08 March 2026
10:30 | 
Posted by
Dr Platts |
Exodus 17:1-7
A reading from the book of Exodus.
From the wilderness of Sin
the whole congregation of the Israelites journeyed by stages,
as the Lord commanded.
They camped at Rephidim,
but there was no water for the people to drink.
The people quarrelled with Moses,
and said, ‘Give us water to drink.’
Moses said to them, ‘Why do you quarrel with me?
Why do you test the Lord?’
But the people thirsted there for water;
and the people complained against Moses and said,
‘Why did you bring us out of Egypt,
to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?’
So Moses cried out to the Lord,
‘What shall I do with this people?
They are almost ready to stone me.’
The Lord said to Moses,
‘Go on ahead of the people,
and take some of the elders of Israel with you;
take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go.
I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb.
Strike the rock, and water will come out of it,
so that the people may drink.’
Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel.
He called the place Massah and Meribah,
because the Israelites quarrelled and tested the Lord,
saying, ‘Is the Lord among us or not?’
Romans 5:1-11
A reading from the letter of Paul to the Romans.
Since we are justified by faith,
we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand;
and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God.
And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings,
knowing that suffering produces endurance,
and endurance produces character,
and character produces hope,
and hope does not disappoint us,
because God’s love has been poured into our hearts
through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
For while we were still weak,
at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—
though perhaps for a good person
someone might actually dare to die.
But God proves his love for us
in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.
Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood,
will we be saved through him from the wrath of God.
For if while we were enemies,
we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son,
much more surely, having been reconciled,
will we be saved by his life.
But more than that,
we even boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
through whom we have now received reconciliation.
John 4:5-42
Hear the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to John.
Jesus came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.
Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.
A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, ‘Give me a drink’.
(His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.)
The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?’ (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.)
Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, “Give me a drink”, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.’
The woman said to him, ‘Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water?
Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?’
Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again,
but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.’
The woman said to him, ‘Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.’
Jesus said to her, ‘Go, call your husband, and come back.’
The woman answered him, ‘I have no husband.’ Jesus said to her, ‘You are right in saying, “I have no husband”;
for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!’
The woman said to him, ‘Sir, I see that you are a prophet.
Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.’
Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.
You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.
But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him.
God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.’
The woman said to him, ‘I know that Messiah is coming’ (who is called Christ). ‘When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.’
Jesus said to her, ‘I am he, the one who is speaking to you.’
Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, ‘What do you want?’ or, ‘Why are you speaking with her?’
Then the woman left her water-jar and went back to the city. She said to the people,
‘Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?’
They left the city and were on their way to him.
Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, ‘Rabbi, eat something.’
But he said to them, ‘I have food to eat that you do not know about.’
So the disciples said to one another, ‘Surely no one has brought him something to eat?’
Jesus said to them, ‘My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work.
Do you not say, “Four months more, then comes the harvest”? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting.
The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together.
For here the saying holds true, “One sows and another reaps.”
I sent you to reap that for which you did not labour. Others have laboured, and you have entered into their labour.’
Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, ‘He told me everything I have ever done.’
So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there for two days.
And many more believed because of his word.
They said to the woman, ‘It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Saviour of the world.’
01 March 2026
Today is the first day of spring. Lets hope we have seen the last of the heavy rain and welcome some sunshone into our lives. The plants are certainly putting on a show for us with lots of yellow and white.
Instead of an anthem this morning, our organist and director of music played Dafydd y Garreg Wen (David of the White Rock) a traditional Welsh musical air and folk song.
Don't forget Evensong this afternoon at 3.30pm with tea and cake afterwards in the rooms. In celebration of St David's Day, there will also be Welsh Cakes. The anthem will be Stainer's "God So Loved the World", words taken from our gospel reading today.
A reading from the book of Genesis.
The Lord said to Abram,
‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house
to the land that I will show you.
I will make of you a great nation,
and I will bless you, and make your name great,
so that you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
and the one who curses you I will curse;
and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’
So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him.
Romans 4:1-5, 13-17
A reading from the letter of Paul to the Romans.
What then are we to say was gained by Abraham,
our ancestor according to the flesh?
For if Abraham was justified by works,
he has something to boast about, but not before God.
For what does the scripture say?
‘Abraham believed God,
and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.’
Now to one who works, wages are not reckoned as a gift
but as something due.
But to one who without works
trusts him who justifies the ungodly,
such faith is reckoned as righteousness.
For the promise that he would inherit the world
did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law
but through the righteousness of faith.
If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs,
faith is null and the promise is void.
For the law brings wrath;
but where there is no law,
neither is there violation.
