MY NEXT SERMON

I AM  PREACHING NEXT ON SUNDAY 11 JANUARY 2026 - at ST MARY'S PARISH CHURCH, WEST DEAN, WILTSHIRE - 9.00 a.m.  - THE BAPTISM OF CHRIST

SERMON 229 - THURSDAY 25 DECEMBER 2025 - CHRISTMAS DAY

Sermon at St. Mary’s Church, West Dean - Christmas Day Morning Communion – Sunday 25 December 2025 (Adapted from Sermon 209)

Isaiah 9:2-7; Titus 2:11-14; Luke 2:1-20 

May I speak in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and may the words which I speak be a blessing to all who hear them. Amen.

“Are you all prepared for today’s celebration? Turkey in the oven, potatoes and brussels pealed, presents opened already or under the tree waiting to be unwrapped? Prosecco in the fridge chilling?  Do you know what films you will be watching after the King’s Speech or games you will be playing?”

That is how I started my Christmas Day sermon last year and the year before that when I led the service at Farley and it is a great honour and privilege to be with you here at West Dean on this very special day. It really doesn’t seem a year since last Christmas Day – and how the world seems to have changed, and not for the better, over the last twelve months and I feel that, more than ever, there is a great need for the Christian message of Good News to be broadcast, not least within our own country.

Christmas is a time of great joy, expectancy and celebration. Yet, all too often, we lose ourselves in the preparations and miss the sacredness of the season. Why does it matter? Because it’s this holiday on which we honour the birth of our Saviour. It’s this time of year when people are open to the things of God. And it’s precisely this season when Christians most often lose sight of what’s available to them in Christ Jesus.

We are all people created in God’s image. We have access to his presence and his promises. So why all the strain and stress? Dare we ask ourselves what honestly matters most to us this Christmas?

Advent is a period of waiting and preparation – and now, today, is the day of on which all those preparations come to fruition and after today we enter that period of Epiphany which is a time available to us for some rest and reflection.

God invites us to push away the clutter, turn down the noise and offer him the sacred space in our lives so that the King of Glory may enter, take up residence and radically change us from the inside out. We can race through our holiday season more stressed than blessed or we can slow down, ponder the reality of Christ within us, and respond to his miraculous work.

At that first Christmas, God sent Jesus into the world as a Man, to be God himself incarnate to dwell among us and after His resurrection and ascension, Jesus went on to leave the Holy Spirit in each and every one of us willing to accept and acknowledge Him. To truly live within us.

In fact, it is good to remember that God sent Jesus into the world for all Human Kind not just the chosen. We should all work together as a Team not divided by greed, envy, conflict, poverty, race, creed, colour or any of the other many things which separate us.

The one great message or result of Christmas, the coming of Christ, is that it is meant to banish one word from our language, “them”. There should no longer be “them and us” anymore.  To illustrate this, I would just like to share the following with you to reflect upon over this next week:

The twentieth-century English mystic Caryll Houselander (1901–1954) describes how an ordinary underground train journey in London transformed into a powerful vision of Christ dwelling in all people: 

“I was in an underground train, a crowded train in which all sorts of people jostled together, sitting and strap-hanging—workers of every description going home at the end of the day. Quite suddenly I saw with my mind, but as vividly as a wonderful picture, Christ in them all. But I saw more than that; not only was Christ in every one of them, living in them, dying in them, rejoicing in them, sorrowing in them—but because He was in them, and because they were here, the whole world was here too … all those people who had lived in the past, and all those yet to come.  

Houselander’s vision of the intimate presence of Christ in each person continued as she walked along the city streets:  

I came out into the street and walked for a long time in the crowds. It was the same here, on every side, in every passer-by, everywhere—Christ…. 

I saw too the reverence that everyone must have for a sinner; instead of condoning [their] sin, which is in reality [their] utmost sorrow, one must comfort Christ who is suffering in [them]. And this reverence must be paid even to those sinners whose souls seem to be dead, because it is Christ, who is the life of the soul, who is dead in them; they are His tombs, and Christ in the tomb is potentially the risen Christ…. 

Christ is everywhere; in Him every kind of life has a meaning and has an influence on every other kind of life…. Realization of our oneness in Christ is the only cure for human loneliness. For me, too, it is the only ultimate meaning of life, the only thing that gives meaning and purpose to every life. 

After a few days the “vision” faded. People looked the same again, there was no longer the same shock of insight for me each time I was face to face with another human being. Christ was hidden again; indeed, through the years to come I would have to seek for Him, and usually I would find Him in others—and still more in myself—only through a deliberate and blind act of faith.”

 

This Christmas and New Year we see the world in chaos and the potential escalation of many local conflicts in the Middle East, Eastern Europe and South America into a major war. We daily read in our newspapers, hear on our radios and see on our screens, the inhumanity of Humanity. We hear and view the dreadful news coming from Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Ukraine, Venezuela, even now Australia and many other parts of the world and the triumph of brutal and tyrannical leaders.

