MY NEXT SERMON

I AM  PREACHING NEXT ON SUNDAY 8 MARCH 2026 - at ALL SAINTS' CHURCH, WINTERSLOW, WILTSHIRE - 9.15 a.m. - 3rd Sunday in Lent

SERMON 231 - SUNDAY 8 FEBRUARY 2026 - SECOND SUNDAY BEFORE LENT

Sermon at All Saints’ Church, Farley – 2nd Sunday before Lent  –  Sunday 8th February 2026

Matthew 6:25-34

Why Worry?”

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear… Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?”
— Matthew 6:25, 27

Why Fear?

And as for worry’s cousin “fear”, a former President of the United States once said “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself” – President Franklin Roosevelt.

I have just returned from a 14 nights’ cruise to the western Mediterranean, by way of the Bay of Biscay, with a colleague who was most fearful about the stability of the ship on the high seas and was constantly worrying about the prospect of sailing through heavy seas and being seasick. In fact, as if he was being tested, we did indeed encounter 9-metre waves in the Atlantic yet he was absolutely fine throughout. His worries and fear were totally unnecessary and probably spoiled some of the excitement of being on his first cruise. 

Worry is one of the most common human experiences. It doesn’t matter who you are, how strong your faith is, or how well your life seems to be going—worry finds us all. We worry about money. We worry about health. We worry about our children, our future, our past, our relationships, our work, and sometimes things we can’t even name. Worry has a way of sneaking in quietly and then settling down as if it belongs.

And into that very human condition, Jesus speaks some of the most challenging—and comforting—words in we will find in the Bible - “Do not worry.”

At first, that can sound unrealistic, even dismissive. “Do not worry?” we think. “Have you seen the world we’re living in?” But Jesus is not offering a shallow slogan or a denial of reality. He is offering a radical reorientation of how we see life, God, and ourselves.

Jesus begins by addressing the basics: food, drink, clothing—the necessities of life. These were not small concerns in the first century. For many people, daily survival was uncertain. Yet Jesus says, “Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?” In other words, if God has given us life itself, should we really believe He will abandon u when it comes to sustaining that life?

To make His point, Jesus tells us to look around. Look at the birds of the air. They do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet, he says, your heavenly Father feeds them. Look at the lilies of the field. They do not labour or spin, yet even Solomon in all his splendour was not dressed like one of these.

Jesus is inviting us to notice something we often forget: creation itself is a testimony to God’s care. The birds are not lazy; they still search for food. The flowers still grow according to their nature. But they are not consumed by anxiety about tomorrow. They live within the care of the One who made them.

Then Jesus asks a piercing question: “Are you not much more valuable than they?”

This is where worry often reveals its deeper issue. Worry is not just about circumstances; it is about trust. When we worry excessively, we are not simply acknowledging that life is uncertain—we are quietly assuming that we are alone in that uncertainty.

There’s an old saying sailors use when things go wrong: “Worse things happen at sea”, probably a phrase which was very much in the mind of my travelling companion on that recent cruise voyage. However, it’s a way of putting trouble into perspective. Yes, this is hard. Yes, this is unpleasant. But it is not the end of the world. That phrase carries a kind of grounded wisdom. It reminds us that difficulty is part of life, but difficulty is not the final word.

Jesus says something similar when He reminds us that worrying does not actually help. “Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?” The answer, of course, is no. If anything, worry shortens life, drains joy, clouds judgment, and steals peace.

It’s often said—and studies back this up—that about 98% of the things we worry about never actually happen. Think about that for a moment. Almost everything that keeps us awake at night, knots our stomachs, and dominates our thoughts never comes to pass; and even when difficult things do happen, they rarely happen in the way we imagined. We therefore end up suffering twice: once in our imagination and once, maybe, in reality.

Worry, then, is a terrible investment. It costs us a great deal and returns nothing.

But Jesus doesn’t just tell us to stop worrying; He tells us why we can stop worrying. “Your heavenly Father knows that you need all of these things.” God is not ignorant of our needs. He is not distant. He is not indifferent. The same God who clothes the grass of the field—which is here today and gone tomorrow—knows your name, your fears, your needs, and your future.

This is where faith comes in—not faith as wishful thinking, but faith as trust in a faithful God. Jesus says, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

Notice what He does not say. He does not say, “Ignore your responsibilities.” He does not say, “Pretend problems don’t exist.” He says, “Put first things first.” Make God the centre, not the margins. Let your life be oriented around His kingdom rather than your fears.

