good morning and welcome to morning prayer which we're saying in the garden of the Church of St Michael and all angels in Kansas City later on we shall be worshiping here and giving thanks and I shall be preaching to the congregation of this lovely Church which we've now got to know because we've been here since Thursday and we had the opportunity also to talk to clergy from all over this city which spans two dases the dasis of Kansas and the dasis of Western Missouri and our coming and them coming together was the first time they'd ever ever had a meeting in that way together across the dios boundary it is a really beautiful city with marvelous trees as you can see and it's also called a city of fountains because there are fountains all over the city there are two in this churchyard here the garden of the church we're also surrounded by flowers many of them blooming like this lovely Claus behind me but it's a perfect sunny day and we shall enjoy saying morning prayer together so wherever you are please join in morning prayer this is the day which the Lord ha made we will rejoice and be glad in it you say the cacal the nighty come let us sing to the Lord let us shout for Joy to the rock of our Salvation let us come before his presence with Thanksgiving and raise a loud shout to him with Psalms for the Lord is a great God and a great king above all gods in his hand are the caverns of the Earth and the heights of the hills are his also the sea is his for he made it and his hands have molded the dry land come let us bow down and bend the knee and kneel before the Lord our maker for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture and the Sheep of his hand oh that today you would hearken to his voice glory to the father father and to the son and to the Holy Spirit as it was in the beginning is now and will be forever amen our Psalm this morning is Psalm 62 for God Alone my soul in silence Waits from him comes my salvation he alone is my rock and my salvation my stronghold so that I shall not be greatly shaken how long will you assail me to crush me all of you together as if you were a leaning fence a toppling wall they seek only to bring me down from my place of honor lies are their Chief Delight they bless with their lips but in their hearts they curse for God Alone my soul in silence Waits truly my hope is in him he alone is my rock and my salvation my stronghold so that I shall not be shaken in God is my safety and my honor God is My Strong Rock and my refuge put your trust in him always oh people pour out your hearts before him for God is our refuge those of degree are but a fleeting breath even those of lower stage cannot be trusted on the scales they are lighter than a breast all of them together put no trust in extortion in robbery take no empty Pride though wealth increase set not your heart on it God has spoken once twice have I heard it that power belongs to God steadfast love is yours O Lord for you repay everyone according to their deeds glory be to the father and to the son and to the Holy Spirit as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be World Without End Amen we've been surrounded by beautiful landscapes as we've driven along from Oklahoma where we were a few days ago up through first the state of Oklahoma and then crossing the border into Kansas on the way we stopped and saw many longh hord cattle and at the same time at part of our journey we were able to go aside and be in the plains the tall grass PLS where we saw many horses and also we saw herds of bison oops we we got to turn I'm not looking at the map now turn to the right or something is that yeah I can't do it more sorry in half a mile turn right on County Road 4650 County Road 4649 enough up to the hill okay more [Music] oops for [Music] yeah for for for for for for for for so all of these things were exciting things to see and at the same time we then came back and onto the road and arrived here in Kansas City to our hosts who've been looking after us I'm going to read a passage from the gospel of St Luke chapter 12 and beginning at verse 22 Jesus said to his disciples therefore I tell you do not be anxious about your life what you will eat nor about your body what you will put on for life is more than food and the body more than clothing consider the Ravens they neither sew nor reap they have neither Storehouse nor barn and yet God feeds them of how much more value are you than the birds and which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to their span of life if then you are not able to do as small a thing as that why are you anxious about the rest consider the lies how they grow they neither toil nor spin yet I tell you even Solomon in all his glory was not AR raid like one of these but if God so clothes the grass which is alive in the field today and tomorrow is is thrown into the oven how much more will he clothe you oh you of little face and do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink nor be worried for all the nations of the world seek after these things and your father knows that you need them instead seek his kingdom and these things will be added to you fear not Little Flock for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom one of those verses forms a little chorus which we used always to use in a round as we took pilgrims around the cathedral in Canterbury and sometimes when we had seminarians from right across the world with different languages different cultures this little round seemed to be something that they knew how to sing sometimes you could divide them into parts so there was Harmony and do that and we would sing it around the shrine of St Thomas it went and it's one of the verses I've just read seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you and an Allelujah was added you remember how it went I'm sure seek ye first the kingom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you hallelu hallelu at that point the next round came in while everyone singing that verse would carry with the hallelu hallelu [Music] hallelu hallelu hallelu there are't many rounds that people from all over the world know but that was a certainty and you could split it nicely into two halves and come together for the final Allelujah so we give thanks for the music of the church and we should look forward to a great deal of Music in this lovely Church of St Michael and all angels at worship today but meanwhile we are worshiping in the garden outside and we have to say once again how surprised we were at the greenness of both Oklahoma State and also the state of Kansas and Missouri when we came here there's been so much rain and un an unusual amount of rain recently they tell us and the Lord is watering the Earth so that so many things grow and you're everywhere because of the trees with the sound of bird song very different kinds of bird song for the American Robins sing in a