Sunday Service 9 November 2025
Today’s service is led by the Revd Ruth Armstrong
Introduction
Today is a solemn day when we remember the sacrifice of many in service of their country and for our freedom; we are also reminded in this remembering, that many still lay down their lives in defence of country and what is perceived to be right. In remembering the sacrifice of the many for us, we are also reminded of the ultimate sacrifice of our Lord and Saviour in the death of the one for the many. In our reading from Romans today, we are reminded that God is with us in all these things – it is not that ‘these things’ do not happen to us, but that we know that our Lord and Saviour, who himself went through ‘these things’ will be with us as we make our way through.
Call to Worship
“How wonderful it is to see a messenger coming across the mountains bringing good news, the news of peace.” Take a moment to think of some good news from the week. It may be something as simple as speaking to someone on the phone, a flower that was in bloom, or something spectacular!
Hymn O Christ the Healer We Have Come
Fred Pratt Green (1903-2000) © 1969 Stainer & Bell Ltd OneLicence No. # A-734713. Performed by choir and people of First Plymouth Church, Lincoln, Nebraska
O Christ, the Healer, we have come to pray for health, to plead for friends.
How can we fail to be restored, when reached by love that never ends?
From every ailment flesh endures our bodies clamour to be freed;
yet in our hearts we would confess that wholeness is our deepest need.
In conflicts that destroy our health we diagnose the world’s disease;
our common life declares our ills: is there no cure, O Christ, for these?
Grant that we all, made one in faith, in your community may find
the wholeness that, enriching us, shall reach the whole of humankind.
Prayers of Approach and Confession
Good morning God, good morning Jesus and good morning Spirit.
Or perhaps it is not such a good morning for some,
especially as in the forefront of our minds
is remembering all those who have lost their lives
in the service of our country and for our freedom
or perhaps we simply have not had a good week or day
but come here out of a sense of duty;
but whatever our mindset please calm our hearts
as we breathe in your Spirit,
and breathe out our stress and distress;
pause
Clear our minds of what troubles or burdens us
and may we focus on you with us in this very moment
pause
And so, we come to this moment
knowing that it is a sombre day of remembering,
and in remembering there is also the idea
that we have forgotten some things or perhaps someone.
Please forgive us for this oversight or this deliberate forgetfulness,
may we not forget that we are all your people,
all created in your image
and all worthy of your love.
Our gathering verse this day
reminds us that we are messengers bringing good news and peace.
Most Holy One, forgive us for the times
when we have not shared your good news with those around us,
or when we ourselves have not remembered your good news for us
and so have acted at war with those around us;
rather, may we be conduits of peace,
not the absence of conflict but wholeness of life with ourselves,
each other, you and your world.
Declaration of Forgiveness
Romans 5:6-8 says, “Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn’t, and doesn’t, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn’t been so weak, we wouldn’t have known what to do anyway. We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him.”
As we remember and forget, as we share good news and peace, may we put our hope and faith in your future and in whose name, we pray, amen.
Prayer of illumination
Most Holy One, as we hear these familiar passages of Scripture again, open our ears to hearing them in the light of this day of remembrance, of the suffering and conflict that seems to engulf us, but also in the light and freedom that your word offers to us. Amen.
Reading Romans 8:31-35 and 37-39 (New Living Translation)
What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else? Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one—for God himself has given us right standing with himself. Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honour at God’s right hand, pleading for us. Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Hymn In Christ Alone
Stuart Townend (born 1963) and Keith Getty (born 1974). © 2001 Thankyou Music OneLicence No. # A-734713 Sung a cappella by the The N Crew
In Christ alone my hope is found,
He is my light, my strength, my song;
this Cornerstone, this solid Ground,
firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace,
when fears are stilled, when strivings cease!
My Comforter, my All in All,
here in the love of Christ I stand.
In Christ alone! – who took on flesh,
fullness of God in helpless babe!
This gift of love and righteousness,
scorned by the ones He came to save:
‘till on that cross as Jesus died,
the wrath of God was satisfied –
for every sin on Him was laid;
here in the death of Christ I live.
