In it together.

 Today is All Saints Day, and on this day we are reminded of the saints who have gone before us, and this is what our readings this morning have referred to. This is because in our readings we have been reminded that in every situation God is there for us, and this is certainly something that we can think of when we look at the saints and consider our role as saints today. In the reading from the book of Revelation (7:9-17) we heard of the saints in heaven who have been through trials and tribulations but now reside in glory  - what a promise - reminding us that even when things seem tough, if we rely on God He is there. Then in the reading from Matthew (5:1-12) we were reminded again in the beatitudes that even when things don’t make sense in earthly terms, if they are causing us to rely more on God then we will be blessed.

We are saints, and this morning I want us to think about what it means to be a saint. When I was a child I used to go to All Saints dress-up parties. From children dressed as angels, to children wearing choir robes and serving robes, to fairies (I assume they were meant to be angels), there was a lot of white and strangely not much chocolate cake!

When we think of All Saints we may think of people who we have read about in the Bible, churches and the saints they are dedicated to, patron saints of countries, or even saintly people.

There are a few things that I would like to say about saints this morning.

Firstly, as we heard in the reading from the book of Revelation, to be a saint can mean suffering, there may even be martyrdom, and of course there is often a giving up of wealth.

I once went to Padua in Italy to visit a friend who was living there at the time. The Cathedral in Padua is dedicated to Saint Anthony of Padua, and if you ever get the chance to go to Padua and the Cathedral you will be able to see the vocal chords of Anthony. I’m not sure how many of you would actually want to, but they’re there!

Anthony in his life went through some very difficult circumstances, but God used him, and Anthony clearly affected people, which is why his vocal chords are on display!

Anthony belonged to a very wealthy family; however, he decided that it was right to give everything up and follow God instead, and so he set sail to join a monastery; however, on this journey he was shipwrecked. He ended up having to go to a different monastery, which refused to accept him because he looked too ill. Someone eventually let him in, as long as he promised to stay away from everyone else!

Talk about a tough time, but he was later ordained and had to preach the sermon at his ordination - he was so good he was sent to preach around the whole of Italy. Being a saint is not easy, but in the depths of despair God is still there.

For us, when we go through difficult times we can remember the promises of the Beatitudes, that even when things seem to make no sense in the eyes of the world - God is in control. St. Patrick, a Scot, was kidnapped and taken to Ireland, and he was held to be responsible for the Christianisation of great chunks of Ireland - God is always in control.

The second thing I would like to say is that we are part of a communion of saints. This means that there are saints in heaven - people who have allowed God to use them, who are worshipping God in heaven, as we worship here. This means that every time we pray and worship God, we can remember that we are all part of that great community of Christians throughout the ages who are worshipping.

This is incredible, and I remember as a child that for me, I understood this as meaning that every time someone decided to follow Jesus there was a huge party in heaven. I like that idea; it reminds me that God is being worshipped continually, and He has a concern for us all, and wants us all to be a part of an eternal party!

Finally, we are all saints, and in the New Testament there are 62 references to saints. 44 of these refer to us, the Church now. This means that we are all saints. This reminds me of a time I spent working in a Christian bookshop. Just before I left, the bosses had decided that it would be good to sell little carvings of saints; when I left, my former colleagues found a St. Helen to live at the front of the display cabinet so that they would not miss me too much!

The word saint comes from the New Testament Greek hagios, which means holy ones. Now, to know that we are all saints and therefore we are all to be holy is a huge responsibility. However, the responsibility is nothing to do with us in some ways.

We only become holy by the presence of God with us; it is God with us, working through us, that changes the world. It is God working through us who brings light and hope to a dark world. Basically, we are just the vehicles through whom God can work.

We are saints; we are to be holy by being people who point the way to God by our words and actions. It is a huge task, but from the lives of those before us we can remember that God is always in control and that He is always being worshipped.

God has promised to always be with us, and He will wipe every tear from our eyes; in the Psalm (34:1-10) we remembered that God is always with us, and He protects us, and most of all we remembered that God loves us. 

