Lossiemouth Church of Scotland

The readings for the Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost (06 September 2020) are: Exodus 12:1-14; Psalm 149; Romans 13:8-14; and Matthew 18:15-20.

The Exodus reading is the main one for today’s sermon, as we continue our journey through the Old Testament from Genesis into Exodus.

God speaks to Moses and Aaron in Egypt about The Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread. Rev. Geoff McKee explains the significance of The Passover for the Old and New Testaments – and for present-day Christians.

C.S. Lewis’s Screwtape Letters help us understand the issues here too. We must avoid building up a firm attachment to this world by getting too comfortable in it because that will “unravel our souls from heaven”.

Read on to take in the four Lectionary readings for this week, prayers, Geoff’s audio sermon and a musical selection from Kath.

[Read more…]

It’s the Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost – 30 August 2020 – and we have another story about Moses from the Book of Exodus as our main scriptural reading.

Moses and the Burning Bush.

The theme of the broken servant – such as Moses – and God’s call recurs throughout Scripture. Moses is a broken man and he is nowhere geographically and spiritually when he encounters God – in the burning bush that is not consumed.

The 4 Lectionary Scriptures for this week are below, including the Exodus text. There are also prayers, Geoff’s audio sermon and Kath’s musical selection.

Exodus 3:1-15 (New International Version)
Moses and the Burning Bush
3 Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. 3 So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”

4 When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”

And Moses said, “Here I am.”

5 “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” 6 Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.

7 The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 9 And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. 10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”

11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”

12 And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.”

13 Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”

14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’”

15 God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’

“This is my name forever,
the name you shall call me
from generation to generation.

[Read more…]

This is the virtual service for 23 August 2020 – the Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost.

We move from the Book of Genesis (which has been the basis of our sermons for the last few weeks) into the Book of Exodus and, today, the story of the birth of Moses.

Below, you will find prayers, scripture, and Rev. Geoff McKee’s audio sermon. There is also a musical selection.

Exodus 1:8-2:10 (New International Version)
8 Then a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt. 9 “Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites have become far too numerous for us. 10 Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country.”

11 So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh. 12 But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites 13 and worked them ruthlessly. 14 They made their lives bitter with harsh labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their harsh labor the Egyptians worked them ruthlessly.

15 The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, 16 “When you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.” 17 The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live. 18 Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, “Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?”

19 The midwives answered Pharaoh, “Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive.”

20 So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous. 21 And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own.

22 Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “Every Hebrew boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.”

The Birth of Moses
2 Now a man of the tribe of Levi married a Levite woman, 2 and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months. 3 But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. 4 His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him.

5 Then Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her female slave to get it. 6 She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. “This is one of the Hebrew babies,” she said.

7 Then his sister asked Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?”

8 “Yes, go,” she answered. So the girl went and got the baby’s mother. 9 Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you.” So the woman took the baby and nursed him. 10 When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, “I drew him out of the water.”

[Read more…]

We’ve reached the Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost (16 August 2020) and this week’s Genesis story is again about “Dream Coat” Joseph – when he makes himself known to the brothers who had previously sold him into slavery.

Rev. Geoff McKee examines different notions of justice, referring to lessons we can learn from world experience of the last few months (from Black Lives Matter to Dominic Cummings), as well as from the Bible.

The pursuit of justice in any context is a costly and painful process. But what is true justice and what is it not?

Joseph’s behaviour towards his brothers – his reconciliation with them – is an example of true justice being achieved. Geoff explains this lesson for us.

As usual, below, you will find today’s lectionary scriptures, prayers, the audio sermon and a musical choice.

We appreciate your feedback. Let us know what you like about this format and any suggestions you have for how it could serve you better. One way to do that is via the Contact Us page on the website.

[Read more…]

This week (09 August 2020), the tenth Sunday after Pentecost, finds us further on in the Book of Genesis and reaching the story of Joseph, son of Jacob. We hear of Joseph’s dreams and of Joseph being sold by his brothers – a very well-known story.

The trials endured by Joseph shaped him to become the mature man who would lead the greatest nation on earth.

Genesis 37:1-4 (New International Version)
Joseph’s Dreams
37 Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan.

2 This is the account of Jacob’s family line.

Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives, and he brought their father a bad report about them.

3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made an ornate robe for him. 4 When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.

[Read more…]