Month: November 2025

Christ the King: 3 L’s

Jeremiah 23:1-6 Colossians 1:11-20 Luke 23:33-43

God the Father,
help us to hear the call of Christ the King
and to follow in his service,
whose kingdom has no end;
for he reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, one glory.
Amen.

Today is the final Sunday of the church year; this is New Year’s Eve! Happy New Year! As most people do on New Year’s Eve, we can look back on the last year and look forward to the new one. I suspect that many people may prefer to keep their eyes closed in this season; given the uncertainty and challenging times facing the world, the country, in our families and individually.

This Sunday is a hinge that helps us to look in both directions: firstly pointing to the end of time when the kingdom of Jesus will be established in all its fullness to the ends of the earth. Secondly, it points us to the immediate season of Advent, the beautiful time of expectation and preparation as we look ahead to celebrating the birth of Jesus. In both directions we are reminded that Jesus is King.

Christ the King is a recent addition (1925 so very new) to the church calendar and a Roman Catholic one at that. Pope Pius XI instituted this Sunday in response to issues he was facing in the Catholic church and in the civic life of Rome as secularism was growing in wider society after World War 1.

There was an enormous crisis of faith and many people left the Church (both Catholic & Protestant) in Europe in the wake of the First World War. The men had left for war and they did not come back; and the women left the church and God. This context led the Pope to establish Christ the King Sunday as a reminder of Jesus’ power and authority above all else. Pope Pius wrote:

‘If to Christ Jesus our Lord is given all power in heaven and on earth; if all men, purchased by his precious blood, are by a new right subjected to His dominion; if this power embraces all men, [paraphrasing now] He must reign in our minds, He must reign in our wills, He must reign in our hearts, He must reign in our bodies and in our members as instruments of justice unto God.’

It can be challenging to view God as a King. The language of kingship can be offensive and outdated especially to the vast majority of people who do not live under a monarchy. The reign of many kings has meant terror and death with the accumulation of wealth and power through exploitation, greed and cruelty. Kingship is then passed on by birthright to the next person who did nothing to deserve it.

Yet the Bible is full of reference to kingship. In the Old Testament, God warned the Israelites about the dangers of a human king but they insisted. God yielded and Saul was anointed as the first king of Israel.

The subsequent kings of the Old Testament generally started off okay, then made a mess when they ignored God’s instruction, suffered for it and then died. The reign was passed on to the next in line and the pattern was repeated for centuries.

In the New Testament, the earliest followers of Jesus, and especially his detractors, used the language of kingship to describe who he was, what he said, and what he did. They were looking for Jesus to be a king who would smite their enemies and bring Israel back to prosperity. This is not the model of a king that Jesus followed.

The question then becomes what does kingship mean and what does God’s kingdom look like?

Longevity

It was a very interesting time to live and minister following the death of Queen Elizabeth. The protocol that followed the announcement of her death had been planned for many decades with the execution in a very short amount of time, hours and days. You may remember all the instructions and emails that were flying around.

Priests were emailed the final official instructions about what to do when her death was announced a few hours before she died. I was then sent daily instructions for each of the following 10 days and through the funeral. It covered all bases; flags, bell ringing, colours for the altar, prayers, service liturgy so that all bases were covered. People turned to the church where we offered books of condolence to be signed, candles to light, a place to think, reflect and pray.

One of the events that people found particularly jarring was the quick accession of King Charles III to the throne. Many were caught in a place of profound grief and celebration. You could see it on the faces as we sang God Save The King for the first time. Our much loved monarch is gone but the monarchy carries on.

Here is the first issue with human kingdoms: they are only ever temporary. The Queen was only ever temporary. From dust she came and to dust she has returned. All earthly kingdoms come to dust.

God’s Kingdom will be permanent. It will be a place that we will never want to leave. We can have hope that there is a future with no more pain, suffering or death. The Queen believed this; she was a woman of great faith. My favourite televangelist. She spoke humbly and honestly about her faith in Jesus; the older she got, the more she spoke out.

The thief on the cross, in only a very short yet torturous time next to Jesus experienced something of eternity. His desperate yet profound request to be in paradise with Jesus was granted. Once in paradise, likely did not want to leave there ever again.

