Remembrance Sunday 2020

Remembrance Sunday: 08 November 2020.

Here are the Lectionary readings for this week: Micah 6:1-8; Psalm 121; John 14:1-7, 25-27; 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11. The sermon is based on the Thessalonians text.

The materials below include the full texts of the Lectionary readings, prayers, audio sermon and a musical selection.

Lectionary Readings

Micah 6:1-8 (New International Version)
The Lord’s Case Against Israel
6 Listen to what the Lord says:

“Stand up, plead my case before the mountains;
let the hills hear what you have to say.

2 “Hear, you mountains, the Lord’s accusation;
listen, you everlasting foundations of the earth.
For the Lord has a case against his people;
he is lodging a charge against Israel.

3 “My people, what have I done to you?
How have I burdened you? Answer me.
4 I brought you up out of Egypt
and redeemed you from the land of slavery.
I sent Moses to lead you,
also Aaron and Miriam.
5 My people, remember
what Balak king of Moab plotted
and what Balaam son of Beor answered.
Remember your journey from Shittim to Gilgal,
that you may know the righteous acts of the Lord.”

6 With what shall I come before the Lord
and bow down before the exalted God?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
with calves a year old?
7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
with ten thousand rivers of olive oil?
Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
8 He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.

Psalm 121
A song of ascents.
1 I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
where does my help come from?
2 My help comes from the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.

3 He will not let your foot slip—
he who watches over you will not slumber;
4 indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.

5 The Lord watches over you—
the Lord is your shade at your right hand;
6 the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.

7 The Lord will keep you from all harm—
he will watch over your life;
8 the Lord will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore.

John 14:1-7
Jesus Comforts His Disciples
14 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. 2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going.”

Jesus the Way to the Father
5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”

John 14:25-27
25 “All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

1 Thessalonians 5:1-11
The Day of the Lord
5 Now, brothers and sisters, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, 2 for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. 3 While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labour pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.

4 But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. 5 You are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. 6 So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be awake and sober. 7 For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. 8 But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. 9 For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. 10 He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. 11 Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.

East Beach, Lossiemouth, Moray, with wildflowers foreground at the Esplanade

Scripture Sentence

Not to us, Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory for your love, for your faithfulness! Psalm 115:1

Opening Prayer

Gather us into your presence, God of peace. We trust that your vision for the world – the great creation of your imagination, entrusted to us as a place for our flourishing – is still there behind all the challenges of our lives.

We come today remembering that even in the darkest of days, your flame of hope and new life flickers drawing us on to find the good and to illuminate the world with your Gospel of love. Help us to find you in the smallest of things and the most ordinary of our experiences. For you are the great source of our being and the power that sustains us through your Holy Spirit. When we search hard for you, we may miss your presence in the everyday – so, help us to look out for you – in the face of friend and stranger, in the wonder and beauty of our world, in the complexity of design in the creativity of artist and scientist.

We live in you, the great mystery of our being which is beyond our understanding – yet revealed – in the life, death, and resurrection of your Son. You are there underpinning our lives, offering to us all that we need to live well. All too often we grasp after our prosperity and our safety, building walls of self-sufficiency, storing up great resources in the barns of our nation, finding “the other” and difference to be a threat to us.

We fall into ways of war when your ways are of peace. On this day of remembrance, when we pay tribute to those who have given so much when war became the way, we confess the faults of nations who have gone to war and missed your ways of peace. We acknowledge our personal guilt when we have not loved and hold all of this before you now. God of all, your ways are of mercy, your heart is for reconciliation, so help us to accept the hand of forgiveness that you offer. Help us to leave behind what has weighed us down, to seek the ways of friendship and peace, and to trust that you want the best for us. Bring us the peace of being part of your offering of forgiveness, and to embrace our role of being peacemakers in the course of our ordinary lives.

We come today remembering that even in the darkest of days, your flame of hope and new life flickers drawing us on to find the good and to illuminate the world with your Gospel of love. Help us to find you in the smallest of things and the most ordinary of our experiences. For you are the great source of our being and the power that sustains us through your Holy Spirit. When we search hard for you, we may miss your presence in the everyday – so, help us to look out for you – in the face of friend and stranger, in the wonder and beauty of our world, in the complexity of design in the creativity of artist and scientist.

