hi leo better day today isn't it no frost and here we are in the orchard amongst the damn leaves you're being brave this morning having your breakfast here on the rug so we say our morning prayers so good morning and welcome to the deanery garden at canterbury cathedral on this tuesday the 30th of november it's a day when we break into advent just for a day just two days after we started because just as we began the month of november with all saints day today we have another important saints day the 30th of november is saint andrew the apostle the fisherman called from his work and his nets to follow jesus and to become a fisher of people instead so we've come by the fish pond here which is covered in surrounded with leaves falling in this autumn weather very very different day today no frost and not really very cold and we're going to say our prayers together bring your own concerns from across the world many nations honours and andrew in different ways and among them of course scotland and we think of the city and university of andrews on this particular day as we say our prayers together oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise your faithful servants bless you they make known the glory of your kingdom blessed are you sovereign god ruler and judge of all to you be praise and glory forever in the darkness of this age that is passing away may the light of your presence which the saints enjoy surround our steps as we journey on may we reflect your glory this day and so be made ready to see your face in the heavenly city where night shall be no more 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 as we rejoice in the gift of this new day so may the light of your presence so god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen our psalm on this 30th and last day of the month is psalm 146 alleluia praise the lord o my soul while i live will i praise the lord as long as i have any being i will sing praises to my god put not your trust in princes nor in any human power for there is no help in them when their breath goes forth they return to the earth on that day all their thoughts perish happy are those who have the god of jacob for their help whose hope is in the lord their god who made heaven and earth the sea and all that is in them who keeps his promise forever who gives justice to those that suffer wrong and bread to those who hunger the lord looses those that are bound the lord opens the eyes of the blind the lord lifts up those who are bowed down the lord loves the righteous the lord watches over the stranger in the land he upholds the orphan and widow but the way of the wicked he turns upside down the lord shall reign forever your god desire throughout all generations alleluia we could have chosen many lessons today on this feast of saint andrew for he appears in different ways in the gospels in fact i've chosen the first chapter of the gospel of saint john and i'm beginning at verse 35 we are in the company of john the baptist so we imagine we're by the river jordan and we're certainly not in galilee as we shall see but jesus is there amongst the disciples of john the baptist and there are others there too and the story's already begun to be told and so in chapter 19 one has sorry the verse 19 of chapter one we have the testimony of john the baptist saying i am not the one who is to come i'm the one crying out in the wilderness make straight the way of the lord at verse 29 we have a time sequence the next day john saw jesus coming towards him and said behold the lamb of god who takes away the sin of the world this is he of whom i said after me comes a man who ranks before me because he was before me and then in verse 35 and this is where we're starting another time sequence so let's begin this lesson i'm going from verse 35 of chapter 1 up to verse 44. the next day again john was standing with two of his disciples and he looked at jesus as he walked by and said behold the lamb of god the two disciples heard john say this and they followed jesus jesus turned and saw them following and said to them what are you seeking and they said to him rabbi which means teacher where are you staying jesus said to them come and you will see say they came and saw where he was staying and they stayed with him that day for it was about the 10th hour one of the two who heard john speak and followed jesus was andrew simon peter's brother he first found his own brother simon and said to him we have found the messiah which means christ and andrew brought simon to jesus jesus looked at him and said you are simon the son of john you shall be called kiphas which means peter the next day jesus decided to go to galilee he found philip and said to him follow me now philip was from bethsaida the city of andrew and peter i've read that passage early in st john's gospel because it gives an insight and a wonderful picture from an early source first of all of the ministry of john the baptist and those who followed him also called disciples among whom were those who would follow jesus and we hear that story unfolding with those time sequences the next day the next day the next day and we then go to the change of location jesus decides to go to galilee but by then the two disciples who were with john when he says behold the lamb of god and maybe they heard him speak earlier to the pharisees and sadducees and the people who've been sent from jerusalem to question john but what