Light & Darkness

Many of you know that I was a volunteer police chaplain with Thames Valley before I came here. It wasn’t a great surprise to learn that most really violent crime happens at night. What did surprise me was that Monday and Tuesday nights can be some of the busiest of the week. Why?

We do the really bad stuff under the cover of darkness when we are less likely to be seen. No one wants to get caught. What happens on a Monday night anyway?!

The Advent season falls at the darkest time of the year, and the natural symbols of
darkness and light are powerfully at work throughout Advent and Christmas. We may live in dark times, but the light of Christ will show us the way.

Not everyone wants to live in the light though. If we stay in darkness long
enough,our eyes will adjust and we may think we can get along just fine without
getting caught. Thank you very much. Living in the darkness can make us forget
what living in love and light is like.

The church in Colossae was having difficulty too. This community was struggling with wrong teaching, empty ritual and false mysticism. Paul is encouraging them to hold on to the truth and pursue a lifestyle that honours God and puts him first.

Paul reminds the church that they have been rescued, by God through Jesus, from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of light. They are part of a bigger story, not just the petty politics of the day. A high price has been paid for this kingdom and for our redemption and forgiveness.

The King of God’s Kingdom is fair and just, all things (all things) hold together in him. Stay in the light!

Long Game

One might expect the readings on Christ the King Sunday to be a bit more royal or regal. Maybe something about the throne room in Revelation or one of Jesus’ more shiny moments in the Gospels, the Transfiguration or a healing. Oh no, we have the crucifixion in all its horror getting close to the end. The King of the Jews is hanging, beaten, exhausted, mocked and stripped between two others.

As we look ahead to the more immediate future of the Advent season, we celebrate the first coming of Jesus. We tell the familiar stories, we get the nativity scenes out again. We also have to remember that this baby, the Son of God, who was born into the world as both God and man, died so that our sins may be forgiven and rose again so that we may live with him forever.

We also look forward to his glorious return at the end of time. Advent helps us to remember that God is present in the world today. We have a King who will reign with longevity. Forever but not yet! We need to remain in the kingdom of light, we have already been rescued from the kingdom of darkness. We need to look again at Christ the King, remember we are part of a bigger story.

I will end with a few lines from Psalm 46:

1 God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
3 though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.
4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most
High dwells.
5 God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day.
6 Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; he lifts his voice, the earth melts.
7 The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.

2nd Sunday Before Advent: Risen With Healing

16/11/25
Malachi 4:1-2a
Psalm 98
Luke 21:5-19

You can always tell when we are getting close to the end of the church year – the lectionary readings begin to talk about the end of time. The Wednesday Study Group has been mulling this over for the last few weeks as we study The Book of Revelation.

There are only two weeks left before the start of Advent – scary I know! We should enter this season of waiting, preparing and expectation with an expanded view of God and his coming kingdom. I want us to do this with joy. Joy in our hearts and be sources of joy in the world. The Church of England’s Advent & Christmas campaign this year is around joy.

I do not always pay enough attention to some of the campaigns – but this year I have drunk the kool-aid. I think that the branding is beautiful and the message is so badly needed. We all need joy! The world needs joy.

Jesus’ ‘end of times’ warnings were not his most endearing nor evidently joyful. The disciples did not have the luxury of knowing what would happen. They are still unaware, unclear on the impending crucifixion of Jesus; let alone the resurrection and ascension. We live on the other side of those events. We are still all waiting for the end.

There are versions of Jesus’ warning about the destruction of Jerusalem’s beautiful temple in Matthew and Mark too. This passage occurs in the middle of the last week of Jesus’ earthly life. Jesus has been preaching in the temple and has been warning Peter, Andrew, James and John about what is to come.

It is going to be awful. Jesus paints a vivid account of what to expect and reinforces the need for us to be vigilant. We have much in common. In 2025 we need to be reminded and aware of false teaching, lying, deception, war, famine and earthquakes. Some of us will have experienced some of these things on a greater or lesser scale. Jesus ‘ is clear that it will only get worse.

Many of these events happened with little to no warning or time scale; a lack of awareness of time is not a new phenomenon. The prophet Malachi warns of the coming day of destruction and nothing will be left. But, he says, those who revere my name the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings.
Sound familiar? Third verse of the greatest Christmas Carol ever composed.

