Sermons

The Seventh Sunday after Trinity - 19th July

Isaiah 44 v6-8 Rom 8 12-25, Matt 13 v24-30, 36-43

Some of you know that over many years I have researched my Family History. In many ways it is the history of unremarkable people mostly living in Somerset. There are people who were farmers, churchwardens, children born to mothers who were not married, some lived and died in workhouses. 

I remember my mother speaking about her grandmother. She asked her about her family, her family name was Dunkerton. “You don’t want to know them”, her grandmother said, “they were no good”. I also remember a conversation when I was a child when my mother, whose family name was Osborne, spoke to her sister in law, who also had the family name of Osborne before she married my uncle. My mother said to her “I wonder if we are related?” “Oh! I shouldn’t think so”, replied my aunt.  My mother’s immediate family were lower middle class, less respectable than my aunt’s definitely middle class family! Doing family research later, I discovered they did have a common ancestor 4 or 5 generations back!

We do like to put people into boxes, some are like us, some are different, some are good and some are bad! We judge that some people are like the wheat in our gospel story today and some are like the weeds or the tares, (as some translations describe them).

Of course today, in 2026, we are encouraged to value weeds. Many country churchyards have a wild meadow section with a variety of wild flowers to encourage insects and other wildlife. What we used to call weeds are now regarded as valuable parts of our environment, essential for the flourishing of bees, insects, birds and other animals. So the wheat and the weeds must grow together.
      
It may be fine for graves and wildlife to exist alongside each other in a churchyard, but how are human beings to live together if we call some people “good” and others “bad?”. Jesus was speaking about people when he told this parable of the wheat and the weeds. However, the meaning of this story Jesus told, the explanation given to the disciples, which was the 2nd part of our gospel reading, these words are unlikely to be the words of Jesus. 

The first Christians often had problems concerning how to deal with people who sinned, who brought scandal to the local Christian community, and from time to time denied their faith in Jesus as the Son of God when brought before the authorities. How were they to be treated, are they to be pulled out like weeds in a garden, or should they be allowed to stay in the community in spite of what they had done? 
In his 1st letter to the people of Corinth Paul says, “The Lord will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart.” (1 Cor 4.v5). Paul is aware that Christians in Corinth are judging other Christians, judging their preaching, judging their actions, and so dividing the church into different factions. Paul says to the Christians there, let God be the judge when the time for judgement comes. 

The key phrase in this parable we have heard this morning, are the words of the farmer. His servants ask if they should pull up the weeds. The farmer says “No!”, “Let both grow together until the harvest”.  

We can see how these words can apply to the Church in Corinth, encouraging all leaders to work together, the Christian community accepting one another rather than judging one another. How is this teaching relevant for us today? 

We naturally make friends with people like ourselves, people who have the same interests, the same values. We find it much harder to be friendly towards people who don’t share those same interests or values.

Yet we are continually reminded in the New Testament that in the Christian community it is variety, our different gifts, our different backgrounds, our different abilities, our different social classes and different ethnic groups that are valuable to God. We are like the variety found in a meadow full of wild flowers, insects and animals, all different, but all contributing to the whole. Some people may look and see only long grass and weeds, they don’t notice the beautiful butterflies and other insects or the small animals hiding in the long grass.

General Synod met in York last weekend and had a major debate on the environment and climate change. The Church of England has recently produced a teaching document called “Hope for all creation: a theological response to the environmental crisis”. The archbishops remind us that caring for creation is an essential part of our task as disciples of Jesus Christ. The document asks us to recognize the damage our lifestyles are causing, calling on us to change our lives and repair the broken relationship we have with nature. Caring for creation cannot be left just to governments or organizations like the Wildlife Trusts or the National Trust.                       
It is essential that we as individuals consider how we can reduce our own carbon footprint, this is part of our calling as Christians. The document says “As Christians we should not underestimate the impact we can have as we respond to God’s call to act at this time of climate and ecological crisis”. 

You may think there is little you can do as an individual to change your lifestyle, that your impact on nature is tiny, but ecochurch reminds us we all have a part to play. If St Andrew’s is to gain our gold eco award in the future each of us will need to play our part.  
 