The king of the universe is not a tyrannical leader. He’s the saviour of the world. Although we hear the Christmas story every year, again and again, it isn’t old news. It’s good news. It’s now news! Salvation isn’t just an addendum to the end of our life and Christmas isn’t just a quaint little story with shepherds and wise men coming to a stable in Bethlehem. When Jesus was born, God’s kingdom came to earth! so we ought to celebrate with joy. Jesus came, and he’s coming again. Let us worship the king of glory, with hymns, carols and prayers, but also, let us also worship him by the kindly and empathic way we speak and act towards others over this Christmas period.  For many, too, Christmas is a difficult time especially for those recently bereaved, and, this year, there seem to be more deletions from my Christmas card list – a time to reflect, perhaps, on our own mortality too.

When we set out to be a serious follower of Christ, we’ll often find a thousand excuses to tend to temporary things as though they’re the most important things in the world. But eternal rewards come from eternal priorities. We need to think higher, see deeper. Repeatedly, Jesus urged people to open their eyes and see the coming kingdom. See the story God is writing on the earth through us because of Jesus. Our current season is packed with eternal possibilities to do so.

We can and should change our focus, determine our pace, adjust our priorities and this could be our most life-giving Christmas yet. Whether we already walk intimately with Jesus or see him more like a distant relative, we can be assured, as illustrated in Caryll Houselander’s vision that he’s very near and that he came to redeem every aspect of who we are. That was the greatest gift ever given at Christmas – the birth of Jesus Christ, God Incarnated, in that humble stable in the Holy Land.  Let there be no more “them and us” but just “us”.

Now that is really something to celebrate and reflect upon over these coming days.

Have a great day, enjoy being with family and friends over this holiday period, and yes do eat, drink and be merry in celebration but do use this time also to tell somebody about the true meaning of Christmas and the wonderful good news which is there for everyone and is the real reason for our celebrations.

A very Happy and Blessed Christmas to you all.

 

 

Susie Larson (who inspired this sermon through a daily devotional piece written by her) is a bestselling author, speaker and host of Susie Larson Live. She is the author of more than 20 books and devotionals, and her Daily Blessings reach over half a million people each week on social media. She and her husband, Kevin, have three children, a growing bunch of grandchildren and a pit bull named Memphis.

 

Amen                                                                                                 MFB/229/23122025

 

SERMON 228 - SUNDAY 14 DECEMBER 2025 - ADVENT 3

SERMON AT FARLEY ALL SAINTS’ CHURCH, MORNING WORSHIP

– SUNDAY 14 DECEMBER 2025 – ADVENT 3

Isaiah 35:1-10;  James 5:7-10;  Matthew 11:2-11 (incorporating parts of Sermon 178 and 179)

May I speak in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and may my words be a blessing to all who listen to them.

Today we lit the third Advent candle known as the Candle of John the Baptist or Candle of Joy or sometimes Candle of Love, for in love we find joy, reminding us of the proclamation of John the Baptist that it wasn’t him who was the long-expected Messiah but the one who now appeared before him to be baptised by him in the Jordan.

But, we are ahead of ourselves for, like last week, we must return to the period of the Babylonian Exile and the words of that great prophet of that time, Isaiah, from whom we heard in our first reading this morning. Many of the prophesies, at that time, related specifically to the Jews’ return to the Holy Land and the rebuilding of the Temple.  However, the prophesies of Isaiah go well beyond just this more immediate restoration but look to a time when the Jewish people’s long-awaited Messiah will appear – a prophesy and proclamation well ahead of John the Baptist’s!

For many centuries after Isaiah, the Jewish people looked upon many candidates for their Messiah as is recorded in the Apocrypha – those books which plug the gap between Malachi in the Old Testament and Matthew’s Gospel in the New Testament – which are usually excluded from most copies of the bible.

So, for many Jews, the period of waiting had been very long indeed and we read in the Book of Malachi how the people, including the priests, were indolent or casual in their worship of God.  Their Faith had become stale because nothing seemed to be happening and their prayers did not seem to be answered. We read in the Book of Malachi how they offered defective goods as burnt sacrifices and kept the best for themselves.  Their worship was half-hearted and lacking in conviction.

Isaiah, though, tells the Jewish people that “the wilderness and dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom; like the crocus it shall blossom abundantly.”  This is a reference to those dry stagnant times described in Malachi when the Jewish people thought that they were in a time of great wilderness. Perhaps we feel a bit like that too as we see the world in turmoil and the difficulties facing not only our own country but those even more dangerous and destructive places like Sudan, Gaza, Ukraine, Venezuela, Tanzania, Nigeria – the list grows ever longer!

