good morning and a very warm welcome to a freezing cold dinery garden on this february the 13th a saturday morning so we're here with chloe and the girls who aren't much fussed by the snow as long as they get their breakfast but in fact it's a bitter wind and it's a chill factor we're told of minus 12 an actual temperature of minus four and that makes it really cold and the weather vanes on the top of belharry on each pinnacle are pointing absolutely to a direct east wind which is the most wicked of the winds once the cold has arrived it it signals a stability in this freezing weather well we're told that the wind will change tomorrow gradually and uh we shall re-enter a warmer period but for this morning welcome to siberia and uh then we're thinking also of the cricket match in my mind which is going on at the moment in chennai formerly madras in india between england and india this is the second day and i'll give a shout out of greeting to our friends at madras christian college who are probably cheering for a different team than i am uh and uh actually on this particular day i'll say hello to spurgeon the chaplain there and his family who watch us morning by morning and and wish them well and send our prayers to the whole college there that beautiful area with the great mountain of saint thomas the holy mountain with the with the the shrine of thomas at the top saint thomas the apostle looking out onto the sea that will be warmer there than it is here this morning now there are two sporting events that uh were involved in today and fletcher is much more keen in seeing this afternoon that england against italy playing rugby in the six nations redeem their performance from last week at twickenham so an exciting time in that i've heard yesterday of the death of lucian nessinger very distinguished organist of exeter cathedral for 26 years and an icon of uh cathedral organists in in the the way he served that cathedral church and also michael's timbery before that he died yesterday and we remember his son andrew the organist of john's college cambridge and allison who were able to be with him because he was in a hospice in cambridge so we pray for the repose of his cell but also gives thanks for his long musical career which was an inspiration to so many well this morning we are saying our prayers together here in the snow still so wherever you are please feel welcome and bring your own prayers and intention whatever the climate with you o lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise may christ the daystar dawn in our hearts and triumph over the shades of night blessed are you creator of all to you be praise and glory forever as your dawn renews the face of the earth bringing light and life to all creation may we rejoice in this day you have made as we wake refresh from the depths of sleep open our eyes to behold your presence and strengthen our hands to do your will that the world may rejoice and give you praise blessed be god father son and holy spirit blessed be god forever the night has passed and the day lies open before us let us pray with one heart and mind and as we rejoice in the gift of this new day so may the light of your presence oh god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen our psalm on this 13th morning of the month is psalm 68 a long psalm so we'll read some of its verses let god arise and let his enemies be scattered let those that hate him flee before him as the smoke vanishes so may they vanish away as wax melts at the fire so let the wicked perish at the presence of god but let the righteous be glad and rejoice before god let them make merry with gladness sing to god sing praises to his name exalt him who rides upon the clouds the lord is his name rejoice before him father of the fatherless defender of widows god in his holy habitation god gives the solitary a home and brings forth prisoners to songs of welcome but the rebellious inhabit a burning desert oh god when you went forth before your people when you marched through the wilderness the earth shook and the heavens dropped down rain at the presence of god the lord of sinai at the presence of god the god of israel you sent down a gracious rain oh god you refreshed your inheritance when it was weary your people came to dwell there in your goodness so god you provide for the poor blessed be the lord who bears our burdens day by day for god is our salvation god is for us the god of our salvation god is the lord who can deliver from death sing to god you kingdoms of the earth make music in praise of the lord he rides on the ancient heaven of heavens and sends forth his voice a mighty voice ascribe power to god whose power is above the clouds how terrible is god in his holy sanctuary the god of israel who gives power and strength to his people blessed be god returning back to the gospel of saint mark let me explain what i'm going to do with this this morning because i'm altering the lectionary slightly as next week on monday we shall begin with saint john chapter 3 and that will take us through lent until holy week in the gospel of saint john but i'm wanting to just give completion to jesus's galilean ministry and so today and tomorrow we shall read in two sections the whole of chapter eight and then afterwards at the eucharist the gospel for the day for sunday the first the sunday before lent uh that will be chapter nine with the story of the transfiguration so we come to a conclusion with our study of the first section of st mark before taking it up again when ordinary time begins on may the 24th the day after the feast of pentecost here then is the first section of chapter eight and is continuing exactly where we left off yesterday in those days when again a great crowd had gathered and they had nothing to eat jesus called his disciples to him and said to them i have compassion on the crowd because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat and if i send them away hungry to their homes they will faint on the way and some of them have come from far away and jesus disciples answered him how can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place and jesus asked them how many loaves do you have they said seven and he directed the crowd to sit down on the ground he took the seven loaves and having given thanks he broke them gave them to his disciples to set before the people and they set them before the crowd and they had a few small fish and having blessed them he said that these also should be set before the crowd and they at and was satisfied and they took up the broken pieces left over seven basketballs and there were about four thousand people and jesus sent them away and immediately he got into the boat with his disciples and went to the district of dalmanusa the pharisees came and began to argue with him seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him and jesus sighed deeply in his spirit and said why does this generation seek a sign truly i say to you no sign will be given to this generation