We need to ask how what we eat, the clothes that we wear and the ways we travel have an impact on the creation we are called to care for.

There may be some people who feel they have nothing to contribute to the whole, they have no particular talents, some may have very little time to give. Even members who are housebound have a part to play. They often have time to pray, and prayer is an essential part of the work of a Christian community. There is a place for everybody in God’s beautiful meadow, which is much more interesting than just wheat and weeds.

When we look at God’s meadow what do we see? How do we care for that meadow? How do we care for everything and everybody in that meadow?  Who do you see? A useless weed? Or a child of God, a person however difficult, however different, a person made in the image of God.

I want to end with a short poem which invites us to take notice, to really see the wildlife around us. As Christians let us also really notice people that in the past some have called weeds. It is a poem by Mary Oliver, an American poet who died in 2019. It is called “Look and See”.

This morning, at waterside, a sparrow flew
to a water rock and landed, by error, on the back
of an eider duck; lightly it fluttered off, amused.
The duck, too, was not provoked, but, you might say, was
laughing.
This afternoon a gull sailing over
our house was casually scratching
its stomach of white feathers with one
pink foot as it flew.
Oh Lord, how shining and festive is your gift to us, if we
only look, and see.

Rev'd Janet Fulljames

Dedication Festival - 12th July 2026

The Fifth Sunday after Trinity - 5th July 2026

‘Jesus Christ never failed me yet’

In this hot weather we may lack energy and be unwilling to do what we should. We can be comforted and refreshed by Jesus’ ‘Come to me, all who are weary and whose load is heavy, I will give you rest.’ Jesus is saying, My Grace is at hand. I’ll get you through this. He will not fail us.

There was a young American girl called Tracey aged five who was a tomboy, adventurous, risk-taking and active. She went into a shoe shop and saw some trainers that she fancied. She asked the owner for a pair. He said, ‘Trainers are only for boys.’ Her mother came up and said, ‘Size 4, please’- and they were served. 

Tracey knew what she wanted in order to be herself and not someone else. It is important to be yourself; not what others expect you to be or want you to be.

On Desert Island Disks Anna Maxwell Martin wanted from a young age to be an actor. ‘What did your parents think about that?’, Lauren Laverne asked. ‘They never made any attempt to suggest otherwise. They accepted that’s what I wanted.’

Lucky and much blessed is the person who is allowed to pursue their goal, who knows what makes them tick and can be herself/himself. In his image of the Church as a human body Paul implied that the knee cannot be forced to become something else. The eye is needed as an eye and nothing else. Beware of people who try to change you or stop you from honouring and doing what is right for you.

However in being true to ourself we must allow the same freedom to others; and in pursuing our path not block or hurt someone from realising theirs.

In our gospel we have John the Baptist criticised for being ‘possessed’, drunk, when he had a simple diet and was ascetic. Jesus was criticised too – ‘a glutton and a drinker’ - for eating with tax-collectors and sinners. He was not ascetic and enjoyed food and drink.

Young people are going to be restricted in their use of their phones. A BBC reporter asked a girl how much she used her phone in a day. ‘Nine hours.’ ‘What will you do when you can’t?’ ‘Stare at the wall.’

Jesus is saying to the young also. ‘Learn from me. Come to me, all who are weary and whose load is heavy, I will give you rest.’  We do not have to be addicts to anything. He will help us to find a balance in life, real rest as well as opportunities for doing whatever we are drawn too.

But we can’t do this on our own or in our own strength. On Wednesday nights we have just finished reading some stories about the first Christians in the book of Acts.  The message of Acts is that Jesus is inviting us to let him mould us, guide us and make us like him.  He calls us to be both/and: both true to him and true to ourselves.

We sang the other day:

‘One more step along the world I go,
From the old things to the new
Keep me travelling along with you.’

And

‘All the new things that I see
You’ll be looking at along with me.’
Jesus travels with us.

The world, it feels to me, is sad and weary, rough and tough: Ukraine; Gaza; earthquakes in Venezuela; people wanting to deport people. It does not have to be like that.

‘Give me courage when the world is rough
Keep me loving though the world is tough
Leap and sing in all I do
Keep me travelling along with you.’

