St James' Church of Scotland

Rev. Mary Whittaker (with Scott, her hearing dog) preached the following sermon on Epiphany Sunday – 03 January 2016 – at St James’  Church:

The carol ‘We Three Kings’ and today’s bible reading (Matthew 2: 1 – 12) mark the key theme for the New Year. [Read more…]

The sermon for the 3rd Sunday in Advent by Rev. Graham Crawford:

“Might is right” – or so they say.

Certainly, the world, as we see it today, seems to back that up.

• We have the military superpowers battling over control of the Middle East, so that they can control the oil reserves,
• We have a government cabinet made up of multi-millionaires, who use their financial might to fund election campaigns, and
• Even the world of sport is not immune, as teams try to outspend each other in order to win the big trophies.

Every so often there is an upset. Every once in a while, a giant-killer comes along and disturbs the natural order. But we all recognize this as being the status quo. We are not surprised by any of this. [Read more…]

Rev. Graham Crawford’s sermon for Sunday 13 December 2015:

The TV is full of it at the moment.

On the cooking channels and even on some of the more mainstream channels: Nigella’s Christmas Recipes, Jamie Oliver, Heston Blumenthal, River Cottage …

All the celebrity chefs are at it.

Just “do this” and you will have a stress-free Christmas that will be the tastiest ever.

Some of the recipes are simply fabulous, others downright weird, while yet others require ingredients that are just not that easy to find outside of multicultural cities.

But, while these shows and the recipes on them may be good, none of them guarantee you joy at Christmas. None of them guarantee you the real spirit of Christmas.

For that, I think, we need to turn to a minor Old Testament Prophet and a prolific letter writer. For they have the secret to joy at Christmas. And it is not in the way you baste your turkey or in what is lying under the Christmas tree. It is something much cheaper and much simpler. [Read more…]