Good Shepherd Sunday

Today has traditionally been known as Good Shepherd Sunday after the gospel reading we have just heard and the psalm set for today. 

A good shepherd seeks to keep his flock together and bring his sheep along with him. Now if God is the shepherd that makes us the sheep, and I suspect that we can be a very troublesome flock. To use a biblical phrase we all like sheep have gone astray, each to our own way. 

We all have our own views, our own way we prefer things to be done, and of course, it’s obvious, to us, that our preferred way is clearly the best and right way and everyone else should just do as we want.

 The culture we live in these days can seem to reinforce that view. We are inundated by articles, inspirational quotes etc telling us to find our true self, that the most important thing is me and what makes me happy and the implication is not to worry how that might make others feel.  We are told to speak our truth and if we speak the loudest our truth will be the truth. 

 However, if we are all shouting, then we can fail to listen. Jesus says his sheep know him because we hear his voice. If we are to hear the voice of the shepherd than that means we have to stop shouting about my truth, or my rights, or why everyone should do things my way. We need to shut up and listen for the voice of the shepherd. We can do this through spending time quietly in prayer and contemplation of scripture.

 There is another danger in listening to our own voice, it might not be telling the truth. I was on a training course one day this week. I was learning about a form of cognitive behavioural therapy. One point raised is how we as humans developed language as a way to communicate. Language, whilst extremely useful, can have a dark side. When we tell ourselves we are useless, no one can love us we are that bad, not even God and we can come to believe it. Our own inner voice can start to drown out the gentle voice of the good shepherd calling us and telling us that he loves us. 

The gospel tells us that the sheep will recognise the voice of the Good Shepherd. We need to atune our ears and make sure we are listening to the shepherd.   

If each sheep follows it’s own way then the flock scatters. A scattered flock then becomes easy pickings for the wolves and other predators. If we all seek our own way, divisions grow, relationships break down.  We stop being a caring Christian community and can instead end up hurting others, making them feel excluded and cast out. Meanwhile we end up as a club for those that think like we do. This can be clearly seen in the history of the church, and in our own church of England now.  The new Archbishop of Canterbury, whoever they may turn out to be, will have a hard job to shepherd his or her flock.  This is why our shepherd calls us to a different way. 

In our reading from Acts this morning, we heard about a lady called Tabitha. Tabitha is a faithful disciple of the church. She is also clearly a person who has good relationships with others. She cares for the widows and helps them. The other members of the community clearly care about her. When she becomes ill and dies, they don’t just accept her death and move on, they know that Peter has recently performed a healing miracle, and is nearby so they send for him. 

Peter travels from Lydda to Joppa a journey of around eight miles. When Peter comes, he tells them to clear the room, prays, then speaks to Tabitha and bids her rise. It is not Peter’s prayer that triggers Tabitha’s return to life, rather it is when Peter speaks to her, that she responds. 

 We all respond when we hear things, especially our name. How often have you being having one conversation and you hear your name mentioned by someone in another conversation and instantly switch your attention. 

Our names are important. When we meet someone new, we tell them our name and they tell us their name, this is the first step of building relationships. Relationships will only grow if we are prepared to listen and to hear what the other has to say. By listening to each other, we can learn from each other about what we each feel  is important and why. When we do that we can start to compromise, to find a path that the flock can all follow, hopefully without any sheep going astray.  

God is the good shepherd  who calls each of his sheep, you and me, individually by name into relationship with him. A relationship that can be life changing. However he is also calling us into relationship with each other. Relationships, where whilst we might not always agree with each other we can build trust, build a community or a flock, that has God’s love and care at the heart of it.  A community that can show the world another way of being, a way where it’s about us, not me, where thorough compromise and understanding of each other, we can achieve more, become more of our best selves than we can if we just focus on me.  

I pray that this week we can all find time, to pause and listen for the voice of the Good shepherd that loves us and calls us by name.

