Sermons
HOLY WEEK ADDRESSES 2026
Wednesday, 1st April - Isaiah 50 4-9a
Today the reading from Isaiah speaks more clearly about the sufferings of the Suffering Servant, and it becomes easier for us to apply the words of the prophet to the sufferings of Christ himself.
I have been reading the latest book by the American Franciscan, Richard Rohr, called “The Tears of Things”. He is writing about the prophets including the prophet who lived during the exile of the people of Judah and Jerusalem in Babylon. He reflects on how the prophets can still speak to us today, as we live in a world of conflict, fear, anxiety and division. As we experience suffering or share with compassion the sufferings of others, we discover that God can use us to do a new thing, suffering can be creative, become the source of new life.
I have recently been reading about a family working with the Church in Thailand. They are working in a poor part of Bangkok. One of their children was involved in a motorbike accident and broke his ankle. The child used a community wheelchair for a while, other people then talked about times they had used the same chair, and the family accepted help and care from neighbours. God is always at work in the little things we do, when we accept help from other people, and listen to their concerns. In a reversal of power, it was the poor and marginalized who ministered to the church leaders.
One day I was listening to the discussion about the assisted dying bill, this was at the time of the vote in the Scottish parliament. I was very struck by an interview with one man who wanted to die, simply because he did not want anyone to care for him as he came to the end of his life. I don’t know if this man had actively cared for others, or supported neighbours at times of need. We often want to care for others, but it can become a way to exercise power over them and then not to want anyone to do the same for us!
We are not meant to live as autonomous individuals but as people in a community, loving and serving one another. It is possible we become so concerned to serve and help other people we are reluctant to let them serve us. The Church leaders in Thailand were serving other people, but God showed them how important it was for them to allow other people to serve them.
Christ washed the feet of the disciples at The Last Supper. He is our model, we are to be the lights in the world by being needy, allowing others to serve us, allowing others to be Christ for us. This requires us to be humble, to admit our need of the help and support of others. We are members one of another, because we are all members of Christ’s Body.
St Paul wrote in the second letter to the Corinthians Chapter 4 v10- 12
“Wherever we go we carry with us in our body the death that Jesus died, so that in this body also, the life that Jesus lives may be revealed. For Jesus’ sake we are all our life being handed over to death, so that the life of Jesus may be revealed in this mortal body of ours. Thus death is at work in us, but life in you.” In v15 of the following Chapter Paul writes” Christ died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.”
Richard Rohr believes that we need to let go of anger or revenge when we face suffering of any kind. We need to learn to accept the situation we find ourselves in, bearing the pain, and sharing the pain of others. Then the tears of compassion will flow and God will be doing a new thing, creating a new people.
We have 2 occasions recorded when Jesus wept. One was as he overlooked the city of Jerusalem and saw its future destruction. The 2nd occasion was when his friend Lazarus died. We must learn to weep more, deepen our compassion for all who suffer.
If we are to share in the new life of Christ, we must first of all accept the way of the cross, the way of the Suffering Servant as through death comes new life. Through the dying to self we can experience the new things God is doing, becoming a new kind of people, creating a new kind of kingdom..
Rev'd Janet Fulljames
Tuesday, 31st March - Isaiah 49 v1-7
Jesus was not impressed by the rich or successful. He told 2 parables, one about a rich farmer who had been so successful in his business that he had no room for the extra wheat or barley. What use was all that hard work since he died suddenly! The other person Jesus told a story about was the Pharisee who went to the temple to pray. The Pharisee compared himself with a tax collector, and he thanked God that he had everything, had achieved everything he wanted, there was no room for God, he was talking to himself.
We live in a society where people like the rich farmer and the Pharisee are admired, they had ambition, they worked hard and were satisfied with what they had achieved.
The Servant in our reading tonight is told it is not enough for the people to return to the homeland of the Jewish people and rebuild their lives there once more, but they must be a light for all other peoples, their calling is to serve other people, other nations Let us assume that this means the whole world, including Babylon who had enslaved them.