We are the people who bring the holiness and love of God to this world by being the people who are seeking to be more like Him. May we today and always seek to be saints for Jesus by telling more people about Him. May we always remember that God loves us. AMEN

Bible Sunday : Changed by the Word

 I don’t know about you but when I talk to people I can often have quite funny occasions, such as people asking me strange questions, or being shocked that I am a priest. I never know how to take that. Or people telling me I seem quite normal; I am even less sure how to take that!

Perceptions can cause more damage than reality. How many times have you heard people say, ‘They’re a Christian, so you would expect better,’ or, as happened to me when I was 9, when another little girl said, ‘As a Christian, I guess that you only ever listen to Aled Jones’ (now, nothing against Aled; at that age I was convinced I was going to marry him), but I protested that I did listen to the Bangles as well. The little girl responded, ‘Oh, you are normal then.’

Anyway, perceptions. People expect something of all of us based on who we are. It is really hard when what we do doesn’t quite fit with people’s perceptions of us. Either their perception is wrong, or we really aren’t living up to who we are or what we claim to be.

As Christians, people do have a perception of us. They think they know how we should behave or seem. Sadly, at times this can be based on false perceptions, maybe from TV programme’s, from books, or from people they have met in the past. We have the opportunity to show people what being a Christian is really like. It is being a disciple of Jesus, following Him and trying to be more like Him.

Today is Bible Sunday and, in our readings this morning, we have been reminded of the need to stay rooted in the Word of God, to listen to the words of the Bible and to put them into practice. Our behaviour pattern is not to come from anyone else but from the words of Jesus Himself, His words that, as we heard in the Gospel reading (Matthew 24:30-35), will never pass away.

In the reading from the Book of Nehemiah (8:1-4a, 8-12), we heard about the reading of the law to the people. One of the religious leaders, Ezra, was reading the law to them. It’s interesting, and good, that he called men and women who weren’t part of the religious leadership to hear the Word of God as well.However, their reaction was more than a little unusual. They were moved to tears as they heard the words of the law, but then they ended up rejoicing. This was after the words of the law had been explained to them. Those words of the law are part of our Bibles. This means that our Bibles should, and can, cause both weeping and rejoicing. This is so powerful.

We also see this in the section from the Psalm (119:9-16) that was used this morning. This Psalm is about the Word of God. In the verses we used this morning, we were reminded of the Psalmist’s love for the Word of God. This is a challenge to us: do we love the Bible?

Back to perceptions, and how we are to behave. In the reading from the letter to the Colossians (3:12-17), we heard of a perfect way of being. This is a perception that we must follow because it is our instruction for life. We are to clothe ourselves with compassion, kindness, meekness, and humility. These are quite hard demands. After all, who has ever shown all these things at once apart from Jesus? It is good that we can ask Him to help us with this.

In the section before this one in the letter to the Colossians, Paul wrote of all the things that can stop us from living in harmony. He wrote of wickedness, blasphemy, lying, and disobedience. All these types of attitudes he put down as the old life, the before-Jesus life. The reading this morning spoke of how things should be. This is the perfect perception, the perfect way of being. What a contrast to the former part!

Today, as we give thanks for the Bible, for the words of God in our lives, we think of the words which help us, through prayer and fellowship, to follow God’s commandments. The words which will help us to be more like Jesus.

In the reading from Colossians, we heard of what the new life, the life following God, should be like. A life changed as we seek to live in harmony with one another, a life where we put the love of Jesus and His words first. A life that has new clothes, not like the Emperor’s new clothes, but clothes that show who we follow. I once read a really strange comment one person said to another. It was, ‘Jesus looks good on you.’ It was good reasoning and was meant to show that other people should be able to see the changes in our lives as we follow Jesus; it just sounded strange.

There’s  a true story of an American soldier who was on one of the South Sea Islands in the Second World War. He came across a friendly host who tried to assure the soldier that they had many things in common. In doing this, he brought a copy of the Bible out of his hut, and he said, ‘This is my most prized possession.’

Dismissively, the soldier replied, ‘We’ve outgrown that sort of thing in our country.’The islander, who belonged to a tribe that had, until recently, practised cannibalism, was unimpressed by this lack of courtesy as well as the lack of faith, and he replied, ‘It’s a good thing we haven’t outgrown it here. If we had, you would have been a meal as soon as we saw you.’

