Contacts
Info
Episodes & Posts
Episodes
Posts
14 SEP 2026 · Peter’s Question and Jesus’ Radical ReplyLast week we considered Christ’s teaching on what to do if a brother sins against you. “Go and tell him his fault,” Christ says, “and if he listens to you, you have gained your brother.”In our passage this morning, Peter— as he often does— has a question about this. As we might, because it rather implies that we accept our brother’s apology and therefore want to be reconciled with him. “Lord,” says Peter, “how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?”The biblical number seven implies wholeness, completion, fullness. So Peter believes he is saying something very great and magnanimous. Others may forgive once or twice, but I am going so far as to suggest that we may forgive up to seven times.Jesus’ response, though, is far more radical than he was anticipating: “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.”Lamech’s Vengeance and Christ’s AlternativeWe should be cautious about taking Jesus too literally here, because to Peter and the observant Jews who were present and listening, they would most probably have recognised the reference to the Book of Genesis— what we would call Genesis 4— and a particular character called Lamech, who comes after Cain in his line.Lamech is said to have taken two wives, and he boasted to them:“Ada and Zillah, hear my voice; you wives of Lamech, listen to what I say:I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for striking me.If Cain’s revenge is sevenfold, then Lamech’s is seventy-sevenfold.”In other words, if Cain wreaked a certain amount of destruction in killing Abel, Lamech says he will wreak far more. Notice also that Lamech’s violence is taken in vengeance for wrongs done to him. “If I am wounded, I will kill. If I am struck, I will destroy.”And that, of course, friends, is the normal way of humanity. It is the instinct that we all recognise, that we all to some extent possess: to hurt, to wound, even to kill, when somebody hurts us. This is vengeance.Many of you will have seen the film in the cinemas at the moment— Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of Homer’s Odyssey. Homer’s story, his epic poem, culminates in an act of brutal and pitiless vengeance, which is depicted as just and heroic. The evil and wicked suitors got what they deserved.However, it seems that Christ came to show us a different way, and that this is what those numbers— seven and seventy-seven— point to. Christ is comparing his way to the way of Lamech, and to a certain extent with the way of the rest of humanity. If Lamech is saying vengeance and destruction without limit, then Christ is saying forgiveness and reconciliation without limit. He is not saying “count to seventy-seven and then stop.” He is actually saying: stop counting. Don’t count. Don’t keep a record. Just forgive— and go on forgiving.The Parable of the Unforgiving ServantThen Jesus tells a story. He says there was a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. One servant owed a huge amount of money— a colossal, extraordinary amount. In our day we might say he owed billions of pounds. It was a debt he could not possibly pay.So he begs the king for mercy, knowing that he and his family are about to be sold into slavery. And amazingly— amazingly— the king has pity on him and forgives this enormous debt.Then that servant, forgiven so much and so lavishly, so easily, goes and finds a fellow servant. That second servant owes something a lot less— still significant, but a lot less: ten thousand or something like that. Still a lot of money, but nowhere near billions. The first servant starts choking him, will not listen to his pleas for mercy, and throws him into prison until he should pay every penny.Then comes the twist. Some other servants see all this happening. They are greatly distressed and go and tell the king. The king summons the first servant and says: “I forgave you all that debt, and yet you would not forgive your fellow servant something so much less than you owed me.” And he casts him into prison.Jesus concludes: “So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”The Point of the StoryThe point of the story is of course that the king is like God, and that we all owe God an immeasurable debt which we cannot possibly pay. God has pity upon us and forgives us for all our sins against him. And yet when our fellow servants sin against us— even though they owe us much less— we do not offer forgiveness to them.The fellow servants in the story who see all this are greatly distressed, and rightly so. The reason is that the mercy shown to the first servant should have changed his heart, should have changed his perspective. For us also, the mercy that God has shown to us in Christ ought to change our hearts, our perspective, our attitudes.The great patristic father John Chrysostom said on this passage that even forgiving your brother continually is like a drop of water compared with the boundless sea of God’s mercy. The point is not even that God has forgiven us a certain amount; it is that God calls us to repentance and offers us forgiveness continually, constantly, regardless of how many times we have fallen in the past and without limits. He offers that to us all the time, and he calls us to have the same attitude towards others— to show the same mercy that we have been shown.The Seriousness of UnforgivenessNotice also the seriousness of what Christ says. If you do not forgive your brother from your heart— in other words, in a deep and serious way— then you will not be forgiven. After teaching the Lord’s Prayer in the Sermon on the Mount, he says the same: “If you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”I have to say, in my experience, this is a single piece of teaching that Christians find hardest to obey— and in many ways it is understandable. It is very hard to forgive somebody who has seriously wounded us. It is a process that most of the time takes time, and it is even harder to forgive somebody who continually hurts us and is going on hurting us.Feeling Hurt vs. Holding a GrudgeIt might be helpful here to introduce a distinction. On the one hand, we may feel hurt and anger, and we may need to wrestle with those feelings as we seek to forgive. Even if the hurt and the anger remain, we are still doing our best before God and by his grace to obey the teaching of Christ. It is not a sin to feel wounded and hurt.On the other hand, however, we may simply choose to hold on to those feelings, to hold a grudge, to justify it in all sorts of ways— and those ways can have a veneer of Christian spirituality. “He hasn’t been a very good Christian… He hasn’t fulfilled these duties and expectations… She’s been so callous, and her attitude is evil…” There are all sorts of things we can say to ourselves. But at the end of the day, if there is no effort to forgive, then we are being disobedient to the teaching of Christ, and we risk what Christ says here: if you do not forgive, you will not be forgiven.The simple lesson, then— simple but not easy— is this: regardless of how many times a person has wronged you, or how seriously, forgive and go on forgiving without limits. Stop counting how many times.Forgiveness and Reconciliation: An Important DistinctionIn all of this there is, however, a challenging question that has to be answered. What about when people do not ask for forgiveness? And what about when there is no possibility of reconciliation?If you were here last week, you will remember the previous passage. Christ speaks of a brother who will not repent and is put out of fellowship with the Church. So this must be a possibility. What about situations like that? There are many situations in life also in which a person has wronged us and not asked for forgiveness, or the person may have died, or may not be contactable. What are we to do?The answer, it seems to me, is that as Christ says here, we must forgive always— but we cannot always be reconciled. There is a very important difference, a distinction, between forgiveness and reconciliation. Forgiveness is commanded by Christ in all circumstances. Reconciliation, however, although it may be a good thing, is not always possible.There are plenty of times in the New Testament when we are told to forgive if somebody repents— the story we have heard today is like that. But there are other times when we are told to forgive without any mention of somebody repenting. Christ says in the Gospel of Mark, for example: “Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.” And we might also think of the example of Christ when he died upon the cross, praying for those who were crucifying him: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” In these instances there is not necessarily a mention of repentance or the possibility of reconciliation— just a straightforward command, and in the case of Christ’s death, an example to forgive.What then can this mean? It must mean that whether we are able to be reconciled or not, we let go of bitterness, of hatred, and of the desire for vengeance. We are to love even the one who has hurt us. And love, friends, is not some vague sense of emotional warmth, but— to use the words of the great Thomas Aquinas— that we will the good of the other person. That we want good for the other person, even if it is a desire that that person repents, turns from their evil, and is reconciled to Christ. So we pray for the person who has sinned against us, and we will the good of that person, even if that is only something we can do in our hearts personally.Again, we may be entirely right— a hundred per cent in the right— and the other person may be a hundred per cent in the wrong. Even so, we are commanded to let this go, to love, and to forgive.As John Chrysostom says: “Nothing makes
