SERMON- Reverend David Paton Williams
29th March 2026
Palm Sunday

All over the world, millions of people will go to Church today to receive a Palm Cross - to remember Jesus' joyful entry into Jerusalem, and yet also how only five days later he was put to death on a cross. 
I want to think about another meaning of palm today - the palms of our hands. Because hands have a very important place in the last week of Jesus' life. 


1. The Hands of the Crowds 

On the Sunday the crowd were excitedly cutting down palm branches and waving to greet Jesus as he rode in. 

But on Good Friday the hands of another crowd 
were punching the air with clenched fists, 
angrily demanding that Jesus be killed. 


2. The Hands of Pontius Pilate 

The Roman governor knew that Jesus didn't deserve to die but he didn't want to make the crowd any angrier 
or upset the religious leaders who he wanted to keep on side, so he let Jesus be executed and washed his hands of responsibility. 


3. The Hands of the Soldiers 

Pilate handed Jesus over to his soldiers - who whipped and beat Jesus - using violence against a defenceless man. 
And they took a crown of thorns and pushed it down into his head.

And later on they used their hands to strike the hammer blows that drove the nails into his wrists and ankles. 


4. The Hands of Jesus 


On the night before he died - Maundy Thursday - he broke bread with his friends at the Last Supper, giving them a sign to remember him by. 


And he took a bowl and towel and gently washed their feet, helping them to understand that his death, just like his life,  was all about loving service. 


And then in the Garden of Gethsemane his hands were clasped  in the agony of prayer, before eventually resting openly  as he accepted his Father's will. 


Then the soldiers came and tied his hands with a rope and led him away. 


Once he had been condemned to death he had to carry the rough heavy cross beam through the streets. 
And because it was so heavy he needed Simon of Cyrene to help him bear its weight. 

Then at Calvary, his hands clenched up in pain as the nails were driven through his hands and as he hung from the cross. 

And then, in the moment of death, his hands will have hung slack. 


5. But that's not the end of the story and so we have the Hands of Jesus on Easter Day. 


When he broke bread at Emmaus - and in that action and that moment, being revealed to his followers. 

And later on, he invited Thomas to reach out and touch the imprint of the nails in Jesus' resurrection body. 

So hands play a central role in this story, and they remind us of the place they have in our lives as well. 

Hands can do very ordinary and amazing things: 

with them we wield tools, paint pictures, play instruments, dig gardens, cook meals... 

and we communicate with them - electronically, through pen and paper, or reaching out to express care and love. 

But hands do sad and terrible things as well: 

- pulling triggers of guns that can kill indiscriminately 
- beating or abusing family members 
- harming strangers 
or people can be forced - with their own hands - to carry their possessions as they flee as refugees, 
or root around in dustbins and rubbish dumps to survive.
Hands are important in prayer and worship: 
Whether held together in prayer, 
held open to receive God's grace, or raised in praise. 
Greeting each other in the peace. 
Taking bread and wine. 
Anointing with oil in prayer for healing. 
And raised in blessing at the end. 


In worship, our hands reach out to God and God's hands reach out to us - to welcome and forgive, to bless and to heal. 
I'm reminded of the old song: "He's got the whole world in his hands" 

The events of Holy Week are not just the story of how one very special human being died  rather they take us into the glorious mystery of God's own suffering, redeeming love. 

They show us that God holds each one of us in his hands, through the best of times and the worst of times. 


So as you journey through Holy Week - you may like to think about the hands of Christ - loving, serving, wounded, but ultimately glorified - which reach out to us in our need and will not let us go.

​The readings today have the same, deceptively simple message - God gives life to the dead.
 
However they are not really about life after physical death, but life before death. They're about God giving life to those who are physically alive but not much more than that.
 
In the 6th century BC, the Babylonian empire invaded the Kingdom of Judah - capturing Jerusalem, destroying the Temple, and either killing or taking into exile, most of the leading citizens. And its during those years of exile that Ezekiel is called by God to speak a message of hope.  
 
These are people who are alive but who feel they are just going through the motions. Because their sense aliveness, 
of who they are and what life is about,
is deeply bound up with being a nation, a community. 
And this seems well and truly dead, obliterated, 
wiped off the map. In present day terms, think Tibet.
 