Isaiah gives encouragement to his readers or listeners by telling them that something great and wonderful will occur in the fullness of time and that God’s glory shall be revealed and “he will come and save you”.  What wonderful words of joy and encouragement after many years of captivity in Babylon; and so for us, we now await Jesus’s promised second coming but, like our grandchildren awaiting their Christmas presents, we need to be patient for the greatest Christmas present humankind can ever receive!

This is the message, then of both Isaiah and John the Baptist.  John went around preaching the baptism of repentance by which Jews could seek atonement for their sins.  The actual washing in the river, the baptism, was an outward sign to others that they had truly turned away from evil and washed away their sins. Hence John the Baptist called for people to repent.  You will recall, although it does not appear in today’s gospel reading, that the Messiah, Jesus, would baptise in the fire and spirit – i.e. not simply an outward symbolic gesture of water cleansing the physical body but that, inwardly, people would receive the fire of the Holy Spirit as we will see later at Pentecost, and be cleansed inside as well as outside.

Of course, we do read at the beginning of the gospel passage today that John, having heard of the ministry of Jesus from his prison cell, was still not entirely sure whether he was the true Messiah – God’s chosen.  Had his own ministry been in vain, he must have wondered. There had been so many pretenders in the Apocrypha, as I mentioned earlier, and the Jews seemed to have been waiting for a very long time – time for them to be overrun and occupied by stronger nations culminating with their absorption into the Roman Empire. They must have really been feeling that God had left them to flounder. Jesus’s response to those disciples of John was that they should report back all that he was doing – the deaf hearing, the blind seeing, the dead being raised, the poor hearing good news and so on. John had lived, but only just as we know from the story, to know of the coming of the True Messiah.

In our Second Reading, James in his letter, to the Jewish diaspora implores them to be patient in their waiting for the Lord to return.  He uses the example of the farmer waiting for his crop to grow, waiting for the rains to arrive.  Our house in Downton backs onto a field of various arable crops and it always amazes me how the crop develops from a muddy field into small shoots, then tall shoots and eventually the ears of corn or maize or whatever was planted and to be harvested.  Year in, year out this occurs, with me, in those early days of planting wondering what the seeds the farmer has just sown will turn out to be.

Advent is a time of waiting.  It is a time of expectation. It is a time of preparation and it can also be a time of healing.

A word used a lot by theologians is “liminal”.  It is a word I wasn’t all that familiar with until I started my training as a minister and later, even more so, as a spiritual director.  I knew of its devolved word “subliminal” better in the context of “subliminal messages” – those being messages which are conveyed to you, often in adverts, which are not in the forefront but hidden and conveyed very subtly. A classic one is the smell of bread upon entering the supermarket making you feel hungry and thereby probably putting more foodstuffs in your trolley than you intended!

“Liminal” means “on the edge” or “on the threshold”.  It has been described as the “no longer, but not yet”. It derives from the same root a lintel – that stone that you find above a door separating the outside from the inside – neither itself wholly inside nor wholly outside.  Likewise being in a liminal place means we are ourselves are in the “no longer and not yet” place. That is really where Advent is too. We are “no longer” in a place of despair not knowing if and when our Saviour is coming but in the not yet knowing how long it will be.  Of course, today we know that Jesus has been and we also know, those who believe that is, that Jesus rose from the dead and is alive today seated with God in Heaven and he has promised to return. Now we await his second coming and so we are today still in a liminal space with the exception that Jesus and thereby God can be manifested by the Holy Spirit – that same Spirit that John the Baptist promised the Messiah would baptise us in and which came down for all at Pentecost.  

How many of us long for that now?  We live with ever increasing tensions in a world with much hostility towards our fellow humans. We would do well to go back and read the teachings of Jesus in the New Testament and recall how Jesus told those in the synagogue that he had come to fulfil the laws and the prophesies not to tear them up. It is no coincidence that the passage Jesus read in the synagogue in Galilee was from Isaiah’s prophesy.

I cannot end this short homily better than by repeating the words of Paul at the end of last week’s reading and by recommending that whenever we feel lost or lonely in our Faith or want to tell others about it, these words may be a blessing and encouragement to us and those around us who need to hear the Good News –

“May the God of hope fill you with joy, love and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

So let us look upon our Third Candle today with the joy and love which it represents. The joy of the knowledge that Jesus remains with us through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Let us pray:

Father God

 for whom we watch and wait,

you sent John the Baptist to prepare the way of your Son:

give us courage to speak the truth,

to hunger for justice,

and to suffer for the cause of right,

with Jesus Christ our Lord.

 

Amen                                                                                                  MFB/11122025/228

 

 

SERMON 227 - SUNDAY 7 DECEMBER 2025 - SECOND SUNDAY IN ADVENT

 Sermon at All Saints’ Church, Whiteparish – Advent 2 – Sunday 7 December 2025

Isaiah 11:1-10; Romans 15:4-13; Matthew 3:1-12

May I speak in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and may these words be yours Lord, and may you bless all who hear them. Amen.

