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 / Archives for Sermons

“He’s gone, now what?”

May 17, 2015 by 2

This is the Sunday morning sermon by Rev Graham Crawford for 17 May 2015 (Luke 24: 44 – 53, Ephesians 1: 15 – 23):

Jesus is alive, we claim.

In some traditions, we should have opened every service between Easter and Pentecost with the minister proclaiming: ‘Christ is risen’, with you, the congregation, shouting back (not just murmuring under your breath): ‘Alleliua!’

But on what basis do we make that claim? [Read more…]

Filed Under: Sermons

Do you want a blessing or a magic spell?

May 3, 2015 by 2

The March 31, 1997, edition of Newsweek ran a cover story on prayer. A couple of responses from readers to the story (found in the April 21, 1997, issue) illustrate just how “presuppositions” shape the way that people understand God’s participation, or lack thereof, in the affairs of life. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Sermons

Easter Sunday Sermon

April 30, 2015 by 2

Have you ever heard a group of musicians play or choristers sing when one person is either out of tune or out of time with the others?

It sounds horrendous. But sometimes we are not in tune with everyone around us. That is what happened to the disciple, Thomas.

All the disciples, in the locked room, saw the risen Jesus, but there was one who did not. He was not there for some reason, which meant that there was always going to be the one who would be different from the others. When they later would go out in groups to tell the story of Jesus, Thomas’ story would never blend in with theirs. So, Jesus came again, especially to see him – and so enable him to be in harmony with the others, when they went out to tell everyone the difference made to the world through Jesus rising from the grave.

A difference just as great as when all musicians play in harmony with each other. We have a story to tell everyone, a story that Jesus is risen, he is alive and is with us today. That is a story we can all tell and we will all be in tune with one another. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Sermons

Messenger of the Gospel

March 29, 2015 by 2

“Messenger of the Gospel” is the sermon title for Week 8 of “Fruitfulness on the Frontline” – from Rev. Graham Crawford –

Donkeys, horses and camels

Many years before the birth of Jesus, the prophet Zechariah predicted that the king would ride into Jerusalem riding on a donkey.

It seems like a strange prediction.

Our feelings about donkeys are that they are stubborn, shabby looking creatures.

Yet in ancient Israel they had a far higher place.

The horse was an instrument of war, the camel was showy and flash, the bling limo of its day. The donkey, however, was admittedly only for the middle classes.

Poor folk could not afford them, but it was your family sedan, if you like.

In today’s terms you might see the horse as a tank, a camel as a stretch limousine and the donkey as a Volkswagen Passat!

In his prophecy, Zechariah predicted the king would ride into Jerusalem “in peace” – therefore, not on a horse – and remembering his place, in that he only ruled under God’s authority, not in an ostentatious manner, on a camel, but in humility, on a donkey.

Zechariah’s message was aimed at the people, to keep a look out for this king, and it was aimed at the king, to remember his place.

Jesus fulfills Zechariah’s prophecy

On this Sunday, Jesus fulfilled the prophecy.

He rode into town on a donkey and the people went before him, singing his praises and looking for salvation.

They were messengers of the Gospel, shouting “God save us” or, in the Hebrew, “Hoshanna”, just as we are to be messengers of the Gospel today as we seek to be fruitful on our frontlines.

How to be effective messengers – 1 Peter 3: 15-16

As we consider how we might effectively be messengers today it is helpful, I believe to look at 1 Peter 3 verses 15 – 16.

15 But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, 16 keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behaviour in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.

This passage comes in the middle of a section where Peter is talking about the daily lives of those who confess Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour.

In this part, he is particularly concerned with how we relate to those who are, at best, ambivalent to the Gospel and, at worst, opposed to it.

Intrigue people by your way of living

He begins by telling us that we should not stand on our rights. We should bless and not curse.

We find that hard today.

For generations, the church has had a privileged role in society, which has gone, and some find that hard to deal with, and have either become strident or have retreated within themselves, claiming that faith is a private matter anyway.

Peter says that we should not be stridently defending Christendom but, instead, be living in such a way that will intrigue people to ask why we are different. We should then be ready to give them a succinct answer and not keep it private.

