St Peter’s Free Church Sermon Archive

Rev. Macleod died at Raigmore Hospital on the 31st of January, aged 82.  He is survived by his wife Etta and three sons, Ian, David and Rorey, to whom we extend our sympathy.  He was ordained to Knockbain in 1966 and translated to St Peters’s in 1972, before retiring in 1990.

The Solas hosts the Jazz group Renewal as part of their Heaven in a Nightclub European tour.

William Edgar, the pianist and presenter, is a Professor at Westminster Theological Seminary. He studied musicology at Harvard, and ethnomusicology at Columbia, and has written widely on subjects related to African-American aesthetics. The full band has five players: vocals, saxophone, piano, bass, drums. Singer Ruth Naomi Floyd is one of the great gospel-jazz voices of Philadelphia. She now has six CDs with her own band and label.

“Our philosophy is that jazz ought to entertain, but that its background is in the spiritual experience of African-American people, reared in slavery and nurtured on the Gospel. It carries the twin themes of suffering and hope, so characteristic of Black culture. We hope our audiences will sense the realism, the passion and the joy as we perform.

Specifically, we take the audience through some of the history of African-American music, both sacred and secular, mixing narrative with music. We outline the problem of finding spiritual roots in the music, and then go on to explore specific genres, including ragtime, blues, spirituals, funeral bands, etc. The program lasts around one and one half hours, but that can vary.” (William Edgar)

Tickets are £5, and can be purchased at the Solas website.

I cannot recall much of it but my surgeon and my wife have filled in the details. The first endoscopy did not work. Nor did the second. Nor the third. Nor did an attempt to stop the bleeding by going through the groin. And so surgery was performed on my stomach. I needed 22 units of blood products, which resulted in my lungs not working. In the ICU (Intensive Care Unit) I had difficulty breathing and was on a ventilator for a couple of weeks. I had various infections which took some time to identify and treat (including e-coli of the lung). Anyway to spare you all the gory details suffice it to say that I spent five weeks in ICU, followed by a further two weeks in HDU (High Dependency Unit) and a further two weeks in a main ward, before getting home just before Christmas, where I am currently recovering and learning to walk and talk again. I am deeply grateful to the surgeons, doctors and nurses who gave such tremendous care and whom the Lord used to save my life. I have learnt a great deal over these past weeks and want to share these with you – I hope as an encouragement.

Life Is Fragile – My son Andrew described the Intensive Care Unit as Sheol – it was deep in the basement of the hospital and windowless. It was a horrible experience – much of which I either cannot remember or am very confused about. David Aaronovitch, The Times, journalist wrote a superb piece on his own experience of ICU, the madness, the attempts to pull out tubes, the fear and illusions and above all, the terror. It is something I can so identify with. Of course in some ways it was so much worse for my family and especially Annabel, to every day have to watch me going through this. Thankfully I cannot recall many of the things I said and did, but apparently I was very difficult to sedate, my mind just refused, and this created all kinds of problems. I am thankful that I have forgotten much but Annabel did keep my notebooks in which I furiously scribbled sometimes lucid but more often than not nonsensical, words. In terms of memories when you have a dream, you wake up and within seconds you are conscious it is a dream. For me there is much that I ‘remember’ about ICU which I don’t know whether it was a dream or not – although I am fairly convinced that I was not the King of Norway! I now know what Psalm 91 means when it speaks of the ‘terrors of the night’. The psalms were a constant source of encouragement and help to me and my family – Ps 30, Ps 91, Ps 27 and many others; they put into words what we were feeling and enabled us to pray.

What I do not understand is how people who do not know Christ and do not have the hope of the Gospel, can bear facing death. Maybe they don’t. For me this experience has taught me in practice what I knew in theory – that our lives are but a breath. We are fragile and we are entirely in the Lord’s hands. That is awesome, challenging and comforting.

Prayer is Powerful – I had no idea that so many people were praying. It seems as though the Spirit moved many people to a depth and urgency of prayer which we do not often experience. Several have told me of how they woke up in the middle of the night with this urge to pray. And they did. From all over the world, from many different denominations and individuals (even a couple of atheists told me they were praying for me!). People also wrote cards – hundreds of them. They were a great encouragement for Annabel initially and later on myself. People offered help. Someone enabled our daughter to come from Australia. There was kindness, love and prayer. It was and is a great example of the Church of Jesus Christ at its best. I believe, without a shadow of a doubt, that I am here today because of the prayers of the Lord’s people. It is not as though I deserve it, or that God changed his mind because of the prayers, it is just simply that in his mercy he gave the burden, and he answered when his people cried to him.

