Remembrance Sunday: Oil in the Lamp

Psalm 70 & Matthew 25:1-13

On this day, the guns of the Great War fell silent for the last time. It was the end of a conflict that scarred the nations that took part very deeply. It began 112 years ago and ended 108 years ago. The years of remembrance have helped new generations understand more of what their grandparents, great-grandparents, great-great grandparents and maybe even more greats went through.

The hardships they faced, the courage they showed and the faith they shared have become more real to us. With each passing year there are fewer of them. Most of those who fought in World War 2 are now over 100 years old.

The stories become more precious and need to be told and re-told. It would appear that we care about this stuff! Remembrance Sunday captures something in our individual and collective memories, touches a nerve, moves us to give our time, our money.

This year marked:

*110th Anniversary of the Battle of the Somme: Began on 1 July 1916 (110 years ago in 2026).
*15th Anniversary of the end of UK involvement in Iraq (Operation TELIC)
*35th Anniversary of the end of 1st Gulf War
*80th Anniversary of the Avro Lancaster’s first flight (9 January 1946) and *90th Anniversary of the Spitfire’s first flight (5 March 1936).
*110th Anniversary of Conscription introduced in the UK (27 January 1916).

Psalm 70 makes me think of those who fought in these battles. This Psalm is an urgent cry for help. The writer, David, is in trouble and needs help now. Hurry up God! It expresses raw, human need and that is absolutely okay to cry out to God at any moment in any situation.

After his opening cry, David asks for his enemies to be punished. We discussed this in our Wednesday Study Group as we asked the question if this was okay to do this. Can we really pray for God to smite our enemies?!

Of course when we are wronged, we want our enemies to be punished, someone needs to be held responsible. We can assume that soldiers on both sides of a war wish the other side to be punished, destroyed. When we are faced with being wronged we can face strong temptation to deliver punishment ourselves. This never ever ends well for anyone.

We see from David in Psalm 70 that we are not the ones to do the punishing! David asks God and it is God who ultimately rewards and punishes. It is also handy to remember that we will be judged one day to the standards we judge others. I suggest we leave it to God to sort out for us. We need to believe that God is our help.

Matthew’s Gospel is an interesting story of ten bridesmaids; five foolish ones and five wise ones. I am not sure about you, but I want to be wiser than I am. I have never found myself praying to be more foolish or do more dumb things. This is not a story about good or bad; it is about thoughtful and prudent over being thoughtless and underprepared.

The bridesmaid had an important job, they were to lead the wedding procession with their lamps of the groom to his home and welcome him. They needed a lot of oil to keep their lamps burning for the whole evening. The lamps brought practical light and a festive glow to the proceedings. Five of the maids were prepared and ready; five were not prepared for the long wait.

Faith involves periods when God seems distant, prayers appear unanswered, and early enthusiasm begins to fade away. We need to be prepared for the long term. Do we have enough oil to keep going?

One example of a man with a lot of oil in his lamp was Major George Howson. He founded the Royal British Legion Poppy Factory after the First World War with five disabled servicemen. Major Howson had been awarded a Military Cross in 1917. When he returned home, George Howson was determined to do something to improve the prospects of the many former soldiers who had returned from the conflict with life-changing injuries – both mental and physical.

The Poppy Factory started in 1922 with a donation of £2k from the British Legion. George was sceptical of it being a success. In a letter to his parents in May 1922, “I have been given a cheque for £2,000 to make poppies with, it is a large responsibility and will be very difficult. If the experiment is successful it will be the start of an industry to employ 150 disabled men. I do not think it can be a great success but it is worth trying.”

In 1928 George put another idea into action. He suggested using land outside Westminster Abbey as a place where anyone could plant a poppy in memory of a loved one. With that same enterprising spirit, the Field of Remembrance was established and another tradition was born.