and he left them got into the boat again and went to the other side now the disciples had forgotten to bring bread and they had only one loaf with them in the boat and jesus cautioned them saying beware of the leaven of the pharisees and the leaven of king and herod disciples began discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread and jesus aware of this said to them why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread do you not yet perceive or understand are your hearts hardened having eyes do you not see and having ears do you not hear and do you not remember when i broke the five loaves for the 5000 how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up they said to him twelve and the seven for the four thousand how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up and they said to him seven jesus said to them do you not yet understand one feels in almost sympathy for the disciples at this time but one feels the irritation and heat of jesus himself at this time facing once again the irritation of having the pharisees gathering around him and asking for a sign a sign of certainty they've had plentiful signs in all sorts of ways in parables and miracles and acts of compassion and teaching and the development of the messianic the christ-like ministry among them and yet here they are again for all the wrong reasons wanting a sign of certainty jesus says no sign will be given to this generation the inference there is you've had signs of plenty and this ministry in galilee as far as mark is concerned as we shall see is about to come to an end but for the moment we have the second feeding of the people this is quite different from the first as we saw in the first there is a sense of the men and the word is very definitely the five thousand in ordered groups almost in the sense of an army sitting down on the green grass in their hundreds and their their fifties and jesus feeding them and 12 baskets the symbol of his own nation the 12 tribes and the 12 those who would be apostles but are still very much learners disciples and jesus causing them to nourish that army but as we discover from other gospels and also jesus's own intentions to be the leader of an earthly army for his own people against those even those who would oppress them was not part of his vocation the twelve baskets become certainly a sign of the feeding of his own people and the disciples own people but here we are again because that was too narrow a nourishment since then we've had the story of the syrophoenician woman and the breaking out in jesus mind heart and intention of that ministry to a whole world and we come again to a story of nourishment and feeding in a desolate place what resources do you have they say jesus says to his disciples we have seven loaves make the people sit down no order this time every kind of gender and the children and and and uh the the the people all there mixed up sitting on the ground and the the loaves are broken and afterwards a few fish and the people are nourished and from that second feeding how many baskets are picked up seven it's a sign later which is picked up in the acts of the apostles with seven deacons who will feed those who are outside the hebrew community and begin to nourish the whole world for seven is a number of wholeness and completion and jesus is giving signs a plenty of the widening of his ministry to a whole world for that we give thanks on this morning we shall continue that journey and we're breaking out of galilee and going on tomorrow morning in chapter eight and that will find its completion in tomorrow's sunday gospel at the eucharist with the transfiguration itself and the kind of realization that is being given to the three disciples who witnessed that transfiguration on the snowy capped mountain there in the sunlight well let's for the moment say our prayers but first let's think of things which may have happened on this day there's an awful lot of them really and i'm inclined just to to give some some points that give you pictures as we go through points of creativity as always of people born with particular gifts or who've died after a life of sharing those gifts what resources of you says jesus to the disciples what resources of you to nourish the people he says to us this morning as we read that so there's all of those things there are also tragedies of war and tragedies of the the way in which it is fragile and dangerous to live within the natural landscape and that we have to respect all of that we've been watching this morning the the terrifying pileup in texas with i think over a hundred vehicles many of them lorries because ice is so rare on the freeways of texas uh the one car in lorry after another crashes into that pile and so we've and five people were killed in it others had to be rescued from their car but even when journalists arrived the ice on the floor was slippery and lorries were seen to be crashing into that it's a sign of our fragility and the care that we have to take of one another but also the sign of the fact that these things actually happen so at this particular time let me just look through at this in 1945 on this day the bombing of dresden began it was a strategic bombing by airplanes of the royal air force and the united states air force but 25 000 people were killed in that bombing and a beautiful historic city with so much resident resonance of of creativity from the past was destroyed and in a way it was a turning point a public opinion looking towards the the the way in which the allies would be conducting their strategy among those who wrote in an open letter george bell was one of them who was bishop of chichester at the time and had been dean of canterbury earlier here but in that open letter there was a question mark against the strategy that the allies should be using and it it met its mark and at that time there was a thoughtful procedure about how to go on in this desperate war which everyone wanted to end as soon as possible and there were only certain ways of ending it we remember all of that and the hard decisions that political and military leaders have to make for the welfare of their own people but also the compassion of those who are civilians caught up in the conflict then again we have uh the uh in 1969 the the first example of ivf being used and the chance for so many to have children who could not have children before so we remember that as another creative activity of humanity um then this is this is absolute serendipity in 1938 oliver reed the actor was born and i remember him as the dreadful bill sykes in dickens story oliver twist in the film and then also with alan bates in the film of d h lawrence's women in love and then what we've got in 1974 uh robbie williams of the pop group take that was born and he has given enormous pleasure to so many in 1988 in canada in calgary in canada the winter olympics opened well the scenario is here to remind us of winter olympics it was the year that the english ski