Today we lit the second candle on our Advent Wreath –often called the Bethlehem Candle, which symbolizes peace or faith and is lit, as today, on the second Sunday of Advent. It is, often, typically a purple candle and represents preparing for the coming of the Messiah, reflecting on the journey of Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem. The candle can represent either peace, as Jesus Christ is the Prince of Peace, or faith in preparation for Jesus’s arrival.  It is meant to be a reminder to work for peace and at the same time to have faith in God’s promises, reflecting on the journey to Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus, and the beginning of a New Covenant with God. In many churches the candle is purple in colour being the liturgical colour associated with Advent – symbolising royalty and penance.

Traditionally, also, it represents the character of John the Baptist, the cousin of Jesus, who is described in the bible (in the first chapter of John’s Gospel) as being sent by God but was not the light (i.e. the Messiah) but came as a witness to testify to the light – that the true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world.  So many sermons have been preached on the Second Sunday in Advent on the topic of John the Baptist, that I thought, this morning, it would be good to remind ourselves of the reason why God sent Jesus into the world in the first place.

As is usual, on the Second Sunday in Advent, our Gospel Reading this morning, narrates the now very familiar story of the ministry of Jesus’s cousin, John the Baptist who, we learn, went into all the region around the Jordan to proclaim a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins and to proclaim the coming of Christ, the Messiah as foretold by the prophet Isaiah some hundreds of years previously – in fact in the First Reading we had this morning.

Back then, the world seemed to reject God, as we read in the last book of the Old Testament, Malachi.  I do recommend you read it as, in many ways, it seems to foretell how our world is today – lacking any enthusiasm for God our Creator and treating Faith as an irrelevance when we can take control of our own destiny.  Today’s world seems to be about image and control, and money and wealth of course; and, so it was back then.

I have now lived more than my three score years and ten and during that period I have seen enormous changes in the world and in this country in particular; probably none more so than attitudes towards the Church.

As many of you will know, I spend quite a bit of my time giving talks and leading stargazing sessions at sea wearing my other hat as an astronomer. A question I am very frequently asked is how I can reconcile my role as a scientist with that of a church minister? Similarly, with the news constantly seeming to concentrate on scandals and dissent in the Church, how I can continue to minister in the knowledge that religion is so flawed?

My response, first of all, is to say that churches are largely human institutions which often attract the wounded, the vulnerable and, like any human-made institution they will suffer from splits and dissent from time to time. Secondly, the wonders of God’s universe as I observe it from my viewpoint as an astronomer, fills me with the awe and wonder of God’s creation and the sheer awesomeness of it all.  Thus, my strength continues to lie in my Faith which is founded on the Gospel of the Good News of Jesus coming into the world, to lighten and brighten it.  To save the sinners, to comfort the poor and to bring God’s Kingdom to Earth.  In other words, to set aside the religiosity of the church and get back to basics – why Jesus came to Earth and what he said and did. 

For me, the light bulb moment occurred back in 2007 at Spring Harvest when a group of us went to that Christian Festival from Winterslow Church.  I was not entirely sure whether I would enjoy the experience as, having been brought up in a traditional Anglican liturgy, I was concerned that the event might be dominated by “wacky” Evangelical Christians all wanting to tell me how bad a Christian I was!  For me, therefore, I treated it as a cheapish holiday with my two children and if it all got a bit too much for us there was the North Somerset Steam Railway next door in Minehead which would certainly be “my thing”.

However, it was during the second night of the big service in the Big Top that the keynote speaker was Rev. Steve Chalke, the founder of Oasis and a Baptist minister in Waterloo, London. He reminded his congregation that our role as Christians was not being self-centred and ensuring our place in Heaven by being pious and religious but rather being in the community bringing Heaven down to Earth.  For me everything in the Gospel seemed to make sense and suddenly a light had been shown to me just as in Psalm 119:105 we read:

“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path; it shows me the way wherein I should go, both night and day”.

That was the moment that I first felt called to ministry – although it did take another five years before I started training.

I love the gospels, because in them we see how “The Light” worked in everyday society. At that first attendance of Spring Harvest we all got “WWJD” plastic bracelets – WWJD standing for “What would Jesus Do” and although I have long since lost that bracelet I still regularly think about that slogan and it is a good mantra to have at times when your Christian Faith might be compromised.

You see, the people of the Old Testament had lost their way as we saw in Malachi. They needed “the Light” – they needed God to come down and talk to them in their own language and to be physically amongst them.

Imagine that you, a Human Being, had created a colony of ants and that the colony no longer acted in the way in which you had created them to be. It would be impossible to communicate with them directly and so you would have to send another ant, your special agent ant, to live and move amongst them to communicate with them and explain how they should behave – in their own language or communication system – that is how and why God Incarnate, in Jesus, came to be born in Bethlehem.