By 1931 the factory was making nearly 30 million poppies a year. Over 300 men, women and children lived on the estate in Richmond-upon-Thames in rows of purpose-built flats, with a busy social club and regular sporting contests. In a few short years, they had laid the bedrock of a community that still exists today. The Poppy Factory still makes hand-made wreaths for Remembrance Sunday by another generation of injured service personnel.

George Howson saw a need in society and did something to fix it. He was not sure there was enough oil to keep going but he went anyway. He was prepared to roll up his sleeves and with a little faith did an amazing thing. We still wear poppies today.

Unfortunately George Howson died at age 50 of pancreatic cancer in 1936. He worked to the last days of his life. His funeral had a huge crowd at St Mary’s Hambleden and was officiated by his own father. Each year a representative from the Poppy Factory lays a wreath on his grave; it was a privilege to officiate the small service for them.

It is beyond what we can imagine when we have enough oil in our lamps. We will sometimes never know the long-term consequences of our actions. As we remember those who have died in the theatre of war, we can be reassured that because of the resurrection of Jesus, it was not for nothing.

The cost of their service came at a high price; it cost everything. The love, the life, the sharing of burden and suffering, the service required to work together for a greater good is not lost in death. There is more to the story.

So Charlwood, as we meet today to remember those who have died in war and tell their stories and share our many talents, let us do it from a place of love. Leave the judgment to God and work towards peace and respect for all. Ask for more oil when you need it

All Souls – On the Death of the Beloved

Sunday November 1st, 2026

Lamentations 3

John 6:37-40

On the Death of the Beloved
by John O’Donahue from book TO BLESS THE SPACE BETWEEN US

Though we need to weep your loss,
You dwell in that safe place in our hearts
Where no storm or night or pain can reach you.

Your love was like the dawn
Brightening over our lives,
Awakening beneath the dark
A further adventure of color.

The sound of your voice
Found for us
A new music
That brightened everything.

Whatever you enfolded in your gaze
Quickened in the joy of its being;
You placed smiles like flowers
On the altar of the heart.
Your mind always sparkled
With wonder at things.

Though your days here were brief,
Your spirit was alive, awake, complete.

We look toward each other no longer
From the old distance of our names;
Now you dwell inside the rhythm of breath,
As close to us as we are to ourselves.

Though we cannot see you with outward eyes,
We know our soul’s gaze is upon your face,
Smiling back at us from within everything
To which we bring our best refinement.
Let us not look for you only in memory,
Where we would grow lonely without you.
You would want us to find you in presence,
Beside us when beauty brightens,
When kindness glows
And music echoes eternal tones.

When orchids brighten the earth,
Darkest winter has turned to spring;
May this dare grief flower with hope
In every heart that loves you.

May you continue to inspire us:
To enter each day with a generous heart.
To serve the call of courage and love
Until we see your beautiful face again
In that land where there is no more separation,
Where all tears will be wiped from our mind,
And where we will never lose you again.


In Church of England tradition, we come together over these few days at the beginning of November for a short season of remembrance. The Church has marked All Saints and All Souls for hundreds of years.

It stems from the belief that there is a powerful spiritual bond between those in heaven and those living on earth. It is often said in my family that the dead sit at the dinner table long after they are gone.

This service offers us space and time to give thanks to God for the life and love that was shared, for the memories we carry and to ask for God’s help if we have unfinished business with those who have died. Not all our remembering will be of the good, sweet times as none of us are perfect and neither were they!

Grief is difficult because it is messy and unpredictable. It does not follow a set pattern. It is often triggered at inconvenient moments, catches us off-guard and undefended. The only alternative to avoiding grief is to avoid love. To avoid the grief I feel over my person who has died means I would have had to forfeit the love and the relationship that we shared. We cannot have it both ways.

I chose John O’Donahue’s poem ‘On the Death of the Beloved’ this year because I really liked it and love him as a poet. Donahue was an Irish poet and Celtic spirituality teacher who died well before his time. Fortunately he left a large number of incredible poems.

The poem acknowledges the deep pain of loss—“Though we need to weep your loss”—while honouring the vibrant, complete life the person lived. A voice that brightened everything, smiles like flowers, a sparkling mind.