For this reason it depends on faith,
in order that the promise may rest on grace
and be guaranteed to all his descendants,
not only to the adherents of the law
but also to those who share the faith of Abraham
(for he is the father of all of us,
as it is written,
‘I have made you the father of many nations’)—
in the presence of the God in whom he believed,
who gives life to the dead
and calls into existence the things that do not exist.
John 3:1-17
Hear the gospel of our Lorf Jesus Christ according to John.
There was a Pharisee named Nicodemus,
a leader of the Jews.
He came to Jesus by night
and said to him,
‘Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God;
for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.’
Jesus answered him,
‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God
without being born from above.’
Nicodemus said to him,
‘How can anyone be born after having grown old?
Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?’
Jesus answered, ‘Very truly, I tell you,
no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.
What is born of the flesh is flesh,
and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Do not be astonished that I said to you,
“You must be born from above.”
The wind blows where it chooses,
and you hear the sound of it,
but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.
So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.’
Nicodemus said to him,
‘How can these things be?’
Jesus answered him,
‘Are you a teacher of Israel,
and yet you do not understand these things?
‘Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know
and testify to what we have seen;
yet you do not receive our testimony.
If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe,
how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?
No one has ascended into heaven
except the one who descended from heaven,
the Son of Man.
And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
‘For God so loved the world
that he gave his only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him may not perish
but may have eternal life.
Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world
to condemn the world,
but in order that the world might be saved through him.
22 February 2026
A miserable day outside, but the Sunday School was here in force. Fr Roger took the service and asked the children why he was wearing purple vestments? Because it is Lent.
So no flowers in church now until Easter.
The Lent course starts on Tuesday 24th. If you are interested contact Robert and Vanessa St John, email addresses in February Sidlesham Parishioner.
A reading from the book of Genesis.
The Lord God took the man
and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it.
And the Lord God commanded the man,
‘You may freely eat of every tree of the garden;
but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat,
for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.’
Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal
that the Lord God had made.
He said to the woman, ‘Did God say,
“You shall not eat from any tree in the garden”?’
The woman said to the serpent,
‘We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden;
but God said, “You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree
that is in the middle of the garden,
nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.”’
But the serpent said to the woman,
‘You will not die;
for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened,
and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’
So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food,
and that it was a delight to the eyes,
and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise,
she took of its fruit and ate;
and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her,
and he ate.
Then the eyes of both were opened,
and they knew that they were naked;
and they sewed fig leaves together
and made loincloths for themselves.
Romans 5:12-19
A reading of the letter of Paul to the Romans.
Just as sin came into the world through one man,
and death came through sin,
and so death spread to all because all have sinned—
sin was indeed in the world before the law,
but sin is not reckoned when there is no law.
Yet death exercised dominion from Adam to Moses,
even over those whose sins were not like the transgression of Adam,
who is a type of the one who was to come.
But the free gift is not like the trespass.
For if the many died through the one man’s trespass,
much more surely have the grace of God
and the free gift in the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ,
abounded for the many.
And the free gift is not like the effect of the one man’s sin.
For the judgement following one trespass brought condemnation,
but the free gift following many trespasses brings justification.
If, because of the one man’s trespass,
death exercised dominion through that one,
much more surely will those who receive the abundance of grace
and the free gift of righteousness
exercise dominion in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.
Therefore just as one man’s trespass
led to condemnation for all,
so one man’s act of righteousness
leads to justification and life for all.
For just as by the one man’s disobedience
the many were made sinners,
so by the one man’s obedience
the many will be made righteous.
Matthew 4:1-11
Hear the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew.
Jesus was led up by the Spirit
into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
He fasted for forty days and forty nights,
and afterwards he was famished.
The tempter came and said to him,
‘If you are the Son of God,
command these stones to become loaves of bread.’
But he answered, ‘It is written,
“One does not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”’
Then the devil took him to the holy city
and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him,
‘If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down;
for it is written,
“He will command his angels concerning you”,
and “On their hands they will bear you up,
so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.”’
Jesus said to him, ‘Again it is written,
“Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”’
Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain
and showed him
all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour;
and he said to him,
‘All these I will give you,
if you will fall down and worship me.’
Jesus said to him, ‘Away with you, Satan!
for it is written,
“Worship the Lord your God,
and serve only him.”’
Then the devil left him,
and suddenly angels came and waited on him.
18 February 2026
Despite the atrocious weather, a small congregation met for the solemn Eucharist with imposition of ashes. The choir's anthem was Lead Me Lord.
A reading from the book of the prophet Joel.