If we all sought to do exactly as Jesus would do, can you imagine the change we would see? The world would be turned upside down as the ways of Jesus, to love the unlovable, to touch the untouchables, to befriend the friendless, to seek justice and righteousness rather than riches and our own ways, became a daily reality for all around. It would be amazing.The Bible should be alive to us. As the 19th-century evangelist D. L. Moody wrote, ‘God doesn’t give us the Scriptures to increase our knowledge, but to change our lives.’ Amen.

A place at the table.

A little while ago, I was going through messages on my phone and discovered an invitation for me and my husband to a friend's 50th birthday party. The party sounded very nice; it was a barbecue at their house. The problem was that it was for May 2025. I realised that I had looked at the invitation, worked out that we couldn't make it, and then forgotten to reply to our friend. I quickly apologised and hoped they had enjoyed their birthday and the party in 2025, and also their birthday this year. We had a fun conversation, and we ended up going out for a meal with our friends.

I felt quite rude, to be honest. Thankfully, my friend understood and found it funny. This was not the case for the king in the parable that Jesus told in Matthew (22:1-14) . In this parable, a king held a wedding party for his son. He was met with replies from people who could not make it to the wedding. One explained that he needed to look after his farm, another had business interests, and others reacted with hostility.  

This wedding, as the wedding of the king's son, would have been extremely important and an incredible honour to have been invited to. Rejecting the invitation would have been seen as the same as rejecting a friendship with this family.

Jesus was making a point as He told this parable. People had been offered a wonderful relationship with God, but they had rejected Him. They had turned to their own ways. They had followed their own instincts and thoughts, and by doing this they had pushed God out. This may not have been deliberate; it may have happened because of the busyness of life, the demands placed upon them, and the needs of others. Of course, it may also have been a choice to follow other gods, to put keeping laws first, and to put the order they had planned for their lives first.

I wonder if we can honestly say that we have never done any of this. I remember being at a Christian conference where I was discussing all the different workshop options with a friend. We couldn't work out how we would have time to fit in one on time management. We couldn't, and I think that was a lesson in itself. There wasn't time to fit in a session on time management, suggesting that this was probably the one I needed the most.

In this parable, the king doesn't respond with anger. He is practical; the wedding hall was booked. The king decided to fill the hall with anyone who could attend. Those who would never have expected an invitation were suddenly attending this very special event.

Of course, Jesus is making another point here. God had offered His salvation, but people had ignored it. By doing this, they had missed out on the best invitation ever. Those who would have been the least likely to be invited were receiving God's goodness in their place. Jesus was showing that His grace was wider than anyone could either have expected or imagined.

There is a problem, though. The reading ends with someone being thrown out of the wedding. This sounds wrong to us. After all, surely God wouldn't throw people away? The point is that the person who didn't have the right outfit on represents someone who wasn't ready, someone who wasn't prepared to join in the wedding banquet. Or, to put it another way, we need to be ready and prepared to accept the goodness that God offers us. It is not on our terms but on His. All He asks is that we love Him and accept Him.

God is there for us. We were reminded of this in Paul's letter to the Philippians (4:1-9). In this passage, we came across the beautiful words that we are not to worry because we can turn to God and ask for His help. The words are beautiful, and I think they become even more so when we remember that Paul wrote this letter while he was in prison. I really like the fact that this is the letter in which the word "joy" appears most often. Paul had joy because he knew God's love and protection. He trusted that God would always be with him. He had received the invitation to know God, he had responded, his life had been changed, and now he faced the future with assurance. He had discovered that faith was not about pretending difficulties did not exist. It was about placing those difficulties into God's hands.

This is where our best free gift ever comes in. The more time we spend in prayer, the more like God we become. This might sound strange, but in prayer we can enjoy the peace of God, a peace that is beyond our understanding and which reminds us that God is with us. As we pray, we change.

Following God should constantly shape us and change us as we approach life thinking as He does, as we love as He loves, and as we place our faith in Him. We remember His faithfulness to us and that, with His power, the power of the Holy Spirit, we can be different.

