Tag: John

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.

Dedication Service for Emmanuel

Psalm 122  Ephesians 2:19-22  John 2:13-22 

Welcome to the Temple of Sidlow Bridge for our Dedication Service this morning. As Emmanuel is not named after a saint with a specific date attached, we are able to 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. 

What springs to mind when you hear the word temple? Stone? Hindu or Buddhist temples in India or Thailand? Jerusalem? A massive building? Something cold and imposing? 

All three of our 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 centrepoint 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 is useful to remember that Jerusalem has had two temples. The First Temple had been 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. The house of the Lord referred to in Psalm 122 was likely connected to the First 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 Old Testament prophet Haggai was the great encouragement to get the Jews to go home again.  

Haggai is a tiny two chapter book towards the end of the Old Testament. Not much is known about Haggai: his name means ‘festal’ which is fitting for the prophet who called the Jewish people to rebuild the temple of God and to bring back worship in Jerusalem. 

In Haggai’s second sermon, he is reminding the Jews of the exodus when God called the Hebrews out of Egypt. Jesus and the disciples arrived in Jerusalem at the time of the Passover. Passover is a time to remember what God had done in the past when he saved the Jewish people from Pharaoh in Egypt. It was also a celebration of liberation, freedom and rescue from slavery. 

Haggai was a champion for the homeless as he called the Jewish community to action in the rebuilding of the Temple. He was also calling the Jewish people to wake up to their responsibilities, obligations, privileges and promises of their heritage. And they do. 

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 judgement. 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. Haggai proclaimed that the true glory of the Second Temple will not be the gold and silver of the nations but of God himself.

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 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. 

For the sake of the house of Lord, I will seek to do you good. Psalm 122 one of the ‘songs of ascent’; these were the travelling songs of the Jewish people as they travelled to the temple in Jerusalem for the yearly festivals. What good can we be doing for our neighbours? 

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.    

Watch for the signs. Who here does not like a sign? We will reflect on the significance of signs for a few minutes. There are the obvious signs that feature in everyday life; fire exits, stop signs, traffic signals, push/pull, open/closed enter/exit, etc.  These signs provide practical information and direction, keep us safe, and bring order to the world around us. 

Then there are the signs from God. Many prayers have begun with, ‘God if you are real…give me a sign.’ These tend to be prayed in times of desperation and fear, when all control is lost and people come to the end of themselves. God in his infinite goodness answers these prayers. Often not as expected as the external conditions might not change and/or even get worse. The answer can be an internal sign or feeling of overwhelming peace and love, a change of perspective or defusing of intense emotion that can allow for clearer thinking. 

We need to be people who can read the signs of the times correctly and it takes work.  

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.

Holy Cross Day


Numbers 21:4-9
John 3:13-17

Today we are remembering Holy Cross Day. This is a new one for me.

Helena, the mother of Emperor Constantine, discovered what many believed to be the empty tomb and true cross of Christ during a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. According to tradition, the discovery was made on September 14th, 330, and then, after the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was built on the site, it was dedicated on September 13th or 14th, 335. From as early as the seventh century, the Church commemorated September 14th each year with a Feast of the Holy Cross.

In the high Middle Ages, after the Norman conquest, the cross became a central feature of English church architecture. Both Cathedrals and parish churches were frequently laid out with a floor plan in the shape of a cross. Many churches also featured an elevated cross or crucifix at the entrance to the chancel called the Rood Screen.

At the English Reformation, Thomas Cranmer pruned the commemoration of the cross. On the one hand, he removed the Feast of the Holy Cross from the church’s official calendar, probably because it had become associated with doubtful relics and the sale of indulgences. On the other hand, Cranmer’s communion service emphasised the significance of the cross as the site of our Lord’s once-for-all sacrifice:

Almighty God our heavenly father, which of thy tender mercy didst give thine only son Jesus Christ, to suffer death upon the cross for our redemption, who made there (by his one oblation of himself once offered) a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction, for the sins of the whole world…

The Feast of the Holy Cross returned to Anglicanism in the 19th and 20th centuries through the Oxford and Liturgical Movements. And here we are today.

What does the cross mean to you?

Some of you will have one around your neck. You can see them in the tattoos of younger people; they tend to make an interesting conversation starter! Is the cross a sign and symbol of love, grace, faith or comfort? Originally it was a instrument of torture and brutality used by the Romans to kill. Jesus overturned that by dying on the cross and rising again.

John 3:16 which may be familiar to many of you, is Jesus speaking to Nicodemus. He was a Pharisee and leader of the Jews who came to see Jesus at night.