jumper eddie edwards was the sensation and gained the nickname and actually a filmmaker was made with this title about him eddie the eagle gave us great humor and we remember all our canadian friends on this morning where snow is just you know a regular activity for them and we make such a fuss about it here in england then in 1322 this actually is a sort of heart-stopping moment for the dean of any cathedral the tower of ely cathedral suddenly collapsed and the next morning must have been a pretty awful time for the um uh community at ely on that day political leaders 1689 king william of orange and queen mary became co-rulers of england the only time that happened in the monarchy so william and mary are always kept together 1861 a step towards italian reunification when the seat of gate ended and the kingdom of the two sicilies ended and italy began to um go towards the completion of reunification which one could probably date in 1870 when rome itself fell but uh the the end of the kingdom of the two sisters always reminds me not only of the book but of the film the leopard and uh one remembers the nephew saying to the old aristocrat in the kingdom of the two sicilies when he said why are you supporting the wrong side that the old man says burt lancaster and he says things have to change in order that they may stay the same very profound sentence and then uh 2004 discovery of the universe's largest known diamond a white dwarf star which astronomers then named lucy after the beatles song lucy in the sky with diamonds and then in 1815 we note that rufus griswold the anthologist editor and poet was born and his name looks familiar because frank griswold our friend was the primate of the episcopal church in the states and um his home uh frank and uh and phoebe we remember this morning that his home in philadelphia was when we were last there an evening of lovely warmth in a temperature much much lower than this with huge piles of snow outside to four feet high so we remember them again an area that's more used to cold than england is we remember also 1915 the burmese general aung san was born on this day he was assassinated in 1947 just before the uh the nation um of burma now myanmar as well um uh received independence and became a nation on its own we remember them this morning because of the uh political turmoil and remember aung san tsuchi on this day and then 1883 this could be a program all on its own richard wagner died the great opera writer and writer of orchestral music of a huge imagination and uh in 1952 josephine tay one of my favorite detective writers died and one rumor was her daughter of time and i first got to know her through watching rap farah one of her books on uh the television at a bbc series but the kind of detective writing she does is is something that teases you through and her inspector as so many detective writers have one inspector facing on his humanity and feelings throughout inspector grant in those books of josephine tay and then two more things in uh 1867 yaron strauss's blue danube was premiered in vienna and one remembers how on new year's day right at the end of the concert in vienna the violins only have to play those first notes of the blue danube when the house erupts into applause and pleasure because it's a sign of that particular nation before that that great wall starts and in 2000 on this day the last peanuts cartoon the by the cartoonist charles m schultz was published it was something that was uh the property of the whole world that little strip cartoon and the characters the children charlie brown and linus even pigpen and snoopy the dog very much characters that we would all recognize and lucy who was always uh trying to organize charlie brown and charlie brown uh quite a passive character in all of this well we give thanks for the way in which cartoonists and philosophers are able to analyze us and we see ourselves in all of this but we come back again to jesus's questions what resources have you and that was from his people from his question about feeding the people when they say well how can we feed so many in the the desert and in this feeding of the four thousand and the seven baskets left over jesus is questioned to his church facing a whole world needing resources what resources have you and then in his hands those resources are used to feed and nourish the people let's say our prayers on this morning we're going to pray within our anglican communion on this particular day of february the 13th for the diocese of northwest and cole we've been around that area yesterday it was north america today the diocese of northwest anchor la in the church of the province of uganda and then in this diocese as we pray for justin our archbishop and rose bishop of dover tim bishop at lambeth we pray for the ashford area deanery the town of ashford nearby here where the fast train to um paris goes through and and also on to brussels as well but at the moment all kinds of travel of that sort is very very strictly controlled and so we pray for the villages of the ashford area deanery and all the clergy who served them and those this morning with permission to officiate within that area deanery bring your own intentions and prayers as on this morning we say our prayers together it's the last time we'll use this colleague because tomorrow we shall start the new sunday the sunday next before lent here's the second sunday before lent almighty god you have created the heavens and the earth and made us in your own image teach us to discern your hand in all your works and your likeness in all your children through jesus christ your son our lord who with you and the holy spirit reigns supreme over all things now and forever amen so a time when we say the our father together in the different languages of the world so wherever you are say it in your own language or in the style you like to say it as we join together our father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom the power and the glory forever and ever are men moment of silence now as we say our own prayers for today [Music] the peace of god which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of god and of his son jesus christ our lord the blessing of god almighty the father the son and the holy spirit be upon you upon those whom you love and those whom you would pray for today and always are men you won't have seen this i didn't think on the camera but as clemmy and her daughters wandered away from time to time they would race back through the snow almost like sleighs coming through and a shower of snow coming around them they've had such games that they've come back for their food but the snow seems not to worry them at all and they're enjoying their breakfast so i hope they're going to have a happy day the sun also on the cathedral is most glorious this morning with that golden winter light that only winter atmosphere can give us and the robins are hopping around everywhere and enjoying the feeders on this saturday morning