8 SEP 2026 · A sermon on Matthew 18:15–20Opening“For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I among them.”In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.Amen.The Church as the Place of Christ’s PresenceI think the reason I am where I am and do what I do is at least partly because I love the Church. What I am about to say may sound slightly extreme, but I do believe that the Church holds out the only real hope for this world. I do not believe this because of the greatness of the Church as we see it here on earth—far from it—but because of the presence of Christ in the Church.Christ seeks to bring healing, joy, reconciliation, and peace: between God and humanity, and between men and women and children. The Church is the principal place, the principal forum, in which Christ has promised to manifest his grace in this world.Of course we get it wrong so much of the time. Of course we do. Yet it remains the promise we have from Christ, as we heard in our reading today. The Apostle Paul says elsewhere in the New Testament: “We have this treasure in jars of clay.” It is a very powerful image—jars of clay. We are fragile, feeble, sinful, vulnerable, and easily broken. And yet, in a very real way, Christ entrusts the message to us; and in a very real way he also entrusts himself and his presence to us.Christ’s Teaching on ReconciliationOur Gospel reading begins with advice from Christ about reconciliation in the Church. How do we bring about reconciliation when relationships are broken? The point of the whole passage is that the unity we share together as a Church has heavenly significance. The unity of prayer and concord that we share is a manifestation of Christ in the world—and that is why it is so important. That is why Christ gives us this advice for trying to win back someone who has sinned.“Go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone,” says Christ—presumably because it is easier to persuade someone when it is just the two of you rather than when many people are present. If this does not work, Christ says, bring some others along and see if he listens then. If he still does not listen, tell it to the Church—the assembled congregation. That is a fearful proposition. And if he still does not listen, let him be to you as a tax collector and a Gentile—not meaning someone completely cut off (Christ himself spent time with tax collectors and Gentiles), but someone outside the fellowship of the Church and therefore in need of further calling to repentance.This is Christ’s teaching on bringing about restoration. It is worth pointing out that the explicit aim of what he says is to bring about healing in relationships and therefore unity in the Church. Even the treating of someone as a tax collector or Gentile is spoken of by Saint Augustine as a kind of medicine to cure the soul—to cure the one who will not listen to rebuke.Honesty, Humility, and Personal ResponsibilityThe teaching of Christ reveals that there is something healthy and right about being open and honest with other people, especially when they have hurt us or done something wrong to us. It is of course easier to internalise our anger; it is easier sometimes to speak behind people’s backs instead of confronting them honestly. We gossip and slander to others—perhaps simply to offload our grievances, or perhaps to get others on side in a kind of campaign against the person who has hurt us. This is the temptation when things go wrong. All of it is toxic: toxic in the Church, toxic in any organisation, toxic among any group of human beings.So Christ tells us: if someone has sinned against you, go to that person (if it is appropriate to do so) and speak honestly. If you need advice about how to do this, I was once told that the best approach is first to state the effect the other person’s behaviour has had upon you, rather than making a direct accusation about their personality or patterns of behaviour. “When you said or did that, I felt concerned… I felt upset… I felt anxious… I felt annoyed.” Something to that effect. It stops the conversation from becoming a personal insult.Equally, what do you do if someone comes to you with a legitimate grievance? The implication of the passage is clear: have humility, listen, and if the grievance is legitimate—as it may very well be—apologise. Why be defensive? We all feel like being defensive, but why? As Christians we believe that Christ died for our sins. Christ would not have had to do that if our sins were not serious. And if Christ had to go that far for us, why would we assume that we do not still make mistakes, get things wrong, and even do bad things?I would also point out the emphasis in this passage on personal responsibility, which is clearly implied in what Christ says. It is very easy to make excuses and to blame other people even for our own behaviour. We can blame the way we were raised, the disadvantages we have faced, or all sorts of other factors. There may sometimes be some truth in these things; there may be some degree of excuse. But we cannot blame other people and external factors all the time, and we cannot blame them for things we have actually chosen to do ourselves. Choices entail responsibility. All of us are under certain kinds of pressure. The measure of our virtue is the extent to which, by God’s grace, we are able to make godly decisions even given the pressures and difficulties we face in our lives and environments.If I may offer a further word: I think one of the difficulties we face a good deal of the time is a certain sense-of-humour failure. We ought to learn to laugh at ourselves a little more. We take ourselves too seriously and are unwilling to admit that a lot of the time we simply do stupid things, make mistakes, and need to say sorry for them. I remember my grandfather saying to me on a number of occasions that there are five magic words in a marriage: “I’m sorry, I was wrong.” I do not know why he said that to me so often, but it is a piece of advice I remember. We would do well to remember the words of Proverbs 30:2: “Surely I am too stupid to be a man.” It is a good thing to say to ourselves from time to time—or a woman, of course. When we do stupid things, we ought to admit them, and admit them without shame. Why would I expect to be perfect? Would I not expect to make mistakes from time to time? Friends, let us humble ourselves and say sorry when we have done what is wrong.The Authority of the Church and the Presence of ChristWhen Christ says, “Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven,” this must mean that when the Church is acting in line with the will and purposes of God, the judgement of the Church is ratified by the judgement of God. If the Church puts someone out of fellowship, this has implications for that person’s relationship with God. It is a very real authority which Christ has given to the Church.The significance of this is spelled out in what Christ says next: “If two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” This verse is often taken out of context. The point is that this is what is at stake in the Church. This is why the unity of Christians and of the Christian Church is so important: that unity of fellowship and of prayer calls down the blessing of God and is itself a manifestation of the presence of Christ. This is true even—and especially—in the difficult context of repentance, forgiveness, and reconciliation.What does it mean when Christ says that the Father in heaven will do anything we ask if we agree on it? Clearly this cannot mean that we can ask God for literally anything, regardless of what it is, and he will do it as long as we agree. How nice that would be! We have already noticed that the Father is said to respond when we ask in agreement with one another. But we must also heed the further words of Christ: “when two or three are gathered together in my name.” I think we must take this to mean something like “when we ask in accordance with the will of Christ.”The Church as It Is Called to BePutting all of this together, we gain a picture of the Church as we are called to be: together in unity and love, in mutual reconciliation and forgiveness, with all of us living in holiness and obedience to Christ. When the Church is like this, Christ is present in her midst. It is worth repeating: Christ is present when we live together in unity, in love, in mutual reconciliation and forgiveness; when we live together in holiness and obedience, Christ is present in the Church.That is why it is so important that we seek to bring about healing in our relationships when sin has brought brokenness and division—because it is the very presence of Christ in the Church that is at stake.A Practical CallThere is a practical outcome to this sermon. I encourage you to ask yourself whether there is something you need to say to someone: perhaps to tell a brother or sister his or her fault, so that you can bring about reconciliation and healing. Maybe that person simply does not know that he or she has done something to offend or hurt you. Or it may be that you need to say sorry for something you have said or done: “I’m sorry, I was wrong.”As the song says, “Sorry” always seems to be the hardest word—but “sorry” is also the word that can bring healing and life when it is spoken. It can bring about the restoration of relationships that have been broken for years or even decades. It is such a powerful word. So, friends, if you need to say this word to somebody, keep short accounts and say it quickly while you have the chance.Remember the words of the Apostle Paul in Romans 13, our New Testament reading today: “The one who loves another has fulfilled the law.” In other words, there is no point keeping all the commandments of God to the letter if we fail to love our neighbour—for this is the point of the law an