During Lent I have been reading a book called “Dancing to the Heartbeat of God.” It contains reflections from people around the Anglican Communion. One is from the Archbishop of Yangon in Myanmar, or Burma, as some of us may still think of that country today. He reflects on how adversity and hardship can be times of encouragement and hope. During Covid people shared what they had with others, this gave hope to their neighbours. God was with the people in their fear and grief. He also writes about the coup in 2021; people fled their homes, families were separated. One woman said to him “We have nothing left but Christ and he is enough.” The Archbishop says he saw that Christ was present in the people’s worship, in their tears and in their hope. God was with them in the midst of their suffering. Last year many parts of the country were devastated by an earthquake, so for the 3rd time recently, many people have suffered greatly.
It is easy to think God is not there when life is hard, when we or a loved one is ill, it doesn’t always feel as if God is present and knows our distress. Many of the Jewish people thought they deserved their fate in Babylon, they thought that God was punishing them for their unfaithfulness, so why would God help them?
The prophet gives hope to the exiles in Babylon. God has not forgotten them, or deserted them, indeed he has a new task for them. The future that God plans for Israel is not a return to the past. The people are not to return to Jerusalem to rebuild their kingdom, to become a powerful nation, a military power, they are to be a light for the whole world, God is about to do a new thing.
In the book “Dancing to the Heartbeat of God”, the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States writes of the divisions and fear we see in our world today and says that we need to change the way that we relate as Christians to the authorities and to the international order. Jesus is calling us to live in a different way. We must turn our values upside down because the old norms we took for granted are no longer working.
If we are to walk in the footsteps of Christ Bishop Rowe says “From now on the cross comes before resurrection, dying comes before rising”.
We must embrace suffering as Christ did, dying to self, living for others. We are to see such suffering not as something we must bear, but a way of living to be embraced.
We are not to admire the rich and successful but to see the face of Christ in the poor and despised and be willing to suffer with them.
Rev'd Janet Fulljames
Monday, 30th March - Isaiah 42 v1-9
Our Old Testament reading from the book of Isaiah is the first of 4 passages that we call the Servant passages. We will read the first 3 at the beginning of this Holy Week, and the final passage will be read on Good Friday.
Although these readings are in the book of the prophet Isaiah they do not date from the time of the prophet. They belong to the period of the Exile. Many of the Jewish population had been deported to Babylon, Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed in 586BC, and the Jewish kingdom of Judah was destroyed. It would be 70 years before Babylon was conquered by the Persian Empire and Cyrus the Emperor allowed the Jewish people to return to their homeland.
It was natural for the people to feel helpless and hopeless; to think they were a people with no future. Psalm 137 “By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept when we remembered Zion” captures their love for Jerusalem, their homesickness, as they lived thousands of miles from their homeland.
The Jewish people are not the only people that have been deported. Throughout the ages it has been a common practice of a despotic ruler to prevent rebellion by deporting groups of people they feel might oppose their rule. In the 20th century the Soviet Union was notorious for this practice. Between 1930 and 1952 at least 6 million people from minority ethic groups were deported to remote parts of the Soviet Union. It is thought at least 1 million of them died in Exile due to harsh treatment and starvation. It wasn’t until the 1990’s, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, that the descendants of some ethnic groups were allowed to return to their original homeland.
The peoples of the Baltic States, where people were deported after 1945, still have memories of family members who were deported in this traumatic way. The experience of the Jews as they lived in Babylon must have been similar. Where are they to find hope?
Some of the psalms speak of revenge. In Psalm 137, the final verses say “Happy the one who repays you for what you have done, who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rock”.
When people are hurting they may want revenge, but the writer or writers of the 2nd part of the book of Isaiah, chapters 40 to 55, has a different vision. We don’t know who this writer was, he was a prophet who instead of despairing, sees a future for the Jewish people. God he says calls them to be a Servant not only to give hope to the people of Israel, but they are also to be given the task of being the Servant for other nations also.
Who was this Servant? Was it the whole nation? Was it a group of exiles who were open to God’s future? Christians have read these passages during Holy Week because as we read them, we see that Christ was the Servant who was a light to the nations, the Servant who suffered to save us all.
The task the Servant is given will be for the benefit of “the nations” to see and follow. It is the way of service, the way of forgiveness, the way of justice, God’s kind of justice. There is no place for revenge, only the acceptance of suffering. It is not accepting suffering because the people believed they deserved their fate, because they had disobeyed God and God was punishing them. This suffering is a creative, transforming kind of suffering. This is a new thing God is doing, the Servant will create a new future for the nations.