Hail the Heaven-born Prince of Peace!
Hail the Sun of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings,
Risen with healing in His wings;
Mild He lays His glory by
Born that man no more may die
Born to raise the sons of earth
Born to give them second birth
Hark! The herald angels sing
“Glory to the new-born king”

Despite having advanced technology and advanced knowledge of what, where and when it will happen, our humanness can make the reality of these events incomprehensible until they occur.

Recap: lots of really bad things are going to happen and we do not know when but watch out! Thanks Jesus. Thank God for the third verse.

All good Jews would have had great love for Jerusalem and reverence for the Temple. The disciples had all grown up not far away in Galilee; they too had walked the length and breadth of the city with Jesus. They knew the walls and gates. No Jerusalem and No Temple was inconceivable!

There is a sense of urgency in the questions they ask Jesus – When? What are the signs? No time frame makes this difficult! Jesus did not want the disciples to get overly fixated on either the time [whether it is long or short] or the events themselves. There is a kindness in this.

How do we measure time or response to a situation when there seems as though there is nothing to measure? Jesus’ concern is for preparation. It is Jesus who will protect, give them the words and wisdom that their opponents will not be able to contradict. The disciples though must make up their minds in advance and prepare their defence. We too must prepare ourselves in advance – how do we explain our faith? Are we ready for what is to come?

In Mark’s account, the disciples make comments about the grand size of the temple stones. In Luke’s, it is the beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God that get comment. They are impressed by the externals, but this is not what Jesus is after. Maybe this is why we can get lost in the Christmas stuff? We are attracted to the externals. They certainly are beautiful! I love a gorgeously decorated tree and twinkly lights, the special foods and delicious drinks in the celebratory meals at this time of the year.

I know some people get rather annoyed about all this stuff in the shops so early. This is why we need a prepared defence. To explain to people what this season of Advent is really about! It is about joy; the joy in the little things and treats. The greater joy of being part of something bigger and mysterious. No point is just being huffy about it. We also need to be prepared for what is to come; the end times should neither be fixated nor ignored. As we come close to the season of Advent once again, let us focus on the internals, the preparation that needs to happen in our hearts rather than in the shop windows and store shelves. Joy to the World! Hark the Herald Angels sing!

Remembrance Sunday 2025: Marching into History

Micah 4:1-5
John 4:46-end

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 111 years ago and ended 107 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.

Maybe this is why more people seem to attend Remembrance Sunday services; there is an upward trend in attendance. Poppy sales would appear to be growing. Maybe some of you watched the Festival of Remembrance last evening or will catch up with the Cenotaph on iPlayer later. 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 the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War; VE Day was celebrated in May and VJ Day in August. The number of those who served and survived is rapidly decreasing as they reach great ages.

Many of us will know people who served in the World Wars. We will know them as real people we had relationships with – parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts & uncles and cousins. We know them as more than stories. We miss them. We march into history at different times.

Micah was an Old Testament prophet whose messages from God to the people of Jerusalem were mostly negative and critical. Micah had to call out their sinfulness, bad behaviour towards the poor, they were greedy and full of pride. The people of Jerusalem were going to pay for it when the Babylonians swept through and sent everyone into exile for many years.

Then the tone changes. Micah looks beyond the present crisis to a time when the people return to Jerusalem to learn the laws of God and there will be peace between them. Everything will be reversed. All that was destroyed will be made right. Even relationships between people.

The royal official whose son was dying was looking for a reversal in his situation. This man went to Jesus to beg for his son’s life. We know some of the stories of prisoners of war who had to beg for their lives. Maybe some of us have had to beg God for the life of a loved one. Many of us would know what it is to plead for salvation and mercy. This royal official, probably not one who had to beg for much, invites Jesus to come to his son. Jesus responds by telling the man to go home and his son would live. The man believed what Jesus told him.

This story is one of trust and belief. Trusting that God will redeem and restore – life, health, situations. The exiled people of Jerusalem had nowhere else to go. The royal official had likely exhausted his own resources on his son and it still did not improve the situation.

There are places in the world that need disputes settled, weapons to be laid down, training for war to stop. We need to listen to God again as people, as a village, a nation and as part of the world.

