Lossiemouth Church of Scotland

This is Rev. Geoff McKee’s sermon for 28 January 2018.

If you wish, you can download a PDF version of the sermon, including footnotes, by clicking here.

Deuteronomy 18:15-20 (New International Version)
15 The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him. 16 For this is what you asked of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, “Let us not hear the voice of the Lord our God nor see this great fire anymore, or we will die.”

17 The Lord said to me: “What they say is good. 18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites, and I will put my words in his mouth. He will tell them everything I command him. 19 I myself will call to account anyone who does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name. 20 But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, is to be put to death.”

When Moses’ time on earth had come to an end the compiler of the book of Deuteronomy wrote: “Never since has there arisen a prophet in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face.”

That’s some epitaph, isn’t it?

On two occasions I have stood in a pulpit and announced to a congregation that I would be leaving for another charge.

I remember a wiser, older colleague once telling me that when you announce that you are leaving some folks will be upset and some folks will be relieved; some folks will be surprised and other folks will have seen it coming.

But, whenever you announce it, get on with it because there’s nothing worse than bumping into someone in the street one day who greets you with the words: “Are you still here?”  Or, to put it another way, “Here’s your hat, what’s your hurry?!”

In the Old Testament reading today, Moses intimated that the day was coming when he would be on his way.

He wasn’t for hanging around either.

It was going to happen quickly and the people would have to learn to adjust to their new circumstances.

But they were very fragile; they were doubtful that the goal of their journey would be reached even though they were right on the brink of their journey’s end. [Read more…]

14th January 2018 is the second Sunday after Epiphany and Rev. Geoff McKee preaches on the Old Testament story of the Lord Calling Samuel. He explains the  in-jokes and word play in the passage and the parallels with the situation of Jesus as a boy. He also recommends us to find encouragement in this example of God’s counter-intuitive approach through the ages: of getting the weak and marginalised in society to speak the truth to power.

Click here if you would like to download a PDF version of the sermon.

1 Samuel 3:1-20 (New International Version)

The Lord Calls Samuel
3 The boy Samuel ministered before the Lord under Eli. In those days the word of the Lord was rare; there were not many visions.

2 One night Eli, whose eyes were becoming so weak that he could barely see, was lying down in his usual place. 3 The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the house of the Lord, where the ark of God was. 4 Then the Lord called Samuel.

Samuel answered, “Here I am.” 5 And he ran to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.”

But Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.” So he went and lay down.

6 Again the Lord called, “Samuel!” And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.”

“My son,” Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.”

7 Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord: The word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him.

8 A third time the Lord called, “Samuel!” And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.”

Then Eli realized that the Lord was calling the boy. 9 So Eli told Samuel, “Go and lie down, and if he calls you, say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

10 The Lord came and stood there, calling as at the other times, “Samuel! Samuel!”

Then Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”

11 And the Lord said to Samuel: “See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make the ears of everyone who hears about it tingle. 12 At that time I will carry out against Eli everything I spoke against his family—from beginning to end. 13 For I told him that I would judge his family forever because of the sin he knew about; his sons blasphemed God, and he failed to restrain them. 14 Therefore I swore to the house of Eli, ‘The guilt of Eli’s house will never be atoned for by sacrifice or offering.’”

15 Samuel lay down until morning and then opened the doors of the house of the Lord. He was afraid to tell Eli the vision, 16 but Eli called him and said, “Samuel, my son.”

Samuel answered, “Here I am.”

17 “What was it he said to you?” Eli asked. “Do not hide it from me. May God deal with you, be it ever so severely, if you hide from me anything he told you.” 18 So Samuel told him everything, hiding nothing from him. Then Eli said, “He is the Lord; let him do what is good in his eyes.”

19 The Lord was with Samuel as he grew up, and he let none of Samuel’s words fall to the ground. 20 And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba recognized that Samuel was attested as a prophet of the Lord.

‘The Lord said to Samuel, “See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make both ears of anyone who hears it tingle.”’

When was the last time your ears tingled? [Read more…]

In his first sermon of 2018, Rev. Geoff McKee’s scripture is the story of the Baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist, taken from Mark 1:4-11. Baptism is one of the sacraments – and sacramental moments are times when heaven and earth are opened to each other. With the help of an unanswerable question and a golfing analogy, among other things, Geoff explains how the sacraments help us know the real presence of the living Lord.

Click here, if you would like to download a copy of the sermon in PDF format.

Mark 1:4-11 (New International Version)
4 And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptised by him in the Jordan River. 6 John wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7 And this was his message: “After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. 8 I baptise you with water, but he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit.”

The Baptism and Testing of Jesus
9 At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptised by John in the Jordan. 10 Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. 11 And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”

The Boston Globe, which carries a daily column designed to answer readers’ queries, listed the top ten unanswerable questions.

Here’s one:

“I am nine years of age and have a cat that eats regularly and needs to go on a diet. He also eats mice when he is out. How many calories in a mouse?”

Our Gospel text today raises at least three big questions which seem to be as unanswerable as that one.