Holy Week 3: Judas Iscariot

 Today, the Wednesday in holy week is traditionally known as spy Wednesday and the focus is on Judas Iscariot. As with the other nights this week I am starting tonight by using my imagination and trying to see what Judas may have been thinking

It wasn't supposed to end like this. When I first met him and heard him preach I thought he was surely the one. The next great Jewish leader. The one to overthrow the Roman oppressors. He was supposed to lead a great uprising. Kill the oppressors, drive them out. Make the Jewish people free again. I wanted to be part of that, to play my part in the glorious new government that would follow his victory. But then he just kept talking about forgiveness. But I truly thought when we came to Jerusalem he would take action. I thought when we gathered for that meal in the upper room, we would be planning the insurrection, the overthrow of the Roman oppressors, but no. I thought if things came to a head, if the temple authorities tried to stop him, then it would be a catalyst. The spark that would start the fire, the fire that would burn down the Romans and leave the Jewish people free. But then, even when Peter drew his sword, he told him to put it away. He let them arrest him without any resistance. I know now they mean to kill him, and I’ve helped them, how can I live with that, but why oh why won't he stand up and be the great leader we need, why allow himself to be killed, to kill all our hopes when he should be leading the fight.

Judas wanted Jesus to be something that he wasn't. The Jews had been living for years under Roman persecution and Judas believed the only way to change that was to physically fight back. The problem is that that is not God’s way. God sees things from a different perspective to us. He has an understanding of how things will pan out over the span of eternity. We are stuck in the here and now. We may often ask or even try to demand of God that he does something, the something that we think is the right thing to do, now. Like Judas we focus on our own understanding and what we think should happen for the best. We need to realise that God may, sometimes, know better. That things happen according to God's plan and time, not ours. 

Judas is also focused on money and on what prestige he can gain from being in Christ's inner circle. This makes it hard for him to hear Christ's message of a different way of being. How often do we prioritise what we want over what God wants? Judas’ motivations for following Jesus isn’t always the right one. When our motives are more about seeking what we want, even if our actions look good, we are not following God. Once we start to make decisions for the wrong reasons, then we can start to lose sight of what is good and right. Evil can start to creep in to our hearts and minds and corrupt our thinking and our relationships. Our focus shifts to what is the right thing for me, what will benefit me the most, and not what does God want? If other people start to get hurt, they become collateral damage. This is not the way God wants us to be. God calls us to be a community, to make decisions for the common good not just our personal good. We can only do this if we have a good relationship with God, if we spend time in prayer where we don’t just issue a list of demands to God, please can you fix X,Y,Z now. We also need to allow time for stillness and to listen to what God may be saying to us. To accept that our way is not God’s way and sometimes we just have to trust that God has a plan, even if we don’t understand it.

Over the last three nights I have tried to explore the events of Holy week through the eyes of three different people involved. On Monday we learned from Mary that we should always aim to bring our best to God. On Tuesday from Simon Peter, we learned that we will probably all mess it up at some point, but because of the events of this week there is always forgiveness and redemption available. Tonight Judas has shown us the importance of seeking to understand God’s ways and recognise that they may not be the same as ours. Judas has also shown us the importance of ensuring that what we do, both in our worship and outside in the wider word is done for the glory of God and not ourselves. I hope that over the next few days as we journey to the cross and to the heart of God’s love we can also grow closer to God and stronger in our faith.

Holy Week 2: Simon Peter

 

Today we continue our journey through holy week by looking at events from the perspectives of different people. I am using imagination and starting each evening with a monologue from the viewpoint of a different character. Today we are looking at Simon Peter. 

Was it only a few days ago, that marvellous entry into Jerusalem? It seems like a thousand years ago. Everything was going so well. I really thought this was it. Jesus would be accepted as the next great Jewish leader. The important people, those in authority would recognise who he was. Then it all went so wrong. We shared the Passover meal, he wanted to wash my feet, but I protested. He’s the leader I should serve him, but somehow he turns everything upside down. Insisted that he serve me. At that last meal when he was talking about one of us betraying him, I promised to lay down my life for him, and I meant it. When they came to arrest him, I tried to fight back and stop them, but He stopped me. When they took him away I followed him, I wanted to help, find a way to rescue him. But then, then, I betrayed him as much as that snake Judas did. They asked if I was with him and I was scared, worried what they would do to me, worried that if I said yes I would have no chance to save him. I wasn't able to save him anyway, and now I’ve let him down, let myself down, can I ever find forgiveness for my actions that night.

We know that Simon Peters world is going to be turned upside down several more times over the next few weeks, but ultimately he will find the forgiveness he seeks. 