John the Baptist, appeared during the period of waiting for that Light of World to appear and he encouraged people to repent and be saved through baptism. Likewise, as we wait for Christmas, during this period of Advent reflections, let us think about how we might have contributed towards or ignored any darkening in our own lives by not reaching out for the lantern which is Jesus Christ.

We light candles on the Advent Wreath as a reminder of that light. In some churches we would also have had individual candles to remind us that as Christians it is our duty to carry that light of salvation – the way we should go – to all we meet in our daily lives.

Whenever we stray¸ when the world seems dark and cruel, when we feel we can no longer see God, remember he is all around us and by accepting Him and following Him we are in communication with God our Creator who made all things – from the tiniest of living creatures on Earth to the vastness of the Universe itself.  As John the Baptist told us, we need only repent of our sins to be cleansed. If we all followed that mantra then I am certain the world would be a better place.

Through the adherence of our Faith the dimness in our lives can be removed and replaced by the glorious light of Christ’s Kingdom on Earth.

Wishing you all a Happy Advent and Festive Season ahead.

  

Amen                                                                                                 MFB/227/04122025

 

 

SERMON 226 - SUNDAY 16 NOVEMBER 2025 - 2ND SUNDAY BEFORE ADVENT

Sermon at Morning Worship, All Saints’ Church, Winterslow and All Saints’ Church, Farley – Second Sunday before Advent – Sunday 16 November 2025

Malachi 4:1-2a; 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13; Luke 21:5-19

May I speak in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and may these words be those of you, Lord, and may they be a blessing to all who listen and hear them.

What a truly terrifying collection of readings we have in church this morning!  They remind me of some of the warnings my mother would give me if I didn’t behave or eat my vegetables – such horrible fates awaited me such as a plum tree growing out of the top of my head if I swallowed the stone or, even worse, I would turn into a monkey if I sat too long in front of an open fire or ate too many bananas!  How dreadful and how untrue. 

Today, many people are shy of the bible because they believe it is a book full of “don’ts” foretelling dreadful things happening to non-believers. Better not to know what’s in it than to read it and disobey, might be the philosophy of many and, certainly, in the 19^th Century and earlier, ministers would stand in the pulpit and preach mainly of the wrath of God and his punishments to those who did not toe the religious codes and customs of the time. As we know from our own English history lessons, many people ended up going to the block or being burnt as heretics for not following the religious codes of the day. In this, our modern-day 21^st Century, the emphasis is now largely on the power of God’s love and little is spoken of his wrath except in what one might call the extreme Evangelical churches.

So how should we approach these readings today?  What is actually being said and, especially, what was Jesus saying to those around him two thousand years ago?  Each of our readings is dealing with “the end times” or as theologians call this study - eschatology! However, they must each be read in the context of the time in which they were written and it is so easy for some zealous Christians to apply them, especially what Jesus is saying in our Gospel reading, to events surrounding us today.  I am sure each of you has seen a street gospeller, at some time, walking up and down with a placard proclaiming that “The End is Nigh”!

I am therefore going to start with this Gospel reading first as it is quite a familiar piece of scripture which is quoted often.

Jesus is actually talking about the destruction of Jerusalem, not the end of the world. He is responding to his own disciples’ admiration of the finery of the Temple there – just as we today may look upon the beauty of our own cathedral and its spire in Salisbury.  Jesus is actually prophesying the destruction of this mighty edifice and the city by the Romans in 70 AD. Jesus is predicting that his church, and his disciples will suffer much persecution and difficulties in his name but, rather than preparing themselves to respond to these difficulties in advance, they should understand that at the right time He will give them the necessary resources to stand up against their persecutors.  When they ask Jesus when this will occur, He responds by telling them, in Matthew’s version of this event, that it will occur before another generation has passed.

 I think the best explanation for these words of Jesus is that they are to remind us to take them as a model for all Christian living, peering into an uncertain future, needing to trust in God when everything is crashing down around our ears. The Church, in many parts of the world today, 2,000 years on, lives with wars, rumours of wars, purges and persecutions on a daily basis.  Those of us who are not so suffering should read these passages often and then pray for those places of suffering and persecution in “Christian Family solidarity”, as Tom Wright puts it in his reflection on this passage.

An interesting point which Tom Wright also puts in his commentary on this passage is “If your church is not being persecuted sometimes, why not?”  His words remind me of a book I once read by the modern day theologian Steve Chalke entitled “Change Agents”.  It is a very short book of around 30 very small chapters one of which discusses that to be a “change agent”, that is somebody who can make a real difference to society, you must have enemies/opponents to be effective.  If everyone likes you and your philosophies without dissent, then it is likely that you are not being very effective.  I think that is the true message of Jesus in this passage – Christian effectiveness will be accompanied by opposition and discourse.  Martyrs and confessors around the world today testify to this – that God is faithful to his promises, providing words, wisdom and above all perseverance to his faithful servants when they are being oppressed or opposed.

