Belhelvie Church - Sermons

In this Sunday's all age service we're reflecting on Her Late Majesty's reign, hearing some moving and funny stories about her life, but also thinking about what the foundation of that exceptional life was.

Today, and next Sunday, we’re going to be reflecting on the Queen’s life together as we worship. This morning, the first half of the service will be given over to remembrance, and we’ll have some of Her late Majesty’s favourite hymns as well as videos and prayers to help us reflect on her reign and the foundation of faith it was built upon.

It’s often said that life’s a journey, not a destination, and what’s true of life is equally true of the life of faith. Discipleship isn’t a destination, it’s a road we choose to travel, whatever stage of the journey we’re on – whether we’re ‘just looking’, beginning to scope out what all of this means for us, or taking steps to grow our faith and work out how we can support the life of a congrega...

1200 miles over two and a half months on foot. That’s what our friend John Gibson, supported by his wife Isobel and other family and friends, has accomplished – walking from Land’s End to John o’ Groats to raise awareness of issues around suicide, after his son Cameron took his own life in October of 2019. Last Saturday we joined John, and many others whose lives have been touched by suicide, for...

It isn’t only bodies that can be crippled. Hearts, souls and minds can be crippled too. Crippled by stress, loneliness, doubt, loss, sadness, fear…. The list goes on. In today’s gospel reading Jesus heals a woman who had a crippled back, but the intriguing thing is that he proclaims her healed before there’s any sign that it had actually happened. It’s like he knew what was going to happen to this...

A cat kept wandering into the temple as the guru taught his disciples, so he had it tied up so as to avoid distracting everyone. Over time, people forgot the origins of this practice and by the time a century had passed, learned scholars were writing essays on the religious and theological significance of having a cat tethered to a pillar during worship. Today we’re looking at an argument Jesus ha...

She was powerless. He was powerful and held her fate in his hands, but didn’t care one thing about her situation. There was nothing in it for him. The only thing she had going for her was her persistence. So she kept getting in his face – at his work, on the golf course, even at his home. Day after day after day, she finally wore him down to the point where he cracked and promised to give her what...

Two sisters welcome an important guest and his entourage into their home. One of them thinks the most important thing she can do is sit with him and hear what he’s got to say. The other feels caught up in the business providing hospitality and is soon feeling hassled and harassed in the kitchen. ‘It’s not fair’ she complains to her guest and her sister – and she was probably right! - but the answe...

We know the story of the Good Samaritan and what it teaches, but today we’re going a little deeper and seeing the story in a new way. This isn’t just a story about the need for people to get on and help even those who are their enemies; it’s a story that teaches the amazing truth that God, in Christ, has reached out to the whole human family to bring our ultimate healing and restoration.

A desperate father whose young daughter is dying on the cusp of womanhood. A chronically ill woman whose life has been overshadowed by her condition. Jesus brings healing into both situations in this morning’s reading, but how do we read and understand these stories in the light of our own experiences with illness and death? Does God not heal today, or does our understanding of what makes for heal...

She was childless. And in the culture of her day, a childless wife was no wife at all. Hannah was her name and she was in serious danger of letting her infertility have the last word on her identity. Today we’re thinking about the tendency we all know to let our hardest, most personal struggles overtake us and become the place we live out of. Grief, loss, illness, sadness. All of us have difficult...

Today at Father’s Day All Age worship we spent some time thinking about what makes for a good dad and realised just how many of those things apply to God as well. It’s no accident that when Jesus teaches us about God, his main metaphor is that of a good Father. And in terms of his relationship with us, God’s Fatherhood comes first and modifies everything else: “He creates as a loving Father, he ex...

This morning was our annual memorial service where we remember the folk who’ve passed on within our church community over the past year. As part of that service we light candles in their memory and we remember the scripture promise that the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never overcome it. https://youtu.be/0JGoskkIPEM

This morning we had our annual elders’ service, led by Francois, Mark and Laura, and the group looked at three themes that coalesced on this particular Sunday – Pentecost, Jubilee and our Presbytery Mission Plan discussions. Thanks to everyone who took part, and to the Welcome team and the bakers for a very special Jubilee spread afterwards. https://youtu.be/qtM27-GPzks

What are you wrestling with at the minute? Relationships; jobs; getting back to normal after the pandemic; money worries; inner demons; an unknown future? Today’s story from the Old Testament is about a man who finds himself wrestling with God, as he faces up to the harsh reality of what he’s done and who he’s become. The struggle is a real one, and it almost breaks him, but he ends up with a new...

Today we're thinking about the fact that we are remembered by God, but also that we have to work at remembering God in the midst of our busy lives. We talk a little about some of the ways that we do that, and we also take leave of the Mackenzie family who are moving away to Australia to be with family after a long involvement with our congregation. https://youtu.be/LkzofVoyg04

What makes for a hero? Muscles? Smarts? Superpowers? Today I’m suggesting that the real heart of heroism is, in fact, the heart! When we see selflessness, courage and purpose in someone, that’s what true heroism is about, regardless of who they are or what they happen to look like. The anointing of David illustrates that point well. He was the smallest and youngest of his brothers, yet David was t...

This Sunday, John the gospel writer chooses to focus on Peter in the last chapter of his telling of Jesus’ story. Peter got at least as much wrong as he got right in following Jesus. He was the kind of guy who’d act first and think later. Who’d open his mouth to speak and end up putting his foot in it. Nobody’s kind of role model. And yet, John ends his gospel spelling out what resurrection life –...

The post-resurrection encounters with Jesus often have this strange feature that he’s not recognised straight away, even by folk who knew him well. Cynics draw any number of conclusions from that. Today, I’m offering some more nuanced reasons – some practical and some spiritual - why this might have been the case, but reminding us that the key thing is that in every case, Jesus draws alongside his...

This morning in our all-age service we ranged from the joys of ‘Wordle’ all the way back to 6th century depictions of the resurrection from the early church! And those ancient images helped us see the story in a new way. Easter Sunday isn’t just an individual story about Jesus being resurrected. It’s a corporate story about humanity being raised *in him*. And if that’s true, it means that death is...

A picture tells a thousand words, someone once said. Today we’re looking at a very familiar story, the story of the Prodigal Son, but looking at it in a different way: seeing where our imaginations take us as we try to visualise the story for ourselves. What might the images we conjure tell us about the story, about ourselves and about God? This way of approaching Scripture is as old as the hills....

The story of David and Goliath feels all too real these days, given what’s happening in Ukraine. That situation was very much in mind today as we met for all-age worship, but so too were the giants that many of us are facing in our everyday lives – weariness, fear, apathy and sadness as this pandemic and the fallout from it drags on. Like David, we need a handful of smooth stones to help take down...

The courage of those who know the danger and yet stay put, refusing to be bullied…. The bullishness of those whose power makes them think they’re invincible and can do whatever they want… The desire God has to see his human family reconciled to one another and to Him….. The impossibility of reconciliation while we’re unwilling to recognise the humanity of the other – that they, like us, are made i...

Lent. When less is more; When the wilderness proves fruitful; When faith gets tested and that testing builds character. 40 days in your year to take stock, rethink, listen, deepen, pray. Lent. There’s more to it than giving up Crunchies….. https://youtu.be/ZDppF0U-SaQ

Sometimes in life we need a bit of help to see better. Magnifying glasses and microscopes help us see things more closely. Binoculars and telescopes help us see things that are far away. All of them help us see well beyond our natural range. Today, in Luke 6,  Jesus says that we must learn to love our enemies, and that’s going to involve seeing them differently – seeing them through the lens...