When we put our faith in God through Jesus, we are not promised a worry-free life—but we are promised a life that is not ruled by worry. Through Jesus, we come to know God not as a distant power, but as a loving Father. At the cross, we see just how far God is willing to go for us. If God did not spare His own Son, do we really believe He will abandon us in the details of daily life?

Faith does not remove tomorrow’s challenges, but it does remove tomorrow’s weight from today. Jesus ends this passage by saying, “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” That is not pessimism; it is realism paired with hope. Jesus acknowledges that each day has trouble—but He also implies that each day has sufficient grace too.

We are called to live one day at a time, trusting God one step at a time. Worry pulls us into a future we cannot control. Faith anchors us in the present, where God’s grace is always available.

So when worry rises—and it will—perhaps we can remember a few simple truths. Worse things happen at sea, and yet people survive storms they never thought they could. Most of what we fear will never happen. And the God who holds the universe together has promised to hold us as well.

Worry says, “What if?”
Faith says, “Even if.”

Even if things don’t go as planned.
Even if the road is harder than expected.
Even if answers don’t come right away.

Even if—God is still God. And we are still His beloved children.

May we hear Jesus’ words not as a rebuke, but as an invitation. An invitation to lay down burdens we were never meant to carry. An invitation to trust the One who knows what we need before we ask. An invitation to live not in fear of tomorrow, but in confidence in God today.

Amen                                                                                                         MFB/231/05022026

SERMON 230 - SUNDAY 11 JANUARY 2026 - BAPTISM OF CHRIST/EPIPHANY 1

Sermon at West Dean, St. Mary’s Parish Church, - Baptism of Christ  –  Sunday 11th January 2026

Isaiah 42:1-9; Acts 10:34-43; Matthew 3:13-17

Today we celebrate the Baptism of Christ by John the Baptist in the River Jordan; but as well as being such a celebration we are still in the Season of Epiphany – that time when we remember the coming of the wise men or “kings” bearing three prophetic gifts to the infant Jesus – gold to represent his kingship, frankincense to represent his holiness or divinity and myrrh, that perfume with which the dead are anointed to represent the great sacrifice he would later make for all.

The two New Testament readings, one from Acts and one from Matthew’s Gospel, remind us that Jesus, the King of Kings, came not just to establish a heavenly kingdom for the Jews but for all humankind. Peter, in his speech to the household of Cornelius, a Roman centurion, a leader of the forces occupying Judea, makes this point that Jesus Christ, the Messiah, came not to remove those occupying forces and re-establish Jewish sovereignty, but as the Son of God, establishing a universal kingdom far more important and enduring.

Christianity as a global phenomenon was being established and a desire for the whole world to realise the importance of following Christ and being united.  This is why the words of Peter, like John in our second reading are so important in understanding this. Peter reminds his listeners, and readers of Acts, that the message of the Gospel, the Good News as it is sometimes described, starts at this point with Jesus’s baptism. It is an outward illustration of God’s power and Jesus’s mission.

Like John the Baptist, I found it difficult, at first, to understand why John should have to baptise Jesus.  In an earlier piece of scripture John had remarked that “one would follow me whose sandals I am not fit to carry” (Matt 3 v11). John was the forward messenger and although people had been baptised as an act of showing repentance, or metanoia, a turning back to God and cleansing themselves of their past sinful life. We do this today in our churches and sometimes in rivers.  Jesus, as the divine Son of God surely had no reason to undertake this ritual and symbolic cleansing – after all he is God.

However, with Jesus would come the Holy Spirit to all who wanted it – “He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and Fire”, had said John earlier – in other words not only will you be changed through the cleansing of your body as a symbol of washing away the old tainted ways, but you will also have something brand new bestowed upon you. 

John therefore challenges Jesus as to why he should be baptised and at the end of this passage we learn the reason in one of the most emotional pieces of scripture –

“They saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him; and a voice from heaven said “This is my Son, whom I love, with him I am well pleased”.

This passage of scripture, this description of Jesus’s baptism is an affirmation of the divinity of Jesus, yet born as a human and living amongst humans here on Earth. It is also a positive sign to John that his ministry, as the one who comes before, was a true one and that he has now himself observed the long-awaited Messiah. It is also a reminder to us of God’s great love for us in sending his Son to live, minister and die for us.  That is the same reminder and story which Peter is giving out in his speech in our Second Reading.

None of this, actually, should come as a surprise to anyone, then and now, as it was foretold in the Old Testament. In our first reading from Isaiah we read:

“Thus says the Lord, Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen in whom my soul delights, I have put the Spirit upon him and he will bring forth justice to the nations.”

