18 February 2026
19:30 | 
Posted by
Dr Platts |
Joel 2:1-2, 12-17
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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