they do do is as jesus is walking by there no doubt by the river jordan in the area of judea itself then they follow jesus they become curious and jesus turns and looks at them both and we know from this account that one of them is andrew and andrew and the other disciple asked jesus where he's staying and jesus says come and you will see it's the first step of knowledge before the galilean call which is accounted and given an account of in st mark and saint matthew and st luke and they spend the day with jesus and the first thing that andrew does with this good news that he now has had underlined and his mind is made up he goes to his own brother simon and brings simon to jesus and jesus says to simon you are simon son of john you shall be called in the greek kiphas and then you go to the latin peter the rock is the meaning of all of this sometimes in our new testament we hear him called kyfas in the epistles but mostly he is known as peter or simon peter and andrew then begins to take a place in shall we say an outer circle although he's always their named in the first four apostles in any list of the twelve and philip always becomes number five but when they move to galilee jesus calls philip and we're told that philip was of the same lakeside town as andrew and simon peter and we know that andrew and simon peter and the sons of zebedee james and john are fishermen they are lakeside people this is a building up of discipleship and in that early part of sin john's gospel we get the wonderful sense of andrew already being the one who is finding people because he's desperate to convey this good news which they've all been waiting for and it's conveyed by the humanity of the anointed one which he is now beginning to discover jesus and he and the other disciple have spent the day with him now they go to galilee the scene shifts since in john's gospel to the lakeside he calls philip and we're told he was of the same tone as andrew and simon as they'd called him up up till that moment and philip calls nathanael that's how the chapter goes on you remember jesus then finds nathanael and calls him and talks about having seen him before under the fig tree these are small communities they infect both cider and also capernaum will where they will go are more sophisticated in terms of trading communities than nazareth where jesus himself has come from and when philip you remember says to nathanael it jesus of nazareth nathanael is filled with scorn about the lowliness if you like of nazareth it's a country place and they are on the the trade routes and also they come from families simon and andrew and james and john families of trades people with their fishing business we can read the story of the call of saint andrew which is part of the gospel for saint andrews day jesus calls andrew and simon from their nets to follow him and to become fishers for people to leave the job that they know well it's second nature to them and he finds them again uh with a casting net in the uh synoptic accounts of of mark standing by the lakeside casting a net with its weights over inshore fish they know their business these fishermen and they're used to the waters but it causes them to respect the waters and later in the accounts in their boat on the waves of the sea of galilee they are terrified as they are as fishermen they respect the wind and the waves but they respect even more the one who gives tranquility and a calling not only to the winds and the waves but to their own lives i said he was on the sort of outer rim i could have read another story from st john's gospel of the feeding of the five thousand i read it even song in the cathedral last night because there in st john chapter six we find as jesus feeds the five thousand it is a resource provided by the the noticing of philip and andrew of the lad who has five loaves and two fish and the fish of course becomes the sign of the christian presence especially in persecution we dealt with that very recently the greek word ichthyos and the two arks which make up the fish of a secret sign in those days found in many places but not then the loaves and the fish were really the land's breakfast but who noticed was andrew and philip they tend to be on the outskirts of things what is that among so many jesus answered the question and at the end remember the fragments make 12 baskets 12 disciples 12 baskets just as at the wedding cana of galilee which follows close on the heels of what i read this morning the sixth great water jars and the six disciples sitting there at that time who've already been called these numbers are signs which give a sign of something much much greater much much more infinite a sign of the anointed one which john the baptist is already recognizing and pointing them in the direction of but they don't understand fully yet we could read another story from st john's gospel all about andrew and it's now in the days before jesus himself is arrested and betrayed and crucified and it's with jesus talking in the temple courtyard to the crowds and you will remember there's some greeks who are like tourists who've come and are allowed in the outer courtyard of the temple they want to see jesus and so what do they do they don't go right up they're too shy to go right up to the center but they find someone on the outskirts first of all philip and they say sir we would like to see jesus and philip tells andrew these two so often together and