It is a new understanding of power, a new way of exercising leadership, and a challenge for all of us who exercise power or leadership in any way.
Rev'd Janet Fulljames
The Third Sunday of Lent - 8th March 2026
John 4 v 5-42
I recently read an article in one of our daily newspapers on line, written by a well known member of General Synod. He said the following, “The Church has squandered time and goodwill on divisive and damaging debates, particularly about sexuality and race”. He went on to suggest that talking about such things discouraged people from attending a church, leading to a drop in church membership and a shortage of money!
So we had better not talk about sexuality or race! But how do we do that? Our Gospel today is a story where Jesus speaks alone with a woman in the middle of the day (only a woman with a debatable reputation would go to the well to draw water in the middle of the day, when it would be hot in the sun, she would do this in order to avoid other women). She was also a Samaritan, an ethnic group despised and avoided by Jewish people.
So how can we avoid talking about sexuality and race? If we are disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ of course we can’t avoid it! We may have differences about sexuality, about the blessing of gay couples or the marriage of gay clergy, and recently there has been quite a debate in the church about whether it is right to pay money to particular projects or directly to the descendants of slaves.
I don’t think a sermon is the place to speak about any of these issues, they are better discussed in a group or study session. I mention them because today our gospel is a story about a woman that was despised and avoided. Avoided probably because she was thought to be immoral, and despised because she was a Samaritan, a mixed race descendant of Israeli and Assyrian ancestors.
Jesus invited her to give him a drink and then said to her that he could give her “living water”. She was amazed, questioning how he could do this. Jesus then says that this water is so special after receiving it you will never be thirsty again, and it will bring eternal life.
It is interesting to take this story of the Samaritan woman and compare it with the story of Nicodemus that we heard for our gospel last Sunday. There are several obvious differences.
For instance Nicodemus approached Jesus, but it was Jesus who first spoke to this woman. Nicodemus went to Jesus at night, Jesus spoke to the woman in the middle of the day. The Gospel writer’s use of the word “night” is important, do you remember that when Judas left the Upper Room at the time of the Last Supper, the writer says “it was night”, meaning Judas was living in the dark; as is Nicodemus as he comes to Jesus by night.
Nicodemus was a respected religious leader, she was a woman of scandalous reputation. Jesus took a great risk speaking to her, no man would be outside alone in the middle of the day unless he was looking for casual sex. Jesus spoke to Nicodemus as one rabbi or religious teacher to another. Nicodemus goes away still not sure he has understood what Jesus has to say, the woman rushes off to the city believing what Jesus had told her, and many people in the city believed her. So this Samaritan woman becomes the first missionary, the first person we know of who brought others to faith in Jesus as the Messiah. The good news is spread not by a man, not by a Jew but by this Samaritan woman!
However, there is a common theme in these 2 stories. Jesus says to Nicodemus that he must be born again from water and the Spirit, and this new birth in the Spirit will lead to eternal life. Jesus says to the Samaritan woman that the water he will give will bring eternal life and she will never be thirsty again.
When we hear these words about water we immediately think that he is speaking of Christian baptism. Baptism is a new birth, a new life begins what ever age we were when we were baptized, we then have a new identity, we are now members not only of our human family but belong to a new family, other Christians are now our brothers and sisters and we are to care for one another as members of that new family.
When my 2 children were baptized they both wore christening robes that had been in the family for many years, made by previous generations. One of them was really beautiful, but babies had to be small to wear them, ideally about a month old! These robes spoke not only of the baptism day being special but of new life, a new identity. The first Christians were often baptized in a local stream or river and then afterwards wore new clothes.
The introduction to the baptism service uses these words “Water is a sign of new life as we are born again by water and the Spirit”
We are reminded of the importance of our baptism several times during the Church’s Year. We are sprinkled with water in January as we keep the feast of the Baptism of the Lord in Epiphany tide, and at the Easter Vigil service we renew our baptism promises, and on Easter Sunday morning we are again sprinkled with water.
We are reminded of the importance of that day when we were baptized and became members of the Christian family.
The phrase “living water” is used by the prophet Jeremaih as a description of God. The prophet says in Chapter 2 “The Lord says, “My people have forsaken me the fountain of living waters and hewed out for themselves broken cisterns that can hold no water”. Living water is fresh water, life giving water. Jesus says he is the source of that life, life for eternity.