I was listening to R3 and a composer was asked about his modern piece Jesus Christ never failed me yet. He explained that back in 1971 he collected songs from people who were sleeping rough in London. One song stuck in his imagination: an old man singing in a dry voice: Jesus Christ never failed me yet. Again and again. He had nothing and yet he had a Jesus faith.

Whoever we are we matter to Jesus. Our hope is in him. Each day we can travel with him and so become the person he wants each of us to be.                                                                                                             Jeremy Harvey, Reader

The Fourth Sunday after Trinity - 28th June 2026
“Welcome”
Matthew 10: 40-42

I find it rather ironic, that on the day that I am saying “Goodbye”, the Gospel reading is all about “Welcome”!

Being welcome anywhere is an important part of our society and especially in church life.
When I took Alan to meet my mother for the first time, she stood on the doorstep of her bungalow and said to him, “Welcome”. He never forgot it.
And here as a church, we have spent a lot of time, thinking about how to make our welcome to new people and the regulars, special; not overwhelming nor unfamiliar, 
but warm and friendly and with the message that we are pleased to see you. 
Come on in.

But in the Jewish tradition, welcome and hospitality, is an even more vital part of their culture. Jesus reflected this in several of his parables, and many of the scenes described in the gospels take place around a meal table. He shared those tables with the outcast, the stranger, and anyone who sought him out.
There are also many stories told in the Old Testament that reflect this underlying ethos.  

And in the ancient world identity was tied to family and community. It was understood that in showing hospitality, one welcomed not just an individual, 
but also, the community who sent the person and all that they represented. 
Therefore, welcoming a disciple of Jesus would mean receiving the very presence of Jesus himself and of the one who sent him, God the Father.

In this reading today, Jesus says, “and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple — truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward”
 “Little ones” often refers to children, but Matthew here uses it to refer to Jesus’ disciples, especially those who are young in faith or particularly vulnerable. The giving of a drink of water to someone in a land that was hot and dusty, was the very least that you could do for anybody; it was the lowest level of kindness.

And that word “reward” in our gospel carries an implication of something earned, but it would be better read as “Come, inherit the kingdom prepared for you.” 
An inheritance is a pure gift. So to receive Jesus is to receive the one who sent him, and therefore become an heir to all that the Father has to give.

The phrase about giving a cup of cold water to one of these little ones, points ahead to the parable of the sheep and the goats, where the Son of Man says to the righteous, “I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink” and “truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these, who are members of my family, 
you did it to me”. It reminds me of the song, “When I needed a neighbour”, and the verse “I was hungry and thirsty, were you there?”
 
These verses come at the end of the chapter where Jesus sends his disciples to share in his mission of proclaiming in word and deed, the good news of God’s kingdom drawing near. Matthew assumes that the church is a church that sends people out; it is a missionary church; there is simply no other way to be the church! 

We are not all called to be missionaries in the traditional sense of the word, but that doesn’t mean we are off the hook. All who are baptised are sent into the world to tell the good news of Jesus Christ. We are all sent to show Christ to others with humility and vulnerability, being willing to risk rejection. That may be through a conversation, the sharing of a pot of tea, contributing to the Foodbank or helping at any of the many charities in our town. 
Perhaps people are simply waiting to know more about our faith and looking for an invitation to come to church. Maybe, if we were braver, then we would look out for those opportunities more, and through even the smallest of kindnesses, can take Christ’s love to others.

And so I leave with this prayer of Bishop Ken who was Bishop of Bath & Wells in the 17th century, yet his words are just as relevant today. This is my prayer for St Andrews.

May the doors of this church be wide enough
to welcome all who seek comfort, love, and hope;
wide enough to embrace the weary, the lost, and the searching;
wide enough to receive friend and stranger, neighbour and newcomer alike.

May the doors of this church be narrow enough
to shut out pride, envy, and division;
narrow enough to keep out all that would harm the spirit of peace;
narrow enough to guard the unity of hearts in love.

May the threshold of this church be smooth enough
that none shall stumble because of fear or shame;
smooth enough for children to run in joy,
and for the burdened to enter without hesitation.

