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 / Why there can be no us and them in God’s family

Why there can be no us and them in God’s family

August 5, 2018 by 2

All good sermons are prayers. Rev. Geoff McKee’s scripture for 29 July 2018 is Ephesians 3:14-21, which is headed ‘A Prayer for the Ephesians’. In a wide-ranging discussion, from Harry Potter’s cupboard under the stairs, to CS Lewis’s reflections on the nature of prayer and the Jesus’ story of the Prodigal Son, Geoff explains why the Gospel is for everyone and why there can be no us and them in God’s family.

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

Ephesians 3:14-21 (New International Version)

A Prayer for the Ephesians
14 For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Our Bible reading in Ephesians today takes us to the heart of Paul’s sermon to the Ephesians.

For that is surely what it is.

All good sermons are prayers.

There is the implicit recognition in the preacher’s words that all is offered to God on behalf of the people.

Here we have a beautiful offering from the apostle Paul.

The text begins with the words “for this reason” and, as the lectionary has omitted the previous verses, we would be quite right to ask the question – for what reason?

For what reason does Paul bow before his heavenly Father?

Well, looking back at the earlier chapters, we learn that the great mystery that God was now revealing related to the inclusion of the Gentiles in God’s plan of salvation.

And their inclusion was on exactly the same basis as the Jews – the undeserved love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.

The Gentiles were not admitted to God’s family via the back door.

Theirs is not a second class citizenship but, instead, they are welcomed as brothers and sisters, for this is the family of God.

Paul began the text this week with, “for this reason I bow my knees before the Father (pater), from who every family (patria) in heaven and on earth takes its name.”

The word ‘patria’ is rare in the New Testament. Normally, it means tribe or lineage but, here, it has the extended sense of family. All descended, so to speak, from the Father.

And so Paul will argue strongly, as he expands his thinking through Ephesians, that there cannot be two families of the one God.

There is only one family and so do not try to segregate or discriminate. If you do that you will tell the world a lie about the nature of your God, who is one.

There is no ‘us’ and ‘them’ in God’s family.

This was the mystery that is now being revealed to the world and it has life changing implications for all who are willing to take it seriously.

If you have ever read the Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling – or seen the films – you will know about the cupboard under the stairs.

If you haven’t read the books or seen the films, the cupboard under the stairs was Harry Potter’s room in the Dursley household, until he was given Dudley Dursley’s old room, at 4 Privet Drive in Little Whinging, Surrey.

The cupboard was described as small and dusty, with lots of spiders.

When Harry’s mother and father were killed, Harry was brought to his maternal aunt, Petunia Dursley.

She and her husband reluctantly took him in, but treated him poorly, mostly because his parents had been magical and they feared that Harry would also turn out to be like them.

Instead of being given a real bedroom, Harry was kept in the cupboard under the stairs.

Harry’s cousin Dudley was roughly the same age and used to jump up and down on top of these stairs so sawdust would fall onto Harry.

The Dursleys’ fears about Harry being magical turned out to be correct, as Harry received an invitation to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

The first letter was addressed: Mr H Potter, The Cupboard under the stairs. This prompted the Dursleys to allow Harry to move into what had previously been Dudley’s second bedroom.

Despite the Dursleys’ numerous attempts to prevent Harry from accepting the offer, he soon went to Hogwarts.

As Harry left 4 Privet Drive for the last time, he took a look inside the cupboard, which was now being used to store stacked shoes and umbrellas.

The fascinating world of Harry Potter is in some senses a reflection of the way we live our lives.

As we get drawn into a fine tale, so we hear things that resonate with us and should disturb us.

The Dursleys are comic characters in the books but there is a darkness about them that makes us feel uncomfortable because we all too readily identify with the desire to bury some things, or some people, in the cupboard under the stairs!

For Paul, that’s exactly what some Jewish believers in Jesus Christ were doing whether consciously or not. And we mustn’t diminish how difficult it would be for them to accept this newly revealed mystery.

They had a complex system of rules and regulations that had been adapted over the years to reflect the new circumstances that the people found themselves in. They were a very adaptable people and they had survived some very great traumas. They were not going to very readily dispense with these securities and identity markers for the sake of including peoples and races who had previously persecuted them. That was very understandable.

Paul needed to progress carefully with them.

How was he going to do that? – by praying for them.

Prayer changes those being prayed for and it changes the one who prays.

CS Lewis was the author of the widely read children’s books, The Narnia Chronicles, as well as many novels for grown-ups and books on issues surrounding the Christian faith.

The movie Shadowlands (directed by Richard Attenborough and produced in 1993) told Lewis’ story, focusing in particular on his relationship with his wife, Joy Gresham.

Gresham and Lewis met while Lewis was a don at Oxford University.

After Joy was diagnosed with cancer, the couple married. The movie invited us to witness their love, their pain, their grief, their struggles with faith and God. Eventually, Joy died.

At one point in the story a friend said to Lewis, “Christopher can scoff, Jack, but I know how hard you’ve been praying; and now God is answering your prayers.”

Lewis replied; “That’s not why I pray, Harry. I pray because I can’t help myself. I pray because I’m helpless. I pray because the need flows out of me all the time, waking and sleeping. It doesn’t change God, it changes me.”

Paul had been gifted the revelation of the mystery of God, that God was for the world and not just the Jewish people.

For that gift to be handed on, Paul had to be convinced of it himself and he had to set about convincing his own people.

Jesus told the story of two sons and their father.

The youngest son wanted to live life to the full and to live it now. He didn’t want to wait on the good things so he asked for his inheritance from his father now.

It was a shameful thing to do but his father granted his wish.

Off he went and squandered the money until, in his deprivation and despair, he came back to his father.

Instead of refusing to receive him, his father welcomed him back joyfully, with open arms.

But here comes the telling part of the story.

The older brother, the other son, was disgusted. Disgusted with his wee brother and therefore disgusted with his father.

This story – which we know as the parable of the Prodigal Son – would have been penned shortly after the apostle Paul wrote Ephesians. But it is of the same era and context.

Inclusion is important to God.

It demands a change of mind and a change of life for those who are being challenged to receive it.

The Jewish struggled with it and we must not kid ourselves that we find it any easier because one of the tragedies of the human condition is that we are very good also at condemning some people to live in the cupboard under the stairs.

We must not tolerate that kind of behaviour but, instead, we must comprehend the breadth and length and height and depth of the love of Christ.

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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