It suggests that the deceased is no longer distant, but dwells within the rhythm of breath, close to the living and found through beauty, nature, kindness, and music rather than just a lonely memory. If someone only exists in memory, we grow lonely. This is why services like this are so important. We are not alone, look around. We need to continue to share the stories.

The writer of Lamentations has grown lonely. They have ‘forgotten happiness and lost hope’. They likely witnessed the fall of Jerusalem around 587 BC and the horrors experienced by the Jewish people. Jerusalem was once the chosen city of God but has now fallen from grace because of bad behaviour. The enemies have taken over and the people who lived in Jerusalem have been exiled. The loss for the people is immense.

The reading we have here is about the author’s own suffering; he believes that God has deliberately marked him out and is now not listening to his prayer. His peace is gone. Yet at his lowest point he remembers God’s steadfast love, hesed. Hesed is the love and mercy God has towards his people; it is a long-term and loyal love. It is love that never ends. It is new every morning.

The writer has experienced this love, not just with his head and his heart but in his very soul, in the marrow of his bones. ‘The Lord is my portion,’ he says. The Lord is enough for him.

Likewise, On the Death of the Beloved, the text guides the mourner to turn dark grief into hope and to live with a generous heart until an eventual reunion.

Jesus is telling his disciples, his closest friends in the reading from John’s Gospel that that nothing will be lost for those who believe in God. Jesus has been sent to gather people, to love and teach and show them the way to God. Reunion will come again. The ultimate reunion, beyond what we can imagine is coming.

For right now though we wait. We live, we love, we get on with this life. The bereavement that we are facing is not the whole story. It might be a very big part of the story right now, might feel like it has taken over the whole story for a long time. Do not forget the happiness of the past. God’s mercies are new every morning, his love is steadfast. Look not only in memory.

Last Sunday After Trinity: A note for the Church

St Nicholas
Emmanuel Dedication
25/10/26

1 Kings 8:22-30
Matthew 21:12-16

St Nicholas: This morning we are going to spend some time looking at the significance of the temple in Jerusalem and our little temple here in Charlwood.

Emmanuel: Welcome to the holiest of holies: Emmanuel Sidlow Bridge, for our Dedication Service this morning. As Emmanuel is not named after a saint with a specific date attached, we celebrate the church with a Dedication Festival. My hope is that we will again show our thanks for all that God has done and continues to do for His little temple here. We also must show our love and gratitude for the wonderful humans who do so much to keep this place going.

After 10 years of being ordained and having served in multi-church benefices over that time (St Nicholas and Emmanuel are churches ten and eleven), I understand something of the significance to both the regular attenders, the locals and the visitors. The church building is a huge part of the responsibility that I bear as a Rector.

I have come to know a great deal about stone, copper, lead, lime mortar, heating systems, stained glass, roof tiles, batons, slate… more than I ever thought possible. These are the things that you are not taught at theological college! Regardless of my interest or attention to these matters I also have legal responsibility for them. Ah!

However much the crazy-making burden of responsibility is, I know it is important. Yet there is something more important when it comes to our church buildings; what goes on inside them. Is our worship enough to sustain us, is the teaching good enough to carry us through the changes and challenges of this life, are we prepared for the next one? Do we take seriously the worship of God and the teaching of Jesus?

Both readings for today feature the temple in Jerusalem. The Temple was the beating heart of Judaism. Anyone who has been fortunate enough to visit Jerusalem can appreciate the size and scale of it as the centre point of the city.

The Temple was the home of worship, music, the focal point of politics and Jewish society, a place of national celebration and mourning. Westminster Abbey or St Paul’s Cathedral are somewhat a parallel in terms of significance to the people. The Temple was the place where YHWH, God had promised to live in the midst of his people.