There in the ground His body lay,
light of the world by darkness slain:
Then bursting forth in glorious day
up from the grave He rose again!
And as He stands in victory,
sin’s curse has lost its grip on me,
for I am His and He is mine –
bought with the precious blood of Christ.
No guilt in life, no fear in death,
this is the power of Christ in me;
from life’s first cry to final breath,
Jesus commands my destiny.
No power of hell, no human plan,
can ever pluck me from His hand;
till He returns or calls me home,
here in the power of Christ I’ll stand!
Sermon
My children were all involved in gymnastics before we moved to the UK, all taking place in many high-level competitions, one even being chosen to travel internationally and represent South Africa. They were never under any pressure from us as parents to be first or medalled, but simply to go and have fun.
They were always good sports and if they didn’t do particularly well, they always received a bit of mockery. One of our favourites was 2nd place is 1st looser – ever hear that one before? All of us prefer winning over losing. “There is no prize for second place” or so ‘they’ say. And many of us believe that without question. But every now and again, there is an exception. Some of you may remember Eddie “the Eagle” Edwards who participated in the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Canada. At the time Eddie was a 25-year-old plasterer with thick glasses and a goofy grin.
He entered the Games as England’s only (and first-ever) ski jumper. But Eddie was not very skilled and he was looked decidedly non-athletic. In his yellow ski-jumping suit he looked more like Winnie the Pooh than the sculpted athletes we usually associate with the Olympics. Eddie’s training had been sub-standard, and his equipment was second-rate. The airline lost Eddie’s luggage when he travelled to Calgary. On the day of his competition, the Olympic security agents almost did not let Eddie in at all because, they later said, the man’s coke-bottle glasses had such thick lenses they were certain he was an imposter. But he did get let in eventually. He didn’t do very well. Outside magazine said that in the air, Eddie looked like an “errant slush ball.” When it was all over, Eddie came in 56th place out of a field of 57 jumpers, however the 57th man was disqualified.
But all the world loved Eddie. Johnny Carson had Eddie flown down to Burbank to appear as a guest on The Tonight Show. TV crews and newspapers from around the world clamoured to interview Eddie. Once he got back to England, he was treated like a full-blown celebrity who translated his fame into a tidy sum.
Eddie was truly the exception, and probably someone we can identify with, but, in truth, not someone we really want to be. We want to win and not be the 1st looser.
If our favourite rugby team beats their greatest rival – in our house that’s South Africa beating New Zealand – we will happily bask in the glory of the win because we won. But when they lose such a game, we are likely to switch allegiances and become English! Because they lost. We are quick to align ourselves with victories but equally quick to put some daylight between ourselves and defeat.
Given all that, we are glad to discover the apostle Paul’s ringing assurance at the end of Romans 8 that we are victors, winners, cosmic conquerors. In fact, in verse 37 it may very well be the case that Paul coined his own Greek word in an attempt to express the enormity of everything he has written so far in this landmark chapter. In verse 37 Paul says not just that we are conquerors, but he attaches the Greek prefix huper, from which we get our word “hyper.” We are not just winners, Paul explains, we are hyper-winners.
And, let’s face it, aren’t we please glad to hear that. “We are all winners, hyper-victors, through him who loved us” Paul says. But that is not all Paul says. Many of us are familiar with the phrase “more than conquerors.” But how often do we remember the four words that precede that declaration: in all these things. Paul is not like some slick advertiser who tries to catch your attention by coming up to you out of the blue saying, “You’re a Winner!” Instead, he first writes “in all these things we are more than conquerors” and so the logical question becomes, “In all what things?” Well, in all the things Paul has just been talking about.
Paul writes, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ” followed by a list of potential candidates: trouble, hardship, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, sword. Now maybe we can just skim over that list without batting an eye, but the reaction of the Roman Christ-followers was rather different the first time they saw this. To them this was a description that hit close to home.
What would a present day list of ‘all these things’ look like? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall terrorist plots, increasing threats of war in Europe, cuts in benefits, the rising cost of living, unemployment, depression, divorce, cancer, miscarriages, infertility, knife violence?