And may the doors of this church open always
onto the way of compassion,
the path of justice,
and the life of Christ,
in whose name we welcome all.
Amen

Ruth Cook, Reader

The Third Sunday after Trinity - 21st June 2026

based on Jer. 20; Rom 6 and Matt.20

I will not be here with you next Sunday morning because I will be at the main service of St. James’ Church, baptizing the child of some family friends who worship there every week.   

The rite will be a big deal for 3 year old Toby, because for a while he will be the centre of attraction and all eyes will be fixed on him for a ceremony that will only happen to him just once in his life.   

Baptism is one of the two principal SACRAMENTS of the Christian Church, the other of course being the Eucharist, or Holy Communion, which we celebrate every week in the main church on Sunday and in the Lady Chapel every Wednesday.   

These two rites were directly prescribed by Jesus and so are generally regarded as necessary for salvation, while the other five so-called Lesser Sacraments (viz. Confirmation, Ordination, Holy Matrimony, Confession and Anointing of the sick or dying) are seen as, yes, important, but of secondary significance compared with Baptism and the Eucharist. 

Sacraments are defined as outward and visible signs of an inward and spiritual grace.  Baptism uses water, holy oil, a candle, a white garment  and the sign of the Cross to symbolize rebirth, purification and the formal entry and welcome into the fellowship of Christ’s body on earth, which is the universal Church. 

The Eucharist uses bread and wine as consecrated signs of the body and blood of Christ, signifying his Real Presence among those gathered to remember his sacrifice on the Cross.   

This self-offering by Jesus was the means by which he has won our redemption from the slavery of sin and eternal salvation for all his disciples, ending once and for all our alienation from God that had been brought about by sin.   

Whereas we only need ONE baptism to welcome us into the Church as full members of the fellowship of Christ, the weekly or (in some traditions) the daily Eucharist nourishes and renews us from within by the grace of God, who is eternally and powerfully active in all his seven sacraments to affirm, forgive, heal, renew, reform and save.   

Thanks be to God in Trinity for his love, his mercy and his empowering of us through the Holy Spirit as Christ’s disciples.  Our discipleship calls each of us to grow spiritually in faith, hope and love – love both of God and of our neighbours. 

Discipleship also requires us to proclaim our faith in word and action, and yet the very world into which we are called to witness to Christ has always been fallen, imperfect, conflicted and frequently hostile to the gospel message.   

The heart of that message are Reconciliation, Love and Peace, cardinal virtues that today run up against the worldly values and materialist ambitions which characterize the public cynicism and contemptuous rejection of our Christian witness. 

Similarly Jewish society in the late 7th century BCE was arrogantly dismissive of the warnings to Judah and Israel of the Old Testament prophets like Jeremiah.  

The prophets pleaded to little effect that the people should amend, put away their idolatry and return to the path of obedience to the commandments of God, if they wanted to avoid conquest and humiliation at the hands of more powerful neighbouring kingdoms. 

Our Old Testament reading today from the prophet Jeremiah reminds us of the personal cost of prophetic ministry.  He suffers terrible persecution at the hands of those whom he is trying to preserve and so in frustration and rage he assails God with his complaints of being enticed, cruelly tricked and completely overpowered.  

Nevertheless he also confesses that God’s word has an irresistible quality compelling him to prophesy as God’s mouthpiece: “within me there is something like a burning fire shut up in my bones.  I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot”.  

Does this not remind you of Jesus’ desperation in the Garden of Gethsemane: “let this cup be taken from me, yet not my will but yours be done”?  We see from this plea how Jesus stood in a direct line of descent from the great Old Testament prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel.   

For all true prophets the cost of obedience to their calling is suffering and sacrifice, rejection and contempt.  Like Cassandra they only tell God’s truth, but are condemned not to be believed.  And yet Jeremiah for all his bitter complaints retains his unshakeable belief in God’s goodness.  We read, “The Lord is with me…. For to you I have committed my cause.  Sing to the Lord, for he has delivered the life of the needy from the hands of evildoers”.   