Simon Peter always strikes me as a bit of a larger than life character, the one that's always rushing in almost without thinking. In the transfiguration, when Jesus is on the mountain top with Moses and Elijah, he rushes in wanting to build shelters. When he sees Jesus walking on the water towards the boat he immediately wants to go to him and finds himself walking on the water, then he has a moment of realisation and starts to sink. In Holy week it is Peter who declares he will lay down his life for Jesus, then when the reality sets in, in the courtyard, surrounded by the leaders and people that want Jesus dead, he falters.

How often do we act like Peter? Keen to follow Jesus at first, but then when things get a bit tough, when lent seems long, we may give up. I see this in myself, a lot. I want to follow Jesus, I want to have a good spiritual life, but when I’m tired or when I'm rushing about trying to do several things at once and get out the door in time to get to work, that quiet time in the morning for prayer is the first thing that gets lost. If I'm honest it can even just be spending too much time scrolling on social media. Time that could and should be spent building my relationship with God. 

However, we know how Peter’s story ends. That beautiful scene on the beach where Jesus gives Peter the opportunity to say that he loves him three times, cancelling the three denials. The same Peter that denied Jesus, will through faith go on to die for him.

The events of Holy week and Easter mean that this same life changing forgiveness is available to us all. Now, that isn't a reason to just carry on as we are. The reality is that we are human and however hard we try, we are going to mess it up at some point. That in essence is how we end up at the cross. 

We, both individually and as humanity in general, get it wrong so often. We let our own self interest, our laziness, our lack of ability to focus on what we need to do and instead spend twenty minutes looking at cute cat videos get in the way of what is really important. Our relationship with God and our seeking to discern God’s will through prayer and other spiritual practices should come first. However, like for Peter, forgiveness is there. On Easter Eve, we have the chance to renew our baptism vows, to reset our relationship with God, to seek and receive forgiveness. We may mess things up but Simon Peter's story tells us that, no matter the mistakes we make, because of the cross and resurrection we can ask for and receive forgiveness and get a fresh start.

Holy Week 1: Mary Magdalen

 Over the next three nights I want to explore the events of Holy week from the viewpoints of three different people involved, starting tonight with our own Mary Magdalene and moving on to Simon Peter and Judas Iscariot. 

These sermons will be a little bit different from normal. I have let my imagination lose and each one will begin with a monologue that imagines what the person we are focusing on might have been thinking and feeling, then going on to explore what we can learn from them and their experience.

So, let's imagine what Mary Magdalene may have been thinking.

I love him, he saved me from myself, from the madness that was tearing me apart. He brought me healing and wholeness. When we entered Jerusalem with the crowds cheering, I was happy at first. I thought everyone else saw what I saw in him. But crowds can be fickle, and I started to have a bad feeling. Others thought I was being over dramatic I can almost hear them saying “that Mary Magdalene, she's still a bit weird”. I just thought if something does happen I want him to know what he means to me, I want to give him the best that I can. That's why I went and spent my money on that expensive perfume and poured it on his feet. I know Judas and a few others complained, they thought the money could have been better spent, but I'm so worried about what might happen in the next few days. The atmosphere on the streets is so charged, with everyone gathering for the festival, anything could happen and I’ve got this feeling that everything's going to change how and when and if it will be good or bad I just don't know. I just want him to know how much he means to me. He has helped me to become the person that I am. I want to give the best that I can to him.

Mary Magdalene’s actions in pouring expensive perfume onto Jesus’ feet are motivated by her love for him. When we love someone we want to express it, to them and to let others know the way we feel. How do we show what Jesus means to us? One way is through the worship we offer. We want to make the worship we offer the best that it can be. Vestments that looks good, that reflect the richness of God’s love for us. The wonderful organ music that Tim provides for us, the lovely smell of the incense, covering any not so nice smells. What about us though, do we always bring our best selves to worship God? If I’m honest I know that I don't always. There can be so many other things going on that even in the time that is supposed to be dedicated to and focused on God, I find my mind wandering to more day to day issues such as do I need to buy some more bread? Did I remember to get something out the freezer for dinner? I wonder who the killer is in the latest crime novel I’m reading. So many things competing for our attention but Mary reminds us that we if we truly love God, we should pay him attention. God wants relationship with us, but it's hard to build relationship with someone who is constantly distracted by other things. Let's try and use the liturgy and time of holy week to really give God our full attention and build our relationship with him.