You see, when Paul says “in all these things,” he is describing the everyday realities of life that threaten us, that make life unhappy, dicey, and difficult. And please notice that Paul does not say that we are more than conquerors over all these things, as though to say that if we are faithful enough, these difficulties will never come our way in the first place. We are not victors over these things but in them. We do not lead victorious lives because we get spared the pain of this world but rather like Jesus himself, we find victory smack in the middle of this life’s worst realities.
That’s why verse 36 makes clear that we face death all day long even as we are all the time considered like sheep to be slaughtered. That’s what we look like to this world: like sheep to be slaughtered. That line is a quote from Psalm 44 but in a New Testament context comparing us to sheep at the slaughter is a loaded allusion to Jesus, the Lamb of God, the Lamb that was slain. As followers of the crucified Christ, of the one who was weirdly and paradoxically glorified on a cross – of all places – so we also face death all day long. We live cross-shaped lives of sacrifice and service. We are constantly putting to death the clutching’s of ego and desire, of vengeance and the way of violence. We are people told to turn the other cheek, to forgive seventy times seventy times in a life that does not use a calculus of grace but that exudes grace in wildly exorbitant ways.
“Nice guys finish last” a popular cliché says, and as Christ-followers who walk under the sign of the cross, we reply that if this is so, then we will be quite content to finish last.
As you hear these words, imagine before Paul, a long line of people down the centuries, questioning him; a woman whose body is riddled with cancer comes to Paul and asks, “Do my tumours separate me from the love of God?” And Paul says “No!”
A man in a wheelchair rolls up and asks, “Does my disability separate me from the love of God?” And Paul says “No!”
A parent who senses the reality of death so keenly their whole-body aches with the grief of it all asks, “Does my loved one’s death separate them or me from the love of God?” And Paul says “No!”
A transgender person shunned by family, “Does my transitioning separate me from the love of God?” And Paul says “No!”
Me, “Am I such a bad sinner that I am separated from the love of God?” And Paul says “No!”
And finally, Paul says, “Listen, everyone! There is nothing in all creation that can separate you from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord! That covers everyone, everything, every conceivable situation you could ask me about.”
Multi-billionaire TV magnate Ted Turner said he could never become a Christian because Christianity seems like “a religion for losers.” Microsoft chairman Bill Gates also once derided worship by saying he could think of lots of far more productive things to do with a Sunday morning than singing and praying in a church.
The world hails us as losers whose lives are outwardly no better than the next person’s life. But still, we willingly follow our Lord. We walk the way to the cross and go down into death along with Jesus and we do it because we know that somehow, in the deep magic of the cosmos, victory comes through defeat, healing comes through humility. That is the gospel way and we follow it even though it so often leads us away from success as the world defines it. And we do all this because we carry in our hearts the better vision of God’s kingdom. Successful people, the “winners” of society, get ahead by conforming themselves to this world, adapting themselves to its values, working its angles, and going with the flow. Losers like us, on the other hand, do not conform to the world but instead we try to give life the shape of things to come by living into the better patterns of God’s kingdom.
Eddie the Eagle is a lousy ski jumper, but he really loves it. In fact, he had hoped to compete again in a future Olympics. But it turned out that Olympic officials did not like Eddie and felt he reflected badly on the Games. So, they instituted what some call the “Eddie rule” which requires all athletes to have finished in the top half of an international sports event as a prerequisite for getting into the Olympics. Doubtless that will keep Eddie, and many like him, out. You see, the Olympic folks don’t mind having people lose but only because without losers there could be no winners. But if a loser gets attention, the winners seem diminished. In this world losers are supposed to fade away quietly so that winners can occupy centre stage.
But the secret of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is that we become winners by losing, we gain life by dying, we gain the victory in all these things that pain us because it was precisely for all these things that Jesus came into this world in the first place.
Hymn Who Is On The Lord’s Side?
Frances Ridley Havergal (1836-1879) public domain, sung by Benjamin J Everson
Who is on the Lord’s side? Who will serve the King?
Who will be His helpers, other souls to bring?
Who will leave the world’s side? Who will face the foe?
Who is on the Lord’s side? Who for Him will go?
