St Monans & Largoward Kirk

Sermon

Sunday 28 August 2011

How can we recognise God’s call to service in our Church when our lives are already very busy?

Foreword: This is the last sermon I’ll blog as minister of St Monans linked with Largoward Church of Scotland.  From 1 September 2011 I’ll be Chaplain to the University of St Andrews, and you’ll find new sermons on their website.  If you’ve been reading these ones, thanks for being part of the community.

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It’s commonly said that our lives are very busy, and getting busier.  Many people are working longer hours, and in Britain we work longer than any other European country.  We live increasingly far from work, so spend longer commuting.  Women work outside the home, so the family has less time for everything else, and grandparents are busy with childcare.  Computers mean we do things ourselves we used to let someone else do – from booking a holiday, to printing party invitations.

This is squeezing our free time, the time we have for service in the church.  (more…)

Sermon

Sunday 21 August 2011

1 Corinthians 3:9b-17; Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

What is Hell?  What is Purgatory?

What is Hell? 

The Westminster Confession of Faith is the subordinate standard of authority in the Church of Scotland.  It says of hell that:

the wicked, who know not God, and obey not the gospel of Jesus Christ, shall be cast into eternal torments, and be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power.

Some people seem to have delighted in imagining these torments: I’ll never forget reading for the first time, on a quiet evening in Aberfoyle, the sermon on hell found in James Joyce’s novel, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.  The priest explains to the schoolboys that the sulphurous brimstone which burns in hell is a substance which is specially designed to burn for ever and ever with unspeakable fury,

with the result that:

the blood seethes and boils in the veins, the brains are boiling in the skull, the heart in the breast glowing and bursting, the bowels a red hot mass of burning pulp, the tender eyes flaming.

Today, most treatments of hell emphasise not the torments of fire so much as the destruction from the presence of God: hell as eternal separation from God.  (more…)

Sermon

Sunday 14 August 2011

1 Corinthians 11:17-34; Matthew 26:26-29

Why are people put off communion?

Why are people put off communion?

St Maximilian Kolbe said: If angels could be jealous of men, they would be so for one reason: Holy Communion.

I’m sure there are Christians who would agree, but many would not.  For some people are put off communion, do not come to it, do not receive it, do not feel they receive spiritual benefit from it, or simply do not enjoy it.

It was a hot topic at this year’s Lent Groups, came up again at the house-group, and was the focus of an excellent report to the General Assembly a couple of years ago, which asked, What benefits are there when people experience the Sacrament as off-putting and meaningless because there is neither intimacy nor mystery at its heart?

It’s a good question, and we’ll come back to intimacy and mystery later.

(more…)

Sermon

Sunday 7 August 2011

1 Corinthians 1:10-13; John 17:20-26

What are the differences between the Roman Catholic and Protestant faith?  Do the differences matter?

What are the differences between the Roman Catholic and Protestant faith?  Do the differences matter?

A wee boy in Glasgow takes a box full of new-born kittens to his local minister.

Would you like to buy my kittens?  They’re genuine Protestant kittens, real Rangers supporters.

But the minister sends him away, saying, You don’t get Protestant kittens.

A week later, the boy goes to see the priest.  Would you like to buy my kittens, Father?  They’re genuine Catholic kittens, real Celtic supporters.

But the Priest had heard of these kittens.  Look, you tried to sell them last week as Protestant kittens.

Aye, I know Father, but that was last week.  Their eyes have opened since then.

So the differences didn’t matter to that boy, but they do to many.  (more…)

Sunday 10 July 2011

Ezekiel 34:1-10; 1 Timothy 3:1-13

Hot Potato: Should ministers be expected to live their lives to a higher moral standard than members of their congregation?

Should ministers be expected to live their lives to a higher moral standard than members of their congregation?

A minister invited a curate and a bishop back to his house after the garden fete.  He offered them drinks and the bishop graciously accepted a large gin and tonic.  Turning to the curate, he asked, “Would you like a little drop of something?”

“Certainly not!” was the self-righteous response.  “I’d rather commit adultery.”

“Oh,” said the bishop, handing back his glass.  “I didn’t know there was a choice.”

The moral life is about choice, about choosing the good path, making the right judgment, deciding what to say and do.  The question is: is the choice the same for all Christians?

(more…)

Sunday 22 May 2011

Proverbs 4:10-19; 1 Peter 2:2-10

Roll Away the Stone

Roll Away the Stone:

That’s the name for the church festival happening this afternoon in Edinburgh, in Princes Street Gardens.  There will be bands, choirs, a church built from plastic bottles, a football tournament, food, and more.  We’re taking a bus; indeed people are heading to Edinburgh from across Scotland today for it.  The event has replaced a garden party at Holyroodhouse: perhaps the  Church of Scotland is leaving those cucumber sandwiches and delicious strawberry tarts behind for ever. 

(more…)

Sunday 1 May 2011

John 20:19-31

Thomas, Doubt and Faith

What religion, religious denomination or body do you belong to?

That’s the question we’ve all had to answer recently in the Census.  It seems fairly straightforward.  Yet it’s been highly contentious.  (more…)

Sunday 15 May 2011

John 10:1-10; Acts 2:42-47

Live Passionately

Is Christianity complicated?  Is religion difficult?  In some ways the answer must be yes.  Libraries are full of theology.  It takes years of study to become a minister.  The internet has vast numbers of religious websites.

But at its heart, the Christian faith is very simple, encapsulated in half a verse from John 10: Jesus said, I have come that they may have life, and may have it in all its fullness.

  (more…)

Sunday 10 April 2011

John 11:1-6, 17-27, 32-45

Why did Jesus delay?

There’s something strange about the raising of Lazarus.  I don’t mean the miracle of him rising from death, though that’s strange enough.  I mean the reaction of Jesus when he first gets the message that his friend Lazarus is lying ill.  You’d think he’d drop everything and get to Bethany where Lazarus lived.  After all, he’d healed others, making the blind see, the lame walk, the mentally disturbed find their right mind.  Why shouldn’t he visit Lazarus and make him better too?

(more…)

Sermon

Sunday 13 March 2011

Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7; Matthew 4:1-11

The temptation of Jesus

Have you ever wanted to run away with your neighbour’s wife – or husband?  If you have not then do not condemn someone who does – you might have done likewise.

That got your attention – but if you think my preaching’s getting a bit modern, I’m quoting from a sermon on the radio from 1924.

There’s nothing new about temptation.  It could be the neighbour, it could be fiddling the expenses, it could be putting that colleague in their place.  It starts, as one of our worshippers in St Monans has recently written, with a flicker of thought, a tiny little idea that darts across the mind while you’re doing something else.  It seems harmless, just one of the millions of things that the human brain comes up with.  But then it returns, a minute or an hour later… If we play with the idea, or allow it to play with us, then a new course is set, heading for disaster…

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