particular way but those birds are nothing like the English Robins or Mr Robin who used to appear in the Deery Garden those are small birds with red breasts these Robins are of the thrush family and we are amused by them because they're very often on the ground keep they seem to keep watch on the corners of the street so when you're going down one will take over from the other I'm sitting here and looking around and hearing the fountains but at the same time just here in the ground is a little text and it's by the Theologian meister eart and spiritual writer meister eart and it says every creature is a word of God every creature is a word of God it's a marvelous thought because these great states with their PLS and and so many creatures large and small are surrounding you with the life of creation and one tends to rejoice in it when the clergy came together yesterday I chose a a a lesson from the gospel of St Mark which talks about a lawyer asking Jesus or scribes some sometimes they're called asking Jesus what is the first and great commandment and in St Mark's gospel Jesus answers the first commandment is here o Israel the Lord your God the Lord is one and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your mind and with all your soul and with all your strength that is the first and great commandment the second is like it namely this love your neighbor as yourself and we began to take that apart together in our our conversations afterwards as to how we Minister and the real essence of that was how do we love ourselves and how do we know that we really are loving ourselves and then how do we love God with all parts of our being body mind and soul and spirit love God with all your heart and with all your mind and with all your strength and with all your soul it covers all the grounds but what is very necessary is that all those sections of Life are excise daily and the most difficult one to exercise perhaps is the spirit and we were considering with the clergy and we did it again yesterday in the morning with a group of the congregation here and on that occasion instead of the mark lesson I read the same story in Luke I'd found out earlier that the mark lesson is the mission statement of this church I didn't know that when we used it with the clergy but the whole mission statement of St Michael and all Angels Church here is to love the Lord Our God with all our heart and mind and soul and strength and to love our neighbors as ourselves with the people the congregation we were thinking of the question that the lawyer asks in St Luke's gospel after that has been said by Jesus he asks and who is my neighbor and with the people it was a wonderful exploration to think who is our neighbor especially at this time when we can contact each other right across the world there's no limit to what being in a neighborhood means or giving encouragement to one another or loving our neighbor in a particular way which helps them in their journey of life but at the same time you have to remember that Jesus said love your neighbor as you love yourself and to love yourself you have to know yourself honestly and realize that whatever picture that gives you not your best foot forward type of picture but whatever picture that gives you God loves you totally that was what Jesus came to say the totality of God's love is for every part of you and realizing that is transformative very important in the way that that this is is understood not just loving God and loving your neighbor but loving your neighbor as yourself and you remember how in Luke's gospel Jesus simply answers the lawyer's question who is my neighbor with the story of the Good Samaritan and we remember how hated the Samaritans were by the Jews and how a reciprocal dislike came from the Samaritans to the Jews and how surprised the Samaritan woman was to find Jesus at the well when she got there and to have that conversation with him but at the same time we have this story of the Samaritan who is the compassionate one who binds up with generosity the wounds of the one who has fallen among Thieves all these things we had the pleasure of sifting through in conversation and deciding together what the best form of ministry is in different places but all the time we had the two strands of how clergy helped people to understand and realize the love of God in their lives and to respond from that love that gift of love by reciprocating with their neighbors whoever they were and however they could do it imaginatively to give that gift of love back to their neighbors but wisely so so that the right kind of support at the right time was given and the the the Pastoral ways in which that can happen are manifold but they have to be done with knowledge and intuition and Imagination think to yourselves who is my neighbor we tend to think of it geographically those who live near us but everything we're doing now shows that even within this Garden congregation we can be neighbors to one another and give encouragement to one another which is what we're trying to do this morning prayer is something which will go eventually all over the world and the people of the New Testament times would have been very surprised to think of that it would be completely out of their understanding it would have been completely out of our own understanding a few years ago but now we've realized that there are wonderful uses of the way in which we can in contact and be present with one another and these best uses are ways of spreading the love of God and our own creativity so Fletcher and I are really grateful for the wonderful support that you give us and the imaginative ways over the last few years you've helped us in this way but at the same time we know that we have to be aware of ourselves how we love ourselves in all honesty and present the totality of our being not a false picture as we stand before God in our prayers and also realize the absolute nature of his love for us and how that only takes root when we receive the gift and share it when we arrived we were taken by representatives of the church and of the Nelson Atkins Museum to the museum itself now this is one of the Great greatest museums in the United States of America it contains so many works of Fine Art from different cultures one of the most amazing is a replica of the uh Gates of paradise which many of you will have seen perhaps in the City of Florence in the Baptist Street doors there are replicas of them and in in the Museum of the D the original doors but these give Wonder wonderful pictures uh in relief of of scenes from the Old Testament and we spent quite a lot of time um just perusing them and and identifying the scenes as we went up and down but that wasn't all in this place we had a tremendous Oriental art but art from Renaissance Europe pictures and paintings by by Veri uh and and then the French Impressionists as well so as we went