Sunday, February 08, 2026

Age of Anxiety

Preached at Christ Church, Billericay on 8 Feb 2026 @10:00

Recorded : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jq2zMJ_vNnQ starting 32:20 to 48:56

Prayer

Father God, calm our restless hearts, grant wisdom, and fill us with Your peace as we explore anxiety's challenges together today.

Introduction

After looking through these verses that we read today, it seemed that the common thread was worry. I’ve heard that the present age is called the Age of Anxiety, especially for younger people. I thought that was just for the last few years, until I discovered that W. H. Auden wrote a long poem called “The Age of Anxiety”, which was published in 1947.

I haven’t read it. It’s timing, more than anything else made me think that the title could probably cover all of the last century up to the present day.

Evidence & Causes

Surveys by the World Health Organisation and others suggest that about a third of adults report symptoms of anxiety strong enough to affect their everyday lives.

The world is an unstable place:

2 world wars took up much of the first half of the last century.

Then came the Cold War, and the threat on nuclear annihilation which is still with us and perhaps more likely now that the ‘START’ Treaty has expired. Closely followed by terrorism threats from various parts of the world, and the wars that followed.

In this century we’ve had the threat of climate collapse, which is still there, of course. Then there was a financial crisis, and the COVID pandemic. Now we have the world order becoming unstable, and the threat of a third world war.

Economy & Technology

If all these national and global things were not enough, we have a slow but steady loss of economic well-being, and a world where technological change happens much faster than we can adapt to it. That’s social media, information overload, and the rise of the always connected workforce.

Personal Worries

I don’t know about you, but for me, most of my worries come from more personal issues. Problems in my own life, and the lives of my family and friends. Some of those are related to some of the issues I have already mentioned, some are just the uneven progress of life.

The World’s Response

The world’s response to worries seems to vary from tea and sympathy – which may make the worry worse; to the “problem shared is a problem halved” approach. Unless the person we are sharing with is willing to take some action on our behalf, nothing really changes.

Another response is the “Hakuna matata” approach. It is a Swahili phrase made popular by Disney’s Lion King. It means “there are no worries”. It is literally just denial, and if we’re worried about something denial is not going to work. Bobby McFerrin’s song “Don’t Worry be Happy” seems to push the same idea.

If you want to be in de-nile, visit Egypt.

Ignoring or denying your worries will only make them worse.

Romans reading

In the reading from Romans, Paul acknowledges our present sufferings, which, of course, include our worries. He says these sufferings are nothing compared to the glory that will be revealed in us. In other translations it says “revealed for us”, or “revealed to us”. While that is an interesting discussion, for our purposes today it is not important. The glory is there and we are involved.

He ties the destiny of the whole of creation, to the destiny of human beings. The picture is that God put creation under our feet, and as a result, creation is groaning as in the pains of childbirth as it waits for its liberation from decay by the Children of God – that’s us.

It’s also us, who have the first fruits of the spirit, and we groan inwardly as we wait for our adoption to sonship.

This is our hope, this is the salvation that we are hoping for. Perhaps the way Paul puts it can be a little confusing, but he is trying to express the enormity of it.

A view

Tom Wright compares it to coming across a view. If I was to do that it would be the view from Symonds Yat rock. If you visit the rock, you will, after long climb, find yourself on top of a relatively small rock. There will probably be loads of people there. The view stretches for miles in many directions. It’s almost like looking at a map, but it’s real, and it will take your breath away, if you have any left from the climb.

That’s the sort of view of salvation that Paul is aiming at.

If we can grasp that view and really get hold of the meaning, our current troubles will also begin to hold less significance for us. Because the glory of the Lord will start to be revealed.

Hope

This is our hope. “For in this hope we were saved.” Paul says. The 1991 Snyder study and others that followed say that hope reduces worry. There are mechanisms discussed in the studies, but for our purposes we are better to stick with Augustine who said:

“Hope has two beautiful daughters; their names are Anger and Courage. Anger at the way things are, and Courage to see that they do not remain as they are.”

Worry is reduced by a sense of purpose, a desire for something greater, better.

Matthew Reading

Jesus has an altogether different approach. His message is much more personal. He is telling his audience not to worry about certain things. Before we have a closer look at that we must set some context.

Plan your life.

“Do not worry about your life” does not mean “Do not plan for the future”. Proverbs 21:5 tells us:

“The plans of the diligent lead to profit
as surely as haste leads to poverty.”

And in the parable of the talents in Matthew 25, the master entrusts his servants with the money and expects them to put it to work. Those who succeed and return a profit are rewarded, those who don’t are punished.

Eric Delve

A long time ago, in a world that was so different from the one we live in now, and before I was Christian, I was taken to see an evangelist called Eric Delve. His passage for the night was this one from Matthew. He spent a long time trying to explain how birds build barns and store things in them. It was quite hilarious. That’s part of the point of this passage. It’s supposed to be humorous. We miss that partly because of the translations and partly because we are not stood in front of Jesus watching his mannerisms. I’m not going to try to repeat Eric’s performance, you’ve already had the best of my humour, and you know I’m in denial.

Peer Pressure

Jesus is talking about worries caused by peer pressure. What you will eat and drink, what you will wear – means will you look good to those around you? Will you fit in? Will you keep up with the Joneses?

Birds of the air

Jesus then cleverly begins to strip away the unnecessary worries of their (and our) lives. First, the birds of the air, they do not sow or reap, but God feeds them. So do some of us, because we enjoy watching them on our bird feeders. You can see that they do have to do work. Feeding on a bird feeder is easier than feeding in the wild, perhaps, but there is still work to do. They have to find the food, and peck away at it while watching for predators. In Jesus’ day there was only feeding in the wild, and in the wild, where no one is watching, your heavenly father is feeding the birds.

In Matthew 10, Jesus says:

²⁹ Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. ³¹ So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

So we don’t have to worry, our heavenly father can be trusted to look after us even if we don’t sow or reap.

Flowers of the field

Now Jesus moves on to the flowers of the fields. Picture a meadow in summer, the grass is growing, there are all sorts of flowers providing a splash of colour, blues, yellows and reds, amongst the green grass. A glorious view, one you may be able to sit and appreciate while you eat your picnic. In just a few weeks it will be harvested, or thrown on a bonfire.

The flowers do not even work, they do nothing, they simply exist on what is around them. Yet even Solomon, Israel's ever richest king, was not dressed as spectacularly as that field. Your heavenly father looks after them and gives them growth.

So we don’t have to worry, we just have to have faith that our heavenly father will look after us, because if we are worth more than sparrows, we are definitely worth more that flowers.

Kingdom / tomorrow

Instead of worrying about all this trivia, we should seek mainly be seeking God’s kingdom. Everything else will follow from that. Even tomorrow. There are enough things to be dealt with today, without fretting about tomorrow.

Paul’s Vision

So, here we are back to Paul’s vision where everything will be “brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.”

We have that hope of being son’s and daughters of God, and living in His kingdom forever. It starts when we accept Jesus and acknowledge that his death and resurrection pave the way to God. That’s the time when the hope is established within us, and the seeking begins, because we are not completely redeemed yet.

With this hope and the purpose of finding God’s kingdom, we have more important things to think about than the day-to-day worries, that we all have.