July 10, 2011
There are several reasons why people come to church. If we leave aside the prime reason for attending Sunday worship then amongst the others must surely be to hear and to learn from an interesting sermon. Drumoak-Durris has been blessed for many years by having firstly, the services of Rev Jim Scott who’d had the benefit of a classical education and could relate many of the passages to the original Greek (and Aramiac?) texts; and secondly, while we’ve been in a vacancy, the services of several different ministers who’ve brought if not a different view then certainly a different delivery.
Today’s sermon was derived from Paul’s letter to the Philippians. Rev Iain Brown vividly brought to life the atmosphere of Philippi in those early days of the Christian Church. Philippi was a town in Macedonia to where God had sent Paul and Silas. At the time there was no synagogue in the town but Paul found first one follower, Lydia, and then another, his erstwhile jailer and soon established a church there. The letter is written to this young church and the sermon brought to life the bonds which bound together Paul and the church at Philippi. We easily forget the trials, often literally “trials”, and the hardships which those early founders of our Christian Church went through on our behalf. It is believed that Paul wrote the letter while in jail in Rome and we should remember that when we feel that we have better things to do than go to church on a Sunday morning. That’s one message to take away from a sermon and if we learn only one thing then our time has been well spent.