Blow the trumpet in Zion;
sound the alarm on my holy mountain!
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,
for the day of the Lord is coming, it is near—
a day of darkness and gloom,
a day of clouds and thick darkness!
Like blackness spread upon the mountains
a great and powerful army comes;
their like has never been from of old,
nor will be again after them
in ages to come.
Yet even now, says the Lord,
return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
rend your hearts and not your clothing.
Return to the Lord, your God,
for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love,
and relents from punishing.
Who knows whether he will not turn and relent,
and leave a blessing behind him,
a grain-offering and a drink-offering
for the Lord, your God?
Blow the trumpet in Zion;
sanctify a fast;
call a solemn assembly;
gather the people.
Sanctify the congregation;
assemble the aged;
gather the children,
even infants at the breast.
Let the bridegroom leave his room,
and the bride her canopy.
Between the vestibule and the altar
let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep.
Let them say, ‘Spare your people, O Lord,
and do not make your heritage a mockery,
a byword among the nations.
Why should it be said among the peoples,
“Where is their God?”’
2 Corinthians 5:20-6:10
A reading from the second letter of Paul to the Corinthians.
We entreat you on behalf of Christ,
be reconciled to God.
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin,
so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
As we work together with him,
we urge you also not to accept the grace of God in vain.
For the Lord says,
‘At an acceptable time I have listened to you,
and on a day of salvation I have helped you.’
See, now is the acceptable time;
see, now is the day of salvation!
We are putting no obstacle in anyone’s way,
so that no fault may be found with our ministry,
but as servants of God we have commended ourselves in every way:
through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities,
beatings, imprisonments, riots, labours, sleepless nights, hunger;
by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit,
genuine love, truthful speech, and the power of God;
with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left;
in honour and dishonour, in ill repute and good repute.
We are treated as impostors, and yet are true;
as unknown, and yet are well known;
as dying, and see—we are alive;
as punished, and yet not killed;
as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing;
as poor, yet making many rich;
as having nothing,
and yet possessing everything.
Gospel: either Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
Jesus said to the disciples,
‘Beware of practising your piety before others
in order to be seen by them;
for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.
‘So whenever you give alms,
do not sound a trumpet before you,
as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets,
so that they may be praised by others.
Truly I tell you, they have received their reward.
But when you give alms,
do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,
so that your alms may be done in secret;
and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
And whenever you pray,
do not be like the hypocrites;
for they love to stand and pray
in the synagogues and at the street corners,
so that they may be seen by others.
Truly I tell you, they have received their reward.
But whenever you pray,
go into your room and shut the door
and pray to your Father who is in secret;
and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
And whenever you fast,
do not look dismal, like the hypocrites,
for they disfigure their faces
so as to show others that they are fasting.
Truly I tell you, they have received their reward.
But when you fast,
put oil on your head and wash your face,
so that your fasting may be seen not by others
but by your Father who is in secret;
and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth,
where moth and rust consume
and where thieves break in and steal;
but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven,
where neither moth nor rust consumes
and where thieves do not break in and steal.
For where your treasure is,
there your heart will be also.
or: John 8:1-11
Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
Early in the morning he came again to the temple.
All the people came to him
and he sat down and began to teach them.
The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman
who had been caught in adultery;
and making her stand before all the people,
they said to Jesus,
‘Teacher, this woman was caught
in the very act of committing adultery.
Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women.
Now what do you say?’
They said this to test him,
so that they might have some charge to bring against him.
Jesus bent down
and wrote with his finger on the ground.
When they kept on questioning him,
he straightened up and said to them,
‘Let anyone among you who is without sin
be the first to throw a stone at her.’
And once again he bent down and wrote on the ground.
When they heard it, they went away,
one by one, beginning with the elders;
and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him.
Jesus straightened up and said to her,
‘Woman, where are they?
Has no one condemned you?’
She said, ‘No one, sir.’
And Jesus said, ‘Neither do I condemn you.
Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.’
15 February 2026
Exodus 24:12-18
A reading from the book of Exodus.
The Lord said to Moses,
“Come up to me on the mountain and wait there;
I will give you the tablets of stone,
with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction.”
So Moses set out with his assistant Joshua,
and Moses went up onto the mountain of God.
To the elders he had said, “Wait here for us,
until we come to you again;
for Aaron and Hur are with you;
whoever has a dispute may go to them.”
Then Moses went up on the mountain,
and the cloud covered the mountain.
The glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai,
and the cloud covered it for six days;
on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the cloud.
Now the appearance of the glory of the Lord
was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain
in the sight of the Israelites.
