A Sermon Delivered at Pembroke College, Oxford Choral Evensong 

Sunday 15^th February 2026

I’d like to thank the Reverend Dr. Andrew Teal for his kind invitation to give this evening’s sermon.  

It is only a short number of years since I first visited Oxford, although it was a place I had long wanted to explore. If I say that the first thing I did after getting off the train, even before going to my accommodation, was to visit the Eagle and Child, you may appreciate my reasons for wanting to come. I have loved the Chronicles of Narnia and the stories of Middle Earth since I was a child. As I stand here tonight, I cannot quite believe that I am preaching in the college where, during his time as Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon, Tolkien wrote The Hobbit, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics.  

I feel overawed to be here with you tonight, in a similar but different way to one of the first conferences I spoke at as a newly minted PhD. On this occasion I attended the Annual Conference of the Tolkien Society and spoke about religion in Middle Earth. I felt somewhat out of place as I stood at the front in my suit and looked out at some of the attendees in Hobbit and Elf cosplay. 

My faith has been transformed and strengthened as I have engaged with the fiction and non-fiction writings of these Oxford luminaries. Inspired by the friendship of the real hero of the Lord of the Rings, Samwise Gamgee, I would like to explore the importance of relationships in our lives, because for me, life is all about relationships. 

The greatest relationship of which we are part, is the relationship we develop with the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. This relationship will mould us into, what the scriptures describe as, “new creatures”. We become who the Lord created us to be, and we do this by abiding in them and by submitting our will to theirs, we let God prevail in our lives. Tertullian writes that Christ: 

reforms our birth by a new birth from heaven, he restores our flesh from all that afflicts it; he cleanses it when leprous, gives it new light when blond, new strength when paralysed… when dead he raises [us] to life. 

The question we must ask ourselves now, is one that was asked by Alma: 

And now behold, I say unto you, my brethren, if ye have experienced a change of heart, and if ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now? (Alma 5:26) 

Are we still being transformed each day through the atonement and grace of our Saviour? Are we submitting our will to His every day? If we think about Saul, he had this one-time event on the Road to Damascus, but he didn’t just end there. We look at the rest of his life and see the effect that his initial experience had in every aspect of his life. An interesting observation by my friend, Jim Faulconer, is that: 

There is a very real sense in which Paul did not choose to serve Christ but was required to do so by his experience on the road to Damascus. He owes that service; he must serve. His experience has given him no other real choice; Paul now has no more choices to make, for a slave is one who does the will of another rather than his own. 

It is important that when the Saviour was asked which was the greatest commandment that he didn’t just stop with “Love the Lord your God”, rather he continued, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Matthew 22:39).  

It is not enough for us to focus on our relationship with the Divine, we must do this in relationship with others. King Benjamin, in the Book of Mormon, taught: 

And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God (Mosiah 2:17). 

When we serve others we serve God, when we serve God, He enhances our service to others. Our lives are lived in relationship. If we hope for exaltation, meaning a unity with the Divine, then we must spend our lives developing relationships. 

John Donne suggested that ‘No man is an island’. I am sometimes tempted to place myself on that island- maybe in a Church activity I’ll be found washing up because it’s less awkward than starting conversations. We each need to be the strength that we can be to one another. Sometimes we fall short in our relationships with others; we might not reach out as much as we should- but if we experience that, then we need to be charitable and recognise that it may be more of an indication of where the other person is, rather than their feelings for us. We can’t get through this life alone, we must surround ourselves with people who encourage us to rise to the best that is within us, and in terms of ourselves we need to be such for others. One of the former prophets and presidents of my Church, David O. McKay taught: 

Next to a sense of kinship with God comes the helpfulness, encouragement, and inspiration of friends. Friendship is a sacred possession. As air, water and sunshine to flowers, trees, and verdure, so smiles, sympathy and love of friends to the daily life of man. To live, laugh, love one’s friends, and be loved by them is to bask in the sunshine of life. 

I love this description of the importance of friendship. Returning to Sam in the Lord of the Rings, I am particularly inspired by one passage: 

Come, Mr. Frodo!’ he cried. ‘I can’t carry it for you, but I can carry you and it as well. So up you get! Come on, Mr. Frodo dear! Sam will give you a ride. Just tell him where to go, and he’ll go (J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King). 

How are we showing this type of Christlike love and friendship in our relationships? Are we expanding the circle of whom we love and relate to? It is easy for me to be in a relationship with my family and show love to them, I would do anything for them, but I need to ensure that I love even those who I may not be inclined to. We live in a divided world and there is so much more that I can do as an individual to help others feel loved. The Saviour gave his love freely; he gave it especially to those on the margins of society. Why do we, as a society, fail to take this message to heart? I am reminded of a poem by Edwin Markham that shows us all the importance of taking the initiative in drawing people towards us, and hence to the Saviour: 

He drew a circle that shut me out — 

Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout. 

But Love and I had the wit to win: 

We drew a circle that took him in. 

We all must strive to live in relationship with those around us in the way that Martin Buber described as ‘I-Thou’ rather than ‘I-it.’ The use of ‘thou’ 

is not indicative of a relationship with a power dynamic, rather it [is] terminology reserved for those with whom we [have] deep affection and love. It is this meaning of thou that underpins Buber’s approach. Others are not experienced as objects, rather “He is no longer He or She, limited by other Hes and Shes, a dot in the world grid of space and time, nor a condition that can be experienced and described, a loose bundle of named qualities. Neighbourless and seamless, he is You and fills the firmament.”  Through this approach to life a person is able to encounter the world in all its goodness and find their place therein. In using the title ‘I-thou’ we can begin to realise we are not in a relationship of power, but in a mutual friendship and love (James Holt, On Holy Ground). 

I recently spoke to a friend who had experienced cruel comments because of her wearing of the hijab. I asked what I could do, she said if I saw a Muslim woman wearing a hijab I should smile and say hello. Sometimes, our expressions of love don’t have to be big, just kind. We must respond to the Saviour’s command to ‘Love one another.’ It is not a trite aphorism but the key to life, both earthly and eternal. We know this because ‘God is love.’ 

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen