St James' Church of Scotland, Lossiemouth

For Christ, For You

Lossiemouth Church of Scotland

Prospect Terrace, Lossiemouth, Moray IV31 6JS.

The Union of the former Parishes of St. Gerardine's High Church and St. James' Church

Minister: Rev. Geoff McKee.

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You are here: Home / Sermons / Jesus’ challenge to us to live as exiles in this world (but in relationship with others)

Jesus’ challenge to us to live as exiles in this world (but in relationship with others)

May 1, 2017 by 2

30 April 2017 was a Communion Service at St James’ Church and Rev. Geoff McKee had 1 Peter 1:17-23 as the scripture for his sermon. This instructs Christians to “live out your time as foreigners here”. It’s Jesus’ challenge to us to live as exiles in this world.

Geoff explains, by reference to this passage and also the story of the two disciples who met the risen Jesus on the Road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35), how Christians must be people of the exile, while still living together in witness to Jesus Christ. The text from 1 Peter is immediately below and then the sermon.

You can download a copy of the sermon in pdf format, if you wish.

1 Peter 1:17-23 (New International Version)

17 Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. 18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. 20 He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. 21 Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.

22 Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart. 23 For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.

One of the most poignant scenes in the second of the famous Godfather films – probably the finest sequel ever made – is when the boy Vito Corleone arrived in New York by ship from Sicily.

He was alone without any family help.

He did not speak the language and he was unsure who would step in to help him.

His story has a modern feel to it as thousands of children have set off in recent years, fleeing terrible trauma in their homeland to find refuge in a foreign land. They are refugees.

Peter did not use that word for the Christians he was addressing in 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’.

I wonder how many Lossie locals we have here this morning?

What does it mean to be called a Lossie local?

Do you have to be born and bred here or can you appear later on? Are you a local after forty years living here? If not, then there may not be too many Lossie locals about!

Many of you will have arrived here after years lived elsewhere. Some of you will have been on the move for most or all of your working lives, especially if you have been associated with the armed services. If you have moved about then you will be aware of some of the challenges of those in exile.

When you arrived you maybe didn’t know anyone else. You didn’t know the lay of the land very well.

You may have had problems with the language: yes, even in Lossiemouth there are incomers who have had problems with the local patter.

In church, you may not have known the hymns or you may have been thrown by the local way of doing things. All of that can be very disorientating.

Peter described this scenario of exile as the expected background to the life of the Church.

This is the way it is for those following the counter-cultural teaching of Jesus Christ. We cannot expect to fit in with the wider culture; to be accepted and received and still remain faithful to Jesus Christ. We will be in danger of compromising, of annexing the more difficult elements of our faith and as a result we will lose our distinctiveness and our voice. We cannot allow the quiet pull of a comfortable existence to take us away from our radical calling.

Some years ago, musicians noted that message boys in a certain part of London all whistled out of tune as they went about their work.

It was talked about and someone suggested that it was because the bells of Westminster were slightly out of tune. Something had gone wrong with the chimes and they were discordant. The boys did not know there was anything wrong with the peals, and quite unconsciously they had copied their pitch.

So we tend to copy the people with whom we associate.

We borrow thoughts from the books we read and the programmes to which we listen, almost without knowing it. God has given us His Son who is the absolute pitch of life and living. If we learn to sing by him, we shall easily detect the false in all of the music of the world.

Therefore we must continue to be people of the exile.

We are living under the rule of Jesus Christ and not the rule of the kingdoms of this world.

Now, whilst that can be recognised and spoken of, it is a different matter altogether to be able to live in the place of exile without succumbing to the desire to just give up and seek a more comfortable place.

The Road to Emmaus

In the Gospel reading today, Cleopas and the other unnamed disciple were on the road to Emmaus.

They were reeling from the events of recent days when the one they were looking to as the Redeemer of Israel was cruelly killed and there were strange rumours about, regarding his rising from the dead.

These two were experiencing their first taste of what exile was like. They felt cut adrift, unsure what to believe and facing the prospect of much more uncertainty to come.

They were very disturbed when they met with the stranger on the road and they did not receive any kind of instant solution to their distress.

The stranger was intriguing and maybe startled them by his directness but it was not until later that they received comfort from him; his special grace from a meal shared together. No, the presence of the stranger highlighted that sense of exile that was beginning to grow in them.

The Christian life must always be lived in relationship.

This is a a point I will make repeatedly to you in my sermons because it is essential to our understanding of who we are in Christ.

It is a check to the rampant individualism that can characterise some forms of Christianity from the reclusive hermits of old to the highly personalised understandings of salvation.

We are called to live together in witness to Jesus Christ.

Both the passage from 1 Peter and the Gospel reading today bring that point home in different ways.

Peter stated that we must “love one another deeply from the heart”. That is the natural imperative of the new relationship we have in Jesus Christ who ransomed us from the ways of the world.

There has been much debate over the years regarding the concept of ransom in relation to Christ’s work. It’s a difficult metaphor and it is not always clear in Scripture from whom we have been ransomed and for what purpose. It is morally objectionable that God would pay a ransom to Satan for our liberation and yet God paying himself a ransom through the life of his Son is not without its problems.

