good morning and welcome on this monday the 21st of december as we come to say our morning prayers in the dinner garden well in one of our working greenhouses actually because outside the weather is grizzly and has pouring rain and a very strong wind and so here we are in shelter and we've got tiger with us this morning who's come to have his breakfast as we meet together to say our prayers wherever you are in the world please feel welcome bring your own prayers and intentions on this 21st of december the shortest day in the northern hemisphere and the longest day i guess in the southern hemisphere but this is the winter solstice here so we expect cold weather and we now as we go through look forward also to the days getting longer and more and more daylight but we have to wait uh a while before that so then uh let's think of just what has happened on this day and the most important thing of all is that on the 21st of december thomas beckett was born in jeep side in london there's a clerk to show just where he was born there and we give thanks for that obviously in this special year when we are commemorating on december the 29th the 850th anniversary of his martyrdom it will be done in a different way from the way in which we normally do it because of all the restrictions of lockdown but nevertheless we'll think a little bit more about that in our reflection and also on this day in 1872 a ship hms challenger set sail from portsmouth under captain george nares and was a scientific expedition of oceanography and it was the basis of all the oceanography which has taken place since then a massive 70 000 nautical mile journey and the kind of specimens from the oceans that were brought back became the foundation for so much scientific work afterwards so we give thanks for that voyage of discovery and exploration in our world so that we could understand the seas and oceans better in 1937 it's a cheerful fact the first full-length animated feature premiered snow white and we think of that and all the lovely music that goes with it and how it cheers us but in 1988 many of you will remember the 21st of december 1988 when a pan um jet was blown up in the skies over lockerbie in scotland killing all 259 passengers and crew and 11 people on the ground in that town where memorial is still kept there we remember that with sadness but we remember also the fact that terrorist occasions tend to bring the world together and so many crises draw our world together we said also of the pandemic at the moment where the whole world is engaged in combating this threat uh we think in 1898 of of uh marian pierre curie on this day 21st of december discovered radioactive the radioactive element radium so much used since then in the treatment of cancer and we think also of an architect whose story has been told by a family in beirut his name is joe salum and since the appalling explosion on august the 4th he is an architect seeing that there weren't enough resources to go into reconstruction has free of charge rebuilt 22 homes and a children's center in currantina that's the kind of encouragement that crises need from just ordinary people deciding i can do this and with imagination turning their hand to doing it with all their skill let's say our prayers on this day 21st of december oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise reveal among us the light of your presence that we may behold your power and glory blessed are you sovereign god of all do you be praise and glory forever in your tender compassion the dawn from on high is breaking upon us to dispel the lingering shadows of night as we look for your coming among us this day 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 o god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen our psalm this morning is psalm 105. and we read parts of that it's a long psalm so i'll just read some verses from the beginning and the end o give thanks to the lord and call upon his name make known his deeds among the peoples sing to him sing praises and tell of all his marvelous works rejoice in the praise of his holy name let the hearts of them rejoice who seek the lord seek the lord and his strength seek his face continually remember the marvels he has done he brought his people out of egypt with silver and gold there was not one among their tribes that stumbles egypt was glad at their departing for a dread of them had fallen upon them he spread out a cloud for a covering and a fire to lighten up the night they asked and he brought them quails he satisfied them with the bread of heaven he opened the rock and the waters gushed out and ran in the dry places like a river for he remembered his holy word and abraham his servant so he brought forth his people with joy his chosen ones with singing he gave them the lands of the nations and they took possession of the fruit of their toil that they might keep his statutes and faithfully observe his laws alleluia today we're beginning a new epistle it's the second epistle of saint peter and i'm going to read the first 15 chapters of the sorry first 15 verses of the first chapter of the second letter of peter here we are simeon peter a servant and apostle of jesus christ to those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our god and savior jesus christ may grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of god and of jesus our lord his divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises so that you through them may become partakers of the divine nature having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire for this very reason make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue and your virtue with knowledge and your knowledge with self-control and your self-control with steadfastness and your steadfastness with godliness and godliness with mutual affection and mutual affection with love for if these qualities are yours and are increasing they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our lord jesus christ for whoever lacks these qualities is so short-sighted that they are blind having forgotten that they were cleansed from their former sins therefore brothers and sisters be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election for if you practice these qualities you will never fail for in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our lord and savior jesus christ therefore i intend always to remind you of these qualities so you know them and are established in the truth that you have i think it right as long as i am in this body to stir you up by way of reminder since i know that the putting off of my body will be soon as our lord jesus christ has made clear to me and i will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things it's a wonderful passage and it comes from a book or an epistle though it's a strange letter because although there's a greeting at the beginning it's a fairly general greeting and at the end there's no salutation it's almost a testament rather than an epistle and it comes under the name of peter but if you read the first letter of peter and then the second you find they're very different and the greek is very different as well and most scholars agree that it was written by a very different writer it's no surprise because in those days to continue the teaching of someone according to the traditions handed on and with shall we say bits and pieces of the tradition handed on that people wanted to remember from the teaching of peter was no surprise this letter in the way it talks to the christians that are being addressed whoever they may be but this morning is us is speaking of a church which is more developed and also whose theology and thinking about jesus christ is more advanced in terms of the years in which it's taking place nevertheless we have here a very early tradition indeed and it's coming through from that time it took a long time for this letter to be accepted as part of the canon just as we said um the letter of jude