Moses entered the cloud and went up on the mountain.
Moses was on the mountain for forty days and forty nights.
2 Peter 1:16-21
A reading from the second letter of Peter.
We did not follow cleverly devised myths
when we made known to you
the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,
but we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty.
For he received honour and glory from God the Father
when that voice was conveyed to him by the Majestic Glory,
saying, “This is my Son, my Beloved,
with whom I am well pleased.”
We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven,
while we were with him on the holy mountain.
So we have the prophetic message more fully confirmed.
You will do well to be attentive to this
as to a lamp shining in a dark place,
until the day dawns
and the morning star rises in your hearts.
First of all you must understand this,
that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation,
because no prophecy ever came by human will,
but men and women moved by the Holy Spirit
spoke from God.
Matthew 17:1-9
Hear the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew.
Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John
and led them up a high mountain, by themselves.
And he was transfigured before them,
and his face shone like the sun,
and his clothes became bright as light.
Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him.
Then Peter said to Jesus,
“Lord, it is good for us to be here;
if you wish, I will make three dwellings here,
one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”
While he was still speaking,
suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them,
and a voice from the cloud said,
"This is my Son, the Beloved;
with him I am well pleased;
listen to him!”
When the disciples heard this,
they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear.
But Jesus came and touched them, saying,
“Get up and do not be afraid.”
And when they looked up,
they saw no one except Jesus himself alone.
As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus ordered them,
“Tell no one about the vision
until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”
08 February 2026
Today was misty and murky and quite a few people were stuck at home, hemmed in by the floods after all the rain we have had. Fr Roger preachd today as Fr Chris is away. He referred to our Old Testament reading, Genesis, the very beginning of the bible. Bishop Assher tried to work out when God created the world and worked it out to be 4004BC. However we now know that the earth hs been around millions of years and we have a fossil record of evolution. With all the rain, maybe we will be developing webbed feet (not part of Fr Roger's homily)?
However, the churchyard is showing signs that spring is on its way.
A reading from the book of Genesis.
In the beginning,
when God began to create the heavens and the earth,
the earth was a formless void,
and darkness covered the face of the deep,
while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.
Then God said,
“Let there be light,”
and there was light.
And God saw that the light was good,
and God separated the light from the darkness.
God called the light Day,
and the darkness he called Night.
And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
And God said,
“Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters,
and let it separate the waters from the waters.”
So God made the dome
and separated the waters that were under the dome
from the waters that were above the dome.
And it was so.
God called the dome Sky.
And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.
And God said,
“Let the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place,
and let the dry land appear.”
And it was so.
God called the dry land Earth,
and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas.
And God saw that it was good.
Then God said,
“Let the earth put forth vegetation:
plants yielding seed
and fruit trees of every kind on earth
that bear fruit with the seed in it.”
And it was so.
The earth brought forth vegetation:
plants yielding seed of every kind
and trees of every kind bearing fruit with the seed in it.
And God saw that it was good.
And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.
And God said,
“Let there be lights in the dome of the sky
to separate the day from the night,
and let them be for signs and for seasons
and for days and years,
and let them be lights in the dome of the sky
to give light upon the earth.”
And it was so.
God made the two great lights—
the greater light to rule the day
and the lesser light to rule the night—
and the stars.
God set them in the dome of the sky
to give light upon the earth,
to rule over the day and over the night,
and to separate the light from the darkness.
And God saw that it was good.
And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.
And God said,
“Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures,
and let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky.”
So God created the great sea monsters
and every living creature that moves, of every kind,
with which the waters swarm
and every winged bird of every kind.
And God saw that it was good.
God blessed them, saying,
“Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas,
and let birds multiply on the earth.”
And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.
And God said,
“Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind:
cattle and creeping things
and wild animals of the earth of every kind.”
And it was so.
God made the wild animals of the earth of every kind
and the cattle of every kind
and everything that creeps upon the ground of every kind.
And God saw that it was good.
Then God said,
“Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness,
and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea
and over the birds of the air
and over the cattle
and over all the wild animals of the earth
and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.”
So God created humankind in his image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
God blessed them, and God said to them,
“Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it
and have dominion over the fish of the sea
and over the birds of the air
and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.”
God said,
“See, I have given you every plant yielding seed
that is upon the face of all the earth
and every tree with seed in its fruit;
you shall have them for food.
And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the air
and to everything that creeps on the earth,
everything that has the breath of life,
I have given every green plant for food.”
And it was so.
God saw everything that he had made,
and indeed, it was very good.