it's hardly a wonder they all come from the same small town on the side of the lake side of galilee and here they are in the big capital of jerusalem but the two are together as friends and what happens philip tells andrew andrew and philip go to jesus and jesus's answer to that question we would like to see jesus from what we might call foreigners coming in to that moment in the outer courtyard is the hour has come for the son of man to be glorified and i when i am lifted up will draw all peoples all nations to myself the hour has come andrew is involved in all of that he's someone who notices those who are unnoticed he's someone also who knows jesus well enough from the very beginning to go up to him and say these people are keen to see you and brings them through giving encouragement to those who were shy about asking to see jesus he's left the work that is natural to him and finds a completely different kind of work which will be his life's vocation but nevertheless all those working skills stay within him i've chosen two dates today and they are of people who you may well have heard of and you may not but both of them speak about a natural activity but also something else in their life which is is a skill to them and these things of using natural gifts but enjoying also other things that maybe we're not so good at but that we enjoy better doing because the the the way that one's working through becomes something almost like a job of work and you need encouragement from other dimensions now the first one is a date of a person who retired on this day on the 29th of november 2013. 93 years old and he is called or best known to us as dr d g heseon and he's best known to us in that title because of a series of books that he wrote and published over the years making him the best-selling non-fiction writer in the world and the series have sort of unprepossessing names they started in 1959 with an imaginatively coloured quite short booklet but with multiple pictures attracting people to it and it was called be your own gardening expert and in 1959 that book was published and it's been reprinted reprinted reprinted oh so many times because people want to be a gardening expert many of them as a hobby of encouragement and we call ourselves a garden congregation so david hessian is someone who would be attractive to us but it didn't end there because the book was so successful with its pictures and its tips and the way in which he set things out in very simple forms then he followed them up this particular book up and his tips up with so many other books be your own houseplant expert i remember my mother having that book when she was looking after houseplants in the house and she became an expert at that with the help of dr d.g hessian be your own lawn expert be your own rose expert vegetable expert tree and shrub expert flower expert greenhouse plant expert rock and water plant expert bulb expert bedding plant expert fruit expert herb ex it goes on and also there are books which help with garden diseases or the way things are set out on and on in a successful way of helping people to discover new vocations or else just giving them tips of what is enjoyable in life in joining in with the creators creation by being creative themselves a person who never wanted the limelight much david hessian and mostly he succeeded in that although his name is everywhere on those books and you can certainly still find them and get them sent to you on amazon either secondhand or new but at 93 i hope he's pleased with the vocation he found to help people encourage people be creative and also have respect for the creator's creation as we said andrew as a fisherman would have respect for the winds and the waves and the fish themselves he knew what he was doing and yet he was called to a different vocation much much more dangerous than the winds and the waves and we remember that calling today so as we think of all of that and maybe one could remember that hymn which we always sing today jesus calls us all the tumults of our life's wild restless sea day by day his sweet voice sounded saying christian follow me as of old sint andrew heard it on the galilean lake it's a hymn for his day but it talked about the winds and the waves and the tempest not only of the sea of galilee but also of the life he was to lead but always in the background he had that sense of the skill he had as a fisherman which he shared with his brother simon now called peter the rock and shared with james and john who had left their fathers zebedee and all the nets in order to follow jesus and with philip from the same seaside place at bestsider and other disciples who would come along but at the same time they each had their own vocation andrew on the outskirts mostly unnoticed finding people like the lad with the loaves and the fishes finding people like the greeks who want to see jesus and inadvertently leading them to him so he can say the hour has come and i when i am lifted up will draw all people to myself there's one other name and as it's connected with kent i'm going to use this one too this morning and this person was born on the 30th of november 1554. he was sir philip sydney and he was born at penshurst still the home of the sydney family now lord and lady delisle and uh for many years uh philip delail was our vice lord lieutenant and then the lord lieutenant of kent and we extend our greetings to him and to isabel um