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This script cannot exactly reflect the transmission, as it was prepared before the service was broadcast. It may include editorial notes prepared by the producer, and minor spelling and other errors that were corrected before the radio broadcast.

It may contain gaps to be filled in at the time so that prayers may reflect the needs of the world, and changes may also be made at the last minute for timing reasons, or to reflect current events.

It鈥檚 ten past eight. Sunday Worship marks the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Passchendaele** and was recorded last week in Central London. It is introduced by the Revd Katherine Hedderly and begins with the hymn 鈥極 God our help in ages past鈥�.

MUSIC: O God our help in ages past (t. St Anne)

Revd Katherine Hedderly (outside Charing Cross station)
Good morning. I鈥檓 standing outside London鈥檚 busy Charing Cross station, which today is full of commuters heading towards the west end. But 100 years ago the story here was very different. It was from this station where, during the First World War, many soldiers departed to the Channel ports and onward to the trenches of Flanders in Belgium.

The Belgian town of Ypres was the site of several major battles during the war, because it was such a strategic location in the implementation of the German invasion strategy. This weekend marks the centenary of the most famous of those campaigns, the Battle of Passchendaele, which began at 3.50am on 31 July 1917. It was one of the bleakest instances of suffering in the history of warfare. Within a few days, the heaviest rain for 30 years had turned the trenches into a quagmire. Thick mud clogged up rifles and immobilised tanks. It became so deep that men and horses drowned in it.

Nearby a huge memorial was unveiled in 1927. The Menin Gate is to this day perhaps the greatest global memorial to the missing. It lists 54,000 names of soldiers who died at Ypres but whose bodies were never found. Each evening at the gate, at 8pm, the last post is sounded and wreaths are laid to commemorate the fallen. In this service we reflect on the sacrifice and overwhelming grief of war and what it is to live with the knowledge that a loved one is missing or killed, especially听 in battle or in some other tragedy.

Across the road from me is the Church of St Martin-in-the-Fields, sitting on the corner of Trafalgar Square. During the Great War countless soldiers spent their last night on British soil sleeping on the pews of St Martin鈥檚.

We now join the congregation at St Martin-in-the-Fields as they sing Isaac Watts鈥� paraphrase of Psalm 90, with its uncompromising lines, 鈥楾ime, like an ever-rolling stream, Bears all its sons away; They fly forgotten, as a dream, Dies at the opening day.鈥�

MUSIC: O God our help in ages past (t. St Anne)

Revd Katherine Hedderly: Opening prayer (inside SMITF)
Let us pray. God in whom the future is always bigger than the past, give us courage and truthfulness to stare into the reality of our participation in war, humility and gratitude for those who gave their lives, compassion for those who lost loved ones, and understanding of the uncertainty of knowing a dear one is missing. In Christ our Lord. Amen.

The 15th chapter of Luke鈥檚 gospel is all about what it means to be missing, and what lengths God goes to that we may be found

Reading: Luke 15
Jesus said, 鈥榃hat woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbours, saying, 鈥淩ejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.鈥� Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.鈥�

MUSIC: O God you search me (Bernadette Farrell)

Revd Katherine Hedderly
O God you search me and you know me, Bernadette Farrell鈥檚 setting of Psalm 139, describing what it means for God to search us out from even before we were conceived in the womb.

What does it mean to face death in battle? Then, the Revd Dr David Coulter, chaplain general of the army tells us what it means for a soldier to lose a brother or sister in arms.

Revd Dr David Coulter Testimony
听
MUSIC: Who can sound the depths of sorrow (Graham Kendrick)

Reading: 2 Samuel Chapter 18

Absalom was riding on his mule, and the mule went under the thick branches of a great oak. His head caught fast in the oak, and he was left hanging between heaven and earth, while the mule that was under him went on. And ten young men, Joab鈥檚 armour-bearers, surrounded Absalom and struck him, and killed him.