Jesus is not speaking of life after we have died but life lived as part of the Christian family, people who live in Christ, filled with the Holy Spirit.
If you lived in a dry country the sight of fresh water, a fountain of water, would amaze and delight you. Are we amazed and delighted that God should choose to be living water for us? Amazed that Christ lives in us, makes us new people, God’s children by adoption and grace?
The challenge for each of us is this: is it obvious that we have this new life within us? Do we live as people amazed and delighted at what God in Christ has done for us? Do we share this delight and amazement with others as the Samaritan woman shared her new faith with her neighbours?
Does our faith make us excited? Is it obvious to our families and friends? Does it affect the way we live? God’s gift of new life is not just for us, it is to be shared with others.
The Samaritan woman was the most unlikely first missionary, but God uses and welcomes the most unlikely people.
Christ calls us to be his hands and feet, to see in the most unlikely people, people he is calling to be members of his new family.
Rev'd Janet Fulljames
The Second Sunday of Lent - 1st March 2026
May I speak of Christ through Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit
What are we here for?
A short answer is: to worship God with all the love and strength we can muster. For God is Love, and we are to love Him with heart and mind, body and soul, in humility. In giving ourselves to God, in turning to Christ, His mercy rescues us, forgives and makes us more Christlike.
Becoming more Christlike is a slow process. It happens unconsciously, we may not be aware of it though others may discern signs of it in us. This slow shaping happens in several ways. One is when we enter joyfully into our worship in all its aspects; a second is by being blessed with good teaching, preaching, and conversation about faith; a third is by our own prayers and faithfulness, in secret.
As we hear God’s word and mull it over we let ourselves be changed by it so that we grow closer and closer to Christ. Christ moves from being outside us to becoming part of us, leaving his mark on our heart (Romans 2.29) .That takes time, maybe more than a lifetime. Who knows? It’s a slow and gradual process for most of us but it is our calling. Paul put it vividly: He Jesus must increase in me, I must decrease. That in me which resists him must be changed through grace and the power of His Spirit.
Over Lent and the church’s year the NT readings we hear come from Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and often St. Paul as well as Hebrews & other letters. To get a fuller picture of Jesus, at work, praying and teaching, we need especially to draw from the Gospel writers and Paul. This getting to know our Bibles is like having a conversation with a particular reading: listening carefully, responding, quizzing it.
Today I am going to focus on Jesus’s conversation with Nicodemus (Jn. 3.1-17). One scholar, David Ford, believes that John knew of the Synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke) written say 70 AD onwards. And we have four more Wednesday evenings to look closely at parts of Matthew: it’s the Sermon on the Mount on the 4th March.
John’s account is later. John expects us to look beyond the literal interpretations of Jesus’ words and to expect metaphor, imagery and even symbolical meanings. A metaphor is when, for example, someone is described as hard as stone. They are not literally made of stone. It’s a comparison. And symbols occur when, Christ says a person has to be born again to enter into the kingdom of God. It is not a physical birth but a spiritual one.
Nicodemus was a Pharisee (one of at least 6,000 at the time) and teacher, respected within the Sanhedrin, the Jewish Court of 70 members in Jerusalem, that ruled Jewish life which was based on the law which was set out in the first five books of the Bible. Nicodemus is Greek for ‘conqueror of the people’. He was not warlike but a persuasive, wise teacher who later counsels his colleagues to give up arresting Jesus: ‘Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he has done? (Jn. 7.51)’
He came to Jesus secretly one night, praises him:‘Rabbi we know you are a teacher who has come from God’ – and mentions the ‘miraculous signs you are doing’. The turning of water into wine which had just happened was one such sign. Why does he visit Jesus? Clearly he wants to know more, have a private conversation. We don’t know more than that. But night time was when the Rabbis studied and Jesus by day was likely to have been busy and about. Nicodemus was wanting a private chat: something Christluke was pulling him?
Jesus does not want small talk, a chat. He raises the stakes. He explains what true membership requires: baptism even if you are old in years. Nicodemus. gets a theological’ teach in’ which flummoxes him and leaves him nearly speechless though able to ask two questions: ‘How can a man be born again?’ and ‘ How can this (these things) be?’
