I realise that I've said to enough of you enough times, this is probably my favourite piece of scripture, that this sentence has lost any kind of meaning. That said, this morning's gospel is my favourite piece of scripture. I love it, because of how tender Jesus is with the disciples.

That phrase, children, you have no fish, do you? Always sounds in my head, like a gentle and loving parent, lamenting with their child over a hurt, like a scraped knee. Since becoming a parent myself, that tone, which Jesus uses a few times throughout the Gospel of John, making it probably my favourite gospel, apart from the other three, means even more to me. It reminds me of the tone that I use, particularly with my daughter when I go into her room during the wee hours of the night, because she's woken up crying.

Fr Sam Rossiter-Peters explains the Easter message, that there is redemption even through the worst moments of our lives, the worst mistakes we've made. As with Peter, Jesus doesn't deny that bad things happen and he doesn't need us to either. To be redeemed, we need to have something to be redeemed from.

This idea that in the face of guilt and despair we can look to Jesus for hope is the very heart of the Easter message. We don't usually, or often at least, attribute despair to Satan, but most of us have known that sense of crushing weight, the weight of realising that we've done something wrong. We've felt that moment at some point in our lives, the rising tide when an old mistake comes back and the guilt fills us.

Fr Sam Rossiter-Peters explains that Jesus has won forgiveness for us in his wounds of crucifixion, so we don’t need to stand accused of our guilt. The disciples may have felt shame when they first met Jesus after the resurrection because they had run away, but his first words to them were ‘peace be with you.’

How would you go about calculating the value of a human life? How about the value of your life? That's a hard question to answer. We all assume that we're valuable, but are you valuable because of how much money you make or what you contribute to society through your job? Are you valuable because of how many people consider you a friend? Are you valuable because you have a family? The question makes us feel uncomfortable and the answer's even more, because if our worth is calculable in those ways, we could easily find ourselves worth not very much. Money, jobs, friends, even family can come and go.

Fr Sam Rossiter-Peters explains you are worthy. You are valuable, not because of what you do, or how much money you make, or who loves you, or what relationships you have. In fact, your worthiness, your value is totally out of your hands, just like the worthiness of the person sat next to you.

For you and for them and for all people everywhere, Jesus has looked at you in your totality and decided that you are worth his life. How you respond is up to you.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? These words echo through Good Friday. They're raw, violent, terrible.

They're the silence which follows a question everyone was too afraid to ask. The heartbreak of a child crying in fear and pain. The wailing of a bereaved parent.

Fr Sam Rossiter-Peters explains the events that occurred in the lead up to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and that those who followed him until this day and through all days would be able to know the fullness of joy of being in the presence of the Father, led by Jesus the Son, empowered by the Spirit. In the hope that overcame his fear, our fear was saved. His fear gave way to the surety of the life of the Trinity, the goodness of the Father, the power of the Spirit.

In him our fear gives way to him. He who has gone before us has proven himself our good shepherd. And now, even when our path leads through the valley of the shadow of death, we will fear no evil, because his rod and his staff will guide us where he has already gone.

We are sure that goodness and mercy shall follow us all the days of our life, and we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Thanks be to Jesus that he was afraid for us.

Yet when they made beings in the universe who could choose to reciprocate that love, those beings chose not to. We humans chose and continue to choose selfishness more than love, power more than generosity, riches more than contentment, the ability to dominate more than the ability to serve. Of course it would be easy to lay these traits at the doors of people like President Trump but truthfully they lie within all of us.

Fr Sam Rossiter-Peters invites each of us to love one another as Jesus has loved us. This is to dedicate ourselves to love so much that we have to share it. We have to share it with people who don't understand it, don't appreciate us, don't thank us for it, even hate us for it, but who need it just like we do. This Maundy Thursday as we prepare to walk with Jesus through the valley of the shadow of death, knowing that he goes in our stead, may we ask for his grace to love as he loved, to love so abundantly that kings and emperors are shamed by it.

I regard everything as loss, because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.

For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I

may gain Christ. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Fr Sam Rossiter-Peters invites each of us to ask ourselves the all important question as we approach Holy Week. How do you give urgently as part of this community? What gifts do you give so that this body can worship at all times and in all places as it is called to do? How do you work so that other people can live their lives just as they work so that you can live yours? Because together we give the most costly thing we have.

Together we spread the message to the ends of the earth.

Together we are St. Paul. Together we are Mary of Bethany. Together we worship God Almighty

always and everywhere as urgently as he requires.

There are a few days in the year which are a joy to very many people but a challenge to some.

Christmas especially can be difficult after the loss of a loved one and it can feel very lonely.

Valentine's Day for those who yearn for a relationship but haven't found their right person can

be likewise.

Mothering Sunday also very much falls within this category. For many, Mother's Day, as it's

called outside this building, is a lovely day. It's a day of flowers and cards and cake and a very

early morning if you're in the rectory.

Today isn't Mother's Day at St John the Baptist. It's Mothering Sunday, as Laurie told me when

he looked at the cards I produced for the children and got very grumpy at me about the fact

that they said Mother's Day. The words Mother's Day and Mothering Sunday might sound

familiar but the meanings definitely aren't.

Fr Sam Rossiter-Peters explains that every person in this room is called to be a spiritual mother, to love as Christ the mother hen has loved us, just as I have loved you, so you also must love one another.

As a Christian, as well as as a priest, it has been my experience that one of the biggest barriers to people coming to faith, or even exploring relationship with the church, is the fear that they aren't and can't be good enough. People who don't have much familiarity with Christianity often assume that Christians live by some impossibly high moral standard, one that they expect not just of themselves but of everyone else. I've lost count, for example, of the number of times I've gone into the local pub in my dog collar only to be asked if I'm even allowed to be in there and whether I'm allowed to drink alcohol.

Fr Sam Rossiter-Peters explains that Paul was no stranger to sin. Before he came to Christ, he was a violent man persecuting the foundling church. It was he that stood by holding the coats as the crowd lynched St Stephen.

He knew that he was sinful. St Paul knew that he was saved by grace. He knew that he owed everything to Jesus because Jesus forgave him.

And so he knew that the Christian community was and still is full of people who make mistakes and need forgiveness. He, as he called himself, the chief amongst sinners, led a community of sinners forgiven. St Paul also knew that following Jesus meant being transformed.

He knew that Jesus wasn't harshly judgmental but nor did he ignore sin. He called people to repentance. Repentance, that Greek word metanoia, which means not saying sorry but turning around and going in the opposite direction, embracing a new kind of life.

Christianity is not about adhering to some impossible moral standard and holding everyone else to that same impossible moral standard. It's about accepting that none of us are worthy, but we are loved, and that love changes us into worthiness. And so, as we travel through this season of Lent, ask yourself, am I one of those people that is guilty of making the church an impossible place to be? Where in my life am I lifting others up? Where am I tearing them down? Am I helping others to grow in faith, or am I standing in the way of their transformation, perhaps even without realising it? Where am I holding myself to an impossible moral standard? Where am I expecting it of others? Where am I shaped by God's love? Where am I sharing that love? St. Paul's transformation reminds us that no one is beyond God's reach.