This is how Professor John Sawkins ended his sermon at our service of Morning Worship on 5 May 2024, when he had been preaching on Matthew 6.14–15 under the title “Forgive us our trespasses”:

The first disciples that Jesus called, Simon Peter and Andrew, were fishermen. So were James and John, who were in a boat with their father, mending their fishing nets, when Jesus called them.

Mending nets – fixing breaks in the cords that joined the knots in the nets to each other.

That’s a good image for what we as disciples of Christ, are called to do.

To re-join connections that had been broken. To re-establish the bonds of association, of friendship and of love, between people. To play our part in doing so through forgiveness. And to support people and organisations whose work it is to do that across our society.

For in Christ we have been forgiven.

In Christ we are forgiven.

And in Christ we are called to forgive.

Thanks be to God. Amen.

The extract doesn’t do his sermon justice … it was inspirational and challenging, and firmly rooted in today’s issues, so you need to read the whole thing at this link.

In case you’re wondering why the illustration … it’s of some of the items that John used is his all-age address, entitled “Being joined up”. We see the ball net made by John when at school in Hull, together with the tools used to make the net – which still works. And this is because the knots are working … an apt illustration for both the address and for the sermon that followed.