Sermon-Who is Jesus? Who am I? Who am I becoming?

Georges Rouault, Christ (1925–27)

A sermon given during Holy Communion at St Olave Hart Street on Sunday 27^th September 2026 (Year A, Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity) based on readings from Philippians 2.1–13; Matthew 21.23–32 and a week before our Confirmation Service.

Start:Stop - I have called you by name, you are mine

From My Naam is Februarie - Slave Calendar produced by Cape Town’s Iziko Slave Lodge

Hello, my name is Phillip Dawson, welcome to our Start:Stop reflection from St Stephen Walbrook, when we stop for a few minutes and start to reflect on a passage from scripture. You can listen to an audio version of this reflection at this link.

This week we turn to words which come from what some call the second part of the book of the Prophet Isaiah, which addresses the people of Israel in exile in Babylon; an event Isaiah prophesied as a divine judgement against Israel for turning away from God. Instead of showing who God is by their living lives in accordance with His commandments, society had become riven by injustice and inequality, with the powerful abusing their wealth and influence for personal gain.

In this passage, Isaiah does not proclaim the failures of Israel but instead he is used by God to provide an ‘oracle of salvation’; offering hope at a time when the gods of the people of Babylon seemed stronger than the God of Israel.