Both of our other two readings, this morning, contain an element of eschatology too. In Paul’s second letter to the Thessalonians, warnings of idleness seem rather outmoded in our present world where people seem to be busier than ever just to make ends meet. I think that few people today are really idle through choice. Two people who I can think of, personally, who might satisfy this description, on reflection I think have mental health issues. Paul’s warning is really another view on the end times – it might be tempting to think if the world is going to end, what is the point of spending a lot of time working? Why not just let things slide and enjoy what time is left?

Actually, what Paul is reminding the church in Thessalonica is that they are one collective body and need to work and support each other – a common theme of his writings. No one should “sponge off others”. We, as a global Christian Family, need to support each other and especially those of our brothers and sisters in places of persecution and wars where our common faith is under attack.  That is the meaning of true Christian love, the love described in Greek as “agape” and that starts within our own communities and spreads out from there.

Our first reading this morning is from the Book of Malachi – the very last book of the Old Testament and one of my favourite books in the whole of the bible. It is quite a short book – only some four short chapters and is written in the style of a dialogue between God and the writer.  In order to fully appreciate the two short verses of this morning’s reading, I recommend you read the whole of the book.

The background to the book is that the Jewish people had become somewhat indolent in their worship.  They were not being particularly oppressed or seeing God working miracles – they, therefore, felt no especial need to call upon God for protection or praise him - they were simply going through the motions of worship.  Indeed, instead of sacrificing the best animals on God’s altar they were keeping the best for themselves and sacrificing blemished ones.  I often think that we can, today in our modern world, fall into that same trap and be half-hearted about our relationship with God, forgetting that he made us in His own image and everything in the world today, and beyond, is due to his creation and grace.

Our reading from Malachi this morning comes in the very last chapter following on from the dialogue between prophet and God. It is a culmination of all that has come before – a reminder that those who are genuine in their love of God and “revere” his name will see Him, who made the world, put all things to right – the same sun which burns and scorches the land will shine upon the righteous.  What a lovely thought.

So, I ask you to examine yourselves and ask yourselves whether you are making God, through Jesus and the Holy Spirit, central to your life and giving him the honour and praise he so richly deserves – He who created us and loves us unconditionally.

Let us pray:

Dear Heavenly Father,

Thank You for Your faithful promises to strengthen, establish, and protect us, even when our faith falters and we prove faithless and false to You. Keep us ever mindful of this truth and guide us in the choices we must make today. Use us as an instrument of Your grace and keep us from all evil, so that we may grow in grace and in a knowledge of You, and in our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, in Whose name we pray,

Amen.

                                                                                                         MFB/226/14112025

SERMON 225 - SUNDAY 26 OCTOBER 2025 - BIBLE SUNDAY

 

Sermon at Morning Worship, All Saints’ Church, Winterslow – Bible Sunday – Sunday 26 October 2025

Isaiah 45:22-25; Romans 15:1-6; Luke 4:16-24

May I speak in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and may these words be those of you, Lord, and may they be a blessing to all who listen and hear them.

As a child, living in the late 1950s and 1960s, we had few books in our house, or, especially in the house of my maternal grandparents, but one book which was common to each household was a black leatherbound copy of the King James Version of the bible – with gilded edges. In both cases, those volumes, whilst appearing to be quite old, were clearly seldom read. In picking our copy at home and skimming its flimsy pages, I found the language and content quite incomprehensible. Subsequently I learned most about the characters contained within its pages from bible stories learned at school.

Later on, I joined my local church choir, as I had, back then, a beautiful (so I was told) treble voice and would listen, twice on Sunday – at Matins and Evensong – to passages of the bible as read out by the church wardens and then discussed by the local vicar from the pulpit.  I still found the language archaic, mainly historic and of little relevance to me, my life and my community except that, living in a town built on fishing, I could relate to those first disciples, Simon Peter, Andrew, James and John although having seen, through the pages of the Grimsby Evening Telegraph, how the trawlermen of Grimsby could behave after weeks at sea, I thought it rather fantastical that Jesus should have chosen those types to be his first disciples.

It was not until I went away to Liverpool to study law in the early 1970s that I joined the Christian Union at the suggestion of a fellow student and was introduced to a more evangelic form of worship and to a paraphrase of the Bible which I could understand – The Living Translation – and through this and joining in with other Christians my understanding and faith grew.  Indeed, suddenly the Bible really did became a living thing.

I narrate this little biography as it really does say much about how the Bible can be a bit of a brick wall for many, preventing them from really understanding the messages it contains for us today and the fact that it is a living and important part of our Faith.