It’s a strange meeting, more of a lecture from the young Rabbi, who first establishes that he is from God ; that he is going to be ‘lifted up’, crucified, before he returns to heaven – so preparing Nicodemus and us for that, which is not the final ending. There is then a pronouncement that sums up the gospel and what we, John’s readers, need to believe and hold on to.
‘For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.’ (Jn.3.16)
Eternal life is what Nicodemus is offered; as are we: life with God. Being Christlike brings eternal life and does not end with death.
After Jesus’s crucifixion Nicodemus joins Joseph of Arimathea in preparing Jesus body for burial by bringing ‘a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds weight.’ (Jn.19.39) The two anoint the body and wrap it up in linen before placing it in the garden tomb. Nicodemus is a player in John’s gospel; and possibly a disciple after it?
Munna asked us, ‘What significant moments have there been in your Christian journey?’ For me there was the time when I had turned my back on ordination. The Coventry Vicar whose church I would have gone to, sent me a postcard. He wrote just this: All shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well, (quoting Mother Julian). He was right.
Those words feel true today for us here and for this vacancy.
Jeremy Harvey, Reader
The First Sunday of Lent - 22nd February 2026
“If” - Matthew 4: 1 – 11
“If” – I F If, two little letters but what an impact they can have on our lives!
How often do we say “If only…..” when we are looking back on an event or situation but it is not actually helpful for us to do that.
In today’s Gospel we hear the word “If”, in the sense of casting doubt on what is true and what we believe.
Last week when we heard about Jesus’ transfiguration, which was a wonderful, mountain top experience, he still had to come down from the mountain and begin his walk to Jerusalem and his inevitable death.
And now today, after Jesus is baptised; the start of his ministry blessed by his father; he is then immediately led into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
And the devil, says to Him – “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread”
“If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from the Temple.”
And for the third time, “If you will worship me, then I will give you all the kingdoms of the world.”
Jesus answers his oppressor by quoting Scripture in response, although it is interesting to note that the devil uses Scripture himself for the second temptation.
Jesus overcomes these tests through holding onto what he knows is true; through knowing God’s Word, and believing that He has a ministry ordained by his Father.
This is not the only time though that Jesus is attacked in this way.
When Jesus is arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, on Maundy Thursday,
he stands before Caiaphas the High Priest. He challenges Jesus saying “I charge you; tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God.”
And again here, Jesus responds by quoting from Scripture.
And then on Good Friday, when He is hanging on the cross, those who are passing by, hurl insults at Him and shout, “Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!”
The temptations then were not confined to those forty days but throughout Jesus’ ministry and yet He obeyed his Father and did not yield to any other path than the one set before Him.
Often in our lives as Christians, we can doubt our own beliefs and God’s calling for us.
How often do we think to ourselves “If you were really a Christian, you wouldn’t do ……”
“If you really believed, then your prayers would be answered as you wanted”
“If you really trusted in God, then others would see that your life is different”
How do we respond to our doubts, our questions and the worries we have as to whether we are really good enough to be a Christian?
One way would be to respond using words from the Bible and knowing that we don’t have to be “good enough” at all but we simply need to accept God’s love for each one of us.
Another way of dealing with worries and questions is to do what we are doing today; coming here and worshipping God together.
Being faithful in our prayers, our fellowship, our ministering to each other – coming not just when everything is right in our lives but at all times regardless.
When we were children, we always had to go to Sunday School unless we were ill in bed or on holiday away from home. It didn’t matter if we’d had a good week, a sad or difficult week or the more usual, a boring week, we still had to go.
I just accepted it at the time, but we were actually being taught a very valuable lesson; we come to church to worship regardless of our own situation or thoughts or feelings.
And when we are struggling, that is when we need each other most; others minister to us when we need help and then we can support other people when they need it.
It is through this faithfulness that when we have these thoughts or others say to us “Are you a Christian?” then we can answer with confidence
“Yes I am and I know what my faith means to me”.
We may even get the opportunity to tell them a bit about it!
So in this Lent, let us think about being faithful; it may mean giving up something that is unhealthy for us, but we could take up something for Lent; taking more time with God; stepping away from our usual routine to pray or to read our Bibles;
or perhaps doing something positive to help someone else.
