Author: Steve

This recording also includes the Gospel

We have added a new page to the website which you can see on the menu at the top of the screen. The Diocese. As a start, you can read the Report to the Archdeaconry Synod 2025. But we will add more from the diocese soon.

OPEN HOUSE CHRISTMAS PARTY WAS AT CHAPLAIN’S FLAT:
SATURDAY 20TH DECEMBER 2-6 PM

Many people came, some for only for a few minutes.

Address:
Calle Montevideo 2, atico N
Las Palmas

We are so pleased to know you and you are a great Blessing to us

Love from us both Hanna and David

The recording starts with the reading from the Gospel

The audio starts with the Gospel reading: St Matthew Ch 3 vv 1-12

This includes the reading of the Gospel.

I recorded David’s sermon using Voice Recorder in my phone, but the quality is rather unnatural. Apologies for that. I used a small bluetooth microphone attached to the lectern, and that worked well! Next week, I will use the video recorder for a more natural sound. (Ed.)

This is an imperfect transcript of David’s sermon, written by Steve – authorised by David.

David started…….

There are three messages from our readings today.

Stand up, Stand firm
Shine out
Serve with love and kindness.

Stand up, stand firm! In Luke’s gospel, we read about the predicted destruction of the Temple, the pride of the disciple’s religion, “…not one stone will be left upon another”. Everyone was horrified.
But Jesus said: By your endurance you will survive, gain your soul.

Stand up, stand firm.

David spoke of a woman who had a porcelain cup. She loved it. Sadly she died and the cup was broken into 3 pieces. But her husband, who was a craftsman, glued it back together with gold. So the cracks shone brighter than before. The cup wasn’t ruined, it was redeemed. Through its suffering, it had become more beautiful.

Standing up doesn’t mean not breaking. It means love can fill the cracks.

We may have had a difficult week. But stand up, stand firm. Maybe your faith trembles.

Stand up, stand firm.

Shine out.

David spoke about a lighthouse keeper (admittedly an unlikely story!) A storm broke all the windows of the lighthouse during the night, but he put his last single candle behind a window. The next day, the captain of a boat came to thank him. It saved his ship from being wrecked. A little light can save a life. Be a prescence.

Shine out. Glow, be pleasant. Stand firm.

Paul wrote in the epistle, “Don’t be idle. Live as love’s hands in the world”.

A volunteer was serving soup to homeless people but she was exhausted. And she must have appeared exhausted because one of the men who she was serving offered to take her place. “We all take turns in being strong”. Sharing kindness, sharing love.

Your world may tremble, for whatever reason. But Jesus says, “Love still shines, love still stands. Love still serves”.

Share and serve in love, day by by day. When the world shakes, when your world shakes, stand firm. Love will take you through whatever happens.

Amen

We come together to Remember and Repent ….. and to pray for Reconciliation and a Rebuilding of a happier, fairer, peaceful world where people of all nations can grow to be themselves at their best

Remembering, Repenting, Reconciling and Rebuilding

Two wonderful readings from Ecclesiasties and Luke but I am adding a third reading which is a poem written by Chris for today which are the words of a dead soldier:

Soldier

My soldier’s tag lies on my chest–

I’m one of many in these fields,

we’ve come to rest together,

but none of us is whole in body,

we’ve all been ripped asunder.

My legs are blown off at the hips,

my arms above the elbow.

My skull is broken like a pot,

my brains are smashed to bits.

My guts are spilled out in the mud,

my throat is scorched with gas,

my ribs are cracked, my heart is shot,

my lungs are filled with blood.

Remember please these parts of me,

they once made up a man.

Remember please these parts of me,

so I did not die in vain.

In time black crows patrol these fields

where all of us are scattered,

and poppies grow up through our bones

where all of us lie shattered.

Remember please what we fought for,

for what we did, it mattered.

Remembering, Repenting, Reconciling and Rebuilding

Ecclesiastes reminded us:

“For everything there is a season… a time to be born and a time to die, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time for war and a time for peace.”

It’s honest — heartbreakingly so.

The writer doesn’t pretend that the world is tidy or fair. He simply names life as it is — seasons of joy and of sorrow, gain and loss.

And that honesty is where remembrance begins.

Remembering

We remember not as historians, but as human beings.

The poem “Soldier” reminds us that behind every medal, every monument,

every statistic — lies a body, a name, a heartbeat that once loved and was loved.

“Remember please these parts of me, they once made up a man.”

There’s no romance here — only reality.

And yet, in that raw truth, there’s deep dignity.

Because remembrance is not just about death — it’s about love strong enough to ache, love that refuses to forget.

When the women came to the tomb in Luke 24, they came carrying spices — the symbols of love continuing beyond death.

And what did the angel say?

“Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here — he is risen.”

In remembrance, we do not worship the grave.

We honour the love that even death couldn’t destroy.

Reconciling

The soldier’s poem ends with the words:

“Remember please what we fought for, for what we did, it mattered.”

Those words echo like a plea — not for revenge, not for victory, but for meaning.

To say that it mattered is to say that peace, compassion, and reconciliation are worth our lives.

In our multinational congregation, we stand together — once enemies perhaps, now neighbours.

We come from nations that fought one another — but here we pray side by side.

That is sacred reconciliation.

Love has outlived empire, ideology, and flag.

And that is what those who died would want — not for us to repeat their wars, but to redeem their suffering.

Rebuilding

The resurrection story is not just an ending overcome — it’s a beginning announced.

The tomb is empty not so we can look back, but so we can go out.

“Go,” the angels tell the women, “and tell the others.”

Remembrance is not passive nostalgia; it is active compassion.

It calls us to rebuild — to make this fractured world a little fairer, a little kinder, a little more like the dream of God…a fractured suffering divided world but a world able to be healed by the dream of Love.

Every time we choose peace over pride, every time we forgive instead of retaliate, every time we build bridges instead of walls —

we raise a new kind of monument, not of stone, but of spirit.

Closing reflection

So today, as we remember the poem again in silence,

may we hold three things close:

Remembering — not just the fallen, but the love they lived for.

Reconciling — refusing hatred, seeking peace.

Rebuilding — making the world they dreamed of possible.

And when the last poppy fades, may we still hear that soldier’s voice whispering across the years:

“Remember please what we fought for — for what we did, it mattered.”

And it still does.