good morning and welcome to the deanery garden on this early morning of may the 12th now may the 12th is international nurses day and this is a really good year to be remembering that it was named on that day because it was at the birthday of florence nightingale and the word nightingale has been important to us here in england very recently with the nightingale hospitals but nightingale is an image and icon of nursing care others were involved in the crimea people like mary seacole and we can think of her later in the week but florence nightingale is someone who the moment you mentioned the lady in the lamp with the lamp is is in the english imagination in the british imagination and has become an international symbol of proper nursing care so today we give enormous thanks for all the nursing care which is going on across the world during this particular time so we come to say our morning prayers oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise in your resurrection o christ let heaven and earth rejoice alleluia blessed are you lord god of our salvation to you be praise and glory forever as once you ransomed your people from egypt and led them to freedom in the promised land so now you have delivered us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of your risen son may we the firstfruits of your new creation rejoice in this new day you have made and praise you for your mighty acts blessed be god father son and holy spirit blessed be god forever christ our passover has been sacrificed for us so let us celebrate the feast not with the old leaven of corruption and wickedness but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth christ once raised from the dead dies no more death has no more dominion over him 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 o god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen we use one of the psalms for the 12th morning of the month psalm 62 on god alone my soul in stillness waits from him comes my salvation he alone is my rock and my salvation my stronghold said that i shall never be shaken how long will all of you assail me to destroy me as you would a tottering wall or a leaning they plot only to thrust me down from my place of honour lies are their chief delight they bless with their mouth but in their heart they curse wait on god alone in stillness o my soul for in him is my hope he alone is my rock and my salvation my stronghold so that i shall not be shaken in god is my strength and my glory god is my strong rock in him is my refuge put your trust in him always my people pour out your hearts before him for god is our refuge the peoples are but a breath the whole human race the deceit on the scales they are all together lighter than air put no trust in oppression in robbery take no empty pride though wealth increase set not your heart upon it god spoke once and twice have i heard the same that power belongs to god steadfast love belongs to you o lord for you repay everyone according to their deeds so we continue on this morning the reading of the gospel of saint luke and this morning our lectionary our calendar of readings sets us a reading from luke chapter five beginning at verse 1 on one occasion while the crowd was pressing in on jesus to hear the word of god he was standing by the lake of jenissarid and he saw two boats by the lake but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets getting into one of the boats which was simon's he asked him to put out a little from the land and he sat down and taught the people from the boat and when he had finished speaking he said to simon put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch and simon answered master we toiled all night and took nothing but at your words i will let down the nets and when they had done this they enclosed a large number of fish and their nets were breaking they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them and they came and filled both boats so that they began to sink but when simon peter saw it he fell down at jesus's knees saying depart from me for i am a sinful man o lord for he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken and so also were james and john sons of zebedee who were partners with simon jesus said to simon do not be afraid from now on you will be catching people and when they had brought their boats to land they left everything and followed jesus you may have noticed that we've deliberately come to the same part of the garden that we were in when we were reading the story of the stranger on the shore calling out in the early morning after the resurrection to the disciples in the boat these two stories are very similar i'm very fond of detective stories and stories which have a puzzle which you have to help solve as you read the book or watch the film at the moment we've been watching and an australian detective series called miss fisher murder mysteries which has been enormous fun to watch but all the way through you're you're guessing what's going to happen next and luke must have been doing much the same when he was gathering his material for his gospel luke was of gentile origin joining saint paul's ministry at cheras probably and later on in the fourth chapter of the colossians sin paul mentions those who were jews like him who were with him and then after that having said these are the only ones of the jewish faithful with me he says but luke the beloved physician also greets you so we're given a clue that he's come from greek gentile origin and was learning everything afresh with the keenness of someone who is following a story we have to remember that many of the stories of jesus which had not been written down were passing a run by word of mouth the little gospel of saint mark we think was the first and probably luke knew something of that but how you order things is something in your own mind for chronology is a difficult thing oftentimes someone says if they see something who gave you that and i can remember who maybe gave me the gift when did it happen well now that becomes more difficult if it's long back for chronology is difficult even for those who experienced it and luke didn't experience any of the ministry of jesus when jesus was in the holy land itself he was piecing things together so now we have a puzzle is this a beginning this story of the fish and the miraculous catch or is it an end are we talking about two different occasions or are we talking about something which luke found and loved the cameo of the gospel in it and placed it here in his gospel it's for us throughout the whole of our lifetime and scholars throughout the whole of history to make guesses and give arguments in favor of but it hardly matters here is a wonderful story of beginning which luke adds to the stories which mark tells and matthew uses of the calling of the fishermen on the lakeside calling them to be part of a campaign of good news of health and healing and a breaking down of barriers between nations well let's go back to florence nightingale who took her name from the place where she was born when her family or rather well-to-do family of a liberal disposition her maternal grandfather had been one of those who encouraged william wilberforce as william pitt did to make a speech about the abolition of slavery in the house of commons when wilberforce was nervous and we have many connections with that in this archive and library here later maybe in this sequence of reflections we can go to the memorial garden where words of wilberforce are carved on the pillar there but that family was in florence when florence nightingale was born and recently visiting friends in florence earlier this year it was a very moving thing to stand in front of the memorial to florence nightingale set in the cloister of santa croce on the banks of the riverano in florence itself florence nightingale was moved by people's condition to call together people who would help her to bring not only medical nursing but good food and clean surroundings to those who were suffering so much in the crimea that was only a beginning for her from then on the campaign was on its way a beginning it would have been a campaign that luke the physician was fascinated by just as he was fascinated by the call of the first disciples of whom he now found himself part he joins the campaign an international campaign of good news for all nations of health and healing this is a time when we're reminded over and over again to wash our hands to look after one another to find health and healing in every nation as we combat this virus so to be on the beach at the beginning or at an end it's a wonderful thing because it speaks of the call of the first disciples and the call of so many having read those stories set down by the four evangelists ever since today we give thanks for international nursing and no better day to do so and no better gospel to have been reading so we come to say our prayers today we remember in the anglican communion the diocese of mujinga in burundi and pray for paceable inda kai saba the bishop there and his people the diocese of zanzibar in tanzania and the michael the the bishop michael hafid and all his people and also the diocese of ikwo in nigeria and kenneth efemene the bishop there and his people so we pray for justin our archbishop for rose bishop of dover and tim bishop at lambeth we pray today for all those in the villages and communities around maidstone clergy with permission to officiate many many of them retired clergy a long long list which i won't read but we remember them this morning and pray for them and the people they serve and we also say our own prayers for those whom we would remember on this day praying particularly for all those who will spend this day nursing the special prayer for this week almighty god who through your only begotten son jesus christ have overcome death and opened to us the gate of everlasting life grant that as by your special grace going before us you put into our minds good desires so by your continual help we may bring them to good effect through jesus christ our risen lord amen so we pray any prayers special to us with the words that our savior taught us in whichever language you use and however you like to say this prayer 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 amen there for a moment of silence we make our own prayers and intentions particularly for those who look after us and we give thanks for the development of international nursing over the years the god of peace who brought again from the dead our lord jesus christ that great shepherd of the sheep by the blood of the eternal covenant make you perfect in every good work to do his will working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight the blessing of god almighty the father the son and the holy spirit be among you and upon all those whom you love and would pray for today now and always are men here