Then Ahimaaz son of Zadok said, 鈥楲et me run, and carry tidings to the king that the Lord has delivered him from the power of his enemies.鈥� Joab said to him, 鈥榊ou are not to carry tidings today.鈥� Then Joab said to a Cushite, 鈥楪o, tell the king what you have seen.鈥� Then Ahimaaz ran by the way of the Plain, and outran the Cushite. Now David was sitting between the two gates. Then Ahimaaz cried out to the king, 鈥楢ll is well!鈥� He prostrated himself before the king with his face to the ground. The king said, 鈥業s it well with the young man Absalom?鈥� Ahimaaz answered, 鈥榃hen Joab sent your servant, I saw a great tumult, but I do not know what it was.鈥� Then the Cushite came; and the Cushite said, 鈥楪ood tidings for my lord the king!鈥�

The king said to the Cushite, 鈥業s it well with the young man Absalom?鈥� The Cushite answered, 鈥楳ay the enemies of my lord the king, and all who rise up to do you harm, be like that young man.鈥� The king was deeply moved, and went up to the chamber over the gate, and wept; and as he went, he said, 鈥極 my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!鈥�

Revd Katherine Hedderly
Our preacher is the Vicar of St Martin-in-the-Fields, the Revd Dr Sam Wells

Sermon
Sitting between two gates. When it comes to terrible news, I bet you can recall instantly where you were when you heard it. King David wins a battle, but ends up doubled-up with grief, because the battle was with his rebellious son: and that son is killed. His triumph as a monarch is overshadowed by his failure as a father. David, the story tells us, is sitting between two gates. At the crossroads of his life.

It鈥檚 in the nature of bad news for the telling to get in a tangle, and somehow to add a twist to misery itself. I once saw Rowan Atkinson doing a spoof Shakespearean masterclass, demonstrating four ways to be a herald with news. He started by acting a messenger bringing good news, with an exaggerated flourish of glee and celebration. He then did a messenger bringing bad news, slinking in like a snake, and dropping a message on the table before slithering out. Then, a messenger bringing bad news that he thinks is good news. By the time he got to a messenger bringing good news that he thinks is bad news it was about the funniest thing I鈥檇 ever seen.
But it鈥檚 not so funny for Ahimaaz. Ahimaaz knows David has a record of killing the odd messenger who鈥檚 brought bad news. Is this good news or not? He starts by proclaiming victory. But then David cuts to the chase. 鈥業s it well with the young man Absalom?鈥� Feel the weight of that question. Ahimaaz pauses鈥� and bottles it. Ahimaaz decides David can鈥檛 handle it 鈥� when the truth is that he can鈥檛 handle it, and can鈥檛 bear to be around to witness David鈥檚 reaction. The truth is, there isn鈥檛 a good way to tell bad news. How much damage do we do to those we love by our instinct to hide from them the truth? So David鈥檚 left in that awful limbo. Finally the Cushite arrives and spills the beans. Absalom鈥檚 dead. David鈥檚 world has caved in.听

David is devastated 鈥� totally and utterly devastated. 鈥楢bsalom my son, my son. Oh my son Absalom. Absalom my son, my son.鈥� The more he realises his son can鈥檛 hear him, will never again hear him, the louder he shouts his name. I find this the most vivid passage in the whole Bible. 鈥楢bsalom my son, my son.鈥� Finally David speaks from the very bottom of his utterly broken heart. 鈥業f only I had died instead of you鈥�. This is the powerlessness of grief. No gesture whatsoever, not even laying down his own life, will make it better. This is his parental instinct 鈥� to put himself between his son and suffering. Every impulse to protect the one he loves, even at terrible cost to himself 鈥� David finds all those instincts thwarted. 鈥業f only I had died instead of you, he says.鈥� But it鈥檚 too late.
As we reflect on the battle of Passchendaele, and what it means to lose someone in war, and grieve for the missing, I want to ponder, Why is this story in the Bible? Put another way, What are we to do with our experiences of bottomless grief?

On its own the death of Absalom is a desperately sad story. But its being in the Bible means it鈥檚 not on its own. It is part of a larger story. This is a story in which horrible things do happen, by misadventure or perversity. But those ghastly things are placed within the broader canvas of the unfolding story of salvation, in which God鈥檚 people are commissioned yet find themselves in slavery, are set free and come into a covenant relationship with God and yet still stray and are taken into exile, to return only partially, whereupon God comes among them in Jesus and throws wide the possibilities of their friendship by dismantling the power of death, overcoming sin, and opening out everlasting companionship to all people. Thus the death of Absalom is a terrible setback, but is in the end part of a larger victory.