with which some of the chapters bear similarities but also it seems that the writer here has had access to other epistles and also quite possibly to the story told in the gospel of saint john where jesus himself tells peter how one day he will be taken bound to where he doesn't want to go and peter here is saying my end is is quite near so there's not so much about the immediate coming which in earlier days christians were looking to but dates and times have been given up and they're used now to fo departing this life and going on to the eternal kingdom but leaving a testament a testimony to their own experiences and one of them we shall find mentioned in the reading tomorrow from the life of st peter himself but let's look first at the way in which this lovely passage gives after people come to faith steps to maturity in faith and the the qualities are mentioned as the eight steps go towards the completion of holiness and the entering into the divine nature all these wonderful words in beautiful language and it's an epistle we enjoy reading and we take as a testament from the teaching of peter as it has been handed on in many different ways always a miracle to me that so much has been handed on in written form and a collecting together of of all traditions and on this day particularly we think of those stories of the gospels of peter the fisherman in galilee and this writer even gives him the name simeon which comes much more from the hebrew tradition than the name simon simeon the name of one of the original twelve patriarchs and rooted in the prophets but taken on for all the nations in this way we give thanks for that on this day in canterbury when we remember that thomas beckett who is so much in our thinking this year both because of the 800th anniversary of the consecration of the shrine of becket to which millions of pilgrims have come over the years and where the candle still burns in the place of the shrine and still in ordinary times thousands and thousands of pilgrims come simply to journey here and have their own light refreshed by the light of a holy place and that particular focus but this day is the day of his birth december the 21st and he was named thomas well those of you who remember will know that this in fact december the 21st according to the old calendar was the feast day of saint thomas the apostle our book of common prayer still keeps it as that 21st of december the feast of sin thomas the apostle that because of i think the church felt it interfered with the keeping of advent has been moved to july the third but nevertheless thomas was named thomas because in his day and also for the early part of my ministry this was very much the feast of st thomas and say we give thanks for the name thomas given to the child who was born some sources say it was in 1118 other sources say it was 11 20. if it was 11 20 then this is the 900th anniversary of the birth of thomas beckett on this shortest day of the northern hemisphere and that life which was to become so utterly significant for this holy place in terms of visitors and pilgrims journeying here and carrying the christ light of their own intention and matching it with the holy place but as we always say to pilgrims a pilgrimage is never completed until you go back to where you began and shall we say enter your own home and then take with you all the lessons and the relationships and the truths and the spiritual enrichment you have gained from the journey for a new beginning for the end of the pilgrimage and so often is the case with ends becomes a new beginning but we see new beginnings when people come here so often in my ministry here i've stood with pilgrims who've come to stand by the shrine and they're setting off or they're completing a pilgrimage depends where they're going to and from oftentimes the journey the pilgrimage to rome the vire francis begins at that point where the light is burning in this holy place on the site of the shrine or people have come from london from jeep side like the the uh pilgrims in chaucer's tales and walked here so they've come to this point which perhaps in their mind is the end of a journey the church of saint martin in the field do that every year at the maybank holiday the first of the maybach holidays and we greet them as pilgrims but the real pilgrimage only ends when they return home and then any kind of spiritual insight has to be reflected on and thought of in a very special way so that shoots and new growth like all these plants these dahlia uh uh plants which are looking dried and in their winter state in in the deepest winter at the moment but which will flourish to new fruitfulness that's what the writer was talking about this morning there's steps coming from faith and not being satisfied in our life until we go one step beyond beyond beyond and the the writer peter says this keeps you from being ineffective and unfruitful well at this time of pandemic when the restrictions are so great and christmas will be very different but no less glorious at this time we pray that we will be fruitful for one another today and every day and never ineffective for these steps of spiritual perception lead also to human action in preparation for the qualities of the glorious kingdom and also the divine nature being shown in us who carry the christ light let's give thanks for all of this on this shortest of the days when the light is the shortest the um if i can reach my book without disturbing my little friend here the advent antiphon today is a lovely one because it is speaking of the rising of the sun and likening it to christ himself coming to our world o oriens in latin and of course the orient is the east where the sun rises from and but here it is in english the whole antiphon o morning star splendor of light eternal and sun of righteousness come and enlighten those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death well we pray for more than that of course we pray for christ's light to be shown to us in all sorts of ways but we pray also that that light may be carried by us and that we may show jesus to others in so many small ways that quite often we're hardly understanding ourselves nor they until they find their own faith kindled by the light we bear here's the collect for this week which talks about the preparation of the virgin mary for her vocation for the birth of the christ child at christmas god our redeemer who prayed prepared the blessed virgin mary to be the mother of your son grant that as she looked for his coming as our savior so we may be ready to greet him when he comes again as our judge who is alive and reigns with you in the unity of the holy spirit one god now and forever amen on this day 21st of december we're praying in the anglican communion for the diocese of southwest tanganyika in tanzania and for bishop matthew magama there and also the diocese of isan in nigeria and for the bishop there friday emakai and his people and in our own diocese as we pray for archbishop dustin bishop rose of dover bishop tim at lambeth and the parishes of our whole diocese and other christian congregations worshiping within this area of kent we pray today for all those involved in emergency services at this time so first the advent college and then we shall say the prayer our savior taught us in whatever language we like to say it 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 that in the last day when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the quick 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 amen 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 lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom the power and the glory forever and ever amen the moment of silence now for our own prayers 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 are men well i think it's time that we left here don't you and [Music] go somewhere a little bit warmer maybe although it's quite nice in here and we're out of the nasty wind and rain aren't we