If you walk into almost any town or village in the country, you will find a war memorial. Often it is a stone block that stands as a testimony to the young men of the area who died in war. Every year at Remembrance we hear numbers and names. We might think on the stories behind those names – men with families, friends, hopes, dreams and all of them with lives cut short.I’d like to tell you one such story. It is the story of a Seargent, who served in a border guard at a military checkpoint. A family man who was popular with his men. In the middle of the night on a cold and snowy February, on duty with five others, he looked across the checkpoint to see soldiers. An army advancing towards them.Six men against an entire army. The Seargent ordered the five men with him to retreat as quickly and as quietly as they could, whilst he alone went to their only defensive position. A machine gun placed inside an old railway carriage. In the next few moments, seeing him moving towards the gun, the advancing army opened fire, killing the Seargent. His order to retreat, and his movement towards the gun caused the advancing army to slow down. His actions enabled his comrades to reach safety. His body was found riddled with bullet holes.The Seargent left behind his wife, an eight-year-old son, and a one-year-old daughter.He was only thirty-six.This story sounds like that of so many others that we might hear at Remembrance Sunday, but this story is far more recent. The Seargent’s name was Denys, and he was most likely the first soldier in Ukraine to be killed when Vladimir Putin ordered his invasion. The first casualty in a war that has killed so many already. A war that will kill more people today and more people tomorrow.War is sadly all too common in the world today.When the First World War was fought it was called ‘The war to end all wars.’ The hope people had was that this war, which was so costly, so horrific and so hard to understand the causes of would lead to a change in humanity. Something good had to be destined to come from something as unimaginably awful as the trenches, the mud, the shells and the slaughter.Perhaps like me you wonder how the lessons from it were forgotten so soon.Yet in so many of the years since, war has been far away. We have grown accustomed to war and conflict as being something that happens over there. Korea, the Falklands, Afghanistan, and Iraq were all taking place a long way from home. It was easy to forget about them. It was easy to forget about the impact of war on our armed forces personnel and civilians from another land.It is too easy to switch off our televisions. Too easy to hide things that we don’t want to see on our social media. Too easy to give in to our fatigue of war and of bad news and turn the page.But for the people of Ukraine, indeed for the people of Israel and Palestine, for the people of Yemen and Syria and so many other countries war is a daily horror. The Christian population of Gaza, often sheltering together in the rubble of their churches have spoken movingly about their sense of Christ’s love for them being their only source of hope amidst the devastation.When Jesus gave His commandment to us to “love one another” he didn’t leave a restriction. He didn’t tell us to love this group over here but not those people over there. Christ’s love is God’s love for all people. God’s love is for all of those men who died in Flanders fields. God’s love is for the men and women who died all over the world in the 1940s.God’s love is love for the people of Gaza sheltering and starving as bombs fall around them.God’s love is for the Israeli families longing for the return of stolen loved ones.God’s love is for the Ukrainian refugees in foreign lands.God’s love is for the people of Russia enduring oppression and fear.God’s love is for them and for you.It is through God’s love for us that we can hope for the future. Whilst now may be the time to mourn, the time to weep and the time to keep silence in remembrance. Tomorrow may yet be the time to heal, the time to build up and the time to speak out.Tomorrow may yet be the time for peace.Amen.Rev. Iain GrantAssistant Curate, Sheringham St Peter
Lord, direct our thoughts, and teach us to pray. Lift up our hearts to worship you in spirit and in truth, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.‘For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall never be shaken.’ (Psalm 62:1-2)Hymn: All my hope on God is founded...Jonah 3:1-5, 10; Hebrews 9:24-28In life and death we are with the Lord. Let us turn to the Lord, who is full of compassion and mercy, and ask that he will forgive us our sins and extend his healing love upon our broken world: Most merciful God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we confess that we have sinned in thought, word and deed. We have not loved you with our whole heart. We have not loved our neighbours as ourselves. In your mercy forgive what we have been, help us to amend what we are, and direct what we shall be; that we may do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with you, our God. Amen.May the God of love bring us back to himself, forgive us our sins, and assure us of his eternal love in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.Prayer for the day: Lord of the nations, Saviour and judge of all: remove from human hearts all bitterness and hate, grant to those who have died in war your mercy and forgiveness and bring us all to the peace of your eternal Kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who suffered and died, and now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.Mark 1:14-20Please see the message from the minister.Let us join in prayer, asking for God’s loving presence to be known to everyone: We pray for the Church throughout the world, that God’s love will be revealed through us;We pray for the world, for compassion and loving kindness to grow in people’s hearts so that all will flourish, and conflict, poverty and injustice will cease;We pray for our friends, families and neighbours, that our relationships will thrive;We pray for people who are sick or suffering, that they will know God’s healing presence;We pray for the departed, and that all who mourn will receive comfort.Let us pray for the coming of God’s kingdom in the prayer that Jesus taught us: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done; on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory for ever and ever. Amen.Hymn: Eternal Father, strong to save...May the love of our Lord Jesus draw us to himself, the power of the Lord Jesus strengthen us in his service, the joy of the Lord Jesus fill our hearts: and may the blessing of God Almighty who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit rest upon us and remain with us always.Let us go in peace to love and serve the Lord, in the name of Christ. Amen.
A procession through the town will arrive at the War Memorial by 10:45am on Remembrance Sunday for our Act of Remembrance. This is followed by the Town Service in St Peter's Church at 11:15am.You are welcome to attend either or both of these events, whoever you are.You may place a cross on our Field of Remembrance outside the church if you wish.There is a votive candle stand inside the church if you would like to light a candle in remembrance of a loved one.There are interactive prayer stations for peace in the Chapel of Prayer which you may engage with.We will remember them.
The Sermon on the Mount is one of the most familiar passages in the New Testament, if not in the whole Bible. Mention the Sermon on the Mount and most people think of it as a lovely collection of Jesus’s main teachings. It tends to be seen as a Good Thing. Our Gospel reading this morning is from Matthew, and is a list of circumstances or happenstances known as the Beatitudes. In this passage, Jesus tells his listeners that when certain unpleasant things happen to them, or if they are poor, for instance, they are to consider themselves ‘happy’ or ‘blessed’. We may have heard these words so many times that the disturbing and surprising nature of this teaching washes over us but I doubt that is how the disciples first heard them! Rather, I expect that they were confused and somewhat affronted. What do you mean that we are blessed when people say all kinds of unpleasant things about us? One can only hope that they had the opportunity to talk later with Jesus about his strange teachings and to get him to expand on what he meant. Now we understand that he wanted his followers to understand that whatever happened to them and regardless of their circumstances, if they trusted in him and remained faithful to him, their eternal salvation was assured. But was that all Jesus meant? Was what he said only intended to be about pie in the sky by and by? I believe that at the core of his teachings was the message that by trusting in him, by following his Way of love and forgiveness, they would see and experience everything they were going through with new eyes. If they looked to Jesus in the midst of their troubles, they would begin to see with the eyes of Christ. They would be transformed from within and given the grace and strength to endure. In their own strength the disciples would have known this was impossible. Jesus wasn’t really telling his friends how he wanted them to TRY to react to difficulties. He was telling them that by trusting in him this is how they WOULD react. Revd Christina Rees