24 AUG 2026 · The Revelation of ChristFriends, as we have just heard, we come today to what has at times been a controversial and contested passage in Scripture: Christ’s words, “Thou art Peter, and on this rock I will build my church.” These words are spoken by Jesus to Peter after Peter confesses that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.I will say more about Peter specifically in a moment, but the first thing I wish to observe is the importance of the revelation of Christ as the Messiah and of Peter’s proclamation of him as such.What is the Church?What does it exist to do and to be?On what is its authority founded?What is the purpose of the Scriptures?And what is the purpose of the sacraments?It can all feel confusing and overwhelming at times, yet it can be summed up quite simply: it is all about the revelation of God in Jesus Christ. It is the event of Christ—the Incarnation—God coming among us in the form of Jesus of Nazareth. In the words of the Apostle John in his Gospel: “No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.”It is all about Jesus Christ. In Christ we have the salvation of the world through his perfect life, his death given for the sins of the world, his resurrection for our justification, his ascension, and the hope of his coming again.There is much in the Christian faith to grasp, but if you ever find yourself confused, hold on to this: everything is meant to point to Jesus—his life, his death, his resurrection, and his coming again. This is the authority, the rock, upon which the Church stands, and it is the rock upon which we stand.The Purpose of the ChurchThe Church’s primary purpose is not to solve the world’s social and political problems. It may have something to say about those matters, but that is not its primary purpose. Its primary purpose is to proclaim Christ, to worship Christ, to witness to Christ, and to draw other people to Christ.Christ tells Peter: “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” In other words, at this moment Peter is given the authority to open the door of the kingdom of heaven because he has been entrusted with the revelation of God in Jesus Christ.In this context the phrase “binding and loosing” means simply forbidding or permitting. The authority Christ gives to the Apostle Peter concerns teaching, making judgements, and church discipline. All of this authority is given for the building up of Jesus Christ’s Church.Peter, the Apostles, and Shared AuthoritySpeaking of Peter specifically, it is important to note that in the Gospels and elsewhere Peter is given a certain primacy among the apostles. He is singled out by Christ. The early Church also understood Rome—where Peter eventually became bishop and where he was martyred—as holding a place of particular importance and authority in the Christian Church.Yet it is equally important to note that a similar authority is given to all of Christ’s twelve apostles elsewhere in the Gospels. Shortly after this passage, in Matthew 18, Christ says to all the twelve: “Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”In a related passage in the Gospel of John, chapter 20, after the resurrection, Christ appears to the eleven remaining apostles, breathes on them, and says: “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”Consider those verses for a moment. Christ gives the apostles, including Peter, the Holy Spirit and tells them they have the authority to forgive or not to forgive sins—or, we might say, to pronounce forgiveness or to withhold it. This is clearly not an independent authority they possess apart from Christ. It is an authority given by Christ and exercised in his name. Nevertheless it is a real authority, and it should not simply be ignored or passed over because the texts are difficult to understand or because they make us feel uncomfortable.To summarise what has been said so far:* Peter is given the keys of the kingdom and the authority to bind and loose.* The other apostles are given a similar authority to bind and loose.* The apostles are given the Holy Spirit and the authority to forgive or not to forgive sins.Apostolic Ministry in the New TestamentWhat does all of this mean? After Christ’s ascension we have the Book of Acts and the many letters that make up the New Testament. Already in the New Testament we see an early form of what we would now call ordination. Those first apostles ordained or appointed elders to minister in the churches. We also find the language of overseers (in Greek, episkopoi—sometimes translated “bishop”) and deacons (in Greek, diakonos).A few examples:In Acts 14:23 Paul and Barnabas are said to have ordained or appointed elders in every church.When Paul writes to Titus he says he left him in Crete to ordain elders in every city.We also have examples of the laying on of hands in similar contexts—when ministerial authority is passed from one person who holds that authority to another—in the Book of Acts, twice in 1 Timothy, and in 2 Timothy.The point is that the New Testament already begins to paint a picture of a continuing apostolic ministry. It is not simply that individual groups of Christians form and that especially gifted teachers or pastors naturally rise up to become leaders. Rather, the apostles establish a continuing ministry in the churches by appointing elders and overseers (or bishops) and entrusting them with the apostolic message and with the authority they themselves received from Christ. This authority is passed on through this pattern.The doctrine we now call apostolic succession is the way the Church came to articulate this pattern. The name was given later, but the reality grows naturally out of the pages of the New Testament and the practice of the early Church. By the beginning of the second century we have strong evidence that the threefold order of bishops, priests, and deacons was firmly established as the basic ministerial structure of the Church.Anglican Inheritance and the Gift of OrderAs Anglicans we are the inheritors of the authority given to the apostles by Christ. We inherit that authority through the line of apostolic succession. Our bishops are those who have been ordained in that line and who therefore possess authority to exercise apostolic ministry in the Church.What are priests—people like me? Put very simply, we are the assistants or deputies of bishops. We are given something of the bishop’s delegated authority, exercised in the context of a local parish or a specific ministry.One of the points I am keen to stress is that this authority always comes from Christ. Christ intended, by his actions as we see them in Scripture, that his Church should be ordered in a certain way. The Church is not something we create or imagine for ourselves. It is something we inherit; it is therefore a gift. It is a historical reality. It is not merely an abstract idea, and we must wrestle with it as both a historical and a present-day reality.Yes, believe me, I know as well as anyone how frustrating and difficult dealing with the actual reality of the Church can be—it is my everyday reality. Yet it is a real entity, a real historical reality given to us by Christ, and therefore we must engage with it as it is. We cannot simply leave the Church and set up our own. From the Scriptures we can conclude that this is not the way Christ intended things to be.Ministry for the Whole People of GodThere are many other things that could be said, and if you have not heard these ideas laid out in this way before, you may have all sorts of questions. I hope the handout I have prepared will be helpful for further reflection.I want to end by saying two things.First: the apostolic ministry I have been speaking about is given to empower the people of God to participate in the mission of the Church. The ministry of bishops, priests, and deacons is given for all of us—for all of you—to empower you in your participation in the mission of the Church and in your growth in holiness.The mission of the Church is the proclamation of Christ, so that all people may come to worship him, be made obedient to him, and grow towards God and towards one another in holy love. Bishops and priests are here to teach and proclaim this message. We are here to celebrate the sacraments, which are given for the supernatural assistance of God’s people. We baptise people for the forgiveness of sins, and we celebrate the Holy Eucharist so that God’s people are fed with the heavenly flesh and blood of Christ and thereby sustained and nourished for their Christian lives.We are not clericalists. The ordained ministry is a gift to the Church—to all of you—to equip you for mission. Priests and bishops do not stand between you and Christ or between you and God; we are called to help you grow into deeper communion with Christ. And you also have a specific and unique role to play in the building up of the Church, as we heard earlier from the reading from the Letter to the Romans. You too are called to proclaim the message, to worship Christ, and to point people towards him.The Gates of Hell Shall Not PrevailFinally, the words of Christ: “I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” Why is this? Why will the gates of hell not prevail against Christ’s Church? Because the Church is founded upon Christ and upon the revelation of Christ, which is given to the Church by the Holy Spirit. As Christ says to the Apostle Peter: “Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.”It is a simple reality that when we cease to proclaim Christ, the Church is critically weakened. If we continue to proclaim something other than Christ, our part of the Church may di