What an amazing gift. What a fantastic opportunity. One with life-giving promises. Paul describes it as dwelling on whatever is true, honourable, just, pure, and lovely. In other words, faith is not simply about being invited; it is also about becoming the people God created us to be.

The wonderful news in both readings is that God has not given up inviting us. Day after day, moment after moment, the invitation continues. Come to God. Come with your worries, your questions, your failures, and your hopes. Come not because you have everything sorted, but because God loves you.

How wonderful that before we had achieved anything, before we had succeeded or failed, before we had got our lives neatly organised, God died for us and reached out to us.

This is all because He loves us. All He wants is for us to turn to Him. We turn to Him with our worries and concerns so that we can know His peace.

God loves us, and as we enjoy a relationship with Him, may we seek always to praise His name.

Amen.

Turn around…

 I am sure that in the news you will have noticed the need for someone in power to prove themselves to us. I imagine this is why a certain book by Earl Spencer has created such a stir as people try to work out what is true and what is not.

I know as well of a Church leader who, whilst in prison, had to prove that he really believed in God. He also had to prove that he really was a Jew whose life had been changed completely as he followed Jesus. This is what is happening in the reading from the letter to the Philippians (3:4b–14). This letter was written by Paul, who had experienced the light of God in such a way that he had changed his views of God. Rather than being someone who hated those who believed that Jesus was God, Paul became someone who followed Jesus. He preached about Jesus and ended up starting communities of faith in the various places that he visited across the Roman Empire.

The problem was that not everyone liked his preaching. The Jewish people thought that what he was saying was wrong. Not just this, but when he preached he built up a following of people. This could have been seen by the Roman authorities as a group possibly starting a rebellion. Basically, Paul was not popular and he ended up in prison. This didn’t just happen once, but whilst in prison, Paul wrote this letter to encourage the believers in Philippi.

It always strikes me as amazing that this letter is full of joy. In the reading today, Paul was explaining something about his achievements. These achievements were all to do with his previous faith as a Jew; he had met every credential going. He persecuted the Church, and then on the road to Damascus his life was changed when he had an encounter with Jesus that convinced him that he had been completely wrong. If he hadn’t changed, his life would have been very comfortable. He was on the road to success, but he changed and in this passage he described everything else as nothing compared to knowing Jesus. He had been changed and, in being changed, he saw everything that had gone before as worthless, as rubbish. This is a really big statement to make.

Paul was a zealous man. I am not sure that he would be the most relaxed company you could have; he would be challenging, though. Paul had a new goal and that was to be like Jesus, even if it meant suffering. Paul had been turned around, and he was encouraging others to do the same. We, as we follow God, are also turned around; we have an opportunity to get closer to God, to be different. We can ask to be filled with the Holy Spirit; this is to give us strength. By asking the Holy Spirit to help us, we are asking God for His strength. God is three in one: God who creates, God who came amongst us in Jesus, and God the Holy Spirit who gives us strength. We can ask for this strength every day, to be filled with the Holy Spirit. After all, we can be filled with the Spirit, but we can also leak.

In the reading from the Gospel (Matthew 21:33–36), Jesus was doing the same thing as Paul. He was teaching people that they needed to change; they needed to turn around. He was speaking to the religious leaders and pointing out that they had not treated God well. They had not seen that God was present amongst them in His Son, in Jesus, and by doing this they were rejecting God’s message to them.

Like Paul being turned around, Jesus was explaining to the people around Him that they too needed to turn around. When Jesus told parables, He was taking the opportunity to teach people by using a story. In the story, the landowner planted a vineyard. This is like God creating the earth. The landowner had tenants to look after his land. God had rescued the people of Israel from slavery and given them a promised land. The tenants did not want to give the harvest that had been produced, and so they mistreated those who came to collect the harvest. They beat one messenger up, stoned one, and killed another. God had sent prophets, messengers to the people, asking them to turn back to Him instead of all the other gods that they had started following.

The owner of the vineyard decided that the best he could do was send his son; after all, they wouldn’t attack him, would they? They killed him. 

God the Son, Jesus, was amongst the people. They were rejecting Him. Every building needs a cornerstone to be the base of the building and to hold it together. Jesus was the cornerstone and they were rejecting Him. Everything that was needed was in God, the one they were rejecting.

