{"id":20390,"date":"2025-11-09T09:05:50","date_gmt":"2025-11-09T09:05:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.stjameschurchabinger.org\/?p=20390"},"modified":"2025-11-09T09:06:34","modified_gmt":"2025-11-09T09:06:34","slug":"sermon-2025-11-09","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stjameschurchabinger.org\/?p=20390","title":{"rendered":"Sermon 2025-11-09"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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9th November 2025 - Remembrance sunday<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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John 15:9-17.<\/u><\/strong><\/p>

Today we are gathered to remember all those who gave their lives in war, for those who served and for those who are still serving in conflicts across the world.\u00a0 For those that gave up their freedom so that we could live.\u00a0 We remember them with gratitude for what they achieved and what their service enabled.\u00a0 We also remember those who were conscripted to fight, the civilians caught in the crossfire and all those who served in reserved occupations. \u00a0This morning truly is a time to stop, to pause and to reflect.\u00a0<\/p>

Sadly, it is all too clear from the wars raging this morning around this, our broken world, that an end to \u2018nation rising up against nation\u2019 is still some way off.\u00a0 The prophet Micah, who lived at a time of immense conflict envisioned a time where nations would turn their swords into ploughshares, their spears into pruning hooks \u2013 when nations would no longer need to train for war.\u00a0 His vision of peace was not na\u00efve but prophetic \u2013 a call to change, to turn instruments of destruction into tools of renewal.\u00a0 Yet it seems so unimaginable today that the countries of our world, who seem solely focussed on gaining power, security and resources, could ever lay down their weapons and live in peace.\u00a0 Listening to the news brings word of new tensions, political divisions, social injustice and inequality.\u00a0 Woodrow Wilson\u2019s promise that the First World War would be \u2018a war to end all wars\u2019 was sadly so very ironic.\u00a0 The world seems stuck, repeating the mistakes of the past in a never-ending spiral.<\/p>

It is so easy to lose hope and to feel that things will never change.\u00a0 However, as Paul reminds us in Romans, \u2018if God is for us, who can be against us\u2019, this is the hope that we share as a Christian community.\u00a0 Through the suffering of Jesus, his death and resurrection we have a real and certain hope in the future.\u00a0 A hope in God which is not dependent on humans, politicians, governments, or organisations.\u00a0 Suddenly everything feels less bleak and we can see the flickering light of hope in a time where all seems to be in darkness.<\/p>

John\u2019s gospel reminds us of Jesus\u2019s greatest commandment.\u00a0 \u2018To love one another as I have loved you.\u2019<\/p>

And today, on Remembrance Sunday, it made me wonder what the world might look like today if all citizens, politicians and leaders truly embraced this teaching.\u00a0 If we truly respected and loved one another as equals would the world have gone to war in the first place\u2026.\u00a0<\/p>

However, what struck me afresh as I reflected on today\u2019s reading were the words \u2018abide in my love\u2019.\u00a0 Jesus compares his love for us with the love that the Father has for him.\u00a0 Amid the noise of conflict and this time of remembrance, these words stop us in our tracks.\u00a0 \u2018Abide in my love\u2019, what does it really mean to abide?\u00a0 The word \u2018abide\u2019 means to remain, to stay, to be present and above all to be held.\u00a0 Abide also suggests a need to patiently wait, to ask for the endurance to ride out the storms of life that try to separate us from God\u2019s love.\u00a0 Jesus uses the word abide to impress upon his disciples that he is not letting them go, his physical departure will not end his relationship with them.\u00a0 He reassures them that he will abide with them, like a vine reaching out its branches, his love will surround and encircle them forever.\u00a0 Jesus was with every person that cried out to him on the battlefield, in the trenches at sea and in the air, abiding with them in their moments of greatest fear and alongside them in their time of greatest need.<\/p>

John\u2019s gospel calls on us to bear that light, to follow Jesus\u2019s example,<\/p>

\u2018I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last.\u2019<\/p>

Love is the fruit of an enduring relationship between the Father and the Son.\u00a0 Jesus gave up his life for us so that we could come to know love, in the same way as he experienced his own Father\u2019s love.<\/p>

Thomas Aquinas wrote:\u00a0 \u2018The highest, the only proof of love is to love our adversary; as did the Truth himself, who while he suffered on the cross showed his love for his persecutors.\u00a0 \u201cFather forgive them, for them for they know not what they do\u201d.\u2019<\/p>

Jesus teaches us that \u2018no- one has greater love than this, to lay down one\u2019s life for one\u2019s friends.\u2019<\/p>

Our reading today is part of Jesus\u2019s farewell discourse to his disciples.\u00a0 Jesus is preparing his disciples for the next chapter, the one in which they will be taking his teaching out into the world without him.\u00a0 The disciples will encounter those that believe God\u2019s word unquestioningly, those who challenge and those who openly condemn and hate them.\u00a0 He calls on his disciples, just as he calls on us to forgive those that hate us.\u00a0 Jesus lays down his life for his friends, to show that only by demonstrating love we can truly overpower our enemies.<\/p>

\u00a0This passage calls us to a life of action, to actively demonstrate our love for others.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0We are asked to show our love through our deeds, through our interactions and the choices that we make.\u00a0 The strength of the love that we demonstrate is a vital resource in the face of the hatred and violence in the world.\u00a0 We have been chosen, chosen by God but to abide in his love we must keep his most important commandment to love one another.\u00a0<\/p>

St Paul reminds us that:<\/p>

\u2018Love is patient, love is kind, it does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.\u00a0 It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.\u00a0 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.\u00a0 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.\u2019<\/p>

Let us go out and share that love with one another, knowing love is always far stronger than hatred.\u00a0<\/p>

I came across this beautiful blessing from Jan Richardson.\u00a0 She is an artist, writer and minister in the United Methodist Church in Florida.\u00a0 Her words seem to reflect both the need to abide in God\u2019s love in times of challenge but also the importance of carrying that message of love and hope to others.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\tBlessed are you who bear the light,
Blessed are you who bear the light in unbearable times,
Who testify to its endurance amid the unendurable,
Who bear witness to its persistence,
When everything seems in shadow and grief.
\nBlessed are you in whom the light lives,
The brightness blazes \u2013 your heart a chapel, an altar where in the deepest night can be seen, the fire that shines forth in you,\nIn unaccountable faith, in stubborn hope,
in love that illumines every broken thing it finds.\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/blockquote>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Amber Wood \/ 9th November 2025<\/h6>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

9th November 2025 – Remembrance sunday John 15:9-17. Today we are gathered to remember all those who gave their lives in war, for those who served and for those who are still serving in conflicts across the world.\u00a0 For those that gave up their freedom so that we could live.\u00a0 We remember them with gratitude … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Sermon 2025-11-09”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_angie_page":false,"page_builder":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stjameschurchabinger.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stjameschurchabinger.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stjameschurchabinger.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stjameschurchabinger.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stjameschurchabinger.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20390"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.stjameschurchabinger.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20390\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20393,"href":"https:\/\/www.stjameschurchabinger.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20390\/revisions\/20393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stjameschurchabinger.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stjameschurchabinger.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stjameschurchabinger.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}