It was King Solomon who built the First Temple in Jerusalem during his reign 970-931 BCE. The Temple took approximately 7 years to build and was completed around 959-957 BCE. Originally King David wanted to build God’s temple; but God said no. David had been a man of war and this was one of the consequences. God did promise David that his son would be a man of peace and would build the Temple.

Solomon’s Temple was spectacular; there are many chapters in the Old Testament of detailed description of the vast workforce, amounts of wood, gold and precious stones. The measurements were exacting and every detail was of great importance.

The 1 Kings 8 reading is the opening of Solomon’s public prayer dedicating the newly built Temple to God. His posture is one of humility, surrender and dependence on God. He begins by proclaiming that there is no God like Yahweh on heaven or on earth and that God keeps his promises and loves his servants.

A useful starting point for any prayer. Reminding ourselves that God is God and He is faithful. I really think we need to pray more like this in our churches. We need to be servants who walk before God with all our hearts. Not just in or at church though; we need to do when we walk out those doors. Why?

We need to be able to worship God anywhere and anytime. We cannot be constrained by location.

It is useful to remember that Jerusalem has had two temples. This First Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians around 587/586 BCE as the Jews were sent into exile by King Nebuchadnezzar. This was a devastating event for the Jews that reverberated for centuries. They had to learn to worship without a Temple.

The rebuilding of the Second Temple began about 50 years after the first destruction. It then stalled out for about 20 years. Two to three generations had passed, the exile was over and they could return home to Jerusalem. The Second Temple, where we find Jesus, was finished in 516 BCE.

Jesus appears in the temple a few hundred years later. Sweet baby Jesus carried into the temple by his young parents for the expected rituals required by their Jewish faith. This ordinary event transitioned to a divinely appointed meeting with Simeon and Anna. Jesus is revealed as the light of the world and an ominous warning was given to Mary. Grown-up Jesus returns to the same Temple and causes some havoc.

Over time it became more of a market-place and one of corruption; and it is now under God’s judgment. Those who were selling the animals for sacrifice and the money-changers did need to be there.

Jewish law required the right sacrifices to be offered. Unfortunately dodgy practices had infiltrated and corrupted the Temple. People were being cheated out of money by their own people. This is what Jesus was raging against.

We see Jesus on the side of those being cheated, devalued and treated badly. Jesus certainly had zeal; both for the Temple as his Father’s house and for the oppressed people.

The Temple had been made into something it was never supposed to be. Jesus is correcting a serious wrong by showing that He will restore things to the way they should be.

Jesus did this by reminding the Jews of the Ten Commandment as they were breaking at least two of them: the making of idols (money) and stealing. Jesus was referring to himself in the remark about the destroyed Temple rising up in three days. Jesus is the true temple, the word made flesh and cannot be corrupted.

Jesus appeared in the Temple as a six week old baby and was shown to be the light of the world. He returned at that Feast of Passover pointing to himself, the temple of his body. Jesus is the one we are to watch and wait for. It is not always easy waiting. There is always work in the wait.

Lessons for St Nicholas and Emmanuel

The whole structure is held together in him. Our temple is not a building but God. Churches/temples are places where people come together to worship God, meet each other, hold special events. And we should be able to do that anywhere. We are the dwelling places for God.

Temples can be destroyed, and can be brought down. We need to resist the temptation to make this place a temple, a reservoir of memories of the past, how it used to be. We need to lean into what God is calling this church to be.

Temples can also be rebuilt. Jesus was raised from the dead, He is the resurrection and the life. We need to be built on his foundation.

Over the next few weeks there will be many services and activities in the churches with All Souls, Remembrance Sunday and of course Advent and Christmas. We need to be ready to welcome and receive whoever comes here. We should not only want to show off our beautiful buildings but also our worship and faith. This is not the time to shrink back, be apologetic or embarrassed.

We are only here by the grace of God, his faithfulness and the belief of those who came before us. We have to pass that on.

St Nicholas: My prayer for the next year is that this little Temple, in the middle of Charlwood, is for clarity of purpose, that we put Jesus as the centre and foundation of all that we do, that we seek to do good for the parish of St Nicholas.