In our own adversities, though they may never be as harsh as the experiences of the ancient prophets, we are to persevere in faith and continue to trust that God’s love will never abandon us, but work for our good.  Also, when things go wrong for us, we can learn from the prophets that it is alright to rail against God, because he can take it without resentment. 

As we learn from Romans 6, in our baptism we receive God’s grace in the reception of his Holy Spirit, just as Jesus himself did when he was baptized by John at the beginning of his public ministry.   

Paul warns us that such a gift is not a reason or an excuse to sin all the more, but is the exact opposite, namely a call to holiness and humility, for God’s grace transforms our inner life, so that we are forever reconciled to God by the Cross. 

In baptism we are given a new identity in Christ, since in Paul’s vivid language we are baptized into his death and we symbolically die with him as we enter the water and then are raised to a new and transformed life, as we emerge again from that same water of baptism to share in Christ’s Resurrection.  This is why people speak of baptism as “being born again by water and the Spirit”.  

Although Paul’s argument in chapter 6 of his letter to the Romans is dense and difficult to follow, it nevertheless captures the essence of the Christian life, which is a life transformed by God’s grace to enable the baptized to commit themselves to righteousness and the permanent rejection of sin.   

In Paul’s reasoning since we are now dead to sin and alive to God in Jesus Christ we must strive to live a life that reflects our faith, a faith that assures us that we have truly been healed, forgiven and permanently reconciled to God through the sacrifice of Christ. 

Sin had estranged humanity from God, but our participation in Christ’s suffering and death in the waters of baptism has gained for us liberation from the tyranny of sin and made it possible for us to receive God’s mercy and forgiveness and in that sense to be born again.   

At first reading today’s gospel is a real shocker.  Do you remember how at Christmas we were celebrating the birth of the Prince of Peace, while angelic hosts sang of peace on earth and goodwill towards all men?  In Matthew 20, however, Jesus says to his disciples, “Do NOT think that I have come to bring peace to the earth.  I have not come to bring peace, but a sword”. 

What on earth is Jesus talking about here?  Where is our gentle Jesus, meek and mild from our Sunday school class seventy years ago?  Let me give you a clue why this passage is in fact a perfect complement to our Old Testament reading about the persecution of the prophets and also a  reaffirmation of Paul’s teaching in Romans 6 that full membership and inclusion in the Church of God requires us to be baptized into the DEATH of Christ and then be reborn as a new creation, fit to proclaim the good news of God’s Kingdom boldly to an often hostile and antagonistic world.   

In Matthew 20 Jesus is warning his disciples that, because he is bringing good news to the poor and oppressed, to the marginalized and the most needy in society, their discipleship will be seen as radical and threatening to the comfortable complacencies of respectable society. 

The gospel will therefore be likely to create conflict even within families, let alone wider society.  Therefore as disciples our allegiance to Christ must be unswerving, taking precedence over every other relationship. 

In his own life such was his commitment to his own vocation as a servant of God that at one point he refuses to see his mother and siblings who have travelled far to visit him, but rather calls those who are attentive to his teaching his true mother, brother, or sister. 

In this passage in Matthew 20 Jesus is steeling his followers not to be intimidated by the inevitable hostility that will confront them when they proclaim the radical message entrusted to them, just as the Old Testament prophets faced suffering and harassment in the execution of their duty to challenge society in God’s name.   

“Have no fear,” Jesus exhorts us as his disciples, because we will be emboldened by the spiritual security and confidence that we have in knowing that God’s love for us is unfailing and his care is constant.   

We are to persevere in living our faith by demonstrating our identification with Jesus’ suffering, obedience and humility by “taking up our Cross and following” the one who gave up his own life, that we might have life and have it in abundance. 

Our own discipleship will almost certainly be costly, but if we prioritize loyalty to Christ and to his gospel, we will receive God’s blessing and experience the joy of his constant presence with us on our journey both in this life and in the next.   

To God the blessed Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit be all glory and honour now and always.  Amen.    

Fr. Munna Mitra

The First Sunday after Trinity - 7th June 2026

Hosea Cpt 5 v15- Cpt 6 v6. Romans Cpt 4 v13 – 25. Matt Cpt 9 v9-13 and 18-26

A tax collector today is a civil servant and regarded as a member of an honorable profession. At the time of Jesus, since Judea was occupied by the Romans, anyone working for the Romans was regarded as a traitor, a person to be ostracized. Working for the Romans was seen as wrong, it was also seen as sinful.