Mary doesn't just bring herself to God, she offers to him the most expensive perfume she can buy. How often do we spend money on ourselves first and put how God might want us to spend money second? I will put my hands up and admit this is an area I really need to work on. Why do I always buy more books, when I have a to be read pile that will take me several years to get through? Could I be using that money better by giving it to the church or other charities whose work can show God's love to people. The answer is almost certainly yes. 

Mary's actions also tell other people how she feels about Jesus. Mary is the sort of person that I should imagine everyone would be talking and about her relationship with Jesus. But what about us? Do our actions tell the people around us about Jesus and how great he is? Do people that know us even know that we are Christians? Mary provides an example of how to live a life of unashamed deep love of God. A relationship to which she brings everything that she is and has, and through which she finds wholeness and healing. 

Mary challenges us to do the same. This Holy week I hope we can provide some amazing worship, that we can bring the best of our skills and talents to God. I pray that what we do will draw people into relationship with God and that we can learn to be people that reflect God to others and make them want to find that relationship with God for themselves.

Baptism of Christ

May I speak in the name of the Father and of the Son and of The Holy Spirit.

A voice came from heaven, you are my Son, the beloved. Words from our gospel this morning, but what do they mean? 

The voice from heaven is presumably that of God, declaring that Jesus is his son, his beloved. A statement is clearly being made about Jesus’s identity. He is the son of God, no ifs, no buts. 

Some people have claimed that Jesus was just a good man, a wise teacher whose teaching we should follow, even a prophet, but he was just a man. Our gospel this morning makes it clear that they are wrong. Jesus is both man, the son of Mary and divine, the son of God. 

Theologians have wrestled for centuries over how this works. This year is the 1,700 anniversary of the council of Nicaea, which led to the formulation of the Nicaean creed which we proclaim each week.  The issue of the relationship between the divine and human natures in Jesus, and how they work was a key point in the debates. 

Were the divine and the human natures separate but in one body, a bit like a split personality? Or were they somehow mingled together? Is Jesus two natures in one body or something else?I was struggling to find a way to articulate these ideas that is easy to underunderstand then I came across a column in the church times by Angela Tilby, in which she discusses the nature of Christ and gives the following analogy. 

“two nature, one person Christians understood Christ as we might experience a drink of whiskey and water: 

a combination in which the distinctiveness of the two components remains apparent to the taste.

 One nature Christians on the other hand, thought the person of Christ to be more like gin and tonic: 

the ingredients once mixed, can no longer be distinguished.”

I did think about doing a practical experiment as part of my sermon but decided it might not be a good idea. So, which is it? The church decided that Jesus was more whiskey and water than gin and tonic. Even with a helpful drink, I still struggle sometimes to really understand how Jesus can be both God and man.  

How does it work? Does Jesus the man know that he is also God? How does that impact on how he thinks and acts? Maybe for the time he is human he doesn't know that he is also God? But there are times in the gospel narratives where he does seem to know. The more I try and think about this, the more I seem to tie myself in knots and the more my brain seems to turn to fluff like Winnie the Poohs. 

However, maybe the answer is that we can’t understand it by just our own thinking. Having faith in something is not the same as knowing something. Speaking about the words of the creed Cardinal Basil Hume wrote

 “these words are but a formula – abstract, cold and unreal- unless our minds and hearts are touched, 

that is unless out hearts are involved in our prayer and our prayer involves our hearts.  

It is only gradually that the words of scripture and the creeds reveal something of their inner meaning. 

It is like the viewing of a landscape. 

The more we look the more we see. 

The eye cannot, at first glance, convey to the mind all the beauty that lies before it, 

nor study every detail that is part of the whole. 

It needs time, patience, persistence before the eye becomes one with the reality it is contemplating , and it with the eye.”

For some matters of faith, trying to understand them in a logical, practical way is the wrong approach. Our human language can at times be limited, God can be and act in ways that go beyond what we can describe with our limited language. It may be at times that we can only come closer to understanding God, through prayer and meditation on what He is saying to us through scripture and the creeds. 

For now, I maybe just need to accept that Jesus is God’s beloved son. But what about us? Whilst Jesus is in a special way God’s beloved son, through our baptism we are all also children of God. 

In our Isaiah reading we are told we are precious in God’s sight, we are honoured and He loves us. 

