Keeping the Lamps Burning: Remembrance and Hope | Remembrance Sunday 2026 | Matthew 25:1-13
The most poignant part of this service is the reading of the names.
Some of us here will have personally known the families involved.
I was looking at the commemorative plaque to 8 people who died in the second world war at St Clements.
Two Smiths: Frederick and Christopher. Both aged 25. Does anyone know if they were related?
Father and son: Anthony Barnes 20, Austin Barnes 42
We can only begin to imagine the devastation, the grief, the pain, the loss and emptiness.
The names remind us that we are not talking numbers. We are talking people – who were loved and who loved.
And we come to remember.
To say thank you for what they sacrificed.
We heard the story of the FEPOWS: you risk your life to eat a bit of poisonous plant so, if you survive, others can eat that bit. And if the part you ate was poisonous ..
And we also say thank you to their families – for what they sacrificed.
The tragedy is that although we remember, remembering by itself does not seem able to change the human heart.
We continue to resort to war to solve our problems
Ukraine, Israel and Gaza, Iran, Yemen, the Sahel insurgency, Democratic Republic of Congo and the devastating civil war in Sudan.
Do we ever learn? If only it was about knowledge.
Ukraine, Israel and Gaza, Iran, Yemen, the Sahel insurgency, Democratic Republic of Congo and the devastating civil war in Sudan.
Do we ever learn? If only it was about knowledge.
The problem is it is also about the human heart
James writes, ‘Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you? You want something and do not have it; so you commit murder. And you covet something and cannot obtain it; so you engage in disputes and conflicts’. (James 4:1-2)
We know that if we play with fire our hands will get burned. And yet we are compelled to go back and play with fire.
And we long for a future in which there will be no more names to add to our lists.
Our reading about the 5 foolish and 5 wise bridesmaids is the set reading for today – and an odd reading to have for Remembrance Sunday.
But perhaps it isn’t so strange. It is the promise that the Kingdom of God will come.
We are here not only to remember but also to look forward.
The wise bridesmaids have their eyes set on the future.
James writes, ‘Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you? You want something and do not have it; so you commit murder. And you covet something and cannot obtain it; so you engage in disputes and conflicts’. (James 4:1-2)
We know that if we play with fire our hands will get burned. And yet we are compelled to go back and play with fire.
And we long for a future in which there will be no more names to add to our lists.
Our reading about the 5 foolish and 5 wise bridesmaids is the set reading for today – and an odd reading to have for Remembrance Sunday.
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| The Wise and Foolish Virgins from the Rossano Gospels. C6th Greek. |
But perhaps it isn’t so strange. It is the promise that the Kingdom of God will come.
We are here not only to remember but also to look forward.
The wise bridesmaids have their eyes set on the future.
They have a hope. The bridegroom is coming. And they are prepared.
They are prepared for a wait, for whatever it takes. They will keep enough oil so that their lamps can flame.
The foolish girls? They are expecting him too. But they haven’t prepared for a long wait. They haven’t thought ahead. They haven’t bothered to prepare.
Our Christian hope is that one day the Kingdom of God will come.
No, it is more than that. One day the king of the Kingdom, the bridegroom, who loves us, will come.
I have no idea when. It certainly will seem to us that it is delayed. And I have no idea how. But his coming will be the end of history as we know it.
Our hope is that he will come, and he will bring in his reign of justice and peace.
He will set us free from the cravings that are within us which cause us ‘to engage in disputes and conflicts’, which drive us to the fire.
Our hope is that it will be an end of war.
The question is how we live while we wait.
This is where the wise bridesmaids help us.
They cannot make the bridegroom come. They cannot shorten the night. But they can be ready to welcome him.
And we cannot bring the Kingdom of God by our own efforts. We cannot heal the human heart by simply telling ourselves to be better. We need the one who comes to save us.
Jesus tells this story because how we wait matters. It is a bit of a scary story. We cannot put off responding to him for ever.
But we can live in the light of his coming.
Our hope is that he will bring justice, so we seek justice now
Our hope is that he will bring peace, so we practice making peace now: in our homes, with the person we find difficult, in our communities.
Our hope is that he will overcome ‘the cravings at war in us’, so we ask him to overcome the hatred and greed, and begin with me.
And we need to keep this hope alive.
When the night seems long, when another war begins and another attempt at peace fails, when another name is added to the list, we remember Jesus.
I am so grateful we have this act of remembrance here in church, that our memorial is in the shape of a cross.
It is as we look at the cross, we see what human hatred and cravings can lead to, and we see the love of God. We remember his death, his sacrifice for us, and we hold on to the resurrection and that he will come again.
But we do not just remember. We receive what he gives us. We listen to his word. We invite him to live in us. We encourage one another when we are tempted to give up and to give in to despair.
The promise is that the bridegroom will come.
The foolish girls? They are expecting him too. But they haven’t prepared for a long wait. They haven’t thought ahead. They haven’t bothered to prepare.
Our Christian hope is that one day the Kingdom of God will come.
No, it is more than that. One day the king of the Kingdom, the bridegroom, who loves us, will come.
I have no idea when. It certainly will seem to us that it is delayed. And I have no idea how. But his coming will be the end of history as we know it.
Our hope is that he will come, and he will bring in his reign of justice and peace.
He will set us free from the cravings that are within us which cause us ‘to engage in disputes and conflicts’, which drive us to the fire.
Our hope is that it will be an end of war.
The question is how we live while we wait.
This is where the wise bridesmaids help us.
They cannot make the bridegroom come. They cannot shorten the night. But they can be ready to welcome him.
And we cannot bring the Kingdom of God by our own efforts. We cannot heal the human heart by simply telling ourselves to be better. We need the one who comes to save us.
Jesus tells this story because how we wait matters. It is a bit of a scary story. We cannot put off responding to him for ever.
But we can live in the light of his coming.
Our hope is that he will bring justice, so we seek justice now
Our hope is that he will bring peace, so we practice making peace now: in our homes, with the person we find difficult, in our communities.
Our hope is that he will overcome ‘the cravings at war in us’, so we ask him to overcome the hatred and greed, and begin with me.
And we need to keep this hope alive.
When the night seems long, when another war begins and another attempt at peace fails, when another name is added to the list, we remember Jesus.
I am so grateful we have this act of remembrance here in church, that our memorial is in the shape of a cross.
It is as we look at the cross, we see what human hatred and cravings can lead to, and we see the love of God. We remember his death, his sacrifice for us, and we hold on to the resurrection and that he will come again.
But we do not just remember. We receive what he gives us. We listen to his word. We invite him to live in us. We encourage one another when we are tempted to give up and to give in to despair.
The promise is that the bridegroom will come.
Our calling is to remember with thanksgiving and to keep the lamp burning.
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