The readings for the Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost (27 September 2020) are: Exodus 17:1-7 and Psalm 78:1-4, 12-16; and Philippians 2:1-13 and Matthew 21:23-32.

The main reading is again from Exodus and the theme for today’s sermon is (Exodus 17:7): Is the Lord among us or not?

Lectionary readings for this week

Exodus 17:1-7 (New International Version)
Water From the Rock
17 The whole Israelite community set out from the Desert of Sin, traveling from place to place as the Lord commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. 2 So they quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.”

Moses replied, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the Lord to the test?”

3 But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?”

4 Then Moses cried out to the Lord, “What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.”

5 The Lord answered Moses, “Go out in front of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7 And he called the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the Lord saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”

[Read more…]

The readings for the Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost (20 September 2020) are Exodus 16:2-15 and Psalm 105:1-6, 37-45; Philippians 1:21-30 and Matthew 20:1-16.

The main reading is from Exodus, as we continue our series looking at important stories from Genesis and Exodus. Rev. Geoff McKee discusses lessons we can learn from famines throughout history: the Israelites starving in the desert in Exodus; the Irish Potato Famine of the mid-19th century; and how a looming famine in Poland after the First World War was averted.

The Lectionary scriptures, prayers, audio sermon and musical choice for this week are set out, below, for you. Thanks to Moray’s Great Places website for the header/body image used for this post. But first, an intimation.

An intimation…

The Blythswood Shoebox Appeal is still going ahead this year.

The leaflets are now available for anyone who feels they would like to donate a shoebox to support this annual Christmas project that will bring joy to many people in need across Eastern Europe.

The schedule for drop off and collection is not ready yet but shoeboxes should be ready for end October, and we will let you know further details later.

Please contact us via this website for a leaflet.

Scripture

Exodus 16:2-15 (New International Version)
2 In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. 3 The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.”

[Read more…]

13 September 2020 is the Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost. Our reading from Exodus this week is from Chapter 14, verses 19 to 31.

This is the story of Moses’ parting of the Red Sea, memorably portrayed in the 1950s Hollywood blockbuster, The Ten Commandments.

Rev. Geoff McKee explains how this event illustrates the transfer of the Israelites’ fear -from fear of the Egyptian army to fear of God. However, that fear was not to last.

Who would prove to be their greatest enemy? (And the greatest enemy through all times since then).

We have the four Lectionary readings for today set out below, beginning with the Exodus passage. There are also prayers, the audio sermon and a musical selection, chosen by Katherine Robertson.

[Read more…]

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…]