Like most religious people, Nicodemus believes, to some extent, that God is love. But he believes that God’s love is measured and sensible, and follows a set of rules. I think that many Christians today still follow this thinking.

They have reasoned that God’s love is reserved for really ‘good’ people, those who are nice or do good things or turn up to church on Sundays. This is true and untrue as God’s love is for everyone despite our perceived and actual goodness and badness.

Nicodemus is confused about Jesus and where he fits; Jesus is not playing by the conventional Jewish rules that Nicodemus and his fellow Pharisees are expecting. This could be why Nicodemus pays him a visit – to get Jesus to fill in the proper forms, tick the right boxes.

Jesus then makes the crucial link between his own forthcoming death and the full benefits of the gospel. This comes through the deliverance of believers from death through the gift of eternal life which will become possible through his death.

This eternal life is a new quality of life, made only possible through the love of God, which is shown in the astonishing fact that he loves the world so much that his only Son should die for it.

John 3:16 – This very familiar verse. It is the first one I remember learning as a child. When I think of verses – it often comes to mind first as it is so ingrained. But do I really know what it means – the massive significance that gets lost or overlooked with over-familiarisation.

John 3:16 sets out what it means to be a Christian; it sums up the essence of what Christianity is.

What is that?

An invitation to join God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit in the unfathomable richness of God’s love. To join in their being and doing. This is the invitation that Jesus extended to Nicodemus that night and continues to extend to us today.

This all came through the cross. Salvation comes from the cross. This is where we need to look.

The story of Moses in the wilderness happened around approximately 1400 BC. Moses and the Israelites are in the desert and life is hard. The food is bad, they are bored with the manna and quail. Water appears to have run out. As punishment, God sent them serpents to bite them. The Israelites ask for forgiveness for speaking out against God and Moses. God then instructs Moses to make a serpent out of bronze. To look at the bronze snake and live.

As an aside, the symbol of the serpent/snake on a pole on the side of ambulances comes from this story. It is tied to Asclepius, the ancient Greek god of medicine and the benevolent, healing properties of snakes, with the shedding of a snake’s skin also representing renewal. You’ll see it on ambulances, equipment, and other emergency services materials to signify medical care. Look for the serpent and live.

Jesus reminds Nicodemus of this story; except this time Jesus is going to be the one lifted up. We are to look to him to be saved, to live. And not just live for a few more years but to live into eternity.

The final appearance of Nicodemus is after the crucifixion. Joseph of Arimathea has asked Pilate for Jesus’ body. Nicodemus is the one who brings them myrrh and aloes for the preparation of the body. Joseph and Nicodemus take Jesus’ body from the cross, wrap it with the spices in linen cloth according to burial custom and they lay him in the tomb. Nicodemus saw the cross close up; he would have touched it, felt the roughness of it, maybe got blood on his hands or robes. Maybe even pulled the spikes out of it through Jesus’ wrists and ankles. The cross would not have been a comfort at that moment.

Nicodemus would have had to reconcile the saving power of the cross with his experience of removing Jesus’ body from it. He would need to find a way to believe that Jesus being lifted up meant eternal life. That the invitation into a relationship with God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit was real and needed accepting.

As we look at the cross again today – we look for love, grace, help, healing and salvation. This is the greatest gift we have ever received. Look to the cross and live.

Trinity Sunday: Living in Relationship

Psalm 8

Romans 5:1-5

John 16:12-15

Today we are remembering Trinity Sunday. This is, of course, the first Sunday after Pentecost and we are meant to celebrate the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit. The three-person Godhead. Celebrating foundational Christian doctrine might not sound all that exciting, but it is!

The church year now opens up and rolls along until Advent as the big festivals are now complete. It is good, I think, to remind ourselves about the essence of our Christian faith after the events and activities of Lent, Easter, Ascension and Pentecost. 

It has been good to remind myself of this after the events of this week at Gatwick with the crash of Air India 171. Where does our hope and help come from? 

Psalm 8 is set for today which we just sung (St Nicholas); read at Emmanuel. 

O Lord, our governor,
    how glorious is your name in all the world!

Your majesty above the heavens is praised;

2 Out of the mouths of babes at the breast. 

you have founded a stronghold against your foes, That you might still the enemy and the avenger.

3 When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have ordained,

4 what is man, that you should be mindful of him; The son of man, that you should seek him out? 

5 You have made him little lower than the angels, and crown him with glory and honour.

6 You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet,

7 all sheep and oxen, even the wild beasts of the field,

8 the birds of the air, the fish of the sea, And whatsoever moves in the paths of the sea.