When we say the Lord’s Prayer later in the service, let us just pause at that line
“Do not lead me into temptation”. Let us think of another translation which says
“Do not bring me to a time of testing, or of trial”.
And then we can speak out with assurance, “For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours now and for ever”. Amen
Ruth Cook, Reader
Ash Wednesday - 18th February 2026
So, we embark once more upon the season of Lent with Ash Wednesday. The ashes these days, no longer, it seems, come from last year’s Palms Sunday crosses being burnt, but are specially purchased. Perhaps with good reason! I can vividly remember myself in my first parish just before my first Ash Wednesday service there, gathering in lots of palm crosses, and putting them in a tray in the vicarage oven. This created a huge stink in more senses than one, as a ghastly smell permeated through the kitchen and through the whole vicarage and I was in deep trouble. In subsequent years, I was banished to the garden for this task.
Back to ashes later.
Lent is a season to be observed, not just for its own sake, but always with Good Friday and Easter in view at the end of the road. For the keeping of Lent first began with those who were to be baptised at Easter - which in the early Church was the time of initiation - and these candidates undertook preparation by fasting and prayer for their new life in the risen Christ which would begin, so appropriately, on the Day of Resurrection. Likewise, those who had been excommunicated from the Church for some grave and public sin, these also were prepared by acts of penance to be re-admitted to membership of the faithful.
It was not long before the Church realised the benefit to all Christians of joining in this period of prayerful expectation and, with the candidates, reaffirming their baptismal vows at Easter.
Today's service, characterised by silence, reflection and penitence, thus sets the mood, not just of Ash Wednesday itself, but of the whole season which today begins. There is a stark simplicity about it, providing vivid contrast with the Easter celebration to come; and from now on, except on a couple of major festivals such as the Annunciation and the Celebration of the Institution of the Eucharist on Maundy Thursday, from now on, with these exceptions, the Gloria is omitted at all Eucharists; the use of music in sung services is restrained; and alleluias and similar expressions of joy are usually avoided until we greet the resurrection on Easter Day.
At the heart of today's service is, of course, the Liturgy of Penitence with the Imposition of Ashes.
Why ashes? What is the meaning of this particular symbol?
Well, one of the things about symbolism in general is that any particular symbol is able to convey a multitude of possible meanings; far more is caught up in one visible object or action than could ever be put into one or many words. And this is equally true of the symbol of ashes.
For example, to those who have open fire places, or solid fuel boilers, ashes might in one sense speak differently from those who don't endure such heating methods. They are the visible sign and reminder of a fire gone out; when the wife cries, "Ashes", the husband receives an unwanted reminder of an unpleasant chore to be done ... the clearing of the grate. But it must be done; it must be cleared so that the new fire can be lit. And so one could suggest that today's ashes are reminders, and remainders of spiritual fires extinguished, of sins to be cleared and souls to be cleansed before the new fire of Easter Day can fan into flame.
More traditionally, ashes are a sign of our mortality - dust you are and to dust you shall return, dust to dust, ashes to ashes; a remembrance that we are created by God, as it were, out of the dust of the earth; that our life comes from God, not of ourselves. And as we look towards Easter, we must realise again that it is only from God and through God that we can hope to receive new, full and eternal life.
Ashes, also, are a sign of sorrow and disgrace; there is long, biblical precedent for this as a sign of mourning and Penitence; fine clothes and make-up give way to sackcloth and ashes. And particularly, in this case, penitence and sorrow for the failure to live up to our baptism promises, promises to turn to Christ and renounce evil, promises we know we have not fulfilled as well as we might. These ashes are imposed in the sign of the cross on the forehead, where once, at baptism, we were marked with the sign of Christ in water and oil. How we have marred and spoiled that sign, that image of Christ within us! As we look to renewing or reaffirming those Baptism promises at Easter, so we acknowledge our past failure to live up to them.
But yet, this mark of sorrow and disgrace, of self-abasement and self-denial, is also a mark of hope and victory ..... for it remains the sign of the cross. It is under that sign, in such humility and self-loss, by sacrifice and on the cross that victory is won; so once more we find ourselves looking forward, setting out on the path that leads to Calvary; and beyond Calvary to the Easter Garden. Our cross of ashes is a visible sign of hope, of forgiveness, reconciliation and new life in Christ.