This parable was both a challenge to turn around and follow God and also a way to give the message to the chief priests and Pharisees that God was amongst them and they were rejecting Him.

Bonnie Tyler was an amazing singer. As I was writing this, one of her songs kept going around in my head. It was, ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart.’ In particular, the words, ‘Turn around,’ and the description of a ‘total eclipse of the heart’. The song is about a relationship that has ended. I want to think of those words as a relationship began.

Paul needed to turn around and follow Jesus, the Pharisees and chief priests needed to turn around and follow Jesus and to see Him. When this is done, our hearts and everything can be changed.

I think that’s the challenge for us each day as we follow Jesus. We can keep turning around from the things that get in the way of Him, and then we can enjoy and know a total change, a total eclipse of the heart. We can always seek to change and grow closer to God. We can keep turning to Him for strength. After all, we all leak sometimes. That is, we all have times when faith is hard, but how wonderful for us to be able to say with Paul that Christ Jesus has made us His own. AMEN. 

Thanks be to God

Harvest is a wonderful service where we give thanks, think of others and enjoy the good gifts God gives us. We are reminded that God helps us in our daily lives. 

A vicar had just arrived in his new Parish and the people were looking forward to hearing him preach his first sermon. He got up in the pulpit and said, “I’d like to speak to you today about one of my favourite passages in the Scriptures – the episode in the Garden of Gethsemane where Peter cuts of the ear of the High Priest’s servant,” and he went to preach what they all agreed afterwards was a good sermon.

The following week people were a bit taken aback when he began with precisely the same introduction: “I’d like to speak to you today about one of my favourite passages in the Scriptures – the episode in the Garden of Gethsemane where Peter cuts of the ear of the High Priest’s servant,” and he went on to preach exactly the same sermon as the week before – word for word. After the service, there was a bit of muttering, but people agreed that he’d only just moved in and he must have been busy unpacking, so they could understand that perhaps he hadn’t had time to write a fresh sermon. They would see what happened the following Sunday.

The next week, exactly the same thing happened – the same introduction, the same sermon, but by now people were beginning to feel that something ought to be said, so one of the churchwardens agreed to have a word with the vicar. “We do appreciate your sermons, Vicar,” he said diplomatically, “but we were wondering as next Sunday is Harvest festival, whether you could preach on something topical, something on the Harvest theme?” “Of course,” replied the vicar, “Just leave it to me.”

So the following Sunday the vicar stood in the pulpit and opened the Bible. “My text for today,” he began, “comes from the fourth chapter of St. Mark’s Gospel, and the twenty-eighth verse: ‘The earth produces of itself first the blade, then the ear’ and that reminds me of one of my favourite passages in the Scriptures where, in the Garden of Gethsemane, Peter cuts of the ear of the High Priests servant…”

Back to today. There are people here, who do not need to imagine what harvesting looks like. There are people here who know exactly what is involved in caring for livestock, watching the weather, worrying about prices, hoping for rain when the ground is dry and hoping for sunshine when rain threatens the harvest.

There are always problems that will be beyond our control, such as weather. There are often times in life when all we can do is trust God, and wait. 

Harvest is the end of that waiting and is a chance to give thanks to God. We don’t only give thanks because a year has been perfect, some years really aren’t. We give thanks because throughout every season, good or difficult, God remains faithful.

In the reading from Deuteronomy (28:1-14), the people of Israel were reminded that God is the source of every blessing. The passage speaks of blessings on fields and flocks, on crops and livestock, on households and communities. It paints a picture of abundance and flourishing.

It is a beautiful picture of everything going well as you follow God, and His commands. There is not a promise here that followers of God won’t face difficulties. Rather, it is a reminder that ultimately every blessing comes from God.

Harvest calls us to stop, and recognise that all good things have their source in God. Sometimes it can feel as if society tells us that if we work hard enough, organise well enough and plan carefully enough, we can control everything that will happen.  This is why it is good to stop and think of the meaning of harvest. This is because harvest is a reminder of our dependence on God.