17 AUG 2026 · The Reality of MotherhoodI know from observation—not experience—that motherhood is difficult. When a woman conceives a child, things change in almost every conceivable way. Her body changes. She may become sick. She will suffer physical aches and extreme fatigue. Psychologically, she suffers, perhaps because of the strange sense that a new life is growing within her. And at the end of this long nine-month period, there is of course birth, and after that, joy that a child is born.But of course, the mother then has these awesome new responsibilities to reckon with: care for a baby, for an infant, for a toddler, for a child, for an adolescent—and on and on it goes. This is a deeply sacrificial process. The mother sacrifices her own physical wellbeing; in a sense, she sacrifices her youth, she sacrifices her comfort, she sacrifices her time, her energy, her strength, her life, to take care of a child that can offer nothing to her except its complete dependence, and in time, its love.I mention all of this because I want, in some way, to help us imagine what real motherhood actually looks like, and to think about the Blessed Virgin Mary’s life in this context of reality. It is very easy to spiritualise Mary’s story and to skip over the very real sense of what happened to her. She was called by God, primarily and fundamentally, to become a mother. Yes, it was in extremely strange and indeed unique circumstances, and she would be the mother of the most important person who ever lived—but she was still a mother. And crucially, when she was called by God to be a mother, she said yes to Him.Mary’s Fiat: The First Great Human YesMary’s yes to God is the first great human yes of the New Testament. The angel Gabriel said to her, “You will conceive and you will bear a son, and you will call his name Jesus.” And of course, Mary asked the entirely reasonable question, “How can that be, since I am a virgin?” And the angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.” And after these words came the crucial response: “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be according to thy word.”That phrase, “let it be,” is translated into the Latin in the ancient text with one word—Fiat—which means “let it be.” And friends, I ask you this morning to consider the greatness of this Fiat. Mary was told that she would remain a virgin and yet conceive. Not very much information was given apart from that. What would that have meant to her at the time for her relationship with Joseph, her betrothed? How would she live given the social stigma that would certainly attend such a bizarre occurrence? Who would this child really be? What would he do, and what would this entail? Again, not much of this was clear at the time. Mary didn’t have all the answers, but she said yes anyway—and she had to keep on saying yes throughout her life.Later on, when Jesus was presented at the temple, the old man Simeon blessed the holy family, but he prophesied that their child would be a sign that is opposed, and he told Mary specifically that a sword would pierce through her own soul also. And yet she continued to say yes. She continued to be a faithful mother and, in time, to be the disciple of her own son. And the sword did indeed pass through her soul when, at the end, she relinquished all to God as she watched Jesus—her own son—suffer and die upon the cross.Consider the greatness of Mary as she continued to say yes through all of this. Is there any greater suffering than that of parents for their children? Is there any greater grief than to watch one’s own child suffer and die? And yet this is what Mary did out of her obedience and love for God. Friends, consider her greatness, consider her Fiat, consider her yes to God.Mary as Prototype of Our DiscipleshipAnd yet the question we might ask is: What does that mean for me? How does it relate to me? I’m going to suggest two things, but these two things are really the same thing, which is that we seek communion with the Blessed Virgin Mary—with the Blessed Mother, the Mother of God.The first is that Mary was a human woman and, in a very real sense, the first disciple of Jesus. She is therefore a prototype of our discipleship. She goes first before us, and her perfect yes to God inspires us because it shows us that we too can say yes to Him even when He calls us to things that will entail great suffering and loss. Indeed, her yes shows us that there is nothing strange in suffering for God.It is crucial also to notice that Mary’s yes isn’t given out of sheer willpower alone. It is a response to God’s grace, and it is carried out in the power of God, as Mary sang in the Magnificat, which was our gospel reading today: “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour… He has shown strength with His arm.” Mary doesn’t celebrate herself; she doesn’t exult in her own strength, in her own spiritual accomplishments and achievements, but she exults in the power of God. And herein lies the secret of her greatness.When we say yes to God, we are participating in the yes that Mary spoke at the beginning of the story. Her yes meant that God would enter into the world in Christ through Mary’s body and with her free and willing cooperation with the grace of God. And when we say yes to God, we enable a similar thing to happen. We make ourselves available to the purposes of God in the world, and we respond like Mary to His grace. We are saying that we will cooperate with that grace in presenting Christ in our own way to the world.Living the YesFriends, in some ways it is not so hard to say yes once to God. Mary was young when she said it that first time. I’m sure it became much harder as she grew older and as she realised more and more of what it meant. The greatness isn’t so much in saying yes; the greatness is in, by God’s grace, living it.I remember a moment in my life some years ago now, when I was unsure what to do, had significant decisions to make, and I heard a sermon about Mary and about her response to God. I knew personally at that moment that I had to take a path that would eventually lead to me becoming ordained—although I didn’t know that specifically at the time. That was a moment when I was called to say yes in a particular way, and it is a yes that I have to keep on saying. There have been many wrong turns. There have been many times when I failed, when I’ve sinned, when I’ve needed to repent and come back and renew that sense of saying yes to God. But it is something that, by God’s grace, has brought me this far—and I’m sure many people here can relate to that.And so I ask you today: What is it that God is calling you to say yes to? That thing doesn’t have to be something public, like being ordained. It doesn’t have to be spectacular; it doesn’t even have to be impressive—but it does have to be faithful. And that faithfulness, at the end of the day, at the end of our lives, is what God calls us to: being faithful to what He asks us to do.It may be that you are simply called to bear the weight of suffering, of sickness, of old age, with holiness, with patience, with prayer. It may be that you are called to do your job with integrity whilst others around you aren’t. It may be that you are called to faithfully provide for your family. It may be that you, like Mary, are called to be a wife and a mother to your children. Whatever your yes might be, friends, say it to God with all your might and by the power of His grace, as Mary did: “Let it be according to thy word.”Seeking Communion with MaryThe other thing I’d like to mention is Mary’s presence in our lives as Christians now. The doctrine of the communion of the saints tells us that the saints in heaven are still in communion with us here on earth. They aren’t gone and separated from us completely; we still have communion or connection with them. As we might ask for the prayers of the living to assist us, so we ask for the prayers of the faithful departed who are in heaven with God.Because of her closeness with Jesus, we believe that Mary is in heaven with her Son. They are reunited in glory and love, because the strength of their love cannot be broken by death. Mary has gone before us. She has reached her destination. We, all of us, are still on the way there. We therefore ask Mary to pray for us because we believe that she is in the presence of her Son, and that He hears her requests on our behalf.In the book of James in the New Testament, it says, “The prayer of a righteous person has great power in its working.” If this is the case for a righteous person here on earth, then isn’t it also natural to seek the prayers of the very bearer of God herself—the Theotokos—who is in heaven, in the presence of Jesus?I’m aware that there are quite a lot of people here who perhaps have come from a different church background in which this sort of devotion might not have been practised, or who simply haven’t been introduced to these concepts yet. Many years ago, I would have shared a view that might be a bit sceptical about this sort of thing, and I would have had some questions about the kinds of things that I have just said in this sermon. But if you are unsure about Mary’s presence in our lives today as Christians, or if you simply haven’t come across these ideas before, I would issue a gentle challenge: try and ask Mary to pray for you. Ask her to pray for you.What I’m about to say is of course subjective, but it is also supported by the tradition and the experience of the Church. Personally, I find that when I ask for Mary’s prayers, I feel a deep sense of communion with her and a conviction that she hears me and that she is indeed in heaven praying for me. And as I say, I believe—and the Church has taught—that that is true for all Christians. That offer is there for all Christians to have communion with the Blessed Virgin Mary by asking her to pray for us. And so maybe that could be true of you also