Therefore, having performed our liturgy of penitence, we shall continue in this service to the liturgy of Eucharist, of thanksgiving. Again, with Good Friday and Easter always in view, we cry not only "Lord have mercy" but also "Thanks be to God".
AMEN
Rev'd Peter Furber
Ash Wednesday - 18th February 2026
I wonder what kind of reception the woman in our gospel reading today received from her husband, her family and friends, when she returned home? Maybe they wouldn’t let her into the house! Jesus may have forgiven her, but did they?
Some of you may regularly listen to the Archers. One of the story lines in recent months has been about George Grundy’s return to Ambridge after a prison sentence.
His actions which sent him there, endangered the lives of several people in the village and they have not forgiven him. They have refused to give him work, banned him from the pub and generally made his life miserable.
We pray to God “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us”. What confidence is expressed in these words! Confidence that God will forgive us because of course we have readily forgiven all people who have hurt or harmed us; or hurt or harmed those close to us, whom we love.
We do not doubt that God is always ready to forgive us when we ask, but there does seem to be a condition- that we forgive other people.
We know we cannot put our relationship with God in one compartment of our lives and the way we treat other people in another. When Jesus was asked “Which is the greatest commandment?” he gave us two. Love God and love your neighbour he said. The 2 commandments are really one. When we are open to the love and grace of God we will love our neighbours.
The ability to love our neighbours comes from God.
Forgiveness also; as we experience the love and forgiveness of God so we are able to love and forgive our neighbours.
I am not suggesting that this is easy. Think of the person who continues to struggle with life after the death of a child, or another relative or friend, when that death is caused by a drunken driver, or a teenager carrying a knife. Grief, anger, disbelief, are all present, it can take a very long time to live with such pain and hurt.
Some people confuse forgiving with forgetting, I don’t think we can ever forget hurts, or injustices experienced, or hostile behaviour from other people, but we can learn to forgive.
When Peter asked Jesus how often we should forgive someone who had wronged him, thinking seven times would be generous. Jesus replied 70 times seven, which I calculate is 490 times! Jesus of course is meaning forgive without limit, do not count the number of times someone hurts or harms you.
If we hold on to the actions that have hurt us, if we see some actions as unforgivable, we become enslaved by those events we cannot live as God intends us to live. Many of us will know someone who has been hurt by a family member or former friend who is still living with that hurt many years later, is can make them bitter, affect other relationships, and prevent them from embracing life in the present.
We are called to be Godlike, merciful,
forgiving the sins of others as God has forgiven them.
Jesus said “Love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you. You must be perfect.as your heavenly Father is perfect”
We are called to be Christlike, to love, to show mercy to others, to forgive those who hurt and harm us.
Tonight I have spoken only of our need to forgive those who hurt or harm us. Sometimes we find it hard to forgive ourselves the harm we have done to others. We feel guilty and living with that guilt can be a burden which also prevents us from living as God desires.
Opportunities to meet with those we hurt or who hurt us, to speak of what has happened, to be reconciled to one another can help to build better relationships.
Some of you may know about the Corrymela Community in Northern Ireland, a charity that for 60 years has brought people, both Catholic and Protestant, together, to break down barriers, to reconcile people that have thought of others as “different”, as people to be avoided. Understanding can grow, relationships can be repaired.
The war between Israel and Hamas has made it harder for Israelis and Palestinians to trust one another. Yet there are still groups of women who have lost loved ones who are still speaking to one another across the divisions that are so deep. They share stories of loss and grieve together. Even today when they cannot meet physically, they meet on Zoom or in a 3rd country such as Cyprus.
There are many organizations, so many people, who are working for a greater understanding between communities and individuals, who are working for forgiveness and reconciliation.
At the heart of our faith is forgiveness and reconciliation, we are called to live out these values in all our relationships.
We began by looking at 2 stories about sinfulness, the woman who had committed adultery and George Grundy who almost killed several people and lied about it. It is easy to think we would not behave as they behaved, that there are degrees of sinfulness, that God expects us to forgive the little things, but are we expected to forgive everything? Everybody?
We are all sinners in need of the grace of God.
Tonight we come to God who is Love, who is Merciful, who is always ready to forgive us: if we turn to God and acknowledge that we are sinners, sinners just like everybody else, ready to forgive everybody who has sinned against us..
Rev'd Janet Fulljames
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