And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
Thus the heavens and the earth were finished
and all their multitude.
On the seventh day God finished the work that he had done,
and he rested on the seventh day from all the work
that he had done.
So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it,
because on it God rested from all the work
that he had done in creation.
Romans 8:18-25
A reading from the Letter of Paul to the Romans.
I consider that the sufferings of this present time
are not worth comparing with the glory
about to be revealed to us.
For the creation waits with eager longing
for the revealing of the children of God,
for the creation was subjected to futility,
not of its own will,
but by the will of the one who subjected it,
in hope that the creation itself
will be set free from its enslavement to decay
and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
We know that the whole creation
has been groaning together as it suffers together the pains of labour,
and not only the creation,
but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit,
groan inwardly while we wait for adoption,
the redemption of our bodies.
For in hope we were saved.
Now hope that is seen is not hope,
for who hopes for what one already sees?
But if we hope for what we do not see,
we wait for it with patience.
Matthew 6:25-34
Hear the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew.
Jesus taught his disciples saying:
“Therefore I tell you,
do not worry about your life,
what you will eat or what you will drink,
or about your body, what you will wear.
Is not life more than food
and the body more than clothing?
Look at the birds of the air:
they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns,
and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
Are you not of more value than they?
And can of you by worrying
add a single hour to your span of life?
And why do you worry about clothing?
Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow;
they neither toil nor spin,
yet I tell you,
even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.
But if God so clothes the grass of the field,
which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven,
will he not much more clothe you—
you of little faith?
Therefore do not worry,
saying, ‘What will we eat?’
or ‘What will we drink?’
or ‘What will we wear?’
For it is the gentiles who seek all these things,
and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.
But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness,
and all these things will be given to you as well.
“So do not worry about tomorrow,
for tomorrow will bring worries of its own.
Today’s trouble is enough for today.
01 February 2026
Malachi 3:1-5
A reading from the book of the prophet Malachi.
Thus says the Lord God:
See, I am sending my messenger
to prepare the way before me,
and the Lord whom you seek
will suddenly come to his temple.
The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight—
indeed, he is coming,
says the Lord of hosts.
But who can endure the day of his coming,
and who can stand when he appears?
For he is like a refiner’s fire and like washers’ soap;
he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver,
and he will purify the descendants of Levi
and refine them like gold and silver,
until they present offerings to the Lord in righteousness.
Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem
will be pleasing to the Lord,
as in the days of old and as in former years.
Then I will draw near to you for judgment;
I will be swift to bear witness against the sorcerers,
against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely,
against those who oppress the hired workers in their wages,
the widow, and the orphan,
against those who thrust aside the alien
and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts.
Hebrews 2:14-18
A reading from the letter to the Hebrews.
Since the children share flesh and blood,
Jesus himself likewise shared the same things,
so that through death
he might destroy the one who has the power of death,
that is, the devil,
and free those who all their lives were held in slavery
by the fear of death.
For it is clear that he did not come to help angels
but the descendants of Abraham.
Therefore he had to become like his brothers and sisters
in every respect,
so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest
in the service of God,
to make a sacrifice of atonement for the sins of the people.
Because he himself was tested by what he suffered,
he is able to help those who are being tested.
Luke 2:22-40
Hear the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Luke.
When the time came for their purification
according to the law of Moses,
they brought him up to Jerusalem
to present him to the Lord
(as it is written in the law of the Lord,
“Every firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the Lord”),
and they offered a sacrifice
according to what is stated in the law of the Lord,
“a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.”
Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon;
this man was righteous and devout,
looking forward to the consolation of Israel,
and the Holy Spirit rested on him.
It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit
that he would not see death
before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah.
Guided by the Spirit, Simeon came into the temple,
and when the parents brought in the child Jesus
to do for him what was customary under the law,
Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying,
“Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace,
according to your word,
for my eyes have seen your salvation,
which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
a light for revelation to the gentiles
and for glory to your people Israel.”
And the child’s father and mother
were amazed at what was being said about him.
Then Simeon blessed them and said to his mother Mary,
“This child is destined
for the falling and the rising of many in Israel
and to be a sign that will be opposed
so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed—
and a sword will pierce your own soul, too.”
There was also a prophet, Anna
the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher.
She was of a great age,
having lived with her husband seven years after her marriage,
then as a widow to the age of eighty-four.
She never left the temple
but worshiped there with fasting and prayer night and day.
At that moment she came and began to praise God
and to speak about the child
to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.
When they had finished everything
required by the law of the Lord,
they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth.
The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom,
and the favor of God was upon him.
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