Emmanuel: My prayer for the next year is that this little Temple, on this side of the A217, is for clarity of purpose, that we put Jesus as the centre and foundation of all that we do, that we seek to do good for the parish of Sidlow Bridge. The secret is in our name, Emmanuel. God with us.

Thank you to each of you who work so hard to keep this temple going. Peace be with you.

Trinity 17: Same Mind



Philippians 2:1-13
Matthew 21:23-32
Trinity 17
27/9/26

Saying one thing and doing another is quite a part of the human condition. As a teenager I remember that one of the biggest insults you could hurl was to call someone ‘two-faced’. Sometimes we do it because we do not have the courage to do the right thing or face up to someone. Lying seems to be the easy way out.

Jesus parable of the father and two sons places us in another vineyard. Matthew records a string of agricultural parables to highlight what the kingdom of God will be like. The sons of the vineyard owner present an interesting case. These boys would have known how much work was involved and what was being asked of them. They knew what they were in for.

When asked, the older son says no and then goes. The younger son says yes and then does not go. It is obvious that the older son does the right thing. The younger son has let his father and brother down. I assume some of the parents and employers here this morning can relate to this. We have all likely been both brothers at some point in life.

There is temptation to blame this on our human condition; our personalities, just how we are. I was made this way and cannot be changed. Not true. There is a solution that Paul offers in his letter to the Philippians: let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.

If we are doing one thing and saying another it is often coming from the mind; coming from the creature that you and I think we are. If we recognize we have a problem we can blame it on our temperament, personality, life experience, fears, anxieties. This does not excuse us as we are not operating with the same mind of Christ.

What is it to have the same mind? According to Paul, the same mind means learning to have love, do nothing from conceit, be humble, to count others better than ourselves, to look to the interests of others rather than our own. This also means we have to come under the authority of Jesus.

I have been amazed this week at what has been going on in Paris. Pope Leo is making the first papal visit in 18 years. If you have seen any press coverage, the streets have been lined with millions of people. Priests also line the streets to take confessions. Pope Leo is a man who says what he means and means what he says. This makes him rare among world and religious leaders at this time. He takes his authority seriously and knows where it comes from.

I read in my old study bible that when a voice of authority speaks, one of three things happens: 1) Because of inattention you fail to hear and heed the leader’s words; (2) because of irritation you refuse to obey; or (3) because of conviction you respond obediently and do what is asked. Which response or responses can you relate to?

If we choose the path of obedience, then our actions must match our words. If we are to have any credibility as people, as Christians, it is not enough to talk the talk, we must walk the walk. As Christians, we need to do what is asked of us, we are not under our own authority. Many may come to church on Sunday and spend an hour under the authority of God and as soon as they reach the door, it is going back to being in control again.

How can we address this?

We can ask ourselves what would Jesus do? How would God respond? Doing this takes us out of ourselves and shifts the focus. This is an act of love. It takes practice, cultivation of being in the presence of God. This is not an intellectual exercise but of deep prayer. We need to be aware of the presence of God and this will transform our thinking.

Yes, it is hugely challenging to have such a high standard set before us, the character of Jesus himself. We do well to approach that task with fear and trembling. But the good news is that help is at hand: for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure (v.13).

Harvest comes to Charlwood!

Harvest Sermon 2026

Deuteronomy 8:7-18
2 Corinthians 9:6-end
Luke 12:16-30

Happy Harvest!

This is a great time of the year – the beauty of changing seasons, the welcome drop in temperature after the summer, the turning of the leaves. Harvest requires us to look around at creation and give thanks to God for the beauty of his world, for the agricultural industry from the farm to the table and everything that happens in between. It is a vital and complex chain that we often forget about until it goes wrong.

All of our readings this morning have agricultural themes: the promised land of milk and honey for the Israelites in Deuteronomy. Paul uses the sowing of seeds as a metaphor to explain the principles for generous giving to the new church in Corinth. Matthew captures Jesus parable of a rich man and his crop storage problems.