In the context of this larger story, it becomes possible to tell the truth about the death of Absalom. David wasn鈥檛 a perfect king or a saintly man. He spoilt his son Absalom to the point where Absalom knew no boundaries and declared war on his father, dying by consequence. Even in this episode David gets his role as king and his personal investment as parent horribly tangled up. We鈥檙e reluctant to tell the truth in the face of death because we fear the truth will be so terrible that horror will have the last word. But in the light of the larger story we can find the courage, and the words, to tell it as it is. And in the light of the larger story, in which human sin and stupidity are finally transformed by God鈥檚 sacrificial love, we can slowly, tentatively, begin to align ourselves less with hatred and resentment and more with that very same process of transformation.

And finally, being in the Bible means the story of Absalom derives its ultimate significance in relation to the story of Christ. When we read in this story that Absalom was 鈥榣eft hanging between heaven and earth鈥� we鈥檙e alerted to another son whose death left him hanging between heaven and earth. Reading of David鈥檚 grief for Absalom deepens our compassion for God the Father鈥檚 agony at Christ鈥檚 death on the cross. 鈥極 my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom!鈥� says David. 鈥榃ould that I had died instead of you.鈥�

Listen to those resonant words, filtered through the lens of Calvary. Think back through your life and linger on a grievous moment that鈥檚 written on your soul. And now insert the name of the one you loved and lost into this story. Hear Jesus saying that name so precious to you, 鈥楳y child, my child, my beloved child. Would that I had died instead of you. Oh my child, my beloved child.鈥� And feel the wonder that Jesus did die instead of us.

Inhabit this story of David and Absalom. In it see your own story. And through it find salvation, by entering the broken heart of God.

MUSIC: It is a thing most wonderful 鈥� Bob Chilcott

Revd Katherine Hedderly
It is a thing most wonderful, from Bob Chilcott鈥檚 St John Passion, sung by St Martin鈥檚 Voices. Let us pray. We now hear from Brenda Hale who鈥檚 husband was killed in Afghanistan.

Reflection: Brenda Hale

MUSIC: Be still my soul (t. Finlandia)

God of the living and the dead, in you we recognise we are flawed like David, rebellious like Absalom, and desperate for your transforming grace. Walk with all who live with the cloud of unknowing about what has happened to a loved one, what has become of a colleague, what they may never know for good or ill. Give courage and patience to any who wonder how to face each day in the face of terrible loss and utter bewilderment. We continue to remember those whose loved ones are still missing as a result of the fire in Grenfell Tower.

Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.

God of time and eternity, you know our griefs and share our sorrows. When we sit beside one another and find there is nothing to say, give us wisdom in our silences, compassion in our tenderness, gentleness in our emptiness. As we look back on the horror and sacrifice of war, show us what to honour, when to be proud, and how to work for peace.

Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.

God of grace and peace, bless soldiers who live with the threat of death, visit all in the midst of civil war who don鈥檛 know their enemies from their friends, comfort those who face daily hostility and danger, and abide with any who have lost faith, hope, or love. Inspire your people to live lives worthy of the many who made such sacrifices, and through suffering to draw closer to your heart.

Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.

In the Lord鈥檚 Prayer we ask that the earth be filled with the grace of God that it may be here as it is in heaven.

MUSIC: Lord鈥檚 Prayer (Sumsion)

Revd Katherine Hedderly
The Christian faith is that none of us is lost forever. God doesn鈥檛 rest until each last one of us is found.听 In 1748, a violent storm off the coast of County Donegal battered the vessel of the slave trader John Newton so strongly that he called out to God for mercy. He survived the storm and whilst his boat was being repaired he wrote the first verse of what was to become one of the most famous Christian hymns of all time, Amazing grace.

MUSIC: Amazing grace (Trad. arr. Will Todd)

Revd Katherine Hedderly:

Blessing
Go forth into the world in peace;
be of good courage;
hold fast that which is good;
render to no one evil for evil;
strengthen the fainthearted; support the weak;
help the afflicted; honour all people;
love and serve the Lord,
rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit;
and the blessing of God almighty, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, be among you and remain with you always. Amen.

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