We live in you, the great mystery of our being which is beyond our understanding – yet revealed – in the life, death, and resurrection of your Son. You are there underpinning our lives, offering to us all that we need to live well. All too often we grasp after our prosperity and our safety, building walls of self-sufficiency, storing up great resources in the barns of our nation, finding “the other” and difference to be a threat to us.

We fall into ways of war when your ways are of peace. On this day of remembrance, when we pay tribute to those who have given so much when war became the way, we confess the faults of nations who have gone to war and missed your ways of peace. We acknowledge our personal guilt when we have not loved and hold all of this before you now. God of all, your ways are of mercy, your heart is for reconciliation, so help us to accept the hand of forgiveness that you offer. Help us to leave behind what has weighed us down, to seek the ways of friendship and peace, and to trust that you want the best for us. Bring us the peace of being part of your offering of forgiveness, and to embrace our role of being peacemakers in the course of our ordinary lives.

Sermon

Sermon for Remembrance Sunday 2020 – Rev. Geoff McKee – 08 November 2020

NOTE: The above audio is in mp3 format and is also downloadable, if you wish to listen at a time when you may not have a reliable internet connection. Other devices are available but, on a PC, for example, if you right-click on the 3 vertical dots at the right side of the audio player, the drop-down menu should offer the option to “Save as…”

Poppies beside the cycle path between Lossiemouth and Elgin

Prayers of Intercession

Hear us now as we offer our prayers of thanksgiving
for all the good in our lives. On this day, we hold with gratitude the service of those who are peacemakers in their service of our country. We are grateful for a vision that will hold the darker forces of our humanity in check with an ethos of cooperation, harmony and mutual flourishing.

We pray for the dedicated service of our armed forces in all the generations, remembering especially those who still remain with us from the Second World War. We thank you for their testimony which reminds us of the tragedy of conflict. Help us to hear it even as we honour the sacrifices made in search of the good.

On this day when we are drawn together from many backgrounds, and with faith flickering, strong, or with no faith, we thank you that there are times and causes around which we can all rally for the common good. Help us to find that common ground more, and to work through our differences. May the example of Jesus, his boundary-crossing life, his open-hearted embrace of all peoples, be the inspiration for our weary and wounded world.

On this day of remembrance, we pray for those who have lost loved-ones in conflict, and through the collateral damage of war. We think of those close to home in our army, navy and air force. We remember those on the other side to us in conflict, and we think of the deep scars of conflict that mark our world whenever there is war. May our remembering be for new beginnings, so that lives lost are the foundations of new worlds. May the vision of the prophets be our vision too. May your forgiveness be our forgiveness.

God of the cross and the empty tomb, God of the road to Emmaus and the breakfast on the shore. You have shown us in Jesus the way that is beyond death, so hold us in the faith of your future. Help us to rest in the confidence of new light and life, to trust that those we have loved and lost have returned to you, and that our own walk is the way home where you wait for us in the mystery of eternal life. We pray in the name of Jesus, our Saviour, who taught us to pray together…..

The Lord’s Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name;
thy kingdom come;
thy will be done;
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we forgive our debtors
And lead us not into temptation;
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
the power and the glory,
for ever.

Amen

Musical Selection

Christ our hope in life and death

A group of songwriters from Getty Music wrote this modern hymn, which brings great comfort and reassurance. We can joyfully sing “Hallelujah” because we know Jesus conquered death forever through his resurrection and we know what our glorious future holds after our earthly life.

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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.

Lossiemouth Church of Scotland

Remembrance Sunday 2020

Lectionary Readings

Scripture Sentence

Opening Prayer

Sermon

Prayers of Intercession

Musical Selection

Contact Us

Our Minister

Our Mission

Search this website

Lectionary Readings

Scripture Sentence

Opening Prayer

Sermon

Prayers of Intercession

Musical Selection

Contact Us

Our Minister

Our Mission

Search this website

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