• Why did Jesus need to undergo a baptism of repentance when we understand him to be without sin?
• Did God adopt Jesus as his Son at the point of baptism?
• How can the Holy Spirit ‘proceed from the Father and the Son’ as is stated in the Nicene Creed when clearly the Spirit descended upon him at his baptism?

There’s enough there to keep us going for the rest of the year.

In fact, there’s enough there to keep us occupied for a lifetime!

And you may be relieved to hear that I’m not going to dwell specifically on any of these questions today but instead I’m going to attempt an all-encompassing answer that takes us away from the nitty gritty theological arguments and presents us with a way to practise and live which embraces the questions and makes sense of them in who we are and what we are becoming. [Read more…]

John the Baptist has already featured in this year’s Advent sermon series and, for the third Sunday of Advent (17 December 2017), Rev. Geoff McKee has texts from Chapter 1 of John’s Gospel, in which mention of John the Baptist almost seems to be an interruption of the flow of the prologue to that Gospel. Geoff explains John the Baptist’s significance here and, with reference to the well-known song, “This Little Light of Mine”, why the “little light” that shines within each of us, as Christians, must not be hidden away.

Click here if you would like to download a PDF version of the sermon.

John 1:6-8 (New International Version)
6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. 8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.

…

John 1:19-28
John the Baptist Denies Being the Messiah
19 Now this was John’s testimony when the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was. 20 He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, “I am not the Messiah.”

21 They asked him, “Then who are you? Are you Elijah?”

He said, “I am not.”

“Are you the Prophet?”

He answered, “No.”

22 Finally they said, “Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”

23 John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, “I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’”

24 Now the Pharisees who had been sent 25 questioned him, “Why then do you baptise if you are not the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”

26 “I baptise with water,” John replied, “but among you stands one you do not know. 27 He is the one who comes after me, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.”

28 This all happened at Bethany on the other side of the Jordan, where John was baptising.

What would we do if we only had John’s Gospel at this time of year?

A Christmas nativity based on John’s Gospel would only have one child, speaking one line in front of the curtain:

“And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth”.

There would be great savings in the costume and props department but we might be left feeling short-changed.

We do have a kind of alternative Advent pageant today, with just one character – with very little to say – who manages to shake us awake to the significance of the season.

The lectionary reading begins in the middle of the Prologue to John’s Gospel.

This established the place of Christ, the Word, in the cosmos.

This curious little section about John the Baptist appears to interrupt the flow of the Prologue and so seems to be, at best, misplaced and,, at worse, clunky and awkward. A bit like the season of Advent!

We’re so taken up with the Christmas preparations that we struggle to identify with what appears to be awkward and maybe even sounds unnecessary to our ears.

But that might just be a warning to us that we’ve got something wrong.

We might even be a bit annoyed because we’ve got another dose of John the Baptist this morning. What were the lectionary compilers thinking about?

John the Baptist, the patron saint of loneliness and sorrow, really clashes with the tinsel and jingle-bells.

And he has to, because the tinsel and the jingle-bells crowd have got it all wrong.

The Prologue to John’s Gospel presents the gift of the incarnation within the wider glory of God himself. [Read more…]

Jesus was born, lived and died a Jew. In his sermon for the second Sunday of Advent (10 December 2017), Rev. Geoff McKee’s text is from Mark’s Gospel, which sets out how John the Baptist “prepares the way” for Jesus. The Old Testament quotes in this scripture and the echoes of Elijah (Old Testament Prophet) in John the Baptist point to the fact that Jesus – and his coming as bringer of good news to the world – can only be fully understood against the background of the history of Judaism. This sermon contains a discussion about why we can only understand Jesus in the context of his Jewish roots.

Click here if you would like to download a copy of the sermon as a PDF.

Mark 1:1-8 (New International Version)

John the Baptist Prepares the Way
1 The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God, 2 as it is written in Isaiah the prophet:

“I will send my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way”—
3 “a voice of one calling in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him.’”
4 And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptised by him in the Jordan River. 6 John wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7 And this was his message: “After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. 8 I baptise you with water, but he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit.”

A calendar inscription on two stones, dating from 9BC, was discovered in Asia Minor.

Part of the inscription read as follows:

“Since Providence, which has ordered all things and is deeply interested in our life, has set in most perfect order by giving us Augustus, whom she filled with virtue that he might benefit humankind, sending him as a saviour, both for us and for our descendants, that he might end war and arrange all things, and since he, Caesar, by his appearance excelled even our anticipations, surpassing all previous benefactors, and not even leaving to posterity any hope of surpassing what he has done, and since the birthday of the god Augustus was the beginning of the good news for the world that came by reason of him.”

Good news brought in the person of a Saviour.

Does that sound familiar to you?

How does Mark’s Gospel begin? – “the beginning of the good news of Jesus, the Messiah”.

• Here was the riposte to the self-assured arrogance of Augustus Caesar.
• Here was the message of assurance to the beleaguered Christians clinging on desperately as the forces of Rome under the command of the newly proclaimed emperor, Vespasian, bore down upon Jerusalem and its temple in the year 70AD as Mark was writing his Gospel.

Who was the bringer of good news?

Was it the Roman Emperor or was it Jesus of Nazareth? [Read more…]