11 AUG 2026 · The Pattern in Christ’s LifeIt interests me that the devotional life of Christ is not described in much detail in the Gospels. What did He do when He was out praying? What was He doing in His devotions? Yet we can see a clear pattern in the Gospels, and I want to suggest that this pattern is an encouragement to us.After the Feeding of the Five ThousandIn Matthew chapter 14, the Gospel reading we have just heard, Jesus has performed a significant miracle: the feeding of the five thousand. Before that miracle, Jesus had been trying to get away for some peace, rest, and prayer, but the crowds followed him even into the desolate place—or the wilderness—that he sought.After the feeding of the five thousand, Jesus dismissed both his disciples and the crowds and went up on a mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone. It was in the fourth watch of the night—between three and six in the morning—that he came down from that mountain. Jesus was there on the mountaintop for a long time, alone, praying.Jesus as Our ExampleJesus was fully God, but he was also fully a man. Being a man, his life can be seen as a pattern laid down for us to follow in our own way and in our own time. It is right to say that Christ suffered and was worn out, just as we suffer and are sometimes worn out. By this point in Matthew 14, Jesus was extremely tired. Feeding five thousand people takes a great deal of energy, even when it is a miracle.This is the sort of tiredness we have all known: the kind that tells us we simply cannot go on until we have had rest. Jesus had given himself, body and soul, to the people who followed him and to his disciples, and he was spent. Yet observe what he does. He goes up on a mountainside by himself to pray. He sought the emptiness of a desolate place so that he could have quiet and dedicate himself to prayer.This is not an isolated incident. It happens time and again in the Gospels. We see the pattern: after a period of activity, solitude, silence, and prayer. He did this because it was through prayer that he renewed his communion with the Father, and in that quiet place he could hear the Father’s voice once again. We might even say that all of Christ’s actions in this world began and ended with prayer—often the prayer of solitude and silence.Different Gifts of PrayerWe do not know exactly what Christ was doing during those times—what prayers he was praying or what scriptures he was reading. God, in His wisdom, has made us all different; there is no single blueprint we are all to follow. If we knew precisely what Jesus was doing, we would probably all try to copy Him. We have different gifts of prayer, some still waiting to be discovered.What we do learn is the importance of withdrawing from the world of activity to pray, so that we might be strengthened to fulfil our callings before God and keep our focus on Him. Life has a habit of taking our focus off God. We lose sight of Him. He no longer seems as real, as near, or as relevant. Christ’s example challenges us to return often to Him in the silence of our hearts, in a quiet place, so that we might discover His presence once again.Pray Without CeasingWe might think of the well-known words of the apostle Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5:17: “Pray without ceasing.” This phrase has been interpreted in different ways. It can mean pray very frequently, at intervals, and make a habit of it. It can also mean pray constantly—pray all the time in whatever you are doing.The Eastern Orthodox, in particular, promote the Jesus Prayer for this reason: the repeated phrase, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon me, a sinner.” Used so often, it becomes the self-acting prayer of the heart, so that prayer is a constant companion even in the busyness of ordinary life.I offer this not to prescribe any particular method, but to invite you to consider what it would mean to imitate the example of Christ in your own life and how it might help you.Carrying Everything to God in PrayerI have been reminded this week of the well-known hymn:What a friend we have in Jesus,all our sins and griefs to bear.What a privilege to carryeverything to God in prayer.And especially this verse:Oh, what peace we often forfeit,oh, what needless pain we bear,all because we do not carryeverything to God in prayer.There is a great deal of truth in those words.As a priest, especially in this tradition, it is easy to think that prayer must be formal, liturgical, and carefully thought through—otherwise it might seem pedestrian and not worth doing. Nothing could be further from the truth. We ought always to pray, at all times, in all places, and in every way. Prayer can be formal and planned, and sometimes it should be. But that should never put us off sending our prayers and requests to God as they arise in the course of daily life, as troubles or anxieties arise in our hearts. We can use our own words and share our own thoughts with God. We ought also to remember the words of the apostle Peter, who tells us to cast all our anxieties upon God, because He cares for us.A Personal ChallengeI have asked myself: do I do these things? As a priest I am meant to pray Morning and Evening Prayer, and I try my best and manage it most of the time. But do I pray at all times and in all ways? Do I pray when I sit down to write a sermon, or when I feel overwhelmed by tiredness, or when I am troubled by the thought of a difficult conversation, or when I face an unwanted task? If the answer is no, then could I not try to do them a little more? Not because I am trying to earn God’s favour or because I feel guilty, but because I know I will find strength and restoration of soul if I do. I wonder how that might apply to you also.A Simple ExampleMany of you will know Father Christopher from the Cheriton benefice near here. He is a colleague of mine, and I occasionally have lunch with him. Sometimes it is a very full lunch, and by the end I am tired and ready for a nap—as many of you can identify. Yet Father Christopher always insists on going afterwards to one of his churches to say a prayer. Last time we did this at Hinton Ampner, a very fine church. There were many tourists and visitors in the building, but Father Christopher led us to the altar, turned on the lights, knelt, and we said a brief prayer together. I do not remember exactly what we said—probably thanks for the time together and for our lunch, and a prayer for the churches we serve. It took perhaps two minutes.Prayer can be just as simple as that: thanks to God for His blessings, whether recent, historic, or constant, and requests for blessing and help. If it can be that simple for two priests, it can be that simple for you also.Strength in the Midst of BusynessMy own life is sometimes quite busy. I feel as though I am rushing from one thing to another without time to respond adequately to the needs of the church or the people around me. Sometimes life feels as though there is no space to breathe. Yet I have realised something of a paradox: if I stop and pray, I find something there. It does not make everything easy or suddenly make everything all right. But it is a sense of having shared one’s burden with God and having invoked His power and help. It is the assurance that He will give enough to face whatever needs to be faced, and that one need not be filled with foreboding, dread, depression, or anxiety.How might these examples relate to you? Your struggles are different from mine. The pain and grief you bear are your own. But what we all have in common is the example of Christ: His withdrawal for silence, solitude, and prayer, and His desire to be strengthened in the power of God.I ask you to consider how your life might be different if you sought to put this example into practice in your own way, and how you might follow the example of Christ in this regard.Peter Walking on the WaterFinally, a word about Peter’s story. Peter saw Christ walking on the water and desired to walk towards Him. He got out of the boat and even walked on the water some way. Yet when he took his eyes from Christ, he began to sink.That is a powerful illustration of what I have been saying. When we look to Christ in prayer and with faith, we make progress towards God. It is not that the winds and the waves are not there—they are, and they always will be in this life. Crucially, our focus is on something else: on Christ. Although those things remain, they do not have the same power over us, because we have peace, consolation, and help in God.Even if we begin to sink, as Peter did, look at Christ’s saving compassion. Jesus immediately reached out His hand and took hold of him. Here we see the grace of God—how willing God is to help us, even when we take our focus away from Him, even when we neglect prayer or fail in some other way. He reaches out so that we might take hold of Him. Christ grasped the hand of Peter as he sank beneath the waves.Strengthened in the EucharistIn a similar way, in the Holy Eucharist, Christ offers Himself to us. He literally reaches out to us with His body, given that we might truly take hold of Him. In eating of His heavenly flesh we receive His very self into our bodies, and so we are strengthened and become one with Him.Friends, in faith, let us approach and be strengthened now through this holy sacrament, and let us always continue in prayer—at all times, in all places, and in every way.In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit https://holytrinitywinchester.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1