uh now uh because he has retired from that and is is living quietly at penshurst we also remember that his son and uh another philip sydney who will become will become lord delisle is a scholar and in the footsteps of his uh first philip sydney who i'm talking about now is the philip sydney but let's remember also the lord allah's massive connection with this place as president of our trustees of the the canterbury cathedral uh trustees here and the time that he gave to that was something which we are immensely grateful for to both him and to isabel well i'm talking though about this ancestor uh sir philip sydney and he was born on the 30th of november 1554 at penshurst and was set to be a great soldier and statesman and had all the qualities and connections he was the nephew of queen elizabeth's favorite robert dudley who became earl of leicester and also became the son-in-law of sir francis wolsingham the secretary of state all of those things but there was a side to him which actually knew that most of all he wanted to write and to write beautiful poetry and he did he couldn't stop himself writing he was called to be a soldier and he died as a soldier at the age of 31 in arnhem in the netherlands in 1586 and was brought home and was given the one of the the largest and most magnificent funeral processions to old saint paul's cathedral but that secret side is the side that remains the secret side of writing sonnets almost as beautiful as shakespeare and his sonnets which were in a collection astrophil and stella become a signal of the scholarly imaginative and artistic life of the whole of the elizabethan age at that time elizabeth was canny elizabeth the first and she never set him a diplomatic or socially tasks too hard for him for she must have sensed that here was someone with an artistic and literary spirit as well different creative gifts being a soldier because it was expected of him being a statesman a diplomat because it was expected of him but at the same time mixing with people across europe and even going to see the exile jesuit edmund campion and having secret conversations with him not for any diplomat just just because other people's creativity and spirituality was something that he himself wanted to embrace and set down in verse two completely different vocations and at the same time it was shakespeare who got all the glory and philip sydney with beautiful sonnets and i've only mentioned that particular set of them there's so much more that he gave to us and other poets like edmund spencer were tremendously admiring of philip sydney but philip sydney's name not so well known as edmund spencer andrew's name not so well known as simon peter but the one who by noticing and using his new gifts not in fishing but in the same kinds of intuition that he had on the lake with the fish and the winds and the waves brought people to jesus first his brother and finally in the last days before the the the christ the anointed one is lifted up finally there's greeks in the temple court charge who with the simple questions said sir we would like to see jesus and in bringing them forward andrew said to jesus they'd like to see you no doubt and jesus says the hour has come for the son of man to be glorified i when i am lifted up will draw all nations he could have said like these folk here to myself thanks be to god then for sent andrew on this day and his particular gifts let's say our prayers [Applause] today we are praying for the diocese of ife in the church of nigeria and we're praying also for the sandwich deanery that's the the villages around the town of sandwich here quite near us we pray for the clergy and people of that area deanery and for chris spencer the area dean this morning and all those who are officers of the deanery synod pray for justin our archbishop and for rose bishop of dover emma bishop at lambeth and we use today first the connect for sint andrew the apostle almighty god who gave such grace to your apostle saint andrew that he readily obeyed the call of your son jesus christ and brought his brother with him call us by your holy word and give us grace to follow you without delay and to tell the good news of your kingdom through jesus christ our lord amen and bring your own intentions and prayers now as we say the advent college almighty god give us grace to cast away the works of darkness and to put on the armor of light now in the time of this mortal life in which your son jesus christ came to visit us in great humility but on the last day when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge the living and the dead we may rise to the life immortal through him who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the holy spirit one god now and forever are men so we say each in our own language the prayer our savior taught us 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 uh i was going to say silence but there are there are jays up in the in the ash tree having a complete scrap four of them up there three of them four of them you can probably hear them so a time for reflection [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] uh [Music] christ the son of righteousness shine upon you scatter the darkness from before your path and make you ready to meet him when he comes in glory and 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 amen [Music] is my woes be relieved since it is [Music] my weary days have deprived [Music]