By Thy call of mercy, by Thy grace divine,
we are on the Lord’s side; Saviour, we are Thine.
Jesus, Thou hast bought us, not with gold or gem,
but with your own lifeblood, for Thy diadem;
with your blessing filling each who comes to Thee,
Thou hast made us willing, Thou hast made us free.
By Thy grand redemption, by Thy grace divine,
we are on the Lord’s side— Saviour, we are Thine!
Fierce may be the conflict, strong may be the foe,
but the King’s own army none can overthrow;
’round the standard ranging, vict’ry is secure,
for His truth unchanging makes our triumph sure.
Joyfully enlisting, by Thy grace divine,
We are on the Lord’s side — Saviour, we are Thine!
Prayers of intercession
Let us pray for all who suffer because of conflict
and ask for God’s peace to prevail:
for all who have died in the violence of war,
each one remembered by and known to God.
For those who mourn for a loved one killed in conflict,
‘for they will be comforted’.
As the country places itself on a war-footing,
what this means for our own safety now,
we can scarcely begin to imagine,
only we ask that all may work for peace instead.
So, we pray for peacemakers and peacekeepers,
who look to keep this world secure and free,
who place themselves in harms way,
so that we may not have to.
We pray for all who bear the burden and privilege of leadership,
political, military, and religious;
asking for gifts of wisdom and resolve
in the search for reconciliation and peace.
We pray for the people of Ukraine struggling for freedom
and the people of Russia living with lies and manipulation,
for the people of Yemen, Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Sudan
and the myriads of countries too many to name,
suffering drawn out conflict,
for the people of Gaza and the Occupied Territories
living with violence, terror, and oppression
and for the people of Israel yearning for security.
Personal God, we turn now to our own conflict and grief –
where there is conflict in our homes or families,
may love and forgiveness prevail,
so reconciliation can be a possibility.
For our inner conflict of doubt and questioning,
may we know that you are with us ‘in all these things’
that we do not shoulder our burdens alone, but you are with us.
Thinking of those who have died Lord,
we remember our own loved ones who have left us,
we trust that one day we will be reunited with them
and you in the glory of your kingdom
where there will be no more pain, tears or sorrow.
But for now, help us to lift our eyes above
the torment of this broken world and grant us your peace.
Lord in your mercy hear our prayers
as we say together the prayer Jesus taught us saying, Our Father…
Offertory
Romans 8:31a says, “What, then, shall we say in response to these things?” and goes on to talk of Christ Jesus’ sacrifice for each of us; earlier in the year as I was aiding the newish church treasurer with gift aid, I was bowled over by the sacrifice of our congregants on a fixed income and their over whelming generosity in response to ‘these things’ they have been through and knowing that in spite of it ‘nothing can separate them from the love of Christ Jesus’ and so they continue to sacrifice for him.
Most Holy One
who is with us “in all these things”,
be in these things – these monies – that we give to you.
And may the love that fills us and enables us to serve,
imbibe these gifts for the service of a better community. Amen.
Hymn Make Me a Channel of Your Peace
Sebastian Temple (1928-1997). Prayer of St Francis dedicated to Mrs Frances Tracy. © 1967 OCP Publications OneLicense No. A-734713
Make me a channel of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me bring your love.
Where there is injury your pardon, Lord.
And where there’s doubt true faith in you.
Oh, Master, grant that I may never seek
so much to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved, as to love with all my soul.
Make me a channel of your peace.
Where there’s despair in life, let me bring hope.
Where there is darkness only light,
and where there’s sadness ever joy.
Oh, Master, grant that I may never seek
so much to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved, as to love with all my soul.
Make me a channel of your peace.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
in giving unto all that we receive,
and in dying that we’re born to eternal life.
Oh, Master, grant that I may never seek
so much to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved, as to love with all my soul.
Blessing
May the Christ who is with us “in all these things”
continue to be with us as we go into a suffering and lost world
to share in each other’s lives,
to share freedom and peace and hope,
give us the courage to be all these to ourselves too.
And may the blessings of
God the peacemaker,
Jesus the light and hope
and the enabling Spirit,
be with us now and evermore. Amen.