7 AUG 2026 · The Transfiguration, 2026‘And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.’ 2 Corinthians 3:18In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.Why the Transfiguration?In his second epistle, the Apostle Peter wanted to convince his audience that what he was saying about Christ was not just another cleverly devised myth but that it was, in fact, the truth. He says that the Apostles ‘were eyewitnesses of his majesty’. That is, that they saw his majesty. But what he says after that is a little surprising. He does not mention Christ’s miracles – his feeding the five thousand, his healings and exorcisms, his raising people from the dead, or even his resurrection, as we might expect him to. But instead he mentions the Transfiguration.There was evidently something about the Transfiguration that struck Peter with an unforgettable force. Without overstating the case, we might even say that the Transfiguration revealed something about Christ which not even his miracles – not even his resurrection – did in quite the same way. The Transfiguration was, so Peter says, the moment when Christ ‘received honour and glory from God the Father’ – and this in a very particular way.And we see something of this particular and unique revelation if we look closely at the Scriptural account.The Light of the Vision of GodWe are told that the appearance of Christ’s face was altered and that his clothing became dazzling white. The great Eastern Orthodox father Gregory Palamas says here that this is the moment when the veil of the Incarnation was lifted and when Christ shone with the uncreated light and energy of God himself. Palamas wrote,“He was transfigured, not by assuming what He was not, nor by changing into what He was not, but by revealing to his disciples what He was, opening their eyes and giving sight to those who had been blind.”Palamas linked this with the disciples’ own participation in this vision, teaching that the uncreated light of God with which Christ shone will one day be the light in which all the saints of God share, saying,“The light of Tabor is the light of the Kingdom of God, in which the righteous shall shine forth like the sun.”This is particularly pertinent because only shortly before Peter’s reference to the Transfiguration in 2 Peter, the Apostle described the ultimate end of salvation, which is to become ‘partakers in the divine nature’.This is an often-underemphasised aspect of salvation in Western Theology, but the idea is that, through God’s grace and our participation in the vision of God, we too may be raised to the level of godhood in the Kingdom of Heaven. Our vision of God plays a crucial part in this process because it is by seeing God that we become transformed into his image. We become the vision of God, in this sense.This is very reminiscent of Psalm 36:9: ‘For with thee is the fountain of life; in thy light shall we see light.’And here we may also observe that it is through the light of the vision of God that we are returned to the world to see the world in a new way, with a new illumination. We no longer see with our earthly eyes, but we see with the eyes of God. This is what it is to be transformed by this vision.So, friends, as we come to Mass and as we enter into the Divine Liturgy together, let us open the eyes of our hearts, praying that we may have a vision of God in this place through Word and Sacrament. Let us cherish this vision and allow it to transform our vision, even as we make our way back down the mountain and enter once again into the everyday world.The Fulfilment of the ScripturesWe see also through the Transfiguration that Christ is the fulfilment of the Old Testament Scriptures. This is, of course, what Moses and Elijah represent, the Law and the Prophets. At the time, this was a shorthand way of referring to the whole of the Old Testament and it is literally depicted here in the appearance of Moses and Elijah.Moses and Elijah spoke with Christ and the subject matter is interesting: we are told that they spoke of his ‘departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem’.That word “departure” is an interesting choice because the literal Greek of the passage does not say “departure” but “exodus”. And the allusion to the Exodus of Israel from their bondage to slavery in Egypt is not accidental. The point is, of course, that Christ was about to accomplish the true exodus. What the Exodus from Egypt pointed forward to symbolically was the ultimate and final liberation of humanity from our bondage to slavery: that of slavery to the Devil, to sin and to death. Christ was about to accomplish this final and true exodus at Jerusalem through his death and resurrection. And it is only through Christ and these things that all of humanity can be truly liberated.The Voice of GodThe final point I would like to emphasise concerns what happened after Peter’s somewhat fumbling attempt to accommodate these important people who stood with him on this mountaintop. A cloud came and overshadowed them – this cloud, of course, reminds us of the presence of Yahweh that led Israel through the wilderness and the cloud of the Shekinah glory that signalled the presence of the Lord in the Temple. A voice spoke to them, “This is my Son, my Chosen One – listen to him!”And then…it was all over. Jesus was alone. The veil had, as it were, fallen once again and, to anybody who may have been passing by, everything might have seemed completely normal – just four men on a mountainside.“The Son of Man is about to be Delivered into the hands of men”Our reading this evening takes us only this far but, as soon as these things were over, Jesus said to his disciples, “Let these words sink into your ears: The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men.” In other words, Christ warned them, immediately after the Transfiguration, of the fact that he was about to be betrayed, arrested and put to death. The timing is no coincidence. Christ wanted to show something of his glory to his closest circle before he went to the cross. He wanted them to know something of who he truly was. He wanted them to see his glory before they saw his humiliation.And we can here draw out at least a couple of reasons as to why:Firstly, Christ perhaps wanted to encourage his disciples. They were about to suffer the loss of their Master and to see his abject humiliation, torture and death. He had shown them so much already and yet this was a final vision, with Moses and Elijah and the voice of God the Father himself bearing witness, to prepare them for the shocking rupture of the cross. It was not as though the Transfiguration would explain everything that would happen next but it could have reassured the disciples that, even though they did not understand, yet they trusted because they knew who Christ really was. And perhaps they may have gone further and recognised the Cross and the Tomb could not have been the final word. Notice also the words of the Father, “Listen to him.” The vision would pass quickly but Christ’s words would remain: “Let these words sink into your ears”. Store them up. Remember them. You are going to need them soon.This is a good word for us. We too have mountaintop experiences with God when we feel his presence especially closely in private prayer, in church, in the Holy Eucharist, in the confessional, or wherever it may be. But in the cut-and-thrust of everyday life, when God seems distant or perhaps even irrelevant, when we suffer our own crosses and feel that we cannot bear the pain, we too can remember the vision that we once had, the words we once heard, and know that this is no fable, no cleverly devised myth.And why does God leave us without this vision? It is surely so that we can grow strong in faith. It is surely so that we can choose to draw closer to God even when we do not have the vision to assist us. And, in this way, our faith is strengthened and our souls are enlarged.The final observation I’d like to share is this: that, in the Gospels there are really two great visions of Christ’s glory: there is the Transfiguration and there is the Cross. Now the Cross does not reveal the uncreated energy of God in the same way as the Transfiguration does but the Cross reveals the very nature of God himself: greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. In Christ, God laid down his life for us. He took a human life up, and he laid it down again.But notice how important the Transfiguration is in all of this: if we did not know who Christ was then the Cross would be of very little significance. A good man crucified perhaps. But, because we have seen his glory, glory as of the only begotten Son of the Father, we know that the one who ascended Golgotha was also the one who ascended the Mount of the Transfiguration and shone with the light of Tabor. We know that the one who was clothed with the uncreated energy of God was covered in the mock purple gown of a king and crowned with a wreath of thorns. We know that the one to whom Moses and Elijah paid tribute was the one who was mocked and spat upon by the Romans and the Jews. We know that the one of whom God the Father said, “This is my Son, my Chosen One,” was also the one about whom the crowds shouted, “Release Barabbas instead and crucify him!”Friends, let us remember this vision of the glory of God always, when we find ourselves on the Mount of Transfiguration and when we find ourselves on the hill of Golgotha. Until that day when we too shine with the uncreated energy and light of God.In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit
27 JUL 2026 · “For while gentle silence enveloped all things, and night in its swift course was now half gone,your all-powerful word leaped from heaven, from the royal throne, into the midst of the land that was doomed.” Wisdom 18:14–15In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.The Mustard Seed and the LeavenOur Gospel reading today consists of four of Jesus’ parables that describe the Kingdom of Heaven. The first section is about a mustard seed that is the smallest of all seeds but which when it grows becomes the largest garden plant and then a tree with branches that prove themselves hospitable to the birds. The second is a woman who hid some leaven in three measures of dough until it was all leavened.What is Jesus’ meaning in these parables? Put simply, I think that here he is telling us that there is a smallness and a hiddenness to the things of God.Consider the mustard seed: small at first. But when it is cast into the ground and dies, it grows up again and becomes something of great significance.The leaven likewise is literally hidden in the flour, invisible to the eyes of the world, and yet it spreads through the flour until the flour is completely permeated with it.About this, the Patristic Father Peter Chrysologus says:“Christ is the kingdom of heaven. Sown like a mustard seed in the garden of the virgin’s womb, he grew up into the tree of the cross whose branches stretch across the world. Crushed in the mortar of the passion, its fruit has produced seasoning enough for the flavoring and preservation of every living creature with which it comes in contact.” Chrysologus, Sermon 98In our catechesis class, we have been reading the letters of St Ignatius of Antioch, a second century bishop who was transported across Asia Minor to Rome where he was eventually martyred. One of the themes that he returns to in these letters is the silence of God. By this he does not mean God’s absence, but that there is a certain way that God acts in the world.In Christ, God’s plan was hidden in the womb of the Virgin. His identity was concealed under the humble guise of a carpenter’s son. Even in his public ministry, when he was performing his miracles, he was careful not to make himself known too soon. Upon the cross, he died the seemingly ignominious death of a common criminal. But all of this was given so that the prince of this world, the Devil, might be thwarted in his schemes. For in Christ’s resurrection and ascension, his glory has finally been revealed. As Ignatius wrote to the church in Ephesus:“The age-old empire of evil was overthrown, for God was now appearing in human form to bring in a new order, even life without end. Now that which had been perfected in Divine counsels began its work; and all creation was thrown into a ferment over this plan for the utter destruction of death.” Ignatius, Epistle to the EphesiansAnd not only this. After his ascension, the Apostles and their companions were left alone, waiting for the promised gift of the Holy Spirit – not that they understood what this meant of course. A small band of seemingly inconsequential people, without power, without resources, fearful about what might happen to them. But then what came to pass? The gift of the Holy Spirit, the fire of Pentecost, the conversion and baptism of thousands and the birth of the Christian Church.Again, as Chrysologus says:“The man Christ received the mustard seed which represents the kingdom of God…He sowed it in his garden, that is in his bride the Church. The Church is a garden extending over the whole world, tilled by the plough of the gospel…fragrant and lovely with perennial flowers; virgins’ lilies, martyrs’ roses set amid the pleasant verdure of all who bear witness to Christ and the tender plants of all who have faith in him.” Chrysologus, Ibid.We might hear that and wonder why God chooses to act in this way. Why the small beginnings? Why the hidden action? It is surely that we might learn the lesson, which is that God delights to show his power by using the weak, the worthless, the small, the despised and the forgotten things of this world. He does not need our resources. He does not need our earthly wisdom. He does not need our strength but makes a strength out of our weakness.As the Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1: “God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God” (1 Cor. 1:27-29)And so here is a call to humility before God: do we desire to see the kingdom and to live it? In which case we must recognise that the kingdom is not found in the things that the world considers precious. The kingdom is not found in a new government. The kingdom was not found at the FIFA World Cup. The kingdom will never be found in the schemes of men (and, dare I say it, it is not found either in the bureaucracy of the institutional church). The kingdom is found through humility, repentance and acts of love in Christ.The kingdom is given in ways that appear to be small. When we come in the silence and privacy of the confessional and lay our sins in humility before God, asking that we might be changed and healed, the kingdom is present there. When we act with integrity and love in small actions that the world does not see, the kingdom is surely present there. When we take the time to pray, even in solitude when we have no one to pray with, the kingdom is also present there. When we visit the sick and the housebound, when we care for the orphan and the widow, when we shun the centre stage and instead choose to be in the background then the kingdom is present in and through us.Friends, let us pursue the kingdom together in this beautiful humility. And let us be confident also in God’s power. It is very easy to despair sometimes and to look at our seeming lack of resources and lack of power and to wonder how anything good can happen. Consider our parish church, for example. We do have wonderful resources but I have no stipend and therefore have less time than other clergy to carry out my duties. We worship in a style that is often considered old fashioned and unattractive to the younger generations. We are part of a national church that is in decline and we see that decline in the falling congregational numbers of the churches around us. And yet, even given these apparent disadvantages and this apparently difficult context, God is clearly at work in this place. Our congregation has grown modestly yet consistently, like a great mustard tree, year-on-year for at least five years now. And I believe that, by the grace of God and by his hidden power, we will continue to grow. And I believe this for the reason that God delights to show his power in our apparent weakness and obscurity if only we will entrust ourselves to him and keep acting in faithfulness. We are not building an empire like those that man builds. But by the grace of God we are participating in a movement of the Holy Spirit that is catching people’s hearts for Christ and for the Gospel. And God be praised for this!Joy and BaptismI have said almost everything. But I want to finish with this:“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy, he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.”Today, we see the truth of Christ’s words enacted in the Sacramental ritual of baptism. When we turn to Christ, at any age, we do so because we realise that the things for which we were spending our time and labour cannot compare with the treasure that is offered to us in him. We realise that we have been looking for peace and contentment in all the wrong places. We realise that the schemes and philosophies of the world are meaningless without the One in whom all things are held together. In short, we realised that our true and lasting joy is found in him.And so we come to Christ, knowing that in him everything that we have been searching for is here. Like John Newton said, after he had spent his life engaged in the terrible business of slave trading, “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see.”Or again, as the great Charles Wesley wrote, “My chains fell off; my heart was free. I rose, went forth and followed thee”.Friends, for those of us here today who have come to Christ through the Sacrament of Baptism, we have truly been set free from the powers of sin and death. And, more than this, we have recognised the futility of a life without God. Today, we celebrate Daniel’s baptism and we pledge to pray for him and to support him in his new life in Christ. But we also repledge ourselves to God through these baptismal vows, remembering that we too have been brought from death to life, and once again renew our love and our commitment to obey his calling.Let us then live our baptisms and understand that in all of these things we have found the treasure hidden in the field and the pearl of great price and that there is nothing that is not worth selling that to obtain them.In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit https://holytrinitywinchester.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1