In our reading from Luke (12:16-30)  Jesus told the story of a rich farmer whose land produced an exceptionally good harvest. The problem for the man was not the good harvest.  The problem was that he made it all about him talking of his barns, his crops, his grain and his goods. Rather than seeing something to be thankful for he wanted to build bigger barns so he could protect what he had. He wasn’t thankful for what he had, he just wanted more. He saw all that God had given him as belonging to him alone and not to be shared with others. 

The end of the story is rather chilling, but it does help in asking the question of what we are doing with the blessings that God has given us ? How are we using the good gifts that God has given to us ? They may not be financial. God gives all sorts of gifts. 

I want you to think for a moment about the good gifts God has given you.

The gifts might include baking, speaking, being a good friend, flower arranging, being a musician, being an artist, helping with building maintenance or being good at organising, being good at administration, being good at praying for others, being able to encourage others. There are so many gifts that people possess.

The harvest gathered in a field does no good if it remains there. The grain stored in a barn only fulfils its purpose when it feeds people. And the gifts God has placed within us fulfil their purpose when they are shared.

There is a a message that runs through this afternoon’s readings. This is that as God blesses, so we give thanks. As God provides, so we share. As God gives generously so we are to respond generously. When all of this happens the blessings of God grow as our response reaches to others so that they too can know the goodness of God. 

So as we celebrate Harvest today, let us give thanks for the land, for those who work it, for the food we enjoy, and for God whose faithfulness sustains us through every season. Then let us also give thanks for the gifts God has placed within each one of us.

And for all God's goodness, generosity and faithfulness, both seen and unseen, today and every day, we say:

Thanks be to God. Amen.

Impossible Forgiveness

  excused and to be given time to repay it. The amount he owed was impossible to pay. A writer called Josephus, writing around the time of Jesus, calculated the taxes in Judea, Idumea, and Samaria as coming to 600 talents, which he said would take 150,000 years to pay off. There was no way that the man in the parable Jesus told would be able to pay off his 10,000 talents.

The king had been forgiving and basically excused this man, whose response was not good at all. This is because the man then attacked someone who owed him a lot less and had him thrown into prison.

This is appalling behaviour, but the ridiculous nature of it reminds us that forgiveness, which is so much greater than we could imagine, must be accepted and should make us want to act differently.

God has given us the best gift ever: forgiveness and the promise of everlasting life. God has blessed us extravagantly, but this means that we are to be extravagant in return. 

Extravagant in our love for God, putting Him first. Extravagant in our love for others, putting their needs before our own. Extravagant in the ways that we forgive others, even when it seems to make no sense to do so.

The writer Corrie ten Boom told of not being able to forget a wrong that had been done to her. She had forgiven the person, but she kept rehashing the incident and so couldn't sleep. Finally, Corrie cried out to God for help in putting the problem to rest. “This help came in the form of a kindly Lutheran pastor,” Corrie wrote, “to whom I confessed my failure after two sleepless weeks.”

“Up in the church tower,” he said, nodding out of the window, “is a bell which is rung by pulling on a rope. But you know what? After the sexton lets go of the rope, the bell keeps on swinging. First ding, then dong. Slower and slower until there's a final dong and it stops. I believe the same thing is true of forgiveness. When we forgive, we take our hand off the rope. But if we've been tugging at our grievances for a long time, we mustn't be surprised if the old angry thoughts keep coming for a while. They're just the ding-dongs of the old bell slowing down.”

“And so it proved to be. There were a few more midnight reverberations, a couple of dings when the subject came up in my conversations, but the force, which was my willingness in the matter, had gone out of them. They came less and less often and at last stopped altogether. We can trust God not only above our emotions, but also above our thoughts.”

This is how we learn to forgive others. It is also a reminder that we can accept the forgiveness that God offers by forgiving others extravagantly, as we give thanks to the One who loves and forgives us extravagantly. May we be extravagant in our love and in our forgiveness. AMEN.

From small beginnings

 Some time ago, I was with some friends, and we were walking through some fields. All was going well until a stile came up, and I had to clamber over it whilst battling with the feeling of, ‘Help, I am going to fall.’ I am a very clumsy person, and although I didn’t fall on this occasion, it would not have been that big a surprise if I had.