Time is Short – Lying in HDU one night at 2am I was deeply conscious of those answered prayers. I could feel my body healing. I do not know what the future holds. The Lord has spared me. For how long no one can say. But it is for me a cause of great thankfulness. As I write this I have just heard of my Auntie’s death. She died in the Lord and is now with him which is far better. That could have been, and will one day, be my portion. But meanwhile he has rescued my soul from death. He has enabled me to stay with my children (Andrew, Becky and Emma Jane) and to be with my wife – for whom this was often a more trying experience than for me. I don’t know why, but I do know that I cannot be the same, that every moment is precious and that I have been saved for a purpose – to serve Christ in this world until he calls me home. In that sense it is no different for any believer. But how often do we allow ourselves to be distracted by the trivial, the shallow and the meaningless cares of this world, so that we forget that our primary purpose is to glorify God and enjoy him forever?

Hosted by St. Peters Free Church, Dundee

Friday Evening 25^th November 7:30-9pm
Saturday Morning 26^th November 10am -1pm.

Two years ago the Free Church of Scotland decided to work with city centre congregations to help them use their house group systems to reach out into different communities in and around the four largest Scottish cities. The hope is that some of these groups will, in time, grow to be new congregations, as they reach their neighbours and friends with the gospel. Steve Timmis is a veteran church planter who since 2000 has been working successfully to use small groups of Christians meeting in homes to do mission in their local area.  Steve is coming to Dundee to help train us to do the same thing. He will provide theological and practical insights in order to help us mature our thinking and our practice in this kind of mission.

There is enormous potential for us in this kind of work. Most people are not willing to come to a church service but some of those will be willing to meet with Christian friends in informal settings where the gospel in being lived out and shared.  Learning how to do this kind of evangelism will be a major boost to our congregations.

There is no cost for the training.

For further information, please contact office@stpeters-dundee.org.uk

I know that this will seem really strange, unwise and even an exploitative thing for me to do just now. A ‘blog’ from a hospital bed is not exactly an original thing; I should be concentrating on getting better not wasting precious recovery time writing something which will take me twice as long because of the disorientation caused by my illness; and it can seem self-centred and self-indulgent. It is a peculiar aspect of our self-focused lives that we think that anyone is really that interested in our particular stories. And yet it is precisely for these latter reasons that I have to write this. Let me explain.

I am living in what seems like a kind of dream world at the moment – a world in which because of the hallucinogenic effects of some of the drugs I am using at the moment – it becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish reality from illusion. But the cold simple facts are this – last Wednesday night I had a rough night and so went to the doctor who promptly sent me to Ninewells – where suspecting a heart attack, I was given a dose of aspirin, before eventually being sent home with suspected gastritis. I was concerned because Claire and Steve were getting married on Friday, I was due to do an outreach at Greenock Baptist Church on Saturday, Luis Palau was due to preach in St Peters on Sunday and then myself and Annabel were to head to Athens for a week of ministry at the Athens Bible College – to teach Persuasive Evangelism on the original Mars Hill was a thrilling prospect. And yet none of it was to be.

During the night on Thursday I found myself on the bathroom floor, thinking nothing of it…it was just a faint! Went ahead and did the wedding of Claire and Stephen which was beautiful, creative and Christ centered. I did however come out in a cold sweat throughout the service and as a result told Annabel to drop me off at home on way to the reception at St Andrews. And then Andrew stepped in and spoilt everything! He had forgotten Claire’s iPod and had to stop at the church to pick it up. We did. And the ten minutes it took to do that saved my life. I began to feel unwell and got out of the car. Annabel told me to go into the Health Centre besides the car – I said no, then began to go, before collapsing vomiting blood – through both mouth and nostrils (sorry for the graphic details!). I came to fairly quickly and told medical staff that I was ok and would just go home and lie down. They laughed and told me not to be stupid. Jared Cordner, one of our accountancy students had already called the ambulance.

