Lossiemouth Church of Scotland

Rev. Geoff McKee’s scripture for 08 July 2018 is 2 Corinthians 12:2-10 in which the apostle, Paul, sets out one of the greatest challenges in Christian living – how we reveal Christ’s power through our personal weakness rather than (necessarily) by asserting ourselves.

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

2 Corinthians 12:2-10 (New International Version)
2 I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows. 3 And I know that this man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows— 4 was caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible things, things that no one is permitted to tell. 5 I will boast about a man like that, but I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses. 6 Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say, 7 or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

There were a good number of commissioners who spoke at this year’s General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in Edinburgh.

After attending a number of General Assemblies, you get used to the pattern and dynamic of debate. For example, you become aware that whenever a former Moderator of the General Assembly speaks in favour of a motion it is very likely that motion will be passed.

Former Moderators carry significant clout and the fact that they are invited to every General Assembly makes them a force to be reckoned with. Also you will frequently witness the same people speaking regularly while the vast majority stay in their seats. So, when someone rises to speak who has not been heard before, it is usually because the individual has something to share that has been brewing within them for some time. And that kind of contribution can often bring an honesty to a debate that would otherwise lack soul.

This happened at the recent Assembly for me when a minister of long standing rose to share his sense of insecurity, bewilderment and angst over his perceived expectations of the function of parish ministry.

• Was he expected to be an executive manager of a charitable trust?
• Was he expected to dream-up and initiate all sorts of social care programmes that would justify his church’s role in the local community?
• What did it mean to be a minister of Word and Sacrament in all of this; the very thing to which he believed he was originally called to be, but is now not understood or valued?

I felt for him – as, I would imagine, did most other ordained ministers in the Assembly Hall – and I somehow think that the apostle Paul would have felt for him too.

You see, Paul, in this perplexing little passage, was challenging the boasts of the so-called ‘super-apostles’.

With reference to their extraordinary experiences, these super-apostles were suggesting that the Corinthian church should be heeding them and not the impostor, Paul.

Paul’s call and function and usefulness for the church in Corinth was being called into question.

How was Paul going to be able to bring something new to the table to justify his existence?

So he told them that he knew someone who, fourteen years ago, had an incredible ecstatic experience that revealed supernatural wonders. He almost lets slip that the individual in question is, in fact, himself! He goes into no real detail about the incredible experience even though, in all likelihood, he was the one involved. [Read more…]

Taking Paul’s second letter to the Church at Corinth as his text (2 Corinthians 6:1-13), Rev. Geoff McKee explains why Christians must not get bogged down in trivialities but, instead, keep big goals like reconciliation top of mind.

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

2 Corinthians 6:1-13 (New International Version)

6 As God’s co-workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain. 2 For he says,

“In the time of my favour I heard you,
and in the day of salvation I helped you.”

I tell you, now is the time of God’s favour, now is the day of salvation.

Paul’s Hardships
3 We put no stumbling block in anyone’s path, so that our ministry will not be discredited. 4 Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; 5 in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; 6 in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; 7 in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left; 8 through glory and dishonour, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; 9 known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; 10 sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

11 We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians, and opened wide our hearts to you. 12 We are not withholding our affection from you, but you are withholding yours from us. 13 As a fair exchange—I speak as to my children—open wide your hearts also.

Once upon a time two brothers shared adjoining farms.

For over forty years, they worked side by side, sharing equipment and helping each other out whenever needed.

Then, one day a rift developed.

It began with a small misunderstanding and it grew into a major difference. And, finally, it exploded into an exchange of bitter words followed by months of angry silence.

One day the elder brother, Peter, was out in his fields when a van pulled up. Out jumped a man who approached Peter, carrying a carpenter’s toolbox.

“I’m looking for a few days work” he said. “Perhaps you would have a few small jobs I could do for you?”

“Well, yes I do,” said Peter. “See that river down there, it’s the border between my brother’s farm and mine. My brother keeps it nice and deep to stop me from setting one foot on his beloved farm. Well, I’ll oblige him. I want you to take that timber over there by the barn and build me a new fence – a big tall one – so I don’t have to look over at my brother and his farm any more.”

The carpenter was glad to have the work.

“No worries mate. I understand. Just point me to your post-hole digger and I’ll get the job done.”

So the carpenter set about working. Meanwhile, Peter drove into town to the cattle auction.

When he returned at sunset he was shocked to see what the carpenter had done.

There was no fence. [Read more…]

Rev. Geoff McKee’s scripture for the fourth Sunday after Pentecost (17 June 2018) is 2 Corinthians 5:6-17 in which the apostle, Paul, talks about The Ministry of Reconciliation.  Geoff discusses how spirituality has much more to do with subtraction than with addition. Jesus’ spirituality consists in letting go of what we do not need anyway. Ultimately, it is Jesus’ love that holds all things together and not an accumulation of any “good works” we can do. This helps us understand why we should believe that our end will be homecoming to God.

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

2 Corinthians 5:6-17 (New International Version)

6 Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. 7 For we live by faith, not by sight. 8 We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9 So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.

The Ministry of Reconciliation
11 Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade others. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience. 12 We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us, so that you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather than in what is in the heart. 13 If we are “out of our mind,” as some say, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. 14 For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

Eminence, a novel by Australian author Morris West, tells the story of Luca Rossini, a Cardinal in the Roman Catholic Church.

Luca came to serve in the Vatican, after having lived in the shadow of a terrible experience he suffered as a young priest in Argentina.

It was the 1970s, a time when the military junta that ruled Argentina, acted with terrible brutality.

Luca was brutalised in front of the villagers. Lucky to escape with his life, he was spirited out of Argentina. Yet the scars across his back are an outward symbol of the scars he bears within.

By the time we find him in West’s novel, Luca is 50 years old, a confidant of a rigidly conservative Pope.

In one scene, the Pope reflects that he, the Pope, will have much to answer for when he comes to judgement before God.

Luca responds, “We pray every day that our trespasses will be forgiven, Holiness. We have to believe that our end will be a homecoming, not a session with torturers!” [Read more…]

Rev. Geoff McKee’s scripture for the third Sunday after Pentecost (10 June 2018) is 2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1. He discusses the difficulties of interpreting Paul’s words in a modern context but emphasises that Paul speaks incisively to us on the level that most matters to believers: the level of faith. It’s about how Paul explains the pain of bringing in the new life from the old, day by day.

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

2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1 (New International Version)

13 It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” Since we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak, 14 because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to himself. 15 All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.

16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Awaiting the New Body
5 For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.

When Calvin Coolidge was President of the United States of America he saw dozens of people every day.

Most had complaints of one kind or another.

A visiting Governor once told Coolidge he didn’t understand how he could see so many people. “Why, you finish with them by dinner time,” the Governor remarked, “while I’m often at my desk till midnight.”

“Yes,” said Coolidge, “But you talk back.”

How frequently does our God come across like Calvin Coolidge – silent in the face of our requests and protests?

The apostle Paul was experiencing some communication difficulties and, in sharing these with the Corinthians, so he offers us some comfort.

There are times when we are on our knees and it seems that there are no answers.

• Have you ever been thinking of someone and then the phone has rung and on picking it up there on the other end of the line is the person you have been thinking of?
• Have you ever woken up two minutes before the especially early alarm call that you have set the night before?

[Read more…]