St Hilda's, Warley Woods

In 2012 I remember driving to my family home in London as I was fortunate enough to have some tickets to attend some of the Olympic Games. As I got close to the family’s house I saw a ginormous Jamaican flag hanging outside, with some Union flag bunting framing it. At first I felt really embarrassed, because I grew up in the sort of house that never put Christmas lights outside or any decorations, let alone flags…

My mum had died the year before and I wondered what she would have thought about this. My mum was born and raised in Jamaica and so the flag was flown in tribute to her. I said to my dad that I thought mum would have been so embarrassed by this hanging from the window, but he gave me a wry smile and said, ‘no I think she would have been proud’. I worried that as a white family we would be misunderstood because looking at us you wouldn’t think we had any Jamaican connection, only those who knew us would understand. Later that week Jamaica won gold silver and bronze in the men’s 100 metre Sprint. I felt proud to have Jamaican heritage and the flag bothered me less, I even felt a little proud.

I don't know how each of you feel about flags? Some of us are used to waving flags at sporting events, or perhaps flags are part of societies and clubs that we belong to. It's been wonderful to hear from the Girl Guiding groups about what their flags are all about this morning.

We expect to see flags in certain places; outside embassies, outside the homes of world leaders and monarchs. Flags can show our national identity, which isn't a bad thing.

Flying flags more recently though, in recent years and months have been used to fulfill certain agendas.

When Russia invaded Ukraine many people hung Ukrainian flags from their windows to show their support for the Ukrainian people. This has also been true for those who have wanted to show support for Palestine over the years, long before 2023 when the flags increased in number. Where I used to live in Birmingham many years ago the streets are filled with Palestinian flags.

This summer lots of people started to put flags up with particular agendas; for some putting up the Saint George's England flag as a strong message against immigration. Unfortunately, in some places flags have been used to say that some people are welcome and others are not. Some have used flags have been used as weapon, and sign of hate.

This felt particularly difficult for me, when at the far right protests in London this summer some of the Saint George's flags had an image of the crucified Christ in the centre of them. Some have claimed Christ as the advocate and support of racism and hate. I find this difficult because of what we read about Jesus and what he said. We have heard in the scriptures this morning that in Christ Jesus we all belong to one family, God's family. This is different to an earthly family.

The Ephesians were a Church of mixed religious and cultural heritage. These words were written to them to remind them that in Christ Jesus they are equal, that there should be peace between them, and that their earthly citizenship, that is their national identities, is irrelevant in God's Kingdom because their heavenly citizenship is more important. These beautiful words in the scriptures tell us that if we belong to God's family, that we are citizens of God's Kingdom. And in this season of the church, in Kingdomtide, we're reminded that being part of God's family means belonging to those who've gone before us; those we worship with now, and those who will come after us, from all corners of the world, throughout history. The mystery of being part of the community of faith is that it isn't about where we're from, which passports we hold, the colour of our skin, the wrongs or right of our earthly nation. In Christ we all belong.

And what is even more beautiful is that God continues to grow in us , that is you and me, a beautiful place for God's Spirit to dwell. As a community, as people who love and follow Jesus we live and proclaim a holiness that Jesus is our Lord, our monarch, the one whom we have allegiance to. And this allegiance is stronger and more important than our earthly citizenship.

This is why we laid the Girl Guiding and Union flags down in front of the altar earlier, as a sign that all the things we celebrate about our identity whether that be national or belonging to a particular group, they all come at the feet of Jesus who is Lord of the whole world. We declare this today, and every day as people who follow Jesus. It is not wrong to feel pride for our earthly nation, to celebrate it, to be proud of the things we do well. But when we use our earthly citizenship to perpetuate hate, prejudice or racism we are not doing what Jesus calls us to do. When we see ourselves as better or more important than others we forget that all people are made in God’s image and are precious in God’s sight.

And so today on Remembrance Sunday when we particularly remember the atrocities of war, of the lives that are lost because of it, both civilians, as well as those who bravely defend as part of armed forces. We remember with sorrow and give thanks for all those who fought for freedom, but we do this longing for something much better. We do this longing for an end to all war and violence. We long for God’s kingdom to come, where all throughout the world can experience peace and liberation.

After the First World War it was declared ‘never again’. But we have seen in modern history that it does happen again, and again, and again. We are still fighting. We are a long way from the people of peace that Christ calls us to be, throughout the scriptures. And so our challenge today is how do we as individuals, as communities, as a church live out that peace? We must think carefully about how we use any rights or privilege we have, we must think carefully about how we respond to hate, to exclusion, to racism, and to violence.

Yesterday a few of us gathered to think more deeply about this, and we agreed that this more important than ever in the current climate of fear. Fear can make us wary of those who are different to us, but Jesus helps us not to be afraid, and he invites to lives of love. In Christ’s family we share life with those we might not necessarily interact with otherwise. As Christians we need to declare that we belong to Jesus and ask him to help us bring hope in this time of fear.

So let us never forget that we belong to a heavenly Kingdom and that in Christ we are all equal, there is space for all of us. Let us strive for peace, pray for peace and act for peace, for the sake of Jesus, who loves us and died and rose again for us all.

Rev'd Jenni Crewes

Sunday, 9 November 2025

The image shows the flag we made together in church during the service. Our handprints are signs of our commitment to being peace makers.

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