On this, Bible Sunday, we celebrate not an object but a living Word the Scriptures that form us, shape us and send us out into the world. Our readings, this morning remind us that God speaks to us, that we can hear what he is saying to us and by listening we are led to a life formed by what we receive. In other words, reading the Bible is more about being formed than being informed.

In Luke 4 we see Jesus in his hometown synagogue: an event which would have been a commonplace ritual for him and his family – just as we attend church on most Sundays with family and fellow worshippers. Jesus stands, is handed the scroll of Isaiah, just as we have had read a passage from Isaiah this morning, and reads words of good news to the poor, release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind and freedom for the oppressed.  Then he sits down and makes the startling claim -“Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing”. That one moment, in the Bible captures the heart of our Christian faith – unlike what I first thought, when I saw those ancient bibles in my family’s homes – scripture is not just a series of ancient poetry, biography or moral instruction (although it is also all of these), it is also the present Word of God that meets us, calls us and sets us all on a new path.

Turning back, a moment to out first two readings, Isaiah 45 calls us to look to God for our salvation: “Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God and there is no other.”  A reminder to us that there is only one God and all others are false. It’s a voice which reaches beyond just Israel but to all nations hence “all the ends of the earth” and therefore calls upon us, as Jesus later called upon us in Matthew 28 to “go out and make disciples of all nations.”; to acknowledge that God alone, through Jesus Christ, is Lord and Saviour – the very essence of our Christian Belief today.

In our Second Reading, Paul in Romans, urges the Christian community to live with mutual care and unity so that, together, not individually, we may glorify God. Paul writes that the Scriptures give us hope and endurance – both of which we very much need to have in this modern-day world of such much hatred, division and suffering. We are to work together, to worship together, to support each other and bear with one another. Scripture is not a private fuel for individual devotion only – it is designed to be a communal glue that binds a diverse body of people, different individuals into a combined group praising and serving.

So what do these passages, when we read them together, tell us about the importance of reading and understanding the Bible in our modern world?

First of all, Scripture is a living encounter.  Like that congregation in Nazareth, we are summoned to hear and listen to God’s voice today. When we read our bibles we should do so with openness and prayer because as we read, the Holy Spirit can make words speak present truth, healing, justice and freedom in our own individual circumstances.

Secondly, Scripture will show us the way towards God’s call to us for his Mission in the World. Our reading should not just be an academic exercise but calls us to action – for example to go forth and make disciples of others, to relieve poverty and help others.  To be compassionate and seek social justice.

Thirdly, as Paul in Romans has already said to foster community and unity.  The bible does not seek to provide a club or, as I have often said a “holy huddle” but we should also share experiences and interpretations with each other through Bible study groups, family devotions and such like. That way we can each grow in our Faith and understanding.

Fourthly, reading the Bible will keep reminding us of Truth in a world where we see more and more lies and falseness, “fake news”, around us where it can be difficult to discern fact from fiction. Every time I pray, I always include a prayer for discernment.

A final word on how we should approach reading Scripture:

when we read the Bible we should read it with no fixed agenda. A great mistake is to have an idea of your own and then look for a piece of scripture to justify or support it.  This is a great device of many of the false “Word of Faith” prosperity gospel preachers. This is called eisegesis or proof texting (putting something into the meaning of the text to support your own thinking). The opposite is what we should be practicing – exegesis – meaning taking out of the text what it really means.  To do this we need to ask ourselves – When was it written? Who wrote it? Why was it written? In other word, what is the context in which it came about.

As we celebrate Bible Sunday, let us renew our commitment to let the Bible shape our minds hearts and hands. Let us follow Jesus who read Isaiah and announced God’s reign in action; Let us remember Isaiah’s call to turn to God and receive salvation and let us put on Paul’s vision of a community that bears with one another and glories God together.

So, here’s a practical invitation for the week – what good news do you feel your neighbours need? How is God calling you to embody that good news?  How can you help fulfil the promises which Jesus mentioned in his reading of Isaiah? 

Because the Word of God does not come back empty. Let us open our Bibles, open our hearts and allow God’s living Word to form us for faithful witness in our modern times.  Let us pray:

This world tempts us
to believe the wisdom that comes
from human minds,
to have faith in no other thing.
But we have glimpsed the Truth
revealed in Scripture’s words,
and we shall worship the Lord our God,
and serve him alone!
This world tempts us
to believe we have control
of our destiny,
and have no need of the Divine.
But we have felt the touch
of Christ upon our hearts,
and we shall worship the Lord our God
and serve him alone!

Amen

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SERMON 224 - SUNDAY 14 SEPTEMBER 2025 - TRINITY 13

Sermon at Morning Worship, All Saints’ Farley - 13th Sunday after Trinity – Sunday 14 September 2025

Exodus 32:7-14; 1 Timothy 1:12-17; Luke 15:1-10

May I speak in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and may these words be those of you, Lord, and may they be a blessing to all who listen and hear them.