 It was a job which was difficult, it was hard for a man to collect the taxes honestly and fairly if he wished to be a Godfearing Jew. The Romans demanded a certain sum of money from the collector, there was no charge laid down for each person, but since the tax collector had to earn a living, he charged people more than the Romans demanded and I’m sure some tax collectors made a very good living.

Tax collectors were resented and avoided, no law- abiding Jew would visit their homes or invite them to their own house to share a meal with them, yet this is exactly what Jesus did. He doesn’t say to the religious leaders, the Pharisees, that tax collectors have kept the law, he admits that they are sinners in need of help, for he says they are like the sick who need a doctor.

I’m sure some men became tax collectors because they were desperate to support their families. There have always been men and women who have lived on the edge because circumstances make them desperate.

It is possible that the man Jesus ate with was Matthew the apostle, although St Mark’s gospel says it was a man called Levi. Whoever this man was the story is told in order to emphasize that there is a place in Christ’s kingdom for sinners.

The words of Jesus, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice”, is a quotation from our Old Testament reading. In the book of the prophet Hosea God says to Israel, I desire loyalty or steadfast love, not sacrifice”

Through his personal experience, the unfaithfulness of his wife Gomer, Hosea sees the behaviour of his wife like that of Israel. As a nation they have made a covenant with God, they have committed themselves to be faithful to God, and yet again and again their love is “like the morning mist, like the dew that goes away early”. 

In these 14 short chapters the prophet Hosea reflects on his relationship with his wife and sees how similar the relationship was between God and Israel. Hosea puts much of what he says into the mouth of God and we see both the depths of God’s love for Israel, and also the suffering God endures because of Israel’s unfaithfulness, their sinfulness.

All three of our readings today confronts us with the reality of human sinfulness. Israel made a covenant with God, promised to be faithful, but again and again they sinned, thinking that offering sacrifices would be enough to please God. The tax collectors at the time of Jesus made compromises with the occupying power, they neglected the commandments of God. In the letter to the Romans Paul has reminded his readers that “no human being will be justified in God’s sight by obeying the law, since we have all sinned.

So today we are asked to consider what is the Christian understanding of sin. Sin separates us from God. We are all sinners, we cannot divide human being into 2 camps, the good and the bad, although often in practice many people do. We all fail to live as God wants us to. We are not filled with the love of Christ, loving God and our fellow human beings with our whole hearts.

In the First Letter of John we are told “No one who abides in Christ sins, no one who sins has either seen him or known him (Cpt3 v6 ). So what does this mean? We believe God’s Spirit is with us, yet we know we fail every day to live lives without sin.

When John says that those who abide in Christ don’t sin, he knows that Christians are not perfect. We don’t allow Christ to fill our hearts, to completely change our lives, for then, if we did, we would be perfect. 

Some of you may know the story of the man speaking to his priest about his own sinfulness. “Father”, he said “It’s always the same sins, my laziness, my forgetfulness, my thoughts and unkind words, I don’t seem to have anything new to say” “Thank God” said the priest, “you are not adding new sins to the weaknesses you have already admitted to”.
    
In the Letter to the Romans that we heard a part of this morning Paul tells his readers that it is not our actions, that enable us to have a relationship with God. Paul says before the law existed Abraham had faith, he trusted God and this was the basis of that relationship. If we admit we are sinners, that our actions can never be perfect, that they cannot be the basis of a right relationship with God. 

Jesus Christ has already made a new way to God, we have the assurance of God’s forgiveness for our sinfulness. The Holy Spirit teaches us how to grow in our love for God and other people. In this world we may go on struggling to live in God’s way, we will sin. As we come together to worship God each week, we need to begin by confessing our sinfulness. 

God loves us in our sinful state so we approach God because we know God is perfect love, merciful and patient and will lead us in this life until we have hearts filled with the love of Christ, able to share in God’s eternity. 

Rev'd Janet Fulljames

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