21 JUL 2026 ·
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit https://holytrinitywinchester.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1
13 JUL 2026 ·
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit https://holytrinitywinchester.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1
25 JUN 2026 · Last week I was speaking about the proclamation given by Christ to his disciples, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” And I said that Christ did not come to start a religion called “Christianity” but that he came to found a new kingdom here upon earth: the Kingdom of God.I spoke a little about what it means to be part of that kingdom: namely, that it is to be formed into a people who have God for their king, who are obedient to God, and who call others to be gathered in to this kingdom.I’d like to continue with this theme of what it means to be citizens of the kingdom of heaven. Our gospel reading is simply a continuation of Christ’s charge to the twelve apostles.Persecution will comeSadly the lectionary misses out an important section with a memorable line. Christ warns his disciples, “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves.” This changes the picture from labourers sent out into the harvest field. The world we are sent into is not passive or ambivalent about the message of the kingdom. It is often hostile to it, even intensely so. And this makes sense because the world outside of the kingdom has other loyalties, other standards, or, as St Augustine would put it, other loves.Notice the words of Christ, “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master…If they have called the master of the household Beelzebub, how much more will they malign those of his household.”Translation: they called Jesus the Devil. He is the master and we are his servants. If they called him the devil (and, indeed, if they crucified him) what will they do to us?Again, Christ says, “Do not fear those who kill the body…” Meaning, of course, that they may kill the body. And the history of the Christian Church is soaked red with the blood of the martyrs. Christ spoke truly.Christ also says, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth.” Christ does not mean that he has not come to bring his followers peace. He has promised to us the peace of God, which is a peace that the world cannot give. This saying is given specifically in the context of hostile relationships: son against father, daughter against mother, daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.And the crisis point is Christ himself: “whoever loves father or mother or son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” He speaks here of ultimate loyalty: there must be nothing above loyalty to Christ, even the loyalty we owe to members of our own family.We must here confront an error that creeps into the public witness of the church from time to time. Some of you may have heard the following statement from a high-profile Christian figure: “Conflict is always a sign of failure.” Now, of course, there was a context to that remark, but it is an absolute statement. And, as an absolute statement, it cannot be reconciled with the words of Christ or with the witness of Christian history: “Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth.” Again, Christ says elsewhere, “I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.”“So have no fear of them…”Persecution will come, but have no fear of them, says Christ. And why not? There are several reasons given by the Master:Firstly, there is coming a time when all the secrets of human history will be revealed. No injustice will remain hidden. No lie will not be exposed. The tyrants and persecutors of this age will face the judgement of God. “What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.”I take this to mean that Christians, as citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven where nothing is covered or hidden, are to expose the darkness and wickedness of this age now through candid speech and righteous action. As the Apostle Paul says elsewhere, “Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.” (Eph. 5:11)Secondly, there is only so much that can be taken from us by persecution. Already quoted: “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.” The most that our persecutors can take from us is our lives in this world.“Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both body and soul in hell.”And this is the key point: it is not that our lives in this world are nothing, but that there is something of far more value: our eternal soul.Man has the power to take away our earthly lives. God has the power to take them too, but he also has the power to destroy both soul and body in hell.And this is why Christ tells us to fear God. We might remember the famous Proverb: ‘The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom’.Fear in this context is about the recognition of God’s power. It is entirely rational and logical to fear God more than man – because God is infinitely more powerful than any human being.I mentioned last week, the martyrdom of Polycarp. Polycarp was a second century bishop of Smyrna who was martyred for the faith when he was an old man. In the account of his martyrdom, he is threatened by the secular power first that he might be torn apart by wild beasts and then, when that did not cause him to renounce loyalty to Christ, with being burned alive. To this, Polycarp answered,“The fire you threaten me with cannot go on burning for very long; after a while it goes out. But what you are unaware of are the flames of future judgement and everlasting torment which are in store for the ungodly.”And, in the prologue to this account, the writer makes this remark: speaking of the Christian martyrs of the second century, ‘So it was that, with all their thoughts absorbed in the grace of Christ, they made light of the cruelties of this world, and at the cost of a single hour purchased for themselves life everlasting.’“…even the hairs of your head are all numbered.”Again, Christ tells us not only that God is powerful but that he cares for us: “…even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore, you are of more value than many sparrows.” And “whoever finds his life with lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”The antidote to the fear of man is the fear and love of God. If, like Polycarp, we can set God before us, we will not fear what man may do.‘…he began to be sorrowful and troubled.’We might ask at this point if fear can be avoided entirely. Is it not a natural and human emotion? We read later on in this Gospel that Christ was sorrowful and troubled in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matt. 26:37).My answer to this question is that we must consider fear in different aspects: we cannot help but feel certain emotions sometimes, fear included. Christ faced the suffering of his passion. We face various fearful trials in this world. And sometimes we can no longer avoid them but we must look them square in the face with all of their terror. This cannot be helped.However, there is then a question of what we do with this fear. We can allow this fear to master us and cause us to change our course. In the early church of the first few centuries, intense pressure was put on Christians to commit an act of idolatry by burning a pinch of incense to Caesar. And many Christians gave in to their fear and did so.But the alternative is that we look to God and, through prayer and perseverance, face our fears in faith: that God will give us the strength and the grace to be faithful to him through whatever it is that faces us – even if that thing is torture, burning, and death. As the witness of Polycarp reminds us, it will only last so long. And that length of time is infinitely eclipsed by eternity.Citizens without FearFriends, this is how citizens of the Kingdom are in this world: we are not afraid because our King is infinitely more powerful than any of the rulers of this age. Their power is fading away – his will last forever. How could we abandon his eternal shelter for that temporary shade?Ask yourself, then: What are you afraid of? Perhaps it is a person or a situation that confronts you. Identify it honestly. As Christ did, commit it to God in prayer, and go on doing so, and act faithfully. And go on acting faithfully, each day of your time here on earth, even unto the death.In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit https://holytrinitywinchester.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1
Information
| Author | Jamie Franklin |
| Organization | Jamie Franklin |
| Categories | Religion & Spirituality , Christianity |
| Website | www.spreaker.com |
| - |
Copyright 2026 - Spreaker Inc. an iHeartMedia Company