Today’s theme is that of repentance, of turning round and returning after having either lost our way or deliberately having wandered off from the paths of life destined for us by God. All of today’s readings, therefore draw us into the very heart of God, a heart broken by our sin, but moved by mercy, and relentless in love. If we allow these passages to speak deeply to us, we will see that repentance is not just something we do, it’s something God makes possible through His mercy.

Beginning with our first reading, from Exodus 32, God says to Moses, “Go down at once! Your people…have become depraved.” The people, freshly delivered from slavery, could not even wait forty days before turning their hearts toward an idol—the golden calf. And notice the language: God says to Moses, “your people, whom you brought out of Egypt.” It’s as if God is disowning them, as if they are Moses’s people and not God’s!

There is a real grief in God's words. This is not a distant deity watching with cold detachment. This is a God wounded by the betrayal of those He loves. Sin is not simply breaking rules; it is breaking God’s heart.  Imagine, if you brought up a child, lavished love upon them and taught them the correct way to behave, and then they turned their back on you, behaved in ways totally against what you had hoped for,  how would you feel? Well, that’s exactly what God experiences.

But what happens next is amazing: Moses intercedes. He pleads on behalf of the people. And God, in His mercy, relents. The Hebrew word used implies that God allowed Himself to be moved with compassion. This is not God being indecisive, this is God being relational. Mercy wins.  We have seen this before, earlier in Genesis 18, when Abraham pleads with God not to destroy Sodom if there were at least ten righteous people living there or, allowing Noah to build the Ark in Genesis 6 and spared him and his family from the Great Flood.

This is the first movement of repentance: God grieving over our sin, and someone standing in the gap to restore the relationship. For Israel, it was Moses. For us, today, it is Jesus.

In our second reading, we have an example of God’s mercy to someone who has sinned. Paul writes: “I was once a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence. But I received mercy.” Paul does not minimize his sin. He calls it what it is. And yet, again that sin becomes the backdrop for God’s incredible grace.

“I received mercy…so that in me, the foremost sinner, Jesus Christ might display His utmost patience.” Paul sees his life as a living testimony to what God can do with a repentant heart.

There is hope here, therefore, for every one of us. Sometimes we fall into the trap of thinking that repentance is only for the really bad sinner, people like Paul before his conversion. But if we are truly honest with ourselves and each other, each of us, in different ways, has turned our hearts to false gods, power, comfort, approval, pride, material wealth. And yet God’s mercy is bigger than our worst failures.

Paul teaches us that repentance is not about shame—it is about transformation. When we truly repent, we don’t just ask for forgiveness; we open ourselves to being changed.

Finally, in our Gospel reading, we meet a God who doesn’t just wait for sinners to come back—He goes out to find them. Jesus tells two parables: the shepherd who leaves the 99 to find the one lost sheep, and the woman who searches her house for the lost coin.

What do these parables have in common? Pursuit. Persistence and Joy.

God doesn’t abandon us in our lostness. He searches. And when He finds us—when we turn back, when we repent—there is joy. Not judgment. Not a lecture. Not punishment. Joy.  We see this again in the wonderful parable of the Prodigal Son – and there is another lesson there, unlike the brother who stayed behind, we should join in that joy when others turn back from their sinful ways and encourage them going forward.

Jesus says, “There will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who do not need repentance.” This flips everything we might assume about God. He is not looking to condemn us. He is longing to celebrate our return.

Repentance is not a one-time act. It’s a way of life. Every day we are invited to turn back to God—again and again.  That is why we have a time of confession in every service; to acknowledge our sins and turn away from them.

But how do we do this?  And like any good sermon there are three points, listing three steps we need to take:

First, by being honest. Like Paul, name your sins. Don’t justify them. Don’t sugarcoat them. Just bring them to the light.  No “I have sinned but…”

Second, by trusting in God’s mercy. Remember Moses and Abraham interceding, remember Paul being transformed, remember the shepherd lifting the sheep onto his shoulders. God is not reluctant to forgive. He is eager.

Third, by rejoicing in God’s joy. When we repent, we don’t grovel—we rejoice. We join the celebration in heaven.

And one more thing: As disciples of Jesus, we are called not only to repent but to become ministers of reconciliation. That means we search for others who are lost. We don’t write people off. We don't say, “They’ll never change.” We remember what God has done for us, and we extend that same hope to others.

Let us pray:

Loving Shepherd, You seek us when we wander and rejoice when we return. Thank You for never giving up on us, for carrying us back into Your arms with joy. Teach us to treasure every soul as You do, to celebrate restoration, and to extend mercy to the lost. May our hearts reflect Your compassion, and may our lives share in the joy of heaven when one sinner repents.

 

Amen

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