Hope in the Mess

‘Hope in the Mess’
Sunday 19th April 2026
Revd Sophie Ferguson

A fellow governor of the local junior school in Harnham, expressed his joy to me of having recently visited Paris and the newly restored Notre-Dame Cathedral.

Notre dame Cathedral in 2019, suffered a devastating fire, supposedly started by a cigarette or an electrical fault, which caused immense and costly damage.

President Emmanuel Macron declared a five-year restoration project and Notre-Dame Cathedral has now officially reopened, nearly 1,000 workers have restored the cathedral featuring an identical rebuilt spire, cleaned stonework, and restored timber roof frame. With over 340,000 donors from 150 countries contributed to the restoration costs.

For many, watching those flames consume the roof and spire felt like watching history itself collapse. There was grief, shock, and a profound sense of helplessness watching this piece of history burn. And yet, almost immediately, something remarkable happened. People across the world committed themselves to rebuilding.

This evening’s readings invite us to think about building. What it means to rebuild, to restore, and ultimately recognise where God dwells.

The reading we had this evening from the prophecy in Haggai, we find a people, standing before the ruins of what once was glorious.

The temple in Jerusalem had been destroyed, and now, as they begin to rebuild, there is a deep sense of call and encouragement from God to restore what had been lost.

God’s word, “Take courage… work, for I am with you.” With you in the pain staking process of rebuilding, restoring and ultimately creating all over again.

That promise of Gods Spirit with humanity in building, speaks to us today in this season of Eastertide,

And there is plenty of rebuilding that needs to take place in our world today….

This promise, speaks for those who have been displaced, had homes and towns decimated by war and for those victims of war, who are rebuilding homes, places of community, schools, hospitals and places of worship. It all feels like an unimaginable task.

For the third year in a row, Sudan tops the International Rescue Committee’s (IRC) Emergency Watchlist.

This Diocese having strong links with the Sudans’, have asked us all to pray this week as the crisis in Sudan has become the world’s largest displacement emergency. More than 12 million people have been forced from their homes, fleeing armed conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

This is rebuilding on a mass scale. Sudan as we know, is not the only place, there is the Gaza Strip, and wide parts of the Middle East, Ukraine, and parts of Africa and Asia. Where areas are reduced to rubble. I simply cannot imagine, as a mum of two small children, attempting to live amid or after ruin.

God’s word, “take courage…. Work, for I am with you” takes on a whole new perspective.

Easter is the proclamation that God brings life out of ruin and glory out of what seemed lost.

The resurrection of Christ is the ultimate “rebuilding” not of stones, but of life itself. What appeared broken beyond repair on Good Friday as those whom Jesus loved, looked on in utter devastation, suddenly is raised!

In the light of Easter, rebuilding takes on an even deeper meaning.

It becomes a sign, however small, of the truth at the heart of our faith. That destruction does not have the final word. Just as the tomb could not contain Christ, what appears beyond comprehension, renewal is possible. New life can emerge where all seemed lost. That may sound like I am being a clichéd Christian optimist in light, of a life of death situation for millions of people, and yet the reality for millions of people, is that hope must spring from somewhere.

I will read you a poem by a child called Mari’am khalid, that was published by a UNICEF initiative to showcase the voices of children living in conflict zones.

“Does peace really exist!? We were told it exists Not in our homeland though, our dreams will be inside us, Dreams of childhood,

My dreams will become a reality,

And I keep waiting for peace, and for us to smile happily, Life is about peace,
Life is about love, without them both, life is nothing.”

For people and children like Mari’am, to have hope in the mess is pure rebellion!

And indeed, in our world, as it stands and for those Sudanese refugees this night, to have hope in the mess, is to stand for a rebellion of love over evil and restoration over ruin. And if they themselves have lost hope for their families and for the children living in these impossible situations, it is the vital job of others to hold up the light of hope on their behalf, to keep praying.

St Paul takes us further, in our second lesson in the Epistle to the Corinthians. Paul speaks again of building, of foundations, of careful craftsmanship. But now the focus shifts dramatically. “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?”

Now God is making living temples out of humankind. For while stones can be restored and timbers replaced, the deeper work is the one God is doing within people. Which is profound when you think of those who cannot see their homes physically restored. The promise is not limited to ancient Jerusalem, nor just to a gloriously well supported and adored cathedral in Paris. It is spoken to all humankind, here and now, as Easter people.

We may look at our own lives and see what feels diminished, faith that has grown tired, hope that has been shaken or perhaps muted by the overwhelming sense of hopelessness as we sit in our pews.

But the message of both Haggai and Easter is the same: the God of All dwells in our midst.

Take courage… and work, for I am with you.

Jonathon Sacks wrote in his book ‘From Optimism to Hope’, “the future of our world won’t be decided by money, the media, or space probes to mars, but how much or how little we value our children”, so in the hope of a better world, and for the children of Sudan and nations ravaged by war, can we hold a candle for them.