9 O Lord, our governor,
    how glorious is your name in all the world!

Sadly for many people, the name of God is not exalted. Quite the opposite. Psalm 8 reminds us to consider the heavens, lift our eyes from our own small lives and issues, joys and sorrows. Consider the work of the moon and the stars, the work of God’s fingers. It is not a coincidence that Psalm 8 is the first hymn of praise in the Psalter (the book of Psalms).  

Even in the deepest trauma and tragedy, we can praise God. When we are confused and lack understanding – praise God. Consider his works. To understand the Trinity, praise is a right place to start. 

The Church has marked Trinity Sunday since the mid 800’s. It was instituted to speak against the heresies of the early church as they worked out how to understand the concept of one God in three elements. Three does in fact equal one! 

Reference to the Trinity is woven through our services, every time I or we say ‘in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit; the entire Christian story is retold in the Eucharist prayer before Communion, we repeat it each week in the Creeds. 

Central to the Christian faith that God is Father, Son and Spirit; all in one. It is difficult to understand and at some point needs to be believed as part of the mystery of God. But don’t simply jump to that conclusion as tempting as it is!

In our Gospel reading this week, Jesus tells his disciples, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.  When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.”

I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. Read and understand this sentence with the utmost kindness and patience from Jesus. He knows what we do and do not understand. The Spirit was sent to guide us slowly, in forbearance to come to understand the deeper truth of all that Jesus said. 

This is a safe place to start. God never burdens us with more than we can understand nor does He push us into belief or faith. The Spirit was sent to guide us as long as we are wanting to be led in seeking the truth. 

The late Pope Francis wrote, “The Holy Spirit will never tell you that on your journey everything is going just fine. He will never tell you this, because it isn’t true. No, he corrects you; he makes you weep for your sins; he pushes you to change, to fight against your lies and deceptions, even when that calls for hard work, interior struggle and sacrifice… The Holy Spirit, correcting you along the way, never leaves you lying on the ground: He takes you by the hand, comforts you and constantly encourages you.”

In the work of the Trinity, we see that God is fluid, dynamic, never sitting still. Many people, young and old, believe and live like God is some distant and dusty old Man sitting on a cloud or living in a box or in a church building. There is something comforting in the idea that God is sitting still, containable but yet desperately boring. 

God is on the move, always surprising and wanting us to join in with what he is doing. Unity is at the heart of the Trinity, but unity does not mean rigidity. Many Christians get it so wrong with holding on to ideas that God is mean or distant or it is just about the rules or even worse – irrelevant to life in this time and season. 

God is diverse and thankfully not limited to our imaginations. We are all created in the image of God yet express ourselves differently. It follows then that God’s nature is diverse too. Jesus is the beloved Son, born of Mary and sent to us in human form. He consistently points to the Father who sent him to be with us. We see that the Holy Spirit was sent to journey with us, move with us every day and in every way.   

Finally, we see that God is communal. We were made for relationships, for community. We were not hatched from eggs, like separate entities. We were born into families (for better or for worse), hopefully we have made friends along the way, got married or not, had children or not and have found community along the way and built relationships.

For those of you who are or have been married, imagine for a moment that after your marriage service, you went off on your separate ways. 

You would still be married but you would never know the fullness of your marriage relationship while apart. If you want a full relationship with your spouse, then you need to be together, live in community with each other. The same goes for God, if you want a full relationship then you need to live together with him, He needs to be invited in. God also comes with roommates, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. It is a full and glorious house.

St Paul wrote his letter to the Romans before he ever visited Rome. In this letter, Paul laid out the basic elements of Christian teaching. Paul had a dramatic encounter with Jesus after the resurrection and was blinded for a time. Through his blindness he came to see the Risen Jesus and was forever changed. Paul wants the Christians in Rome to know and believe they have everything they need in the grace and love of God through the Holy Spirit. 

Endure, Paul says, go the distance, it is worth it. Often endurance means we need to forgo the right of convenience, the right to give up when it gets too much. At the centre of this endurance is love. God is love. At the heart of the Trinity is love; deep, unflinching, unfaltering, life-long and life-giving love between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit that is extended to us. 

Do not worry about what you cannot bear right now. Work at understanding that you are simply loved by God as you are. The Trinity tells us that there is more love and life to come, we are part of a bigger story. We are children of the Trinity, always invited and deeply loved. The power of the Trinity will change our lives, lead and guide us to become the people we were created to be, guide us to unity and community. May our lives reflect the beauty and truth of the Trinity.   

Pentecost! Come Holy Spirit!

6/8/25
Pentecost

Acts 2:1-21
John 14:8-17, 25-27

Creator God, as your spirit moved over the face of the waters bringing light and life to your creation, pour out your Spirit on us today that we may walk as children of light and by your grace reveal your presence. Amen.

Today is a day of celebration in the Church! What an exciting day! After Jesus’ resurrection at Easter, he told the disciples to tell other people about what they had seen. Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit to be with them once he left. At this point, the disciples are confused, sad, nothing seems to be happening, I bet they had lots of questions – when? How? What?

Then, in the quietness, they heard a new sound, like a strong wind, God’s presence was with them; like nothing they had ever experienced before. The Holy Spirit is the part of God and Jesus that is active in the world today. The Spirit was sent to help us and guide us along in our lives.

At Pentecost we are celebrating four things that all begin with P.

Party
We know that something astonishing is happening in Acts 2; barriers of culture and language are being broken down as the Spirit falls on those gathered that day. Luke, in his writing, is struggling to find the language to describe what is going on; things ‘seem like’ and ‘sound like’ which indicates he has never seen anything like what he is seeing before.

After all the trauma of Jesus’ death, the working out and waiting for what was to come next, the arrival of the Holy Spirit was a wave of relief. The mood of the people made others think they were drunk. I imagine it in that happy, celebratory drunk kind of way. They were hearing, Luke tells us, God’s deeds of power in their own languages.

This is what we are celebrating today – God’s power that brought about the birthday of the church. From this point, the people who gathered that day went out to tell the Good News of Jesus. If those who were there on that first Pentecost had just gone home after – none of us would be here today.

Punctuality
The timing of Pentecost is important. God was using a long-standing appointment on the kingdom calendar of the Jewish people. This is why Jerusalem was so crowded with Jewish people from across the known world. The Feast of Pentecost was meant to pour out the ‘old’ spirit in a ‘new and powerful way’.

For centuries, before the first Pentecost, the Jews had been celebrating the Feast of Weeks which happened 50 days after their Passover. The number 50 points to fullness, ripeness, to a time that is ready for something to happen.

At the Feast of Weeks, the Jews had to do three things. Firstly, remember the promises God had made and kept in the past and be thankful. Sometimes memories can be short during tough times.

Secondly, they had to be generous. The Jews were not allowed to come to the feast without a gift to say thank you to God. Thirdly, they were to celebrate the harvest, the first fruits. The people were to bring the first of the harvest as an offering to God. The best of the harvest and present it joyfully to the Lord. No rotten apples or mouldy wheat with a bad attitude would do.

Promises
The third thing to celebrate today is promises.

Who here is good at keeping promises? Ever break one? Or has someone made a promise to you and then broken it? Big or small, when a promise is broken, it breaks trust and can cause much grief. When we break promises we have to live with guilt or embarrassment and work to rebuild trust.

We sometimes get it right and sometimes not so much.

Do we believe in the promises of God? Do we take them seriously? It might take a long time for those promises to come through; often longer than we want. God’s promises might look different to what we think the promise should be. And God is faithful; far more faithful than we ever can be. Jesus promised that he would never leave us alone. That the Advocate, the Holy Spirit would come.

The other promise we see in Pentecost is found in Acts 2:21, ‘then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’ This is the biggest and best promise of all. Salvation. This is what Jesus offers, gave his life for – that we could be saved for eternity with God.

People
Pentecost is about people experiencing God in new ways. You all look pretty good to me, nice, respectable people. I can see you from the outside and as I get to know you more and better, I get glimpses of the inside. I can hope and pray that the person you are on the inside matches the outside presentation.
Jesus came to save us, to heal us and change us from the inside out. We are not meant to be the same once we have met with Jesus. The Holy Spirit leads and guides us, it brings joy and peace beyond what we can imagine even in the most difficult of circumstances.

Abundant life is what Jesus came to bring. Not just a little but or enough but big and abundant.

In the Gospel reading, the disciples and Jesus are together for the last time at the Last Supper. They are still unsure of what is to come. Philip has an easy suggestion for Jesus, ‘just show us the Father!’ Come on already! It seems an easy solution; who does not want an easy answer to a difficult question?

Jesus rarely offers an easy solution. He says to his disciples, ‘if you love me, you will keep my commandments.’ Our love for God and the people around us should be a reflection of the love we have for God. We do not have to love under our own steam. It is the Holy Spirit that helps us – keeps our troubles hearts at rest and brings peace.

On this Feast of Pentecost we celebrate the party, the punctuality, the promises and the people. We thank God for all that he has done in the past and will do for us in the future; do not forget that! Especially when life is hard. Remember that He first loved us; our love is a response to that. We show our thanks for what He has done by being generous to others and to the church.

We take a moment to give thanks and ask for the Spirit to fill us again.