In the ambulance I was told (not for the first time over this weekend) that I was a very lucky person. My normal blood pressure is usually too high – in the ambulance it became really low because of severe internal bleeding. Overnight things got worse. I had three endoscopies. I can now confirm that all the reports you have read of these are true. They involve a small cable camera being passed in to the stomach through your throat. These discovered that I had two bleeding ulcers at the bottom of my stomach and a further blockage at the top. Surgeon Shimei – a lovely man from Saudi Arabia (who now owes me a bottle of wine because I guessed his nationality) then decided to operate immediately. I, of course, have no recollection of any of this, except some wonderful short conversations with Dr Shimei, a very impressive anaesthetist whose name I cannot recall, and Dr John Ellis who is yet another reminder to me, that along with Christ, we are graciously given all things.

Since last Saturday I have learned many things, some of which I hope to share with you over the next few blogs. Perhaps I can close this one with these two thing:

Firstly unless you have been through this it is almost impossible to get any idea of how completely disorientating and debilitating such an illness is. Most people can grasp something of the seriousness of it, but will struggle to understand the other parts. I know that this is not a dream from whence I will return to some kind of normality – this is reality but it is a different and strange reality, manifested for example in the fact that it took me almost three hours to write 900 words – something which I could easily have done in 30 minutes. There is also the ‘reality’ that there are things I now ‘remember’ which are demonstrably not true, and yet which are so embedded in my psyche that when I discover they are not, leave me with a sense of loss (for example it was a shock for me to discover that this had not happened to me before!).

The final lessons of reality are to do with why and for whom I am writing this blog. Firstly it is for myself – a kind of reflective self-therapy – not I hope of the kind of navel gazing which once more puts myself at the centre of my own wee Universe, but rather one which enables me to see my part in a far greater and more wonderful Cosmos than I could ever have imagined.

Secondly there is the reality of family, in which the family is much more than just a convenient societal arrangement for the raising of children, redistribution of finances and sexual services. Family includes all of this (although expressed in a much more profound way) but includes a lot more. Human beings are relational beings – events like my collapse test the extent and depth of those relationships. I have never appreciated every thing about my family – who does? It is our families who frustrate, annoy and wind us up more than any one. And yet they are essential – all of us have families in some form or other. I have really appreciated the visits from my sister Fiona, my brother Brian and phone calls from brother John. And of course the visits of my ever reliable and loving parents have been a real boost. We are in general not an over touchy/feely family (and I am not critiquing those who are), but we don’t need to be.

But of course I left and cleft. This clearly does not mean my old family relationships are gone – but it does mean I have new ones – and these new ones also change the old ones. My three children are each incredibly precious and unique in this situation. My oldest son, Andrew, has been in the process of turning into one of the godliest and intelligently passionate young men I have ever known. And I am not just speaking as a proud father when I say that – it is way beyond that. If Robin Sydserff and the folks at St Catherines Argyll can continue to disciple and train more young men like Andrew, there is real hope for the future of the Church in this nation. That’s clearly the macro-vision, the micro is a beautiful part of that macro. I ask Andrew to pray for me, not because I think it is a good thing for him to do, nor because it will help me, though both are true. But rather because it is wonderful for his father to hear the incense of his prayers rise as incense before his Father.

I also really miss Becky. She is my psychological twin. Sorry Becky! I have so much I want to say to her – hopefully before heaven! You will just have to come over to here in person! And EJ – there is not a single day that you have been on this earth that you have not brought me joy – even the thought of seeing you this afternoon is keeping me going through a tough morning. And you have the bonus of having the good looks and intelligence of your father…..But it is the beauty and joie de vivre of your character really makes you.

Again at a depth that I have never known before this event has demonstrated the love that both Annabel and I have for one another. I have never loved anyone like this beautiful woman of God. Sure she has many faults – but one of her great qualities is that she does not excuse them and she applies practically her superb theological knowledge. I was going to apologise for saying that it takes an event like this to show to me the extent of our love – but that would be wrong. It does take such an event to show in this way.

Which leads on to that other family– the Church. It is again a cliché but the events of this week have again shown me the strength and blessings of the local, national and international church. Yes I know that all Christians love one another – but it is really nice to ‘know’ that in practice. Every single letter, text, card and e-mail is appreciated. I have especially loved the ones from the children…thanks guys….and keep praying for me! I will have to take you all out to The Ice Cream Parlour with me when I get better!

I don’t have time to say anything about friendships just now – perhaps I will just leave that until another blog. But meanwhile I leave you with this final thought – friendship, families, and the future, past and present of the cosmos are met and fulfilled in Christ. As I lie in a hospital bed, unable to eat, walk, toilet or even breathe without assistance. That is not a bad place to be.

Your Junior Pastor,

David