around we we kept being transported to a completely different culture and it we really didn't have enough time to see it all we we we had the whole afternoon there but we could have gone for a whole day looking at this magnificent [Music] Museum this is a a time when we think on this date of one or two things happening in the world and June the 3 um was June the 2 sorry was a a time when uh in 1953 I remember the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II happening it was a grand day when the princess Elizabeth now Queen and riding in a golden coach came through London it was a rainy day and I remember sitting on the drawing room carpet and looking at a a a a a black and white television set with quite a small screen in those days and yet the excitement was massive that was a new beginning for this nation and the nations of the Commonwealth right across the world and so many people were there to wish her well in that wonderful ceremony but at the heart of it was an anointing which she took very seriously and that anointing has now been replicated recently with the Cor ation of King Charles III so one looks back on all those years and gives thanks for that long rain which began with a coronation the rain began the year before on February the the 6th but on this day June the 2nd in London the streets were thronged with people as the long procession with the golden coach came for Elizabeth II to be both crowned and anointed as the servant of her people then again a favorite author of mine was born on this day in 1840 his name was Thomas Hardy and he was both a novelist and a poet and Hardy wrote novels about the type of people he mixed with in Dorset sometimes they were his iic novels and I remember having to study one at school called the trumpet major which was set in the time of the Napoleonic Wars and was quite a a happy story to read in one way um though there were sad parts for Hardy was a complete realist but he was a picture drawer drawer of the countryside in a a wonderful way too and other novels um like under the Greenwood tree were lovely pastoral novels where the the msto choir would come out to sing Christmas carols around the village with their String Band and instruments playing and that story of under the Greenwood tree of things moving on where a new Vicor arrived and said I think these instruments which you play in the gallery to accompany this the singing and the Psalms are are um oldfashioned and I know that our school mistress who is new plays the organ so I have purchased a new organ for the church and so we shall um say thank you to those who played with their instruments all these years and replace that with an organ really a very insensitive thing to do without much preparation and the novel goes on accordingly but at the same time you have beautiful novels like um two on a tower which is one of my favorites where a young astronomer swi in St cleave on a tower in the lady of the mana's garden and she goes up and finds him there and then a love story ensues between both of them I think that if you've not read that one it's a A really lovely book to read others are tragic Tess of the derails the mayor of curbridge Jude the Obscure massive tragedy and Hardy could deal with that at the same time he could deal with Good comic rustic poetry and also have an insight into time and the passing of Nations here's his poem called just that it's just three verses long and it's looking at the way in which the empires of the world came to war and meanwhile the work of the world in the fields went simp ly on though dnases were falling here they are three verses time and the breaking of Nations only a man harrowing clouds in a slow silent walk with an old horse that stumbles and nods half asleep as they stalk only thin smoke without flame from the heaps of cooch grass yet this will go onward the same though dynasties pass Yonder a maid and her white come whispering by Wars anals will Cloud into night a their story die these human things in hard's Countryside he is convinced will go on steadily forever I think his vision might be a little different now when he sees what we've done with his Dorset Countryside and so many green spaces in England but people are Awakening to the needs of our planet and that will help those green spaces and create hopefully a land with many trees whose leaves and whose being there cleanse the Earth and begin to help our planet so let's say our prayers at this time and think of all those that we would want to pray for and Those whom we have on our heart pray for those who can be our neighbors and for whom we can be neighbors and at the same time ask for insight to know ourselves and even more important when we see the honest picture of ourselves to love ourselves despite that because of the Supreme and abundant and total love of God for us so that when we receive that gift we shall be ready to pass it on with our encouragement and not pass by on the other side of the road here's our conics oh God you make us glad with the weekly remembrance of the Glorious resurrection of your son our Lord give us this day such blessings through our worship of you that the week to come may be spent in your favor through Jesus Christ Our Lord amen so we say each in our own language the prayer Our Lord 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 amen our final Act of blessing in preparation for this [Music] day almighty God bless and keep you the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit guard you and guide you making you conscious of his total love for you and giving us the spiritual and human strength to be good neighbors one to another and following the Commandment of our Lord Jesus Christ who for our sake gave his life upon the cross for All Peoples to be drawn to him amen so go well and enjoy any green spaces that you have as we shall certainly in this lovely city of Kansas City [Applause] following the wonderful service we were taken by our hosts Monty and Jill to our very first baseball match that either of us had ever seen and it was a very exciting match the Royals to the local team were playing the San Diego padr and uh I don't know who were the favorites but through the match it began to be in favor of the San Diego Padres and then suddenly at the end it all turned round and there was a tremendous triumphant ending when all of us stood and cheered and clapped because it seemed so unexpected it was a complete turnaround and so we thank our host not just Jill and but the whole team for everyone played their part in making us feel very welcome and we got to know them very well it's not only for that but for the lovely time they gave us at the church of St Michael and all angels in Kansas City [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] let's go do it now no [Applause] [Music] good luck [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] hey than