Peter stated that we were ransomed from futile ways and it seems from this passage that he conceives of the purchasing of our wills in return for the blood sacrifice of Christ: we are being called to relate in a new way of mutual love and support as a result of this transaction.

All of this is, of course, difficult but it is firmed up for us in the outcome of the Gospel story on the road to Emmaus.

The stranger, who was, of course, Jesus, was about to walk on and leave the two men.

They persuaded him to stay and, at the meal they shared, in language heavy with sacramental meaning, he took the bread, blessed it and broke it and at that point they recognised him.

Jesus was made known to them in the breaking of the bread. It was in fellowship with one another that the presence of the resurrected Jesus was experienced.

We continue that shared meal in the church every time we meet to celebrate the sacrament. The resurrected and ascended Jesus is present with us through the means of grace; the bread and the wine. He has promised his presence and he is always faithful in that.

He breaks into our exile and brings us a taste of our ultimate home. And, conversely, in so doing, he reminds us that, in the meantime, we live in exile!

Having tasted of Christ, we are all the more aware of the challenge we have, to live as exiles – as refugees in the world.

But, with him, that calling is possible for us; without him we would be all at sea.

We must not miss opportunities to share together. We do not receive the Sacrament often enough. I am sure of that and so the times when we do experience it together are especially significant.

We must leave the Lord’s table with the desire to live his way in our place of exile.

We must be resolved to live in service to one another. As we do so, we challenge the way of the world and invite people to consider living a different way. A way which is a foretaste of the banquet of the end of age which is our destiny.

May God bless us as we journey on.

Amen.

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Jesus Ascends to Glory

May 28, 2025 By 2

Sunday 25 May 2025 is Ascension Sunday.

Christians celebrate the time when Jesus ascended to heaven. Ascension Day itself is generally observed on a Thursday, the fortieth day after Easter.

Today’s Main Scripture

Jesus speaks to his disciples, following his resurrection at Easter and shortly before his ascension:

John 14 (from The Message Bible Translation)
The Road
14 1-4 “Don’t let this rattle you. You trust God, don’t you? Trust me. There is plenty of room for you in my Father’s home. If that weren’t so, would I have told you that I’m on my way to get a room ready for you? And if I’m on my way to get your room ready, I’ll come back and get you so you can live where I live. And you already know the road I’m taking.”

5 Thomas said, “Master, we have no idea where you’re going. How do you expect us to know the road?”

6-7 Jesus said, “I am the Road, also the Truth, also the Life. No one gets to the Father apart from me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him. You’ve even seen him!”

8 Philip said, “Master, show us the Father; then we’ll be content.”

9-10 “You’ve been with me all this time, Philip, and you still don’t understand? To see me is to see the Father. So how can you ask, ‘Where is the Father?’ Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I speak to you aren’t mere words. I don’t just make them up on my own. The Father who resides in me crafts each word into a divine act.

11-14 “Believe me: I am in my Father and my Father is in me. If you can’t believe that, believe what you see—these works. The person who trusts me will not only do what I’m doing but even greater things, because I, on my way to the Father, am giving you the same work to do that I’ve been doing. You can count on it. From now on, whatever you request along the lines of who I am and what I am doing, I’ll do it. That’s how the Father will be seen for who he is in the Son. I mean it. Whatever you request in this way, I’ll do.

The Spirit of Truth
15-17 “If you love me, show it by doing what I’ve told you. I will talk to the Father, and he’ll provide you another Friend so that you will always have someone with you. This Friend is the Spirit of Truth. The godless world can’t take him in because it doesn’t have eyes to see him, doesn’t know what to look for. But you know him already because he has been staying with you, and will even be in you!

18-20 “I will not leave you orphaned. I’m coming back. In just a little while the world will no longer see me, but you’re going to see me because I am alive and you’re about to come alive. At that moment you will know absolutely that I’m in my Father, and you’re in me, and I’m in you.

21 “The person who knows my commandments and keeps them, that’s who loves me. And the person who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and make myself plain to him.”

22 Judas (not Iscariot) said, “Master, why is it that you are about to make yourself plain to us but not to the world?”

23-24 “Because a loveless world,” said Jesus, “is a sightless world. If anyone loves me, he will carefully keep my word and my Father will love him—we’ll move right into the neighborhood! Not loving me means not keeping my words. The message you are hearing isn’t mine. It’s the message of the Father who sent me.

25-27 “I’m telling you these things while I’m still living with you. The Friend, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send at my request, will make everything plain to you. He will remind you of all the things I have told you. I’m leaving you well and whole. That’s my parting gift to you. Peace. I don’t leave you the way you’re used to being left—feeling abandoned, bereft. So don’t be upset. Don’t be distraught.

28 “You’ve heard me tell you, ‘I’m going away, and I’m coming back.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I’m on my way to the Father because the Father is the goal and purpose of my life.

