that, even though I know that racism is terrible, I still find within my own heart evidence of racist assumptions? I still assume, pretty much, that white guys should be in charge of most things. And, as the flipside, I do catch myself suspecting the motives of people who are not like me. Typical, I catch myself thinking, they can’t control their kids. They are always stealing. They are all corrupt. They breed like rabbits.”

“Even though I know that racism is terrible…”

The Holy Spirit has been working on humanity for two thousand years, placing within most of humanity a deep-seated unease with racism.

And yet we can do our utmost to quench the Spirit of God. Some have even managed to so grieve the Spirit of God that all that is left is a chasm of darkness. [Read more…]

For the Fourth Sunday of Easter (22 April 2018), Rev. Geoff McKee’s scripture from Acts of the Apostles is the story of John and Peter’s encounter with the religious authorities after the healing of a cripple, in Jesus’ name. Geoff discusses how crucial it is that the Church should serve – and not stifle – the power of Christ. He also points out the – perhaps surprising to us – fact that the power of Jesus is not demonstrated in what he did but in what was done to him.

You can download a PDF version of the sermon by clicking here.

Acts 4:5-12 (New International Version)
5 The next day the rulers, the elders and the teachers of the law met in Jerusalem. 6 Annas the high priest was there, and so were Caiaphas, John, Alexander and others of the high priest’s family. 7 They had Peter and John brought before them and began to question them: “By what power or what name did you do this?”

8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: “Rulers and elders of the people! 9 If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a man who was lame and are being asked how he was healed, 10 then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. 11 Jesus is

“‘the stone you builders rejected,
which has become the cornerstone.’

12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”

A Total Solar Eclipse occurs when the Moon moves between the Sun and the Earth, completely covering the disc of the Sun.

When this occurs, the shadow of the Moon is cast onto the Earth along what is called the path of totality. Everyone and everything within that path is plunged into an eerie darkness for a few minutes. You do not see a total eclipse – you experience it.

It is very unwise – and, in fact, dangerous to one’s sight – to look directly at the sun. We don’t do it because it is very uncomfortable and we know the dangers anyway.

So, to see the effects of a solar eclipse safely, we must use something like a camera obscura to help us. A closed box with a pin-hole will project the image and the effect can be viewed safely.

The Jews believed it was very unwise, and even perilous, for any human being to gaze directly upon the being of God.

With very few exceptions in their spiritual history, such an encounter with God brought instant death.

Yet, the people desired to be with their God and to know him. That relationship could not be experienced at a distance.

What were they to do? [Read more…]