St James' Church of Scotland

28 March 2021 is Palm Sunday.

For St James’ Church, in some ways, this marks the first anniversary of Lockdown.

Palm Sunday 2020 saw the first “virtual service” from St James’ featuring audio rather than only text.

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We’ve reached the 5th Sunday in Lent: 21 March 2021.

The Lectionary verses for this week are Jeremiah 31:31-34; Psalm 51:1-12;
Hebrews 5:5-10; and John 12:20-33. The main text is the reading from John’s Gospel in which Jesus predicts his death.

Rev. Geoff McKee discusses Jesus as the Messiah he proved to be compared with the kind of superheroes with which we are familiar in our time and with the concept of “Messiah” the people in Jesus’ time would have had (which was very different to the Messiah they got in Jesus).

Jesus confounds all our expectations.

“I believe because Jesus fulfils none of my dreams, because He is in every respect the opposite of what He would be if I could have made Him in my own image.”

W.H. Auden

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14 March 2021 is the Fourth Sunday in Lent.

The Lectionary readings for this week are Numbers 21:4-9; Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22; Ephesians 2:1-10; and John 3:14-21.

The John text is the basis for Rev. Geoff McKee’s sermon.

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We’re up to the Third Sunday in Lent – 07 March 2021.

The Lectionary readings for this week are: Exodus 20:1-17; Psalm 19; 1 Corinthians 1:18-25; and John 2:13-22. The sermon text is the reading from John’s Gospel. It is set out in full below. The other readings can be heard as part of the video service, further down.

The main scripture for this week…

John 2:13-22 (New International Version)
Jesus Clears the Temple Courts
13 When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. 15 So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. 16 To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” 17 His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.”

18 The Jews then responded to him, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?”

19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”

20 They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” 21 But the temple he had spoken of was his body. 22 After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.

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It’s the Second Sunday in Lent (28 February 2021).

The 4 Lectionary readings for this week are: Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16; Psalm 22:23-31;
Romans 4:13-25; and Mark 8:31-38. The passage from Mark forms the basis for Rev. Geoff McKee’s sermon.

Jesus predicts his own death. From among Jesus’ disciples, Peter challenges Jesus’ prediction. In turn, Jesus delivers a rebuke to Peter that seems astonishingly harsh.

What are we to take from this significant “difference of opinion”?

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