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The departures’ notice board reads: Delayed. Delayed. Delayed. The voice on the tannoy assures me, at ten minute intervals, they are “sorry for any inconvenience caused,” but it trips so robotically and readily off the tongue, that it doesn’t feel remotely like an apology. Because it’s not; sorry has become an expected word that’s used in public life to quietly acknowledge a mistake and to feign regret for it. How do we know this? Because nothing ever changes, and a sorry without a genuine commitment to make improvements so as not to repeat the same mistakes isn’t an apology at all. This week Boris Johnson said sorry for the pain and suffering of the covid victims and their families, which has made me ponder the power of an apology. Elton John sang that sorry seems to be the hardest word, but I don’t think it is. In my experience, sorry can be said all too easily, with a flippancy that cheapens its meaning. I’m sorry you feel that way, says the person who isn’t sorry at all but who wants to co-opt the language of regret so they can appear conciliatory. The performative remorse of a public sorry, effortlessly tripping from the tongue to declare, look how reasonable I am. Sorry has lost all value. I believe in Jesus who doesn’t really talk about apologies but has a lot to say about repentance and who told us there would be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine people who have no need to. Knowing deeply in your own heart that you’ve caused harm creates a Godley sorrow that is the first step on the road to making amends. It’s characterised by action not just words, and sorry given without true repentance, dishonours those who hear it and also undermines the nature of God, who cares about justice and righteousness and who surely scorns empty apologies. When used honestly, sorry has huge influence. I’ve tried to model the power of sorry to my children by apologising when I stuff things up. I want them to learn that no one is too big or powerful to stoop to say sorry and it teaches them that we all mess up but it might well be a bigger sin to refuse to acknowledge it. At its simplest, sorry is a white flag being waved. It says, I was wrong. It says, let’s make up. It can say all those things. It can say nothing at all. The dead can’t hear apologies, but the living can and the power of an honest sorry is the first stage of a journey which ends in healing.