Our readings this morning have reminded me of that ‘Help, I am going to fall’ moment. In the reading from 1 Kings (19:9-18) we heard of Elijah being scared as he was being hunted down. His faith remained strong, but he needed reassurance from God that all would be well. For the disciples, they must have thought that they were going to fall into the water as they went through a storm. They were safe, but then Peter had his moment when he actually did fall.

Those two readings speak of faith. A faith that knows that even when we feel like we are going to fall in our journey of faith, God is still there to pick us up.

In our Gospel reading this morning (Matthew 14:22-33), we heard of the disciples going through a very difficult time when they must have felt scared. They went through a storm, had the fear of seeing a ghost walking towards them who turned out to be Jesus, and, to top it all off, Peter, in his bravery, reached out to Jesus and moved from having enough faith to walk on water to realising what he was doing and starting to lose faith.

I think that this reading can describe our walk of faith perfectly. We can feel very sure in our faith, quite confident, until something comes along that tests us. The disciples had been in a storm before, and Jesus had been with them and calmed the storm, but now they must have felt all alone. Sometimes we can feel that way, as if God has abandoned us, even when we know deep down that He has not.

Or maybe we are confident in our faith but a little too frightened to offer everything to Jesus, as we would like to keep some things to ourselves, and so we stumble in faith and end up in a big mess.

I really like Peter. The account we heard this morning is so encouraging. Peter gained confidence to reach out to Jesus on the water and started to walk, but then he lost that confidence. Peter reassures me; we can mess up, but God never leaves us.

The prophet Elijah always makes me a bit nervous. He always seems very confident to me. The reading today has reminded me that even the most confident prophet can have doubts.

To be fair, I am not at all surprised that he was nervous and questioned God. His life was under threat because, as a result of preaching the message God had told him to preach, he had insulted the queen and others. People had been unhappy with the challenge that he had offered, and so they decided that they needed to get rid of Elijah.

Elijah felt abandoned. God spoke to Elijah and promised to come to him. Elijah waited and saw many spectacular things, but God was actually in the quiet.

Peter and Elijah had both gone to God, reached out to Him, but had then lost their confidence. It was as if they suddenly thought, ‘Help, I am going to fall.’

We can all feel as if we are going to fall in our walk of faith. We may sometimes feel as if God has abandoned us, but we can know that God will not let us fall.

The life of faith is not always easy, but it is the best way to be. We can be ready to ask God for more so that we can experience more of Him, more of His love in our lives. Then we can have confidence and know that even in times when our faith dips and peaks, God is still with us. He never leaves us; He is always there, and all we need to do is turn to Him. We may feel like we are going to fall in the water like Peter, to fall in our faith, but just like He was for Peter, God is always there to pick us up and help us on our way.

Today, I also want to think about the faith of a woman who saw a need and met it. In 1876, Mary Sumner, who was married to the rector of her parish, noticed that there were other women who could use help in bringing up their children. She started a group for every mother, of any background, to work together.

The group was a success, and in 1885, after she talked about the group at the Portsmouth Church Congress, other people did the same in the places where they lived.

She saw a need and thought of how to help. She did something different and stepped out in faith. The Mothers' Union is an incredible movement that began from something small.

This year we are celebrating 150 years of the Mothers' Union. I am one of over 4 million members in over 80 countries.

Mothers' Union is described as “a woman-led international Christian movement dedicated to ending poverty, violence and social injustice in communities in the UK and around the world”. By doing this, they see themselves as “strengthening families and communities and advocating for meaningful change.”

In our Ministry Area, there is a group that meets monthly at St Cadoc’s Church, Raglan. During the intercessions today, we will be praying for the work of the Mothers' Union in our Diocese.

This is not an advert to join the Mothers' Union, although if you are interested, find a member and ask more. I want to think about the simple way in which it began from a young woman called Mary Sumner stepping out in faith to help others.

The readings this morning have encouraged us to step out and trust in God. Like the beginnings of the Mothers' Union, in our lives we can step out and see that, from a small beginning, God can do amazing things.

Faith is like that. We can think of all that might stop us trusting, that may stop us from listening to what God is saying. However, knowing God's promise to be with us always, we can have faith. May we always seek to have faith. Amen