To them, Ezekiel offers an extraordinary, barely believable, vision of hope. He speaks of the wind of God, the breath of God - the same word as Spirit - reforming, reviving them, breathing life back into them. 
There is clear echo here of Genesis - God giving life to the dust of the earth by breathing life into humans and animals.
 
The exiles are physically alive but not alive in the way God wanted them to be - alive to hope, alive to joy, 
alive to being a community that worshipped and served 
and witnessed to the God of all creation.
But that - says Ezekiel - is about to change. God is going to put the flesh of real, full, communal life on the bare bones of their existence. A people who were dead will be alive again. 
 
And this became real in the ministry of Jesus. So many people who met him, listened to him, were touched by him, followed him, found themselves slowly, or suddenly coming alive again. 
 
And he illustrated that in one of his best known stories 
- the prodigal Son, where the father is able to say - 
this Son of mine was dead and is alive again.
 
And those who discover the love of God in Jesus discover 
the same thing, that he takes these old dry bones of our lives and - slowly or suddenly - makes them live again, 
takes our cracked voices and helps them sing again, 
takes our battered hearts and helps them love again.
 
And this is what the story of the raising of Lazarus is about. 
In John it is the last of the great signs of Jesus' ministry. 
These signs were like acted parables where the important question wasn't so much "what happened" as "what did it mean"?
 
And the meaning for John is that these signs point to something deeper about who Jesus is."I am the resurrection and the life." Here in this person, says John, the great "I am" of God is present - the one in whom there is the sort of light and life that darkness and death can never extinguish.
 
And although the story illustrates this by bringing Lazarus back to physical life again, it is about far more than that. 
 
It is about the sorts of things we are going to sing about in a few minutes:
About the one who frees the captives,
who turns darkness into light, 
who drives out demons
who makes the desert blossom 
and quenches our thirst.
All of which are poetic images for bringing us,
our communities and our world back to life again. 
Setting us and others free to be more alive in the way God wants.
 
As if to underline the point, the climax of the Lazarus story isn't when he steps out of the tomb - physically alive again; it's when Jesus says "Unbind him and let him go."
It's not physical life that matters most (though that's a wonderful thing in itself) but being free of the things 
that hinder us from living better and loving better.
 
I can't think of anyone who puts this better than Dawna Markova, who wrote:
I will not die an unlived life.
I will not live in fear of falling or catching fire.
I chose to inhabit my days
to allow my living to make me less afraid, more accessible,
to loosen my heart until it becomes
a wing, a torch, a promise.
What binds us? What leads us to live an unlived life? Dawna suggests that it is our fears.
There will be other answers, I'm sure, but for me fear has certainly, and sadly, been a big part of it.
And then we might ask, what helps us to be more alive?
How do we step free of the things that bind us?
What do we find life affirming and life enhancing?
 
The beauty and wonder of nature?
The company of good friends?
Really being listened to by a counsellor or soul friend?
Offering hospitality to others?
Playing our part in helping to free others through acts of charity or working for social justice?
Being creative - in words, music, art, cookery?
Being still, meditating, connecting with our breath and our bodies?
Sharing with others in a community at worship?
Dwelling on the love of God we find in the Jesus of the gospels?
 
Whatever it is will be things in which the Spirit is present. Because God can't be locked up inside a church, any more than Jesus could be locked up in a tomb. 
 
There's an ancient legend of Pilate's wife standing near the cross on Good Friday. She turns to the Centurion and asks; "Do you think Jesus is dead?" "No, lady, I don't." is the reply. "Then where is he?" "Let loose in all the world, lady, where neither Roman nor Jew nor any other man can stop the victory of his risen life."
Let loose in all the world. "Unbind him and set him free."
 
As we draw ever closer to Holy Week maybe our prayer needs to echo those words of Jesus - Lord unbind us, and others, 
and set us free - that we may be live again, alive in the way you want us to be.

SERMON- Reverend David Paton Williams
15th March 2026
 Ephesians 5.8–14
 John 9.1–41

SERMON- Reverend David Paton Williams
1st March 2026
​John 3.1-17

​We've all know about Thomas who had his doubts. Well today we have heard aboutNicodemus who had his "buts."
 
He was a respected leader of the Jewish nation, a member of the Sanhedrin, the ruling Jewish Council. And in John's gospel he has just seen Jesus driving the money-changersout of the temple with a whip. Upsetting the tables and upsetting the authorities at the same time.
 