Sometimes, though, it might not feel like that. We are starting to settle back into normal life after the bright lights and celebrations of Christmas. Although I know the days are starting to get longer, it still feels very dark and cold. Post Christmas the pounds on the scale have gone up, whilst the pounds in my bank have gone down. The news seems to be all doom and gloom, yet here we have this wonderful passage. It tells us not to fear, for God has redeemed us. Yes, we may face problems but God will be with us and can help us not be overwhelmed. 

Note, it doesn't say you won’t face difficulties and hardships, but that God will be with you and protect you through them.  He cares about us so much that he is prepared to give up nations in exchange for you or me. The passage ends with this glorious description of God gathering up his children from north and south, from far away, even from the ends of the earth. 

In our baptism we become part of God’s family, a family that he will protect and care for. Jesus was Son of God and Son of Man and because of that we can try to stop being afraid of the world or of God, we can face the things we are afraid of knowing we are beloved children of God. 

So as we struggle through the dark days of January, we can know in our hearts, even if we don’t understand it with our brains, that we are all children of God, loved and protected by God. 

Amen

 

Christmas Day

Readings: Isaiah 9: 2-7

                 Psalm 96

                 Titus 2: 11-14

                 Luke 2: 1-20

May I speak in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

In the words of Noddy Holder its christmas! Did that surprise you? 

Christmas can have lots of surprises.  For some of us some of the joy comes from planning surprises we hope people we love will like, or from trying to work out how they may surprise us. 

Has anyone else spent the last few days feeling the parcels under the tree trying to work out what might be under the bright wrapping paper or is that just me?

 But that first Christmas the only ones who might have been expecting something surprising to happen would probably have been Mary and Joseph,  certainly not the shepherd's, they would have just been trying to keep warm and keep their sheep safe, out on the hillside.  Maybe they could see the lights of Bethlehem and would have been dreaming of being inside, in the warmth with a nice hot drink.  

Then suddenly, Wham, bam, the sky's lit up by the angelic host, what a surprise. 

We like to think of surprises as nice things, but I think this one might have been slightly terrifying as well. Indeed, Luke tells us that the shepherds were terrified, but they still accept the message of the angels and act on it. Something about the angels must have convinced them to accept and believe what the angels said, and not just assume that there had been some dodgy mushrooms in the stew. 

So the shepherds leave their sheep, or most of them, in most depictions of the nativity there always seems to be a few sheep that have come with the shepherds. 

They go down into Bethlehem, a town that was stuffed full of families there for the census and in all the chaos and the crowded streets, surprisingly they find the one child, the one family they are looking for. 

Mary, who probably just wanted to get some rest in peace and quiet, was probably equally surprised by a bunch of shepherds turning up.

We don’t know what happened to the shepherds after that first surprising Christmas night, but I hope they kept something of the connection they found with God that night with them for the rest of their lives.  

God can still act in surprising ways now, in some ways I’m surprised to find myself standing here in the pulpit on Christmas day. 

The world into which Jesus was born was, much like the world today, a place of uncertainty and violence. The Jewish people were looking for a leader to come and set them free from Roman oppression.  

They looked to the writings of prophets like Isaiah to give them hope that a great leader would come, such a leader is surely going to be born into wealth and power. Someone who can grow learning how to lead and govern wisely. Great leaders aren’t born to a carpenters family from a back water town like Nazareth. 

Surprise, says God, that’s exactly whats going to happen, oh and by the way, he wont be that great military leader you are expecting. 

But He will change the world.

Isaiah 9 was written at a time when the Israelite people were suffering the consequences of war and occupation. They were feeling like a people living in darkness with no hope.  

However the vision Isaiah offers is one of hope, not just that this war will end but that all wars will end,  swords will be beaten into ploughshares, to grow food and give life rather than kill. 

No matter how deep the darkness, even when we may feel overwhelmed, there will be glimmers of light and hope.

God uses surprises to help us see that anything is possible. 

At the end of 2024 peace, especially in the place where the Christ child was born seems more impossible than ever. Yet because of the surprising events that took place there around 2000 years ago we can have hope that not only is peace possible but it will come, and probably in a way that will surprise us. 

Surprises even from God don’t always have to be big and involve angels or miracles. 

God can and does speak in the stillness and the calm too, in the smaller things of life. 

The other week I had had a stressful day at work. As I left work and was walking to the bus stop feeling tired and stressed I looked up and saw a beautiful sunset, and looking at that beauty I felt some of the tiredness and stress fade away and be replaced with a sense of God’s presence with me even in stresses and strains of daily life. 