I get really excited when I read these passages – Isaiah foretelling the coming of Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah; the actual biographical narrative in Matthew’s Gospel and, finally, a reminder and a summary of what went on and why in Luke’s account of Peter’s speech to the Gentiles.

When I practised law, I used to get the same delightful feeling when a case hung together nicely and tightly with no room for ambiguity. We called it the “stick of rock” theory – simply described, the first lick at the beginning should have “Cleethorpes” in it as should the last bit. If somewhere between the two you suddenly come across “Brighton” or “Skegness” for example you do not have something of integrity.

Another lovely piece of connectivity is the description of a dove (the symbol of peace) as the Holy Spirit descending on him. You will recall that after the devastation of the Great Flood, it was a dove which came back to Noah’s Ark with an olive branch in its beak to indicate that the cleansing of the world, by the Great Flood, was now over and a new world can begin; it is also the dove which for generations has been the symbol for peace and the messenger of peace throughout the world; a symbol of new beginnings and of understanding between all peoples.  At this time of such turmoil and uncertainty and, can I dare say it, the prospect of some global conflict at our doorstep, we need to be messengers of peace and love, we need to carry the light of Christ before us and into this ever-darkening world.

With the Holy Spirit descending upon Jesus, he was able to share that spirit with all who came to him and sought and followed his ministry and, as we know following his death, resurrection and ascension, at Pentecost the Spirit descended upon all who sought it.  That is precisely where we find ourselves today.  The Wise Men came bearing gifts to the infant Jesus, Jesus himself, through his ministry, death and resurrection has bestowed the greatest gift of all, the Holy Spirit, free and unconditionally to all who seek it.  Actually, there is one condition, and that is that having received it you do not grieve it – that is do not renounce it or denigrate.

I believe the world is, today, hungrier for the Holy Spirit than at any other time.  Sometimes we get so caught up with our own little worlds that we forget that we all live in one greater world; but it is not all that great.  We are all living on a planet, a spaceship which is less than 8,000 miles in diameter in the vastness of a cold and hostile universe, billions and billions of light years across – if it has any boundaries.  It is the only home we have and really one which we can only ever have this side of the grave.  Jesus, we are told by John, came into the world to save the world not to condemn it.

A few years ago I watched the movie “Don’t Look Up” starring Jennifer Lawrence, Mark Rylance and Leo DiCaprio.  It is a little wacky but the essence of it is that in today’s modern age we spend a lot of time looking down at our devices and accepting what social media is saying, or not saying, and not enough time looking up and around us and discovering reality for ourselves. In the case of this film there is a large comet heading straight for Earth which will destroy the planet in six months’ time. The politicians and media people don’t seem to care, worrying more about mid-term elections and the love lives of celebrities.  In fact, social media and politicians start a campaign doubting the existence of the comet despite the scientists’ assurances.  Does that ring any bells? 

In fact since I watched that film in 2021, it seems that its relevance to what we saw going on in 2025 and continuing in 2026 is greater than ever!  People are listening and relying more and more on the “15 – minutes of social media experts”, rather than any true experts in their dedicated fields.  Jesus, we should remind ourselves is the Truth and the Light.

Sometimes, I think that those of us who know the true nature of God’s love and compassion for Humankind are crying in the wilderness just like John, but cry we must otherwise we have no chance of being heard at all if we totally give in or give up.

I am reminded of a notice displayed at Auschwitz I Concentration camp in Poland written by Pastor Martin Niemoller which reads

“First they came for the Communists

 And I did not speak out Because I was not a Communist

Then they came for the Socialists and I did not speak out Because I was not a Socialist

 Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out Because I was not a trade unionist

Then they came for the Jews and I did not speak out Because I was not a Jew

 Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me.”

John the Baptist spoke out and encouraged those around him to repent – metanoia; to look at things afresh. To wash away the old and tainted and to step out clean, refreshed and into a new world with Jesus Christ as our king and saviour. As true Christians we should honour the pledges he made on our behalf – to move forward with the aid of the Holy Spirit, never grieving it but upholding it, promoting it and its powers and making disciples of others and having no fear for Jesus is with us, within us and around us.

God bless you all in your continued fellowship and ministry here in West Dean over the next twelve months and may you too have the courage to speak out and proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit here within us now.

Amen                                                                                           MFB/230/07012026

(An updated version of Sermon 168 and 211 delivered in 2022 and 2025 respectively).