And, at this moment of high tension and hostility, Nicodemus, comes to Jesus under the cover of darkness. He wants to understand what Jesus is about, but he is troubled.
 
“Rabbi” he starts “we know that you are a great teacher sent from God, because nobody can do the things you do unless God is with them, but ….”  
 
Actually there’s no “but” in his words, yet you can hear it in his tone – its hanging there in the air.
 
“But … attacking the Temple was going a bit far.”
“ But … I don’t understand what you are trying to tell us.”
“But … you’re going to get yourself killed if you go on like this.”
 
We all have our “buts”.
Every Christian has said “Yes” to following Jesus
and yet we also have our buts as well.
We are “yes-but” Christians.
 
Some of our “buts” may be doubts and uncertainties -
things we struggle to believe or trust or accept.
Such as: "I want to trust you but, given the mess the world is in, can I really believe that you the Saviour of the world?" 
 
"I'm trying my best but, given the mess my life is in, can I really trust that you love me?"
 
Or: “I sense that you are calling me to do something but I’m not brave enough; but I don’t want to.”
 
A “but” is a doubt or a hesitation, which means it is also 
a moment of decision, a moment of opportunity.
We can go forward with a “yes”, or backward with a “no”, 
or maybe just dither in between because we aren't sure.
 
For Nicodemus, his “but” showed that although 
he hadn’t rejected Jesus out of hand,
as some of his colleagues in the Sanhedrin had,
he still couldn’t see the way forward
to putting his trust in Jesus and stepping out with new faith.
 
Nicodemus had come to Jesus by night.
On a human level this was because he was afraid that he would be spotted, but John sees it a symbol that Nicodemus was still 
“in the dark”.
 
In Jesus the dawn of the Kingdom was breaking, but would Nicodemus draw back the curtains and let the light in?
 
Jesus then puts it another way.
“Look its like this – you have been born physically.
Now you have to be born spiritually as well.
 
This leads Nicodemus to another “but” moment:
“But how can anyone be born once they are old?”
 
It sounds as if this “But” is an intellectual one,
though he may have been struggling with his pride.
“But  …I’ve been a good religious man all my life.
I’ve prayed and worshipped and been faithful to God’s commands. Does all that count for nothing?"
 
Jesus doesn’t give him a straight answer – though he seems to be saying.
   “It’s not that your past is worthless, rather your past is like a womb that's been preparing you for a new birth.
You can either remain where you are - in your old life, 
or you can let God lead you into a new life, into the light,
into the deeper reality of the Spirit.
 
To respond to that challenge must have been a difficult thing for Nicodemus to do.
 
So his “but” may also have been a but of fear:
“But … I may lose my position of respect in society.”
“But .. I may end up being attacked and persecuted like you.”
"I'd like to say a whole-hearted “yes” to God, but I don’t know where I will end up.”
 
Ah yes, says Jesus, that’s the way it is.
The life of faith is just like the wind
which comes and goes
and you don’t know where it carries the leaves off to.
 
Like Abraham – he didn’t know where he was going. 
He is held up as a great example of faith, though he too was a "yes-but" person. He said "yes" to a new journey, into a new life, 
an unknown land, a new understanding of God.
 But when faced with powerful rulers he let his fears speak to him, passing his wife off as his sister, rather than trusting God's promises. He was a mixture of faith and fear, like the rest of us. 
 
As for Nicodemus, after his meeting with Jesus, he seems to have 
kept going forward in faith. And at the end of the gospel, 
he comes with Joseph of Arimathea, another secret follower,
and they prepare Jesus for burial and lay him in the tomb.
 
Did that new life, that new openness to Jesus and the Spirit survive beyond the death of Christ? We don't know.
 
But even so, Nicodemus is a helpful example to us, 
reminding us of our yes-but faith:
the way we want to follow Christ
but are held back at times by our "buts", 
our uncertainties, our fears, our pride,
 
We face choices every day, chances to live the way God is inviting us to. And they can be a struggle, and we will often fail, but it's all part of the real journey of faith.
 
And I think Jesus says: “I know it can be hard for you -
I know all about the “buts” that sometimes hold you back.
Even so, you can go beyond them. You can still say "yes". 
You can be a "but-Yes" Christian. You can say yes - yes, to 
living in the light - yes, to the new way of being that God offers."
"So come with me", says Jesus, "and see where the Spirit leads."