No, we should not be boisterous or obnoxious in our sharing of the faith, but we should always be ready to give an answer, gently and respectfully, when asked about our faith, our lifestyle and our Christian perspective.

We need to be ready to answer when people ask about the hope we have.

The implication is, of course, in this that we live in such a way as to intrigue people.

Why are they different? Why are they so joyful, forgiving, generous, gentle and hopeful?

One of my concerns these days is that we are not very good at promoting that sort of inquisitive attitude.

Society seems not to be prepared to ask those sorts of questions.

Thus, you have fundraising events at the church for a charity, sometimes not even a Christian charity.

You persuade people to come.

The hall is filled with young families, grannies and granddads and no-one is asking the question: “Why are they doing this?”

Why are we prepared to give up our time, our energy and our enthusiasm for such a project?

Not only that, but how many of us, if we were asked, would say that our love for God through Jesus and our love for our neighbour compelled us to do the event?

That is why I think we need to get little table centrepieces made up that ask the question, answer the question and then invite those that read it to join us in church the next day, so that they might get the same love, hope, enthusiasm and desire that they see in us.

Does this then mean that everything will be plain sailing as we live this humble life of hope, joy and love? Well of course not!

People will always accuse us of hypocrisy, they will always want to point the finger and look for inconsistency.

None of us are perfect and we will all struggle at some point.

However, we are to deal with the accusations gently and try to do better so that, eventually, those who try to slander us may feel ashamed of their slander as we continue to polish our behaviour and thus shine before God and humanity.

Sensitivity allied to a willingness to speak out where appropriate

On this Palm Sunday, as we remember the humility of Jesus Christ as he rode into town on a donkey, I think we have to recognise that the reason that others on our frontlines have their guard up against hearing the Gospel is because of some of the strident, aggressive evangelism policies of the past that are far from the humble, graceful ways suggested by Peter.

We need to be sensitive to that while having the confidence in the Gospel to be able to speak out if given the opportunity.

Interestingly, a girl from Aberdeen (Emeli Sande) has written a song about having the confidence to speak out. She isn’t a Christian and her song is not about speaking out for Christianity, but the message within the song is I think very applicable to us.

We found a version where the words are shown on the screen and so I want us to listen to the song and read the words.

Consider how these words express our need to be humbly confident in the message that we bring:-

You’ve got the words to change a nation
But you’re biting your tongue
You’ve spent a life time stuck in silence
Afraid you’ll say something wrong
If no one ever hears it how we gonna learn your song?

You’ve got a heart as loud as lions
So why let your voice be tamed?
Maybe we’re a little different
There’s no need to be ashamed
You’ve got the light to fight the shadows
So stop hiding it away.
We do have a song, we do have a light to fight the shadows. We have to sing, we have to shout, we have to scream till the words dry out.

Remember the words of Paul about Jesus.

How can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him?

And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him?

And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them?

You are the messenger from God for your frontline. You may be the only messenger from God for your frontline.

How can the people on your frontline hear about God and therefore believe in God and call on him to save them, hoshanna, unless you tell them?

Do you love them enough to tell them? Do you hate them enough not to tell them?

We have to sing, we have to shout, we have to scream until the words dry out for everyone needs to read all about it, all about God’s love for them.

Filed Under: Sermons Tagged With: Jesus, Jesus Christ

Mouthpiece for Truth and Justice

March 25, 2015 by 2

How to be a Mouthpiece for Truth and Justice is the sermon theme for week 7 of Fruitfulness on the Frontline with Rev. Graham Crawford –

In today’s lesson on how to be fruitful on the frontline we come to a story which we all know so well.

Many of us have sat in the pew and had fingers pointed at us by ministers acting the part of the prophet, Nathan, as they pronounced: “You are the Man.”

Indeed, every commentary I looked at considered this from the standpoint of preaching on the wages of sin.

However, today I want to look at the passage from 2nd Samuel in a very different way.

Instead of me acting the part of Nathan and pointing the finger at you, I am asking how we all can be Nathans, pointing the finger at injustice in the world around us. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Sermons Tagged With: Bathsheba, David, King David, Nathan, Uriah, Uriah The Hittite

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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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