What a different world it would be if we could abide in God’s love and live out the commandment to love one another as God has loved us. Maybe we would not be here today? Maybe I am a little idealistic. Like many people, I yearn for a world that is fair, peace-filled with love, joy and forgiveness for all.

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. We need to march into history leaving things better than we found them.

All Souls: Let Me Go

Sunday November 2nd, 2025

Lamentations 3 & John 5:19-24

Let Me Go 
Christina Rosetti 

When I come to the end of the road
And the sun has set for me
I want no rites in a gloom filled room
Why cry for a soul set free?

Miss me a little, but not for long
And not with your head bowed low
Remember the love that once we shared
Miss me, but let me go.

For this is a journey we all must take
And each must go alone.
It's all part of the master plan
A step on the road to home.

When you are lonely and sick at heart
Go the friends we know.
Laugh at all the things we used to do
Miss me, but let me go.

When I am dead my dearest
Sing no sad songs for me
Plant thou no roses at my head
Nor shady cypress tree

Be the green grass above me
With showers and dewdrops wet
And if thou wilt remember
And if thou wilt, forget.

I shall not see the shadows,
I shall not fear the rain;
I shall not hear the nightingale
Sing on as if in pain;

And dreaming through the twilight
That doth not rise nor set,
Haply I may remember,
And haply may forget.

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!

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 was given Christina Rosetti’s poem Let Me Go earlier this year to read an ashes interment. Rosetti was an English writer of romantic, devotional and children’s poems in the 1800’s. Let Me Go was written in 1862 when she was in her early 30’s. The Rosetti’s by all accounts were cultured, educated and at the centre of London’s Victorian society. Christina and her three siblings all had notable careers in arts and literature. Her work has never gone out of fashion; Christina wrote In the Bleak Midwinter which we will soon sing again.

Like all families, the Rosetti’s had their struggles with finances and health; both physical and mental. Christina was known to suffer from depression, she had a heart condition and ultimately died of breast cancer. She stayed at home to care for her father while her siblings went out to work to support the family. She had her share of heartbreak too with three failed attempts at marriage. Christina’s expression of pain, loss and resignation are main themes in many of her poems.

In Let Me Go, we see all three (pain, loss and resignation) in the transition to the afterlife. There is a desire for a peaceful and undramatic departure, without excessive mourning or rituals. The poem emphasises the inevitability of death and the importance of embracing the journey as part of a larger plan. Christina, along with her parents and siblings, were greatly influenced by the Christian faith. For Christina, faith and art were at the centre of her life.

The message in Let Me Go – is that. Miss me a little and then let me go. Carry on living. Remember what was good, forget the rest. Remember but do not be sad for too long. The writer will no longer see the sad and the bad – so why should we? Haply I may remember, haply I may forget.

It is so hard to do. The writer of Lamentations has ‘forgotten what happiness and lost hope’. They likely witnessed the fall of Jerusalem around 587 BC and the horrors experienced by the Jewish people. It made me think of the people of Jamaica at this time.

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.

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. I hope that our loved ones forget the sad and bad; they do not see the shadows or fear the rain or hear the nightingale or witness the destruction of their beloved city.

In John’s Gospel reading, Jesus is telling the disciples that everyone (even him) and everything (even death) is under God’s control. He can raise the dead. This is not just the physically dead; but John is suggesting that those people who are spiritually dead. There is something of a spiritual revolution going on; the Quiet Revival started in 2024 and young people are turning to the Bible and the church in huge numbers. It looks like there is a shift in spiritual attitudes in England and Wales.

God’s love is so great for his Son and for us. The idea is that God the loving father is showing Jesus the beloved Son all that he does and even greater things. Those who believed in Jesus would be treated by God in the same way that Jesus was. Jesus died and rose again and so will we.

Where does that leave us on a November afternoon in Charlwood at an All Souls service?

We are part of a long tradition of remembrance.
The spiritual bonds between those in heaven and those on earth are real – but maybe not quite the way we think
Love and mourning have no ending because they are tied up together
God’s hesed underpins everything
Letting go is part of the process – it is about living forward, not being held back. They have moved on and so should we.

Finally, we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses in the heavenlies and around us right now. All of us here have loved and lost. We can share God’s unending goodness and mercy. They are new every morning.