God can surprise you even in the dark streets of Coventry.  

In the midst of the tinsel and the wrapping paper, the food and the drink, as we celebrate Christmas, you may find yourself suddenly seeing or hearing something that surprises you and connects you to God.

Pope Francis once said God enters history and does so in his original style- surprise. 

The God of surprises always surprises us. The Christmas story is a story of a big surprise, the word becomes flesh, God becomes man, the curtain between heaven and earth is opened. 

However, God also surprises us in the small things, a bird singing, a beautiful sunset, the perfect gift.

How will you find the God of surprises surprising you this Christmas?

Amen

Rememberance Sunday

Readings; Jonah 3:1-5, 10

                  Hebrews 9. 24-end

                  Mark 1: 14-20

May I speak in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

Today we are thinking of all those that have died as a result of conflict, some of whom may have been known to us or form parts of our family histories, those who were prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice to safeguard our peace and freedom. They were and still are prepared to answer the call to serve wherever they should be sent and whatever the cost may be. 

The disciples in our gospel reading this morning were also answering a call. Like those that answer the call to serve in our armed forces they did not know where this call would take them. Yet they chose to follow that call, leaving behind the relative safety and security of their life as fishermen. John the Baptist had just been arrested, there was growing tension between the Jews and their roman rulers. The sensible and safe option would have been to stay where they were, keep their heads down and get on with their normal daily life. Instead they chose to follow a calling which would lead them to danger and even death. A calling which those who answer the call to serve in our armed services still choose to answer today, despite the dangers of growing global tensions.

War is never a good thing, but it can sometimes be a necessary thing. There is a saying if you want peace, prepare for war. Much as we may want to believe in a world where everyone is happy to let everyone else live as they want, that is not our present reality. We have seen it in Putin wanting Ukrainians to be Russian, the Taliban wanting everyone to live according to their extremist religious laws. Many of the values that we see today as secular western values, actually have their roots in Christianity, care of the poor, concepts of mercy and justice. Many of these come from the Christian belief of man being made in the image of God and therefore everyone having something of God in them. If we want the freedom to keep living by these values and putting them into practice we may need to fight for them. Today we give thanks for all those that have been willing to do just that on our behalf. 

Jonah in our first reading, was also following a calling, although he had tried to escape it. If we follow the story of Jonah beyond what was in our reading, we find that Jonah was successful in his mission, the people repented, God forgave them , and Jonah? He goes of in a huff because the destruction he had been told to prophesy hasn’t come true. Jonah illustrates a problem we humans often have. We want to see people that we feel have done us wrong made to suffer, the losing side in the war must be punished, and whilst there is some truth to that, if that is not tempered by mercy it can lead to the losing side starting to feel they are being treated unfairly and they need to fight back and so another war starts. So, whilst we may need to fight sometimes to defend what is right we also need to show mercy to our enemies, not an easy task.

It can sometimes all seem a bit hopeless, are we doomed to be stuck for ever in a cycle in which the punishment for one conflict lays the seeds for the next one? After all, today's act of remembrance dates back to the end of the great war, the war to end all wars, accept it then became the first world war as we started a second and conflicts and wars continue to this day.  

Well, I have some good news for you, there is hope. In the letter to the Hebrews, the author makes a distinction between a sanctuary made by human hands, and the heavenly one. The one made by human hands is a mere copy. Imitations and copies are often seen as second best, the soft drink Irn Bru uses the slogan the original and the best. So, according to the writer of the letter to the Hebrews, what we have now on earth is only an imitation of what will be in heaven, only a copy and not the original and best. In the Jewish temple based worship, sacrifices had to be made repeatedly, but the offering of Christ’s suffering on the cross, was once for all. This action brings forgiveness once and for all. It ends the repetitive cycle of human action and reaction. In this world which is just an imperfect imitation of what is to come, we may end up making multiple sacrifices. However, one day this kingdom will be replaced by God’s kingdom and there won’t be a need to keep repeating ourselves. The one sacrifice of Christ will transform everyone and everything.

Today we remember and give thanks for those who have paid the greatest price to ensure our freedom. The state of the world may look bleak at times, but we can have hope that one day there will be an end to the cycle of violence. If we want to truly honour those who have given their lives in conflict, we all need to play our part in working for a more peaceful world now and sharing the hope of the peaceful kingdom that is to come.

Amen