Each story features God’s power and generosity to his faithful people when they are faithful. There are also clear consequences when memories are short and God’s instructions are ignored. We are to be aware of our attitudes towards greed, self-reliance, generosity of spirit and the fear of scarcity.

The book of Deuteronomy is the fifth and final book of the Jewish Torah. It is a collection of the farewell speeches of Moses to the new generation of Israelites who are to inherit the promised land. The forty years of desert wandering was ending, the hardships appear to be over as the new homeland was on the horizon. God is going to give the Israelites productive land, a way to make money from mining, and they will eat their fill. They will lack nothing.

Moreover, the danger for the Israelites is that they would quickly forget who gave it to them. Nevertheless, God kept his commandments, ordinances and statues and gave them what had been long promised. The temptation has always been to forget God and take the credit ourselves when things go well and blame him when things are bad. This is not faith. This is a flimsy superstition and has no depth.

Scarcity scares people. Remember shopping habits during Covid and the stockpiling of pasta and loo roll? As a result, greed and scarcity make people selfish.

Paul picks this up in 2nd Corinthians about reaping and sowing. This idea is simple; the more carrots seeds you sow, the more carrots you grow. If you grow too many carrots, you might want to give some away. It is entirely up to you how many carrots to give away and you have to be happy about that amount. No complaining, no fear.

This is not just about carrots. Paul is priming the Corinthian church to be generous to the Jerusalem church who are experiencing much more hardship and persecution. God will provide enough for everyone so that we can be generous to other people.

Generosity that meets physical needs produces thanksgiving to God which brings us closer to Him. Christian generosity is not only about giving away our time, talents and money; it should cultivate an attitude of thanksgivings and deepening of faith. How much you want to give away depends on how much generosity, thankfulness and strong faith you want in return.

So what happens if we decide not to be cheerful givers and decide to keep the carrots for ourselves? Again, that is entirely up to you what to do with your harvest. Jesus has a parable though. It is about a man who has money and riches. He has got some stuff and he is confident in it.

However, he is rich as a consequence of the productivity of the land. He has probably put some work in along the way, sowed some seeds, and looked after it; and still his prosperity has nothing to do with him. He cannot seem to recognize that, we see this in his inner monologue – I will, my barns, my grain, I’ll do, myself.

The inner monologue also tells us something – he was talking to himself. He was alone. He had no one to talk to, to share with. Had his wealth isolated him? His vast wealth is causing him problems and there is seemingly no one to help or support him.

He comes up with a storage solution, ripping down the old and building bigger and better. These are good plans and there is nothing wrong with planning for the future to enjoy oneself.

This man was not wicked or unjust. His major fault was that he had forgotten God. This is why he was called a fool. Pride comes in many forms but the worst is to think that we don’t need God. The man doesn’t acknowledge the source of his blessings.

He is gathering for himself to serve himself. This guy lived on bread alone – all his hope was in things (the land) that did not belong to him. There are only two occasions when Jesus calls someone a fool in Luke’s Gospel. Both times the person has confused temporary earthly riches with eternal divine realities.

And what happens? The man’s life was demanded from him that night. He died.

Leaving behind all the barns and grains and money. To whom?

What does the harvest look like today? We have glanced at many layers today. The need for thankfulness to God for creation and agriculture, for those who produce and provide what is our fridges and pantries. For those suffering at this time from the effects of climate change. The need to rely and remember what God has done and continues to do – love and provide for our every need.

Where are the places in our lives of scarcity and abundance?

Take a few moments to think about today.

Maybe it is about letting Him take control of your life again.
Maybe it is about freeing up some time or money for someone else. Not storing up for ourselves and to ourselves.
Maybe it is about being more fair to others than they deserve or letting go of our sense of entitlement or needing to be right.
Maybe it is about being thankful for all that we have and for those who provide it?

Start with God and don’t worry about the rest – you beautiful lilies.