29-31 “I’ve told you this ahead of time, before it happens, so that when it does happen, the confirmation will deepen your belief in me. I’ll not be talking with you much more like this because the chief of this godless world is about to attack. But don’t worry—he has nothing on me, no claim on me. But so the world might know how thoroughly I love the Father, I am carrying out my Father’s instructions right down to the last detail.

“Get up. Let’s go. It’s time to leave here.”

Sermon by Rev. Anne-Marie Simpson

To get straight to beginning of the sermon, click here.

Sermon Text

For 40 days after Easter morning, Jesus remained on earth.

We know of several occasions when he met with some of his disciples.

Mary Magdalene in the dawn Garden, the two walking the road to Emmaus. appearing more than once to those in the upper room. On the shore at sunrise, and now in this final time of parting.

We can only surmise how Jesus spent the rest of this time before his departure. How many others did he meet with, perhaps, who did not record the fact? How many lives did he touch in those final 40 days on Earth?

Just as it was vital for Jesus to prove his resurrection to his followers, so it was very important that he took his leave properly.

His appearances to them could not just stop suddenly. That would leave too much uncertainty in the minds of his friends. Nor could the story that we’ve heard today of this awesome ascension be omitted from the narrative.

People at the time needed to know this part most fully. Indeed, we need to understand exactly where Jesus has gone.

There have to be witnesses. There is much mystery to this story, ascending into a cloud seems, well, rather vague. We desperately want more detail.

Luke gives us a brief description in his gospel and another in the book of the Acts of the Apostles.

Yet, however brief this story is, it is so important for both the disciples and for us today.

The disciples needed closure for them. This is an ending, the end of their time spent with Jesus – i.e. the end of Jesus amongst them present here in this world.

Yet it is also a beginning. The beginning of a brand new chapter for the disciples.

Now they have been given final instructions. Wait here in Jerusalem and show you are empowered by the Holy Spirit, then go out and preach the good news of repentance and salvation to all the world.

They must continue Jesus’ work of justice and compassion, healing and acceptance, but now they must also preach their testament, make new believers and baptise them in the Holy Spirit, not just the people of Israel, but everyone, right around the world.

They are witnesses. They have a testament to share.

And if this work seems impossibly huge to undertake, so very difficult to achieve, then Jesus has promised them a helper. That will be given power through baptism in the Holy Spirit. And so the disciples are not overwhelmed by the task in hand, or cowed under the weight of their commission. Instead, they go back into Jerusalem filled with joy at what Jesus has promised. Filled with joy at what they have seen.

They know exactly where Jesus has gone. They’ve witnessed him rising to heaven with their very own eyes, and there is no room for doubt. Now they have a friend in heaven, a friend whom we believe presents our prayers at the throne of God and intercedes on our behalf. A friend who has sent them a helper, a friend who has always present with us, always available when we need help.

The human Jesus could only be in one place at any given time, but now as a heavenly being, Jesus transcends the spatial and the temporal qualities of this world.

He can be constantly with his disciples. He is constantly with us.

Furthermore, Jesus has promised them that they will follow where he has gone.

Before the crucifixion he has told them that he goes to prepare a place for them. Those words that we say at every funeral, I go to prepare a place for you. Now they understand what that means. One day they too will be in heaven, where they will see Jesus again and live in the presence of their Heavenly Father. They also know that Jesus is listening to their pleas and prayers. He might be out of sight, but he isn’t out of their hearing.

And Jesus has promised to return, to come back one day when everything will be put right, and the whole of creation will be restored to its original state of balance.

The early church watched patiently and diligently for the coming, believing it to be imminent.

But God’s time is not our time, as we are reminded in the second letter of Peter: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years are like a day.

The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness.

But we must keep watch and be prepared for this coming, for this event, so that we are ready to meet with Jesus on his return. Ready for whatever that will mean for us.

Jesus speaks of how his ascension has been written into Hebrew scripture in the laws of Moses, in the writing of the prophets, and in the Psalms, as we’ve heard in Psalm 93, and in Psalm 47.

The signs have always been there, but it would have been impossible for human minds to comprehend what was meant.

The story of death and resurrection and ascension is too full of wonder, too full of awe for us to fully understand. Jesus has ascended to sit enthroned at the right hand of the Father, where, as Paul tells us, he reigns supreme.

In the meantime, the disciples returned to Jerusalem in great joy to spend their time giving thanks in the temple, praying to God, knowing that they are heard, and knowing that whatever happens to them, Jesus awaits them with a place prepared.

And so what does this day of Ascension mean for us?

We’ve been promised everything that the disciples were promised.

We know that God, Jesus has gone before us, and we live in the hope that this and every other promise He has made will be fulfilled. that, through repentance, our sins will be forgiven, and we will go to take up that place, which He has prepared for us in his Father’s house, where we will live forever in the presence of God, reconciled and beloved for eternity.

And the second coming, what will that be like?

The angels in Acts have told us that Jesus will return in the same way as he left, descending from a cloud, perhaps, to the awestruck gaze of the people below.

Will you be there, as generations’-worth of prayers are answered, watching and waiting in joyful expectation, as your Lord and Saviour descends to bring the Kingdom that we pray for to come?

As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

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Our Minister is Rev. Geoff McKee.

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